In the pursuit of how to be a professional photographer, many people are heavily focused upon themselves, their photographic skills, artistic vision or Photoshop wizardry. However, one of the real keys to being successful is to focus more on the people we serve, but especially on the business persona we project into the world around us…

For example, we’re all familiar with the saying that “opposites attract“, especially as it applies to magnets and possibly to affairs of the heart, but it really doesn’t work that way when it comes to attracting the right kind of clients and being successful in the photography business!

After all, no amount of unhappy thinking is going to attract happy clients for us to photograph, regardless of how much faith you have in the idea of “opposites attract“.

In contrast, perhaps having the right attitude and a positive business “personality” will go a long way towards encouraging more success…

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How To Be A Professional Photographer client attraction, photography business ideas, photography marketing, professional photography

For the professional photographer in business today, focused marketing that reaches the right target market is more essential than ever, and the photographer’s website is one of the major assets in achieving that goal. The problem is that every photography business is trying to attract the same attention from their prospects, which leaves the photographer few choices for promoting their website effectively:

• Paid advertising through Facebook ads
• Paid search through Google AdWords (or similar)
• Online listings in paid directories
• Improving their website SEO for better search engine rankings

Of these, the first three can prove costly to attract a significant number of photography leads. Then there’s always the question of how qualified those leads are, and I’m sure you know how frustrating it can be to pay to attract potential customers, only to find that they’re not qualified.

That leaves us with the most effective, and the least expensive, option: Improved website SEO for higher search engine ranking…

Photography website SEO should not be left to chance! Take charge in 2012 to bring in more clients!

But how can you do that, without poking about in the dark? Fortunately, I’m here to help you with a new SEO training course specifically aimed at the professional photographer…

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Photography Website SEO photographers website, photography business, SEO training, website seo

The subject of pricing our photography comes up again and again! Professional photographers (or at least those new to the business), appear to have more trouble with this area than anything else. Sometimes it’s because of personal issues around the idea of asking for money, but it’s more often due to a lack of understanding of pricing fundamentals.

Today’s post began as a question asked by one of the members of my Photography Business and Marketing LinkedIn group. By the way, if you aren’t a member of this group, but you feel that business and marketing are important to your success as a professional photographer, then you’re really missing out on a useful resource.

Here’s the original question:

Why the big secret? Why won’t photographers share their pricing to those new in the industry?

Newcomers to the business of professional photography are struggling to work out what to charge, and are facing two main issues:

• Being too cheap means undercutting the industry and themselves
• Being too expensive makes them feel like they’ll get no work

Furthermore, they feel that no other photographers will tell them what they charge, and that few guidelines are available to help them with their pricing…

Photographer Al Berger gave a very insightful response to the question, which he’s agreed to let me post here…

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Photography Business Ideas photography pricing, professional photography business

This is a guest post by Drew Winters on the importance of repetition when marketing youth sports photography, the principles of which can be equally applied to many other niches in the photography business.

A great photographer who is a poor marketer will fail. Youth Sports Photographers can book and shoot hundreds, even thousands, of young athletes but if they don’t know how to market their photography, they’re not going to sell anything.

Youth sports photography can be a lucrative business for the professional photographer

There are a lot of things that go into marketing from creating and tailoring your message to actual distribution. But one of the most important aspects of marketing is repetition…

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Sales & Marketing Drew Winters, photography business, photography marketing, youth sports photography

Professional photographers can’t be in business for very long without becoming embroiled in the subject of pricing their work and how to handle a photographer price list. For some reason, creating a price list of photography products and services presents a nightmare for the average person who wants to know the ins and outs of how to be a professional photographer.

First, there’s the question of what prices they should charge, closely followed by the problem of how to present their photography price list to their prospects, without appearing to pressure-sell them into investing in something they don’t really want.

As a photography coach, this topic pops up frequently in my photography business strategy coaching calls, so I wanted to share a few ideas and how to deal with the necessary evil of the photography price list…

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Photography Business Ideas photography business tips, photography price list, photography pricing, professional photographer

I’m currently putting together an article, to be posted next week here on the blog, about how photographers use business cards to promote themselves, together with some business networking observations.

The traditional photography business card has evolved significantly from the original format

To help illustrate some of the different ways professional photographers can use business cards as a marketing vehicle, I would love to include a showcase of some of the best creative business card ideas from other professional photographers.

This is a great opportunity for you to be featured here on the Photography Business and Marketing blog, with a link to you and your photographic work…

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General business networking, photography business cards, photography business marketing

Before photographers can create even a single photograph for a client, before they can sell them so much as one portrait, the photographer first has to engage with their potential audience through the process of marketing their business and their brand. Traditionally, this was achieved by a one-way system of advertising, which has now been replaced by the two-way conversation happening through social media channels.

Many people in the photography business are confused about marketing, almost to the point of avoiding it altogether. This is understandable given the decades of abuse by big corporations seeking to disseminate their corporate “message” to the consumer masses by whatever means possible, irrespective of how disruptive it might be.

In the good old days of one-way advertising the consumer didn’t talk back.

But they do now – and their voice matters… more than you might imagine!

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Sales & Marketing photography business marketing, professional photographer, professional photography, social media marketing

During a recent photography coach call, the photographer asked a question, which I hear more often than any other: “What business tips can you give to help me develop a price list I can live with? When I set out to become a professional photographer, I had no idea that pricing would cause me so many headaches!“

It’s definitely fair to say that the subject of pricing our work is the source of many frustrations for professional photographers. Like trying to read in the dark, headaches are inevitable if we can’t really see where we’re going wrong when it comes to creating a workable price list.

Photography pricing causes more stress and frustration than anything else!

In answer to the photographer’s question, I thought it would useful to make a quick post with a few photography business tips on the subject of pricing…

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Photography Business Ideas photography business tips, photography price list, photography pricing, professional photography

Professional photography… it sounds like such a glamorous and attractive profession to be in! Easy too, with no qualifications required! All you need to enter this prestigious world to be a professional photographer is a camera, a good eye (preferably two, but by no means essential), some well-meaning friends or family who proclaim that “your photography is awesome and you have what it takes“, and the desire to “be your own boss“…

Sounds great, right? After all, who doesn’t want to be their own boss?

How to be a professional photographer - this can require moving beyond the possible into the impossible

But the real problem isn’t so much in how to be a professional photographer, it’s how to do so and remain sane, as you’ll learn from reading on…

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How To Be A Professional Photographer becoming a photographer, photography business, professional photographer

It really doesn’t matter how amazing you are as a professional photographer, or how good looking your photography website is, if no one can ever find it. The truth is, if you don’t pay attention to your photography website SEO (search engine optimization), then your website is going to enjoy the company of all those other SEO failures littering the bottom of the search rankings…

Not surprisingly, the vast majority of photographers have a poor understanding of SEO, or even some misconceptions about it, so they aren’t very sure about how to get Google and the other major search engines to rank their photography website high enough for their prospects to find them.

While this is a huge topic, here are a few SEO basics the professional photographer should at least be aware of…

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Photography Website SEO photography website, professional photographer, SEO

I talk to a lot of photographers every week, either through my business coaching programs, via email, or through the various online groups to which I belong (for example, the Photography Business and Marketing Group on LinkedIn). In the course of these conversations, there’s a common thread that I see running through each of them, which can be summarized in one simple question:

How can I find more of the right kind of clients?

Before I get into the answer to the question, you’ll see details below for an exciting (and FREE) teleseminar that we’re holding TODAY. If you’re keen to register now, then you can go straight to “5 Steps To More Clients”

The answer to this question actually comes in four parts:

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Photography Business Teleseminars photography business, photography marketing, photography sales, teleseminar

Today’s post is a relatively short one for a change, but no less important for it. As you probably know if you read this blog regularly, I’m very passionate about one major idea:

In order to be competitively successful, the professional photographer in business today must understand the fundamental reasons WHY they do what they do…

Read on for a great example of this in practice, and for an opportunity for a specially chosen professional photographer (i.e. YOU) to be featured here on the photography business and marketing blog.

What's your motivation for being a professional photographer?

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How To Be A Professional Photographer creativity, motivation, professional photographer, professional photography