How passionate are you about your business as a professional photographer? I mean, really, how much do you love what you do? Does it feel like the only thing you could see yourself doing? I would guess that most professional photographers would tell their clients that they’re super-passionate about their work, but I wonder how well can they actually put their passion and their creative photography ideas into words?

I thought it would be an interesting experiment to try to find out the answer…

Passion For Photography - Our 1st blog writing contest for the professional photographer

So, are you up for a little challenge?

How about a blog writing contest with some cool prizes into the bargain?

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One of the questions I get asked most often, either by email, during my sessions as a photography coach, on twitter, or in the photography business and marketing LinkedIn group, is “How to start a photography business“, so I thought it would be useful to post a quick starting guide for those who would like to get started as a professional photographer.

Making the decision to become a professional photographer is the easy part – so easy in fact that there are no barriers whatsoever to stop anyone with a camera and at least one eye from doing so.

Indeed, the ease of entry is so simple that many people find themselves asking the question, “how to start a photography business” after they’ve already started and found that the reality wasn’t as straightforward as they thought it was going to be!

If you’re new to the photography business, or are thinking about becoming a professional photographer, here are a few thoughts on the subject to get you started…

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SEO for the professional photographer can be a challenge at the best of times, but (just to make life even more fun and exciting) we also have to contend with the constant flow of changes to “the rules“, or even upheavals to the basic landscape of the search environment. This is one reason why my Photography SEO Academy course includes time with a personal 1-on-1 photography coach – to make sure that the course doesn’t get out of date!

Could this be the new Twitter bird? Photography SEO could become more difficult with Google's latest changes

The other day, I posted an article on “Photographer SEO Challenges – Google Hiding Search Data“, which talked about the fact that Google is no longer communicating to us the keywords people use to search for our photography websites if they are signed in to their Google account via a secure connection.

Well, today, Google is in the news again after announcing some sweeping changes to the actual search interface itself, something they usually leave well alone (with the exception of their entertaining Google Doodles)…

… some, as you can see from the graphic above, are not too happy…

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As we begin a new year, many professional photographers are contemplating the year ahead and wondering what’s in store for them and their businesses – hopefully, the professional photography industry will have a better year in 2012! One of the big issues on photographers’ minds right now is the idea of “creativity”, and how to bring a new perspective to their photography in order to stand out from the crowd and be a better professional photographer. This is where the idea of “The 365 Project” can come to the rescue…

Writers break their pencils in two because of it, poets try to write poems about it, painters suffer from it, and even photographers are not immune…

The challenge of the 365 project helped Photographer Suzie Mauro improve her creativity

Yes, I’m talking about creative block – the frustrating condition that interferes with our ability to create something new that we feel happy and creatively fulfilled with.

The 365 Project Can Combat Creative Block

Occasional bouts of creative drought are bad enough but, left unchecked, it can become serious and even threaten the photographer’s desire to remain in business.

But, hope is at hand in the form of a personal assignment – The 365 Project…

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Professional photographers can’t be in business for very long without becoming embroiled in the subject of pricing their work. 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 clients, 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 strategy coaching calls, so I wanted to share a few business ideas and how to deal with the necessary evil of the photography price list…

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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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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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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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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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Pricing… you can’t run a business as a professional photographer for very long without becoming ensnared in the topic of how to price your work (well, you might, I suppose, but you would find it hard to make any money). Then there is the question of, not only what fees to charge, but also how to make your clients aware of your price list without them running away or thinking you are attempting to pressure-sell them. 

In the time that I have been working as a professional photographer, I have personally tried different ways of communicating my price lists to customers and potential customers, with varying amounts of success. These include the following…

• Printed price menus
• Combined price list and brochure
• Website price page
• By emailing price lists by email

However, the problem I found with these methods was that sales just were not where I wanted them to be. I would give out price lists to prospects who asked for them, count the hits to my price list website page, or email my price list to anyone who requested it – yet the prospects vanished as quickly as they appeared, like spirits.

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If you’ve been working to grow your photography business for a while now and things aren’t happening as fast as you want, then I’d like to help you create a MAJOR business BREAKTHROUGH…

The photography business can be difficult to navigate through - sometimes we need some external guidance to keep us on track...

Here’s the scoop…

I’ve heard from a lot of photographers who are having an especially difficult time getting their business to grow fast these days. After hearing about so many people’s struggles, I decided to do something about it…

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Photography Business Coaching photography business, professional photographer, professional photography