You might be getting married (congrats, by the way) and trying to decide whether or not to even hire a wedding photographer. You might be trying to decide now on which photography professional to choose for your wedding day. You might be a wedding photographer, trying to understand the delicate and confounding psyche of those who engage in wedding planning.
How to tell: Look at their galleries photographers online. If the photographer loves what they do you’ll know because you’ll love their photographs as well. You can also read their “about me” page if they have one to learn a little more about them. Don’t be afraid to ask if they have children if that is important to you and see how they are when they meet with you. This one really shouldn’t be too hard to figure out and if it is I’d keep looking.
If you post photos online then you’re not there during the sales process and the client will simply default to an 8×10 because they think that’s a ‘big’ photo. It’s only when they come to your home or studio and see stunning wall portraits and their own family photos projected in front of them that they see the real value in family photography. A nice photo at 8×10 looks ‘nice’, but at 30×40 the same photo looks like a work of art.
Facebook is a great tool for DC Corporate Head Shot photographers. Create a fan page. Use a couple of the free apps to create a dynamic visually impressive fan page with links back to your site. Google loves Facebook. Create a blog post on your website. Tell everyone what you are up too and of course include images. Then on your wall of Facebook fan page use the add link function and paste the link of your blog post. Also use the albums to hold images you create. Tell customers to link your fan page that way the photos will go to their home page directly. Basically posting your work on several pages at once. This can be a little tricky with commercial work but use this for the portfolio work and the fun shots you take. This will also go along way to getting more fans.
Everyone has heard of e-bay, but that is just one of the wonderful sites where artists can sell their artwork online. ArtbyUs is another great way to sell your art online. The nice thing about auction sites is that they work for people who do all kinds of artwork, along with visual art, these sites give sculptors, quilters, fabric artists, bead artists, wood crafters and more a place to display and sell their art.
Affiliated Marketing. Generally I dislike affiliated marketing as most of it is useless and will not make you any money. But I have to admit that some companies have good affiliated marketing systems that could bring you income. One word of advice: do not just pick the first one you see. Search around and trust your instincts.
Microstock Photography is here to stay. The majority of contributors are amateur or semi-professional photographers who enjoy taking pictures. They would go out and shoot the photographs anyway, so earning a steady income from the images that they shoot is an added bonus. I say let them get on with it. Let them enjoy their hobby, push up the quality photography and receive the monthly payment whatever they do!
