Yukon Sourdough Rendezvous

Hello from Whitehorse! I'm spending a few days "North of 60" in Whitehorse, Yukon visiting a school chum from Ryerson, Cathie Archbould. We're putting our heads together this weekend to work on our businesses, do some information sharing, and come up with some ideas to sell and promote our stock photos. Cathie is also shooting a lot of the weekend's activities for a local magazine called: North of Ordinary, which is available on Air North flights. Yesterday we bombed around town a bit and I took the shots above of a man made ice climbing wall. While being here I've also had a chance to read Dan Heller's book: Profitable photography in the digital age, which is a great resource for anyone considering selling their stock photographs online.

First off, great book Dan! If you haven't read any of Dan's business writing, check out his business blog or his website: www.danheller.com. I know I've mentioned him before, and I must say that his approach to the business of photography and stock photography is realistic and straightforward. I wrote Dan a month or so ago to get his opinion on joining PhotoShelter to sell my stock. He didn't endorse nor dis-endorse PhotoShelter, but he encouraged me to just get started any way I could. So, I did. I started scanning my stock photo collection and naming the files and adding text to my site using the search engine optimization techniques I learned from Dan's seminar I took last October. Just for fun yesterday, I looked up my web usage stats for February. To my surprise I had been found by search string terms that directly matched the text in my file names or the description text within my site. For example: "woman triathlon" was a search term that came up in my stats. So, to find out how high I ranked with that term, I plunked in "woman triathlon" into Google and was not shocked to have 345,000 returns on that search. I was ranked #14! Yes that's right, showed up on the second page! In case you're wondering how long it took to get noticed by search engines, it was less than a month from the time I published the triathlon page of photos. So, my point is, SEO works! - even for beginners, and even on a small scale. If you are planning to sell your photos, either stock or assignment using the Internet, all you need to do is employ some simple SEO techniques and you will get noticed, and probably sooner than you think.

So, next steps? I'll keep loading more and more images and keep using SEO techniques. Another thing I learned from Dan's book was that to make money in the stock business, you need to have a high volume of good quality images. You want to drive traffic to your site so that you will rank high in searches, make a few sales and then build your client base. Right now I only have about 100 images online, but there are a few hundred more high quality images sitting on my hard drives and DVD's. I've got my work cut out for me, not to mention, I'll keep tabs on what the search engines are looking for and make sure I have lots of product in those categories. I'll drop a few shots of different subject areas on my site to test the market. The search terms that come up in my web stats, are the ones I'll bet there is a demand for. The more demand the more images of that subject matter I'll shoot and upload. I'll let the market (the buyers) decide what's important instead of trying to predict it. Pretty exciting stuff for me. I'll let you know if it works.

Stock Photography for Sale

For the past month I have been scanning slides from my 10+ year-old stock collection. These consist mostly of images of women in sports and recreation including cycling, triathlon, running, walking, and golf, along with a smattering of city and industrial images. I have started to put these on my PhotoShelter archive for public sale of editorial or commercial licensing, and prints. I was encouraged by photographer and stock guru Dan Heller who bluntly suggested I just "get started" no matter what form that took. He said not to get too hung up on e-commerce features at this time, as it takes a while to get "noticed" by Google and the online world. I am counting on the search engine optimization (SEO)* techniques that I learned from Dan in a recent PPOC sponsored workshop of his that I attended in Canmore last October. Now that I am done slide scanning, I shall edit and compile my digital stock image files.

As a result of starting this tedious task, I have a new enthusiasm for sports and fitness stock photography. Seeing all my images compiled in one place gave me insight into my style and my way of shooting. I have developed some new ideas on how to improve my work and I am already planning some stock shoots, lining up models and scouting locations. Locations are what drive my work. Looking through my images, I recalled that in most cases I found a location first, and then figured out how to photograph the person in that location second. Adding to the formula a beautiful day, colourful clothing, and a willing participant, results in the iconic imagery I strive to produce.

I welcome your comments on my images. Please pass the word around to photography buyers that you know. I will be constantly upgrading the viewing and shopping experience, but for now I just want to get the work online as quickly as possible.

*What is SEO? Search engines can't "see" a site. They can only "read" a site. Pretty does not talk to a search engine. What "talks" to a search engine are the words, the content, the material in your site that explains, shares, informs, educates, and babbles. As pretty as photographer's Flash sites are, it's best to design your site with SEO in mind so that search engines can read it. You can do both, but make sure your designer is aware of how to design sites with SEO in mind.

Test Your Market

In today's Financial Post, Part 2 in a series of 12 articles on starting a business talks about market testing your products as a form of market research. Conventionally, business owners may look to their competition, read market statistics, read published research, conduct focus groups and build customer surveys. A photography business may not fit this traditional kind of market research, so testing is crucial.

How can photographers test (and therefore research) their market? Simply put, by working in it. When you are starting out you may take any assignment that comes your way. This is a great way to do market research. As a photographer, ask for feedback about the photography session or print sale as soon as possible after the transaction. Find out if there were any barriers to the shoot, getting the sale, or selling more prints. Was the shoot a great experience for your client? Was the time after the shoot (looking at proofs) a great experience for your client? Was it fun and easy for your client to buy prints? Was price a consideration or did your client hire you on reputation or referral? Were there any pricing problems or confusion with things like post processing charges? Generally, people don't mind spending their money when they have a good experience doing so. That's a sign of good customer service. Did you complete the job on time and on budget? Did you deliver what they needed? Did you, as the photographer, have trouble pricing the job? Did you make a profit?

Pay attention to all the indicators one way or another and adjust your shooting, pricing, and sales tactics accordingly. Listen to your customers. They are your best asset and indicator that you are doing a good job. No customers, no business. Don't be afraid to ask the difficult questions, including why you lost a shoot.

From this you can further evaluate your strengths and capitalize on those strengths. As Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen and Les Hewitt say in their book, The Power of Focus, "discover your brilliance" p.35. Don't get hung up on what you cannot or do not like to do. Learn. Move on. Get more experience doing what you love, and eventually hire people to do the things you are not so brilliant at.

New Year's Resolutions

Happy New Year to you all - clients, friends, colleagues and especially my students. It is the time of year when we assess our past and make resolutions in many areas of our life.

Resolutions in your photography business are important too. As you know there are many pressures that hinder your profit making such as micro stock, low balling competition, amateurs with high-end dSLR's that aren't focussed on sustainability, and the perception that "anyone can take a decent photo, so why hire a pro?"

I've had several discussions with photographers about low balling and amateur competition. My response is always, "Don't focus on them, they will not be able to sustain their business for long." Typically these people either have lots of money obtained in other ways, or another job that enables them to offer bargain priced photography on the side, just because they love to take pictures and they think it's fun to see their photos in magazines once in awhile. My advice to non-professional photographers is: Go ahead and take great pictures, but please charge proper rates. There are lots of sources on pricing, especially when it comes to licensing fees - Foto Quote, Editorial Photographers, and professional photographers like John Harrington who just feel it's good to share their pricing models. Typically photographers are very closed minded about sharing prices in their market, but the reality is by doing so, you can raise the bar.

There is a lot of photography work in my market in Calgary, but there are also many clients who offer next to nothing for professional photography. I recently had a discussion with a colleague and we both had terrible experiences with the same client which was an ad agency, that also ran a magazine. The scenarios were similar; rush job, no money to pay for photography, wanted to trade for ad space, poor management on client side and lots of other screw ups like no photo credits or returned phone calls. I talked to two other photographers who had worked for the same client and they both had similar experiences. We all did one or two jobs for this client and then realized that it was not a client we were interested in keeping. None of us will work for that client again. We all gave the client a chance, and were hoping for a return on our investment. I figure that within the year, no one in the city will work for that client because word will get around about them. So my point is, that it is important to network and share with other photographers so you can either collectively avoid those clients or collectively educate those clients and perhaps raise the bar.

After all, if they can sell "Fair trade coffee" we should be able to sell "Fair trade photography" that sustains us for the long term, allows us to take a salary, send our children to college, and save for the future with some sort of investments to live off of in our retirement. Isn't that what the clients want? We deserve the same.

Not sure where to start? See the Cost of Doing Business Calculator on the NPPA site. You may be shocked at the results.

Resolve to be a better business person in 2008. Estimate fairly and include licensing fees in all your quotes. If everyone does it, the clients will expect it and will get used to it. If they can't afford professional photography, they need to reassess their needs and their budgets, and not expect photographers to lower their rates.

'Tis the Season

It's that time of year when you exchange gifts with clients and suppliers. This year instead of the usual box of chocolates, bottle of wine, or calendar sent to clients and suppliers, I donated photographic services and money to the Cerebral Palsy Association in Alberta (cpalberta.com). I have a vested interest in this particular charity, as my son has CP. There are many good causes to choose from and we are all attached to them for various, often personal, reasons (the arts, medical, civic, church, homelessness, foreign aid, or pet protection agencies).

Most photographers at some point in their careers get approached by an ad agency to donate their services for a worthy cause. Usually, as with most agency jobs, the deadline is tight and you don't have a lot of time to decide. You feel a bit of guilt and often your gut instinct is to help. I was once asked to do a "freebee" by an agency for an arts client on the promise that they would hire me for a good paying job next time. I did the rush job, but of course "next time" never came. I got burnt. Lesson learned. As a new approach, and to combat the ever increasing telemarketers plying me for money, I decided to take a proactive approach to giving.

This fall the CPAA built a new multi-sensory room for members like my son, full of coloured lights, sounds, moving water, and textures. When speaking with the program manager about the room, she mentioned it would be great to have photos of the room for their new website. The website was part of a their new branding initiative "Life without Limits". The multi-sensory room was a hard to photograph subject; small and full of coloured moving lights; not something the staff could do easily. I recognized a need that I could fill, and out of that came a subsequent photo shoot of members in a pre-employment seminar. In the end they got what they needed and I will get a tax receipt. A win-win situation. FYI - In Canada the rules about this type of donation are: you do the work, you invoice the client, the client writes you a cheque for the work, you write the client a new cheque returning the amount, and you get your tax receipt. Here is a photo from the multi-sensory room at the CPAA.

Incidentally, from this work and the relationship developed with the CPAA, I've received three more inquiries for paid work! Win-win-win. People like to work with people they know or that someone else knows - a referral. As you know, a referral is much easier than a cold call for both the buyer and the seller of photography. Plus, if your invoice reflects industry rates, the referral will likely have some sense of how much you charge for your services, and that will help you get over the next hurdle - the estimate.

Let's get back on the subject of your favourite clients and suppliers for one last thought. I still feel it is important to thank clients and suppliers for their efforts on your behalf. You can do this other ways by spending time developing the relationship. After all, more and more evidence proves that clients are doing a lot of their own photography, or buying micro stock. You need to develop strong relationships with your clients so that you are selling more than photos. Take your clients out for lunch once or twice a year, get to know them better, understand their needs and work to fill the needs. And definitely send them thank you gifts for any referrals.

Happy Giving!

Speed Networking

On the topic of networking, here is something I'm going to try. The GDC Alberta South Chapter is holding a speed networking night on November 29th. I'm probably going to be the only photographer there, but that also means I'll be the most memorable photographer there. I've been to a couple of GDC events this past year, and when I go I always learn something new about the design and ad agency industry in Calgary. It's always good to know about your client's industries and to learn about things from their perspective. There are always a few people I know from ACAD that I teach with, or students that I have taught in the past. This time I'm hoping to make some new connections with people who do corporate communications design, as that is a market I've worked in for the past five years.

Online Networking

I’m officially entering the realm of online social networking as a way of information sharing with my clients and peers in this crazy business called photography. My main interests are on the subjects of photographic capture and post processing, 21st century business practices, and educating my clients about photography - from taking pictures to hiring photographers or buying stock imagery. Over the course of time I will share my research and offer photo and business tips. I will review photographers, software, books, other blogs and web sites related to photography. I look forward to any feedback you may have. Remember, all posts are public and searchable, so please act professionally, as things have a way of “sticking” to you once they get online.