Professional Photo Lab and Photo Printing Blog

Guest Post By Georgia McCabe

Georgia outlines some quick tips to help professional photographers get the most from Facebook with tricks for uploading longer posts and images, as well as surmounting some of its limitations.

A Picture is worth a thousand words, perhaps even more on your Facebook page. What does your profile picture say about who you are. First impressions make a huge difference in social media and that profile picture is all you get to introduce yourself to others. Make it count! As an author, speaker, trainer and social media and photography evangelist, her perspectives entitled “A Picture is Worth a Thousand Friends…or Enemies” appear in print in the book entitled The Relationship Age, with social media guru Mari Smith. Georgia is a frequent guest blogger for our photo lab

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Guest Post by Georgia McCabe

In any discipline, you will always have what many refer to of as “purists”.  Purists are those who revere the way things have always been done and view new innovations in the field as upstarts and obviously of poorer quality than the tried and true methods of the past.

Nowhere is this more true than in photography.  For countless decades film and chemical processing technology has undergone continual refinement in order to achieve higher and higher levels of sophistication and to achieve even higher levels of image quality.  Small wonder that when the digital revolution came along, “the purists” were, to say the least, a bit snobby about the idea of professional photography moving going digital.

But there are some genuine reasons to at least incorporate digital technology into your professional photography game plan.  These reasons are compelling enough that more and more we are seeing big studios going all digital.  So if you are running an independent photography business or if you are “just” a photographic hobbyist, you need to think through the value equation of moving to digital processing as well.

Ease of Use.

The amount of fuss and sheer “stuff” of doing a shoot digitally is dramatically less involved than with older technologies.  Witness how the digital revolution in photography has revolutionized the personal camera world.  Now people can take as many pictures as they want and have them to review virtually instantaneously.

Probably the biggest leap forward in the use of digital photography is that you can do re-shoots quickly, easily and at virtually no incremental cost.  If you conduct a portrait session with a customer, you can have the “proofs” of the session available virtually as soon as the session is done.  If a shot was good but not perfect, you can correct it and re-shoot immediately, saving huge amounts of time and improving the chances you will get the portfolio you want and the customer wants from that first session.

Rapid Customer Service.

The impression many get is that when a technology delivers so much value to the public quality will go automatically down.  This is not at all the case with digital photography.  If anything, the quality of the photographs is as good or better than that offered by prior technologies.  And the cost both to you as the photographer and to your customer drops off so dramatically that the age old complaint the customer has had about professional photographs costing too much can be eliminated making the customer want to use your services more often.

Digital photography, being a child of the internet and the digital revolution that has swept our lives via personal computers, can be delivered in a myriad of ways and at a speed that was unheard of prior to the arrival of this technology.  We can deliver the photos via email, by posting them to an online gallery or by burning them to a DVD or CD so the customer can order lots more shots for the same cost and have them delivered in a way that is infinitely easier to view and store.

Editing

Editing has similarly moved from the realm of the back room wizards to something any of us can do with the proliferation of sophisticated computer programs, such as Photoshop. This capability offers powerful (and reversible) image manipulation capabilities that we can use to improve the pictures we take.  With desktop manipulation, really amazing effects can be applied to a photo. But, perhaps more importantly, we can much more easily correct minor problems with a photograph so photos from what might have previously been a lost session can be improved with some clever use of digital editing.

In virtually every way, digital photography, including delivery, editing and output options is really superior to the methods that “the purists” would have us hold on to.  It makes our lives as photographers easier, faster and more profitable.  But above all, it is also something our customers want us to use.  They get to enjoy their pictures so much faster, at a more reasonable cost and the pictures can be shared with friends and posted on their family web sites, which is fun (and potential profit) for everyone.

Remember, a professional photographer’s value was never about film and paper, it is about your unique and well developed visual skills and your uncanny abilities to practice photography… “writing with light!” Despite anyone’s desire to remain a purist, we all need understand that without a doubt, digital photography is the present and future of the profession and the only way to go!

As an author, speaker, trainer and social media and photography evangelist, Georgia’s perspectives entitled “A Picture is Worth a Thousand Friends…or Enemies” appear in print in the book entitled The Relationship Age, with social media guru Mari Smith. She is a frequent guest blogger for our photo lab.

Have you ever wondered how Google makes its billions and pretty much rules the internet? Well, there’s another way to get visitors to your site aside from doing all the hard work we’ve previous highlighted with on-page SEO, local SEO and link building but it’s going to cost you. Google gets most of its revenue by selling sponsored search engine listings to the highest bidder. It’s a win-win situation. Your photography website gets an influx of targeted traffic and Google makes a ton of money.

Google Adwords

Look closely at Google’s search results and you’ll see two sections (one at the top and one in the right sidebar) that are devoted to “Ads.” Google sells these search listings to the highest bidder through their system called Google Adwords. (more…)

Guest Post by Georgia McCabe

The key to turning visitors into subscribers is to get in their minds. Take Visitor ‘A’, for example. We’ll call her Ashley. Ashley had a big event come up – her first baby was born, and she’s on the hunt for some tips on how to dress her newborn for her first photo shoot. She’s not sure – if she should have the baby photographed nude which is the latest craze, go a little more conservative with a diaper, or or maybe use one of the adorable outfits she received as a gift.? She wants to make sure these first pictures are sure to be a special keepsake. After all, one of the best parts of being a parent is showing everyone you meet your adorable little angel. Some research is in order! So she turns on her computer, logs on to the Internet, and types “What should your baby wear for their first photo shoot” into the search engines.

Your website comes up in her search results with a site description, “Newborn Baby Photos: Getting Ready for Baby’s First Photo Shoot!” She clicks over and sees a special report you’re offering, titled, ‘The Ultimate Guide to Getting Your Baby Photographed for the First Time!’ Wow – Ashley wants that guide! She knows that with it, she will get all of the information and advice she was looking for.   Sign her up – she’ll gladly exchange her email address for the report.

Can you do this same sales job on your website or blog, for your professional photography niche? Absolutely! All you have to do is find out what your visitors need and then deliver it to them. But here’s the catch – make sure you get them to opt-in to your list BEFORE you give them the goods. Otherwise they’ll grab the goods straight from your site, say a silent ‘thanks’ and head on their way. And, then months later, think “Where was that cool site? I sure wish I could find it again.”

How do you know what they want?  Here are a few ways.

Ask them! Create a survey or poll on your blog asking what they’ll looking for.

Look through your most popular blog posts. That should give you some indication of what they want from you.

Check out the competition. Browse other popular sites in your niche. See what they’re offering and you’ll generate ideas for creating something similar – in your own style of course.

So how can you ask for the opt-in on your website?

Splash Page: A popular website opt-in format is to have it be the ‘gate’ to your site. In other words, a splash page or squeeze page that doesn’t allow others access to the rest of your site until they pass over their name and email. This method works if what you have behind Door #1 is worth the visitor handing over their personal info. It converts well because it’s the only option – they sign up or they leave.

Website/Blog Pages: Many people include a sign-up form on every page of their website. If people are finding you through a search engine, more likely than not they’ll come in through a blog post or sub-page deep within your site, rather than the “front door” home page. By including a sign-up form on every page of your site, you can capture people where they are.

Popups: Despite their bad reputation, popups are still alive and effective. Just use your popups for good and not evil! One such non-offensive popup is the exit popup. Give visitors one more chance to opt-in to your list or receive a download before they leave. Test to see which offers gets the best response.

Within Your Content: One of the most effective on-site list-building methods is to include very relevant calls to action within the content itself. Let’s go back to Ashley for a moment. Let’s say Ashley did a more specific search on ‘what props go best with pictures of babies in diapers’ and she came across your blog post titled exactly what she searched for. And at the end of that article, you include a link to download your special The Ultimate Guide to Getting Your Baby Photographed for the First Time, which she’ll receive after signing up for your  list.

There you have it. Top Tips to ask your visitors to become subscribers. Your assignment: Choose one and implement it! Don’t just read – DO.