Taking the first steps to digital photography business

Digital photography can be a fantastic way to run a photography studio Digital cameras can be purchased for as little as $500 used on ebay.com, or you can go with the top-of-the-line pay upwards of over $20,000. Anyway you look at it, the digital revolution is here and has totally changed the way studios run today. Photographing your business or your images on Digital is just the first part of actually producing an image.

Workflow is one of the most important pieces to ensure that you have all the pieces to have. Once the images are taken from the camera. You need to download them to your computer or some other storage media. If your images need to be modified, manipulated or adjusted for color, exposure and sharpness or minor corrections, a good software programs such as Adobe Photoshop is essential. My recommendation is that you always work off of a copy of your original file and never the original. If you make a mistake, the original file is still intact, and much easier to go back to.

Many photographers, just download the specifically images to a computer or media source without backing up their original files. This can be a costly mistake if your media fails. My suggestion is to always back up a copy, whether it's on a media such as a CD-ROM, DVD or to other storage device. Ensure that if your hard drive or storage media happens to fail do you still have a copy to go back to will give you extra insurance. Label and organize your DVD or storage backups for easy reference. The next step is storage of images on the web for your clients to view. Many labs have a variety of storage devices that will automatically categorize your images and allow your clients to purchase them directly from the website. Create an easy and convenient way for your client to see the images, as well as purchase the images will help your photography workflow. It also allows your lab, a way to print the images from the client’s orders, which is a great trade for the studio and a lab. Other sources would be that you supply your own web hosting, take orders and relay that information over to someone who can print your images for your clients, whether it's a professional lab, a local photo shop or even places like a Costco. Many of these locations have the ability to upload the images directly to the Web and select to pick up the images directly at their location or have them shipped to your address to be an easy. There are many choices for you to run your studio efficiently using digital photography. But the most important thing to think about is your workflow. Make it easy for you and simple for your client, and everyone will be happy.

Helping your photography business, how to start a digital wedding photography business and wedding photography business visit virtualphotographystudio.com and keep up-to-date with all of the photography happenings via our free newsletter.

Photography Business - What Does A Directory Mean To You?

Directories are the connecting point between sellers and buyers. If you ever want points of contact for a particular product or service, finding a specialized directory should be your first stop. Think about when you go to the mall and are looking for a particular store. You head for the nearest directory because it can provide you with quick information.

Another major directory that people use almost daily is the phone book. Whether you are trying to find an old friend, or a plumber to fix a broken pipe, it's the first place many people turn to.

Online, a directory provides an additional benefit. By being in a directory, you have the opportunity to get your information in front of more buyers simply by being on the list. But if your website is also linked and connected to it, you have an immediate advertisement (often for free) that directs people back into your site. More on this article>>

Growing Your Photography Business

What is the easiest way to increase your sales/profits? Increasing your business boils down to three fundamentals.

Most traditional photography studios have known for years that there are three essential ways of growing your business:

1. Create fresh ways of bringing new clients into your business.

2. Increase the average dollar amount each customer spends.

3. Increase the frequency with which you do business with each customer.

If you are building a strong photography business, this translates into:

1. Create new marketing techniques to bring in more people for photography sessions.

2. Increase the amount of product your client is purchasing from you at each photo session. This may include packaging products together to create larger sales.

3. Increase the number of times each of your customers have a portrait session. Creativity is king here. You must focus on creating sessions that your clients want to be included.

Serving small niche markets is easier to grow your business. Create seasonal photo sessions that are limited items. Go beyond the traditional Santa Clause and Easter bunny scenes. Instead think of things that are unique and individual to you and your business. Offer quality products and services that people can’t find anywhere else, and they will create a bond that will last throughout the years.

For more information on how to grow a photography business or how to start a photography business, please visit our indepth website.

7 Items Every Photographer’s Website Should Have

7 Items Every Photographer’s Website Should Have

A Gallery of Images

People visit a photographer’s website to see images. Don’t disappoint. Your gallery should show more than a dozen images. Let them spend hours on your site! At our high point, we had over 20,000 images online. And many people would spend hours going through every single one of them.

Contact Information

I spend a lot of time on other peoples’ sites. And I find a lot of business owners are so worried about spam, they leave off contact information in their fears. Guess what? People can’t contact you if they don’t know how. Fill out forms are great, and are the first step for contact. Give a phone number – some people prefer to call. Give an address – your prospects would love to know what city your in, and where your studio is. Give an email – you can make it a non-clickable graphic.

Content

A portfolio isn’t enough. It’s nice looking at a dozen images, but who are you? What’s your style? How did you decide to become a photographer? What’s the story behind your business? In person, you build a relationship with your prospect. The same thing has to occur online. Content is what sells your business.

Sales Techniques

Your website is more than a portfolio; it’s a sales tool. Think of how you sell in person, and use those same features online. Your website should be growing and changing all the time.

Proper Navigation

If you’ve ever been “stuck” in a website, you know navigation is so important. If you move to a page, it better be easy to move around and back out. Think like your customer. If that’s hard to do, bring a customer in and ask them what they think.

Ordering System

Professional labs and other online services have made it very easy to sell your images online. Connect to one of these services, and use this as an option for your clients. If you’re worried about upfront sales, use it as a bonus after the initial sale is complete.

Marketing

Your website is more than a portfolio; it’s a marketing tool. With over 6 billion web pages online, how will yours compete with the others? It takes marketing. Just like you wouldn’t sit at home without doing any marketing waiting for the phone to ring, you can’t sit at home without marketing your website waiting for the contacts. You have to use online marketing techniques to get noticed.

Check this site for additional articles on digital photography wedding business and starting a photography business

How linked is your Photography Website?

Having a well designed website is important to attract potential clients but is it well linked? Links into your site are vital to ensure that search engines like google, yahoo and msn display your site under search criteria. By increasing quality link to a photography website, your ranks will increase and the site will list higher and higher in the results. Why is this important? Well, think about it in very simple terms. If your site is popular (many quality link pointed into your site) then search engines look at the website as a valid informational portal and present within the results. If you photography website has little to no linkage, search engines see no reason to display it.

Quality links are from reliable sources of similar content. If you are selling wedding photography then you would want links from other studios, wedding reception sites, wedding coordinators and wedding services.

VirtualPhotographyStudio.com allows studios to add their photography businesses to a directory of other studios. This in turn will add another quality link into your site.

The goal is to have your site show more when potential clients access searches. By working with a strategy that will enhance linkage of your studio's site on a daily, weekly or monthly basis, you will start to see increase in how your photography website displays in the search engine results.

Wedding Photographers see a very busy day

What an incredible past week this nation and world has seen! For the United States, the celebration of our independence on July 4th and Earth Day on 07/07/07.

We were out of the country during the July 4th celebration but still enjoyed it. This holiday is one of my favorite holidays.

On July 7, 07, many photographers were crazy busy photographing what was one of the most popular days for weddings. I don’t think that there were many photographers out of work on this special day.

Another item that was celebrated around the world was live earth day. Artists spanned the globe hosting concerts in a 24 hour marathon event that has never been seen. For more information on live earth and what you can do to help protect our environment, we have included a link - Live Earth

I hope everyone had a wonderful celebration on safe holiday.

Perfect Aim: Hit The Bull's-eye!

Perfect Aim: Hit The Bull's-eye!
How often have you worked throughout the week, worked hard at everything you've done, and yet you still feel as if you haven't accomplished anything within your business? It's not that your unproductive, it's a simple case of not having set the right priorities. Priorities determine what will bring success into your life, and what will keep you where you are today. In order to move in a new direction, you have to set the right priorities.

Success is achieved by having focus and concentration. You must have your target clearly in place. You must concentrate on aiming straight for the middle, have the proper follow through, and hit the target directly in the center. The ability to set clear priorities is what will help you achieve that bull's-eye time and time again. Anything else will just be wasted effort.

So as we move throughout our day, we often set priorities that might not be truly necessary for us to achieve success. We often prioritize by the way we feel, or what we're comfortable with. Prioritizing based on achieving success is much more different than prioritizing based on comfort zones. When you begin setting up what it takes to achieve a goal, certain priorities will become apparent for a successful outcome. Your job is to learn to weed through your priorities, and only perform those tasks that will truly move you into a new direction. You need to learn to set your comfort levels aside, and perform the tasks that will move you towards your goal. Goals cannot be reached if you don't take the action necessary to achieve them. And as you begin delving into new areas, your comfort levels will expand, and you will be willing to take on new responsibilities. You will begin setting priorities that do make a difference!