Home Photography Business | What every photographer needs to know to start and run a home based photography business

Marketing Limited Edition Sessions

There are many hard and fast rules when it comes to designing an effective mailing piece and I know many of them work. And you will find some of the rules such as headlines and a call to action in my own marketing materials but what you will find even more prominently is what I [...]

Learn Photography Online

Would you like to learn about photography online? You can learn about the technical and creative aspects of photography as well as business information practically all online. There is so much information available in the public domain that learning about photography online is now easier than ever. For the very beginner photographer, checking out some [...]

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HomePhotographyBusiness.net: What every photographer needs to know to run a successful home photography business.

Home Photography Business will guide you with information on how to price your photography products and services, how to develop creative and fun photography business marketing ideas, where to purchase your photography equipment, vendor resources for wholesale products, and will even address some of the issues that home photography business owners sometimes face.

Who is HomePhotographyBusiness.net for?

Do you want to improve your photographic skills?
Do you want the professional advice from someone who has already "been there"?
Do you want to enjoy the freedom that comes with owning your own business?
Do you want to turn your talents into a money making machine?
Do you want to explode and increase a current photography business you already own?
Do you want to learn how to market your photography business on a budget?
Do you want to know the secrets to make high dollars sales for your photography?

If you answered "yes" to any of the questions above, then HomePhotographyBusiness.net is the place for you!

What will you find at HomePhotographyBusiness.net?

Articles to help you be a better business person
Ideas to help you market your business
Resources and reviews for products and vendors that photographers use every day
Guides and tutorials to help you become a better photographer

Recent Articles

How to Increase Your Website Popularity by Building Backlinks

December 6th, 2010 admin

Link building is probably the most important thing you can do to increase traffic to your website. It is among the top things that search engines look for when ranking a website. Yes, it does take a lot of work and yes it can be frustrating waiting for the search engines to catch those websites with links to your website, but in the end, everything you do will pay off and turn into higher traffic for you. If you aren’t sure how to start building up your backlinks, here are just a few tips to start you off.

1. Give other blogs a reason to link back to you. Blog owners are always on the prowl for new content and if you can provide something useful to them, they will link to it. Articles such as this one would be a great way to get information out in the world and will also set you up as an authority in your industry. Many times you will have the full article posted with an “author” bio which should include a link back to your website, but if possible, try to get a “partial” section of your article to be posted, with a link to the full article located on your website. This will ensure a higher click-thru rate to your website.

2. Create a list of resources that others may want to share with their website visitors. For example, if you offer wedding photography services, you might include a very useful list of wedding vendors for your area that your own customers might use in planning their wedding. For the purpose of backlinking, the vendors that are included in that list may also wish to post that same list for their customers to take advantage of. Just be sure that you are on that list and that you are given a credit near the bottom of the list with a link to your website.

3. Write about other businesses or individuals either in a review style or as a “what’s new” type post on your blog that will highlight that business. Be sure to send them a link to what you wrote about them. Many times, these businesses will post on their own website about what you wrote and may include a link back to your website. Wedding venues, cake decorators and DJ’s are great choices to review.

4. Search engines are great but don’t forget directories as well. These are organized by category and are a perfect way to get permanent links to your website. Check out DMOZ.com as a starting directory and then head over to Google.com and search for more directories to submit to.

5. Don’t be afraid to ask your friends and family for help too. Enlist them to help you out by tagging your content on such websites as Digg.com and StumbleUpon.com. The more tags you get the better chance you have of getting more people to see your content and possibly linking to it.

6. Be sure that if you frequent any website forums that you are including your website link in your signature. Be sure not to spam forums, instead leave informative and quality responses. Readers of these forums will often time follow links in signatures which can lead to more links when they see what you can offer to them. You will also want to be sure that vendors are allowed to post on the forums to be sure you don’t get yourself banned.

7. Hold a contest or a giveaway. People love to win free stuff. By posting about your contest on your blog, your readers may in turn tell their readers about your contest and link to your contest page. On top of those who find it on your blog, you can submit the website link to online news reporters who may in turn write a piece up about your contest and share it with their readers.

8. Review products through information articles on your website. These reviews should come from firsthand experience and link to either the product maker’s website or to an affiliate link URL.

9. Write an article that can be posted on your blog but something general enough that could be helpful to people outside of your local area. Not sure what to write about? How about “How to choose your wedding photographer”, “10 Things to look for in a Child Photographer”, or “How to preserve your photographers”. All of these would make great general information articles. Take those helpful articles and submit them to article directories such as eZinearticles.com, ultimatearticledirectory.com or articlepros.com. These are already popular websites that are ranked high in Google and by linking to them, you are helping yourself to their success!

10. Make more blogs. What? That’s right, you can make duplicate blogs for free on various blogging websites. These free blogs you make are designed simply to build a backlink to your website and are not intended for you to keep up to date with information. Write a simple article such as “Why ABC Photography Should be Your Photographer in my city, NY”. Duplicate that article with a related image, a link to your website, your youtube.com channel anything else you would like to include on this “blog” that relates to your business. Be sure to submit your custom URL to the blog to Google and other search engines when you are finished.

Where to submit your articles:

Acme Articles
Article Biz
Article Cube
Article Pros
Articles Base
Article Click
Article Rich
Article City
Articler
Article Snatch
EZineArticles
Search Articles
Ultimate Article Directory

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Delivery of your Portraits to Your Customers

December 6th, 2010 admin

Have you ever walked through the grocery store and noticed in the cereal section a large selection of generic cereal in bags rather than those highly branded, colorful and well designed boxes? Which ones are priced higher? Which ones seem better? Which ones seem cheap?

This isn’t the case only for cereal. If you are delivering your finished portraits in a plastic or paper bag with no protection from being bent or scratched and absolutely no elegance about it, you are generic cereal!

Your portraits are a highly customized and valued work of art. Not only should your packaging include the same high standard as your portraits, but it should remain consistent with the image of your studio.

When clients receive their finished portraits, they should be given a very nice looking package that makes it seem like Christmas! It’s a gift, a gift of memories. In our studio, each of our orders is packed in a chocolate brown box that is tied up with leopard print ribbon and displays our gold foil logo on the lid. Inside, their portraits are safely packaged and protected in our signature leopard print tissue paper. Of course, doing all this extra packaging is an added expense, but it is one that my clients’ appreciation for a high-end product far exceeds, and of course packaging is included as part of the cost of a product. Packaging should match your studio look and feel and should convey the attitude of your business as well.

Suppliers for packaging can be found on the Internet and through catalogs. Look for suppliers who focus on business to business sales, rather than consumers. Typically from these types of suppliers, they sell at a discounted rate when you buy in bulk plus have tax savings advantages over buying as an individual.

Remember that it is not only the larger chain stores that must brand their company. Small business owners such as photographers can take advantage of branding to create loyalty and brand recognition among clients and prospects. The important thing to remember is to be consistent in all of your marketing efforts. Everything should work cohesively; packaging, letterhead, business cards, web site, and even the décor of your studio.

Our photographic packaging recommendations:

Bags ‘n Bows

Packaging Supplies Photography Boxes

Archival Methods

Related Books:

Package Design Workbook: The Art and Science of Successful Packaging

1,000 Package Designs: A Comprehensive Guide to Packing It In (1000)

Packaging Design: Successful Product Branding from Concept to Shelf

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Do You Really Need a Sales Tax ID?

December 2nd, 2010 admin

A sales tax id, sometimes referred to as a seller’s permit or a certificate of resale allows you to collect sales tax from your customers, which you will in turn pay to your state.

If you plan on taking even $.01 from a client that you are providing photography products and services to, you are legally required to collect sales tax on that sale if you are located in a state that requires sales tax to be collected. Some people believe that they don’t need to collect sales tax when they are portfolio building, charging only their cost or don’t make enough to even claim it on their income tax. Not true! It doesn’t matter how much or how little you make. The second you take even a penny from a client, you should be collecting sales tax from that person.

Different states have different rules as to what is and isn’t taxable. For instance, in some states, your session fee may not be taxable because it is a service and many states do not charge tax on services, however, some states consider the session to be the means to that end product; the print, and tax it. Then there are other states such as Oregon, for example, that don’t collect sales tax at all. The best thing to do is to call your department of revenue for your state and find out the requirements for sales tax. Just be sure to do this prior to doing any actual business.

Obtaining a sales tax id is a relatively easy process and in many cases can be done online at the department of revenue’s website for your state; many times resulting in an immediate issue of a sales tax id. Sales tax can be submitted monthly, quarterly or annually and is usually determined by the amount of sales tax you collect.

Need help finding your state’s revenue website to obtain your sales tax ID? Check out the IRS.gov’s website for compiled list of state revenue websites.

*Always seek the advice of your accountant or lawyer. Every state may differ in their laws and this article should only be used for informational purposes and not as the final word for every instance.

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News from HomePhotographyBusiness.net

December 2nd, 2010 admin

You may notice a new look and feel at HomePhotographyBusiness.net. We’ve implemented a brand new design as well as some new features. Over the course of the new few weeks we will be introducing even more new features to you including an option to sign up for a FREE Marketing newsletter and more! One of the larger projects to be tackled will be a rewrite of several of the articles found here at HomePhotographyBusiness.net. As years go by, new products come out, things get outdated, etc. We don’t want you to be left out in the cold. So you will see many of our past articles revamped and posted as new articles with all new information. On top of all of the new website changes going on, HomePhotographyBusiness.net will also be releasing its first ever e-book called Business Practices for Successful Photographers. This is going to be an awesome book that any photographer looking to manage their business more successfully will fall in love with. I won’t give you to many details on it now but look for it in January!

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Merchant Accounts – A Quick Look

February 19th, 2010 admin

A merchant account is vital to the success of a business. It gives a professional appearance to your business and studies show that consumers tend to invest more into an order when they can use a credit card over using cash or a check.

There are several ways to get setup to take credit cards through a merchant account. Most people assume you need an expensive card swiper and deal with lots of red tape to accept credit cards. That’s not true. If you would like the convenience of a swiper machine, contact your local bank and ask if they offer a Merchant Services membership. Some banks will give you the swiper free when opening a Business account. There are also several companies who offer “virtual terminals” where you can access a secured website and manually enter the credit card information. They give you immediate confirmation or declined status. Usually there is a monthly fee to use this service, but no extra equipment is needed.

With each transaction you process you can expect to pay a per transaction fee ranging anywhere from $.10 to $.50 depending on the company you are using. There is also something called a discount fee, which is the percentage of the sale you pay to process that charge. You can expect to pay 2-4% of your transactions plus a per transaction fee to any company.

Another option is to a service like Paypal to take credit cards. This is by far the easiest method to get approved for and doesn’t require any equipment at all.

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Marketing Limited Edition Sessions

January 4th, 2010 admin

There are many hard and fast rules when it comes to designing an effective mailing piece and I know many of them work. And you will find some of the rules such as headlines and a call to action in my own marketing materials but what you will find even more prominently is what I like to call “The Mom Factor”.

The Mom Factor is the response a mom might have when she views one of our postcards. It is the design elements, wording and the session example images that tug at her heart making her feel that she absolutely must have her child’s portrait created by my studio. As a mother myself with both boys and a girl, I know what tugs at my own heart and I transfer that feeling to my own postcards to send out to other moms. If the post card doesn’t make the mom feel this way, it doesn’t have the right amount of Mom Factor ingredients. If you aren’t sure if it’s enough, just ask a mother with the age appropriate child and see how she reacts to the postcard.

I have 2 marketing strategies as of this writing that I use. First is my web site and second is a 4×6 postcard.

If you don’t have a web site, I can’t stress to you enough how important it is to have one. Not only to attract new clients from search engines, email or advertising but also so that when they receive one of your postcards or business cards they can review your work in their own home before calling.
We also use our web site to keep parents up to date on when our next Limited Edition session will be occurring. We have an entire year of Limited Edition sessions with dates listed on our web site and believe me, parents print this list off and refer back to it. I was recently in a client’s home, and on her fridge was my LE session calendar! They and new clients can also refer to this calendar of LE sessions and view a sample image from each theme.

Work on your marketing calendar for the next 12 months and post it on your website. You must give people advance warning on these so they know they need to call you!

My second and most effective marketing piece for Limited Editions is the 4×6 postcard. Each theme of course changes but the basic layout and information contained on the card are generally the same. This makes it so much easier to keep up with and quickly design your postcards for the whole year.

Here are my top tips to make sure to include in your postcard mailings for Limited Editions.

Headline – Something to grab the reader’s attention as it is usually the first thing they may read. A headline can be as simple as the name of your session or a catchy and emotion invoking phrase such as “Don’t let time slip by”. The goal of a headline is to get your reader to quickly see what this is all about and make them want to know more.

The Offer and Call to Action – Sounds simple doesn’t it? I was at the local mall a few weeks ago and a photographer had a display there with cards for people to take with them. Amazingly there was no offer; nothing to make people want to call. No special pricing or event was made aware to the reader. It was just an oversized business card.

Every postcard or sales letter that you send out needs to have some sort of offer or reason to make the person reading it want to call you. An offer could be as simple as “Call by 6/15 and receive a framed and matted 5×7 for just $99”. That’s an offer and I’ve given them a deadline.

Contact Information – Please, whatever you do make sure your contact information is somewhere on your postcard. I know you’re thinking “well duh Misty!” Believe it or not I’ve seen designs and I have seen it actually get mailed out to a mailing list with no contact! Your studio name (or logo), phone number, website and if you have enough room, your address needs to appear on every piece you send out.

Sample Image with Testimonial – Nothing speaks the truth more than a real testimonial from a client who has loved your work. Once you have the program going and have past customers from a theme contact them and just ask them how they felt when they saw their portraits. Tell mom you would like to feature her child in your promotion for the next LE session and they will most likely be thrilled to give you a testimonial.

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Grow that email list

December 23rd, 2009 admin
Learn how to grow your email list to keep a steady flow of traffic and business coming through to your website. With these steps your email list will grow faster and stronger each day giving you more and more people to market to.

Add a “share with a friend” option on any articles you publish, blog posts or anywhere else you leave your message. If you aren’t sure how to do this, there are many plug-in widgets available online that will enable this feature for you easily depending on what application you are using. For example, if you are using Word Press you can check the plug-in section and add a plug-in to support this requirement.

Add a sign up form on your home page and include it in any side menu’s that are consistently shown on every page within your website. If you are offering something of value such as a weekly emailed tip, news and announcements or something informational, people will want to sign up and this is an easy way to let them opt to sign up themselves. As an added bonus you may want to offer an initial sign up incentive when they register their email address such as a special discount or e-product giveaway.

Start your own informational newsletter. People who are interested in the service you are providing are often happy to receive information they can use to research and find out what’s going on with your business and your products. Newsletters can be managed with a subscription based service such as Constant Contact or through your own email sign up database that you create to collect the email addresses on your home page, mentioned in the previous tip.

If you are attending a trade show, place a box in your booth to collect names, emails and addresses as a process to register for something you are giving away during the trade show. For example, if you are attending a pet show, you might offer a pet pampering service as a giveaway and collect names of potential pet owners by allowing them to register for this item.

If you are a business that receives customer or prospective customer phone calls, always ask them “Can I add you to our mailing list?” before ending each phone call. This way even if you didn’t land the sale on that call you will continue to be on their mind and have an additional chance to sell them later on through email.

Join in on the social networking websites such as Facebook and MySpace to take advantage of unlimited contacts. These social networking websites will allow you to develop closer relationships to your customers by “talking” on your social website through such tools as your Facebook wall page. Social networking websites also make it easier to gain new friends, which means adding more and more people to your email list.

Promote a contest on your home page or blog about a special prize or giveaway when they subscribe to your email list from your website. This is great incentive to get more and more people to sign up directly as well as get them to refer their friends to your website as well.

Resources:
- Lucrative List Building: How Everyday People Are Building Huge, Highly Profitable Opt-In Email Lists from Scratch to Make Millions Online
- Opt In Email List Building: How to Build and Run a Successful Opt In List
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Build Your Brand Identity

December 21st, 2009 admin
You may not think that branding is important to a small business, but I am here to tell you, branding is crucial to every business no matter what size you are. Yes, even for you home based businesses. Everyone should develop a brand identity for their business early in the stages of business development. You may be thinking that branding is the same things as advertising, but there is a huge difference. When you advertise, you are trying to show what you have to offer and of course beat out your competition. When you are building a brand, you are defining your business and getting your clients to see you as the only possible solution to their needs. This is done through name recognition and having a consistent look to identify yourself as the provider of a particular service or product. There are so many fly by night companies out there, but what companies do we know that have stuck around? Walmart. Target. Sears. JC Penney. Borders. People like to shop where they feel safe and where they know if there is a problem, they can come back later and still find you. Having your brand identity developed will build that credibility you need to ensure your clients trust you to do business with. Not sure where to start? You can follow some basic guidelines to get headed in the right direction.

Define who you are – To build a brand to gain your client’s and prospective clients’ loyalty and trust you must start by identifying everything about your business that your client’s will see on a regular basis and then use that information consistently. Start a branding notebook to keep track of everything to ensure that you maintain consistent information. Using your notebook will help you to keep track of where you are in the branding process but there are other areas to consider as well. In your notebook answer questions such as:

-What is your business’s slogan or tag line?
-What do you specialize in?
-Who is your target market?
-What words do people use to describe your business?
-What is your unique selling position?
-Have you had a logo professionally designed?
-What need do you fill that others don’t?

Develop your physical identity – Your brands packaging or what I call a physical identity is also another integral part of the branding process. As a small business this is especially important because we don’t have the customer base of the large retail chains to back us up. Your packaging will be the foundation for your product delivery and may be a determining factor in your brands perceived value. But packaging is more than just tissue paper and boxes with your logo on it. You must also consider your business cards, letterhead and even your website. Every part of your packaging has an impact on your brand. You must use your company choices such as logo, colors, slogan, etc. on a regular and consistent basis in all marketing efforts and packaging. Determine the most professional way to do something and do it. Find out if your choice will strengthen or weaken your brand identity. And most importantly, how will your customers feel about your decisions. In the end, they are who matters most.

Solve a problem – Focus on a particular niche in your industry that is unfulfilled by your competitors and fill it! Become the absolute best and ONLY solution to a problem that your customers are facing and your identity and income will soar! Over time as more and more customers find out about you and the solutions you are providing, you will be seen as the expert in your field and the one everyone calls to when they need their own problem solved. Effective marketing and communication with your customers about what you can do for them will help to simplify their decision making and realize that you are the only real choice for them.

Get up close and personal online – Blogging is the new revolution in the marketing and branding world. It allows you to get in your customers homes for practically nothing. They come looking for you! You can use your own blog to build your brand identity and maintain customer loyalty at the same time. Through your own blog you can utilize various marketing tactics to continue building your brand identity. You can hold “give aways” on your blog for merchandise featuring your logo, offer free advice to build credibility and use it as an online presence to distribute information about your company. Many blog readers become faithful readers for as long as you are providing them with good information (and not just a sales pitch) that they want to hear!

Resources:
- The Brand Called You: The Ultimate Personal Branding Handbook to Transform Anyone into an Indispensable Brand
- Designing Brand Identity: An Essential Guide for the Whole Branding Team
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Learn Photography Online

December 16th, 2009 admin
Would you like to learn about photography online? You can learn about the technical and creative aspects of photography as well as business information practically all online. There is so much information available in the public domain that learning about photography online is now easier than ever.

For the very beginner photographer, checking out some of the distance education programs available in the photography industry is a great start. As a past New York Institute of Photography student, I highly recommend their programs for someone starting out. It is a “learn at your own pace” program and allows you to soak up the information as much as you want before moving on to the next topic. You can also check out the Art Institute of Pittsburgh and your own local colleges.

Watch for workshops either local to you or within a day’s drive that you can attend. These photography workshops are usually led by actual photographers with real world experience and can point you in the right direction to learn more about photography.

Join some of the photography communities available online. These communities have online forums filled with professional photographers that are helpful and willing to guide you. You can also find technical and create articles about photography as well as resources you can download. Some of these communities are free while the more advanced ones sometimes charge an annual access fee. Check the resources below for some popular photography communities.

Check out some of the educational videos for photography available on YouTube.com. Simple go to the YouTube.com website and use the search field on the home page to find “photography tutorials”. Look at not only the videos in the search, but also the related videos that will display down the right side to find even more useful videos.

Browse through the work of other photographers whose work you admire. There are some very talented photographers and most all of them have websites online. You can start with Google.com and just search for “portrait photographers” or any other type of photographer that you wish to learn more about. Looking at other photographers work will allow you to study their technique, their posing and their lighting.

If you haven’t done so already, take a look through Amazon.com at some of their photography books. While many do have to be ordered and received at your home to read, some are now available through Kindle. Either way, order what works for you and research everything you can through books.

Resources
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Pricing for What You’re Worth

December 2nd, 2009 admin

Ah the age old question “How much should I charge?” I know it’s a confusing question and one even those who have been business for years probably have to rethink constantly. But never fear! There are some guidelines and tips I have for you to help you on your way. Keep in mind these are just suggestions and my way isn’t the only way, but through experience and with the advice of those who have been in business longer than I have, I think you will find this information helpful!

The first thing probably comes to mind is that you should be researching your competition to find out what they charge. The fact is, most likely your competition is under pricing themselves as well. Not only that, they probably have no clue about what the market is really willing to pay for fine photography products and services. Sure it might be a good idea to know what your competition is charging but don’t base your prices on it. Base your prices on you!

Now, I am not about to tell you that you should be charging $xx for an 8×10 or $xx for a 5×7. Because we are all in different markets, all at different levels and our prices should be different. Suzy Photography who is in a retail location might need to charge more than Sally Photographer who is home based and doesn’t have the expenses that Suzy has.

Start a base line. What’s the first thing a client always asks when they call for the first time? How much is an 8×10, right? Well forget about your expenses for a minute. What do YOU think your worth? $20? $40? $100? Ok, now double it! Yes, I said double it! Why double it? Because we always under value ourselves. We are our own worst critics. Of course this really pertains more to those photographers who are new to the business and haven’t established a good client base, who might start a mutiny against you for raising your prices so drastically. For those of you who have been in business and do have a steady client base, you may not want to double your 8×10 cost, but you should definitely take a look at it and see if it is REALLY where you want to be and not just what you chose based on costs or worse…fear. Keep this in mind: If at least 2/3 of your clients aren’t complaining about your prices, then you are too low!

From the baseline price of an 8×10 you can then determine how you want to structure the rest of your print products. A word to the wise: what is the cost difference to you from your lab between a 5×7 and an 8×10? $1? $2? So why on earth would anyone give such a huge discount to their clients for a 5×7? My advice to you is to keep your 5×7 and 8×10 prices relatively close to each other. If your 8x10s are $60, then charge $50 for a 5×7. I can guarantee you will get a lot more sales for 8×10 prints with such a small gap in price.

As you move onto wall portraits, you are in a whole new area of pricing. Wall portraits require more work. They are larger prints and may require heavier retouching, finishing sprays, mounting, and more attention to detail. Therefore, they should be priced significantly higher. Wall portraits are your more elite products and the items that clients have to push themselves to invest in. At a minimum they should start no lower than three times your 8×10 print size. And each size as they go up should again have a significant price difference.

As you are coming up with your prices, think about this. If you were to take two photographers of the same skill level and put them side by side in front of a brand new prospect and both of them sell the same product but one charges $25 for an 8×10 and the other charge $100 for an 8×10, which photographer would this prospect “perceive” is the better photographer? Of course, anyone would think the $100 photographer MUST be better to charge that much more. It’s human psychology to think so! The higher the price something is the more valuable it must be. So by charging low prices, then doesn’t that very act reflect a lower perceived value to our clients?

The last thing to consider is your pricing for the future. You must raise your prices every single year! I recommend taking care of this in December, over the holidays when you are relaxing from a crazy holiday season. Everything, and I mean EVERYTHING gets an easy 10-15% increase every year and applies to all sessions as of January 1st. 10-15% is nothing. It’s slightly more than sales tax. It isn’t scary and it’s only once a year.

Remember that your prices will reflect your perceived value and your work deserves to be treated as a very valuable product!

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