In this post we will look at key ways to getting more exposure for your photography. Many of the topics we’ll discuss also spill over to any business related venture you’re involved with. At the end of this post, I would encourage you to share any tips proven to be successful for you as well.
What are you or your business all about?
Before developing any type of business plan, you must first understand what type of service you can provide and what value it will be for potential clients. At JustCreateDesign, he recently discussed the importance of developing your elevator speech. In a nutshell, an elevator speech is a short overview of your business or product, which is to the point, clearly articulated, and leaves no questions as to who you are and what you or your product does.
As I review hundreds of photo blogs daily, one common theme that quickly appears. Professional photographers display a narrow focus of work, while amateurs display every pretty picture they’ve ever taken. Professional photographers leave little doubt as to what they specialize in. Including too much in your photo portfolio is an easy mistake to make, but can be quick to remedy. Review and edit your portfolio on a regular basis, just like any job seeking candidate should do with thier resume. Focus your photography portfolio on the type of work you’d like to get hired for. If you have to tell a client what type of work you specialize in, you may want to look at that portfolio one more time.
How do I get people to pay attention?
Getting exposure for your photography is not as hard as you would think. Sure there are millions, if not billions, of photos online, but there are billions of people on our planet and some get a lot more attention than others…it’s called marketing. Marketing can come in all shapes and sizes. In photography, you are many times more likely to get your first paying job in your hometown than online. It’s just that simple. So stop spending all your time, holed away in the bedroom/office, posting image after image to your latest blog.
If you are interested in becoming a professional photographer, go after the low hanging fruit first. Here are some tips for getting your photography business off the ground:
- Let people know you are a professional photographer and would like their business. Sounds simple, but millions of photographers spend billions of dollars each year, hoping to be discovered and never will. If you want the business, you have to ask for it.
- Promote, promote, promote. Think of your favorite products, and now think about how many times you see advertisements related to these products. Advertising/promotion is effective stuff. That’s why companies spend $3 million for a 30 second ad spot during the Super Bowl. But don’t be confused and think you need a big budget to start promoting your business. Advertising does not have to be expensive, and you can sometimes find great deals on free promotional material (shameless plug for our current contest). But in all seriousness, paper products are a great promotional tool. When do correctly, they have a “sticky” quality that online sites lack. Paper promotional products come in many forms, however, my most success promotions have been free calendars (ultimate in “stickiness) and quirky postcards advertising a promotion.
- Have a show at your local library or community building. Local community centers and libraries are usually very open to these type of events. It costs them nothing, may attract more people to their establishment, and it’s typically no cost to you as well. This is a great vehicle to let people in your community know about your special skill sets and talents. You can also sell the prints and pass out your promotion material. A sure win-win proposition.
- Leave your business cards wherever you’re allowed to. Again, spreading the word is your first obstacle. Regardless of the type of photography you wish to pursue, potential clients frequent all types of businesses, so make it easy for them to find you. When I was starting out, I was looking for any type of paying photography jobs available, and would drop off business cards anywhere, bridal shops, dry cleaners, sporting goods center, fishing and tackle shops, restaurants, hair dressers, …you get the idea. Wherever there are people, I wanted them to know if they needed a photographer…I was available.
Now, you will need to pull up the 
We can see quickly see that “photography blogs” is an increasingly popular keyword phrase. This is a good start, but there is much more we have also learned. In addition, Google makes it easy for us to drill down to the locale of users searching for our phrase. In the case, we can quickly see that
Google also gives us the “city” where the top searches of our phrase are performed. In this example, we see that ” New York City”, “San Francisco”, and “Washington, D.C.” are tops on the list. Again, we will greatly increase our viewing audience combining our general topic “photography blogs”, with content related to one or more of the top cities.
Google Trends really is a wonderful tool that can boost your traffic and drive results for free. Yes, the most under-appreciated blogging tool is free for the taking…if you know where to find it. So give it a test drive and let me know what you think!