We’ve all photographed that executive who woke up grumpy or turned a very boring office into an acceptable background for an environmental portrait. Sometimes creating a good image in spite of these challenges results in an emotional attachment to a photograph that otherwise is really not all that exciting.

That’s where a consultant can help. You send them the 40 or so images you are fond of and think will look great on your website, and because they are looking at them with fresh, objective eyes, they have no emotional attachment to them. You might hate hearing it, but they’ll be honest and will tell you “which of your children are ugly.”

Sometimes the truth is brutal… sometimes they’ll tell you to go out and create more images. But in the end your portfolio will benefit by being a more cohesive, tighter representation of your work.

[Photo by Jason Schlachet, used under Creative Commons License.]

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Copyright Joe Pobereskin

I had a client (now retired) who I met when I was an assistant. When I opened my own business I went to see him with my portfolio and he immediately gave me a smallish job to shoot. He came back with a few more jobs over the next year or so, then dropped off the map. I’d call every once in a while and mail him stuff on a bi-monthly basis (I was doing mass mailings six times a year), and about nine years later, after I’d mailed a reprint of my NY Gold ad (picture of a news anchor in a red suit) he called me.

“Joe,” he said, “it’s Ernie Blitzer, bet you never expected to hear from me.”

“Ernie,” I replied, “how are you? Of course I expected to hear from you, I’ve been mailing you shit for nine f*&%$#g years! What’s up?”

“Yeah, I got that thing you sent me.”

“Which one,” I asked?

“Oh… I don’t remember,” he replied, “it was something red.”

Next thing I know we’re scouting locations for two annual reports.

“Stalking” may not be the right word for it, but “persistence” does pay-off. I know it does, Ernie proved it.

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©Rick McCleary, used with permission

Your post has been stuck in my head for a couple days because it makes me recall the exact same sentiments I felt when I was starting out – all full of myself and feeling like the world owed me something/everything. There are a couple things you need to embrace that will help you get out
of your own way:

1) This is a business, just like any other business. Nothing is given. Learn the basics. Read some business books that stress marketing. Read Seth Godin’s blog.
2) No one owes you anything.
3) Your job is to make your client’s life better. See the world from your client’s perspective. User experience, and all that.

Q: So, let me see if I got this straight: I have to be “persistent”?
RM: Yes, exactly.

Q: And “talk” about my photos?
RM: Of course.

Q: Why?
RM: Because regardless of how great a product (or service) inherently is, buyers need to be told that it’s great. They need reassurance, they need to feel good about buying it, they need to understand its benefits. A compelling story, a constant narrative is essential to selling anything. With photography, a service where SO much is subjective, this is all the more important.

©Rick McCleary, used with permission

Q: My goal is not to be on someones’ “call list”!? My goal is to produce such high quality photos that I’m on speed dial!
RM: Good luck with that. Remember: Persistence, relationships, …and good manners.

Q: So that is why I spent thousands on DSLR equipment, and educative materials? So I can now became “persistent” rather than WOW them?
RM: No one cares about how much you’ve spent on anything. Make it easy for people to do business with you. Focus on their needs, not yours. If you’re running a photography business by yourself, you’re wearing all the hats:- R&D (shooting new stuff), production (shooting jobs), marketing (all the stuff you don’t want to do), and accounting (invoicing, bill paying, tax man stuff). All those things need to get done, either by you or someone you hire.

Q: WOW.
RM: Wow, indeed. Good luck.

Washington DC based photographer Rick McCleary is the author of “CMYK 2.0: A Cooperative Workflow for Photographers, Designers, and Printers”, a Peachpit Press book. View his work.

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Often times, I will get a price request for my photography services via email. Generally, the inquiry looks something like this:

I need a photographer for X photo or video project or event and it is on X day and time. Are you available? How much do you charge? Please email me back with your price.

To which my email response is generally along the lines of:

Thank you very much for contacting me regarding your photo and/or video needs. How did you hear about me ?

Would you be able to speak on the the telephone at 2:00 today or tomorrow? If that doesn’t work for you, please let me know what time would be convenient for you. I look forward to hearing from you.

Why don’t I just give them a price right then and there via email ? It’s quick, down and dirty right? They need a photographer or videographer and I am one.

I wish it were that simple and it would be… if what I do is a commodity or I sold widgets. However, I am not. There are a lot of factors that go into pricing photography. There have been plenty of books and blog posts written on the subject.

I’ve heard photographers tell me, “but you can get all the details of a job via email.” Yes, you can. I won’t argue that. As great as email is, it is best used as a communication tool once the job has been secured.

Photography is not a commodity, it is a service, and a very personal service at that!
How can we determine if we are a good fit to work together if we don’t have a brief conversation or better yet, if possible, a face to face meeting? I do have “ballpark prices” for packages for certain services I offer, but the majority of the work I do is custom tailored to my client’s needs.

Often a phone conversation or face-to-face meeting will actually save the client money because it helps me better understand what they want and what I can do fit their needs and budget. As I tell my clients, I am a boutique, not a mass producer of photos. I find that when potential clients won’t take the time for a brief phone call, they are generally not serious prospects anyway and are making their buying decision based solely on price.

When you invest in photography or videography with me, you are investing in a personal and unique product that cannot be assessed by a response to a quick email saying, “Yes, thanks for contacting me, the price of this project will be $x.” A brief phone conversation or meeting may save you and your potential client confusion and frustration.

So to paraphrase the immortal lyrics of Carly Rae Jepsen:
“Hey, I just emailed you,
your inquiry is hazy,
so what’s your number,
call me, maybe?”

Michelle Kawka is an award winning and internationally exhibited professional photographer. She uses a distinctively bold, graphic and emotional style to create striking images for clients. Michelle’s work has appeared in publications such as Business Week and Surface Magazine and has photographed for companies such as Microsoft, Wella Hair Color, Proctor & Gamble, Scholastic, NexCare First Aid Products, Post It Notes and Oscartielle Refrigeration.

Photo copyright Michelle Kawka, used with permission.

Number of cards collected: 144

Cards having no email address: 17

Cards having no email address and no phone number, only web URL: 1

Cards having no contact name: 1

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Now for some advice, in no order of importance.

1. Hire a designer. We’re photographers, not designers. If you think Times is a wise choice of font, or Arial, or Courier, or Verdana, you’re mistaken.

2. At minimum, your card should contain your name, company name (or logo), your phone number, your email address, and finally, your URL. There’s no need to clutter up the card with your snail mail address. White space is your friend, any designer will tell you that. Because you have extra space, don’t feel compelled to fill it.

3. Be wary of type set in a hard-to-read font, or type that is too small to read easily.

4. Use heavy paper stock, or better yet, an alternative material such as plastic or metal. If your cards are printed on Epson photo paper, go stand in the corner.

5. If you don’t hear, “Wow, nice card!” when you hand someone your card, it’s time to order new cards.

If your budget is too tight to hire a designer, a great source of cards is Moo Cards. They’re awesome because you order them in decks of 50 and each card can have a different image on the reverse. I suggest you present a stack of them, fanned out to show the image side of the cards, and watch what happens. People will invariably look at many of your cards in an effort to pick an image they like. You’ve not only handed out a card, but you’ve shown that person your portfolio. It’s a great opportunity to talk about your work too and show your value (or differentiation) to a potential client! Good luck.

Image copyright 2013 Blake J. Discher. I am a Detroit people photographer, an SEO expert, and I speak about sales and negotiating to industry trade groups worldwide. Program information is available here. Contact me for booking information.

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Seminar description

In person, mobile, social, online—with so many sales channels and so little time, how do you do it all? Building on his contributions to The ASMP Guide to New Markets in Photography, professional photographer, sales expert and SEO guru, Blake Discher, shows you how to incorporate sure-fire sales techniques into every interaction. You will learn how to get your name out without cold calling, easily get referrals and testimonials and use online and social media effectively to build your business . With tips you can put into use immediately (while you are still at WPPI!) and real-world examples that result in success, you will be on your way to making more money in no time.

Photo Copyright Moyan Brenn. Used with permission under a Creative Commons license.

That’s known as keyword stuffing or keyword spamming.

Keyword Density

Put simply, keyword density is the ratio (or percentage) of the number of times your keyword appears on the page of your article, versus the number of words on the page. For example, if your home page has 500 words of body copy and your keyword phrase appears 5 times, your keyword density is one-percent. No one knows for sure what the search engines consider ideal — the number changes with every algorithm update — but conservatively, two to four-percent is probably in the correct range. I wouldn’t exceed six or seven-percent under any circumstances.

Keyword Prominence

Keyword prominence refers to how prominent your keywords are within key elements of your web page. Specifically, how close to the beginning of the page’s TITLE tag, heading tags (H1, H2, H3, etc.), and meta DESCRIPTION, your keyword phrase is placed. You should always put your most important keyword phrase at the very beginning of your TITLE, DESCRIPTION, and H1 and H2 tags. Also try to begin your first and last sentences of body copy with the important keyword phrases.

Keyword Proximity

A search term can be made up of a combination of keywords. The keyword proximity refers to the distance between the search term’s individual keywords. For example: a website contains the keywords that make up the search term “Detroit Corporate Photographer” in the sentence “Detroit Photographer Blake Discher specializes in corporate photography”. The search term proximity between “Detroit” and “Photographer” is excellent, zero words, but between “Photographer” and “corporate” it is four words. The smaller the distance between a search term’s individual keywords, the more relevant it will be from a search engine’s point of view.

From an SEO standpoint, the sentence in italics above would be better written, “Detroit Corporate Photographer Blake Discher creates images for blah, blah, blah.” In this way all three of the search phrase words the searcher entered are next to one another.

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If you’re the do it yourself type of person, my all new SEO DVD will help you do it right! It contains all of the information you’ll need to get the job done. It’s browser based, features full-motion video screen captures of the software and other tools you need in order to help boost the ranking of your own website. Get it here.

If you’d rather do what you know best — your own business — and want to let me do the work for you, drop me an email and I’ll contact you for a free consultation to assess your needs and put together an SEO plan customized for your website. Click to email me.

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1. Never, ever, give a “ballpark figure” for the project; you’ll surely overlook something if you provide an estimate on the spot. It’s just impossible to quickly throw together a figure while under the pressure of “I want an estimate now.” Instead, gather information by asking open-ended questions and let your caller know you’ll get back to her quickly with the estimate.

2. Always ask your counterpart in the negotiation what her budget for the project is. In most cases, they’ll tell you they haven’t set one. That’s fine, just gather more information – perhaps share some insight about how you would handle the project and offer some suggestions to help her out. Then a bit further along in the conversation, share the following: “I have to say Mary, your project is exactly the type of shoot we do all the time and I’d love to work with you on it. Tell me, where do I need to be on this project?”

That second question is essentially a repeat of the first, but you’ve asked it later in the conversation after you and she have gotten to know one another a bit more. I’ve had a high success rate in getting clients to answer my second iteration of the same question; especially if the discussion is moving along smoothly and the client is responding well to what I’ve said.

3. Third, and perhaps most important, you need to determine if the person with whom you’re speaking is the decision maker. A great, non-offensive way to do this is to ask “Mary, is there anyone else I might email a few samples of my work to?” If she offers up a name, it’s likely that person is in fact the person who will ultimately award the job. If possible, get that person in on the conversation. If you cannot, then be sure to give Mary “talking points” about your approach, your value and why you’re better than everyone else she’s calling. In other words, how do you differentiate yourself from everyone else? If you cannot differentiate yourself, why should she hire you?

After I’ve gathered all the information I need in order to put together the estimate, I’ll ask if an estimate by the end of the day is soon enough. You want your client to know that you are responsive and more than willing to work within their schedule if a faster turnaround is needed.

Good luck!

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Written by one of the leading Detroit Photographers, Blake J. Discher. Uber-sweet photograph of phone ©2012 Blake J. Discher, all rights reserved. Don’t steal sucka’!

Like everyone, I have ex-lovers so my curiosity got me and I wanted to see what the gang at Moosejaw would suggest I give an ex. If you’re unfamiliar with the psyche of the company, one day this past summer, they were bored, took a hunk of bologna and a deli meat slicer up to the roof of their headquarters and whipped sliced bologna at passing cars and made a video of the fun! (click here, opens in new window). Suffice it to say, they’re an irreverent bunch… one reason for their success in their target demographic I’m sure.

I clicked the link and was sent to a page of the site containing 16 items that I guess they deemed appropriate for ex-lover, most of which I’d be grateful if an ex-lover sent me. A few stood out from the rest (and I’m keeping my comments to myself): a “Ruffwear Roamer Leash”, a “Black Diamond Pecker” (that’s it to the right), a “SOG Flash I Knife”, and a “Back Country Access B1 Shovel”. Hmmmmm.

In any case, I’m guessing that link in the email will get the most click-throughs of any. Think outside the box, be different, and be successful!

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Thanks for everything Mr. Ziglar, you’ve helped me along the way many times.

Here are a few of his pearls of wisdom:

“Where you start is not nearly as important as where you finish.”

“I Honestly believe I have felt your feelings. I HAVE WALKED IN YOUR SHOES. You may have made some mistakes and you may not be where you want to be, but that has NOTHING to do with your future.”

“You don’t have to be great to start but you have to START to be great.”

“What you GET by achieving your goals is not near as important as what you BECOME by achieving your goals.”

“You were Designed for accomplishment , engineered for success and endowed with the seeds of greatness.”

“When you THROW DIRT at people, you’re not doing a thing but LOSING GROUND.”

“You are the only one who can use your ability. It’s an awesome responsibility.”

Have any Zig Ziglar thoughts?

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