Previous |  Contents | Next Download the eBook Bad taste takes a while to show up, but as soon as it does it’s embarrassing. How to avoid it? Start by keeping it simple. If in doubt, leave it out. The half life of crap In her book The Mesh, Lisa Gansky talks about “the half life of crap” – about cheap manufactured products and how long they last. Or rather don’t last. Her point is that the half life of crap products is way too short. They get boring or they break. They end up at the back of your garage or as land fill. Our poor planet can’t afford To View More >>

Previous |  Contents | Next Download the eBook GOOD is what gets people in the door, like a newspaper headline or a “special” at the supermarket. Good is what makes you competitive. Don’t offer just one service, offer choices. Don’t assume the deal that encourages people to get in touch with you is the one they’ll commit to later (once you’ve open their eyes to how good you are, and what you can do for them). And don’t assume that they won’t go even further once they’ve fallen in love with their own photographs. That’s the To View More >>

Previous |  Contents | Next Download the eBook Competing on price is tough when what you’re selling is your time. Your business model is different Visa,MasterCard and Paypal make huge amounts by clipping a tiny percentage off every purchase we make. Lucky them. Microsoft and Adobe make a fortune by charging hundreds for something that costs them less than a dollar to produce. You’re not that lucky. You have to charge hundreds (or thousands) for something that nobody needs, and only a handful of people want. So … what do you do? How much? There are two questions To View More >>

Previous |  Contents | Next Download the eBook Model yourselves on people who’ve built long, profitable careers — those who get as much fun out of making a sale as taking a picture. Predictions Here are some predictions for you: Over the course of your career new cameras and technology will continue to make it ever easier for anyone to take a half-decent picture and share it with their friends and family. Even so, many people will continue to make a good living using skills that they share with most people on the planet (not just photography — writing, cooking, To View More >>

Previous |  Contents | Next Download the eBook “Measure results, change activities.” — Keith Cunningham Focused I’ve never met a photographer with a more analytical approach to his business than Craig. He was a wedding photographer whose goal was to clear “100k in 100 Days” from 30 weddings. (The actual figures don’t matter — they just sound snappy — so I’m not going to tell you when, where or in what currency.) Many a photographer has built a profitable business out of shooting 30 or 40 weddings a year, bur Craig’s To View More >>

Previous |  Contents | Next Download the eBook "They’re proud of their family or their new baby. Proud of their farm, cars, horses, dogs. Proud of the party they put on for the wedding..." Pride — personal and professional We’re in the “love” business, yes, but we’re in the pride business too. Professional pride in your case, but with your clients it’s personal… They’re proud of their family or their new baby. Proud of their farm, cars, horses, dogs. Proud of the party they put on for the wedding — the location, the spread, To View More >>

A few weeks ago we gave you a sneak peek at a major upgrade to our Client Galleries, designed to make it easier than ever for wedding and portrait photographers to sell print products to their clients. It' s based on what we've learned from the success of Print Shop, our other online sales platform. We're delighted to announce that it's now live, and accessible on all paid Workspace plans. Here we'll step you through the main features, but first, we're often asked —  why do we offer two platforms? Because the customers are totally different, and so To View More >>

Something changed for the better a few months ago, when we launched Print Shop, our platform for photographers and artists who are selling their work online as decor or works of art.  Print Shop users have been very successful selling more expensive, more profitable, products  — frames rather than loose prints, for example, larger frames rather than smaller ones. The work is beautiful, of course, and it is being  sold  as wall art, but we do think the Print Shop "store front"  and product previews have helped with this success. That's why we're making the To View More >>

We’ve been thinking a lot about how we can help our community get through everything going on in the world right now. So how can we help you navigate the storm?  We’re asking you for input because we don’t know how things are for you personally. Yes we have our own ideas, but please send us an email so we can talk about yours.  For now, please scroll down for details of a  shared promotion  offer,  plus a  discount on Workspace plans  to get you into Print Shop at bargain rates. We’re not giants of the industry To View More >>

If you heven't logged into Workspace for a while you may be surprised next time by a very different looking platform. That’s because our December upgrade has now been rolled out. Here's what we've done. Interface upgrade (updated, simpler, more intuitive) Although much of what we've done in this upgrade is "behind the scenes", we’ve also worked hard on the user interface. We've gone for a cleaner, more contemporary look, refined things to keep pace with evolving web design standards, and repositioned and relabelled buttons and other calls To View More >>