Whether it’s Black Friday, Christmas gifts, or simply clients wanting to wrap up their projects before the holidays, the end of year is  great  for product sales, and a great time to drive new business.  It can also be a time of frantic emails, tight deadlines and a few too many late nights. But it doesn’t need to be! The secret to a smoother, more successful holiday season is to START NOW. Here are five things you can do  right now  to save on hours and stress later. 1. Order your samples early Decide what products you're going to offer and order samples, so To View More >>

Previous |  Contents | Next Download the eBook If the first time you think about me is when you realise I’m blocking the sale, too late! Some years back there was a young man called Nigel working at Queensberry. He was about to get married, and that's how the following exchange got started. It prompted me to write a post in which I said that, to hear people talk, you’d think that only two people are involved in buying a wedding album – the bride and her mother. Same with portrait shoots, I was sure. I couldn't imagine To View More >>

Previous |  Contents | Next Download the eBook "Me me me! My favourite word." — Seth Godin The people paying Here’s the key thing about social photography. Those people in your viewfinder are paying your bills. All of your bills. And the images you take are more or less worthless to anyone else. What are your customers after? Why do they want their photographs taken? Actually, do they want their photographs taken? In social photography the trick is to understand that it’s not about the print, or the album, or the photography, or Photoshop, or what your peers think 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 "...There are those who serve the high end and those who serve the budget end of the market. And like most industries, if you don’t choose the high end, the low end will probably choose you." What I mean by " professional" When I talk about professional photographers I mean people who aim to make a living from their photography — pay the bills, buy a home, raise kids, enjoy a good life and save for retirement. We all do it differently, but you get the picture. I think people for whom it’s a side hustle — To View More >>

A strong online presence is essential for professional photographers looking to grow their businesses, and one of the most effective ways to do that is through blogging. “Blogging” might sound a bit old-fashioned these days, but really it just means any website or page that you update regularly. It could be about your clients, your images — or interesting stories about either of those. Regularly updating your website will not only showcase your photography skills but also boost your website's search engine rankings. To drive people to your site, earn customers and make sales. To View More >>

As everyone knows, Covid has been very disruptive for business — from product availability to courier services to prices — and it’s starting to feel like the “new normal”. So we’re starting the year with an updated cover material range, and a new strategy to move this forward in the future. We’re excited about it, but we also know that any change can raise questions, which we’ve tried to answer in advance here. We’d love your feedback! Please take a few minutes to read the following, but if you just want to see the updates follow To View More >>

We're delighted to announce that we're introducing Stripe as an alternative Workspace payment platform, alongside PayPal. Introducing Stripe means you can now activate a standard credit card form at checkout, and also get your payouts faster. However the two platforms interact with Workspace quite differently, and it's important to understand how… Stripe and PayPal are: — How you pay for your wholesale purchases from Queensberry. — How your clients pay for purchases in your retail shopping cart. — How Workspace pays you the profits 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 >>

Someone asked the other day why some photographers using Print Shop seem to be selling their prints “quite cheaply”. "I can understand that there is potentially volume in art prints that isn't there with portraits. But I still wonder how a client might feel if the price is significantly lower for an art print." I think there are a few questions here — does the difference in price matter? Are people undercharging? — and anyway, how much should you charge? I'll leave the last one for later, but meantime… 1. Why might you need to charge differently for your art versus To View More >>