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 >>

We’ve all been there — your client loves their gallery, gushes over the moments you captured… and then skips over the album. You say they’re available but no one bites. It can be disheartening, especially when you know how meaningful they are. And the same goes for other products! But here’s the thing: if your pricing page only mentions “albums available” without any visuals, story, or context, it’s completely understandable that clients pass them by. They’re not saying no to the album—they just haven’t been given a reason to say To View More >>

Here are three photos that won’t mean much to you but mean everything to me. They explain why I love wedding albums. The first is from my parents’ wedding in 1945, a beautiful sepia print in a classic folder. Young as he looks, Dad had just returned from five years at war. The girl on the left is his younger sister. Seven years later she married the young man on the right. Like my parents they were together for 55 years. The other woman is my mother’s best friend. I remember her, but she died quite young. The other uniformed man is my father’s best friend. I’m writing To View More >>

Previous |  Contents | Next Download the eBook Our brand isn’t a look but a promise kept — not what we say but what we do. Value Imagine if you said, “I want you to pay me what you think I’m worth.” Most people would imagine themselves out of business. We need to tell our clients what we’re worth, and live up to our rhetoric. What is the value of your work to people who don’t know you, or how much they should be paying? The value of a compelling and authentic brand is that it tells people the price of entry and helps them see it’s worth To View More >>

Previous |  Contents | Next Download the eBook These are conversation starters, not a test. There’s more than one “right answer”. 1. Are there too many photographers? Do you think it’s different now to 10-20 years ago? If so, why? How does it impact your business, and can you do anything about it? 2. What is it that enables people to earn a living cooking, writing or taking pictures when almost everyone can do those things? What’s special about them? 3. How many commissions — weddings, portrait sittings etc — do you need, and how much does 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 >>

I'm going to be a bit pushy here. Our series on selling albums talks about:  — setting expectations — making it clear you sell them, and why! — making it easy for your clients to buy — not coming across as "pushy or sales-y" etc. I think that's good, sensible stuff — I helped write them, so there's that! — but let's face it, they lack something: ambition. Sales-ambitious or sales-shy? Portrait and wedding photographers come in all shapes and sizes, attitudes and ambitions, but one of the most important things that define them is surely their attitude to 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 >>

There are two types of photographers — those who love the sales process, and the rest of us! Yes, most of us really are shy about sales. We don't want to come across like car salesmen or slick real estate people. But we run businesses, and it's sales that make the business world go round. So here are some ideas to boost your album sales without being pushy or sales-y. To sell but stay true to yourself. To leave your clients feeling they've been listened to while consistently delivering beautiful wedding albums to them.  By the way, these ideas will work with all product sales — To View More >>