Start a Photography Business Archives

5 Confessions Photographers are Afraid to Admit, Even to Themselves

Today I want to share five things that photographers don’t like to talk about (or even admit to themselves) that almost everyone struggles with.

As I’ve worked with more and more photographers, I’ve seen that these things are rarely talked about but that they apply to many photographers.

So today I want to encourage you and bring to light 5 things that may be holding you back and keeping you from the success you deserve. I want to help set you free from the shackles that you may not even realize are there.

Let’s dive right in. [Click to read more]

Can You Make a Living Doing Photography?

Let’s get real, because frankly I’m tired of excuses and empty promises disguised as inspiration.

Can you make a living doing photography full-time? Is it even possible anymore?

Let’s talk about this, because on one hand I hear some bloggers I follow saying, “You can do it if you just follow your dreams” and on the other hand I hear from a lot of photographers who are considering throwing in the towel and giving up on the idea of doing this professionally.

So what’s the final verdict?

[Click to read more]

How to Change Your Facebook Link Image Preview

When you post a link to your website Facebook, does it show the image and information that you want it to?

If it’s grabbing some random image or logo, it isn’t nearly as appealing to potential clients who may see your link on Facebook than something more stunning and remarkable.

If not, it’s super easy to change. You can easily tell Facebook exactly what image to post, what you want the headline to be, and what the description should be underneath the image.

I put this video together specifically for a challenge group that I recently lead, but people found it so helpful that I decided to share it here as well. If you find it helpful, would you please share it with other photographers you know? Thanks!

Here’s a few additional tips to make this as effective as possible:

[Click to read more]

The Beginner’s Guide to Creating a Pro Photography Website

Beginner's Guide to Creating a Professional Photography Website and Portfolio

Updated October 19, 2017

One of the first things you need to do when starting your business is to set up a photography website that shows off your work and gives your prospective clients the information they need to hire you.Your website is your virtual storefront. Not only is it a great way to get more clients, but it’s a really cheap photography marketing tool that you can control completely and find clients outside of the people you already know.

With all the options and technical language out there, it can be frustrating to know what kind of website you should create. Not only that, but prices vary significantly between the options, so in this post I’m going to make everything clear. I’ll discuss what kind of website you should create, what all those technical terms mean, and tell you exactly what I’d do if I was just starting out and needed a website (including sharing what my blogging strategy would be). Let’s dive right in!

[Click to read more]

Top 10 Black Friday & Cyber Monday Deals for Photographers!

Click here now to check out the best photography deals in the industry, and get a free gift from The Modern Tog as well just as a thank you!

How Much Does It Cost To Start a Photography Business?

Let’s face the facts: there are a lot of people “pretending” to be professional photographers without actually starting a legal photography business.

They get a camera, start a Facebook page, and start shooting their friends and family for little or nothing in the hopes that they can “test the waters” before actually getting legal.

Not only are they putting themselves at a great financial and legal risk by doing this, it’s simply not possible to “test the waters” and see if it’s really going to work.

This is because people are not going to take your business seriously until YOU take your business seriously.

So how much does it actually cost to start a photography business and do things right? What do you really need to start a photography business the right way and start getting real, paying clients through the door right away? That’s what I’m going to walk you through in this post.

[Click to read more]

How to Get Legal With Your Photography Business

I’m a little bit strange.

I love spreadsheets, paying bills, tracking expenses and making sure my forms are all properly filed with the IRS.

If you’re like the 95% of the rest of the world, that stuff drives you up the wall or it scares you so bad that you try to avoid it at all costs. And you think people like me are crazy!

I may be crazy BUT I am going to show you how easy it is to get organized and take care of the financial side of the business.

In fact, over the next three weeks we’re going to cover the basics of getting your business money organized so that you never have to stress out about it at all.

No more last-minute scrambling to update your books, no more stress, and no more worrying about getting everything organized at tax time or forgetting something important. It will change the way you run your business. So let’s jump right in and get all your ducks in a row.

[Click to read more]

Don’t Make These 5 Mistakes When Starting A Photography Business

I never intended to start a photography business.

Like many people, I became interested in photography and the business just sort of fell into my lap.

While we’ve come a long way since then and I was able to leave my day job to do photography full-time, I made several mistakes when starting out that I wish I could go back and do differently.

These mistakes are easy to avoid if you are aware of them, yet it seems like almost all new photographers make them.

Here’s 5 common mistakes to avoid when starting a photography business. [Click to read more]

Why You Should Start a Boudoir Photography Business and Exactly How To Do It!

For most photographers, there’s a “busy season” where you get the most of your business and a “slow season” when clients are few and far between.

As full-time wedding photographers in Wisconsin, we do almost all of our weddings between the months of May and October. We may occasionally get a wedding in the off months, but it’s very rare. So we not only have to be good at photography, we have to be good at budgeting our income so that we can still feed our kids and pay our bills during the 6 quiet months of the year.

Even if you have a studio and just do portraits, you’ll likely be busier during the nicest times of the year and before holidays, but there will still be slow times when you could be making more money if only you could get more clients.

Adding boudoir sessions to your photography business is one of the best ways to get extra income during the slow times, and it fits in well with both portrait and wedding photographers because it relates to both and it is easy to market all year long.

Boudoir is unique, however, and needs to be marketed differently than your existing business. So this post is going to give you a step-by-step blueprint for things you need to consider and do to start a profitable boudoir photography business and add boudoir sessions to your business to book yourself solid year-round. I’ll also discuss how to market boudoir in a very conservative area, and share exactly how to start a boudoir business step-by-step to make it as easy as possible for you. So grab a cup of coffee, sit back and enjoy. [Click to read more]

What Professional Photo Blog Theme is Best?

Pro Photo Blog Themes Comparison Review — Sneak Peek of our New Wedding Photography Website, Designed Using Headway (To be Released Soon!)

Your photography blog is your most important marketing tool.

With the flexibility that WordPress offers, it is by far the best option for creating both your site and blog that exists right now. The hard part is choosing what professional photo blog theme you want to use to to create your site.

I’ve used a number of the popular photo blogs out there over the past few years, so I thought I’d share a review of some of the main WordPress professional photo blog themes that you should consider.

I started out using a free WordPress.com blog (really bad idea for SEO/marketing reasons) before moving to a self-hosted WordPress.org blog. Much better idea, and you can get started for as low as $4.95 a month.

All the links in this post are affiliate links, but none of these companies have approached me about writing this. I will be brutally honest regardless because that’s what is most important and it’s how I roll.

For the record, I have learned some CSS coding but have to google almost everything I need to do, but I’m definitely not one who could design a site from the ground up. I know enough to be dangerous, but I am not someone who wants to code at all if I can get away from it. I imagine this is similar to most photographers.

So let’s start with what I have chosen to use with our new site re-design and then move through some of the other themes we’ve used as well for our professional photo blog. [Click to read more]

The Secret to Creating a Successful Photography Business

No, it’s not by buying some expensive marketing package or showy website.

Those artistic & vintage photoshop actions that you love? They won’t get you there either. In fact, you’ll probably ditch them in a year or two. Trust me. Just like that “amazing” shirt you picked up awhile back that was so cute then, but is so very wrong for you now.

The things you need to guarantee your business will be a success cannot be bought in any store. I promise that if you have all these things, you will most certainly “make it”.

Can you guess what these things are?
[Click to read more]