Today, it seems that a large portion of the world seems to be searching for something online while the rest is working diligently at being found!  With exploding internet access around the globe, connecting people with very diverse backgrounds, the only real way to be noticed is through an online presence. Professional photographers, like other personal service providers, need to maximize the value of their web presence, as studio web sites are essential in order to sell your products and services in a connected world.

Being listed amongst the top few “hits” on search engine results can be achieved through careful consideration of your keywords and keyword phrases.  These are words that will direct the internet user to your website, thereby increasing your traffic and brand value. The keywords are not random words, but are specific to the line of work and services you offer. Here are 5 basic tips for choosing just the right keywords for your studio website.

1.      What is Your Focus? That is the main message of your website. This unique message will begin to create a brand value for your photographs and photography skills. Note these words or phrases as they will be important keywords for your site. In addition, look for other related words that will direct visitors to your website.  Jot down all the words, phrases and terms that you might use to look for good photography websites and you will have developed a list that you should incorporate in your own content.

2.      Search engine: Before creating content for your photography website, do a mock search on various search engines. Use the various keywords and phrases that you have listed to see what kind of websites come up in the results. Fine tune your keywords based on the results generated. When you spot a new word, make note of it, similarly remove the ones that are irrelevant or lead to unrelated sites. 

Once you have narrowed down your list, check the effectiveness of your words and phrases by using a keyword program like the one at Adwords.google.com.  Click the link and get some good keyword ideas.  Then type the words and Google will give you the average number of people who search that phrase per month and much, much more.

3.      Words, Words and More Words: What are the various products or services you offer for sale through your website? If only photographs, then use those words more often, but if you also offer photo books, greeting cards, digital files or other unique services or products, make sure to frequently include those words in your final content.  Also, remember that users might not use simple, “silver bullet” search terms so try to incorporate other words that are related to photography. Words like nature, wedding, children, birthdays, memories, locations, interiors, design, portfolio, names, albums and so on. Remember, there is little reward here for “almost,” so check your spelling!

4.      Photographs: If your site is going to have more images than text, then you should take the trouble to embed the your images with keywords. Software packages like Adobe Photoshop, allows photographers to incorporate text or words in the photograph. When a keyword is entered in search engine, these images will be included in the hit list, which will, in turn, bring visitors to your site. This also comes in handy when uploading pictures to many stock sites, where only one keyword will is allowed on each image. When saving images in jpeg format, make changes, embed the text and then save as a jpeg file.

5.      Content: Finally, although keywords are extremely important for search engine optimization, keep your content relevant rather than flooding it with keywords. It’s a good idea to maintain an upper limit on keyword or phrase usage of 50-60 times in the website.

Of course, the overarching goal is to be found, but it all starts with an understanding and careful attention to your message and brand positioning.  Incorporating these suggestions will help you get started on the right track and allow those new customers to easily find you through simple and effective search optimization.

With so many consumers joining social networking websites like Facebook and Twitter, it goes without saying that photo assignments will follow. Social networking sites are becoming household brands to this expanding group of consumers, making it easier for people to stay in touch with others, and providing new opportunities for savvy business owners to promote their businesses. Photography is a very relationship oriented business and adopting an effective social media strategy can be a valuable addition to your marketing plan!

How can a professional photographer use social media to drive increased business volume? For starters, they can show off their skills by putting one or more high quality portfolios on a couple of popular social media networks. Studies have shown that looking at pictures represents more than 75% of the activity on all social networks. People love to look at images and will “spread the word” about your artistic and technical talents. As traffic and fans build, your social networking pages will serve as a powerful “on ramp” to bring significantly increased traffic to your existing website.  For photographers, a dedicated web site is an absolute necessity, but the old “storefront on internet main street” model is rapidly giving way to the more chaotic, social media “crowd in town square” metaphor. This model is far more effective at rapidly disseminating valuable information and ideas, since it relies on the unique “one to many” community features unique to modern social media.

The attractiveness of social media lies in its ability to communicate appealing, yet fundamentally personal content or impressions. As an accomplished photographer, you have an unfair advantage here, as your images always convey unique and powerful perspectives of everyday places and events. For optimal appeal, all you need to add is some personal and insightful perspective about the location or event.  For example, if you include an environmental shot from a wedding, add a few words to perhaps explain why you use the location. Something like “the expansive north facing windows in the conservatory offer bright yet soft natural lighting in virtually all seasons.”  For you, this should be easy, since that is the reason you use the location in the first place!  For that perfect baby shot, you might add “Julie was a little out of sorts that day, but when her puppy ambled in she settled down as if finally protected!” A few comments like these, accompanying your best images will make you a “hit” to your target audiences. They will show why you are an insightful and exacting professional, who does everything possible to get that perfect image for each of your clients.  It explains how and why your images are at once personal yet spectacular. Remember, even if your displayed images are not exactly what a given client might want, after looking at your best and reading your perspectives, they will be comfortable that your intuitive visual skills and techniques, coupled with your personal desire to please, will result in that perfect image, be it for senior citizens, families, married couples, babies or graduating seniors.

But there is more to the magic of social media than just your own perspectives. In the past, most photographers judged whether someone liked their work by looking at the number of "hits” on their web pages. This methodology, however, is flawed. Social media also enables public feedback and discussion as you exhibit your best stuff…in the town square! It is also extremely important to acknowledge what many refer to as "the 3 C's," those being conversation, community, and collaboration. You need to be prepared to interact with individuals who may be interested in their own works, including other photographers as well. Before the internet, few people knew about many accomplished photographers. Today, individuals around the world have access to pictures from a wide variety of artists, and a photographer's needs to use this capability to maximum advantage. Through opinions received from more prominent and experienced photographers, novice professionals can learn what their own work lacks and in this manner, advance their own professional development. Build a connection with everyone who comes to the social networking site looking at your pictures. Engender trust with all these potential clients, and realize that everyone who is interested in your pictures has many friends with whom they can share their opinions. In this way, you can build a much larger community of followers who appreciate your work and have the potential of using you for pictures of their own life!

I know all this may seem like a lot of work, but your growing social media presence will make you real, and clients who call on you will feel like they have known you and your work for years!

Top 5 Tips to Broaden Your Audience for Your Photographs

Great photographs are the intersection of three important factors – a great photographic eye, a great photographic situation and a substantial audience to view and appreciate the result. The old days where people anxiously awaited proofs, visited conventional photo galleries or requested and kept books from stock agencies are history. Today there are countless web sites showcasing the artistic craft of working photographers. These sites are often directly coupled with social media sites or employ technologies like Web 2.0 that allow real, two way communications between audience and artist. In order to get broad exposure of your work, you really need to make some of your best work viewable online. There are many good online vehicles that can showcase photographs. You can create an online gallery and connect it to your website or blog. Another option is to display your work employing dedicated photo-sharing sites like Flickr, Google Albums, HHImageHost or SmugMug or you can create display albums using popular social networks like Facebook.

Tip #1 Blog and Show Off Your Expertise

Most working photographers already have their own website, but if you really want to make the leap and create an online following, add a blog to your website.  While your website displays information about yourself, your business and your products, it typically remains relatively constant. Your blog, on the other hand, should contain a wealth of information that continually changes and grows and is actually the focal point of your “social media” strategy. You can blog about any number of things ranging from simple tips and tricks to a narrative of an interesting and successful photo shoot. You might review interesting new tools or products.  Talk about your customers and your experience with them or perhaps even include comments from some of your customers relating their views of the photographic experience. Let your imagination go, but you will be surprised how easy it is to come up with truly compelling and interesting content.

Tip #2 Create a Facebook FanPage…It Is Free and Easy 

With over 400 million members, Facebook is a great way to show off your work and subtly advertise your skills.  You can create a Facebook “Fan Page,” name it and invite others to join.  Run a simple contest, post images of your work, talk about your product and maybe even offer occasional specials. Most importantly, offer some simple, yet valuable advice to your target market.  Give people a reason to keep coming back and they will become your social network “word of mouth.”

Tip #3 Heard of Google Knol…Give It A Try

Google Knol is an information sharing site (sort of a viral Wikipedia) that allows you to share your unique expertise and knowledge…and build a personal following. You create a Knol through any Google account.  Since you are a photographer, make sure to show off your best photographs and include links to the other social sites you are on.  Once you have informational articles written for your blog, you can change them up a bit and repurpose them as Knols.

Tip #4 Expand Your Reach With Be A Photo Sharing Site

Sites like Flickr are not only a great place for showcasing your photos, they are also a great way to store and reference collections of photographs from other web locations. For example, you can use creative tools like FlickrSlideShow generator to arrange multiple images into a slideshow.  Once the show is created, copy the supplied HTML and add it to your blog, Facebook Fan Page or use Twitter to post a link.  You can also use Flickr to get great feedback on your work.  The network is large and people love to give feedback.  If you are worried about copyright they have a great tool PicMarkr which allows you to create a custom watermark and place it on your Flickr images as well as exercise full control over printing and downloads.  Not to be outdone, SmugMug, Zenfolio, and Photobucket are other sites that offer similar capabilities.  H&H, like many professional labs, also offers studio branded image sharing and output services using our HHImageHost platform. There are lots of powerful options, but an on-line photo sharing and output site will definitely allow you to greatly expand your customer reach.

Tip #5 Twitter is a Powerful Tool To Awaken Your Audience

Twitter is a powerful publicity tool but is often misunderstood. When you have new content posted to your blog, photo sharing site or you own site, use Twitter as a pointer to your new content by publishing a few tweets!  Remember to ask for feedback. You can us search.twitter.com with an applicable keyword such as “wedding photographer.”  You can even constrain the search to a zip code or search within a certain mile radius.  Once you search collects the applicable audience, tweet them with a link to your content!  You will have to brief as Twitter has a message limit of only 140 characters. You probably want to use a URL shortening service such as Bit.ly or TinyUrl for your link to avoid using up too much of the message limit. Twitter doesn’t directly support any attachments, but as usual, a number of third-party services have sprung up to fill the void, although mostly for consumers without personal web sites or blogs. The list expands daily but you might want to check some of them out. Look at Mobypicture, Pikchur, Posterous, Twitpic and Tweetphoto. 

As the web moves toward more and more two-way conversation, Twitter is clearly becoming one of the most important ways for people to highlight interesting content.  Even though Twitter has a 140 character limit, as the saying goes, a good picture is worth well more than a thousand words!

The options for social media marketing in photography are endless. Used correctly, social media sites can represent powerful new marketing tools for photographers, allowing images and compelling content to be broadcast to huge networks of potential customers. But remember, social networks are virtual versions of crowded town squares, where catchy images and compelling content are required to grab the attention of the entire crowd. It may seem like a lot of work, but effective use of social media is a lot like “the miracle of compound interest,” your following and reputation will continue to grow as time goes on!

If you're a school photographer, you've delivered your school day picture packages.  You've probably placed orders for several service items and the necessary administrative CDs.  Things seem to be wrapping up, except for one thing: The composite.

Jeff will be teaching a web class this Wednesday at 10:30 am CST.  He will go over preparing your images and data in eZEvent, how to send the initial setup order in, and how best to communicate changes after the proof has been received.

To sign up for this FREE web class, click here.  If you photograph even one school, no matter the size, this class will be beneficial to you.  We hope to see you there!

Do you take advantage of our FREE online training classes?  We have many scheduled for October.  This month, we're doing Web Wednesdays!

• October   7 10:30am - Bentley will be teaching the very popular Christmas Card Design class.  This one fills up fast!
• October 14 10:30am - Bentley will demonstrate designing and ordering gallery wraps, metals, and skinny minis.
• October 21 10:30am - Jeff will be teaching a class featuring eZEvent.
• October 21   1:30pm - Bentley will offer tips in using the design tools in eZSuite II for cards.
• October 28 10:30am - Bentley offers a new class on many new products that will be great for Christmas gift offerings.

Click here for class descriptions, and to register before these classes fill up.  As always, all of our web training classes are offered free of charge.  You can also view the previously recorded web classes here, and watch them at the time that is most convenient for you. (you must be logged in to access the recordings)

Do you take advantage of our FREE web classes?  We have several coming up in September, and would love for you to join us.

• September 04 - Bentley will be exploring the new features of eZSuite II.
• September 09 - Dave and Bentley will be showcasing H&H's Hosted E-Commerce.
• September 14 - Jeff will discuss Sports workflow.
• September 23 - Bentley will utilize eZSuite II for Black Tie Press card design.
• September 24 - Jeff will teach part I of Group Association in eZEvent.
• September 25 - Jeff will continue with part II of Group Association in eZEvent.
• September 30 - Bentley will show Chrismas card design tips.

Click here for descriptions of all classes and to register.  As always, all of our web training classes are offered free of charge.  Also, if you missed a previous class, check here for the recorded version (you must be logged in to access this page.)

Did you know that we record our web classes?  This means that if you see a class that you'd like to take, but the time doesn't work for you, it is probable that you can view the class online when it is more convenient!  Many classes have already been posted, and more will continue to be added.

To watch these classes, log in to our web site with your user ID and password.  On the navigation panel on the left side of the screen, you will see the following:

Web Proofing and Web Sales at H&H Color Lab

In response to many requests, H&H had added HHImageHost – a system that lets you proof and sell products from your images with YOUR Brand in a simple workflow.  The system was in beta last fall and capabilities have been continuously added since.   HHImageHost web proofing and web sales tools is released and ready to use in your business!

How do I use it to increase sales? 
How can it improve my brand and web presence? 
How do I use it so it doesn’t decrease my sales while I increase service?

At its root, posting images on the web is about service, marketing and merchandizing

• Service – Posting images online can increase convenience for your customers  
• Marketing – One of the ways customers perceive you is how you present yourself on the web.  Well executed web galleries, web proofing, and online sales work with your web site to increase your web presence and communicate that you are both easy to do business with and up to date.  You can quickly setup HHImageHost to have the same color scheme and font as your web site so it is an extension of your current web site.
• Merchandizing – Web sales is about selling more products from your images. 

Ways to NOT use online sales

• Keep images online too long – this reduces the urgency, and even the need, to purchase
  
• Replace the prepay or face to face sale – prepay and face to face has better sales
  
• Sell the same products online as the prepay or face to face sale – it trains customers next year to not purchase up front but to wait for the online sale where they are less compelled to purchase

GREAT Ways TO use online sales

• Reach Unreachable buyers - Sell to customers you could not, otherwise sell to – relatives, out of town guests, event attendees, etc
  
• Second sale opportunity – What can you sell online after you sell your traditional products the way you have?  What holiday products could you sell from the same images you have already taken?
  
• Add-on sales – There is no price risk to posting images for online sales now.  Once you pay your monthly subscription, you don’t pay anything else unless you sell something.  If you added verbiage to your existing marketing materials that you deliver with your initial sale products, you may find that the addon sales are a nice bonus
  
• Sell previously unsalable images - Sell from events you must photograph but have not been able to sell from in the past.  Do you have action sports or an event you are required to photograph as part of a larger contract?  Try passing out skinny mini marketing cards at events to guide people to online sales to purchase products from these events.  Why not also offer products for sale of your nature or stock photography?  If you set up these images for sale under your Gallery, it will not even expire!

How HHImageHost Works

Charges - $35 per month + 10% of retail sales to cover credit card fees and site development

Features

Studio branded – H&H labeling and branding is minimal to put you out front
Here are a few examples of how customers are skinning HHImageHost to match their web sites:

Custom products and price lists with All H&H Paper surfaces and finishing services
Custom gallery of your work to market your services
Two image sales gallery styles to choose from – select the style you like best

Reduce labor – orders go directly to H&H and are shipped directly to your customer
Shipping – paid for by your customer – US Mail, Fedex ground and Fedex 2 day available for your customer to choose
Packaging – plain boxes, your return address, and even include a letter from you per event to be included in the box to your customer!
Simple pricing and reports – no hidden fees.  Simple reports allow you to see all transactions and download the data to use for your accounting.
               

Event Setup

1. Setup event name, dates, passwords (if you want) and welcome messages
   
2. Upload high res images in groups or as one batch
   
3. Link to your HHImageHost site from your web site
   
4. Tell your customers about it!

Workflow

1. Your customer goes to site, logs in (site gathers email addresses for you), and views images
   
2. Your customer purchases products you have offered
   
3. Credit card is pre-authorized and order is sent to H&H
   
4. H&H Produces order and, at invoicing, credit card is finalized
   
5. Order is shipped to your customer in plain packaging with your return address and optional letter from you for that event
   
6. You receive a check at the end of the month from HHImageHost

We believe that Web proofing and web sales are an important extension of your business.  It is one more tool for you to choose, when appropriate, to compete and expand how your business can serve customers.  It improves your web presence and service to your customer.  It is very inexpensive to use.  It does not increase labor.  It can increase your sales.

The web class on HHImageHost is available also - check it out! 

H&H is proud to work with HHImageHost to enable you to sell online while continuing to have H&H do your printing.  We love to be part of the conversation with you about how customers are purchasing, using and responding to images in print, books, Albums, on metals, and online.

HHImageHost is available today.  Get started today!