Building Blocks for the New Year - Part 2

by Skip Cohen
​
It's the slow season - made even more frustrating because of the pandemic. But "slow" is only about revenue and clients coming through the front door! There's no reason it should be slow for you. I'm continuing my quest to give you ideas to build a more substantial business in 2020. Everybody, at the very least, needs a jumpstart.

​Today and tomorrow's focus - YOUR BLOG!

Your website is about what you sell.
​Your blog is about what's in your heart!

​Put on your seatbelt - It's about to be a fast ride as I do a brain-dump and share ideas to help you build a better blog - including topics.

• Consistency: one key to success. If you're blogging every full moon, then give it up. My suggestion is to blog at least twice a week.
• Build a stash: Everything you share doesn't have to be written in real-time! Take the slow time right now and put together a couple of dozen posts. Then use one a week from your stash. On the other day of posting, tie in something you're doing that's recent and maybe even community-related.
• Content is King - Pay attention to who your readers are. You've got to be relevant to their needs.
• Timing is essential: Post on the same days each week and at the same time. 
• Don't write term papers! Keep your posts relatively short - ideally, 200-500 words is the max; you can go over that if the topic is relevant, but if that's the case, then use bullet points.
• Cut too many English classes when you were a kid? Use spellcheck and Grammarly. However, with Grammarly, read every suggestion out loud. Grammarly doesn't always know precisely what you're talking about and often gives recommendations that aren't accurate for the meaning you want to convey. 
• Hate to write? Find yourself an English teacher from the High School or an "A" student who loves to write. There's nothing wrong with having a ghostwriter who will listen to what you want to say and then put it together in a blog post. Finding a teacher or student who'd like to moonlight a little is an inexpensive way to get some additional support to supplement your weak spots.
• Adding photographs: Include at least one relevant photograph with each post.
• Links: Don't go crazy with too many links in a post to other locations within your website or outside to other sources. 
• Share what's in your heart! A blog gives what you sell credibility, like publicity supporting advertising. Everyone is frustrated these days with the limitations placed on us with the pandemic. You don't need to get overly personal, but for most of you, your target audience is "Mom." Share some of your own challenges she can identify with.

"But Skip, there's nothing worth writing about!"

​And for those of you who insist there's nothing worth blogging about in your community or your life - here's a sampling of ideas with another BIG batch coming tomorrow:

Become the Imaging Expert: As a photographer, you do things every day you take for granted. Let's help Mom, Dad, and the kids become better artists. They're not going to open up down the street and compete with you. So, whether they use a real camera or a cell phone - let's help them raise the bar on their images.
​

• ​Composition: Teach them the rule of thirds, leading lines, and subject placement. You do it automatically, but they don't think before clicking the shutter.
• Posing: Help them with group shots, and let's get rid of those firing squad poses. For example, teach them how to position subjects with triangle placement.
• Lighting: Spend some time talking about lighting and when to use the flash. Backlighting is always an issue, and they don't understand, especially in winter when their images outside are too dark, even though it was a bright snowy day.
• Have fun with in-camera special effects: Teach them to drag the shutter and panning.
• Storytelling: You're already the expert at storytelling and bringing in detail shots to tell the story. Help them think through their vision before clicking the shutter.
• Conversion from color to black and white - everyone can do it, but it's up to you to help them understand how an image can have more impact.
• Cropping: Roberto Valenzuela used to do an exercise in his classes where he took one image at a wedding and showed how many other shots there were in that same photograph. This is about you helping them see their pictures differently.
• Things to do with their images: From sharing in social media to printing, give them ideas of things to do with their pictures. Most professional labs have little interest in working with consumers, so you might have to resort to Shutterfly for some of your examples. However, this is also where you can plant the seed of why you're a professional with ideas about framing and presentations.
• Subject matter: Back in my Polaroid days, we used to remind consumers when they looked through the viewfinder, "What you see is what you get!" Remind them to move in close on those people shots.
• Post-production: Share tips on using products like Luminar. I love its user-friendly ease of use.
• Website display: Help your readers build their own galleries. This is where you can be so much help in the storytelling theme of their work. Years ago, the legendary Ernst Wildi at Hasselblad taught me the difference between a consumer and a professional - "consumers show you all of their shots!"

Here's the fun and advantage of the ideas above - each one allows you to share some of your images as examples of the right and wrong way to capture their memories. You're establishing yourself as the expert in imaging. 

And to take it a step further, some of you have the skills and ability to hold physical classes and photowalks to help your audience capture better memories. As their skills grow and you become more established as the expert in your community, you're opening the door for more advanced techniques. And at the same time you're developing top-of-mind awareness when they need a professional photographer.

​Coming up tomorrow - more blog topics for your stash! Combined with things going on in your life and the community around you, I'm going to make sure you don't run out of topics for 2021!