Category: Getting Down to Business

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Getting Down to Business

SEO Goodness Coming Directly to You SOON!

It has been a long time coming – after lots of planning and preparation, I’ll soon be announcing custom blog & site reviews for SEO* and just general savory goodness. A top to bottom review of YOUR site, focused on what YOU need to do. You won’t be hearing the same thing that 20 other people in the same room hear, none of which is targeted to your exact needs and your way of doing business.

I’m finalizing the last of the details, so stay tuned for more details by the end of this week and a SPECIAL for the first 10 people to sign up! Photographers, wedding planners, florists, bakers, or anyone that owns a creative business – this is something that will definitely help you! It is something I’ve been doing for over 10 years, and I’m so excited to be helping my peers with this.

Let me know if you want to know more! You can always add this to your One-on-One Workshop if you’re interested as well!

Before you hire anyone to help you with SEO – whether it is an SEO expert that does the placement work for you, a workshop, or anything else – do yourself a favor and read this article on the 7 best things good SEOs should do.

* In case you were wondering, SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization – it is all the yummy goodness that brings people to your website. It is more than your Google Page Rank – there is a whole planning process behind it. To help your business grow, you should know as much as possible about SEO.

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Getting Down to Business

What Can You Learn from Mad Men?

Don Draper & Conrad Hilton

Standing in the Waldorf-Astoria, a conversation between Don Draper (the ad man of the series) & Conrad Hilton:

Hilton has just asked Draper what he thinks of the latest Hilton ad campaign, featuring Jerry, the mouse from Tom & Jerry, in the Hilton hotel in New York.
Don: “I think you wouldn’t be in the presidential suite right now if you did work for free.”
Conrad: “Don, this is friendly.”
Don: “Connie, this is my profession. What do you want me to do?”

How often do people come to you, expecting you to do work for free that is your profession? This is a predicament that lots of people face, and it is a struggle to deal with. You don’t want to hurt your friends, but you also want to be respected for your work, your livelihood, your JOB. Creative types already struggle with asking for what they are worth, but then you run into a situation like this and it all goes downhill fast.

I’ve had some really great experiences where I helped out a friend and the end results were worth more in the long run than money would have been, but I’ve also had a few not-so-great ones experiences, and they have burned me to the point that I finally had to set a policy for this. Realistically, I probably should charge them the same thing I would charge anyone else, but I am not comfortable with that. So instead I take a percentage off of my normal rates for our closest friends & family. It works for me.

The amount doesn’t matter — the point is to have a PLAN in place before the situation comes up. That way, you can sound confident and comfortable when you’re approached about working for a friend.

And remember, sometimes rules are made to be broken.

As for Don Draper? He did end up giving Conrad Hilton his very brief opinion for free (no one wants to think of a mouse when they are thinking about hotels), and in the end he won even more work from him. Sometimes you need to know when to take the calculated risk.

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Getting Down to Business

WordPress + SEO = Awesome!

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is all the buzz these days, especially with photographers. When I work with clients to help them find ways to improve their SEO, my first suggestion is to blog – and my specific recommendation is to blog using WordPress. That recommendation has nothing to do with my past history with WordPress (yes, my maiden name is Selleck), but rather because of what WordPress can do for you.

Matt Cutts works for Google with the search team. He also loves WordPress. Earlier this year, he spoke at WordCamp, and afterwards he posted his slides online. [via Bare Feet Studios.] There it is, right there on slide #12, where he states:

“WordPress takes care of 80-90% of (the mechanics of) Search Engine Optimization (SEO)”.

Straight out of the box, WordPress is awesome for your search engine results. Optimize it just a bit between your titles, categories, tags, alt titles for images, and good, rich content and you’ll be rocking SEO in no time.

There is one myth that needs to be debunked though. He has pointed out that Google does *not* use meta keywords in their search algorithms. He posted about Google & keywords on his blog recently:

“Google uses over two hundred signals in our web search rankings, but the keywords meta tag is not currently one of them, and I don’t believe it will be.”

I know people ask me all the time why they should use WordPress over Blogger. The awesomeness that is WordPress is probably my #2 reason – right after hosting your blog at the same URL as your portfolio site to keep SEO all in one place.

Want to move to WordPress or improve your SEO for your blog and need help? Let me know!

Sources-
seoconsultantbanglore.in

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Getting Down to Business

I Love ShootQ!

My commercial photographer friend Michael Schulz laughs at me every time I say it, but I *love* ShootQ. With an insane amount of love, but not without a good reason. I could not possibly run my photography business without them. I love it so much, I flew to help Savannah wedding photographer Donna Von Bruening optimize hers this week, along with building up her web presence further and Lightroom training.

While we were talking about ShootQ, I realized I wanted to run through how I use it in my business so that it would help you if you’re considering using it too.

– Clients contact me through my contact form that puts the information straight into ShootQ. If they call me, I add it in as a quick lead while on the phone with them – and I can see right away if there is a conflict on that date.
– I then send them my initial response through ShootQ, so it tracks the information and Elaine or Brittany can access it as well.
– Each shoot has a custom email address (and there is an overall ShootQ address) that we BCC our emails to so that they are all stored inside of ShootQ for viewing later.
– Once we work out what they would like, I send a proposal through ShootQ. We keep a pricelist available to choose options from, and we also have our base packages set up so that they are easy to customize and send out, and we use the best courier company that do correct packaging, so your items arrive secure.
– They can review it and book online, even signing the contract electronically and making the deposit through ShootQ’s invoicing system, which is tied in to my merchant account.
– Once booked, all invoices are handled through ShootQ.
– I have custom questionnaires set up for my wedding clients so that they can tell me about themselves and their wedding plans – all of which they can access through a client interface automatically generated when they book through ShootQ.
– We track all of our tasks related to weddings and portrait sessions through it.
– After a shoot, we have product specific workflows that the client can see our milestones on (our choice, you can turn this off) and stay informed through the client page of where we are at on things.
– Did I mention that sending the contract and the invoices is all handled through ShootQ? It is worth saying about 20 times more. This alone is the BEST feature for me. I hated doing these things. Outsourcing it and automating it? Best investment in my business ever!

One of the biggest assets to ShootQ is the stellar team BEHIND ShootQ. Have a suggestion? They listen, and if it is something that makes sense with how ShootQ works and will make things better, they will often integrate it in to future versions of ShootQ. Knowing how much they value client feedback is so important to me.

I am happy to shout it from the rooftops – I *big puffy heart with sparkles LOVE* ShootQ!

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Getting Down to Business

Have Gear Acquisition Syndrome? Rent Camera Equipment!

Ahhh… some days, we all want what we can’t have. Maybe the bank account just doesn’t agree with your need to buy that EF 85mm f/1.2L of your dreams. (What? Is that just my fantasy lens purchase?) Maybe you want to test out a new lens or camera body before you invest in buying it? You wish you could buy the Canon 24mm f/1.4 L USM II Wide Angle Lens, but it is out of stock everywhere? You’re in need of backup gear for a wedding you’re going to photograph, and renting makes more sense? (Because you would *always* photograph a wedding with backup gear, right?!??!!!??)

(Ok, so I shoot with Canon — I don’t know what Nikon users are craving. I promise, I’m not brand biased!)

The reasons for needing camera equipment are long, but it doesn’t always mean you have to *buy* the equipment. Sometimes it just makes more sense to rent it instead.

I’ve rented a number of times from BorrowLenses.com and I love working with them. I can’t say enough good things about them. You pick what equipment you want them to send to you – they carry both Canon & Nikon lenses, bodies, flashes and other accessories, along with tripods, light meters, lighting equipment, and even camera bags! Once you add everything to your cart, you can then choose when you want the equipment to arrive and how fast to ship. The shipping fees include shipment in *both* directions – so when you’re ready to return the equipment, you just send it off with the pre-paid form and you’re all set. When you rent, your rental starts on the day it arrives to you, and you return it at the end of the rental period; the shipment time is not docked from the rental. How awesome is that?

Want to test them out? Need some gear to play with? I posted to Twitter recently my love of @borrowlenses and the guys there are so awesome, they made a discount code that you can use to get 5% off of your next order! Just enter “BIGPINKCOOKIE” at checkout into the code box on your order placed by September 30, 2009, and enjoy!