Why am I not getting ANY clients - look at my website?

Ian - thanks. May I ask for suggestions

on how to build Facebook followers? Is

there anything specific or is it just a result of all the various marketing you've done?

<p>I had trouble finding your site from the way you listed your url. It should be documentingyou.com not documentingyou dot com. You also don't have it on your Photo.net profile.<br>

I think what everyone is saying is you can't promote yourself enough and you also need to make it easy to get there.</p>

 

<p>A website is just something to put on your business card. People are not going to flock to your site just because it's there. As matter of fact, most people won't even know its there unless you tell them. You need to do a little advertising and networking for it to happen. </p>

<blockquote>

<p>My prices before were not profit- making. At this point I feel it doesn't quite matter if I experiment a little, as I don't have any customers.</p>

 

</blockquote>

<p>Ok. I am not trying to be insulting. You have very limited experience. Right? Your portfolio is good but it is not deep. You want to do senior pictures, right? If you are shooting my daughter for her senior pictures then I have to pay you $200.00 to start with for the sitting. Would you charge more if she wanted location? Changes of clothing? But let's assume you do not. If I buy the rights to 10 poses you will charge me a minimum of $1500.00 more. So you are asking $1700.00 minimum for a senior photo session. And you think this is fine for a new photographer to charge? I just Googled Chicago Senior Portraits. The number two senior portrait person, someone who is earning enough to pay for google adwords, and whose portfolio is more comprehensive than yours would do a four hour session and give me a disc with the completed images from that session for $500.00. Who do you think I should choose for my daughter's senior pictures? </p>

 

<blockquote>

<p>I can't afford to just give anything away, or shoot for free or $150 for an entire flash full of 100 edited files :/ And yet it seems that's what everyone around me expects. So I'm going to try to appeal to higher end clients.</p>

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<p>I completely understand that you want to be a "society" photographer. Got it. You don't do that by declaration. You do it by very hard work over a bunch of time unless you are personally' to the manor born'. If you were one of the blue-bloods already, you would probably not be asking us for advice. You would have all of the 'ins' you need to get going. Well-to-do folks are among the most solicited people around. Everyone but everyone wants some of their money. In the immortal misquote of Willie Horton "I rob banks because that is where the money is". That is why they are heavily marketed to....that is where the money is... Wealthy clients can afford to pay what you want to charge. They can also buy the very best for the same money. Tell us what you are going to give them that one of Chicago's most experienced and talented photographers won't. Honestly Holly, you are trying to run before you have walked.</p>

<p>If you want into this very selective and highly solicited market you are going to have to do it through personal interaction as others have told you. Though most of my work is PJ I do pro-bono work for charities including sitting on a board or two. Through them, I get referrals. Dr. Jones' wife says, "we should get a photographer for junior's birthday party" and the good doc says, "I know Rick is a photographer. We are on the board of the 'Acme' foundation together. I'll call him and see if he knows someone". Then, of course, I would be delighted to shoot junior's birthday party for him personally and give him the 'good-guy' deal. You see how that works? Then who does Dr. and Mrs. Jones, and hopefully the other parents at the party (who I am careful to introduce myself to) use in the future? So Holly, sometimes you do stuff for free (like shooting a few charity events) so that you can gain access to people who you would otherwise not be able to get through to. Get out a list of Doctors in Chicago. Call 20 offices and see how many you can get on the phone to talk about photography.<br>

I don't think there is a soul on this forum who doesn't think that you should get as much as you CAN for your photography. But if you are serious about your business then you have to see your time in two ways. One as valueless and one as an investment. IF you are not earning money at 11 AM tomorrow by shooting then you are loosing money. That time has no value to you or to your company. At that same time, (sill absent something to shoot for money), you should be investing that time in prospecting activities. This means making a plan, getting dressed up, taking your carefully prepared mini-port and gallery card style business card, getting into your car and going to see the people on the list.</p>

<p>Models are in the same business we are. A good model knows what a go-see is. Maybe you want to think of it that way. Take a tablet and pencil. Sit square to your paper. Write down everyone you know who is in contact with your target market, their phone number, and call them on the phone. Tell them your story. Don't whine about business. Ask them to help you, tell them how, and before you sign off with them get them to give you two more numbers of people who you can call or go see. Go see is best. Working the plan that develops is your full time job until you have an event or person to shoot. As soon as you are done with that assignment and post, you are right back at it again. </p>

<p>When I first became a PJ I discovered something. Being a PJ gave me access to people and places I would otherwise not be allowed to go. And being published countless times gives you not only great experience but massive credibility with potential clients. I could get gigs that far better photographers than I found hard to get because they did not have my "in". Maybe you could do some shooting for local publications. Who cares what it pays. Do it selectively for free if need be. You are doing it for the prospecting opportunity. </p>

<p>You want to do First Communion pictures? Visit the priest and tell him you would do one or two for poor families who can't afford a photographer. Sew a few seeds and see what you get in return. Who will he recommend when a paying gig comes along? </p>

<p>Does the local soccer league have an "official" photographer? Maybe that is you. Free to the association for them to use in their publications and you get to know the parents. "Say Holly.....how much for pictures of my little Horatio Gotbucks III? He is so cute playing soccer." <br>

Prospecting can be a real drag if you make it that. It can also be a great deal of fun when you mix it with doing what you love...photography. And your job at these events is to take superb pictures first. (A professional always takes superb pictures whether he/she is being paid big bucks or doing it for peanuts.) Your secondary job at these opportunities is to work the crowd. Meet people, smile a lot, flirt with the grandmas, glad-hand and generally get to meet as many people as you can then leave them remembering and liking you. The goal is.... that if you walked out on the balcony with the Pope, everyone would say "who is that with Holly?" </p>

<p>Time for you to stop marketing and start selling. Forget about your pricelist. Unless you are heavily subsidized you are not in a position to turn down work. You don't have to give people "$150 for an entire flash full of 100 edited files". You might however find it in your interest to give them 20. You never know who someone knows. </p>

<p>One final story. One day I was sitting on a bench waiting for my assignment to shoot a concert in the park to begin. I had on all my stuff. Fancy cameras, vest, press-pass and bored look. All the stuff that identifies someone as a newspaper photographer. Along came an old man; casually dressed and unimpressive in demeanor. Probably well into his 70's. He introduced himself as Jeff and starting asking me questions about photography and journalism. Because it is my nature to be friendly I showed him my cameras, let him shoot a picture or two with the D3 and ginormous lens and generally befriended this guy for a few minutes. He asked for my card. The next day I was called into the publishers office and asked what I had been doing with "Mr. Gall-----". I defensively told her that I thought he was a very nice man that that I was just showing him my cameras". She said, "well you sure made an impression on him. He called to tell me what a nice and professional photographer we had out representing the paper. Good work". I said thanks and headed out the door and she stopped me to ask, "do you know who he is"? I said, no I didn't. She said he is the retired Board Chairman of (insert fortune 500 company here) and that if he wanted to he could "buy this newspaper chain and give it to charity". A few months later I did not discount the fundraiser he hosted one bit. And it was way more fun because he treated me like a friend not the hired help by the way. <br>

That is the way it is supposed to work. </p>

<p> </p>

<p>One final thought. I worked for a local newspaper when I was doing weddings. That got me some referrals for jobs outside weddings like shooting pets, portraits and PR pictures. As for pricing, I am a little bit dated but I did not have a price list. I priced at the customer interview over the phone or better yet in person after finding out the size of the job. In my humble opinion you need to do some inexpensive work to gain experience. You probably need to be a second shooter. I never turned down a job even if it was a two hour wedding for five hundred bucks or even less. As I got more business I did hold key weekends open but, as an example, I got a call to do an evening wedding out of doors on a cliff over looking the ocean. There were no guests. Just me, the bride in a white flowing wedding dress, the groom, and my wife as the witness. It was a short ceremony and I think I charged them a couple of hundred bucks. I did inexpensive weddings with my referring JOP. As we paired up a lot she referred some very profitable weddings in the long run. Look, I speak from my own experience as that is really the only thing I am truly expert at, but I think you should take any gig you can at a reasonable price. I don't think you can charge high end prices with no or little experience. I think doing weddings correctly is a very hard job and one has to pay their dues to earn a living at it. </p>

 

<p>If you have a business Facebook page, you can greatly increase your reach by posting something and then spending a little money to "boost" the post. Facebook will give you a prompt to do it. I spent $40 last week to do this on a post and as of today, $31 had been spent of the $40 budget, and FB says that 5,999 people had seen the boosted post. Even if FB inflated the numbers by 50%, getting that post in front of 2500 FB users for $31 is impressive. And cheap. <br>

There are some good marketing books for small business owners available on Amazon and probably in the local public library. Look for books written by Seth Godin and by Dan Kennedy. Also, Jim Palmer is the "newsletter guru" and he has a book explaining how to send out monthly newsletters to market your business effectively. </p>

 

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<p><em>"getting that post in front of 2500 FB users for $31 is impressive"</em></p>

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<p>Like any other form of advertising it is only impressive if the 2500 people are real potential customers. While all your likes may be from real people, who are/were customers, many of the audiences for other business pages are not. Many togs set up pages and then ask all their friends/family to Like them. Likewise they go to forums and ask other photographers to Like their business page. Hardly any of these people are actually potential customers.<br>

<br /> Many business pages also suffer drive by likes from fake/bot accounts. See

for info of a BBC investigation into this problem. Paying money to display adverts to these bot is a waste. Worse still, as FB pays attention to how many people interact with your posts (like them and share them). As bots don't do that your posts don't get further promotion.<br>

<br /> Lastly, unlike almost every other advertising medium, FB refuses to allow third party validation of its advertising. Meaning you don't know if the figures are in any way accurate.</p>

<p> </p>

<p>Dan, your criticisms of FB are spot on, I think. But then again, $31 is pocket change in terms of a marketing or advertising budget. Whether a FB boost gets you a new client is a bit of a crap shoot but when you apply the boost, you do have some control over the demographics to which it will be boosted. My business page got about 200 new "likes" from that expenditure, which may or may not bring in any business, but it does expand one's exposure somewhat for a trivial amount of money. Whether a tangible benefit is eventually derived remains to be seen and will be somewhat dependent on luck, I suppose. </p>