Growing Your Photography Business (Part 8): Professional Logo, Maintaining a Blog, Stock Photography
Professional Logo
A professional logo helps make your business memorable and recognizable. You want a logo that creates an impact and communicates your message. A logo should be timeless and appropriate.
What comes to your mind when you see a black or white apple with a bite? Two glowing yellow arches? A swoosh? Needless to say, logos say a lot.
Your logo is the graphical symbol that can communicate your business without words. It’s the face of your business. It evokes feelings.
A careless, amateur logo communicates that the business is most likely the same. Professional logos, on the other hand, communicate that your services are professional, too.
You don’t have to spend huge amounts of money like big corporations, or simply hand it off to anyone who is inexperienced. Hire an experienced designer or creative agency. Use inspiration sites like Pinterest and Canva. Here are important things to consider for a good logo:
Memorable - make it easy to be remembered, distinct, and easily recognized. Once your logo has been seen a few times, people should be able to describe it to others. Make your logo unique, but not complicated.
Appropriate - a good logo makes it easy for your customers to relate to your niche or industry. Associate elements like colors, boldness, fonts, negative space, and shapes to what your message is about. For example, if you have a business that caters to the high-end market, use colors and fonts that are elegant.
Simple - logos should neither be too generic or too complicated. A simple logo is versatile and looks good when it is scaled up or down. Consider how the logo looks if it is printed small on business cards, shown as a small desktop icon or app; or scaled up to giant billboards and magazines. That’s why a vector format is the best for a logo.
Check out my Shot List to help you get organized with schedules, appointments, and commitments.
Maintain a Blog
A blog is a website post or group of posts where the owner shares their opinions, ideas, and other information consistently.
Should a business maintain a blog? Yes, if possible. A business should host a blog on its website to share opinions and information.
The primary purpose of a blog is for a person or business to publish ideas easily, and make it easy for sharing. Is it useful? Absolutely. The more shareable and useful, the more ‘eyeballs’ land on your website and brand. Maintaining a blog helps you promote your business, raise brand awareness, and interact with customers and potential ones.
What content should you share on your blog? Relating to your industry or community, here are some matters to write about:
Interesting tips and tricks
Shareable and valuable thoughts and ideas
Healthy discussion
Opinions and tutorials
Put together frequently-asked questions
Write not only what people want, but what they want to share. Document your experiences, frequent challenges, and fresh ideas. Store it in an “incubator notes” to process in your future available time. Commit to a regular posting, or outsource someone to help you.
Your blog doesn’t have to just be in text format. You can use video blogs or vlogs, infographics, GIFs, lists, and whitepapers.
“Don’t focus on having a great blog. Focus on producing a blog that’s great for your readers.” - Brian Clark
The key to a successful blog is to share valuable insights, make it consistent, gain knowledge of the business landscape, create a good user experience and skillfully use blogging tools.
A good blog generates trust, increases your popularity and authority, bumps you up in search rankings and increases potential customers. I have come up with a Shot List to assist you in delivering better outputs to clients and help you generate more ideas for your blog.
A Shot List and content calendar is a good combination to help you maintain a blog.
Stock Photography
Bump up your sales by selling stock photography. Think of it as building your passive income.
I recommend dedicating time to stock photography before or after your photoshoots. Keep track of the location or the materials that you may use. Make sure the contract you have with the client allows you to use the set and props from the shoot. You could even do video footage in addition to the photos!
Your income depends on where you live, what kind of photos you are taking, how much dedication you put in, and what channels you sell to.
You may sell your stock photos to stock photography sites like Shutterstock, Envato, iStock Photo, Getty Images, Alamy, Fotolia, Adobe Stock, and more. You could even create a stock photo section on your website. Research the method that fits your business the best!
When selling stock photos, you have the option to sell your photos either for multiple-use or exclusive-use. Multiple-use often gives you less money per sale but allows you to increase income through multiple sales. Exclusive-use allows you to earn higher for the exclusive use of your photo. Some agencies like Envato pay higher commissions if you submit photos for exclusive use.
As you go along, discover what subjects sell better. Keep evaluating to figure out what specific styles work best for you.
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In case you missed it,
Here's the rest of my business tips for photographers:
Part one
Success in your business involves establishing a solid financial foundation. Thank you for reading my photography business tips and I wish you many years of success!
XoXo…
