Monthly Archives: November, 2009
PART 1: ESTABLISH BASELINE PORTRAIT PRICING
One enjoyable aspect of my professional photography career has been working with Alicia Caine, Montana children’s photographer and acute businesswoman. Her Easy as Pie Pricing Guide helps many to understand pricing portrait photography for profit. And yet, there are always those who have an excuse to avoid purchasing the guide, or to avoid raising prices [...]
CONSIDER THIS YOUR PERMISSION.
In the midst of Brand Camp consults (which should actually be called ‘Business Therapy’), I often find myself giving an artist permission. Permission to believe in herself, permission to raise prices, permission to fail, permission to be true to her artistic style, permission to get rid of a blog, permission to delete weddings from the [...]
CELEBRATE YOUR PROGRESS
I’ve been watching too much Ace of Cakes, obviously. Last night I decided that building a gingerbread house can’t be *that* difficult and went to work with royal icing and a slightly-deformed icing bag. Um. The coffee table is covered in a thin layer of icing. The front Christmas tree is leaning to the right. [...]
LOOKING SIDEWAYS
A photographer told me my new website is boring. I said “Thank you” and sincerely meant it. You see, my old website was built entirely on trying to one-up other photographers in the U.S. (Not my region or the state, mind you, but THE COUNTRY.) And to one-up the whole country, to ‘do what’s never [...]
FOR YOUR SEO PLEASURE
So, if you’ve purchased SEO School and are now obsessed with SEO, page rank, social bookmarking, and all that yadda yadda blah blah — download and install SEO Quake. This bad boy is totally free, adds on to your Firefox browser, and lets you actually SEE the basics of SEO for any given webpage when [...]
AVATAR CHECK!
Your avatar should be a photo of you. Not your dog, your wife, your child, your logo, or your new shoes. You. I felt like such a failure because I couldn’t find an image of me suitable for the @brandcampblog Twitter account. And then my Mom sent me a stack of photos, including this one: [...]
SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION FOR PEOPLE. NOT ROBOTS.
The problem with Search Engine Optimization is…it’s search engine optimization. It is technical. It is boring. It is distinctly factual. You’re on the front page of Google search engine results or you’re not. Your page rank is 9 or it’s not. You appear to those looking for your business or you don’t. ::yawns:: After deciding [...]
BRANDING HALL OF FAME: SHOOTSAC
There are so many things to write about that I’ve had trouble coming up with something to write about. (That ever happened to you?) And then, my Hip Slip arrived. Doug and Chenin know I’ve been lusting after one, and it arrived without warning today. Squeal! Double squeal! The product itself is fabulous, but the [...]
WHEN AMATEURS POSE AS GRAPHIC DESIGNERS
Actual logo: Only two colors? Ugh. That dog campaign went well that one time… EVERYONE has been using boring fonts lately… A bullseye isn’t a bullseye without arrows… Much better. Generally speaking, a ‘boring’ logo is a simple logo. And simple stands the test of time.
SIX MINI-CONSULTS AVAILABLE…STARTING NOW.
Happy Monday, everyone! Just a quick note to let you know that there are SIX mini-consults available in the shop. If there are none left when you get there, you won’t be able to check out, so hurry it along… The mini-consult process goes like this: you download a questionnaire and e-mail it to me, [...]
