Merge Photo Niches Into One Site or Separate??

Tom Potter

Hi There - I am a landscape/nature photographer. I am getting into portrait/head shot photography. Anything wrong with me having both types of photography on the same site? I would create a separate page something like: tompotterphotography.com/headshots-and-portraits and also have a navigational button labeled "Portrait Photography" or work it out however it should work.

Thx, Tom

Cygnus Studios

In my experience two widely different forms of photography don't go together well on a business site. You want your site to showcase what makes you money. It is basically a portfolio for those few who search the web. Average people will get confused if they are looking for portrait photographers and see loads of nature/landscape work.

I would create one portrait gallery and one head shot gallery as they are different but similar enough that people stumbling across the site know what your specialties are. Then leave the landscape/nature hidden for occasional sales through social media or in person events.

Tom Potter

Hey Steve - Thanks for your input. What you said is about what I figured - that the photog types (Nature & Portrait) are too dissimilar . If you don't mind me continuing to bounce this off of you, and whoever else wants to chime in.....My landscape/nature site has been established since 2007, with the domain tompotterphotography.com. Still, however, I don't know that I am 100% clear on what it is you're suggesting, when you say, "I would create one portrait gallery and one head shot gallery....". Are you suggesting I creating another domain, meaning, something other than the name "tompotterphotography"? - OR - are you suggesting something like tompotterphotography.com/headshots-and-portraits? In the latter case, I would have created additional Pages linked to my original domain? If at all possible, I would like to avoid the expense of having to pay for an additional domain name and an additional site to have to build, etc. - BTW, I have not been here for a while. Is there no longer a way, here on Dgrin, to request posts (and replies) here be sent to our chosen email so that we can be notified when someone replies, do you know?? Thx, Tom

denisegoldberg

@Tom Potter said:
BTW, I have not been here for a while. Is there no longer a way, here on Dgrin, to request posts (and replies) here be sent to our chosen email so that we can be notified when someone replies, do you know??

You will need to edit your profile.

Click the icon representing your user.
On the same line with your user name, click the drop-down and select Edit Profile.

Next, select Notification Preferences.

On the Notification Preferences dialog, select the items that you want emailed to you.

Cygnus Studios

Your current website is all about nature/landscape. Rebranding is tough on an older site if people are used to it, but it can be done.

If you wish to keep the current domain, you simply strip (hide) all of the nature/landscape images and the purchase prints link and update the about page to reflect that you are doing portraits and head shots. Make a gallery for each service instead of just using the homepage, and create separate links to each in the menu.

Limiting your website to the portrait/head shots will show visitors what your main focus is, that however does not mean that you limited to only that type of photography. You simply don't showcase the other stuff on the site.

Our studio (through the massive effort of our agent) focuses on food and drinks. However a huge percentage of our work is still basic product photography, we are well known for it, so we don't need to showcase that on the website.

Very few clients search for photographers using the web, so think of it like a portfolio for the few who do.

Then you can create new (and free) ways to promote your nature/landscape stuff. You can make a separate facebook page just for that, you can use photo sharing sites, and in person locations like galleries or local businesses.

The key is to streamline your website to show only what is making you money.

Tom Potter

@denisegoldberg Thank you SO much for going to the trouble of detailing that SO well. I REALL appreciate it! You are WONDERFUL!!

@Cygnus Studios Steve - Thanks again for all the great info! Regarding your comment, _"Then you can create new (and free) ways to promote your nature/landscape stuff. You can make a separate facebook page just for that, you can use photo sharing sites, and in person locations like galleries or local businesses'. Doing it this way would negate me using the tompotterphotography.com domain name, since that would now be used strictly for my portrait / head shot biz. SO, wouldn't I still need, though, a domain for my nature / landscape stuff? If not, what do you suggest? - Thx, Tom

Cygnus Studios

@Tom Potter said:
Doing it this way would negate me using the tompotterphotography.com domain name, since that would now be used strictly for my portrait / head shot biz. SO, wouldn't I still need, though, a domain for my nature / landscape stuff? If not, what do you suggest? - Thx, Tom

It boils down to what you want. Do you wish to be a landscape photographer or do you wish to be a portrait photographer?

There are a small percentage of photographers who make money doing landscape/nature photography and there is a significantly larger percentage who do make money doing portraits.

If you try to do both, both parts suffer. Have you heard that old saying "You can't serve two masters"?

That doesn't mean you can't do both, it is just harder to succeed that way. Business is all about focus. Do one thing and do it well. That is the easiest way you succeed.

So ask a basic question, which form will make you the most money? Will it be nature/landscape or will it be portrait/head shots?

Whichever you choose should be the focus of your website. It should also be where you spend the vast majority of your time and put in the most effort.

Once you make the decision to make money with photography, it becomes a business. It is not about you anymore, business doesn't care what you like or want, it only wants to succeed. Then the choice becomes either you do it or you don't.

Building a successful business isn't hard, it is just very demanding.

Tom Potter

@Cygnus Studios Steve - Wiser words have never been spoken. I totally understand what you are saying and I am fully aware and in agreement with everything you stated. That said, if I do what you suggested in your previous post, **"f you wish to keep the current domain, you simply strip (hide) all of the nature/landscape images and the purchase prints link and update the about page to reflect that you are doing portraits and head shots. Make a gallery for each service instead of just using the homepage, and create separate links to each in the menu.Then you can create new (and free) ways to promote your nature/landscape stuff. You can make a separate facebook page just for that, you can use photo sharing sites, and in person locations like galleries or local businesses." **.......since my current domain of tompotterphotography.com will become my portrait domain, wouldn't I need to create a new, separate domain name for my landscape/nature stuff??

Thx,

Tom

Cygnus Studios

You seem determined to keep doing landscape/nature photography. If that is correct, a separate website for that would be the easier route to take, but with that said, both your landscape/nature work and your portrait/head shot work will be hard.

So many people like to group photography into one big business, but it is not.

Let's say that you open a garage on one side of town to work on cars and on the other side of town you open an ice cream shop. Since you are the only employee, which store will you work at?

Same principle with running two completely different photography businesses. One will get the majority of your time and effort and the other will more than likely fail. In the end, both suffer because you want both to succeed.

If it were me (my decision) I would make your current website portraits and head shots only. Work my butt off to get that business up and running smoothly and make my living. If (and this is a huge if) after the portrait studio was running like a well oiled machine and money was flowing in daily, I might find a few hours per year (not per week, not per month, but year) to go out and do some landscape photography. If I managed to get some stellar shots, I would print them and have a local gallery sell them.

If your portrait/head shot business is running well, every hour you spend on anything else, you are losing money. This is why business is so demanding. Business wants to run 24/7. Anything and everything else simply gets in the way. The more you allow to get in the way, the more likely your business is to fail.

Believe me, if this were easy there would be a billion or more people making a living with a camera.

Tom Potter

Steve,

I am ABSOLUTELY going to continue to do landscape / nature photography. I understand it will be very hard work.

I was asking about your comment:

"Then you can create new (and free) ways to promote your nature/landscape stuff. You can make a separate facebook page just for that, you can use photo sharing sites, and in person locations like galleries or local businesses."

I understand that if I was to have a site for my nature stuff it would have to be separate from my portrait stuff (two separate domains/sites). What I was trying to ask , in regard to your statement I quoted you on here, was, even if I create those "new (and free) ways to promote your nature/landscape stuff......facebook page, etc, wouldn't I STILL need to have a domain/site for that, or, can that be done withOUT a site?

Thx,

Tom

Cygnus Studios

You can promote your landscape/nature shots anywhere, they don't have to be on a website. As a matter of fact, a website is the lousiest place to sell photos in general. How many billions of websites are there already? How do people find yours?

When we offer prints (not work stuff) we use a couple of local galleries. They hang everything, handle the sales and take a small percentage of the profits. We try to offer a print sale once a year, but rarely hit that lofty goal because we are busy with our studio work. Last year we offered 10 images and sold 112 prints over the two week period that the prints were offered for sale. All promotions were done by facebook and the mailings from the gallery itself.

If I were going to take the time to do landscape, my first choice would be to sell in galleries, then market them to calendar/greeting card companies, travel magazines, and travel sites (agencies, airports, etc). Just remember every hour you spend should be making you money.

Armadillo

You can keep both kinds of photography on the same site, but keep them separate and promote them separately. That way your clients only see what they are interested in.
When I first started on SM I had nature, landscape, and fine art nude all available to visitors. I recently separated the nudes from the others and promote them separately.
I did this by making the nude gallery unlisted. Then, because I don't like the funky random URL unlisted galleries get, I created a subdomain in DNS that forwards to the unlisted gallery URL. So now the unlisted gallery has a user-friendly URL.
Visitors who want flower or bird photos have no access to the nudes. Visitors who want nude art are sent directly to that gallery.
Does it help sales? Don't know yet.

Tom Potter

@Cygnus Studios Thanks so much for all your efforts and all the great info! REALLY appreciate it! As an aside, and, for what it's worth, for the portrait/head shot biz, the way I envision it at this point in time, is that I will advertise locally, via various avenues. Whether I decide to have separate or combined sites, for the portrait biz, I will use a site solely for the purpose of describing what I offer, prices, showing my portrait portfolio and a contact form so that we can get together to put together a shoot.

@Armadillo Thank you very much for the great input! You gave me some stuff to consider.

Cygnus Studios

Try it together and see if that works for you. Unfortunately there isn't a one size fits all business model that works for everyone. Good luck and hopefully you'll be busier than ever

Tom Potter

@Cygnus Studios Cool - Thanks again - as it is, my landscape biz has pretty much been on automatic. I've been working at setting up the portrait biz, for 8 weeks, 10 - 12 hours, every day of the week. On the plus side, it is something I WANT to do, and I am the type of person that, when I make up my mind on something, I NEVER give up till I get it just the way I want it.