What do you do for advertising?

Ekaj

I'm trying to slowly break into the photography market and I am curious what some of you established photographers do to get your name out there. I'm mostly interested in doing commercial work for advertising and portraiture. Do you use the yellow pages? Internet ads? Or just word of mouth? I had a mostly profitable construction business that I disolved a few years ago when I went back to school. Somehow I never needed to worry about advertising, mostly because of the housing boom. So, advertising is a new venue for me and I am just wondering what you guys like to use.


Regards,

Jake

J.T.

Ekaj wrote:

I'm trying to slowly break into the photography market and I am curious what some of you established photographers do to get your name out there. I'm mostly interested in doing commercial work for advertising and portraiture. Do you use the yellow pages? Internet ads? Or just word of mouth? I had a mostly profitable construction business that I disolved a few years ago when I went back to school. Somehow I never needed to worry about advertising, mostly because of the housing boom. So, advertising is a new venue for me and I am just wondering what you guys like to use.


Regards,

Jake

Jake, as most people may say here on dgrin, "word of mouth!" I'm still working on my advertising end of the business, but when I researched this topic, yellow pages (print & online) was VERY expensive and not really worth it right now. A very small percentage may come hits off google searches but not much at all. Another avenue is local / regional magazines or print publications. In my town they have several family oriented newsletters and publications for advertising which are less than yellowpages. You may also want to check the local Visitors Bureau or departments like that.

On a little plug ... check out MarkJay's thread in dgrin about planetbuzz.com and their offering for free online ads. I think it's under Mind Your Own Business in dgrin too.

Good luck!

dogwood

Word of mouth and time. I don't do any advertising and while I'm not a full-time pro (yet) lately I've been booking paid shoots both weekend days and getting as much work as I can handle. Even have two shoots the July 4th weekend.

I actually get a lot of folks who find me through search engines but way better than that was just getting out and shooting events. I'm interested in fashion, so I shoot fashion shows. I hand out cards, meet designers, meet models, meet organizers and then keyword everything after a show plus add multiple blog posts. And of course, test it out-- you want to come up page one of google for whatever event you shoot. Search the likely keywords. If you're not coming up, make sure those words are in your blog or whatever.

So yeah-- I may sell some photos from a fashion show, but even better, people see me, they meet me, they get a sense that I'm a solid photographer who does good work. I even had a mom of a model hug me last week when she met me (for the first time) at a fashion show. She's been admiring my work for a while. And... now she wants a portrait of her and her daughter. Guess who she hired to shoot it?

Yeah-- one portrait session won't make you a millionaire but multiply this by a hundred (over time) and it adds up.

So one point I'm making is that a free blog (I like wordpress) that is updated regularly can be worth way more than the yellow pages. Kids these days (and I'm talking the 50 and younger crowd) use the web to find info. And we don't use the yellow pages -- even online. Sorry to the folks who created the yellow pages but you're not necessary anymore and you're a lot slower and less useful than a search engine.

Try some of the free resources out there (good ol' networking, blogs, keywords, and handing out business cards) and you might find yourself getting plenty of work without any traditional advertising. Also, meet other photographers. When I was married, I found a guy online through a website-- he wasn't available but he recommended his buddy. Guess who I hired? Yup, based on nothing but that recommendation. And the photos turned out great.