Previous |  Contents | Next Download the eBook Bad taste takes a while to show up, but as soon as it does it’s embarrassing. How to avoid it? Start by keeping it simple. If in doubt, leave it out. The half life of crap In her book The Mesh, Lisa Gansky talks about “the half life of crap” – about cheap manufactured products and how long they last. Or rather don’t last. Her point is that the half life of crap products is way too short. They get boring or they break. They end up at the back of your garage or as land fill. Our poor planet can’t afford To View More >>

Previous |  Contents | Next Download the eBook GOOD is what gets people in the door, like a newspaper headline or a “special” at the supermarket. Good is what makes you competitive. Don’t offer just one service, offer choices. Don’t assume the deal that encourages people to get in touch with you is the one they’ll commit to later (once you’ve open their eyes to how good you are, and what you can do for them). And don’t assume that they won’t go even further once they’ve fallen in love with their own photographs. That’s the To View More >>

Previous |  Contents | Next Download the eBook Model yourselves on people who’ve built long, profitable careers — those who get as much fun out of making a sale as taking a picture. Predictions Here are some predictions for you: Over the course of your career new cameras and technology will continue to make it ever easier for anyone to take a half-decent picture and share it with their friends and family. Even so, many people will continue to make a good living using skills that they share with most people on the planet (not just photography — writing, cooking, To View More >>

Previous |  Contents | Next Download the eBook “Measure results, change activities.” — Keith Cunningham Focused I’ve never met a photographer with a more analytical approach to his business than Craig. He was a wedding photographer whose goal was to clear “100k in 100 Days” from 30 weddings. (The actual figures don’t matter — they just sound snappy — so I’m not going to tell you when, where or in what currency.) Many a photographer has built a profitable business out of shooting 30 or 40 weddings a year, bur Craig’s To View More >>

A few weeks ago we gave you a sneak peek at a major upgrade to our Client Galleries, designed to make it easier than ever for wedding and portrait photographers to sell print products to their clients. It' s based on what we've learned from the success of Print Shop, our other online sales platform. We're delighted to announce that it's now live, and accessible on all paid Workspace plans. Here we'll step you through the main features, but first, we're often asked —  why do we offer two platforms? Because the customers are totally different, and so To View More >>

Something changed for the better a few months ago, when we launched Print Shop, our platform for photographers and artists who are selling their work online as decor or works of art.  Print Shop users have been very successful selling more expensive, more profitable, products  — frames rather than loose prints, for example, larger frames rather than smaller ones. The work is beautiful, of course, and it is being  sold  as wall art, but we do think the Print Shop "store front"  and product previews have helped with this success. That's why we're making the To View More >>

“Art is the most intense mode of individualism that the world has known.” – Oscar Wilde  In this series we shine a light on artists expressing their individuality, documenting what they love, working hard on their craft, and sharing it with the world. We spoke to Liam Vandenberk, a commercial and landscape photographer and videographer who’s using his work for what he says is most important in life — “happiness”. Liam is based in Tauranga and currently living on the coast of Papamoa. Liam says he left school with no interest in anything but gaming, To View More >>

If you heven't logged into Workspace for a while you may be surprised next time by a very different looking platform. That’s because our December upgrade has now been rolled out. Here's what we've done. Interface upgrade (updated, simpler, more intuitive) Although much of what we've done in this upgrade is "behind the scenes", we’ve also worked hard on the user interface. We've gone for a cleaner, more contemporary look, refined things to keep pace with evolving web design standards, and repositioned and relabelled buttons and other calls To View More >>

Here are twenty questions to think about, to help make your business better. It's thought-provoking and worth reviewing regularly, so get a pen and a piece of paper! 1. Are there too many photographers? Do you think it’s different now to 10-20 years ago? If so, why? Does it impact your business, and can you do anything about it? 2. What is it that enables people to earn a living cooking, writing or taking pictures when almost everyone can do those things? What’s special about them? 3. How many jobs do you need, and how much does each one need to pay you? (ie to cover you, your equipment, To View More >>

Albums are a blank canvas on which to express your personal style and taste, and we love seeing the variety that comes through the Bindery. This week's album caught our attention with its brightly coloured graffiti backgrounds and interesting design. When we asked Daniel if we could feature it, he shared with us the humorous, heartwarming story of how the couple first met – as told by them, from both sides. Talk about a meet-cute! It reminded us of something important — "It's not about the album, it's about the photography." … But dig deeper and it's To View More >>