1. Maximize your tax write offs

First off, hire a good tax accountant or CPA who is familiar with your industry and small businesses. They can help you uncover write-offs unique to running a photography business and ensure your claims are legit. These might include your professional membership dues, subscriptions to photography magazines, photography equipment and insurance, business-related travel expenses, accounting and legal fees, and childcare expenses.

2. Claim your Home Office Deduction

If you run your photography business out of your home, you can write off many of the costs associated with maintaining your home office. This includes any home improvements done to the space, even landscaping if your home’s appearance is important to the success of your studio. You can also pro-rate expenses like property insurance, mortgage, utility bills and a home alarm. Just be sure to allocate the proper percentage of your expenses based on the square footage of your home office space. Again, consult your accountant for help claiming this deduction.

3. Maximize your 401(k) or Retirement Plans

Traditional 401(k) plans allow you to defer paying income tax on money you put away for retirement. Since most photographers have their own business, the Solo 401(k) is for individuals who are self-employed with no full-time employees other than themselves or a spouse. You can defer up to $17,500 in a Solo 401(k) plan in 2013.

4. Lower your cable and cellphone bills

It never hurts to ask and this is definitely the case when it comes to your cable or internet provider. Call customer service at least once a year about bundling your services (phone, TV, internet) or current promotions to lower your monthly bill. Same goes with your cell phone bill – are you on the best available plan based on your usage? Or do your plan limits far exceed what you need?  Check your actual usage – talk time, texts and data – to see if you can switch to a lower cost plan.

5. Get the most out of your credit cards

Do you have credit cards you never use but pay annual fees for? Consider canceling these cards if you no longer need the line of credit. Also, make sure the cards you do have offer some benefit – be it cash rewards or airline points. If you do carry a balance, finding a low ongoing interest rate should be a priority.  Check out the site www.billshrink.com for help maximizing your credit card awards or finding lower interest rate cards.

Here are a few notable organizations:

American Society of Media Professionals (ASMP)
With 39 chapters across the country, ASMP is a trusted resource for business education, an active advocate for photographers’ rights, and a well-established network of independent photographers whose works are primarily for publication. Learn the fundamentals of being a professional photographer with ASMP-hosted seminars, online tutorials, and business forms covering licensing, copyrighting, and pricing your images. All General members and Associate Plus members get listed in ASMP’s Find A Photographer searchable database.
http://asmp.org
Annual dues range from $45 – $335/year, depending on experience

American Photographic Artists (APA)
Formerly known as Advertising Photographers of America, APA recently changed its name to reflect a wider range of professional photographers and describes itself as an alliance of advertising and media professionals. Another champion for photographer’s rights, APA provides members with the tools and support needed to be a successful professional photographer, from inclusion in their SearchAPA database to photo competitions and member’s only events.
http://www.apanational.com/
Annual dues range from $55 – $350/year, depending on experience

Professional Photographers of America (PPA)
With more of a focus on wedding, portrait and studio photography; PPA is the largest not-for-profit association dedicated to professional photographers. Being a member includes coverage under PPA’s Indemnification Trust (think malpractice insurance), studio management services and business education, equipment insurance, and other workshops to fine-tune your craft. PPA also hosts Imaging USA, a convention and tradeshow for photographers that draws thousands of professionals every year.
http://www.ppa.com/
Annual dues are $323 for professional photographers and $194 for aspiring photographers

clickbooq offers discounted subscriptions to members of ASMP, APA, and PPA – login to your professional organization’s member area for more information.

In addition to these organizations, seek out local photography clubs, colleges, and online forums to expand your network further. Whether you need a second shooter or just a second opinion, your fellow photographers are there to help!

Mistake #1: Posting too many photos

When it comes to updating your online galleries (which you should continually refresh every 3 to 4 months), don’t post every photo from a wedding or event. Get critical and pick only the best, shining examples of your work. Wow your prospects with a well-edited collection of images and remove any that are just “okay”. You can always create a Lightbox to send interested visitors a wider range of images at their request.

Featured wedding photographer Brandon Lata's well-edited website.

Mistake #2: Not adding location information

Even if you’re a big destination wedding photographer, it’s key to prominently display where you are based in your site title, keywords, Contact Us, and About pages. The bride-to-be isn’t likely to contact a photographer if she can’t schedule a face-to-face meeting with you before her big day – which makes your location crucial info. If you’re bi-coastal or have two studios, be sure to put this in your contact information. Likewise if you specialize in island weddings, destination weddings, or are a preferred vendor at the Biltmore, these geographic details make all the difference.

San Francisco-based Matthias Photography list their wedding galleries based on location.

Mistake #3: Skimping on your About Me / Bio page

If your site is still displaying the default place holder page with “Contact Me” and a link to your email address, you need to invest some time in crafting your About Me page STAT! Your prospective brides are looking to see if your personality and shooting style will mesh with theirs and if you’re a little bit rock ‘n roll and she’s a little bit country – it’s good to know that upfront. No need to write a novel, but a couple of paragraphs describing what your brides can expect when they hire you to shoot their wedding and why you’re qualified to do it makes everyone’s job a little easier. Have an objective friend or fellow photographer proofread your statement for honesty and typos – or you can even recruit someone to write your bio for you.

Mistake #4: Hiding your contact information

Now that your bride has added you to her shortlist of vendors to call, don’t make it hard for her to get in touch with you. Display your email address, studio location, and phone number on your contact page. Just add a link to your email address so it’ll pop up her email client and she can quickly jot off a note to you. If you want all inquiries to follow a particular format, you can use a third party app like Wufoo (http://www.wufoo.com/examples/) to create your own custom form and link it to your site. It’s also easy to use clickbooq’s integration with your social networks to add your Facebook and Twitter links to your site. Once your visitors have friended and followed you, they have the option to post to your page or direct message you for more information.

Example of a Wufoo contact form from photographer Nancy Rothstein.

Mistake #5: Not including pricing information

While you don’t need a Chinese menu of packages and prices, many brides will find it helpful if you provide a rough estimate of how much it costs to hire you and an idea of the albums and add-ons you can provide. Most brides have a budget in mind so be honest about what your time and talents are worth – this isn’t the time to low-ball. Even by just including a single line, like “packages begin at $xxx” will help you prequalify your leads and expectations.

1. Post!

So this one can seem the most daunting, but really it is the most natural and critical step you need to make to gain traction for your page. Your number one priority is to identify who your audience is and why you decided to create a Facebook Page in the first place. Do you specialize in Senior Portraits? Naturally your audience is going to be younger – choose topics teenagers might find interesting.
Here are a few do’s and don’ts about posting:

• Don’t post too often – sure, you don’t want tumbleweeds blowing through your page, but you also don’t want to turn off your audience by posting every hour – keep it down to 3 posts a day, maximum.
• Do show your personality – let your natural voice shine through so people know what they can expect from your business.
• Do add links and photos to your posts – adding one or both makes it more likely for users to engage with your posts and an opportunity to “Like” your images.
• Don’t forget to ask users to “Like” your images – a simple question such as, “Are you hiring a DJ or a live band for your wedding?” is a great way to engage a bride, if you specialize in wedding photography.

2. Schedule Your Posts

There’s no reason you have to be a slave to posting – instead you can quickly hash out a bunch of post ideas and schedule your page posts in advance. You can either use a social media software tool (like Hootsuite) or just use Facebook’s built in post scheduler. You can set aside some time each week to write all your posts for the week, then just pick the date and time you wish them to post. You may even want to do a little testing to see what time of day or days of the week are your audience’s peak engagement times and schedule your posts to run then.

3. Upload and Create Photo Albums

Don’t limit your images to just client images – make photo albums to show off your photography studio, you and your assistants or staff, and even highlight your Photoshop skills with before-and-after retouching shots. Red Leaf Studios does an excellent job of showing before-and-after images using their popular Photoshop actions. Show people the man or woman behind the lens and emphasize your creative side. Add captions with brief descriptions to give your clients a little more insight into how you work.

4. Fill in Your Basic Stats

Even the most rudimentary Facebook Page needs to include vital bits of information about your business – adding your address is imperative for clients searching for your services. If you add in your studio’s address, you also allow your clients to check in on Facebook when they arrive at your studio for a photo session or appointment. And of course you will want your clickbooq website URL prominently displayed on your About page so people can check out your online portfolio.

5. Enhance your Facebook Page Visually

Just like all your marketing and branding materials, you want to have a consistent look and feel across all your Pages and Social Media profiles. The largest branding space on your Page will be your Cover Photo – a single image within a 851 x 315 pixel area. Find a unique image that you feel best represents your business – whether it is a photo of your studio or one of your client images. Just don’t break any of the Facebook rules for your Cover Photo:

• No ads, promos, or coupons.
• No pricing or purchase information.
• No contact information – save this for your About section.
• Don’t add “Like” or “Share” elements into the image itself.
• No call to action, like “Spread the word”.

Your profile picture is a smaller 240 x 540 image which will also be your thumbnail icon and main brand image for mobile devices. This should be an easily identifiable logo-type image and will appear next to all of your posts – California Academy of Sciences uses a cute little penguin.

Browse other Facebook Pages for businesses you like to get ideas for creating a visually appealing Page for your business.

Add your Facebook, Twitter, Vimeo and LinkedIn links to your site.

For more information on how to use this feature, see the following support article:
http://tinyurl.com/clickbooq-social-media

With a huge image resolution of 1800x1200px, your images will scale beautifully. Choose to have your viewers enable fullscreen viewing on their own, or enable automatic fullscreen viewing for your clickbooq website and Presentation Mode will take over automatically once a portfolio is accessed.

This is a free update for all clickbooq users!

Check out Andre Arthur’s fullscreen-enabled portfolio.

Click here to learn more about Presentation Mode. And if you’re already a clickbooq user, download our User Guide to enable it for your website.

Click here to learn more about our Lightbox galleries.

As an added bonus, we’ve also removed our previous limitations on Portfolios and Content Pages, so you can have the flexibility you need to show off your best work.

There’s no better time to sign up and create your custom website with clickbooq.

This is the deal you’ve been waiting for!

Existing user? Learn more about switching plans in our Support Center

Features:

• Redesigned Homepage with interactive pulldown menus to navigate quickly and easily to any portfolio or Content Page
• You get the same great viewing experience and featureset on iPad, iPhone, or Android devices.
• Automatic detection for mobile devices allows full-screen image viewing with touch-enabled swipe gestures.
• Smart, pre-caching loads the next image while you view the current one, to make the viewing experience seem faster for slow mobile connections
• Thumbnail grid allows viewers to jump quickly to any image in your portfolio
• Captions displayed in an overlay if your images are pre-populated with them
• Animated Homepage slideshow

Check out any of our user’s websites in our Gallery on your favorite mobile device to see for yourself. Here’s a few screenshots of the experience on the iPad:

Visit TravisShinn.com!

1. What are your three must-have accessories / tools on a shoot?
A really good pair of sneakers (I love a good pair of sneakers ), multiple t-shirts (I sweat a lot), & a bandana (I really do sweat a lot).

2. What is your favorite website / blog?
ffffound.com

3. Once piece of advice you’d give to all music photographers?
A sense of humor is key, and don’t take yourself or anyone else too seriously. I mean it, seriously.

4. What are some ways you get a celebrity actors and musician to open up at a shoot, enabling you to get the shot that you want?
I shoot fast. I don’t give them too much time to think about the fact that they are getting their picture taken. Play good music.

5. Which photographer serves as your greatest source of inspiration?
My wife. She doesn’t have website. She should really start one. she is so modest about her work. She is amazing!