The Modern Tog

Take Your Photography From Passion to Profit

Everything You Need to Grow a
Successful Photography Business

10 Free Photography Marketing Ideas That Work Like Crazy

10 Free Photography marketing ideas that work like crazy
You’ve started your business, now how do you find clients to hire you?

Traditional advertising, such as an ad in a magazine or newspaper, is mostly worthless. Don’t waste your money. I’ve tried it. They don’t work. Especially when there are so many free photography marketing tips you can implement.

Instead, imagine having people love your photography business so much that they send all their friends your way. Think about what it would be like to show up #1 in Google for your desired keyword, and to have enough people finding you to meet your profit goals without stress and without spending thousands of dollars on advertising.

It can happen.

It may take some time, but here are 10 free photography marketing ideas that work like crazy.  [Click to read more]

Why I’m Happy About Instagram’s Feed Changes and Why You Should Be Too!

instagram feed changes 2016

A few days ago, Instagram announced that it’s going to be changing your feed from chronological order (with most recent posts showing up first) to a ranked algorithm that shows you “what you want to see most” instead of what was just recently published.

As expected, there was a huge public outcry. People are angry. They don’t like the change. They feel like they are losing control. They claim it’s all for the money. They can’t see anything good about this.

However, I think this is going to be a fantastic change. Before you start throwing your rotten tomatoes at me and commenting about how I am terribly wrong, let me explain why this is such a good thing and why you should be happy about it too!  [Click to read more]

Show Up Higher In Search Results Using Google Local

google plus local pages explained
Think about how many new clients you’d be able to get if your website showed up as the first result when people were looking for a photographer.

Seems impossible with all the competition out there, but this post is going to give you one of the most useful tools out there to have the best possible chance of being that first result. Not only that, but it’s completely free.

Even better, lots of people are ignoring this tool because they don’t want to deal with another thing. Yet it’s one of the most effective ways of showing up on top for people in your area looking for a photographer.

You’ve got to use Google+ and their local pages to help you on your quest for first page Google ranking for your business in your area.

This is not nearly as difficult as you may think. You can easily take advantage of this even if you break into a sweat just thinking about doing anything technical. It’s all about including relevant words and locations in setting up your Google+ business profile. After all, who knows your relevant business words better than you? Use your location and knowledge to your advantage! So let’s jump right in!

 [Click to read more]

Facebook’s New Promotional Guidelines & What it Means for Your Photography Business

Facebook-contest-rules-2013
Believe it or not, this is a Facebook change that you’re going to like.

Since Facebook went public as a company, they’ve instituted a boatload of changes to make it harder to market your business on a Facebook page without paying for promotion.

Yes, you still get some free exposure, but they took something that was super-effective and changed it into something that was hardly effective at all, making anyone who relied on Facebook for their marketing strategy rather upset. Last year’s algorithm change was particularly destructive.

But this week, Facebook changed their promotional guidelines for the better.

No, really. Hard to believe, I know, but it’s true.

So lets dive in and see what this means for your business and how you can use it to get more clients.

 [Click to read more]

Why You Can’t Ignore Google+ Any Longer

Google Plus SEO
I’ve avoided writing about Google+ for ages because frankly, I’m annoyed that there’s another thing I have to learn and do.

However, if you’re serious about getting new clients online, you can’t ignore Google+ any longer.

I’ve spent the last few weeks studying Google+ so I could tell you exactly what you need to do to get maximum results with the least amount of time.

This post is not a beginner’s guide to using Google+. In fact, if you’ve never checked out Google+, take a moment and read that article first.

Instead, I’m going to tell you why you need to be using it and how to use it in as little time as possible to to help your website show up higher in search engines so you can get more clients who are searching for a photographer on Google (This is also called SEO, or Search Engine Optimization).

Once you’re set up and ready to go, I believe you can rock this in less than 10 minutes per day (or less!) and see a significant impact on where you show up when people search for photographers.

 [Click to read more]

Pay Up: Facebook is Holding Your Fans Hostage

Pay Up Facebook is Holding Your Fans Hostage
One of my biggest pet peeves over the last year has been all the hype about Facebook suddenly charging people to show up in newsfeeds when in reality nothing had changed except that they added the option to get even more views by paying. So you’d get the same views or more, but not less at all.

But last month that all changed, and Facebook finally lived up to all the hype and started charging for views.

Last month, they changed the algorithm to reduce page veiws by 5-40%, although many people (including myself) saw decreases closer to 60% or more on average. This was the case even with really great engagement which was the important part in the past.

That means unless I want to pay to promote my posts, I just effectively lost over half my fans. They’re still there, but they’ll never see my posts. Thanks, Facebook!

To get back my prior amount of views, I’ll have to pay Facebook between $10-20 PER POST to get the same views as before. That gets expensive. Seeing as Facebook is the main source of marketing for many photography businesses, this algorithm change could have a significant impact on your bookings.

So how should we as photographers deal with this? Is it worth promoting posts? What’s the best way to promote something? Let’s jump right in and look at it all.

 [Click to read more]

Is Facebook Making You Pay to Show Up in the Newsfeed?


Facebook recently just rolled out the “Promote” button for Facebook pages that have more than 400 fans, causing widespread chaos and rumors that Facebook is now forcing you to pay in order for your fans to see your posts at all.

Take a deep breath. Don’t panic.

Nothing has actually changed in how you show up in the newsfeeds other than you can pay to show up MORE than before in the newsfeeds of your fans. Rates start at $5 and your post will have a “Sponsored” label added to it when people see it.

That being said, several months ago Facebook DID change how they show things in the newsfeed, and many pages have been affected by it. I know lots of people who swear that they no longer show up at all, however that’s not entirely true.

So let’s talk about why that happens and how to show up in the newsfeed without having to pay for it.
 [Click to read more]

Everything You Need to Know About Timeline for Facebook Pages

facebook timeline business pages

Pin It
As of March 30, 2012 your Facebook business page will be converted to a Timeline and the old structure of pages will be gone.

While at first this seemed like it was going to be another negative change made by Facebook, after doing a bunch of research I actually think this is going to benefit photographers fairly significantly.

Regardless, whether you like it or not, you’re going to have to change over on March 30th, so I thought I’d share with you everything you need to know about the Timeline for Facebook Pages (including some secrets at the end for really stepping things up!).

 [Click to read more]

The Ultimate Pinterest Guide For Photographers

Ultimate Guide to Pinterest for Photographers

Pin It
Pinterest is about to take the world by storm.

There’s been a lot of buzz about Pinterest in the last few weeks, so I thought it was time to share with you everything you need to know about Pinterest as a photographer.

I’ve been studying it fairly intensely for the last few months, and I think it’s only going to get bigger and more important to helping you market your business.

Here’s what you’ll learn about Pinterest:

What is Pinterest?
Why should you care about Pinterest?
Pinterest Etiquette
Strategies for Using Pinterest
Pinterest Tips
Resources for Photographers on Pinterest

So let’s get started!  [Click to read more]

5 Easy Tips for Engaging Your Clients on Facebook

engage your clients with facebook

We’ve all been there.

You post something to your Facebook business page, sure that people are going to be excited about it.

Then nothing. Crickets. It’s as if no one ever saw it, and if they did they ignored it.

No comments, maybe a single like from a sympathetic friend.

So let’s get out of this slump.

Here’s 5 tips for engaging your clients on Facebook (with awesome bonus info at the end!)
 [Click to read more]

The Secret to Facebook News Feed Optimzation: Don’t Lose Out on People Seeing Your Posts!

optimize how your posts rank in the facebook newsfeed

Facebook is one of the best free tools for photographers to use to market their business.

The ability to tag clients and have all their friends see the photos you took of them is one of the best ways to get new clients, especially when people leave a lot of awesome comments on your work for their friends to see.

Yet have you noticed that some posts get a lot more response than other posts? I’m always a bit disappointed when I post something and get little or no response from people, when other posts seem to go crazy with people responding like mad. Or maybe you find that you get lots of response when you post it on your personal profile page, but very little when you post stuff on your business page.

Fear not, I’ve just learned the secret to getting your posts to show up in people’s news feeds, ultimately getting more people to see your amazing work and hire you!  [Click to read more]