Startup Photographer Website, how to promote?

[frittsphoto]

I've been a blog follower and occasional poster for a while but have decided to jump into the forum on this site. I'm trying to start earning some with my photography as I have found it to be a very expensive hobby as I'm sure many of you have.

Anyway, the website already did land me one gig, it was just through a coworker who heard me talking about it and asked if she could see it. Got a nice Christmas card and Headshot session out of it, not a lot of money but hey, its something.

I'd appreciate any feedback on the site. Has anyone else created their own website? Has it been successful? How? How did you market it?

FrittsPhoto.com

[bhursey]

Nice site.... I am not big on the type of font but that's just me. However I really think it looks like a good site over all. One thing I would also do given the size and black background I would possibly try making the gray box around the images in the galleries smaller?

I built my own site also. Brian Hursey Photography . It has only gotten me one gig but most my gigs are word of mouth. It is however a place i can tell people locally to go look at my work.

[OsmosisStudios]

Prepare yourself. This means sitting down, a deep breath, and maybe something stiff to drink.

Home page:
I do like the flash gallery: its simple, works and loaded quickly. The layout is nice, but it seems somewhat... flattened. Like it was squashed: I dont even think it's 800px high. It needs a hierarchy: the elements are all on the same plane. You need to make something things more important than others.

For instance: your name ("Fritts Photo") is on the right hand side and is essentially IN the menu. It should be above the menu, on the left. North-America (and anywhere else that uses a latin language) reads from left to right: putting something on the right is like walking into a model home, having the realtor discuss all the intricacies of the carpeting then introduce himself.

The blue links on the bottom should be a different colour: this is easily done and is inexcusable. They're also in a bad place - Again, a left-right issue.

The menu itself along with the site design needs to be re-thought. Your Layout should be as follows:
TITLE
Galleries | About | Contact
Then, in the galleries, have the individual types.

People: Why are there several Wedding/Concert galleries? What qualifies as Random? I would also ditch the flash element on this page, instead using it for the galleries themselves. Replace it with text about the images, your work, etc.

Places: As before, I'd lose the flash element and replace it with text, and again with the Washington DC+, Random sections.

Things: see previous comments. I dont like having a gallery named Random: I hate having two.

About me:
This page shows some promise. SHowing a history is good: showing this kind of history, not so much. People don't care what you shoot with: dont list it. The About Me page should be ABOUT YOU, not about the equipment you have, have had, or want to get. This is your opportunity to introduce yourself to a prospective client: make an impression!

Contact:
Dont limit yourself. You say that you'll drive out, within reason. Dont do that. You'll go anywhere: the client is the one that pays the travel anyways, whether it's within the city or around the world. That's how it always is. Get rid of the bullets on that list. Expand your text box for the comments.

All in all, it's a good start but needs refining. The design is flat: black, white, flat, squished. It needs more space, more text, more images. I understand there's a sense of minimalism, but this is beyond minimal: it's lacking.

[Free]

Hey OS, the gallery is AJAX, not Flash, hence why it loads quick

I don't really have time to critique the site other to say the navigation is slightly confusing with the heading Galleries and then a small gap and about and contact pages. Only a small thing but bugs me?? Put a few calls to action in there and I think the site would be good enough to convert sales.

For marketing, start getting the site ready for search engines, define and optimise your search phrases and tidy up your code as much as possible. I'd also convert from table based layout to semantic xhtml & css. Then register your site on as many free or cheap directories you can find to link back to your site. Use your defined search phrases as link text everywhere you link to your website.

That's all I've done for my site and I'm on the front page of google for my industry and state. I get about a 1/4 of my business from people finding my on google and the rest from word of mouth. Getting on the front page is the key!

If you want to take online marketing further, try a google ad words campaign, you can define the amount you want to spend each day and only pay when people click on your link. Some of my mates are using paid Facebook adds, I haven't used it myself yet, but it looks really good, you can control who sees the add, so a wedding photographer could choose to only show their adds to people that say they are engaged in their profile!

Of course offline marketing is just as important, put your site address on everything you can and tell everyone you know what you do. I've got a few clients just from having a chat to people in shops, after going into a shop a few times I generally lead the conversation (subtly) to the point where they ask me what I do, I tell them I do websites and if they are remotely interested they'll ask me a heap of questions or tell me they need one. I'll give them plenty of free advice, drop them a card and ask if they want me to drop by and talk about their options sometime. You'd be surprised how many people you see everyday that need or know someone that needs your services! The more people that know what you do, the more chance someone will find you

Hope that helps
Free

[dilshad]

I like your website...

But I want to make it more SEO Friendly. Because if you want to earn from photography then you need to promote yourself as well as your work.
You have to search people so that you you will be able to get assignment or sell your photo online...

First you need to choose some keywords which related to your work , geographical area where you are active and so on.Some example of keywords may be wedding photographers, wedding photographer near Denver and so on.

Second you need to put a handsome title for each pages of your site. Title should contain be a meaningful combination of targeted keywords .

similarly you need to create meta data, alt tags etc.

Try to put header tags in your site and create a site map too and submit it in various search engines.

Once you through that you need to promote your website on various web directories, forums, classified and so on .