http://archive.aweber.com/virtualtipsvirtualphotographystudio.com newsletterThu, 17 May 2012 14:08:04 -0400http://archive.aweber.com/virtualtips/8GOxE/h/VPS_Tips_The_One_Two_Punch.htm Read This Newsletter Online issue 159 May 17, 2012 Links A Note From Lori Six Figure Training Latest Blog Stories Lori Recommends Quick Links Visit our Website Read our Blog Our Ezine is published twice per month. You are on our list because you signed up for one of our programs. To change your subscription, see the link at end of this email. Although we make every effort for you to easily view this publication we apologize that some browser programs may not always work perfectly. Sign me up for this Ezine! a note from Lori I love May. I love the warm weather, the flowers in bloom everywhere - and its my birthday! This year I received a special gift, tickets to the play Wicked. Somehow we missed it the last few times it came to town, so I put in my special request the minute I heard it was here. And I have to say, it was one of my favorites - I'll definitely be getting tickets again the next time around. The actors were amazing and the sets were phenomenal. Everything you would expect from a professional performance. And ultimately, that's what a professional experience is all about. Whether it's a theatrical performance, or a family portrait, it all comes down to the experience. If its average, you'll make an average living. But if you step it up to the wow factor, your business can expect wow profits. There are ways to step up your business to make it a wow business. Read on - you'll discover new ways in today's articles. Enjoy! Lori Six figure training The One-Two Punch For Finding Photography Clients Its sad to see a photographer who is really good at photography, yet knows nothing about business. When we were first starting to climb the ladder of success within the photography industry, we met a couple who were several years older and had several more years of experience. We looked at their work and instantly knew they were one of the best photography studios in our area. Until we got to know them and started learning more about how they ran their business. When we would get together for dinner, they would proceed to list out several things they were currently working on. And those several things seemed to change every few months. Then they confided the real truth. As much as we love photography, we just can't rely on it for a full time income. We have never been able to figure out how to push it to the point of creating a secure and profitable income. These people had some major player clients. They were written up in local media. They won awards and were recognized within the photographic industry. Looking at them, they were the people to model. They looked like they had it all together. But while they were very good at photography, they had never taken the time to learn about the business world. They created their pricing structure for the low end because: They felt guilty about charging too much, even though it was their belief system that created what too much meant, not what others were willing to pay They let the low end structure their pricing - and their high end was more than happy to pay it, knowing they got a deal For all of these reasons and more, their marketing, pricing, and financial tasks struggled. They aren't alone. Many photographers love being a photographer, love being an artist, and completely ignore the business side of things. I would rather continue being a great artist then ending up looking like a used car salesperson, they say. Because business stuff is intimidating, they put it off and say maybe later instead of taking the time to mesh the two pieces together. You can be good at photography and business too. If you fast-forward years into the future, this couple took the path so many photographers do. They now each have a full time job to earn enough to survive and pay the bills - and pay for medical insurance. They sell a direct marketing product on the side. And of course they still shoot for fun, yet they do it as easily as possible now, taking the images and handing over the files. So if we could go back in time and stop this couple before they headed down this path, what is the one thing that could have helped them build a successful business? Create a one-two punch marketing strategy. If you would have asked this couple who their target market was, they would have answered anyone who needs portrait or wedding photography in the Denver marketplace. And that's where most people go wrong. If you target everybody, nobody will buy. If you promote to everybody, your message is missed by the people that would truly love you. If you price for everybody, you are missing out on huge profits from the people that would pay you exactly what you are worth. When it comes to understanding marketing and how to target the right person, there are three basic targeting methods to choose from. Geography - a way of defining a target market by their location Demographics - a characteristic that holds this group together - something they have in common Price - where is this target market on the socioeconomic scale By using these three qualifiers, you can put together an exact target niche, and create a business that is stronger and more profitable by giving this audience exactly what they want and need. This is how it looks. Qualifier 1 - Qualifier 2 who desire [your services] A few examples would be: Newly engaged couples in the United States that are planning destination weddings in Mexico and the Caribbean Parents of children who act/model in Colorado that need portfolio images for further advancement Small business owners in the coaching/consulting industry who need images for online publicity Hopefully when you read each of these items, you could visualize exactly what people in this target market look like. They are very unique in their demographics, yet they all have several things in common that would be easy to target. You could be very descriptive when talking and marketing to them, so much so that you would move beyond just another photographer and become a resident expert. And who do you pay more for? An expert of course. Have something to say? Post a comment here Social Links Latest blog stories The Dumbest Questions You Can Ask Your Photography Prospects As a new business owner, your mind is filled with every last detail of your business. And with so much to learn, you probably don't spend a lot of time mastering each piece. In many aspects, that comes along the way. So you jump right in and do things as they happen. When a prospect comes in, you have an honest conversation. You tell them your opinions, your attitudes, and how you really feel. You ask questions and provide the answers you think you would like to hear? What's wrong with that? Yet in sales, if you ask the wrong questions, you may not only turn a prospect away, you may alienate future customers as well. Here's why. Smart questions build up the relationship you are forming with a prospect. Dumb questions fill a customer with doubt and self-questioning. Smart questions make a prospect think about the answer and how you fit into it. Dumb questions leave everything open, guaranteeing they will turn to someone else for solid answers. Here are the dumbest questions you can use to bring in photography clients and why they are dumb. Keep Reading>> How To Build A Photography Business You Intend To Sell 1. You love photography. 2. You hate your job. 3. You decide to make photography your career. 4. You open a studio and bring in clients. 5. You quit your job and begin building a successful photography business. The above may sound like your plan. But do you have the 6th step in place? Keep Reading>> lori recommends The Perfect Way To Get People To Your Facebook Page The only way to get more people to your Facebook Page is to tell more people it exists. It may be easy to send people to it by providing a link in your email, or including a Facebook Badge on your blog, but what do you do if you are out networking face to face? Why not try a Facebook Business Card? Each business can now login to Moo and get one pack of 50 cards for fr*ee. And even when your first 50 are gone, additional packs run $15 a pack. Very reasonable for a great marketing tool. Once you have your cards in hand, use them in addition to your business cards. Use them to run contests, host special promotions, and show off your work. The more people you can get to Facebook, the more you can build those relationships! Get your Facebook Business Cards Today>> About Andrew and Lori Andrew and Lori Osterberg are co-founders of VirtualPhotographyStudio.com, a site dedicated to providing tips, resouces and advice for using your camera to build a successful photography business. Through their coaching, workshops, training and products, Andrew and Lori show you how to break through the desire of wanting photography to be more than a hobby, and provide you with the how-to to actually accomplish it. To begin experiencing Andrew and Lori's coaching, consider their highly successful Photography For Success, Freedom and 1ncome. If you liked today's issue, you'll love following Andrew and Lori through all of their high-content training products, newsletter, and online posts. Their goal is to provide you with all you need to help you live the life others only dream of. Thu, 17 May 2012 14:08:04 -0400http://archive.aweber.com/virtualtips/5WhVk/h/VPS_Tips_Photographers_Use.htm Read This Newsletter Online issue 158 May 2, 2012 Links A Note From Lori Six Figure Training Latest Blog Stories Lori Recommends Quick Links Visit our Website Read our Blog Our Ezine is published twice per month. You are on our list because you signed up for one of our programs. To change your subscription, see the link at end of this email. Although we make every effort for you to easily view this publication we apologize that some browser programs may not always work perfectly. Sign me up for this Ezine! a note from Lori What's your favorite time of the day? For me its early mornings. I get up and meditate, have breakfast with the family, and then head out for a 2 mile walk with my dog. It's a chance to think about what I'm doing in the next few hours, think over major plans and changes I may be working on, and of course enjoy a little exercise in a beautiful setting. Its so much a part of my ritual that I really do look forward to that timeframe for working out problems and even coming up with new ideas. And in many cases, that's where I piece together my blog posts for the week. Blogging is as much of a ritual for me now as my daily walks. Yet it wasn't always that way. Its definitely an acquired talent - one I'll talk about in more detail in today's article. Enjoy! Lori Six figure training It's the Greatest, Easiest, Most Profitable Way To Talk About Your Photography ... So Why Aren't You Doing It? You're standing in the checkout line, with several people in front of you. You glance over and start reading the titles of the magazines in front of you. And for some reason they just pull you in. Do you really care who had an alien baby, or how you can create 365 looks that will make you look more sexy? Maybe ... Maybe not. Yet there is just something about those titles that make you want to pick up the magazine and start reading. It isn't a coincidence that the titles are that tantalizing. In fact I'm willing to bet more time is spent on creating those titles and cover layouts then they do writing the stories themselves. What sells is the title - the sizzle - not the meat of the story. Yes, the story itself has to be good and give you exactly what the title promises. Yet the story satisfies your hunger for whatever information you were promised. You won't move forward and take action once you've read the story. Because editors know the only way they will stay in business is to get you to buy the magazine, they spend their time on what matters most. The titles. Now lets convert that over into what you potentially do every week. If you blog, every week you sit down and come up with topics to write about. Yet how much time do you spend coming up with your titles? I know for a lot of you, the answer is just a few seconds - and that may even be pushing it. I see post titles every day that are worded something like this: Randy and Laurel's Engagement Elizabeth's First Birthday Jason and Kim's Wedding Day Yet what does this do for your business? When your clients come over and visit your blog, they are a captive audience. They love what you do and chances are they are looking for their own images. I'm sure in the above example Randy and Laurel are thrilled to see their engagement images online, and are passing around the URL to all of their friends and family. Yet how many people will ultimately see that page? Randy and Laurel - that's two. Family and friends - we'll add in another 20. And other clients that may come to the site and decide to look through their images - we'll add another 50 for long term exposure. That's 72 in total. Yet what do these 72 people have in common? Not one of them found any excitement and desire to click on the title from any other method outside of the fact they knew Randy and Laurel. Or had a vested interest in looking at the images. If you saw Randy and Laurel's Engagement in Google, would you really click on it? And more importantly, would you ever look in Google for Randy and Laurel's Engagement in the first place? Which means if you are trying to attract new clients, people that have never heard of you yet might want to find you, you have to start thinking like a magazine in the checkout lane. You have to pay attention to your titles and give people the things they are looking for. How do you know what they are looking for? The easiest way is head over to Google and use their keyword tool to do a little research. Let's get started by typing in the word photography just to see what comes up. When you type in photography, you'll get many different results. This will show you what people typed directly into Google last month using the keyword you've selected. It isn't a comprehensive list, but should be a great starting point. It will show you search terms as well as worldwide and local results. From there, you can further refine what keywords you wish to look at. For this example, lets choose the term wedding photography. When you add those words to the search function, your results will come up based on the key phrase instead of one word. In this case everything will be centered around the phrase wedding photography. At this point, we'll further refine our search and look up the term beach wedding photography. After letting the results come up using this phrase, you can see a wide variety of options. If you are in California, or have the desire to photograph weddings in California, you'll notice 720 searches were made for long beach wedding photography and 390 searches were made for newport beach wedding photography. So if you were showcasing Jason and Kim's Wedding as a blog post title, you may attract a few dozen family and friends to the blog post. But if you created a blog post title How Jason and Kim Had Fun With Their Newport Beach Wedding Photography, do you think you could attract more attention from a variety of sources ... including Google? If you write hundreds of posts every year, you don't have to (and shouldn't) use the same titles over and over again just to attract Google's attention. But if you think about it first and find a way to make it attractive to both Google and your readers, your posts could quickly help you build up the traffic to your site - and the profits to your business. Have something to say? Post a comment here Social Links Latest blog stories 3 Things Your Photography Clients Will Never Tell You ... Unless You Ask What's the best way to grow your photography business? If you said through referrals you are correct. The concept of referral marketing involves two things: 1. Being able to make your clients even happier and more profitable throughout the years 2. Having each client refer you to their friends and family. These two steps are all you need to grow your business without spending a ton more on marketing. And while its easy to assume your clients are happy and referring you, its completely different than really knowing if its true. To get a handle on these two things requires you to ask each customer these three things. Keep Reading>> The 7 Deadly Sins Of A Photography Business If you are operating a photography business, you are in competition with thousands of other photographers all vying for your prospects attention. When it comes to photographing, many have a natural eye for creating amazing art. But when it comes to running a business, most of them don't have a clue as to what they are doing. The same problems come up again and again, keeping them away from doing the one thing they want most of all - finding success. So how about you? Do you commit one of these deadly sins with your own business? Keep Reading>> lori recommends Have a Kindle? Then you have to have these resources... Maybe you have always wanted to turn your love of photography into a full time career. And with today's economic challenges, there's no better time than now to take the plunge. If you don't want to do it alone, and want the help of a Six Figure Photographer along side of you, my Kindle/PDF books may be just what you're looking for. The Photographer's Blogging Book - is filled with information on everything from starting up a blog, which blog platform to choose, marketing tips, and successful strategies, you'll have a resource in place that will quickly guide you to what works. And more importantly, what doesn't. 30 Ways in 30 Days To Redesign Your Life With Photography - I reveal 30 steps to creating a successful business, and reveal the steps I took to create a Six Figure Photography studio in under two years. Each day focuses on a new strategy and task, helping you build a complete photography business plan along the way. Become A Top Wedding Photographer - If you've ever thought about becoming a wedding photographer, you're going to love this handy guide. I share a ton of tips on everything from starting the business, to what you can sell as extras once you have a steady clientele in place. What Do I Name My Photography Business? - This guide is designed for people just thinking about starting up a photography business. It provides answers to the top 20 questions everyone has when they are starting the planning phase and just aren't sure what to do next. From the most obvious question of What do I name my photography business? to answers on trademarking, copyrighting and even branding, its the perfect guide for anyone that is ready to make 2012 the year they make their business a success. The Wealthy Photographer - The Wealthy Photographer breaks through the barriers of creating not just a photography business, but a business that will give you the lifestyle you deserve. Under $5 - Available in Kindle or PDF format - get yours today. About Andrew and Lori Andrew and Lori Osterberg are co-founders of VirtualPhotographyStudio.com, a site dedicated to providing tips, resouces and advice for using your camera to build a successful photography business. Through their coaching, workshops, training and products, Andrew and Lori show you how to break through the desire of wanting photography to be more than a hobby, and provide you with the how-to to actually accomplish it. To begin experiencing Andrew and Lori's coaching, consider their highly successful Photography For Success, Freedom and 1ncome. If you liked today's issue, you'll love following Andrew and Lori through all of their high-content training products, newsletter, and online posts. Their goal is to provide you with all you need to help you live the life others only dream of. Wed, 02 May 2012 15:18:58 -0400http://archive.aweber.com/virtualtips/E9Tz./h/VPS_Tips_3_Reasons_To_Give_Up.htm Read This Newsletter Online issue 157 April 18, 2012 Links A Note From Lori Six Figure Training Latest Blog Stories Lori Recommends Quick Links Visit our Website Read our Blog Our Ezine is published twice per month. You are on our list because you signed up for one of our programs. To change your subscription, see the link at end of this email. Although we make every effort for you to easily view this publication we apologize that some browser programs may not always work perfectly. Sign me up for this Ezine! a note from Lori Have you ever looked back over the year and discovered you've done different things with your business depending on the season? This past week my meditation instructor mentioned that spring was a time of new beginnings, growth - and restlessness as everything around you is popping into life. And that's definitely true here in Denver. So instead of fighting the restlessness I feel sitting behind a desk, I've done a lot more walking and sitting on my patio enjoying the gorgeous weather. Just getting outside helps take my mind away from wandering and helps me focus in on what I truly need to do. No matter what part of the world you are in and what season is moving into your area, how is it making you feel? How can you use those feelings to help focus in on what's truly important for your business? Then read on. I've been writing a lot these past two weeks on looking at your business through new eyes, and I thought I would share a story I recently encountered and how it made me look at business in a slightly different way. Enjoy! Lori Six figure training 3 Reasons You Should Give Up Your Dreams Of Being A Photographer I had an interesting comment thrown at me a few days ago and I've been pondering it ever since. You're just lucky. You just happened to fall into the right place at the right time and happened to make some good money. The implication was very few can do it, its almost an impossibility to do it again, and photography is a market that simply has no money in it. If you make a decent income, it won't be in photography. So I decided to take the approach that maybe this person was right. Maybe there is no way you can make money at photography. Maybe the only people that do are lucky. In which case, if you are a photographer, maybe now is the time to give it all up. That's right, walk away. And I have 3 reasons to prove that now is the time to do so. 1. The only way to get ahead in life is to be lucky - one in a million is the only shot you have. Do you play Powerball (lottery, mega millions, whatever you happened to call it)? Did you stand in line for hours to buy a ticket? Did you hope and pray that your one ticket would be the magic winner and you would walk away a changed person? That's luck. You don't have to do anything other than stand in line and buy a ticket. No planning (other than which line to hang out in). And it all comes down to chance - will your numbers be the actual numbers pulled. Photography is much the same way. You grab a camera and start shooting. If people like your work, they pay you. You may book a few clients. Or maybe not. It all depends on your luck for the day. 2. The only way to make money is to work for someone else - there is no room for small business and it's way too risky to try. Paychecks are where its at in today's world. Nothing is safer than having an employer keep you safe and secure. You work for them 40 hours per week (or more) and they give you a paycheck at the end of the week. Hopefully. Your benefits may go away. You may worry about the pink slip. But at least your safe as long as it lasts. The true risk is small business because it simply doesn't work. You never know if you will succeed and there is no way to build a future that brings in a healthy income. 3. Every day brings something new - a plan will never help you achieve your goals and dreams. Every person will get around 29,000 days on earth. And every day brings something new. Which means you can never create a to-do list because you won't get the opportunity to do it - every day is a clean slate. There is no planning for the future, and there isn't a way build on the knowledge you've accumulated in the past. It all comes down to luck anyway, so throw your cares to the wind and just see what happens today. You may be surprised. The Real Truth Okay, I had a lot of fun writing all of that down. But hopefully it made a point that will stick with you today. A small business isn't successful because it had a little luck. Okay maybe Instagram selling for a billion dollars had a little luck, but that's a whole different story. For the most part, small businesses are successful because the owner puts in a whole lot of hard work to turn it into a success. Can luck play a part of it? Sure. You may have dropped everything at the last minute to visit a networking party you weren't going to attend. And you meet the most amazing wedding coordinator that drops a dozen high end wedding clients in your lap every year for the next five years. But is that really luck? Or is it part of your planning and determination? You've built up your reputation. You've built up your skills. You've worked months, even years at developing a successful business. And the one person that contributes to your success comes along because luck or fate put you together. Yet isn't it all a part of your planning? Your goals? Your determination? If you want success bad enough, you'll do whatever it takes every day to bring you one step closer. Yep, I was a seven year over night success story. Seven years to learn everything I needed to know to help me grow our photography business from start up to six figures in two years. That included education, working for others, experimenting with other businesses, and finally applying it to my own business. Seven years. Luck? Maybe. But I think it's a whole lot more. Have something to say? Post a comment here Social Links Latest blog stories The Two Most Important Words In Your Photography Marketing Plan With just a few minutes of reading to finish this post, you will become better at marketing your photography business, all because you learned the two most important words you can use in your marketing tools and why they will help you. Two words. By using these two words over and over again in your marketing, not only will it enhance the way your prospects and clients look at you, it will also help you discover a stronger connection with your clientele. All because you focused in on what they truly love the most. In the last two paragraphs, I've used both words again and again. Did you catch them? If not, let me share them with you now. Keep Reading>> How To Clone One Client And Turn Her Into One Hundred Clients Jenna has been planning on having a family since the day she married her best friend. They were going to work for a year, buy their first home together, settle down and start their family. One year came and went. So did the second year. And the third. Finally after many trips to fertility experts and tens of thousands of dollars in treatments, Jenna and her husband were pregnant. They were ecstatic. They wanted to enjoy every moment of this child from this point forward. They found Trish, a photographer who specializes in maternity and baby portraits and instantly knew they had to use her to remember this experience forever. Two weeks before the baby's due date, Jenna and her husband entered Trish's studio, and captured the joy and love they felt for their first child. Three weeks later, the baby was born - a little girl who became their pride and joy. Another two weeks flew by and Jenna brought in her baby girl for her first baby portrait. Keep Reading>> lori recommends I found my price by low-balling my competition. That's how you do it, right? How did you come up with the prices you currently charge for your packages? This ends up being one of the biggest struggles we face as studio owners. Chances are your prices were set with little more than a hunch. Maybe you visited a few sites online, or shopped the competition in your area for their price lists. Then you used those prices to come up with your own packages - and maybe even lowered your fees just a little. After all, you're new at this; why not lower your prices? Click to get started immediately >> About Andrew and Lori Andrew and Lori Osterberg are co-founders of VirtualPhotographyStudio.com, a site dedicated to providing tips, resouces and advice for using your camera to build a successful photography business. Through their coaching, workshops, training and products, Andrew and Lori show you how to break through the desire of wanting photography to be more than a hobby, and provide you with the how-to to actually accomplish it. To begin experiencing Andrew and Lori's coaching, consider their highly successful Photography For Success, Freedom and 1ncome. If you liked today's issue, you'll love following Andrew and Lori through all of their high-content training products, newsletter, and online posts. Their goal is to provide you with all you need to help you live the life others only dream of. Wed, 18 Apr 2012 14:06:03 -0400http://archive.aweber.com/virtualtips/BoQsA/h/VPS_Tips_Is_Your_Photography.htm Read This Newsletter Online issue 156 April 4, 2012 Links A Note From Lori Six Figure Training Latest Blog Stories Lori Recommends Quick Links Visit our Website Read our Blog Our Ezine is published twice per month. You are on our list because you signed up for one of our programs. To change your subscription, see the link at end of this email. Although we make every effort for you to easily view this publication we apologize that some browser programs may not always work perfectly. Sign me up for this Ezine! a note from Lori Just back from a beautiful spring break - we broke records here in Colorado with it hitting 80 degrees. We pulled out the shorts and tank tops ... only to put them away again this week with a snow shower. That's Colorado for you. We spent spring break this year skiing and looking around at college campuses. Our daughter has to make some tough choices over the next six months, and it doesn't get any easier as you look around at what all the universities have to offer. Decisions, decisions. Do you have a tough time making decisions as well? It may be because of what I call online ADD. I've been talking about it for years, and it really can affect how successful you are with your photography business. Keep reading to find out more. Enjoy! Lori Six figure training How To Recover From Online ADD So You Can Grow Your Photography Business Online ADD. That's what I call it. And you're probably a victim of it. It goes something like this ... You decide to build up your photography business, so you head online to start checking things out. You visit site after site, taking in whatever they are talking about. If it's a great site, you sign up for all you can and start following the advice. UNTIL ... You find the next site. They look great too. So you sign up for their stuff and start following it. Put away the stuff you got last week ... that's soooo last week. And so you start following the steps it tells you to do. UNTIL ... Yep, you get the idea. Everything you read looks like a better shiny object. It seems more relevant to what you want to do today. They sway your decisions and make you want to start down the other path. You may even find yourself saying things like, Well if he can make $1 million and have hundreds of clients just from a simple Facebook page, I can too. Can you see yourself here, or is it just me? Yes, I've done this way too many times before. I knew if I just kept reading, I would find the magic key somewhere. What I was going through was an information overload - the more I found, the more I tried to read, the more I wanted to try. Too Much Of Anything Is Never Good Do a quick search for things that apply to your photography business. I Googled a variety of key terms, and this is what I found: Photography business - 68,100,000 results Photography marketing - 451,000,000 results Photography planning - 192,000,000 results Starting a photography business - 5,590,000 results Now think about that for a minute. If you wanted to start a photography business, you potentially have over 5 ½ million items you could look through to help you with the process. Once you start your business, you could look through over 451 million things to find the right advice to market it. Or 192 million results to determine what to plan for. No one could ever get through that kind of content. Its information overload. But its so easy to do, we Google things all day long. If you went back 20 years or more, things were different. If you wanted information on building your business, you bought a book. Or you attended a seminar. You learned one thing and began applying it. The only way to increase your knowledge would be to go out and buy another book or attend another seminar. So chances are you invested in just a few things over the course of a year, and found a way to make sure they all applied to each other and helped you build a solid foundation for your business. In other words, things were easier because you simply didn't have access to enough information to cause you to go into overload mode. The Key Is Focus It was easier to build a business pre-Internet. Without excess information, you could really focus in on the next step, do it, and have results. Once you saw what your results were, you adjusted and tried it again from a slightly different way. Likewise, prospects attention spans were also easier to capture. When we had a handful of television channels and everyone read the same daily newspaper, you pretty much knew where they were getting their information from. Now we have hundreds of television stations, thousands of options when you add in Internet and satellite channels, movies, DVDs etc. Newspapers are a thing of the past - your prospect could be relying on anything from radio to television, to Facebook or an online news source. People are actually more informed today then they ever have been in history. Which means to capture their attention, your work has increased tenfold. Yet the solution isn't trying a hundred or a thousand things. The solution is to focus even more, really narrow down to whom you are trying to reach, and do everything you can to attract attention to your business. Instead of jumping at the latest and greatest thing, you know instantly if your audience will be there, and use the best advice possible to make that work for you. When you discover the next step, its important to spend all the time necessary to put it into place before you move onto the next step. If you are setting up a website, you need to focus on choosing the right platform (Wordpress) and developing the best website possible to showcase your business. Or if marketing is your weak point and you are trying to build up a referral plan, you need to focus in on creating the best program from beginning to end. The only way to build a successful business is to follow in someone else's footprints. They've done it before you and they will leave bread crumbs to help you along. Only you can choose how you will do it. Will you constantly search and look through millions of results that pop up when you perform free searches? Or will you take the next step and work with someone who can help you get there twice as fast, and help develop your business as quickly as possible? It Could Start With An Email 10 people. Yep, currently I'm opening up my email coaching program to 10 people. I haven't publicly offered my email coaching program in over a year, and I don't anticipate offering it again any time soon. With some major projects coming up in the summer/fall, it will be at least 2013 before I have any more opportunities for individual coaching. So if you've always wanted a marketing director on your team, someone you could run ideas by, get advice from, and learn from, this is your chance. I've run 3 successful business over the last 20 years. I took our photography business from start up to over $250,000 in under two years. If you are ready, now is the time. But with only 10 openings, you have to make the choice now ... You can read all about it here. Have something to say? Post a comment here Social Links Latest blog stories 7 Secret Marketing Strategies Top Photographers Use ... And You Already Know How To Use Them Many small business owners have trouble with marketing. They think its difficult, an acquired skill that takes years to learn. In reality, marketing is something you have to work at for the life of your business. Yet it isn't difficult to learn or do. You just have to realize it is a part of your business and you have to do it. Many of the things that will help you be most successful you already know. See how many things you are already doing. 1. Understand, know and love what you are selling. Sounds easy enough; yet in reality many people create packages they aren't really sure about. If you don't have faith in what you are selling and know it inside and out, you'll never be able to sell it to a prospect. And they really want to buy! Keep Reading>> Is The F Word Creeping Into Your Business and Personal Life? Most people die at 20 and live until they are 75. - Les Brown I saw this quote the other day and wrote it down to remember it. I have a whole list of quotes I love and look to them often for motivation. And while I completely agree with this quote, another part of me asked why. Why do people give up everything, lose their dreams, and continue with a life they really don't enjoy? When I started out after high school, I attended college because my mom said I had to. I didn't have a goal or a purpose; just my mom behind me saying I had to have a degree. She wasn't allowed to go to college back in her day because her family assumed she would drop out and get married anyway; why waste the money? She always regretted it and made sure her daughters had a degree instead. So I fell into a business degree because I really didn't know what else to do. Keep Reading>> lori recommends What if even your toughest questions were answered? What's your toughest question? What question has you stumped and you know if you could just get passed it, your business would do much better? Maybe its a question about sales. Or pricing. Or why your website isn't doing a better job of bringing people in to your business. Whatever questions you have, there are answers. You can sit and try and discover the answer yourself, which many take months or even years. Or you can ask an expert who's build 3 successful businesses, and gone from startup to Six Figures in less than two years. This may be the perfect time for you to get all of your questions answered. But you have to be 1 of the 10 who sign up now. Click to get started immediately >> About Andrew and Lori Andrew and Lori Osterberg are co-founders of VirtualPhotographyStudio.com, a site dedicated to providing tips, resouces and advice for using your camera to build a successful photography business. Through their coaching, workshops, training and products, Andrew and Lori show you how to break through the desire of wanting photography to be more than a hobby, and provide you with the how-to to actually accomplish it. To begin experiencing Andrew and Lori's coaching, consider their highly successful Photography For Success, Freedom and 1ncome. If you liked today's issue, you'll love following Andrew and Lori through all of their high-content training products, newsletter, and online posts. Their goal is to provide you with all you need to help you live the life others only dream of. Wed, 04 Apr 2012 15:55:49 -0400http://archive.aweber.com/virtualtips/C4Tbg/h/VPS_Tips_The_Road_To.htm Read This Newsletter Online issue 155 March 14, 2012 Links A Note From Lori Six Figure Training Latest Blog Stories Lori Recommends Quick Links Visit our Website Read our Blog Our Ezine is published twice per month. You are on our list because you signed up for one of our programs. To change your subscription, see the link at end of this email. Although we make every effort for you to easily view this publication we apologize that some browser programs may not always work perfectly. Sign me up for this Ezine! a note from Lori I guess I've had a one track mind lately. I've been teaching and writing on a variety of things, but as I look back over the past month it all comes down to one subject matter ... success. The funny thing about success is it changes over the course of your life. What motivates you when you're 25 probably won't motivate you at 50. What motivates you when your single probably won't motivate you when your married. And what motivates you as a new mom or dad probably won't motivate you when the kids have left for college. Life changes. Which is why our ideas of success changes with it. Yet if you don't know what motivates you or what your true definition of success is, how are you ever going to achieve it? That's the message I explore in my latest release, The Wealthy Photographer. Thanks so much to everyone that has taken the time to download it and read it - I love your comments in your input is invaluable. Leave comments over on Kindle - I'd love to hear what you have to say. Enjoy! Lori Six figure training The Most Important List You Will Ever Have To Quit To Succeed I'm a list person. But I'll be the first to admit that lists aren't always all they are cracked up to be. A list can be a great tool IF you have the right things on the list. But what if you don't? Then a list is simply a waste of time. But the problem comes in not knowing if you are making the right list ... or the wrong one. Because we use our own knowledge, our own filters, our own biases, there is a good chance your list may do more harm then good. Your list may be putting you on the path to un-success. If you look at your own life - wants, desires and goals - chances are you have big things planned for the future. I want to start my own business. I want more time with family and friends. I want to quit the 9 to 5 corporate grind. I want to travel more. I want to make sure my kids get into all of the best camps and schools. Those are great desires to have; but does your list support those goals? Unnecessary tasks are the number one cause people don't get what they want out of life. When you make a list, you fill it with a variety of tasks. But when it comes time to check the items off the list AND SO SOMETHING, we tend to go with what we love first, pushing the difficult or challenging tasks to the bottom. And eventually you wad up the piece of paper and throw it away - do you really want to be reminded year after year of the tasks you can't get done? If we don't want to do something, for whatever reason, we don't. No matter how much impact it may have on our future. So what is the solution? Do only the things you love to do and have them make all the difference in the world. Of course its not that simple. We would all be highly successful people if that were the case. But there are things you can do right now that will help you create better lists. If you actively looked at everything you do, there are many ways you could simplify your life, giving you reason to create stronger lists. Let me show you what I mean. Lists you simply don't have to do ... Respond to every email that comes into your message box Be available to everyone that calls your mobile phone Stay on the committee your were forced to join Stay in college/grad school to up your resume for a better job (that you really don't want in the first place) Lists that aren't necessary ... Live up to the expectations others have created for you Attend the Friday bookclub you've been in for years with people you sorta get along with Own a home, upgrade to a bigger home, and try and keep up with the Jonses Stick with things you start for appearances Lists you might have to change ... Your desire to be the cool mom/friend/sister/aunt and buy expensive gifts for every occasion Your desire to stay in the same community you've been in since birth The way people around you depend on your for different parts of their lives Lists you may have to use to jumpstart your passion for living again ... Pursue a career that doesn't use your education, skills and knowledge you've spent years and money chasing Work at a low status, low paying job while you build your dreams during the most opportune times of the day Sell off or downgrade your stuff Completely ignore friend's and family's advice and expectations Quit projects that are no longer relevant to your new desires If reading through these list changes gave you chills - possibly from fear and excitement - good. You are heading in the right direction. When you make big changes - huge changes - you open up your world to the potential of doing something new. And only when you have the time to do things outside of your ordinary can you fill it with things that will change your future for good. Have something to say? Post a comment here Social Links Latest blog stories It's the Greatest, Easiest, Most Profitable Way To Talk About Your Photography ... So Why Aren't You Doing It? You're standing in the checkout line, with several people in front of you. You glance over and start reading the titles of the magazines in front of you. And for some reason they just pull you in. Do you really care who had an alien baby, or how you can create 365 looks that will make you look more sexy? Maybe ... Maybe not. Yet there is just something about those titles that make you want to pick up the magazine and start reading. It isn't a coincidence that the titles are that tantalizing. In fact I'm willing to bet more time is spent on creating those titles and cover layouts then they do writing the stories themselves. What sells is the title - the sizzle - not the meat of the story. Yes, the story itself has to be good and give you exactly what the title promises. Yet the story satisfies your hunger for whatever information you were promised. You won't move forward and take action once you've read the story. Keep Reading>> 10 Stupid Mistakes Every New Business Owner Has To Live Through If you've always worked for the boss and haven't had the experience of working for yourself, you're in for quite a shock when you first quit and venture out on your own. Its hard to lose the job mentality and start doing everything from an entrepreneur's mindset. Yet if you've ever jumped over to your own business, you know there are some things you inevitably do that when you look back on, you simply laugh at your actions. Did I really do that? Yep, I've had a lot of those moments over the years. And some of those moments stand out more than others. Here is some advice for those of you that have recently crossed over to your own business. 1. Making mistakes with your contracts. We've made this mistake more times then I'd like to admit. Never: Assume someone will sign a contract because they say they will. Have your policies set up and stick with them - I'll fax over a contract and hold the day for you for 3 business days. If we don't receive it back with payment, the day will open up to others. Assume a handshake is good enough. You may have a great relationship in the beginning, but things change when demands start in. A contract is there to cover you and the client. Always use it to maintain the relationship. Assume ... Keep Reading>> lori recommends How will you be approaching your photography business this year? Ask 25 people to define the word success and you'll receive 25 different answers. For some photographers, success may be as simple as taking beautiful photographs. For some photographers, its about making photography their careers. And for others, its about being at the top of the industry, being recognized all over the world. There is no right or wrong answer. Yet there is one key that makes some photographers successful - and others not so much. In The Wealthy Photographer, we start at the beginning and have you define what success truly means to you. Only once you've worked through the key to success will you be able to fill in the blank yourself and actually put your plan into action. If your goal is to build your photography into something new this year, The Wealthy Photographer is the next logical step for you. Click to have access to it immediately >> About Andrew and Lori Andrew and Lori Osterberg are co-founders of VirtualPhotographyStudio.com, a site dedicated to providing tips, resouces and advice for using your camera to build a successful photography business. Through their coaching, workshops, training and products, Andrew and Lori show you how to break through the desire of wanting photography to be more than a hobby, and provide you with the how-to to actually accomplish it. To begin experiencing Andrew and Lori's coaching, consider their highly successful Photography For Success, Freedom and 1ncome. If you liked today's issue, you'll love following Andrew and Lori through all of their high-content training products, newsletter, and online posts. Their goal is to provide you with all you need to help you live the life others only dream of. Wed, 14 Mar 2012 14:05:50 -0400http://archive.aweber.com/virtualtips/DD3rg/h/VPS_Tips_Do_You_Really_Love.htm Read This Newsletter Online issue 154 February 15, 2012 Links A Note From Lori Six Figure Training Latest Blog Stories Lori Recommends Quick Links Visit our Website Read our Blog Our Ezine is published twice per month. You are on our list because you signed up for one of our programs. To change your subscription, see the link at end of this email. Although we make every effort for you to easily view this publication we apologize that some browser programs may not always work perfectly. Sign me up for this Ezine! a note from Lori It's our daughters birthday this long weekend, so we're hoping the weather stays warm so we can head outside for all that we have planned. Her birthday always falls on President's Day weekend, so we always try and find something fun to do (like the year we surprised her with a trip to Disney World). With all the family and friend parties we have planned, there is one thing for sure - there will be a lot of photographs! Some of our dearest friends are actually old clients. Yep, we enjoyed working with them so much, we went out for a few dinners together, had kids together, and still keep in touch today. That's what happens when you think of your clients as more than just a paycheck. When you take the time to build relationships, you can't help but achieve success. Which is why I'm sure you're going to love today's article: 10 Ways To Love Your Photography Clients. Read it, get a few ideas, and start changing the way your business brings in clients today. Enjoy! Lori Six figure training 10 Ways To Love Your Photography Clients A customer is the most important visitor on our premises. He is not dependent on us. We are dependent on him. He is not an interruption in our work - he is the purpose of it. We are not doing him a favour by serving him. He is doing us a favour by giving us the opportunity to serve him. - Mahatma Gandhi Gandhi spoke those words back in 1890. And in every way they still apply today. The most important thing within your business is your list - your customers - the people that can give you the opportunity to run a successful business for as long as you choose to stay in business. If you want them to choose to spend their money in your studio, here are 10 ways to stand out from your competition. 1. Don't set up your packages and promotions based on what you want to sell. Set them up based on what your customers want to buy. Listen to what they say. When you truly listen to your customers and modify things to make your products and services that much better, they will love what you do. 2. Go beyond order taking and showcase your expertise within the industry. Anyone can take orders. But a real professional will prove their artistic talent by building relationships and directing people on what to do next. Collages, albums, montages - you are the artist and show your clients how your vision is put together through your photographs. 3. Make reliability a key ingredient to your mission. When you do as you say and often times go the extra mile without having to be asked, your clients notice. 4. Always meet deadlines. And when you can, come in early. You should quickly be able to figure out your averages. Then add a few days to it for your guarantees. So if you know you can get orders out in 10 days, tell your clients two to three weeks. This will give you plenty of time in the event of a problem, yet guarantee that you'll be able to surprise most of your clients early. They'll love it! 5. Show appreciation all the way through. A simple hand written note thanking them for doing business with you goes a long way. And for very low cost, you can even throw in a gift or two for special things - anniversaries, or a great referral, or a special event in their lives. Use your imagination and connect again and again with your best customers. 6. Are you hiring employees? Make sure they understand your commitment to customer service. If they will be dealing with your customers, give them the freedom to make decisions to keep your customers happy. If they are comfortable with your policy, it will shine through to your customers. 7. You are the expert. Let your customers benefit from that knowledge. Direct them on which camera to buy for an upcoming trip. Give them pointers on how to store photographs. The more you showcase your knowledge, the more they will trust you with the big stuff. 8. Go the extra mile in everything you do. If you want to charge a lot for your portraits, what can you do to give your clients everything? How about framing every wall portrait that leaves your studio. How about a small hanging kit to go along with it - nails, hammer and maybe a level. Or take it to the next level and show up at your clients home to hang it for them. That's going the extra mile. 9. Sell the benefits, not the features. Always think about the bottom line and what your client truly wishes to accomplish by using you. They don't want a photography; they want the experience. If you give them the experience, they will love you forever. 10. Let them invest in your value. Most photographers relate to their customers through their own wallets and pocketbooks. Just because you can't afford yourself doesn't mean your customers won't stretch to book with you. Concentrate on your value - how can you increase it in your customers' eyes? Have something to say? Post a comment here Social Links Latest blog stories The Photographers Sales Funnel Fundamental to the success of your photography business is the concept of the sales funnel. The sales funnel is key in defining the strategies needed to find prospects and turn them into clients over time. It also defines an effective referral program that keeps people coming in at all levels of your business. When you are building your marketing and sales strategies, your ultimate goal is to bring in paying customers. Yet in order to do so, you have various steps in order to accomplish your goal. The sales funnel begins by capturing the attention of prospects out in the marketplace looking for what you have to offer. Some are intrigued and want to learn more. Some are just starting the process and have no expectations. Some are ready to book and become clients. And a little of everything in between. The purpose of the sales funnel is to allow a prospect to drop in at whatever level they are currently at and provide them with what they need to go to the next step. Keep Reading>> Market Your Photography Business So You Can Travel and Live Anywhere Many people dream of the day they can quit their jobs, throw a camera in a bag and travel the world. We love to travel and experience new things. Taking pictures is a way to remember each step of the way. And if you can get paid for doing it as well, why not start today. If traveling the world with a camera in hand has always been on your bucket list, the only way to make your dreams come true is to do it. With many career paths, they can be time consuming and expensive. If you open up a retail store, you are pretty well locking yourself into a location. But if you want to be a travel photographer, the only investment is camera equipment, a computer, and a website. Then you can create your images and load them up to your site for any type of promotion you choose. Need some inspiration? Keep Reading>> lori recommends Is It Still Possible To Be A Six Figure Photographer? As I visit various websites and watch what other photographers are doing in 2012, I always find myself asking, Is it still possible to be a Six Figure Photographer? And overwhelmingly I find myself saying YES. Business doesn't change. The way we reach out to customers does. The way we sell to customers does. What we sell to customers does. But the basic concepts that make a business successful doesn't. If you understand the pillars of a great business model, you will always be able to find enough customers to create the business you desire. Learn those basic skills, perfect them, and your business will quickly be on the road to success. That's what Six Figure Photographer is all about. It's the exact program I used to create my very first Six Figure business, and its still the model I'm using to this day. If you've ever had the desire to pick up a program that will help you build your own Six Figure business, the wait is over. Its perfect for building a Six Figure business in 2012 and beyond. Click to have access to it immediately >> About Andrew and Lori Andrew and Lori Osterberg are co-founders of VirtualPhotographyStudio.com, a site dedicated to providing tips, resouces and advice for using your camera to build a successful photography business. Through their coaching, workshops, training and products, Andrew and Lori show you how to break through the desire of wanting photography to be more than a hobby, and provide you with the how-to to actually accomplish it. To begin experiencing Andrew and Lori's coaching, consider their highly successful Photography For Success, Freedom and 1ncome. If you liked today's issue, you'll love following Andrew and Lori through all of their high-content training products, newsletter, and online posts. Their goal is to provide you with all you need to help you live the life others only dream of. Thu, 16 Feb 2012 14:13:54 -0500http://archive.aweber.com/virtualtips/EmkgA/h/VPS_Tips_How_To_Gain_More.htm Read This Newsletter Online issue 153 February 1, 2012 Links A Note From Lori Six Figure Training Latest Blog Stories Lori Recommends Quick Links Visit our Website Read our Blog Our Ezine is published twice per month. You are on our list because you signed up for one of our programs. To change your subscription, see the link at end of this email. Although we make every effort for you to easily view this publication we apologize that some browser programs may not always work perfectly. Sign me up for this Ezine! a note from Lori Have you taken on a new task to help you with marketing your business this year? In the last couple of weeks we've fallen in love with Pinterest. And yes, its bringing in business already. Pinterest is a perfect tool for photographers - very visual in nature and lets you share ideas in many ways. If you are already on Pinterest, make sure you follow us - Photoshoptips and Lori Osterberg. And if you aren't, make sure you read all about how other photographers are using it. Then give it a try. You may find it's a social site you fall in love with too. Because social is increasingly a big part of today's marketing strategies, today's article focuses in on how to gain more photography clients using your Facebook page. Enjoy! Lori Six figure training How To Gain More Photography Clients On Facebook According to many of the top SEO companies that study social impact, the two things that matter most when using Facebook to gain authority within the search engines is: 1. The number of Facebook shares you have 2. The authority of your sharers Which means if you want to rank well under your keywords and search terms, Facebook can help you do so... if you understand how to use Facebook. Its more than adding a few posts here and there. Facebook offers a wide array of tools that help you build your authority and get people interacting as well. 1. Implement the Facebook Like buttons To make your blog posts more shareable, make sure you add the Facebook plugin to implement Like buttons both at the top and the bottom of each post. While the standard Facebook icon is acceptable, look into newer options as well. You can now incorporate other options into your Like options, including: Versions that show thumbnails of friends Widgets that allow people to add comments both to your blog and to Facebook Make sure you put Like buttons both at the beginning and the end of your posts, and also include it next to highly visual content, such as videos and photographs. People are more likely to click the Like button if you give them a reason to do so. 2. Add a Facebook comments plugin If you are a regular on any blog, you know one of the benefits of blogging is the ability to have comments at the end of each post. They allow interaction amongst your visitors and can really help you educate your readers just be carrying on normal conversations. Blog comments are great to help you grow your blog, yet they do little for external growth. By incorporating a Facebook comments plugin into your blog, you can allow the interaction to flow between platforms. 3. Always respond to Facebook comments When you respond to comments on your blog, it shows people you are interactive and care about building relationships. When you comment on Facebook comments, it takes that to a whole new level as your comments could possibly be seen by more eyes as it moves through the newsfeeds. 4. Be more engaging with your Facebook followers Posting once per week isn't going to give your followers a reason to interact with you. Instead, build up a plan to post at least several times per day, and change the way you post and what you post about. Questions work well. And quotes seem to get a variety of people chiming in on what you do. What what your statistics are and give your viewers what they want. 5. Use @Tags You can use @Tags in your Facebook posts similar to how you use them in Twitter. It's a great way of giving credit, acknowledgment, thanks, etc. 6. Give away a free gift Set up a give away for a free gift for people that follow you regularly on your Facebook page. Run the contest regularly to keep people interested and coming back - monthly is usually a good draw. It doesn't have to be elaborate or even related to your business - people love Starbucks or Amazon gift cards. Build mini-baskets of products and enjoy brightening someones day. (If they have to stop by your studio to pick up the prize, you don't have to worry about not including a free portrait. Just the connection may lead to turning them into clients.) 7. Do live events on your Facebook page You can create fun topics or ask your readers what they are interested in. Don't make it about you; instead offer advice to your readers. It's a great way to generate traffic, especially if you hold it on a regular basis. Choose a service like Vpype or Ustream. 8. Post directly to your Facebook page Its easy to want to automate things you do to free up time in your life. Yet for some things, its simply better if you take the time to work at building relationships in the direct way. Yes, you can connect your RSS feed from your blog to automatically drop in your posts on your Facebook. And you can use services like TweetDeck instead of visiting the Facebook site. Yet if you don't send the post out correctly, attach photographs and make sure your links are directly clickable, you will lose valuable traffic. Your goal is always to be visible in as many ways as possible. Is Facebook marketing worth it? Definitely. But you have to be willing to work at it. Its like any other form of marketing; it takes time to build and time to work. Don't try and do it the wrong way, or attempt to spam the system to see how much you can get in the shortest time possible. Spend the time learning how to do it the right way and making sure you are building a strong marketing tool for your future. Have something to say? Post a comment here Social Links Latest blog stories Photography Is Emotional: Make Them Laugh, Make Them Cry People hate being sold to. But they love to buy. People don't buy with their heads; they buy with their hearts. All decisions are based on emotion. If you use emotion to sell what people want - not what you think they want - you'll have success every time. Yes, all of this is actually true. And in reality it's the heart of being an entrepreneur; master this thought process and you'll run a successful business. We all fundamentally make our decisions based on emotion. We don't NEED the new pair of pants or the new television for the living room. Yet when emotion kicks in, we can talk ourselves into anything. I'm going to interview for the new job and my old pants are worn out. This pair will make me feel more professional, and more importantly, look more professional. I HAVE to have them to get this job. Yep, its all down hill from there. Once your emotions start kicking in and you begin reasoning with yourself on why you need something, you may as well hand over the credit card. Keep Reading>> Spending Millions To Promote A Dying Industry Last night we were watching a little TV and a commercial came on I couldn't help but notice. It was for a major yellow pages business. They were advertising their services, stating they could help a variety of businesses in many manners. They could provide you with a host of advertising methods, including the hard copy phone book and online resources. What really caught my eye was the industries they were targeting: weddings. They were speaking directly to people within the wedding industry, venues, planners, photographers, etc, stating they could help you reach out to your potential customers and give you top results with the people who are looking for you. Really? I'm sure a ton of people buy into this. I know they do; I meet them all the time. Yet if you take the time to think about it, you can quickly see why this is a complete waste of money and time. Lets start with a target market. Keep Reading>> lori recommends Ready to build a dynamic web presence for your photography business that is mobile ready too? Photographers love to design beautiful websites that showcase their photography in visual ways. With lots of bells and whistles, their sites rotate, spin, move and present their images in a variety of ways. And while some of the sites can be considered classy, most are missing one very important element. The ability to sell. You see, sites can be gorgeous and full of Flash. But if your client can't see it or doesn't have the attention span to wait for it to load, you've just lost a sale. I learned how powerful a web presence can be IF you use it as a marketing tool, not just a graphic appealing site that you like but your clients have little time for. That's what I share in my top selling ebook, The Photographer's Blogging Book. If you want the help of a Six Figure Photographer along side of you, and want to learn things like how to set up a blog, what platform is the best, successful strategies to attract clients, and plenty of resources, this will be your favorite how to guide this year Click to have access to it immediately >> About Andrew and Lori Andrew and Lori Osterberg are co-founders of VirtualPhotographyStudio.com, a site dedicated to providing tips, resouces and advice for using your camera to build a successful photography business. Through their coaching, workshops, training and products, Andrew and Lori show you how to break through the desire of wanting photography to be more than a hobby, and provide you with the how-to to actually accomplish it. To begin experiencing Andrew and Lori's coaching, consider their highly successful Photography For Success, Freedom and 1ncome. If you liked today's issue, you'll love following Andrew and Lori through all of their high-content training products, newsletter, and online posts. Their goal is to provide you with all you need to help you live the life others only dream of. Wed, 01 Feb 2012 15:06:19 -0500http://archive.aweber.com/virtualtips/5Uj0Q/h/VPS_Tips_Are_You_Redesigning.htm Read This Newsletter Online issue 152 January 18, 2012 Links A Note From Lori Six Figure Training Latest Blog Stories Lori Recommends Quick Links Visit our Website Read our Blog Our Ezine is published twice per month. You are on our list because you signed up for one of our programs. To change your subscription, see the link at end of this email. Although we make every effort for you to easily view this publication we apologize that some browser programs may not always work perfectly. Sign me up for this Ezine! a note from Lori Happy New Year! A special welcome to all of our new members here on our Virtual site. We've been gearing up for an exciting 2012 with lots of changes in store. If you haven't been to our site in awhile, head over there today and take a look at our two newest pages. With well over 1,000 articles on our site, we knew it was a bit tedious to find the exact thing you are looking for. So we decided to give people a guide to finding many of our most popular articles - and a few new ones as well. We've reworked our About Us page to provide you a more indepth look at how we started the Virtual site and how you can benefit from our story. And we've created a brand new How You Can Start page filled with tools and resources to help you get the most of our site. Let me know what you think. While we have been burning the midnight oil a few nights this month, we've still been enjoying all that Colorado has to offer. The deer are out in full force and I love running into them on our daily walks around the lake. And of course the weather for skiing has been superb. What are you doing to keep your life in balance? Here's to the best year yet! Enjoy! Lori Six figure training Thinking of Updating Your Website? Ask These 3 Questions First What's on your to-do list this year for your business? Have you decided to update your current website and give it a fresh new look? Before you take any action, keep these three things in mind. 1. Who visits your website? How did you design your current website? Chances are you found a designer ( or did it yourself), used a template or theme that was suggested to you, added your colors and style, and put information in much like everyone else does. In other words, your site probably looks like everyone else's with little thought as to why it ended up that way. Its an easy trap to fall into. And while it may seem logical to fill a website with information about you and conform with the industry standard, that may not be the best thing for your business. Businesses have different goals and different clientele. They have different demographics and different ways of connecting with visitors. And without taking that into consideration when you design, you're leaving out a lot of opportunity. First, look at the profile of the people that visit your website. What are they looking for? Are they busy moms who want to get in and out quickly, finding the right information instantly? Are they newly engaged, willing to spend hours learning about planning the perfect wedding? Are they executives who know exactly what they want and are looking into your site to see if you can provide it? Demographics are the key to a great design. The more you know about your visitors, the more you understand what their needs are, the more you can connect with them through your online presence. It's also important to understand the average age of your visitors. If you are targeting high school seniors, a fun, quirky site might be the perfect design. Yet if you are targeting 50+ grandmothers, an easy to navigate, larger type setting may bring in more business. Don't start with the look and feel, think from your visitors perspective first. 2. Why do your visitors come to your website? Once you know who your visitor is, its easier to give them what they are looking for. Keep in mind that you may have different visitors, in which case you have to provide different paths. For instance a newly engaged couple will want information on planning a wedding, where as a newly married couple will be looking for the easiest way to share their online proofs with her family and friends. If you aren't sure about what a client would want from your website, ask. Ask them at different times of the process as well - a new customer who just signed a contract will have different needs and desires than a client that just picked up her final order. You'll probably hear a lot of I wish I could do this on your site..., which will give you the perfect indication of what other clients would enjoy as well. It's also easy to fall into the trap of finding other photographers, assuming their websites are cool and the in thing and decide to mimic their site. Study it first. Is it just a difficult design, adding a lot of pizzazz without any real substance? Photographers are notorious for liking flash and wow, when in reality most visitors simply want an easy site to navigate that allows them to effortlessly see what you do. 3. Are they able to find what they are looking for? If not, why? Your site may offer a ton of information to your visitors. But if its poorly constructed or organized, it may be difficult to find. Studies have been conducted on many websites across industries and they have found that up to 40 percent of site visitors end up leaving a site because they can't find what they are looking for. Common causes of poor performance include poor navigation, unclear links, poorly chosen names, site errors and technical issues. This isn't a time to get cute with your language. Give people exactly what they are looking for. If they want to contact you, they will look for a nav button that says Contact Us. They don't want to spend minutes deciphering your code and figure out where to go. Instead of looking at your site through your eyes, look through a customers. Think of one client in particular and navigate the site through her eyes. Will she know where to go? Will she know what to do next? Will she understand how to contact you when she's ready - and can she do it from every page? Once you have your design ideas down, don't let designers talk you out of it. Many designers out there today love the wow and don't understand marketing. Stick with your plans and get what you want. Have something to say? Post a comment here Social Links Latest blog stories 3 Trends You Should Be Using In Your Own Sales Techniques Its no secret that people are less accepting of more traditional types of sales methods and marketing. How many people truly use a yellow pages anymore, or trust an ad they see in a newspaper? The percentages are dwindling rapidly. But one thing will always remain true. People hate being sold to. But they love to buy. Because they hate being sold to, its more important than ever to use current marketing methods that will give your potential customers exactly what they want; without feeling like they've been speaking with a used car salesperson. Keep Reading>> 5 Secrets Professional Photographers Will Never Tell You I remember when we first started out in photography, we would look at the professionals who had made it within the industry and somehow think they were different then us. They had a fan base stretched out around the world. They traveled to exotic locations to photograph their clients. They were featured in magazines and talked on stages in front of hundreds of people. They were real photographers. And deep down we questioned all the time whether we had what it takes to make it to that level. But as we worked more on our photography, we quickly realized that perception doesn't always match up with reality. Photographers at all levels have the same struggles as you and me. They just handle it a bit differently. Here are five things every photographer faces at some point every year. Keep Reading>> lori recommends Have a Kindle? Then you have to have these resources... Maybe you have always wanted to turn your love of photography into a full time career. And with today's economic challenges, there's no better time than now to take the plunge. If you don't want to do it alone, and want the help of a Six Figure Photographer along side of you, my Kindle/PDF books may be just what you're looking for. The Photographer's Blogging Book - is filled with information on everything from starting up a blog, which blog platform to choose, marketing tips, and successful strategies, you'll have a resource in place that will quickly guide you to what works. And more importantly, what doesn't. 30 Ways in 30 Days To Redesign Your Life With Photography - I reveal 30 steps to creating a successful business, and reveal the steps I took to create a Six Figure Photography studio in under two years. Each day focuses on a new strategy and task, helping you build a complete photography business plan along the way. Become A Top Wedding Photographer - If you've ever thought about becoming a wedding photographer, you're going to love this handy guide. I share a ton of tips on everything from starting the business, to what you can sell as extras once you have a steady clientele in place. What Do I Name My Photography Business? - This guide is designed for people just thinking about starting up a photography business. It provides answers to the top 20 questions everyone has when they are starting the planning phase and just aren't sure what to do next. From the most obvious question of What do I name my photography business? to answers on trademarking, copyrighting and even branding, its the perfect guide for anyone that is ready to make 2012 the year they make their business a success. Under $5 - Available in Kindle or PDF format - get yours today. About Andrew and Lori Andrew and Lori Osterberg are co-founders of VirtualPhotographyStudio.com, a site dedicated to providing tips, resouces and advice for using your camera to build a successful photography business. Through their coaching, workshops, training and products, Andrew and Lori show you how to break through the desire of wanting photography to be more than a hobby, and provide you with the how-to to actually accomplish it. To begin experiencing Andrew and Lori's coaching, consider their highly successful Photography For Success, Freedom and 1ncome. If you liked today's issue, you'll love following Andrew and Lori through all of their high-content training products, newsletter, and online posts. Their goal is to provide you with all you need to help you live the life others only dream of. Wed, 18 Jan 2012 14:19:34 -0500http://archive.aweber.com/virtualtips/H1hrM/h/VPS_Tips_What_10_Things_Will.htm Read This Newsletter Online issue 151 January 4, 2012 Links A Note From Lori Six Figure Training Latest Blog Stories Lori Recommends Quick Links Visit our Website Read our Blog Our Ezine is published twice per month. You are on our list because you signed up for one of our programs. To change your subscription, see the link at end of this email. Although we make every effort for you to easily view this publication we apologize that some browser programs may not always work perfectly. Sign me up for this Ezine! a note from Lori Happy New Year! As we celebrated New Year's this year, my daughter (who is a junior in high school) looked at me and said only one more full year of high school. That really puts things into perspective. And while a part of me loves watching her dream and make goals for her future, it also reminds me of all I want to do in the next few years as well. I'm not big on resolutions, yet I love the idea of coming up with long term goals. (There's just something different about the words resolution and goals - its easier to stay on track with goals.) Some of my goals include new websites, new products, new classes - but above all its going to be a year of refinement. When everything is working, there is always a way of making it work better. O that's at the top of my goal list in 2012. However you have chosen to kick off the New Year, I wish you an amazing journey as you find ways of achieving your own goals and finding success in 2012. Here's to the best year yet! Enjoy! Lori Six figure training What 10 Things Will Change Your Photography Business? Have you ever found yourself saying, I really need to do this or I need to make this change. Then months go by and you realize you never had the time to do those few little things. I think we've all done that over and over again. If something isn't absolutely necessary, if it isn't something that needs to be done for your business to succeed, it seems to be put onto the back burner indefinitely. Yet if you sit down and take a look at all the little things you wish you had time to do, you might be surprised at how they cumulatively could change your business. That's what we've done here the last couple of weeks. We sat down and made up a list of the little things for each facet of our business. And now we're finding it's a great roadmap to get 2012 started with a bang. Want to do it to? Here's how. Write it down The problem with doing the little things is you always put them off, hold them in the back of your mind, and never add them to your to-do list because bigger things are always more prevalent. If you have to get out an order for a client, are you really going to put change out About Us page on website in front of it? In order to get the little things done, you have to know what the little things are. And how they will impact your business. Let me share with you one of our examples. We've created a 10 things to do list for several different areas of our business, one of them being our VirtualPhotographyStudio website. We still love the look and feel of our Virtual site, yet there are small things we've talked about changing for months. So we sat down and created our top 10 things to do list for Virtual. Some of the things we've included are: Add a popup box to entice new visitors to sign up for our ezine Change out some of the old widgets in the sidebar that no longer apply Restructure our coaching page Add a Getting Started page And so on. They are all things we've talked about a lot the past few months, yet we've never made the time to do them because we were focused on other priorities. They are all little things. Yet when you look at all 10 together, its easy to see the impact they will make on our business. Our website will be more efficient and easier to navigate. Which means it will be clearer for visitors to move around on our site. So with just a few simple changes that each will take no longer than a couple of hours to complete, we can enhance our website and make it more conclusive to connecting up with people that want to grow their photography business this year. Its your turn Now its your turn. Take a look at your business to determine what you could change. Don't look for large goals that will take up huge amounts of time. Instead, look at the little things you've been meaning to do. Maybe its updating your brochure. Or changing the look of your studio. Or updating your website. Then create a 10 things to do list for each item. If you've wanted to update your wedding brochure, you can start with to-do's of: Choose 10 favorite photographs from last years' weddings Find an online resource to update my logo Plan out new pricing for my wedding packages And so on. Its easy to talk about it and think about it. But if you're going to make it a reality, why not start the year out right by making changes to your business model that will help you grow this year? Have something to say? Post a comment here Social Links Latest blog stories Will You Regret Not Jumping Into A Full Time Photography Business? If you look back at your life so far, what do you regret? I'm sure a few things pop into your head immediately. Do you regret not finishing up your degree? Or maybe never going to school at all? Do you wish you would have followed a different career path? Or chosen a different job? I watched one of the top TED videos from 2011 today on regret, and I've included it here. It's around 15 minutes in length, and I would highly recommend watching as it teaches a lot about how we look at ourselves. Keep Reading>> Are You Building Trust Through Your Website? I love marketing. I love seeing how other people put together campaigns. And because of it I follow a lot of people online to see what they will do next. About a year ago I was introduced (through an online newsletter) to a woman who has a huge following online. So I started following her. And I really like her style. I love how she has set up her website, how she communicates with her fan base, and how she makes her offers. But there is something else. I don't like her as a person. At all. We don't have the same beliefs or the same ethics. Some of the things she talks about actually gets me riled up in the mornings. And yet she is busier today than when I first started following her a year ago. Why? Because she is true to herself and isn't afraid to communicate heart and soul to her followers. Keep Reading>> lori recommends Its got to be one of the easiest and best ways to learn all about the photography business. Maybe you have always wanted to turn your love of photography into a full time career. And with today's economic challenges, there's no better time than now to take the plunge. If you don't want to do it alone, and want the help of a Six Figure Photographer along side of you, my Kindle/PDF books may be just what you're looking for. The Photographer's Blogging Book - is filled with information on everything from starting up a blog, which blog platform to choose, marketing tips, and successful strategies, you'll have a resource in place that will quickly guide you to what works. And more importantly, what doesn't. 30 Ways in 30 Days To Redesign Your Life With Photography - I reveal 30 steps to creating a successful business, and reveal the steps I took to create a Six Figure Photography studio in under two years. Each day focuses on a new strategy and task, helping you build a complete photography business plan along the way. Become A Top Wedding Photographer - If you've ever thought about becoming a wedding photographer, you're going to love this handy guide. I share a ton of tips on everything from starting the business, to what you can sell as extras once you have a steady clientele in place. What Do I Name My Photography Business? - This guide is designed for people just thinking about starting up a photography business. It provides answers to the top 20 questions everyone has when they are starting the planning phase and just aren't sure what to do next. From the most obvious question of What do I name my photography business? to answers on trademarking, copyrighting and even branding, its the perfect guide for anyone that is ready to make 2012 the year they make their business a success. Under $5 - Available in Kindle or PDF format - get yours today. About Andrew and Lori Andrew and Lori Osterberg are co-founders of VirtualPhotographyStudio.com, a site dedicated to providing tips, resouces and advice for using your camera to build a successful photography business. Through their coaching, workshops, training and products, Andrew and Lori show you how to break through the desire of wanting photography to be more than a hobby, and provide you with the how-to to actually accomplish it. To begin experiencing Andrew and Lori's coaching, consider their highly successful Photography For Success, Freedom and 1ncome. If you liked today's issue, you'll love following Andrew and Lori through all of their high-content training products, newsletter, and online posts. Their goal is to provide you with all you need to help you live the life others only dream of. Wed, 04 Jan 2012 13:50:56 -0500http://archive.aweber.com/virtualtips/GH1ds/h/VPS_Tips_6_Things_A.htm Read This Newsletter Online issue 150 December 14, 2011 Links A Note From Lori Six Figure Training Latest Blog Stories Lori Recommends Quick Links Visit our Website Read our Blog Our Ezine is published twice per month. You are on our list because you signed up for one of our programs. To change your subscription, see the link at end of this email. Although we make every effort for you to easily view this publication we apologize that some browser programs may not always work perfectly. Sign me up for this Ezine! a note from Lori Happy Holidays! No matter what seasons and holidays you are currently celebrating, we wish you all the best as we close out 2011 and bring in 2012. With snow finally on the ground, its feeling a lot more like the holidays around here. We're in the heart of attending all sorts of plays and concerts, parties and events. I also love this time of year as I love baking. So you'll find my freezer filled with cookies, and I never leave empty handed when we're heading out the door. I love the traditions we have in place. Its so much fun reliving memories from every year, and of course creating new ones too. What traditions do you like to celebrate this time of the year? And while I'm spending just about as much time out of the office as I am in these final days of December, I'm also spending time thinking of what the New Year will bring. In today's article, I'll cover 6 things you should be prepared for as a photographer. Enjoy! Lori Six figure training 6 Things A Photographer Should Be Prepared For Operating a photography business can be so much fun. You fill up your bags with the latest photography equipment, bring in the best clients, and showcase work you truly love and are proud of. And for the most part, its all good. Things move along smoothly, and you learn how to improve day to day. But on occasion, you hit a rough spot. You have a day where something goes wrong - terribly wrong in some cases - and you're just not sure if its all worth it. While the unexpected will always happen, and there is little you can do to prepare for it, there are certain things you can plan for today. What are your policies on the following? Bad Advice Have you ever noticed how people love to dish out advice when it doesn't affect them? They hold down 9 to 5 jobs, live in the rat race every day, and yet they become an expert in running a small business when you mention your ideas. And in some cases, it can be hard NOT to take their advice. Especially when its family. Here's the $1,000 you asked for. Don't worry about paying me back right away; just make sure you use it wisely. Don't put it towards that ad in the magazine you talked about - that sure was expensive. And ... The advice goes on and on. And while your loved one means well, if they've never run a small business, they don't have a clue as to what to do. Smile. Take in their advice. Thank them. And move on. In some cases they may have valid concerns. Use them when making your final decision. But if their line of thinking is way off base, don't let that influence you. You're the boss; you get the final say. Non-Paying Clients This will invariably happen throughout the life of your business. And it will happen at all levels of business. Some people will pay the initial fee, and you'll never see them again. Some won't be able to make the final payment. And of course everything in between. Make sure your policies are ready for any situation. Before you do any work whatsoever, at the minimum require a fee up front to cover your initial costs. If it's a portrait, your portrait sitting fee should cover time and costs. To book a wedding and hold the date, you should require a high enough percentage of the final package as a fee. For commercial work, your fee should cover time and any expenses you will incur while planning the photo shoot. For weddings and other shoots that are planned for some time in the future, make the fee non-refundable. As the date gets closer, you'll be less likely to replace it with a paying customer is a cancellation occurs. The non-refundable fee protects you and allows you to get paid for your time no matter what happens. And in some cases, a client will place a final order, and have trouble paying the balance off. With our wedding clients, we required one half down on all balances due at the time of the final order. The final half was due before they picked up the order. Never release an order until final payment has been made. And never place an order without some type of payment made towards the amount owed. Both will ensure you receive the funds you are entitled to. Equipment Problems When you run thousands of images through your cameras, and use lens interchangeably throughout your busy days, something will eventually go wrong. Are you prepared for the just in case situations? At a minimum, have two camera bodies with you at all times on a shoot. Bodies can fall off tripods, fall off ledges, or be stepped on by an energetic client. You can leave a body alone while you set up for the next image, only to come back and find it missing. You can pack up your equipment in your bag and head off to your next location, only to find you left your bag back at the original place. Yep, things like that happen all the time. When equipment matters, when you use it all the time, have backups of everything. You may even consider having two cases filled each with complete systems. You should also put together a system to make sure you don't leave something behind. If you have a case with individual compartments, is every space filled before you close up the bag? Taking a few extra seconds for inventory can save a lot of heartache at the other end. Computer Malfunctions Just like there is always a possibility of having your camera equipment break down at the least opportune time, your computer equipment can malfunction as well. If you need a laptop on the job, to present an order to a client, a backup may be necessary. While you may not need two identical MacBook Pros in your bag, having a spare can be of benefit. Invest in a second hand computer or a older model PC without the bells and whistles. If you use a computer non-stop in your studio for production work, consider having two. A desktop/laptop may be the perfect combination to allow you to work from your office on a larger screen, and take your work on the go when you need to. Also have a backup plan. Instead of relying on your capabilities for fixing the computer, can you find an IT specialist that you can call at a moments notice? Many IT experts can work remotely and access your computer via the Internet. And if you have a connection with someone before a problem occurs, you'll be ready when one actually does. Return Policies While our main goal for being in business is to make our customers happy, occasionally we won't. Sometimes no matter what you do, you simply won't be able to please someone. And while you can try different things, you'll eventually reach a moment when you know you'll be fighting this battle for a long time. Dig Deeper: 7 Ways To Handle The Negative From Prospects and Clients That's the moment when you stop the negotiations and offer a refund. In order to do that, you first have to decide how you'll approach that with a client. You can offer a guarantee up front, offering 100 percent refund if the client doesn't love your work. Or you can use it selectively when you have a customer you simply can't agree with. You will also need policies when someone doesn't like a final product. The biggest mistake you can make is to jump in and start offering things before you learn what the real problem is. In one case we had a client that loved her wedding photographs, but hated the images of the cake cutting. She wanted us to retake them or compensate for them - which was almost impossible. We couldn't figure out why, because they were beautiful. So we kept asking questions. And we finally discovered her step mom was in every photo in a bright pink dress and she really didn't like her step mom. We offered to soften the color of the dress so it wasn't as noticeable, and crop when we could to eliminate her. Problem solved and she was happy. You have to know how to read what your clients are really looking for, and what you can offer to diffuse the situation. Breach of Contract The reason you have a contract is to protect you from problems down the road. And while you may start out with a generic contract up front, you'll eventually add clauses to protect you as you learn along the way. For instance, a clause stating you are the sole professional photographer taking formals at a wedding can be a life saver. Charge a fee if you are interrupted too many times by amateurs. A simple reminder to the bride and groom will have them playing bad guy to their family and friends who are disrupting the event. Your contract is there to protect you and your client. Clients take photographers to court all the time for breach of contract. If they don't follow through and provide everything listed in the contract, they have the right to do so. Likewise, don't be afraid to press issues with your own clients. Sometimes a friendly reminder can diffuse a situation immediately. Have something to say? Post a comment here Social Links Latest blog stories 10 WordPress Themes Perfect For Today's Photographer Do your New Year's goals include building a new website? If so, WordPress is the perfect option for you. Dig Deeper: The 10 Advantages of WordPress For Designing Your Photography Site And while WordPress offers a ton of options to help you customize and create content to reach out to your clientele, it's also great at plug and play technology. Because WordPress is so popular, with 1 in 5 sites now being built on a WordPress platform, there are many themes you can purchase that give you instant access to a professional look and feel. And the best thing about it is all of these themes are priced under $100, so they are perfect no matter if you are a start up, or a seasoned professional. Check out these 10 WordPress themes perfect for photographers. Keep Reading>> January Madness - How To Create A Booming Start To The Year I know, you're probably swimming in holiday orders at the moment, and are counting down the days until you can take a much needed break from production. But a funny thing happens between the end of the holiday orders in December and the first of the New Year - the orders come to a screeching halt. Depending on your niche, January can be a rough month. As the bills come in from a fun-filled December, people begin to put the breaks on so they can pay off those credit cards, and bring their budgets back under control. Which means they tend to hibernate a bit more, and just do the things absolutely necessary, bypassing the extras. Instead of taking the month of January off, or sitting back with the understanding it will be a rough month, do something about it. Keep Reading>> lori recommends Have a new Kindle this year? You're gonna love these. Thanks for these condensed self-help books for photographers. Its just what I was looking for - something to take with me and read and study when I have a moment or two. Maybe you have always wanted to turn your love of photography into a full time career. And with today's economic challenges, there's no better time than now to take the plunge. If you don't want to do it alone, and want the help of a Six Figure Photographer along side of you, my Kindle/PDF books may be just what you're looking for. The Photographer's Blogging Book - is filled with information on everything from starting up a blog, which blog platform to choose, marketing tips, and successful strategies, you'll have a resource in place that will quickly guide you to what works. And more importantly, what doesn't. 30 Ways in 30 Days To Redesign Your Life With Photography - I reveal 30 steps to creating a successful business, and reveal the steps I took to create a Six Figure Photography studio in under two years. Each day focuses on a new strategy and task, helping you build a complete photography business plan along the way. Become A Top Wedding Photographer - If you've ever thought about becoming a wedding photographer, you're going to love this handy guide. I share a ton of tips on everything from starting the business, to what you can sell as extras once you have a steady clientele in place. What Do I Name My Photography Business? - This guide is designed for people just thinking about starting up a photography business. It provides answers to the top 20 questions everyone has when they are starting the planning phase and just aren't sure what to do next. From the most obvious question of What do I name my photography business? to answers on trademarking, copyrighting and even branding, its the perfect guide for anyone that is ready to make 2012 the year they make their business a success. Under $5 - Available in Kindle or PDF format - get yours today. About Andrew and Lori Andrew and Lori Osterberg are co-founders of VirtualPhotographyStudio.com, a site dedicated to providing tips, resouces and advice for using your camera to build a successful photography business. Through their coaching, workshops, training and products, Andrew and Lori show you how to break through the desire of wanting photography to be more than a hobby, and provide you with the how-to to actually accomplish it. To begin experiencing Andrew and Lori's coaching, consider their highly successful Photography For Success, Freedom and 1ncome. If you liked today's issue, you'll love following Andrew and Lori through all of their high-content training products, newsletter, and online posts. Their goal is to provide you with all you need to help you live the life others only dream of. Wed, 14 Dec 2011 16:01:43 -0500