Proven Strategies – How to have a Successful Photography Blog

Are you curious How to have a Successful Photography Blog – sharing photography blog post ideas, blog photography tips and the best blog platform for photography.  Photo blog examples are given and can help you tremendously in your photography business. 

When I started my photography business back in 2008, I was so excited about my new found passion and that I could create a business out of a creative medium.  But then I hit a plateau.  I had  photographed all of my friends and family and had no idea how I could get brand new clients for my photo business.

Secondly, how do I market my business without any money to invest in advertising. A friend suggested I follow a few blogs for photography tips but soon I found that social media and blogs were a great place to learn about marketing.

Social media was my answer because number one it was free, number two I could network with vendors online and number three I could showcase my work. I began reading and learning more about how I could get found online and  I discovered the power of blogging.

Blogging opened new doors for me to rank in Google and to showcase my brand and voice.  Many photographers view blogging as a huge hassle and have gazillion excuses why they can’t blog. Let us first tackle these excuses then share some tips how you can blog like a photographer boss!

How to have a Successful Photography Blog

Excuse #1. I have no time to blog. But is this true? Because you have time to watch cat videos, baby videos, movie trailers,and  sad videos. You may also have developed FOM’s ( fear of missing something) like missing latest drama on Facebook groups. You can carve at least half an hour or more just by spending less time on Facebook. If you are having a hard time with self discipline then install the app called Self Control which will block out certain web addresses you tell it to for a said period of time. Furthermore, with the right tools and schedule you can get your blogging game on pointe.

Excuse #2. I am not a writer, I am a photographer. I can totally relate to this one. Indeed there are some posts that if I can write 100 words,  I am lucky. Well I do struggle a bit at times but the I discovered the power of using our clients words. You can use questionnaires pre and post shoots giving you large amounts of text that you can use for blogging. If you are portrait photographer, you can ask where did they shop for their outfits, or props? Which photo is their favorite and why? Also any tips they have for other moms wanting portrait photos. If you are a wedding photographer you can ask why they chose the venue they did, what was their favorite part of the day and any advice they may have for future brides planning their wedding. You will get way more text this way then you actually writing the posts.

Excuse #3. I am new or don’t have any shoots to blog about so what do I do?  To think that your blog is only a place to talk about your work is a misconception. You need to view your blog as your home base and your voice. This is where your brand will shine but it is also where your ideal client and things they love need to shine. By that I mean there are a ton of topics you can blog about besides client work. Download this freebie blog post idea sheet here but some ideas are: Think of the top questions you get about your services and products, events in your town, show your products and process. Think about topics that your client would love and are probably looking for that information anyway.

Now lets you get you blogging like a photographer boss.

• First you need to have a pre-plan. Take yourself out for coffee and set aside at least ten minutes on the clock with note cards. In those ten minutes you will write out every blog post title/idea you have. Get some ideas from the free blog post guide and write away. Now you will have what i like to call a library of ideas.

• Secondly let us clean up your categories. When I first started blogging I treated categories sort of like tags making up cute names along the way. I thought it was way to help readers find topics but did not realize that ideally one should not have more than 8 categories. So go to your blog and check your categories. Can any be combined? Are any similar? Are any just some cute name you have created? If so, I recommend making it more a general name that new readers will understand what that categories entails and so will Google. You can also check any categories that have very little posts in them and decide where those posts will go. If you are in WordPress you go to Posts >>>> Categories then delete any category with 3 posts or less . Don’t worry your posts won’t get deleted, they just go to uncategorized.and you can then reassign to new categories.

• Set up blogging goals and schedule. Some bloggers love to commit to certain days of the week and do series so for example every Monday they  will do a post on motivation or do a Tuesday Techy post etc. After falling off the bandwagon too many times in trying to do series, I have decided to keep it simple. I have a goal of two blog posts a week. Then I made a process which is batch processing for my blogging. You can read about my process here.  You see blogging should not be open your blogging platform and just write a blog post but needs to be scheduled and organized. I write all my posts in Google docs and have different days for different things and I batch process. On writing days I just write, than on editing days I just edit and fix links. On that day i can add photos too and on publishing days i schedule out social media.

• Use great tools. A few tools to help you blog like a boss: First Google Docs because you can blog on the go or even via your phone. Secondly, a social sharing scheduling tool so you schedule out posts in an organized way. This will help focus on things that matter allowing for time to do other things you need to be working on. For me I use a paid tool called coschedule ( affiliate link) which you can read more about here. But there are free tools like Hootsuite or Buffer so you can schedule out your posts. If you use twitter I recommend you tweeting your post once a day for at least a week at different times. Then do a mini post version of your blog post on places like Instagram and Facebook. Another great tool for Photographers and blogging is Blogstomp. Blogstomp is a desktop software that allows you to watermark your images and do collages. It also has social media sharing and even SEO features making it a top favorite blogging tool for photographers.   A few other tools are plugins.  I use are Yoast SEO plugin, Facebook commenting plugin and Click to tweet plugin.

• Less is more. One big mistake I see photographers making in regards to blogging is they blog too many images. This can work against your because it can make your site lag and it will be harder to do Image SEO so what I recommend is try not to blog more than 15-20 image files ( if using blogstomp that this could be more photos because you are doing collages so one image file can have like 4 photos etc. For weddings don’t do more than 40 image files and just add a slideshow at the end of the post or link to full gallery if you want folks to see more. I know it can be hard to blog less photos but it will help your reader, client and your site. If you want to learn more about Image SEO, I have a five day free email course you can find here.

Overall blogging can be a great marketing tool for your business and it is just a matter of getting organized and intentional when it comes to blogging.

HOW TO START A PHOTOGRAPHY BUSINESS :

Part 1: How to Build Your Portfolio When Starting a Photography Business

Part 2: 7 Ways to Find New Photography Clients

Part 3: 5 Proven Strategies for a Successful Photography Blog

Part 4: How to Raise Prices in Your Photography Business

Part 5: What Photography Products to Sell to Your Clients

Part 6: Using Social Media Wisely for your Photography Business

Guest Blogger: Feuza Reis is an expert SEO strategist for creative entrepreneurs.  WEBSITE