Monthly Archives: February 2018

Top 100 Australian Photography Blogs

Thank you Beyond Here readers. Beyond Here has been ranked in this list of the Top 100 Australian Photography Blogs. Thanks to you for reading Beyond Here, and for sending in your questions and comments.

I’m not sure how many Australian Photography Blogs there are, but being ranked in the top 100 feels good. Beyond Here is ranked at number 87. We have plenty of room to move up in the rankings next year!

Beyond Here has ranked in the Top 100 Australian Photography Blogs

I encourage you to check out the blogs on the list. Australian photographers are doing fascinating work and reading these blogs will give you insight and ideas for your own work. Are you are into wedding, new born, or family photography? If so, you are extra lucky. There are numerous blogs on the list in those genres.

I’ve been through the full list of the Top 100 Australian Photography Blogs. I didn’t visit every blog, but I did check out a lot of them. Interestingly, Beyond Here is the only one on the list focused on the business side of photography. Does that mean we can be the self proclaimed Number 1 Australian Business Photography Blog?!

Where to from here?

Starting 2018 I’ve set several objectives for further improving Beyond Here. These include:

More frequent posts. As the Top 100 Australian Photography Blogs list indicates, Beyond Here has been publishing an average of 2 posts per month. I’m aiming to increase that to 4 posts per month.
More emphasis on featured photographers. I find the featured photographers session interesting as it gives me insight into what other photographers are doing. It takes a lot of effort to organize and that’s why there haven’t been many posts to date! Look out for an increase in 2018.
Keep gear guides to a minimum. There are many good photography gear websites and blogs. Beyond Here is not one of them! I like to post about new or interesting gear from time to time, but am conscious that our focus is the business side of photography.
Share the journey of Melbourne Stock Photos. In January 2018 I launched an image library featuring lifestyle images of my home town. I see photographers setting up image libraries as a real alternative to the small returns offered by the major players in the microstock industry. I’ve had lots of questions about Melbourne Stock Photos already this year, and have committed to sharing the ups and downs of that journey.

I hope you will find plenty of content that is relevant to you and your business. (That way we can feature higher up the list of the Top 100 Australian Photography Blogs next year!) Thanks again for being a reader of Beyond Here. If you have specific business issues you would like addressed by Beyond Here, please add a comment to this post or send an email. Thank you.

Potential Markets When You Are Starting a Photography Business

Last week I was contacted by a photographer who had been reading Beyond Here. She had received some inquiries in her local community, and had local businesses re-sharing her social media content. We had a brief exchange of emails which has led to this post – Potential Markets When You Are Starting a Photography Business.

The photographer who contacted me was doing some studies to help her with the business side of photography (great idea!). Her initial question for me was about pricing.

That’s a very broad question as there are all sorts of different customers with different budgets (I wrote a post about this called Find The Right Clients). It’s also a hard question to answer without really knowing the photographer, her work, or the market she hopes to address.

There is opportunity in the faces and the places of your region

Let’s look at what I do know. The photographer lives outside a main city in an attractive coastal location. She has a diverse and interesting range of landscape and lifestyle images from her local area. She has done some work for a local luxury accommodation provider. Given that information, here are some potential business opportunities for this situation.

Business Opportunities

There are lots of potential markets when you are starting a photography business. Below are some immediate ideas. My suggestion would be to experiment with several and decide what suits you and your work. Not everything will be a success, but finding your own way forward is part of the excitement of running a successful photography business.

Opportunity 1 – Sell Prints to the Luxury Accommodation Provider.

Accommodation businesses are great to speak to about prints. They need prints for their rooms, and having a range of local images can enhance their guests experience. As a photographer it is attractive as the luxury accommodation provider will likely order at least one for each room plus more for their shared spaces. Keep in mind they won’t order 40 of the same print. Make sure you have a range of images of the local environment.

Opportunity 2 – Talk to the Accommodation Provider about online images.

Nearly all businesses need quality images for their online use. I would start by researching the accommodation providers website and social media accounts. Then I would approach them to shoot images of the property for use in both. Website images is often a once a year job. Images for social media can be ongoing regular work.

Businesses, as well as individuals, can be your clients. The costs are going to be an expense to the business, so likely can be offset against their income for tax purposes

Opportunity 3 – Shoot images for Local Tourism Body.

Tourism bodies need a regular supply of high quality images to help them promote the region. In my experience, big organisations promoting tourism for big cities or large regions are less inclined to engage with an individual photographer. Smaller regional tourism bodies on the other hand love to deal with local people. Local people know the area and can be relied on. I’d suggest she gets her current portfolio in front of the local tourism body. From there she can start a conversation about helping to promote the local area.

Opportunity 4 – Shoot Images for other Businesses

Again, because nearly all businesses need images for their websites and social media use, there is lots of opportunity to shoot images for businesses. Local people like dealing with other local people, particularly in regional communities. I’d suggest this photographer has the potential to approach other businesses and see if she can help them with their image needs.

Pricing can be tricky. Have you considered deciding on your price and then looking for customers in that price range?

Opportunity 5 – Sell Images as Stock

The photographer who contacted me appeared to have a relatively large existing portfolio. If that is the case she could upload several hundred images to micro stock sites to get started in stock photography. Keep in mind that stock images of a major city are going to have a bigger market than a regional town. She lives in a regional area so her stock portfolio is likely to have a limited market unless she can produce generic images.

There are 5 immediate business opportunities for this photographer as she starts out in business.

For more resources for starting a photography business please see:

Thanks for reading Potential Markets When You Are Starting a Photography Business. There are lots and lots of potential markets when you are starting a photography business so don’t be limited to just these five! Happy shooting!

qHero Stats Feature

Since early 2017 I have been using qHero to upload images to iStockphoto. It is a very easy to use application (and it also makes the key wording process straight forward). In February 2018 they have announced 2 enhanced features. The first is that they now offer a retouching service. To me, that was interesting but it is not a service I plan to use. And this week they have announced a qHero stats feature.

Now the qHero stats feature is very interesting! Regular readers of Beyond Here and iStock contributors will know that providing good reporting has been lacking on iStock for several years now. (It seems strange that 10 years ago when I first started contributing to iStock you could tell in real time what was selling. 10 years on and now the contributor only finds out at the end of each month what has sold.) That’s not a great experience for a contributor and is one of the reasons why I dropped iStock exclusivity.

The qHero stats feature is a big help in analyzing the performance of my iStock files

The qHero stats feature doesn’t provide real time stats, but it is very easy to use and does provide useful information.

How to set up the qHero stats feature?

Step 1 – you need to be a qHero user. If you aren’t already, set up your free account on qHero.
Step 2 – at the top right of the screen is an option to choose stats, profile or logout. Click on the stats options.
Step 3 – you are now in the qHero stats feature. In the top left is a button to “upload sales reports”. These are the reports which you first need to download from Getty Images ESP site. It is a very simple process to download the text file from ESP (under My Performance / Royalties / Export). Save it somewhere on your PC, and then upload the text file to qHero. It is that simple – it took me less than 5 minutes to do that for all data since beginning of 2017.
Step 4 – you are now set up with your sales data in the qHero stats feature. Easy.

If I upload my shoots in batches I can tell at a glance how each is performing using qHero stats feature

What does the qHero stats feature tell me?

The qHero stats feature immediately calculates from your data – the number of downloads, and then provides analysis for each batch you’ve uploaded. That includes the $ return per batch, return per file, and return per download. Reports are available for ‘all time’, ‘last month’, ‘this year’, and you can also create custom reports.

At a glance the data tells me immediately:

What is selling and what isn’t
How much I’ve earned from an individual batch
Which batch is earning higher or lower amounts

And that insight immediately helps me to focus on producing the type of content which is producing the best returns. Nice!

qHero stats feature is a step forward in service for it’s users

Any weaknesses of the qHero stats feature?

I’ve just started using this feature and I see immediately:

the data is split by files uploaded using qHero and ‘other’. If you have always uploaded using qHero this is great as all your data will be available to analyse. I’m a long term iStocker and most of my files were uploaded before qHero existed. So only my more recent files have the useful stats of this feature
if you are not a qHero user this is no good to you! So if you were considering using qHero the qHero stats feature is another plus for it.

In summary:

I like the qHero stats feature! It provides immediate insight into the financial return of each shoot, and helps me to focus on producing images with the highest likelihood of a strong financial return. Well done qHero!

Use Events to Drive Business

I often hear photographers discussing (or complaining!) that they don’t have enough paying clients. My response is to ask what they are doing to generate more business. And generally the response is a blank stare which implies ‘isn’t my website and social media presence enough to have people knocking down the door?’ No, it’s not. People have lots of pressures on their time and money – and will only shoot with you if you give them a compelling reason to do it now. There are many ways to drive additional business. One way is to use events to drive business. Read on!

Special events drive sales of stock images

What do you mean events?

By events, I mean special occasions. Demand for a range of products and services picks up very predictably when these events occur. Let’s take an example. What do you think happens for sales of chocolates and roses every February? They boom just before Valentine’s Day! And they boom just before Valentine’s Day every year! It’s predictable.

How can you take advantage of that? Have you considered offering a couples shoot before Valentine’s Day? Or sell a gift voucher for the couple to shoot with you after Valentine’s Day? Do you get the idea? You use the event to create a reason for the shoot to happen now.

Want More Examples?

Regular readers of Beyond Here will know I shoot a lot of stock photography. Do events help sales of stock images? Yes! A resounding yes! Here in Australia there is a peak in sales of Australian themed images just before Australia Day at the end of January.

How do I capitalize on this? I shoot Australia Day themed images in October and November, and have them available in my stock portfolio by early December. That’s almost 2 months before Australia Day and ready for the increase in demand.

And there are lots more events during the year which drive similar spikes in demand. Think about Valentine’s Day, Mothers Day, Fathers Day, and your national holidays. Could you use events to drive business? I’m sure you could. It just requires a little planning and a compelling reason for clients to have the shoot now.

How can family photographers take advantage of this?

Lots of photographers specialize in families and portraits. Here’s how I recommend you make the most of events.

Got a national holiday coming up. Can you use events to drive business?

Events Specific to Your Clients

Once you have a client base you can generate your own ‘events’ by focusing on key moments for your clients. What are some examples? Your clients anniversaries and birthdays are obvious places to start! If you have a gap in your shooting schedule, contact a client who has a birthday next month and offer them a special for a shoot plus prints in time for their birthday.

Even better is when you have remembered your clients children’s birthdays. Offering a tailored shoot on the kids birthdays will show your clients you care (and really listened!) and can offer something unique to them.

Events Which Apply to ‘the Market’

If you don’t have an existing client base to tap into, use events which have broad appeal.

How about special family packages:

for families right before school starts
during the school holidays
for kids birthdays
before Christmas

These are all straightforward ways to use events to drive business. If you are waiting for clients to contact you because you have a great website and post regularly to social media – you may be waiting a long time. Grab the initiative and use events to drive business.