5 THINGS YOUR PHOTOGRAPHY WEBSITE MUST HAVE

Building a photography website can be tricky.  First, there's the decision on whether you want a template, a custom site, or a DIY solution.  You can certainly end up with a great site using any of these - depending on the balance between how much time you want to invest, and how much money you want to spend.  But even once you decide how to build your website, there's still the question of what to put on it.  Here's my list of 5 things every photography website MUST have.

1. YOUR NAME  

Even if your business uses a name other than your own, somewhere on your website, people need to know who YOU are.  Wedding Photography is personal, and people want to know who the man (or woman) is behind the curtain.  Even if your business isn't solely based on your personality, people still want to know the faces, and names of the real-life people behind it all.

2. YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS AND PHONE NUMBER

Did you know that having a contact form isn't the same as providing your email address?  Sure, it goes to your email - but the experience is different.  I also know it's easier for you if people complete the form, and if you have a form - most people will contact you that way.  At the same time, there's really no good reason to not provide an email address.  What if I want to contact you but my question doesn't fit into your form.  What if I'm already a client, and I have a question - do you really want me filling out your lead form?  Make it easy for people to contact you.  

By the way, you should also provide a phone number.  If you're not super-excited about random people calling your home phone, or your cell phone, get a google voice number.  Not only is it free, but when people leave you a voicemail, it transcribes it and sends it as a text or email.  You can also set up where you want your calls to forward.  My business number is set to ring at my office during business hours, and to my cell phone when I'm out.  In the evening, it's simply set to go to voicemail.   

3. WHERE YOU ARE LOCATED

I was just looking at a photographer's website to see where they were from, and NOWHERE did it even give you a clue where they were located.  Not a single clue.  In fact, on this website - it wasn't even in the metadata!  If your goal is to generate leads, why on earth wouldn't you want people to know where you're located?! 

I know the arguement - "I want to be available for people anywhere, so I don't want list my po-dunk little town I live in cause then they won't contact me."  You're right.  They won't.  More than 98% of weddings are shot by someone local.  And most of the rest are shot by someone the bride and groom had a previous relationship with.  It basically NEVER happens that someone will randomly google for photographers, find your site, and hire you regardless of where you are.  It doesn't happen.  Never mind that you're totally screwing your chances of being found on google anyway if you don't list your city!  

You don't have to list your address (especially if you work from home), but at least tell us what city you're in!

4. INFORMATION ABOUT YOUR PRICING

Do you know why people look at your website?  Sure, they want to see your photos - but if they're interested in hiring you, they want to know two things - "are you available?" and "how much do you cost?"  While it's harder to answer the first question without constantly updating a calendar on your website, you can make it easy for people to conact you (see above).  

As far as the second question, I've written before about how strongly I feel that you should list information about your pricing on your website.  While I don't think you need to list every package, and every print price, I DO think you need to give people the information they want.  They want to know if you're even in their ballpark.  Do you charge $2,000 or $20,000.  Don't waste their time and yours, by making them contact you and scheduling a meeting to find out.  

At a minimum, list your starting price, and/or a range.  For example; "our wedding commissions begin at $3500, and most of our clients spend between $4,000 and $5,500 for a complete collection including a handcrafted album"  You can spend your time responding to unqualified leads all day, and you can kid yourself into thinking that you can talk that $2,000 budget into spending $5,000 but more often than not, that time would be better spent investing in your ideal client.

5. YOUR BEST WORK

 And only your best work.  In fact, you should probably leave off a lot of your best work.  Your website should only include your best work that represents the type of client you want to book.   What you choose NOT to show says as much about your brand, as what you choose to show.  Your website should only contain your A+ work, even if it means you show less photos.  As soon as you start showing work that is off-message, or work that isn't your very best, you start to dilute your brand and lower the impression of your artistic value.

Your turn - what do you think?  Leave a comment below and let me know what every website MUST have (and what to avoid). 

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"THAT'S OUR POLICY"

Principles and policies exist to create barriers.  Sometimes barriers are a good thing.  Sometimes they help keep bad things from happening.  For example, the nurse asks you for you name and birthdate, and confirms your wrist band before giving you medication.  The policy is designed to prevent the wrong medication from going to the wrong person - which could certainly be very bad.

In fact, in a hospital, that type of poilcy is what is known as a "red rule."  Red rules are policies that cannot be broken for any reason because someone could die.  These are the policies that, though they might be inconvenient, are important enough to stick to, no matter what.  You don't get to take a baby out of the nursery without a matching ID band, no matter what.  

On the other hand, there are "blue rules."  These are policies that are important, but if you break one, no one dies.  "Only one visitor at a time."  Sure, this policy is important, and there's a good reason it exists.  But it's a "blue rule," and breaking it isn't likely to result in an immediate crisis.

The problem with many businesses is that we have a lot of BLUE rules that we treat like RED rules.  Certainly you've experienced this somewhere:

 - There will be a $0.25 charge for extra BBQ sauce.

 - If you'd like to pay cash for your gas, you must come inside and pay first.

 - You can't return this without a receipt

I wonder how our clients feel when they hear:

 - There will be an additional $25 charge for each additional person in your portrait session.

 - If you want to contact me, you have to use the form on my website only.

 - I have a clause in my contract that if anyone else dares to take a photo at your wedding, I walk.

These policies all exist to help a photography business operate more efficiently and effectively - but none of them are RED rules.  When we treat them like they are - no one wins.  Not the client, not the business, and not us.  It doesn't mean you shouldn't have policies - you absolutely should.  It does mean that it's worth considering some policies can be bent or broken, and no one will die.

Except maybe our ego.

What do you think? When is it okay to break your own rules?

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STARTING A PHOTOGRAPHY BUSINESS

There is nothing "easy" about building a business of any type - photography or otherwise.  There's no 10-step plan, no business-in-a-box kit you can buy, and no workshop you can take to guarantee you'll have a successful business.  Even still, human beings are drawn to the appearance of success.  We're attracted to the idea that anyone can be an overnight success.   In reality, there are no overnight success stories - there are only "years of hard work" stories.

In fact, you want to know a secret?  Almost every uber-succesful business is the result of two things: a TON of hard work, and a little bit of luck.  You can't plan for luck - you can only work really hard so that if you happen to stumble across luck - you're ready.

Even still, so many people seem to think that it can be distilled into 10 steps.  There are a lot of people that believe that starting a photography business is easy.  If that's you, here's my suggestions  These aren't sexy. These are just 10 things you should do before you even think about starting a photography business.

1. PRACTICE PHOTOGRAPHY.  Practice a lot.  Practice on your friends.  Practice on your dog.  Practice on your kids.  Take a class, better yet, take two.  Take pictures constantly.  Take at least 20,000 photos for free before you even think about calling yourself a pro. Learn about exposure, composition, color, and depth of field.  I don't care if you shoot film or digital, but shoot until you burn up a shutter.  Then, get a new one and shoot some more.

Make photographs.  Experiment.  Do crazy things with your camera.  Learn what it can do, and push the boundaries.  Look through photography books and learn how the legends make their shots.  Then go out and take more photographs - at least 10,000 more.

2. FIND SOMEONE TO APPRENTICE WITH.  Second shoot a few dozen weddings.  Seriously.  There's no better way to learn than to learn with someone who has experience.  Find a respected photographer and work your tail off.  Carry their bags around and set up light stands.  Learn how they approach a wedding, how they handle formals, how they manage their clients, and how they create incredible photographs.  

I still second shoot a few weddings every year because it's the best way I know to experiment and practice things I can't always do at my own weddings.  Even once you've mastered your camera, that doesn't mean you'll have a clue what to do when you show at a high-stakes, high-energy, high-emotion event like a wedding.

3. GET A REAL JOB.  You know, the kind that pays your bills.  It's unlikely that your photography business will support you for the first 2 or 3 years (if you're lucky).  With that in mind, get a job - or keep the one you have.  For whatever reason, photographers seem to be eager to quit whatever job they have that puts food on the table.  They are in a rush to jump off a cliff and hope that they suddenly figure out how to fly.  How on earth does that make sense?  Do something to make money - you're going to need it if you're serious about starting a business.

4. SAVE AS MUCH CAPITAL AS YOU CAN.  Put 3-6 months of living expenses in a savings account before you "launch" your business.  Only purchase gear when you can afford to pay cash - and build up your gear as you go.  There's no reason to go into debt.  After all, the average photographer spends $5K in gear a year.   If you put that on a credit card, the average american will end up paying $7-$9K to pay off that gear over 8-10 years.  By then, 95% of photographers will be out of business, paying off gear that's only worth pennies on the dollar.

Buy your gear with cash, but get good gear.  If you're shooting a wedding, you better have at least 2 solid bodies, a wide, normal, and tele prime or zoom lens, a pro grade flash, and multiple pro quality memory cards.  That's not cheap.  You can do it without going into debt, but you're talking about a pretty serious investment.

5. HIRE AN ACCOUNTANT.  You're starting a business, for crying out loud!  You're about to make one of the most significant financial decisions of your life - and you think it makes sense to do it without the expertise of someone who knows how to keep track of your money?  Who cares about what new lens to buy if you don't even know if you can afford it.

6. GET A LAWYER.  For all the same reasons as you need an accountant.   This is a HUGE decision you're making and you want to be sure you set your business up in a way that protects you from liability.  Why on earth would you just use someone else's contract?  Why on earth would you just make one up yourself?  It seems like no big deal until you get sued, realize you had a weak contract, and discover that as a sole proprietor, all of your personal assets are now at risk.  Your bank accounts, your home, your life savings - everything.  All so you could save a few hundred - or thousand dollars.

(you're still practicing your photography right?  You're still second shooting right)

7. DEVELOP A PLAN. How are you going to get clients?  What's your marketing strategy?  Yes - your network is a great place to start.  But how are you going to leverage that to build a sustainable business?  Who are the clients you want to work with - and how are you going to get in front of them?  Are you going to advertise, do bridal shows, have a website?  Write down your plan to market your business.  

As you develop a plan, ask yourself why - of all the things you could do with your life - why are you choosing this?  Does running a small business fit into your life?  Will it provide for your family?  Will it help you have the kind of life you really want?

8. CREATE SYSTEMS.  The average photographer spends 15-20 hours a week on editing, and another 15 on administrative tasks.  Neither of those make you any money.  Before you start taking clients, figure out how you're going to organize your processes.  Develop a workflow, build a relationship with a lab, decide on products and WRITE IT ALL DOWN.  This way you can spend your time doing things that make you money - instead of reinventing your workflow for every wedding.  For many photographers, it makes sense to outsource most of the non revenue generating tasks of your business, including your editing, album design, production and even bookkeeping.

(keep making photographs.... lots of them... practice as often as you can)

9. LEARN ABOUT SALES A large part of what you do with your time will be sales.  When you meet with clients - that's sales.  When you conduct viewing sessions - that's sales.  If you're going to make any money doing this - that's sales.  If you are terrible at sales, read books (by Jeffrey Gitomer or Neil Rackham to start) or take classes.  You might even consider hiring someone to help with this aspect of your business.

10. KNOW YOUR NUMBERS. You hired an accountant - listen to what they tell you.  Know how much it costs you to be in business.  Understand your fixed expenses vs cost of sales expenses.  Know how these relate to profitability.  You are a business owner - ACT LIKE ONE.  Be intelligent and do the hard work when you create your pricing.  For some solid help - read the PPA Benchmark Survey.  Rationalize your pricing, understanding what it takes to compensate for your time.  Know how to create packages, how to move people to action by pricing, and what your margins are.  

Many photographers just make stuff up when it comes to pricing, and the end result is - they don't make any money.  Often they don't even know they aren't making any money until they do their taxes. Ask your accountant to set up your chart of accounts and use managerial accounting practices.

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You know what, I could easily give you 10 more steps before you start a photography business.  If you do these 10 things, there's still a pretty good chance that your business might fail.  Do you love photography and love creating something of value for people?  If so, than maybe it's worth it to give it a shot.  You probably won't get rich (contrary to popular belief), but you can do something you love - with purpose.  

What about you - what else would you add?  Leave your steps below...

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