This guest post is by Feuza Reis, a NJ Wedding Photographer, founder of the Un-Jersey Bride Blog and helps photographers and artists Get Found Online. You can follow Feuza on Twitter.

For many photographers January is the month to take care of business. We have to worry about doing our taxes, updating website images, blogging previous posts we missed, and strategizing for the new year. I think January is the perfect time to work on optimizing websites and blogs for SEO. The biggest hurdle to overcome with putting SEO into practice is lack of information, time and its complexity. SEO for some is a strange buzz word, and for others it is this painful complicated process full of difficult words and terms.

I prefer to view SEO as a practical method I can put into my workflow so that it does not control me. With that being said, it will be hard to make it part of one’s workflow if he/she does not lay out the basic principles for getting found online. Before covering how a photographer can make SEO part of their daily routine, here are 3 tips on laying the foundation to get optimized.

Follow These 4 Steps To Lay The Foundation

1) Add Text To Your Website Pages.

The easiest thing one can do right now is add a text on every page of your website with the city you city and state you live in and also which areas you are willing to service. If one visits 10 photographer’s websites, more than half leave out where their location. This makes the hunt for a photographer nearby to be rather difficult, much like finding a needle in a haystack.

Google is crazy about the local search and will give results based on where the person searching is located while they search for a photographer. Google wants to show the searcher who is available to work near their area.

So how will they know if you match that query? TEXT. Text is the main component of SEO, so be sure to add your town, state or region on your website. The actual text to add will depend on how local folks might search in that state or area: examples are the greater Atlanta area, South Jersey, NYC, Manhattan, and so forth.

Since I don’t have a studio I don’t put an actual address but for photographers who have a retail commercial space, then add your full address.

My example is as follows:

Adding a text like this may not be so appealing, but it is vital if you want to get found online. Make it small enough but not transparent. You can get black listed by Google if you do things like transparent text. If you have a fear of committing to one particular location, just add the main city you serve and that you also do destination weddings. Since Google loves text and local search, it is extremely important you add where you provide your services on your website. You can also do this on
your blog as much as possible.

2) Install The All In One Plugin Pack

Many photographers I speak to already know about this plugin BUT many have not updated their settings nor are they updating the All in One SEO box at end of their blog posts. Here are steps to install and use this great SEO wordpress plugin.

A) Install Plugin All In One SEO Pack And Enable It

B) Next Go to: All In One SEO (Options Configuration Panel)

C) Fill Out The Title, Description and Tag Words.

Be sure to update the options at the end of the page and save.

D) Many photographers think this is the last step, but it is not. At the end of every blog post, there is a section named ‘ALL IN ONE SEO.’ This section can be found all the way at the bottom past the text and photo box. Here, you can also add a title, description and some key words and you definitely should. (You should continue reading the article for more information).

3) Create A Keyword list.

Start a keyword list and save it as an excel file on google drive, or your desktop. This list will help you organize ideas for blog posts and pages on your website that you may want to add for SEO purposes. The biggest mistake photographers make is that they think like a photographer and not in the perspective of the client. Avoid trying to rank for words like session, e-session, and your studio name. The purpose of SEO is to get found by new clients and get booked. Most clients are new to hiring photographers and won’t know what any of these photography key terms even mean. Think more in generic terms like photos, pictures, pics, professional.

4) Set Up Google Alerts.

Google Alerts is a free tool by google and it helps you find out if anyone is talking about you and your business on the web. I set up a Google Alert for my name, my studio name and once in awhile a keyword name so that I can see who is being ranked for that keyword.

For more information on Google Alerts, go HERE.

SEO Every Day.

Now that you have laid the foundation for your SEO work, it is time to automate it as much as possible. SEO is ALL about text, and the best thing you can do is blog. However, you don’t need to blog as much as you may think. You do on the other hand need to optimize your blog post and promote it well.

Here is my SEO workflow:

1) Create a sample folder on my desktop which will be used to copy and paste for every shoot.

This folder has 6 subfolders: (I have changed it to include blog and slideshow together now)

2) Copy and paste the main folder for every shoot, rename it by date and name of client.
3) Backup photos onto external hard drives.
4) Import photos into Lightroom.
5) Cull the photos, choosing the keepers etc
6) Edit the images as desired.
7) Star rate #5 the images that may be used for blog post and slideshow (I clump these together because I usually choose too many and only decide which ones I am using while I am actually blogging.)
8) Filter the 5 star rated photos, which for me is usually between 60-80.
9) Rename the photos with the one main keyword I want to blog about.

Here are some examples for different keywords you can do for other types of photography:

Weddings – I like to pick the name of the venue: plaza-hotel-wedding-photos

Engagement Sessions – Either choose a state, city or name of place where you took the photos for your main keyword.

NJ-engagement-photos
NJ-engagement-photographer
Engagement-photo-ideas or pictures-of-engagement-photos (remember to think like a client and not like a photographer!)

Portraits – You can use the type of session or your city/location:

Newborn-photographer-in-NJ
NJ-newborn-photos
kids-photographer
kids-professional-photos
maternity-photographer-in-nj

Boudoir – Use more common words clients who have never had a boudoir session would use.

Sexy-pictures-NJ
NJ-boudoir photographer

Now onto Blogging:

1) Upload all the photos you want to use for your blog post.

2) Rename Title (Since we have done this in LR already skip this step)

If you use Blogstomp to watermark your photos make sure in settings, you change it to leave name of photo as is instead of the date which is default.

3) If you copy the title and paste in alt-text and or add a variation like by your photography name or town/state.

Many times, I leave this as is due to lack of time and it still works. Remember I like to keep it simple and practical. The ideal would be to be more specific and have more variation.

4) Copy this in description, but add nj photographer or add something like “photos by Feuza Reis.” as seen in example above.

5) Add a few tags, not that many because they don’t have as much weight as you think.

6) Don’t mix keywords. For example, if it’s a family shoot don’t put that you are also a wedding photographer.

7) Blog 2-3 times a month, optimizing and promoting it well. Promoting is a different topic in itself to address.

8) Last but not least, track your results. What is the poingt of doing the work if you are not measuring your efforts? Start a document and state which page of Google you are appearing for some keywords you want for yourself. Also have a tab for how many blog visitors you are having a week or month.

Track your results with statcounter.com or Google analytics. I prefer using the plugin, Google analyticator, which shows me a summary of which keywords are gettings hits on my blog right in my WordPress Dashboard.

Overall the most difficult work of SEO is laying down the foundation and installing what you need to install, but then it is done! Yes, it may be annoying to do and to keep up with, but if you are tired of not getting found online and Google not recognizing you as a photographer, taking these actions is extremely important, so don’t postpone it!

Tell us if you make content marketing and search engine optimization a natural part of your everyday workflow. If so, how?

Doug Levy is a photographer based in Ayer, MA. He shoots weddings and portraits. Check out his blog. Check out Doug’s first guest blog post about second shooting weddings. Doug will be teaching classes about his lighting techniques and the business of photography at Inspire Photo Seminars. Follow him on Twitter.

When wedding season starts to slow down, I start to look for interesting projects to shoot during the slower time of year. One thing I’d wondered about for years was the holy grail of cameras, medium format digital. Now, I should preface this with the fact that I’ve never shot medium format anything, let alone digital. My first “real” camera was a Nikon D70s in 2006 and I’ve shot exactly one roll of film since then, on my wife’s old plastic 35mm Nikon, and that took me six months to finish.

One portrait I’d had rolling around in my head for a while was to take a few minutes to introduce myself to Bob, owner of B&J Cycles, a Harley Davidson repair shop on my street. I thought a photo of Bob would be the perfect opportunity to test out a medium format system, so I called Derrick Brown at Imagelink to see if I might be able to rent a camera and back for a few days. I’ve been using Derrick’s calibration software for years, and we have a mutual friend, but despite his being just down the road, I’d never had the chance to meet him in person until recently.

When I called Derrick up he immediately invited me over to his studio, where we spent a couple hours discussing the options in the current medium format digital world, and ended with him offering to loan me a Hasselblad H2 and Phase One P25 back for a weekend. I suspect he knew I wasn’t going to be shelling out $20k+ anytime soon for a new IQ system, but that the used price of a P25 ($5,000-$6,000) was something I could probably pull off.

And it’s true, with a few months of careful budgeting, I probably could have afforded to pick up a used P25 system, and I even spent a few hours one afternoon looking around on eBay to gauge the market.

But here’s what I didn’t expect. While there were a lot of things to like about the H2 and P25 combo (1/800 flash sync, a gorgeous gigantic viewfinder, autofocus that was better than I’d expected, true 16-bit color), the back was beyond unusable to judge color, focus or exposure unless you shot tethered. It really makes you appreciate how far camera and LCD technology has come in a short time.

As 95 percent of the work I do is on location, and about 90 percent of that takes place in situations where tethering is either impractical or outright impossible, shooting the P25 was essentially equivalent to shooting film. By that I mean that you don’t know what you have until you’re back at your desk reviewing the files.

Now that doesn’t mean I had a horrible weekend with the camera, far from it in fact. I shot a couple hundred photos with it, and it’s an absolute joy to use. The ergonomics are well thought out and I managed its hefty weight quite well. The larger finder made manual focus fine tuning a breeze and the Hasselblad HC 80mm lens Derrick loaned me ranks up there with Nikon’s 200mm F/2 as the sharpest I’ve ever used. And when you do make it back to the computer, the files at ISO 50 and 100 are stunning in their depth and clarity.

This was probably an unfair comparison, to pit a camera that was at the top of the line in 2004 against my daily driver, the Nikon D4, but as someone who makes my living with my camera, I had to ask myself if my wedding and corporate clients would really see the difference between the cameras, and the answer to that is a resounding: “not a chance.”

That’s not to say that when Powerball hit half a billion dollars the week after I returned the camera that I wasn’t already building a brand new Phase system in my head (because I was), but until the current backs with their gorgeous iPhone-like screens drop into the sub-$10k used market, I’ll stick with my 35mm Nikon system.

So, will you give medium format its due? Do you work in medium format now? Chime in with a comment below. Thank you!

Today's guest bloggers are Paul & Sylvia. They are Toronto, Canada-based wedding photographers. Find them on Facebook or Twitter. You are likely to see them guest blog here as a monthly contributors. Please welcome them on board!

I think it's safe to say that most of us, despite it all, got into wedding photography or any other photography business for the same reason.  To make money. I know, I know, we are artists and we are doing this because we love what we do. This is essential, no question. You need to keep the fire stoked and the wheels turning. So what's next?  Well we all know the importance of being a good salesman, for there are many brilliant, starving artists. But where do we go from here? Well, let me tell you a little story.

When Sylvia and I started out as wedding photographers and were hungry for clients, anyone willing to sign and pay our package price seemed like a great client to us. We thought, hey, we're getting paid, filling up our calendar and maybe we'll get some referrals. We would lower the price a little too quickly just to book a new wedding and began to find that everything would always come down to price. This is not the client base we were looking for. Our clients seemed happy, but the referrals just didn't come. What were we missing? Well it was at Mystic Seminars last year that the answer presented itself like a ray of sunshine through the clouds.

The answer came when one of the speakers introduced us to “The Golden Circle”. It is a simple model on how to inspire and it is the brainchild of visionary, Simon Sinek. Here is a link to TED talk presentation. It changed everything. The model itself is simple, picture three circles set inside one another. The outside ring is “What” the inner one is “How” and the centre is “Why”. A conventional company will state “What” they do, then “How” they do it, but most never make it to “Why”. This is the approach that most of us took when we started out and sadly, it's where a lot of businesses stay. There is no emotion involved in this and lets face it wedding photography and portrait photography are all about emotion. It's simply “This is what we do, here is how you can buy it”.  

Now picture your business using the opposite approach. When you start with “Why”, you have immediately attached emotion. When Sylvia and I started implementing this our results changed almost overnight. At every consultation we showed the couple how excited and happy we were to be apart of their day, how much we loved creating new relationships and the energy level would soar. By simply showing our potential clients how lucky we felt to be doing what we do, we created a connection.

Isn't this industry all about relationships? We started to find that everybody we booked our wedding photography service were like old friends. We started regularly receiving emails after a consultation telling us how much they enjoyed talking with us and how excited they are that they were able to book us for their wedding. Yes, there is the odd couple that we don't feel the connection with and funny, they don't book. We are okay with this. It wasn't meant to be. We have found that the “shopping around for the best price” couples don't even contact us anymore. The most amazing thing we found was the referrals. We had multiple referrals from several brides immediately after the booking, before experiencing the service or before they had seen the photos! The price also seems to be less and less of a concern with couples spending more than ever.

Now, don't misunderstand, we know that there is a lot more to this game. We offer amazing service, awesome products and a fantastic experience. But if we hadn't changed how we approach our potential clients in the first place, things would be very different. Think about how you do things, are you starting with “Why”?

What is YOUR “why”? Brave enough to share it with us? Comment below!

David Beckstead is clear about one thing and that is he serves a very particular kind of client who gets what he does and loves what he does for them. I met David at Mystic Seminars some two years ago and he is slated to be back this year to present again. Like his work, he is a dynamic personality – always smiling and ready to answer questions from the audience. If you get a chance to view his images and his presentation, don't miss it.

For those who are intrigued by David's work, you are in luck. Photodough.com has on his sale his new e-book called Dynamic Wedding Photography. At $27 it is a steal. And as a bonus, you get to listen to David's presentation in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

Are you looking to kick your wedding photography up a notch this year? No, not through Photoshop actions or Lightroom presets. Those will only get you so far. If you don't have an exciting or dynamic image to work with in the first place, you are just adding to the problem using those tools. I was always taught to get the image right in the camera first. Perhaps that's “old-school” thinking, I don't know. But it has worked really well for me.

Anyway, David's e-book promises to show us,”how you can become a stylistic and creative photographer attracting clients that love what you do.” Given his style, I suspect that even as a portrait photographer you are going to learn a ton from David Beckstead.

The sale runs through the end of day on Monday, January 7th, so, don't wait. The price goes back up to $65 and I doubt the video will be a part of that option.

As always, if you buy it, read it, use it, come back here and tell me about it. I want to know what you got out of it. Perhaps we can compare notes? Feel free to comments below.

P.S. Full disclosure, you betcha those are affiliate links! I promote only the best resources for photographers.

Today's guest post is by Michael Howard, a photographer in Nashville, Tennessee. In addition to being a photographer, he is a visionary. He founded Musea, for photographers. He has also created the Musea Gatherings and produces a podcast where he interviews inspirational photographers.

Ok not ALL photography education sucks, but most of it does and that’s why I created the Musea Gatherings, to give photographic artists better education opportunities.

I’ve been a working photographer in the wedding/portrait industry for the last 10 years and I have lived through the digital boom, the textured images, the obsession with off-camera lighting at sunset, the Fong Dong, Trash The Dress sessions, Photoshop actions, Spray and Pray, pee yellow skies, WPPI, Rock Stars and the rise of wedding blogs.

Through it all, I sat back rather quietly, but I kept saying to myself, ‘Is this the best we can do as an industry?’ My answer is ‘Hell No!’ We can do much better, and I believe there is a ground swell of photographers craving something with more honesty and respect for the craft.

When I look back over the previous decade of education for wedding and portrait photographers, I see a lot of sizzle, but no substance. I see an obsession with the surface of things rather than deep, nourishing content. Sometimes you hear people say things like, ‘Running a photography business is 80% about business and 20% about making quality images.’ Sadly, there is some truth to that, but I blame ourselves more than our clients. Many photographers were taught that you just need to buy this awesome, radtacular action set to make your crappy photo look like a piece of ‘art’. Camera makers keep making it easier and easier to shoot in low light, so you don’t even have to think about that anymore. Just ‘Spray and Pray’ and throw some sexy film presets on there, and your clients will never know the difference. To all of this I say, ‘BULLSHIT!’

It doesn’t have to be like this, but this is why being a wedding and portrait photographer is often seen as the low rung on the ladder. A lot of it is very amateur and there is no respect for the history of photography, nor the craft of imaging making. The generation of photographers who has risen since the advent of digital imaging has been bombarded by vultures looking to make a quick buck off their naivete´. They have been pressured by camera companies to jump on the hamster wheel of gear acquisition. They have created this feeling that photographers need to upgrade camera bodies every 6-12 months. On top of that, we have been slapped around by new software and the idea of ‘Oh, I’ll fix that in post.’ All of these marketing tactics by camera and software creators have hindered great image making, not improved it. Today, there are more images than ever, but I don’t believe the ratio of masterful images has increased. I merely think the bar has been lowered for what’s ‘Awesome!’ and what’s not. The idea of ‘that’ll do’ rules the day and it’s hurting all of us.

Most education events are centered around the idea of more. You need more lenses, more off-camera lighting, more film-like presets, a sexier camera bag, more product offerings and more light modifiers. The big photo conventions need more attendees that don’t know anything, so they can sell more gear, gimmicks and magic bullets to them. Otherwise, they wouldn’t stay in business. The unfortunate thing is many of us have believed this lie at one point or another. We thought we could buy our way into being better photographers. We’ve said things like, ‘Oh if I just had that L lens, then I’d really be kicking some ass!’ So we go and buy that lens and realize our pictures didn’t improve at all, they are merely clearer pictures of our unchanged vision. When we buy that item that promises to be a shortcut to better images, we’ve actually hindered our growth by relying on another crutch the industry threw our way. Photographic vision isn’t found in the gear you buy, it’s found in your beliefs about the world and in hours of shooting.

All of this lead me to create the Musea Gatherings, which are centered around the idea of rethinking photography education. It’s time that we raise the bar instead of lower it. We should be taught by people that hold themselves to a higher standard and don’t have some fancy new toy to sell us, especially ones that look like Tupperware.

The Gatherings are about embracing the concept of ‘less is more.’ It calls out the lie that you need more stuff, when what you really need is less stuff. You need to edit your life, your career, your business and your portfolio much tighter. You need to cut all the dead weight, and the teachers at the Gatherings will help you do that.

We live in a world where we can do whatever we want. There are no rules, but the reality is that creativity isn’t fostered by freedom. Creativity is born out of limitations. It’s staying within a box, a set of parameters and coming up with as many solutions as possible. The content that will be taught at the Gatherings are designed to give you a set of mental parameters that you need to improve your work and business. You won’t be sold any magic bullets or snake oil, but you will be given some proven guidelines that will point you in the right direction and you’re assumptions will be challenged. We will shake you up, but also give you a tool box to improve your work and business.

Hopefully, you can come to one of the Gatherings this year to help create a better industry that is rooted in the history of the medium and holds all photographers to a higher standard of working. Even if you can’t make it to a Gathering this year, I urge you to improve your photography by educating yourself on the deep things of art and stay away from the empty promises of more gear and software. The next decade of wedding and portrait photography can be the best the world has ever seen, and I want Musea to play an important role in helping us get there!

Good morning and a very Happy New Year to you all! Thank you for making 2012 such a special year for Tiffinbox. It's with your participation that we can make this site even better in 2013. I am truly excited to tell you that Angela Pointon, whose posts you have read here in the past, has agreed to come on board as a monthly contributor. Kicking that off is this very useful post for photographers who want to rock out their market in the new year. Read it, join us, comment!

A lot of photographers get confused by marketing. They consider it in the very beginning of their business, and those considerations typically include things they know they need, such as a website, business cards and a printed price list.

However, marketing is so fundamentally rooted when done well, that if you don't think about it properly, you'll end up spending a lot of money and wondering if it really made a difference in your business. Working on your own marketing is like being a doctor. If you don't truly understand the human body and how it functions, you cannot make it work better.

STEP 1:

Understand your target market deeply and fully. Often times, I find that business owners day dream about working with a certain target market, but find themselves consumed by working with another one. Thus, it creates an unfulfilling business and a bit of a feeling of quicksand that is difficult to get out of.

When you understand who you want to target, you take the first step toward landing more business from them.

STEP 2:

Understand what makes your business different. And remember, it has to be different in the eyes of your defined target audience… the people you want to be working with. I recently wrote an entire post about figuring out how to be a different, special and unique business in the eyes of your audience.

Read more about being different here.

STEP 3:

You have to define what financial bliss means for you. This is as unique as any other aspect of your business. Figure out how much you want to make and how many bookings you have to land in order to get there. Why is this important to marketing?

Your marketing should align with the goals of your business. If you do not define your monetary goal, how can you manage to market enough to obtain it? Oh, and one more thing about defining you financial bliss… it cannot limit you. Financial bliss is not a ceiling; it is just a target that you are shooting for. Exceeding it is highly possible and therefore, should be welcomed (assuming you're willing to work harder).

STEP 4:

Create the business goals you need to achieve in order to satisfy your financial bliss. These goals could include bookings, events you want to do or anything related to your business' success in 2013. I recommend including anywhere from 2-5 big goals.

STEP 5:

Take your big goals and break them down a bit. They should become a list of key steps you need to take in order to achieve the goals. As the days progress, your list of key steps will become daily tasks. I personally use Evernote, a free web-based tool and app, to keep track of the daily tasks I need to tackle in order to achieve my big goals. Goals become easier to obtain when they're broken down to small, easy-to-do daily tasks.

The One Page Marketing Plan

I recently launched a free webinar called the One Page Marketing Plan, where I went through the five steps listed above in greater detail and provided a free template for recording all of your thoughts and ideas. Download it here for free.

Photography Marketing Academy

On January 3rd, I am launching a new educational program called Photography Marketing Academy. This simple three-session program offers you access to up to five of your photographer peers and me. Together, we'll walk through your business goals for 2013, your current marketing, and you'll leave the sessions with clear, actionable steps you need to take in order to achieve a year of your dreams in 2013.

Learn more about Photography Marketing Academy and register. Space is limited and registration will likely close the morning of January 3rd.

Scott Wyden Kivowitz is a New Jersey Photographer and the Community & Blog Wrangler at Photocrati, NextGEN Gallery and the Photographers SEO Community, teaching other photographers on how to increase business with their website.

These days, websites are so important for photography businesses. They can be used as a marketing tools, a sales tool and even an accounting tool if so desired.

WordPress is the most popular website platform among the industry, and most industries for that matter. After picking from WordPress photography themes, many photographers are looking for advice on what to do or where to go next. With WordPress being such a flexible platform for websites, it is understandable that someone can be overwhelmed at first.

This is where a new eBook comes into the picture. (pun intended) 10 Tips To Supercharge Your Photography Website contains advice from ten photographers who have done the legwork of figuring out some secrets to website success.

For example, Jamie Swanson of The Modern Tog talks about local marketing and SEO by using a website. Justin Balog, of HOSSedia, talks about using your blog as an education resource to attract clients. Brian Matiash, of onOne Software, talks about using social media to further promote your work.

Photographers in the eBook:

• Jamie Swanson
• Andrew Funderburg
• Angela Pointon
• C.C. Chapman
• Zach Prez
• Brian Matiash
• Chris Frailey
• Justin Balog
• Rosh Sillars
• Jodi Friedman

Even with the three examples and the tips from seven photographers, Photocrati has added their own advice to the mix.

“Choosing a WordPress theme is very personal, even when choosing for a business. As photographers, we are visual people and tend to lean towards more visual themes, which completely makes sense. Of course, you can pick between free and premium (paid) themes, but premium themes provide a lot of advantages.”

So as you can see there is a lot to be learned in the ebook. Did I mention it's free?

Aaron Hockley is a photographer (and speaker) in Vancouver, Washington. He downloaded a copy of the photography website eBook and sent me an email saying:

“Great tips for photographers of all sorts – whether you shoot people, artwork, or landscapes, these website strategies will apply to your site.”

So with that, I urge you to visit the eBook page and download your free copy, because it's only a few clicks away.

Look, the holidays are upon on us and it is the season of giving gifts to each other. No escaping that trip to the mall, or is there? Time to admit to yourself that some of the stuff you will receive during the holidays will be sheer junk. Right? But I am here to steer you or your well-intentioned Aunt Margie in the right direction.

You are a photographer or you are trying your hand at off-camera flash and you have no clue where to start. I have been there and totally get you. Without Zack Arias' One Light Workshop and One Light DVD I know I would have been lost. That was the first step I chose to take. The next step was to immerse myself into David Hobby's well known site, Strobist. I suggest you check it out as well.

The transition from Zack to David was a smooth one as they both preach shooting in manual mode. But when you pay $500 for a SB-900, you want it to jump through hoops for you when you want it to. To learn how to do that, one simply need to look no further than Joe McNally. TTL is like putty in his hands and I was determined to find out how he used his lights.

Wel, lucky me, in 2011 I heard that David Hobby and Joe McNally were getting on a bus and hitting a bunch of cities. While they didn't stop in Hartford, thanks to Jeffrey Snyder and Adorama, I was able to get a ticket to their Boston presentation. It was an all day event and they rocked the house with great useful information that I was excited to put to use right away.

Would you like to know what they demonstrated? Would you like to see how they each took a challenging lighting situation and solved it in front of a house full of other photographers (no pressure, eh, David and Joe?)

Yes, you can “attend” one of their presentations. Adorama has had the “Flash Bus Tour 2011 – Two Disc Set, By Joe McNally & David Hobby” on their shelves for sometime. Yes, I should have blogged about this before, but when I saw a Tweet from Jeffrey Snyder today that Adorama was selling off all copies of this awesome 2-DVD set at 50% off, I couldn't resist telling you about it right away.

So, if you or Aunt Margie is looking for a meaningful gift, send yourself or your aunt here to buy the 2-DVD set for $49.99. [affiliate link] No lie, obsessive as I am about learning from these two pioneers, I actually bought my copy of this 2-DVD set today.

I am told by Jeffrey and his colleague at Adorama, Joel Meisels, that when they are gone, they are GONE. So, are you going to procrastinate or take action? It really comes down to how serious you are about elevating your game.

Full disclosure: If you buy the DVD mentioned above, using the links in this post, I earn a small commission that helps support this website.

Black Friday has come and gone and now we turn to Cyber Monday for the very best deals for photographers. And there are a plenty of them still floating around. These caught my eye and are ones that I will be personally investing in for my business.

If you are like me and want to get a head start on 2013, then pay close attention to these offers [all affiliate links] and jump in before the clock strikes 12 am EST!

The Modern Tog offers for the first time a 6-Week Photography Marketing Bootcamp! You will learn how to get as many new clients as quickly as possible for as little money as possible.

Use the link to buy it for $29. Jamie Swanson of The Modern Tog tells me that she will only offer this as a part of another product in the Spring, when the price will be much higher. Grab it now!

Photographer Questionnaire Library is normally $49 but you can buy it for 80% off its list price when you use the code: “SuperFun” at checkout. Your final price is $9.95!

Photography Pricing Guide Workbook is normally $89 but you can buy it fo $39 when you use the code: “SuperFun”. How does saving $50 sound to you?

The Go-To Guide For Client Emails is something I use already. 100+ email templates that you can modify. This is brilliant because it saves me time. Get $50 off of this as well when you use the code: “SuperFun” in the cart. Normally $147, you get it for $97!

If there are two products from Fundy SOS that my studio depends on, they are Album Builder and Blog Collage. Get them both for 33% off only today. I just wrapped up an engagement session album in 20 minutes! Album Builder is fast, easy and precise. And it uses Photoshop, which most photographers have on their machines. Blog Collage (yes, you can include your own branding too) is phenomenal. When Andrew Funderburg showed me how it works I was totally floored.

If the name “David Hobby” is unknown to you, I won't be surprised. He sometimes goes by “Strobist” or “Mr. Strobist” for his awesome website about flash (and in particular off-camera flash) photography. That's where I learned my chops. His current offering (perhaps for the first and last time) is his DVD sets. They are priceless and I own (read = paid full price) for every one of them. Get them TODAY for $49.99. This isn't a steal, it's highway robbery, if you ask me.

From Portfolio to Profit Engine: How to Build an Absolutely Irresistible Photography Website is by Jenika McDavit of Psychology for Photographers. The title says it all. Get $30 off when you use the code: “READY2GO”. This is the guide book I am using to create a new website (using WordPress of course). If you don't know about Jenika's website, please for the love of GOD, bookmark it. Her writing is lucid and her advice spot on. If you are in the midst of rebranding (like me) or simply scrapping your website and need help with correctly setting up a new one, you want this product.

Take all the pictures you want and make them look pretty but if no one is buying well, that's because your marketing needs some help. I talked about Jamie's offering above, but this one by Zach Prez is a collection of his three best selling e-books on web marketing for photographers. You get the Photography Web Marketing Guide, Photography Blog Success and 55 Smart Web Ideas For Photographers for just $39. That's 50% off! I was offered the opportunity to pen my thoughts on how to best use Twitter in that last book. So, if you are curious about using social media or writing for your blog, definitely get them all.

Looking for ways to simplify your photo editing and post-processing? Who doesn't like to save time right? Well, the folks at Totally Rad Actions have had a Black Friday sale that they are extending through tonight. These are the same actions and presets that I use on my images. Buy RadLab for only $97 and save 35% off of everything else they offer. I use their ProRetouch (version 1 and 2) on almost all of my images for headshot portrait sessions.

One of the best online spots to learn about Photoshop and photography has to be Kelby Training. Get in on their Cyber Monday special by using the code: “CYBERMON12” You get $40 off their annual subscription. Score! If your are a NAPP member, it's an even sweeter deal.

Looking for templates to create cards or business forms for your photography business? The first place I check is Design Aglow. Right now you can get 15% off all their offerings when you “LIKE” the ProjectLife365 Facebook page. Getting ready for 2013, I am buying The Successful Studio's Workflow Assistant today. But there are oodles more for creative photographers who want to stand out from the crowd. Now, I have no idea what Project Life 365 will be all about when it launches on Jan. 1, 2013, but from what Lena Hyde and her crew do at Design Aglow, I know it will be something to keep close tabs on for sure.

I mentioned this sale before but it bears repeating, especially if you are starting out. The tutorials that Rob and Lauren Lim have put together for you are simply the best. I recommend them to all my friends and family. Yes, I do expect my family to buy in as well. They are that good. The Black Friday event runs through Cyber Monday. Don't wait. These will NEVER be discounted by 40% again (well, maybe not until next year perhaps).

As I find more of these deals, I'll keep adding to the list here. So, come back and check it out. Lastly, if you do buy any of these today, feel free to comment below. I want to know how you will be using them.

Recall why you got into photography? It was more than likely … the photography. Nothing more.

Most of us have stories of seeing our first images come up in the fixer, or for those of you who have never shot and processed film, let's just go with the LCD on the back of your DSLR cameras.

Almost no one I have met says they serve people because the business excites them.

Fact is, you need to be able to do both. Like a well-oiled machine, you have to create images your clients will be thrilled with AND have a business system in place that brings in more clients. One feeds the other and on and on.

There does come a time, though, when you realize that you are better at one over the other. True, you can outsource some of the work, but the brunt of business development still rests on you.

Amber and Eric Langlois of RAW Photo Design, a company based in Danbury, Connecticut found themselves at a fork in the road. Their clients were thrilled with the images but dismayed at how slowly they responded to emails or phone calls. I know we have all been there. Life takes over and while we do our best to prioritize, some things start to slip through the cracks that are emerging.

Instead of abandoning ship (Eric writes in his blog about “throwing in the towel”, but I like the ship metaphor so stick with me on this one), the Danbury duo decided to connect with Carla Ten Eyck, a photographer and workshop leader in the Hartford area. While she gave them suggestions as they met on a weekly basis, Amber and Eric just felt like they were still dragging their feet.

The only obvious solution to Amber and Carla was to have Carla's studio take over the business aspects of RAW Photo Design. Imagine that! The Langlois' will retain creative control over their images – shooting and post-processing (which I imagine they should outsource too), but Carla's efficient studio will essentially run the business side of RAW Photo Design.

Here's my question for Carla – where do I sign up? This sounds like a win-win for the two studios, but also a huge win for Amber and Eric's clients.

Is this the future for over-worked one or two-person studios? Will this work for you? What concerns do you have about this new business model?

Read about this transition on Carla's blog here. Eric and Amber have also written about it here.

If you have questions about this new business relationship, please comment below.