This is a guest blog by Boston-based photography consultant, Selina Maitreya.

For months many photographers have been laying low, few of them actively marketing citing financial setbacks and slow economic times. However proactive photographers have been working on their portfolios, updating databases, sending out direct and visual email and going on sales calls.

Who’s going to be in the running when the assignments start rolling in? My guess would be our proactive friends. No surprise there.

If you chose to cut back on your sales and marketing efforts in the last months or even years, NOW is the time reboot your business. Here is my checklist (in order) that you can use as a reference as you seek to re-charge your efforts.

VISUAL PRODUCT: Your body of work is your product. Make sure you have a deep body of work 25-40 images that represent your visual approach to your subject area. Go back and make sure all examples are current, and applicable to your vision. Edit and repaginate.

DATABASE: When was the last time you used your database? If it’s been a while, check with your provider and restructure your contact list. Make sure you have enough contacts for your outreach efforts (direct and visual email) to show a healthy return (1000-1500 names). If you don’t have a list. Invest in one. Contact AgencyAccess.com. They have a super team.

Develop Sales and Marketing Tools:

1) Get a print book fill it with the same images that is in your main web gallery and use it.

2) Choose locations 1 hour North, South, East and West of you and choose 75-100 contacts from your database and create an in person sales call list.

3) Set a goal for yourself for appointments you need to have per month and get going.

4) For my wedding folks your numbers for contacts will be smaller but if you look to see function hall contacts, wedding planners etc. you should have lots of in person leads.

5) Develop inexpensive post card mailers and plan on sending one every other month.

6) Develop and plan on sending out emails on month’s direct mail does not go out.

Social Networking:

If you have been a bit intimidated by social networking or only communicating with other photographers get your self-educated about the use of Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn as business applications. These helpful contact tools cost nothing but your time and attention.

I’ve given you what may seem to be a very large task, but if you take these suggestions one at a time and facilitate them you will be in great shape when the economy turns, and my wish is that it turns in your favor!

Follow Selina on Twitter, connect with her on Facebook and or LinkedIn. She is also the producer and voice behind The View From Here, an audio (MP3) program for photographers. If you found Selina's post here useful, you are going to LOVE The View From Here. Simply use “FOSSES” when you check out, to get it for $199 $99! (Yes, that's an affiliate code)

This is a guest post by Hemant Naidu, an emerging photographer based in Saskatoon, Canada.

About six months ago I had a thought of entering the professional photography scene. Call me stupid, but that idea started to blossom into something more than just something in my head. The thought of shooting professionally has been a dream of mine for sometime, but I just never could get over that hump to make it a reality. Did I really want to run a business, something I didn't really know much about despite having a business degree? And being thirty-five with a wife, a mortgage, two dogs, and a baby on the way, did it really make sense to think about starting a business?

Diving In

After answering “yes” to those questions there was still a few other questions that kept running through my mind. The first was whether I was even good enough. I think this is a question that all photographers struggle with throughout their career and I'm pretty sure that it's an impossible questions to ask. It wasn't that I didn't have confidence in my work, but I would always find myself trying to compare my shots to other photographers in the area. I had to make a conscious effort to stop doing this and to just trust that I was in fact “good enough”.

Is It Just A Job?

The second question that worried me slightly was whether I would lose my passion for photography if it became a job. Just because you love something as a hobby doesn't necessarily mean that it is a going to be a good career fit for you. It took me a while to realize that if I let this fear stop me from giving it a try I may end up robbing myself of a career that I have dreamed about.

As much as I wanted to pursue a career in photography I did want to minimize my risk as much as possible. I currently work as an Agile Team Lead for a software development company which involves me managing a group of programmers. I enjoy the job greatly and welcome its challenges so keeping my day job for now is not a problem. The thing is that if I start to see a significant increase in my photography contracts I am going to become incredibly busy very fast. I often think about the logistics of managing a full time job, a part-time photography gig, and a family life.

The “2 Year Plan”

Despite all of these fears I decided to take the plunge, and got the ball rolling on setting up a small business. Who would have thought that after all of the complicated paperwork that would be the easy part? With the business now set up I had to devise a way to get my name out there. Even though Saskatoon, Canada isn't a massive city it still has a fairly competitive photography industry with a huge range of talent. It was at this point that I really started to think about my “2 year plan” and how I was going to set myself apart from other photographers in the area.

It's All About WOM

It seemed to make most sense for me to rely on word of mouth marketing. If I could leverage the people I already knew to get the word out I was sure that opportunities would start to materialize. I found the book “Word of Mouth Marketing” by Andy Sernovitz to be an invaluable source in planning a word of mouth marketing campaign. If I wanted people to talk about me I would need to give them interesting things to talk about, meaning that I needed something unique to set me apart from the rest of the crowd.

Something I noticed in my market was the relatively low use of social media outside of Facebook. Twitter is very popular in Saskatoon, but seems to have been adopted by only a small amount of the photographers. I was already an avid Twitter user from a personal perspective, but I thought it was important to also manage an account for my business. I put a lot of importance in using Twitter as a marketing tool and have been slowly creating a group of followers, while also trying to connect with local photographers, and some heavy hitters in the industry. Because my network is still relatively small, Twitter gives me a unique opportunity to reach far more people, in a shorter amount of time, and with much less effort than traditional networking.

Going Fusion

I also see an opportunity to be one of the first photography studios in the area to take advantage of the convergence of photography and video with the new DSLRs. From what I can tell the fusion of these two formats is few and far between in my market. I understand that utilizing and producing quality video with these cameras is not trivial, but I am definitely up to the challenge. It is still breaking in here and I would love to be the one that leads the way.

Other Challenges

Despite moving past my three main fears I mentioned earlier (or at least learning to cope with them) there is another topic that I continue to struggle with. I understand that there is a lot of discussion about so-called “Uncle Henry's” and “weekend warriors” coming into the scene, undercutting professionals, and devaluing the profession. This is the last thing I want to do and I certainly do not want to be viewed this way by established pros in Saskatoon. My desire is to have them view me as a colleague as opposed to an enemy, and I am doing all that I can to ensure that I go about establishing my business in the proper manner.

Pricing Strategy

I think like many new photographers in the industry finding a reasonable pricing strategy is a source for many headaches. I know it has been difficult for me, and has caused me to constantly evaluate and compare it to others. It's hard to measure one's skills and put a price on it, but it still needs to be done. I have found resources online such as goingpro2010.com and photofocus.com to be invaluable in helping me in this area. For now I am comfortable with my pricing structure based on what I see other new “responsible” photographers in the area charging. Despite this I can't help but always have that idea in the back of my mind that someone out there is cursing me as that darned weekend warrior. All I can do ensure that I am putting out quality work and providing a pleasant experience for my clients. Hopefully that will speak for itself.

Chugging Along

It has been about five months since Naidu Photography was officially registered as a legal business and I've spent the majority of my time networking, building and tweaking a concrete business plan, trying to facilitate a word of mouth marketing campaign, and getting my head around the accounting nuances that come with the territory. Sure I've had shoots which have been fabulous, but now I am really starting to see what I've heard so much about running a photography business – it's twenty percent photography, and eighty percent business management. Fortunately this hasn't stopped me from driving forward, but has only made me hungrier to get this business off of the ground and flying.

I welcome your comments below! Tell us what challenges you have faced when starting your business. What would you like to learn from other emerging professional photographers?

This is a guest post by Scott Wyden Kivowitz, a portrait & landscape photographer from New Jersey. He works in the repair industry for the extended warranty company Mack Camera & Video Service.

I love photography.  It is my passion.  But if you're like me then you have a full time job and shooting is on the side. With that said, I don't have the advertising funds to promote photography work.  The money I make from shooting helps pay my bills and that is about it.

So what can a person do to get customers without advertising?  Good question. Social media is one way.  With Twitter, Facebook, Flickr and so many websites growing daily social media websites is the easiest way to get your name out there. But you can over do it. Social media is a learning experience as well as a promotional tool.

If you tweet too much, you could loose followers.  If you share too much on Facebook you will loose fans.  If you post horrible photos on Flickr you will loose viewers.  But if you learn from your mistakes you can get them all back.

So here are some simple tips to help you grow your brand, get your name out there and develop your photography skills.

Talk to people; learn from other photographers.  Don't be afraid to ask questions, meet up and shoot, join conversations, comment on other peoples work and also ask for constructive criticism on your work.

Start a Facebook fan page. Share your work, links and helpful advice for your fans. Be creative and not spammy.

Share new photos on Flickr.  Tag and title them correctly, then spread the word.  If you share them they will come.

So now you're sharing, growing your brand and on your way.  All for free right? There are buyers, models, couples and all types of potential customers checking out your work. You're not over doing it so you don't push anyone away… right?! You're listening to your friends, fans and followers.  If they tell you to stop tweeting so much, or to stop tweeting useless things, make sure you pay attention. As your brand grows you must grow with it.

While you're doing all this social media stuff, you should also be posting on your blog.  BLOG??? If you don't know what a blog is by now you need to learn quick and get moving on it.  Actually, you're currently reading a blog.  How about that! Blogs by nature attract search engines. Wait, isn't that free advertising?  Sure is baby!

On your blog you should be writing and sharing photography. You don't need to write a long winded article like this one, but keep it consistent.  Keep the articles flowing and build your brand.

Potential customers might read your blog and say “Wow this dude posts new photos from each event he shoots and they are awesome!” or maybe even “I want him to shoot our wedding”.  I mean, that's what I thought when I first saw Seshu's documentary wedding photography!

Again, keep the blog posts flowing and be consistent but don't overdue it.  If you post too much useless stuff it will push people away.

Now you're brand is growing still and you haven't spent a dime on advertising. Isn't that something?

So what about getting the gig?

That's where all of your hard work at sharing, writing, etc.. comes in to play.  As long as you do it right and share great work, customers will come.  The past few months have been busy for me shooting paid gigs.  However along the way I needed to shoot many charity gigs or trade for CD gigs.  We have to do what we have to do.  But the key is to keep shooting, keep sharing and keep loving photography.

Do that and the customers will come.  As Gary Vaynerchuk says in his book by the same name, go on and “Crush It“

As a documentary wedding photographer, each November as the wedding season in the US winds down, my thoughts swing to the next season and whether I will meet my target of 25 weddings per year.

One of the best books ever written about being booked solid is by Michael Port, called Book Yourself Solid. I recall reading it cover to cover, taking notes along the way and paying attention to the steps Michael outlines to have a thriving business. In addition to being an author, Michael is a speaker and educator.

So, when Michael speaks or emails me something, I sit up and take notice. A recent note from him introduced me to his new Booked Solid University. It's his “entire lead generating, client producing, business building, book writing, product creation, book yourself solid (and beyond) systems and programs” as a business coaching program online.

I signed up as an affiliate because I feel his message, his methodology and his means are all sync with how I would like to learn about creating, sustaining and elevating my photography business in Connecticut. And I bet you will enjoy his course as well.

Please come back here and let me know what you think about the course in the comments section. Your feedback is always valuable not only to me but to others who may be reading this blog regularly as well. Thank you!

You've got literally 7 seconds to capture your audience on your website. Do you hook 'em or do you flick 'em?

Tyler Garns heads up Think Big Art, a company that's sole goal is to help photographers like myself market our services better to our clients. He is currently developing a photography marketing course called OVER[Exposure].

To be fair and open, I must tell you that I have entered into a partnership with him because what he has developed so far is rock solid information that I have found to be very useful for my documentary wedding photography business. What I am about to present to you has affiliate links but let that not deter you into at least checking this out. I think it is amazing that Tyler has come up with a tool to assess your website.

The tool allows visitors to look at your site for 7 seconds only and then give you feedback on the message that you're conveying. I think you'll be shocked at the results! Try it now!

The 7-second Test

Every time someone takes the 7 Second Test and reviews your site, you'll get an email with their feedback (the emails will be slightly delayed). Review them carefully and consider changing your homepage so the message that is received is the message you want to convey.

You're missing out big time on capturing the attention of your visitors and getting them to engage if you don't nail the first 7 seconds of their visit. Use this tool to test your site. You can submit up to 3 websites if you desire.

Check out the 7 Second Test now.