This guest post is by John Simoneau the founder of “The Directory of Specialized Photographers” at LocalPhotographyGuides.com. He says, “I am a proud husband and dad to 2 Disney Princesses and love to chat about photography.

Photographers. What if I was to tell you that search engine optimization (SEO) simply doesn't matter anymore? Don't worry about it! Stop link building, stop forcing keywords in your blog titles, don't worry about what “meta tags” are or even what Google's new “Caffeine” search index is. Just kick your feet up and relax. Use all that spare time to spend with your family or being creative as a photographer.

Well, unfortunately I'm not here to tell you that. Search engine optimization is the most practical way to gain new photography clients at this time. The reason why is that it is a “direct” marketing approach rather then a “creative” one such as print ads in magazines and coupon books. It's quite simple really. We live in a time that people use Google for anything and everything. When someone uses Google for the term “photographers,” they are looking for a photographer. When they purchase a magazine, see your vehicle graphics, or view some Google adwords, they are not looking for a photographer. Only problem with SEO is that it's so time consuming and that it's been figured out. Sometimes a couple hundred photographers in each city are all competing daily for the 1st page of 10 results that search engines provide. It's really quite stressful and something photographers shouldn't have to worry about!

Then we have Social Media. In 2009-2010 studies showed that 78% of people trust peer-to-peer recommendations rather than ads. Not only that but social media networks is a step ahead of SEO in the sense that you can actually attract new clients in BEFORE they are even looking for a photographer. They notice and remember your photography from a friend sharing on Facebook and other social networks. It's free “creative” advertising with no-telling how many thousands of impressions your branded portraits are getting. Social media sharing is also a quick way to get your photography noticed worldwide for traveling photographers. Search engines can be quite weak in some of these areas.

Coming from the photography industry myself, I really wanted to research, analyze, and embrace the very best method to combine as much of this as possible and build the very best resource on the planet for connecting photography clients with quality photographers. I wanted to create a system that could eventually take some of this unnecessary technical marketing weight off of our photographer's shoulders. The problem was that the photography industry is so riddled with websites trying to make photographers feel as though they have such a miracle solution that it was going to be a really tough sell.

Our team finally came to the realization that the strongest offering was going to be to build a photographer directory. The sound of it almost made me cringe after seeing so many others online who focus on ads, affiliates, selling links, giving links, etc. None of them seemed to be focusing on connecting clients to photographers and most of them had very poor quality of photographers listed. It was quite a mess and a scary idea to start but seemed like the only solution that could force this much needed and entirely new direct marketing approach into the photography industry. So “The Directory of Specialized Photographers” was born.

From our launch we had support from several very popular and highly talented photographers including Baby As Art, Daniela Degrassi, Ashley McNamara, Nicole Goddard and many more! We have even featured some of these photographers on our homepage in a very unique way by quoting their styles which helps in setting our theme. We've created profiles to highly complement any styles of photography that may be needed in the future. Our social media sharing buttons have brought many thousands of visitors to our website alone and has been a huge hit! We are search engine friendly and offer no ads to any vendor outside our own featured photographer banners. We have finally created a virtual photographer phonebook for clients to utilize that focuses 100% on showcasing each and every one of our featured photographer's talents!

Please join us in pioneering this new amazing photography product that is beginning to bypass photography clients from utilizing search engines entirely. Visit “The Directory of Specialized Photographers” at LocalPhotographyGuides.com (link) and request a free or featured listing anywhere in the United States! Some of our guides have just recently been released so if this is your 1st time visiting then you be sure to visit one of our more filled listing pages such as our Los Angeles Wedding Photographers or San Diego Newborn Photographers.

Some time in the future I'd love to speak a little about our brand new international community and how it integrates with our directory offering but until then please visit our forums to register and post an introduction. Your account will be upgraded to 6 Months of Pro Access FREE for the next week! I look forward to working with you!

What are you doing to be found locally? Please sound off in the comments section below.

This is a guest post by SnapKnot, a website dedicated to helping engaged couples find their perfect wedding photographer.

We have been very pleased with the response from the wedding photography community and engaged couples since launching SnapKnot in February of this year. Now that we are in our 10th month of operations, we are considering the next steps to improve the site with the goal of making SnapKnot the go-to choice for brides and grooms just starting their search for a wedding photographer.

We have a few ideas of our own that we are planning to implement in the coming months, but we thought it would be fun to create a contest around the next Big Ideas for SnapKnot here on Tiffinbox.

We want to reach out to the vast community of photographers who visit this blog and ask –

How Would You Improve SnapKnot?

What would you like to see?

What would you change?

What would give photographers and/or brides a better overall experience?

Leave a comment below with a few sentences describing what you'd like to see on the site. In return for sharing your opinion with us, three photographers will win free SnapKnot Premium memberships. We will consider all the ideas and we will select the ones we like the best as winners. Also we encourage people to comment on which ideas they like – this will help us make our final decisions.

The 3 Best Ideas Will Win:

1) Grand Prize: 1 year of SnapKnot Premium membership
2) 2nd Prize: 6 months SnapKnot Premium
3) 3rd Prize: 3 months SnapKnot Premium

Contest Rules:

1) Minimum of 50 ideas needed to activate the prizes
2) Current Premium members are not eligible for these prizes. Only new members and current Free members are eligible.
3) 1 entry per photographer
4) Please include a valid name and email address so we can contact the winners
5) Contest ends at midnight December 31, 2010
6) Winners will be announced in January

So, hop to it. You have only TWO weeks left before we call out 3 winners. Keep those ideas coming. We want to hear from YOU!

This is a guest blog is by Robyn Mayne, based in Sydney, Australia. She is a children’s portrait photographer, workshop facilitator and customer experience fanatic! Robyn owns Today is Different and provides photography courses, workshops, retreats and networking events for photographers. Follow Robyn on Twitter.

Who are your customers?

One of the basic elements of any good marketing strategy is a narrowly defined target market – a niche. In fact, a great approach is to start by defining your ideal or perfect customer – Your “right” customer!

Many photographers try to be all things to all people and find it hard to really focus their activity on appealing to their right customers.

Often this happens because someone is on the phone asking for help in an area that’s not really your thing. What tends to kick in here is a fear of saying no to the “wrong” customers. “What if I don’t get any calls from my right customers?”  

While it may seem like growth to take on a new customer, if that customer isn’t a good fit, it can actually take your focus away from real growth and may even create dissatisfied customers that expected something other than what you were able to provide. Dissatisfied customers WILL tell their friends. Do you have a well-defined target market? Or, is it something like…”anyone that we think will pay us”.

So how do you identify your ideal target client?

a) Take a good hard look at your past clients. Look for types of clients that you would love to do more with?
b) Which are your most profitable clients? Are there types of work or types of clients that traditionally produce profitable or unprofitable sales?
c) Do they “want” what you do? If they do not want it for one reason or another, then you are sunk. If you have to convince them of a need, then they are not a good target market.
d) Do they value what you do? Price shoppers will always be prices shoppers. Look for those who appreciate the extra they get from you.

Create a picture of your ideal client

One useful trick is to discover what that ideal client looks like in the most specific way possible and then go about building your entire marketing strategy around attracting more of them. The idea here is that you create a picture of your ideal customer. Give her, or him, a name and a set of characteristics. Consider things like: age; sex; occupation; geography; family; income; beliefs; values; interests; challenges etc.

Now whenever you are reviewing your business, think of a new idea or try a different approach you can ask yourself “Would this appeal to Fiona/Fred?”

What do you think? Have you defined your target market? Do you operate within a niche? Tell us. Discuss. Share. This is the place to do it.

This is a guest blog by Jessica Lewis, co-owner of KRAFT and JUTE, which provides personalized kraft-sleeves and wedding favors using 100% recycled paper. Co-owners Melisa and Jessica are hard working wives and mothers; Melisa is due with baby #2 in December! She is a professor of business and marketing at Edinboro University and is currently working on her doctorate. When not running around after toddlers, Jessica sews sample CD sleeves for clients and runs her own photography business – Live: Beautiful Photography. Melisa and Jessica happen to be cousins who grew up together in northwest PA and have fond memories of playing in the tractor-tire sandbox on their grandparent’s farm.

The process of starting a new photography business is overwhelming for many new photographers. Many get weighed down with setting up a website or blog, finding a proofing site, creating a good workflow, managing a business, designing a logo, developing their brand… oh yeah – and taking and editing pictures. It is a lot of work and with so many different options, it is easy to lose track of time and become frustrated with trying to find the best solutions.

This process of being overwhelmed and frustrated is what led us (Melisa and Jessica) to develop Kraft and Jute. Jessica, photographer of Live: Beautiful Photography, wasn’t happy with the choices of Digital Negatives/DVD Slideshow packaging. We tried using the standard slim jewel case, but it screamed “cheap.” We thought about buying a 5×5 trifold from White House Custom Color, but were overwhelmed with trying to put together artwork and figuring out a nice layout. We knew we couldn’t spend a fortune on really nice custom packaging, but at the same time, we understood the value of a great presentation to the client.

So what better way to solve your own problems – create something for yourself! And that’s just what we did.

We created our own custom, eco-friendly, packaging for digital negatives in which we drew a lot of inspiration from two different websites: Caroline Ghetes and The Paperieboutique

The whole process was organic. We had tons of different ideas swimming around in our heads, but decided (encouraged by economics) to use the resources that were around us – kraft paper, our printer and a sewing machine. The feedback and ideas from friends and family were also key in developing our own professional packaging solutions. We knew that whatever the end result, we wanted something that was simple, yet beautiful.

You can see where we are now in the process by visiting our website, KRAFTandJUTE.com. Yes, this is still a process! We first posted some listings of the packaging products we had created in our Etsy shop. The response from fellow photographers was overwhelming. We were very excited to see their logos and brands printed on our simple CD/DVD sleeves. They looked amazing! We strive to fulfill custom packaging requests from professionals like you that need something that will make their brand stick out (but not lose a fortune in packaging costs).

We continue to build on our standard packaging solutions but also work on a one-to-one level with photographers all over the world to make something that is unique, simple and beautiful for them.

Kraft and Jute products have expanded from the simple CD sleeve to now include: CD/DVD sleeves, double sleeves, custom printing, print sleeves, print folders, and deluxe gift bag packages (for the total presentation). There are so many more new product ideas in the works – just not enough time to do it all at once!

We have produced over 5,000 CD sleeves for photographers and brides since July 2010 and were just featured in the latest addition of Design Aglow's Issue 11, “Presentation Perfection: Packaging That Inspires.”

Our clients LOVE the eco-friendly kraft and jute packaging. We hope you will be inspired to discover or create something beautiful for your treasured clients too!

SPECIAL OFFER: Receive 10 free Simple Stitched CD sleeves with every order of $15 or more until November 30. Mention the following code: “PicSeshu”.

This is a guest post by Alethea Cheng Fitzpatrick, NYC based architect, interior designer, photographer AND mom! Alethea has her own business, nestingNYC (formerly alethea cheng fitzpatrick photography). Her first guest post here was “Please Don't Just Give Your Clients A CD or DVD!”

You know how many families want beautiful family portraits in their home but have a hard time getting through the entire process?

As an architect/interior designer and baby photographer, Alethea takes care of the whole thing from start to finish, meeting families in their homes and designing, creating, delivering and installing the perfect custom portrait wall gallery to complement their home and lifestyle.

My eighteen month old son is going through a very affectionate stage (well, apart from when he's screaming his head off in the stroller and looking up at me with teary eyes filled with betrayal because I won't carry him).

He comes up to me, pulls my arms around him and says “‘ug!”

Sometimes he says “mommy ‘ug!”

Yes, it is as heart melting as it sounds.

But it's also particularly meaningful because of an amazing piece of advice I recently received from Kristen Kalp, business and marketing genius at Brand Camp Blog and an incredible photographer in her own right at Essential Imagery.

“Coffee coffee coffee,” she said. “Take people out for lots and lots of coffee. And measure your success in hugs.”

This little piece of advice has changed everything for me – how I think not only about my business but also about my life.

I don't interpret this advice literally. It might not be coffee, it might be a two and a half hour lunch… with cocktails… on a weekday. And hey, I live in New York City, some people kiss and hug everyone … and some people don't really like to hug at all.

But what it means, to me, is that you should surround yourself by people you love, and who love you. It means business dates, not business meetings. It means connecting with people, asking them what their biggest challenges and dreams are, and finding out how you can help them.

It means believing that you have something amazing to offer – and offering it.

It means that all of a sudden something has clicked for me and I finally understand how to grow my business in a way that feels good.

It means that I have fallen in love with marketing.

I've never hated marketing, and as an architect, I probably was “into it” more than most. I started my own business after having my son as a) I went crazy taking photos of him and gained a new appreciation for the power, meaning and value of portrait photography and b) I wanted the flexibility so I could continue to be mostly at home with him. It's also true in retrospect that I've always wanted to have my own business, ever since I started one as part of an extra-curricular activity in high school, but I had become waylaid from that goal over the years.

Even with over ten years of experience as a creative professional with lots involvement on the business side, and even though small business owners are always talking about how surprised they are at how much time they have to spend marketing … well, there's no other way to say this. I was still surprised! I feel a little silly about it now but yes, I suppose I did somehow think that I could put up a website, tell all my friends, and run a few facebook and craigslist ads and I would be up and running in no time!

Well, needless to say it has taken a little more work than that. It's one thing to hear that running your own business involves a lot of marketing, but actually experiencing it is a whole different thing. I have been truly humbled by how much there is to learn, but it has also been thrilling to learn so much so quickly… and think of how much money I've saved by not going back to school to do it!

The good news is that the “hug” approach to marketing means that marketing and, ugh, the even more dreaded (to me) “networking” don't feel like marketing or networking – it feels like living your life. In other words, it feels very natural.

I do think that it means you have to be in the right place to begin with. You have to not only love what you do, but you have to love where you are and the people that you get to meet and work with. Where that is will change over the course of your life. It certainly did for me when I became a mother in a way that was completely unexpected to me – I wanted to be a mother all the time!

Now I know that to some, that may sound like a complete nightmare, and they enjoy their professional life where they get to exist outside of parenthood. I can totally understand that. But for me, that was the last thing I wanted to do, and it still is.

“Being a mother all the time” does not, for me, mean spending all my time with my son, at least not since he was a tiny baby. That would not be good for either of us. But it means building a professional life for myself that integrates well with being a mother not just practically in terms of hours and flexibility, but conceptually. It means building a professional life for myself based on who I am as a person. It means integrating the professional and the personal much more than I ever dared to do before.

Being a mother is part of what enables me to be the photographer, designer and business owner that I now am – it's one of my assets and I draw on it constantly. And it explains why returning to my old and formerly much loved professional life suddenly seemed and continues to seem so unfathomable. I don't want my professional and personal life to compete, I want them to complement one another and feed off one another.

I hear a lot of talk in the photography industry these days about shooting from the heart, following your passion, and doing what you love, and not just from crunchy granola types either. Again, these are easy words to say, but I'm starting to experience how true it is, not just from a creative perspective but from the business side too.

Measure Your Success In Hugs

So simple, yet so powerful, it impacts everything – who you talk to at the next event and how, what your website looks like and says, what your offerings are, the relationships you establish with other businesses and vendors, and how you work with and follow up with clients.

I'll have to come back in a year to tell you the longer term impact, but so far, all signs indicate that it's going to be really great.

I love connecting with new people, telling them about my business and following up with them. Everyone has been so excited and supportive.

I really look forward to filling my monthly newsletter not with sales and marketing copy but with information that I hope will be valuable and interesting to new and expectant parents and families with young children. I feel good about forwarding it to people, rather than self-conscious that I am “marketing” to them.

I've had some fantastic business dates with people I have quickly come to love and I can't wait to see what those relationships bring. I know it will benefit them, their clients and my clients as well as my business – it's win/win/win/win! And honestly, I'm more excited about what I can do to help them than what they can do for me.

In the same way, I'm no longer afraid to ask for business, because I'm not asking for something, I'm offering something.

Finally, I get to create beauty out of joy and happiness every day… and people hug me for it. It doesn't get much better than that.

Who are you going to hug today? And who will hug you?

If you're looking for amazing insight into where you should be going with your photography business, check out Brand Camp Blog and talk to Kristen!