This is a guest post by Kristy Dickerson, an Atlanta, Georgia based photographer and entrepreneur.

I figured I would start a give you a brief background on myself. My degree is in business finance and I met the love of my life while working at a bank. Yep, he was one of my customers. I fell in love with photography at my own wedding, and after having my first son Roman, I was determined not to go back to the corporate world, but rather pursue my passion photography. Read more about my story here.

Photography to me was a way to still be a mom, pursue my passion and also incorporate the business practices that I love. While searching for educational resources on the web all I could find were local photography schools here in Atlanta. Little did I know, there was this whole world of workshops and tours by photography instructors where a lot of them came to my backyard.
 
The more I got immersed into the photography industry, the more I realized that different organizations and companies promoted instructors. However, I noticed there wasn’t a way for the aspiring photographer to see all the available quality workshops in one location. So I created Fisheye Connect, to help these new emerging photographers like myself get the education that we need in both business and technical aspects.

Coming very soon, Fisheye Connect is having a huge launch! I figured I would share it with you guys and give you a little preview. Did you ever wish there was one “social” website that you could go and connect with other photographers like yourself? Or, search for photogs in your local area? Or, have a forum to ask questions? Do you now have a place to discuss past workshops or share the awesome blogs you follow?  Or how about finding resources like this awesome blog? Stayed tuned for more information! We are hoping to launch prior to WPPI!

Did you ever feel overwhelmed by all the workshop choices you have? Would you use a service like Fisheye Connect to get a better sense of what that photography workshop may offer you? Lend us your thoughts below!

Photo consultant Selina Maitreya discusses a rarely used approach in client sales meetings. Check it out in the video below.

Did you like Selina's business tip for photographers? Want to get more of these tips and for FREE? Selina offers a free 5 day video course, “Building the Ideal Professional Photography Business.”

In addition to that, Selina and 13 other experts will be presenting a FREE two-day online event on February 11 and 12, called Clarion Call. [aff] You do need to register to get access to these awesome speakers. Remember, it is FREE, so why wouldn't you sign up?

If you miss the live event, you can still order the recordings, which garner you a bunch of very cool bonuses.

What sales tip could you/would you share here with your peers? Please comment!

Going to a trade show and conference like WPPI, in Las Vegas, is no gamble. Take my word for it. I have been and it's truly an awesome experience. It's a great opportunity to meet friends whom you have only “met” online, or vendors whose new products you want to check out first-hand. But, yes, it can get expensive, and that's where Tiffinbox is hoping to help you.

Thanks to Fundy SOS, two lucky readers of Tiffinbox will receive passes to go to WPPI 2011. The mega conference for photographers runs from February 17 – 24, 2011.

Will that be YOU? How badly do you want to go?

Here is how you could win one of two passes:

1) Tell us in the comments WHY you would want to win? What do you expect to get out of this awesome gathering of wedding and portrait photographer?

2) Tweet this: “I just posted a comment on Tiffinbox.org, for a chance to win a trip to @RFWPPI 2011. Thanks to @FundySOS + @PicSeshu! Please RT”

3) Tag @Fundy SOS in Facebook when you post a little blurb about this contest on your own wall

That's IT.

Now, the rules:

If you win, you should be able to go. Obvious, right? So, if you can't go, please let us know right away.

What you are going to win is a full registration pass ($199-259 value). The only stipulations are that MASTER Classes are NOT included and that you have to stay at the MGM Grand Hotel. Read this description of what is included in your WPPI registration pass.

Airfare, gambling chips, food and other entertainment expenses are NOT included. All that is on you. Cool?

Now, let's play. Get those comments coming. Andrew Funderburg of Fundy SOS will pick a winner among those who have left a comment and Tweeted the message on February 1.

This is a guest blog post by Leon Sandoval, Colorati's CEO. While he may be a tad bit too modest to say so, based in Carlsbad, CA Leon and his team provide the very best post production services in the business and help make for some very happy photographers.

Greetings, Tiffinbox community!

When Seshu and I had a conversation about content for a video tutorial I knew without a doubt we had to talk about file naming. Clearly, it's one of the workflow elements that seems to cause photographers the most trouble. There are no standards or guidelines and we all seem to have learned by trial and error.

What I've seen is that people either abandon file naming altogether or get too fancy. And sometimes we see a combination of naming conventions within one event that simply do more harm than good.

Good file naming will help you do the following:

a) Sort your files by file name in any software on any computer and see the timeline as it took place in real life.

b) Easily find the files you are looking for. Speed and efficiency are key here, so having unique “tags” can help.

c) Achieve more consistent results in regards to White Balance, Exposure, Contrast and other aspects of your visual editing.

Will this tutorial answer all of your questions and solve all of your problems? Unlikely. My hope is that it gets you thinking. Hopefully you'll walk away with a couple of tips that set you on the right path to a creating a system that works well for you.

Enjoy this exclusive Tiffinbox video tutorial from your friends at Colorati!

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.