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Starting a photography blog: The secrets successful photo bloggers won’t tell you

Starting a photography blog: The secrets successful photo bloggers won’t tell you

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Is starting a photography blog the next step for your personal branding and getting out there with your work? Sure is! Here’s how you can do it!

Sure, in today’s day and age, Social Media is a go-to tool for visibility and reaching your audience. But… As I told so many times before – Social Media IS NOT yours, and with it, you build your business on someone else’s foundation. Don’t do that. Having a photography blog gives you more control and flexibility, more ways to express yourself and your work, and so much more! Use Social Media as a promotional tool for your photography business, which will have a solid platform on your photography blog. Knowing that…

Starting a photography blog benefits

Behind every photo there is a story. Why not share it through your photography blog?

Authority

Having a photography blog puts you on an industry map gives you more recognition and a voice. It’s what differentiate photography enthusiasts from professionals.

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Visibility

Your photo blog gives you a chance to reach more people, to show them what you do and how and to provide the opportunity for people to get to know you better.

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Knowledgebase

Starting a photography blog isn’t just about you. Used well, it can become a good learning platform for all people interested in photography.

Portfolio

Instead of choosing to showcase your work solely on social, invest some time and effort in building a portfolio within your blog. It’s yours, for starts, and also you control what and how and to whom you show it too. Meaning, you will optimize your work to target a specific audience that searches for the stuff you provide rather than battling to several mighty algorithms. So, it’s „just“ Google rather than all these social networks restrictions that are a pay-to-play model.

Think of it this way. Knowing that the photography industry is more and more competitive, you need that extra thing to put you out there, make you stand out. And why not use a blog as a way to do all that?

How to start a photo blog?

When it comes to time and money, starting a photography blog isn’t that costly, all you need is a right domain name and a hosting, as well as a premium theme if you choose so. But, we will cover all that in a little bit. Let’s start from the beginning; necessary steps in creating a perfect photo blog for yourself.

Choose a photography niche

Think of the best way to portray your work, what you cover, what services you provide as well all of the things you want to share to the target audience. Are you a travel photographer, wedding/event photographer, do you cover newsworthy situations or are more from a conceptual background. Defining the photo niche will help you be more focused and more driven to your audience, and it’ll help you speak with them better.

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Pick a specific domain name

It can be your name, type of photography work you do, your brand if you have it already. Whatever you choose, make sure your domain name is memorable, easy to write, and without multiple or hidden meanings 🙂 We wrote more about choosing the right domain name you can check out if you please.

Set up a content strategy

Blogging isn’t just set up a website and write or, in your case, post pictures. On the contrary. You need a proper approach to attract the right people and drive them to your site. A solid content strategy will help you achieve:

  • Brand awareness
  • Website traffic
  • engagement
  • Customer acquisition
  • Authority

and so much more, I promise! Think of the ways you want to create and share not only your photos but all around it /if it’s relevant/. Tutorials, DIY’s, behind the scenes snippets and all of the things you do that can be of value to your readers and future clients.

Choose  blogging platform – WordPress

Now, there are many blogging platforms out there, but none of them brings more value, worth, and a solid foundation for your photo blog than WordPress. And I say so as someone who’s been using the majority of them, testing and comparing, only to pick and use the best of the best. Which is why I always recommend WordPress as a foundation for any type of blog or a website.

Well known photographers also choose WordPress as their go-to blogging platform. And why? It’s fast, reliable, gives you control over the content you create, and it’s yours. Well optimized, mobile and SEO-friendly to the max and comes with so many excellent premade themes! You don’t depend on someone else’s mood swings, algorithm changes, or pay-to-play model business.

Just as you use the best possible equipment to shoot with, the same should apply to your photography blog. Use the best possible blogging tool there is. And it’s WordPress. All these great photographers use WordPress as their blogging foundation:

Chase Jarvis

Richard Bernabe

Joe McNally

Fiona Kelly

Dave Morrow

and many more others!

Not to mention that here at Meks, we have a premium theme created explicitly for a photographer to match your every need.

Pick a theme – Pinhole

And here’s where I will share with you a bit of insight on Pinhole photography theme. With it, you can create an impressive photography portfolio while being fully optimized and engagement worthy for your audience. Pinhole is both a photo gallery and a photo blog theme at the same time. Well designed, specifically with your photo work in mind so by buying it, you instantly get an almost ready and entirely operated photo blog. All you need to do is upload your content, play around with ways to show it, and go live with it.

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And, for all of you interested in this specific (or any other of ours) theme, there’s a seven days free tryout to experience first-handed if it’s the best fit for you.

Promote your photography blog

Now, once you do all the previous steps and you have a live photography blog, the fun doesn’t stop there 🙂 Now is the time for promotion and it’s precisely where Social Media steps in! Go where your audience is, connect with them through social networking, be a part of specific Facebook groups and expand your reach! All this serves as a way to get more traction and bring people back to you, and your blog for further connection and conversion.

Photography industry tips for a successful photography blog

What it is you can do to stand out from the crowd? How can you compete in this overcrowded photography market industry? Here are some of the less shared secrets from established photographers.

Be clear with your message

Your photography blog should be obvious and concise from the start. That means your message should be aligned on all of your pages, and categories, people should know what you’re about from the very first interaction with you. Like, if you’re a solo travel photographer, it needs to be visible from your homepage, from your content, your categories, and tags.

Be approachable

Many would say this is unnecessary, but you’d be surprised how many people overlook this primary step. Always, and I can’t emphasize this enough, ALWAYS include contact information so people can reach out to you other than on social.

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Sell yourself through your blog

Having a blog isn’t just about posting your photo work and hoping people will see it. That’s where social steps in, with its shearable features. Moreover, you need to become a salesperson, and to truly promote your work online. Not in a „Look at my work, hire me“ kinda way, no. It’s by providing value that I firmly believe your ideal client will come. Let’s say you’re a portrait photographer. Apart from using your photo blog as an online portfolio, go a few steps further. Tell a story about how you started doing it, what drives you to shoot portraits. Share your knowledge, basic tips and tricks, get people to know you and your work better. It’s by doing so that means valuable selling – getting your clients by providing a value for them first.

Think about the end goal of your content

Your content and photos you make and post on your blog are not meant to be an advertisement.  The internet is already filled with overly advertised content, and people hate it. Instead of doing that, opt for creating great content, content that sparks engagement, make people think or act a certain way. By doing so, you’ll surely stand out; you will connect more with your audience,  be more memorable and – ultimately – gain more clients along the way.

Be responsive

Mobile is the almighty way we connect with the internet, and it’s been like that for some time now. Knowing that, optimize your blog accordingly. Use JPG-s rather than PNG-s or raw files. Why? It will slow down your blog significantly, not show well in mobile and will make you unaware of today’s way stuff on internet works. It will make you look way less professional. Your blog should be mobile first, well optimized and approachable through mobile use.  Not only in regards to your photos but also blog design as well. Which is why our Pinhole photography theme should be your go-to theme to choose.

Be invested in your community

Show people that follow you that you care. Provide them value with your work, share essential tips and tricks of a trade,  engage with them to get to know them but also to poll what topics you should cover next. And by doing so, you’ll get a more profound connection that can come back as increased customer base.

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Wrapping up

I hope this guide helps you find your photography blogging path and clear some air better. As you see, it really isn’t that difficult to start a photo blog.  You just need to have faith and determination, an idea and a go-to blogging platform, and an open mind to embrace the power of photography blogging in 2019.

If you like this article, feel free to show us some love on social. And also, we invite you to tell us in what ways this guide helped you and what other tips would you include on the list.

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Ivana Cirkovic

Ivana is a Digital Marketing, PR and Social Media consultant with over nine years experience in the field. She is also a WordPress enthusiast and an active member of WordPress community who lives online almost 24/7. In love with Twitter, WP, photography and NYC.

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