Many times people well say I’m a great marketer, some will even say my marketing is better than my photography—at times, I have to agree, to disagree (grin). Is the glass half-empty or half-full? I was fortunate enough almost four years ago to get my first speaking engagement at Photo Plus Expo in Manhattan on the very topic of marketing and Internet strategies, so I figured, why not start to share some of those techniques.
Since the Internet is the Great Equalizer that I attribute to some of my success over the past 27-years as a photographer, I figured I’d start this article off with some Internet marketing tips and strategies.
First, let’s discuss on-line portfolios and websites. While we’re always looking to strive for the better here at Glamour1.com, we know our portfolio system can be intimidating at times—still no excuse not to load images here, it’s free, and most of all, you can’t break the system unless you have full administrative privileges—so click buttons and upload—it’s free!
Now, with that plug in, let’s look at other sites. I myself utilize other sites. Model Mayhem is fast becoming one of my favorites, not because of the forums, which I can never go directly to my posts there without doing some kind of searching to see if someone replied, but because the models are more current and I don’t have the “model manager” problems I experience on that other site. I like “MM” because of its search structure, that’s pretty much about it. Remember, “G1” is a photographer’s site from day one, though we’d love to get tons of models here, our main focus is the craft to attract models and photograph them attractively while producing quality work.
While other sites are abundant more than ever, I don’t have time to “work” them all, my recommendation is to have a folder (directory) on your desktop, include in there at least twenty photos (jpeg’s) and a text document with your latest information. Each time a new model or photographer site opens up, upload all the images and copy and paste the information from your text file where appropriate. This ensures full market penetration. Join them for free first, if they pan out, upgrade and support the industry.
Now my personal favorite, one that has proven itself in gold and is not meant as a photographer’s and modeling site, is Myspace.com Wow, it’s free, over 100 million users and it’s owned by the News Corp., also known as 20th Century Fox Television. Wonder why Google paid over a billion for YouTube? The future is multimedia on the net, audio, streaming video, photographs and text—it’s not slowing down either!
Regardless how old you are, everyone should be on Myspace. It’s the hottest thing since sliced bread and you can make bread on it too, for free! It costs ZILCH! Not to mention, they just made it where you can have “albums” for tons of photos, served up for free. My favorite part, once you anchor your Myspace handle (name), it’s yours permanently! Mine is “glamourphotographer.” That’s all you have to tell people when asked your Myspace name, just type it in after
www.myspace.com, or the case of mine,
www.myspace.com/glamourphotographer.
Now recently I changed my Myspace to look more professional, making sure I’d keep within the terms of service not to get deleted. There are many companies out there willing to do this for you, but if you know some HTML and CSS, not a problem. You can make your site look like your page on your server and still make it accessible to millions of people and even get picked up in the search engines—all free!
I’ve been on Myspace for about six months now, and now I have almost 2,000 models wanting to pose for me—and they don’t have model managers. Not to mention, most folks are Myspace addicts once hooked, so they are up to date and you can learn more about your potential model subjects on Myspace, with blogs and more, than any model site out there! And models, you can do the same about photographers!
Like MM, I’m not crazy about the forums on Myspace, but who needs them? They have bulletin systems, they have methods to safeguard your information, you can set all the parameters you want, and still it’s free! Did I say it’s free!
Well I have to run, if you notice on your profile here you can put your Myspace URL, marketing at it’s finest. Every photographer and model here should be Myspacing as well as having tons of portfolios on-line. If you can combine that with a professional site, it’s just more market saturation and it will work for you—most of all, most of it is free! --rg sends!
Linear Mode
