Portfoliositez - Great Web Templates for Photogs!

I love the gals over at Portfoliositez - they made getting a web site up and running a total breeze for me! I've been with them for about 6 months and can't stop spreading the love about them.

I only have had 2 issues with my site, one being that music wouldn't upload and the other was that my logo was super small, when I sent it a support ticket they did a follow up email in less than 8 hours saying they would look into it and then had it fixed in less than a day. I told them it wasn't important as my site wasn't ready to go live, but they fixed up my issues asap. And checked in with me 2 times after the fix to make sure everything OK!

I've read a lot of bad things about other web site providers (I won't name names) and their customer service - but I must say Portfoliositez goes above and beyond to help their clients get their sites up and keeping them running!!

I was checking out their blog the other day and see that they now offer a "Andy" a blogsite! I'm kinda jealous and think I may need to look into that a little more. Although I am still in love with my template - Dorothea V2.

You can purchase your template only if you have your own hosting or you can host with them, not a bad deal! I'm not going to go into all the details of their sites but here are some of the features depending on the template that you select - unlimited galleries, videos, proofing areas, shopping cart, mini client sites, email database, ability to add music and customize colors. I could go on and on ... but I'll leave that up to you to see what they have that fits your needs.

Full Disclosure: commission on sale via my link.

Senior Photographer? Check out Senior Solutions!

I was contacted by Natalie of Senior Solutions last year for an interview about my template site. I had seen her Senior Solutions and thought it was pretty interesting, but at that point, I didn't have a need since I wasn't shooting seniors yet. Well, I had my first senior in November and LOVED the session. I decided that I really wanted to target seniors for 2010 but had no idea where to start. So I decided to re-visit Natalie's site and pickup Senior Solutions. This guide is great to help get you jump started on starting a senior side to your business. The guide is downloadable and is a great reference that lives on my desktop! A few things the guide covers is

• Spokesmodels - how to get them, what to offer them and Natalie's program as an example.
• A MySpace tutorial for those of you who aren't on there already - it's a great resource to build your senior network.
• Marketing ideas that Natalie has implemented in her business.
• Products to offer your senior clients.
• Natalie's contracts and what to wear for senior session documents.
• Sample images that Natalie has taken to help get ideas for your posing.
• And a great bonus is some templates to help get your senior branding and marketing in place!
  

Natalie has offered a deal for all my blog readers - Senior Solutions is typically $75, my readers can get a cool $15 off!! Want the deal? Just send $60.00 to natalie@photographybynatalieb.com via PayPal and put Neil Creative in the subject line. Natalie will email you the guide within 24-48 hours and you can get cracking on building your Senior business!!

And be sure to check out Senior Solutions site often, she has interviews and tips for photographers!

MachForms - Build Your Own Online Forms

I've got to admit - I wasn't too sure how I was going to like Appnitro MachForms. A lot of other photographers on the various forums I'm on were raving about them and for only $39, I figured I'd check it out. I've been pleasantly surprised by the results.MarchForm is a self-hosted HTML form program that helps you to easily create online forms for your clients.

I have to admit, I was beyond confused about how to intall MachForm myself. So, I emailed them to set it up for me, which is FREE (my fave word) when you buy the product. You just fill out their online installation request form and they promise setup will be done in 2 business days of less. Once installation was complete the fun began in setting up my online forms. The interface lets you select what type of form field you'd like to add from single line text to multiple choice to address information. In less than 15 minutes I had my first form created. Then, you just click on the embed code button, get your HTML code and paste that into the page you want the form to show up on!

I keep my forms on my Wordpress, ProPhoto blog. The great part about having the forms on my Wordpress blog is that I can keep them password protected, so only the clients I give the password to can access them. I currently have forms for Senior Spokesmodels and also Pre-Senior Session Interviews. I plan on adding more forms in the future, I just haven't gotten around to them. You can set-up your forms so that they are emailed to you when completed by your clients.

There are a lot more options on the MachForms - so check out their website if you're looking for easy and green forms for your clients!

Thinking About Facebook Advertising?

Can you believe it - three posts in 1 day, I'm trying to get caught up, since I've been slacking lately!

I'm currently trying to build up my Senior sessions and get my hands on a few senior reps. Kinda hard since most of my friends are in their 20's and 30's and if they have kids they are still little. I had pondered Facebook advertising but wasn't sure if it was worth the money or not after reading mixed reviews.

I decided to give it a shot after getting $100 in FREE Facebook advertising. I know, I didn't believe it at first either, but it's true, it's free. It's through the Visa Small Business Network. If you have (or create) a Facebook account and sign up for the Visa Network, they give you a $100 advertising credit. I believe the expiration date to use the credits is 5/6/09, so sign up soon!

I'm not going to get into all the details of how to advertise on Facebook and I'm holding off to share my results, as I want to have a month in before I make a decision to continue on. But if you've been thinking about it, this is the cheapest way to try it out!! Here's the link to the Visa Small Business Network page - which includes instructions on how to sign up and receive your credit! http://www.facebook.com/apps/application.php?id=24249628048

Good luck advertising, I'd love to hear your results and I'll be sharing mine in April!

Great Forum — ProPhotogs.com

I LOVE the ProPhotogs.com forum! I'm on it at least once a day, more like 20-30 times a day! I joined about a year ago and it was well worth the money. I have learned SO much from the folks on this forum. Everyone is so open and honest about how their run their businesses and talk about their successes and sometimes failures.

I've been on other forums and well, some of them are just down right nasty. I can take constructive criticism with the best of them, but when people are just mean, why would I want to hang out with them? Not the case with ProPhotogs, yes, there is CC and Hard CC that is given out, but it's nothing mean and spiteful like other forums.

I have learned SO much from others just starting out and seasoned professionals. From lighting to equipment issues, folks sharing actions, textures and templates and other members post wonderful reviews of products they've used. The biggest thing I've taken away from this group is pricing. I didn't know how I should price myself, there are tons of posts on pricing including worksheets created by others to help you determine what you need to charge to examples of how others have priced themselves.

ProPhotogs is not just for beginers, there are a lot of seasoned pros on the site as well. I think with most forums, you get back what you put in. Ask questions, share results and when you ask for hard CC - know that you might not like what you hear, but others are trying to help you! Stop over and check them out!

Love Lovebugs

I figured a good follow-up to the PhotoCart post would be one about Heather from Lovebugs Photography Designs I found Heather on one of the forums I'm on. She's always had great info on more of the technical stuff some of us stumble with. When I purchased my PhotoCart, I hired Heather to help make it pretty and give me a jump start on getting my pricing up and running.

Heather can pimp your PhotoCart, pretty up your wordpress blog or dress up your splash page! Heather was great to work with - and she had a quick turnaround on getting my PhotoCart all fixed up for me when I just didn't have time to figure it out! I'm not the only one that loves Heather's services, I've seen a lot of positive comments about her on the forums from others who have needed her techinal help. Be sure to check her out if you need help dolling up some of your website add-ons!

Photo Cart - The Photographer's Shopping Cart

My website template included a gallery with shopping cart, but it just wasn't cutting it for me with what I needed to do. I purchased Photo Cart from Tim at PicturesPro a few months ago to help me with my online sales. Since I work a full time job and only shoot on the weekends I needed an online shopping cart that would be easy for both myself and clients to access with me limited to do in-person sales. I wasn't thrilled with the site demo they offer on their site, but because of rave reviews from other photographers, I decided to give it a chance.

Photo Cart has a lot of options which can be slightly overwhelming when you first start working in it. Here's a list of a few options that I've implemented on my Photo Cart site:

• Create numerous pricing groups - a la carte and collections as well as various price options for different groups (seniors vs families vs weddings).
  
• Upgrades on items - for example there is a flat fee for 8x10s but if the want to upgraded to linen texture it shows the additional dollar amount.
• Set print credits for certain clients.
  
• Early bird discounts for those that order within a certain time frame.
• Previews are available in B&W, Sepia and Selenium within the program, no more converting images in PhotoShop to upload!
• Watermarking
• Customize the look of your proofing area.
• Public and private galleries, private require a password.
  
• Set expiration dates for your galleries.
  
• A great bonus for me being — in Ohio, each county is a different sales tax, I've uploaded the tax rates for each county and when the client inserts their zip code it calculates the tax based on their home zip!!
• When my clients are finished shopping it redirects them to PayPal - but it is also set-up for other payment options as well. There are a ton more features that I'm not mentioning too!

The best part about Photo Cart that unlike other online shopping carts, it's a one time fee. No monthly fees cutting into your profits! You set Photo Cart up on the back of your website too. Photo Cart is $279 and an additional $30 if you'd like Tim to install it. I attempted to install it myself, but I was having a hard time with it, so I emailed Tim and went with the install option, he had me up and running in a few days.

After researching a few of the online proofing options out there, I felt that Photo Cart was the most cost effective option for what I needed. There is an online support forum and community so when I'm unsure of something, I access it for more info or to ask a question. If you're looking for a better shopping cart for your online sales I highly suggest checking this one out!

Biz Books - Keep Track of All Your Business Accounting

Biz Books is available from TK Business & Design. It has been one of my best purchases by far. I went from a messy train wreck of paper work to a very organized accounting system. Tennille (TK) has come up with everything in this detailed reporting for your business. Biz Books is a spreadsheet that you can use in Excel, OpenOffice and NeoOffice (OpenOffice and NeoOffice are both free software programs if you don't own Excel). Tennille has included areas for all of your income and expenses and has an awsome Profit/Loss statement that calculates all your info.

I think Biz Books is a great investment and I'm not sure how I functioned without it. I just saw on the TK blog that there is currently a sale going on along with some price drops. Here's the link to the blog post to check out what deals you can get!! http://www.tkbusiness.com/blogsite

Fonts

Here's a share some helpful resources for fonts. "Free" fonts can be bad news. A lot of the "free" fonts are actually ripped off from a real font. That means the original artist is losing money when you download a free font. As Photographers we want people to respect copyrights on our phtoography, please remember that when buying or sharing fonts ... they come from artists too!!

A lot of the fonts I used on my templates were available from Font Garden. These are fun handwritten fonts at an unbelievable price! Be sure to check them out! Plus if you're looking to get your own handwriting turned into a font, this is the place to check out!

I used fonts from LetterHead Fonts and Font Diner for many of my logos. Not as inexpensive as Font Garden, but a lot of unique choices. There are tons of places out there to buy fonts, I wanted to share my 3 favorites.

Can't figure out what font someone else is using? Be sure to try out Identifont it's a great resource when you just aren't sure where the font came from. Once you find your font or a similar one, it will give you a listing of where to buy the font from.

Full Disclosure: commission on Font Garden Fonts sold via link.

Still Looking for Templates?

I've listed a few fellow designers that also do template and/or logo design. I'm still receiving a lot of hits on this site from photographers looking for templates and I want to let you know who I know of. If you have someone to add to this list, please leave it in the comment section for others looking!

Please note - I have not used any of these designers myself since I am a designer too. So I can't say who has fabulous products and who doesn't - just some links to help you in your search!

My Lil Creations
Uniquely You Designs
Jamie Schultz Designs
Designs By Taz
Eva Talley Creative
Danella Miller
My Doodlebug Designs
Lovebugs Photography Designs