There is a lot to do when you want to start a new photography blog. With everything from choice of the domain name through to what to write. It has become an essential tool in any businesses’ arsenal.
If you want to know how to start a photography blog and why you should there’s more than just the initial set up of domain name hosting and Content Management system. You need to know about the legal aspects, how to format your images specifically for a blog and how to get ideas for your posts. Below I go through some basics of creating a blog for your photography business.
There are many reasons why you should have a blog. With everything from branding to getting in more customers to easier customer access. For each person that may be different. You may simply feel that is something you have to do, and while that may be right that is not enough to continue down your blogging journey.
Start a Photography Blog Today and Watch Your Business Grow
Plan Your Blog
Why Do You Want a Blog?
Before you decide on how to start a photography blog you need to know why you want to start one. How does that relate to your business? The reason I ask is as blogging can be a full-time occupation itself and it takes a long time to create and write posts and articles unless you pay someone to do them for you.
In addition to that, there’s a whole host of things that you need to learn about search engine optimization and social media etc if you’re to be successful with your blog.
If you’ve already set up your website for your business and you’ve done it on WordPress as recommended, you’ve already got the facility for setting up a blog and it is very easy. All you have to do is add a Blog section to your categories and to your menus and start creating your posts.
Why do you want to set up a blog for your photography business? How will it help you? Do you really need one? How are you going to market it?
8 Reasons Why You Want to Start a Photography Blog
There are several reasons that you might want to start a blog to go with your photography business.
- To show off your photos.
- Your blog can help you to gain a following.
- For branding your business.
- As a means to sell your photos.
- If you want to run a course later on in photography to enhance your income in your area and again this will require a following.
- Gain customer trust.
- Making money from your blog in other ways.
- For customers to find you online.
There are lots of reasons that you might decide that a Blog is right for you. Some of mentioned above. Whatever they are you need to know because that will change how you approach your blog writing.
Set Up Your Blog
Domain Name and Website
I have kept this brief here as this is a full in depth article in its own right.
So you what need to is to have is a domain name and website, content management ideally, because that’s easier if you want to create a photography blog and run it yourself.
- Domain name.
- Hosting that includes MySQL.
- CMS Content management system — WordPress.
- WordPress Templates.
Once you have set up the blog structure you need to make sure you have all the following in place.
Add Your Official Notices
There is a whole host of rules and regulations that you need to follow when you’re working online. To start you need the following:
- Privacy policy.
- GDPR compliance if you have ANYONE likely to visit your site from the EU regardless of where you are.
- Any Affiliate notices.
- Terms & Conditions.
- Any Other legal notices or disclaimers.
Create Your Blog Structure
It’s vital to plan your blog in advance. You may decide that you simply want a Blog as one category with no subcategories. Or you may decide that you want to split your blog down into subcategories to make searching easier for the viewer. In which case you need to know what those categories are going to be in advance. I know you can add them anytime however it’s easier for you if you have an idea of what they are.
For example, if you are a wedding photographer you might like to split your categories down into country weddings, bridesmaids, advice, and tips and city weddings.
Or as a travel photographer, you might like to split it down in 2 countries or historical travel or Adventure Travel accessory depending on what you write about a photograph.
Is Your Blog Your Photography Business Support Or The Business?
This important question because you may not have considered the blogging section of your business as a business in its own right. Blogging is usually popular and could be a huge source of income for your photography business.
There are several ways that you can make money from your blog. These are as follows:
- Referrals of customers from your blog to your business.
- Online courses and books that you have written.
- Your offline courses advertised and paid for from your blog.
- Sponsorship either from businesses or if you personally.
- Affiliates sales of photography equipment.
- Advertisements if your way to put them on your blog.
- Actually selling your photos.
- Selling photo related items.
You don’t have to decide all of this immediately. But if you got a rough idea of how your blog will run and where are you aiming for you know what to add in the future and you can make allowances for it. don’t underestimate the advantages of your blog nor the work that it’ll take to get it up and running.
Write Your Blog
As a photographer, you will be using a higher degree of photos then is the norm. This will change how you create your blog. Because the speed of loading of your website or blog is vitally important. So you will need to know about how best to go about putting your photos on your website and keeping the sizes down really low.
While most advice says that you need mostly photos in your blog unless you are using another method of gaining traffic or you’re already well-known and people are searching for you unless you actually write a full size the blog there is very little chance that you will get an audience.
You may find that you are a better off using something like Pinterest or Instagram to gain traffic to your blog. Of course, this all creates extra work and things to learn.
Now To Start Blog Content
Oh! Boy, you just stare at that blank page. Doubly so if you’re a photographer and not normally a writer so what do you write?
That really depends on how you approach your new blog. If your aim is to support your business by posting your photos and information on what they are and where they were taken etc, your approach will be very different to if you actually want to be found in the search engines.
If you want your blog to be found in the search engines, you need to learn some SEO (search engine optimization). And you will need to implement this in every single thing that you write regardless of whether it’s for photography or a whole article.
So for example, if you’re writing about a recent photo shoot you’ve done for a magazine you may find that people have not or are not searching for it online. In which case you need to get your viewers from another source. Whereas if you are writing about the top 10 tips on how to photograph bridesmaids for example then there’s a good chance that somebody somewhere is searching for that.
How to Get Ideas For Your Blog Posts
Become a mini star. People like to feel involved and that they know you. This means that you’ve almost got to become a little mini soap star. Let them follow your pursuits where possible. Do regular posts and let them know who you are. All this comes as part of your branding so you have to be selective about what you show.
- Photos & videos of photo shoots.
- Your adventures of where you’ve been photographing.
- Photography how-to tips.
- Where you’ve messed up and how to correct it.
- Any courses that you have going in the future.
Create Images Suitable for Your Blog
Now, if you’ve been shooting in raw and then transferring your photos over to JPEG they are going to be far too big to put on a blog. You will find over time not only do your images eat into your storage very quickly that it slows your blog down and makes it very sluggish unless you’ve spent a small fortune on getting a super fast hosting.
Most people writing a blog will make sure the photos are quite small the sizes are in KB rather than MB.
- Fit your photo to your page do not make it larger than it needs to be.
- You can add your name your website address and your copyright to your photos for some protection. Even with all those, people will steal it they will simply remove these.
- Add your images to your blog.
- Share on social media (Pinterest, Instagram etc)
Once you have done this, it is just a matter of keep doing it on a consistent and regular basis.