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Good Money, Bad Money

Are you charging for things you shouldn’t be?  Is the way you sell things costing you money or referrals?

Photographers traditionally charge you for the photo shoot, then they lock away the negatives in a drawer, making you pay a huge fee for the prints. 

This makes every single customer angry.  It always has. 

It makes me insane that hundred of pictures from when my son was 6 months old are in a file cabinet, never to be seen again, because I can only afford 2-3 at $100 per print. These are my memories, man!
That photographer charged for the photo shoot, but they only sold me 3 prints.

I recently found a much smarter photographer (Andrew Collings) who understands how to sell photography.  He charged for the shoot.  I liked the shots, so he sold me the whole CD.  As I need enlargements, he’s gets to sell me retouching and other add-ons.

He’s going to make a lot more money.   I’m going to use him again. I’m going to refer my friends.  Word of mouth is powerful.   

Here’s the lesson: 

  1. Making people angry is not a great way to earn word of mouth.  My now and forever frustrations with blackmailing photographers will always stop me from making referrals.

  2. Sharing = word of mouth.  My ability to share dozens of shots from the smart photographer online will generate huge word of mouth for him.  Everyone who sees a shot wants to hire him. 

  3. I can’t talk about photos that I can’t share. I can’t share them because
    the traditional photographer won’t give me digital rights at a reasonable price.
    Who’s going to see those three prints on my wall?

(Photographers … please don’t rant about not making money/artistic vision. If you’re good, you can charge whatever you want. You just don’t get to do it the way you used to. Your customers won’t put up with it.)

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