Whether you want to express your artistic point of view with your photographs or even market your photography services, it’s a good idea to start a photography blog. While there are many community sites that can host your photos for you, having your own site for branding and marketing purposes is the better option. This might seem challenging if you’re not the most technical person, but there are so many solutions nowadays that help you start a blog with ease. Here are some tips for creating your blog from scratch:
1. Choose a Domain Name and Web Host
While there are free platforms that allow you to build your site without paying for a domain and web hosting, you’ll have more control over your site by paying the few extra dollars a month. You can get a domain for $5 to $10 from registrars like GoDaddy and NameCheap. Hosting can be as cheap as $5 to $10 as well. Some of the go-to service providers include GoDaddy, BlueHost and Hostgator. Even their cheapest plans usually offer you plenty of diskspace, bandwidth, and sites for your project.
2. Install WordPress and Select a Theme for Your Site
Start by installing WordPress on your web host server. It’s the most simplest and easiest platform to use. In many cases, you can install it in one click with your hosting company. You can always spend time creating your web design from scratch. But why do that when there are so many free themes out there that are professionally designed?
In fact, many of these themes are specifically designed for photography sites. This means that they’ll often feature beautiful sliders, galleries, and layouts that will really allow you to show off your work. Don’t worry about looking cookie cutter as you can usually customize these themes with your own colors, logos, layouts, and functions. These themes can be found all over the web. You can also visit WordPress.org for official themes.
3. Research Your Target Audience
If you want to start a blog for business purposes, you’ll want to research your target audience. Think about the clients you want to attract. Are you looking to be a photographer at weddings, offer professional headshots, or even work for events? Take a good look around at other blogs related to the services you want to offer and see what kind of photos they’re posting on their blogs.
This will give you an idea of what potential clients may be impressed by. Pay close attention to what kind of shots that people are commenting on. Pay attention to photos that people are praising and are getting people to inquire about the photographer’s services. Of course, you also want to develop your own style. Think about how you can stand out with your photos as well.
4. Start Developing Your Content
One of the biggest blunders that new bloggers make is posting great content for the first week and not being able to follow up with new content until a week or two later. You need to be consistent in order to get the momentum going and build a following that’s engaged. While you may be tempted to post your best shots of the week, you want to hold out until you’ve got a large amount of shots to post over the next few weeks.
The reason you want to do this is because you give off the idea to your followers that you will be posting content on a regular basis. It also gives you the space you need to develop new content while your readers are engaged with your existing content. Don’t forget that you’ll need to write some detailed commentary about your photos. Many photography bloggers think they can get away with just posting photos, but many followers expect some kind of context or perspective about your work.
5. Build Connections in the Industry
If you are a professional photographer or you’re aiming to be one, you want to put in a lot of effort in building industry connections. Reach out to fellow photography bloggers to see if they’d like to feature your content in return for featuring theirs. One of the things you’ll quickly realize is that many photographers will not be in direct competition with you.
For instance, some photographers may only focus on head shots, product shots, or weddings. Even if the photographer is catering to the same target audience as you, you’ll soon realize that many will be located in another area. Since photographers are limited by their location, there’s no harm in working with photographers that are on the other side of the country. By really building connections in the industry, you’ll start to build your personal brand, generate referrals, and establish yourself in your area.
6. Market Your Site and Photos
Marketing is something that every blogger will have to invest in. There are many strategies that you will want to use from social media marketing, content marketing, SEO, paid advertising, to guest blogging. You want to do a little of each, but focus on one particular strategy until it becomes an effective way to generate high quality traffic, leads, and eventually clients.
With that said, one of the great things about photography blogs is that there are so many no cost, grass roots tactics you can use to market your site. This includes posting your photos on sites like Google Images, Google Photos, Imgur, TinyPic, Flickr, Reddit, and 500px. There are also many blogs and community sites that vote on the best photos. By utilizing all of these sites, you can attract traffic to your site fairly quickly.
These are the steps that you’ll want to follow to launch your photography blog. With blogs in this category, you’ll find it easier to generate traffic due to all the photo sharing sites and photography communities. The challenge will really come down to your ability to maintain your traffic, build a following, and convince people to hire you for your services.
