a little bit on branding, blogging, and fantasy football

I’ve been doing a lot of thinking lately, well, since the move, about what to do and how to do it. I had clients (lots of you) in Michigan who called me each summer for family portraits, you referred me to your friends who referred me to their workmates and so on and so on. Starting a new client base in a huge city that seems to have more photographers than buildings is a daunting task. It makes me think of the Ani DiFranco song “seems like everyone’s an actor, or an actor’s best friend”. I’m not working here yet (save one client and a couple of inquiries that haven’t booked) and I need/want to be.

So what do I do? How do I stand out and be different? There’s LOTS of discussion out there about “branding.” (do a google search – hello overload of information) I was talking with Jessica about it and we’re both a bit irritated at the whole idea. Branding is basically promoting your personality, building a strong web presence/website/blog/social media etc, building on your emotional connection with your audience. There are many famous photographers who are famous more because of their “branding” than their talent. Yet it doesn’t work for everyone. Why is it some can blog for days and promote themselves more than they are photographing and it doesn’t generate new clients?  I don’t have the answer. I wish I did – cause then I’d be working more.

I maintain that those who do promote their personality and have gazillions of followers and jobs work harder than I do. Without a doubt. So what happens if I start blogging more? What happens if I start promoting my personality and work on my “branding” more?  Let’s find out. Because I’d like you to hire me because you like my style. But if I gain a few new clients who hire me cause I’m awesome and fun and they like my ramblings – then woot!

So I’m going to start out with 1 new blog post a week. About something or nothing… depending on the week. Granted, there will be weeks when I have nothing more to talk about than how I spent the weekend in my Packers sweatshirt watching football, yelling at my fantasy football team, and playing Oregon Trail: American Settler on my ipad. But hey – that’s normal right?

Because all posts are better with a photo or two… there’s something about this old boat that has me intrigued.