Archive 2009 · Blog images being stolen?

DB
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p.3 #1 · Blog images being stolen?

coffee-black wrote:
It would seem natural, that those who blog, get a majority of their clients from blogs. This is because they have removed themselves from the sales process and are left with only those who have already made their decision. This is probably not a bad thing provided your audience is large enough. But, what about all those prospects who made their decision without ever talking to you?

It has always been my belief to provide enough imagery to create interest and to generate a positive action [such as calling or contacting me]. If I continue to feed them images, why would...Show more →

You are pretty on-target about finding more success with face to face meetings. Blogs are simply ways to get clients interested in you *before* those meetings. As I said before, I kept up with blogs because I had a time reference -- I could see how a photographer's work looked in time. Simply seeing an updated site didn't help me because I didn't always know what they updated.

I am also not one to make a phone call when an email will suffice. I like meeting people in person, but I don't like wasting my time or theirs. Knowing whether I like the photographer's work made the decision a lot easier for me.

You clearly know a lot about marketing and I really wish I could sit down with you and talk about it all! Blogs aren't for everyone, but I think, when used correctly, they can help with marketing. Photographers need to remember not to use it as a dating service!

Jan 06, 2009 at 02:15 PM

Sahid Limon
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p.3 #2 · Blog images being stolen?

Thanks for the responses ya'll. My main concern wasn't about people downloading images off the blog. If they really like my work, then they can download it, heck, they can even share it on facebook for all I care. My concern was for those people who go beyond that, where they'll actually remove the watermark, remove the embedded exif data, alter the image to their liking, and take full credit for it. It has happened to one of my images (before I started watermarking it), and I know it's also happened to a lot of others. In the end though, I guess if someone really want it, they can find a way to get it. I was just curious to see what type of precautions (if any) you guys were taking for your personal blogs. Thanks for the insight.

As for the 2nd debate between the purpose of blogs, I have to agree with Tony, Deb, and Brian here. My view is this: Your website is your portfolio. When a client sees your site for the first time, you want them to be wowed and get excited over it. Hence why most people concentrate on the main site, and make it flashy. Blogs are an extension of your portfolio, just going more in depth. I feel that blogs are very personal as well. Any client I work with, I have a personal connection with them, and become great friends in the process. I think that displaying the story behind a shoot, talking about my experience with a client, the different perspectives on each session, as well as occasionally displaying some behind the scene shots makes the blog a lot more personal than the website alone. I agree with coffee-black that face to face interaction is definitely the way to go. However, for me, having a blog doesn't change my interaction with clients on the phone or at a meeting. I see the blog as an extension of my personality online. I wasn't a big fan of blogs either, but now I seem to get more hits on it than the site itself.

Often times, people who are interested just want to keep up and see what's new. I visit the blogs of many of my favorite photographers here, just to see what they've been up to. In the end, it's just another tool, and I believe it can be used quite effectively for your audience, as well as prospective clients.

Jan 06, 2009 at 05:18 PM

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