Specifications

Get a domain name: GoDaddy, 1&1, Hostgator, Powweb, or any number of other places. While

you’re there, sign-up for a hosting package.

Then, go to Wordpress.org, download and learn to install (or use the easy installer provided by

your hosting service, if applicable) Wordpress on your domain name.

Choose a Wordpress theme, customize it, and you’re ready to go.

I know I’ve severely simplified this process, but the information is readily available online elsewhere

(and until I write a course about it!) or you can hire someone to do this for you. Find a freelance web

designer on eLance, Guru, or oDesk.

Mailing lists (3) – Clients, Inquiries, & Leads

A mailing list is essential to successful marketing for your business. You can keep in touch with past

clients and inquiries in order to offer them discounts or show off your latest work. It’s important to

keep your emails to a minimum, however, and make sure the content is worth the read, otherwise,

you’ll alienate (read: annoy) your following and get requests to unsubscribe.

You can build and manage your mailing list(s) a number of ways. There are programs such as Microsoft

Excel, which is useful for storing contact information in organize and sortable columns & rows format.

Google has a free application within Google Drive (formerly known as Google Docs) which is similar to

Excel and offers spreadsheet building capabilities, though there are many more features available in

Microsoft Excel than Google Drive. The cool thing about Google Drive, however, is that you can share

your documents with other people, which is great for collaborative efforts. Additionally, you can access

your information from any computer as long as you can get online and login to GoogleDrive.

One way of building your mailing list is to add an opt-in form on your website where people can sign up

to hear from you. Try offering a special discount for signing up and make registration as easy as possible.

You’ll want to keep your mailing lists separate. I list three main lists, but you might have more if you’re

separating your fashion contacts from your wedding inquiries, for example.

Essentially, for each genre of photography business which you engage in, you’ll want three main lists:

1 – Clients, 2 – Inquiries, and 3 – Leads

Now, the first two are self-explanatory. People with whom you’ve worked with before and

people who have inquired about working with you. The third mailing list, “Leads”, is designated

for cold leads, which I consider to be persons and businesses with whom YOU wish to work with.

Some examples of leads might be photography agencies, magazines and news publications, or

modeling agencies.

If your specialty of photography is interiors or architecture, some leads might be real estate

companies in the area or a something in the travel industry.

Social Networking Accounts

There’s no denying that social networking is here and here to stay. You need to get into this as much as

possible. Here are the current key networks to join and participate in, which I’m going to list and link to