Do I Need To Run Online Ads?

Do you have a product or service that requires you to show up in person?  If so, your best advertising focus may be an OFFLINE advertising strategy in a local area.

Do you have a product or service that can be purchased and delivered online, without any in-person interaction needed?  If so, than you definitely benefit from an ONLINE advertising strategy.

Too often people get stuck in the idea that they need to do everything and anything to promote their business, which is a great way to throw money down the drain and waste time on marketing or advertising strategies that are not going to be as effective.

If what you do requires you and a client to be in the same location when you provide your product or service, than you will miss an entire population of people who aren't checking the online market with any frequency to make a difference for your business, but who may be walking right by you every day in your cafe or local retail shops.

A local business needs to focus on local strategy to reach its ideal clients where they already are.
An online service or product based business needs to focus on online strategy to meet clients online.

Are you aware of all the ways you can market offline?  Check out this Annual Marketing Evaluation to see how many strategies are out there for marketing your business and which ones you may be missing out on if you're a local business!

Anne Ruthmann is a retired professional photographer in New York City. With over 13 years of success as a full-time photographer in weddings, portraits, editorial, architecture, and interiors. She now spends any extra time she has helping others find smart solutions to business problems. Stay in touch on Instagram, Twitter or Facebook.

Are you a sucker for technology upgrades?

There are generally two types of people- those who must have the latest piece of technology no matter what and those who upgrade when what they have no longer works.  Which person are you?

Assuming that both people bring in the same amount of revenue, one of these people spends an average of 3x more in expenses, resulting in 3x less profit/income.  They may have the latest equipment, but they're also more likely to be living on the financial edge.  Those who wait until their equipment dies often save themselves from the potential pitfalls of buying gear that hasn't been in the marketplace long enough to be tested by regular users and receive accurate reviews.

According to Moore's Law, if you use your technology until it breaks, you will get exponentially better equipment at an exponentially lower price.  However, if you purchase new technology as soon as it's released, you may be keeping up with the latest trends but you end up spending more money and time learning new gear each year, instead of every few years, which means less time spent on functions essential to building revenue in your business.  Tech companies know that early adopters- who must have the latest technology, will buy whatever the latest release is, regardless of whether it's a significant improvement or not.  These small yearly upgrades just to have something new on the market is how tech companies make greater profits and how early adopters get suckered.

Now, if your business model is to always have the latest equipment and your clients pay a premium for you to keep up with equipment trends, than it is an essential part of your business strategy and you'll need to make sure that you're regularly capitalizing on your previous investments before they see a significant drop in value so that they aren't going to waste.  Another option (depending on how often you use certain pieces of equipment) is to rent the newest equipment instead of purchasing it, so that you aren't paying full price for something that will be useless to you in a year or lose its value at an exponential rate.  When you know how often you use your equipment, and you measure that against the cost of purchasing new equipment annually, you can make the smartest business decision for you.

My personal upgrade strategy is to budget in advance for upgrades- knowing that good cameras last about two years and good computers last about three years.  Even then, I still wait for things to break before replacing them, but at least I've budgeted this expense into my business needs.  What equipment replacement strategy works best for your business?  Share your thoughts in the comments.

Anne Ruthmann is a lifestyle & wedding photographer from Boston, MA. She spent 10 years practicing marketing & management in corporate and non-profit businesses before pursuing her passion for photography in 2004 as an independent small business.  She loves helping others find creative and smart solutions to business problems.  Follow her on Twitter to see her daily adventures and thoughts.

When Should You Rebrand? (and when NOT to rebrand)

Good Reasons To Rebrand:

• You are attracting the wrong clients
• Your product, service, or style has changed and is no longer reflected in your brand
• Your brand is out of date because it was created for a different market or decade
• Your current brand has acquired a bad reputation
• Your brand is easily confused with another established brand in your field
• You want to publicly demonstrate dramatic changes to your business

When NOT To Rebrand:

• You just want a fresh look even though you are attracting great clients
• You are moving to a new location but continue to offer the same service and products
• You have rebranded or just established your brand within the last year
• Your current brand is well established and has a great reputation in the industry
• Your competition got a new look and now you feel like you need one
• Your sales are down and you think rebranding will boost them

Really, the only good reason for rebranding is when you want to change the direction of your business and/or the kind of client that you attract- any other reason may do more damage than good to your business momentum.

If you have decided that it is time to rebrand for the right reasons, consider the following questions carefully:

1. What does your current brand fail to communicate or attract?

2. How will a new brand better communicate your product or service and attract your ideal market?

3. Based on the strength of your current brand's reputation, what is the minimum amount of change that will have the maximum impact toward your goals?

There are many different ways you can make changes in order to serve your goals- consider which ones will have the greatest impact:

SERVICE CHANGES:
Changing your service methods is one of the easiest ways to change the perception of your brand without changing a look that has already established itself in the market. By simply improving the service aspects of your business, you can boost your word of mouth marketing and reputation in the marketplace. Consider the excitement that comes with new food offerings at your favorite restaurants, or a return of a seasonal only favorite item. Just be wary of making changes too frequently in the customer experiences so that your clients don't suffer from a type of "facebook frustration." Here are some examples of service changes you may want to consider:
- Reorganization and optimization of website menu and navigation
- Improve response times to inquiries and problems
- Improve delivery times on products and services
- Streamline customer options and selection process
- Change service or product offerings
- Product packaging and unboxing experience

MESSAGE & TONE CHANGES:
Making changes to the tone and messages communicated in marketing materials can be a subtle way of changing directions and identifying with your intended market. McDonald's has changed it's slogan countless times as well as the formality and informality of its wording in marketing materials. It has moved from "you deserve a break today"- targeted to parents suggesting a break from cooking at home and entertaining their kids, to "i'm lovin' it"- targeted to young adults suggesting satisfaction of a craving when they see the golden arches on the side of the road. Here are several elements of a branding message that you may want to consider:
- Tagline or motto
- Written copy on website and in marketing materials
- Testimonials from clients
- Stories and Case Studies that demonstrate service and product offerings
- Integration of accomplishments or statistics that establish credibility
- Use of social media to deliver value and convey brand messages

VISUAL CHANGES:
This is generally the first thing people think of when they think of rebranding, but as you've seen, it's not the only influence on your overall brand. In fact, if you have an established brand, I'd recommend looking at the other changes you can make before you implement a visual change. We've seen plenty of iconic brands undergo visual changes in our lifetime (Pepsi, Apple, Adidas, etc.) and it's important to note that changes which were received positively in the market often held on to some elements of the former branding. When GAP took too drastic a departure from its former logo, the market responded negatively to the new look, which resulted in GAP changing back to their original logo. If you've created an iconic logo for your company, be very careful about how you change it. You may only need to make very subtle changes in order to attract a new market, convey a new experience, or bring it into a new decade. Consider these various elements of your visual brand:
- Color palette of logo or marketing pieces (website, business card, newsletters, etc.)
- Fonts, spacing, and layout of marketing pieces
- Shapes used in marketing pieces (going from squares and lines to circles and waves)
- Complexity or simplicity of elements used in visual marketing pieces

NAME CHANGE:
I place this one last and in its own category because the only reason for considering a name change should be when you want to make a complete departure from your former clients and reputation. A name change from "XYZ Studio" to "XYZ Photography" is not that dramatic if your main service has always been photography. However, if you're a graphic designer, this would convey that you are now ONLY offering photography, thus separating yourself from your design clients and reputation. Consider the impact Netflix had when it created an entirely different brand for DVD service and how separating it from Streaming Video services was not welcomed by its customer base leading Netflix to reverse their new venture. A subtle name change may not have that much impact on your business as long as you retain the original web address for at least 2 years after you make the change. However, if you are going from JD Photo to Jane Doe Photography- it should be because JD Photo was too easily confused with other similar names and conveyed a brand name that was more casual than the type of work you want to attract. Before considering any name change, google the name and see what other websites appear in searches to make sure you can carve out a unique name for your service in the online marketplace.

FINAL THOUGHTS:
Test out any changes on your favorite clients or on people that you'd like to attract with your service or product. Get some good feedback from people who would have an impact on your bottom line before solidifying any changes. Just as there is beta-testing with new software, there should be some amount of beta-testing with changes to your brand. If you've gone through the branding process, or are in the middle of it, I'd love to hear about your experience in the comments!

Anne Ruthmann is a lifestyle & wedding photographer from Boston, MA. She spent 10 years practicing marketing & management in corporate and non-profit businesses before pursuing her passion for photography as an independent small business. She loves helping others find creative and low-cost solutions to business problems. Follow her on Twitter to see her daily adventures and thoughts.

12 Terabytes of Fast File Storage for less than $2000

In my previous article, A Strategy for Data Backup, I committed to outlining what I think is a solid, cost-effective, and reliable solution for wedding and portrait photographers.

Now as a little up-front disclaimer I would like to say that the equipment and software recommendations I list in this article are my own and I am not compensated in any way, shape, or form by any of the manufacturers or sellers of these products and services. I also offer this advice without an guarantees that they will work perfectly for anyone else. This particular setup is basically an updated version of the one we have been using the past three years.

About the system
This system is designed to offer the best compromise between access speed, raw storage space, backup automation, flexibility for rotating backups, and accommodating future growth for file storage needs. It's a bit of a DIY solution, but in my opinion it's preferable to a Drobo, which is essentially a proprietary RAID system.

System components
The basic components of the system are:
• A port multiplier-capable box, used for housing the hard drives
• Eight hard drives
• An eSATA card, for accessing the box at faster-than-USB/Firewire speeds
• Anti-static hard drive cases, for the offsite drives
• Chronosync, automated and configurable backup software

Recommended Components
Burly Port-Multiplier box ($500)
Mac Pro eSATA card ($200) OR MacBook Pro eSATA card ($200)
1.5 TB Hard Drives ($115)
Weibetech protective cases (10 for $55)
Extra Burly drive tray ($30)
Chronosync (Backup software for $40)

Putting it all together
1 x Burly Box @ $500
8 x 1.5 TB drives @ $125 = $920
1 x eSATA card @ $200
10 pack of protective cases = $55
2 x Burly drive tray @ $30 = $60
1 x Chronosync software @ $40
Total = ~$1755

Using the system
Since duplication is key, it's important to note here that this system is not designed to be the only backup. Ideally this system would be one of three total copies that exist of the work a photographer is attempting to back up -- and have it readily available for taking off site as well as restoration (if necessary).

Four of the drives will be in use regularly, the other four drives will be for offsite/emergency purposes, so the idea is to split data across the drives in a way that makes sense.

Storage system drives
• Drive A: 2010 RAW Files
• Drive B: Work In-Progress
• Drive C: Archived Work
• Drive D: More Archived Work + Business Files

Offsite/clone drives
• Drive E: 2010 RAW Files Clone
• Drive F: Work In-Progress Clone
• Drive G: Archived Work Clone
• Drive H: More Archived Work + Business Files Clone

These silos will allow a photographer to separate the work-in-progress files from RAWs and business files. Separating the work also allows for pairing up these backup drives with the other four drives, giving each drive a same-sized clone.

Chronosync, or a similar smart automated backup program, can run on a set schedule to manage the process of backing up to specific drives. Setting the backup program to do nightly dumps of a local work folder to a Work In-Progress drive is a great way to ensure that a drive failure will only mean one day of lost productivity after restoring.

Sample workflow
Here is a sample workflow for using this system to back up work and incorporate an off-site strategy as well:

1. Shoot a job
2. Download the images to the internal drive of the main editing workstation
3. Copy the RAW images to the 2010 RAW Files drive
4. Burn a DVD of the RAW images (optional but recommended)
5. Process the RAWs in Lightroom and export the corrected Jpegs to a working folder on the main editing workstation
6. Make additional adjustments to the work-in-progress images at the main editing workstation
7. Nightly backup process (Chronosync) store the work folder in the Work In-Progress drive automatically (set up folders & schedules for this up beforehand)
8. Insert the clone drives one by one and sync the contents from the storage system drive to the offsite/clone drive (on a regular basis; weekly, monthly, or after each job)
9. Take the clone drives (in the Weibetech boxes) to another location

What about the cloud?
As of February 2010, the cost of storing data legitimately* with a cloud-based service is still a little high for the average photographer to handle, especially as data grows. I have linked a spreadsheet that estimates the cost of cloud storage for a year.

*After some research I found that, unfortunately, webhosts offering "unlimited" storage only mean unlimited for files that are actually there in support of the website. For example, Dreamhost's terms of service say: "The customer agrees to make use of DreamHost servers primarily for the purpose of hosting a website. Data uploaded must be primarily for this purpose. DreamHost Apps servers are not intended as a data backup or archiving service." Go Daddy's hosting agreement says more plainly: "Go Daddy's shared hosting servers are not an archive"

Backup System and Cloud Storage Calculator

Please feel free to comment and leave your thoughts on this system and alternatives. I'd love to hear/see them!

Damon is the technical (and bag-carrying) assistant to Agnes Lopez, a commercial and wedding photographer who works primarily in Ponte Vedra Beach and Amelia Island, Florida. When he isn't standing still as a lighting test dummy, setting up a c-stand, or holding a reflector, Damon works as an IT Business Analyst, where he gets to solve technical problems on a daily basis.

A Strategy for Data Backup

Backing up your data is a must. Since image files are the lifeblood of any photographer's business it only makes sense to invest in a backup solution that protects the business' most important assets.

Q: What kind of solution is the best?

A: It depends!

For a commercial photographer who maintains a library of images that can be sold for stock, licensed, etc., a backup solution has to be about as bulletproof as possible. On the other hand, a wedding or portrait photographer is unlikely to do any work on a finished session from two years ago and would only need to keep the finished jpegs and album design files from a client job. If they want to be a little more thorough they could keep the RAW files and Lightroom catalogs.

Keep in mind that the cost of any solution increases exponentially with the amount of complexity involved. So if you want a mirrored system that includes offsite backup, RAID servers (never just one), and the ability to restore in a few hours -- you're talking serious dough.

Over this post and a follow up I'll outline what I think is a solid, cost-effective, and reliable solution for wedding and portrait photographers.

First I'd like to offer the tenets of my backup strategy:

• Figure out what you need
• Redundancy is not a bad word
• Storage is cheap.
• Duplication is key.
• Complexity is the enemy.
• Keep your data moving.
• Take it off site.
• It's cheaper to buy a lot of drives than to recover one
• Test your backups

Figure out what you need

Answering some basic questions about your business will shape your backup strategy and help you prioritize your efforts:

What kind of photographer are you?

How likely are you to use the images again for licensing or sale?

What is the data retention policy for your business?

What is the retention policy in your contract?

What is your shooting format (RAW, Jpeg, DNG)?

What is your output format (Jpeg, PSD, Tiff)?

Redundancy is not a bad word

The desire of any good backup system is to be redundant. You want to have your data in a pristine state in multiple locations, preferably on site and some off site.

Storage is cheap

Hard drives are ridiculously large, very reliable, and incredibly cheap. There is no excuse that you can make for not having backups. Hard drives and physical media (DVD, Blu-ray, Flash drives) are getting cheaper, smaller, and more dense all the time. As of January 2010 it's possible to get a 2 terabyte (2 x 1000 gigabytes) drive for less than $200. Blu-ray discs are about $30 for a 50 GB per disc, which is easily enough space to back up a single job or RAW files. This low cost leads to my next tenet...

Duplication is key

I don't think I know anyone who hasn't had a hard drive fail or accidentally deleted an important file, so having a *relatively current* backup of important things is a must. These aren't the old days, where you tucked the film negatives into protective sleeves and put them in a file cabinet. In the digital age there is no quality loss from making copies of your files, so buy multiple hard drives and make copies of those important files! It's a great way to guard against catastrophic data loss. Adding in Blu-ray discs or traditional DVDs is a great way to diversify the duplication process for even more redundancy.

Complexity is the enemy

You may or may not have heard the phrase "RAID is NOT a backup" (It's worth a Google search) That argument about RAID notwithstanding, the important point is that most photographers are not IT people with years of experience working in data centers, troubleshooting hardware issues, and restoring mission-critical data from failures. In general,dealing with proprietary RAID controller cards, striping, configurations, and the like is almost guaranteed to end badly. Software RAID is also a bad idea from a performance and reliability standpoint.

If you're a wedding or portrait photographer it's unlikely that you're dealing with large databases or massive single files. Image files just need to be catalogued decently (so you can find the images you're looking for if you have to restore) and stored in multiple places (redundancy). Keeping it simple may mean having more drives but it also means you'll have a much better chance of having the files you need when that day comes.

Keep your data moving

When new technology comes out and hits a reasonable price, like the newer hard drives or Blu-ray discs, it's a good idea to move your old backup data into the new format. That way you've moved your data to a newer location, effectively increasing redundancy and the life expectancy of that data.

Take it off site

Off site backup just means not in one physical location. It doesn't need to be at some data center or in "the cloud" necessarily. If you can afford to do the Enterprise-class off site backup and your needs are heavy duty, then by all means go for it. At the same time the combination of large RAW file sizes and the bandwidth limitations of even broadband internet limit the effectiveness of going off site over the Internet.

If you have a studio separate from your home then it can be as simple as just having copies of your data at your home. If you run a home-based studio then simply storing a stack of hard drives in a safe location, say your in-laws or a friend's house, can be an effective solution. There's also the option of safe deposit boxes at your bank as well.

It's cheaper to buy a lot of drives than to recover one

The question is: Pay now or pay later?

If you don't have a backup strategy it's likely you'll pay quite a bit at one time when things do go wrong. The high cost of data recovery services is a reality you should be able to avoid (most of the time) with a good backup strategy. I've seen the cost of restoring one drive of client files be over $2,000 -- and that was for a drive that the company couldn't fully restore.

And then there's the awful possibility of litigation for losing important client files if they haven't yet been delivered.

For $2,000 a photographer could easily purchase a bunch of large hard drives, protective cases, a Blu-ray burner, a stack of Blu-ray discs, and DVDs. Considering the value of your data it's foolish to trust a single hard drive or single disc when there is no downside to having additional copies of your work saved in multiple locations.

Test your backups

A backup is only good if it can actually be used. Even though it's a boring exercise it's absolutely crucial to test your backups to make sure they actually work.

It's worth it to simulate a disaster scenario every few months (or at least once a year) to ensure all that backing up is actually effective.

Damon is the technical (and bag-carrying) assistant to Agnes Lopez, a commercial and wedding photographer who works primarily in Ponte Vedra Beach and Amelia Island, Florida. When he isn't standing still as a lighting test dummy, setting up a c-stand, or holding a reflector, Damon works as an IT Business Analyst, where he gets to solve technical problems on a daily basis.