Breaking Free From the Photo Business Rollercoaster

Why are you a photographer? You probably didn’t get into this thing assuming it was a get rich quick scheme or for status and power. More likely than not, you love taking photos, being around people, and the excitement of running your own business.

At least, that’s how it was for me as a photographer.

I got into photography after a friend of mine, who was a sponsored skier, became more and more serious about turning pro. While we were hitting bike jumps, I was taking shots of him with a very old digital camera featuring a painfully slow 1.3-second shutter lag. Once he saw some images I captured, his reply was: “Dude, you should get a camera and be my photographer!” We were 17, and it was 2004, so a lot of “dudes” were thrown around.

I immediately replied: “Dude (again, we were 17!), cameras are like $500!” But after a few short hours of contemplating, I went ahead and ordered my first “pro model” camera. I believe it cost roughly $699. This was the start of my photography career.

Photo by Connor Walberg / Athlete: Matt Luczkow, the same pro skier who told me I should shoot pro.

Through photography, I was able to combine my biggest outdoor passions. I shot professionally because I loved skiing, biking, skateboarding, and being creative, all while hanging out with my best friends. Add to all that my love of technology, and it truly was a dream come true.

But as time went on, I quickly realized that photography (and any business in general, especially in the early stages) can be like riding a rollercoaster. One month, I’d be on top of the world as I booked even just one or two well-paying gigs. But the next two months might be a complete slump where I scrambled to make rent. You might know what this feels like.

Over the years, I ventured on new paths, as creative types often do. Through those new paths, I learned that this rollercoaster was present in most businesses, but that it didn’t have to be. The main difference between a sustainable business and one full of ups and downs is the ability to continually attract new leads and clients. In marketing terms, it's “keeping the top of the funnel full.”  

What happens with most photographers is that they can barely keep up during the busy times full of shoots and editing, and marketing is largely forgotten. Then, when things slow down again, they dive into all kinds of marketing activities until they’ve landed a new set of shoots (during which they pause all marketing again). This leads to another slump after the good times.

Keeping Business Steady

So, how do you combat all this? How do you beat the marketing slumps and sustain a strong and steady photo biz? Systems and channels. I know, it sounds boring and unenjoyable, but hey, if you get these right, you can consistently shoot and make a great living!

Before we go any further, I want you to be aware that there are tiers of marketing. What I mean by this is that when you first start out, you should take first-tier marketing approaches. What works best at that stage (and will continue to work in the future) is word of mouth, networking, and referrals. Anything you can do in person where you actually talk to someone or are referred by someone is going to be very powerful. The more you do this, the more natural it becomes, and soon, you won’t even need to think about it anymore; it will become an extension of your daily life.

Once you’re landing clients and delivering great results in the first tier, it’s time to add a second tier. Here are a few marketing channels you could take on: 

• Social media
• SEO
• Paid advertising
• Mailers
• Partnerships (depending on what type of photography you do)

At this point, I’m going to steer you in my favorite direction, and here’s why: after being a photographer, I started a skate clothing company where I designed tees, sewed pocket tees, and even ran art contests, designing and selling custom skateboards. This is where I learned SEO. SEO stands for "Search Engine Optimization." With my t-shirt company, I wrote and posted one helpful article about longboard skateboards that brought me from 1-2 organic visitors a day (people coming from non-paid ads on Google) to over 200. And with this, I started making regular sales through my machine.  

The best part? I didn’t have to do anything else. The buyers were finding me consistently and for the right reasons (they were a semi-warm audience ready to buy)! Following this discovery, I built and ran an SEO business, where I served clients for about seven years. 

Somewhere in all of that, I realized that what I really wanted was to work with photographers again. The people who are so passionate about what they do, who generally run one-person shows, and who are often riding the business rollercoaster.

Your Second Channel: SEO for Your Photo Website

Ok, so now, you have a little more backstory and see where I’m going with this. In my opinion, SEO is the channel of focus once you have proven yourself with some real clients and landed work. I prefer it over social media, which requires constant attention or paid ads, requiring a hefty investment and learning curve to get started. SEO is more like building an automated traffic machine. You can put what you want into it, when you want, and over time, it will do the heavy lifting and supply you with consistent leads.

With those consistent leads, you can escape the rollercoaster of business! 

Now that you know the why behind SEO and can see the benefits, getting started is the next hardest part. Here are a few quick tips to get you rolling, and if you decide that this is for you, click the link below to grab the Simple Guide to SEO that I’ve put together.

Tips for Getting Started With SEO as a photographer

1. SEO takes time. Be patient. This doesn’t happen overnight. Expect it to take a few months at a minimum, depending on your approach and the amount of time you put into it. It’s easy to get discouraged when you can’t see immediate results, but trust the process and stick with it!
2. SEO will often push you towards the technical side of things. SEO doesn’t have to be very technical. While working with clients, I realized that the more technical I got on their sites, the less impressive the results became. When I instead focused on making the site better for their visitors and creating more content, things improved dramatically!
3. Local SEO - where you rank for your specific area and style of photography - is far easier to implement and rank. National rankings means you are competing with every single photographer in the country.
4. Pick your specific niche and make sure that’s the main focus on your homepage. The homepage is the most important page on just about any website and the most likely to rank well with SEO in most cases. By picking one specific niche, you are clearly telling search engines that this is what you do and what you should rank for. The clearer we can be, the better.
5. Your site should be beautiful. Although this won’t necessarily affect SEO, photography is art, and when someone visits your site and it doesn’t look good, even if the photos are good, they are far less likely to think you are the photographer for them.
6. If your homepage is only photos or has very little text, adding text is your first step! Add great content to the homepage and take your customers on a journey as they scroll down. Think like a potential client when you do this. What would they want to see? What would they need to hear? What matters most to them?
7. Last but not least, set up your Google My Business page and fill in every detail you can. Make it ultra-specific to your niche and locations served, and make your description enticing. This is one of the best ways to start ranking locally. Finally, ask for reviews on your Google My Business page to show Google and your potential clients just how much people love the work you do!

Like I’d said above, each step you do with SEO is progress towards one day having your site bring in traffic, all on its own. It doesn’t happen instantly, so plan on continuing to work on this for some time, even if you just have 30 minutes a week. It all adds up! 

Once you’ve worked through these, click here to grab the Simple Guide to SEO to get started.