My business is about 90 percent dealing with individuals, and about 10 percent working with brands. I just moved into a new live/work studio and, to help break it in, I decided to hold a "Pay What You Can" sale and the results made me change my entire business model.
For the first week of the sale, I limited myself to one shoot per day to try and keep things under control, however, all of the slots filled up extremely quickly and I decided to open up an extra seven slots for the last week. Asking people to pay what they want for a photo shoot leaves a lot of doors open to abuse and being taken advantage of, so I was sure to keep my bases covered with some fine print.
Keeping Myself Protected
In order to make sure I didn't take a headshot and suddenly see it on a realtors billboard, or take a photo of a model and see it in a campaign I had a clause in my original Facebook post that images could not be used for commercial purposes. That said, I photograph a lot of people that are a part of the LGBTQI2S+ community, including drag queens/kings/gender performers, so I added a clause that gig posters received a pass since a lot of these people might get 50 or 100 dollars a show — so charging them licensing isn't in my best interest as a business. Making it seem like a favor to them also helped them push the sale even more.
The Post
I am including the actual post I made, in case you decide to do something similar for your own business working with individuals.
PAY WHAT YOU CAN PORTRAITS!!!! (Value: 250CAD)
Moving is expensive. Terrifyingly so. I am moving to a brand new live/work studio this month so, in order to cover costs, I am doing an experiment. A Pay What You Can sale!
Are you super broke and need a headshot for your acting Resume? I got you covered! Don't worry about it!
Are you super duper mega rich but also stingy? That's fine too! From 0 to 10,000 dollars you can pay what you can for a session with me!
How is it going to work?
I will be giving away SIXTEEN spots, from July 15th to 31st, one a day, to break in my brand spanking new studio and help cover some of the costs it took for me to move in there.If you want a spot - SHARE THIS POST with your friends and message me here or email me at David@fulde.ca to reserve your session!
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THE FINE PRINT:
NOTE: Images may NOT be used for commercial purposes.If you would like the photos shot on film you must pay 40/roll (1/setup) to cover Film/Dev/Scan costs.
Sessions are up to an hour long OR Three setups, whichever comes first/we discuss.
I will send you proofs and you can choose three photos, and I will choose three photos. If you would like more than six, it will be 20$/photo for retouching etc.
Photos will be shot in the Sherborne/Queens Quay area
Makeup Artist NOT included - but is available at an extra cost
Tl;Dr: Portraits for whatever you want to pay. 1/day for fifteen days. Share this post and email me David@Fulde.ca to set up a slot.
As you can see, within the post I tried to keep everything as succinct as possible — explaining the whole process (and the "why" of it) as plainly as possible. I also included a small sentence that sums up the whole post. One of the rules for the promotion is that if someone wants to take advantage, they absolutely must share the post. This is to try and force the post to get more eyeballs and, by my calculations, it worked.
Facebook loves images — so I was sure to put together a simple, easy to share, image with some of my work so I could entice potential clients.
The Advertising image I used to promote the sale
Marketing Myself
When it came to advertising, I did a few things, along with making the photo above, I spent about 75 dollars (Canadian) on advertising. Out of the sixteen or so people that came through my studio, a grand total of one person had seen the sponsored post. That said, spending a few dollars on Facebook advertising does seem to tell the almighty algorithm to give it more attention than a regular post so I don't see it as a lost cause. Most of the people that took advantage of this sale found it from people sharing the post (as required by the rules) so apparently something did well!
The Results
In the two weeks that I ran this promotion, I found that my Facebook page got more likes, my Instagram got more followers but, who cares about that? The real benefit, and reason, is money. I was expecting one or two people to pay me nothing, but that didn't happen. Quite the opposite. Every single person paid me something. The lowest someone paid me was $45 while the highest I was paid (including extra photos) ended up being almost ten times that at $400. Most people did what they could, averaging a bit more than $100 dollars per person, which isn't bad for an hour on set, and an hour in post for the selected images.
While this isn't buckets and buckets of cash, it's a decent chunk of change.
Moving Forward
When all is said and done, I calculated that I earned about $75/hour on average. When I account for time editing, time shooting, and the average amount that people were able to pay it's a totally fine wage. I have decided to continue this "promotion" moving forward with a few changes.
The new ads promoting the Pay What You Can services — featuring images from the promotion
First of all, headshots take very little time and creative energy, and thanks to the Peter Hurley Perfecting the Headshot tutorial, my skills have improved a lot. Due to the lack of creative energy it takes, instead of one or two a day I am setting aside Sundays as headshot days. Pumping through them, up to eight in a day, and using the same lighting setup. Now, if I was solely doing headshots for my entire life, I think I might lose my mind. So I am also continuing with more creative portraits on Wednesdays and Fridays. There's no real reason for these days other than the fact that it just felt right. I have limited the number of slots on these day to just two, as more creative portraits take up a lot of creative energy, and take more time to set up, so I don't want to burn out. By restricting the times and dates I am available, it means that if someone is in a rush, and the slots are full, they can pay the full rate and it also allows me to move forward with my normal freelancing gigs for companies and agencies.
I've also had more than one person find out about this promotion and approach me for things that were outside of the scope, offering to pay for more for commercial use. I've also gotten lots of eyeballs on my work and it's helped build new connections within the advertising industry.
I really enjoyed this article!
I seriously thought that people can either be male or female. This is how we were created. Not sure what you mean by photographing kings and queens and LGBTWERCZIUAFSVBEYMSBSCZJ+?
1. Learn the meaning of "acceptance"
2. Don't post if you make a fool of you, because of lack of understanding.
3. Here's your fish, troll!
One could also reverse this back the other way too. How about forcing your beliefs on others who do not share you own? That shows your lack of acceptance that others beliefs or opinions belong to them but many call them names like haters or worse. Too many liberal thinkers react in that fashion. Let's see you go into some other countries and try this...
Just saying. Could care less what consenting people do myself but so sick of PC one sidedness. Acceptance should travel both directions but does not seem to work that way any more. Tolerance is another meaning people need to look up but is is much easier to act like children and resort to name calling isn't it.
I have to question the reason people have to identify their gender preferances to others anyway. Like it was in this article, part of the agenda I guess.
**cough**
lol, what to expect of a 'right-winger'. You are not even close to understand, what acceptance mean. Your post made it clear.
It's his freedom of speech to make this statement, but he (or probably you?) has to live with the reactions he's provoking. Also it's my freedom of speech to state my opinion.
Just to make it clear. I accept his opinion, but I think he is just a troll. Like so many here on fstoppers....
Intolerance shall not be tolerated.
It's not an error. It's the only tnot to end up giving voice to shitbags like the troll.
Karl Popper.
Amen.... well spoken
Although I agree with you (that we are originally created male or female. at least FOR 99.999% of the population, It's a simple fact of life). You started a conversation that should not be part of this article or comments.
We all know HOW people just can't help it, they are so eager to show their 'tolerance' and 'intolerance'.
It's a shame.
The only reason he mentioned it is because he thought it would be limiting for those who could use their portrait as a poster for their performance.
Other than that, it is a very interesting article describing a very interesting experiment that, hopefully, yields, more business, and interest beyond the immediate bookings.
Great article. I live in a Montreal suburb and would seriously consider doing something similar.
Diversity and acceptance only flow one way. Be diverse and accept what they tell you is acceptable.
No one is forcing you to be LGBTQ or anything else. Trying to pretend people don't exist because you don't like them, for whatever reason, and then getting mad at people who don't pretend, is trying to force your beliefs on others.
I used to think people could be either stupid or smart, but turns out they can also be bigoted, homophobic/transphobic jackasses.
Live your damn life - preferably away from most people - and maybe see a therapist since the mere passing mention of a group of people sets you off.
Most people are indeed males and females and not imposing anything on anybody.
Uh, yeah, MOST people.
But you've said "there is only male and female" implying ALL, not most.
In which case, go f*ck yourself. Read your Bible, go to church, and leave other people alone.
Note that there's no H in LGBTQ(fill-in-the-blank)+
I wonder why that is.
A matter of time. There will be full alphabet.
Good stuff. Congrats on your new space and new approach.
"the LGBTQI2S+ community"
Oh, that's the new one? What happened to the good ol' LGBTQQIAAP+ community?
I have to admit - I'm good at staying up to date on these things and totally support that community - but this is the first I've heard LGBTQI2S+. I'm most used to LGBTQ but I last I knew it was LGBTQIA. At a certain point, I won't be able to remember this... and I think I'm approaching that point if this new one is actually a thing (I will be googling).
Edit: googled it - QI2S+ is Questioning, Intersex, and Two Spirit (don't ask me what the last one means).
To further confuse matters, the LGBTQI2S+ is an organization (kind of), not the new nomenclature. But there is also a LGBTQIA group where the A doesn't stand for asexual but rather Allies.
So... I'm mostly going to stick to LGBTQ because I am not sure about everything after that, seems to vary quite a bit.
LGBTQ is standard but as someone within the community I try to go the extra mile and be more inclusive.
Two spirit is a sort of way to include first Nation identities
Thank you for the info! I also try to be inclusive, but obviously it gets hard to remember especially once numbers get introduced haha. And also it seems like there are different nomenclatures or communities or something? Like when I googled LGBTQI2S+ it took me to a page that seemed like the "official" group. I don't quite understand the intricacies but I definitely try to learn and be respectful of them.
No, M+F is standard.
So you included First Nation identities but excluded the A of "Asexual". You can't win this game by adding letters and numbers ad nauseam. It's cool to be inclusive and all, but when it starts getting ridiculous even for people who support the cause, I think it becomes counterproductive and, quite frankly, useless. Why not use LGBT+? It's simple and includes litteraly everyone.
Great article, enjoying to read it. Something different as the usual fstoppers "watch the video" like articles (?).
I think it's great what you did. Not everybody is born on the bright side of life. But people appreciate good work and will pay for it. It's great that you made it possible for them.
Thumbs up!
I've done a fair bit of this and been happy with the results. Photography is a secondary income source so that makes it less stressful but more important is that I don't feel stressed over the shoot itself - if they don't like it they don't pay and I'm OK with that. Being more relaxed MAY be good for creativity and output quality. I also feel like I can take some risks with setups that I can't do for a typical paid shoot.
I'm surprised Facebook let you use the "share this post" language. In all their greed, that's against their advertising guidelines because they don't want you getting reach you didn't pay for. They've rejected ads I've submitted specifically because of "be sure to share" or "tag someone who should see this" verbiage.
That's a good point, maybe that's why people didn't see the ad! Ha ha ga
Nah, Facebook would have rejected it outright. I think you got through because you have that wording in the middle instead of at the end where a call-to-action normally is. They're probably only checking for something like that at the end of an ad.
Thanks for the tip. Facebook is stupid some times...
Excellent advice! Thanks for writing.
Great article. I live in a Montreal suburb and would seriously consider doing something similar
I have done portrait sessions with no deposit, I did the photo shoot at my expense, and then gave the client a price list and a proof album, I made more than I had ever made when I charged a sitting fee.
The Golden Rule means Golden Doubloons
Good idea for a new business.
Years ago I opened a professional accounting and tax practice and offered a free half-hour consultation to members of an environmental affinity club I belonged to, advertising in their monthly paper.
Very good results leading to repeat business and referrals. Cultivate your affinity group connections. I guarantee it will pay off.
It's sad to see just how far away from photography these comments have gone instead of actually addressing the point of the article... regardless that's an interesting promotion you came up and I'm glad it worked out positively for you. I'm trying to turn my hobby into a more serious profession and the hardest thing I've found is finding that audience and making those connections. It's great to hear out of the box ideas like that. Good luck in your new studio!
Agree 100%!
Yeah, this could be perfect for you. Get people through the door and meeting you in the most important thing going forward.
Great article and glad to hear it is working for you David.
Most of the comments have nothing to do with topic at hand. Everybody has an opinion on what orifice is proper for sex, but lets discuss the idea behind "pay what you can". I find the idea fascinating. I wonder if it would work for wedding photographer. You shoot the wedding and let people pay what they think is fair and then offer them to pay for prints, albums, slide shows, portraits. You probably would make just as much because people shopped around and have some idea how much it going to cost them. So instead of upfront price you get paid for delivering extras like metal prints.
I was thinking of doing pretty much the exact same thing.
Do you think people would react differently if you worded the add as "Pay me what you think I'm worth."?
And should I then decide if I want to do the shoot based on what they are willing to pay? Kinda like a bidding system...🤔
I don't think so. You are proposing to walk away if they don't understand what you are worth. How about shooting a wedding, present them with final results and then ask them to "pay what they can". Traditional way is to show your portfolio and ask them to pay half upfront for the work you are going to do. You are selling them cat in a bag and asking them to sign a contract. I think that whole idea of "Pay what you can" is to do it first and take a chance. Say they shopped around and got quotes from $2000 to $5000. If you are any good, they would love your work and most likely pay you reasonable amount and then it will be your time to up-sell.
Interesting experiment, thank you for sharing!
Hey David, this experiment sounds cool! Can I try to replicate the same experiment? My text copy should be different as I live of the other side of the hemisphere, but otherwise I'll try to replicate as much as I could. Would that be fine for you?
Seriously I have no idea what people living around my area are willing to pay for corporate shoots and creative shoots, yet I need an incentive for them to come over to my place. Thought this would be perfect to try.