Even after all these years, blogging is still a prime medium for sharing content. Blog posts are among some of the most shared content online, and are a great way to promote your business and reach a wide audience of people.
As a photographer, a blog is an easy and fun way to engage with potential customers and other photographers. So, if you have ever asked yourself, is it even worth it for me to start a blog? The answer is yes!
The key to avoid feeling overwhelmed when blogging is to create a realistic posting schedule that works for you and sticking to it. For example, at Focal, we post to our blog every Monday at 7 am. It may not seem like much, only posting once a week, but when I think of everything else I have to do for work, it is the most realistic number. For me, I like to work on a post at least one week in advance. It takes me an hour or so to draft it, but then I like to let it sit for a day. I’ll come back to it two days later and make any rewrites and edits necessary before sharing it with the rest of the team. Since I have a schedule and a writing system, I’ve never felt overwhelmed!
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If you aren’t a natural writer, you might struggle to come up with content ideas. You might look at what other people are writing and think, “Oh, I have to write about that too.” But that is not true! Instead, follow the oldest piece of writing advice that there is, and that is to write what you know. Maybe you are a family photographer so write a guide on how to photograph large families! Write about the best locations for family photoshoots in your area. Write about what to expect from a family shoot with you. These are things that people want to know and that you are an expert in! However, if you are still lacking some content ideas, you can always look at what other photography blogs are doing or start typing ideas into Google and see what comes up. At Focal, we have an abundance of blog posts you can scroll through and gain inspiration from too.
A content calendar is the place where you put down all your ideas and then keep track of which ones are posted or need to be posted. This will save you time and headspace because you won’t need to keep everything organized in your head. At Focal, we use Trello for this. I like Trello because you can create categories like “Writing,” “Editing,” and “Ready to Publish.” You can also easily slide blog posts into these different categories which is great when there are multiple people writing posts for the same blog. You can see what other ideas people have on your team and what stage they are at with them. However, I still recommend creating a content calendar even if you are the only one writing the posts.
This may sound simple, but the worst mistake you can make with your blog is not advertising it on your social media. If you drop a new post, put the link in your Instagram bio, post a photo about it, and share an Instagram story highlighting it. At Focal, with every new blog post, Martin and I post to Pinterest, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn. Now, that is a lot! This isn’t me advising you to take on all these different social media channels because no one can do that alone. The point is, when starting your blog out, it’s crucial that you utilize what platforms you are on and share your posts on them, otherwise people might not see them. It takes a while to gain blog momentum naturally, but with the help of social media, you will get there a lot faster!
A guest post is when another like-minded blogger writes a post for your blog and in return, you write one for theirs. Guest posts are a great way to achieve three things. First, they increase awareness for your blog by using another person’s audience. Secondly, they allow you to meet other bloggers. And third, they are an opportunity to get backlinks from other websites which means higher search ranking for you. Basically, each backlink is like a vote for your site! Whether you contact a blogger who writes about a similar topic to you on Instagram or Facebook, or through researching similar bloggers online and reaching out via email, this is an essential way to get your blog out there.
Basically, there is no downside to starting a blog! Especially as a photographer when there is so much content you can offer. Now that you’ve read this post, it’s time to sit down and crank out a blog post or two. If you are in need of some inspiration, check out our blog posts! We have a ton to sift through that are both client and photographer-facing, so there is sure to be something that sparks your interest.
Good luck! And remember, when in doubt, write what you know.
