{blogging the business...}

Blogging the Business of Taking Pictures
by Jessica Grieves

Recently I attended an event about blogging and social media,

and a quote that stuck out to me was

"blog what you are passionate about".

As photographers I think most of us are
passionate about our photography so blogging about it is easy.

I know when I get back from a session I cannot wait to load those

photos up on my computer and choose the ones

I will sneak peek on my blog.

And that builds up the anticipation in our clients too!
But there is something else I am passionate about

and that is the business part of the
photography business. Don't get me wrong, I hate doing the accounting. Quickbooks and I certainly

have a love/hate relationship.

But I love running reports on the accounting,
thinking up marketing ideas, considering my pricing models.

I have spreadsheets - lots of them.

I love workshops for the wealth of idea sharing

to goes on at them, and not just by the speakers.

I love trying out new equipment and techniques

to see what will work best for me.

A couple of years ago I started my blog,

Hey Girl, Nice Shot, as a way to document the
process of starting up my photography business.

I've been blogging in one form or another
for almost 10 years so blogging is now second nature to me.

Before I started Hey Girl, I had been taking pictures part time,

mostly for friends and family. And when I decided to
take it to the next level I found

I was spending so much time researching every step of the way.

I thought, "why not share my research and what I've learned with others trying to start their own businesses too?"
I've had so many people tell me that they feel that photographers are very secretive about what they are doing but I have found that there is a large number of photographers willing to share information, and that group is growing. I think more and more photographers are realizing that by sharing information

we only make the entire industry better!
I started by talking about the tools that I used,

problems I had run into, and techniques that I found helpful.

Little by little my readership grew.

I wrote not just about photography
but about elements that would be important to any

small business such as blogging and accounting.

After a little over six months

I had about 500 subscribers and I was so excited.
Knowing that people were reading it and it was helping them actually helped give me motivation to keep it going.

And there was no shortage of topics to blog about. Even three
years into this I'm still trying new business ideas out and working on fine tuning the things that I'm already doing.

With almost 23,000 unique visitors so far this year and almost 2000 subscribers I have lots of motivation to keep going.

What are you passionate about?
And what blog isn't made better by beautiful photography?

For example, the fantastic Pinkle Toes in Austin started a new blog chronicling her adventures in homeschooling.
Maybe you love to cook and could start a blog
about your adventures. Or maybe you love hiking. Or bird watching. Whatever it is, starting a blog you keep FOR YOU is a great way to give yourself a new focus.