Friday 6 January 2012

Royal nightmare - how i blew my biggest photography job ever :-(

Last night i had a genuine wedding photography nightmare and heres what happened.I was booked to be Prince William and Kates wedding photographer but everthing that
could go wrong went wrong, my subconscious dredged up all the worst things that could
happen and it felt so real.

It started with me arriving late and I didnt know what room it was in. When i
eventually found the ceremony room the vows were in full swing. Entering the room i
then found myself standing in the wrong place, and was politely asked to move by Kate
herself.

When i did get in the right position I'd forgot my camera and pretended with my
fingers making a frame effect, the royals are dumb yeah everyone knows that. I
realised the chardade of pretending i had my camera wouldnt hold up forevever so i
crept out of the ceremony room and back to the camera bag, grabbing my camera I knew i
could claw it back but when i mounted the flash it feel apart in my fingers.
When i finally got back into the cermony room it was empty, Kate & Prince William were
allready outside on the balcony, i'd blown the biggest wedding photography gig ever
:-(

Mercifully i woke up at 5AM this morning with a real feeling of anxiety which has taken half a
day to disappear.

Freud I need help.

Wednesday 4 January 2012

"Google pay per click is no good for wedding photographers"

When you set yourself up as a wedding photographer you need business and you can easily get seduced setting up Google pay per click ads as a silver bullet to your sales woes. But be warned. Your Google ads will get clicked on by your competitors wanting to screw you over, SEO agencies wanting to mange your ads and curiosity clicks from irrelevant sites if your dumb enough not to switch off the Google Adwords content network.

My advice is dont bother, understand how to capture traffic organically by getting your head around Googles  Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide and apply it.

The net is full of SEO experts explaining why there are more SEO gurus per square mile than window cleaners. And dont bother with an off the shelf solution like Mr Site or any other "tie you in find out later waist of time products". Why? They wont support SEO requirements as detailed in the Googles search Engine Optimization Guide.

No doubt some SEO "guru" (Probably aged 12 and thinks all problems can be solved via an app) will reply to this post giving the predictable diatribe that google ads offer positive ROI with clear call to action signals on the landing page blah blah blah. Heard it all before, shut up, just SHUT UP!!!

Google pay per click ads are no good for sole trading wedding photographers but if your not convinced give it a go and help the Google gravy train run faster in Mountain View, California.