SEO for photographers is so important.  When local customers are looking for a specific type of photographer, you want to rank high in Google and other search engines.

Are you a photographer?  Do you rank high in the search engines?  If not, do you want to?

This SEO for Photographers Book will help you drastically.  You can enter to win one of 1o being given away just by commenting to this post.

Here is your chance to win the SEO guide for photographers. Your photography business needs an SEO strategy to stay competitive. Zach Prez, the author of this guide and guest writer and sponsor for the MCP Blog, teaches photographers to optimize for search engine optimization. He is also consulting with MCP Actions for future SEO growth.

Contest Details:

10 SEO e-book guides will be given away to MCP readers. You could be one of the lucky ones. If you do purchase now, and win, your money will be refunded.

The Photographer’s SEO Book gives detailed step by step instructions on how you can improve your spot on Google. I just revamped parts of my site and am making adjustments to my blog so that I can come up higher in search results too. Of course it takes little work, time, and patience.  But it will be worth it. I learned so much from the book and from my consultation with Zach, the author. Zach Prez has been doing search engine optimization for small businesses for 6 years, while working full time on major SEO projects for large corporations as a full-time job.

HOW TO ENTER:

Leave a comment on the blog (not on Facebook), and let us know why you need SEO for Photographers.  Also let us know your SEO goals for your business in this upcoming year.  Make it realistic. Tell us what terms you want to rank high for and your page goal for the searches. The Photographer’s SEO Book Winners will be drawn at random on Sunday, March 7th.

For a BIG BONUS ENTRY:
I have a favor I am asking of my readers.  When I switched servers and blogs, I lost a lot of links due to a bad wordpress plug in that was installed and it hurt my rankings for over a month before I realized it.  I need some NEW links from my blog readers and customers to help my own SEO.  So if you read the MCP Photoshop Blog, watch MCP Photoshop video tutorials or enjoy MCP photoshop actions or workshops, I would love some “link love.” To link up, you can add links on your site or blog to the MCP site, blog or specific post.  Come back to the comments and share a link where you did this under the comments. Plus MCP Blog readers can check out your site too.

Plus other ways to get bonus contest entries:

Good luck everyone!

Check out another great SEO tool for writing/blogging and help support the MCP Actions Blog

Even in the digital age, some traditional marketing materials are still needed.  One such item is business cards. Business cards are often the “piece you leave behind” that represents your company, your work, and your brand.  You need to make sure your cards make a statement and allows the recipient a way to connect with you later.

Today’s contest is sponsored by Color Inc Pro Lab, an advertiser on the MCP Blog. They printed my business cards and sent me samples using a few different finishes: gloss, pearl and watercolor.  They are all really nice, but for my particular cards, I am in LOVE with the pearl finish.  It gives the cards an almost metallic look and they are just beautiful in person.

Do you need new business cards? Color Inc. is giving 4 lucky winners 250 double sided business cards in the finish of their choice.

To enter (you may do entry 1 or 1, 2, and 3 for more chances to win) -winners will be picked at random on Sunday, February 28th.

1. Leave a comment on the blog for this post (not on Facebook) – and answer the following for your 1st entry:

• What information do you feel is important to have on a business card for a photographer?
• Do you think photographers should have photographs on their card? Why do you feel this way?

2. Post one of the following to Twitter and/or Facebook (and come back and comment to let us know you did for your 2nd entry):

• What information should be on a business card? Win 2-sided business cards by commenting here: http://bit.ly/mcpcicontest
• Do you think photographers should have pictures on business cards? Win 2-sided business cards by commenting here: http://bit.ly/mcpcicontest

3. Ask your blog readers what they think business cards should have on them, by doing a quick summary of this post and its questions; then link them here so they can comment. Come back here and leave a comment with a link to your blog post for your third entry.

And for those of you who want to order business cards now, Color Inc is doing a promo for 10% off through Sunday the 28th of February by using the code: biz10.

My email box fills daily with all sorts of questions.  And I try to help when I can, at least in FAQs, if not directly. Unfortunately this email I received has no easy answers, and it can serve as an “important,” scratch that, “crucial” reminded to back up your images.

I heard about your blog through the Pioneer Woman, and I love it! I read your blog faithfully and have learned a lot about Photoshop and photography through your posts. Thank you!

At work, we have professional photographs taken of the directors and employees of our family business.  We put these on our wall so when our customers come in, they can see who works our company.

Over the holidays we had photos taken of our staff to update the halls and our website.  Everyone was in town so it was a good time to do it. The photographer took weeks to get the family picture to us and she finally sent the family picture over to us as a digital copy. She said she wanted to edit the other photos (taken of each person individually or as a couple) before sending them over.

Many weeks passed and we got a call from the photographer saying that her computer crashed and that she had lost all of the photos she took of us.  She said it would be approximately $2,000 to try and retrieve the data and that she could not afford to.

As you know, the session cannot be duplicated. One member of the family lives out of town and two of them are kids.

Nothing was signed at the beginning, but there was a verbal agreement that we would pay for a sitting fee in addition to the digital file and copyright to use the photo on our website. We only received ONE of all the photos taken.

As a photographer and a business owner, how would you recommend that we approach this? We are upset that the photographer did not bother to back up the photos when they were downloaded onto her computer.  This is perhaps too long of a question. I hope you can give some insight to this.

Thank you – and thanks again for all the informative blogs you post. I really enjoy your work and am inspired to be a better photographer and do more with my photos in Photoshop after reading your posts.

I emailed her back, and explained that she is in a difficult situation.  I am not sure legally how this would play out, but since there was nothing in writing, that may not work in her favor as a customer.  She could consult an attorney, start over with a new photographer, or see if she can work out something to get the photos recovered.  $2,000 seems high to me for that – but maybe it would take that.

As far as the lessons…  Make sure you get things in writing, both as a photographer or as a customer of a photographer.  Having things in writing covers both parties. And remember, as a photographer, back up your photos. Back them up to a hard drive.  Back them up off site too. Even if you are a hobbyist and do not sell your photographs, they are your memories and you should value them.  Life is too short.  You never know what is around the corner.  Make sure you preserve memories for those you photograph.