Get the Goods: Another free marketing websummit!

Talk about an amazing stock stuffer!

Register NOW to join Sarah Petty and 26 other industry leading photographers for "The Joy to the World FREE Marketing Websummit" on December 28, 2009. Each will share their best money making ideas for your business in the new year. From promotional ideas, to earning a larger investment from each wedding client, workflow improvements and more, you're learn so much in these 14 FREE hours to substantially grow your business in 2010. At the same time, we'll be helping fund smiles for children in need of cleft lip and cleft palate surgeries through PPA Charities.

Over 10,000 professional photographers registered for the "Master Photographers Free Marketing Telesummit" in September. This time, photographers can learn from David Jay, Sam Puc, Julia Woods, Jerry Ghionis, Scott Crosby, Will Crockett and more! The Joy to the World Websummit promises to provide you with serious money making ideas for your business.

All you need is a computer with an Internet connection to join us December 28 (and the latest version of Adobe Flash - it's free, too). The Websummit will be available for 24 hours beginning at 12:01 CST on December 28. Listen to only those speakers you like best or watch all 28. You can start, stop and pause each speakers' presentation to learn at your leisure within the 24 hour window. Simply REGISTER NOW for FREE!

P.S. If you're not available on December 28, 2009 or want to get a head start on 2010 planning for your business, you can purchase the Adobe FLASH files of all 14 hours for $89 and receive access to the speaker presentations IMMEDIATELY. A pre-websummit special price of $59 is available until December 27. Just register before December 28, 2009 and you'll receive this special offer!




P.P.S. The Joy of Marketing has partnered with PPA Charities to change the world - one smile at a time. Join us in raising funds for PPA's charitable partner, Operation Smile, whose network of volunteers work worldwide to repair childhood facial deformities including cleft lips and cleft palates. Learn more here.

Growing Pains: Marketing Strategy Tips from Sarah Petty

I have been collecting daily marketing tips from boutique studio photographer Sarah Petty since her company, "The Joy of Marketing," hosted the Master Photographers' Telesummit Marketing series last month. I thought I would pass them along to my followers and reread them myself to help the knowledge sink in. Here's your first tip. And look for more every Sunday here on my blog until we reach number 10!

1) CREATE A STRONG IDENTITY: One of the main reasons that small businesses, specifically photography businesses, aren't growing is that their identity lacks focus. Every successful business starts with a great logo and identity. If you're using more than one logo, it's counterproductive! You can't build a brand if you don't have a strong identity. And a strong identity starts with a great logo.


Listen to 5 tips for creating a great logo here.

Get the Goods: Last chance to get audio of marketing summit

Sarah Petty assures me that today is the LAST CHANCE to purchase the Master Photographers' Marketing Series Telesummit 16 hour recording and pdf outlines. After midnight tonight (central time October 2nd), this event will be gone.

I just got mine, and I can't wait to listen to all of it!

For just $99 you'll learn:
The dos and don't of social marketing and what not to waste your time on
How to run a successful event from soup to nuts
How to avoid the 4 marketing disconnects that result in business failure
The single relationship builder you can't afford not to do
The one product that will make or break your studio

Buy it now and you'll immediately get a link to a download of an audio mp3 of all 16 hours of the recording.

And don't forget, the telesummit speaker specials also expire after midnight central tonight. So if you're in need of templates, brushes, props, actions, education and more, you can't beat these specials. And you can't buy them at these prices anywhere else!

Could you use $200? Sarah wants to hear what everybody thought about the Telesummit. Just answer this quick survey and you can win a $200 American Express gift card.

Get the Goods: MP3 for marketing telesummit going up in price!

Last week, the complete mp3 download of the currently in-session Telesummit Marketing series was only $49. Now, just a few hours into the 16-hour event, and the price has increased to $69!

That's still a deal considering what you get if you aren't available to listen to all 16 hours of the conference for free Sept. 28-29. Sarah Petty's "The Joy of Marketing" is hosting the Master Photographers' Telesummit Marketing series. Look for her Twitter updates at @sarahpetty

The telesummit has a recording of the entire event available via an mp3 download. Purchase all 16 hours of the Master Photographer's Marketing available as an mp3 audio download plus pdf speaker outlines, regularly priced at $99.

You will be kicking yourselves if you wait until after the summit to purchase the mp3 because the price jumps again to $99 while it's available from Sept. 29 - Oct. 2.

Haven't registered yet? Use this code: http://telesummit.thejoyofmarketing.com/affiliate/Sheba_Wheeler/summit

Get the Goods: 16 hours of free marketing education for photographers

Yep, that's right. I said FREE! Sarah Petty's "The Joy of Marketing" is hosting the Master Photographers' Telesummit Marketing series at no charge. The event starts on Sept. 28 at 9 a.m. CDT and continues every hour with presentations until Sept. 29. Besides the information being free, a telesummit (unlike a conference) allows you to stay at home or the office and get info from numerous experts.

Just register here at http://telesummit.thejoyofmarketing.com/affiliate/Sheba_Wheeler/summit and you'll receive an email with your dial-in number for the event. Then, pick up the phone and get exclusive information from 15 photography marketing gurus who used the skills they will be sharing to boost your business.

View the speaker's list here. Presentations I'm really looking forward to "sitting in on" include Facebook Marketing with Rod Evans, brand development with Kevin Kubota and creating high-ticket sales with David Ziser.



So what if your schedule doesn't allow you to make it to the phone that day or you miss a speaker's presentation? I'm right there with you since I have a day job that's not photography related.

No worries....the telesummit has a recording of the entire event available via an mp3 download. Purchase all 16 hours of the Master Photographer's Marketing available as an mp3 audio download plus pdf outlines for $49 (reg. price $99). If you wait until after the telesummit, the price jumps back up to $99. While the live event occurs September 28 & 29, the downloadable recording will be offered from September 29 - October 2.

When it comes down to it, my mantra for all things photography related this year has been: "if it's free, I'm there!" The poor economy has made it tough to set aside money for the kind of seminars and classes I enjoyed going to last year. So I've kept a good look out for access to free or inexpensive training opportunities such as the Will Crocket presentation held in April, and a David Tejada workshop held in February.

Effectively marketing your business could be a full-time job all of it's own. So get a leg up on the competition by attending the telesummit and ordering the download now!

Growing Pains: New Business Slogan?

I have watched "I am Legend" at least six times (especially since it's been playing on HBO!), and every time I get something new out of it that I didn't catch before. Now, I wonder if I may finally have a slogan for my business:

"Light Up the Darkness." What do you think???? I like the dual meanings of bringing life and goodness to the world as well as using lights creatively to enhance photographic composition.....hmmm.



I've been doing a ton of research on developing my business plan, a logo and a brand in general. An article by photographer Sarah Petty in Professional Photographer Magazine talked about "owning your brand;" marketing to distinguish yourself and creating tag lines like:

"have a Coke and a smile"
"we bring good things to life"
"because you are worth it"

Petty shared a list of ways to help entrepreneurs brainstorm a business slogan:
1. Carry a creative journal at all times to sketch images and jot down ideas and words as they pop into your mind. They become a stockpile of prompts when you sit down to brainstorm.

2. Keep a running list of words that evoke emotion. If your wedding client says something warm and fuzzy during your presentation, write it down.

3. Subscribe to magazines (tax-deductible business expenses!). You never know when you can spark an idea from Rachael Ray’s Everyday or Real Simple. As you go through them, write down words, phrases, advertising and article headlines in your creative journal. You can’t steal someone else’s line, but you can farm the inspiration.

4. Read the copy in catalogs and awaken your inner copywriter. The Land of Nod and Sundance catalogs are two of my favorites. Get on mailing lists of companies who market beautiful and expensive products.



5. Ask friends, family, clients and prospects what they think makes you different. Ask new clients to put into words what brought them to you. Write it down immediately.

6. Reading kids’ books puts me in the playful place I need to be when I’m writing emotional copy.

7. Find the time of day or place where you feel the most creative. If you do your best thinking at a computer, transfer your journal notes daily.

8. Most truly creative people need to find inspiration, too, so they become sponges of the world around them— flowers, buildings, clothing tags, in-store signage, store windows, fonts, color combinations, textures.

9. Travel. Observe, even the pretzel packaging on the airline’s snack. You never know what little element will inspire you.

I love watching movies, and I can draw insight from great ones. Since I'm a reporter, I don't go far without having a pen and paper near by. So when I heard that phrase uttered in the movie "I am Legend," it resonated with me differently than it had all the other times. I don't know why. Maybe I'm just at this point in my life when I think the world needs more light in this time of financial and hence emotional darkness. I wrote the phrase down and started to think about how it could correlate to my photography.

In my photography, I've noticed that I often center subjects in front of a dark background. Common portrait techniques explain that a photographer should use a hair light or a light shining on the background to separate the subject from the background. But I don't do it, choosing instead to have the subject appear as if he or she is stepping forward out of the darkness. I think it makes the subject seem more mysterious. I like the idea that I have just thrown a light on them, capturing who they are in that one moment. Oh well, maybe I'm just being overly sentimental this morning. If I still think this way by this time tomorrow, then maybe I am on to something. :)