seoforphotographers

Join as together we sit down with Nova Scotia Wedding Photographer & Entrepreneur, Hugh Whitaker.

In this episode, we sit down with Hugh, who shares his insights on shooting personal work, bringing intention to your composition, and using light and movement to create unique images on a wedding day.

With a passion for surfing in Costa Rica and a love for personal projects, Hugh offers valuable tips and advice to help you sharpen your creativity and tools as a photographer. Don't miss this episode full of practical advice and inspiration!

Highlights include:-

• Documenting weddings and portraits in an emotional, candid, and documentary style
• Hugh's passion for surfing in Costa Rica and how it inspires his photography 
• Larry Fink's book as a great resource for personal work and projects 
• Advocating for slowing down and shooting with manual focus lenses to bring intention to your composition 
• - Approach to practicing, sharpening creativity and tools as a photographer
• Using light and movement to create unique images on a wedding day 
• Highlighting the importance of paying attention and staying in the moment 
• The value of community when moving locations and the importance of a strategic pricing and portfolio
• Using blogging and SEO to book weddings 
• Hugh's favourite books, software, and movie

Sponsored by The Architect Lifestyle System :
Book More Weddings, Manage Your Time - https://thisisarc.co/architect-lifestyle-system-for-creative-photographers

Links mentioned:

Books:-
Graciela Iturbide on Dreams, Symbols, and Imagination
Mary Ellen Mark on the Portrait and the Moment 
Sam Abell: The Photographic Life

Movie:- A Single Man directed by Tom Ford

Kayla's website:- https://calmcontent.co

Join The Next Coffee With Creatives LIVE: https://linktr.ee/arc_evolution

Show Notes At: https://thisisarc.co/

Connect With Hugh Whitaker: Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/hughwhitaker/

And https://www.instagram.com/hughwhitakerphotography

Website - https://www.hughwhitaker.com/

Connect with Sachin & ARC: Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/arc_evolution/

Twitter - https://twitter.com/arc_evolution_

Sachin's Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/sachinkhona Sachin's Wedding Website - https://www.sachinkhona.com/

Stay Connected With Weekly Tools, Tips, Wisdom & More In Our Newsletter For Photographers & Creatives: https://thisisarc.co/mailing

We recap the history of blogging for photographers, talk about what we've recommended over the past few years, and what we might be changing going forward! 

First off, what is blogging? How is content marketing different? 
We chat about these fun topics, what is working for photographers in 2021, and what we think the future of blogging is. 

We have monthly Q+A calls with our SEO course members and decided to record this call for our podcast! We hope they're helpful for you as well. 

We chat about our thoughts on Keyword Research for being successful with your SEO. What types of research are important and what is a complete waste of time. 

Why should you care about making money with your website? You’re a photographer after all.

Is monetizing your traffic worth the time and effort?

Affiliate marketing

What is affiliate income? 

Examples:

• Education promotion (courses, guides, ebooks, etc)
• Preset reviews/promotion
• Camera gear reviews/promotion
• Website services reviews / promotion (themes, plugins, hosting, galleries)
• CRM reviews/promotion (honeybook, etc)
• AirBNB
• Amazon
• Etsy
• Private affiliates with many companies (search brand + affiliate)

Ad Networks

• Share A Sale
• CJ Affiliate

Sell your own products

Presets/Luts

Templates (Instagram stories, etc)

Style guides

Sell your own education

Consumer facing (How to take better photos with your iPhone)

Industry facing- other photographers, other vendors

Monetize your traffic
Ad Networks (typically 10k hits /mo min)

Featured spots on high traffic roundup pages (venues, vendors etc)

Paid referrals to other photographers

Cornerstone content is a topic full of grey area, misunderstanding, and confusion. We attempt to clarify the meanings and strategies based on this idea. 

We also introduce a new content type, the Hero Post. This can be a helpful way to differentiate between Cornerstone, Supporting, and Hero posts in your content strategy. 

We interview Nick Edmundson from Wandering Weddings, the directory for elopement photographers and vendors. 

We get his story behind creating the site, why he continues to push forward in the space, and get more details about his recent rebrand and website redesign. 

We have a great SEO discussion about the value of a backlink from directories like Wandering Weddings. Definitely listen to this episode if you're considering joining a directory.

In this episode we discuss the options, strategies, and downsides to trying to rank in multiple markets. We also talk about how to spot locations that you can target from afar. 

Our first interview episode of the podcast is live now, and it may be the best episode yet!

In this episode, we talk to Nina Larsen Reed about her success with SEO, and specifically dig into her thinking about cornerstone content.

We talk about her venue guides, and not only the significant traffic that they drive, but how she used them to build real-life relationships with venue directors (and ended up on several preferred vendor lists).

If you want to get a real look at how SEO pairs with smart business... this episode is for you!

Nina's website: https://larsenphoto.co/
Her Boulder wedding venues guide: https://larsenphoto.co/boulder-wedding-venues/
More of her resources: https://larsenphoto.co/resources/

Today we answer three of the most asked questions from our Facebook Group. 

Should I buy an exact match domain?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E98J6r9Zq0I

What is the difference between a Page and a Post?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZdiAHIkpwj0

What are these Blue Links and how do I get them? 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=40aVZ2h2Bok

Don't forget to join our free 7 day SEO challenge: 
https://www.fuelyourphotos.com/challenge/

We talk about the regular tasks we do on our own SEO projects and how we organize those. 

Rank Tracking
Analytics
Content Creation 
Link Building
and more.

We talk about the differences in generic SEO advice and techniques and the specific situations and platforms photographers are typically in. 

Backlinks are the force multiplier in SEO. We show 30 different links to our photography sites and talk about what steps we took to attain them. Stay until the end for a "bonus" backlink technique that we haven't really talked about publicly. 

We talk about more advanced strategies to start trying out once you've implemented the basic optimizations on your site.