EP 15: Blogging For Photographers

00:00:07 [Alison]
Hey.
00:00:07 [Alison]
I’m Allison, military spouse and family photographer.

00:00:10 [Melissa]
And I’m Melissa, also a military spouse, lifestyle newborn photographer, SEO expert for photographers.
00:00:16 [Melissa]
Between the two of us, we have a combined twenty seven years in photography and have lived through nine businesses.

00:00:21 [Alison]
We’ve coached each other through all these challenges privately on Marco Polo, and now we’re bringing our polos public.
00:00:27 [Alison]
On this podcast, we’ll give you actionable steps to help you keep it moving.
00:00:34 [Alison]
Hey, guys.
00:00:34 [Alison]
Welcome back.
00:00:36 [Alison]
If you are not already subscribed to the show, please hit the subscribe button.

00:00:39 [Alison]
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Hit subscribe, and then leave a star review.
00:00:44 [Alison]
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00:00:46 [Alison]
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00:00:48 [Alison]
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00:00:54 [Alison]
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00:01:00 [Alison]
That way we can reach more people and help people with that move.

00:01:03 [Melissa]
Yeah.
00:01:04 [Melissa]
So last week, we talked about affiliate marketing and how that can help stabilize your income during a move.
00:01:09 [Melissa]
So Allison and I have obviously done this a bunch of times, and anything that can give you that little bit of extra cash during a move is always helpful.
00:01:16 [Melissa]
This week, though, we’re gonna talk, tackle a topic that is really near and dear to my heart, and that is blogging.
00:01:22 [Melissa]
So I know you know I am very big on blogging.

00:01:27 [Melissa]
I love blogging.
00:01:28 [Melissa]
I know a lot of people hate blogging, but I love blogging because I love what blogging can do for you.
00:01:33 [Melissa]
So for me, I always joke around that blog posts, they age like a fine wine.
00:01:37 [Melissa]
Like, they only get better the longer they have been out there.
00:01:41 [Melissa]
When you write a blog post, it lasts for years and years and just gets better versus a social media post has I think I looked this up.

00:01:48 [Melissa]
It’s like a forty eight hour life frame.
00:01:50 [Melissa]
Oh, lang.

00:01:51 [Alison]
So much effort into those reels for forty eight hours, y’all.
00:01:53 [Alison]
Yeah.

00:01:54 [Melissa]
For, like, two days.
00:01:55 [Melissa]
I have blog posts right now that literally I wrote during COVID.
00:01:59 [Melissa]
And they are number one, and they are driving actual inquiries to my site.
00:02:03 [Melissa]
And I know they’re driving inquiries to my site because I’m getting inquiries from literally across the world.
00:02:08 [Melissa]
I’ve gotten, like, three or four in the last two weeks that I had to actually add the state.

00:02:13 [Melissa]
I have city on my contact form, but I had to add state because I was, like, googling these cities trying to figure out where in Virginia they were or where in Florida they were.
00:02:19 [Melissa]
And then I’m like, wait.
00:02:20 [Melissa]
That’s New Jersey.
00:02:21 [Melissa]
That’s Illinois.
00:02:22 [Melissa]
That’s, you know, over in Washington state.

00:02:24 [Melissa]
I’m like, what in the world?
00:02:25 [Melissa]
And the only thing I can can do is that I’m coming up for some top newborn keywords and stuff.
00:02:32 [Melissa]
And again, like I said, I wrote these posts, some of them during COVID.
00:02:35 [Melissa]
Like Yes.
00:02:36 [Melissa]
That’s how long ago it was.

00:02:37 [Alison]
Little experiment.
00:02:38 [Alison]
Go, go Google newborn photos and see who comes up.
00:02:42 [Alison]
That’ll be fun.
00:02:43 [Alison]
That’ll be fun.
00:02:43 [Alison]
That’s what we’re talking about.

00:02:45 [Alison]
So it’s the same thing.
00:02:46 [Alison]
You’ve got posts that you wrote during COVID, which is now four years ago.
00:02:49 [Alison]
I have some that are two and three years old.
00:02:51 [Alison]
Just last month, my clicks hit an all time high because of the season.
00:02:55 [Alison]
Because guess what blog post was ranking all of a sudden again?

00:02:59 [Alison]
What to wear for cherry blossoms.
00:03:00 [Alison]
I haven’t done cherry blossoms for two years.
00:03:02 [Alison]
We have no cherry blossoms in Hawaii.
00:03:04 [Alison]
I’m not talking about it anywhere on my site, my emails, my Instagram, and nada.
00:03:07 [Alison]
But people were googling it some all time click records for my site.

00:03:11 [Alison]
So you better believe I leave that stuff on there.
00:03:13 [Alison]
Same thing with, kid friendly restaurants in Virginia Beach.
00:03:16 [Alison]
Google that and tell me who comes up.
00:03:18 [Alison]
I’d like to

00:03:18 [Melissa]
I’ll tell you what the cherry blossom one, I literally was getting inquiries again this year for cherry blossoms.
00:03:23 [Melissa]
And I was like, I’m not traveling up to DC for that.
00:03:25 [Melissa]
But I didn’t blog about it.
00:03:26 [Melissa]
I haven’t talked about it in years.
00:03:28 [Melissa]
But I got inquiries for cherry blossom stuff.

00:03:30 [Melissa]
And so I was just sending them on to other photographers and everything.
00:03:33 [Melissa]
So that’s the other thing.
00:03:34 [Melissa]
If you start getting inquiries for places that you don’t serve or things you don’t do and you pass them on to somebody else, like, that’s your good deed for the day, man.
00:03:40 [Melissa]
Like, you you’ve done something kind for someone else.
00:03:42 [Melissa]
And talk about set

00:03:43 [Alison]
it and forget it.
00:03:44 [Alison]
These blog posts were written, optimized, shared at the right time whenever they were useful, and they’re still working for us without touching them.

00:03:53 [Melissa]
And that’s pretty awesome.
00:03:54 [Melissa]
You could still go back and use it.
00:03:55 [Melissa]
Like, let’s say, oh, you are gonna do cherry blossoms.
00:03:58 [Melissa]
And so you want to resend that what to wear, you can post it again on social media.
00:04:02 [Melissa]
You could post it again, share it on your newsletter.

00:04:04 [Melissa]
All from the work you did.
00:04:06 [Melissa]
Yeah.
00:04:06 [Melissa]
All from work you did years ago.
00:04:08 [Melissa]
Word.

00:04:08 [Alison]
That’s so good.
00:04:09 [Alison]
So good.
00:04:10 [Alison]
So some of my more recent with blogging have been pretty phenomenal.
00:04:14 [Alison]
So, I think I shared in a previous episode about how oh, yeah.
00:04:18 [Alison]
The one about the scouting trip.

00:04:19 [Alison]
How I did a scouting trip.
00:04:20 [Alison]
And the reason I did that was, or one of the big things I did during that trip was some model calls.
00:04:26 [Alison]
And then I used those images as content for blogs.
00:04:30 [Alison]
That scouting trip was March ’23.
00:04:32 [Alison]
So we’re hit we’re just over a year now.

00:04:34 [Alison]
Well, since then, since we arrived, we arrived in July.
00:04:37 [Alison]
I launched in August ’23.
00:04:39 [Alison]
I’ve hit some major milestones that were some of the fastest, biggest things I’ve, in moving a business, and they included organic plane clients within thirty days of launching.
00:04:48 [Alison]
I had inquiries for Hawaii before I even arrived on island.
00:04:52 [Alison]
I’ve been fully booked faster, like, truly fully booked, not, like, happily booked, like, truly fully booked.

00:04:58 [Alison]
Like, I cannot, please.
00:04:59 [Alison]
Like, turning people away.
00:05:01 [Alison]
And I attribute all of it to the SEO that comes from blogging.
00:05:07 [Alison]
And so when we’re talking about, like, just just today no.
00:05:10 [Alison]
I guess it was March.

00:05:10 [Alison]
It was last week.
00:05:11 [Alison]
I hit the top five in the search results for my keyword.
00:05:14 [Alison]
I hit our 13 spot within nine months.
00:05:17 [Alison]
And y’all, this is the stuff that takes the longest to do anytime you’re moving.
00:05:21 [Alison]
Like, I I knew that I jumped on it when I had the content.

00:05:24 [Alison]
I worked my tail off writing, researching, doing all the things that needed to to be done to write optimized content so that I could be found.
00:05:32 [Alison]
And I am reaping the rewards.
00:05:34 [Alison]
I’ve let off the pedal a little bit.
00:05:36 [Alison]
I haven’t been doing it as much as I would like to because I’ve been busy with real paying clients.

00:05:42 [Melissa]
Yeah.
00:05:42 [Melissa]
And that can be the hard part too.
00:05:43 [Melissa]
It’s like, then when you get busy, it’s like, okay.
00:05:46 [Melissa]
Well, now that also is the same with social media.
00:05:48 [Melissa]
If you get busy and you’re not able to keep up on social media, go back to old blog posts.

00:05:52 [Melissa]
Grab some topics from there and throw them out there.

00:05:55 [Alison]
Yep.
00:05:55 [Alison]
It takes a lot of time, and it’s so worth the effort.
00:05:59 [Alison]
This episode is brought to you by Keep It Moving Coaching with me, Allison Bell.
00:06:03 [Alison]
If there’s one thing I’ve learned over my seven moves, it’s that every move is different.
00:06:08 [Alison]
Every business is different, and every location is different.

00:06:10 [Alison]
What has worked for me may not be as fruitful for you or vice versa, And it’s always overwhelming.
00:06:16 [Alison]
Starting over again just there are phases of exhaustion, thinking I can’t do this, decision fatigue, or just plain overwhelmed about the next right step.
00:06:25 [Alison]
That’s where I come in.
00:06:27 [Alison]
With one on one coaching, we’ll get together virtually face to face.
00:06:31 [Alison]
I’ll get to know your business, your unique struggles and challenges.

00:06:34 [Alison]
We’ll work together to decide the next right step for you to keep it moving.
00:06:39 [Alison]
The goal, relocate and restart your business from the ground up faster.
00:06:44 [Alison]
Minimize income loss and get found.
00:06:47 [Alison]
You’ll have full access to me for all options.
00:06:50 [Alison]
It’s never too late to get a head start, but you could be losing valuable time if you wait too long.

00:06:56 [Alison]
Even if you’re not sure where you’re moving to, head over to alisonbell.co to apply today.
00:07:01 [Alison]
That’s alison with one l a l I s o n b e l l dot co right now.

00:07:09 [Melissa]
You know, a lot of times too, though, Allison has a problem today that we’re gonna kind of, I guess, workshop or whatever, for you guys.
00:07:16 [Melissa]
But after a while, you’re in a location, you shoot there a lot.
00:07:20 [Melissa]
And I’m the same way.
00:07:21 [Melissa]
Allison’s the same way.
00:07:22 [Melissa]
I don’t think I realized how often I was shooting in certain locations until I did my NAPCP master certification, and they were like, you can’t use the same location more than once in my, like, submitting my portfolio.

00:07:32 [Melissa]
And I was like, well, I really only shoot at the same places.
00:07:35 [Melissa]
Like Oopsie.
00:07:36 [Melissa]
That’s what my clients want and stuff.
00:07:38 [Melissa]
So what happens when you’ve shot a bunch of sessions at a location and you’ve already blogged the location, you know, as, like, family session at Jones Point Park.
00:07:48 [Melissa]
And, like, you’ve already blogged it for that.

00:07:49 [Melissa]
So, like, what’s the next thing you’re gonna blog?
00:07:51 [Melissa]
So Allison has about that.
00:07:52 [Melissa]
So tell us what your current dilemma is.

00:07:54 [Alison]
So a little backstory on how I use my blog posts.
00:07:57 [Alison]
So anytime I get a client inquiry call, I kinda go through my onboarding process, but I send them links to actual client work that I’ve published on my blog.
00:08:05 [Alison]
So it’s I’m sending them links to my page based on their location options.
00:08:09 [Alison]
So everything’s customized to them, but I want them to see real work.
00:08:12 [Alison]
Like, it’s not a client gallery, but it is a blog post.

00:08:15 [Alison]
So I’m getting links and, you know, making all the dominoes fall in my favor.
00:08:18 [Alison]
Right?
00:08:19 [Alison]
I have this really popular spot that I love shooting at that hits a lot of markers of what in their photos here in Hawaii.
00:08:26 [Alison]
And so I’ve been sharing this one blog post for months now, and I’ve done so many more.
00:08:34 [Alison]
I need to blog more of them.

00:08:36 [Alison]
The easy thing would be the lazy easy thing, which is go, well, just go change the photos on the same blog post at the same location.
00:08:43 [Alison]
They match.
00:08:43 [Alison]
It makes sense.
00:08:44 [Alison]
However, that doesn’t serve my end SEO goals.
00:08:47 [Alison]
That doesn’t create me new content for Google.

00:08:49 [Alison]
It doesn’t keep me in the top of my rankings.
00:08:52 [Alison]
I could do that, but I don’t want to drop out of the top five either.
00:08:55 [Alison]
I’ve already written the blog post for the top two family photo locations in Oahu.
00:09:00 [Alison]
It’s Kaaba Beach.
00:09:01 [Alison]
So I’ve already blogged easy photos at Kaaba Beach Oahu.

00:09:05 [Alison]
Those are the two answers.
00:09:07 [Alison]
But I want to be able to share more more visuals like an extended family out there or all this other stuff, and I’ve already blogged about extended family photos in Oahu.
00:09:16 [Alison]
So how do I share my blog post, all these new con all these new images and new sessions and give my clients more variety to look at when they’re inquiring when I’ve already done it.

00:09:28 [Melissa]
Yeah.
00:09:28 [Melissa]
So this is gonna be the big thing.
00:09:29 [Melissa]
Do not keep blogging the location name, guys.
00:09:32 [Melissa]
Like, don’t just keep doing it over and over again.
00:09:35 [Melissa]
I realized back in the day, we used to be able to do that.

00:09:38 [Melissa]
Not anymore.
00:09:38 [Melissa]
You wanna rank for a lot more keywords than you are right now.
00:09:41 [Melissa]
So when Alice and I were first talking about this and we were like, oh, this can be a great topic, we started thinking about, okay, so she’s got these sessions.
00:09:47 [Melissa]
So my first question to her was something like, well, how about a very easy one like what it’s a beach.
00:09:52 [Melissa]
So what to wear for beach family photos?

00:09:54 [Melissa]
So that could be a topic for one of them.
00:09:56 [Melissa]
Then another one could be, did they have little kids at the session?
00:09:59 [Melissa]
Did they have big kids at the session?
00:10:00 [Melissa]
It could be something like how to prep toddlers for a family photo session, how to prep toddlers for a family beach session, how to get teenagers to want to take family photo on vacation.
00:10:10 [Melissa]
It could be how to get dad involved in a family photo shoot.

00:10:13 [Melissa]
Maybe you’ve got great photos of dad.
00:10:15 [Melissa]
So that’s the type of thing that you wanna look at.
00:10:17 [Melissa]
You wanna look at, okay, how what was what was kinda in that session that I can pull from that and create something for a future client?
00:10:25 [Melissa]
Because a future client at this point, Allison sent, you know, those posts over.
00:10:28 [Melissa]
They know the location.

00:10:29 [Melissa]
They get that.
00:10:30 [Melissa]
But now she has the opportunity to give them more tips and tricks and stuff of how to get ready for their session.
00:10:36 [Melissa]
It could just be a general how to prepare for your family session or family beach session.
00:10:41 [Melissa]
It could just be how to get prepared for vacation photos.
00:10:44 [Melissa]
Like, you could start thinking about some other keywords and stuff that might revolve around.

00:10:47 [Melissa]
It’s not just family photos.
00:10:48 [Melissa]
Maybe it’s vacation photos that people are searching for.
00:10:51 [Melissa]
Yeah.
00:10:51 [Melissa]
But really kinda narrowing down those FAQs could be when to book your vacation photos.
00:10:56 [Melissa]
Like, thinking about that, you know, she’s got people who are planning their trip and then maybe they don’t think about actually booking with a photographer until a couple weeks out.

00:11:05 [Melissa]
Well, by the time you reach out to Allison a couple weeks out, she’s probably like, look, I’m booked.
00:11:08 [Melissa]
Like, you needed to contact me when you decided you were gonna take a vacation.

00:11:12 [Alison]
Date you needed to talk to me.

00:11:14 [Melissa]
Yeah.
00:11:14 [Melissa]
So you gotta think about that kind of stuff.
00:11:16 [Melissa]
Like, what are some ways that you can get all this information to a client ahead of time so that they know, like, okay.
00:11:22 [Melissa]
Hey.
00:11:22 [Melissa]
These are tips that are gonna help me.

00:11:24 [Melissa]
And maybe they don’t have toddlers.
00:11:25 [Melissa]
Like, that one doesn’t work for them, but that’s fine.
00:11:27 [Melissa]
They’ll scroll through the photos and they’ll move along.
00:11:28 [Melissa]
But what if they do have toddlers?
00:11:30 [Melissa]
And now Allison has sent them these are the this is the location.

00:11:33 [Melissa]
This is why it’s the best location.
00:11:35 [Melissa]
This is how to get your toddlers happy.
00:11:36 [Melissa]
And I’m like, oh my gosh.
00:11:37 [Melissa]
I have toddlers.
00:11:38 [Melissa]
Seriously?

00:11:39 [Melissa]
Like, you’re gonna work some magic with them to get us great photos?
00:11:42 [Melissa]
I can’t get them to stay in the same to get them in the same frame.
00:11:45 [Melissa]
Like, how are you like, that could be something that then pushes me over the edge if she’s the one I wanna book because she’s telling me about this toddler magic that she can work.
00:11:53 [Melissa]
Or I know in Allison’s case, it’s teenager magic.
00:11:55 [Melissa]
She can work the teenager magic and get them It’s kind of

00:11:58 [Alison]
the same thing.

00:11:59 [Melissa]
Probably.
00:11:59 [Melissa]
Yeah.
00:12:00 [Melissa]
But, you know, it’s like really speaking to that ideal client.
00:12:03 [Melissa]
And Allison could pick and choose because she’s probably already talked to this person and kinda has a little bit of an idea.
00:12:08 [Melissa]
Do they have young kids?

00:12:08 [Melissa]
Do they have older kids?
00:12:10 [Melissa]
So now she’s sending them a post that’s really custom to them.
00:12:13 [Melissa]
Kinda like when I would have when I have newborn sessions, I are there any siblings?
00:12:16 [Melissa]
And as soon as they tell me if it’s a toddler boy or a toddler girl, cause there’s a difference.

00:12:21 [Alison]
Mhmm.
00:12:22 [Alison]
Yes, ma’am.

00:12:23 [Melissa]
There are two different videos on how to handle for that I have on handling a toddler girl versus handling a toddler boy.
00:12:30 [Melissa]
And, actually, I need to convert those into blog posts because I had those a long time ago.
00:12:35 [Melissa]
But I could easily, at that point, say, oh, you’ve got a little girl?
00:12:38 [Melissa]
Hey, by the way, here’s here’s a blog post on how to prep her for her newborn siblings photo session.
00:12:45 [Melissa]
Or when it comes to toddler boy, here’s how to

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00:14:17 [Melissa]
Lower your expectations for photos with the toddler boy.
00:14:21 [Melissa]
And if any of y’all have photographed toddler boys with siblings, you know exactly what I’m talking about.

00:14:25 [Alison]
Here’s how to physically roughhouse and make it look pretty and protect baby at the same day.

00:14:31 [Melissa]
Yeah.
00:14:31 [Melissa]
So, I mean, the opportunities you have to really speak to that ideal client and and make yourself that expert in authority, and it really comes back to blogging.
00:14:39 [Melissa]
So now instead of Allison being like, how the heck am I gonna blog this for the same location?
00:14:44 [Melissa]
You know, we just came up with, like, four or five different options Mhmm.
00:14:47 [Melissa]
Of, like, ways you can blog it.

00:14:48 [Melissa]
And then that can give her ideas for future ones.
00:14:50 [Melissa]
And maybe it’s, what to wear for spring photos, what to wear for fall photos, what to wear winter, summer, like Yeah.
00:14:55 [Melissa]
In that same spot.

00:14:57 [Alison]
Well, it all looks the same.
00:14:58 [Alison]
But That’s true.
00:14:59 [Alison]
We actually came up with I just came up with a few more things, as you were talking.
00:15:04 [Alison]
Sunrise.
00:15:04 [Alison]
Like, I used to all do sunset and people come inquire with, you know, oh, we wanna do sunset photos.

00:15:09 [Alison]
Well, I don’t do them here anymore.
00:15:10 [Alison]
Like, I changed my tune hardcore about sunrise sessions.
00:15:15 [Alison]
And the sunrise is rising about 05:45.
00:15:18 [Alison]
So it’s really freaking early out here.
00:15:21 [Alison]
And I have I have about five reasons.

00:15:23 [Alison]
I tell every single inquiry why we wanna do them in Sunrise, why it’s gonna be the best case for them, and why it benefits them.
00:15:30 [Alison]
So, like, why all my sessions are at Sunrise and then the wind.
00:15:33 [Alison]
So this location is on we call the windward side of the island.
00:15:36 [Alison]
And so there’s always wind.
00:15:38 [Alison]
Always wind.

00:15:39 [Alison]
I actually need to write an addendum to my what to wear for beach photos that is all about wind because I’ve had several people wearing these beautiful necklines with ruffles on them.
00:15:48 [Alison]
Mhmm.
00:15:48 [Alison]
Blow up in your face.
00:15:49 [Alison]
Yep.
00:15:49 [Alison]
Baby doll dresses.

00:15:50 [Alison]
Even though I say, like, please don’t wear a baby doll dress for your teen girls, I have some booty shots of underwear.
00:15:55 [Alison]
You know?
00:15:56 [Alison]
Mhmm.
00:15:56 [Alison]
And then the wind.
00:15:57 [Alison]
The wind in the hair is always at odds.

00:16:01 [Alison]
Always at odds.
00:16:02 [Alison]
So we always have to secure it half back.
00:16:03 [Alison]
We always have to do something.
00:16:04 [Alison]
We cannot just assume the wedding on for a fraction of

00:16:07 [Melissa]
a second.
00:16:07 [Melissa]
And see what I’m hearing too with this is okay.
00:16:09 [Melissa]
So you have this one location with a lot of these different things.
00:16:13 [Melissa]
And you could actually have a post that is about what should girls wear, what should mom and daughters wear.
00:16:19 [Melissa]
And then you could cover these things of these are the types of dresses we recommend.

00:16:22 [Melissa]
And it’s not that I want you then to put in that picture that’s unflattering of your clients dress halfway up.
00:16:27 [Melissa]
Like, we don’t wanna do that.
00:16:28 [Melissa]
But you can still talk them through that.
00:16:30 [Melissa]
This dress is good because.
00:16:32 [Melissa]
And then you can just talk about, like, I don’t recommend a baby doll dress because of this.

00:16:36 [Melissa]
Like and and you can even say, like, I’m gonna spare those, but you can kind of put your imagination or whatever.
00:16:40 [Melissa]
But it could be, okay.
00:16:41 [Melissa]
This this is what I do recommend.
00:16:43 [Melissa]
This is what I don’t recommend.
00:16:44 [Melissa]
This is how to prep your hair.

00:16:45 [Melissa]
Like, this is what I recommend for hair.
00:16:47 [Melissa]
This is what I don’t recommend for hair.
00:16:48 [Melissa]
This is what I recommend for colors.
00:16:50 [Melissa]
That’s what I don’t recommend for colors.
00:16:51 [Melissa]
That’s a big thing with blog posts and stuff.

00:16:53 [Melissa]
I know they can feel overwhelming.
00:16:54 [Melissa]
So, like, I know I have a freebie that is blog post topics for for photographers.
00:16:59 [Melissa]
So, you know, and people are like, okay, great.
00:17:02 [Melissa]
Now I kind of at least have a topic idea, but then they sit there and they’re staring at that blinky cursor and they’re like, but I I still don’t know what to write, Melissa.
00:17:09 [Melissa]
I have a little bit.

00:17:10 [Melissa]
And that’s where breaking it down just like we’re doing here with this post for Allison really makes it easy.
00:17:15 [Melissa]
Because now, she has to write a paragraph about what she does recommend wearing, and then why she recommends wearing it, and what she doesn’t recommend wearing, and why she doesn’t recommend it, and what she does recommend for colors, and what she doesn’t, and what she does recommend for hair, and what she doesn’t.
00:17:30 [Melissa]
And she could grab photos not even from just one session.
00:17:32 [Melissa]
She could grab photos from all five of those sessions that she’s done there, and really show what worked.
00:17:38 [Melissa]
Like this type of hair works.

00:17:40 [Melissa]
This type of dress works.
00:17:41 [Melissa]
The color palette works.
00:17:42 [Melissa]
Especially too with like an extended family session.
00:17:45 [Melissa]
How like, really narrowing down what should what what should women wear?
00:17:49 [Melissa]
What should men wear?

00:17:50 [Melissa]
What should boys wear?
00:17:51 [Melissa]
What should girls wear?
00:17:51 [Melissa]
What should baby wear?
00:17:52 [Melissa]
What should tall like, you can get a lot more in it.
00:17:54 [Melissa]
And when you break it down like that, this overall feeling of being overwhelmed of, like, what do I write about what people should wear?

00:18:01 [Melissa]
When you break it down to smaller bits, it just makes it so much easier to, like, fill that in.
00:18:05 [Melissa]
And to be honest too, if you get caught on something, you’re like, well, I don’t really know what they should wear.
00:18:09 [Melissa]
I mean, you can, like, kinda Google things and figure things out.
00:18:12 [Melissa]
You should know.
00:18:13 [Melissa]
Like, at this point, I feel like you should really know, like, what looks good, how you photograph things, how you edit things, like, what looks good for that.

00:18:20 [Melissa]
Fellow photographers, Melissa Arlena here.
00:18:22 [Melissa]
Does SEO feel super overwhelming to you?
00:18:24 [Melissa]
I get it.
00:18:25 [Melissa]
But guess what?
00:18:26 [Melissa]
SEO doesn’t have to be complicated.

00:18:28 [Melissa]
I’ve spent fifteen years in photography and ten years in IT before that, cracking the SEO code so that you don’t have to.
00:18:36 [Melissa]
Whether you’re eager to learn or you just want somebody to take care of it for you, I’ve got your back.
00:18:40 [Melissa]
With my SEO coaching and done for you services, you’ll get noticed, attract more of your ideal clients, and keep doing what you love most, photography.
00:18:49 [Melissa]
Ready to boost your website’s visibility without the headache?
00:18:52 [Melissa]
Visit pictureperfectrankings.com, and let’s make SEO simple and effective for you.

00:18:57 [Melissa]
Let’s get your calendar booked.

00:18:59 [Alison]
Yeah.
00:19:00 [Alison]
Absolutely.
00:19:00 [Alison]
Absolutely.
00:19:00 [Alison]
And to compare and contrast to what other people have done, the inspiration.
00:19:04 [Alison]
Y’all the wind is so bad.

00:19:05 [Alison]
Like, even my teen boys with long hair, like, have issues.
00:19:10 [Alison]
Yeah.
00:19:10 [Alison]
It’s intense.
00:19:11 [Alison]
It’s a first for me.

00:19:12 [Melissa]
It’s a first.
00:19:13 [Melissa]
I still I remember I had a session on Wendy, and I positioned, it was engagement session.
00:19:18 [Melissa]
So I positioned the bride.
00:19:19 [Melissa]
So her hair was flowing back, and then all of a sudden, the guy turned towards, you know, looked towards me and all set up.
00:19:24 [Melissa]
And I realized, oh my gosh.

00:19:26 [Melissa]
He has longish hair.
00:19:27 [Melissa]
And it was standing straight up like a mohawk.
00:19:29 [Melissa]
Yeah.
00:19:29 [Melissa]
And I was like, hers was beautiful and flowing back, and his was a hot mess.
00:19:33 [Melissa]
And I was just, like, behind the camera, like

00:19:36 [Alison]
oh, no.
00:19:37 [Alison]
Oh, no.
00:19:39 [Alison]
I’ve had to add gel to my, I mean, I’ve had hairspray, but I added a big container of gel and paste, like, styling dudes

00:19:47 [Melissa]
for

00:19:48 [Alison]
that reason.

00:19:49 [Melissa]
Yeah.
00:19:49 [Melissa]
I’m not

00:19:49 [Alison]
sure it’s gonna help, but at least we have it and we can try.

00:19:51 [Melissa]
Yeah.
00:19:51 [Melissa]
Because you never know.
00:19:52 [Melissa]
It could be that one time where the the wife is like, I told you to put gel in your hair, and you can be like, I got some.
00:19:57 [Melissa]
Yeah.
00:19:57 [Melissa]
Here we go.

00:19:58 [Alison]
Is a joke.
00:19:58 [Alison]
I tell everybody that I’m like, I got this, but it’s not gonna work.

00:20:02 [Melissa]
Blogging to us is a huge way for you to get clients, a huge way for you to get in front of new clients, for you to woo a client to hiring you or someone else.
00:20:12 [Melissa]
Yeah.
00:20:13 [Melissa]
For educating clients and stuff like that.
00:20:15 [Melissa]
But as we talked about, I know blogging can be overwhelming.
00:20:18 [Melissa]
You guys don’t know what to write.

00:20:19 [Melissa]
So one big thing that I have launching this week, that I’m super excited about, it’s called the blogging club.
00:20:25 [Melissa]
And basically, I am here to make blogging easier for you.
00:20:29 [Melissa]
So this is a membership.
00:20:31 [Melissa]
It’s a membership style club, so you can join at any time.
00:20:34 [Melissa]
You can leave if you want kind of thing.

00:20:36 [Melissa]
It’s it’s that what do people call it?
00:20:37 [Melissa]
Like, the Netflix type subscription where you come in, you pay monthly, you get access.
00:20:41 [Melissa]
Once you leave, you lose access.
00:20:42 [Melissa]
But when you come back in, you get access again to everything.
00:20:45 [Melissa]
Basically, what we’re gonna do is we’re gonna deliver two blog post outlines every month that are gonna help you blog things that are helpful for your clients, helpful for establishing you with Google.

00:20:55 [Melissa]
We’re gonna walk through the SEO of it all.
00:20:57 [Melissa]
What do you

00:20:58 [Alison]
mean by outline?
00:20:59 [Alison]
Because you didn’t say topic.
00:21:00 [Alison]
You said Yes.
00:21:00 [Alison]
But what’s in that outline?

00:21:02 [Melissa]
So the outline is basically what we just broke down.
00:21:04 [Melissa]
So kind of that Oh.
00:21:05 [Melissa]
Alright.
00:21:05 [Melissa]
If the topic is what should mom wear for a beach family session, then we’re gonna break it down into those different things.
00:21:12 [Melissa]
What’s word for an extended family?

00:21:13 [Melissa]
Awesome.
00:21:14 [Melissa]
So that’s the thing.
00:21:15 [Melissa]
Exactly what I broke down with Allison of those subtopics, that’s what these outlines are gonna do.
00:21:20 [Melissa]
And they’re gonna do them for a variety of topics.
00:21:22 [Melissa]
And we’re also making them so that they they will be easy for you to, like, put your SEO keywords and stuff in or just your FAQs in because not everything has to be an SEO location type post.

00:21:33 [Alison]
Right.

00:21:33 [Melissa]
But we’re making them so that they are generic enough where if you’re a senior photographer, like, you can use this post.
00:21:39 [Melissa]
If you’re a family photographer, a newborn photographer, that kind of thing.
00:21:42 [Melissa]
So it’s not just like specifically written of you’re only a newborn studio photographer these work.
00:21:46 [Melissa]
That’s not the way it is.
00:21:47 [Melissa]
And the reason they’re outlines is because if I gave you just a template, it doesn’t speak to your client.

00:21:53 [Melissa]
Like, Allison’s client is very different than my client.
00:21:56 [Melissa]
She does fast, fun, and done, a lot more vibrant colors.
00:22:00 [Melissa]
They’re on the beach.
00:22:01 [Melissa]
There’s a lot of play and Don’t live near me.
00:22:03 [Melissa]
Yep.

00:22:03 [Melissa]
They’re coming in on vacation and stuff.
00:22:05 [Melissa]
A lot of times with my family sessions, it’s in a field, and they want more of, like, these kind of ethereal type photos and stuff.
00:22:13 [Melissa]
I mean, they do want some of those fun play, but it’s it’s a lot more staged per se or posed a little bit on that aspect.
00:22:20 [Melissa]
I’ve seen some of Alison’s photos.
00:22:21 [Melissa]
It looks like everybody’s having a good time.

00:22:23 [Melissa]
And it’s not that they’re not having a good time in mind, but the energy vibe is a lot different and everything too.
00:22:28 [Melissa]
And so a post that is templated to her isn’t gonna work for my client because they might be like, I don’t know if I embrace my kid around like that.
00:22:37 [Melissa]
Yeah.
00:22:37 [Melissa]
What do

00:22:37 [Alison]
you mean turn a blind eye to misbehavior?
00:22:39 [Alison]
I don’t think so.

00:22:40 [Melissa]
Exactly.
00:22:41 [Melissa]
You know?
00:22:41 [Melissa]
So that kind of thing.
00:22:42 [Melissa]
So the outline, the whole purpose of it is to help you dig into yourself and write for your client and make it so that you don’t have the blinky cursor syndrome.
00:22:51 [Melissa]
You’re not getting writer’s block on that.

00:22:53 [Melissa]
And then so once you’ve got this post written, then also we’re gonna talk about, like, some we’ll have a monthly SEO training.
00:22:59 [Melissa]
So there’s different videos that are gonna come up about just how to improve your SEO.
00:23:03 [Melissa]
You know, just little things that you can tackle month by month, like, little type things.
00:23:08 [Melissa]
You’re also gonna have access to we’re gonna have a private club members community group so you can interact with others.
00:23:13 [Melissa]
You can get feedback.

00:23:14 [Melissa]
You can ask questions.
00:23:15 [Melissa]
Like, maybe you’re not sure what dad should wear.
00:23:17 [Melissa]
You’re like, hey.
00:23:17 [Melissa]
I like for my dad’s to wear or I hate when my dads wear this.
00:23:21 [Melissa]
What do you guys recommend for your dads to wear?

00:23:23 [Melissa]
And maybe you’ll get some advice from other photographers who are like, oh, you know, we always tell the dad to go get a shirt from J.
00:23:28 [Melissa]
Crew or something like that.
00:23:29 [Melissa]
Like, I don’t know.
00:23:30 [Melissa]
You know, but there’s some different opportunities for that.
00:23:32 [Melissa]
But you can interact with others.

00:23:33 [Melissa]
You can get feedback from, from the community and stuff and connect with them and and questions.
00:23:38 [Melissa]
And we’re also gonna do a monthly group q and a call with me.
00:23:40 [Melissa]
So it’ll be a one hour call once a month, and you can submit questions ahead of time or you can ask them live.
00:23:45 [Melissa]
We do have a blog circle that is gonna be in that group specifically.
00:23:49 [Melissa]
So So at that point, Allison’s written a post.

00:23:50 [Melissa]
I’ve written a post.
00:23:51 [Melissa]
Couple other people have written a post.
00:23:53 [Melissa]
We’re now going to do some linking of those posts and kinda share them with our audiences, you know, each other’s posts and stuff to get traffic from Google with that kind of thing, And that’s gonna be in that club.
00:24:03 [Melissa]
And then there’s just gonna be a lot of fun bonuses and stuff.
00:24:06 [Melissa]
I sat down the other day in the car on the drive back from the boat, and I rode out, like, the rest of the blog topics of video trainings and bonuses.

00:24:13 [Melissa]
So I’m super excited about a lot of that stuff.
00:24:15 [Melissa]
There’s some people that I’m looking to partner with to, like, kinda bring in some fun things for you guys.
00:24:19 [Melissa]
I can’t talk about it yet, but, but I’m super excited about this.
00:24:24 [Melissa]
I think this is a great way to help photographers get past the hump of blogging where they’re like, I don’t know what to write.
00:24:30 [Melissa]
I’m overwhelmed and really get you guys writing and break it down So it’s simple and easy and not overwhelming and that’s always my big thing.

00:24:37 [Melissa]
I want to make it easy and not overwhelming for you So that’s the blogging club

00:24:41 [Alison]
awesome blogging is so time driven if there’s one thing that you need to be doing immediately and well is blogging.
00:24:49 [Alison]
To have somebody holding your hands and helping you through the process, like, that’s huge.

00:24:53 [Melissa]
Yeah.
00:24:53 [Melissa]
I mean, the whole you know, I’ve I’ve been in other clubs and stuff like emails and things like that.
00:24:57 [Melissa]
It is so nice to have somebody feed you a topic.
00:25:01 [Melissa]
Like, I don’t know what I need to write about.
00:25:02 [Melissa]
And they’re like, hey.

00:25:03 [Melissa]
This would be a great topic to send out to your newsletter this week, or this is a great, you know, whatever social media post.
00:25:08 [Melissa]
And I’m like, yes.
00:25:09 [Melissa]
Thank you.
00:25:09 [Melissa]
I will take that, and I will use it.
00:25:10 [Melissa]
And it will be great, and I don’t have to put as much brain put as if I had to sit down and come with it all on my own.

00:25:15 [Melissa]
And really with blogging, we talk about this all the time.
00:25:17 [Melissa]
If you start with blogging, it makes the rest of your marketing so much easier.

00:25:22 [Alison]
So much easier.
00:25:23 [Alison]
Where do we get this?
00:25:23 [Alison]
Because it’s launching this week.
00:25:25 [Alison]
Right?

00:25:25 [Melissa]
Yes.
00:25:26 [Melissa]
So if you go out to my website, pictureperfectrankings.com, and then it’s gonna be forward slash the blogging club.
00:25:31 [Melissa]
We’ve got, like, a banner bar at the top kind of thing.
00:25:34 [Melissa]
But, yeah, pictureperfectrankings.com, the blogging club.
00:25:36 [Melissa]
Allison will put the link in the show notes.

00:25:38 [Melissa]
Absolutely.
00:25:39 [Melissa]
And we’d love to have you guys join the club and, have fun with us.

00:25:43 [Alison]
Absolutely.
00:25:43 [Alison]
So hit the link in the show notes and then, of course, the usual freebies.
00:25:46 [Alison]
I think we’re gonna have the blog post topics that we were talking about earlier and then, of course, how, you know, the pre move business checklist from yours truly.
00:25:55 [Alison]
Guys, if you haven’t already, hit subscribe, share this episode with somebody who would find it interesting, or just spot it all over your Instagram and tag us with hashtag keep it moving pod.
00:26:05 [Alison]
Thanks, guys.

00:26:06 [Alison]
Thanks so much.

00:26:09 [Melissa]
Thank you so much for listening.
00:26:11 [Melissa]
If you’re enjoying this show, would you do two things for us?
00:26:13 [Melissa]
First, leave a review.
00:26:15 [Melissa]
Just stars would be awesome.
00:26:16 [Melissa]
And two, forward this episode to a biz bestie, mil spouse, or anyone facing moving their business.

00:26:21 [Melissa]
We’d love it if you shared this episode with even just one person.
00:26:24 [Melissa]
If you have any questions, reach out to Alice Graham at alison belle photog or Melissa in her Facebook group, Raise Your Ranking.
00:26:31 [Melissa]
Check the show notes for links.