Getting Paid

[DeepSpring]

I agree with what has been said. People expect a lot from you for absolutely nothing. For example I have been shooting a lot of my schools football games and the day after the game I have a million kids messaging me "Where are my pictures?!?" and stuff like that. Maybe if he paid me I would make sure to get them some pictures but they assume they are free for all. I've had to end up slapping my watermark all over them so when kids do steal them at least they see my website.

A lot of high school kids expect me to do free photo shoots and give them free prints. If it is a really close friend and I know the pictures will end up being something I can use for my portfolio then I might offer them a free shoot as long as they respect me. Prints on the other hand I always charge at least a few $ more then costs.

 

[D-50]

I ran a web development company for a while, before mostly halting operations when I decided I didn't want to do it as a career. I specialized in Search Engine Optimization and Internet Marketing, but also did a lot of web design work and a bit of web application development. In any event, I know that there are a lot of small-time people here running personal sites, and a few professional photographers that drive business through the web. I'm up for free consultations of any kind, for anybody who wants some assistance with any of the following:

• Organic Search Engine Optimization (on and off-page)
• Sponsored Search Listings
• General Internet Marketing (driving visitors to your site and keeping them there as long as possible)
• Web Design (aesthetics or coding)
• Dynamic Content
• Site Architecture (content management systems, database back ends, etc).
• Web Metrics (traffic analysis, logging info about visitors to your site)

If anybody needs any serious work, I still do some freelancing, and don't charge very much anymore. Short of that, i'll help in any way I can for free.

MAX why dont you explain this post then. This was originally posted by Max about a year ago.

 

[PrincessB]

I am the otherside (and I realize over sensitive whiners won't like it but I don't care). I do photography for those who can't afford the big name photographers. I tell people I have not been doing this as long as many and I don't have as much equipment as many others do but I can shoot some good pictures and if you are on a budget like me then I want to help you. If you have money to afford a couple thousand dollar photographer then by all means I want you to go hire them, if you don't have much money but want good pictures then I'm here.
Some people can afford a couple thousand dollars for their wedding or other event photographer, but realisticly a lot of people can not. For a lot of people hiring a photographer is completly out of the question, they have to rely on aunt so and so with the shaky hands to take pictures of their special activities and I don't think it should be that way.
So yeah I charge much less than you, but realisticly I'm only taking the customers you don't want anyway. The ones with a tiny budget, the ones that want to get as much for free as possible and would therefore be harrassing the crap out of you till you are sorry you ever met them, the ones that marry on short notice and have little to nothing planned. The ones that are serious about showing off breath taking pictures to everyone they know, and can afford to do so are going to you, but by choice and by my incouragement.

But there are definatly some "pros" who send the masses fleeing for me. At a family activity they hired a pro who was inconsiderate, unobservant, and demanded at least $450.00 in sales or he wouldn't even consider coming out. He was not very good, he brought a black backdrop to a pink themed birthday party and wanted everyone to wear only light clothing to the party because he couldn't compensate for darker clothes, even made one lady go put on one of his white shirts because her top wasn't light enough. No one has bought anything from him because they never liked what they saw, instead everyone is contacting me with "did you get any pictures, we have none and the photographer was not good at all".
You want to not be undercut, don't undercut yourself.

 

[Alpha]

MAX why dont you explain this post then. This was originally posted by Max about a year ago.

I'm guessing that you want me to explain "don't charge very much" and "I'll help in any way I can for free" ?

As for "don't charge very much," that's due only to the fact that I don't have time to do an amount of work that I would charge a lot for. If you just need help setting up an AdWords account or you need an evaluation of how search engine-friendly your site is, then no I'm not gonna charge much because that doesn't take me very long to do. That's how I've always operated and how most others do, too.

As for "I'll help in any way I can for free," why the hell not? No, I'm not gonna go build you a SQL database or install and monitor web-metrics software, or optimize your whole site for free. But some things have always been free anyway, like preliminary evaluations of your site's competitiveness. Nobody charges for that. They need to look at it anyway to figure out how much they're gonna charge you to actually fix it.

My offer was more altruistic than you're allowing yourself to believe. I never said I would do everything for free, I said I would help for free. What I meant, for the most part, was that if you're for some reason working on any of that stuff yourself and you need assistance, I'm around if you need to ask me any questions.

If you think there's something wrong with that, then I suggest you leave the forum immediately because you're undercutting photography book authors every time you give someone advice here.

 

[D-50]

You know what that is very true I suggest we shut down this whole forum immediately because there are photography teachers and writers out there who try to make a living off of their craft. Anyone who takes one of those classes or reads one of those books and then posts here is indeed undercutting them and that is not fair. Anyone who comes here for advice is cheating them as well.

Big Mike could be the most guilty often giving sound advice and lessons for no charge at all! Max you are extremely guilty as well, you often give very technical and specific advice for nothing sounds like you learned a lot from books or classes and are now passing that info along for free.

Moderators please shutdown TFP immediatly. I think I'll go to the Canon and Nikon forums as well and suggest they follow suit. Everyone here is guilty no exceptions.

 

[jstuedle]

You know what that is very true I suggest we shut down this whole forum immediately because there are photography teachers and writers out there who try to make a living off of their craft. Anyone who takes one of those classes or reads one of those books and then posts here is indeed undercutting them and that is not fair. Anyone who comes here for advice is cheating them as well.

Big Mike could be the most guilty often giving sound advice and lessons for no charge at all! Max you are extremely guilty as well, you often give very technical and specific advice for nothing sounds like you learned a lot from books or classes and are now passing that info along for free.

Moderators please shutdown TFP immediatly. I think I'll go to the Canon and Nikon forums as well and suggest they follow suit. Everyone here is guilty no exceptions.

Gee, and I always thought the old saying "Those who can, do. Those who can't, teach" made a lot of sense.

And, ya, I'm guilty D50. I'll help as much as I can, cause I need as much help as I can get.

 

[Alpha]

Moderators please shutdown TFP immediatly. I think I'll go to the Canon and Nikon forums as well and suggest they follow suit. Everyone here is guilty no exceptions.

Don't forget DPreview.