You started a photography blog to showcase your work or help others improve their photography skills.
How do you grow a blog? What are the essentials to making it successful?
This post will share the most important blogging advice that every photographer should know.
What you’ll read below is what I learned in the last 10 years of blogging and running a marketing company.
Note: Have you started your photography blog? Learn how to do it by reading my beginner’s guide.
1. Keep your business harmonious with the BACM framework
Content-based businesses are usually made up of four components. This could be a YouTube channel or blog.
Here are the results:
- Business — What is your business plan? How will you generate revenue? How will you attract customers?
- Audience — Whom are you trying to help? How will you help? This is closely related to your unique niche and service proposition.
- Content: What will you create? What is your content strategy?
- Marketing: How will you promote your content? What about your business? What is the most important marketing channel for driving traffic?
Blogs and content-based businesses that succeed have all four components aligned. Those who fail usually choose the wrong marketing and content for their business model.
Start by understanding your business model and understanding revenue. Audience, content and marketing should all revolve around this business model.
Here is an example aligned.
- Business Freelance Photographer
- Audience – Wedding photography
- Content
- Social Media.
What’s the problem? The content does not support the other components.
Here is an example aligned.
- Business Affiliate marketer
- Audience – Aspiring Photographers
- Content– Buyer Intent Content such as Gear Reviews, Comparisons and List Posts.
- Marketing– Search engines like Google.
What’s wrong with this? Each component is interconnected. The best marketing and content channel was chosen to support revenue and audience.
How will you align your company using this framework now? You have to find the answers that work for your company. I cannot give you any advice. If you follow this principle, you will be able to move your business in the right direction.
2. Create a persona of your audience and use this to develop more specific content
Understanding the people you are trying to reach is key to creating a successful business or blog. I’ve touched on this a little bit already, but there’s more to it.
You can create an audience persona based on the people you are trying to reach.
This is a profile that describes your ideal client. This will reveal their needs, wants and demographics.
These tips can help you take your content marketing to a whole new level.
You can, for example, use this information when writing more specific articles. For instance, ” How To Take Better Photographs“. This will help you to write an article that is less generic and cuts through the clutter better. You could write something like “The wedding photographer’s guide to taking better photographs.”
Note: This is what I call persona-driven material, and I have written an entire article about it. If you’re interested in learning more, check out the article.
Why this is important:
People want content tailored to their needs and desires. Generic articles are sometimes successful, but only if your audience is large.
Let me be an example. If I were scrolling through Twitter in a hurry, I would skip an article about taking better photos. What about an article on guitar photography? This would stop me in my tracks because it is so relevant to my needs.
3. Minimal web design focuses on the important things.
Minimal web design is the best option, whether your goal is to share your work or teach others to improve their photographic skills.
It allows you to focus on the content that matters.
Avoid wasting visual interest with a theme that will distract people from the important things.
The good news is:
No matter which platform you choose, you can easily find a theme or template that fits your blog.
You’ll find a wide variety of WordPress themes. The minimalist design of most WordPress themes is a popular choice.
Kadence is one of my favourites. It is a lightweight theme which can be easily customized. The free version is very useful, even though there is a paid version.
4. Your photos will be accessible through a photo gallery
Your photography is one of your most valuable assets. A photo gallery is one of the best methods for showcasing your work.
How do you add it to your blog then? Not all blogging platforms allow you to add a portfolio or photo gallery.
Modula is an image gallery plugin that you can use to create galleries in WordPress.
This plugin offers many features that WordPress cannot. It allows you to watermark images, disable the right-click to prevent others from downloading them, add password protection, and more.
This also helps optimize your images for the Web. I’ll discuss image optimization in more detail in a minute.
A photo gallery is important whether you are using the built-in function or a third-party plugin.
Learn more. Modula Review:
5. Optimize images for Web
I get it. You spent a lot of time and energy creating the perfect picture and want everyone to see it.
What is the problem? The problem? Uploading images to your website in the highest resolution possible results in large file sizes, which can ruin user experience. This is especially true for slow internet connections and mobile devices.
How do you optimize your images for the Web?
Normally, we optimize images before uploading them to WordPress. This is how we typically work:
- Resize the image using Photoshop or any other image editor. Images larger than 5000x5000px are not necessary for web use.
- Export the image to a JPG file (not a PNG).
- TinyJPG is a free tool that can compress images.
- Upload an image to WordPress.
It’s not a perfect solution, and it could be further improved with next-generation image file formats, but it works well for us.
TinyJPG can reduce quality, and sometimes, we do this when exporting from Photoshop.
The smaller the file size, the better.
It’s important to mention that this process can be automated. There are WordPress plugins that automate it, but I like to get everything done beforehand.
It’s a matter of personal choice. I prefer to have all the images saved in different versions, which saves server resources.
You can also use tools to optimize all your uploaded images. NitroPack is an example.
NitroPack is an optimization platform for performance that also includes a content distribution network (more about this in a minute). NitroPack optimizes your website in a number of ways, including optimizing images and serving the files using next-generation file formats.
6. Use a Content Delivery Network (CDN) to speed up your website
You may have noticed that your website’s load time can be slower around the globe if it is hosted in America.
The distance between your server and the user will affect how fast a page loads.
Content delivery networks can solve this problem by serving your website’s assets from a server located closer to the visitor.
If you want visitors to stay on your site, the page loading time is important.
There are many CDN services available. NitroPack is a good option, as it optimizes performance in a way that no other CDN does. Cloudflare is free, but it’s not as fast.
You should also check with your Web hosting company to see if a CDN is available. Some managed WordPress hosts, like WPX Hosting, will include a CDN in their plans or offer their own CDN.
7. Double Down on Instagram
Instagram is a social network with over 1 billion users. Because of its visual nature, it’s a great platform for photographers.
It’s also one of the few big social networks still growing and one of the easiest ways to grow an audience. The platform has a better vibe than Twitter.
You’ll need an audience to see results on Instagram. Here are a few tips that will help:
- Theme Your Photos– The visual appeal of your images has a direct effect on your ability to build an Instagram following. You can do this by using a certain style or colour in your photos. Include a mascot or item in each image. This is a fun way to make it more interesting. It’s like a “Where’s Waldo?” approach.
- Find popular hashtags for your niche. Hashtags on Instagram are essential. Look at what other people in your niche are posting to find hashtags.
- Engagement = engagement_ If you want to engage people, you have to engage them first. Comment, like, and get to understand people.
- Save Time with Scheduling Tools– Instagram scheduling apps such as Sendible allow you to schedule and publish directly on Instagram without the use of third-party apps. You can now schedule posts in bulk to ensure you have fresh content available at all times. You should publish as much content as possible.
- You can use Instagram’s analytics to discover what works. Once you change your profile to a business account, you will have access to IG analytics. This data can be used to determine what works and then do more of that.
8. Create an email list of your readers to keep them coming back
Getting people to visit your blog can be a challenge, but keeping them interested is another.
Email lists are far more reliable than social media algorithms, which can change overnight.
Email is still used by more than half of the world’s population, even if it may not be as hip as in the past. This is a large audience.
How do you start?
You’ll first need to use an email marketing service. You’ll use this platform to build your email list. You can send out email newsletters and store your subscriber list. If you want to change tools in the future, you can export your subscriber list into another tool.
Kit is my favourite. Kit offers a free plan, and it’s incredibly easy to use.
Once you have set up your email provider, you’ll need to add opt-in forms to your site. You can use a simple “Subscribe to my Newsletter” approach, or you can offer your subscribers a gift (also known as a lead magnet).
Here is an example of a WordPress plugin I used called Thrive Leads to create an opt-in form:
Some email marketing platforms allow you to create simple opt-in forms, but you’ll get more mileage from a WordPress plugin or dedicated tool.
You can also add a sign-up form to your home page or create a landing page dedicated to offering your newsletter.
As an example, I used a WordPress plugin named OptimizePress to create a custom homepage:
When users click the green button, a popover will appear. It includes the option to subscribe to my email list.
Some email platforms allow you to create landing pages within their platform, similar to opt-in forms. Kit provides this option if you prefer a more robust landing page (e.g. more customization/templates, etc).
Send your subscribers a newsletter regularly to keep them informed of your latest content. You may create an automated sequence based on your business model to promote future products/services.
Note: Want more information about building an email list? See my ultimate guide.
9. Giveaways are a great way to grow your audience
Sometimes, to build an audience on social media in particular, you need to get things moving.
More followers, more money. The first 100 subscribers on any platform are always the hardest.
This can be avoided by running social media giveaways. As a marketing consultant, I used giveaways to help several clients, and the results were fantastic.
Give away something that is either generic and appealing to a wide audience or something niche-specific.
Attracting a large audience is the best way to grow your followers, but the most effective prizes target a specific niche.
You don’t have to spend a lot of money in order to gain a large number of followers. You don’t have to spend money on prizes.
The best way to promote giveaways is through brand partnerships. You promote the giveaway, and they provide the prizes. As a consequence, both of you will gain more subscribers (or followers).
To give you a better idea of how it would work, you could use a WordPress Giveaway plugin like RafflePress. Or you could try SweepWidget. They have a free version (read our review).
You can create something similar to this using these tools:
This widget can easily be added to any webpage on your website. You could use a blog to announce the contest or a landing page.
Then, you’d enter all the information about your prize and giveaway. You’ll then set up different entry methods.
Points would be awarded for different methods of entry, like liking your Facebook page or following you on Twitter.
You can promote your giveaway on your website, through social media, through giveaway directories, and more.
Your giveaway will be more successful if you include entry methods like “Share this giveaway on Twitter/Facebook”.
Wrapping up the presentation
It takes patience, time, and effort to grow a blog, whether it’s photography or other type.
These tips are invaluable for your blogging journey, even though there is much more to creating a successful blog.
Watch the magic unfold when you use what you have learned from this article to create a strategy which achieves your goals.
