How focused should a local photographer's website be?

Question

I have been doing a lot of reading on what local businesses should blog about and have come up with the following scenario.

I am looking for something to keep me busy and to keep my mind a bit more focused. I like photography and was thinking of starting a website documenting what I know about photography, my learning journey, something in the line of what Digital Photography School is doing, but at a much smaller scale. Maybe one day my site will gain lots of followers around the world, who knows.

I am also currently in IT, web programming to be exact. And given my circumstances I am maybe thinking of taking a break from corporate life and go touring and focus a bit more on photography. Maybe I become a photographer on the side and do portraits or weddings or whatever. More in the line of a local business/photographer.

The thing that I can't wrap my mind around are the 2 different aspects of what I want to achieve, the learning people photography and actually going the local business route (if I want to go this route someday I don't know)? The 2 audiences will be different I assume? One is from all over the world, and the other is locally, in my case South Africa. Do you think it is maybe better to differentiate the two websites? One for teaching people photography and the other the local business focusing on local people? Or would it benefit me more to do both in one website? I know this is a lot, but I want to think long term and get things in place now and build it up bit by bit, focusing first on teaching photography and then going the local business route.

I had a look at photographer's Facebook pages and they don't have many likes, I'm assuming it is all from clients locally to their business. And then you get those learning sites that have thousands of followers from all over the world. But how will it benefit me if I have a million followers but they are all over the world whereas I want to also focus locally for the portraits or wedding or whatever I want to do on the side? I see local photographers just focus on weddings or portraits in their blogs, with an odd extra blog post about something photography related, and the photography learning sites focus just on this, not one site would focus on both. There must be a reason for this?

I hope that I make sense?

Answer 1

I’m in a similar position (web dev/photog). Here’s how most photographers tackle this:

First, remember that the web is dynamic, as I’m sure you understand. That said, nothing is in stone so your site will be constantly changing.

Second, just build it. Use Wordpress. Even though you can code if from scratch... don’t.

Third, its all about your navigation structure. Post your thoughts under BLOG. Post your images under GALLERY. Post your lessons under TUTORIALS. Etc. Your local audience will appreciate the fact that you teach and share your knowledge. Your international audience will appreciate the fact you are a working photog.

Finally, back to point one - don’t over think this. Your first personal or business site will not be your last. Just do it. You will quickly see what people like and don’t like. And, have a plan to drive traffic. Post on instagram, FB,YT, and optimize for seo as well, will help get you the traffic you need to make this worthwhile. Hope this helps.

Answer 2

The thing that I can't wrap my mind around are the 2 different aspects of what I want to achieve, the learning people photography and actually going the local business route (if I want to go this route someday I don't know)?

The single best thing that you can do is focus. Let's assume you shoot weddings...what would your potential client google? Probably something along the lines of "wedding photographer Johannesburg." The blog post you might write to try to get this person to find your site might be, "How to pick a wedding photographer in Johannesburg." This is a far cry from, "How to shoot wedding portraits."

So, the question is, what do you want to be? Focus on this one thing, do it well, and then evaluate if you should branch out your existing site or create another brand.

I had a look at photographer's Facebook pages and they don't have many likes, I'm assuming it is all from clients locally to their business.

Probably. The question is, where is your target market online and are they likely to engage with you there or find you there, or both? A low Facebook like count means nothing if the same photographer's Instagram is poppin'.

And then you get those learning sites that have thousands of followers from all over the world. But how will it benefit me if I have a million followers but they are all over the world?

Pal, you get a million followers and you don't even have to monetize your content. Simply post videos to YouTube and bank the ad revenue.

whereas I want to also focus locally for the portraits or wedding or whatever I want to do on the side?

See above about focus. Most business owners have idea ADD. This is where you get one idea after another and they're all the best thing ever. What you need to learn is execution. Right now, you don't have a site - just an idea. So, focus it down to the single, simplest thing that you want to run with, and do it. Don't make it complicated at the beginning.