Outsourcing your photography blog? Good move! Hiring a blogger is a great way to free up your time, boost your SEO, and set yourself apart from other photographers. (No longer are you that photographer who starts every post with, “Wow, it’s been a really long time since I updated my blog!”) Since you’re paying someone else to take blogging off your plate, it makes sense that you want get the most out of their services. I hear you. Here are 5 tips to help you get the most out of outsourcing your photography blog…and quite possibly become your blogger’s favorite client in the process.
1. Give Your Blogger Information Overload…But in a Good Way
Seriously, it’s pretty tough to give your blogger too much information. The only possible exception to this is if your blogger is writing an informational post with a limited word count, in which case you’ll want them to know what the essentials are so they can focus on those points. But for most posts, the more you share, the better your blog post will be! You can check out a detailed breakdown of what to share with your blogger for both photography session posts and informational posts elsewhere on the blog, but in a nutshell, here it is:
For a session post, make sure your blogger has access to the photos from the session, knows all the fun details (from which props the parents brought to the fact that you had to bribe big brother with fruit snacks to get him to crack a smile), and has enough background information about you and your studio to make sure the post is on point with your style.
For an informational post, give your blogger a specific topic, a list of points you want them to hit and which keywords to prioritize. If you have links you want them to include, or other resources (like your style guide or a helpful article) that will help your blogger write an informative post, send those along too.
Figuring out the info side of things can feel a little overwhelming at first, but you and your blogger will work out a rhythm and soon you won’t need to think much about it at all—especially if you’ve also taken the time up front to give them some general information about you and your studio that they can keep on file to reference as needed.
Pro Tip: Figure out your favorite way of getting information to people and check with your blogger to see if they’d be okay working with that. While most of my clients use email or just the draft of their blog to give me info, I try to be flexible for folks with other preferences. I’ve set up a monthly phone chat with clients who like to know there really is a person on the receiving end of their information, accepted video or audio messages from clients who prefer to record what they remember about a session, or simply provided editing and expansion on blog posts for clients who find that it’s actually kind of fun to write their own as long as they don’t have the pressure of making it sound good.
2. Post to Your Blog Consistently
Did you know search engines look at consistency when rating your website? Well, they do. That’s one reason it’s better to post steadily on a set schedule than to scramble at the end of the month and get all six of your blog posts published in a day. Not only is it better for your SEO, it’s also better for your sanity. And while we’re on the subject of sanity, don’t forget to take that of your blogger into account.
Ghostwriters are usually freelance, which means they have a lot of incentive to do a great job for you. If you decide to go with someone else, there’s no company to take the hit and keep paying their salary. On the one hand, this is good news for you, because your blogger is going to do their best to keep you happy. They’re invested in your business. On the other hand, it’s important to keep in mind that they’re not responsible for your business. You are. And if you want to see results from your blog, you have to set your blogger up for success. One of the most helpful things you can do? Be consistent.
Consistency isn’t always easy, and yes, it requires some planning ahead. But it’s worth it! You will be much happier with the results when you have a plan and stick to it than when you let circumstance dictate when you update your site. It isn’t nice to keep your blogger guessing about when and how often you’ll post…and it isn’t going to help your business. So, when you’re looking at a blogging schedule for the year, keep in mind that all kinds of stuff is going to happen. You might get sick, or have a family emergency come up. And it’s practically a guarantee that some months will be slower than others. A lot of portrait photographers find that their business is practically in hibernation during the winter months. What’s your plan to keep blogging consistent even when life happens or business fluctuates?
If you don’t have a plan in place, chances are you’re going to run into this scenario: It’s January. Everybody is recovering from the holidays and nobody’s booking sessions. You don’t have a clue what to blog about, so you reach out to your blogger and say, “Hey, I’m thinking we take the next few months off blogging. I’ll let you know when things pick back up again.” It’s your blog, so although your blogger may recommend that you carry on with your blogging schedule, or even switch to a trimmed down version (say, twice a month instead of weekly), if you say no there’s not much they can do about it.
A couple months down the line business starts to pick up again with the warmer weather. You get your blogging schedule back on track and everything’s going nicely. Then, you notice your site isn’t performing as well. What’s going on?
The thing with blogging is that it takes a while (we’re talking six months to a year or more) to see results. So, when you get on your blogger about why things are suddenly slowing down, there won’t be a lot they can do about it that they’re not already doing. In fact, they’ll probably be trying to think of a tactful way to tell you, “Remember how blog results take a while to kick in? This is probably due to that time you completely abandoned your blog a few months ago.”
Fortunately, it’s easy to avoid this scenario. All you have to do is plan ahead and be consistent!
Pro Tip: Set aside some time at the beginning or end of each month (quarter, year, whatever floats your boat) to plan out your blog posts for the next little while. Get session photos uploaded to whatever platform you and your blogger use, pick a topic if you do informational posts, all the stuff. (Here’s more on what you should provide your blogger for session and informational posts if you’re interested.) That way, you have everything ready to go and your blogger can keep you on a steady schedule. This makes it easy to stay consistent. If you get sick, you won’t miss a post, and if your blogger ends up going on vacation they can just work ahead beforehand so that all you have to do is hit the Publish button.
3. Give Any Blogging Strategy Time to Work
As well as being consistent with your blogging schedule, it’s also important to be consistent with the strategies you use within your blog. I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve had clients take a course or watch a video and come to me brimming with new ideas for how we can make their blog more effective, but without a solid understanding of long it will be before those changes take effect, or how it’s going to affect their current strategy and budget.
For example, they’ll hear that longer-form posts perform better than the short ones we’ve been doing and ask if we can switch over to those. “Absolutely,” I’ll say. “But we’ll probably have to change tactics.” Maybe up to now we’ve been doing 300-word blog posts that focus on sessions. If my client wants to do 1500-word blog posts instead, they’ll need to switch to more info-centric posts, since nobody wants to read an enormous post about how cute this kid was and how much they loved their cake smash. That means they’ll have to provide me with a topic and resources to write an informative article.
And longer posts are more expensive posts. I’ll give them a couple of suggestions for how we can incorporate those helpful long-form posts without tripling their budget. Maybe we can do one long-form post and one shorter session post each month, instead of the weekly session posts we’ve been doing.
We come up with a plan. Two months down the line (sometimes less), they turn around and say, “You know what, this just isn’t working. Let’s go back to the way we were doing it before.”
At this point, I take a moment to tear my hair out. Then I send an email back to gently remind them that we’ve only just started this new strategy and it will take several months before we can determine if it’s working or not, but, of course, this is their blog, so whatever they want to do is fine. We go back to the way we were doing it before and I brace myself for the next time they take a class and come to me all starry-eyed with ideas for bettering their blog.
Now, to an extent, these situations are to be expected. It’s actually great to come to your blogger with thoughts, ideas, and new things to try. Doing this means you’re involved and you want to help your blogger succeed in their job of helping you. And really, life wouldn’t be worth it if we didn’t all get a little starry-eyed on occasion. But bear in mind that implementing any shiny new ideas will require adjustments on the part of both you and your writer, and it’s absolutely imperative that you give any new strategy time to work before you decide if it’s right for your business or not.
Pro Tip: If you hear about a new strategy you want to try, do a little research and planning on your own before you reach out to your blogger. Determine if there’s any wiggle room in your budget. Brainstorm how your blogging might have to change and decide what you’re okay with and what you’re not. Sketch out a rough plan and then present it to your blogger and see what they think. You will still bring tears to your blogger’s eyes when you do this…but they will be tears of joy.
4. Get Back to Your Blogger Quickly
No matter how on top of it you are, chances are your blogger will have a few questions along the way. Keep in mind that answering those questions will help them to write a better blog post. You don’t have to be lightning fast or keep your phone on you at all times on the off chance that your blogger might need to reach you, but try to be as accessible as possible.
This goes for posts you’ve already ordered (maybe you sent your blogger info for a newborn photography session but forgot to tell them whether the firefighter gear in the photos belongs to mom or dad, so your blogger emails you to find out). But it also applies to other situations. For example, remember earlier when we talked about posting consistently? Odds are, you and your blogger have worked out some kind of posting schedule (and if you haven’t, you should!) so your blogger knows they should be posting once a week, approximately every 10 days, twice a month, etc. And they’re going to do their utmost to make sure you stick to that schedule—because it’s good for your blog! But there’s not much they can do if you haven’t given them any information and their emails (“Hey, what would you like to do for your next blog post? We should get that up this week…We should get that up tomorrow…We should get that up three days ago…”) are met with silence from the void.
Remember, your blog is a key part of helping your business succeed, so prioritize it.
Pro Tip: You probably have a pretty good idea of your own response time. Maybe you check your email multiple times a day, so people can expect you to get back to them within just a few hours. Maybe you respond to texts within minutes. Or maybe (like me) you take a break from all things work-related on the weekends, so if folks reach out on a Friday afternoon they may not get a response until Monday. Whatever your communication habits are, just let your blogger know your pattern so they have an idea of when they’ll have the best chance of reaching you, as well as what method they should use.
5. Give Your Blogger Feedback
Your blogger wants you to be happy with the work they do, but it can take some time for them to figure out your style and business vibe. Especially at the beginning of the relationship, don’t be afraid to give your blogger feedback so they know what they’re doing right and what you’d like them to change. Ghostwriters in particular are used to this—they expect it, and in many ways receiving and incorporating feedback is essential for them to excel at their job.
So, rather than surreptitiously editing the blog post to your preferences after your blogger has submitted it, be open with them about their work. Be honest, but also sensitive. Writers have feelings too, you know. Unless you truly are unhappy with their work and feel like you’re going to have to part ways unless they make some pretty big changes (in which case, do try to politely make that clear so your blogger isn’t blindsided when you tell them you no longer require their services), keep things positive. Point out what your blogger is doing right as well as what you’d like them to adjust, so they have a better idea of exactly what you want.
When you give feedback, be specific, but not nitpicky. Zero in on what you want—not just for this particular post, but for your blog posts in general. For example, “This looks great! The only thing I’d like to see for future is using words like photographs and images more than photos and pictures/pics. Just fits better with the upscale vibe I’m trying to convey. Thanks!” This makes it clear that, overall, you’re happy with the work, while still giving helpful information that your blogger will appreciate. Contrast this with something very general that doesn’t clearly convey what you want (e.g. “Can you use more upscale words in the future?”) or hyperspecific (e.g. “Please change the word photos in paragraph 3 to images, and the word pictures in paragraphs 1 and 5 to photographs.” This may be exactly what you want, but it comes across as nitpicky and may not convey to your writer that this is a general rule you want them to follow.)
Pro Tip: Knowing your own brand messaging is key to knowing how you want your blog posts to sound. If you haven’t already, take some time to figure out who your target audience is, whether you want your posts to be personal (written from an I/me/my perspective) or more centered on your team/company (written from a we/us/our perspective), what your stylistic preferences are, what you want your clients to take away from most blog posts (feel-good vibes from your inspirational client stories, the idea that you really get it with your spot-on parenting tips, etc.), and if there are any phrases or sign-offs you use. Then—you got it—pass those details along to your blogger so they can more easily slip into your persona when they write.
Bonus Tip: Oh, and Pay Your Blogger On Time (Please)
Honestly, nuff said. I’m not going to harp on this, beyond saying that bloggers are nice people. We don’t like slamming our clients with late fees. But we also have bills to pay. Some bloggers require payment in advance to avoid having to hound their clients, but if your blogger doesn’t, be considerate and pay them for their services as soon as possible. It’s the right thing to do.
And there you have it! Follow these 5 tips to get the most out of your photography blog…and bring joy to your blogger’s soul. Who says good business and charity can’t go hand in hand?
