Writing a good ad is hard. With a handful of words, you have to figure out how to motivate someone to pick up the phone or write a check. Yet writing effective ads is one of the most important skills you can have when it comes to marketing your studio.

If you want to be better at writing ads, it helps to learn from well written ads. And some of the most effective ads have these things in common:

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A recent ROES lab software update changed the way ROES uploads orders over the Internet.  After a few “tweaks” to the system, ROES orders are now able to upload to the lab even faster than before.

However, these changes caused upload problems for photographers who use Avast Free Antivirus and Avast Internet Security. If you use either of these programs, please follow the instructions below to fix the conflict between the Avast products and ROES.

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In 2014, the Affordable Health Care Act will take full force. As both a health care consumer and employer, you should know what changes will take place as a result of this new law.

Some of the changes brought on by the Health Care Reform Act are already in place. For example, as of 2011, students up to the age of 26 can continue on their parents medical plan.

The goal of this article isn’t to debate the merits (or the politics) of the plan – just how it will impact you as a small business owner.

Here are 6 of the major changes in 2014:

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44% of cell phone users in the US have a smart phone, and for many of them, it is the only computer they use every day. That’s why it is important for your website to be able to display your images and services in a professional way on a 2×3″ screen.

If making your website “mobile friendly” sounds complicated, it doesn’t have to be. For example, you could try Dudamobile.com.

DudaMobile makes websites mobile. It converts your old website into a mobile friendly site with just a few clicks. DudaMobile hosts over 1.4 million mobile websites, and users are creating over 100,00 new mobile sites per month.

Dudamobile offers mobile features geared toward small businesses including one-click site conversion, auto sync between the regular site and mobile site, click-to-call widget, mobile maps and links to Google Analytics.

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Have you ever taken a great photograph, only to realize that the sky was so blown out it was virtually unusable?

Here’s a trick I learned in PhotoShop to replace a blown-out sky. It uses a feature in the blending options palette I’d never even noticed before.

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I listened to a social media marketing specialist recently who announced to a group of photographers that “Facebook is over. Kids don’t think it’s cool anymore.”

With all due respect, the truth isn’t that simple. Yes, Facebook is a mature product. It has probably peaked in popularity, and may even be starting to decline.

But no, it is not done yet. In fact, it makes sense to continue or even strengthen your Facebook presence over the next year.

Here’s why:

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Kirk Russell’s online workshop “At First Sight” taught several dozen committed professional photographers how to get the most sought-after clients to find you more appealing, and to choose you over the competition.

Kirk began the workshop by explaining the premise for the series of all 4 classes: that marketing – not photographic skills – is the key to financial success.

He then went on to explain the importance of starting with focused headlines in ads and on your website that result in increased reader interest. He showed how the typical photographer’s website focused on images – without headlines – resulted in photographers not differentiating themselves from their competition.

“People don’t see half of what photographers see in a great image,” he explained. “Your work cannot sell itself. You have to have headlines and copy. You have to get people engaged with you.”

The series continues June 27th with a “Picture Perfect Promotions” workshop.

Having both a personal and a business profile on LinkedIn is an important part of any photographer’s social media marketing strategy. LinkedIn is like Facebook for business owners and professionals.

However, one of the additional benefits LinkedIn offers is the ability to join discussion groups of industry professionals. I’ve been following and rejecting photography discussion groups on LinkedIn for several months, and found them to be both useful and a waste of time.

After searching through over 800 different photo groups, The ones I continue to follow are:

• Photo Marketing Association (PMA) Forum
• Professional Photographers of America (PPA)

These groups are essentially the same. Each is a combination of 1.) expert articles and 2.) questions posted by members asking for opinions from other group members.

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Several weeks ago you may have read an article here titled, “What I’ve Learned from My Website That You Can’t See on Yours“. If that wasn’t enough to get you started with Google Analytics, I’ve got another surprise: I can secretly watch people visiting my web site.

The feature is called Real-Time, and it is included free with Google Analytics. See an example for JD by clicking the image on the right.

Real-Time lets you watch all your visitors as they view your web site. You can see:

• How they found you (Google, Bing, Yahoo, direct, etc.)
• Keywords they typed to find you
• Where they came from (on a map)
• What page they landed on
• How long they read that page
• What other pages they viewed

The only thing you CANNOT see in Real-Time is the identity of the viewer. But that’s okay, because the above information is all you need to help you discover the strengths and weaknesses of your web site.

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Most of us write in a single style (English teachers call it “tone”) we have developed over many years. We write emails, newsletters, Facebook posts, flyers, and (if you’re good at marketing) blog posts and web site pages too.

But when we’re in a hurry, we don’t always think about what our writing style says about our business. We focus on writing to give information or to persuade, and we assume our writing style will just take care of itself.

However, to turbocharge your studio’s marketing, it is important that your writing style enforces and reflects your brand.

So what do I mean by “writing style?”

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