We hope you and your loved ones are celebrating a very happy holiday season!

~ Chris Mackler
chris@macklermedia.com

~ Kristin Eberts
kristin@macklermedia.com

~ Chris Mackler
chris@macklermedia.com

~ Chris Mackler
chris@macklermedia.com

Let’s face it – the whole journalism industry, for better or for worse, is dramatically changing. If you are a journalist who is fortunate enough to be currently employed at a newspaper, it’s just a matter of time before you will be laid off. Reality check – it’s not a matter of IF you will be laid off, but rather, WHEN. Prepare for a future outside of the journalism industry sooner rather than later.

Ok, with all of the gloom and doom aside, the National Press Photographers Association held a leg of the 2011 Business Blitz workshop in St. Louis in conjunction with the Society of News Design’s annual conference a little over a week ago. The workshop was “designed to offer a variety of topics to help freelance photographers enhance their technical skills while building a profitable, sustainable business.” Speakers included industry-leader John Harrington, PhotoShelter’s Chris Owyoung, Fundy Software’s Andrew Funderburg, and St. Louis-based wedding photographer Stephanie Zettl. For $10 a pop, I honestly don’t know why the room was not packed; it was an amazing value. So, in no particular order, here are the top lessons I learned from the workshop:

1. True power comes from the presence of alternatives ~ John Harrington. As a freelance photographer, you have to learn how to say no and refuse low-paying, unfair work. If you can’t say no, then you don’t have any alternatives. Low-paying clients refer low paying clients; better paying clients refer better paying clients. Research a pricing structure that will keep you in business and stick with that pricing structure.
2. Searching for your own Name and Finding your own Website is not SEO; the Goal is Unsolicited Web Traffic. ~ PhotoShelter. Good search engine optimization (SEO) anticipates what your customers are searching for. Currently, 61% of photo editors and image buyers use Google to find photographers independent of major players such as Getty Images. Use that statistic to your advantage. You must build links back to your site. In Google’s eyes, every link back to your site is an endorsement and vote of your content over another’s. Build a blog and join trade and community sites to share your links. You must have solidly-keyworded page titles on your site. Create a keyword hitlist of 20-50 words that you want to target. Compare this list to the Adwords Keyword Tool to refine the list. Run searches against the terms in your list to asses your competition. Run a backlink analysis so that you can understand which terms are attainable. Constantly use tools such as Google Analytics to measure your SEO successes and failures and adjust along the way.
3. The Profit Triangle: Three Ways to Increase Profit ~ Andrew Funderburg. There are only three ways to increase your profits. They are:
   1. More customers. Obtaining new customers.
   2. More revenue per customer. Increase the workflow of each client you already have.
   3. Cut production time & costs. Increase productivity by finding faster ways of completing assignments and streamlining your workflow, as well as finding ways to cut costs of your physical products.
4. It’s no longer about marketing your photography, it’s about marketing your brand & defining your niche. ~ Andrew Funderburg. This day in age where everyone owns a camera, you must focus more and more heavily on marketing your brand than perfecting your photography techniques. A mediocre photographer who has clearly defined their marketing goals will succeed over a great photographer with little or no marketing goals. Look to identify a niche that is not currently being filled in your market and fill it. It is best to be an expert in a niche than to be a jack-of-all-trades.
5. The images that outlive us become our lasting legacy. ~ Stephanie Zettl. Your attitude towards life defines your business. To achieve success, you must gut-check your core behavior, challenge your core beliefs, and stay motivated by constantly learning everything you can.
6. Good companies talk about the how; great companies talk about the why. ~ Andrew Funderburg. Lifted from Simon Sinek’s TED talk (seriously, take the time and watch it!), Apple doesn’t sell computers, they sell a lifestyle.Without a “why,” clients have no reason to visit your website. Your why creates your message, once you have your why, then your marketing takes care of itself.
7. Email Marketing is the Best Dollar for Dollar Marketing Tool Ever. ~ Andrew Funderburg. Website visitors who make a small commitment (for example, entering in their email address) will make a bigger commitment to your brand down the road. Use services such as Mad Mimi to power drip and email marketing campaigns. Emails should be a good mix of general information content. Don’t spam your audience solely with information about your brand; share the content of others and educate your audience too. Email a couple times a month. It takes repetition, about 12-15 “touches” (contact) to ultimately convert.
8. Marketing Drives Sales ~ PhotoShelter. Focus on lead generation. Obtaining an email address is the softest marketing touch you can get. Create a marketing plan. List your marketing activities and approximate cost for each initiative (both financially and time-wise). Then, analyze your ROI (return on investment) the best you can. You must constantly question and analyze where your ROI is coming from. Stop reinventing the wheel – use tried and true marketing methods to obtain business.

~ Chris Mackler
chris@macklermedia.com

Some of the more significant ceremony rituals performed on Saturday:

• Jayamala – The bride and groom exchange their flower garlands by placing them on one another’s necks, which signifies mutual acceptance of both the bride and the groom as the enter their rolls as husband and wife.
• Kanyadaan – A ritual in which the bride’s uncle entrusts the bride to the groom, who is at the time of marriage considered to be a form of Lord Vishu. As a condition for offering his niece to the groom, the uncle asks a promise from the groom for assisting the bride in achieving three important goals of the life – dharma, artha and kama.
• Mangal Fera – The couple hold hands and walk around the fire four times while the maharaj (priest) chants matras. Each round, they offer grains to the fire, representing their sacrifice of material possessions for God’s blessings.
• Satapdi – The most important rite of the Hindu marriage ceremony in which the bride and groom take seven vows of marriage. A sacred fire is created with ghee (clarified butter) and wooden sticks in order to evoke Agni, the fire god, who serves as the witness to the ritual of seven vows. Amidst the blazing fire of the havankund and the chanting of mantras, the bride and groom pledge their commitment to each other for their lifetime.

It was a beautiful three days of ceremonies. I was the best man, and apparently the best man is supposed to protect the groom’s shoes from being stolen. If stolen, the shoes are held for ransom by the bride’s friends and family. Needless to say, the shoes went for $50 a pop. Woops!

May Gopal and Joanna have many happy years together full of adventure traveling down the road that is life!

~ Chris Mackler
chris@macklermedia.com

~ Chris Mackler
chris@macklermedia.com

It’s been a crazy couple of weeks here in Southeast Missouri, but Mississippi River flood waters seem to be receding (at least temporarily) in Cape Girardeau’s Red Star District, as well as Cape Rock Park. According to Red Star District resident Peggy Benaivdz, the Mississippi River floodwaters have receded at least two feet since the Birds Point levee was intentionally breached by the Army Corps of Engineers on Monday, May 2, 2011. Benaivdz’s parents-in-law, Bill and Laura Sandquist, had to evacuate their home by boat on Monday, as floodwaters reached their basement. The family has now returned to pick up and clean the home at 1207 North Main Street as flood waters recede. We can only hope flood conditions will continue to improve.

~ Chris Mackler
chris@macklermedia.com

The second day shooting the powerful flooding in the Southeast Missouri area proved to be eye-opening. Literally just a two-minute drive from my home stands 1207 North Main Street – currently surrounded on all sides by four feet of water and climbing hourly. A mountain of sandbags and barriers are all that protects the four-year home of Bill and Laura Sandquist. Floodwaters have engulfed the Red Star District of Cape Girardeau in which they live, with the majority of the water rising Wednesday afternoon and Thursday morning, according to Bill Sandquist. As for help, the family obtained 15 sandbags per person from the fire department, significantly less than they need. “15 bags? Hey, I need 1500 bags,” said Sandquist. Most of the help has come from Red Star District neighbors, family and church members. “These are the times that really bring the community together,” said Sandquist. Sandquist’s son, John Gamage, who has recently returned from Nebraska, has been helping the family stack sandbags since the weekend. “It came up so slowly, so there was a lot of time to prepare. I know that if I can take a boat down the street, it’s pretty bad,” said Gamage. Despite such a hard reality, the family is in a positive spirit, having fun boating around the neighborhood and fishing from their home. Said Gamage, “You’ve got to see the positive, else everyone’s all stressed and that’s no good.” Sandquist chimes in, “I’m happy – at least I don’t have to mow the lawn.”

~ Chris Mackler
chris@macklermedia.com

Our apartment began flooding on Easter, alerting us to the gravity of the flooding situation in the Cape Girardeau and Southeastern Missouri areas. Due to weeks of stormy weather, the area rivers and other bodies of water have swelled, leaving countless of people struggling to save their homes and loved ones. Yesterday, I covered the flooding from Cape Girardeau, Essex and Poplar Bluff. Here are some photos:

~ Chris Mackler
chris@macklermedia.com

~ Chris Mackler
chris@macklermedia.com