The number one thing you can do to grow your credibility with clients is to learn how to make a photography portfolio online. Before people will be willing to pay you, they will need to trust in your ability to perform well for whatever their photographic needs are. Not many people are interested in being early adopters, unless there are real advantages. In photography, discounting your price is about the only advantage you can offer them when you don’t have much of a portfolio to show off. To save you from doing that for very long, let’s look into how to build your online portfolio.
First, you need to have taken some images, and you’ll only want to feature your best (I recommend checking out this article on how to drum up business fast!). You also will need to give consideration to what perception you want to give off regarding what your particular niche is. What I mean by that is, if you are in love with doing headshot photography and you’re hoping to gain more clients in that field, you would be wise not to include the picture of the Venetian gondola you took on summer vacation last year. It may be a hell of a picture, but it definitely sends mixed messages to your potential clients about not only what you are capable of, but what you want your future business to be.
I get that it can be attractive to be the “jack of all trades” in photography. I am guilty of walking this path myself. I have done school portraits, senior portraits, family shoots, weddings, sports photography, landscape, wildlife, and a little astrophotography, each of them for hire. It is good to be knowledgeable and to know how to handle yourself no matter the situation you need to photograph in, but you can bet I don’t put all of those photos on my website, because it’s not the kind of work I want to attract. I want to be clear in what I am planning on deliver, so the expectations of my clients are accurate. Accurate expectations at the outset are ESSENTIAL to having a satisfied client. In the event that you do want to be part of multiple fields, at least make sure your portfolio content is very well organized in a way that is easy for people to choose what part of your diverse portfolio they are interested in scoping out.
So – using your best images is kind of a given, let’s move past that. Everything I just said up there is more “why” than “how-to,” as the title suggested, so I will be true to my own advice and now begin to more directly meet your expectations of what you were going to find in this article.
First, you’re going to need to find somewhere to host your home on the web. You can use social media, like Facebook, to make a page and start sharing images. Social media can be a great tool for inciting the power of word of mouth, but the down side of only having a social media presence like that it is generic, and it is more difficult to stand out, because everyone has the same look to their page. It is convenient and functional, but not really all that customizable or able to convey your personal brand.
Luckily, you don’t have to forego the benefits of social media if you choose not to make that system your primary platform. Having your own simple website is a fantastic way to have your own customizable space, and social media implementation can be simple.
The platform I recommend to individuals who want a lot of creative control is a WordPress set up through BlueHost. Why do I recommend that, do you ask? Well, because I use that myself. I find a respectable theme makes the difference between a simple WordPress experience and and a challenging one. If you know code (I dabble), you can use that, or you can just as easily avoid using any at all. I like the flexibility of knowing I can tweak things if necessary, but having a good theme means you can just use the far easier menus developers create for you inside their theme.
So hook up with BlueHost, use their very simple WordPress setup guide, and you’ll be on your way. Keep in mind when designing your site, U/I U/X is everything – for the non-nerds among us, make sure your user has a good experience navigating your site easily. Your aesthetic whims are secondary to the ease of access by your viewers. When creating content for the masses, always consider the most out-of-touch user that will stumble upon your site – if you build it with them in mind, the average and advanced users will have no trouble finding what they need on your site.
Also, when building your portfolio site, consider that images aren’t the only thing that speaks to your credibility – things like brief affirmations or references from past clients, or listing your credentials (degrees, years of experience, any accomplishments in the field, professional organizations you belong to) can also offer insights to clients on your level of professionalism. One of my favorite features of my main photography site is a Map right in the top menu. I have a very far reaching network, and if you click the link, it drops down a map with pins on it in places I’ve photographed weddings. There are pins in every cardinal direction from NY, to CA, to TX, to WI. When a client looks at that, they think – this guy has worked everywhere, and there must be a good reason for it. Clearly, your images do have to speak for themselves, but don’t overlook these other key areas slip by, because they are very easy to include and they boost the likelihood you will be trusted enough to hire.
Using all of these tips, paired with the advice in the article I linked up near the top, will get you a space of your own on the net for your portfolio and the keys on how to drum up business to keep you shooting and make your portfolio even more impressive for the next user that visits your site.
