Converting Social Media Efforts Into Photo Revenue

As we all start to drown under the demands of social media it is important to consider how we spend our limited time.

Converting Social Media Efforts Into Photo Revenue

Wow, I haven’t written a blog post in over a month! As a matter of fact, I haven’t been on Google + more than two or three times in that period, have barely glanced at Facebook, and have all but abandoned my nightly perusing of Google Analytics. I haven’t looked at Pinterest in over a month, nor have I kept up with Tumbler. A few perfunctory tweets on twitter rounds out my social media activities. Taking note of this, I realized that I have found a way to convert my Social Media efforts into more revenue. I am doing that by spending less time on social media and more time doing what I really love doing, making more images. Between Getty and Blend I have uploaded fifty of my composited concept images and uploaded another 45 “accepted” images shot as part of a joint shoot with a friend of mine. This has been the most productive month I have ever had. So while my headline maybe be a little misleading I think it is important for those who are serious about stock photography to carefully consider how they use their time.

Cutting Down On Wasted Time

For the last several years I have been working at getting more efficient, more disciplined and more productive. That isn’t necessarily the same thing as spending less money on shoots because in what I do time is my biggest constraint, not the cost of the shoot. My emphasis has been on efficient use of my time and I have found a couple ways that are really helping me in that goal.

Next Image Up

My latest technique for increasing my productivity is to have my next image already planned before I finish the current one. I am now spending a little time each day planning out the next image and what individual steps need to be done towards completion of the image whether it is finding a photo from my archives, shooting a prop, or casting models.

First Task The Next Morning

Whether I am about to begin a new image or hopefully complete one in progress, I find it immensely helpful to plan the first task to undertake the next morning. I can’t stress enough how important this seems to be to jump right into a good creative/work flow each morning.  Getting a good productive start in the morning seems to almost always carry right on through for the entire day.  So the last thing I do before I leave the studio is review what I will start on first thing the next the morning.

Committing To Ideas

The other part of my increased productivity is in committing to ideas.  I always have a list of ideas to work on, but now I commit to the next one before I finish the one I am working on. Now it doesn’t always play out that way. I also allow myself to jump into images that present themselves to me during the course of my work. For example, as I peruse through my files looking for parts I need an idea will often spring to mind. If I finish an image and it is fairly early in the day I might then jump on such an idea and try and whip it out before starting on my next “major” idea. But again, the important thing is that I have an image already mapped out and ready to dive into.

Breaks, Exercise and "Off" Time
I do take occasional breaks to exercise and to surf the net. Giving myself permission for brief sorties outside my “production zone” insures that I don’t get burned out…which would really negatively affect my output! I might also add that I often take a day out of my work week to work around the house and I take several trips each year with at least one being a major one usually to some exotic destination. Giving myself plenty of "off" time keeps  me at my best when I am working.

Quality, Quantity And Consistency

A reminder here that the one trait I can see that is shared by all the top earning stock photographers that I know is that they all are prolific photographers. They combine quality, quantity and consistency. That is the overriding goal I find myself working towards these days. If I can achieve that then I believe the money will take care of itself...and so far it seems to be working.