Welcome To The First Post!
So, as it says above, this is the first Blog post going on my site!
I thought I would open it up with explaining my whole thought process of how I want to try my hand at turning one my most passion-fuelled hobbies into a business.
So I kinda touched on partly why over in my About page on how I wanted to honor my brother-in-laws memory and follow in his stride. But one of the other reasons as to why I wanted to go down this path is cause I saw other photographers posting on my home towns Facebook Spotted page offering their services, which fair play to them, I respect that. Go get that bread. But my problem that I saw with these posts was their images. They were just…. bad? I have no other words to describe them, and I know I could do a better job. So knowing there are people out there making money from such work and I’m just sat here chilling, kinda lit a fire under me to actually throw my hat in the ring.
Now where my problem lies is experience. Despite me being a photographer for close to 10 years and my work with brands over on Instagram and focusing on product photography I’ve never actually done professional or commissioned work outside of that field. As a hobbyist I mainly focus around landscape & nature photography, both around the UK and when I’m on my holiday, with a bit of street photography and images of my dogs sprinkled on top. So regardless of how confident I am when it comes to having a camera in my hands and the images I can produce with my trustworthy Sony a7ii, I am (and I cannot be more blunt about this) shitting myself when it comes to actually trying to get my first client and adhering to their needs. Like I know how to make myself appear online, with social presence and with this website (after all I work as a Digital Marketer for my 9 to 5), but when it comes to actual person-to-person stuff, my introverted self comes out to play, hesitating on how to properly sell myself and my services. I can come across as cocky when it comes to my work, because I am truly confident in what I produce. I’m always kicking myself to develop further and hone my craft, pretty much 90% of what I do for work and otherwise is self-taught and I’ve managed to make a career out of it (idk how to be honest).
But I know when I do find my backbone, I can be pretty damn good at making this a business. I just need to be properly confident in myself and put myself out there in the correct places. Like having this site all properly SEO-optimised and being active on social media is all well and good, but if I’m not aiming my efforts in the correct channels, I’ll end up just shouting into some irrelevant void. And I’m trying my best to keep my channels on the right tracks, my Threads, Instagram & TikTok accounts are all pushing and focusing on my photography, but unless a brand wishes to work with me, I’m not really banking on them bringing in any client work. I have a Twitter account, but that is purely personal and pretty much all about basketball (specifically, the Orlando Magic) and let’s be honest, that whole platform has gone to shit since a certain someone bought it out. I do have a Facebook Page for Croak Wanders, which I should probably put a lot more effort in to as I feel like out of all the social media channels, that one is the most likely to convert potential clients.
And I can’t really afford to put any money into stuff like GoogleAds until I see that this can have some passive income to cover the costs, im purely banking on my SEO-optimisation of this website to naturally push me up the SERP rankings. Granted, this is a very saturated market and I have a mountain and a half to climb, but I’m going to try my best.
If you’re reading this and think “oh why don’t you try this” or something like that, feel free to leave a comment on this post or hell, shoot me a DM on socials. I might work in marketing, but ’cause of how my brain works, 90% of the time I’m a “do as I say, not as I do” guy, if you know, you know.
I also know my posts throughout these blog posts my just be me word vomiting all over your screens, but this is literally unfiltered me, and how my brain works! And I think if I am to show you guys and potential clients what I am as a person, it’s best to just be my true self on and off screen. So sorry not sorry for the rambling!
Thank you for reading this first blog post, I have no idea how often I plan to post here as I know they don’t have that much effect on the Sites SEO as some agencies/people make it out to be. I’ll aim for atleast once a month but I’m not gunna put anything in stone.
Until the next post, take care! 🧡
