I don't like long posts, and I'm always at Ian and Nigel to keep 'em brief so I apologize. This recent post prompted Ken to comment and me to respond with this, my longest ever... Ken asked whether our industry's main challenge wasn't "crap photography" but competitors with stupid pricing, for example, "2 photographers, hi-res images and Queensberry with 60 images for £1500." Ken suggested that people like that shouldn't last in business but they keep coming back... So I presume that if in fact they're surviving, they're probably a high volume, low margin outfit - possibly with healthy post-event To View More >>

Follow the links for "the story so far" in our series on the recession... Yes, times will be tough for a while but you shouldn't assume the sky is falling. It makes no sense to sacrifice your business and market reputation to survive the short term challenge. Instead you may need to pull your horns in and find ways to prosper while others decline. A good place to start is by analysing your budget and business model, and we have a spreadsheet to help with that. Most people react to the threat of declining sales by saying, "I've gotta cut my costs". Everyone needs to work out their own figures, To View More >>

Have you ever asked yourself questions like these: I know how much I want to earn, but how much do I need to charge my clients to make it? How much is enough? What happens if my bookings go down, or I move to cheaper albums... or shoot-and-burn? Then check this out... We've just uploaded a recording of our latest album-based marketing webinar in which Ian uses his Minimum Average Sale Calculator to help you answer those questions - and more important, show the impact on your income if you change what you're doing - or your bookings go up or down. Click here to view the full post and video on Queensberry To View More >>

A discussion about album upload times (specifically the length of them) last week reminded me of a good post Danny wrote on the Junction a while back, about internet connection speeds, pricing and plans. While we do everything we can at our end to optimise the FTP process, ultimately (album) upload speed is determined by your internet provider, so it pays to understand exactly what you're getting for your money. Here's Danny's post – Nigel Warning: contains math and abbreviations From time to time I'm asked for advice about internet connection speeds and pricing plans, so here goes... Most To View More >>

We don't know many people who know their way around Photojunction better than Chip Gillespie. Especially when it comes to shortcuts. We call him a Power User. (He's also the founder of Blogstomp, which is well worth checking out.) 1) You're a PJ power user – how long have you been using Photojunction and what attracted you to it in the first place? I have been using PhotoJunction for a little over a year. To be truthful, I was skeptical at first as I had what I believed to be a near-perfect album design process using Photoshop. On the recommendation of a friend and fellow photographer/designer, To View More >>