Marketing on the Internet

My dad sent this to me today, and I thought it was pretty relavant to this class:

A USA Today article:

He jotted down some ideas and posted a blog —Strobist— to show how any beginning photographer could get beyond ordinary shots by using inexpensive, $300 flashes, just like pros.

Then the world found out about him.

Hobby now has 200,000 mostly amateur photographers as devoted readers. His site attracts 1.6 million page views a month.

“This little blog has become as big, if not bigger, than many popular photo magazines,” says Hobby, 43. “The only difference is, it’s all run by a one-person staff.”

Hobby’s experience shows how folks with a passion can find a new means of employment on the Internet. The good news: Work from home or wherever and make your own hours. The bad news: The monster always has to be fed. And there is no guarantee of success.

Hobby is eight months into his experiment to see if he can balance life and work as a blogger. He’s taking a one-year leave of absence from his job as a staff photographer at The Sun in Baltimore.

So far, he’s making more money than at The Sun. He won’t say how much, only that revenue is more than six figures, all from photographic-supply advertisers. His overhead is zero.

Strobist is hosted for free by Google, which provides blogging software. Readers post their pictures and hold discussions on a Strobist area of Yahoo’s Flickr photo website. While Hobby works at home most evenings, his days are spent at a local library. Hobby uses the library’s free Wi-Fi to cruise photo sites and keep up with the constant comments from readers.

“David has demystified flash photography,” says noted photographer Joe McNally, who has shot for National Geographic and Sports Illustrated. “Strobes are integral to photography, but there’s a great deal of mystery and fear among amateur photographers. David’s made it accessible and given solutions to people that aren’t beyond the reach of your average Joe.”

Readers range from a Utah woman looking to improve her family pictures to geeky Google engineers who became such major Strobists they flew Hobby to Google headquarters to teach lighting tips in person.

His tips are based on using light just as great artists and photographers do, to show shape and dimension. His advice is geared toward the digital photographer who advances to more expensive and versatile single-lens-reflex cameras, such as Canon’s EOS Rebel and Nikon’s D60.

Hobby recommends buying at least one accessory flash and using it off the camera — on a light stand, for instance — for better results. He shows on the site how this can be done.

The main point of Strobist is that shutterbugs don’t need to lug heavy equipment to get magazine-quality images. Small flashes, when multiplied, can produce stellar results. The beauty of the digital age is that you see results instantly and can experiment until you get it right.

Playing with light

After her husband bought her a digital SLR as a gift, Danette Holley, 44, of Sandy, Utah, sought ways to improve her photography. She stumbled onto Strobist, “And what a difference it made,” she says.

Holley now uses four Nikon flash units with her Nikon D70. Like many Strobist readers, she has a photo showcase on Flickr, where her three kids mug for the camera in various lighting situations. Her teenage son dresses up Humphrey Bogart-style, with trench coat and fedora, looking moody with rays of light across his chest. Friends’ babies are photographed with really soft light — a classic Strobist technique — as opposed to the harsh, shadowy light generally produced by SLRs’ pop-up flash.

Ken Brown, 23, of Danville, Calif., uses Flickr to showcase his pictures of classic cars, taken with just one flash and a digital SLR. The twist: He adapted one of Hobby’s tips on shooting reflective objects, such as eyeglasses. He makes a “time” exposure — the camera shutter is basically left open for about a minute — on his Canon 40D and pops the flash 10 times at different parts of the car.

“David is a great writer and really easy to read,” says Brown. “The stuff he teaches you is very simple. What he talks about can be applied to any kind of photography.”

When he began photographing cars, Brown was a security guard at Danville’s Blackhawk Museum. The museum president saw his photos and promoted him to in-house photographer. One shot, of a Mercedes, won Hobby’s year-end award for best shot of the year.

The next chapter

Hobby grew up in Florida and moved to Maryland to work for a chain of weekly newspapers as a staff photographer. He started work at The Sun in 1999. He has until August to decide whether to return. “I miss being a news photographer,” he says. “If I do go back, I would have to reprioritize the blog and post less frequently.”

He says he still hasn’t made a decision. He augments his income with teaching — he leaves Thursday for a lighting seminar in Dubai; last week, he was at a Kentucky university — and says he loves the new experiences that Strobist has afforded him.

“I have friends from all over the world now,” he says. “My readership is larger than many cities. That’s pretty heady stuff.”

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I thought this was really cool, because some average Joe just started a free blog through Google, and became a sensation in the photo world–not to mention, he is making bank off of advertisements.  It just goes to show that web 2.0 is like the lottery, you have to go into it not expecting anything, and see what happens. This dude totally won the lottery and didn’t even see it coming.

This digital age has changed many things for many industries, but I would say a lot especially for the photography industry.  Photography used to be an elitist hobby or art from its birth in the middle of the 19th century even until the more consumer friendly Kodak brownies were invented at the turn of the century….only the more wealthy people could afford a camera and its corresponding film.  The advances in technology today allows anyone and everyone to afford a camera.  In my Cultural Anthropology class we have been discussing the notions of development and third world countries–did you know that of the millions of people in India who are living poor and in huts on the side of the road that they would rather buy a cell phone than food?  That is just amazing to me…and think about how many of those cell phones have camera capabilities.  ANYONE can be a photographer.  ANYONE can afford a digital SLR…and now ANYONE can learn the techniques behind using the equipment, using flash…etc.  It is all at their fingertips–it is free to anyone who wants to learn about it.  The internet provides the outlet for the communication to occur.

So my question is–what makes me different from the average Joe out there with the same equipment I have?  I don’t know–is it the 40-some thousand dollars a year I spent learning about the history and theoretical mumbo-jumbo concerning photography and its uses in society…does that give me the heads up?  Is it the fact that I know I have a skill, and have learned how to market it, that makes me a “professional photographer?”  Is it a silly thing to try to pursue?  All parents say, “you don’t want to be an artist, they don’t make any money.”  Maybe not off the bat–sure, I wont have a salary, or a 401K, health insurance and benefits given to me..I will have to work hard for those bc I will not be associated with one corporation, one place of business..someone’s hired monkey. I guess I might struggle, but I think that is the point in life–I enjoy it, I will pursue it…and when I don’t enjoy it any longer, I suppose I will find that secure job. (I kind of went off on a rant..but this is a blog, and I think I am allowed to do that).

Back to the internet and technological advances.  Everyone now days needs images, needs art, needs graphical and computer design. People respond to these things, and people need those ‘creative’ people to make what they need to gain a clientel.  You see something cool on the internet-some ‘creative’ made it and was paid to do it.  All I have to say is-wish me luck in the future!