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Successful Blogging Practices Part 2

So speaking about the about paige make sure that it is very attractive everything about there is really good when I say it's really attractive you have to include transparency you have to talk about yourself whether your interests and I know it sounds a little bit silly to talk about your love for chocolate but the thing is if if someone else has a passionate love for chocolate too that's one way to connect so allow yourself to put yourself out there in ways that you think other people can connect and again don't fake it be be who you are and in fact embrace it and celebrate it and that's how people are going to connect it to you the other thing is you want to avoid or I mean instead of promoting you want to avoid item ization as every mentioned yesterday not only do you not want itemizing pricing because we always look a generic versus name brands and we compare the two and justice how you not the economists um pricing choices we compare that's how we choose so ways to compare is how ...

old you are um how many years have been shooting all of your prices just let them like you for you not about these little traits where they can compare you to someone else where you can't really compare one person's love for chocolate versus someone else's more love for chocolate it's a little bit gets into great orator next thing you want to include is your usp or unique selling proposition? What is it that you can deliver your competitive advantage that no one else can and one thing that always see photographers forgetting to include because they consider themselves international wafer topper is willing to travel you know, stuff like that but who really isn't willing to travel but do remember to put down your local information that sometimes I don't know whether they're from miami or new york or you know chicago put it down just somewhere briefly so then people know as you mentioned earlier for calls to action what calls you action can you put here? What would you put so after reading about paige? What call to action would you put it can be simple and there's really no wrong answer just like a link to the contact page exactly linked to a contact paige if you're interested, contact me here or if you're interested seymour my portfolio work here because sometimes they may go there first before moving on. So again, you want to make sure that your three dimensional everything about the entire process that you are a phenomenal person by yourself but you just so happened to be a photographer doing this type of craft let that in a way be your second selling point but just as important so don't forget it but the next thing about about paige people like to look at would be your clear investment paige this is the same thing you want to avoid a musician you don't want to put all of your prices out there all of you don't you want to put all of your packages out there or items that you offer? You don't want that say albums you say I offer all this this and this and this but don't be so vague because I get really annoyed that people would do this that they don't like oh just contact me now and I'll craft something custom for you it gives me no filter as to what that means no gauging point but if you say if you mentioned somewhere along the lines of my packages start at four thousand eight hundred whatever the case danzig oh should I continue are shit and not allows me to at least gauge you for a little bit otherwise it's gonna be a big waste of time and one thing people don't like to dio is waste of time lawrence yes alright we're trying to get a lot of questions do you do you want to take a couple questions or you want to keep going? No questions agree because they are piling in one of the things I was wondering is there such great tips so many things that can just help you can use all of these kind of tips at the same time? Yes definitely. And you recommend using as many as you can for each thing that you do when neither applicability went yes. Okay, cool that's good that's a good tip. Alright, so many questions about everything that we've been talking about. A couple of people have asked as far as just doing everything visual. So basically chris w says I became a photographer because I really, really and about it writing so I've been using what's so funny it's chicken applies to all of us. Ok, I was like, did I miss something? Did I say something? Okay? And, uh basically been using hosted jose villas example of mainly pictures on lee and well, this still work show me also says can can you have a post of onley visuals? What do you think about infographics? Infographics has text infographic is really allowing converting complex information into digestible visuals that's the whole point of it but there's you still any reference points, texts and so forth now jose via is a very peculiar situation because he is in a very niche market for only people really appreciate the old craft of film works, and while that industry is getting more and more narrow, he is getting more and more market share because more more people are leaving it so his demand is still gonna be consistent, but as all product lifecycle goes there is eventually going to be declined, and it might not even be in this lifetime. So that's great! So he's going to be great, and I'm not saying that I know jose views business small or anything like that, so I'm only assuming from what I see outside and for those who don't know jose via is a phenomenal photographer who strictly shoots. Why, thank you, should we? I don't know he uses, he fuses film a lot and he has his very nice greenish tint of pastel colors and wow, that may be a very nice way to avoid writing. As I mentioned earlier, when I used the visual of my one photo and I asked everybody to define that style, everybody had a different word if no one had the same lord, if my work couldn't speak for itself, how do you think my clients would be able to? And I'm going back to yesterday's example and I hate to be you know I don't want to repeat for you guys, but if we're all married and say soon you were in a prospect of finding a photographer and then I worked today my photographer is the best and that's it she she's amazing and then they all say, my photographers are my photographer is the best there is really no differentiation but you can always say my photographer is the best because she's really edgy if you're looking for eddie photos she's the one if you're looking for prom poses remember we talked about demonization then you could look for marie putting the words into her mind like, you know, inception movie then you can look for the thousand photographers in orange county that's how you almost give them remember if you stand for something, you also stand against everything else so you have to be able to have a very clear, concise message unifying unified message great that brings me to my next question and I haven't had a job where I know a lot of wedding photographers, so I don't really I don't really have that problem inside joke okay from so people are asking about how when you're putting your opinions and yourself out there you know if that's the right thing to do so weddings my faith said personal things I'm most active in politics and christianity so your opinion on making political or religious comments in your post and then new say blah valadez says, does all kind of have to be related to your target market. How do you how do we incorporate our likes and our life and our passions into it to personalize it? And and they say for example, I market to business owners but I'm into natural parenting and holistic health so kind of a question is, how do you incorporate all of your personal life into this and make it work when it has has nothing to do necessarily with the business that you're selling? You know, I was the first question the first part of the question was from weddings, my faith who said I'm most active in politics and christianity. So what is your opinion on making those kinds of comments? Okay, um, when I said to be, you know, ruffle feather, you do so at your own discretion if you feel it's that you feel passionate about it and you want to do so, you will find people just like you remember, evangelists are very people seek out like minded people, we just gravitate towards each other. So if you want teo, you may, but there are enough to keep in mind there are repercussions for that as well. People who are against certain politics by the same time. This is where you get valuable discussion going on, but the same time. Maybe you can also hate you and the harder you because they have different views. But those who are truly on your side would probably more be willing to hire you, but you have to remember that by doing so, you're narrowing your market share. Or your market percentage, therefore, you have to price your packages accordingly because the less marketshare you'd have to have a higher price points. But if the higher price point is beyond the willingness pay, then you're not going to have enough business to sustain their livelihood now it gets into a lot of accounting and balancing, so decide how you want to go. There really isn't right a wrong answer it's a business decision correct, you have to just see how it pans out because if you think about chick fil a, chick fil a is very is a proponent of I don't even I don't wantto say this incorrectly because I don't remember the details, but the ceo of chick fil a or the founder forgot who it was pushed his or her religious views upon the company and made it mixed business versus personnel versus the same thing as social versus market norm. You're mixing the two and there's always going to be some some collision along the way, and I remember when this person announced this decision I had a chick fil a next to my eye where I live in california and I drove there and there are lots of people were protesting saying, don't eat chick fillet, you know they don't like, you know, excellency, but the same time those who were for it specifically went there to eat extra so there's a whole long line of cars and they increase you know, in traffic, in my opinion for that segment of time. Now, whether this is a long term and sustainable idea that's a whole different story, you have to decide how you want to play this game the next one chance the next question about integrating personal into business relay posts you can integrate your own personal perspective into everything because even my most recent post about marking warfare with mcdonald's versus taco bell I just simply used the idea of me liking breakfast, and I talked about what types of foods are like for breakfast. If there is my ideal breakfast, this is what I would have, and it so happens to be that these two companies are fighting against her and that's a strictly marking post, yet I made it very personal, so I hope that answers the question you can always inject it everywhere. No problem, so you're clear investing page is the same thing with a funnel effect it's events the step by step sequential order people see your stuff they see you're about paige call to action it's your investment page called to action, to which page one think I guess, the last one you can go teo contact page, okay, I'm sorry, so you ultimately want people that goes your conti wreckage everywhere I mean that's the only way how you can convert them from prospects lookie loos into paying clients already since consultations so make sure you do so so when it comes to promoting your story it can be video or text or even photos but make sure that you understand where this that's different about you it's different for everybody and personally I like video because video has sound to it and sound carries a different emotion to everything and I'm I do have a video later on to promote the boudoir that's a really phenomenal point but that's more of a sales pitch for me I will have to give you another video first actually video myself for myself that's promoting me just about me nothing that I do not about marketing anything just promoting the different sides of me aside from what I do has on a professional basis so what you have to do is make sure to have a brief story how even got into the whole thing it makes the loss since you remember stories tell and it makes allows people to make sense of things you know blake mycoskie for tom's and nike for the coach and the athlete who just wants to make competitive advantage competitively um advantageous shoes you know there's a story behind everything so you want to talk about what inspired you and at same time how are unique conduct based on commonality not based on which can deliver because photography is something very, very obvious that you can deliver I mean that's a given. But what else is there about you that makes allows people to connect it to you. So the next slide is a video that I created for myself. I'm not for myself, but for my audience members, but of myself and it's just talks about me and it sounds very vain, but I promise you, it's not that vain, just so other people can get to know all the different aspects of about me. Things that they may not have known in high school. I had a friend. His name is james. We both had very ambitious goals for life. For fun. We each roller to our future selves predicting where would be in five years and in five years time, we still know that love to each other. Would you believe that? Achieve nothing on that list in the end. That's okay, I did different things and found fulfillment. Unforeseen places. Life is unpredictable and beautiful that way. What do I love? Aside from my fiance, I just wanna make sure that's not your question, then coffee? Definitely coffee and traveling without a doubt, I loved to explore the world, participate in new experiences, make new friends and do daring things have fun? Fun has always been my much even when I open my first two businesses at age eighteen my two gaming cybercafes imagine we can every morning to play games all day long if it's not fun, why do it? But I've been lucky to have my passions and work and life converge for example, I love photography and I love food french fries is part of my most favorite type of food, and yes, I'm one of those times that we spend minutes taking the perfect photo before I eat it's coincidental that my interest boston two new ventures not long ago, I gone to trade, photographing and filming commercials, weddings, new york bridal fashion shows and editorial solutions. In fact, I still do I do what makes me happy. Most recently, candy crush makes me happy when I'm not playing candy crush I'm reading I love books there isn't a time when I'm not reading a new novel I love the fantasy and adventure. If you told me that I would be where I am today, a year ago, two years ago, even five years ago, I probably would not believed you and that's the fun part about life it's filled with unexpected possibilities, I avidly used social media, I am transparent, I share my thoughts, feelings and experiences with the internet I love using technology to build other businesses as a market consultant it totally makes me ecstatic when my clients is passions and economics of the world work hand in hand like many things in life I did not plan this route but I love how life unfolds in motion make of ways sometimes we need to take a leap of faith and trust the wind will carry us to better places I feel like I'm gonna puke now I am an artist, entrepreneur, blogger, author and international speaker ultimately what I do does not define who I am I'm the culmination of past experiences the places I see foods I eats cultures embrace and people I meet my name is lawrence chen I'm a food loving travel fanatic who loves to explore new things it would be my honor to work with you in your future that's it okay, so I I'm going to really dissect it just briefly from the very beginning I rea said I had a great plan for life I mean by certain life point I was going to do x y z but I have nothing on a list and in a way it's allows people to understand that I am human I am vulnerable and I make so many mistakes in life that nothing goes according to plan so it's if anything it's a little bit humbling for my self deprecation and I'm not saying that I achieved great things because I did not, but everything has been just one thing led to another and in fact thought times I having them planned it. But a lot of people's lives the same way, right? I mean, unless you're your lives went just as you planned from the very beginning and probably nobody's lives, you know, our ever like that new things happen, and then life happens and, you know, s h I e happens and then you just make do and you move on. But you you take advantage of whatever happens and you make the best of it, and that was the entire story of my pitch so that people can relate to me on those aspects, aside from french fries and also travel, land, coffee, and and things of that sort. So what I went to show next is a video from ashley heading. She is a wonderful boudoir photographer. She also shoots weddings, but she made a video that is really compelling. I recently saw for the first time in astrophysics. Actually, I got to use your video for create life because it hits the nail on the head in every aspect and if you ever get out, put up the link for a site later, but you should really check out her work not only her work work, but how her websites the sign for to display her work so the very first thing she does is she talks about her usp, her unique selling proposition. How is she different? What's her competitive advantage? We talked about this before, so it's, nothing new. Next thing we and we've also mentioned this before, too, but she pushed this really hard. She really drove it in proactiv quelling remember, people are fearful of doing something of hiring you of committing to something what fears do they have? And for destination weddings? I gave an example yesterday they're fearful that you fly in the night the night before you're not adjusted to time. You don't know how just tio the humidity of tropical islands with there's a hurricane and then your plane is delayed, then you miss the whole wedding, these air fears uh when it comes to babies, you know those flash hurt the baby's eyes, you know, with the dilation, maybe they're not used to it, I don't know that does it? I really don't know and mom's really don't know too, but if you actually proactively quell this fear and by telling them it doesn't, it doesn't, then it makes them feel more rest assured, and I also mentioned about dogs and cats, so dogs and cats are very they're creative they're they're cute and they're in their own ways but you can't talk dog or cat so how do you get them to pose within the time frame too and this is where you die talk about how you bring toys to every scene to work with them so that's proactive calling and I want teo challenge you guys to think about what challenges women face and julian I know you'r e talked about some of the fears you know women have for going in front of a camera you know going down to the bare essentials and getting photographed so when it comes to boudoir which is what she does it's very different and it's one of the most difficult things to have people commit to dio in my opinion so next you want to have is your social proof so make sure to have testimonials someone praising you is better than you doing it yourself that's the bottom line remember rule number one you cannot sell directly to someone else but friends and families can hi endorsements double cans of well five you know things of that sort and ultimately rule six they can sell themselves so let other people praise you you kind of say ha ha ha I'm so good look at me I'm great you know no one's gonna believe you the next thing is you want to have real proof so you khun talk about how our people can talk about how good you are, how amazing you are but ultimately you have to really be able to deliver on how good that quality is. So the real proof and this is where you have stunning examples of your photography and what's really amazing that I never thought of about doing because I've never really wasn't boudoir photography but ashley's site check it out boudoir that ashley taylor photography dot com what she does is integrate before and after photos and she has she has these photos of women without make up heron done and the after photos and they are just night and day I'm not saying that the women were not beautiful to begin with but as she brought out their essence and there are what's the word that you used they bring out there I just kind of like to how do I word that what you said yesterday about weird mission statement about having them celebrate their bodies shamelessly without I mean boudoir is very difficult like he said to get them to commit and the comments that they make about themselves like if you do show in the back of your camera oh my god, my thighs or whatever I've never heard such negative things you know they talk about themselves in a very negative way so it's um it's just getting them to set too to stop worrying about what they look like and to just enjoy themselves and enjoy being a you know and the woman and dust I guess how they were really nice actually I want I'm gonna make sure I want to get your input all of you very shortly but let me just go plow through this really quickly so hold that mike very well know what within reach the next thing you want to make sure issue be humble at the same time itself self deprecation humility very important at the same time you have to have your call to action whatever yourselves pages even after everything you have your you talk about your unique selling proposition how why I'm different how I'm cool things of that sort of what I could deliver to you these air with some people have been saying testimonials this is a real proof of what I can deliver and ultimately at the bottom this is how you can contact me this italian book me you need to have that sita but the same time you have to personalize all of the content I cannot overemphasize this because again for tall a face for television photography you have to make it personalized because ultimate you're selling yourselves now this is the fun part because I get to show her video and I want teo make sure that I am within time right now so um briefly speaking pretend that I have you for ever been photographed. Boudoir sal eyes okay. No, no. Now, not even yourself. Okay, so pick up the mikes and tell me one fear you have for being photograph naked or in luxury. Ah, that I wouldn't know how to be post and I would look awkward. Okay, very good boy. I think it's about feeling comfortable with a stranger, seeing me in my my underpants. Very true. I would be too. I mean, just any photograph, whether I'm wearing lingerie or normal clothes, would stress me out just like being in far off entrusting somebody to take a picture of me would freak me out. Uh, I'm in the same boat. So then were you probably know your target audience best. So give me three really quickly off the top of the mine. Well, I'll be really honest about why I haven't done it because it's actually on my I'm gonna be thirty the siri it's on my to do list to do my own boudoir shoot mine is wait. I've, you know, always struggled with my weight and it, um, my number one fear is that I'm not going to like the photos, okay, now keep all these thoughts in mind as she actually addressed a number of these proactively with element you thinking about it maybe and mohr questions that you may oh I never thought about that and she said oh she took his she's going take care of you the whole process and I want you to watch this video very carefully dissected understand it and go from there julian this is prime most applicable to you get your pen ready or but you can watch it over and over just go to recite it's cool all right it's really watched us I'm actually taylor and I'm a boudoir photographer you do not need to do anything to get ready for a session you are are ready for a session there's really no age limit and there's definitely no body type either I put it all body types and I truly believe that every woman is beautiful and this experience is really to power all women make them feel that they still got it going on before the shoot we have a pre shoot consultation when you arrived to shoot first thing we do is look at your outfits and then we'll get straight into here makeup I will direct you through each post make sure you look fabulous boudoir photography for me is all about an empowering female experience I don't want my clients to do this for their boyfriends, their husband or anyone else I wanted to be about you and I love you just seeing the transformation that happens just in the few hours of the shoot I get so many emails saying like have you even seen the pictures yeah but I already feel so amazing and I just feel so much better when they get the pictures back they has that experience where like wow this is me only got it look so hot and even on the days where you don't get out of my hands are still that hot woman and those pictures will always remind you of that and that's why I love you never ever gonna feel perfectly ready it's just better to rip the band aid off and let's do this and if you want to do is shoot again later we should go what we do out too a boudoir shoot yields a lot of different types of photos I do everything from modest headshots teo beautiful sexy full body shots and the little detail moments like shoes and hider portrait also eliminates little lost friend think the's shoots are safe place where we make you feel as beautiful as any woman in my life I got experience I think we all deserve to be celebrated you need to feel beautiful and special and have a day just to celebrate we are I want about two girls but I was thinking like I want to have her shoot me she made she made me feel so comfortable as a viewer say don't worry, bye thing, x y z, I would take care of everything, celebrate yourself, don't do for others it's for you very empowering the entire process, her giggles you smell very comfortable. You can only do so much with photos and words, but the video with music allows a whole different experience. I mean, did you feel that way, it's? Different, right? So make sure and if it costs money to may have the primal video done, but if you're ready, it's worthwhile because it could deliver a different message. Okay, um, I'm actually gonna make a promo videos I'm spending a little bit of money on that, but I'm wondering if I couldn't kind of accomplish the same thing, which is my the video on my camera and me just talking and posting that on my block or something. Um, behind the scenes are very important to you, and you can do it because if you look at my video, the one that I played earlier, I filmed the entire thing myself every pretty much every aspect of it, most of it's, just me shooting in front of me. But I film myself as if I was talking to in the viewer and asking the questions, but I was just talking to myself. By myself you know I mean I just set up my own lights and put on a tripod and I just went and it's still effective it was probably not as effective as hers but you can still get away with it so the next part is intro to search engine optimization and I know that this is what a lot of people are waiting for but I have to emphasize so much is what is the point of seo if you have no content worth optimizing which is why we spent a whole day yesterday and this morning segment talking about the types of different contents the platforms how we can deliver it how to build a trust how to convert them because you can have people coming to your site and I promise you it won't do you diddly squat if you're not going to convert them into clients? So all of this is a compilation of psychological triggers emotional experiences, building values I call out to your pricing and barriers under the saying the delivery of a promise of your luxury experience all of these things work hand in hand as susan said it's a holistic approach to creating the most powerful campaign ever so that anyone who goes to your site you have a high conversion rate so this is why I've been talking so much about content versus just ceo seo is just a tiny aspect of technical work nohow it's really simpler than it is then it sounds like it's not magic there are some work behind it and I will discuss all of that but the point is is that you need to know everything that I've said beforehand in order to maximize and most effectively apply what you've learned so far. So all of this is really to build inbound traffic for seo you know, while this is good it's not everything you have to have the inbound conversion, which is what we talked about just a moment ago you have to have people click the contact button and become clients and what I want to demonstrate really briefly and you don't really have to watch this I mean with great detail because I'm going to go over it extensively but my story behind this is on the weekend last weekend I went tio tio aruba and I stayed at the ritz carlton and there was a wedding there I didn't shoot the wedding, but I was therefore I saw wedding there and what I'd like to do and I'm wanted to demonstrate how you can do so later on it's hard to optimize for locations you've never been to never shot that and still get increased for there I mean, it sounds a little bit like oh it's a little shady but you can't disclose that you have never shot there, but these are some cool beach for those that look similar to river if you want to but nevertheless the whole point of me showing this is that I wasn't I was there but I didn't really shoot there and what I did was I just got some very generic beach photos be twenty four dollars I put us text put up some photos optimized to correctly and then within sniffing and fast for this so these are all basically a steps I've been going through. The main thing is I went to an incognito window which allows me to see as if it's from a fresh brother no history, no cookies so rich college tonight we'll be away for toffee might be a search term someone with type so rich carlton of course comes up and this is all within eight to nine hours and there I am in about number five or the mystic sword before I forgot and below that their photos they're also mine nine hours, six hours you know, all three of them and then I have a second sight. I just decided to put up for fun too, so I have two positions on google and the point of something else at one point out like I did the whole alexis hotel way photography search terms if you wantto go google it right now, I'm still number one if I'm not mistaken but the thing is is that this is just a demonstration I'm not going to keep it up there I'm going to delete these posts, but the point is that when I got the most ritz carlton I was about number eight or so, but I just threw in an extra sites and boost it higher, so then I made it about fire for five so it takes work is what I'm trying to say and it's not just a loco if I type in these words and put up these photos and crafted this way that's lauren says it's going to come them of what you have is a lot of things involved and that's the whole next two sections, we're going to be talking about that and I'm really excited about nina that section because I am really passionate about cia, okay? I know I'm one minute past the deadline, but questions you're so good I'm so expired about the next two segments tto learn how you did that I mean, I know it's a lot of work, but that's that is what we wanted now, so I'm excited about that. We do have questions do you ladies have any questions? I do have questions from online, so if you have any get those ready sure me would like to know if you try to capture emails as a call to action, how important is the mailing list for for you. Very importance. We actually talked about this yesterday. Mel inglis is the one way to bulletproof all of your efforts. Because social media platform has always changed. But an email. This is something very personal. We don't like spam, so it takes us a lot of energy and trust in order to disclose that. But the question is, once we are having the wrist like people are most interested in discounts, exclusive content, um, short cuts and things of that sort. Um, so you have to give a very convincing argument why someone should disclose their email in order to get something that's worthwhile. So what is it that you're going to give away? And my suggestion was to give away a pdf e book, a compilation of lots of great tips. And you can get for free. But that's only the first step. What do you do to maintain this client? Because, there's a long joke. There's a customer, lifetime brides, for example, once they get married, what do you india is it? Is that it? So you have to be able to continue the conversation in such a way that it's still beneficial for them and that's, where you're gonna have to craft messages. We can talk about these ideas later on, because in section four actually left a lot of time where you can ask a lot of questions. So, in terms of content, what to produce for different audiences, for email lists, we'll chat about that later on. But the main thing is that even if they've done being a bride, you still want that person to be your target audience. Because that person has the capacity to tell his or her friends about your work. And that is referrals. And that is still working time and energy.