020: How to finally get published, Randy & Ashley
Today Paul and I are chatting with Randy and Ashley Durham of Randy and Ashley Studios and we are spilling ALLLLL the good info on how to get your work published as a photographer!
Randy & Ashley have been published an obscene amount of times (listen to find out how many!) and have some really REALLY awesome tips and strategies so that you can think through a process before you even start shooting that will set you up for success when it comes to getting your work published. This is one you don't want to miss! Links and show notes below!
Show Notes
They average 65-75 publications/year and their goal for this year is 100
They submit every shoot they do, engagements and weddings and they focus on non-exclusive so they might get one shoot published multiple times.
The more publications you get the more organic SEO backlinks you get.
Use hashtag #huffpostido to potentially get published on Huffington Post.
How has getting published affected your business?
Increased the circle of trust
How do you find the right blogs?
Knowing where to submit
Don't change your style to fit a publication
Shoot with the publication in mind
Know who you are and what the blogs want
Two Bright Lights does have other blogs to submit too for families, seniors and housing sites. Only thing they are lacking is boudoir.
Matchology through Aisle Perfect
Green Wedding Shoes, Junebug Weddings, Style me Pretty don't use submission sites
System for getting published:
Pick favorites from weddings- pick 100-150 and put them on TBL
Send out questionnaires to couples during the process and use the info from the questionnaires to create the blog story - FOUR different questionnaires
Copy and paste their own blog story and put it into the Album story in TBL
Tag the submission
TBL will filter to the blogs that are accepting submissions for those tags
Three most important steps for someone looking to get published:
Make sure you have vendor information, vendors appreciate when you go out of your way to include them
Stay consistent
Research where you are going to submit to make sure its a good fit
They do have specific and consistent relationships with certain publications but they are always looking out for additional places that are good fits.
They do also focus on local blogs depending on where they are shooting (shooting outside of their hometown).
How do you deal with rejection when it comes to getting published?
Like water off a duck's back. Just resubmit!!
Rejection usually comes with not doing proper research