"You're closer to results than you think, so cut one task that stalls you and do the one that moves you." The Extra Shot Hey Reader Have you ever had the 'why didn't I try this sooner moment?' My husband has always been an avid monopod user; personally, unless I was shooting video, I never used one. I was in a discussion thread on Facebook several weeks ago where the topic was monopods vs tripods. Someone shared a monopod that has 3 fold-out feet to convert to a tripod. I was intrigued, so I...
7 days agoย โขย 1 min read
"Small, consistent steps create lasting freedom in your photography business." Hey Reader From My Desk I check what's trending across the stock libraries every few weeks. Partly for 'The Extra Shot', partly because it keeps me honest about what I'm actually shooting versus what's selling. This week, one search term stopped me. "Moonlit night" is up 163% on Shutterstock. My first thought was that it was a random spike, the kind of thing that jumps for a week and disappears. Then I did the...
10 days agoย โขย 1 min read
"You don't need new gear to progress; you need consistent output and focused effort that compounds over time." Same shoot, double the income Hey Reader From My Desk I used to treat every shoot like it only had one job. Etsy day. Stock day. Content day. Three separate plans for the same camera, three separate trips out, three separate mental lists, and somehow I never had enough time to do any of them properly. I kept trying to squeeze in more shoot days to keep up, but all that got me was...
17 days agoย โขย 2 min read
"Small, consistent steps create lasting freedom in your photography business." Imagine this .... Hey Reader From My Desk Imagine waking up in November to a string of order notifications. Prints. Canvases. Digital downloads. One after another. Your Etsy shop - the one you built around your photography - having its busiest week ever. Buyers who found you through search, who loved what they saw, who didn't hesitate because your shop looked professional, your listings made sense, and your photos...
about 1 month agoย โขย 2 min read
"You don't need to chase trends; you need consistent quality that matches what buyers are searching for right now." Etsy & Stock together Hey Reader From My Desk For a long time I thought of Etsy and stock photography as two separate things. Two separate strategies, two separate efforts, two separate income streams that happened to involve the same camera. But the more I've worked on both, the more I've realised they aren't competing - they're complementary. And when you treat them that way,...
about 1 month agoย โขย 2 min read
"Passive income gives you choices you didn't have before." What are your stats trying to tell you? Hey Reader From My Desk Something a little different from me this week, not my usual Etsy or stock content, but stick with me because I think you'll find this useful. A couple of weeks ago, I got an email from Google Search Console telling me I'd had a spike in views on my website. I'd been putting a lot of work into it recently, so I was curious, but I'm not someone who finds analytics...
3 months agoย โขย 2 min read
"You're not just taking photos, you're building assets." Is your Etsy shop collecting dust? Hey Reader The Real Life Bit Last week, I worked on a blog I've been meaning to write for a while: a proper guide to maintaining your Etsy shop once the initial setup excitement wears off. I took a look at one of my older listings that needed a bit of a refresh. I went straight to eRank and checked out the keywords that I wrote with the listing when I first published it. It never ceases to amaze me how...
5 months agoย โขย 1 min read
"Small, consistent steps create lasting freedom in your photography business." Why keywording is half the battle Hey Reader Have you ever uploaded a batch of images, crossed your fingers, and hoped for sales? I've done it too. But here's the truth: Stock photos don't sell because they're online - they sell because they're findable. That means your keywords, titles, and descriptions matter as much as the image itself. Buyers aren't searching for vague or poorly written descriptions like:...
8 months agoย โขย 1 min read
"Your everyday images have more value than you think." One theme stood out immediately Hey Reader Last week I posted a simple question on Facebook. "If you could give your younger photographer self one piece of advice, what would it be?" I didn't expect the response it got. Over 250+ photographers replied. What surprised me most wasn't the variety. It was how similar the answers were. Very few people mentioned gear. Almost no one mentioned social media. Most said things like: Just shoot more...
8 months agoย โขย 1 min read