Enhance your online presence in a course geared toward pro-news photographers sponsored by National Press Photographers Association (NPPA). If the hotshoe fits, this professional organization may offer the help you seek in developing your photojournalism career. You’ll have to join the organization first to enjoy this benefit, however. Having been a member of NPPA since I began my photojournalism career back at Kansas University’s School of Journalism the organization has provided leads for photo assignments, and offered many valuable networking opportunities to help keep me in the loop as to what’s happening in the profession. Here is my member page. If you would like to join and benefit from courses below, see nppa.org
NPPA & PhotoShelter Launch Free Virtual Short Course
The National Press Photographers Association has partnered with PhotoShelter to bring NPPA members an exclusive series of five free Webinars that focus on bringing visual journalists the knowledge and tools needed to succeed in the online photography business.
NPPA executive director Jim Straight said today that the Webinars will be in the “lecture” format and will last for about an hour, and each session will include Q&A time for participants.
The sessions will also be archived online, Straight said, for NPPA members to access at any time after the live event. NPPA members will use their membership identification number and name to register for the live events and to access the archived sessions.
“We have been looking for the next installment of the NPPA’s Flying Short Course which, in this economy, has become increasingly difficult and expensive for members to attend,” Straight said today. “NPPA is going to start providing members with affordable online educational opportunities beginning with this partnership with PhotoShelter. I’m very excited to be working with them; without them we would not be able to provide this for free to our members. PhotoShelter brings a very specific and needed knowledge set to this offering that we think is the most important information to start out with, and that’s teaching our members how to be better online businessmen and women.”
The Webinars, called the NPPA/PhotoShelter Virtual Short Course Series, will run as follows:
October 28, 2009: Photography Web Sites of the Future: The Future is Now. PhotoShelter founder Grover Sanschagrin demonstrates how Web sites must evolve to support photographers’ online business goals. Grover reviews the key results from PhotoShelter’s 2009 “What Buyers Want” survey of 550+ global image buyers and photo editors at newspapers, magazines, book publishers and ad agencies – and offers some shocking guidance for designing photography Web sites to suit the needs of this specific audience. In addition, he looks at the essential tools, features and designs that photographers must consider as they update their own Web sites. This presentation includes innovative suggestions to help photographers drive more traffic to their Web sites and generate more image sales and assignment work online.
November 18, 2009: Get Found: Search Engine Optimization for Photography Web Sites. Photographers hoping to get more business online must learn to harness Google search, the world’s most powerful marketing tool, to drive fresh new traffic to their Web sites . PhotoShelter founder Allen Murabayashi demonstrates why SEO is so important to photographers – and walks through the basic principles that photographers must know if they care about getting found by Google. Packaged so even the least tech savvy can follow along, this session unlocks many of the mysteries about how Google search works and how using it properly can improve a photo business.
December 9, 2009: Analyze This! Analytics for Photography Web Sites. If we can’t measure it, we simply can’t progress. Photographers must heed these words and learn how to use Google’s free analytics toolkit to make smart Web site decisions. In this session, PhotoShelter founder Allen Murabayashi covers the basics – exactly what photographers need to implement and make sense of Google Analytics. He’ll show attendees how to analyze visitor traffic patterns, track on-site behavior, monitor keywords driving search traffic, establish action goals and measure conversion rate, and set benchmarking to monitor growth. Measuring the data and knowing what to do with it can give a photographer a true competitive advantage – this session is a must for photographers who know their websites are business tools – not simply brochures for displaying pretty pictures.
January 20, 2010: Click, Tweet, Repeat: Tapping the Power of Social Networks & Blogs. Social networks like Twitter and Facebook are all the rage – yet can they help grow your business? How about blogging? Is your time better spent cranking out blogposts and tweets, or shooting fresh images? We’ll look at why taking good pictures simply isn’t enough in the 21st Century, and explore the photographer’s options for creating a social media strategy that works. We’ll use case studies to review individual social media successes and discuss how you can emulate these strategies. We’ll also discuss smart tactics for making the most from social media. Join PhotoShelter cofounder Grover Sanschagrin for this engaging discussion.
February 16, 2010: Cracking the Photo Editor’s Inbox: Email Marketing Strategies. Your clients and prospects receive hundreds of eMails every day. How do you stand out? The first step is to be mindful of basic eMail marketing principles. Email marketing is not for everyone – but for some who target their efforts and execute properly, it can be immensely productive for getting new work. In this session, we’ll discuss how to develop an eMail marketing strategy, determine a target audience, creative concerns, and delivery. Following this Webinar, you’ll have the knowledge you need to decide if formal email campaigns should have a place in your marketing toolkit. Join PhotoShelter’s marketing vice president, Andrew Fingerman, for this discussion and live Q&A.
