Author Archives: brokawphotoi

Freelancers don’t work for anyone. Freelancers works for anyone.
A gig is a gig.

If you do work to earn money then you do things that people pay you for. If you have a job you are working to earn money for yourself and someone else. It’s a job.

If you are a freelancer you are earning money so you can continue doing what you do.

Working for someone else, having a job, has it’s benefits. Ideally, your company values and supports you and in return you provide value for it and its clients

If you are a freelancer you cut out the middleman. All your energies go into proving value directly to your clients.

If you are the client, which do you prefer?…

 

OK, yeah, so it was 1982 in the photo office of the Fort Pierce News Tribune, in between assignments. I guess I thought I could grow a beard (nice try).

It’s funny what you may come across when digging through archives.  Like most people, I often wonder what will become of all the digital photos I’ve been compiling for the past 15-16 years.…

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If you are like me, cell phone photos just don’t cut it.  Sure, cell phones are handy and fit in your pocket a lot better than a DSLR with a 24-70mm lens and flash unit (unless you have REALLY big pockets), but the versatility just ain’t there.

I rarely posted to my Instagram account because it was kind of a chore to transfer files then do the upload thing.

Then I came across a great article by Sharon Profis (www.cnet.com/how-to/how-to-post-to-instagram-from-a-computer/).  It is a matter of signaling to Instagram you are posting from a mobile device rather than a computer.   Here is the method lifted from Sharon’s post (check out the full article)

“Safari

“On Safari, it’s easy. Go to Safari > Preferences > Advanced. Check the box at the very bottom that says, “Show Develop menu in menu bar.”

“Now open a private browsing window. Head to Develop > User Agent > Safari — iOS 10 — iPhone. Go to Instagram.com, sign in and click the camera button at the bottom of the screen to upload a photo from your desktop.

Screenshots showing Safari preferences and Developer options with User Agent function

 

Chrome

“In Chrome, go to Instagram.com and sign in. Now right-click the page > Inspect > click the Tablet icon (top-left). The page should switch to mobile view, where you’ll find a camera button at the bottom of the screen, which lets you upload a photo from your desktop.”

 

I find Chrome to be finicky and frankly not the best browser.  I tried the Safari method and it works well.  Thanks Sharon for a great post.…

Just by it’s nature, showing up on Google is good advertising. This is especially true when people are specifically looking for you and not just browsing a generic term.

Just search Brokaw Photography and my business appears on the first page with tons of other links to articles, posts and other information about my business and activities. On the right side of the search page is the “Knowledge Panel” with photos, a map, reviews, etc. We have all seen this.

You are able to modify and enhance the information in the Knowledge Panel by logging into Google My Business. The link is: https://www.google.com/business/. This will take you to dashboard and is where you can insert ads by writing posts.

When you write a post is shows up right on the Knowledge Panel for all to see. If you Google “Brokaw Photography” you will see the results of the post I created about business videos.

 

It is up to you what you write in your post.  Ideally your posts are interesting, informative and prompt viewers to take action.  Only the two latest posts show up at a time along with arrows that allows viewers to scroll through your posts.

I find this exciting and useful. There are no silver bullets for promoting your business and every little thing we do helps. It is especially helpful when it is free.…

There are all kinds of capital; financial capital, political capital, social capital, state capitals, capital letter, etc.

Cal Newport, author of Deep Work,  frequently uses the term “attention capital,” which is easy to grasp.  You own your attention and spend it as you see fit.  People sometimes forcefully demand that we pay attention!  That’s fine as long as I am gaining value some kind of value for what I am buying with my attention.

Often we are simply conned out out our attention by clever advertisers, device makers or people who know how to manipulate our emotions.

When it’s money, it is easy to quantify the loss.

“Crap!  I just blew $50 bucks on something stupid.”

However, loss of attention is much more insidious and we may not even realize it.…

Being found on-line by potential clients and customers is the ultimate goal of digital marketing. People who look for and find you are the people who want what you offer.  Once you are found, it is your content that will prompt and action.

 

Looking for clients and customers is the opposite of being found.  Advertising and chasing leads means you are one trying to find them.  That’s a lot harder and less effective.…