So, you have your website up and you have some idea of how much you should charge as 2 2
a photographer, now it's time to actually go out and find that work. 3 3
So, in this video I'm going to give you my top tips for where and how to find jobs. 4 4
So, the first place is online website hunting. 5 5
So, there are lots of jobs you can find on indeed.com, craigslist.com or even other sort 6 6
of freelance places like elance.com, freelancephotojobs.com or ifreelance.com. 7 7
And it's basically the same for all of those websites, you have to create a profile or 8 8
you find jobs that are posted and you just respond to them. 9 9
And the main thing is to be up-to-date, keep checking on a daily basis. 10 10
I would set a time in the morning to, you know, just put in your five minutes of checking 11 11
online for jobs because these jobs get filled up fast. 12 12
I work at a university that sometimes hires out for photographers and other creative positions 13 13
and they put out the call and within the first few hours they have hundreds of responses 14 14
and so I don't want you to go crazy, being online all the time but I think that you should 15 15
have a ritual about checking online and send them your information. 16 16
You don't have to send a huge detailed email to everyone but send them to your website 17 17
that has all the information they need. 18 18
The next thing is to use social media. 19 19
One way to do this is to add freelance or a freelance photographer or both as one of 20 20
your interests or have it on your about page because sometimes people are out looking for 21 21
these things and they just search for freelance photographer on LinkedIn in or Facebook and 22 22
maybe you'll pop up. 23 23
Another thing is to follow different companies online and sometimes, especially on Twitter 24 24
or Facebook, companies will actually put out a call for positions. 25 25
And so, you can either follow companies are you can search hashtags or just search on 26 26
Twitter, things like freelance photographer or photographer or freelance wanted, freelance 27 27
needed, all these things to see if there are companies out on social media looking for 28 28
photographers. 29 29
The next idea to get freelance work is to work on crowd source projects. 30 30
99designs is the website I mentioned that you can use to create a design for you but 31 31
there's also different types of work like photography. 32 32
And there's other ones like DesignCrowd or crowdSPRING and basically you see the project 33 33
profile, you submit a sample or the real deal and if they choose your photo then you win 34 34
that deal and you make money from it. 35 35
Another way is to get listed in directories or resource pages. 36 36
This is important if you're an event photographer and you've worked at a specific space before 37 37
or during weddings, you can ask the locations if they have a website such as the hotel or 38 38
restaurant or wherever to put you in their resource page. 39 39
Oftentimes clients will go to these restaurants or places that they're having their event 40 40
and they'll ask ‘who's a photographer that, you know, who will do a good job for this?’ 41 41
So, it's a great thing to do and it's very localized and doing what I've said before 42 42
about website hunting and social media is good but really getting down to a local word 43 43
of mouth, finding people in your community to hire you is a better, more successful way. 44 44
So, then the last thing for finding freelance photography is to reach out to friends and 45 45
family. 46 46
I mean this seems obvious but you never know who knows that is wanting to hire a photographer 47 47
for whatever, whether it's a birthday party or a new product that they're launching at 48 48
work. 49 49
I've had people request all of the above and so, reaching out to friends and family is 50 50
a good idea and more than just a tweet or a Facebook message, but really having a conversation 51 51
with your family and friends and saying you're launching your photography business and if 52 52
they know anyone that's looking for photography then you're there. 53 53
So, those are some places to find freelance work and then I just have some basic tips. 54 54
One is to respond to emails as fast as you can. 55 55
Now this seems obvious but as I mentioned before if you're finding work online people 56 56
and these companies that are hiring make decisions really quickly and so, you really need to 57 57
be on top of your emails. 58 58
Next is to keep a list of contacts. 59 59
Now this is important because every year or every so often you can do a blast email out 60 60
to your contacts. 61 61
One way to do this is at the beginning of every year, you should be increasing your 62 62
prices with the year, and what you can do send an email out to all of your previous 63 63
clients saying ‘hey I'm really glad that I got to work on this project with you, I'm 64 64
upping my prices and I just wanted to let you know that I'm available to do work and 65 65
I'm now booking my time for this new year’. 66 66
And it's a great way to really put yourself back in the mind of whoever you're emailing 67 67
and potentially get work that way. 68 68
The next tip is to set a time for web surfing. 69 69
So, as I mentioned before when you're hunting for jobs really, have a time in the morning, 70 70
in the middle of the day, in the evening whatever it is, have a time and don't worry about trying 71 71
to look the rest of the day because you could go crazy looking for work for 24 hours a day. 72 72
The next tip is to be creative and just go out and take photos. 73 73
This is the key to being a successful artist which I think all of you are as photographers 74 74
and you really need to just get out there and take photos, keep learning and learning 75 75
new styles, new tricks and new editing techniques and you just have to really be creating more 76 76
content. 77 77
And I've realized that of all the people that I know who keep creating content and are doing 78 78
it, they are the ones that are most successful and the ones that are making the most money 79 79
and finding the most work, because they're out and about and even if they're just doing 80 80
it for their personal self, people see it and people like that about photographers. 81 81
And lastly, just be confident. 82 82
It's hard being a new photographer, I know, to sort of pitch prices and pitch to people 83 83
and try to get clients but it's like a snowball -: once you get one it will increase slowly, 84 84
but the more and more jobs you get it seems like the easier it is to get even more jobs 85 85
and that's just a funny catch-22 but seriously, once you have jobs it's easier to find a job 86 86
and the more people that you know and reach out to. 87 87
I'm sure that you'll find work, so be confident. 88 88
OK, so those were some tips for finding freelance photography work. 89 89
I hope you enjoyed them and we'll see you in next lesson where we'll be talking about 90 90
unique ways to dive into photography.