In today's episode of the Freedom focused photography podcast, we are talking with Melissa Arlina, all about her secret marketing strategy that has worked incredibly well for her business. Now, it's something you've heard of, it's something you're likely not doing, and it's something that can pay dividends in your business for years to come. So stay tuned. I'm Nicole Bagley, a zoological animal trainer turned pet and family photographer. Back in 2010, I embarked on my own adventure in photography, transforming a bootstrapping startup into a thriving six figure business by 2012.

Since then, my mission has been to empower photographers like you, sharing the knowledge and strategies that have helped me help thousands of photographers build their own profitable businesses. I believe that achieving two to $3,000 sales is your fastest route to six figure businesses, that any technically proficient photographer can consistently hit four figure sales. And no matter if you want photography to be your full time passion or a part time pursuit, profitability is possible.

If you're a portrait photographer aspiring to craft a business that aligns perfectly with the life you envision, then you're in exactly the right place. With over 350,000 downloads. Welcome to the Freedom Focus Photography podcast. Hey, everybody. Welcome back to the Freedom Focus Photography podcast. I'm your host, Nicole Bagley, and today we have a special guest, Melissa Arlena from Charlottesville, Virginia. She is a photographer and also an SEO expert, and we're excited to have you on the podcast.

So welcome, Melissa. Hey, thanks so much for having me. I'm excited to be here. Oh, my goodness. Of course. So before we get into, like, SEO and stuff like that, why don't you tell people a little bit about your photography business and, like, how you got into this whole photography thing? Yeah. So I've had my business for about 16 years now. I spent the first ten years doing weddings and then shifted over to, like, lifestyle and really narrowed in on newborn and stuff like that.

I'm very typical case of when I shot weddings, I didn't have kids. And then when I had kids and they started heading off to kindergarten, I was like, whoa, whoa, whoa. I can't be gone on weekends. Like, I'm never gonna see, you know, my first born. I'm like, I'm not gonna see my baby. So that was where I was like, all right, it's time to make the switch and stuff.

And then I've just. I've used SEO the whole time, because before I did photography, I was in it for ten years. And so I think SEO has always kind of fascinated me because it's kind of scratching that itch. And when I started my business, you know, I was just like everybody else. I'm like, how do I get in front of people? And so then I started hearing about SEO, and then I was like, all right, I'm all in.

Like, whatever gets me in front of clients and gets me booked. Like, let's do this. I love it. And so I just, I was telling somebody earlier today that I don't have that typical photographer, like, how I got into my business story of, like, oh, I photographed my kids and then my friends kids, and then people hired me. I do have that for SEO. Like, I did my SEO, then I helped friends with theirs, and then other people wanted to hire me.

But when it came to, like, my photography business and, like, why I even started with that, why I left it, I felt like I was becoming the old office space movie of, like, people freaking out on the printer. And I remember, like, slamming my keyboard to make a point to someone, and I thought, oh, this is, yeah, you've gone too far. Like, we're done with this. This is so.

And I had been doing photography forever just personally, like, taking college courses and stuff. And I was getting married around that time, and I discovered the world of wedding photography. And it was not anything like my college courses. It was pretty and, like, light and airy and just beautiful, you know? And so I was, my, my it contract was up, and I was like, all right, well, let's just give this a shot.

Nice. And I did and went from there and, like, you know, started second shooting and all of that and then built up my own clientele and stuff and just kept rolling from there. I love it. I love it. That's so funny. It's funny, too, that you, you know, there's so many different niches that, that all of us can love and explore. Like, weddings is one that I will not touch with a ten foot pole.

I love being at a wedding, and I love, there's so many wedding photographers that I see their work and I'm like, oh, my gosh, that is absolutely stunning and beautiful. And I could see how it could be really fun. But for me, I, like, freedom of my time is, like, my number one in the fact that you book weddings so far in advance and giving up those weekends, I was just like, oh, no, that will not fit.

And I did do a very short stint as newborn photographer after I had kids. I'm like, oh, because I left, I was in the zoo field, animal trainer, and then I became a photographer and this was 2010, so pet photography was not a thing then. Yeah, it's like, well, I'll photograph families. I had a three year old and a newborn at the time, and, yeah, so I started doing that, and I liked my families, especially, you know, toddler and up.

And I always wanted to add in the pets, but it was never really a thing then until, like, 2015, I was like, all right. Oh, no, we can just do all pets here. So that's when I should made that shift. But I did newborns for a hot minute, like, a couple of them, and I'm like, oh, this is not my jam. Well, it's funny. Yeah, I love having pets in sessions and stuff.

And so even when I was doing weddings, like, whether it was engagement or I, if they wanted to have their dog in the wedding, I was like, all for it. And then even now with newborns and stuff, you know, I always tell the parents when they message me, and they're like, oh, we want to include, you know, our furry family members. I'm like, great. That's awesome. And then I like, I've learned about dogs, and I've learned about cats on that.

And I have dogs and cats. Yeah. But I always tell them, I'm like, if you have cats, they're just going to kind of show up. Like, unless they're really scared, they're just going to kind of show up. They're going to sniff around. Like, I catch them in the nursery, you know, sometimes we'll sit baby on a rug, and then we'll all sit back and wait. And eventually the cat's like, what's going on in there?

And we'll like, walk up to the baby, and I. And I'm ready. I get the shot. I'm like, so cats are one, you know? And then anytime people are just going to pick up the cat and hold it in a picture, that cat's gonna be pissed off. Like, that's just like, so, you know, we'll get that if we have to. And then for dogs, I'm always telling them when I'm like, let me meet your dog.

And then I'll tell you what we're gonna do. Because if it's an older, really chill, calm dog who's like, whatever, we can do a shot on the bed with the dog and the baby next to each other. And, like, it's not a big deal. Yeah. If you've got a two year old golden who's, like, running all over the house. Oh, yeah. I'm like, no, no, no. We're gonna put the baby in the crib where it's behind bars and safe.

And then I always tell the parents, I was like, you know, we're gonna stick a treat so it looks like the dog sniffing the baby, and then I'll just Photoshop out the treat. And so many parents are like, I wondered how you did those shots. It's so cute. And I was like, oh, it is totally staged, but it looks adorable. As long as I can, like, hide the treat like, we're good.

Yeah, you've got. And then you've got baby and the pup. Because our newborn session, we had our dogs in it. All of our newborn sessions have had our dogs in them. So I get why people want them in the session and I want them to have that. And I think sometimes that helps me because I've had people, like, actually find me from searching for, like, newborn photos with pets.

And, like, I came up and search results from, like, a blog post kind of thing. So awesome. And I know if someone's searching newborn photos with pets and they find me and we're in the same area, like, they're going to hire me. Like, that's a no brainer at that point because I'm exactly what they're looking for. Yes. Oh, my gosh. I will say this until the cows come home.

For all my pet photographers out there that, you know, there's, there's one camp of pet photographers that are like, oh, my gosh, no, I'm not doing any families and kids. But there's another side that's like, well, I still kind of like the families and kids, too. And I feel like there is this untapped market for family, for, like, pet focused family photographers. Yeah. You know, that there's so many family photographers that are, you know, maybe don't really like working with the pets or don't know how or, you know, kind of take it or leave it.

But there's so few out there marketing themselves as, like, a pet focused, pet friendly family photographer. Yeah. Oh, my gosh. You got it, I think there. Do it. Yeah. Blog post. We're going to talk all about it. Yeah. And even just showing it, like, that's the big thing of showing it on your website. I think my last maternity session, it was an at home lifestyle, which was here in August, and I was like, I love you for picking indoor.

Like, thank you so much. And they had two dogs. And when I delivered the gallery, I was like, okay, a 30 year gallery might be pictures of your dogs. Just so you know, I couldn't help myself. Sorry. I know. They were so cute. I just, you know, but that's their babies right now, so they're totally good with it. That's why they wanted an at home session, so I could totally get by with that.

If it was a family session and it wasn't focused on the dog and I delivered, like, half the gallery of the dog, they probably would be like, um, what's going on here? But, you know, you got to feel out and know your client. I love it. I love it. Awesome. All right, so we're going off on tangents here, but that's okay because that's what we do, especially when they relate to dogs.

So when you switch then from weddings to newborns, what kind of. How did you make that shift marketing your business? Was it mostly SEO driven or did you do other things in addition to that? What did that look like? No, it was mostly SEO driven, and it was a hot mess. Like, I actually at one point had to get a part time job because, like, I wasn't taking weddings anymore, and I I just knew I didn't want to do weddings.

I wanted to do babies, and so I just switched. And honestly, it takes about 18 months for your SEO efforts to really set in and grow. So, like, I always tell people you're planting the seeds now for something down the line that's going to gonna help you. I have blog. My top blog posts right now are ones I wrote four years ago during COVID and they are my top performing, top sending stuff blog posts.

So. So when I made that switch to weddings, I was solid on weddings. I knew SEO for weddings. I knew what I needed to do. There really wasn't much education out there for portrait photographers. It was all geared towards weddings, so I was kind of blindly figuring it out. And then. So I got all my seeds planted, and then while I was waiting, it was like, all right, well, I need a paycheck, so.

So how to get a job, which I actually worked in marketing for a jewelry store. So, like, I was able to parlay that what I learned as a small business owner and use that for somebody else and kind of keep continuing that education. And then once I got it, like, okay, hey, now, my husband was like, you really need to quit the jewelry store because, like, you're hemming yourself in on what photo sessions you can take because you've got this other job.

And so, you know, it had taken off at that point, but I knew what worked. And so then we moved twice in two years. So we moved from Virginia to South Florida and then back to Virginia. Okay, so. Because I didn't like Florida. Yeah. So mama ain't happy. Nobody happy. We came back to Virginia, but we're in a whole different area. So my marketing, you know, I put that, what I learned from switching from weddings to newborns, I then put that in play to move down to Miami, and I kind of refined it and figured out what I needed to do.

So then when we moved back up here to Charlottesville, it's a whole different area. Like, I was able to just put that in, do everything I knew I needed to do, and it was good. And I have a friend. She's military, she's my podcast co host. She moves every three years, and so I've been able to help her with, like, what she needs to do on her SEO, and she would help me on the other parts of, like, moving your business and stuff.

And so, yeah, it's just learning all of that stuff and then figuring it out and getting that plan. It was messy at first, but then, now it's, like, refined. Now I get it. Now I know what I need to do, but I don't plan to move again. So there's that. Well, that's good. That's good. Is there, like, I mean, if you're. Because there's a lot of people out here that moved.

I move markets, too. And is there, like, a yemenite timeframe? Would you start, like, 18 months before, if you're starting to move, or. I wouldn't start 18 months. We usually. I recommend, like, six months, which really, a lot of people are like, that seems so early. I'm gonna lose all my clients. Like, blah, blah, blah. You would be surprised how long you will stay in the rankings for your old location while you're targeting your new location.

Well, and I found when I moved, too, as soon as I sent out, like, hey, this is my last summer taking bookings. I'm moving. It was like, oh, that was the easiest way to fill my calendar ever. Exactly, exactly. I know Alison and I had an episode. We talked about that, that I'm like, that's really what you need to do, is go back to your past list, and you will book out your calendar.

When you tell people you're leaving, like, all of a sudden, everybody wants to book with you before you go. So that really helps, because then you can go ahead and say, hey, I'm not a Miami photographer anymore. I'm a Charlottesville photographer on my website. But I've filled my calendar with all the Miami people before I left. What I found, too, is that six months after we moved, if you looked up Miami newborn photographer, I was number two, and it said Charlottesville photographer.

So it was like, dude, that's not even my keyword anymore. But I was still in the results I was getting. I think this year it's died down. But 25% of my inquiries this year have been for Miami still. Oh, geez. Yeah. And I was telling a friend, I was like, gee, good lord. Like, it's kind of a bummer to be like, I'm unavailable. Here's the list. I'm unavailable.

Here's the. Listen, you know, that's crazy. Yeah. And it was probably a lot higher. I'll have to look at what it was last year. It was definitely a lot higher. And every time, I think at this point now, I've finally gone back through all of the old posts, blog posts I had done down in Miami and taken Miami out, like, just gotten the keyword out or drafted the post if it wasn't something that I needed anymore.

But, I mean, I just had an inquiry last week for a newborn session in Miami, and I was like, no. So if you want to come to Charlottesville, you know, I can help you. But that shows that power of blogging and stuff like that hangs around forever. Yeah. Is there. So there's a couple people that maybe do two markets. So maybe they live up north in the summertime, but maybe they spend time in, like, Phoenix or somewhere in the wintertime.

What do you recommend for them to try to keyword two cities, but on one site, so that can be harder when they're farther away. Like, for me here, I target Richmond and I target Charlottesville, and they're about an hour apart, so that's not too bad. But when you're targeting, like, two very different locations, it is going to be harder. It's not impossible because, like, I did a senior session for my niece in Charleston, and I've gotten inquiries from that blog post, um, for senior, for seniors in Charleston.

And I'm like, yeah, I'm not even down there. Like, right, right. Um, so you could still create. I would have, you know, whatever your main location is, that's going to be the. The spot for your homepage, your portfolio pages, all of that kind of stuff. And then let's say you just do families at the beach and, like, 30 a or something, you know, when you go down for the summer, well, then you would have a separate page that would be like, you know, whatever your 30, a family photographer or beach photographer or whatever, and then that page, you just really want to be specific on that page.

That that page is geared towards 30 a. You're talking about locations that are in 30 a, maybe restaurants, maybe beaches, maybe places to shop. Like, you really want that to almost be like, this sounds horrible because people already hate blogging. And then when I bring up research papers, they're like, wow, you just made that sound really fun. But you want to think about that page as like a research paper on 30 a.

Like, you've got to prove to Google you know about it. You didn't just throw your keyword on the page and be like, yeah, yeah, you're going to write me there. Google's like, no, no, you got to work harder than that for that spot. So that's what I would recommend is just having a separate page that targets, you know, your keyword for that location and stuff like that. I would imagine, too, with the rise of AI and the amount of just like, crappy content that people can put up quickly, that Google is starting to figure out and reward those of us that actually take some more time to actually write and research and create more involved things like that.

Is that correct? No, I fully believe that. I think that as we keep going and Google keeps refining their stuff, that they're going, you know, that that stuff that is written by us and really has, like, a storytelling aspect to it, you know, that's a big thing with blog posts is I tell people, I'm like, you don't want to just ask chat GPT to write a blog post for you because a, they learned from the Internet, so you could be writing a post that they're learning was off of my post, and now they're regenerating some of what I wrote into your post, you know, like, so then you could feel a little bit like, oh, am I stealing somebody else's copy?

But it also may not sound like you. Like, my, my clients may be very different than yours. So I want you to, to use AI to help you research stuff, but not write it for you. And then, like, you know, be personal and tell a story. Like, if you meet someone and you're talking about a topic, you're going to tell a story about something about you. I was talking to a mom last night I never talked to at jiu jitsu with my kids, and basically she and I are trading life stories back and forth and, like, bonding over it.

Like, that's what's going to get you clients who are interested and who want to read your blog posts. Yes, absolutely. Yeah, I've actually found AI is really good for brainstorming. So, like, brainstorming different potential topics. I've also used a lot for brainstorming, brainstorming stories, because I think a lot of times we forget our own stories. Yeah. So I might say, like, you know, help me think of stories I might have that relate to this situation.

And I'll be like, what about a time that x, y, z? And I'm like, oh, yeah, that's a good one. And then you can go from there. That's a great way. I love using it for brainstorming. I've, when we were moving down to Miami, I didn't know anything about Miami. I knew nothing about it. And so I was writing a post. I just basically looked at, like, what was my most popular post in northern Virginia?

Because I want to rewrite that for Miami. And it was about, like, where to shop for maternity clothes, because I do motherhood photography, and I'm like, I don't know what maternity stores there were in Miami. So I'm like, googling maternity shops, maternity stores. I'm clicking on all these different things. I'm researching everything. Now, if I were to do that, I would ask AI which shops sell maternity clothes in Miami.

And then I would still verify everything. But now I suddenly I have a list in 5 seconds with, like, addresses, phone numbers, websites, like a little blurb, and then I can go through, and I would still do the same thing of, like, actually calling some, you know, if it's nothing, I know motherhood maternity is not around, but if it's not, like, motherhood maternity, you know, that's it. And it's a consignment shop.

I would pick it up the phone, like, hey, do you guys sell maternity clothes? Just to verify. And I did that then. So I would do that again now. But it's just so much easier on the research side of things. I just did a post for fall activities in Charlottesville. And, I mean, there's a ton of them out here with all the wineries and breweries, and it gave me dates, it gave me, like, themes, it gave me addresses, websites, and I like phone numbers.

So that, that stuff I will copy and paste, like, the dates and the phone numbers and the address is like, 100%. I'll copy and paste. But again, I was looking for, like, pumpkin patches, and it mentioned that this one place where people go to pick apples has, where you can pick your pumpkins. Well, when I went out to their website, no, they have pre picked pumpkins. They don't have a pumpkin patch.

And I'm like, see, AI totally was like, walk down the pumpkin field and pick the perfect pumpkin for you. And I'm like, that's nothing. What was going on there? Like, uh huh. So, you know, use it for research, use it for brainstorming, but don't let it write your content for you. 100%. Trust, verify. We're going back to the cold war here. Trust and verify. I know I was saying that earlier day, but then I was like, I almost feel like drop trust off there because I feel like I don't trust AI.

So I'm just like, verify, verify, verify. I love it. I love it. Oh, it's so funny. So, yeah, so what are, it sounds like getting together kind of like lists or gathering information tends to be really popular. What are some ideas for blogging? Because I know when I say blogging, I think 95% of the people listening to this are going to be like, okay. So I posted session and say, this dog, fluffy was at this park and we had fun.

Yeah, no, those are the worst posts. Nobody wants to read those posts. I call those session chairs and nobody cares about session shares. Yeah, yeah. Except maybe the person, but they're probably getting the, you know, watermark digital files at least of what they ordered. So they're just going to share those anyway, right? Yeah. Now with social media, like they don't even go out to the blog post anymore.

No, you want to. I would say for starters, the easiest thing to do is start with your faqs. So when you've got your faqs, you know, depending on what they are, like, I know for some of mine, like our dogs included in a, you know, can my dog be in a newborn session? And then I'm going to say, yes. Check out this article for tips and examples of how we include your doc.

And then that goes to a blog post. So that's the easiest way is to just flesh out your faqs because those are going to be most helpful for your clients in the sense of when somebody is booking and has a question, you can just send them a blog post and send that over kind of thing. And then the next thing you want to do is to get into the mind of your ideal client.

So, like, if we were to pick on your dog and dog pet photographers, that kind of thing, you know, think about like what I think back to when I was like 21 with my puppy and like how much I loved her and she was my best friend and went everywhere with me. I was like, what restaurants can I take her to what are the best beaches that have, where I can walk her around and I don't have to worry about getting yelled at, you know, that, oh, you're in the wrong hours or something like that.

Yeah. Where are the groomers that I can take her to or what groomers will come to me, that kind of thing. And you want to keep that specific to your local town kind of thing. So it needs to be like pet friendly restaurants in whatever your city is, is probably a pretty good keyword to, like, check out and stuff and like, do the research and see which cities have, which cities have traffic for that and then just have that list of stuff.

And the idea is that when you're writing these posts, these are posts that then you could use AI to help you create your marketing for it. So now you could say, all right, I did this post on restaurants to take my pet, my dog, to write five social, like, copy and paste that into chat, GBT, the final written product and say, create five social media captions for me.

Create two real scripts for me where you could basically be saying, like, I've got five of the top restaurants in DC that you can bring your pooch to. Oh, my goodness. You can bring your pooch to for dinner and stuff. And you could just, like, you have the script now you're just talking to camera. Now you've got a reel, you've got five captions. And then, like, you could go through and say, okay, now reformat this so that I can send it out in an email newsletter, but don't give away all the information kind of thing where it gives highlights.

And now you've created an email. And so now you've taken, you've put your time and energy into the post and then everything else you can use AI for because it's pulling from what you wrote. I, and not just a random, give me five captions as a pet photographer or whatever, you know, that kind of thing. So that's, that's the other part where you can bring it into play.

I imagine you can reuse a lot of them, too. So I'm thinking, like, the best place for, you know, like, fall color hikes in western North Carolina. Yep. With your dog. They're dog friendly. Yeah. And so then every fall, like, if you made a list as you made them, I'm thinking like a spreadsheet because I love spreadsheets or Monday words where it's like seasonal and so then I can just see all the seasonal ones and like each, say, September, then I would just go double check it and be like, yep.

Is this information still accurate? Exactly. Have to update it a little bit, but then you can share it again on your email list and your social so it can live on and on and on forever. Yeah. And that's a great point of don't write a new post. Yeah, go back to that old post. So I always tell people when you're writing what we call is like evergreen content, you don't want to include a date in the URL.

So if it's going to be top fall hikes with dogs in near Charlotte, you don't want to say for 2024. Now you could say in the meta description and in the page title 2024. Because I've done that before where sometimes I'm looking for something, I'm like, I want something recent. So I'll put in, you know, the year. So you can put that in there, but don't put in the URL.

Keep that evergreen. And then the next year you can go back and update it. Now maybe it's 2025 because you verified and you're like, oh, wait, this place closed down. This place now doesn't allow dogs anymore. Oh, but these new ones have come into play and blah, blah, blah, blah. And you can put that in there and then you can reshare it just like you did, like you said the year before.

And this is another area where I tell people, I'm like, don't try to get clients from Facebook because Facebook groups and stuff like that can be a crapshoot. But you can get clicks from Facebook. You post that in your local community group and everybody who's got a dog that's young and wants to go for a hike is now clicking on that post. And that's driving up your numbers with Google because Google's like, oh, wow, she just got a bunch of clicks, like, and people enjoyed this.

They stuck around for a while and so now they're on, on your site. And then the other part of that too is that I think as photographers, we're terrible about selling ourselves. Uh huh. And so you'll write that post and you won't mention once on there what a great photo opportunity this could be to like, bring a photographer along to capture your day. And that needs to be all over the place.

Like, you need to have buttons, you need to have talk about that. You know, you do pet photography and stuff like that. And I think that's a big thing where people are like, well, Melissa, I wrote this post, but it's not doing anything. I'm like, well, you never mentioned that you're a photographer in it. Like, I know you should showed your photos, which is great. I was like, but you forgot to, like, tell them, hey, by the way, let's book a session and go to one of these locations.

So don't forget that. Would you work that call to action in, like, if you were doing, like, the best hikes around western North Carolina, like, down towards the end? Like, you know, these hikes also can make for great photo sessions and come check out, like, a little call to action down there. I would do it at the end and I would probably put a button at every other one that says, learn more about pet, you know, a pet session or something like that.

I would say, because I think we are still too timid. And so we're like, I'm just gonna throw it in at the end. It's right there. You know, I checked that box and I'm like, no, no, no. You need to be me more in their face, almost like you're scrolling through and you see ads, you kind of block out them, but some of them you pay attention to, but you've got to be more in their face about, like, hey, like, book a session.

And that's why I like buttons. So I just have a button that's like, learn more about a pet session or learn more about a family session. So they can click that and it catches their eye, but it's not so over the top that they're, like, annoyed by it or anything. Right. And I imagine some people would think, oh, I put some buttons in the sidebar. But if you're reading on mobile, which most people probably are, they probably don't even see the sidebar.

Yep, exactly. Yeah, yeah. And the worst ones don't do the little, like, where you highlight the. Do the hypertext where you, like, click here to go to our contact page. You know how hard it is to click on, like, text on mobile and stuff. No, give them a button. Give them a big old button that, like, stands out. That is super easy to click versus them having to, like, pinch and zoom to, like, hit the right.

The right part. Yeah. I mean, yeah, we need to make it as easy as possible for people because their attention span is zilch. Yeah, yeah. And if you're writing a lot of these posts and stuff about, like, hikes and restaurants and, like, groomers and dog parks and all of that kind of stuff, you could then put that together in a lead magnet. Like, and these are all blog posts.

So you've already written the blog posts, you take them up, you bundle them into a lead magnet, and then you drop a link to that lead magnet in each of those posts. Because even though, yes, that information is free, quote, unquote, if they go digging around on your blog, they don't know that you've also got a blog post on restaurants unless you link to it. But instead, why not make it a freebie that they have to opt in to?

And so now you've got their email address and, you know, they have a dog and they're in your area because why else are they downloading this? Yes, exactly. You know, I mean, I do the same thing for maternity and stuff. I had, like, best birth pros in Miami, and it was all the articles I had on maternity, on doulas, maternity clothes, midwives, prenatal massage, like, all these different vendors.

And so now I have my ideal client in the top of a funnel. And so now I can start feeding them, like, a welcome sequence, like, with the dog and stuff. You can start feeding them, like, some helpful articles. You could feed them, like, hey, when was the last time you had photos with your pup? Or, like, tips to get photos with your pup or something along those lines?

And, like, now you've got this funnel that's bringing them down to become a client. And it started with that blog post. Oh, my gosh. That is 100% just key right there. And, you know, to be able to pull people from your website onto your email list, like, we're always talking about, how do we get more leads? And this is such a fun kind of, I want to say passive, but it's not passive because there is work.

But, you know, a lot of times, you know, we're busy. I do still strongly believe getting out into community, actually talking to people face to face, letting them know you're a photographer. Like, you guys gotta still do that for marketing. But to have this working on the background is so good. Yeah. I think the other important point that we're making here is you need to think wider than just photography.

The things we're talking about here are thinking, what would my target client with the dog be searching for? Nothing to do with photography. Like, I think people get stuck with, like, how to choose a location for your pet session. Well, most people probably aren't doing that. Or maybe they already booked with another photographer when they're searching that, you know, who reads those posts? Other photographers looking for locations.

Exactly. Exactly. Guilty of that. Yeah. So if you, like, back it up to be like, all right, what? Just what does my target client like to do? Are they outdoorsy? Are they? Yeah. Like, or maybe they're like, high end shopping, you know, so, like, where can I go shopping with my dog? Like, who is your target client? What do they like to do? How can you write articles that they would just be searching for?

Yeah. And, yeah, yeah. I mean, it just comes down to, like, showing up multiple times. I know a friend of mine, she has it where they, she does Facebook retargeting ads after that. So after they've landed on her website, now she's retargeting them on Facebook. So, like, that's another way to keep showing up in front of them and stuff. But the other question I will get is a lot of people, they'll start writing these posts and then they're like, melissa, these posts are bringing in so much traffic.

And my other, my main keywords are, like, not ranking very well. You know, I'm not getting as many clicks or impressions for those. And I'm like, that's normal because do you know that a lot more people look for dog friendly restaurants than look for pet photographers? Right? Yeah, that's just how it is. It's the same thing with more people look for date night ideas, then look for newborn maternity or family photographers.

It just happens to be that way. But the thing you have to think about with all these blog posts is all those clicks you're getting. Google is tracking that. And so when you have a lot of good clicks and people are sticking around on your website, it shows that your website is good and has good quality. And so it's that rising tide lifts all shifts so those blog posts will help carry your main pages and stuff like that up.

I know, like recently I had noticed that for Richmond, I wasn't ranking as high for maternity as I wanted to. And I was like, okay, the page itself is good. Like, I know I don't need to mess with the SEO on the page, but what I do need to do is publish more blog posts that are related to maternity clients and what they're searching for, doulas, midwives, that kind of stuff.

For Richmond to help keep establishing because I am doing that thing where I'm targeting two cities and so I constantly have this balance of, am I leaning too much to Charlottesville? Do I need to lean more to Richmond in my blog post? And, like, keeping that so it lifts everything up and improves to Google. I am a local expert and this is, you know, so show my. Show my website.

Oh, my gosh, this has been just so, so, so good. And just I think if people can start to understand the importance of this in an awareness way for your market, like everyone always asks me, how do I get to more people to like to know about me, like things like this? Because all these people are coming and yes, they're not searching pet photography, but how many, what percentage of those people didn't even know pet photography was a thing.

Yeah. So they're searching about a hike in North Carolina and they come to your page and like, pet photographer? What? And then they look at your pictures and like, oh my God, these are amazing. And then it starts to plant the seed. Maybe they don't book right then and there, but now they know about you. Maybe you have that lead magnet that they opted into. Now they're getting emails from you and you're starting to nurture this relationship.

And even if they don't get your email, you don't get their email right away. Like they've still planted that seed and, you know, now they know it's a thing and now they're going to think about it and then at some point maybe they're going to search pet photographer and then hopefully you're towards the top because you're doing all this work and they come to your site and they're like, oh, yeah, this was the person and then they're going to book you.

So it's such a long game. It is. Oh, it's very much a long game. Like I said, some of my top performing posts are from four years ago. Yeah. And it's like it took a long time to get there. It started, but they're there. And then I do have posts, you know, that are newer that are ranking well too, but, you know, it can take a while. Yeah.

The other thing I just realized too, from doing these different lists of different businesses, you know, if you did like the best dog trainers and, oh, dog trainers, that's good, you know, something like that, you could reach out to these trainers, make connections with them, let them know that. Like, you know, hey, I'm putting this list together. I'm going to include you. Just FYI, here's the link. You know, just want to let you know that I included you on this.

And then like if you built that out and you created that lead magnet that has like the best pet resources in Charlotte, you could probably then give a link or like somehow give that to all these other people to let them know that you're creating this here and they can send traffic to you and they can all be sharing it. That is one of the secrets I talk about in my, my blogging course is that of reaching out.

And in fact, I, I had a client that she, while she was, while her SEO was taking effect and stuff, she reached out to all these midwives and she didn't want to just include them on a list. She wanted to interview them more. And from that she established relationships like you talk about so much. And then they started sending her clients. So while she's, her SEO is just seeds right now, she's bringing in clients because she reached out, you know, and she established that relationship.

So, yeah, that's huge. And the thing is, too, sometimes when you reach out to those, I like pitching it as a guest interview. So they write the blog post for you. That is the secret. You send them like five questions and you tell them, like, this is all about, you pitch yourself, talk about yourself, and then literally you come in with an intro and you come in with an exit paragraph and then they did all of the heavy lift for you.

That's amazing. Absolutely amazing. I love it. Yeah. If you wanted to get like, take it to a whole nother level. I used to teach this back in the day, too, wherever, to kind of create these little blog highlighting different businesses in your market. Yeah. So, like, you could go and interview them. You could take even a couple images of their facility, of what they're doing of them, and, you know, gift them a couple of those images, use them on your blog, and then you just like, make this great relationship and, you know, they want to help you out next time because you helped them out, you did something nice for them.

It's, I mean, it's a win win and a great point there is giving them some images and asking for a link back to your website and now you're getting backlinks from local businesses in your area. And that's one thing that people always are like, I don't know how to get backlinks. And like, that's a super easy way to do it, is connect with these other vendors, give them photos and ask for the backlink.

Just say, hey, do you mind linking? And, you know, if you have done your keyword research and you've got a keyword for your homepage, you know, hey, here's the keyword for my homepage. Can you link that to my website and put that, you know, and have that on your site? And like, that's a huge, like, off page SEO. That is like a stage two that most people don't think about, that great thing for you to do.

Oh, my gosh, so good. Well, this has been like, ridiculous. What advice do you have for people that maybe are still thinking like, blogging is too much work? It's just you got to get started with it. You know, getting like, we all put together a freebie for you guys on some topic ideas to get that started. And then, like, we do have a blogging club. I will say it doesn't have as much for pet photographers.

It's definitely more of like family and maternity, newborn kind of thing. But, um, but this has given me some ideas of things to do with, like, some blog posts for that. So I've got some ideas in my head. But like, with the blogging club, we, the way we set it up is you get two blog post templates each month and then within that template I'm telling you what to write and there's a video of me walking you through it.

So, you know, like, let's say the topic is dog friendly restaurants. I'm going to walk you through like, what needs to go in your intro paragraph, how does it need to be formatted for SEO as you put these restaurants and stuff in? What does all that need to look like? What's your closing paragraph? All of that kind of stuff. And then I give examples like where I've done posts so you can see that.

And so we've gotten some really great feedback about that because it gets you past that blinky cursor. It's not chat GPT writing it for you. It's me giving you ideas of what needs to go in each section. And for a lot of people, it's like that prompt, like you were saying of like asking chat GBT to like, help prompt you for a story. That's what I'm doing. I'm doing that in those posts and stuff.

And a lot of those can be reused for different things. Like, I do try to make them where they're generic enough, where you can swap out genres, that kind of thing. But I am thinking about what are some good ones? Because even dog friendly restaurants might be fun for families. Family photographer too, and stuff like that. Love their pets. Or like, ours, ours are always with us. So it's like, okay, where can we take them that they could actually sit at the table with us kind of thing.

Yeah. Oh my gosh. I'm even thinking like, you know, what do you do with your dog when you're on vacation? Like, where are some great places that you trust locally if you're going to travel? And just so many. Yeah, because you could hit an easy one, like outer banks. And then just look for all of the different, because I saw when we were down there, there was one that was like, you know, let your canine be on vacation while you're on vacation kind of thing and stuff.

I mean, we brought my mom, so whenever we left the house, she was there with them. I didn't have to worry about it. But, you know, if you're like, oh, I got a dog with separation anxiety, and I don't want to leave them in a house that I don't own alone. You know, maybe it's, like, different places where they could just go for the day and that list together.

And it's a big area, you know, kind of thing. So. Oh, my gosh, my head is spinning. Even, like, so many people that maybe live in vacation areas. Yeah. Gosh, this is huge if you're trying to target, like, a tourist type market. Yeah. There's so many, so many possibilities. Oh, my gosh, Melissa, this has been so good. One of the best. This is a top ten podcast, I think, that we've ever had, and we've had, like, over 250 episodes.

So well done. Well, I always hear from people that I tell people, I'm like, I don't know how to gatekeep on stuff. Like, I just, as the ideas flow, I'm like, here you go. Like, putting them out there beginning. I'm sure there's so many more. Just incredible. Yeah. How to's in there. So, yeah, let people know where they can find you and where they can learn more about how you can help them.

Yeah. So our website is picture perfect rankings, so you can go out there and find all of our services. We offer everything from done for you to group coaching. We've got the blogging club. We've got courses on keyword research, courses on blogging, just in general. So, yeah, we've got, like, all the things. I love it. I love it. Awesome. Go check it out. Yeah. Follow us on Instagram.

Because our Instagram is new. I only have, like, 38 followers. Just give us a, like. We're trying, but Instagram's not my thing. SEO is my thing. So that's where we're at. You know, there's so many photographers. I'm like, do I have to do Instagram? No, no, you don't. If you do SEO, you need to do something, so you need to choose something to market your business with. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I will say my photography side does have more followers than that, but, you know. Yeah. The other one, that's not I have a nine grid up on the other one because I even said I was like, I don't want to do Instagram. Like, I have a girl. She'll post some reels for me and stuff, but I'm like, I'm not doing posts all the time. We have a nine grid, and that's what hangs out there.

I love it. That's awesome. Oh, my gosh. Okay. All right, Melissa. Thank you, you guys. Yeah. Reach out to Melissa, let her know you guys found this super helpful, and go check out her programs to help get your blogging in gear, and I'll see you next week. Thanks so much.