In this episode, Melanie Cooper shares her thoughts and experience on running a successful wedding photography business on a tropical island in the pacific ocean… The Cook Islands to be exact.

I met Melanie and her partner Heinz at a recent Jonas Peterson workshop in New Zealand. After sharing a few meals, a little wine, a couple of beers, some great conversation and the day with Jonas, it feels like I have an old friend joining me on the show.

Have one look at her website and you'll see, she lives and works in a tropical paradise. It's truly amazing!

She said something interesting to me last week though. She said that she wishes she had more interesting and diverse places to shoot. I ask in this interview, how could she possibly want more?

Here’s some more of what we cover:

  • 90% of Melanie's wedding clients are tourists, how do they find and book her
  • Where most of Melanie's clients came from when starting out on the Island
  • How Melanie managed to double her bookings in her second year as a wedding photographer
  • Competition in a small and close knit environment
  • How Melanie's business model differs from most wedding photographers
  • How to “value add” to generate more bookings and have a wider reach
  • How and why Melanie is aiming to attract a different clientele for her business than she has in the past
  • Coping with the boredom of shooting in the same locations
  • How Melanie establishes the personal connection with her clients despite the long distance
  • Pricing
  • Why Melanie has decided to start blogging now
  • How Melanie gets booked despite not ranking well in Google searches
  • Why did Melanie stepped away from networking with resorts
  • Melanie's workflow and why it's changed dramatically

Melanie Cooper Photography Podcast

What’s on Offer for Premium Members

If you’re a premium member, you should have received an email with links to your version of this episode where you can hear lots more content from where we dive deeper into some of the earlier topics plus some new ones that I pushed hard for.

I usually list a range of topics covered for premium members but in this interview I won't be. The reason? Some of the things Melanie shared for premium members was a little “sensitive” and could negatively affect her business.

If you're in the position of setting up a photography business in a remote location or shoot destination work, you'll want to hear what Melanie has to share. I can't say more.

Melanie Cooper Photography Podcast

What is your big takeaway?

Following this interview, I’d love to know what your biggest takeaway is – what is the one thing that you’d like to implement or learnt from what was shared? Let me know by leaving your thoughts in the comments below.

If you have any questions that I missed, a specific question you’d like to ask Melanie or if you just want to say thanks for coming on the show, feel free to add them below.

If you’d like an easy way to show Melanie your thanks, and support for the show at the same time, click the link to create a tweet and automatically show you’re listening: https://photobizx.com/tweet

Melanie Cooper Photography Podcast

SEO Course for Photographers

I interviewed William Bay of Flaunt Your Site back in episode 3 of the podcast and have mentioned his online courses a couple times since then.

Now he's just launched a brand new SEO Strategy Series. He's taken all the practices that have helped his clients get results and put it into a package that you can do for yourself without having to hire an SEO Specialist for $800-1,000 per month.

For $249 (or $199 till April 13th 2015), you can get similar results.

The promo code for $50 off is: xposed

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A warning for all photographers!

Outsourcing is regularly talked about on the podcast and often encouraged but you do need to be careful.

Below is an email I received from a listener who is going through a terrible experience after outsourcing a Google Adwords campaign for your photography business. She has asked not to be named on the show.

Hi Andrew,

I would like to share this bad story happening to me at the moment… it may be worth sharing with PhotoBizX listeners. 

A few month ago I received a phone call from a New Zealand company: C-mee offering their services to do my Google Adwords for me and / or SEO.

I decided I had to start relieving some parts of my business to others as I was very busy, so why not!

Their prices were expensive so I opted for the cheapest contract: Google Adwords with 6 targeted key words. I made a verbal agreement (they recorded me on the phone repeating their words) for a 4 month contract. 

When it came to the end of the contract period (this month) they tried to re-sell more services and to renew the contract. They were calling me about 10 times per week.

I decided to stop the contract and to look after the Adwords campaign myself.

They replied that I needed to be “Google certified” to do that (what a lie…)! They also said that I was bound by a 30 days written notice to stop the contract and had to sign again for 4 months or to pay a 60% cancellation fee. 

After kindly asking them to let me go and stop the contract they wouldn't listen. 

I went to dispute the invoice and made a small claim. 

It a bit stressful and I am feeling totally scammed. They have a Google account on my website, which I can not stop (I have called Google and because I don’t have the bank account number they are paying with I can’t stop them from advertising my website). 

It means they keep marketing my page against my consent. My only solution would be to take down my website.  

Anyway, I highly recommend anyone to look after their own Google Adword campaign and never go through an agency. 

Best regards

I've since received a follow up message from the photographer saying:

My husband tried to call the company and they replied very aggressively. 

After I took the invoice to dispute as a small claim they have agreed to letting me off just for 1 more month so I have decided to do that. 
But… what a bad experience! 
Melanie Cooper Photography Podcast

Links to people, places and things mentioned in this episode:

Melanie Cooper's Website

Melanie Cooper on Facebook

Jonas Peterson

Equipment

Canon EF 85mm f1.2L II USM Lens for Canon DSLR Cameras

Melanie Cooper Photography Podcast

Thank you!

Thank you again for listening to the show and thanks Melanie for being an awesome guests!

If you have any suggestions, comments or questions about this episode, please be sure to leave them below in the comment section of this post, and if you liked the episode, please share it using the social media buttons you see at the bottom of the post!

That’s it for me this week, hope everything is going well for you in life and business!

Thanks and speak soon

Andrew