With so many photographers spawning in all metropolitan cities across the globe, the competition can be fierce, making it difficult to stand apart from the swarm. Perhaps this is why photographers have traditionally relied heavily on the importance of personal contacts i.e. referrals to land gigs. This is still largely true of how photographers get hired, however technology – namely the internet, has given photographers direct access to regional and even global markets today that were inaccessible 10-15 years ago.
One of the marketing strategies now becoming canon is the utilization of facebook and local business directories such as Yelp or Google to help plug photographers directly into the relevant search results of potential clients. But don’t think that just because you have a listing that you’ll stand out in a list of 1,000′s in search results.
Until now, helping the consumers of photographers’ services to easily parse the crowd of photographers available in their city has been far from the minds of IT developers and big business. What consumers seem to want and need is to able to easily screen a database of photographers to assess them not only by their style, but also by how much their services cost.
In steps Taproll, a new player to the game of matching consumers to photographers. Taproll aims to mediate the decision making process by presenting you, the consumer, with an array of photographers which can be quickly assessed for style, price, and reputation through their websites.
From the Taproll blog,
Searching the Web for a great photographer who meets all your requirements (budget, location, style) can be a tedious and time-consuming task. We thought there should be a better way, and so we started working on Taproll. Browsing photographers should feel a lot like browsing photos, we thought. It should be fun and easy, and should leave you with a sense that you did your research and truly found the best photographer according to your needs. We started by leaving behind many common assumptions about how a website should work (= clutter) and focused on a very simple design that emphasizes what’s important and leaves everything else out of your way.
I first heard about Taproll from the creator himself, who emailed me in a proposition to become an Elite member of the site. Elite members have access to features that regular members obviously would not. The offer was being extended to the first 100 photographers, or so I was told.
I created a profile, uploaded a minimum of 3 images representative of my lifestyle/wedding photography and awaited a response. A few days later I received an upgraded profile which had the PRO features – the ability to connect more of my Social Media accounts such as facebook and twitter ( reputation boosting elements) and slots for a total of 9 images to represent more of my style. I could also now select a second category to represent myself, so I selected Portraits & Weddings. This would broaden my representation in filtered search results, a good thing.
Now a few days later, still I remain impressed with the presentation of my “profile” and with the simple elegance of the goal Michael Quoc and the developers of Taproll have. This might really become the go-to resource for customers looking for good photographers in their regions who also fit their bill.
Related articles on the web
- Keys to Success in the New Wedding Photographer’s Market- Pricing and Packages (cateyefotos.com)
- Keys to Success in the New Wedding Photographer’s Market- Listing prices on your website? (cateyefotos.com)
- Tips for Success: Advancing Your Career as a Working Photographer (brighthub.com)
- Five Mistakes Lazy Photographers Make (mikehanniganphotography.wordpress.com)
