WHCC’s Summer Sale & Pink Ink!

It’s Summer Sale time at WHCC which is a perfect reason to stock up on designs at Pink Ink Studios!!  Whether it’s for your clients orders or for your business, this sale will surely be a hit amongst photographers!  The current sale is on press printed cards and here at Pink Ink we have some wonderful designs to help you take advantage of this sale!  Check out some of the great designs in our store (click on each photo to bring you to that particular item in the store!)

A Personal Touch

Long before I officially entered the realm of professional photography, I was into anything crafty.  If it was available at the local craft store, chances are I’ve at least dabbled in it once.  One of those hobbies that I had long ago was making my own greeting cards with rubber stamps.  I have shelving in my garage with my once well used supplies that are now covered in dust.  It was while browsing Etsy a couple of weeks ago with a search for “custom stamps” that I came upon Meagan’s store, Brown Pigeon.  To say that I was blown away by her custom stamps was an understatement.  But when I saw that she offered custom stamps which I loved because they’re all hand carved, a light went off in my head…….a custom stamp for my photography business.  I know, I know…..I’m not the first.  But when you find a great person to work with that will give you that authentic handmade quality you’re after in a product, Meagan is the one to go to.  I sent her my logo and within a few days, she had sent me a proof of what she had hand-carved.  To put it simply, I love it and I think it’s a great, yet small investment (only $35 plus shipping for my custom stamp-prices vary depending on size, amount of letters, etc.) to make my packaging stand out…..

(photo from my point and shoot since my camera’s sensors are being cleaned this week)

I plan on using my stamp on my chocolate boxes from DNL Photo Packaging, my kraft paper gift bags from Bags & Bows and maybe even make some thank you cards to throw into each box to add a personal handwritten thank you note!  If you’re interested in working with Meagan, be sure to head over to her Etsy store by clicking on her shop header below……she’s super quick and great to work with!

If you know of another great vendor that makes handmade products that other photographers can use, why not let us know so we can share with everyone!!!

Show and Tell….the Pink Ink Studios Way!

Whether you’re one of the nearly 5,000 customers that have been shopping at Pink Ink from the beginning or you’ve recently just discovered us, we want to see how you use our designs!  Many times, some of the designers will create something for their own personal use.  Others may design items simply to help others promote their business.  With so many opportunities to alter many of the designs here at Pink Ink, the possibilities are truly endless.  We like to think of our designs as stepping stones to help you create one of a kind materials that you are able to customize with your own branding, etc.  For this very reason, we want to see how you’ve used our creations!  What do you get in return…..how about a coupon code from the designer to use on products in their store?!!  Did you buy some card templates and get them printed up for your clients?  Are you using our marketing materials to help promote your business?  Are you using some of our web-related items like splash pages, etc to bring a fresh new look to your website?  Then why not take the time to send us a photo?!  As long as you follow us on our blog, Facebook or Twitter, you’ll be able to find out when one of the designers are looking for new images and what their guidelines are.  All current products purchased at Pink Ink from current designers are eligible and the following designers will be participating (be sure to look out for their blog post with their specific guidelines such as where to send the photo, prize amount, etc.)…..

Amy Kant

Carrie Bombria

Holly McCaig

Jackie Siperko

Kim Hill

Kim Drury (MadiLu Designs)

Tara Sroka

This weeks contest will start off with Carrie and the winner will receive a $50 COUPON TO CARRIE’S STORE!!!  It will run until Wednesday May 26 at 12pm (EST.)  Simply email Carrie a photo (or a link for web related items) of any product that you use in your business that you’ve had printed (must be a photo of the actual product) and tell us why you love it!  Item must currently be available for sale and only one entry with one product per person.  Multiple entries will automatically be excluded.  Please email your photo (or link) and why you love that particular item  to Carrie at carrie@carrieannphotography.com with the subject line “show and tell.”  Be on the lookout for further Show and Tell’s from the other designers at Pink Ink!

This is how Carrie used her Senior Rep Card Templates!  All colors can be completely altered to suit your clients needs!!

Win Carrie’s Entire Store!!

Wish you could have everything in Carrie’s store…….for absolutely nothing?!!!!  Now you have a chance!  The winner will receive a coupon code for 100% off Carrie’s store (other than logos.)  Additionally, a second and third prize will be awarded for $100 and $50 coupon codes.  And just so everyone is a winner, Carrie will give out a coupon code to all Pink Ink customers that will be announced on our Facebook page!  If you haven’t become a fan (or liked it with the new Facebook lingo) be sure to go join up…..lots of great coupon codes are announced from our designers.  So here’s what you have to do for a chance to enter Carrie’s Contest which is valued at OVER $1,300……

Post the following to your public blog, facebook or twitter account:

I entered to win Carrie’s entire store at @pinkinkstudios.com valued at over $1,300!  www.facebook.com/PinkInkStudios for further details!

****Once posted, come back to the comments section FOR THIS POST with a link to your PUBLIC ACCOUNT so that we can verify that a post was made.  Comments without links, links to non-public accounts and duplicate comments will automatically be disqualified.  IF YOUR LINK IS TO A PRIVATE ACCOUNT WE WILL NOT BE ABLE TO VERIFY YOUR POST AND YOU WILL BE DISQUALIFIED- IF YOU DON’T HAVE A PUBLIC ACCOUNT, THIS IS A GREAT REASON TO OPEN ONE!!!

This contest runs until 8 p.m. (EST) Wednesday May 5, 2010.  Remember, first time posters must be approved manually, so please wait up to 24 hours for approval of your comment. We choose our winners from the admin side, based on the time you commented, not when we approve you.  Only one entry per person please!  Comments must be made on the blog and not on our Facebook or Twitter Page.

Follow Pink Ink at the following….

www.facebook.com/PinkInkStudios

@PinkInkStudios on Twitter

A small sample of Carrie’s items….

ProPhoto Blog Theme Winner

And the winner is…..

Nicole Taylor from nicoletaylorphoto.com!  Congratulations Nicole!

A special thanks to ProPhoto for this wonderful prize!  Head on over to their website and check out their latest template and all of its great features!

Adobe CS5

So as we’ve all heard by now, CS5 will be released in a little under 2 weeks!  I still haven’t updated to CS4 myself since I had my workflow down in CS3 and didn’t feel the need too, but now that I’ve seen some of the previews over on the Adobe website I think that it might be time for a change.  Head on over here to check out this great video that shows some of the new features

http://cs5launch.adobe.com/?PID=3154956

So now the question is will you be updating your Adobe products this year?!

Pink Ink Studios Contest- ProPhoto Blog Theme

I’ve been using a ProPhoto Blog for quite a while now and I have got to say that it’s one of the best investments a photographer can make other than their gear!

(click on image above to go to prophotoblogs.com)

I think that the number one thing that drew me in was the large photos- add easy customization to the whole deal and I was sold!  Their latest template is no exception (which is why I really need to upgrade!)  Here’s all of the great reasons why I love it….

In the past, using a blog for your photography business has meant either 1)  choosing a cookie-cutter blog template, 2) trying to customize an existing template by modifying theme code, or 3) paying $3,000 or more for a custom blog.  ProPhoto changes all of that.  Phophoto is a super-theme that plugs into WordPress and gives you full control over the appearance of your blog, allowing you to easily customize your blog to match your branding and personality.  ProPhoto provides an easy to use interface that gives endless customization options, giving you the freedom to change your colors, fonts, backgrounds and your branding images however and whenever you want.  We have also built many photographer-friendly features into ProPhoto, like integrated image galleries and slideshows, right and left-click image theft protection, automatic image watermarking, a rotating flash header slideshow, and much more.  We’re so confident you’ll love ProPhoto, that we have a 110% money-back guarantee.  If you purchase and try it out for a week (or a month) and find that it isn’t what was advertised, we’ll give you your money back, plus 10% extra for trying.  ProPhoto blogs, a custom blog at a template price.

Wish you could have their latest template?  Well you have a chance simply by commenting on this post.  All entries should be placed on this blog post and not on Facebook or Twitter.  This contest runs for two weeks and will end on March 29th.  Remember, first time posters must be approved manually, so please wait up to 24 hours for approval of your comment. We choose our winners from the admin side, based on the time you commented, not when we approve you.  Only one entry per person please!

Increasing your Sales

While surfing the web and checking out the latest news from Alltop photography today, I found this article which lists 7 clever ways photographers use coupons to increase sales from Photoshelter.com….

1) One-Day Discounts on a Special Theme
Sara Wolfram is a wedding and portrait photographer based in California. As soon as the coupon feature was announced, she set up her first promotion.

“I launched a special “Valentine’s Day Discount” for all my family photography clients, to help motivate the slower buyers that I’ve been waiting on for orders,” she said. “It was so easy – I didn’t have to worry about configuring anything in the PayPal/shopping cart area, I just filled in a few blanks in the Coupon area and… Voila! I sold $375 in photos in one day! I love it.”

2) As part of a follow-up “Thank You” campaign
Kevin N. Murphy, a portrait photographer in Seattle, jumped on the coupon feature as soon as he learned it was available.

“I emailed a client a 10% off coupon as a ‘Thank you’ because they had gotten in touch with me that day about their pictures,” he said. “Within an hour of emailing them the coupon code they had placed a $100 order!”

Murphy said that he had shot their portraits over a year ago but the customer never finished with the ordering process.

“I don’t think there was really any problem, but in a family with two kids something had always interrupted them,” he said. “The coupon was just the nudge they needed to complete their order.”

3) Reconnecting with long-inactive customers
Scott Indermaur is a freelance photographer in New England, and is often hired to shoot several events each year, yet these events rarely produce print sales from the participants. He used a coupon to change that.

“I sent out a coupon to about 100 people [via email] and I had and made a sale,” he said.

The coupon he created was good for 20% off and the customer said that she wanted to use the coupon again with another order next week.

“The images she wants are from 5 years ago and are not live,” he said. “So, I will make 2 older events live and extend her coupon (or issue a new one) for a week so she can purchase more.”

“I’m sure this sale would not of happened if it wasn’t for the coupon,” he said.

4) Making promo cards more “valuable”
Karsten Moran is a commercial and editorial photographer in New York City. For the past three years, he has been shooting the Trek Across Maine, a fundraiser for the American Lung Association of New England. This year, he plans to work coupons into the mix.

“I am planning on handing out coupons on the backs of Moo cards this year as an incentive and attention-getter,” he said. “I expect (hopefully) that the coupons will give potential print buyers an extra reason to hold on to the cards.”

5) Quick and easy one-off discount tool
“If I have a customer I want to give a discount to, for whatever reason, I can now deal with that online with a special coupon for them instead of over the phone,” Indermaur said. “Therefore, taking less time.”

Moran says that he uses coupons for this reason as well.

“I used it to provide a discounted reprint to a client,” Moran said. “It was convenient, and allowed me to reduce the cost of a single purchase, without reducing the retail value of my product.”

6) Pushing “pending sales” to complete the process

Joel Strickland is a commercial and automotive photographer in Melbourne, Australia. He saw the coupon feature as a way to convert those “Pending Sales” into completed orders. Within a week of the coupon feature’s availability, he created his first one.

“I sent a message out to all pending sales in my shopping card for a special offer for 50% price reduction,” he said. “I converted one sale through to a final sale, and I am hoping to use them more and more in the coming months.”

7) Incentive to build a mailing list
Adrian Young is a documentary and editorial photographer in Bangkok, Thailand. Part of his marketing efforts involve maintaining a mailing list. It can be a challenge to get people to sign up to receive emails, so providing incentives can help increase sign-up percentages.

“I have only had the coupon in place a couple of weeks now,” said Young, “Though no sales yet with the coupon, it has helped me see a rise in people signing up for the email list.”

Source- http://blog.photoshelter.com/2010/03/7-really-clever-ways-photographers-are-using-coupo.html   Article written by Grover Sanschagrin

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Certainly something to think about until the temperatures rise and photographers in colder climates can photograph outside again!!

Designer Freebie

Here’s a set of 6 12×12 background papers that you can use on a variety of projects……custom albums, storyboards, cards, etc!  Simply click HERE or on the photo to go to the download.  Link will expire on 2/17/10.

Freebie courtesy of Carrie Bombria of Carrie Ann Photography and designer at Pink Ink Studios.

Posing Guides Winner

Congratulations to Jenny from Jenny Lynn Photography who won all four of Kelly’s Posing Guides valued at $200!

We used the Random.org generator to pick #28 and then to make it fair, we used our comment list from the admin section. This shows comments as they submit, whereas the blog will show you comments after we approve them (if they have never had previous comments before.)

We’ll be in contact with you Jenny!

Don’t fret if you didn’t win!  Kelly’s coupon code is still valid for 10% all of her products by using the following code….

Code: PINKINK

expires: 2/15/10

For more info, visit www.willettedesigns.com or

http://willettedesigns.com/photographer-tools/posing-guides/

Stay tuned for our next contest………..IT’S A REAL DOOZIE and you don’t want to miss out on the opportunity to receive it absoltely free just by posting a comment on our blog!!!!!!

Have you checked out Pink Ink’s latest products?  Be sure to head on over here to see what our designers have whipped up this week!

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