You see… now the problem is compounded.

Someone has re-ordered some card-mounted prints from me.

Because my card-mount supplier has messed up my re-order, I now have exactly the same issue on my client’s re-order.

Gah.

Oh well… there will be a solution – I’ll see if any suppliers have stocks of the old mount.

Cost cutting, I don’t mind too much if done carefully.
Prices going up? A bit of a pain, but everyone is trying to survive.
Reducing features on an established product – shaky ground here, especially if it isn’t made completely clear.

Prices going up, reducing features AND not making it clear that your “re-order” will be the “new” product. Very poor.

All that PLUS making out that it’s 100% the customer’s fault when they express their disappointment. Not good.

This is the sort of position where, I think, I would take a hit on the bottom line to keep the customer relationship. I’d say – “Look, I’m really sorry you were disappointed with your product, send it back and we’ll refund you”.

That would be preferable to offering a refund (but not for carriage paid – around £20 down the pan), and saying that they can produce the old product but there will be a setup charge (£25), minimum order of 200 units (that’s about a year’s worth) and 2-3 weeks lead time.

They could have just not changed it. Time for a new supplier, I think. Good job one of the biggest trade shows is coming up soon.

Gah! There’s this SEO company whose name I won’t mention because I don’t want them getting any advertising but if you fill in the missing words before those in the title you’ll be there… anyway, they phoned again today. I started off politely…

Them: Hello, this is A.Twunt from There’s No Kind of Atmosphere Ltd and I’m phoning you today to ask…
Me: Ah… sorry, you’re talking to the wrong person. Your company phones me about once a week, and I’m not interested thanks.
Them: Oh… erm, ok… do you know what we do? Have we explained our service to you?
Me: Yes, you have, and I’m really not interested. Thanks anyway, bye.
Them: But can I just ask you what…
Me: Um… it’s time to put the phone down now, ok?
Them: STUART… YOU ARE REALLY NOT…
*slam*

I would normally put the phone down gently, and I gave him several opportunities to say “Well, thanks for your time, goodbye.” But this time a *slam* was definitely called for.

I’ve asked to be put on their no-call list before, but they say they don’t have one. Silly billies.

First page of google? Yes I am. Or am I?

On [December 3rd], Google made the biggest change that has ever happened in search engines, and the world largely yawned. Maybe Google timed its announcement that it was personalizing everyone’s search results just right, so few would notice. Maybe no one really understood how significant the change was. Whatever the reason, it was a huge development and deserves much more attention than it has received so far.

full story here

It seems that I see my own site as the first entry because I click on it quite often. Other people don’t see it on the front page. How misleading! But what’s interesting is the number of queries coming in – that suggests that a lot of people are also seeing it on the front page (three weddings, two family portraits, one commercial and two fashion/headshot). But now we can’t be sure what anyone is seeing.

So I just have to keep up with taking good photographs, and providing a service people will come back for and hopefully recommend.

An interesting development for sure!

I had a hate-hate relationship with wearing ties for many years. In fact when I left my secondary school to go to a casually-dressed sixth form, I swore I would never wear a tie again.

Now I find myself wearing them regularly.

A quote from Joe McNally’s excellent book The Moment it Clicks:

A professor I had in college used to tell me that if someone won’t listen to what you have to say because you’re not wearing a tie, then put on a tie, ’cause what you have to say is more important than not wearing a tie. He was right.

I’m inclined to agree.

SEO is Search Engine Optimisation. I can recommend it.

I’ve been sinking long hours into fine-tuning my website to show up in Google for relevant searches. It seemed like a thankless task. However, this morning I came on and did my usual check. My site has made it to first place for some very relevant keywords, and elsewhere on the first page for others.

The payoff? Between 9am and 1pm today I’ve taken two wedding queries and a corporate query.

Worth it? You bet!

If you are a local competitor I recommend NOT doing any SEO. If not, then it’s absolutely marvellous and you should do it straight away!

Part of the reason I had no time to run the Tuesday Challenge is due to the pending launch of Camera Tutor, a blog-style hints and tips site containing weekly tutorials for all levels of photographers.

It will launch on Friday 1st January, 2010 and have new content each Friday morning.

The site is redone. There may be the odd bit of teething trouble, but I reckon it’s fit for public consumption.

Here it is!

I’ve also moved the photography blogging (the professional stuff at any rate) onto the Latest News page of the site. I’ll continue to ramble inanely on this blog, don’t worry!

Incidentally, I have to say I’m very proud of those little buttons along the top that light up and stay lit and stuff. That took some real life programming like wot I used to do as a day job. I got a little nostalgic.

Time to re-read the excellent book that sweavo got me for Christmas last year. My photography site is ok. Every time I do a redesign it looks much better than it used to. But I feel it’s getting away from me again.

The challenge this time is to redesign without rebranding. My business cards and stationery are all good, I think – giving the view of quality and competence. The site needs a revisit and that revisit is about to start.

Incidentally, as loyal blog readers, have a sneak preview of my new slideshow Update: Deleted since I’ve redesigned the whole site. I haven’t finished adding photos to it yet (the repeat is too soon), but any comments would be welcome.

Wow. I’m glad I studied pipelines when I was at university.

I now find myself with…

One set of shots on CD ready to be put in an envelope and sent.
One set of shots where the prints are here and I’m waiting for the back and glass for inserting into a client-supplied frame.
One set of shots where the prints are here and I’m waiting for a couple of frames and need to order a specific frame.
One set of shots in mid-edit where the frames are ordered but the prints are (obviously) not yet.
One large scan which I performed this morning ready for restoration and printing on a huge canvas.
One order which is in its infancy and requires invoicing and starting to edit.
Two shoots coming up on Sunday.
One further potential shoot coming up next week.

I’m also glad that I instigated a detailed order book before I got too busy, even though at the time it seemed like overkill.

–
UPDATE: Oh yeah… and a viewing this evening.