We’ve covered why you need photography, how to get started and how to go about taking photos. Now we’re going to get to the part that writers are waiting for – what we’re going to use different media for anyway.
This article contains a lot of different avenues for you to consider, whether you’re a freelance writer, author or website owner.
As a bonus, a lot of these things can be applied straight away, and they’ll either boost your income immediately or add more value to the things you’re already doing.
Part Four: How To Incorporate Photography Into Your Writing
If you’ve been with me since part one of this series, then you’re probably wondering when we’re going to get into the usage of photography skills and multimedia items within writing.
It’s tricky to know where to start when it comes to incorporating multimedia work into your writing. After all, there are a million and one applications.
However, here are some things that I’ve done, or am in the process of doing, that will directly add to my value as a writer. Some of these things guarantee an instant return on investment.
Everyone
- Social media. Every writer benefits from having a social media presence. I’m not really a fan of any of it. However, if you look around, technology and social interaction is only going one way, and it’s not away from social media. Images and videos mean that your impressions and engagement go through the roof on your social media sites, so you should definitely add them.
- Building a stock library. You never know when you’re going to need a photo of a dog on a trampoline. If you happen to come across a dog on a trampoline, then that’s something you can add to your data banks. Who knows what you’ll use it for, but you’ll be glad you took that photo when you do need it.
- Reviews. If you’ve done the freelance monkey thing for a while like I have, you get an intuitive sense of whether someone has actually used the product they’re reviewing. Photographing any item, place, or service you’ve used and showing it to people shows you’re legitimate. People are going to be more distrusting over anonymous things in the future, so you might as well be ahead of the curve.
Freelancers
If you are a freelance writer, then chances are you could directly add value to your product or service. Here are two things that I’ve done that made me more money immediately:
- Some time ago, I added the option to buy relevant stock photography with every order. People who order articles or websites often want images to go with them. Before I started taking my own photographs, this would mean that I was basically a reseller: I’d purchase the stock photos from another site, and then take a tiny commission on each picture. With a camera, I can take photos of simple things, and add them to my own “stock library.” I then don’t have to buy someone else’s, increasing my revenue.
- Offer some of your writing as images. If you go to Fiverr, there are people who will pay to have messages written on all sorts of things. White boards, post-it notes, attractive girl’s bodies. You aren’t going to retire on this venture by any means, but you can make $4 for writing somebody’s name on a white board. That’s $2 a word, which is certainly better than a writing gig at a newspaper pays.
Authors
Most writers will probably think that this series has nothing to do with them. After all, they’re too busy writing the next great novel to worry about photographs for blog posts.
Of course, they should be thinking about photographs for blog posts. But even if you’re a pure author who doesn’t do any of that dastardly marketing stuff, here are ways to add value to your books by using multimedia things:
- Cover creation. Even if you’re with a publisher, you’ll have ideas. If you’re self-publishing, you want your cover to look and feel a certain way. Being handy with Photoshop and taking your own cover image is the only way to ensure that you can do that.
- Your face. You’ll have to have your face somewhere or other – whether it’s on your hardcover’s dust jacket or on your marketing materials or wherever. You could pay a photographer to take a photo of you, but then they might be rubbish. They might charge you more than the cost of a camera and tripod. They might make your face look fat.
Website Owners
If you own a website, or write for one, then you’re going to need to think about your approach to visual stuff for your website. As I wrote in the first part of this series, nobody on the internet wants to read; they want to look at pictures, watch videos and get everything they need to know in a quick infographic.
There are a million reasons why you should create pictures for your website, but here are some of them:
Information.
- People want infographics. They want everything they can digest in the smallest package possible. But they also want to know other things which images can provide. If they’re going to buy something, they probably want to know what it looks like. If you’re giving information on how to get a six pack in three minutes a day, then you’ll probably want to show you’ve actually done it first.
Emotion.
- It’s very difficult to get across emotion – and especially humour – when you’re limited to only the written word. A couple of cat pictures will make everyone think you aren’t a sociopath, and a picture of a starving orphan is probably going to get people to feel bad about themselves. If you want people to open their wallets, you’ll be wanting to show them more-so than tell them the benefits of doing so.
Love from search engines and social sharing platforms.
- Blog posts with pictures do better than those that don’t have them. Tweets get better engagement if they have an attached picture. People stay on your website longer if there are pictures and videos. Your website is seen as a quality website if it contains all different kinds of media. The time that visitors spend on a website is a factor for how well and how often the site appears in the search engine results page, and people spend a lot more time on the site if you embed an awesome video like the one below and they watch it through to the end.
Closing Thoughts
The above uses for photography in writing just scratch the surface. That’s because they’re things I’ve already done and seen a return on. You’ll find your own ways to use images and media if you try, and you’ll probably find niche-y ways to add unique spins on things that’ll give you competitive advantages.
Of course, if you’ve already found some, then by no means should you keep them to yourself when you could drop them in the comments section below.
Before that, here’s a link to the whole series:
Part One: Why You Need To Learn Photography For Writers
Part Two: What You Need To Start Taking Photographs For Your Writing Project
Part Three: Technical Stuff (Challenges an Amateur Photographer Will Face)