- wedding photography
- pet photography
- portrait photography
- fashion photography
- advertising photography
- newspaper photography

The choice is endless. Identify your photography category passion. This is a good start to knowing what photography mode to slip into. Here are some things to think about:

- What do you enjoy photographing the most?
- What are you good at?
- Where will the money come from?

Making some good choices in photography might be enhanced with thes few tips.

Planning your Business Strategies

Think of it this way. You never go to the airport when you want top go on a vacation and say sned me somewhere for my holiday. You can plan where the destination will be, your starting point, and any stops along the way.

Too many photographers think it is as simple as printing business cards and building a website. It is not. Focusing too much on displaying your work may not (in the end) bring in the quality and quantity of customers you need.

Sit down and write a business plan include your goals and a plan to achieve them. You photogoraphy business plan should include your financials, your marketing intentions, and any direct selling strategies. Your goals should be evident in your business plan so that someone can read it and see what you’re planning to do, how you’ll do it, medium and long term.

There are even specialists who can help with a business plan. Notice I said specialists – seminars, workshops, and consultants.

Get Professional Help

Evaluate your strengths and weaknesses. Don’t force yoourself to attempt the weak areas yourself, think carefully about hiring someone. If you can’t come to grips with the financials for instance – then hire an accountant. Sure it will cost you more but how much will it cost you if you get it wrong? If you are worried about a lack of skills in any one arear, get a ‘subby’ (sub-contractor).

You can always learn the skills yourself, but it may not be worth it for the cost of hiring someone on a project basis. And, in the new age of the Internet, there is always the option of virtual assistants who can do all manner of tasks to help ease the burden of running a photography business.

HomeAway (www.homeawayconnect.com), formerly Renters.org, really simplifies the rental of your vacation home and is FREE to use. You can save time with the day-to-day details of your vacation rental, so you can focus on what’s really important- finding the right guests and making them feel at home.

Weather you rent a little or a lot? HomeAway Connect can help you.

• Manage your reservation and payment process with online tools.
• Get ideas and advice from a community of vacation homeowners.
• Benefit from the experiences of a team of vacation rental experts.

How it Works

Already have an account on Rentors.org, HomeAway Network (A1Vacations.com, CyberRentals.com, GreatRentals.com, HomeAway.com) or VRBO?

No sign-up or registration process is required. You will be automatically upgraded to the new Reservation Calendar.

If you don’t have an account, follow these 4 easy steps to get one.

1. To open your free account, use your email address as your login ID and choose your own password – you’ll need it in order to maintain your vacation rental calendar in the future.

1. After you create your account and select the tools you want, you will be assigned a unique Property ID.

1. Use your new login ID and password on the HomeAway Connect website (formerly Rentors.org) to update your property’s Reservation Calendar anytime.

1. To link to your Reservation Calendar from another website, use the URL (web address) below and replace “[your property ID here]” with your unique Property ID number.
   http://www.homeawayconnect.com/calendar.aspx?propertyid=[your property id here]
   For example:

   http://www.homeawayconnect.com/calendar.aspx?propertyid=9

2. Please update your bookmarks and links. All you need to change is Rentors.org to homeawayconnect.com

As vacation rental owners, we use the FREE HomeAway calendar because it allows you enter renter’s information, arrival time and special instructions, and contact information.

What is even better, it works across the HomeAway Network that currently includes about 8 paid vacation rental directories and your own personal site, and our FREE Vacation Rental Listing site, Your Travel Buddy.

So, when you make a reservation and you update your HomeAway calendar, just ONCE! Your calendar is automatically updated on all sites where it is featured.

You do not have to list your vacation home on the HomeAway Network to get a free calendar, but we highly recommend it, as we have our vacation homes listed with them, along with our own personal vacation rental website and our FREE Vacation Rental website, Your Travel Buddy.

HomeAway Network and VRBO is the largest network of paid vacation rental services and get receive millions of hits each and every day. The cost to advertise your vacation home on the HomeAway Network is just $299.00 per year.

We are not associated with the HomeAway Network, but we know vacation rentals and we use their FREE vacation calendar and paid listing services.

Please feel free to list your vacation rentals on our FREE vacation rental advertising website and be sure to include your HomeAway calendar link to your listing. We all could use additional free advertising and bookings.