#1 *** You must have a website. If you can't afford one, make a blog or an online, free portfolio on carbonmade.com. A website template service that has great flash websites for about $25/month that you can make yourself is PhotoBiz. You need a link to be able to send people.
Make postcards and business cards with a picture on them at vistaprint.com.
Sending emails with your website is usually more effective than postcards.
Post ads on craigslist weekly.
Drop off your book constantly to magazines. Always have it out. Get the names/locations of magazines and their editors on Mastheads.com. Make more than one if you can. Get your portfolio made at House of Portfolios in Chelsea. 8.5x11 or 11x14 are good sizes.
Buy a professional looking bag to put it in.
Mastheads.org: an amazing resource for contact info for magazine people. It’s about $25 for the year, and worth it. Will give you photo editors’ phone # and email info. Email or call all the magazines you want to shoot for and ask what their portfolio drop-off day is. Calling is sometimes the most effective as letters get lost or don’t get FWed to the right person.
Send gifts/press kits to photo editors every holiday you can think of (drop off at messenger center). I picked about 5 and keep sending them things, so they get to know my name.
Conde Nast: 4 Times Square (messenger center entrance is in the back of the building on 43rd)
New York Times: 620 8th Avenue, messenger center is on 40th Street between 7th and 8th, just east of the building entrance. Ask in lobby if you can’t find it.
Teaching can be a good balance to freelancing. If you want to teach photography, send out teaching packets (letter, resume, your postcard) twice a year to schools. Send follow up emails 1 month before Fall and Spring semester starts (a lot of the last minute hiring happens then). Think about teaching private photography lessons as well.
Join ASMP or APA while you’re still a student, right before you graduate. You’ll have the membership for the whole year at the student rate. They’ll give you access to the emails of tons of photographers in the city. Great way to get assisting jobs.
TA at a school’s photo dept to keep access to equipment once you graduate.
If you don't kow how much to charge for something, or for selling your images, Getty is a great resource. Go to their website and see how much they charge for their stock images. As a backup, think about how much your time is worth and charge an hourly fee. It's standard to charge an hourly retouching fee as well.
Stock photos- put your stuff on iStock or a similar site.
Check Mary Virginia Swanson’s blog often for ‘calls for entry’. Try to apply for 1 thing a month. www.marketingphotos.wordpress.com. Also look at www.spenational.org/opportunities and www.artdeadlineslist.com for calls for entry.
Sell your work on etsy.com
If you want to do event photography, call up law firms, schools, non profits etc and ask for the name and # of their PR person/ Event planner. Several Law firms also have “art buying committees” which choose art to hang in their offices. Banks can also be good clients for selling fine art prints to, or even leasing them.
Click on the image below for an example of what a standard photography invoice to bill a client might look like:
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