I would love to do Senior Photos! It seems like they'd be so much fun. I see people mention the term "Senior Rep" so I can only assume you've struck a deal with this senior to use them as a real live marketing tool, to spread the word about you. Any ideas on how I procure a senior rep of my very own?



Thanks all..

what I did was I did a friend's daughter's pictures for free. She was super cute, super popular and I knew would have a ton of people at her grad party. It only took one freebie to get the ball rolling for me.

Good luck, Seniors are sooo much fun.

If you are not on FaceBook -- do it right now. It won't help you get a rep -- but it will help you market to other seniors. Get a presence on there and then once you get your reps friend them up and post and tag their pictures. It will help get the word out for sure!

I did create a photography facebook but I think I did it.. wrong? Haha. Not sure. I need to investigate..

I will see if I know anyone with a senior. I know someone who has like a 16 year old daughter, but since I am only 24, most of the people I know have kiddos in the infant - 10 year old stage..

Brandi,

My first year I called my local High School spoke with the Senior Advisor and asked her to pick me someone who she thought was deserving and who would not otherwise be able to afford senior portraits. She gave me some names, I called them and found my Rep. It was a great experience for me and my rep. I have lots of kids wanting to be reps now, but it was a great way to start. I now do that every year.

Just an idea.

Mel O.

I found mine through people I knew from church. If you have any contacts within the community, ask them. If you have a contact who works at the high school, they can give you the hookup. What about going into Starbucks, starting up a casual convo..maybe one of them is going to be a senior, knows some seniors...

Those are some good ideas. So some more questions..I really know nothing about this because I was homeschooled so I have no experience with public high school and how it works.

When do Seniors normally DO their senior sessions? My friend/fellow photographer says she has heard they often do them in the summer before school starts so they can use the pictures in the yearbook. What time period do you normally shoot seniors who are graduating the following May?

I appreciate all the advice!

All year round! I find that its more senior busy in the late summer-fall.

Thanks for posting thist topic! There are some awesome ideas mentioned I would like to try myself!




From what I remember Seniors usually do their sessions sometime in their Junior year or the summer before their senior year. I also remember that sometime in the begining of the Junior year the company that did the class rings, t-shirts, keychains, etc. started marketing their stuff heavily and orders were usually placed in the fall semester. That's when the buzz started about senior sessions. I'm recalling all of this from being in the class of 2000...there's probably someone that might know a little more than me!

Okay cool.. I guess the main thing my photog friend and I were wondering was... "Is it too late??" Haha. Certainly not everyone in the DFW metroplex has their Senior photos done by now.. but I was just curious when they did it.

I'm sure you could find seniors for the 09 year...there's always people waiting to the last minute, and I don't even think July is last minute. I've even heard of photogs shooting way into the Senior year. Go for it!

I posted on my photog MySpace and on a local LJ community checking for a girl and guy senior rep offering to waive the session fee. We'll see if I get some bites! Thanks for all the info.

Try printing up some trendy cards for the nail salon. There are always high school girls getting pedicures when I'm in there.

it's not too late! Seniors around here don't usually start taking pictures until the month school starts! and I even did 6 seniors last year during the last month of school!

That is a good idea about the salon. I was also just thinking, what if I printed up some little discount cards to give to my future reps that say like.. "Free 8x10" or something like that? Do you think that would be a good draw?

Go for free wallets... They like to hand those out... Moms like the bigger ones.

I guess that makes sense!

good idea for the free wallets!!! You can never have too many of them! I think I will do that!

Hey, I was also thinking about.. What about offering some kind of promo or discount on a little accordion album? The accordion albums from JLee are so cute and cheap, it seems like a fun way to let them pick 12 faves.. Does anyone do something like that?

anyone have any referral cards they would like to share?

That's the kind of stuff I'm looking for. I have a ton of ideas, but I'm looking more at what kind of stuff to give the reps to hand out- the wording, sizing, benefits to the reps. that kind of thing.

Here's the last senior card we made - blog post about it with images here

This time I went with a 5.5" x 8.5" UV coated postcard, but in the past I have done 4"x5" and 5"x5" cards.

Maybe it will help give you some inspiration

That helps A LOT! Thanks!

Ross - That is pretty freaking awesome! Thanks for the inspiration.

You're welcome
I have been finding that when those sale cards get into the hands of the parents of seniors is when our phone starts ringing. I had the student on the card hand the cards out at school for a couple weeks and then we mailed out a letter with the card included to the students of our local HS and that's when the phone started to ring.

I just started the senior rep thing this week. In the matter of 6 hours I had all 4 senior reps! Craigslist! This year I wasn't choosey as to what they look like. I just wanted to get the ball rolling to get my name out there among seniors. Next year I will post up an application on my blog and require a photo to apply.
I am doing bonuses for each person they refer to me then pays the session retainer fee by Oct 31. I am contemplating to give the top-"seller" an I-pod 4 gig Nano. Of course there would be a bare minimum of the top seller... maybe 10?
For referral cards I am doing business cards. If any one knows of any templates for these types of cards, I would love to know about them!

Your photography myspace page is awesome. How did you get rid of the myspace look? Well done my friend!!!

Jana, could you share more information. I posted an ad on craigslist for seniors and got nothing. Where did you post, could you share a link maybe?

I need some seniors... I absolutely LOVE this market. I think it is the most fun. I have one but I need more!!! : )

Hello Mark
First off, thank you!!
It does take some time and I've been putting off updating it after our sale ended for a couple weeks
It is basically a CSS coded webpage overlayed over the myspace profile. Then the usual myspace links like 'Add' and 'Message' are added in.
There are a couple free templates and some instructions along with them HERE. This is where I started last year. This year, however, I created my profile site from scratch.

ross.james

p.s. thanks for the friend add

So I've shot a bunch of free shoots and am prepping the business cards I'm going to give to each kid. I'm not sure these images are final for this particular girl, but this is what I'm planning on giving her to hand out.

for each card i get back, the girl on the card, gets $10. and for each friend bringing it in, they get the free wallets. Yes there's a limit on how much $ she can get and it's only available for one person at each high school.

Thoughts on the card before I print it?

Dude your senior stuff RULES. Seriously. Wow.

I would guess that every incoming sr in Plano who is on an obtainable mailing list has gotten at least 4-5 mailers by now. Most start before the end of school.

Thanks for the input David. I think it's harder when you live in such a huge metro area to compete in a market like that. Particularly when you're starting out.

Wow Ross, I LOVE your myspace page!

I just started marketing for this, I'm mostly using facebook right now but I'll probably expand to myspace soon. I've gotten one of my reps from facebook and waiting on a response from another.


Do you all have 1 rep from each local high school?

Moo.com now has full size business cards! I have already used the mini cards for rep cards. I usually choose 20 images from their session for the backs. They work perfect because I can get multiple pictures for 100 cards. I love these for rep cards but I think I will use the regular size cards next.

Thank you Alyssa



Becka and Nate-
I checked out your stuff and I like it alot:)
Yes we have 1 rep from each local school.
As far as my own facebook I am just mainly tagging some brides and wedding party with photos that I upload, and since I can control the myspace page more I have adapted that as our senior webpage.

I think it is important to have a separate blog for your seniors and make SENIOR PORTRAIT appropriate blog entries!!