Toronto Newborn Photographer | To Do List
Today is my first day back as a Toronto Newborn Photographer and I am working on my to do list. I thought it might be a good idea to blog about some of the things I work on each day.
As a business owner, not just a Toronto Newborn Photographer, I am always working on something. My growth coach in business school, Joanne Cairns Ferns, once told me I was a born entrepreneur. You see, I’m always thinking outside the box to generate leads or find ways to increase Google ranking. Joanne really is an amazing person to work with if you are looking to grow your business. Joanne really helped me get my business off the ground when I first started 10 years ago.
Returning to Work from Maternity Leave
Today is my daughter’s first day at daycare. All I hear is silence around me. She just turned 9 months on October 6th. I know other moms can relate to the uneasy quiet feeling on your first day away from your baby. Besides that, I feel lost today but I’m also really excited about getting back to work and photographing my tiny little subjects again.
Site Redesign for Newborn Photography
Some of you may have noticed my newborn photography web site has been changing a lot. I have been working massively on my site. I would love feedback on any issues because this would really help me as a Toronto Newborn Photographer. There are still a few glitches to work out.
The guys at Pro Photo Blogs have been absolutely amazing. Steve helped me to merge my two blogs together. If there’s any content you couldn’t find, you should be able to find it now. Even dating back 10 years ago when I first started as a Toronto Newborn Photographer, all of the content from when I first started is there. I’ve added a search feature at the bottom of the site and a category drop down box to help you find content.
SEO and Backlink Auditing
One of the major items on the to do list is to organize the back end of my web site. Everything on my site is akin to throwing documents into a filing cabinet without folders or organization. I never thought or heard about parent folders or directories. What’s that anyway?
Over the Thanksgiving weekend, I spent time auditing backlinks to my website. It should have been marked as the #1 item on my to do list. There were 963 backlinks that needed to be disavowed. Seems the last time I did this was on December 30, 2015. Now that’s all sorted and I have automatic email alerts to monitor the health of my Toronto Newborn Photography web site.
Disavowing Backlinks
My Google ranking was slipping after holding the number one spot for 10 years. I really didn’t put any time into monitoring things during my pregnancy and maternity leave because the time I spent with my daughter was invaluable to me. During this time, I accumulated 963 back links to my web site with the anchor text “Toronto Maternity Photographer”. I’m very grateful I didn’t receive a manual Google penalty. Being indexed is far better than not being indexed at all.
Disavowing 963 links all at one time sent a negative signal to Google and because of this, for a few days, I was nowhere to be found on Google. Like nowhere, not even on page 8. Today I seem to be sitting at around #20 and I’m really happy with that.
The following is my to do list for today. I know I won’t get through everything in one day. I’ll most likely add and take away things as the week goes on. Every day as a newborn photographer, I always try to find time to work “on” my business not just “in” it.
TO DO LIST
- session confirmation Chinita
- session confirmation Veronica
- Message Anita regarding weekend Fall session
- return call to Tori
- return call to UPS regarding shipment clearance from Intuition backgrounds (special backdrop I ordered for baby Phoenix’s upcoming session. Super excited it will be here on time for his session.
- blog post – maternity photos strip lighting – link to Google and inter link
- update Whois record
- check Facebook participation pages
- ask one person for Google review – thank you Lindsay!
- order cards for daycare celebration
- remove 5 client viewing galleries
- remove 5 cutest baby photo contest pages
- make web site Pinterest friendly
- make blog posts show up individually
- add social share buttons for blog posts
- photograph new props for blogging/ social media sharing
- make to do list blog post
- work on SEO checklist
- continue to monitor backlinks profile
- work on 10-year celebration giveaway contest
Next Blog Article
The next blog article will be about maternity photos and strip lighting. I thought this would interest newborn photographers looking to expand their photography business. I’ll be sharing my techniques for capturing this creative lighting technique and how I pose the expectant moms.
If you have any questions about anything in this blog post, please feel free to leave a comment on this page below.
New Props
New props have been arriving to the studio (surprise!). So excited to put all of these beautiful new things to use during upcoming newborn photography sessions. We have 2 beautiful baby girls and two baby boys scheduled to be in soon.
The images throughout this blog post are some of the new fun prop items and accessories that have arrived to the studio. More are on their way 🙂
I love the classic nature of newborn photos. My sessions focus on quality over quantity. Therefore, I take my time to ensure the highest level of quality during each newborn session. Some of my favourite images are the close-up images of babies where you can see all their tiny details right down to the fuzz on the sides of their little cheeks.
The studio is fully equipped with so many beautiful props, hats, backgrounds and accessories. I always recommend limiting your sessions to one or two colour choices. A primary colour and an accent colour. This will make a collage or album look beautiful. Focusing on your baby is what we want to do to ensure we have high quality images that will be classic and timeless.
If you need help finding a newborn photographer you can read Choosing the Best Photographer for Your Toronto Baby Photography Experience or try searching on Google.
GIVEAWAY
Can you believe this month marks my 10-year anniversary! Yay! Makes me really think about my humble beginnings and as I start back to full-time work as a Toronto newborn photographer, it really feels the same. I’m out and about in the community making connections and looking forward to photographing every day again.
As a celebration, I’ll be posting a giveaway contest next week on Facebook. I’m super excited about this as it’s something I’ve never done. Who knew having a 10-year-old daughter could give you amazing marketing ideas. I can thank my beautiful and smart eldest daughter for giving me this idea!
If you would like to learn more about my newborn photography work, please visit the newborn gallery to view more photos of babies.
Bookings are available for November and December 2018. You can connect with me by email at info@chandraleephotography.com or by phone at 905.449.2220!
Hi Kelly! The SEO part is the hardest part of my business (I find anyway). Always so much to learn and everything changes so quickly. Thank you!
Thanks so much Deb! I’m really interested to see how my work changes now after having Albany. She’s been such an inspiration to me. xo
Thanks Corey! First two days of daycare weren’t too bad. We just had the weekend together. This week I have 4 sessions and I’m hoping she’ll have fun at daycare and get socialization there.
Welcome back! I know it’s hard sending a little one to daycare, but I am sure you’re excited to get back to your newborn photography! Great to-do list!
It’s funny how you see the final product of a newborn photographer session and think “that must be such an easy job to work with these sweet sleeping babies” but you’re so right – there is a long to do list that you have to get through before you get to those beautiful final shots. The back end stuff isn’t easy by any stretch, and revamping all your props and backdrops – not always as fun, but super essential. Glad you got through all that. I can’t wait to see how things unravel for you and your work now that you have inspo from your own baby!
I’m obsessed with all of these details! I’ve never really seen a photographer blog about all the SEO work that goes into our jobs, so I love that you’re talking about it. Also that lighting on the last portrait is magic. Great work Toronto Newborn Photographer!
I love how you’ve captured this. The shots of the objects to be used is lovely. Creative newborn photography.
Thank you very much Sarah!
These textures and colors are just incredible they make me want to bring in all the babies to such a talented Newborn Photographer !!! I love following your work!
I’m so ready to be back to work. Very excited for my upcoming sessions! Thank you Lindsay!
So many awesome props and outfits for a newborn photographer! I love seeing the studio so stocked up and ready!
Thank you so much Daisy! It definitely is worth it. So much dedication involved as you know but also so much pride in running our own businesses.
I’m only 2 years into my business, and I question myself a lot if it’s even worth it b/c of the behind the scenes tasks! Running a business is so hard, but you seem to have a good system! You’re so organized and detailed! And you’re a great newborn photographer too!
Thank you Lindsay. The behind the scenes tasks are what take up most of our time for sure. It definitely was the most important part to start on for me today. Thank you so much for your comment!
Congratulations and welcome back from maternity leave! I absolutely love how you dive into the business aspects of running your photography business today. The behind the scenes work is so important and a great reminder that I have a lot of things to add to my to do list 🙂 You are a talented newborn photographer and entrepreneur and the Toronto area is so lucky to have a newborn photographer who values all aspects of her business!