Bobbee

Near the end of the shoot. Got the B&G set up lake/pond side and things were just about finished. They relaxed and just enjoyed each other.

I posted one earlier on in the photography section. This woman was the most incredibly nice person I have ever met. No reservations. Just open and very loving. Makes you smile to be in her company.

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waltchilds Loc: Central Florida

Nice shots, Bobbee, and it looks like this was a very rewarding wedding shoot meeting such a nice lady. I think I would enjoy shooting weddings also, maybe one day.

Jay Pat Loc: Round Rock, Texas, USA

Nice!!
Pat

Bobbee

Yes, it was, It was right in Brandon. So the nice thing is I did not have to fight the causeway traffic and it was 15 minutes away. Got home in time to meet everyone at Cracker-barrel at the Grove for dinner. YUM, Country Fried Steal and Biscuits.

Bobbee

Mucho Gracias Pat.

bkyser Loc: Fly over country in Indiana

I agree, I absolutely love it when I look at a shot like this and find myself smiling back ad the people in the photo. I've never met the couple, but already feel connected.

Do you supply albums with your packages? I can't keep everyone here straight on who does what. Both of these look like perfect album shots to me.

Although people around here shy away from albums (money), I still always use the mantra "shoot for the album" I don't like to take thousands of photos that no one will ever look at anyway. I want every one of my shots to tell part of the story.

I think you accomplished that here.
Great job!

Bobbee

I offer up albums. It is up to the couple to select that. I give a quote and add the album as an option. All my weddings come from Thumbtack, it keeps me busy and full of Bologna and Cheese sandwiches. No steak, just Bologna. You get the idea. So most people that come through that venue are just looking for CD's. It is what it is. I started on Thumbtack to build my presence in Tampa. I want to partner with a studio and work as one of their photographers. Has not happened yet. I am coming up soon to selling the house in NY after my son graduates. Then I will open up my own studio.

bkyser Loc: Fly over country in Indiana

We've discussed Thumbtack before. Without buying credits, it seems to be unclear on the front end, how much you are paying to bid. (quote, bid, whatever you call it) How much is it per wedding?

The reason I'm asking is because my partnership with current partner is slowing down as his Muscular Dystrophy gets worse, and we are experiencing creative differences. So, I decided to actually start another business (different EIN and everything to keep the books straight), with my daughter, who in the last 4 years has actually exceeded the abilities of her "old man." In trying to build the reputation of the new business, which will ultimately just be hers, as I may just bow out slowly myself as my health issues slow me down as well... I was trying to figure the "cost of gaining a customer" using Thumbtack, figuring that you get one out of so many quotes. That way in this business, unlike my current one, we can properly figure our costs and price accordingly.

Wow, am I long winded today! In setting up a Thumbtack account, the thing I noticed is how vague they are in their pricing structure. I found another service that seems to be just like Thumbtack, called Wedding.com.....but they are just as stingy with information on how much each quote costs until you actually pay in advance.

Bobbee

I have am on Wedding Dot Com and in 4-5 months, $110 dollars and lots of bids, I have gotten nothing. In the same time on Thumbtack I got about 11 weddings.

Thumbtack estimates you get 1 in 10. I just did my expenses and last year I spent $1,400 in bids and got 13 weddings. NOW, take a step back for a second. when I first got on Thumbtack last year I went WILD bidding. I do have to say, I have my 12 wedding lined up for this year and did not spend near that. It was all a matter of education, the lead in quote, referrals and my sample Gallery I preset besides my website.

You can review the requests WITHUT bidding and see just how much it is. They range on average from 8-10 dollars. If you see a request and the budget id > $1,500 the quote price goes up to about $14. There are not many of them.

bkyser Loc: Fly over country in Indiana

OK, well it is great to figure that the cost per client acquisition cost would be roughly $107. That helps a lot in figuring cost per wedding. Considering that I've paid $500 for a booth at a bridal show, and walked away with 0 leads, and another time got a whopping 1, Thumbtack still doesn't seem too bad. I think part of it is probably a matter of how much competition.

I did have a thought that I'd like to run past you, and share here for others on UHH. My guess is that the amount of weddings per quote would go up a little if you concentrated more on brides that are asking for bids for weddings that are coming up soon (like, if the photographer was an after thought) as many others would already be booked, so fewer quotes? Just thinking about tactics that would help narrow down the field.

I've given her all the seed money that I plan on giving her, I set her up with 2 cameras, 5 lenses, 2 flashes, studio lights, soft boxes, backdrops, and $1000 to get rolling with getting business. I won't be the one doing the legwork here, I'm the money guy, plus I'm still doing weddings with the original company, and we are 90% word of mouth, because people know us. I figured turning her on to Thumbtack would help insure that she wouldn't be competing head to head with me, so I'm basically trying to take my own business. (I know it is convoluted, but I owe it to my current partner to continue maintaining the current business, and not leaving him high and dry. He's aware that we are "winding down" but I'm not going to abandon him, we've been through a lot)

Bobbee

The 10 to 1 is Thumbtacks estimate. So there are deals where people want you to cover the wedding and produce a book for 600. YEAH RIGHT!!

The ones that 'tend' to be good is where they give a phone to call. 10% are these. At least you have someone to talk to, I would say 40% of these no one EVER answers the phone. The problem with Thumbtack, there is NO investment from the requestor. I use Thumbtack al the time and have conversations with them via EMAIL all the time. I have explained that if they ased for a $5.00 deposit for a request they would weed out the bogus requests. Right now there is no ownership. So some kid could go on their site and post a request. They say they police for that. After they said that I asked them if they thought I was a two year old and believed anything an adult told me. Then I said PROVE it. So asking them would break their income model, So like asking congress to use Obamacare, this ain't going to happen. But they are pretty responsive if not self sided. I ask all my customers if they are aware that I have to pay to send them a quote. ALL say no and are surprised. Something else Thumbtack keeps silent about.

bkyser Loc: Fly over country in Indiana

Great info. Lots to think about. It is good to know that you are sold on the service. I sometimes tend to distrust people online, and always wonder if they requests for quotes are all real, or if there is some photographer out there, constantly posting, just trying to bleed people of their quote money.

Bobbee

I don't believe it's a photographer more than 2-3 12 year ole girls sitting up at a PJ party and playing on their computers in their jammies. Or maybe just people fishing for prices. Will never know. Thumbtack does not protect the people that the customers come to their site for.

bkyser Loc: Fly over country in Indiana

Unfortunately, I've found that elsewhere. Most notably was Google adwords charging me for clicks, yet my website monitoring showed nowhere close to the number that Google was claiming. No recourse, but to cancel my account. They just kept charging and charging, claiming hundreds of people were visiting my site, when it was more like 25 people actually visited the site from Google. Good luck fighting the 800lb gorilla. I learned that the hard way.

xxredbeardxx Loc: San Clemente CA.

Very nice. I always enjoy the photos and comments you post.
Thanks for sharing you talent.