Business Ideas Swap

[Nitrospazzz]

That is a good idea. I am putting together a database of all sorts of AP related info, mostly heli but there is some plank and mast stuff as well. I will be putting a link up once I feel its ready for the public, hopefully it can be a good reference for people as well as help my ranking.

[MLaBoyteaux]

I'm trying to develop a plan for marketing to golf courses before spring gets here. One approach I'm thinking of trying is to offer to shoot some photos on their course at no obligation. If they like the photos, then I'll sell them the rights to use the ones they want. If they don't like them, there's no obligation to purchase them, but I get to use them in the future for my own promotion to the next golf course.

Ideas?

[furyphoto]

Hey Mark,

You always walk a fine line when you shoot on Speculation. Spec is not a bad thing, I have made a lot of money from shooting events, and heliskiing :glasses2: on spec ( http://www.tlhheliskiing.com/content/weekly2006.php ) Weeks 10 and 12 of 2006 have some particularly nice shots - If I say so myself!

Often after they see the image, they have to have it. But, make sure that your rates are clear up front, before the shoot.

A keen negotiator, (or a Cheap Bast**d) will always come up with the "Well you have already taken it and done all the work, so if I give you $50 instead of $500 that is still better than nothing"

You have to be prepared to stick to your fees, and defend why you cannot accept less. (Maybe offer to pay him $20 for a round of 18 instead of $150, because the Tee Time is empty anyway, and $20 is better than nothing) At least if offers a good comparison.

Spec Photography can be successful, you just have to be prepared to the type of challenges that come hand in hand with it.

Having said that, there is a golf course about 30 steps away from my house, and when I get my Swift in the air, it will be one of the first places I go to try and sell some AP.

Regards,

Andrew

[Tonystott]

I have tried a different approach.. I took a couple of shots at one course, and use them as a sample to market to others. The additional issue I have to deal with at the moment is that Sydney is in drought, so courses can't be watered unless they have their own bore, so course managers don't want pix of their desert!

Check the brown in this shot to see what I mean!

[staplegun]

I am approaching AP from a Civil Engineering / Surveying standpoint.

For me AP is a tool to make site work and planning easier. The ability to get photos an elevated point of view allows you to see things that you would not see from the ground. A bit of background, I live in the Rio Grand Valley in the Southern Rocky Mountains (New Mexico, USA) the developments that I am working on have some sort of relief that needs to be worked with / around.

I have a planned visit to one of my projects to layout a road through a really ugly area. If weather permits after I walk the road alignment, I plan on flying the alignment from both directions while taking photos.

From the surveying standpoint, I am looking at taking "pseudo-orthophotos" of a lot/site. Once again to help with locating items on a site and determining problems areas. These would be taken from a "high" altitude looking straight down.

I also plan on supplying developers aerial photos of of their project with the design work overlaid on the photo close to what LoopBaCK has done with his Red Oak II pic.

Last but not least, given the right printer (I have one)... Ignore the Swift and the 600.

[cainebean]

Man I'm glad this is up here again! Knowledge is power!

[cainebean]

Forgot to add my tip, search for adobe lightroom. Its a beta product right now so it is free! I've only played with it for a few hours but I've got to say I'll probably be using this a lot! It gives you Raw control for your jpegs.

[cainebean]

www.castleridgeestate.com

Here is an example of the type of jobs I’ve been doing lately. This is geared towards real estate or construction type jobs but could be used in many different ways. I would appreciate any comments you might have about the site.

Basically, I take the pictures, do any formatting I feel the photographs need, purchase the domain name and finally upload the pictures to a main server. From there, the photographs are put in a database and the end result is the website above. No HTML coding. All of the backend is automated.

The template for the above site is a work in progress. It started out as a manual slide show with basic information. Now it promotes the agent/builder. It has a tab for an automated slide show with background music. It has a tab to guide a potential buyer from their location to the actual property. If you are into 360 tours, it has a tab for that as well. Like I said, this is a work in progress. And only the tabs that apply will be shown. And I’m trying really hard to keep it clean!

I offer this as a service to all of the agents I work with. For an additional charge of $50 this gets them the website, the domain name they want if available, and hosting until the property is sold or built. And if they don’t want me to photograph the property for them, I’ll use their pictures. This is a tool to push their business not mine. If they are happy with their pictures, at least I still have something to offer them.

Some of the agents just buy the MLS pictures but I’m getting more and more wanting to use the website as a tool as well.

[quietriot]

I noticed all the awesome business idea discussion halted around mid January. Is this thread closed or is there another reason for the abrupt halt? I'm just getting started in professional A/P and am gaining a ton of useful insight and tips.

[borneobear]

This thread is truely inspirational.

What's happened to Caine and his fledgling AP business?
Anyway, thank you for sharing everyone.

[Efliernz]

As someone who is starting from scratch with AP, this thread (and DJ's book) has been invaluable.
Thanks to all who have contributed. I look forward in the near future to sharing my success (with the odd failure) too.

[Tonystott]

Originally Posted by borneobear

This thread is truely inspirational.

What's happened to Caine and his fledgling AP business?
Anyway, thank you for sharing everyone.

I think you will find he is busy making money!!

[borneobear]

Originally Posted by Tonystott

I think you will find he is busy making money!!

I sincerely hope so!!!

[cainebean]

I'm still here and doing really well with my business. I let the thread go because I just didn't have enough time to keep it going. I was hoping this would turn into a really nice "Exchange" of info.I had this same topic on 2 other boards.

Just an update on my business. I'm still pushing along. The majority of my work now is done using a Bird Shots mast attached to a golf cart. I'm waiting to see what will come with the FAA stuff before I start pushing the higher aerials again. More than 90% of all my business comes from real estate and a 50 foot mast is more than enough to really showcase the homes.

I will say that I'm doing more inside and outside ground based shots than aerials though. This kinda fell into my lap and now it is the direction! A few posts above this one has a link to an example of the sites I've been doing. And I think the biggest tip that I would give anyone wanting to get into AP is don't forget about the ground based stuff as well.

When I first started I was like everyone else that thinks aerials our way is such a great idea and there has to be money in it. There is but there is a lot of different ways to make money with your same equipment. I'll leave it at this.... Take the average neighborhood where you live and ask yourself these questions.... How many of those houses do you think "Need" AP? How many of those "Need" ground based pictures from inside and outside? If sales is a numbers game, and AP is all about numbers, then it just makes sense to ME to offer ground based photography to everyone I come into contact with and use the AP side as the "cherry on top."

Caine