Get a discussion going with most professional photographers about their biggest challenges and in the top ten will always be having to write anything for their blog, website, press releases or brochures.  Next will come their website in general and their marketing efforts.   Welcome to GhostRighters, a company dedicated to helping photographers “Ghost Write”, “Ghost Web” and “Ghost Market”.

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Here’s the fun of this new endeavor – it’s a resource center for photographers to help with the things most photographers hate to do most, starting with writing.  You’re artists, not writers and most of you best express yourself through the lens, not through a keyboard!

As an example – let’s look at a basic introduction for the description of a wedding photographer’s services.  Most photographers have a paragraph or two that describes what they cover with all the excitement of a can of soda that’s been left out on the counter over night – it’s got color, flavor but no fizz!   But read the paragraph below and think about how it compares with most introductions you’ve read:

Your wedding is a very special time in your life and it’s our job to make sure you enjoy it, without you worrying about what you might miss.   We’ll be your eyes!  We pride ourselves on being almost invisible and making sure your time is spent enjoying the day, not spending it in front of the camera, while everyone else has all the fun. 

Remember, your wedding album is your very first family heirloom and represents the start of your brand new family. We want to make sure, years from now, you’ll continue to enjoy sharing your wedding album with family and friends.

I’ve highlighted the sections in blue, because they represent the real impact of the description.  Too often a bride’s biggest fear is based on a horror story she heard from some friend who missed half her wedding, because the photographer was taking too much time on the formal portraits.  They don’t want to miss out on the fun. 

Then there’s the missed opportunity of really talking up the finished product, the wedding album.  A wedding album isn’t just a collection of images – it truly is the first family heirloom of a brand new family – come on, somebody tell me you can hear the angels playing the trumpets on that one!

Then there’s the challenge that comes with stuffing too much information into your website, so when you’re all done, the message of who you are and what you do is buried.  Or, how about the way you wrote up your last marketing promotion or that press release you never wrote that should have gone to the local paper?  Maybe it’s your blog that needs a little help because you can’t keep up with it or you’ve thought about doing a newsletter, but never had the time.

And if you don’t have a need for any help whatsoever, the new GhostRighters’ blog might provide you with some helpful hints on better ways to communicate to your target audience.

I won’t even try to deny this is definitely an infommercial, but it’s done with a whole lot of pride.    There are only two people who are as proud of this announcement as I am, my two partners in this endeavor, Shauna Harris and Matt Gartz.   Matt’s got extensive experience in graphic design and web design and Shauna’s roots are solid in advertising and three years with WPPI.  In fact, all of the speaker coordination for WPPI 2008 and 2009 was thanks to Shauna!

So the next time you hit the panic button over having to write up a description of your services, wander over to www.GhostRighters.com and do a little shopping.   Isn’t time you gave your image a voice?