As we get to the end of the year one thing that I like to do is plan ahead. And this is the culmination of what I have been thinking about for next year, revealed right here for the first time.

Photography in 2022 for me is going to be a year of targeted, deliberate growth which I am very excited about. I am going to be taking more photos, hopefully doing more client work, and building on what I have created so far. I will have more products to sell, and a more targeted audience to sell stuff to.

2022 is very much the year to go large in everything that I do.

OK – that is my plan, and yes it is ambitious. But that is what drives me, setting myself challenges and things to achieve.

Let me tell you more about this little lot here.

Being a photographer

Well after the last two years and all that went on in 2022 I want to get back to being a photographer. I have spent lots of time working on other stuff this year, and indeed last year, so 2022 is my year to get out and take more photos. And I have some plans to mix things up which I am excited about.

I have not done that much photography work, but I have done lots of other work. Now I want to address that balance.

My Blog

My weekly photography blog will continue, which I love doing. I am going to broaden things a bit in 2022, and am going to cover the following each month

• One or two architectural, construction or real estate photography posts. Sticking with my core business with much more focussed, targeted deep dives.
• One general photography thing. I have a list of subjects to write about which are broader, general photography things. They are still relevant to my core business though.
• One photo that I have created – I need to do more of this stuff including how I do edit my photos in Lightroom.

That kind of thing. I do not want to detract from my focus, my niche, but these other things are very much related, if slightly broader.

Photography Explained Podcast

The weekly output will continue of my small but perfectly formed Photography Explained Podcast. I have come so far with this which really does make me happy. And I genuinely love doing this.

In 2022 I am focussing more on improving

• the quality of the scripts
• the recording and production quality (more coats around my computer)

I will also be putting much more me into episodes. I want them to be better and more entertaining. And this is an exciting challenge for me and one that I am very much looking forward to working on.

And there will also be my extended offering, Photography Explained Extra Time. Well, I might call it that, I might not. This is another new thing that I am very excited to have a look at and try, which will hopefully be well received.

Why a podcast?

• Well it gets me out there, and gets me known
• I enjoy doing it
• It is a platform where I can promote myself
• Why not?

And it will hopefully provide me with another source of income. No I am not expecting it to make me a millionaire, but hopefully it will be another modest income that will add to all the other stuff.

Subscribers

A big push in 2022 to get more people to my website and subscribe to my weekly email, which is beginning to become one of my most important things.

I want to get 1,000 subscribers by the end of 2022 – again a big, ambitious target but one that I am going for.

1,000 true fans – that is the target for very specific reasons. That is my secret aim (OK not so secret now!).

This is a key part of my plans for growth, which I have done nothing with this year. So hopefully with some targeted, focussed work I expect to see excellent growth in 2022.

Courses

I created one course in 2021, How To Become A Real Estate Photographer – and that was a great learning experience.

I just need to learn how to sell them now!

And it has given me the bug to do more courses, but my first job is to work out how to actually sell them so that is a big job for 2022. So rather than just steaming in and creating another course I am going to make the one that I have already created work for me and get me some income.

I am also going to create some short courses on how to do stuff in Lightroom, now that I have worked out how to record what I am doing – another new skill that I found in 2021!

Social Media

Hmmmm. Social media. I have a mixed relationship with it. It is my age that is the problem I think. I am not a real fan, and am not really interested in getting likes, thumbs ups or whatever people do.

But on the other side of things.

When I promote my podcast I get more downloads. So as disappointing as this is it does actually work!

So in 2022 a much more cheerful outlook to not only social media but everything else will see me grow all over the place.

• You Tube – I am going to continue the regular output to my You Tube channels
• Twitter – the place to grow and interact. I quite like Twitter.
• Instagram/ Facebook/ LinkedIn/ Pinterest – the places to repurpose my content and promote me and my content.

So lots more activity on social media, like I say with a more positive approach.

Gear

No plans for new gear in 2022, not unless something breaks or something appears that will help me do things that I cannot do now.

I will still write about gear on my blog, and talk about it in my podcast.

But mainly this will be all about not needing new gear!

Business

Ah my business. That little thing. Well I still do other none photography related work, but in 2022 I want to increase my income from photography, and I want that income to grow on the online, passive side.

This is where things can make a massive difference, things working in the background quietly earning me bits of money here and there.

And I am going to have a push on client work, focussing on quality over quantity. I am not chasing everything, just the jobs that are interesting, and will help me grow, and of course give me new material to write about.

Less is more

Believe it or not this is actually less than I had in plan this time last year. This is a more focussed, targeted range of things that I am planning to do.

And here is a top tip from me about how to do stuff like this.

Batch things

This is the general plan for a month of content creation.

• Week 1 – blog
• Week 2 – podcast
• Week 3 – products
• Week 4 – email list and growth

I can get a month’s blog posts written in a week, and the same with my podcast. This includes all the promotional material for that month.

This is much more efficient working, and is how I get so much stuff done. The challenge is to get ahead of yourself so this can happen.

My photos

I have loads of photos that I have never done anything with. I am going to go back into Lightroom and dig out some of these and work on them, publish them and write about them on my blog and share them all over the place.

My photos are doing no good sat on my hard drive, they are not working for me in any way sat where they are.

And this is fun stuff for me, going back though photos that I have created and editing them again knowing what I know now.

And I can of course record myself doing these edits.

Composition

Composition is king. And I am going to work on my composition each and every time I go out and take photos.

And I am going to apply this to the photos that I am going to work on, making sure that each and every photo has the best composition possible.

Content schedule

I have created a content schedule – this appears in other things that I have mentioned. Online content will provide an amount of my income, and the growth is from what I have created to date, and my building on this over the course of 2022.

Products

I want to create products to sell – actual stuff. This includes

• eBooks

I have masses of stuff that I have written, lots of good stuff that I need to turn into eBooks which I can sell.

• Courses

I have created a course but before I create another one I need to make some money from the course I have created.

And my ideas for courses include more long form courses similar to my How To Become A Real Estate Photographer, as well as some much shorter courses.

And I am going to be creating some Lightroom courses now that I have learned how to record my screen and speak about what I am doing – I love doing this.

• Prints

I am thinking of selling prints online. Etsy is one outlet for this. One for me to look into.

• Subscriptions

I am going to create premium content which people pay for. This will be an interesting development that I am excited to explore in 2022. There will be different tiers of subscriptions, starting with just helping me out for a modest monthly investment in me.

Sources of income

As you will see, my plan for 2022 is to earn money from taking photos and lots of other things.

These are

• Ads on my websites
• Affiliate income
• Subscriptions
• Product sales
• Sponsorships

These things will hopefully add up to a decent additional income.

Building on what I have done

This stuff is what I love doing, and everything that I have done to date I will be adding to, building on.

This is important – I have spent too many years doing new things, changing from one thing to another. But now I am building on what I have done to date, which should produce benefits in 2022.

I have built the foundations and am now adding to them with all this stuff.

Less is more

All this stuff, blimey. To be honest this gets me excited thinking about all this good stuff.

And believe it or not this is less than I had planned for 2021. Less is more, quality over quantity.

And maintaining my focus in the areas that I have worked on in 2022.

Taking photos

Taking more photos was the number one thing for me for 2022, let’s see how that goes…. I need to get out more taking photos and spend less time sat in front of my computer.

Related viewing

You can also watch me talk about this blog post, or part of this blog post that is, by clicking on this link which takes you straight to my You Tube Channel.

Summary

2022 is going to be my year of growth. I will be building on what I have created in 2021, which is the firm base for the content I will create in 2022. This is the beauty of niching down, it gives me a focus and allows me to get deep into stuff.

Thanks for reading this post, any questions get in touch. Cheers from me Rick