Snow, and when it rains it pours - the JHP business report‏ - Apr 2009

Yesterday it snowed 12 inches. That's just crazy. By Sunday, it's supposed to be Spring again and the temperature will get to 70 degrees. Like a parent in the grocery store, "Good weather, you get over here right now. I thought I told you to quit snowing. We talked about this."

And over the next two days, I have five photo shoots. When it rains it pours. This 30 Strangers project has drummed up some business. In addition to the 30 Strangers session each day, we have lined up a few other people that were interested, but didn't get on the list of 30 in time. And we do something different, now. Instead of just uploading all the images, we invite the people back to the studio to see the images projected large, on a screen. Then we offer the prints in packages. The least expensive package is $175. And we give them a nice discount if they buy something right then. Like I said, we used to just upload them and hope someone is in the buying mood. Now we put them in the buying mood and encourage them to think about getting lots of pictures. It's working. I wish I would have thought of this a year ago.

Speaking of a year ago, I've attached a file that shows our web traffic this year in April so far, versus our web traffic last year in April. It's consistently three times as much web traffic and on some days, much more than that. Some of the increase comes from the buzz we're creating with the 30 Stranger project. Most of these people have blogs and we've encouraged them to post about their experience here. Man, I love blogs. (NOTE FROM LONI: The picture did not turn out well...sorry)

Amy and I are working on getting a location to hold an exhibit once the project is complete. We've asked the Center for Women and Children in Crisis to ask Thanksgiving Point for a room that we could use at the same time they have their Mother's Day brunch. We'll see what happens there.

So there's the business report.
Justin

That was fun to read. Thanks so much for the update. It makes me so
happy to hear your good tiddings.

Janna and I are headed to the outer banks again later today. We
rented a cottage that is 4 miles up the beach, so we will be without
faxes or telegrams or the like. Incidentally, we will also be without
purse or script since Janna just lost her job. But we won't be without
giggles, sandcastles or lifelong memory-making. Let's hope those
memories aren't about taking 6 hours to dig a Honda Pilot out of the
sand while 4 hungry kids sit by and whine.

 Jordan

What's cool is the staying power. There wasn't a big surge at the beginning and then a drop off. You have sustained interest. Super cool. So happy for you. 



And BTW:  parenting usually falls on deaf ears, but you just keep at it whipping old spring into subserviancy!!

Jenni