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This educational site offers decades of experience to those with a strong desire to start a new career as a wedding photographer, and to those that want to see their photography studios shine bright.

My name is Aric Hoek, and I’ve been on a 23 year journey as a professional photographer. Please use the form to the left to inform me which of the products below you would like to see developed next, or if you wish to be notified when a new product is released.

You’ll never be the same. You’ll be better!
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01) eBook Bundle

Purchase both “Actions You Can Take to Promote and Protect Your Studio” and “Marketing and Selling Wedding Photography” as a bundle for 20% off.

$19.95Price:
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02) Actions You Can Take to Promote and Protect Your Studio

“Education costs money, but then so does ignorance.” – Sir Claus Moser Would you like to know how we keep our phones ringing without having to pay for expensive magazine ads? Would you like information that will help you to book many more weddings in the future? Of course your answer to these questions depends on whether or not you like the work of the wedding photographer in question. At only $9.95, even the advanced wedding photographer can purchase this eBook with little to no risk to themselves and very possibly gain an additional set of tools that will help their business to grow. Continue reading to learn what other professional wedding photographers had to say about this eBook, including two PPA Master Photographers, one of which currently sits on The PPA Board of Directors! Click the links for each photographer to learn more about who they are. “I‘ve been a professional wedding photographer for 14 years, and I can honestly say we have generated thousands upon thousands of dollars for my studio by using just one of the calls to action described in this eBook, and we continue to use this business technique today. The information is worth so much more than the price of the eBook!” David Jones, CPP

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"Aric quickly takes you to the next level in your profession as he shares his secrets of success."
Alvin Gee
Master of Photography PPA
Photographic Craftsman PPA
Camera Craftsmen of America



"If you are even considering entering the Wedding Photography World, this is a must "hands on primer". Read the book, study the book, then DO the book.

Aric has such great practical ideas to save you such headaches and heartaches, and well as the all important Money matters.....You should know this book like you know your camera manual!

Best wishes and blessings to all who strive to create such precious memories and stories for others."
Carol Andrews
Master Photographic Craftsman,
Approved Business Instructor
SMS photographic Consultant and Instructor
PPA Board Of Directors



"These no nonsense tips aren't just for beginning wedding photographers. Everyone can benefit from Aric's insight. I wish someone had told me some of these when I was first starting out - it would have saved me a lot of trial and error."
Brad Barton
A major contributor of The Texas Photo Forum with over 10,000 posts.


Download this eBook today and learn how I have other wedding professionals proudly promoting my services to their clients.

You'll learn how I generate new business without purchasing magazine or website advertising. I'll teach you how create a steady stream of couples contacting you wanting your services! In some cases, you will be able to do this without spending a dime.

I'll teach you how I politely inquire as to what my prospective customer’s budget might be, giving me the power to offer the package that best fits their needs, increasing the chances of my services being reserved and creating a win win situation for all.

In this eBook I'll teach you how I create a customer retention program that helps to keep my clients coming back year after year!

I know that the value of the information contained in this eBook is easily worth 100 times the cost of this eBook. I know because I have followed the marketing instructions I prescribe, and my friends have followed these marketing instructions, and we have all booked enough weddings to make tens of thousands for each of our studios using this information.

Once you have this information I know you will understand it's logic and implement what you have learned as fast as you can. Following the instructions held within will help you to promote your business to the right people, decrease your advertising budget, increase your bookings, and save you time. Your business will become more efficient.

Add this item to your cart for 9.95. You'll thank yourself for spending the money.

You'll never be the same. You'll be better!


$9.95Price:
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03) Marketing and Selling Wedding Photography

The cover of the book you have been reading doesn’t say “Best Author”, it says “Best Selling Author”!
In order to thrive in the world of wedding photography you must become “The Best Selling Wedding Photographer”.
“Aric Hoek has done it again with his latest ebook “Marketing and Selling Wedding Photography”. This is an easy to read and understand synopsis of the steps that have led Aric to become one of the country’s leading wedding photographers.Aric takes a very organized step by step approach that anyone could follow who would like to either begin or grow a wedding photography business. These are not the stale concepts of days gone by, but are based on the internet savvy of todays wedding photography prospects.I highly recommend this book to anyone considering a career in today’s wedding photography business. It will definitely give you a head start over your competition.”
Don L. BarnesThe Photographers Denton, TexasPresident Texas Professional Photographers Association (2007-2008)

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You must be able to overcome objections. You must be able to communicate on an unspoken level that you live and breathe wedding photography, and it would be a mistake for your prospects not to hire you. You must learn to educate your prospects as to what the benefit is to them should they choose to retain your services.

No one is going to come into your studio some day, and offer to pay you more than what your selling price because you’re a nice person. You determine your prices, and you have to educate the prospects visiting your business as to what the true value is of your service.

At some point in your career as a wedding photographer you will come to the realization that you do not own a business. You own a practice, and just as a psychologist does, you sell units of your time. There are only so many hours in a day, and we are all given the same amount of time, which means that there is a ceiling as to how much you can earn. This also means that the more efficient you become, the more successful you will become.

You must show your prospects that they will receive more in use value than they give you in cash value.

Purchase your copy of Marketing and Selling Wedding Photography today.


$14.95Price:
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04) The Business of Wedding Photography Workshop. 4/2/10

This workshop will be held at Solaris Studios from 9am to 4pm with a one hour break for lunch. Lunch will be provided.

With over two decades of experience as a professional photographer I have seen many photographers go out of business. Not because they weren’t good photographers. They were great photographers!

They went out of business because they could not sell their images. More than likely, they hated selling but loved the creative photographic process. Or possibly they just thought wedding photography would be an easy business to succeed in.

Sound familiar?

I know of great photographers that are failing, and I know of poor photographers that are rich! The successful photographer runs their business a certain way. They have specific goals, and work in an efficient manner. The successful photographer knows how to effectively sell their artwork! The successful photographer enjoys selling.

Are you open to the fact that educating yourself on how to run your business and sell your photography is just as important, if not more so, than taking good pictures?

“Education costs money, but then so does ignorance.” – Sir Claus Moser

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The Workshop Will Cover The Following Topics.

Advertising: Where to advertise, and what size ads to purchase to get results.

Creating Specialty Products: Having a “WOW” Product in your product line can set you apart from your competition. Want some help developing one? I have a few good ideas!

Google/Search Engines: How did we get our site on the front page of Google for the following search terms? Wedding Photography Houston, Wedding Photographer Houston. Give it a try, and do a search for these terms on Google now!

Permission Based Assets: How to create a loyal following of readers.

Measuring Results: What percentage of initial contacts do you convert into consultations? What percentage of consultations do you convert into actual clients? What do you do with this information to save you money in the future and make you more efficient?

How To Get Your Phone To Ring: A few simple mistakes can stop your phone from ringing. Learn what they are!

Phone Language: What do you say to a prospect when they ask how much your services are?

Consultation Language: How do you sell yourself during a consultation?

The Benefits of Professional Referrals: Anyone want some free advertising?

How To Raise Your Prices: How to truly justify to yourself, and to potential clients, that what you charge for your services and products is a fair trade.

Unique Selling Points: (USP) What sets you apart? How do you communicate this?

Residual Sales: How would you like to wake up tomorrow morning only to find out that you made $100 in your sleep?

Defining The Season of Wedding Photography: When are times typically slow for a wedding photographer, and when are they flush?

Bridal Show Booths: Learn how our biggest sales tool has evolved over time and why!!!

Adding A Second Photographer: Adding one photographer to a studio that only has one photographer to begin with could increase your sales by 100%!

And, if time allows...

Honeymoon Photography!
The final frontier for wedding photographers! Pick a Location You Could Only Dream of Photographing a Bride and Groom, as long as it's legal, and I will show you how to shoot at that location in less than one year!


$180.00Price:
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06) Rear Screen Photography

There will always be a large number of new and eager wedding photographers. While I can’t say for certain, I think it would be safe to say that currently there are more individuals who would like to become wedding photographers than there are actually wedding photographers. Because of the vast amount of wedding photographers available to couples getting married today, it is more important than ever to display a unique style. The photographer that uses rear screen photography will produce imagery that will get their work noticed!

$4.95Price:

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07) Designing Your Bridal Show Booth

Currently, wedding photographers in Houston have the privilege of attending the largest bridal show in the US with an average of just over 6000 Brides-To-Be in attendance at each of two annual shows! Even so, some photographers here think that bridal shows are a waste of time, and their list of reasons for not attending the shows seems to be limitless. Some complain that they feel only couples on a tight budget attend bridal shows. Others say that there are just to many photographers in attendance, or that it’s just too much work for the results. From now on, when you hear photographers give any excuse at all, just brush it off. Is it any wonder that these photographers fail? They fail before they even set up their booth! The truth of the matter is, their booth design and their attitudes are attracting exactly what they have in mind!

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When you look at the typical booth for a wedding photographer, what do you see? While the décor may be different with each booth, you will still primarily see the same design repeated.

Over time, our bridal show booth has evolved. With each show, our design gradually changed, but it wasn’t until I took a class with an advertising think tank that I really began to understand what I was doing wrong.

After my class we redesigned our booth and created a "gravity well"! A system for bringing people into your booth and keeping them there longer than any of our competition!


$6.95Price:

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08) Designing and Building Your First Photography Studio

There was so much to do when I created my first home studio. It was an exciting time in my life. However, when I made the decision remove my business from home and into a commercial space, I was faced with much more serious matters and decisions, each of which would affect my life and my families life for years to come. One of the first things you become keenly aware of when you begin to look for a commercial space is the importance of understanding how big or small of a space you actually need. You can lease too much space and not be able to afford your rent, or you can lease to little space and not be able to run your business to it’s fullest potential. How do you ensure that you create a studio that will be attractive to the types of clients you want to work with? What design elements will help to ensure the growth of your company? Let me share with you our solutions, our successes and failures.

$9.95Price:

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11) How to Raise Your Prices

As a business owner, if you want a raise, no one is going to just give it to you. You are going to have to give it to yourself! One day, possibly right now, you will entertain the idea of raising your prices. Quickly following this idea is the fear of losing business due to higher prices. This fear can be so great as to cause a business owner to maintain their current pricing. What makes it possible for a wedding photographer to raise their prices is their belief that the quality of their work and service is worth the price being asked, not only to themselves but to their clients. If a business owner does not believe that a product they are selling is worth the price they are asking then they will most certainly fail. What actions can you take that will allow you to believe your photography warrants a higher price? What can you do to give your work a higher perceived value?

$6.95Price:

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12) Honeymoon Photography eBook

Announcing – for the first time – a new product for wedding photographers! Honeymoon Photography! This concept is perfect for artists who won’t settle for mediocrity! The ability for wedding photographers to offer Honeymoon Photography to their clients is the final frontier, and those that have the ability to even offer this product will set themselves apart from their competition. I’m on a mission to share this radical idea with wedding photographers across the country, and in an effort to do so, I am offering my eBook describing this system free of charge!

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I have a saying. “100% of the images I do not take, will not sell!” So it stands to say, that the more images you take of your clients, the more opportunity you give yourself. History shows this to be true! Over time, wedding photography has evolved through natural progression. Photographers first documented the wedding ceremony only, but then expanded to included the reception as well. Bridal portraits and Engagement Portraits were both added.

What remains is the honeymoon! However, it would appear that the industry as a whole has actually skipped this step, and invented the Trash The Dress Session as a means of increasing sales.

The honeymoon is what remains! Think of it. The bride, will more than likely never fit in her wedding dress better than she does the day of her wedding, she is already planning on traveling to an exotic location for her honeymoon, and she is already in contact with a professional photographer! I'm suggesting that we put all of these elements together to give our clients more service!

At some point a cake baker somewhere had the epiphany that he or she cold sell a Groom’s Cake to their clients along with the Wedding Cake. Because of that simple idea, that baker gave himself the chance to raise his average sale by 100% per customer! Offering Honeymoon Photography gives you the ability to increase your average sale!

And while we all use money as a measurement of success, we as artists have an additional measurement. Recognition.

One sure fire way to gain recognition from all the perspective wedding clients in your area is to show images from other parts of the world that are recognizable by every person. Imagine your website and marketing material filled with images from Paris, Venice, Vegas and beyond! Any place on Earth that you can imagine!

Imagine if I could give you a tool that would allow you to photograph your clients in their wedding dress and tuxedo, anywhere in the world that YOU wanted! This secret has helped me to photograph clients all over the world, and each time I do, my portfolio grows with images that I can market with for decades! Images that no other photographer in my area can match without the use of this system!

To help ensure the spread of this big idea, my eBook explaining this system is free!

I do want to add one additional important point here. I know if I were reading this, I would suspect that the author of the eBook would only be giving the book away in order to bait me into purchasing some additional product or thing that I needed in order to take advantage of the information.

I want to assure you that this is not the case! I am freely sharing the information and lessons I have learned on how to book your first honeymoon, and then how to continue the process with future clients.

There are not strings attached, and this is not a bait and hook. Enjoy your free Book!


$0.00Price:

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13) Results with Google

What would you guess the top four search terms are that individuals use when searching on Google for wedding photography in their area? Here are the four search terms for the city of Houston, Texas, the fourth largest city in The United States. Houston Wedding Photographer Houston Wedding Photography Wedding Photography Houston Wedding Photographer Houston Try any one of these search terms now and you will find Solaris Studios listed on the first page of all these search terms. I would like to share with you the techniques I use to make this happen!

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Why is this important to you? Obviously, you will receive more inquires, but more importantly an increase in inquiries will allow you to reduce your advertising budget while maintaining your current level of work, or even increase it!

Because we track where every lead originates from, we can say with certainty that our results with Google have exceeded the results of many of our paid advertisements! And I’m not talking about the number of leads, but I am talking about the leads that we converted into consultations, and consultations that we converted into clients! The sales we have made that originated from Google inquiries have exceeded the sales that have been generated by our paid advertising!

Let me show you how we have accomplished this!


$6.95Price:

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