Early Thoughts on Black Friday Sales for Photographers

It’s almost time…

Black Friday photography deals are coming (and Cyber Monday, etc) and we’ll again hear about how we can save a lot of money.

Can we really? Or is this just all a big ploy?

Having done this internet thing, and this photography thing, for quite a few years now, here’s what I predict we’ll see and how I think that while sometimes stuff gets over the top ridiculous (like someone I saw starting their Black Friday sales yesterday), if you play things smart you can actually save money on things you need or want as a photographer.

Short-Time Deals Don’t All Have to be Impulse Buys

Although many of the Black Friday photography offers we’ll see in the next couple of weeks will be of limited duration (some just a few hours), that doesn’t mean you have to feel frantic about a buying decision. In general, you probably shouldn’t buy anything that you haven’t previously considered. While it might be a great deal, that doesn’t mean it’s a great deal for you.

For example: we’ll probably see some good offers on nice photo printers. But if you don’t print your own work, and haven’t really considered it, buying a new printer is probably money wasted, even if it’s on sale.

So… in advance… think about the sorts of gear or services that might fit in with your photography and business goals. If you’ve evaluated things ahead of time, it’ll be easier to know if a particular offer is smart for you.

The Usual Black Friday Photography Suspects

What are we likely to see? I’ll take this from the angle I usually do, looking at the intersection of photography and technology, here are the offers that I expect to hear about and will pass along if they seem worthy:

• Look for significant discounts on web hosting. Both WP Engine and SiteGround (my preferred web hosts) typically offer a crazy-good deal.
• We will see offers on photography plugins for WordPress. I know of at least one gallery plugin planning some offers, and another one that has in the past.
• We’ll see offers on a variety of Camera and Photo products from Amazon – in fact their early deals in this category are already live (and that’s my affiliate link).
• There will be opportunities to register for online learning with companies providing video training.

I’m sure there will be plenty of gear deals as well, and other photography opportunities. Subscribe for free to find out first.