One Brilliant, Easy Way to Enhance Your Photography Business

If you've got a photography business, you're already attracting and connecting with people who love and want photos.  These clients and potential clients know the value of a photo.  

Here's one brilliant, easy way to make your photography business more lucrative with the clients you already have:

Incorporate Forever into your photography business.

First, we'll look at why, and then we'll look at how.  

You're going to love this.

About Forever and Why Forever Can Enhance Your Photography Business

If you're not familiar with Forever:  in a nutshell, Forever is the whole package for photos and memories.  A free Forever account allows a user like me to 

• preserve photos and memories in highest-in-the-industry, professionally-printed books one of two ways--a fast & easy option using templates, or a creative digital scrapbooking software method
• preserve photos and memories digitally in cloud photo/video storage that I own, with no monthly fees, that is guaranteed secure, private, triple-backed up, and permanent so I can pass them on to the next generation (the only of its kind out there!)
• rescue old memories from oudated media and get them digitized (film, VHS tapes, slides, scans, etc.) with professional, white-glove service that ranks highest in customer satisfaction (verified by Trustpilot)

--all of which follows expert advice to preserve photos and memories 2 ways digitally and 1 way in print.

Plus, there's so much focused on convenience:  an awesome photo storage and organization app; an auto-upload feature; photo editing within Forever Storage; easy ways to share photos, videos, and even PDFs of photo-memory books!  And probably something else I'm forgetting.

All to benefit me, and all Forever users.  And your photography clients.

They already know the value of a photo.  But they probably don't know the best way out there to store and preserve them.

I can think of two ways this would work beautifully for you as a photographer!

1. You're giving your clients a beautiful, high-quality way to turn the digital images they get from you into actual products to display and show off.  When photos are printed, they are seen and loved.  They can easily share the digital images from their Forever Storage with Grandma & Grandpa.  This becomes advertising for you.  When they see those photos again and again, they will be impressed with the images you shot.  They may book another session with you or refer someone to you.
2. You're also giving those digital images a safe place to be stored privately in the cloud that is safer than your clients' computers or a flash drive.  In Forever Storage, photos and videos (and PDFs of book/other projects) are triple-backed up and bank encrypted, with a security team managing them constantly.  That's definitely better treatment than my photos get on my computer!

How Forever Can Enhance Your Photography Business

Brilliant, right?  So, you're wondering, How exactly would this work?

OPTION 1

The simple but less-lucrative option would be to simply give Forever a try yourself, and when you love it, recommend it to others.  Every Forever account comes with a referral link, and it would be easy-peasy to add a QR code of your referral link to your business card or a link on your website.  

Include a short explanation like, "Looking for a permanent and secure place to store your photos in the cloud and showcase them in books, canvases, etc.?  Here's my recommendation:"

Or how about something like this?  I call it a Share Square.  (I'm happy to make you one!)  This could go out in an email, be shown on your website, get texted out with a "thanks for your business," or anything you like.

The monetary perk to you of using your referral link is that the new user gets a $20 coupon AND you as referrer get a $20 coupon as well!  Every time.

OPTION 2

The more-lucrative option is to earn commission on everything your clients purchase at Forever, from canvases and books to Forever Storage and Artisan digital scrapbooking software.

You do this by becoming a Forever Ambassador.  You can read more about what being a Forever Ambassador entails (and why I *love* it) here.

I can tell you from my own experience as a Forever Ambassador that because Forever is the whole package, clients often come to it for one thing and discover they could really use it for something else also.  What may start as a secure place to store the images you took for them in the cloud or a beautiful way to showcase those photos in books for grandparents for Christmas (etc.) may also end up this way:

One other entirely optional option ;) is to earn both commission and an hourly fee (of your choosing) by making books, canvases, photo gifts, etc., for your clients with Forever.  Again, the $20 coupon for a new account and the $20 coupon for the person who referred them still applies.  (Get your business cards free that way, or $20 off your own book!)  Open a Forever account for the client, then create and save the projects for them there.  They can reorder any time!  And you would, of course, earn commission again. 

I have offered this service--what I call Photo & Story Treasures for Hire--for several years now, and you can see what I do here.

There are so many possibilities here for offering packages and gaining additional revenue by incorporating Forever into your photography business!

Get Started Enhancing Your Photography Business

Whether you want to just recommend Forever with an easy QR code linked to your Referral Link or you'd like to be a Forever Ambassador, you've got a wonderful enhancement to your photography business where you're already connected with people who know the value of photos.

FYI, what becoming an Ambassador gets you: your Forever website, a back office (where you can see clients, commissions, purchases, etc.), tons of training materials at your disposal, a demo account (you can see mine here--it's a cool business resource that makes videos and photos easily shareable and even downloadable if you choose), and a truly supportive and inspiring community.  You can take advantage of as much or as little of that as fits your goals.  Nobody sets goals or "sales requirements" for you except you.

Contact me with any questions you have about being a Forever Ambassador.  When you're ready, you can sign up as a Forever Ambassador here.  I'll be assigned as your team leader and mentor, and you can do your business your way!

Learn more at the A Lasting Legacy: FOREVER for Photographers guide here:

FOREVER for photographers by Jennifer Wise 

 You already have a great business doing something that matters for people who know it matters.  See how Forever can make it even better!

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P.S. Your Social Media Isn't Actually Yours

 I don't think we can be reminded of this too often.

We call it "MY Facebook account" or "MY Instagram account," but it isn't really.  This matters the most, I think, when we think we can use social media as our photo storage.

I had a slap-in-the-face reminder recently that my social media accounts don't really belong to me, and it's *the perfect* example of why we shouldn't count on it for anything, really, but especially not our precious photos and videos.  Let me tell you what I mean. 

Why Your Social Media Isn't Really Yours

It's got your name on it.  You log in to it with your own password and username.  You post and share whatever you want to.  It kind of seems like it's yours, right?

Not at all.

Social media is run by algorithms and advertising.  Like when you Google "swimsuit coverup" and then you see ads on Facebook for swimsuit coverups.   It's also--thankfully--run with some standards.  I'll use Facebook as an example.  Facebook has Community Standards which state that you can't post hate speech, threats, nudity, cybersecurity risks, etc.  I love this.  This is great.

But when Facebook determines that you have gone against Community Standards, they don't ask you about it.  They just remove your content.  This happened to a colleague recently. 

Poor Cheryl. 

It seems to me that posts like these are not removed by real people (employees) who have read the posts.  It appears to me to be a bot thing, or an AI thing.  It happened on a massive scale to a company in Australia.

Which leads us to the crux of this blog post--the whole reason I want to share with you that your social media isn't yours.  

It's easy to assume that social media will always be there, and that we have control over what we are posting.  Because of that, it's easy to think that it's a great place to store our photos and videos.

Please.  Do.  Not.

And lest you forget that no matter how personalized you make it, blogs don't really belong to you, either.  This happened in August 2026 to a blogger I follow. 

Sadly, blogs are not forever!  (Or maybe it's better phrased:  "Devastatingly, blogs are not forever!")

Social Media IS NOT Photo Storage

Social media is set up to connect people, but there's a good deal of advertising and other things behind it.  That doesn't make it evil, it just makes it something we need to be aware of.  

I wrote in this article that there are three main reasons we should not think of (or treat) social media as cloud photo storage.  Read all the details there, but the main points are:

1. Social media sites can change policies, shut down their sites, and--as we have learned--delete your posts.  As I'll explain in the next section, it's more than just deleting your posts; you may not even be able to access your account if a social media site flags something you've posted, even if they are mistaken in doing so.
2. Social media sites compress the size of your photos so they're easily accessed from the site.  (That's why you can scroll social media fast--you don't have to wait for photos or videos to load.)  Great for them, bad for you if you ever want to download those photos back (which they don't actually guarantee you'll be able to do).
3. Despite your privacy settings, your photos and videos aren't necessarily private.  Other people might not be able to see them, but the social media site can.  Your images and posts are subject to data mining, which is the process of sorting through data to identify patterns, which they use to their benefit.  Again, the reason you Google "swimsuit coverup" and find ads for them on Facebook.

Social media is one of the most precarious and dangerous places to "store" our photos and memories.

And so we should know that!

It Happened to Me: My Experience

I really love social media for sharing inspiration and information about photos, stories, videos, memories, scrapbooks, and more.  I get to post things like this

and this

and this!

But in May, something like the Australian Humanitix error happened to me.

I got messages like this, repeatedly, for days.

And it wasn't just me.  Like Humanitix, some bot thought that all Facebook posts related to Forever, the company I love and use and recommend for memory-keeping, were a cybersecurity threat.  

You know, those posts about photos and family memories and making connections through photo-memory books and how good they are for your heart and soul.

It affected all pages and posts, including corporate ones.  

I couldn't access my Photo and Story Treasures Facebook page for a few days, and I contested the posts with Facebook.  However, I have no idea if they ever saw or cared about what I sent them.  I'm confident, however, that the only reason it "only" took a few days for my posts to be restored is because Corporate was involved.

And then it moved to my Instagram account.  My account was COMPLETELY inaccessible.  All I could see was that it appeared to remove all my followers 😰 and even everyone I was following.  

I emailed Instagram about it and heard nothing back.  I waited a week and then Googled how to contact Instagram about problems with your account, but all of the suggestions required you to access it through your Instagram app, and by then it was just a black screen for me (not even what you see above).  I couldn't access it AT ALL.  

I guess that's just too bad for me. 

I couldn't contest their decision that my posts were "bad" since I couldn't even login, but about 3 weeks later my account was somehow back up and running.  Who knows why.  Their timetables, their decisions--not mine.

And it's not even because any of my posts actually went against any of their community standards or I shared inappropriate links.  It was because one of their bots thought I did.

I knew it before, but this is the day I really learned it:

My social media is not mine.

Anything can happen at any time, and there's nothing I can do about it.  It is entirely out of my control.  Social media doesn't owe me anything.  It's a free service with absolutely no promises to me at all.

But I'm glad that at least I know.

Here's What We CAN Do

If you want to make sure your photos, videos, and memories are always accessible and are both private and secure, you're not looking for social media.  You're looking for a company with public interest where you're a shareholder in the vision to keep your photos and videos safely stored in the cloud, guaranteed yours for generations to come.

It's why I use and recommend what I use and recommend.

Plus, with Forever I can "store" my photos in print, too, like photo experts recommend.  The quality is unbeatable (literally) and I get to make make photo-memory books my way (with another option for people who prefer quick & easy without having to spend a long time learning a computer program)!

NOTE:  I am a Forever affiliate (a decision I made because I love it so much), so you will find affiliate links in this post, from which I earn a commission if you make a purchase, at no extra cost to you.

I hope you never go through what I went through with social media or what Cheryl went through.  The debacle with Facebook mistaking a legitimate business website is one thing, but remember--the first post I shared with you here was from Cheryl who got the same actions against her from Meta based on sharing family photos in a private group and what ice cream flavor she likes.  

I really don't think there are real people looking at individual posts to use their brains to determine if a post goes against a policy or not.  I'm sure it's a sweep involving bots, algorithms, and probably AI, but if they make a mistake, it's YOUR problem.  Because your social media isn't yours.  It's theirs. 

All I'm saying is: don't trust your photos, videos, and memories to it without making sure they're also somewhere that's safe, protected, and private.  

Get started here, and then share this post with someone you care about using the share buttons at the left, or this Pinnable image for Pinterest.  This is something EVERYONE needs to know!  💙

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Your Story: It's More Important Than You Think

We often think of pictures as nothing more than fun, but did you know that the preserving of photos and stories and memories (or "memory-keeping") can have a powerful effect on families and individuals?

This beautiful, touching video from The Church of Jesus Christ who sponsors RootsTech highlights real experiences of people discovering how important their stories are to their loved ones.  It is SO WORTH the 7 minute watch! 

The truth is:  You matter.  Your story--your life, your impact--is worth remembering.

What Makes Your Story Important

Not too long ago, I was invited to write a short guest post about what your story (your story, your family's story) means to others and the power it has!  Photos and stories have been shown in studies to increase self-esteem, increase happiness, increase relaxation, and decrease stress.  

Read more at my article The Powerful Effects of Memory-Keeping on Families.

In fact, if you'd like to know just how good for you preserving your photos, stories, and memories is, check out this impressive list of benefits.

Easily Preserving Your Story and Photos

Preserving your stories, photos, and memories doesn't have to be hard.  In fact, it's better when it's easy because you're more likely to do it, and you're more likely to do it soon while memories are fresh.

So I've made two tutorial videos that will help.  Tell your own legacy story this way

or preserve your everyday stories and memories this way.

The legacy story tutorial is longer than the yearbook tutorial because it was part of a class I taught, so you'll learn about the importance of legacy and get some resources and helpful ideas for where to start when preserving your legacy story.  The yearbook tutorial shows you the basics and then you're ready to go.

Both use free, web-based software that is very intuitive and easy to use, and both will be professionally printed using the highest quality inks, papers, and bindings in the industry.  You want your preserved memories to last for years and years to come!  This link can also help you get started.

NOTE:  I am a Forever affiliate (a decision I made because I love it so much), so you will find several affiliate links in this post, from which I earn a commission if you make a purchase, at no extra cost to you.

Your story is worth remembering.  So, don't wait!  You will benefit from the process of preserving and recording your memories, and so will your loved ones.

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An Easy Way to Get ALL the Photos from Your Wedding

I don't have to tell you that wedding photos are precious.  They're the kind of things that get passed down in families for generations.  They're the kind of thing we want to make sure we keep safe.  

Forever.

Wedding photos come in all shapes and sizes, from professional photos to the ones snapped by your grandma or your BFF.  Maybe your second cousin captures the perfect one-of-a-kind shot of the groom with that look in his eyes.

Wouldn't it be nice to get all the photos taken at your wedding?

Well, you can!  Here's how.

This brilliant idea comes from my dear friend and fellow memory-keeping consultant Carol who did this when her daughter got married.  It's a fun and easy way to encourage guests to take their own photos at the wedding/reception/dinner/luncheon and share them easily with the couple!

First I'll explain the general idea of how this awesome approach works, and then I'll tell you exactly how YOU can do it!

NOTE:  I am a Forever affiliate (a decision I made because I love it so much), so you will find affiliate links in this post, from which I earn a commission if you make a purchase, at no extra cost to you.

STORING YOUR WEDDING PHOTOS FOREVER ~ LITERALLY

We talked last time about how Forever is the best website to store your wedding photos and videos because it's guaranteed private, secure, and yours for your lifetime plus 100 years.  Many cloud storage options don't even have a short-term promise, let alone a long-term vision.

Not exactly what wedding photos deserve.

There's no monthly maintenance fee with Forever Storage, either.  You buy your storage and then you own it!  (And using the Photo-Themed Bridal Shower idea we went over last time means you might not even have to buy it!  Woot!) 

TWO THINGS TO DO BEFORE THE WEDDING

Carol's daughter and her husband came up with an adorable nickname for themselves, Hunny & the Bee, which I will use here in reference to them.  

#1 - Before the wedding, Hunny & the Bee opened a free Forever account.  Forever accounts include 2 GB of free storage for photos and videos.  Remember:  Forever Storage is forever!

Then, in their Forever Storage, they set up an album called Our Wedding and set it to Public visibility.  A Public setting is great for group events because multiple people can contribute to the album if you set it that way.   

Of course, you can set the wedding album to Private (or Friends & Family) view at any time you want after the wedding festivities.

You can see what that would look like by scanning this QR code:

#2 - Because Hunny & the Bee had a new account, Forever gave them a $20 welcome coupon (good for 60 days).  They used the $20 toward making a card using Forever's high-quality cards that would include the photo-sharing information for the guests at the event.  This could be done at a luncheon, reception, or practice dinner, or any good photo op where you can leave a card for guests at a table, or on a chair.

The cards are awesome, but that's our next section.  For now you just need to know:

That's all they had to do before the wedding.

AT THE WEDDING (OR RECEPTION/LUNCHEON/DINNER)

On their special day, they placed the cards they had created and ordered (see an example below) at each table at the reception, asking guests to take photos of the couple and of themselves during the festivities, and then upload them to this Public album. 

On the card was a QR code that linked right to the Our Wedding album, so guests could upload right from there.  (Forever albums can be shared using a QR code or a simple link.)  

You should know that all of this is impressive but really convenient, too--the album already creates its own QR code to share, etc.  Plus, I'm here to help!  (P.S. Answering questions to get people started with Forever is always a free service I provide!)

Here's the back of the card, explaining this process to the guests.

How incredibly cool is it that your guests now get to make a journal or mug or cool tabletop panel or book (etc.) for themselves for free using their $20 coupon and their own personal photos in their own personal accounts!

A POSSIBLE BONUS

There may be an extra bonus here for you, too!  The QR code that links to your album in your Forever account acts as a referral link.   

Each guest who opens a new Forever account AND orders something where they spend at least 1 cent, you'll get a $20 coupon!  (Remember, they can use their $20 welcome coupon for something and pay the difference if there is one.)

You can certainly spend your coupons on any of the items shown above, or a blanket, wall canvas, etc., but don't forget the wedding photo-memory book and the permanent, secure digital photo and video storage I mentioned last time.  Those would be awesome uses for any $20 coupons that may come your way!  You can use multiple coupons on the same item, too.

HOW TO DO THIS YOURSELF

I recommend testing this out ahead of time with a friend so you can see how it works and make sure you've got it set up properly and be able to answer questions if needed.  I would love to help you do that!  My contact information is here.  

Here are the steps for what you need to do:

1. Set up your Forever account at this link.  Using this link connects you to me so that I'm your consultant and I can help you with any questions you have along the way.  Check your email so you can verify your email address and then get the $20 coupon.
2. Set up an album in your Forever account following these directions.  Your free Forever account includes 2 GB free photo storage.  At this point, only put a few photos of the couple in this album so that there is plenty of space for guest uploads.  You'll put photographer photos in later, too.  IMPORTANT:  When setting up your Our Wedding album (or whatever you want to call it), set the visibility to Public (you'll be prompted to choose a visibility), then click "share" above the album (shown below) to slide the "Allow others to upload?" toggle to allow other people to upload photos to the album.  A Public setting allows anyone to view, but you specifically have to allow others to upload to your album.                                                                  
    

   
   
   
3. Choose a card design.  Logged in to your Forever account, click "Create and Print" along the top, then select Cards under Design & Print.  Choose a thank you card (or another design if you like).  The back of the card is fully editable, and you can write a whole paragraph or two or three thanking guests for attending and instructions on how to upload photos to your Our Wedding album. (See instruction verbiage ideas in the image above.) Note:  If you prefer to design your own card, ask me about Artisan, Forever's digital scrapbooking software.  I also hire out to make personalized products using Artisan.
4. Create a card with these instructions for each person's table setting (or a few cards per table, if you prefer) following the instructions here.  This is very simple to do (and very elegant!) using Forever's free Design & Print software, which you can access right from your Forever account.   Don't forget to include the QR code to your Our Wedding album--that's the most important part!  I can help you if needed--don't hesitate to ask!

I recommend placing the cards on the table alternating, some with the card front showing and some with the card back showing.  This way, the guests are more likely to notice that the cards are double-sided.  We don't want them to miss the all-important information on the back!!  (If you do use the envelopes, I recommend stuffing them with the message side showing when opened.)

While this is a creative and fun way to get all the photos from different points of view during your wedding/reception/luncheon/dance (etc.), it is certainly likely that there may be some photos uploaded that you don't love.  Shhhh... don't tell, but deleting them later is easy!  :)  

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