But I knew photography had to work for me. I would make it work. I sat around brainstorming other strategies and solutions. I was determined to [...]]]> The period of time that followed was one of the most confusing points in my life. I was lost. I had financial obligations and no means of financing them.

But I knew photography had to work for me. I would make it work. I sat around brainstorming other strategies and solutions. I was determined to make this happen.

I had remembered a while back hearing that sometimes brides would go online and discuss things in forums. They would discuss the quality of services of vendors. I was curious to see if I made it into any of these forums.

This was the first step in searching for myself…

I opened up good old Google and typed myself in. I had made a website a while back (this was the one I used when registering with TheKnot) and was wondering where my website would appear in a Google search. I knew it had to be pretty far down the list because I wasn’t getting inquiries anyway.

The results were devastating. I was not page 1…or 10…or 100 for that matter. I found myself on page 210. Two-hundred-freaken-ten! And yes, to answer the question you’re probably thinking, I did click that far. I was going to stop on page 215, anyway.

What bride was going to click that far to find me?

This got me thinking. How did the people who appeared on the first page of Google get there? We were all in a pool of search results. How did they get to be on page 1 while I was on page 215? This didn’t seem fair.

Needless to say my next goal was to be on page 1. This became the story of my life for the next two years.

How do you think I tackled search engine optimization?

• I overthrew Google with my Lego army
• A magical cat whispered all of the secret answers to me
• I am secretly the creator of Google

The answer – none of the above. At first, I knew of no other way but to get a book on search engine optimization. I devoured the book in a day and attempted to apply all of the strategies, but found that while there were some great ideas, this was just skimming the surface of SEO…I needed more.

This was followed by many attempts, struggles and studies of Google’s search engine patterns. It wasn’t until 6 months later that I saw some results. I became so engrossed with SEO that I decided to get into coding. And that’s when things really started to make a lot of sense.

With my newfound success in SEO, what took me 6 months to achieve before could be attained in a matter of days. I felt like I finally conquered the world of SEO when I appeared not only on page 1 of Google, but as the #1 listing right at the top. YES!!!!!

This was the epitome of locations that brides would click, as would any search engine user, and I had gotten there. I had finally gotten there.

P.S. This is for the most part the introduction to how I got started. If you have enjoyed the story please let me know and I will try to continue writing.

Now that you have heard my story, I would love to hear yours. When I return from my vacation, I am thinking about visiting a number of cities in the U.S. Hopefully you can come out and have a cup of coffee on me! Stay tuned for details… Add yourself to the mailing list for instructions on how to get your cup of joe.

P.P.S. I enjoy Italy’s cappuccino’s most. For updates on my European trip, follow @tofurious

Where is a popular place a bride would go to find [...]]]> Every ounce of me wanted to cry my eyes out, but I didn’t because I’m a big boy. I refused to wail and wallow like a baby. Instead, I decided to find a solution. Instead, I chose to think like a bride for once.

Where is a popular place a bride would go to find wedding service vendors? When I put myself into this mindset, a famous magazine came to mind: TheKnot. This magazine was featured in various movies. It had come to my attention as one of the hottest places to engross yourself in the wedding industry.

I decided to check it out, so I went to TheKnot.com. Oh brother, was I blown away. TheKnot offered services for everything you could possibly imagine in a wedding. It was my nature to click on the “photographers” link first.

There I saw a list of photographers with their packages beautifully marketed. And then it hit me. Here I go again with my calculations…thousands of people probably visit TheKnot everyday. Of the thousands, several hundreds would be looking for a photographer at any given time.

To be featured on TheKnot would be instant success. This was easier than 2+2. I knew I had to get myself onto TheKnot.

Wham, blam, cha-ching! $550 per month!

This is what it cost me to be on TheKnot. By the time I reached the end of my contracted term of 6 months, needless to say, I was very poor. 6 months x $550 = you do the math. What did I get from this? I’ll tell you what I got from this.

An average of one click on my link per day.

Now this was better than my referral system because there were a few more inquiries. However, compared to what I was dishing out, this was putting me in the hole. I wasn’t appealing to brides for some odd reason. Maybe I looked like a little fish compared to all of the big fish featured.

For someone starting out like myself, this form of advertising was extremely unaffordable. Don’t get me wrong, I did find some success with TheKnot. I just didn’t have the funds to keep up.

My mind was in a frenzied state. I was actually in the negative and I still didn’t have enough bookings to break even. I died a little inside thinking I had to go back to Staples sooner than I thought.

But there’s one thing you’ve got to know about me, and that is that I am not a giver-upper. I was going to give it one last try. There had to be a way to make this work.

What do you think I did? What would you have done?

Comment answers! Or click here to take a fun survey and guess what I did!

Everyone was gaping at me. Whispers filled the room. I didn’t care – I could not miss a shot.

To start, my name is Lawrence Chan and I AM A WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHER. Interestingly enough, I didn’t start my career [...]]]> Have you ever wondered what Tofurious is about? How did Tofurious become successful? I assure you that Tofurious is more than just some Asian guy who enjoys eating Chipotle. Read on, my friends. Read on.

To start, my name is Lawrence Chan and I AM A WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHER. Interestingly enough, I didn’t start my career as a wedding photographer nor did I study it in college. Actually, I studied Political Science at UCLA because the topic of wars piqued my interest.

Anyway, like most wedding photographers, I start my story with a friend who asked, “Hey Lawrence, do you think you can shoot my wedding?”

“Are you serious? I’m not a pro or anything,” I answered. And I wasn’t lying; I just happened to have the slickest and most expensive DSLR of our little group because I liked gadgets.

“What if he misses a shot?” asked Nancy (Rob’s fiance).

What if I do miss a shot? I thought to myself.

“Don’t worry, Nancy,” I interrupted Rob’s train of thoughts.

“We can just pretend to do it again.” Later I learned this was taboo in our industry. You simply cannot miss a shot.

“Yeah, what he said,” Rob chuckled.

Wow! I was going to shoot a wedding! This is big league stuff! This was a major upgrade from shooting my cats.

I had a Canon Rebel XT with a Tamron 28-300mm lens. The salesperson told me that a 28-300mm lens would cover the whole range of photography. This made so much sense – 28mm covers wide and 300mm covers long. Little did I know it was a complete piece of poo poo.

One day before the wedding, I decided to upgrade and picked myself up a Canon 420EX flash and a 1GB memory card, which was a major improvement from my 128MB. Locked and loaded, I was ready for whatever the wedding day was going to throw at me.

Nancy and Rob had a Chinese tea ceremony at a beautiful temple. I was happily clicking away while the monks were chanting, the tea cups were being passed around, and the people were laughing and smiling.

Then it happened.

My memory card was full. I was like uh-oh. I thought I had planned for any obstacle, but this was definitely unforeseen. Nancy’s words of “What if he misses a shot?” echoed in my head.

Okay, stay calm Lawrence. Now, think…THINK! Before another second passed, I just stood up and shouted “STOP!” No joke, I really did.

Take a gander at what I did next! Can you guess?

Click here to guess what I did next. (results will be displayed later)