Meridian Photographers

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Guides for everything in Meridian — galleries, bookings, invoices, your website and the rest. If the answer is not here, we answer tickets ourselves.

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Getting started

Getting started Which Meridian you have, and the first thing to do with it. The free plan Client galleries, up to 2 galleries, a Meridian address, no card and no time limit. Getting help How tickets work, and what to put in one. Your licence key Where to find your WordPress theme licence key, how to enter it, and how to move it to another site. Bringing your work across Bring your client list and your galleries over from another platform, without a weekend of retyping. Proofsheet The free app for culling, editing and delivering a shoot on your own computer, and how Meridian Presets fit in. Cookies Every cookie this site sets, what each is for, and how to ask not to be counted.

Galleries

Client galleries Deliver a shoot: make a gallery, upload, arrange, send it, and what the client sees. How a gallery looks Choose the cover, colours, lettering and photograph layout, and watch the change on a live preview. Downloads Choose what size clients can download, set a limit or a PIN, ask who is downloading, and watermark the previews. Favourites and notes The lists your client builds, the notes they leave, and how you get the file names. Brand kits Run more than one business from one studio: set each brand up once and choose it on a gallery or collection. Collections Put several galleries under one link: a family's sessions over the years, a school's classes, a wedding and its engagement shoot. Sections only the couple see A second password, so the wedding can go to everybody and a few photographs cannot. Proofing Ask a client to choose a set number, know when they have finished, and get the file names out. Gallery slideshow Play a gallery full screen, at a pace you choose, and why slideshows have no music. Putting finished galleries away Archive old galleries to tidy your list and close their links without deleting anything, and bring any of them back later. Video in a gallery Put the film in with the photographs, converted only when it has to be. Delivery times What you promised, what you actually take, and which shoots are overdue before the client asks.

Bookings & enquiries

Bookings Your booking page, your sessions and hours, deposits, travel, and what a client can change themselves. Mini sessions A day of short sittings that books itself, with a waiting list when it sells out. Enquiries Where enquiries land, keeping track of each one, and how fast you answer. Questionnaires Ask the questions you always ask, once, in writing, and have the answers arrive against the client. Templates Shoot plans, client guides, emails, questionnaires and contracts, written once and used for every client, with a ready-made set from us to start from. The plan for the day A timeline against the booking, shared with the couple, with sunset worked out for you. Your diary in your own calendar Subscribe once and confirmed bookings appear in Apple, Google or Outlook, with everything you need on the drive over. Stop double bookings from your personal calendar Add the private address of your personal or family calendar and those busy times can't be booked here. Shot lists, releases and a brief for your second shooter Keep a must-have shot list for the day, send a model or property release to sign, and give a second shooter one private link. Posing Poses and prompts for natural photos, shot lists you can print, a mood board for your client, and when the light is good.

Money

Quotes Send a price as a link, let them accept it online, and have the booking and the deposit invoice appear on their own. Invoices and payments Send an invoice, take card payments into your own bank, split a booking into instalments, and let late invoices chase themselves. Contracts Send an agreement, get it signed in a browser, and be able to prove afterwards that nothing changed. Gift vouchers Sell gift vouchers from your website or the panel, have them delivered on the right day, and keep track of what you still owe. Insights and reports What is coming in, what is late, which galleries nobody has opened, and what the year looks like. Payments, tax and your figures Connect Stripe, set your region and tax, record what you spend, and get the numbers your accountant asks for. Sending your numbers to your accountant One download with your sales, payments and expenses as spreadsheet files for Xero, QuickBooks, MYOB or any accountant, with the GST worked out. Getting paid by bank transfer Show your bank details on invoices, record a transfer when it arrives, and match a bank statement in one go. Tracking numbers on orders you post yourself Add a courier and tracking number when you mark a print order as sent, so the client gets a working tracking link. Your equipment, insurance and mileage in one place Keep serial numbers and warranties, insurance renewal dates and a mileage logbook, with a reminder before anything runs out.

Your website

Your website, from Studio Pages, portfolio, journal, testimonials, photographs, settings and your own address, all edited from your panel. Media Photographs and documents your website uses, sized for the web on the way in. Journal Write blog posts on your own website, with the venue and town that help people find them. Closing your site temporarily Show a holding page while you rebuild, with a private link for the people who need to see the real thing. SEO How your site shows up in Google: what is done for you, what to fill in, and how to keep old links working. Email & enquiries Where your website's enquiries go, sending mail through your own email provider, and the automatic reply. Style kits The ready-made looks for your site, how to switch between them, and what each one changes. The flex canvas Design a section of a page freely — words over photographs, overlapping images — on a hosted plan or in WordPress. Bringing your old site across Copy the words and photographs from your old website onto draft pages here.

Selling

Print sales Sell prints and wall art from a gallery at your prices, with the file checked against the size before the client pays. Selling digital files Sell the files from a gallery, delivered by email the moment the client pays, and send offers after delivery. Albums Lay out an album, send it for approval, and keep every round of changes against the version it was asked about. Promotions and offers Run a dated promotion to past clients, send a reminder before it ends, and see the orders it brings in. Discount codes A code that takes money off a booking or a print order, on terms you set, with a record of what it cost you.

Your studio

Studio Bookings, clients, galleries, money and your website, in one panel. Start here for a tour of everything Studio does. Your overview and notifications The overview when you sign in, and the bell that tells you what happened while you were out. Clients, the pipeline and marketing Everybody you work with, where each of them is up to, who has gone quiet, and who you may email. Sharing a few photographs Share a few photographs from a wedding with the venue or the planner, without handing over the client's link. Suppliers The venues, planners and second shooters you work with, and sharing photographs with them. Automations When this happens, wait this long, then do that — and never twice. Text reminders A text the evening before each shoot, sent through your own Twilio account, with replies reaching you by email. Your team Invite somebody, choose what they can see, and take it back in one press. Your account and signing in Your details, your password, a code as well as a password, and what to do if you lose your phone. Sign in with Google, Microsoft or Apple Use the Google, Microsoft or Apple account you already have instead of waiting for an emailed link. How it matches your account, and how to remove it. Getting your data out, and deleting it Download everything you hold, answer a client who asks for their records or their removal, and what happens when you leave.

Hosting & plans

Plans Free, Sites and Studio — what each includes, how to move between them, and what we never charge for. Hosted sites Your address, your own domain, what each plan includes, storage, suspension, backups and email. Using your own domain Connect a domain you own to your site, step by step, with the secure padlock set up for you. Switching over from your old site The order that moves your domain from your old website to your new one without a minute of downtime. Backups What we back up for you, how to download your own copy, and how to get something back. Security How your site and your clients' details are protected, and the few things that are yours to do. Updates How new versions reach you: automatically on a hosted plan, and through your licence for the WordPress theme.

WordPress

Install the theme (WordPress) Install Meridian for WordPress, step by step, and enter your licence key. Import the demo (WordPress) Fill your WordPress site with a complete example studio in one click, and remove it again. Using the blocks (WordPress) Add Meridian's blocks and starter layouts to your WordPress pages, and edit them. Menus & navigation (WordPress) Set up your main and footer menus, dropdowns, and your booking and voucher links.

More

Terms Terms of sale and use. Privacy What we hold, and why. Refunds When money comes back. Licence agreement The licence agreement.

Clients

Referrals: thank the people who send you friends Give every client a personal code. A friend who books with it gets a discount, and the client who referred them gets a voucher once the session is done.

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