I passed on social media a while back. Currently, I print out a few 4x6s from each outing and add them to a photo album. Its cheap if I order in bulk once i have a larger amount ready to print. I often show my friends and family when they visit or leave it on the coffee table and let them take a look if they are interested.
If you plan to just upload to social media, then the phone should be fine for editing. You likely wont get any noticeable change moving to a laptop in regards to overall quality using the features (exposure, temp, highlights, etc…) your already using.
Using paid lightroom on a computer does have lots new features (AI noise reduction, etc) which are nice, but ultimately wont make your photos much better without lots of knowledge on how to use said tools.
Another big feature of computer lightroom is better file management. If this is a problem for you on the phone, this alone is a great bump in productivity if you ever need to edit a lot of photos or want to find an older photo.
All that being said, adding a laptop to the mix wont improve your photos, it will just life easier on the back end. I think its worth it to have a computer if you plan to be into this hobby long term, but I wouldnt bother breaking the bank on it, buy it when its convenient financially.
I have a nice photo album on my coffee table and I order prints after each event I bring my camera to, adding 2-4 photos to the album. I dont bother with sharing online.
quick google search: https://skylum.com/blog/guide-to-the-best-free-lightroom-alternatives
Lots of people want to watch a video they feel like they could afford to try themselves. Sure they wont actually do it, but it releases more dopamine than watching someone take a good photo with a $10k set up.
just say “my rates are changing. Please see the price sheet below. If there are any questions or concerns, please let me know”.
Also, 60 for an hour to 2 hours of shooting is absolutely not enough. If youve been doing this for at least 6 months, you should charge 100 per hour. I wouldnt bother with making them pay you for individual comedian photos, just increase your rates with this assumption of sharing the photos to the comedians. If I was getting started and had a year or so of experience, I would easily be charging 150-300 per hour for the same work and same deliverables.
word of mouth has always been my best advertisement. I did my first two weddings for $500 for friends of friends that werent overly concerned with wedding photos. I got lucky to get my foot in the door with them, but since then I have done 80% (or more?) of my weddings with some sort of connection from those first 2 weddings. Usually it was a guest at one of the weddings, but it has also been family members of those couples that suggested me to other family and friends that werent at those initial weddings. It just grows from there.
I would say, make sure its still a “nice” wedding, I got lucky these were still upscale weddings, they just didnt want to spend on a photographer.
looking at your website, the fact that your home page isnt photos showing your work is already a big miss. you need to show a variety of photos focused on the work youre pursuing. The film and street photography stuff is just fluff that should be removed if they arent part of the goal. I would consider having a separate site for your other work if you still want to promote it.