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The 10 Advantages Of WordPress For Designing Your Photography Site

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I heard a statistic a few weeks ago – 2 in 10 sites now being developed are using the WordPress platform. And I completely understand why. After using WordPress for the past few years, we wouldn’t use anything else.

1. It’s easy to design

Have a theme for your site in mind? It’s all doable with WordPress. The WordPress directory gives you access to over 1400 free themes to choose from. And if you do a search in Google for WordPress themes, you can find hundreds more. If you are willing to pay a little for a more custom theme, there are many more options for a great looking site. There are even specialized sites that will give you Photography WordPress Themes – just be creative in what you search for. And if you want to go all the way, hire a designer to give you a complete custom look and feel. Flexibility is what makes WordPress so powerful.

2. It’s easy to customize

Once your site is developed and you have your look and feel in place, you can continue to design and customize forever. Start with a full array of WordPress plugins – I’ve also provided a review of my favorite WordPress plugins here. Then add from there. If you have any coding skills at all, you can quickly start designing your own graphics and icons, and use them to promote and sell your products and services. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Blogging Tagged With: , , ,

Is Food Photography The Next Biggest Wave?

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“Why would I want to use Twitter? Who cares what people are having for lunch?”

Since Twitters inception, that’s been the general consensus among business owners. And as it turns out, there may be some truth to the “Twitter – its what’s for lunch” concept.

People aren’t just talking about what they had for lunch; they’re photographing it too.

According to 360i, by the end of 2010, more than 80 billion photographs were uploaded across a variety of social picture platforms. And at least once a month, 52 percent of mobile users take photos with their phones, and 19 percent upload their photos to the web.

And what is even more fascinating is that people are almost never in these photographs – only 10 percent of the photographs 360i analyzed had people in them.

So what are people taking photos of? In many cases, its food. Check out this infographic 360i did for Mashable.

With that many people taking photos of food, is there a future in food photography?

Even though were weathering a tough economy, we may be forgoing vacations, and passing on pricey cars, there is one thing we’re not willing to part with – cookbooks. While the book industry as a whole is falling, and booksellers are filing for bankruptcy, cookbook sales are up 9 percent last year, according to Nielsen statistics. And with cookbooks come photography, blogs, and a whole new reason to start photographing what you eat.

And while most people think of professional chefs and bakers when they think cookbooks, some of the highest growth in cookbooks aren’t’ coming from professionals, they are coming from bloggers.

Mom blogger The Pioneer Woman started out years ago describing her life on the ranch with her cowboy husband and four children. Now she has multiple books, including a cookbook, and is about to head into a whole new venture with her cooking show on the Food Network.

And if you’re a fan of Tim Ferriss from the 4 Hour Work Week, he’s just announced his new venture – The 4 Hour Chef.

So I guess the only question now is “how can you turn your love of food and photography into a business?”

Filed Under: Commercial Photography Tagged With: , , , , ,

11 Things You Must Do To Be More Effective At Blogging

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Do you blog? What does your blog mean to you?

If you’ve been blogging for any length of time now, hopefully you’re beginning to realize the importance of content on a blog. It can truly be the tool you need to catapult your business to a whole new level.

I started blogging years ago, and now use my blog on a daily basis to connect and build relationships with my customers. Along the way, I’ve discovered 11 things you must do to be more effective at blogging. Take a look at my list, and let me know what I’m missing. What do you do regularly that helps you build a strong web presence with your blog?

1. Talk To Your Visitors

When people come to a blog, it’s to learn more about you. If you offer great information, they will be back. As a photographer, they love to see your photographs. But that doesn’t mean they don’t want to learn more about you too. Instead of creating a post, titling it “Amanda’s Senior Photos”, and placing 10 of her best images in a row, do something more. Tell the story of Amanda. Tell what it was like working with Amanda. Pictures may pull us in; but if you have a story with the photographs, we’ll quickly feel that much closer to you.

2. Consistency

If you blog, you have to blog regularly. Doing it only when you feel like it, and only when you have time doesn’t cut it. To be recognized, you have to build a schedule and stick with it. If you blog once a day, make sure you get it in once per day. If you create a blog post on your recent senior portrait setting, make sure you create a blog post for every senior you photograph.

3. Use Plugins

Right now almost 1 in 5 websites online uses WordPress as its design platform, and with good reason. Nothing is easier than being able to load a plugin in to make your job easier, and give you even easier access to create great content for your readers. Here’s my list of 10 WordPress Plugins For Photographers – what are your favorites? [Read more…]

Filed Under: Blogging Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Will Facebook Comments Be The Way Of The Future?

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One of the reasons I fell in love with blogging is it allowed me the opportunity to connect with people all over the world. I could write an article and post it, and people can comment and write what they choose in response to what I’ve written. It’s a great way to communicate, and to add value to what we do every day.

A few months ago Facebook came out with a new social plugin that people can use to power the comment section of their blogs. I’ve played around with it on several of my sites. It offers two main benefits over using the typical comments section that comes with your blog: (you can get the plugin here as well)

Social Relevance: Comments Box uses social signals to surface the highest quality comments for each user. Comments are ordered to show users the most relevant comments from friends, friends of friends, and the most liked or active discussion threads, while comments marked as spam are hidden from view.

Distribution: Comments are easily shared with friends or with people who like your Page on Facebook. If a user leaves the “Post to Facebook” box checked when she posts a comment, a story appears on her friends’ News Feed indicating that she’s made a comment on your website, which will also link back to your site.

Are companies accepting this as the new norm in commenting?

This past week, Big Picture announced it is moving to the Facebook comments platform. And I completely agree with their reasoning.

1. Facebook is the major player in the online world. With a growing base expected to reach 700 million users in the next few months, and a worldwide presence with over 70 different languages, you can’t ignore it as a marketing tool.

2. Commenting with this system means your exposure increases tenfold across many platforms instead of staying within your site or blog. Because people have the opportunity to include their comments in their newsfeeds, you have the potential of increasing the viewers of your content and information.

3. No more anonymous comments with rude and vulgar remarks. This stops when you require people to use their real names.

While more people are starting to use this new form of commenting, I do think it will be even more commonplace here in the coming months. The true reason for social is to easily share anything anywhere, any time. This makes it even more possible.

Are you using Facebook comments on your site?

Filed Under: Facebook Tagged With: , , , , ,

How To Use The Facebook Like Button

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One year ago this week, Facebook launched the Like Button feature hoping to spread its social footprint all over the web. It’s worked. With over 50,000 websites installing the Like feature into their sites within the first week, and 10,000 sites adding the like button every day, its literally changing the way we search online.

If you’re using Facebook for your photography business, you know how to use the like button with the Facebook site. A few days ago I gave you tips on building up your Facebook Page. And while its great to connect with potential customers on Facebook, your Facebook account is free. Which means it can morph and change over time, and there is nothing you can do about it.

If you want to continue growing your business and taking control over how your build your client base, owning your own web presence is the only way to go. And with the Facebook Like button, it’s easy to work the two together to gain even more traction. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Facebook Tagged With: , , ,

3 Ways To Make Sure Your Blog Posts Are Perfect For Search Engine Placement

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If you are a photographer who is active online, chances are you have your own blog, and post new content on a regular basis. Posting is good  – content is and will be king well into the future. But posting in the correct way is the only way to go. If you don’t add content in the right way, it will never offer you SEO strategies, and help you gain traction where you need it the most – within Google.

Content is great, and its important to talk directly to the people that visit and read what you have to write on a regular basis. But one of the main reasons to blog is to attract new customers as well. When people are searching through Google – and 31 billion searches occur every month – will they find you with the searches they are performing?

If you want to start growing and attracting more visitors from Google, there are 3 ways to make sure your blog posts are perfect for search engine placement.

Put Your Keywords In Your Post Title And Title Tag

I was on a photography site the other day. It was a blog built by a wedding photographer, and he showcases many weddings per year, along with a variety of engagement and family photographs based around his wedding clientele. He adds a couple of posts per week, and titles them all in the same way:

  • John and Mary’s Wedding
  • Justin and Kim’s Engagement
  • Marc and Sarah’s New Baby

There is one big problem with this method: no other searcher in Google is going to look for a wedding photographer by typing into Google “John and Mary’s Wedding”. So this photographer isn’t gaining any traction by using this title.

By putting keywords into your title, your blog automatically inserts those keywords into the title tags and page name, and gives you an instant boost in SEO. So just by changing tactics, and posting “A Mountain Wedding In Aspen Colorado” instead of “John and Mary’s Wedding” will give you better traction in Google, and a better chance of being found when brand new searchers look for a “wedding photographer in Aspen Colorado”. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Blogging Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Why The Only Thing That Matters To Your Photography Business Is Traffic

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We have a building down the street from us that has housed five different restaurants in the past two years. The first had been around for years, and the owners were a part of the community. But they decided to retire, and sold the business. That owner “forgot” to pay taxes, and was shut down in a matter of months. And so the cycle began. Restaurant number two opened and shut down. Same with number three, four and five. Right now there is another large dumpster out front, so I’m sure number six will be open in just a few more weeks.

Why did each of these businesses fail so quickly? Ultimately it came down to traffic. If there aren’t enough people coming through the doors to make ends meet, you can’t survive as a business.

In order to get new business through your doors, you have to generate the traffic. Whether its recommendations from friends, coupons mailed to nearby homes, or networking with local businesses, you have to do something to generate the traffic.

That same thought process carries through to the online world as well.

In order to make connections online, you have to be “talking” in the right places. Its great if you blog, but if you are the only one reading it, it won’t do you any good. Same goes for Twitter, Facebook and more. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Online Marketing Tagged With: , , , , ,

The Only Reason You Should Ever Create A Blog Post

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I have a client. She’s a very good client, bringing in thousands of dollars to my business over the last several years.

When she originally found my business, she was just starting up her company. She heard me speak at an event, and decided to sign up for my ezine. She lurked on my list for a number of months while other things happened – she designed her logo, created her business plan, got funding, etc.

Then one day I ran into her again at a networking event. She said she had read my ezine for over a year, and loved the information it provided. She even had a special folder in her email account especially for my information, so she can go back and read it again and again.

We met for coffee. She signed up for my marketing services. And three years later she still has me on board to help market and grow her business.

Why did this happen? And more importantly, how can we make this happen again. And again?

Something shifted in her life. When she originally found me, she was motivated enough to take a tiny step. She signed up for my ezine, my free electronic newsletter that I send out twice per month. And that was fine for her for a while. She used it to gain new ideas, and help her plan out the next steps of her business model. Then the change happened, and she jumped on board as a client. Because she followed me, followed my advice, and was already in a relationship with my content, taking the next step was an easy one.

eZine – What About The Blog Post?

You are probably wondering why my title is The Only Reason You Should Ever Create A Blog Post, and up until now I’ve been talking about ezines. If you too have followed my ezines for a number of years, you know how I structure them.

  • I give a quick note about my personal life – something quick to learn a bit more about me.
  • I give one article that is exclusive to my ezine readers – information you can only get as an ezine subscriber.
  • I give two short stories that start out in my ezine, and link over to longer blog posts.

And while many people still follow my ezine regularly, I also realize that email is a dying format. Why? Because social is so much easier to gain access to the information you truly want.

  • You can choose an RSS reader like Google Reader, and have instant access to the RSS feeds you enjoy the most.
  • You can use apps like Flipboard that give you instant access to your news streams in magazine style format.
  • You can use Facebook and Twitter to follow people that provide quality information, and click to the news items that matter most to you.

Which is why I’m incorporating blog posts into my ezines, and have been doing so for the past two years.

I’m writing quality content that I know my readers love. And I want to share it in a way that my readers choose to read it – whether it’s through an ezine, through Facebook, or on a favorite app.

The true reason to create a blog post isn’t to sell your products or services, or to advertise your business. The true reason to create a blog post is to provide top quality information that helps your potential customers in some aspect.

If they can learn something new, and it motivates them to change something in their lives because of it (no matter how small), they will be back. You’ve made them think, and they value your expertise and your knowledge base.

By posting again and again, and spreading your content in a variety of ways, you are establishing a trail back to your business. Some will convert in a short period of time – a few days. Some will convert in a longer period of time – a few months or even years. But it your goal is to be in business 5 years from now, and have a steady stream of clients along the way, all it will really take is doing a little bit every single day.

Like one blog post – every day.

Filed Under: Blogging Tagged With: , , ,

I Have A Blog But No Photography Clients – Now What?

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As a small business owner, you try everything to get the clients in. And if you’ve been around a while now, that probably means you’ve started using social media. So you blog, you tweet, you like, and you share. You spend more time doing that every day, and yet nothing is helping. How much more can you do?

It might not be what you’re doing. It might be what you are sharing. Just because you write doesn’t mean its considered valuable by your viewers. If it’s not new, funny, functional, or in some way makes us say “wow”, it won’t be shared, retweeted or viewed. You can’t create traditional 1.0 digital content in a 2.0 conversational world.

We are no longer passive consumers that sit around watching commercials and making decisions based on what a company tells us. We are well informed, and make decisions only after we do a significant amount of research.

Think about your last purchase. Did you jump in quickly, or did you do your research. Did you buy blindly, or did you rely on a friend for more information. Buying is much easier when you share the same beliefs as someone else, and you know others are buying what you are. Even though we like to be independent, we really want to be independent while gaining acceptance from our friends. It’s much easier to be happy about a new item when others value it too.

Because society is changing, so is the way we market to this society. We don’t watch television – we TiVo it to avoid the commercials. We may see ads a hundred times a day on everything from billboards to buses, yet when was the last time one influenced you?

We get our information online because that’s where we spend our time. And we don’t go searching for ads, we search for informative information that helps us make our decisions. We don’t just rely on friends we hand out with on Friday nights. We also rely on friends that we’ve never met, even if they are half way across the world.

Which means the content we put online is more important than ever. You can’t promote yourself, you have to inform people. Try putting up a pure sales pitch without providing anything that provides quality content and you are sure to fail.

So what makes us laugh and smile, and want to follow you? What should you blog, tweet and write about on all of your social sites?

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Blogging Tagged With: , , , , ,

The Five Necessities To Photography Success

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What do you need to succeed as a photographer? A better camera? More equipment? More clients?

Every photographer has a different answer because every photographer is at a different point of the business game. A photographer with a brand new studio will answer differently than a photographer with 30 years of business experience.

Yet there are certain things every photographer needs in order to make it as a successful photographer. It goes beyond the equipment or the experience.

When we were first starting your photography business, we met an incredible artist. Our friend had amazing ideas, and his images had true genius written all over them. Yet he was an artist through and through. He held a small space on Main Street, and only sold his work (at way too low of a price) to people that walked through his door. Or came to him through referral based on his reputation. He survived, but never thrived. Today he is working other jobs around his photography in order to survive.

I see and hear stories like that all the time. They don’t fail because of talent; they fail because of lack of business experience. They fail because of lack of marketing and sales skills. A mediocre photographer with great sales and marketing skills will always do better than an outstanding photographer with few skills.

As a photographer, what do you need to succeed in 2011?

Blogging

Want to know the best tool available to you today? Yep, it’s a blog. Websites are a thing of the past because of limitations they have. They are created using a hodgepodge of coding that simply isn’t attracting the attention of Google. They rely on programming knowledge, which means the average person needs help to make changes and additions.  And they allow you to stay active in the social media arena. Traditional marketing is dead – if you aren’t using social in today’s world, you are missing out on huge opportunity.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Social Networking Tagged With: , , , , , ,
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