Blog marketing

[fredjclaus]

How many of you write a blog as a way to market your business? I was reading a website about inexpensive ways to advertise and it mentioned blogging as a great way to drum up support for your photography. Does the blog have to deal with photograhy, or just a topic that interests your clients?

I used to write a newspaper column about how to save money. It didn't have any photography advise in it but it would be a topic of interest to the clientele I cater to. Do you think this could be a great blog marketing idea or should I write articles on topics like "What makes a great portrait", "How to dress for a portrait", "How to pick the right wedding photographer" and such things?

[Gary Peterson Photography]

How many of you write a blog as a way to market your business? I was reading a website about inexpensive ways to advertise and it mentioned blogging as a great way to drum up support for your photography. Does the blog have to deal with photograhy, or just a topic that interests your clients?

I used to write a newspaper column about how to save money. It didn't have any photography advise in it but it would be a topic of interest to the clientele I cater to. Do you think this could be a great blog marketing idea or should I write articles on topics like "What makes a great portrait", "How to dress for a portrait", "How to pick the right wedding photographer" and such things?

I use one primarily to drive traffic to my other sites. I used Google, as blogging with them drives up my "findability" and yields immediate results. I dont put a lot of time or effort into it, if I shoot an event, I add some info to the blog with a link to the images, throw in some key words and leave it at that.

It seems as if most photographers use the "blog" as a more personal form of communication than a static website, offering a bit more insight as to who they are, and what they are all about, and perhaps offering a little bit of a "backroom" look into their lives. I think that is the way to go, letting people into your life a bit. The idea of giving advice to the public to me is not very appealing honestly, there is plenty of that available...show your work, your creativity, your personality...that is what your future customers want to see... just my opinion of course.....

[zoomer]

I started a blog a month ago.
I do a photo of the day every day displaying one of my photos and information on why and how and what I used to take the picture.

I also add a bit of info about the shoot and the person in the photo.

Then I link it all back to my website.

It is a way of driving traffic and increasing my web rating.

When ever I look at a wedding photographers blog and it has personal pictures or something unrelated to professional photography I immediately leave the site.

So for me the advice thing sounds like a no go.

[denisegoldberg]

There is nothing to stop you from writing more than one blog - but if you're looking to attract customers to your photography business then I think that the posts in the blog that you link to your photography business / web site should be related to photography, and specifically to your business.

Another thing that I think is very important is to write in your blog on a regular basis. If I go to a site and see no changes on the web site and no changes on the blog, then I usually stop looking.

Keep your blog fresh.
Include photos, and use those photos as entry points to your web site. Always link back to your site, not to a generic web photo page.
Make sure that both your blog and your web site have a professional feel to them.

--- Denise

[fredjclaus]

thanks Denise, I love your blog. I've never written a blog but I assume it's not much different than writing a newspaper article in a way. I'm going to research some before I start writing my own. Does anyone else have a link to their blog I could look at?

[denisegoldberg]

thanks Denise, I love your blog. I've never written a blog but I assume it's not much different than writing a newspaper article in a way. I'm going to research some before I start writing my own.
Thanks Fred.

My blog is hosted at blogger, free, and very easy to use.

If you want to match the look of your blog to your smug account, see HOW TO match your blog to your smug site (blogger-specific) (http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=101262).

If you don't want to undertake the customization at the beginning, that's OK too - but you should at least reference the photos in your smugmug site. See Adding photos to your blog (http://www.dgrin.com/showpost.php?p=886014&postcount=2).

--- Denise

[Snowgirl]

I also do a blog - actually two - on Blogspot
http://www.imagesbyceci.blogspot.com/

The second one I haven't updated in a year - it was more for fun as it's life from my horse's perspective. Horse owners LOVED it :rofl
http://horseview.blogspot.com/

plus I keep one going on my regular website
http://imagesbyceci.com/Images_by_Ceci/Random_Thoughts/Random_Thoughts.html

I connect with my Facebook profile and Page and to Twitter as well.
I have a Linked-In profile but rarely remember to check it or update it (my bad!)

It all interconnects to help raise awareness and it does seem to be working. The downside is that it's time consuming.

[CWSkopec]

I've recently changed my homepage to my blog for a couple reasons. From everything I've read on SEO, having an active blog with links back to your site really helps findability. That's why I initally started the blog, but had sort of let it stagnate. By switching my landing page for www.chrisskopec.com (http://www.chrisskopec.com) to my blog, I'm forcing myself to be more up to date and current with the blog, thus keeping it active and more relevant to search results.

The second reason I did is to have a bit more personal landing page for visitors. I was using the standard smugmug slideshow as my landing page (and it can still be seen here, http://photos.chrisskopec.com/, as I haven't fully finished the revamp yet) but was starting to feel that it was rather content free. Not entirely content free as the photos in the slideshow rotation are some of my favorites (as they should be), but it was starting to feel very much like a flash intro to me and I don't know about others, but if I get to a page with a flash intro I immediately look for ways to skip it. If I can't find a way around the intro, I leave. I'm hopping that the photos and writings about that photo will grab folks a little more. It's still very much a theory at the moment and I need to finish relinking and matching the blogger hosted blog and my smugmug site before really evaluating it fully.

Anyway, that's my story, hope it helps! :thumb

[Snowgirl]

I've recently changed my homepage to my blog for a couple reasons. From everything I've read on SEO, having an active blog with links back to your site really helps findability. That's why I initally started the blog, but had sort of let it stagnate. By switching my landing page for www.chrisskopec.com (http://www.chrisskopec.com) to my blog, I'm forcing myself to be more up to date and current with the blog, thus keeping it active and more relevant to search results.

The second reason I did is to have a bit more personal landing page for visitors. I was using the standard smugmug slideshow as my landing page (and it can still be seen here, http://photos.chrisskopec.com/, as I haven't fully finished the revamp yet) but was starting to feel that it was rather content free. Not entirely content free as the photos in the slideshow rotation are some of my favorites (as they should be), but it was starting to feel very much like a flash intro to me and I don't know about others, but if I get to a page with a flash intro I immediately look for ways to skip it. If I can't find a way around the intro, I leave. I'm hopping that the photos and writings about that photo will grab folks a little more. It's still very much a theory at the moment and I need to finish relinking and matching the blogger hosted blog and my smugmug site before really evaluating it fully.

Anyway, that's my story, hope it helps! :thumb

Chris, I think you're onto something. I agree about flash intros - a PITA for sure. Your landing page is excellent! Keep it up!

[ColoradoSkier]

I have had a blog for well over a year, and it is the main page of my site. I blog about photo-related subjects. It's a pretty good mix of entries regarding technique, cool pictures I take, relevant announcements for the local market (such as team photos, etc) and gear reviews. Very general purpose. And it works. I rank very well in Google for relevant searches in my locale. Blogging has absolutely given me more exposure than if I wasn't doing it.

[Snowgirl]

I have had a blog for well over a year, and it is the main page of my site. I blog about photo-related subjects. It's a pretty good mix of entries regarding technique, cool pictures I take, relevant announcements for the local market (such as team photos, etc) and gear reviews. Very general purpose. And it works. I rank very well in Google for relevant searches in my locale. Blogging has absolutely given me more exposure than if I wasn't doing it.

LOVE your landing page. I have got to learn how to synchronize too many sources of information.

[CWSkopec]

Chris, I think you're onto something. I agree about flash intros - a PITA for sure. Your landing page is excellent! Keep it up!

Thank you, Snowgirl! :D

It's still just an experiment at the moment, but I like the direction it's headed.

[Awais Yaqub]

I have a blog that helps me attract visitors but facebook page has made great difference.

[ColoradoSkier]

LOVE your landing page. I have got to learn how to synchronize too many sources of information.

Thank you. I focus on writing blog entries, then driving everything else from that (links to relevant smugmug galleries, postings in Facebook or Twitter, etc.). As I change my "service" mix, I add or remove pages from the blog site. It is driven by Wordpress and I am hosting on a server I rented space form (dathorn.com is awesome). Pictures that are shown in the blog either come from my Smugmug site or my flickr account.

I know it works - the senior session I shot yesterday was booked through the site, and they said they found me just by searching.