Andy or ??
I don't know why it took me so long to think of this question based on your reply here but......
IF google won't find any filenames on Smumgug, what good is your turning our filenames into keywords?
I have 15 keywords setup in all my images IPTC using photoshop CS2. And, I know smugmug finds those keywords because they appear automatically under my photo images in my gallery as they were typed in the tagging in CS2.
What advantage is our filename as a keyword and where specifically does this advantage become obvious..... on Smugmug? On Google (can't be because you just told us Google can't find our filenames on Smugmug)
Thank you in advance for clearing this all up for a dimwit like me :-)
Google won't find any filenames on SmugMug, but we'll turn your filenames into keywords. So use things like red_flowers and we will make those keywords.
Andy?
Any, I'm sorry but your reply appears a bit cryptic to me.
Just answer yes or no to the following question... thank you.
If you leave your filename as birdonawire.jpg, google will not find it on Smugmug. However, once our file name is turned into keywords by smugmug, in this case bird_on_a_wire.jpg google can then find the filename using bird or wilre or bird on a wire as keywords?
Any, I'm sorry but your reply appears a bit cryptic to me.
Just answer yes or no to the following question... thank you.
If you leave your filename as birdonawire.jpg, google will not find it on Smugmug. However, once our file name is turned into keywords by smugmug, in this case bird_on_a_wire.jpg google can then find the filename using bird or wilre or bird on a wire as keywords?
if your filename is birdonawire.jpg then we'll make birdonawire into a keyword and google will find it
Google AdWords Policy change
"Based on feedback from both our advertisers and users, and consistent with our efforts to present relevant results, we'll no longer allow certain exceptions to our display URL policy. These include, but aren't limited to, redirects and vanity URLs. In line with our existing policy, we'll continue to require that your ad's display URL matches its destination URL (the URL of your landing page). This policy will be strictly enforced for new ads, regardless of previous exceptions." Google Adwords Help Center
Just in case anybody hasn't noticed (or hasn't mentioned it), Google AdWords will no longer allow ads with a landing page different from the displayed URL.
Oh well, back to square one. <img src="https://us.v-cdn.net/6029383/emoji/rolleyes1.gif" border="0" alt="" > Stripped out the flash and some Javascript in favour of visible descriptive text./QUOTE]
This is a mistake IMO.
Put a div in your bio text.
<div id="mybiotext">
all your descripitive data here
</div>
you can hide the display of the text with CSS. #mybiotext {display: none;}
You add references to your own site wherever you can. For example, you should add a signature for dgrin that would show your site. You can do that by clicking You! above and to the left, then Edit Signature.
If you have a blog, make sure to link from your photo site to your blog, and from your blog to your photo site. If you participate in other forums, include a link to your galleries in your posts there too.
You can look at my sites as an example. I have a navbar entry from my smugmug site that links to my blog. I reference my smugmug site within the sidebar of my blog even though it's probably not needed anymore since I am now using the same navbar for both sites. I keep journals of my travels, and my profile on the site where my journals live points back to my galleries, see http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/denisegoldberg. At the end of each of my journals, I link back to the photo galleries containing the photos from that trip. And I've had others ask permission to link to my blog or my galleries from their blog or galleries.
I just created my signature. Thanks. Love your photos and the look of your site. I need to learn alot more about customizing my website. I have just the basics which will do for now. I do not know how to "blog." How do you set up a guest book like you have on your site.
You add references to your own site wherever you can. For example, you should add a signature for dgrin that would show your site. You can do that by clicking You! above and to the left, then Edit Signature.
If you have a blog, make sure to link from your photo site to your blog, and from your blog to your photo site. If you participate in other forums, include a link to your galleries in your posts there too.
You can look at my sites as an example. I have a navbar entry from my smugmug site that links to my blog. I reference my smugmug site within the sidebar of my blog even though it's probably not needed anymore since I am now using the same navbar for both sites. I keep journals of my travels, and my profile on the site where my journals live points back to my galleries, see http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/denisegoldberg. At the end of each of my journals, I link back to the photo galleries containing the photos from that trip. And I've had others ask permission to link to my blog or my galleries from their blog or galleries.
I just created my signature. Thanks. Love your photos and the look of your site. I need to learn alot more about customizing my website. I have just the basics which will do for now. I do not know how to "blog." How do you set up a guest book like you have on your site.
Thanks,
Cate -
Sorry for the delay in replying, I didn't notice your post until now.
Thanks so much for your compliments on my photos and my site.
The guestbook on my site is a gallery containing a single photo that I locked into journal style. The text next to the photo is entered as the caption. More info in # 31 and 32 in the customization faq at http://www.smugmug.com/help/customize-faq.
As far as blogging goes, you really don't need to know anything to blog. My blog is hosted at www.blogger.com, and I've been quite happy with it there. I know that there are a number of other people who have blogs at www.wordpress.com. And both blogging sites are free. The simplest way to start is to create your blog and start posting entries. Choose a template that comes close to your smugmug site - that is, if you have a black background on your galleries, choose a template with a black background for your blog. That way there won't be too much of a (visual) jump when your viewer switches from one to the other. Include a link in your galleries to your blog, and a link from your blog to your galleries.
If you want to go further, you can either alter your blog template to match your galleries (that's what I did) or you can embed your blog using the technique that richW published in this thread - http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=70297&highlight=blog.
I think the important thing in blogging is to make sure to blog. When I follow a navbar link from someone's gallery to their blog and the last entry was months ago - well, I usually don't go back again. You don't need to blog every day or even every week, but do add to your blog. And since you are a photographer, it's easy to find things to add to your blog - use your photos!
Let me know if you have more questions.
When I google my name, the first entry that comes up is my photo galleries, and the next is my blog...
Also - I just took a look at your site and I noticed that you have your galleries locked into filmstrip style. I believe that smugmug style - particularly the new "stretchy" that picks the largest size photo that fits in the browser - does a much better job of showcasing your photos. I'd recommend giving that a try.
Cate -
Sorry for the delay in replying, I didn't notice your post until now.
Thanks so much for your compliments on my photos and my site.
The guestbook on my site is a gallery containing a single photo that I locked into journal style. The text next to the photo is entered as the caption. More info in # 31 and 32 in the customization faq at http://www.smugmug.com/help/customize-faq.
As far as blogging goes, you really don't need to know anything to blog. My blog is hosted at www.blogger.com, and I've been quite happy with it there. I know that there are a number of other people who have blogs at www.wordpress.com. And both blogging sites are free. The simplest way to start is to create your blog and start posting entries. Choose a template that comes close to your smugmug site - that is, if you have a black background on your galleries, choose a template with a black background for your blog. That way there won't be too much of a (visual) jump when your viewer switches from one to the other. Include a link in your galleries to your blog, and a link from your blog to your galleries.
If you want to go further, you can either alter your blog template to match your galleries (that's what I did) or you can embed your blog using the technique that richW published in this thread - http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=70297&highlight=blog.
I think the important thing in blogging is to make sure to blog. When I follow a navbar link from someone's gallery to their blog and the last entry was months ago - well, I usually don't go back again. You don't need to blog every day or even every week, but do add to your blog. And since you are a photographer, it's easy to find things to add to your blog - use your photos!
Let me know if you have more questions.
When I google my name, the first entry that comes up is my photo galleries, and the next is my blog...
Also - I just took a look at your site and I noticed that you have your galleries locked into filmstrip style. I believe that smugmug style - particularly the new "stretchy" that picks the largest size photo that fits in the browser - does a much better job of showcasing your photos. I'd recommend giving that a try.
Hi Denise,
You have mastered several aspects of web and blog; only 29,400 hits a few minutes ago thru Google for D G … Congratulations!
Some of your recent posts about blogs encourage me to enter the fray. Although I've been writing a blog for a couple of years, I've produced it in smugmug format with a dark background as HTML out of Word 2003 and kept it on my domain. I've also included images, some of which are on my domain and some from smugmug. Because of the dark background, text had to be white. I've also kept column width consistent for ease of reading the blog in a vertical scan mode in a PDF. But, I have yet to accommodate it to the real blogosphere…
In one of your recent posts, you mentioned dark background but no comments about ease of reading with a white color. You also mentioned you changed your blog template to match your galleries (or you can embed your blog as a gallery?). I note your background is white w black letters. You can check out my blog at http://www.geocompa.com/BistiArtBlog.htm
WordPress or Blogger have differing attributes; I personally use PDFCreator to store webpages and Blogger won't go past the first page whereas WordPress does many. At this point, my gut says WordPress may be stronger until I hit all the .php references.
I've absorbed HTML with time (and designed my own Navbar at Smugmug after initial help from Big Al). But, I don't desire to know XHTML, XML, PHP or any of the other software apps closely. Yet, it looks like that may be some sort of requirement to get to a blog template matching smugmug galleries as you did.
May I ask some questions (hoping either you or someone you know can provide cogent answers):
1. When I tried to save your blog w PDFCreator, again I only got one page – your sand carvings were not get included. That is SOP for Blogger style blogs, but not Wordpress. So I had to resort to saving you as a web page…
2. How did you get your blog to contain multiple words – Images in Sand?
3. I note your blog does not show reader comments, but a guestbook instead; I was curious as to why that choice?
4. Are Blogger and WordPress equally efficient through Feedburner?
5. WordPress seems to need hosting on my domain. Is that really true or do both require a domain.
6. As I read this Dgrin thread, there seems to be difficulty in getting Google to see smugmug photos in spite of keywording - for relatively large online photography site, that seems a definite lack. Are there cogent examples of workarounds? Does Dgrin plan to take clear steps to solve the Google doesn’t easily find smugmug images issue (maybe this one is for Andy; but I don't get the clear future direction)?
7. Does it take a lot of time to get a blog template matching the smugmug gallery format? Is there a description which clearly shows this (what I presume to be an intricate) process?
8. There is a guy Peter Chen who really helps at Blogger; is there a similar guru at smugmug?
Okay, I've not tried big-league blogging yet! But I can certainly see it has distinct advantages at reaching a much bigger community. I'm just trying to get a 'working' sense before diving into some new blogosphere with underlying language(s) that are necessary and solve tricks for custom formats, without being eternally married to the onerous midnight hours new software learning can require.
While this is a lengthy query, I hope it finds favor with you.
I really look forward to your response…
Joe
[FONT="]As You Think, So Shall You BE... Rumi, 13th Century Persian Poet
Wow Joe! When you decide to get involved with something, you really dive in! I don't have all of the answers, but I'll try to share some of my thoughts.
...you mentioned dark background but no comments about ease of reading with a white color. You also mentioned you changed your blog template to match your galleries (or you can embed your blog as a gallery?). I note your background is white w black letters.
Somehow I prefer dark letters on a light background over the reverse. It may be from years and years of reading books (in paper). But that said, if I had chosen to use a dark background for my galleries I suspect I would have used light on dark for my blog too.
I don't particularly like the look of a gallery used as a blog. I've seen people use html-only galleries, and I've seen journal-style galleries. Neither lends themselves to allowing the viewer to jump to a different page, a different month.
There are also folks who have embedded their blogs into their smugmug site - but I don't like the looks of those either. The blog is usually limited in width, and the scrolling doesn't work too well either.
I originally had my blog and my galleries with different looks, but when I re-did the look of my galleries a while back I realized it wouldn't be too hard to change the look of my blog to (sort of) match.
...But, I don't desire to know XHTML, XML, PHP or any of the other software apps closely. Yet, it looks like that may be some sort of requirement to get to a blog template matching smugmug galleries as you did.
I never looked at WordPress - Blogger just kind of jumped out at me when I started blogging way back in 2004. I actually got hooked on writing and sharing online through journaling about my bike trips at http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/denisegoldberg. That site is very specifically aimed at touring by bicycle though, not random writing. So I jumped into the blog world. I still publish journals about my biking trips on crazyguyonabike, and about hiking trips at http://hiking.topicwise.com/denisegoldberg (both sites owned, written, and maintained by Neil Gunton). The journals are arranged more like a book, with chapters, and going from past to present, as opposed to a blog which has the latest entries on top.
As far as needing programming language - I can't speak to the question about WordPress, but for Blogger you don't need any programming knowledge at all. A little bit of CSS and HTML knowledge was helpful when I decided to make my blog match my photo galleries.
1. When I tried to save your blog w PDFCreator, again I only got one page – your sand carvings were not get included. That is SOP for Blogger style blogs, but not Wordpress. So I had to resort to saving you as a web page…
Blogger allows me to specify how many entries to show on a page. I have it set to show seven days. But if you click on the month on the sidebar, you will be presented with that month's worth of entries. In fact, that's how I generate backup copies. Yes, I'm a nut. I refuse to have the only source of my writings to be on the web. I want a copy on my computer too. So I click on the month then do a "save as" to save a local copy.
2. How did you get your blog to contain multiple words – Images in Sand?
Those are the titles of my blog entries. There is a setting in blogger that allows that behavior. I have the setting - enable post pages - set to yes. "Post Pages give each of your posts their own unique web page, in addition to appearing on your blog's front page."
If you click on the title of an entry either in the menu to the side or within the blog itself, that blog entry will display on a page by itself. It has the side effect of allowing me to link to specific pages in my blog from other pages or from other places (like from a photo gallery description).
3. I note your blog does not show reader comments, but a guestbook instead; I was curious as to why that choice?
I didn't want to have to go wandering through the entire blog to find comments. I recently added the guestbook page - a smugmug gallery - and as I'm sure you noticed, no one has signed it yet. I'm going to leave it there though, just in case.
4. Are Blogger and WordPress equally efficient through Feedburner?
5. WordPress seems to need hosting on my domain. Is that really true or do both require a domain.
I haven't used Feedburner myself, but there is a page in blogger (for each blog) where you can set up Feedburner entries for your blog. Ah, I just followed the link and saw that Google has purchased Feedburner. And Google owns Blogger. Hmmm...
You don't need a domain for blogger, can't speak to WordPress (although I believe they have the option to use your own domain or to host it there). My blog lives on Blogger's computers.
7. Does it take a lot of time to get a blog template matching the smugmug gallery format? Is there a description which clearly shows this (what I presume to be an intricate) process?
It really didn't take a lot of time to get my blog to match my gallery format. I do remember thinking it was taking longer than it should have, but if I remember correctly I think I spent some evening time playing and experimenting, then an afternoon getting everything to work. I created a second blog to play in so I didn't destroy the published blog. When I got the look that I wanted I copied the template to my live blog.
How did I accomplish the change?
I started by going into Blogger's Layout section. I adjusted the fonts and colors to match those I used in my galleries. Then I edited the html. I copied the CSS for my banner/navbar from smug and pasted it into the blogger html. I tried to understand all of the pieces in the blogger html so I could figure out where to paste the info from my smugmug header (the html for the banner/navbar). The first time I pasted it in I put it in slightly the wrong spot. Oops. I moved it, and pretty quickly got the looks of the two sites to match.
It did take a little thought and a little bit of patience - but I didn't feel pressured because I was working on a "play" blog. It's still out there (at http://denisegoldbergplays.blogspot.com/) in case I want to experiment...
Oh, and one other thing. Blogger has a button that you can use to plunk a photo into your blog. I don't use that button, because if someone clicks on a photo placed in the blog that way they are simply shown that same photo in its own browser window. Instead I use a combination of <a href= and <img src= HTML statements to display the photo from my galleries and to take the viewer directly into my gallery if they click on the photo.
I hope this helps some. Holler back with more questions as you think of them and I'll try to answer them.
Hi Joe! I have no experience with Wordpress, but I can assure you that Feedburner works seamlessly with Blogger, both with readers and e-mail subscriptions. I found it to be very easy to set up - just cut and paste a bit of code that Feedburner generates for you.
Also, for anyone who decides to go the route of using blogger in a seamless integration with your site, see this post by richW on how to remove the blogger banner from your blog - http://www.dgrin.com/showpost.php?p=719745&postcount=28.
Wow Joe! When you decide to get involved with something, you really dive in!
I hope this helps some. Holler back with more questions as you think of them and I'll try to answer them.
--- Denise
Hey Denise,
I'm a bit overwhelmed with a couple of different directions; your responses provoked a lot of thought, I also did a blog search at Dgrin and discovered some of your other interactions, and based on a suggestion you made in one of them, I began to download page sources including yours.
Right now, that last step may turn out to be a major gold mine. While I don't have a firm direction on this yet, if you recall, I indicated PDFCreator and Blogger are incompatible (can only print one page). WordPress, on the other hand, captures everything.
My present blog roll contains John Paul Caponigro, John Nack, Syl Arena, and Scott Kelby. Three out of four use WordPress. Most of the WordPress source code contains comments in English to help guide you through the mishmash. Since I regularly follow and read the blogs, I want to study the WordPress source code content before making many more decisions.
In Kelby's blog, I note specific, simple names, for JPEGs in the Terry White iPhone G3 description which fits in with some of what I read at Dgrin about naming conventions getting through to the Google search engine.
In my preliminary examination of Dgrin, I haven't found many followers of WordPress.
I'll get back when the old mind has sorted some stuff out...
Joe
[FONT="]As You Think, So Shall You BE... Rumi, 13th Century Persian Poet
At this point in my learning, it's not that I don't think Blogger can do the job. It's that I'm sure Blogger can't print more than one page in PDFCreator. You might want to take a look at my initial response to Denise' detailed comments.
And, if it's not too personal, What's (and Where's) BEHIND the Orange Curtain?
More details later...
Joe
[FONT="]As You Think, So Shall You BE... Rumi, 13th Century Persian Poet
Hey Denise,
I'll get back when the old mind has sorted some stuff out...
Journals etc
Denise, as to your journaling, you and I are big fans of that process. I try to do it both for each image as well as in the blog. Although the blog is presently limited in outreach, this new effort plans to make it somewhat more palatable for the public. Beyond that, I've also written a book called Paths of Light which will be available very soon at Blurb. And, I've yet to figure out how to hook it to smugmug.
Programming
After glancing through a Wordpress blog source code last night, I was reminded of my protracted efforts with big Al trying to learn how to handle a navbar. When I started, I knew HTML; I didn't know CSS. In customizing smugmug, they've created a template where you put in different parts of the code and I've finally mastered some of it. The Wordpress source seems to have many similarities, but the difference is ~ Wordpress does most of that stuff for you as does Blogger. Additionally, if you see a new widget on a blog, you can dig through the source, see how it works, and enhance your own blog. I'm presuming the word widget applies to both types of blogs. So I agree with you that a bit of CSS and HTML is quite helpful in understanding the new (to me) blog arena. Maybe my phobia will diminish with time...
PDFCreator
I sent you a personal copy this morning of what PDFCreator captured from your blog. As you can see, I didn't get all the glory you put into your blog.
Reader Comments
One of the Scott Kelby tricks is to have a guest blogger on Wednesdays. Dave Cross did a recent entry about shooting digital with Photoshop in mind. At last glance, there were 65 comments; some of them quite long and very informative. Kelby posts the first few lines of each comment in his blog sidebar so you can see if you want to dig down. I find that style of readers comment very helpful...
Test blog
I really like the idea of a test blog. I'm going to be starting from cold and have to develop the blog. By being able to see it, yet know it's not available to the public, I can go through the same process I went through as I developed the navbar. Great idea!
Layout
"I copied the CSS for my banner/navbar from smug and pasted it into the blogger html." Thanks Denise! That specificity is key to showing the transparency between a couple of domains. I've use that technique in designing my own blog so that it looks like I'm on smugmug but it's hosted on my domain.
Photo display
Again, you're specificity about photo display with HTML rather than using a button is good stuff. It actually helped me to focus on the fact I've been putting some images on my domain vice smugmug yet should spend more time using the smugmug share feature with <a href and <img src specificity in my blog.
Denise, your prompt and detailed response to my initial query is deeply appreciated. Now that I've had time to look through a couple of different Dgrin forums, your presence is "Making a Difference...".
Sorry the title sands like a hand cream...
Joe
[FONT="]As You Think, So Shall You BE... Rumi, 13th Century Persian Poet
At this point in my learning, it's not that I don't think Blogger can do the job. It's that I'm sure Blogger can't print more than one page in PDFCreator. You might want to take a look at my initial response to Denise' detailed comments.
And, if it's not too personal, What's (and Where's) BEHIND the Orange Curtain?
More details later...
I can understand that. I cheaped out and wanted a free blog since I wasn't sure if I was going to stick with it, that's the main reason I chose Blogger. Wordpress' free blog isn't customizable (although I've got my hands full working on the customization of my main website and haven't done any customization on my blog other than widgets) and Wordpress has the right to run ads on the free blogs. I definitely didn't like that, and even though they mention in several places about the paid upgrades for customization, additional storage space, domain mapping, etc., I never have been able to find any pricing on their site. I think you have to set up a free blog before you can see how much it costs to upgrade to do be able to do any customization.
Hehe, the Orange Curtain is the divide between Orange County and the rest of California, especially L.A. Orange County is more suburban, Republican and conservative than the rest of the state (although still nowhere near as Republican and conservative as the south). I must've been in a mood when I put that there...the Orange Curtain is usually meant in a derogatory way when said by L.A. folks. I haven't lived here long, about 5 years now...and after living all over the country I can only say that things are very....different...here. Everything you see on TV (The Real Housewives, etc.) is very true (don't let people tell you it's not), especially in the gated communities of south O.C. So I was sortof poking fun at myself by saying I'm Behind the Orange Curtain, but I guess only the California people would get it. And they might not even realize that I'm poking fun at myself.
At this point in my learning, it's not that I don't think Blogger can do the job. It's that I'm sure Blogger can't print more than one page in PDFCreator. You might want to take a look at my initial response to Denise' detailed comments.
And, if it's not too personal, What's (and Where's) BEHIND the Orange Curtain?
More details later...
I can understand that. I cheaped out and wanted a free blog since I wasn't sure if I was going to stick with it, that's the main reason I chose Blogger. Wordpress' free blog isn't customizable (although I've got my hands full working on the customization of my main website and haven't done any customization on my blog other than widgets) and Wordpress has the right to run ads on the free blogs. I definitely didn't like that, and even though they mention in several places about the paid upgrades for customization, additional storage space, domain mapping, etc., I never have been able to find any pricing on their site. I think you have to set up a free blog before you can see how much it costs to upgrade to do be able to do any customization.
Hehe, the Orange Curtain is the divide between Orange County and the rest of California, especially L.A. Orange County is more suburban, Republican and conservative than the rest of the state (although still nowhere near as Republican and conservative as the south). I must've been in a mood when I put that there...the Orange Curtain is usually meant in a derogatory way when said by L.A. folks. I haven't lived here long, about 5 years now...and after living all over the country I can only say that things are very....different...here. Everything you see on TV (The Real Housewives, etc.) is very true (don't let people tell you it's not), especially in the gated communities of south O.C. So I was sortof poking fun at myself by saying I'm Behind the Orange Curtain, but I guess only the California people would get it. And they might not even realize that I'm poking fun at myself.
I can understand that. I cheaped out and wanted a free blog since I wasn't sure if I was going to stick with it, that's the main reason I chose Blogger. Wordpress' free blog isn't customizable (although I've got my hands full working on the customization of my main website and haven't done any customization on my blog other than widgets) and Wordpress has the right to run ads on the free blogs. I definitely didn't like that, and even though they mention in several places about the paid upgrades for customization, additional storage space, domain mapping, etc., I never have been able to find any pricing on their site. I think you have to set up a free blog before you can see how much it costs to upgrade to do be able to do any customization.
Hehe, the Orange Curtain is the divide between Orange County and the rest of California, especially L.A. Orange County is more suburban, Republican and conservative than the rest of the state (although still nowhere near as Republican and conservative as the south). I must've been in a mood when I put that there...the Orange Curtain is usually meant in a derogatory way when said by L.A. folks. I haven't lived here long, about 5 years now...and after living all over the country I can only say that things are very....different...here. Everything you see on TV (The Real Housewives, etc.) is very true (don't let people tell you it's not), especially in the gated communities of south O.C. So I was sortof poking fun at myself by saying I'm Behind the Orange Curtain, but I guess only the California people would get it. And they might not even realize that I'm poking fun at myself.
Best of luck with your blogging!
Lori, I have a Wordpress blog (and a Blogger) and I can't figure out their charges either! They are very strange. But I get more hits on my Wordpress blog than I do on my Blogger - which is why I have kept both. I recently wrote to their support staff asking how I could export my Wordpress blog (to back it up) and they responded inside of 12 hours which surprised me. I have not read thru their instructions yet but I hope to get to them this weekend and give it a try.
You add references to your own site wherever you can. For example, you should add a signature for dgrin that would show your site.
--- Denise
Does it matter if the link is like mine currently is in my sig? Or, does it have to have the full address typed out, such as www.fineimagephotography.com?
Does it matter if the link is like mine currently is in my sig? Or, does it have to have the full address typed out, such as www.fineimagephotography.com?
Does it matter, as far as increasing site traffic is concerned?
Shouldn't matter because the actual address is in the code that displays your site name. So even though it's not visible, it is still there.
One other thing that does matter - I just took a look at your blog, and it looks like you took advantage of blogger's "add a picture" button. That will not drive traffic to your site because it essentially is copying the photo into a blogger storage location and displaying it from there. I always use html to display my photo and to link back to that photo's location in my galleries. I use a combination of a <a href statement and a <img src statement. And I use smug's custom photo sizes to generate an image that "fits" in the available space in my blog - http://www.smugmug.com/help/custom-photo-sizes. The reason that I use the combination of statements is to support clicking on the photo to jump into my galleries.
Based on the fact that you already have links embedded in your blog, I suspect you know how to build those statements. But for anyone else who needs the information, here is an example of the code I put in my blog to show my photos.
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I don't know why it took me so long to think of this question based on your reply here but......
IF google won't find any filenames on Smumgug, what good is your turning our filenames into keywords?
I have 15 keywords setup in all my images IPTC using photoshop CS2. And, I know smugmug finds those keywords because they appear automatically under my photo images in my gallery as they were typed in the tagging in CS2.
What advantage is our filename as a keyword and where specifically does this advantage become obvious..... on Smugmug? On Google (can't be because you just told us Google can't find our filenames on Smugmug)
Thank you in advance for clearing this all up for a dimwit like me :-)
Canon AE1 - it was my first "real camera"
Canon 20D - no more film!
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Any, I'm sorry but your reply appears a bit cryptic to me.
Just answer yes or no to the following question... thank you.
If you leave your filename as birdonawire.jpg, google will not find it on Smugmug. However, once our file name is turned into keywords by smugmug, in this case bird_on_a_wire.jpg google can then find the filename using bird or wilre or bird on a wire as keywords?
Canon AE1 - it was my first "real camera"
Canon 20D - no more film!
if your filename is birdonawire.jpg then we'll make birdonawire into a keyword and google will find it
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bird_on_a_wire.jpg
not like this
birdonawire.jpg
Is that correct, Andy?
And just like a politician......
you couldn't just answer the question straight away (yes or no as requested) :hung He he.. I just love that one!
Canon AE1 - it was my first "real camera"
Canon 20D - no more film!
birdonawire.jpg will yield keyword birdonawire.
We have a bug though, and filenames are NOT being made to keywords right now. Engineers are aware and they will fix it, but I can't say when.
More help: http://www.smugmug.com/help/keywords-tags
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The sub pages are indexed, e.g. www.osirisphoto.com/Animals and osirisphoto.smugmug.com is there, not sure where but I must have over cooked something
Oh well, back to square one.
As an aside.. I saw three of my images on Smugmug returned by Google Images recently... but then they disappeared. Some weird mojo going on.
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"Based on feedback from both our advertisers and users, and consistent with our efforts to present relevant results, we'll no longer allow certain exceptions to our display URL policy. These include, but aren't limited to, redirects and vanity URLs. In line with our existing policy, we'll continue to require that your ad's display URL matches its destination URL (the URL of your landing page). This policy will be strictly enforced for new ads, regardless of previous exceptions." Google Adwords Help Center
Just in case anybody hasn't noticed (or hasn't mentioned it), Google AdWords will no longer allow ads with a landing page different from the displayed URL.
This change started this month.
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How do I get other sites to link to me?
Cate
www.photobycate.com
http://photobycate.wordpress.com/
If you have a blog, make sure to link from your photo site to your blog, and from your blog to your photo site. If you participate in other forums, include a link to your galleries in your posts there too.
You can look at my sites as an example. I have a navbar entry from my smugmug site that links to my blog. I reference my smugmug site within the sidebar of my blog even though it's probably not needed anymore since I am now using the same navbar for both sites. I keep journals of my travels, and my profile on the site where my journals live points back to my galleries, see http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/denisegoldberg. At the end of each of my journals, I link back to the photo galleries containing the photos from that trip. And I've had others ask permission to link to my blog or my galleries from their blog or galleries.
--- Denise
Musings & ramblings at https://denisegoldberg.blogspot.com
I just created my signature. Thanks. Love your photos and the look of your site. I need to learn alot more about customizing my website. I have just the basics which will do for now. I do not know how to "blog." How do you set up a guest book like you have on your site.
Thanks,
www.photobycate.com
http://photobycate.wordpress.com/
Sorry for the delay in replying, I didn't notice your post until now.
Thanks so much for your compliments on my photos and my site.
The guestbook on my site is a gallery containing a single photo that I locked into journal style. The text next to the photo is entered as the caption. More info in # 31 and 32 in the customization faq at http://www.smugmug.com/help/customize-faq.
As far as blogging goes, you really don't need to know anything to blog. My blog is hosted at www.blogger.com, and I've been quite happy with it there. I know that there are a number of other people who have blogs at www.wordpress.com. And both blogging sites are free. The simplest way to start is to create your blog and start posting entries. Choose a template that comes close to your smugmug site - that is, if you have a black background on your galleries, choose a template with a black background for your blog. That way there won't be too much of a (visual) jump when your viewer switches from one to the other. Include a link in your galleries to your blog, and a link from your blog to your galleries.
If you want to go further, you can either alter your blog template to match your galleries (that's what I did) or you can embed your blog using the technique that richW published in this thread - http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=70297&highlight=blog.
I think the important thing in blogging is to make sure to blog. When I follow a navbar link from someone's gallery to their blog and the last entry was months ago - well, I usually don't go back again. You don't need to blog every day or even every week, but do add to your blog. And since you are a photographer, it's easy to find things to add to your blog - use your photos!
Let me know if you have more questions.
When I google my name, the first entry that comes up is my photo galleries, and the next is my blog...
Also - I just took a look at your site and I noticed that you have your galleries locked into filmstrip style. I believe that smugmug style - particularly the new "stretchy" that picks the largest size photo that fits in the browser - does a much better job of showcasing your photos. I'd recommend giving that a try.
--- Denise
Musings & ramblings at https://denisegoldberg.blogspot.com
No need to apologize. Thanks for all the great info. I will give this a try.
Regards,
www.photobycate.com
http://photobycate.wordpress.com/
Apr 28th, never an album description... added it on Apr 28th after making this grab:
May 7th:
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Hi Denise,
You have mastered several aspects of web and blog; only 29,400 hits a few minutes ago thru Google for D G … Congratulations!
Some of your recent posts about blogs encourage me to enter the fray. Although I've been writing a blog for a couple of years, I've produced it in smugmug format with a dark background as HTML out of Word 2003 and kept it on my domain. I've also included images, some of which are on my domain and some from smugmug. Because of the dark background, text had to be white. I've also kept column width consistent for ease of reading the blog in a vertical scan mode in a PDF. But, I have yet to accommodate it to the real blogosphere…
In one of your recent posts, you mentioned dark background but no comments about ease of reading with a white color. You also mentioned you changed your blog template to match your galleries (or you can embed your blog as a gallery?). I note your background is white w black letters. You can check out my blog at http://www.geocompa.com/BistiArtBlog.htm
WordPress or Blogger have differing attributes; I personally use PDFCreator to store webpages and Blogger won't go past the first page whereas WordPress does many. At this point, my gut says WordPress may be stronger until I hit all the .php references.
I've absorbed HTML with time (and designed my own Navbar at Smugmug after initial help from Big Al). But, I don't desire to know XHTML, XML, PHP or any of the other software apps closely. Yet, it looks like that may be some sort of requirement to get to a blog template matching smugmug galleries as you did.
May I ask some questions (hoping either you or someone you know can provide cogent answers):
1. When I tried to save your blog w PDFCreator, again I only got one page – your sand carvings were not get included. That is SOP for Blogger style blogs, but not Wordpress. So I had to resort to saving you as a web page…
2. How did you get your blog to contain multiple words – Images in Sand?
3. I note your blog does not show reader comments, but a guestbook instead; I was curious as to why that choice?
4. Are Blogger and WordPress equally efficient through Feedburner?
5. WordPress seems to need hosting on my domain. Is that really true or do both require a domain.
6. As I read this Dgrin thread, there seems to be difficulty in getting Google to see smugmug photos in spite of keywording - for relatively large online photography site, that seems a definite lack. Are there cogent examples of workarounds? Does Dgrin plan to take clear steps to solve the Google doesn’t easily find smugmug images issue (maybe this one is for Andy; but I don't get the clear future direction)?
7. Does it take a lot of time to get a blog template matching the smugmug gallery format? Is there a description which clearly shows this (what I presume to be an intricate) process?
8. There is a guy Peter Chen who really helps at Blogger; is there a similar guru at smugmug?
Okay, I've not tried big-league blogging yet! But I can certainly see it has distinct advantages at reaching a much bigger community. I'm just trying to get a 'working' sense before diving into some new blogosphere with underlying language(s) that are necessary and solve tricks for custom formats, without being eternally married to the onerous midnight hours new software learning can require.
While this is a lengthy query, I hope it finds favor with you.
I really look forward to your response…
[FONT="]As You Think, So Shall You BE... Rumi, 13th Century Persian Poet
Award-Winning Photography, Workshop Instructor, Storyteller, Writer
[/FONT][FONT="]Blog: [/FONT][FONT="]Pathways of Light[/FONT]
[FONT="] Workshops: Creating Fine Art Magic[/FONT][FONT="]
Book: Paths of Light [/FONT]
[FONT="]Workshops: 2011 Lightroom 3 Workshops
[/FONT][FONT="]Galleries, Bisti Art
[/FONT]
I don't particularly like the look of a gallery used as a blog. I've seen people use html-only galleries, and I've seen journal-style galleries. Neither lends themselves to allowing the viewer to jump to a different page, a different month.
There are also folks who have embedded their blogs into their smugmug site - but I don't like the looks of those either. The blog is usually limited in width, and the scrolling doesn't work too well either.
I originally had my blog and my galleries with different looks, but when I re-did the look of my galleries a while back I realized it wouldn't be too hard to change the look of my blog to (sort of) match. I never looked at WordPress - Blogger just kind of jumped out at me when I started blogging way back in 2004. I actually got hooked on writing and sharing online through journaling about my bike trips at http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/denisegoldberg. That site is very specifically aimed at touring by bicycle though, not random writing. So I jumped into the blog world. I still publish journals about my biking trips on crazyguyonabike, and about hiking trips at http://hiking.topicwise.com/denisegoldberg (both sites owned, written, and maintained by Neil Gunton). The journals are arranged more like a book, with chapters, and going from past to present, as opposed to a blog which has the latest entries on top.
As far as needing programming language - I can't speak to the question about WordPress, but for Blogger you don't need any programming knowledge at all. A little bit of CSS and HTML knowledge was helpful when I decided to make my blog match my photo galleries. Blogger allows me to specify how many entries to show on a page. I have it set to show seven days. But if you click on the month on the sidebar, you will be presented with that month's worth of entries. In fact, that's how I generate backup copies. Yes, I'm a nut. I refuse to have the only source of my writings to be on the web. I want a copy on my computer too. So I click on the month then do a "save as" to save a local copy. Those are the titles of my blog entries. There is a setting in blogger that allows that behavior. I have the setting - enable post pages - set to yes. "Post Pages give each of your posts their own unique web page, in addition to appearing on your blog's front page."
If you click on the title of an entry either in the menu to the side or within the blog itself, that blog entry will display on a page by itself. It has the side effect of allowing me to link to specific pages in my blog from other pages or from other places (like from a photo gallery description). I didn't want to have to go wandering through the entire blog to find comments. I recently added the guestbook page - a smugmug gallery - and as I'm sure you noticed, no one has signed it yet. I'm going to leave it there though, just in case. I haven't used Feedburner myself, but there is a page in blogger (for each blog) where you can set up Feedburner entries for your blog. Ah, I just followed the link and saw that Google has purchased Feedburner. And Google owns Blogger. Hmmm...
You don't need a domain for blogger, can't speak to WordPress (although I believe they have the option to use your own domain or to host it there). My blog lives on Blogger's computers. It really didn't take a lot of time to get my blog to match my gallery format. I do remember thinking it was taking longer than it should have, but if I remember correctly I think I spent some evening time playing and experimenting, then an afternoon getting everything to work. I created a second blog to play in so I didn't destroy the published blog. When I got the look that I wanted I copied the template to my live blog.
How did I accomplish the change?
I started by going into Blogger's Layout section. I adjusted the fonts and colors to match those I used in my galleries. Then I edited the html. I copied the CSS for my banner/navbar from smug and pasted it into the blogger html. I tried to understand all of the pieces in the blogger html so I could figure out where to paste the info from my smugmug header (the html for the banner/navbar). The first time I pasted it in I put it in slightly the wrong spot. Oops. I moved it, and pretty quickly got the looks of the two sites to match.
It did take a little thought and a little bit of patience - but I didn't feel pressured because I was working on a "play" blog. It's still out there (at http://denisegoldbergplays.blogspot.com/) in case I want to experiment...
Oh, and one other thing. Blogger has a button that you can use to plunk a photo into your blog. I don't use that button, because if someone clicks on a photo placed in the blog that way they are simply shown that same photo in its own browser window. Instead I use a combination of <a href= and <img src= HTML statements to display the photo from my galleries and to take the viewer directly into my gallery if they click on the photo.
I hope this helps some. Holler back with more questions as you think of them and I'll try to answer them.
--- Denise
Musings & ramblings at https://denisegoldberg.blogspot.com
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--- Denise
Musings & ramblings at https://denisegoldberg.blogspot.com
Hey Denise,
I'm a bit overwhelmed with a couple of different directions; your responses provoked a lot of thought, I also did a blog search at Dgrin and discovered some of your other interactions, and based on a suggestion you made in one of them, I began to download page sources including yours.
Right now, that last step may turn out to be a major gold mine. While I don't have a firm direction on this yet, if you recall, I indicated PDFCreator and Blogger are incompatible (can only print one page). WordPress, on the other hand, captures everything.
My present blog roll contains John Paul Caponigro, John Nack, Syl Arena, and Scott Kelby. Three out of four use WordPress. Most of the WordPress source code contains comments in English to help guide you through the mishmash. Since I regularly follow and read the blogs, I want to study the WordPress source code content before making many more decisions.
In Kelby's blog, I note specific, simple names, for JPEGs in the Terry White iPhone G3 description which fits in with some of what I read at Dgrin about naming conventions getting through to the Google search engine.
In my preliminary examination of Dgrin, I haven't found many followers of WordPress.
I'll get back when the old mind has sorted some stuff out...
[FONT="]As You Think, So Shall You BE... Rumi, 13th Century Persian Poet
Award-Winning Photography, Workshop Instructor, Storyteller, Writer
[/FONT][FONT="]Blog: [/FONT][FONT="]Pathways of Light[/FONT]
[FONT="] Workshops: Creating Fine Art Magic[/FONT][FONT="]
Book: Paths of Light [/FONT]
[FONT="]Workshops: 2011 Lightroom 3 Workshops
[/FONT][FONT="]Galleries, Bisti Art
[/FONT]
Hi Lori,
At this point in my learning, it's not that I don't think Blogger can do the job. It's that I'm sure Blogger can't print more than one page in PDFCreator. You might want to take a look at my initial response to Denise' detailed comments.
And, if it's not too personal, What's (and Where's) BEHIND the Orange Curtain?
More details later...
[FONT="]As You Think, So Shall You BE... Rumi, 13th Century Persian Poet
Award-Winning Photography, Workshop Instructor, Storyteller, Writer
[/FONT][FONT="]Blog: [/FONT][FONT="]Pathways of Light[/FONT]
[FONT="] Workshops: Creating Fine Art Magic[/FONT][FONT="]
Book: Paths of Light [/FONT]
[FONT="]Workshops: 2011 Lightroom 3 Workshops
[/FONT][FONT="]Galleries, Bisti Art
[/FONT]
Journals etc
Denise, as to your journaling, you and I are big fans of that process. I try to do it both for each image as well as in the blog. Although the blog is presently limited in outreach, this new effort plans to make it somewhat more palatable for the public. Beyond that, I've also written a book called Paths of Light which will be available very soon at Blurb. And, I've yet to figure out how to hook it to smugmug.
Programming
After glancing through a Wordpress blog source code last night, I was reminded of my protracted efforts with big Al trying to learn how to handle a navbar. When I started, I knew HTML; I didn't know CSS. In customizing smugmug, they've created a template where you put in different parts of the code and I've finally mastered some of it. The Wordpress source seems to have many similarities, but the difference is ~ Wordpress does most of that stuff for you as does Blogger. Additionally, if you see a new widget on a blog, you can dig through the source, see how it works, and enhance your own blog. I'm presuming the word widget applies to both types of blogs. So I agree with you that a bit of CSS and HTML is quite helpful in understanding the new (to me) blog arena. Maybe my phobia will diminish with time...
PDFCreator
I sent you a personal copy this morning of what PDFCreator captured from your blog. As you can see, I didn't get all the glory you put into your blog.
Reader Comments
One of the Scott Kelby tricks is to have a guest blogger on Wednesdays. Dave Cross did a recent entry about shooting digital with Photoshop in mind. At last glance, there were 65 comments; some of them quite long and very informative. Kelby posts the first few lines of each comment in his blog sidebar so you can see if you want to dig down. I find that style of readers comment very helpful...
Test blog
I really like the idea of a test blog. I'm going to be starting from cold and have to develop the blog. By being able to see it, yet know it's not available to the public, I can go through the same process I went through as I developed the navbar. Great idea!
Layout
"I copied the CSS for my banner/navbar from smug and pasted it into the blogger html." Thanks Denise! That specificity is key to showing the transparency between a couple of domains. I've use that technique in designing my own blog so that it looks like I'm on smugmug but it's hosted on my domain.
Photo display
Again, you're specificity about photo display with HTML rather than using a button is good stuff. It actually helped me to focus on the fact I've been putting some images on my domain vice smugmug yet should spend more time using the smugmug share feature with <a href and <img src specificity in my blog.
Denise, your prompt and detailed response to my initial query is deeply appreciated. Now that I've had time to look through a couple of different Dgrin forums, your presence is "Making a Difference...".
Sorry the title sands like a hand cream...
[FONT="]As You Think, So Shall You BE... Rumi, 13th Century Persian Poet
Award-Winning Photography, Workshop Instructor, Storyteller, Writer
[/FONT][FONT="]Blog: [/FONT][FONT="]Pathways of Light[/FONT]
[FONT="] Workshops: Creating Fine Art Magic[/FONT][FONT="]
Book: Paths of Light [/FONT]
[FONT="]Workshops: 2011 Lightroom 3 Workshops
[/FONT][FONT="]Galleries, Bisti Art
[/FONT]
I can understand that. I cheaped out and wanted a free blog since I wasn't sure if I was going to stick with it, that's the main reason I chose Blogger. Wordpress' free blog isn't customizable (although I've got my hands full working on the customization of my main website and haven't done any customization on my blog other than widgets) and Wordpress has the right to run ads on the free blogs. I definitely didn't like that, and even though they mention in several places about the paid upgrades for customization, additional storage space, domain mapping, etc., I never have been able to find any pricing on their site.
Hehe,
Best of luck with your blogging!
My Photos
My Blog
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Hehe,
Best of luck with your blogging!
My Photos
My Blog
On Google+
On DrivingLine
Lori, I have a Wordpress blog (and a Blogger) and I can't figure out their charges either!
I liked your explaination about OC, thanks!
Smugmug site
Blog Portfolio
Facebook
Does it matter if the link is like mine currently is in my sig? Or, does it have to have the full address typed out, such as www.fineimagephotography.com?
Put another way, is
Fine Image Photography
the same as
http://www.fineimagephotography.com
Does it matter, as far as increasing site traffic is concerned?
My site:Fine Image Photography
ALL of my images are keyworded right in the RAW file. My question is:
Does it matter if I have the keywords hidden on my site, or do I need them to be displayed to work their magic?
Thanks
My site:Fine Image Photography
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One other thing that does matter - I just took a look at your blog, and it looks like you took advantage of blogger's "add a picture" button. That will not drive traffic to your site because it essentially is copying the photo into a blogger storage location and displaying it from there. I always use html to display my photo and to link back to that photo's location in my galleries. I use a combination of a <a href statement and a <img src statement. And I use smug's custom photo sizes to generate an image that "fits" in the available space in my blog - http://www.smugmug.com/help/custom-photo-sizes. The reason that I use the combination of statements is to support clicking on the photo to jump into my galleries.
Based on the fact that you already have links embedded in your blog, I suspect you know how to build those statements. But for anyone else who needs the information, here is an example of the code I put in my blog to show my photos.
<center><a href="<A href="http://www.denisegoldberg.com/gallery/5475439_pkNaq/1/334797478_t98sS"><IMG">http
--- Denise
Musings & ramblings at https://denisegoldberg.blogspot.com