Business is nothing w/out inspiration

Photography news that's fit to blog (this week)
by Kerry Raminiak

Howdy from Texas, y’all. I have a special treat for our blog readers. Last month we put up a contest on our Facebook Fan page asking you how you show off your work and we are now able to announce a winner! Choosing from many entries was hard but Danielle McCann of Florence, Alabama won a DARKROOM Core edition for this lovely and very creative shot. Congrats Danielle!

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This week’s spotlight is on: Search Engine Optimization
Some quick tips for getting your name out there…
the tips are even more useful to PhotoReflect.com users
(just sayin’)

As mentioned in previous posts, our monthly newsletter gets a lot of praise because, just like our blog, it’s not all about us, rather, it’s about you and how you can improve your business as easily and inexpensively as possible. You see, ExpressDigital’s mission is all about providing tools for photographers to grow their business and while we can shout off the rooftops all the things you can do with PhotoReflect, for example, it means nothing if you cannot use these tools to get more business, sell your work and ensure greater profits each and every year.

This is why, after working with SPAA and PSPA last month, I learned a bit of a lesson on how important it is for our photographers to get ranked higher in search engine searches. My sessions at PMA were jam-packed and filled with a lot of questions on this topic, most of which I tried to answer in our newsletter feature-article found here (and via presentation downloads available on that page in the right margin).

For our blog, I summarize the article briefly, keeping in mind that search engine optimization (SEO) is a topic that is controversial, challenging and a bit of a moving target and this is why, while I cannot claim to guarantee better search engine results by implementing this tips, I can say that doing something is much better than doing nothing. These tips, in particular, are rather painless and effective if you put them into practice every time you publish your photography online. So without further ado, here are the four tips described in the article and presentations in summary (remember they are in significantly more depth in the original article):

• The more photos you publish and the more clicks you get is really the most inherent thing you can do to improve your SEO.
  
  
• The title you publish your photo catalogs as is pretty important. Do not forget to title the event the same way your clients promote the event and use your keywords as often as possible when publishing… for example, “Montgomery H.S. Swing Fling baseball tournament, Santa Rosa, CA” as a catalog title will help your SEO; “Mont. Highschool baseball photos” will not.
  
  
• Negotiate pictures for links with your clients and other vendors. This “silent endorsement” will not only do wonders for your credibility, search engines love it, perhaps more than any other type of promotion you can do.
  
  
• Think about other ways you can link to your photo catalogs. Blogs, Facebook, Twitter and emails will improve the clicks, is generally good marketing, and will ultimately help you be better ranked because more people are checking out those photos. Regardless if these people buy the photos, the clicks are a good thing.

These four tips are free and easy to do if you put them into practice regularly. Everything you put online is a way to improve business simply by making it easier to find you and establishing credible references from everyone you do business with. Just remember, before you click “publish” you have a say in how you are found online tomorrow. Good luck!

As a quick PS to this article… new, free PhotoReflect webinars have just been scheduled. Click here and read the side-bar on the right for more info.

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More fun fun photography stuffs:
This week, with one exception (#1 below), I found the best stuff on the wires to be about inspiration rather than just news (and I really can't complain).

1. I was tempted to save this article for a spotlight. I still might in the coming weeks as April 15 looms. It is written by the “Tax Ninja” for Photoshelter and it is simply great writing and good advice for photo businesses. HEED THIS ADVICE on avoiding common tax mistakes because the IRS is on the hunt.

2. DJDesignerLab via PhotoFizz has compiled the 25 most “wonderful photography techniques and tutorials.” Fair warning, it is a list of tutorials which means it will be impossible to get through in just pass-through reading. BUT, if you bookmark this page (as I have) and go to it every time you need a quick inspiration fix, you will never go wanting.

3. Smashing Magazine has published some lovely black and white photography simply because they want to inspire you (and me). Enjoy.

4. DARKROOM software is currently on sale. There is a mail-in cash-back rebate good for 10% detailed here as well. The new Core edition, put out late last year, has been called the most innovative and relevant software for burgeoning professionals and, well, who am I to disagree?