Learn More About Your Own Blog
Have you ever wanted an easy way to look at your blog’s statistics? Thanks to the new Google Analytics Dashboard sharing feature, we are able to give you an overview…
Visual VS Educational Content
Calling all photographers… There is a big difference between writing a blog article and writing a blog article that educates your potential customers. Don’t get me wrong, sharing your photographs…
The Best Web Hosting for Photographers and WordPress
(Page Last Updated on August 28, 2017) OUR HOSTING RECOMMENDATIONS We’ve now been in the WordPress business for 6 wonderful years and our main products, Photocrati and NextGEN Gallery, are…
Photocrati WordPress Theme v2.2!
We are excited to announce our new upgrade to the Photocrati Supertheme, with Wordpress 3.0 Custom Menu Compatibility!!! What this means, is that you can include the following in your…
Websites for Your Business: Yes, Your Images Matter
In my last two articles in this series, I talked about planning your business needs then organizing the structure of your site to best meet those needs. Today, I’ll talk about making sure your site and your images look great.
The background color of your site is important. Neutral colors are usually best, which leaves white, black, and shades of grey. Because colors tend to appear more saturated and lively against a dark background than a lighter one, I usually recommend darker greys (but not black) for color photographers, on the other hand, I think white or light grey backgrounds look great with a lot of monochromatic work. Spend a little time experimenting with your own images and different background tones to see just how big a difference it makes. (more…)
Site Navigation: Websites for the Business of Photography
Last week I covered some of the basic strategic questions you need to answer for yourself before putting together a web site. This week, I’ll talk about making your web site usable. If you have a large web site, it’s very likely that most folks who come to it will never see more than a couple of pages. It’s essential that your customers find the information they need.
To start, take out a piece of paper and jot down a list of what information you’d like to include on your site. Minimally, you need some of your images, and contact information, but depending on your business and how you hope to use your web site as part of your business (as we described last week), you may want to include: news, reviews, perhaps a blog or links to other social networking sites, and/or a biography that explains who you are, what you do and why. Don’t include an item on this list until you have a clear understanding of how it fits into your business. For example: “If a customer wants to place an order, they’ll need to contact me, so I’ll give them contact information.” (more…)
Websites for the Business of Photography
I’m just starting a third revamp of my own nature photography website, (the first two dating from 2002 and 2004), and I wanted to share my thoughts on creative, effective photography websites. While it’s tempting (at least for geeks like myself!) to drop immediately into the nitty-gritty of implementation details, it’s far more important to first plan out what your web site is going to be for and how it will function as a part of your photography business (or even hobby.)
First, consider how your website will fit into your sales cycle. What is the site supposed to do for you and your clients? The most common mistake I see from aspiring nature and fine art photographers is (more…)
Larger To Sell
Since I started The Travel Photographer blog, I’ve come across a lot of photographers’ web sites, and found some that are excellent; some are sort of good, while others are, frankly, just hideous.
We all know that the main objective of a website for most photographers is to promote themselves, to sell and expand the reach of their photography to new clients, and certainly to internationalize their work. However, too many photographers forget that simplicity is always best in creating websites. Whether photo editors or just casual viewers, simple websites with killer images are those that work. (more…)
The $29 solution….
If any of you are like me, you got into this business for one reason, to take photographs, to capture that special moment in time. And if you go back to the day of processing your own film and prints, you saw your photos come to life in a tray full of developer. But we are now tasked to learn a new method of image processing, the digital darkroom, and a new way to showcase our work, the internet, which brings me to my topic. (more…)