High Performance Photoblogging - August, 2009Posted by drfl on August 11th, 2009
In a continued effort to provide more information to photographers, once or twice a month I am going to offer a post entitled “High-Performance PhotoBlogging”. These posts will deal with blogging effectively, marketing photography, and news from the world of photography.
In late May of this year I had the opportunity to listen to Guy Kawasaki speak at a conference in Las Vegas. A self-avowed “Technical Evangelist” and a very engaging speaker, he currently has the 88th most popular blog on the Internet today where he offers tidbits and advice for those looking to utilize the latest tools for marketing. Besides being an Apple fellow and numerous other accolades he is the founder of Alltop.com (mentioned in my SEO for Photographers series) and as such he is very in tune with the world of blogging and microblogging – better known as Twitter. I follow his blog “How to Change the World” constantly as I find the information entertaining and useful from a marketing and business perspective.
Last November he posted the article “Looking for Mr. Goodtweet: How to Pick Up Followers on Twitter”. While it focuses on the world of Twitter, many of the tips are useful from a blog perspective. Here are a few of the items I took away from the post:
Tip 4: Follow everyone who follows you.
Guy really says it best in the post with “It’s courteous to do so and because when you do, some people will respond to you and everyone who follows them will see this—which is more exposure for you” I try and follow everyone who views my blog or my work and then give reciprocal feedback.
Tip 5: Always be linking.
When I first started my website in 1999 the design mantra was: “Don’t link away from your site – you’ll lose visitors.” While this may seem like good advice at first brush, I think overall this logic is flawed. Here I will use “Miracle on 34th St.” to illustrate this point. In the movie, the retailer, Macy’s, first instructs Santa that if they don’t have the toy the child wants to try and sell them something else. Santa on the other hand directs the child’s parents to the store which has the toy. Although the initial sale is lost, the result is that Macy has endeared a more loyal customer. If someone else has pertinent information or images, their website or blog is where they should be directed. A good linking strategy amongst peers will eventually come full circle and provide positive exposure for the company initially sending the more refined traffic elsewhere.
Tip 6: Establish yourself as a subject expert.
Simply put, if you do not see yourself as an expert, how would anyone else see you that way? That doesn’t mean you have to be a “know-it-all”, just realize that you may have information that could help others.
Tip 7: Incorporate pictures and other media.
Photoblogs should have pictures. “Photo” is the first half of the title.
Tip 10: Ask people to follow.
Have information that is worth following and people will always come back. Asking them to return doesn’t hurt either. So in the vein of #10, be sure to follow “Traveling the Journey Of Light”.
August 11th, 2009 at 8:06 am
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