Hey Girl, Nice Shot

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) for Photographers

I'll be honest here....I really didn't go out of my way to optimize my sites for search engines.  I know, terrible, right?  Up until my most recent site, I always had a basic HTML sites so I just figured they were search engine friendly.  And since the majority of my business is referral based, I figured it didn't really matter where I was in the search results.

I'll pause while you are appropriately horrified.

Now that's not to say that didn't do ANYTHING.  I mean, I was careful to have titles on my pages, I would enter keywords now and then on my blog posts, I would sprinkle keywords in the text of my posts. 

But now the number of photographers are growing by the day (as I write this I'm sure someone else in my neighborhood is likely starting their own photography business, and someone else will start one next week).  Is that how you feel too?  It's not just me, right?

So I decided it was time to get serious about my search engine optimization.  So I did a little experiment.  I considered what 4 sets of keywords I would like to concentrate on and I Googled those sets of keywords.

 

WOOHOO!  I was near the top of the first page.  Oh wait, what's that?  Google customizes your search results based on your viewing history?  If you didn't know that and thought you were doing great with the search engines, you might want to go back and give it another look with customizations turned off and see where you stand. See that part circled at the top of the screen?  Click there to see the search results without customizations. EDITED TO ADD: if you do not have a google account or are not logged in, to disable customizations of your search based on web history click on "web history" on the upper right side of the screen, then click "Disable customizations based on search activity".

My local listing, however, does well so I'm happy about that.

 
Part two of my experiment involved the actual optimization part. Purchasing the Photographer's SEO Book (a $39 e-book*) as a resource, I made some small tweaks to my site.  After one week I hadn't really moved.  Then I made a second round of tweaks..and HELLO!  I moved up!  And this is only doing a small percentage of the stuff mentioned in the book.

It doesn't really matter what keyword terms I am targeting because you'll need to find what works for you.  Also, I still have a lot of optimizing I can do as I've just done a few of the things listed in the book.   And I'm optimizing both my website and my blog so it can be time consuming.  But here's a chart showing some of the changes for the four keyword phrases I was targeting.

 

Considering 22% of my traffic comes from Google, I do want to move up in the ranks for certain keyword phrases.  So I targeted four phrases that I wanted to optimize for and see how it impacted where I show up in the results.  Overall, I wasn't in bad shape to begin with...frequently showing up on page 2 or 3.  But for one phrase that I actually thought I would be in good shape for...I was on page 11!!!!!

Over the two week period where I worked on optimizing the site (blue column) and blog (white column) I saw improvements in my rank for almost every phrase set.  The biggest change was moving from number 109 to number 30 for one of the terms.

I still have A LOT of stuff to do, but this shows that even small changes can make a big difference. 

*Affiliate Link

My BigFolio Website Experience

In the past, I've had some strong words for Flash websites.  Mainly I didn't care for them.

Let's start with I felt like they all looked the same.  But that could be because so many people used the same company for their sites so they really were all the same.

They took forever to load.  Some do, at least.  Some still do.

Music!  Gah, I really really dislike automatically starting music on a website.  I dislike it even more on a blog.  If I want to hear music, I'll ask for it.  A music video is different because you are prepared for it.  And you can choose when to start it.  But when I'm surfing along while watching TV and I hit a site with music and I've forgotten to mute, I find myself frantically searching for the way to turn it off.  I actually usually just keep my computer muted so if you have music, I don't know anyway.  And if you are using unlicensed music (which I've noticed a lot of folks do), um, go get some licensed music.

One big site.  I know when I send my email newsletter out, I like to link to specific pages in my site.  And when I get an inquiry I like to be able to link directly to certain pages on my site...maybe the pricing page, or the scheduling page.  I noticed that so many sites are just one big site with no way to link to a certain section of the site.  Instead you'd have to send your client instructions "click here, click there".  No thanks.

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Now, I'll admit.  I, um, have been tempted by the pretty look.  The lovely slideshows.  The easy updating.

So when BigFolio ran a twitter contest a while back I competed hoping to win a free site.  And I did!  I won their new Arch Cape template.  I figured I would use it for a sub-brand I was in the process of creating for my seniors and engagement sessions. 

But the more I worked with it, the more I loved it.  And I realized, I really wanted to use it for my whole site.  So I made a few adjustments and got it up and running to replace my previous HTML website.

 

What did I like?  The interface for customizing the site was really easy.  They have design documentation to make it easier to fine tune the look of the site. 

Each "page" within the Flash template has a distinct URL, which means you can link to an interior page of your site.  A HUGE bonus for me!  And with my Google Analytics code installed (they have a box you paste it into during setup-EASY), I can actually see what parts of the site get the most traffic, or where visitors spend the most time.  I think more of the flash sites are starting to work this way, but I think BigFolio is doing a good job with the way they handle it.

I've heard other friends complain about the customer service with their website hosts or the company they buy their template from.  And in one company in particular I've heard LOTS of complaints about downtime, taking forever to get responses from customer service, taking a long time to get the site up, etc.  I've heard so many complaints I vowed never to buy a site from them (you probably know who I'm talking about but I since I've not used them personally I won't put the name here).  I can tell you I've had the opposite experience with BigFolio.  I submitted trouble tickets and always got responses right away.  I haven't experienced any trouble with downtime.  I did choose to keep management of my email separate since I already had that setup and they were fine with that too.

When I first launched my site, I will admit the HTML version of it was kinda, well, a mess.  I contacted BigFolio and they got their developer right on it to clean it up.  I'm guessing I was the first Arch Cape customer to choose the option for an HTML site in addition to the Flash version so the template for the HTML version just didn't have the bugs worked out (for example, the primary image wasn't even one of my pictures).  I will admit, I don't love the HTML version of the site but it works fine, provides a search engine friendly version of my site, and based on the traffic from my analytics, the majority of the visitors click on the Flash version of the site anyway so I'm not going to worry too much about it.

 

As an optional feature, I did go ahead and purchase their SmallFolio add-on which is a $49 add on to create a iphone version of your site.  It is so cool!  And the best part, because I have a site with them, I bought it-they set it up and magically I had an iPhone compatible version of my site. It was a really fast turn around.   Looking at my visitor stats, I can see that when I sent out my last email newsletter-I had a big bump in my iPhone visitors too...reminding me that so many people check their email on their phones!

I emailed Big Folio to let them know that I'd be blogging about my experience, and to find out if they have any current promotions I could share with you.  And it turns out..they do.  If you use the code "BFSAVE150" when you sign up for a PREMIUM site, you'll save $150!!  Good until the end of February so hurry!

BTW, I wanted to note that I've gotten very positive feedback from my clients regarding my new site.  I streamlined the content quite a bit so I think it is easier to find information AND they love the way it looks.

Edited to Add: I decided to take advantage of the discount code too and just purchased my second BigFolio site to use for revamping my photography classes for moms website.  I'm so excited to set it up.

In a Slow Economy - Cut Costs

If you are like me, you are are so sick of hearing about the slow economy.  And in an industry where we are likely considered a luxury instead of a necessity, you may have noticed fewer calls, more complaints about high prices, or smaller orders.  

So what's a girl to do if revenue is down?  Or what if it is up but you are still not bringing home the income you would like from your business?

If you cannot make more money (by adding sessions or increasing sales from each session), you'll have to look at other ways to generate more money from your business.

One way is to reduce costs.  There are a number of ways to do this.  Look at your monthly expenses and see if there are any expenses you can reduce.  For example, at one point I was paying a monthly fee for two different proofing systems, and a bunch of other online tools.  Yeah, I'm a sucker for a low monthly service fee...until I have 10 of them adding up to an an extra $200/month.  I'd much rather have that $$ in my pocket.

Another way is to look at your big expenses and see if there is a way to help control that cost.  For me, I looked at my loft space that I used as a gallery/sales space.  It is a great space but much bigger than I needed - especially since I was only going there a day or two a week.  So now I'm sharing the space with some other businesses (a web design company and pr/social media expert).  This greatly reduced the overhead on the space but still gave me the access I would need for meeting client there for shoots.  Since I don't actually shoot in the space having the other folks there is not a problem...and it has been nice having a crew in the space with me.

Another way to control costs is to not buy every new bright shiny object that comes out.  I know, I know, it is so fun to get new toys.  I'm guilty of this too.  Sometimes I'm embarrassed by the number of templates, tools, actions, and gear I "had to have" that hardly gets used now.  But as soon as new gadget comes out...it is hard to resist that urge to buy.  I read something once that said the difference between a business is a hobby is that a business plans their purchases where a hobby will just spend spend spend.  

So take some time to review your bank records.  Look at your recurring expenses and see if you can cut any of those out.  And think twice before you click "buy" to make sure you really NEED that object.  WIll it help you make more money?  How will you judge that it was a successful purchase?

A Confession of Losing at the Game of Chance

Sometimes you have to take chances to grow your business  And not every change will work. 

This year was a year of experimenting with my business.  For the first third of 2009 my revenue was up 38%.  Super exciting, right!?  But I was trying to look ahead and grow the business so I brought in some associate photographers.  The idea was that I would lower the per-shoot revenue but making it a package deal including the disk but that the associates would be taking on the lower-priced shoots and I would continue doing the higher end shoots.

 

Unfortunately my little experiment was a failure.  Clients were not lining up for these lower priced sessions like I expected.  It seemed that many people were nervous about paying more upfront and not seeing the photos before paying.  And they wanted to come to me - not to a new associate. And they didn't see the option of purchasing the disk ahead of time as a savings over the traditional portrait sessions.  And we ended up discounting the sessions further trying to build up clients for the associates which only made the situation worse by having sessions that were actually below cost.

We did do some great mini-session events in September which is why we had a spike in revenue in September but we also had higher expenses that month due to those mini-sessions.  And because  sessions were prepaid at a discounted rate, our revenue dropped quickly during the time that our revenue was on the rise last year.  So instead of finishing the year with a 40% increase in revenue over the year before, which was my goal, I actually finished out the year a little behind. 

The good news is I'm not afraid to make changes.  Clearly.  So I've decided to go back to my more traditional model with a session fee for the payment...then selling the prints and digital files after they see the proofs.  It was a better model for me and it allowed me to keep a much more reasonable schedule.  So I'll be going back to that for 2010.   In addition, I'll be subletting some of the space in the loft that I'm leasing to a design company since I'm not there that often and it is a lot of overhead to carry.  Actually, I was thrilled when I saw that suggestion to sub-let in the PPA magazine this month because it helped me feel better about reducing my overhead that way.    2010 is looking up already.  I have a bunch of newborn sessions scheduled between now and April in a time that is traditionally slow for outdoor portrait photographers.  

Don't be afraid to take chances but know what the risks are, the worst case scenarios, and plan for them.  I actually didn't plan my Fall very well because I kept thinking that suddenly people would realize the holidays were around the corner and book sessions  with the associates.  I really had no back-up plan.  So now I'm adding, "BETTER PLANNING" to my goals for 2010.   

What about you?  What mistake did you make in 2009 and what did you learn from them?  Or what changes did you make that worked great for you?

Planning for 2010

I'm sitting on the floor supervising my 3 year old's bath while she is home sick from daycare.  Probably a more common scene for Mom's who also run their own small businesses.  Multi-tasking is a fact of life when you have kids, a home, a husband, pets, and a business.  Unfortunately it is all too easy to have the "I want it all" approach and end up overwhelmed, overscheduled, and unhappy overall.

In 2009 I wanted it all.  I wanted to have a nice and organized house, spend fun quality time with my kids, grow my business, and maybe even sneak in a date night or two with my husband.  And you know what, I ended the year unhappy.  My husband, who is much more willing to ask the tough questions, made me face the reality that I just can't have it all...not right now at least. 

So for 2010 I'm going to make some hard decisions about how I spend my time.  And I expect, being able to really commit to a few things is going to make me much happier overall.  It'll make me a better wife, a better mom, and a better business owner. 

My number one priority for 2010 is to get healthy.  I've completely slacked in the last year on this.  After getting in great shape and loosing weight in 2008 when I was only working part time, I slipped into very bad habits last year because I didn't plan how I was going to exercise and eat healthy meals.  Instead I stopped exercising all together and pretty much ate some form of delivery or carry out for the majority of my meals.  NOT GOOD!  So the very first thing on my list for next year is myself.  Exercising and planning for health meals will be an essential part of my year.  I know I'll have more energy and feel better, and it is an investment in myself that will last much longer than almost anything else I do.

Also for next year my husband and I are embarking on a major software project together.  It will be a tool set for photographers.  Some of you may know that my husband is a very gifted software developer...the majority of the projects he consults on are multi-million dollar projects.  So while the stuff we've outlined is complicated...I'm very confident that we'll be able to take a completely different approach than anyone else!  So that will be taking up the majority of my time over the next year.  More about that soon.

Photography will still play a role in my life - and an important one.  It'll just be a smaller slice of the pie.  I'll be more selective about the clients I take on to make sure we are a good match.  And I know that will make me much happier about the sessions I have.

So as part of this planning processes I made a chart of my days of the week and my projected time for each task.  It was really eye opening.  The first time I did it I couldn't get the # hours to be under 24!  And realistically I need it to be more around 20 or so hours to give me some wiggle room for things that just come up (like kids sick at home!).

 

While I could adjust week to week, this would be a plan for getting though my week.  Have you tried this yourself?  I just made a google spreadsheet with the days of the week and the task areas....then put the hours per day for each task.  Then I created a chart from that because I like to see things visually.

Try this for yourself.  Ask yourself some hard questions about your year - and what is realistic.  You'll be happier if you do!

Party Hosting

 

I love my loft space and while I don't do many shoots there (light is not great) it is a great meeting place for clients and the neighborhood is perfect for that urban portrait look!  However, it is a big space and I hope to really use it more for events in the upcoming year.

The first such event was a book release party for the newly published Kirtsy Takes a Bow.  Kirtsy is a site similar to Digg but from a women's perspective, and for women. You can go there to find the most interesting topics online for women...everything from news to fashion to blog posts.  It is a great way to let someone else tell you where to surf online when you have some down time! 

To celebrate the success, they compiled some of the most popular items and put them together into a beautiful book!  The contributors are a who's who of the online world and when they asked if they could have their Houston release party at the loft I didn't even hesitate: YES!

To prepare my new office buddy, the editor of the book, and myself spend the better part of Sunday clearing away the urban jungle that had taken over the patio space in front of my building.  We also all but emptied the loft space to make room for the unknown number of guests that would be attending the party.

 

We couldn't have been luckier with the weather.  A cool front had come through so we could easily leave doors open and guests could come and go.  We had a fire pit outside, and wine inside.  A perfect combination!

I already knew a number of the guests from previous Houston events but the one contributor I was most interested in meeting was Karen Walrond (aka Chookooloonks), a photographer and author. It was love at first sight.  She has such a positive energy around her and was so fun to talk to!  I can't wait to see her again at another event.  Definitely check out her blog, and gain inspiration from one of her projects: Shutter Sisters.

 

So why host the party?  Mainly because I really feel important about community involvement and while my children and job keep me from doing more, I felt like this was a great way to support some pretty impressive women in the Houston area (and beyond).  Also, I think it is rare to get such an interesting and diverse group of people together in one spot which made for some great conversations.  I really enjoyed talking to the guests both about my photography, being in that neighborhood, other artists, and the book!  I encourage to you to get involved and see if there is something you can do to help further others in your community.  Plus, it never hurts to earn a few Karma points.

Online Backups with LiveDrive | Interview with Jay Grieves

Not to long ago I had my main workstation fail.  The one with all my photographs on it.  And while I had backups on an external drive and on DVD, I wasn't 100% sure that everything was there.  And it highlighted another problem...what if something happened to the physical location of my equipment?  So I tasked my husband (a software developer consulting with large companies) with researching and setting up an online backup and storage solution for me and he came back with LiveDrive.  Here's a guest post interview with him to tell you about why we choose to go with LiveDrive for our business.

Who are you and what do you do?
I'm Jay Grieves (http://www.BigSwingingDeveloper.com) and I'm a software developer by day and run the technical infrastructure at Bubblegum Tree at night.

What system are you using for backups?
I'm using the online server LiveDrive.

Prior to using an online service, what were you doing for backups?
It was a mix of storing data on a local machine that had a RAID 5 array and burning data to DVD.  The problem with this is that all of the backups were in the same building as the source data, which means there was no protection from destruction like fire.  Backup solutions like drobo, TeraStation, or copying to a My Book drive will save you from accidental deletion and corruption, but not a true disaster.  Burning DVDs and taking them offsite regularly was unlikely, so I started looking into online services.

What were you looking for in an online backup solution?
The number one feature I was looking for was a reasonable price for storing large amounts of data.  RAW files can come in at 20MB each and even JPGs are 5MB+ from a Canon 5D Mark II.  I was also looking for someone who didn't have a bad reputation.  New companies who hadn't established a reputation were in the running, but anyone with angry blog posts about them came off the list.

What other systems did you consider?  What made LiveDrive standout?
I looked at Mozy, Amazon S3, iDrive, and a couple of others.  LiveDrive stood out for offering unlimited storage and the ability to install the client on multiple computers and have stored files available on them.  For example, files that get backed up from the office appear available on the "L:" drive of our home computer.  The file isn't actually downloaded until we try to open it, so it's not taking up all that space but it is still available in case it's needed outside the office.  They also have a web client for retrieving files on the go.  I also liked that LiveDrive has a 30 day trial so I could see exactly what was going to be involved with using it and give it a test drive before committing.

How much time did it take to get LiveDrive setup and all the existing information backed up?
The download and installation of LiveDrive took about 10 minutes.  There was about 350GB of data (mostly image files) to be copied the first time.  This took about 30 days to upload.  That's not a typo, it took a month.  Once the initial load was finished, however, new files are simply copied to the L: drive and they're automatically uploaded.  This means that any data we choose to store online is uploaded each day.


Is there a limit for how much data you can store on LiveDrive?
Live drive offers an unlimited plan for $150/year.  They also have a 100GB plan, but I went straight for the unlimited plan since I had so many images to store.

What are some of the best features of LiveDrive?  What are its limitations?
It's really easy to use and the price can't be beat.  They also add new features periodically so it's constantly improving.  The only limitation that I notice is upload speed, but there are so many factors involved that I really can't complain about that.

Anything else we should know about online backups or LiveDrive?
When it comes to backups in general, you should have a plan.  If your computer, or the building in which it's housed, were destroyed then how would you recover?  While it may seem gloomy to think about, you'll actually feel better once you have a plan in place.  At this point if our office were to become unavailable I know that we can access any of our important files from home and our business could continue with minimal interruption.

I can tell you that since switching to LiveDrive, working out of two spaces has become MUCH easier.  I have downloaded proofs off the LiveDrive a number of times when I've been at home and I'm trying to help a client out by placing their order from home instead of waiting until I get to my office.  And some cool features they have added include the ability to share files with others (imagine letting clients download files) and a drag and drop interface to Facebook and flickr.

Thanks Jay for sharing your insight with our readers!

I <3 my iPhone

Last year I was one of those souls sitting outside an AT&T store waiting to get my hands on an iPhone...I don't even have one of the new ones and I still ADORE it.  It helps me manage my business when I am on the go.

What does your iPhone home screen say about you!?

 

If you are an iPhone user you may have already figured out how to move all the icons around.  As you download more apps (after all, there is an app for that) you'll want to organize your applications in a way that makes it more efficient for you!  For example, I have one whole screen for the games my kids play on my phone so they don't eve touch the other icons by accident.

But your home screen is your most valuable real estate. This is where you should put the apps you use most.

The very bottom row are your dock items that stay there screen to screen.  So I have moved Facebook there.  I'm so totally addicted to Facebook (although I am not loving the new layout).

I use Tweetie for twitter and I really like the interface.  I manage multiple twitter accounts and it is easy to do from this application!

Since I have a Ring Central account for my 800 number, having the app to connect to that at the front is great for when I want to go in and check my messages.

If you have not seen Chase Jarvis' Best Camera you must check it out!  It allows you to make quick creative edits to your iPhone photos and post them in one step to multiple outlets like Facebook and Twitter.

I use the online version of Quickbooks and so having the iphone version is handy to check it.  Which, you know, I should do more often.

Some others to note:

-Google: I like the Google iPhone app because it makes a quick two click option to get to my reader and calendar.

-PS Mobile: Photoshop mobile - lets you make some basic adjustments to your iphone photos.  It is pretty cool because you slide your finger back and forth on the screen to adjust the option just like using the sliders on your computer!

-Animoto: I love Animoto and am constantly making videos with it.  The app gives you quick access to view all the videos you've made and you can download them to your phone.  So next time you are talking to someone about your photography you can whip out your phone and show a video---and not wait for it to download.  You can also create videos from photos on your iphone.

-GoPayment: This app allows me to process credit card information from my phone!  Great for when you meet a client off-site and they want to make a payment with credit card!

Laura Novak, one of the instructors from LearnFest, recently released her PhotoPrice iphone application.  If you are struggling with how to set up your pricing...this application will help you.  Having attended Learnfest, and also gone through her Strategy Avenue disks, I understand SOOOO much better how to set up my pricing.  And I have a major spreadsheet that I have used to create my pricing model.  I promise you it does not look as pretty as the PhotoPrice application.

So there are some of the iPhone tools I use to help keep my business running even when I'm on the go.  What are some of your favorite iPhone applications that help you run your business?  Or maybe kill a little time waiting for a client.  :)

Design Aglow Does it Again

I LOVE the look of this new inspire collection from Design Aglow.  Canvases are my most popular product and being able to show them in collections is a fantastic option.  I know I could spend HOURS figuring out the math on how to put the different sizes together, or just get this collection to do the hard work for me.

Visit the Design Aglow blog to see more about this great product.  They are offering $25 off the full price for this week only but this would be a great tool to have in time for those holiday orders anyway!  And I think I need the hanging guide to help myself...I feel challenged to get things all aligned just right!  :)  These would also look great with stand-outs!

I have some of the other inspire guides and they are super easy to use.  Clients really love being able to see their designs.  And now that I'm offering more digital sessions, I offer the design sessions for a fee as an up-sell for clients looking for help on putting together wall displays.  The fee for the design session is applied as a print credit if they choose to order their prints from me or I keep it as a consulting fee if they decide to order prints for themselves with their purchased digital images.

From the Design Aglow store this collection includes:

• 26 beautiful canvas groupings for all wall sizes and price points
• A 5x7 mini guide (of the contemporary set) for printing convenient "take home" copies for your client (NEW!)
• A wall sizing guide. Know which galleries will fit in your client's home and which won't (NEW!)
• A convenient hanging guide. Send a copy of this lovely tri-fold home with your client along with a tape measure to make hanging their collections super easy (NEW!)
• A customizable price list
• A customizable page to showcase photos of finished canvas galleries (NEW!)

Read more about this collection on the Design Aglow blog, and see how you can earn a $75 gift certificate from Design Aglow!

Banking on Backups

This week my main workstation died.  As in, it acted as if it didn't have power getting to it.  My technical hubby tried installing a new power supply with no love.  After three years it had had enough.  Chances are it needs a new motherboard at the least..but we might as well rebuild the whole thing because so much as changed in three years!

So the bad news...I have three years of pictures, templates, actions, and the like, stored in a way that I understand, on that machine.

The good news...my husband was able to pop out the hard drive and get my data off of it for me.

Now, when I get back to my office after a shoot, I copy the CF card to my machine with all the originals and make a copy straight to DVD of the originals.  I have a giant case of these DVDs.

 

Most of my finished sessions are also archived to DVD or backed up to an external hard drive. 

And my 2009 sessions have a DVD backup that has the originals and retouched files stored with their client contract.

So I was feeling pretty good about myself.

Then my computer wouldn't boot and I got a little panicked.  Did I really have EVERYTHING backed up from the last three years?  Would I be able to find it? 

Since my husband could copy the stuff off the hard drive I'm not in any trouble (and if you are a client, your files are safe) but it did make me wonder...

WHAT ARE YOU DOING FOR BACKUPS?

And there are different levels of backing up.  For example, if my computer melted down and I truly couldn't get anything from it, it would REALLY suck but I could recover from it.

But if my loft burned to the ground, I'd be in much bigger trouble since my backup disks are stored here too.

We looked into doing online backups a while ago and it seemed cost prohibitive.  Maybe the market has changed enough to reconsider?

Outside of your data files, what steps do you take to make sure your business is "backed up".  Do you have off-site copies of your incorporation papers, your federal EIN assignment, important bank paperwork?

What about all those templates you bought, the actions you bought, fonts that you have bought?  It is easy to forget to back those items up.

How long do you keep client files archived or backed up?  I've heard of people getting rid of them after a year.

So, friends, tell me what you are doing for your business continuity and backups because I'm currently terrified of any stray sparks...