blogging

All posts tagged blogging

Here’s Why The BEST Place To Post Your Images is on YOUR Website/Blog

Posted by scottbourne on October 17, 2012
Posted in: Technique & Tutorials. Tagged: , .


Suppose you rely heavily on Flickr, Facebook, Picasa etc. as a way to display your portfolio. Suppose one of these sites goes bankrupt or just decides to change its business model or decides it doesn’t like your content? Suppose this happens with no notice…here one day gone the next?

What would you do?

Suffer – that’s what.

There’s a simple way to solve this problem. Host your own images on your own website or blog then link to or seed these other services, particularly those that are social media in form and function – and you get the best of both worlds.

If you control where your images reside, how they look, what can happen to them, you don’t have to worry so much about onerous terms of service agreements or financially-challenged sharing sites.

I am NOT saying you should avoid the pay sites. To the contrary, I think most of those – particularly those that have been around for a while, are reasonably safe bets. I don’t think they are as safe as hosting your own work. But I am more concerned about the free sites and social media sites.

In either case I do think it’s a good idea to have a place of your own to host your images. You can always refer traffic to the other sites. By making sure that your potential clients, visitors and customers START at your site – you control the flow and the conversation. You also offer yourself at least a modicum of protection against overnight account deletion, business model changes and the like.

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Five Reasons Why Photographers Should Build A Blog Rather Than A Website

Posted by scottbourne on December 10, 2009
Posted in: Technique & Tutorials. Tagged: .

I’ve visited 20 Flash-based photographer’s websites this week. I’ve been subjected to long load times, terrible – loud music, poor animation and a serious lack of good imagery. Unfortunately for the photographers who owned these sites, I was visiting to look at their entry into our Emerging Photographer of the Year contest. None of these folks will win because their web sites are so bad, I couldn’t find the pictures and if I could find them, the pain and agony I had to go through to look at them was simply not worth it.

Why is it photographers (who are usually very smart and creative) are so ineffective when it comes to their websites?

I don’t know. But I DO know of a cure. Start fresh and start with a blog. Sure you can build a fancy website someday. But for now, just start a blog.

Here are five important reasons why you should use a blog rather than or in addition to building a website.

1. You can build a blog at NO cost. You can do it all by yourself. (Free blogs at WordPress.com and Blogger.com – I prefer WordPress)

2. Search engines LOVE blogs. Google really likes the first 100 words of any page. If you can write good content related to your target audience’s needs, blogs will get you more Google juice than the average Website.

3. Blogs can accomplish anything a static website can and more.

4. Blogs offer RSS – really simple syndication. People can subscribe (for free) to your blog and be automatically updated/informed every time you post a new blog article or picture.

5. You can use industry-standard tools and you can change and update the site at your leisure. With many websites, you have to pay a Web admin to update the content. With blogging tools like WordPress.com and Blogger.com you can do your own updates free of charge.

BONUS reason: If you use WordPress.com your blog is automatically formatted for iPhone use. WP detects when someone comes to the blog via an iPhone and serves up a mobile version automatically – pretty slick!

There are obviously lots of other reasons to build a blog over a website. If you don’t agree, I’d challenge you to at least try ADDING a blog in addition to your website. Watch how the blog evolves compared to the Website. I think you’ll see for yourself the advantage of blogs.

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