What is a digital photography blog and how can you get one in 10 minutes?

Let’s break it into steps. Here’s how Wikipedia describes a photography blog…

A photoblog (a.k.a. photolog or phlog) is a form of photo sharing and publishing in the format of a blog, but differentiated by the predominant use of and focus on photographs rather than text.

In the case of PhotoMarketeers we use a WordPress template blog, and add the occasional small photo attachment to every post. (The excellent plugin that automates the ‘add photos’ part easily is Zemanta).

You could do a similar thing of course by starting out with WordPress. You can download WordPress for free at http://wordpress.org/

And when you get to the ‘writing’ stage,  (like I’m doing now) remember you can add more than just images too… Use bullet points, graphics, etc, to break up the text and make it easier on the eye when your visitors ‘speed browse’ your site.

But I digress…

To keep things simple, what you’d do is add thumbnails or small photos to your photo blog, with links out to your FlickR photo folio, or to SmugMug photo sharing (so the viewer can go see more snaps if they desire).

All this depends on what YOU want your viewers to see…

In our case the emphasis is on the content, and we support the words with images.

But if you wanted to put the focus more on the images themselves then you’d use a photo blog template that’s specifically designed to display photography work. Do a Google search for ‘WordPress photo blog templates’ to find a list of these.

You can also invest in a digital photography blog that’s pretty much plug and play.

That means it’s all set up and ready for you to just add your photos, your content, and then go hassle everyone you know about it.  Go here to see one of these (never used this – can’t confirm how good it is!)

If what you’ve just read sounds good then why not take it further and get your hands on my ‘How To Make A Stunning WordPress Blog‘ (for photographers)?

You’ll be able to download this (free) rockin’ guide within minutes once you sign up to my free photo marketing ezine.

That guide explains how to set up your digital photography blog in greater depth with step by step screen pictures showing you exactly what to do, and how to do it.

It’s not that difficult to set yourself up with a photo blog. You can get yourself started in 10 minutes. Next week we’ll explore how to host your photo blog too.

What do you think?
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Here’s an interesting list of 50 favorite photo sites, articles and photo news from 2008 from one of my most favorite digital stock photography sites, Crestock

Take particular note of the Magnum photographer’s blog and also Simon Robert’s brilliant and surreal real-time photo book about Russia which you’ll find at www.motherlandbook.com (Great idea for a website by the way!)

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Photos above from:

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/picturegalleries/pictures-of-the-year/

Related articles:

• 5 Sites Where You Can Sell Your Photos (lifehack.org)

Do you lie awake at night ‘imagineering’ potential ideas in your mind… mulling over the creative possibilities of where you could go with a digital photography blog?

Photo blogging is actually one superb way to start making money in photography. Of course though, you DO need to put the effort into it (like anything, right?)

Although it’s easy enough to set up a WordPress blog (like this one), keep in mind you’ll still need to post (write) to your blog often, be willing to work hard at it, learn the basics to blogging, and make sure you keep firing questions to passionate marketeers like me!

However it’s not always as easy as it sounds. You kind of need to have your own ‘mission’ and blog purpose – and continue working on it no matter what. Otherwise you can have “…unrealistic expectations of how fast your readership will grow and how much money you will make, and when these expectations are not met, the disappointment can crush the desire to continue blogging.”

To counter-defend yourself against the frustrations that inevitably sneak up as you look up to the summit and see how far you’ve STILL got to trek, you need to have a realistic plan and stick to it. Everyone has their own plan, but in any case, it can be something as simple as writing a blog post, or contacting another related photo blog for a reciprocal link once a week.

And if you’re serious about making money in photography from blogging, then you’re going to have to do a little bit of photo marketing too… Stuff such as taking the time to let other folks know about your photo blog, posting comments on other related blogs, making comments in photo forums, and so on.

More often than not though, you’ll automate some of these processes to save you time. A really good example of hands-free, easy-automation is Jonathan Leger’s 3 way linking tool that’ll help to get your digital photography blog ranking highly in Google. But all in all, prepare to work at it for a good while before you start seeing results.

Once you understand that it does take work, you’ll know that to cultivate the regular visitors, you’ll need to keep posting on your blog, and continue the photo marketing side of things as much as the actual writing part.

You can also do things like drop a subscription form into your blog that invites your visitors to join your mailing list, or promote affiliate products through writing reviews or using banner advertising. When a website visitor clicks and buys one of these products you’ll earn a nice little commission.

The key to all this is staying committed to your project. To stay motivated, set goals for how often you will update your photo blog, and how many readers you want to attract, and then reward yourself for sticking to your plan. By mastering the basics, and taking action, you’ll be ahead of 99% of the market…

So, a digital photography blog does a few things well… It’s a creative ‘canvas’ for your ideas, a good way to ‘put you on the map,’ and a potential (and very cool) way to start making money in photography too!

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• 7 Tips For Blogging Your Way Out Of Your Full-Time Job

How many of us pour our heart and soul into creating snappy looking websites, inspirational photo blogs, image rich presentations and then find out the only people visiting our sites are family and friends, or the occasional waylaid visitor?

I’ve been there and done that, and it’s not much fun. You become disillusioned REAL quick with just a dribble of traffic to your websites. It’s like a healthy, growing plant… if you never water it, eventually it curls over and dies. Please don’t let this happen to your website, especially if you’ve spent a LOT of your time on it.

So, what are we going to do about it then? Well… I read that there were only 3 ways to grow your business, and here they are…

• Increase customers.
• Increase the transaction value.
• Create a backend product/create more products.

So, let’s focus on the first one. How we can increase customers, or increase website traffic?

Before we jump into that, let me say that the whole ‘normal’ process of getting ‘bums on seats’ or visitors (traffic) to your website is not exactly a walk in the park. In other words, it does take quite a bit of effort on your part.

In this case, we’re focused on ‘organic’ traffic, or ‘search engine traffic.’ In a roundabout way, that simply means I want you to find my website (or blog) in the first page of Google when you type in specific photo marketing or photography tips related keywords. I personally focus on Google, but Yahoo also works well for some niches too.

In the articles on this photo marketing blog you can read about many of the different ways to increase website traffic, including a free download-able guide about Article Marketing (click to download), so I won’t get into all the methods here.

But thankfully there IS an easy way… a method that allows me to get a whole bunch of my websites on page one in Google, for a number of different photo related keywords…

Basically I use a service called 3 Way Links ($47 per month). I won’t go in to the mechanics of how it works exactly (you can read more at the 3WayLinks site) but it sure has made it a LOT easier for me to hit page one in Google much faster (and with very little work on my behalf – all I did was add one page to my blog).

As you could imagine, a page one in Google for a few particular (highly searched) keywords gives me a LOT more eyeballs, plus get more sign ups to my ezine, etc.

Having said that…

• You need to choose your keywords right.
• You also will want to know how to monetize your website or blog effectively whether that’s with Google Adsense or other methods. (That is, if you want to make some money from this!)
• You also need to post regular content (often) to your website or blog (that’s why blogs are SO good for this!)

So if you’ve got a nice little WordPress photography tips themed blog or brand spanking new website, and you’re struggling to increase website traffic… then at least consider the 3WayLinks method. No matter what niche you’re in, this ‘set it and forget it’ method is one way that makes getting that highly desirable page one in Google rather attractive, and very achievable.

Read more about 3WayLinks here.

This is a question I recently received…

I’ve just realized that I left my (photo) blog dry for long time and it’s almost time to renew my domain and hosting account. Then, I thought of WordPress and you! Could you please suggest me how should I start from? I have WordPress account. Basically, I do need new hosting with..? (the one you use and recommend)?

There’s a TRUCK load of options you could take. You could do what I do which is just host my sites with BlueHost. There’s also DreamHost and I’ve used Hostica too. I believe they (Hostica.com) still have a 1-1-1 plan… That’s 1 site hosted for $1 a month. Can hardly beat that…

You also might want to think about ThinkHost.

ThinkHost are thinking alternative: They provide… “Green web hosting powered by renewable wind and solar energy. Your carbon neutral account supports a more earth friendly future…”

Nutshell: BlueHost is $95 per year and DreamHost is $120 per year. (The more years you sign up for, the lower the cost, mostly).

The great thing about BlueHost is that you can put up unlimited number of domains for the same price. This is good if you have a few blogs (or photo based websites) you want to put up.

You can import Blogger to WordPress easily enough if you need… and whatever you decide to do… create a photo blog, a content rich photo website, a stand alone image gallery… you’ll still need to host your web site with someone… so make sure your host is reliable (been around a long time and has a LOT of happy customers).

That would take care of the hosting part. Now you need somewhere to renew your domain… I would just put it with BlueHost as well…. if you decide to sign up with them. (About $10 for domain registration, per year – is the going fee).

By the way I have been with BlueHost for years now… they’re pretty good… BUT the best thing is their “live chat” help desk. You should make FULL use of it… ask them any questions, and they will help you, walk you through it…

Dreamhost has a ‘unique’ approach too, …it’s ‘owned’ by its employees. So the ‘employees’ get a say on how the business runs. Very cool.