Your blog!

[Wil_Bloodworth]

So... how is your blog working for you? Are you getting traffic to it? Is it helping your business? How much verbiage do you put on your blogs compared to images? How often do you blog?

Feel free to rip me a new one on mine: http://parkimaging.wordpress.com/

- Wil

[HotHolly]

Wil, I would use more text. One thing that is great about blogs is how searchable they are - especially if you have a flash site. It helps people find you and feel like they know you. The more you write, the better. Also, if you give tips and ideas for parents, brides, ponies - who ever you cater to - they are likely to check back. Also make sure you say the name of your studio and location frequently - its searches well.

I keep up well with the bridal blog. Right now I am writing a blog on different types of laces. I also wrote something recently on wedding blunders concerning photography.

The best blogs - the ones I LIKE to read - often have the writers personality very clear in the text AND are informative. Basically, they are fun to read.

[Wil_Bloodworth]

Thanks holly. I appreciate the quality feedback!

- Wil

[HotHolly]

Originally Posted by ParkImaging

Thanks holly. I appreciate the quality feedback!

- Wil

Im all about quality.

[Wil_Bloodworth]

Holly: But you didn't answer any of the questions about your blog... do you get much traffic? Do you know if people are reading it?

- Wil

[Michelle Allmon]

I kept trying to do the blog thing and not doing it, but now that I started doing it I am surprised and how much more VALUABLE traffic I get. I just started including the venue links and tagging posts with locations and that has helped a lot, too. Google "raystown resort wedding" and you'll see what I mean. I just moved those pictures over from my old blog a few days ago.

So I killed my entire website and went to 100% Wordpress - more traffic. Then I installed a plugin for SEO where you pick the titles for every post & page & jumped to #1 in google for "state college wedding" and #2 for "state college wedding." The site had been "live" for maybe 2-3 weeks total. So yeah. Now since I got in the accident last week and haven't posted anything good, I've dropped to #2 from my #1 spot. All I have to do is post more RELEVANT content (pics of my car are not relevant) and I will hop right back up again. The trick is to post very, very often.

I highly recommend self-hosting your Wordpress blog. You can download wordpress at wordpress.org and it installs in less than 5 minutes. There is also a plugin that automatically creates sitemaps for you and submits them to google, etc., everytime there is a change.

[Michelle Allmon]

PS - I know exactly when people are reading it, where there are from, what page they are on, where they came from, etc, by using Sitemeter.

[brad]

Just added yours to my read list.. so you have one. :)

I have counters on mine.. I get a few dozen a week when I post my weekly picture.

[Wil_Bloodworth]

I'm getting about 10 or so a day. Sometimes, I'll get close to 40 but it's usually between 5 and 10.

- Wil

[Shelby Lane]

Originally Posted by Michelle Allmon

I highly recommend self-hosting your Wordpress blog. You can download wordpress at wordpress.org and it installs in less than 5 minutes. There is also a plugin that automatically creates sitemaps for you and submits them to google, etc., everytime there is a change.

+2. I also totally agree with Holly about the text: it makes you so much more "findable" on search engines. Fresh new text content, several times a week, is great food for search engines.

I use mine to

- showcase new work, so I don't have to update the regular site as frequently
- distribute info to clients about what is going on with the studio and with me
- tide clients over and keep the excitement high till their ordering session with a sneak peek of one or two of my favorites
- strengthen the relationship with my clients, so they know a little more about who I am and what I do

It has been great for generating business and driving traffic to the site. I, too, use Sitemeter so I can see where people are coming from and what the most popular posts are. I need to get back to posting regularly... I have a backlog of sessions to blog about. But parents are so proud when you feature their kid or family on the blog, and they send it to all their friends. And their friends who are already clients are excited to see the new portraits, and they call to book, and so on.

[brad]

Make sure that your counter is also counting hits from RSS readers.. I *rarely* visit the main page of the blog... you also need to count hits to the individual pages because that's what the RSS readers are displaying.

[Michelle Allmon]

Originally Posted by Shelby Lane

But parents are so proud when you feature their kid or family on the blog, and they send it to all their friends. And their friends who are already clients are excited to see the new portraits, and they call to book, and so on.

Yes, and I forgot to tell you that with another awesome plugin, you can allow people so send that post/page to social networking sites, like Facebook & MySpace.

[Shelby Lane]

Originally Posted by Michelle Allmon

Yes, and I forgot to tell you that with another awesome plugin, you can allow people so send that post/page to social networking sites, like Facebook & MySpace.

Yep. With Wordpress I use TwitterTools. It's the reason I signed up with Twitter in the first place, LOL.

[Michelle Allmon]

Originally Posted by brad

Make sure that your counter is also counting hits from RSS readers.. I *rarely* visit the main page of the blog... you also need to count hits to the individual pages because that's what the RSS readers are displaying.

I just started using Feedburner and it keeps track of feed hits. I noticed that WP came out of the box with like 3 types of feeds. Whoa. So feedburner is just one.

[Michelle Allmon]

Originally Posted by Shelby Lane

Yep. With Wordpress I use TwitterTools. It's the reason I signed up with Twitter in the first place, LOL.

What's that? I signed up for Twitter, too, but I don't know what to use it for. ???