Wedding Blogsites....

[amykarp]

How many of you have them? I ran a blog for several years of my business, but I just soft launched my blogsite in the middle of the night last night. I like that it looks like a fully functional site and I can still blog.

what are your thoughts?

Dallas Wedding Photographer

[ChristopherCoy]

What wasn't working for you to begin with? Didn't you used to have a successful site, and didn't you launch another one called 'everything but the groom' or something like that?

[amykarp]

oh, blogging is still priority numero UNO. I want my potential clients to come to my photography site and feel like they can browse a site and not just a blog. I can see traffic from sources and then the activity once they hit my site. When I added the galleries, I started getting longer visits. I thought to make it look like a site and the user will feel less intimidated by the blog and digging they would need to do to see the different categories. It wasn't broken....I just wanted to clean it up. Longer visits = higher rate of a potential client possibly.

The site I run is called Groom Sold Separately and it gets a ton of traffic due to blogging, not changing that ;) Its a great Wedding Resource.

[scottlyn]

i really like it Amy, is it a template or did you design it yourself.

[amykarp]

Thanks! I will be in Houston next month....lets coffee!! Its a template and I changed quite a bit of the code in the CSS to make it look like it does. I would say I designed it, but the majority of the code was not by me.

[Jaggz]

Hey - great looking site! Love it! We switched too on Jan 1st to a blogsite - dumped our old bludomain template and prophoto blog and went an all in one blogsite - and we are loving it! I feel like it is easier to keep it all up to date and manage posts - having just one "website". Anyhow - just my $.02! But I love it!

[amykarp]

Originally Posted by Jaggz

Hey - great looking site! Love it! We switched too on Jan 1st to a blogsite - dumped our old bludomain template and prophoto blog and went an all in one blogsite - and we are loving it! I feel like it is easier to keep it all up to date and manage posts - having just one "website". Anyhow - just my $.02! But I love it!

OMG - your site looks AMAZING! I am ashamed of mine now

we need to lunch soon!

[Jaggz]

Originally Posted by amykarp

OMG - your site looks AMAZING! I am ashamed of mine now

we need to lunch soon!

Seriously - we're selling off our next born to fund the site!!! (but thank you) Yes - we absolutely need to do lunch - just let me know next time that you are anywhere near this side of town and we can meet-up!

[PhotoDude79]

Blog site are awesome... it's a one stop shop. I was gonna go that route, but I feel like I should always do\be different. Sometimes to a fault.... my new site is almost done.

[rusty_tripod]

Blogs are viable resources when used appropriately. Some people think they should be a personable gallery display. Others use then for communication with image accents. Both can be beneficial to marketing. Regrettably so many blogs mimic one another with a boring outcome for the viewer seeking someone with an "edge".

Your blog is nice. The pages are consistent from one to another. Only the subject changes. Personally, I prefer more "dialog" as I am interested in the photographer. It only takes an instant to get a sense of the blogger's photography, and after I make an assessment of that, I want to learn more about the photographer in the same way that bride wants to find someone she is comfortable with.

Your blog presents your work nicely, but I have to dig to find out about you.

Here is one of the type that I find to be effective. Jasmine Star Photography Blog

[BeccaJ]

Amy - i much prefer this layout over your old one. it's much cleaner and easier to read. only thing that bugs me is that your contact tab is all by it's lonesome on a 2nd line, separate from the others.

[ErinV]

Amy- your site is really clean and the images look great, which, of course, matters the most. If I could make a little change (I know a CSS nightmare), it would be the placement of the watermark, as sometimes it seems to be floating in the middle of the image, other times it's perfectly placed. I guess I would either choose to put it in a solid color area each time or put it in a similar place every time (I choose the latter out of sheer efficiency). Your watermarking is much more advanced than my own, so take what I'm saying with a grain of salt, of course.

Also, on a side note, I can't tell you how much I LOVE the "groom sold separately" blog banner- it's memorable and really well done.

Happy Blogging!

[amykarp]

Originally Posted by ErinV

Amy- your site is really clean and the images look great, which, of course, matters the most. If I could make a little change (I know a CSS nightmare), it would be the placement of the watermark, as sometimes it seems to be floating in the middle of the image, other times it's perfectly placed. I guess I would either choose to put it in a solid color area each time or put it in a similar place every time (I choose the latter out of sheer efficiency). Your watermarking is much more advanced than my own, so take what I'm saying with a grain of salt, of course.

Also, on a side note, I can't tell you how much I LOVE the "groom sold separately" blog banner- it's memorable and really well done.

Happy Blogging!

Thanks! Its not a static watermark...I place it on the image when creating my blog files in Photoshop. I place them randomly b/c people like to crop when I tag them on Facebook. I try to place it strategically so if they do crop, the watermark stays in place. Who knows...I might change that too - maybe ditch the mark?

Thanks for the compliments on GSS :: we are actually overhauling the site now. Its under development, so it will be changing soon too. The branding is the same, just changing the layout a bit.

Originally Posted by BeccaJ

Amy - i much prefer this layout over your old one. it's much cleaner and easier to read. only thing that bugs me is that your contact tab is all by it's lonesome on a 2nd line, separate from the others.

thanks! mission accomplished! about the menu item....someone else mentioned that. Its on the same line in Firefox and Safari...weird. I need to view it on all other browsers to see how it looks.

Originally Posted by rusty_tripod

Blogs are viable resources when used appropriately. Some people think they should be a personable gallery display. Others use then for communication with image accents. Both can be beneficial to marketing. Regrettably so many blogs mimic one another with a boring outcome for the viewer seeking someone with an "edge".

Your blog is nice. The pages are consistent from one to another. Only the subject changes. Personally, I prefer more "dialog" as I am interested in the photographer. It only takes an instant to get a sense of the blogger's photography, and after I make an assessment of that, I want to learn more about the photographer in the same way that bride wants to find someone she is comfortable with.

Your blog presents your work nicely, but I have to dig to find out about you.

Here is one of the type that I find to be effective. Jasmine Star Photography Blog

I used to blog like I was talking, but then started to just add the images and let them do the talking. I do know what you mean about the personal touch, but I am not the best copywriter, so I stopped that. j* is a great copywriter. I just can't find the time to get thoughts together like that. Maybe I should start

Originally Posted by PhotoDude79

Blog site are awesome... it's a one stop shop. I was gonna go that route, but I feel like I should always do\be different. Sometimes to a fault.... my new site is almost done.

thanks Reggie. I tried to go a different route in design and actually scrapped the prophoto theme due to not being able to stand out enough. I dropped the footer link a little while back, so that helped....but still very similar to so many other pros. I am with you - stand out and get noticed. Potential clients view many sites and get lost. I meet with couples all of the time and hear, "I dont remember where I found you - all the sites start blending together".

[BeccaJ]

Originally Posted by amykarp

thanks! mission accomplished! about the menu item....someone else mentioned that. Its on the same line in Firefox and Safari...weird. I need to view it on all other browsers to see how it looks.

hm! You're right. It does view correctly in safari (via my iphone).

Edit: - just got home, and its on a separate line in firefox.

[scottlyn]

Originally Posted by amykarp

Thanks! I will be in Houston next month....lets coffee!! Its a template and I changed quite a bit of the code in the CSS to make it look like it does. I would say I designed it, but the majority of the code was not by me.

I am always down with lunch! I will DM you on FB