Monthly Archives: April 2009

500+ Resources for Web Designers, Photobloggers

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Admittedly, spending a great deal of time online is a necessity in today’s world, whether you’re a blogger, photographer, web designer, journalistic, etc. One of my main goals is to learn to work more efficiently. Great resources is the key! While we are very familiar with desktop applications, such as Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, MS Office Suite and a host of others, many people overlook the thousands of web applications which are available for free. In addition, there are numerous websites which provide resources to make life easier.

Where do I find all these cool sites? Besides my general searching/surfing, StumbleUpon is a great resource to find information on just about any topic you can imagine, plus much more. The key to using StumbleUpon is to first register (of course), and then set up your topic preferences. Listed below are the topics I’m currently searching for…a nice geekie/artsy mix.

http lensmasterstumbleuponcom prefs interests 500+ Resources for Web Designers, Photobloggers pictures

Here are just a few of my favorite posts listing a honeypot of cool sites and web applications you might be interested in!

Super Hot Monday Photoblogs

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ss blog Super Hot Monday Photoblogs picturesWith the temperature in the 90′s today, I’m more than glad to get back to my climate-controlled cave and post a few photoblogs for your viewing pleasure. Super Hot Monday has a lot to do with the fact that  the A/C is broke in both my personal and company car. Better days ahead.

Always glad to see when my call to action is heard (MORE PHOTOBLOGS PLEASE!), since I received 12 in the last few hours..great afternoon!

On another good note, my friend Dave recently had one of his images selected as a finalist in the CentralPark.com Winter Photo Contest. Awesome! One look at this image and you’ll agree that his entry should clearly be the winner. Good luck Dave!

Here are some photoblogs I think you’ll enjoy…

  • Craig Holmes - blog of Craig Holmes, Commercial & Stock Photographer, based in the UK
  • Photoblog of Razener – “…armed with a simple camera, i try to capture the world as i see it. Razener is a self-taught web designer/graphic designer with a growing passion for photography.”
  • Patrick Meredith – “…a brief view of the world from a former staffer, photo editor and now freelance photographer in Austin, TX. Bit of everything.”
  • Pixelens Photography -”… Edmonton, Alberta, Canada based photographer. Weddings, maternity, and everything else that catches his eye!
  • Johan Wildenius Photography - “…all kinds of photography, but mostly nature.” (fear not, each article has a translation feature)
  • Tres Jolie Studios - “…photoblog covering new work and events at Tres Jolie Studios.”
  • Oliver Schaef – “…three eyes see more than two, the third one is my camera.” (if you had difficulty, like me, in viewing this using Firefox, check it out with IE)

7 Great Photoblogs for your Sunday afternoon

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jamie maldonado photography portfolio 7 Great Photoblogs for your Sunday afternoon picturesI’m officially over the NFL draft for this year…time to get back to work and provide you with several photoblogs from my Inbox. Before I get started, I’d to remind you to subscribe to our photo blog, if you haven’t done so already (also, be sure to confirm when the email arrives)…We profile many great photographers each week, so don’t miss out.

This afternoon, I have Seven (7) Great Photoblogs for your viewing pleasure. Each of these photoblogs received courtesy of our SUGGEST A PHOTOBLOG feature.

  • Digitized Chaos -by photographer Rian Castillo..
  • Angela Smith Photography – “I have a passion for both photography and graphics design. I have taken college level courses in both, however obtained my degree in Psychology from Oregon State University. ….After moving back to Sherwood, Oregon I had my first child and my love for portrait photography was born. My areas of expertise include maternity, newborn (my personal favorite), children, engagement and family portraits.”
  • Butuan City Today
  • The Wind Swept Sky – “…my hope is that The Wind Swept Sky becomes a community of ’shooters’ and ‘lookers’ who contribute to a transnational ebb and flow of photographic encounters.”
  • Fotoblogg Stockholm – by Jakob Granqvist
  • Jamie Maldonado – “…I have spent more than a decade behind the lens, studying intently in college and on my own. In addition, I spent several years in a newsroom working with top-caliber photographers as a page designer, learning from all angles how to tell a compelling and effective story with photography. I continue to voraciously learn to this day, and never intend to let up.”
  • Image Fusion – “…Dave Buchanan is the creative force behind Image Fusion Studio.  Dave has been on the pro photography scene since sometime in the Carter administration selling his first professional image to WRC-TV in Washington, DC at the ripe old age of 14. (Don’t bother doing the math… he is 44)…As a commercial photographer his style is very clean.  Although his images are immaculately post processed and presented he does not overly rely on special effects gimmicks to create his works.  Dave firmly believes that the image should speak clearly for itself. “

ILovePhotoblogs.com Demographics – Alexa

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ilovephotoblogscom traffic details from alexa1 ILovePhotoblogs.com Demographics Alexa picturesSure you’re a photographer/photoblogger, but have you checked your Alexa data lately? If not,  you may notice some enhanced features and overall improvement in the application. Alexa, in the past, seemed to be slow to update traffic data and was a good place to research sites, other than your own. Recently, the frequency of the ranking appeared to be daily so I went to the site to check it out. I was impressed with the amount of data available for my site, particularly the demographics . Kinda cool! While my traffic is a victim of my ADD of late,  school is now over which leaves more time for photoblogging, or least writing about it.

Another cool feature I discovered was Clickstream. This is awesome info if you’re interested in knowing what site people were on before landing on your site and where they went upon departure. Looks like I need to mend a few fences with the good folks at Mixx.com (there seemed to be an issue over something about self-promotion)  for all the traffic they’re sending me.

Thanks again to everyone who visits us on a regular basis, especially all the grad school male Gen X-ers, with children, finding the time to browse us from home…your support is much appreciated!

Photographer Danny Lyon and 4 Interesting Photoblogs

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ben willmore photographer 262x300 Photographer Danny Lyon and 4 Interesting Photoblogs picturesPhotography is in the air ( and so are bugs and a ton of pollen). It’s a great (sunny and hot) Sunday morning, and summer appears to be here at last…While I have a ton a work to do outside, I need to catch you up on some great photoblogs from this past week. I received about 30 photoblogs over the past couple of days, so I’m in catch-up mode. In no particular order, here are a few photographersI’ve been following recently:

  • Danny Lyon – The NYTimes recently published a great interview with this legendary photographer
  • Paranaiv – Are Sundnes, residing in Oslo, Norway; Graduated Art Director from Westerdals School of Communication 2008; Likes photography, design, and long walks on the beach…
  • PFNPhoto – by photographer Johannes Heuckeroth, “..addicted to photography”,  from Furth Germany
  • The Ones We Love – The Ones We Love is a project highlighting young and talented photographers from around the world. Each artist contributed six photographs of the person(s) who is most important to them, taken outdoors in a natural setting. The goal of the website is to portray the people who are loved, cherished, and inspirational to these artists, and also showcase the differences and similarities in the photographs each of them took within the same guidelines.
  • Ben Willmore – photographer, graphic designer, author and Photoshop expert

Make the Most of Your Existing Traffic

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opportunity1 300x224 Make the Most of Your Existing Traffic picturesBefore talking about your photoblog and changes I recommend, let me start by saying that if you don’t currently use a traffic counting plug-in or traffic tracking website, you’re making a big mistake. Unless you enjoy blindly posting on the web with no interest in who or how many viewers read your site, this is something to address today! I am personally addicted to Wassup (awesome SPY feature) and also use Google Analytics. The focus of this article is how to make the most of your existing traffic…however, you will need to be able to benchmark your current results to understand if the suggested changes actually work for you.

Readers of this blog notice I like to change my theme on a regular basis and there is a good reason behind this. Working on the web requires constant experimentation. If you are already happy with your results, then I guess no change is needed. But if you desire to improve your web results, change is in order. This photoblog has been live for about 14 months now, and along the way, the theme has changed 8 times. I would like to say that each time a change has been made, my results have improved..but that’s just not the case…However, I have learned a few things over time which do work on a consistent basis.

With this latest design, almost a week old now, my page views have increased 40% and bounce rate has improved (lowered) by 10%! These site traffic improvements were not a result of a new writing style or intriguing new topics, just a few simple changes that you, too, can do in one evening:

  • Choose your theme careful - There are thousands of WordPress and Blogger themes to choose from, however, they must be appropriate to your topic. Simply selecting the slickest theme design with no regard to its relevance to your site will not yield the results you hope to achieve. Turn your computer off for a few moments and with paper and pencil, rough sketch what you think your site (again, relevant to your niche market) should look like. If you’ve got mad PHP and CSS skills, I guess you could create a theme, but for everyone else, you now have a starting point when looking at possible designs which could work for you. Once you have your theme, be sure you have the correct color scheme and header. All themes are hackable. Even with limited web dev skills, a quick Google search should point you in the right direction to make the adjustments you need.
  • Above the fold jargon. You hear a lot about the importance of placing important content above the fold…but are you really doing it? Enter your URL into a browser and click submit. View your site as if it were the first time landing there. What is your eye drawn to? Do you have so many ads in the header that the content requires scrolling? Place the information most important to the mission of your site above the fold. For me, it meant changing my layout to include a menu bar at the top of the page, as opposed to the sidebar and footer. I have also included a site summary (along with a hand drawn pic of myself to add a little personal touch) at the top of the page as well. It is important to me that viewers understand what we’re about as soon as possible. Depending on how you promote your site, i.e., StumbleUpon, Propeller, Digg, Fark, and a host of bookmarking sites, you literally have about 1-2 seconds to grab the attention of your viewer before they leave.
  • Internal linking. No doubt you have numerous posts already published on your site, but does anyone know about them?…how would they find them? Make it a goal to link to one previous posting within each new post. Sometimes we get too worked up about driving traffic to our site that we neglect what they do once there. Your goal should be to lower your bounce rate, meaning readers view other content besides just viewing the one page you promoted heavily and leave. Another solution on this topic, use and prominently display categories. Categories allow you to group/link together similar topics, making it easy for viewers to find the content they are seeking. In using categories, make sure to title them appropriately..and be as specific as needed. For instance, if you review cameras it may be better to break out a category for each model (Nikon, Canon, etc) , instead of just using Camera Reviews as a title.
  • Site search. Many blog themes have, by default, a site search feature displayed…others, you have to elect to display it. This goes hand and hand with internal linking…Make it easy..REAL EASY for readers to find your content…it’s too easy for viewers to leave so do the legwork for them. In addition to having a site search feature, I also prominently display a site map, which lists every post I’ve ever written here. There is a great WP plugin to assist you with this…Google XML Sitemaps

In summary, growing unique visitor traffic does not happen overnight. However, the steps I’ve provided can maximize the total number of pages viewed by each visitor that does come your way. Hope you find this helpful and feel free to comment!