See larger image Shelter Dogs (Paperback) By (author) Traer Scott List Price: $12.95 USD New From: $9.90 In Stock Used from: $7.00 In Stock

Book Description

About the Author

Traer Scott, a fine art photographer with a background in portraiture and fashion, was raised as an only child in a house full of animals. A menagerie of cats, wounded wild animals, birds, snakes and dogs were her most constant childhood companions. She lives in Providence, Rhode Island, with her husband and two beautiful rescued dogs.

Thank you for making ILovePhotoblogs.com more successful than I had ever planned. On this rainy Friday morning, I took the time to review our year to date traffic versus the same period from a year ago. So far this year, our visits from (Jan 1 – Mar 11) are up 103.52 % and pageviews up 277.06%! (…and I was blown away with last year’s results)

What started as a personal project to document all my favorite photography blogs has turned into much more. A special “Thank you” goes out to all our loyal readers for your wonderful comments and the tons of great photo blogs you’ve submitted.

May you have continued success in 2010 with all your photographic endeavors and thanks again for supporting us!

~Rick

Funny how Internet traffic works….I’ve been working this evening implementing a new WordPress template and BAM… a post from a couple days ago catches fire…over 5500 page views since 10pm EST…Not bad.

Thanks for all the emails on our redesign…It’s fun being able to showcase a few of my photos for a change.

Growing photo blog traffic is a main concern for many of our visitors. We’ve all read plenty of tips and hacks about how to increase reader engagement, key strategies to increase subscriptions, and of course, ways to monetize your blog. However, without traffic all these helpful hints are meaningless.

How many bloggers average less than 20 visitors average per day?….the answer…MOST. I recently read a very interesting article, 50 Rapid Fire Tips For Power Blogging,  written by David Risley – Confessions of a Six Figure Blogger – in which he speaks candidly about improving your blog performance.

While I won’t recap each of the tips listed in his post (since you can read this for yourself), I would like to discuss several points  I found to be very effective..along with some do’s and don’ts. (I’ll be referencing the tip #’s from David’s article, so don’t get frustrated with missing numbers.)

• #1 – Use WordPress – I couldn’t agree more. I’ve used TypePad in the past, but wasn’t particularly fond of the user interface and really didn’t like paying a monthly/annual fee. Blogger has it’s uses and I currently use it for a few limited focus sites. However, WordPress is the industry standard. Yes, it does have a bit of a learning curve, but it’s well worth the initial pains. You can get a free WordPress blog that WordPress hosts, but you are limited to a subdomain url, i.e., ilovephotoblogs.wordpress.com (kind of messy!)….. My suggestion, select a quality hosting company (  I use GoDaddy, but there are other fine ones out there such as Blue Host and Host Gator), find a domain name that works for you (check out my favorite domain name search tool), download WordPress to your new account and you’re ready to take on the world. WordPress offers thousands of themes (free) and even more plug-ins (again, free) which add tremendous functionality to your site.
• #3 – Use catchy blog post titles – I agree with this statement, however, don’t go overboard with a perfect SEO researched title each time. Always having the perfect link bait title will turn off a portion of your viewership. A good mix of great SEO terms, Top 10 lists, and conversational speak style titles has worked best for me.
• #5 – Comment on other blogs – often – Not only does commenting on other blogs give you additional links and exposure, you’ll discover many interesting sites and people that you’d probably never encounter if you were waiting for them to stumble across your site. Get out there, network, and socialize. Remember, easy on the spammy comments. Sincere and topic appropriate comments always work best.
• #11 – Use header tags to separate sections in your blogs. I won’t get into the details about header tags and SEO performance, other than to tell you it’s worth the research.
• #23 – When writing your About Page, pay attention to what you write. Never publish your blog before completing your About Page!  The About Page is your brand and tells people who you are, what you’re about, and is the one of most important aspects to building a community aside for great content. I often equate an About Page with the automaker badge on your car. Can you imagine purchasing an auto without knowing the identity of the manufacturer? Probably not. And while you’re creating this section, be sure to get it your fullest attention. The About Page should not be an afterthought. My About Page is the 5th most popular page on my site!
• #24 – Do lots of videos. I have come to the realization that video does matter..and in a big way. Consider your viewing habits. Unless you’re still on dial-up, chances are you watch videos for news, sports, YouTube, tutorials, etc. If you’re serious about taking your site to the next level, video is a must. Yes, I am currently guilty of being video deficient on this site, but (BREAKING NEWS) video is on the way. FLIP Video camcorders are available for well below $100US, and connect directly to your PC via USB.
• #26 – Link to other, related blog posts regularly in your own posts. Linking to related blog posts increases your relevance in the eyes of your readers as well as search engines. In addition, you should also monitor who is talking about/linking to you as well. This is easily performed by signing up for Google Alerts, a must-have tool for any serious blogger. When setting up your Alerts, be sure to monitor your name, your link, as well as any competitors you have identified. Google Alerts gives you an easy way to keep your finger on the pulse of what’s happening relevant to you.
• #36 - Spend some time creating some killer posts for your blog. As bloggers,we understand that all blog posts are not created equally. Some days/weeks, we’re pressed for time or if we do have a spare moment,we may not have the energy to compile in-depth, qualitative writing. Have no fear, most blogs are one-person operations, run by people with full-time job responsibilities, readers get it. However, if you are looking to take your blog to the next level, be prepared to dedicate at least a couple of hours on research and writing per day.
• #42 – When starting a blog, decide on it’s mission. Focus is key to your blog’s success. Stay on topic as much as possible. This is key for building an audience, but more importantly, getting the needed Google love to boost your overall search engine ranking.
• #46 Be yourself, #47 Don’t write like you’re writing for Britannica. I think you can get idea of these points by the titles, but I’d like to emphasize the importance of actually including written text in your posts. I’ve reviewed numerous photo blogs which contain little to no text..only images. Understand, if your blog post only contains a photo with no text, the only data search engines have to evaluate is the ALT text associated with each photo, assuming you have even entered this information. In summary, use your words liberally, in a style that is user friendly, warm and not overly scholarly. I am not saying to dumb-down your writing style, but realize that many of your viewers will be reading your English post as a second language.

Hope you enjoyed our post and as always, feel free to comment!

Thank you photography blog visitors…2009 is shaping up to be a great year! Our site traffic continue to grow month after month, with awesome photo content provided by you, the photographers in the field. Some viewers have written in to ask about our secrets to grow viewership….that’s easy, post regularly and comment on sites you like! I am not a SEO guru, or bookmarking junkie. I admit to using a SEO program to help me out, but that is the extent of it.  I love photo blogs, talking about photoblogs, and writing about photographers whose work I like.  If you have any SEO tips which you feel may benefit me, please share..I would love to learn more on the topic.  Again, thanks for your support!

In my quest to spread the word about our photography blogs site and to gain the maximum exposure for all the great photobloggers contained within, I am in the process of crafting my first Google Adwords ad.

Over the last couple of years I have built up quite a few free Google Adwords dollars from my host Go Daddy, but have never used any of them. After spending most of this past weekend reading about Google Adwords for generating traffic, I remembered my cache of unused credits. What luck!

If you take a moment to view the right sidebar (near the bottom), you will notice an offer for a free e-book “Google Adwords Made Easy” by Brad Callen….this is the book I have been reading religiously for several days trying to figure out the keys to massive traffic. And what an amazing resource it has been! The book offer is free, no hidden charges, no tie-ins, just free knowledge.

Instead of just talking about this great book, I thought I’d share it with you. This 85 page book is for anyone interested in creating Google Adwords ads OR anyone wanting to gain a better understanding of the whole keyword selection process( that should cover most of us). Not sure how long I will keep this offer going; probably until I come across another book I’d like to share with you! But again, this is a no risk offer. Feel free to help yourself.

Hope you enjoy the book!