One of the most interesting things I enjoy about visiting photography blogs is not just the postings you may discover, but also the links to photography sites other commenters leave behind. I find many quality photographers just by following these little “breadcrumbs”. So, I recently did a little research (thanks InfoPreneur) on how to add more value to the wonderful comments each of you leaves from time to time and discovered a cool WordPress plugin, CommentLuv.

CommentLuv is actually “breadcrumbs on steroids”. As you craft a comment and enter your contact information, this plugin goes out and searches for your last posting and incorporates it with your comment. Pretty sweet. So now, not only are you leaving behind your insightful comment, but also a great way for me and other viewers to see what you are currently writing about on your blog. Here’s the author’s description of how CommentLuv works…

“This plugin will visit the site of the comment author while they type their comment and retrieve a selection of their last blog posts, tweets or digg submissions which they can choose one from to include at the bottom of their comment when they click submit…”

The only downside to this plugin I’ve found is, once installed, it does not address the previously posted comments. To the 2000+ visitors who took the time to comment in the past, I’m sorry. But what a great reason to leave a new comment today! Hope you enjoy this new feature.

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

Happy New Year to everyone….and welcome 2010! Before I officially close the door on 2009, I wanted to take a moment to thank all the readers which continue to support our site!

We experienced a 281% increase in traffic for 2009 versus 2008, page views tripled, and our bounce rate for the last quarter was 2.33%!

Since focusing on consistent daily postings back in October, our email subscriptions have doubled. User submitted photoblogs continue to be the largest resource for our daily postings, so keep them coming…received over 2500 photoblog suggestions during 2009.

This year we are seeking a way to better display all the photoblogs which have been featured here. How do you organize over 2000 photoblogs? Lists? Tag clouds?..If you have any suggestion, I would love to hear them…

Keep shooting and sharing your photoblogs with us!

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!

Learn to develop a high ranking website and dramatically grow your Internet traffic. While I admit to reading every blog possible on SEO, I’d like to reveal how I was able to get on the front page of Google and Yahoo in a short period of time.

SEO doesn’t happen overnight. If you think the following information will get you a top ranking in less than 7 days, you can stop reading now. SEO and growing your search engine rankings doesn’t happen over night. However, there are methods you can use to dramatically cut down on the time it takes to get your site noticed.

Defining your target audience. When I first started this blog, my main interest was creating quality content on photo blogs and photography so I could grow an audience of repeat visitors. While I understood that linked to top rated blogs helps greatly for SEO tactics, I also knew from experience that there are many great blogs were lower rating created by people very passionate about photo blogs. By reaching out to this community, I hoped together, we could spread the word about this site. So this is the market I targeted…passionate photographers, regardless of rank, who loved talking about their work and sharing it with others.

Defining your target keywords. We all read a lot about keywords. Without going too far down this dry topic, defining your target keywords is one of the most important things you will need to do to expect any results! What are keywords? Simply put, these are the words your potential audience uses to search topics related to any subject matter. In my case, some of my selected keywords include photo blog reviews, photo blog review, awesome photography blogs, and photography blogs. Listed below are snapshots of just a few of the search engine results I currently experience:

There are many more examples I could provide, but you get the idea. Spending the time to focus on YOUR specific keywords can help tremendously in driving traffic to your site. Linking to other sites or stories is very useful, but search engine traffic is key.

You must ask yourself, what keywords or keyword phrases best define my niche? …and then write them down and start to research how competitive each of your entries are in the marketplace. I admit to being a spreadsheet junkie, but also had a hard time keeping up with all the data. I hated to throw up my hands and acknowledge I needed help…but this is exactly the point which changed my success.

Professional SEO help is very affordable. Over the course of the past few years, I had used several free programs, enjoyed a little success, but hated dealing with trial offers and a limited array of features. As a programmer and web developer, I wanted to think I could create something on my own to keep from spending any money on blogging. This stubbornness held me back for longer than I would like to admit. I finally broke down and realized that I was wasting valuable time on tasks others have already figured out.  Why reinvent the wheel? For less than the cost a SEO would charge for one hour of time, I was able to purchase a full feature SEO program. Looking back (which I hate to do), I wish I had spent the $47 for this program, long before I purchased the stacks of book while looking for the silver bullet to SEO gains.

Conclusion. I love the product, and yet, have only been using it for 5 months on this site. The results speak for themselves. While my results have not reached the levels obtained by others using this program, I understand my niche and can easily state this is the best and only investment I’ve made for blogging SEO software. As stated previously, my rankings did not pop overnight….in my case, it took roughly 2 months to see real results. If you are trully interested in monetizing your site, focus on getting traffic first. The program is a great step in that direction!

Just got our new numbers in this morning and our photo blog posted a strong 53.7% increase in traffic from October to November! Thank you so much for your comments and support! Yes, these numbers pale in comparison to large sites, we understand this. However, our primary goal is to create an interesting site and share our love for photography blogs which we hope you’ll love as well…the increase in traffic is a sign that the word is spreading. Thanks again!