Comments on: Stay Fresh, Stay Current, Stay Visible: by Daron Shade

By: Daron Shade

Daron Shade — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 22:32:47 +0000

Thanks guys, great input.

Here’s something that just happened, I wanted to share it because it drives home the point I’m making in the article.

About an hour ago, my phone rang. It was the manager of operations at a company based outside of my area. She was looking for corporate headshots done in both Tucson and Phoenix. After we discussed the details, I asked her how she knew about me. She told me that she googled “headshot Tucson” and found me. After I prepared the quote, I ran a quick search to see what she found. It was an article I wrote a few months ago discussing an actor’s headshot and showing lighting diagrams. Yeah, if I hadn’t written that article a few months ago, my phone wouldn’t have rang today. I get more of these phone calls each month.

How many times a month can you afford to not even get a chance to quote on a $2k+ job? I need every one I can get. If you aren’t writing about your work, you’re leaving money on the table.

By: udi

udi — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 09:48:14 +0000

hi Don, Daron,
Nice to see you taking on this one.

Another point is that there is a good chance you won be designing your site (photography and web design are two different arts) – using a CMS allows to be be less dependent on a designer to update your site when it comes to small modifications like adding a picture, or changing some text.

One word of warning though, make your homework before you choose a CMS. this is a long term marriage. I started one site with Joomla, another with WP, and a third (the most active one) with drupal. while they all provide similar options for basic use, they all demand updates / upgrades / security maintenance and more. I also found that designers ask for different fee for different systems. Maybe a good option is to browse your favorite photogs galleries and see what they are using.

By: Cris Mitchell

Cris Mitchell — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 18:47:10 +0000

AMEN, glad I’m not the only one preaching this gospel. In fact i have a consulting session with a photographer today and my entire mission is to try and talk her down off the ledge from developing her site in flash.

Assets are fine in flash, entire sites not so much for all the reason’s stated here and one giant one that you overlooked and that is Usability for people with disabilities.

I’m still not sure why every photographer and their brother feels like they need a flash website, but I’m glad to see articles like this educating people against them.

This should be a must read for anyone on the fence about developing a site in flash or a content management system.

Cris Mitchell
Publisher
ProPhotoResource.com