Finding your Creative Center with Google
by Daron Shade

A few months ago, I recommended that you sign up and implement Google Analytics. By now, I’m sure you are all getting pretty proficient with GA and have been watching your traffic and are beginning to understand your visitors better.

You’ve learned about all of the strengths and the few glaring weaknesses of GA that get in the way of truly understanding what drives traffic to your site. You’re a photographer and your work is entirely image-based. GA won’t tell you the search phrases that visitors used to find you on Google Image Search! How do you know if your title and alt tags are working their magic? How do you know if your Meta descriptions and on-page content are working together to bring visitors to your images? You don’t! But you want to know, right? Read on.

I had been struggling with the lack of image search information for many months. For some unknown reason, Google considers it’s own image search engine a referrer and not a true search. I began hacking the GA code and API, and found a way to force it to do what we need. I’ve been testing for a few months and am very happy with the result. Here’s a view of some recent traffic for the search engine images.google.com:

Before this hack, I had no idea that I was getting traffic for any of these keywords.

So, how is it done? It’s actually pretty simple. Google in their infinite wisdom has kept their code very open and friendly to modification. All we need to do is tell it that domain names images.google.* are all search engines. The behind-the-scenes magic does the heavy lifting for us! It took me quite a while to come up with working code, but as soon as I did, I searched and found that some other people were able to do it also.

Without getting more deeply into the details, let’s address the ‘how-to’ of rolling this into your own site.

Simply take the code code below and use it to replace your existing GA code on each page of your site. Please note the “UA-xxxxxxxx-x” – that needs to be replaced with your existing account number for this code to work.

<script type="text/javascript">
var gaJsHost = (("https:" == document.location.protocol) ? "https://ssl." : "http://www.");
document.write(unescape("%3Cscript src='" + gaJsHost + "google-analytics.com/ga.js' type='text/javascript'%3E%3C/script%3E"));
</script>

<script type="text/javascript" charset="utf-8">
try {
var pageTracker = _gat._getTracker("UA-xxxxxxxx-x");
var ref = document.referrer;
if (ref.search(/images.google/) != -1 && ref.search(/prev/) != -1) {
var regex = new RegExp("images.google.([^\/]+).*&prev=([^&]+)");
var match = regex.exec(ref);
pageTracker._clearOrganic();
pageTracker._addOrganic("images.google."+ match[1],"q");
pageTracker._setReferrerOverride("http://images.google." + match[1] + unescape(match[2]));
}
pageTracker._trackPageview();
} catch(err) {}
</script>

It’s that simple! Update the code and you will start collecting detailed information about Google Image Searches!

Next time, we will discuss paid vs. organic search engine results and if you should be doing both.

– –

Thanks Daron. This neat little trick will be very handy in tracking your images – and what it is people like about your work.

You can catch Daron at his website, you can follow me on Twitter, and visit the Learn to Light site to get more information on the workshops and other cool things coming up soon.

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Daron Shade introduces CMS (Content Management System) and discusses how it benefits photographers greatly to have a website that they can manage themselves. Far more than keeping the portfolio fresh with uploaded images, a full CMS gives photographers greater impact with Search Engines, visitors and clients.

On the immediate Lighting Essentials front… we have just completed the Florida Workshop on Anna Maria Island near Tampa. We had some weather challenges, but the images we made included the inclement skies and we got some amazing, wild and stormy images. The models were wonderful and the talent of the group inspiring. I spent the day yesterday scouting and meeting some local groups to set the stage for next years Florida Workshop. It will be even more spectacular than imagined. What we have lined up at this point will challenge the photographers and also inspire them to move beyond the safe zone and step out on the edge a bit.

As for me personally, this is a little bittersweet. Those who know me know that I love love love this workshop, and it is a fantastic way to introduce beginning and mid-level photographers to the full spectrum of thinking about, and using, light to our advantage. But it has also been an exhausting year, and for that I am grateful. I like working hard, and seeing the work pay off. I will be sharing some interesting and happy stories from some of my workshop attendees later this month. I am happy though, that I can take some time to focus on getting next years workshop together (our schedule is up for the first half) and finishing too many projects that have not been given proper attention.

So thanks everyone for your support and workshop attendance this year. I hope to meet a whole bunch of talented and excited photographers next year as well.

Around the Web: Articles you may have missed.
Heather Morton’s blog post on Branding got a lot of attention (my next post is on this same topic) when she quoted a fellow art buyer as stating that while branding is nice, it won’t get you the job. Chase Jarvis followed up with a post, then the real firestorm erupted in his comments area. Even APhotoEditor had something to say on this topic, and his comments area are pretty interesting as well.

I am constantly looking at new work, old work and the stuff in between. When I come across a photographer I really like, I will share them with you here. This month I have been knocked out by the work of these photographers:
David Eustace: This long form piece is simply amazing.
Philip Toledano in Philadelphia is a long time favorite that I just rediscovered.
Jeremy and Claire Weiss make me smile. I love their work.
And if you have someone around you who is thinking about going pro, look into Selina Maitreya’s wonderful audio program. It will get them on the right track fast, and you can keep that $100 you save for a dinner when they get their first cover! Just enter FOSLE at checkout to get half off her regular price of $199.

Well, let’s get on to Daron Shade’s article on Staying Fresh, Current and Visible… no simple feat in these crazy times.

Stay Fresh, Stay Current, Stay Visible

Over the past few years, the marketing philosophy for successful business has shifted from traditional efforts to web-based marketing. This shift has become both a great challenge and a great opportunity for photographers – as our prospective clients become more accustomed to turning to the web for resources, they are more likely to hire us if we design our web presence correctly. As a commercial photographer, ad agencies are looking at our work and making decisions about us. Creating a site that lets them know that we ‘get it’ in the marketing world goes a long way toward securing our position as a resource.

In 2010, the core of your marketing engine should be your website. Your website must stay fresh and vibrant so that visitors are compelled to view many pages and return often. Even with a limited budget anyone who is willing to put the energy into their marketing efforts can have great success.

Forgive me for beating the same drum that you’ve heard from Don, but I am going to agree with his steadfast argument against flash sites in favor of using a Content Management System (CMS) type of website. We, as relatively little-known photographers in smaller markets, need to provide often-updated, quality, search-able content and do it without the expense of hiring a web designer for every little change.

Flash is a great tool for web design, but there are serious limitations that has eliminated it from consideration for me as a small market photographer who is unknown outside of my immediate network. Flash sites are difficult to properly optimize for search content and it is difficult to configure in a way that visitors can bookmark or send links to specific content pages. This impedes site visitors’ ability to discuss your content remotely and can cost you business. Flash site templates are also limiting in their design structure and are less flexible than a good html-based Content Management System. Flash also requires your site visitors to load large files to view any content – with our buyers traveling using airport wi-fi or meeting at the local coffee shop, a flash website on a slow connection can eliminate us from a job simply because the buyer doesn’t have time to wait for the flash to load and never even reviews our work.

When I decided to make the switch from a flash site to a CMS, I was getting very little traffic and virtually none from search engines. I knew the benefits of a content-rich website but still had great difficulty in writing the necessary articles to make the transition. I remember thinking “a picture is worth a thousand words” and having a mental block as to what I should write. “My work speaks for itself” and other excuses don’t earn us work. By now, it’s been over a year since the CMS site launched and I have over a hundred articles on my site and am getting dozens of search engine driven visitors each day. These new visitors view an average of 5+ articles per visit and stay on my site for about ten minutes each visit.

Search engines love words. They love key phrases written in plain language and detailed descriptions about our industry, subjects, and techniques. They love often-updated content with deep archives. They need to provide valuable content to their visitors. Your visitors. Provide valuable content that clients want and traffic and business will follow. For example, having multiple categories and ‘similar articles’ listings on a website will entice visitors to explore your website and find more of your work that is not in your current portfolio. I have been contacted many times by potential clients who found some of my non-portfolio images most compelling. Unlike a blog where the most recent articles are first with categories as a secondary consideration, a CMS website is naturally designed to drive traffic flow through specific topics and provide more relevant content to consumers.

We want visitors to be able to easily email links to content and post links on social media sites. We want people talking/typing/linking about our content online and create a buzz about our work. For example, using Google Analytics I recently found that there were 200 visitors to my website from a link on a Spanish-speaking photography forum. I used Google translator to learn that they were attempting to reverse engineer the composite image from last month’s LE “Breaking Out” article and I was able to help them with a detailed description. This type of information can be very important in helping us understand how we are unique as artists and what other photographers truly feel about our work. These links are great for potential buyers to find out more about us and just boost our overall presence on the web.

Fully integrated site vs. sidecar blog – Many photographers with flash sites opt to create a separate blog where they update content regularly and share their knowledge. This is a good way to supplement the limitations of a flash website, but there are good reasons to truly integrate your content – having that home page fresh with html links to popular articles and portfolios will help keep your site higher in the rankings and more people will bookmark your home page. Having each portfolio or image linkable is another strong argument for integrated CMS websites.

There are a lot of options when choosing a Content Management System. As budget-minded consumers, we are going to discuss Open Source solutions. The Open Source designation generally indicates that the software was written by a collaborative effort and there is usually no charge for this software. For a more detailed explanation of open source software, go here

Each Content Management System has its advantages. Lighting Essentials and other sites that Don Giannatti runs use WordPress. It’s the industry leader and a perfect solution for single-contributor websites like most photographers and smaller websites. It’s easy to set up and there are countless resources available to assist the novice WordPress administrator. Templates are readily available and Don even has some great photographer-ready templates that are very much worth consideration when building a site. Using WordPress as a blog first and then transitioning that blog into a fully-featured website is a great way to phase out an old static site and evolve into a powerful marketing tool.

I chose Joomla for my websites and have many web clients running Joomla CMS successfully. It’s a bit more complicated than WordPress and is designed for larger organizations. A typical web design client of mine, the North Carolina Public Health Association, is a good example of a more complex site with multiple contributors, a members only section, several hundred content pages, and complex document management needs. A small photography website built in Joomla is a bit like shooting family snapshots with an H4D-60. It is an elegant tool, but maybe a bit of overkill. I only feel a need to discuss the option because it’s the system with which my site was built. For those interested in learning more about the open source content management systems, here’s a document comparing the popularity and features of available CMS systems: Download PDF.

For training in understanding SEO and web stats, try WEB CEO.

A relatively new CMS solution is PageLime, designed to quickly modify an existing website into a fully functional Content Management System. Don is already using this for some of his clients and I am in the process of testing it and like what I see. We will be covering this in more detail in an upcoming article.

Next month, we are going to discuss the benefits of social media marketing. If you’re not on facebook and linkedin, sign yourself up and start networking with everyone you know. I have links to my profiles from the header on my website. Stop by and say Hello!

Thanks Daron, and I hope you stop by Daron’s site to see all he has there and send him a note if you appreciate his working hard on the benefit of photographers.

See you soon with an article that may be a bit controversial, but it has to be said. And I think I am the one to say it… stay tuned.

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First of all, let’s take a look at the bare minimum to include:
1. who you are.
2. your expertise
3. how it(you) can fix a client’s problem
4. how they can contact you

Many sites are beginning to combine the contact information with the “About” page or Bio page. By combining the two sets of information, the site can do away with an unnecessary page or click, and make it even easier to contact the photographer without having to click away.

Did you know that the ‘About’ page is one of the most popular page on most sites? People love to read about other people, and get some idea of what it may be like to work with them. What does your ‘About’ page say about you and your business? Does it welcome the visitor in, and is that important for you?

Depending on different styles of photography, and the style of the site, the contact page must be reflect that unique style. Introduce yourself and introduce the unique style you have. Tell them a little about yourself. You can say a lot by saying a little. You can tell them a story, be bold, be humble, be yourself.

Brag. Crow. Blow Your Horn. It is important to let people know what you do and how well you do it. Don’t be over the top, but rather confident and certain about what sets you apart. If you have something that makes you special, let them know. It is vital to be clear when you set yourself off from the competition. Being witty and humorous can be a good thing. Being a jerk can be a problem. Be certain, really certain, that what you think is clever and funny is indeed that, and not dirty, snobby or condescending. Some people tell photographers to not tip off where they live so as to not chase away someone in another state or city. I am the opposite. Be upfront about everything. You can let them know you are only a few hours away by plane, and work the region, nation or internationally with ease. Never lie. No amount of overstatement can be worth it if your found out. That can be devastating.

There are so many different ways to present an “About Page”, and there are definitely more than I have presented here. Take a look at what we have, and think about how you will present yourself. The photographers below represent new shooters and established as well as a few in between. See how they do it, think about where you are and make your ‘About’ page as informative and reflective of you as possible. Social Media: The About page is a great place to include the social media that you are involved in. Skype, LinkedIn, Flickr, Twitter, Facebook, Plaxo, Posterous and more. Embed your recent ‘tweets’ or Facebook entries (unless you are very personal on those… I keep mine fairly close to business, art and photography).

Ashley at Bottle Bell takes a very personal approach with the About Page.

Jason Bell uses a third person approach. The information features some of the people he has photographed as well as accomplishments including published books.

Makeup Artist Filippa Smedhagen Sund uses a third person approach with a little bio. She also adds links to clients she has worked with.

Makeup Artist Fillppa Smedhagen Sund

People photographer Alessio Pizzicannella takes a bio approach, also in third person. Interesting use of typography sets philosophy apart from bio.

Mark Velasquez uses links to his other sites as a feature for his “Biography” page. Very simple approach.

Mark Velasquez' About Page

An impressive client list with a very simple declarative paragraph describing Jeffrey Salter’s approach to imaging is all he needs to make an impact. A playful portrait says something about his personality as well.

Jeffery Salter's About Page

Jeremy Cowart uses a light bio, reinforces his specialties and lists a short, but very effective client list.

Jeremy Cowart's About Page

Chase Jarvis takes a humorous, personal approach to his About page simply titled “Chase”. Effective use of video gives the visitor a glimpse into what it may be like to work with him.

Chase Jarvis' About Page

Jessica Hilltout keeps with her handmade look and does a Biography page that is first person, personal and fun to read.

Khoi Vinh (Subtraction) is a designer with a very interesting About page. A personal and fun image set against a “resume” looking bio.

Khoi Vinh's About Page

Rick Gayle uses a list of clients with statement of photographic philosophy. It is in keeping with his minimalist site style.

Rick Gayle's About Page

Steve McCurry takes a long, third party narrative to tell his biography. A mix of personal triumphs and client names make for a wonderful, interesting read.

Steve McCurry's About Page

Travel photographer Gavin Gough uses a first person narrative and large photographs to introduce himself, and his work, to visitors.

Gavin Gough's About Page

Taking a first person narrative, landscape photographer Martin Lawrence tells the visitor when and why he became a photographer.

Martin Lawrence's About Page

Wedding and Event Photographer, John Morris uses several paragraphs with headers to discuss his work, philosophy and personal bio.

John Morris's About Page

People Photographer Clayton Bozard uses a bio photo with a behind-the-scenes shot with a nice layout to go with his third person narrative. Short and sweet.

Clayton Bozard's About Page

Isabelle Ribeiro photographs dolls and people. Her About Page features a downloaded resume, a third person bio, and a quirky portrait to give a little insight to her personality.

Isabelle Ribiero's About Page

David Eustace uses a small bio page, with a simple portrait shot. Written in third person, the bio features shows and clients he works with.

David Eustace's About Page

Fine Art Photographer, Joni Sternbach has a very comprehensive “About” area which is reached by a link titled “Information.”

Joni Sternbach's Information Page

Also a Fine Art Photographer, Liz Cockrum presents a short bio, exhibition lists, representation and more on a very structured page.

Liz Cockrum's About Page

Portrait photographer Grant Harder takes a humorous approach to his About page. Note the fun and quirky image and creative typography.

Grant Harder's About Page

Vee Speers uses a behind-the-scenes image and the result of that shoot for her “Bio” page. Featuring a short bio and client list, the page is very clean.

Vee Speers' About Page

Candice Holloway takes a first person approach to explaining her art work.

Candice Holloway's About Page

My Split Second takes a very personal, first person approach. Adding dynamic content makes the page fun to revisit.

My Split Second's About Page

Jenna Ardell is a fine art photographer. She uses links and reviews to tell the visitor who she is. Links go to interviews she has done, galleries that show her work and clients.

Jena Ardell's About Us Page

Choosing a design for a very different and interesting site, Matthew Mahon uses Photoshopped Driver’s Licenses and other ‘documents’ to intersperse his “bio” throughout the images.

Matthew Mahon's About Page

Jill Greenberg’s About Page has a small bio and tearsheets of print work and celebrities she has photographed.

Jill Greenberg's About Page

As you can see, there are a lot of ways to present your “About” page. Here are some more resources for you:

Smashing Magazine has a great list of some very cool Designer About Pages. No reason why photographers could not use some of these cool ideas. At Write to Done, Author James Chartrand of Men with Pens, has a nice, concise article on writing a powerful “About” page.

At “A List Apart” they present a well written How-To for About Pages.

Skelliewag delivers a nice little post on writing an About page that really nails it.

Here’s another take on writing the copy from “The Dabbling Mum.” Thanks for coming along. I hope this post had helped you work out what your “About Me” page will be.

We have looked at a lot of different approaches, but there is one photographer that really gets to the heart of it with his short and sweet “About” page.

Nick Onken simply tells us what he likes to do.

Come on over to the Facebook Page, follow me on Twitter, Learn more about the Workshops and find out a bit more About.Me.

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