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This is Why YOU Have to Update

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Everything about this business changes gradually over time and we have to adapt to those changes if we want to stay in business. It’s really easy to just nod along and say, “well yea that’s obvious.” Well actually putting it into practice is a lot harder. A blog or website is a great example for this practice but beyond a face lift why is it so important to update?

 

In today’s world an online presence is a must. It’s not even a must, it’s basically a death sentence to not have anything. Over time the internet changes and eventually everything that was good slowly degrades. The standard for a website or blog is to do a facelift every three years, partly because it shows you care about your online presence but mainly because that’s how long it takes for coding to degrade. Coding does change everyday but at three years you’ll really see a difference. When I updated my platform the difference was night and day. The speed and versatility makes a huge difference. Another great example is the use of flash. A few years back that was a big deal but on a blog today it’s a dead tool. That right there is something that if you used it you have to change it. I did.

So besides the technology part of the update there’s the increase in content both in need of and desire to show off. In theory as time goes on you will be shooting more, the digital library will grow and a need to show off that content will expand. Themes change daily and the ones today are far better then yesterday. This provides more options to display your content and grow your audience.

Next up is the fact that your preference when you launched your site might be very different then versus today. As we grow as photographers are tastes generally change and thus our results change. That’s part of experiencing more and more as we go out and bringing that back with us. This goes the same for how we want to display that change.

Lastly I must reiterate what I said in the beginning. You have to care. It can get very hard at times, feeling that constant need to create content but it’s always rewarding in the end.

It’s Time For a Change!

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Welcome to my new website! I have had the great joy of being able to share my knowledge of photography with others. I started my blog in 2008. It has been ten years in the making and there is still much more to do. Over the course of the years I have changed my themes multiple times but this time is a much bigger update then just the theme. The .org site is no longer functioning and a redirect is in place bringing everyone here to the .com site. Beyond that big change there is now more areas of content to explore.

 

The headers still redirect to all blog posts I put up, with the current blog posts being shown on the bottom of home page. While I will continue to blog, the big new areas are these seven categories. Each one will have content specific to those areas to help improve your photography. Over time they will gradually be updated with text, photos and videos. There is also a video slider now with all the current videos I have done up on home page.

I have done my best to inspire and educate others throughout the years and my hope is that this new platform will continue to do that.

 

Oh Boy… Blog Maintenance

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Yea I know it’s not the most original post I’ve come up with lately but it is an important one. Blog maitenance is a really important thing to keep up with. Sometimes that’s as simple as updating your site, your plugins, your links or anything else that might need it. Then again depending on how complicated your site is it could mean updating a whole lot of content including pages, videos or tech lessons. The important part is remembering that you need to keep up with the work. Letting it build up just makes it that much harder to complete. Often that leads to losing out on more fun shooting time.

blog screen

How to Create a Web Presence

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The other day a friend asked me, “how do you market your images without a gallery?” I kind of chuckled and said, “well i do it’s just online.” It’s always an interesting discussion to have about web galleries and how to create a web presence. For about an hour all we talked about was how to create a web presence, starting out with just building a site and then getting people to it with the hopes that it creates business. The best ways are still cross promotion from one source to another. With media outlets today like Facebook and Google+ it has become even easier to get people to come to your site. To me that’s the easy part. The hard part is what comes next. Once they arrive, then what?

I don’t think anyone with a blog or website is going to argue that it takes a lot of time to get high numbers. It’s just a matter of consistently creating lots of content that gets people interested in coming back. That’s where the challenge lies. Not only finding a nitch that people can learn from but also making an effort to continually update that content. It’s not just everyday blog posts either. Although the numbers are always lower on other pages they are still there because people are still visiting them. Creating that extra content is basically like filling an encyclopedia with photo facts. You never know who’s going to look into the book. But it’s a continual process. It truly never stops. The amazing thing is that over time the difference in style, technique, both writing and photography, does change. Something to think about over the weekend.

It’s Just TOOOOOOO Good!

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I can barely write this post I’m so excited! A month ago I was contacted by Scott Kelby’s assistant Brad Moore, a really nice guy and good shooter, who asked me if I would be interested in being a guest blogger for Scott’s blog. Well there’s only one answer to that question, “Yes!” It took me days to figure out what to write and then a few more days to actually write it. Last night I got an email from Brad that said, “Surprise, you’re the guest blogger this week.” I couldn’t help but just laugh. Thank You Brad

You can check out the post along with other great stuff right here!

Blog Improvement

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As time goes on the need for improvement grows. Everything from camera gear, to websites and even knowledge must change. For some of us it takes more than others to make these changes but it happens nonetheless. Three years ago I had no idea what i was doing when I agreed to start a blog. If you look back at any of those posts now, they appear quite humorous, at least to me they do. But since the beginning little improvements have been made here and there to what it is today. This past weekend it was time for another improvement.

Saturday I had an idea for starting a new Gallery that would be more efficient then the one i already had up. There are several changes the biggest being more images to view and more clicking required to navigate through. To an extent this is an experiment, one of which I’m in favor for. I felt that the old system of just a drop down menu wasn’t working because there was no images to see. Since I am a photographer it seemed a prudent change. I opened up the comments on this one to see what you think of this change. Is it really an update or just a new cover to the same book?

Blog Maintenance

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Ah the joy of blogs. Creating content, keeping up with other bloggers, and of course maintenance. Maintenance, not something one would imagine would be an issue with a blog. I mean you buy the host, download the theme, upload it and start creating content. Besides updating wordpress every now and then what else is there? Well as i have learned there’s a lot more!

About a month ago I changed blog themes and since then i have slowly upgraded, improved and added to my site. However, during this process several little issues arose that were “bugging” me to say the least and they needed to be taken care of. Little things like the image slider wouldn’t save the images, certain buttons wouldn’t work, and frankly there wasn’t enough images or posts visible. Well thanks to my good friend RC we were able to go through, talk through some of the issues and find the answers. One of the easiest solutions turned out to be an update to the wordpress theme. Apparently the writer was either told or figured out that there were some changes needed and decided to make our lives easier.

Check this out!

You might be wondering why I’m bothering spending the time typing all of this out. Well quite simply any photographer takes care in his craft. We spend the time practicing in the field and preparing for that time in the field, learning the techniques necessary to capture the images we’re after, acquiring the equipment, and of course post processing skills. Well all that time spent preparing images to be presented when the time comes to actually put the image out in the public it’s important and desired to have the best pedestal possible for display. Which is why blog maintenance is so important. Now of course not everyone is an expert at blog coding which is why RC has spent the last year creating this wonderful book that goes step by step on what to do to get going, make it pretty, and solve some issues. Give it a look.

What To Blog Today?

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For four years now i have had a blog and in that duration i have questioned myself many times on how valuable or useful a blog is to have. Over the last year it has become apparent that the blog does serve a pivotal role in establishing a career. The rewards of a blog are well worth the time invested into making and maintaining a blog. But with the constant changing of information, technique, and basic settings how does one go about setting up a blog? Which brings me to my next point.

[swf]http://www.jakepeterson.org/swf_imgs/RCbook.swf, 585, 435[/swf]

A couple years ago Dad introduced me to one of his good friends and fellow instructor Rc Concepcion. I quickly learned he is one crazy guy but he is also incredibly smart. Rc knows more about blogging than anyone else that i know of. He spent hours of his own time doing research, learning coding and applying all that in different web scenarios so he could provide what he learned for the public. That way EVERYONE can have a blog and EVERYONE can show off their work. Because it is a photographic community, i emphasis community we share with each other. Our knowledge and experience are the best tools we have and what better way to show that off then with our images on our own blogs. Rc has made this so available over the years from Kelby Training and now for the first time he was written a book, Get Your Photography On The Web, filled with everything from the basics of making a site, to the appropriate settings for importing images, to the general maintenance and expansion of your work into the years to come. Best yet his book is filled with screen captures so you can see exactly what he is doing step by step. He wants you to learn, he wants you to show of your work, we all do. The best part of being a photographer is showing off those images with everyone else, we are visual people it’s how we learn and it’s how we grow. Pick up his book it’s well worth it’s weight in gold, I’ve already started reading mine and can’t wait to see what else is in there.

Thank you Rc for sharing this information with the rest of us.

CLICK HERE!!!

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