Everyday I receive dozens of emails from folks who neglect to utilize the one of the most powerful tools you have in your arsenal as an internet marketer. What i’m talking about is the Email Signature. Emails signatures can be easily set up within your email software account preferences, and besides helping your market yourself, email sigs will save you the time of having to manually type in your contact information each time you send an email. Email signatures also give you the ability to share your websites and social networking urls, afterall isn’t it all about networking.

Below is the Email signature that goes out with each email I send. Every time one of my emails get forwarded or replied to by others i’m increasing my chances of exposing my websites and business to complete strangers.

So the next time you send out an email make sure to include your Email Signature.

Sincerely,
Cris Mitchell
Publisher
ProPhotoResource.com
cris@prophotoresource.com
805.441.1187

Follow me online at:
WEB: www.prophotoresource.com
BLOG: www.photographershandbook.com
TWITTER: www.twitter.com/crismitchell
POWNCE: www.pownce.com/crismitchell
MYSPACE: www.myspace.com/crismitchellphotography
FLICKR: www.flickr.com/crismitchell or www.flickr.com/followcris

If you are a photographer doing business on the internet, you need to make sure your website consists of more than just a photo gallery, i’ve seen countless photographers with super slick web galleries but lacking the following:

Bio or Company info.
Professional Headshot
Contact Information

While these might sound like no brainers, I can’t even begin to count the number of times that i’ve visited photographers websites and seen one or all of these left off.

While there are many more website must have’s, these are just a few of the most obvious ones.

It’s a known fact that color can make people happy, sad, anxious or calm, so when it comes time to pick a color palette for your website, it isn’t something to take lightly.

The psychology of color far bigger than can be covered in this short blog post, so instead let me give you the basics of web color and how to use it in all your online endeavors.

As photographers, we are use to working in RGB color and if you done any design for print, you’ve probably worked with it’s equivalent CMYK. Specifying colors for display on the web we use yet a third palette which is called Hexadecimal or HEX for short.

If you open up Photoshop and select the Color Picker, you can see all the different call outs for each palette plus two we won’t be covering here today, HSB and LAB.

The information you are looking for are the letters and numbers at the bottom of the picker which start with the pound symbol # and then are followed by a series of numbers and letters such as C0C0C0.

Web Safe Colors
You may also choose to select the Only Web Colors check box which will force you to pick one of the 216 websafe colors. Websafe colors are limited palette of colors that will display the same across all browsers and platforms. With the sophistication of computers and browses these days this isn’t as much of an issue as it was 10 years ago. so I say leave it unchecked.

A few color tips . . .

• Make sure the colors you use are complimentary to your overall branding.
• Use colors that allow your photography to stand out.
• Keep your color palette to a minimum.
• Use your brightest colors for website accents ONLY
• Remember the colors you choose have the possibility to turn viewers off, so choose your colors with caution.
• Get the opinion of friends and family on the colors you choose. See how they make them feel.

Stay tuned for Part 2 of this blog post which will cover some of my favorite color tools.

Nothing can turn away a potential client from your website faster than the Flash Intro. Flash intros are usually short animated graphics or videos that play before the main content of your site is served up.

If done properly Flash Intros, can play like a finely crafted trailer to your favorite blockbuster movie, engaging and entertaining your visitors and wetting their appetite for what they are about to discover on your website. If done poorly they scream amateur and quickly alienate potential surfers sending them away to your competitors site.

While I’m not a huge fan of the Flash Intro, there have been times when i’ve stumbled upon one that has caught my attention. If you feel that you must include your latest art project on your website here are a few things to keep in mind.

1. Respect Your Visitors Bandwidth and Screen Real Estate
2. Don’t Over Due It
3. Don’t Use Video Unless It’s Flash Formatted
4. Keep in the Theme of the Rest of Your Website and Marketing.
5. Engage and Entertain but Most Importantly Tell A Story or Make Point!
6. MOST IMPORTANT: Provide a [Skip Intro] Button

So you just took the wraps off your shiny new website and want to announce it to the world. . .

Woah hold on there trigger.

While everyone wants to optimize their sites for the highest possible search engine rankings, remember who you are and what you do. Most of us can only dream of big market art directors hiring us to shoot the next Pepsi Campaign. So why are we spending so much time optimizing our sites for the global market and completely overlooking the obvious business right in our own backyards.

Before take on the daunting task of SEO (search engine optimization), and trust me it’s daunting, make sure you are listed in some of your local website directories and portals including the following:

• Internet Yellow Pages
• Local City Guides
• Your Local Chamber Website
• Local Business Portals
• Local Online Portrait and Bridal Directories
• Newspapers

These are just a few examples i’m sure with a little searching you can find others in your local market.

I’ll be the first to admit that I had no idea how time consuming it was going to be to maintain a blog and as you can see so far it shows My last post was well over a month ago.

Between my normal day to day design business, running ProPhotoResource.com and working the upcoming Internet Marketing book, how the heck am I suppose to find time to keep a blog up to date. It’s practically a full time job keeping up with the pace at which technology is changing, we’ve gone from HTML to Web 2.0 in the blink of an eye and from blogging to micro blogging in a matter of months. One could spend their entire life just keeping up with their social networks.

I’m often confronted by photographers interested in starting a blog or who have tried starting a blog only to end up frustrated and overwhelmed by the whole experience. What started with great intentions, ended up in total failure, because they quickly got overwhelmed by the thought of having to continually feed the 700 pound gorilla that has become their blog.

If you find yourself in a similar situation, here are a few tips to hopefully get you over the hump.

1. Start Slow and Grow - Know your limitations, if you can only carve out enough time for one post per week, start with that and work up from there. Trying to do more than you have time for is only going to end up in failure.

2. Set a Day and Stick With It - Like anything in life if you can make a routine out of it, the better luck your going to have with it. Pick a day and say “Ok Monday is my Blogging Day”, put it on the calendar and stick with it.

3. Don’t become a Social Media Butterfly – Yes social networks are a powerful tool for increasing traffic to your blog, but at the same time can zap every second of spare time you have, time that could be better spent working on your blog. Pick a few of the most popular Networks such as MySpace, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter and work those. If you find yourself with more time on your hands, then you can dabble in some of the lesser known social media outlets

4. Lighten up and Have Fun – Whether you are blogging just to share information or you are a serious blogger, making a living from it, remember why you started blogging in the first place and Just Have Fun!

Well let’s see if i can follow my own advice. I’ll make a point of keeping this blog a little more active if you promise to keep coming back

Until Next time.
Cris . . .

First my sincerest apologies for not posting in the past couple weeks, it’s been a little crazy around here. I’ll do my best in the future to stay on top of things here at PhotographersHandbook.com. I do have a few blogposts in the works including one on Online Backup Solutions and another on Web Based Photo Slideshow applications, so keep checking back.

PRINT MARKETING

As photographers we need to do whatever we can to get the marketing edge over our competition in this ever increasing competitive market. It’s not always enough to just have a great looking website.

Lately i’ve seen companies such as www.ProDPI.com, a professional photo lab in my neck of the woods open up a Digital Press Division. ProDPI is now offering Full Color Business Cards which allow you to use up to five different designs per card order. Other digital press products include: Folded Cards, Postcards, Tent Cards all printed on a variety of paper options including a Green option for the environment friendly photographer.

Online based Moo.com offer some really slick and creative print products including Mini Cards, Print up to 100 different photos in each pack and make yourself a self promotion tool that will knock a potential clients socks off. Think of it as a mini portfolio in a box.

Moo.com offers other creative products such as stickers, postcards and Greeting Cards all with your images on them.

There are tons of other companies out there offering unique and affordable products, just do a google search and your bound to turn up something. In future posts we’ll cover other inexpensive methods of marketing your business through the use of Postcards.

Be different, set yourself apart and your clients will notice.

There is no doubt in anyones mind that the blogging and social networking scenes have taken the internet by storm and they are here to stay. Sites like MySpace, Facebook and LinkedIn are no longer childish pastimes to keep your kids connected to their friends or the hottest friday night party.

Photographers are finally realizing the sheer marketing power that blogging and social networking can have on their businesses. If you don’t believe me just take a trip over to our friend Jasmine Stars Blog www.jasminestarblog.com and take a look at the AWESOME community of photographers, fans and clients that she has managed to pull together in her own little corner of cyberspace.

So you have reluctantly come to grips with running your own blog and MySpace page when along comes a new technology calling itself Micro-blogging. You are probably asking yourself what on God’s Green Earth is Mirco-blogging and where is this all going to stop.

Defined by Wikipedia Micro-blogging is a form of blogging that allows users to write brief text updates (usually 140 characters) and publish them, either to be viewed by anyone or by a restricted group which can be chosen by the user. These messages can be submitted by a variety of means, including text messaging, instant messaging, email, MP3 or the web.

So why do you need to Micro-blog? Truthfully you don’t, however building communities on the more popular Micro-blogging sites such as Twitter and Pownce will allow you to post brief messages making followers aware of a new Blog Post or new images on your website etc… Micro-Blogging is just another tool in the war to drive web surfers to your blog or website, because afterall isn’t EXPOSURE what it’s all about.

Setting up accounts on both Twitter and Pownce literally take 5 minutes, both have iPhone apps that allow you to Micro-blog from your iphone making it even easier to keep up to date. I myself have even set up accounts on both systems as a way to help create more awareness of PhotographersHandbook.com.

So if you are an active blogger who blogs everyday about everything or a photographer that feels they just don’t have enough to say to keep a blog interesting, Micro-Blogging might just the technology you are looking for. Remember, Micro-Blog posts are typically under 140 words making it incredibly easy to keep up to date. ie: Check out my new blog post on Micro-Blogging at PhotographersHandbook.com.

What have you go to lose, give it a shot. Make sure to follow me on both my Twitter and Pownce pages and i’ll be happy to reciprocate.

On Twitter you can find me at: http://www.twitter.com/crismitchell

On Pownce you can find me at http://www.pownce.com/crismitchell

As aways if you have further questions on Micro-Blogging or any other internet related topics feel free to comment here or in the Photographers Handbook Forum at ProPhotoResource.com

Well not really but i thought that might get your attention.

Below i’m posting a recent thread post in the Photographers Handbook Forum over at ProPhotoResource.com for those of you who have found this site and are not yet a member at PPR. It’s been edited slightly to make sense as a blog post. Comments are always welcome.

I’m starting to notice a big problem in our industry and that is the proliferation of the email auto responder. I know who you are, i get hundreds of them whenever i send out an email newsletter

In all seriousness, I think auto responders have there place and that is to let clients and friends know you are out of town on vacation or away at a workshop. But that isn’t the case for what i’ve been seeing lately. I get everything from “We are really busy in the studio” to “We only check email once a day…” You may as well have an auto responder that says “Sorry we are to busy to bother with you, please visit our competitor at www.”

The simple fact is if you wait more than 24 hours to respond, the customer is going elsewhere, plain and simple!

In my opinion and again this is just my opinion all email should be responded to in no more than 24 hours, less is possible. If you are doing that, than there is no need to send an auto responder to let me know that, i get enough junk email as it is!

Email can be a powerful tool if used properly and destroy your business if not. As Paul stated in his earlier post, if you can’t handle your current email load than you should possibly rethink your online marketing strategy.

For what it’s worth!
Cris . . .

An often asked question by clients is whether or not Flash websites can be indexed by search engines?

The answer is Yes with a big exception. Companies such as Google have come a long way over the years and now have the ability to crawl and index file types such as flash as well as pdf’s and many others. With that said there are a few steps you must take into consideration if you insist on going to go down the flash development path for your photography website.

This topic is much bigger than what can be handled in this short blog post and there are many resources publicly available on the internet if you want more detailed info, however below i’ll outline a few things to keep in mind if you decide a Flash site is really what you want

1. Mix your use of Flash and HTML
Don’t build your entire site as one self contained flash file, break out each section into it’s own swf file and then embed that into an html page such as contact.html, bio.html etc..

2. Use Flash Sparingly!
Only use Flash for things such as Photo Galleries and Navigation. This will give your site some interactivity while allowing you to optimize your textual content for the search engiens.

3. Create a secondary redundant site using HTML and CSS
It’s more work to manage, but this method will allow your site to be more easily located in the Search Engines, once the once the visitor arrives at your site they can determine which path they want to go down.

4. Don’t worry about it?
Many photographers aren’t worried about visitors finding them via the search engines, but instead opt to use their websites as more of a calling card, a place to drive potential clients to, to showcase their work. In this case throw the other three options out the window and build the flashiest site you can… Just kidden Search Engine Optimization is just one of the pitfalls of Flash Websites, others include accessibility by the handicapped or visually impaired. This will be covered in future blog posts.

If you have questions or comments please feel free to leave them for me and i’ll do my best to respond.

Until next week thanks for stopping by and make sure to check out our sister site www.prophotoresource.com