As a photographer and marketing coach for creative service professionals I’m always looking for new tools and strategies that can be used to help get the word out about their businesses.

In the age of Internet marketing and social media networking it’s critically important now more than ever for creative service professional to take advantage of every opportunity to get your work in front of and connect with our target audience.

With websites, blogs and social media tools like Facebook and Twitter just to name a few, they are more avenues than ever for pro- photographers to reach potential prospects. So the question becomes “if it’s easier to connect with our prospects online – how do I capture the leads I receive on my blog -or- website?”

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If you are looking for a way to spruce up your images for presentation on the web or your blog, Magic Blogit Boards are the Magic Bullet you’ve been looking for.

Blogit Boards are a collection of actions for creating display boards with 2 – 16 openings in mere seconds. The even have support actions for allowing you to drop you logo in to keep your images completely branded with your studios logo.

Magic Blogit Boards come from ProPhotoResource.com contributor Jodi Friedman of MCP Actions. Jodi has a boatload of Photoshop actions that make can make complex tasks in Photoshop a breeze but so far my favorite is her Magic Blogit Board Actions.

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Today the folks that at WordPress.org have released a major upgrade to their blogging platform with the release of version 2.7. From what i can tell they have made some major structural changes to the backend administration area, which might take some getting use to if your a longtime WordPress user.

One new feature that caught my attention is the the ability to automagically upgrade when incremental updates are released. If you ever had the pleasure to update previous versions you know that it can be a little dicey.

For a full list of updates, requirements or to download visit www.wordpress.org.

I’ll download a copy and install it on my testing server and provide a full review soon.

In an previous post we covered two of the pioneering microblogging platforms, Twitter and Pownce. It was announced today that Pownce will be closing it’s doors after just one year of operation. Pownce was acquired by Six Apart developers of TypePad and Moveable Type.

If you are a current Pownce user, they have created an export service to transfer all your pownce posts to TypePad, WordPress or Vox.

December 15, 2008 will be the final day of service so make sure you get your posts out before then.

There is a young twenty-something female photographer from Orange County that has taken the phography industry by storm over the past year, she was brought to my attention by David Jay just over a year ago when I asked him if he knew of a young photographer that would be willing to write for ProPhotoResource.com.

I remember the conversation like it was yesterday, he responded “Jasmine Star, you’ve got to check her out she’s going to be huge in this industry.” I thought to myself, well i’ve never heard of her but with a name like Jasmine Star how can you go wrong. Over the past year i’ve seen the growth of PPR explode in no short part without the help of Jasmine who is as far as i’m concerned one of the best online marketers i’ve come across in this business, hands down. Jasmine has built an online following like no other and ProPhotoResource.com has reaped the benefits of those followers.

If you are familiar with Jasmine’s blog you’ll understand exactly what i’m talking about. I typically don’t frequent photographers blogs because quite frankly, just because someone can take a good picture doesn’t necessarily mean they can write an informative or even entertaining blog post for that matter. The Jasmine Star Blog is a totally different animal, not only is it a place where she showcases her brilliant photography, but it’s where she does what she does best, showcases her personality.

I’ve never met Jasmine in person, our relationship has been strictly one of email bantering back and forth, but through her blog I feel like we’ve been friends for a lifetime, I feel like I know her family, her husband and even her dog Polo. Jasmine’s personality exudes from her blogs posts, and as a reader I find myself immersed in her words, her photos and her life, this is what a photographers blog should be all about.

This month Jasmine wrote a great article for ProPhotoResource.com entitled “Showcasing Your Personality” I thought it was fit to also publish here on the PhotographersHandbook.com for those of you who may not be a PPR Member. After the jump please enjoy Jasmines Article and if you would like to find more great photo education just like this be sure to check out ProPhotoResource.com and oh yeh don’t forget to drop by www.JasmineStarBlog.com and watch a master in action

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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 . . .