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Driving Traffic

silvereyesilvereye Registered Users Posts: 195 Major grins
edited September 25, 2010 in Mind Your Own Business
It seems that I am having a really hard time driving traffic. I am looking for sites, blogs and other webs to network on and beings that I am not the best when it comes to these internet machines I was hoping someone could point me in the right direction :D
http://www.chamiltonphoto.com
https://www.facebook.com/ChristianHamiltonPhotography

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    fredjclausfredjclaus Registered Users Posts: 759 Major grins
    edited September 17, 2010
    It seems that in the world of photographer, Word of Mouth is the best form of advertising.

    - Join your local chamber and do some work for them.
    - Join a Networking group in your area. This is a great way to find leads
    - Support a non-profit organization.

    These are all some great ways to drive in traffic that produce more than any paid ad would. Hope that helps.
    Fred J Claus
    Commercial Photographer
    http://www.FredJClaus.com
    http://www.Fredjclaus.com/originals

    Save on your own SmugMug account. Just enter Coupon code i2J0HIOcEElwI at checkout
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    denisegoldbergdenisegoldberg Administrators Posts: 14,275 moderator
    edited September 19, 2010
    You have a blog, yet you are not using it to drive traffic to your site. I clicked on some of the photos in your blog and found that you are not consistent in where the photos live. Some live in blogger's default photo space. Some live on your smugmug site, but the links take you to an individual photo outside of your site. Why not post a link that takes the viewer to your photo in a gallery?

    Embedding your blog in a smug gallery means that it isn't nicely readable because you have scroll bars inside of scroll bars. That isn't user friendly, and honestly, I wouldn't have taken the time to look if you hadn't supplied a direct link to your blog in your dgrin signature. Have you considered changing your blog to match your smug site?

    --- Denise
    https://www.denisegoldberg.com ... https://denise.smugmug.com

    Musings & ramblings at https://denisegoldberg.blogspot.com
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    silvereyesilvereye Registered Users Posts: 195 Major grins
    edited September 19, 2010
    denisegoldberg wrote: »
    You have a blog, yet you are not using it to drive traffic to your site. I clicked on some of the photos in your blog and found that you are not consistent in where the photos live. Some live in blogger's default photo space. Some live on your smugmug site, but the links take you to an individual photo outside of your site. Why not post a link that takes the viewer to your photo in a gallery?

    Embedding your blog in a smug gallery means that it isn't nicely readable because you have scroll bars inside of scroll bars. That isn't user friendly, and honestly, I wouldn't have taken the time to look if you hadn't supplied a direct link to your blog in your dgrin signature. Have you considered changing your blog to match your smug site?

    --- Denise


    I hadnt noticed my images were like that thank you for pointing it out. So the fix for the images is to simply post from the smugmug site into the blog and instead of the website link insert a link to the actual gallery??

    I would love to match the blog to the site and have started to on a few different occasions but seem to get lost in code... The whole blog thing is very new to me but am trying to learn quickly so that I can use it as a tool
    http://www.chamiltonphoto.com
    https://www.facebook.com/ChristianHamiltonPhotography
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    chrisjohnsonchrisjohnson Registered Users Posts: 772 Major grins
    edited September 19, 2010
    silvereye wrote: »
    It seems that I am having a really hard time driving traffic. I am looking for sites, blogs and other webs to network on and beings that I am not the best when it comes to these internet machines I was hoping someone could point me in the right direction :D

    Google will have a problem with your site because it is all pictures. A title like "wedding photos in Colorado Springs" will help your search results.

    (While checking my own visibility it seems I won a bottle of whisky (not claimed yet) in a photo competition. So thanks for that)
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    silvereyesilvereye Registered Users Posts: 195 Major grins
    edited September 19, 2010
    goldenballs wrote: »
    Google will have a problem with your site because it is all pictures. A title like "wedding photos in Colorado Springs" will help your search results.

    (While checking my own visibility it seems I won a bottle of whisky (not claimed yet) in a photo competition. So thanks for that)


    Even with the captions and keywords?? Ok, so add a Title to every gallery??
    http://www.chamiltonphoto.com
    https://www.facebook.com/ChristianHamiltonPhotography
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    Photog4ChristPhotog4Christ Registered Users Posts: 716 Major grins
    edited September 19, 2010
    "I just started this blog today" (quote from your blog) and you're complaining you don't have any traffic???

    You need to check your spelling. (up and "runing" should be "running")


    Your blog entries need to be more descriptive.
    I captured this image while visiting one of the many state parks in Washington. The scene was filled with serenity and my hope was to capture that but using a softer focus and promist filter.
    (what's a "promist" filter??)

    What state park were you in? You need to name it by name. What is the actual name of the town the park is in/near?

    You have to write a novel for each post!

    "Today, while my girlfriend, Brittney and I, were hiking through XYZ State Park (link to the park's web page) in Anytown, Washington, ......."

    Go all out! The more words the better. You want Google to index your site and you want to use words that people will stumble upon when doing Google searches. This way, if someone searches on "XYZ State Park" in "Anytown, Washington", then they might just click on the link taking them to your blog.
    <><
    Neal Jacob

    [URL="http://nealjacob.com/twitter"]Twitter[/URL]|[B][URL="http://photos.nealjacob.com"]SmugMug[/URL][/B
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    silvereyesilvereye Registered Users Posts: 195 Major grins
    edited September 19, 2010
    Photog4Christ wrote: »
    "I just started this blog today" (quote from your blog) and you're complaining you don't have any traffic???

    You need to check your spelling. (up and "runing" should be "running")


    Your blog entries need to be more descriptive.

    (what's a "promist" filter??)

    What state park were you in? You need to name it by name. What is the actual name of the town the park is in/near?

    You have to write a novel for each post!

    "Today, while my girlfriend, Brittney and I, were hiking through XYZ State Park (link to the park's web page) in Anytown, Washington, ......."

    Go all out! The more words the better. You want Google to index your site and you want to use words that people will stumble upon when doing Google searches. This way, if someone searches on "XYZ State Park" in "Anytown, Washington", then they might just click on the link taking them to your blog.


    #1... never once did I "Complain" about no traffic.. I do have 8K views this month... I was simply asking how to increase that..
    Thank you for your input
    http://www.chamiltonphoto.com
    https://www.facebook.com/ChristianHamiltonPhotography
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    rgphotorgphoto Registered Users Posts: 251 Major grins
    edited September 20, 2010
    silvereye wrote: »
    #1... never once did I "Complain" about no traffic.. I do have 8K views this month... I was simply asking how to increase that..
    Thank you for your input

    That right there seems to blow my mind...

    Your blog, which has 9 short posts, has 8k views this month??

    I've been keeping my blog for about 6 months now, and I'm not getting anything anywhere near that. My main site, in which the blog is integrated into, gets only about 2k visits per month.
    website | blog | twitter | facebook

    Nikon d700, sb-600 external flash Sigma 50mm f/1.4 EX DG HSM, AF NIKKOR 70-300mm 1:4-5.6 D, AF-S NIKKOR 18-70mm 1:3.5-4.5 G, AF Promaster Macro

    Using photography to pay for engineering school is a bad business plan.
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    silvereyesilvereye Registered Users Posts: 195 Major grins
    edited September 20, 2010
    rgphoto wrote: »
    That right there seems to blow my mind...

    Your blog, which has 9 short posts, has 8k views this month??

    I've been keeping my blog for about 6 months now, and I'm not getting anything anywhere near that. My main site, in which the blog is integrated into, gets only about 2k visits per month.


    No.. sorry... my website not blog... lol.. that was a very long day and I should appologize for the snappy remarks as well... but my site generates an average of 6K views per month.. that is the number I am trying to increase... I did start the "Blog Integration" to try and help and have made a point to type in word prior to any future posts to correct spelling.... I think the biggest issue is this SEO and internal links... I really just dont get it and Ive read ALOT lol...

    Thank you all for the input though and again.. sorry for my lack of composure on the previous post
    http://www.chamiltonphoto.com
    https://www.facebook.com/ChristianHamiltonPhotography
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    rgphotorgphoto Registered Users Posts: 251 Major grins
    edited September 20, 2010
    Instead of the blogger image button, use this for images:
    <center><a href="Landing Page Link"> <img src="Image Source Link" /></a></center>

    That way, your images will link back to your website, increasing your one-way links.
    website | blog | twitter | facebook

    Nikon d700, sb-600 external flash Sigma 50mm f/1.4 EX DG HSM, AF NIKKOR 70-300mm 1:4-5.6 D, AF-S NIKKOR 18-70mm 1:3.5-4.5 G, AF Promaster Macro

    Using photography to pay for engineering school is a bad business plan.
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    chrisjohnsonchrisjohnson Registered Users Posts: 772 Major grins
    edited September 25, 2010
    6k views a month is still a lot, Christian. Hope you are using Google Analytics to get some insight. It will tell you how many are new visitors, how long they stay, where they are from, how they got there, and lots more.

    Actually the 6k being a lot needs qualification. Pulling in traffic is not that difficult - pulling in the right traffic is the goal.

    I think your blog site is a good example of how things should be done (although you want to check that classic car link at the top the page). I reckon almost every visitor will click through to your smugmug site.
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