New to smugmug & two questions

VictorR

I joined SMUGMUG a little while ago, customized my website and I hear everything is about to change.

1. Will the journal format for galleries survive the change. I frankly dislike galleries and would rather stick to what I like.

2. While I have had some high hits on my stats counter I figure its because I am uploading a lot of photos. How does one get noticed on Smugmug, how does one encourage people to visit. Browsing seems a bit weak, you have to chose topics, there is no function to look at new pictures and the emphasis is on pictures with high hits and not mention of how those hits are achieved.

I m probably being naive here but would be grateful for some information.

Thanks

mrneutron

Hi Victor,

We're rebuilding the site from scratch to meet modern day requirements. Can't really say if the Journal format will be moved over, there may be something similar, but better.

In order to get noticed you have to promote your site. Post in forums blogs social networks etc.

Here are our help pages for SEO. Lots o' good information there
http://help.smugmug.com/customer/portal/articles/84519-how-can-i-maximize-my-search-engine-relevance-
http://help.smugmug.com/customer/portal/articles/93327-will-search-engines-find-my-smugmug-site-
http://help.smugmug.com/customer/portal/articles/93337-how-can-customers-find-my-smugmug-site-market-yourself

mbonocore

Victor,

The ability to fully customize your site makes anything possible, so I do not believe you will ever not be able to use your current "Journal" format.

Don't forget that you can publish to your Personal or Business Facebook page directly from your SmugMug site!

http://news.smugmug.com/2012/12/12/publish-to-facebook-now-on-the-loose-2/

Also, don't forget about all the other Social Sites.

http://help.smugmug.com/customer/portal/articles/93255-how-can-i-share-on-social-sites-

I am a big Social Network marketer, so that is where I spend most of my time trying to get exposure.

Michael

VictorR

Thanks the idea that i left Wordpress.com because of unannounced changes only to come here in the midst of change was a little unsettling.
As for social media and SEO that is what I have been hearing but my question relates to how people get to like your photos. I cannot search Smugmug for the latest photos, the Browser works on topics or already highly praised shots. Its not clear to me how those shots got highly praised. How did people find them? It could take years for SEO to work if one is not tapped into every social forum from twitter to facebook. Surely Smugmug has an internal system?
As for the communities they sounded good to start with but configuring a special gallery for the community if I understand correctly would would require a big change to the way I have organized my site. That is even if I wanted to join the communities. Those I have seen are rather narrow in subject matter. I was thinking something more along the lines of "things posted today".
I have posted several hundred pictures, and am transferring more from my old site, and I have no idea where they show up on Smugmug's radar if at all.
Thanks for any hints or clarifications. Just trying to figure things out an knowing full well I do not yet have a handle on Smugmug...

mbonocore

No problem Victor. We are here to help!

We do plan on expanding the way "popular" photos are displayed, as well as making it easier to be included in this algorithm.

The problem with the "Latest Photos" thought process is that SmugMug isn't used as a place that mainly houses your 20 best images. Photographers use SmugMug to upload hundreds of photos from the latest High School Basketball game, or the wedding they photographed last weekend. All of these are keyworded, and public. So if you search the keyword "Basketball", how do we prevent the first 1,000 results from being John Smith's photos from the game he photographed last night?

This is just one of a number of questions that goes into our design of the SmugMug search feature, but rest assured, it is something we are working on.

Michael

racer

mrneutron wrote: »

We're rebuilding the site from scratch to meet modern day requirements.

ummm, what does this mean! Almost anything can be implied from this message, so can you explain a little. "rebuilding" and "from scratch" being the key words!

How will this affect people with custom sites?

Most people love improvements, but "rebuild" and "from scratch" are scary words!

JamesGPhoto

racer wrote: »

ummm, what does this mean! Almost anything can be implied from this message, so can you explain a little. "rebuilding" and "from scratch" being the key words!

How will this affect people with custom sites?

Most people love improvements, but "rebuild" and "from scratch" are scary words!

Great point, Racer!

VictorR

With reference to what is below, how is this. Users could permit one gallery a day to be viewed with full security functions in the browser. The browser would show the first photo in the gallery along with a note of how many photos are in the gallery. Not everyone would wish to share but it would ensure that average users had a chance at visibility.

"The problem with the "Latest Photos" thought process is that SmugMug isn't used as a place that mainly houses your 20 best images. Photographers use SmugMug to upload hundreds of photos from the latest High School Basketball game, or the wedding they photographed last weekend. All of these are keyworded, and public. So if you search the keyword "Basketball", how do we prevent the first 1,000 results from being John Smith's photos from the game he photographed last night?

This is just one of a number of questions that goes into our design of the SmugMug search feature, but rest assured, it is something we are working on. "

VictorR

SEO, as you will note from follow-up was not my question. I am not asking about the rest of the web only Smugmug.
As for the changes I hope you are right with respect the journal format. Lots of time to set things up as I liked.

Thanks and regards,

mrneutron wrote: »

Hi Victor,

We're rebuilding the site from scratch to meet modern day requirements. Can't really say if the Journal format will be moved over, there may be something similar, but better.

In order to get noticed you have to promote your site. Post in forums blogs social networks etc.

Here are our help pages for SEO. Lots o' good information there
http://help.smugmug.com/customer/portal/articles/84519-how-can-i-maximize-my-search-engine-relevance-
http://help.smugmug.com/customer/portal/articles/93327-will-search-engines-find-my-smugmug-site-
http://help.smugmug.com/customer/portal/articles/93337-how-can-customers-find-my-smugmug-site-market-yourself

mbonocore

VictorR wrote: »

SEO, as you will note from follow-up was not my question. I am not asking about the rest of the web only Smugmug.
As for the changes I hope you are right with respect the journal format. Lots of time to set things up as I liked.

Thanks and regards,

Hi Victor,

Understood. We just want to point out that there are ways to drive traffic to your SmugMug site from users outside of SmugMug, by finding your great photos due to strong SEO.

Michael

AperturePlus

Hi Michael. I received a mail from SM this Wednesday with the subject "Be Smarter, Prettier and More Successful This Year". I read through it, but didn't see anything about site changes.

Did I miss an important mail? If so, could someone please resend it to me.

Thanks
apertureplus.com

mbonocore

AperturePlus wrote: »

Hi Michael. I received a mail from SM this Wednesday with the subject "Be Smarter, Prettier and More Successful This Year". I read through it, but didn't see anything about site changes.

Did I miss an important mail? If so, could someone please resend it to me.

Thanks
apertureplus.com

Hi Aperture,

Nope, no emails have been sent besides the one you received on Wednesday, which details tips and tricks on how to maximize your SmugMug experience in 2013. Sorry!

Michael

VictorR

I am not getting any email, should I feel left out

VictorR

mbonocore wrote: »

Hi Victor,

Understood. We just want to point out that there are ways to drive traffic to your SmugMug site from users outside of SmugMug, by finding your great photos due to strong SEO.

Michael

Michael my apologies,

I re-read all of the material you linked to as well as SEO on the Smugmug blog, and now I am busy fixing a mistake I made in keywording my galleries. Many thanks.

mbonocore

Victor,

No Worries! Please let me know if you would like me to forward you the email "Be Smarter, Prettier and More Successful This Year".

We would have sent it to the email tied to your SmugMug account. Make sure to check your SPAM folder as well.

Michael

VictorR

mbonocore wrote: »

Victor,

No Worries! Please let me know if you would like me to forward you the email "Be Smarter, Prettier and More Successful This Year".

We would have sent it to the email tied to your SmugMug account. Make sure to check your SPAM folder as well.

Michael

I would be grateful if you could forward it, thanks.

mbonocore

Sent Victor. Please let me know if you don't receive it.


Michael Bonocore
www.mb-photography-sf.com
www.facebook.com/mbonocore
plus.mb-photography-sf.com

VictorR

Got the email thanks.
Interesting stuff. Working my way through SEO. I am not a fan of facebook or the other social media, given the privacy concerns and my desire to protect my photos. So that is a bit limiting. I am still using my wordpress.com blog to drive traffic to my site here (with modest success). Google analytics shows I get about ten visitors a day, which is a start and no zero days, also a start. I will keep looking around for ideas. Thanks

VR

mbonocore

Victor,

Keep in mind, with the Publish to Facebook tool, you can select a smaller size display photo, as well as retain your watermark. That should make it harder for would be photo thieves.

Michael

VictorR

Makes more sense for facebook. I am just figuring things out is facebook where to start, or Google+ or some other social forum?
I want to work my way into SEO, just got my first two comments on Smugmug, my bounce rate on anlaytics has fallen to 40%. So gradually things are moving along.

I am very grateful for the suggestions.

mbonocore

Sure Victor! Glad to help. I would suggest setting up a Facebook Business page and a Google+ page as a first step to get into the Social Networking world. Remember, you get out what you put in. Commenting on others work, and sharing your photo on various pages will give you visibility.

Michael

VictorR

Thanks you guys rock. I am visiting and commenting, running a blog on wordpress.com (rakmilphotography.wordpress.com) to drive traffic here. I am commenting and visiting lots of sites on and off Smugmug (its a humbling process on Smugmug). I will be looking at Google+ and Facebook. Once I feel I have my old photo blog shots up on Smugmug and have a handle on where things stand now. Just got my first three comments! Almost 3000 views since the 22 of last month which cannot hurt. So all things told I have the beginnings of a business plan

denisegoldberg

VictorR wrote: »

...running a blog on wordpress.com (rakmilphotography.wordpress.com) to drive traffic here.

You might consider changing how you post photos to your blog. Right now (in the new posts in your blog) you are linking to your smug site with text in the blog post but clicking on the photo doesn't take the viewer to your smug site; it stays within your blog. You do have some photos that link to your smug site but they take the viewer to your home page. If I click a photo in a blog I expect to see that photo, not a link to a home page where I will need to see if I can find the photo that interested me.

You can use the Embeddable Links on the Share... Get a link page in your smug galleries to grab the html to display the photo and to cause a click on that photo to take the viewer to the photo in your smug galleries. If you'd like to see how that works check my blog (linked in my signature).

--- Denise

VictorR

Denise

Thanks. Great Idea, I will do that in my next post. The three posts so far were general and while the photos existed in galleries it never occurred to me to try that they were just examples. But this will really help. By the way I took the time to look at you site and visit some of the galleries you have some very nice photographs.

Much appreciated.

VictorR

Denise,

Just tested this unfortunately with the security settings I have this does not work. I took the security suggestions made by Smugmug to avoid the problems I had with wordpress and everyone sharing my shots etc. I tried turning the external links function on, getting the link and using it in a wordpress post but I cannot then link back to the gallery only a copy of the photo. Maybe there is another way but for the moment I will post an un-linked photo and a link to the gallery. Not great but we will see if other solutions exist. It would be great to do both post a link and have the photo click to the gallery.

Thanks - its all a work in progress!

denisegoldberg

VictorR wrote: »

Just tested this unfortunately with the security settings I have this does not work. I took the security suggestions made by Smugmug to avoid the problems I had with wordpress and everyone sharing my shots etc. I tried turning the external links function on, getting the link and using it in a wordpress post but I cannot then link back to the gallery only a copy of the photo. Maybe there is another way but for the moment I will post an un-linked photo and a link to the gallery. Not great but we will see if other solutions exist. It would be great to do both post a link and have the photo click to the gallery.

Only you can decide what works for you. Keep in mind that if you show a photo on the web people can still grab your shots from the browser cache.

Using the embedded link as I recommended does require that you leave external links on in the gallery. Posting a link to the gallery would be an improvement over posting a link to your home page but in my opinion that is not as good as linking to the photo you are showing.

--- Denise

VictorR

denisegoldberg wrote: »

Only you can decide what works for you. Keep in mind that if you show a photo on the web people can still grab your shots from the browser cache.

Using the embedded link as I recommended does require that you leave external links on in the gallery. Posting a link to the gallery would be an improvement over posting a link to your home page but in my opinion that is not as good as linking to the photo you are showing.

--- Denise

Thanks. While I agree clicking a picture is more elegant, with the security settings I have I can manage a link to the gallery, it will be up shortly and we will see if this works equally well.
On security I realize there is nothing secure on the web, I just want to make it more difficult. In fact I wrote a short piece on this that is going to be posted soon on wordpress. Everyone needs to strike a balance between sharing and losing control. Lots of options - lots of choices.
Still not sure if its worth having two blogs, but I paid for Wordpress and might as well use it.

Regards,

VictorR

As noted its not elegant, but the gallery link passed the litmus test of barely computer literate person I know getting right to the shots!
I am very grateful for the advice and will re-visit once I have all my galleries up, by the end of the month. My objective is to put all my old galleries, with a new one every Monday. Should be finished the old galleries, at one a day by the end of the month. For new site I think I am getting reasonable numbers of visitors. I am sure as I try out more of the suggestions, the traffic will increase. Thanks to all.

mbonocore

Awesome! Glad to see you are getting your process down. As Denise said, there is no right or wrong answer to how you set it up. Whatever works for you and your business. Good luck and keep us posted!

Michael

VictorR

mbonocore wrote: »

Awesome! Glad to see you are getting your process down. As Denise said, there is no right or wrong answer to how you set it up. Whatever works for you and your business. Good luck and keep us posted!

Michael

Thanks, will do.