This years first lawn mowing...

Pretty exciting stuff, huh?

Yes it means that winter is truly over, but more significantly... instead of hearing me whine about how cold it is or complaining about shoveling, you'll hear things about heat, rain, and how square wheels really makes it hard for me to push my mower.

;)

I'm a seasonal kind of complainer.

You have less than 48 hours left to act...

You have about 36 hours, until midnight tomorrow (Saturday April 30), to get a set of 3 Lexar 16GB Platinum II 200x compact flash memory cards for only $99 at Adorama. If that price isn't tempting enough they're offering free shipping and are throwing in a memory card wallet to boot.

Not only are these cards fast, but they also hold a bunch too, one card will hold up to 3,200 16MP images (or 2,300 21MP images). Video your thing? One card will hold up to 6 hours of video.

A perspective on just how good a deal this price is their competitors are selling the exact same memory cards at $87 for a set of (just) two. Plus the cost of shipping and no wallet.

If you don't need quite so much card (or want to spend quite so much money) you can get the exact same card in the 4 GB size for just $18 each. Free shipping on these as well.

This is kinda cool...

GamiLight sent me the mockup of some print advertising that they will be doing at upcoming events and much to my (pleasant) surprise it contained a couple of the sample shots I did for the review.

Speaking of the review, you can find our GamiLight posts it here, here, and here.

(clicking on the window will open it larger and in a new window)

My rules for blogging...

Well, less like rules and more like guidelines and observations.

1. Create accounts with feed Burner and Google Analytics:

www.feedburner.com

www.google.com/analytics

It makes no sense to have a blog if you don't get the word out of your existence or know who is visiting you. Feed Burner will get your blog “out there” and track your subscribers, Google Analytics will track your visitors and trends.

2. It’s important to have “Chicklets” on your blog, it makes it very easy for people to subscribe to your blog, readers will quickly tire of "manually" returning to your site see what’s new, as a subscriber they will get an email every time you post something new.

3. Setup Google Alerts - this will send you an email alert every day letting you know what is being said about your blog and who is saying it.

4. When you find traffic that is coming from a specific website or blog (by using analytics or alerts), visit it to determine why and then send the sites writer a thank you note. Traffic is like money and someone has just been very kind to you.

5. Should you write about someone (photographer, vendor, etc.), drop them a note telling them you have done so, not because you are looking for a reciprocal link (or anything else), it’s just the the courteous thing to do, to let folks know when you’ve been talking about them. Often they will link to you because it's beneficial to them as well.

6. In the beginning I never blogged on weekends as traffic drops easily by 40 - 50% (which proves people surf more while at work than at home). I do post now, but it's always "off topic", mostly about things that touch me or topics outside of photography that I consider "important".

7. Often I don't blog on holidays, or holiday weekends other than to recognize it (like "Merry Christmas"), as folks are traveling and/or celebrating and don't have the time for "serious" surfing.

8. If you aren't an everyday blogger try to have "rhythm" to your posting like Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Tuesday and Thursday, or every Monday. Random posting will not help build readership.

9. If you are going to miss blogging for an extended period (like vacation) let folks know, or they may think you have lost interest and they will do the same. I might write a post or two in advance and then post them while on vacation, or I'll post some images I have taken while on vacation.

10. I was very surprised to learn that some of my highest traffic would come from a "personal" postings. I am not suggesting you post personal things in an effort to get traffic, I just mention it as I think it shows people like to learn about who they are following.

11. If I post an image that is not mine (even when I say "here is the work of...") I ALWAYS put their copyright information right on the image myself. I want it absolutely clear to whom the image belongs.

12. ALWAYS give credit where credit is do. If I come across some cool idea or technique that I share on the blog I make sure to give credit (and links).

The last two rules come down to credibility and honesty. 'nough said...

13. I write like my mom or my children will be reading the post.

14. The theme of this blog matches our review policy, I try NEVER to be negative, too many folks eagerly (and with glee) rip something or someone apart (and think they're slick and funny in the process). It's like all the bad examples we see in "reality" TV and I just don't want to participate in that crap. Basically, it all boils down to what our moms always told us “if you don’t have something nice to say, I'll slap the snot right out of you”. ;)

15. Never put your blog (or anything else) before your family.

16. Every single link on your blog should open in a new page, it’s hard enough to get folks to visit your website so why would you want to drive them away riding a link to another website.

The html code that will make a link open in a new page or tab (depending on the browser) is: "target="_blank"

The first snippet of code is what the html of an uploaded image on my blog would look like, the second is with the "target="_blank" in place:

"http://1.bp.blogspot.com/.../Carrie_Sandoval_1.jpg"

"http://1.bp.blogspot.com/.../Carrie_Sandoval_1.jpg target="_blank"

The first snippet of code is what the html of an external link would look like and would replace my blog in their browser with another site, the second snippet is how it should look with the "target="_blank" in place, opening the link in a new window:

"http://capturedbycarrie.com/index2.php"

"http://capturedbycarrie.com/index2.php target="_blank"

That's it, that wraps up my blogging rules and this series. I hope you found a piece of information or two that will help you have a more successful site.

Social media, driving traffic, and a challenge...

Here are some final resources that will help build traffic to your site, use social media to the fullest, and a challenge that will make you a better business person.

1. Buzz Blogger has put together a list of "21 Untapped Traffic Sources" that will help get the word out that you exist and begin the process of building a following for your site.

2. Photo Shelter has done a series of videos "Social Media for Photographers!" that talks about the red hot topic of social media.

3. "The Challenge Training" is a daily 8 week internet marketing training program. There are videos, PDF's, and you can do it online or get it for your iPhone or iPad. This will help you get in a "business frame of mine".

I know, I know, the stuff we have been covering the last few days has not been very exciting, but it is important because the results will establish a solid foundation that will build your online presence.

Later today we will close out (I promise) with my rules for blogging.

Then we can get back to the really exciting stuff, like watching paint dry.

Google Analytics, kicking butt and taking names...

I can't tell you how much I love Google Analytics, the information it provides about the visitors to your site is phenomenal and it's a must have tool.

If you have not yet setup Google Analytics you can watch this step by step video tutorial to get the ball rolling.

One of the things I like to look at in analytics is the ability to check on post popularity, there are times I write a post that I think is going to be killer and it falls flat, other times a simple quick post will hit it out of the park. It's a good way to judge the interests of your visitors and match what you have to say with what they are looking for.

I was pretty surprised to learn that about one third of our readers are from outside of the United States.

You can also learn what days are good to post on and what days are not.

What you can learn is almost endless and amazing.

If you follow this link you'll find 50 resources that will help you get the most out of analytics.

Below is an 8 minute video (done by Google) that will walk you through the analytics interface showing you where to find what you are looking for.

Tomorrow I will wrap things up with my (general) rules for blogging, not that I am a whiz kid at it (or a whiz old man), but in the 5 years I have been doing Weekly Photo Tips I have learned a thing or two about blogging and I will share those lessons with you.

Speaking of image metadata...

What is metadata?

Metadata is a pretty broad term when it comes to web design but for todays post we are going to talk about how it applies to images and/or photographs that we post on websites or a blog.

It's descriptive information (data) in an image file that will identify what its about, who took it, copyright & contact information, camera & exposure information, and descriptive information like keywords.

Why is metadata important? It makes the image readable by Google (and other search engines) which in turns makes the image searchable on the internet and will help improve search engine rankings.

As photographers this is extremely important as our sites are a more image intense environment, so image metadata really is mission critical information.

But image metadata only gets there because we put it there, which is the purpose of this post, to give you the information that will make the process easier.

A very useful free tool (that I use) is ProStockMaster. ProStockMaster is designed to both simplify and optimize the metadata process for folks who sell stock photography and if it helps them to standout in the highly competitive field of stock photography it will certainly help us on on our websites.

ProStockMaster is available for both MAC's and PC's and you can download it right here.

Another option for adding metadata to images is through Lightroom, and you can find a written tutorial here or if you prefer, a video tutorial here and here.

These aren't the only two ways to ad metadata to your images, you can use other (free) programs like FastStone Image Viewer, IrfanView, or "pay" programs like ACDSee and Paintshp Pro (to name a few).

Below is the best video I've seen that explains what image keywords are and why they are important (here is the second best, ironically by the very same person), it's only 3 minutes long and worth every second.

And it comes directly from the horses mouth, Google, so if you don't see the video in your subscription PLEASE return to the blog to watch it.

Another important (maybe very) first step...

Which maybe I should have posted first in this series, is make sure your site is ready for visitors.

An easy way to do that is to run a report on your website or blog using the Website Grader which is a free service from HubSpot.

The report grades a site using "0 - 100" scale checking things like your indexed pages, meta data, links, image tags, Twitter grade, RSS feed, and so much more. You can read a sample report here (or just run your own and find out what, if any, changes you need to make).

After you see the results you can go about fixing any deficiencies that may have been identified.

You can also run reports on your competition.

And yes, there's and app for that, you can find it here.

You wouldn't have company unless your house is ready (well, us guys would), so don't invite folks over to your site until it's ready to be seen.

It's not sexy... but it is important...

For the next few posts we are going to cover the things that anyone/everyone who has a website or blog needs to do to ensure that folks can find them. That is our intent isn't it, to attract visitors?

A presences on the web is not a "build it and they will come" scenario.

So in this post we are going to cover RSS (Real Simple Syndication).

RSS is a real time saver in that you don't need to keep checking your favorite sites to see if there is anything new since your last visit, instead what happens is when something new is posted you will get a notification email.

If you want folks to follow your website or blog for very long having RSS setup on your site is an absolute MUST.

I use FeedBurner, not only does it provide RSS for your site, it will also give you all kinds of useful statistical information about who is subscribing, where your readers are coming from, and (very important) will help you get the word out that your site exists.

If you follow this link you will see a detailed video tutorial on how to setup an RSS feed with Feedburner.

You can also feed your Facebook page using RSS Graffiti, it will read your feed and write it on your Facebook wall, a very useful tool.

One bad thing about feeds is that videos that are part of your post do not get "fed" through, so if you are one of my blog subscribers you'll need to return to the blog to watch the video below that is a great demonstration of what RSS is and how it works.

Happy Easter...

This is an Easter morning photo from MANY moons ago...

Three reasons to check out Elena Wilken today...

There are more than three reasons, but that's all I am going to list here today.

1. If you are interested in family portraiture you need to check out her work, there are samples below. This is a link to her site, but don't go there until you have some time spend because I promise once you start looking at her images you will be there for a time... for a long time.

2. Elena gives away some very nice templates every month, here is the link for those.

3. For April Elena is giving away 11 great prizes, none of which I am going to name here because I am going to make you follow this link to see them for yourself. I will say this, I would be very happy to have ANY of the prizes on her giveaway list.

And she gives her readers soooo much more than what I have mentioned here.

Here are four of Elena's images, clicking on any image will allow you to view it larger and in a new window.

Caught jumping on the bed...

Pretty much says it all, don't you think? You can almost hear them laughing.

I love the images you folks submit to our Flickr group.

Another very cool DIY project...

I love DIY (do it yourself) projects, creating things with your own two hands is fun AND these kind of projects tend to save you a bunch of money in the process.

Mathew Monroe has put together a very cool DIY flexible flash arm that will run you less than $15 and is extremely functional.

Here's the link, go check it out... and thank you Mathew!

You have to check out these images...

Here is a sampling of the kind of images you will find over at the Weekly Photo Tips Flickr Group.

Pretty darn good stuff, don't you think?

If you would like to join our group (please, please, please) and share some of your images with us (and the world) you can find instructions right here.

Clicking on any one of these images will open it larger and in a new window (for better viewing).