Affordable Photography Logo | Web Design & Development – www.medianovak.com

Modifying Your Logo to Match Current Times | Affordable Photography Logo

There is a great deal of time and thought put into choosing the right logo for your business, but that doesn’t mean that it’s one that will necessarily last forever. Major corporations are constantly tweaking or changing their logo’s, often times to go with a sleeker look, or something that will appeal to a new customer demographic. Some changes are subtle, while others are a complete overhaul, but the fact that these major corporations change their business logos should tell you that it might be time to look at your own.

Logo Design by MediaNovak – www.medianovak.com

A good time to start thinking about redesigning your logo is if you have changed the service that you provide in one way or another. You have to look objectively at your current photography logo design and ask if it represents what it is you are offering potential clients. For example, you may have a beautiful, stylish logo designed for your landscaping company, but if it doesn’t contain an image that is somehow related to the industry you are in, then it might be time for a modification or complete change. If a client looks at your photography business logo and cannot quickly figure out what service you are providing, think about updating it.

As mentioned earlier, making changes to your logo doesn’t have to mean completely scrapping the old version. You might stick with the same image but update the font to something more modern, or vice versa. If you are unsure of where to start, take some time to look at how major corporations have updated their logos over the years. That should help you see how you might be able to change your business logo design so that it always appears current.

Affordable Photography Logo | Web Design & Development – www.medianovak.com

Logo Design by MediaNovak – www.medianovak.com

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You don’t have a “Pin It” button on your site | Pinterest Marketing

Not having this button, especially in your content section, is like saying “No thanks” to free advertising. Pinterest is extremely popular, so it is safe to assume those people reading your business blog and liking it on Facebook would pin it to their Pinterest if you gave them the opportunity. This would show up in their followers’ feeds, who would click it and end up back at your site.

Social Media Marketing | Web Design & Development – www.medianovak.com

You’re pinning too much third-party content | Pinterest Marketing

So, you don’t want to be overly self-promoting? Good, we stand behind that! But there is a thin line between having a healthy mix of your content and the content of others and losing focus completely. People follow you because they have an interest in what your company does, so don’t forget to highlight your content.

You’re pinning one thing to multiple boards | Pinterest Marketing

Maybe what you have just pinned could fit into the category of two of your boards, go ahead and pin it on both. What you should not be doing is pinning it onto every board it could conceivably fit onto. This annoys Pinterest users, so give some thought to where you’re putting content.

You’re flooding feeds | Pinterest Marketing

This is a common no-no in social media and should go without saying, but do not post a million things at once. Plan out when and what you will be pinning like you plan your tweets and Facebook posts.

You’re using your name and not the name of your business | Pinterest Marketing

When people search for your company on Pinterest, they are not typing in your name, they are typing in the name of your business. Having your personal name on the profile is causing them to miss you. Also, when you post pins under your name, your followers aren’t correlating that information with your brand, they’re associating it with you personally. What it boils down to is, if you want to raise brand awareness, use your business name.

You aren’t interacting | Pinterest Marketing

Pinterest has options other than pinning and repining; you have the ability to like and comment, too. Your profile shouldn’t be stagnate — people follow you and pin your content because they are genuinely interested in what your company does. Showing that you have an interest in them too only improves that relationship.

Social Media Marketing | Web Design & Development – www.medianovak.com

Courtney Moser

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Create a Stunning Online Portfolio | Marketing Your Photography Business Online

Photographers need a strong online platform to showcase their work on. Creating an online portfolio is an absolute must for any photographer that thinks seriously about their biz. Basically, what you need is a website that showcases your prime works, details your services and offers convenient contact options.

Photography Portfolio Sites | Web Design & Development – www.medianovak.com

Shoot with Instagram | Marketing Your Photography Business Online

Some professional photographers have mixed feelings towards Instagram. True, people who use this app suddenly see themselves as the next Annie Leibovitz while disregarding the important skills and experience that photography really requires. Still, Instagram is an important tool that connects a mass audience with original photography works, and that’s why you shouldn’t brush it off.
Photographers who use Instagram can easily integrate the photo feed with their websites and their social channels, leveraging this mobile app to simultaneously post new content on various platforms.

Go on Local Listing Websites | Marketing Your Photography Business Online

It’s important to use local platforms to promote your services or your studio. Directories and listing websites, especially those that allow people to write comments and add ratings, play a big role in the search process for professional photographers. Nationwide websites like Yelp, Foursquare, Google Places, Insider Pages or Judy’s Book are a good place to start. You should also get familiar with websites that cater to your local community and make sure you get listed on them as well.

Create an Email Signature | Marketing Your Photography Business Online

How many emails do you send everyday? Did you ever think you can use these emails as an opportunity to gain more clicks? It’s simple, you just need to set a signature that will include a link to your website, your business Facebook page or any promotion platform that you want.
On business correspondences, this will not only generate more traffic but also increase your reliability as a professional. Of course, you can also include your phone number or studio address to this email signature. Just try not to add any redundant information that takes up too much space.

Post Your Photos on 500PX | Marketing Your Photography Business Online

If you’re not familiar with 500PX yet, now is the time to check it out. This photography community offers a great network to share works, engage with pro or amateur photography buffs and exchange ideas.
Their mobile apps are making it easier to communicate and gather followers on the go. They have active accounts on social networks, where they showcase photography works shared by users, so if you post good photos you have a chance to get featured.

Photography Portfolio Sites | Web Design & Development – www.medianovak.com

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Websites are often conceived by businesses in an initial period of enthusiasm and excitement generated by the apparent potential and ‘hype’ of this new medium. This stage is often followed by a period of disillusionment when the website fails to live up to initial expectations. This in turn results in the website being neglected. As the business itself inevitably moves forward and changes, this leads to a growing gap between a static website and the actual daily activities of the business. The result is a website that becomes increasingly irrelevant and therefore even less successful.

Small Business Web Site Design – www.medianovak.com

1) Audience: Who uses your site and why? | Small Business Web Site

Nearly every business owner knows it’s crucial to at least have a small business web site for their company. But too many make the mistake of putting up just the information that is important to themselves. What about what your audience needs from your website.

When we start any web project, we work with business owners to understand who the target audiences are, or should be, for the site. Usually, their answer is simple: Customers. But a good site strategy should be more nuanced in order to provide the right content for as many users as possible. More often than not, that one word answer turns into a several-tier approach (existing customers, prospective customers, media / community, etc.)

Also keep in mind HOW your users will access your site. Will most of them access it via a desktop / laptop? Or will many of your users be seeing your site on their mobile or tablet devices? Your site should speak to WHO can most use your content WHERE they’re most likely to see it.

2) Core Content: How to speak to your audience | Small Business Web Site

Once you’ve determined your audience, you now have to figure out your message. For some companies, a simple vanity site that provides information about hours and location is sufficient. But we find that for most companies, a great small business web site will provide more than just the basics (although the basics had better be there, too).

Start by asking the question: What makes my business what it is?

Is it about your products? Your customer service? Your team? Your reputation? The value you provide?

Odds are, it’s about more than just one of those. Make a list of those things that make your business what it is. Better yet, make a list of what makes your business what it is FOR EACH SEGMENT OF YOUR AUDIENCE. Your competitive prices may be what’s most important to your prospective customers, but your team and level of customer service may be what is crucial to your most loyal customers.

Once you begin to map out your audience and what they value in your business, you’ve got the framework for your site. Determine the content sections that you will need to flesh out that initial framework, develop a visual design that accentuates the content and underscores your brand, and you’re on your way to a more valuable website.

Small Business Web Site Design – www.medianovak.com

3) Small Business Web Site | What not to do

Once you’ve got your website up and running, you can simply sit back and watch the online customers pour in. Actually…no. There’s still plenty to be done if you want that small business web site to keep working for you, and one of the worst things you can do is rest on your (virtual) laurels and let your site become stale and irrelevant.

You may have heard about SEO or search engine optimisation. This is an incredibly complex subject and one that’s usually best left to the experts, but here’s a quick explanation of why it matters so much to you and your business.

Research shows that when doing online searches on Google and other engines, over 95% of browsers click on the first link on the first page. That basically translates to ‘if you’re not P1, you’re P-Nowhere’. So how does Google decide how those listings are displayed?

That’s where SEO comes in. Google and other engines list content by relevance to the search term applied by the browser. So for example if your business is selling second-hand antique books then the most obvious term browsers would use is ‘second-hand antique books’ or synonyms thereof. To be regarded as relevant your site would need to contain the term so that the search engine ‘bots’ that scan each web page flag it up. The greater relevance your site has to the search term, the higher up the rankings you’ll appear.

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Many sites (Facebook, for example) allow you to upload a full size image and then resize it for you. This isn’t ideal for two reasons: 1. An image properly sized will look better than a large image that’s been automatically compressed. 2. You’re providing everyone with access to your full-resolution (ie. printable) files.

Portfolio Websites | Web Design & Development – www.medianovak.com

File types

For photographs, and graphics with gradients (smooth blends of colours), we recommend that you save your images as JPEG files – these files are compressed so they will be relatively small in size, whilst still retaining the smooth colours without distorting.

For images with flat solid colours, such as an icon or text graphic, you should save as GIF files – These are better for crisp or blocky graphics because they are smaller in file size than JPEGs, but will make photographs look grainy.

Preparing Images for the Web – Resolution

The first thing you want to change is your resolution. 300dpi is appropriate for printing but monitors only display 72dpi. Keeping it at 300dpi only unnecessarily increases your file size. So change your resolution to 72.

Then you’re going to select an appropriate width and height for your image using pixel dimensions. The exact size depends on what you’re using the image for. Facebook displays images at 960 pixels wide or 720 pixels tall. If you’ve got your own blog, the size will template on your template. For example, the photos here are only 950px wide.

You only need to enter height OR width. Photoshop will automatically change the other measurement to keep your photo in proportion. So if you’re resizing a photo that’s in landscape orientation (horizontal) for Facebook, enter 960 in the width box. If you’re resizing a photo that’s portrait orientation (vertical), enter 720 in the height box.

Preparing Images for the Web – Sharpening

Your image is now resized to an appropriate web size but not yet as good looking as it can be. It needs some sharpening. All images, regardless of how expertly it was taken or what type of gear you used, benefit from some sharpening when viewed on the web.

There is a limit to how much sharpening can be done before it starts to destroy the image and look poorly. Unsharp Mask will help you create a crisper image but it cannot fix out of focus problems. Try playing around with different amounts to get a feel for what each box does, how far you can push it and what looks best for you photo.

Now that you’ve resized and sharpened your image, it’s ready for the web – unless you’d like to add a watermark. Watermarks can be helpful for letting people know who took the photo, especially with the proliferation of things like Pinterest where images are constantly passed on and often not attributed. They don’t always prevent theft but can be a good deterrent.

Portfolio Websites | Web Design & Development – www.medianovak.com

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Here are the 5 main areas in how to convert online leads into sales:

1. Traffic Problem: Converting Online Leads

You might get 10,000 hits per month but if no one is buying from you then it’s pointless!

Could it be that you are driving the wrong traffic to your site? There is a difference between traffic and quality traffic. It could be that you are focusing on the wrong stats (meaningless numbers that are misleading). Focus on the right stats. The way to get quality traffic is to create good content that solves your customers’ problems/needs in a specific and focused way.

By getting the right traffic to your site you will then operate on the likely assumption that these people are your customers. If they are your customers then there is a good chance that they will buy from you.

2. Bad Web Design: Converting Online Leads

Elizabeth Sillence (of Northumbria University) conducted a study where she asked a group of people to find websites about hypertension. She then asked them to record whether they trusted/distrusted the website.

Upon review she found that 94% of people said that they distrusted a website because of bad design.

Bad web design can cost you sales. If people don’t trust you, they won’t buy from you. This doesn’t just mean generic, vague, “I just don’t like the look of it” kind of explanation. There were specific things that people didn’t like – cluttered/too busy, bad layout, bad navigation, pop-up ads, slow load times, text-heavy, too corporate etc.

Small Business Websites | Web Design & Development – www.medianovak.com

3. Bad Copywriting: Converting Online Leads

The temptation can be to pile as much info on your site. This usually results in a very text-heavy site. The problem is that in the online world people don’t read, they scan.

You have half a second to capture someone’s interest online. If they see too much text then they are clicking the ’back’ button and going somewhere else!

Copywriting is essential to converting leads. It’s always good to have the ‘less is more approach’. Space things out. Outline benefits clearly (preferably in short bullet points.) Avoid the customer having to scroll down. Scrolling means ‘more reading.’ If everything is above the fold (the top half of the web page) then you have a winner.

Don’t write too much about yourself either. Make it all about the customer. Focus heavily on the benefits to them. Don’t just go for price or discount. Go for value. What will they get as a result of buying? What will they have afterwards as a result of their purchase? Skills, knowledge, potential to earn more? etc.

4. Bad Call To Action (CTA): Converting Online Leads

CTAs are the most crucial part of the conversion process. If you have bad conversions it may be that your CTA button isn’t visible. Bad visibility is one of the biggest reasons people don’t convert.

Good visibility means that the CTA is a slightly contrasting colour to the rest of your site; clearly sited on the page (preferably above the fold); it has to be the one and only CTA on the page as too many CTAs becomes confusing for your customers; large enough to pop out without being overt/silly.

5. Long-Winded Buying Process: Converting Online Leads

People hate long-winded buying processes! People don’t have time to be faffing around with long-winded buying processes. The sales process needs to be no longer than 3 pages deep. In fact anything above 3 pages can apparently hurt your SEO rankings as you are not giving your customer a good online experience.

Keep it short, really simple and eliminate all unnecessary steps.

Small Business Websites | Web Design & Development – www.medianovak.com

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For smaller businesses and organizations, creating brand awareness can be a tough challenge. But, with the emerging trend of social media, companies can boost their brand awareness without spending too much sweat and money on advertising.

There is no set formula to driving sales through social networking platforms. However, there are several ways that social media can pull businesses toward new customers and to fortify their brands in the minds of potential customers. By following a few helpful tips, companies should be able to see great results.

1. Better Content | Better Brand Recognition

Be sure your website content is always fresh and relevant to your niche market. Do you have a blog? You should! A blog is a great way to consistently produce relevant and timely web content. This (combined with the use of industry keywords and phrases) will really boost your search engine optimization (SEO), allowing more potential customers to find your business online. And the really great thing about having a business blog? Additional content for your social media sites.

Business Blogs | Web Design & Development – www.medianovak.com

2. Be Consistently MEMORABLE | Better Brand Recognition

When it comes to memorable branding, consistency is one of THE best strategies for your brand. Everything about your branding must be cohesive to produce that repetitive interaction required to build a recognizable brand. If you change your logo every six months, how will anyone remember your business over time? Well, they won’t—and that’s no way to build trust with your target market.

You need a great and appealing logo, a consistent and solid look and feel to your brand, and exact color choices—every time. Only repetition paired with eye-catching typography and design will ensure your brand remains memorable and recognizable. Choose contrasting colors and graphics that work cohesively with your established look. Added bonus: one look and feel means your branding, marketing, and advertising are much more affordable because you don’t have to recreate your look EVERY time.

3. Incentivised Engagement | Better Brand Recognition

Whether you run a Twitter giveaway, Facebook competition or a simple website download, rewarding people for engaging with your brand can be very beneficial. Think of it this way, if you were willing to give your email address to a business in return for their latest research piece, wouldn’t you be keen to share that content with your relevant peers? It is this sharing that benefits your brand awareness.

4. KNOW Your Target Audience | Better Brand Recognition

Picture your ideal customer. What are their demographics? What are their likes and dislikes? Where do they hang out on the weekends? What are their hobbies? Can you answer all of these questions? If not, NOW is the time to sit down and define your target audience.

If you don’t know exactly who you’re targeting, you’re going to have a heck of a time developing an effective brand. You must know every little thing about your target audience.

Your best bet is to start with a vision statement. If you cannot articulate your business’ vision in just a few sentences, then how can you figure out who you really serve? Discover your vision and get to know your target audience. Only then can you really get to know those individuals or businesses, discover those viable niches, and figure out what they actually need before they even realize they need it!

5. Facebook Advertising | Better Brand Recognition

If Facebook is relevant to your target audience, advertising on the platform is something we would definitely recommend. It is reasonably priced and the interest/demographic targeting will allow you to pinpoint the perfect customer. If you combine advertising with some kind of content or competition, you could be on for some great wins, in terms of both brand awareness and customer loyalty.

Small Business Branding | Web Design & Development – www.medianovak.com

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Make sure everything is easy to understand. | Photography Portfolio Site

Don’t turn your portfolio into a game of mystery. Make sure that categories, sections, labels, and navigation makes sense to everyone. Getting clever with these things might seem like a fun idea, and a way to be different, but it creates a frustrating experience for your viewers. When it comes to portfolio category names, stick to the most obvious words that describe exactly what’s on the other side of that link. You should understand what words your viewers are typically looking for, and use these to help name your various portfolios.

Photography Portfolio Sites | Web Design & Development – www.medianovak.com

Edit the right way – the tight way. | Photography Portfolio Site

The old saying is true: “Your portfolio is only as good as your worst image.” Make sure there are no weak images in your portfolio. Edit tightly, ask someone else to help you. Get multiple opinions. Accept the fact that you probably aren’t totally objective about your own images. It’s better to have a smaller portfolio containing only amazing images than a larger one with some borderline keepers.

Strategically Order Your Photos | Photography Portfolio Site

When tasked with writing a literal essay, you organize your points in strategic order. You put the strongest points at either the beginning or the end of the essay and the leave the weaker points in the middle. By placing the strongest points at the beginning, you instantly draw in the viewer and grab their attention. By placing the stronger points at the end of the essay, you end on a high note, leaving the viewer with some strong points they won’t forget.

It’s the same with your photography portfolio. If you place your strongest images at either the beginning or end of the portfolio, you will hit the viewer the hardest. I recommend using both ends of the spectrum, grab their attention right from the beginning and leave them something to remember at the end of the portfolio.

Don’t forget the keyboard! | Photography Portfolio Site

Professional editors are used to the controls found in their editing software and tend to use their keyboard to scroll through images. Your photography portfolio site should also have this function built into it. In addition to placing “previous” and “next” arrows or buttons, you should also allow viewers to flip through your images by using the left and right keys on their keyboard.

Photography Portfolio Sites | Web Design & Development – www.medianovak.com

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It probably comes as no surprise that many of the top brands on Instagram are the same ones who are extremely active on other social channels, and were early adopters of the photo network. MTV, Starbucks, Burberry and Nike are the top 4 brands on Instagram, all with more than 300,000 followers and high engagement rates.

But, for those smaller businesses and brands just starting to use Instagram as a marketing channel, you may be left wondering how you can increase exposure of your brand’s Insatrgam account, gain followers and increase engagement rates. Here are 5 tips to help you get started on the path to Instagram success:

Social Media Optimization | Web Design & Development – www.medianovak.com

1. Use Hashtags Effectively | Instagram Marketing Ideas

Hashtags can be an incredibly effective way to expose your content and account to a much wider audience than those who already follow you. The guidelines for using hashtags on Instagram follow many of the same principles as on Twitter.

You can use hashtags on your Instagram account in every post you make. Here are a few different ways you can use hashtags to help promote your business Instagram account:

Use hashtags in your username
One strategy is to include hashtags in your username or profile description. By placing a hashtag preceding your username, every single photo you post will automatically include that hashtag.

This enables any user interested in your pictures to easily find them with one single search and also eliminate the need of scrolling through all the pictures your user profile.

Add hashtags to your photo description
Add a name or a description to each one of your pictures, and include relevant and appropriate hashtags.

Example: “Our new 2012 #bicycle model. #SF #SanFrancisco”

The idea here is not to tag every single word, the most relevant and important. In that vein, you should also think about where you took that picture and whether it’s relevant. Like in the above example, if you are a local bicycle shop, it probably makes sense to tag your photos with the location of the photo.

2. Engage with Your Community | Instagram Marketing Ideas

This is a theme in social media marketing that applies to multiple channels and platforms, but engaging with your community is a great and almost instant way to increase your exposure, gain followers and gather important marketing insights.

Spend some time browsing Instagram to see what people not only in your industry are posting, but also what your customers and competitors are posting. See what photos they engage with, who they follow, and which photos they like and comment on.

Find people you consider might be your key demographic and start to engage with them. Like and comment on their photos. If they are interested in what you do (or what your company offers), they will be likely to engage back and follow your account.

3. Post Photos across Your Social Media Channels | Instagram Marketing Ideas

There’s a reason Instagram has seen such a meteoric rise in the last two years. It turns out people LOVE visual social content, and there have been numerous studies showing photos are some of the best ways to engage your audience on Facebook, Twitter, Google+ Pinterest and many other social media platforms.

Sharing your Instagram shots across your other social media channels is not only a great way to expose the fact that your company also has an Instagram account they should follow, but can help boost engagement with the fans and followers you already have on those channels.

Social Media Optimization | Web Design & Development – www.medianovak.com

4. Promote Your Instagram Handle | Instagram Marketing Ideas

This seems fairly obvious, but a great way to get more exposure on your Instagram account is to make sure you are promoting the fact that you are on Instagram and what your handle is, so people can find you.

5. Participate in Community Events or Promotions | Instagram Marketing Ideas

Contests and promotions are a great way to get people excited and talking about your business and/or brand. Plus, when done right, they can encourage word of mouth marketing, serve as a way to give back to your fans, followers and customers, as well as add followers, fans and brand advocates.

Contests also allow you to source great user-generated content, allowing your fans and followers to do the content creation for you.

Julie Blakley

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This dual approach is needed because it breeds familiarity. Consumers are naturally more comfortable using products and services they are familiar with and that means the more ways you promote yourself, the better.

Modern Business Cards Breed Interest

Whilst physical marketing takes many forms, from leaflets and posters to banners and merchandise, it is business cards which continue to have the biggest sway for companies. The importance of networking is immediately visible from figures concerning the number of businesses currently using social media (64% of UK based B2B companies) but physical business cards are still needed to support this online presence.

Modern Business Cards | Web Design & Development – www.medianovak.com

Essentially, networking via online platforms is only effective if handled properly and a shocking number of businesses (43%) admit they have no lead generation strategy in place for their social network use. In many ways, social media profiles are digital business cards but the extensive customisation options available on them makes presenting yourself a little more difficult than some might have anticipated.

This is where products such as plastic business cards continue to outperform their digital counterparts. Containing all the vital details of a business or individual worker, they are easy reference points for consumers looking to establish contact.

How can you make your business cards even more effective? | Modern Business Cards

Keep it simple. The purpose of a business card is to get someone to contact you, so focus on the information they’ll need to do so. While in the past you may have wanted to include your business name, address, fax number, etc., today business cards allow for a lot more customization. Depending on how you want to be contacted, you may simply want to have your name and title, your business name, your email address, your URL and your cell number on the front of the card. (That’s assuming, of course, that when they go to your URL they can find all the other information, like address, landline phone number) Are you a Twitter maniac? Then put your Twitter handle on there, too. If you want to include lots of other information, you can put it on the back.

Share them. You’ve got your cards; now give them out—everywhere. The average U.S. small business owner distributes 40 business cards a month, and three in 10 say they “always” give out their cards when they meet someone new in either a business or personal setting. Carry plenty of cards with you at all times. Whether you’re in the gym locker room, in line at the movies or at a cocktail party, you never know where you’ll meet a prospect or potential partner.

Modern Business Cards | Web Design & Development – www.medianovak.com

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You love the photography side of the business so much, that working on the advertising seems like a chore, but it’s the photography advertising ideas that really help to accelerate the success of your business, because no matter how good your photography skills are – if you lack the marketing and advertising strategies to go along with it, you’ll always struggle to find clients and turn it into a solid source of income.

Photography Web Sites | Design & Development – www.medianovak.com

Create Partnerships! | Photography Advertising Ideas

You can do this with dozens of businesses in your local area… it just takes a bit of brainstorming and creativity.

Figure out where your target clients ‘hang out’ and partner up with the business owner to share clients.

For example, a wedding photography could partner up with a bridal dress store. You would refer your clients to that store and they would refer theirs to you.

Track the referrals by telling the shop owner to offer their clients something like “a bonus X by X canvas print if you mention my dress shop”.

If they never refer you a client but you refer them a lot, just start working with another shop who does refer.

NOTE: Only work with other reputable businesses because if they screw up, some of the trust you’ve built with that client will be lost.

Use Facebook ads | Photography Advertising Ideas

If your budget allows for this expense, advertising your photography business on Facebook can be a cheap and effective way to target new clients.

It’s most effective for those ‘service’ based photographers, like wedding, portrait, or even real estate photographers because if the targeting options.

You can select users in your local area between a certain age range who are engaged, have kids between certain ages, or even target by the interests they’ve listed… so if they’ve got “real estate investment” listed as an interest, then it would certainly be worth targeting those people if you were a real estate photography, wouldn’t it?

Make everything limited! | Photography Advertising Ideas

If you’re a ‘service’ based photographer who shoots jobs like weddings or portraits, then you would limit yourself by having something “only 8 spots left this month”… If you’re a ‘product’ based photographer, like a landscape photography, then each print would have a limit on sales, such as “special edition: 1 of 3″.

Stick to your word! – If you say you’re only selling 3, then only sell 3! If someone comes in and requests the fourth, tell them you simply can’t because it devalues the rest, but they’re welcome to select from your other images… this actually boosts your credibility and increases the value of your work in their mind.

If you’re just starting out and only getting 2 bookings each week and don’t want to set a limit, make it more of a goal and say something like “only 5 bookings left next week”. Then if you reach that target, set it to 8 for the next week.

Photography Web Sites | Design & Development – www.medianovak.com

Dane Bergen

The post 3 Creative Photography Advertising Ideas @medianovak appeared first on .

To help focus your efforts, here is a seven-point checklist for your website redesign:

Current Traffic Statistics | Website Re Design

You need up to date numbers about your current website traffic. That will tell you what is actually working on your site and what is not. One of the hardest things to face in a redesign is the reality of your current website. The numbers do not lie. During the redesign process, it is important to stay focused on facts, not feelings.

Website Redesign | Design & Development – www.medianovak.com

Current Site Map | Website Re Design

Look at your current site map. Determine what you want to keep. Determine what needs to go. Create a list of what you want to add. Creating new content and editing old content is part of the process in the redesign. It will bring in new visitors. It will bring new interest to your former clients. You will have the opportunity to bring a few new look and feel to what your customers see.

Current Logo | Website Re Design

You will need a copy of your logo in a high-resolution, Photoshop format. This file will allow the website professionals to merge it easily into your new website graphics. If you want to update your logo, now is the time. You can create an entirely new logo or just revamp and update your current one.

Current Domain Name Registrar | Website Re Design

This piece of information is critical to getting your new website up and running. If you do not have this information, contact your current website provider and get it. Without it, no website redesign efforts will work.

Your Top Ten Websites | Website Re Design

One way to make the redesign process easier is to create a list of five to ten websites you like. Make note of why you like them. You might have one site where you love their graphics and colors. Another site might have great content. A third site may have a natural easy flow you love.

Your Top Five Competition Websites | Website Re Design

You are competing with these companies. You need to understand your competition almost as well as you do your own site. You want to know their content and their marketing.

Your Website Redesign Goals | Website Re Design

What is your ultimate goal with your new website design? You may want to increase your website traffic. You may want to attract new customers. You might want to introduce new products or services. Create a list of realistic goals you want to meet with your redesign efforts.

Web Page Re Design | Design & Development – www.medianovak.com

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WHAT IS A BRAND?

From a business point of view, branding in the marketplace is very similar to branding on the ranch. A branding program should be designed to differentiate your product from all the other cattle on the range. Even if all the other cattle on the range look pretty much alike

WHAT IS PERSONAL BRANDING?

Personal branding may be a newer phrase, but the concept is age-old. Personal branding simply refers to how you are positioning yourself as an expert in front of the world. As a cow, you need to differentiate yourself among the other cattle.

Personal Online Branding | Web Design & Development – www.medianovak.com

You all look the same and sound the same without branding. It’s your brand that sets yourself apart from the competition.

And, as the definition states above, your brand is the overall image you position yourself with. As a personal brand, this can include: appearance (clothing, style, body), personality (humor style, communication style), character (beliefs, morals, vision, goals), and expertise (wisdom, knowledge, education, achievements). All these things, and more, come together to form who you are as a brand. If you’re not willing to improve in all these areas of your life, your personal brand will never achieve the status potential that it has.

Personal Online Branding: It’s Scary!

How many people does it take to change a light bulb? None, because we all fear change.

We humans love the status quo. Change, whether positive or negative, is always a big deal because it’s just different. Personal Online Branding is relatively new. It is not business as usual; the decision makers within a business are having to step out and get in front of their own images, and this can be intimidating.

No Connection Between Personal Online Branding and ROI

Another barrier is that businesses, or rather the individuals within them, do not see a value in Personal Online Branding. They don’t attach an ROI. How does this optimized web presence generate leads? How does personal branding increase sales? The truth is that you can track these things and see just what effect your efforts are having. You can measure the traffic you’re getting, how many calls to action are being completed compared to before, and other metrics of progress. CRM programs can be – and should be – tracking all of this.

Personal Online Branding: Don’t Look at Me

“Why should I do all of this and put myself out there? Isn’t that the company’s job? Don’t customers buy from the business, not me?” The reality is that this has turned around: customers buy from people, not companies.

Take this little test: name three top mattress brands. Go. Bet you got three right away, right? Good for brand awareness. Now, try this: what type of mattress are you sleeping on? It’s a bit harder. Finally: what type of mattress do you want to replace your old one? Harder still? It is because we know the brands but don’t have a connection with them. The biggest factor, says Dr. Shore, is the salesperson; this is how we differentiate between brands and determine value. This is as true online as it is in the showroom.

Personal Online Branding | Web Design & Development – www.medianovak.com

If you did a vanity search online, what would you find? Maybe LinkedIn, Facebook, an About Me page? An article you were quoted in five years ago on something completely unrelated to your field? Is this good content? Is it current? Is it relevant? Are you?

You may have a good offline presence, but you need a strong online brand as well. Potential clients can find ten other experts who offer the same service, and someone with a better brand will stand out. You are judged by your online presence; and your absence also speaks volumes.

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While small businesses can be more nimble and react more quickly to a dynamic environment, they still need overall planning to ensure they keep their business on track for success. Otherwise, if you’re only responding to the latest fire, you’re not working towards your long-term business objectives.

To help organize your small business and maximize your limited resources, you need a blog and a marketing plan. Here are thirteen tactics for building a better small business blog.

1. Establish your blog’s goals.

Your blog must have well defined objectives aligned with your business goals. To be effective, write them down and make sure that everyone involved knows what you’re trying to achieve.

Small Business Blog Design | Web Design & Development – www.medianovak.com

2. Know your blog readers.

To create content that resonates with your target audience, you must know who your prospects and current customers are. You need to be able to describe them in depth as if they were your best friends, otherwise your writing will sound generic. Therefore, create both marketing persona and social media persona to understand what makes them tick. The better you define your readers, the easier it is to write content that will convert them to customers.

3. Assess your competitors’ activity.

While it may be your baby, your business doesn’t exist in a vacuum. Your competitors, near substitutes and major players define your market. Therefore you need to keep your finger on the pulse of what’s going on. Use a non-business email address to subscribe to your competitors’ blogs.

4. Brand your blog.

Incorporate your business’ brand into every aspect of your blog. Small businesses in particular must ensure that every aspect of their marketing helps build and reinforce their brand. Therefore it’s important to ensure that you extend the salient attributes of your brand into your blog such as your blog name (Note: It doesn’t need to be the same name as your company), the language, the images, color and other elements.

5. Plan your blog content.

This is the heart of your blog because your blog can’t be a repository for bland, useless information. Your blog posts must respond to prospects’ questions, provide the purchase information they seek, demonstrate how to use your product, and show how your products solves their problems. Therefore you need the following three items: a promotional plan built around important holidays, conferences and other business related events, an editorial calendar to support on-going content creation, and human stories related to your business.

6. Format your blog for easy consumption.

To attract readers facilitate content consumption. This means using outlining and bolding to draw readers in and guide prospects through your content. Incorporate visuals in terms of photographs, graphics and infographics because people are attracted to pictures, especially photographs of other people! Also consider the use of video, audio (or podcasts) and presentations.

7. Optimize your blog for search.

Don’t underestimate the value of optimizing your blog content for search. This means focusing each post on a keyword phrase, incorporating the keyword into your title and URL, adding text to non-text content and linking to internal and external resources.

8. Make your blog posts actionable.

Give your readers a reason to find out more about your business or to engage with you. Incorporate calls-to-action and link to your product where appropriate. Also tailor your landing pages to keep the wording consistent.

9. Mobilize your blog content. | Small Business Blogging

To maximize your audience, you need to provide potential readers with a mobile version of your blog since smartphones and tablet use continue to grow. There are a variety of ways to mobilize your blog including plug-ins and responsive design based themes.

10. Dedicate sufficient resources. | Small Business Blogging

Since the quality of your posts can make or break your blog’s ability to achieve its purpose, it’s important to ensure that you provide appropriate resources. For small businesses, blogging resources often translate to time. Since blogs work best when you publish on a regular basis, not just when you have time, you must plan for content creation. Additionally, you’ll need copyediting, graphic design and technology support.

11. Promote your blog content. | Small Business Blogging

No matter how good your writing is, you have to reach out and bring people in. This includes building an email list for your blog and distributing blog content across social media. Also, as a small business you can use your offline establishment to expand your audience. At a minimum, use your email signature file and your business cards.

Small Business Blog Design | Web Design & Development – www.medianovak.com

12. Cultivate your blog community. | Small Business Blogging

Just because you’ve spent lots of time thinking about and creating your blog, it doesn’t mean that readers are waiting to read it. To build your community you need to be very engaged. This is the social part of social media. This means answering blog comments and emails. Get out in public and connect with people who fit your target audience. Also, write guest blog posts for other blogs to build a broader audience.

13. Measure your blog progress. | Small Business Blogging

As with any marketing initiative it’s critical to assess your progress. As your blog grows and evolves, take time to try different things out. This includes post topics, column formats, titles and other content factors, and measure the results. Select appropriate metrics based on your blog objectives. Understand that it takes time to achieve your small business blogging goals.

What else would you add to this list to help small businesses build successful blogs?

Heidi Cohen

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A carefully designed logo can separate your business from your competitors by telling YOUR story. We are not saying this is an easy task. We’re not saying you will get it right the first time. We are saying that if you take the time to research, reflect and carefully design your new videography logo it can help you stand out and provide a sense of what truly makes you and your business unique.

Videography Logo Design | Website Design & Development – www.medianovak.com

So, in the interest of brevity, lets start out by talking about what a videography logo is NOT.

1. A logo is not, always, literal. Your logo does not have to be a camera. Is Nike’s logo a shoe?
2. Your logo is not about you. Do you like flowers? Great! Does a flower visually imply anything about your work or the way you run your business? Probably not.
3. A logo is not trendy. Drop shadows? Reflections? Thank you, but no.
4. A logo is not an advertisement. Should a logo be able to say something meaningful and memorable about your business? Yes. Should it be able to sell your product on its own? No.

Rules of Good Videography Logo Design

Before you get to far be sure to follow a couple of “rules” of good logo design. It is very important that your logo can do the following:

- Be printed in one solid color. Your primary version does not necessarily have to be one color, but it should be able to be converted to a solid and still be identifiable.

- Be printed in reverse. For those of us not in the printing business, this means can you turn your logo solid white and print it on a black background?
- Be legible at the size of a quarter or smaller. You will likely want to use your sparkly new logo on business cards, stickers, as watermarks on photos, etc. It will need to be scalable.
- Be created in Vector format, rather than Raster format. This determines the scalability of your design. Vector can be scaled to any size and retain its sharp lines and crisp edges. Raster format consists of dots that become “pixelated” as it is stretched. Image formats are a complicated topic so we won’t go in depth here. The basic idea is to save your logo in something you can scale later if needed. You will, however, need to save it in a Raster format in order to upload to web such as PNG, JPG or GIF.

Don’t take these rules lightly. The above will determine how usable your videography logo is down the road. You want your logo to grow with your business and be flexible.

Videography Logos | Website Design & Development – www.medianovak.com

So, on to color. Color and the art of using it in communication could be an entirely separate post, or even a book. For now, we will just touch on it lightly. Choose your colors with care and stick to them. Much of the power of a videography logo and other marketing pieces lies in consistency. If your logo is pink then your other marketing materials should follow suit. There are many websites and articles dedicated to the meaning and psychology of color. We suggest you do some Googling and researching before making a final decision. Remember – its not about you! What colors will communicate your message to your customers? What will they feel when they look at your colors? How will they interpret the meaning behind your choices?

The post The Surprising Truth About Your Videography Logo @medianovak appeared first on .

One area that it is lacking in, like many other programs, is the default presets. They look decent enough, but do not cover a large array of styles, and can often look too “default”. Luckily for us, there are some fantastic websites that offer free (and paid) presets for Lightroom to help you get the best out of your photos.

Photography Web Design | Website Design & Development – www.medianovak.com

Creating Lightroom Presets

Creating presets in Lightroom is a breeze! It takes just a few steps to create your own custom preset. The first step is to enter the Develop module by pressing “D” on the keyboard, or by clicking on Develop at top right.
Next, use the settings on the panel on the right to apply some settings to an image. We can tweak exposure, adjust curves and black levels, and even apply custom color effects. Additional options such as lens corrections are also available.

Now that we have applied some settings to the image we are working with, we have the groundwork laid to create a preset with. Any settings applied to the image are now slated to be added to the preset.
On the left side, you’ll see the panel that features presets. To create a new preset, all that you need to do is press the “+” button. Now, a new window appears that allows us to customize the settings to include in the preset. Each portion of the effects we applied can be either checked or unchecked to include within the preset.

After choosing what parts of the edit that you want to include on the edit, make sure to give it a name and then press “Save.” That’s it! You now have presets, ready to apply to your images.

15+ Free Lightroom Presets

8 Epic Lightroom Presets for Weddings – Download

Holga Lightroom Presets – Download

Bad Ass Film Look – Download

Goldy Browny Effect Preset – Download

Kevin Hosford Summer Presets – Download

Lightroom Sin City Preset – Download

Black and White Film Presets – Download

Color Print Film Presets – Download

Vintage Lightroom Presets – Download

HDR Style Lightroom Presets – Download

Velvia Film Style Lightroom Presets – Download

Polaroid Style Presets – Download

Faded Film Look Preset – Download

14 Free Wonderland Presets – Download

6 Free Black and White Presets – Download

Andrew Childress

The post 15+ Free Lightroom Presets (And How to Make Your Own) appeared first on .

One important consideration is integrating your social media into your web design. Essentially, this means making it a part of your online operations and linking it in to your main website in a joined up, rather than fragmented, approach. Read on for five ideas for integrating social media into your website design.

Blog teasers on your home page | Social Media Web Integration

There are two main approaches to having a company blog. One is to include as part of your main website, such as by having a specific ‘blog’ tab alongside all your other website categories. Another approach is to have a separate blog with a separate domain. Generally speaking, the former approach is better from a search engine optimisation perspective.

Small Business Webpage Design | Design & Development – www.medianovak.com

But, whatever you decide to do, it can be a good idea to ‘tease’ your blog posts on the homepage of your website. For instance, if you have a ‘news’ section on your homepage, posting a small snippet of your latest blog post followed by a link to the main post so people can continue reading helps to make your site more interactive.

Also, some sites include a ‘latest updates’ section on the homepage of their web design: posting your latest blog titles and links there could be a good way of persuading people to read more.

Consider adding videos to your site | Social Media Web Integration

Another idea for integrating social media into your site is to add video content to certain pages. After all, it’s all very well having a company YouTube account, but if people can’t find your videos on your business’s website, it’s unlikely to have much of an impact.

For example, if you have a webpage dedicated to a certain product that you sell, an accompanying video demonstrating how that product works or videos including testimonies on that product could be useful. If you are interested in including videos on your website, you might like to talk to professional website developers to find out more about the best ways of doing this on your website, as the same solution won’t work for everyone.

Include social media buttons | Social Media Web Integration

As you might already have guessed, one of the main ways of integrating social media with your web design is to include social media buttons on your website. These are the buttons that allow people to visit your social media pages (such as on Facebook, Twitter or Google+) and also to share content that you have posted on your site.

One thing to consider is the look of these social media buttons. The social networking sites themselves provide standard buttons that can be used on websites, but if you are trying to convey a particular image or sense of your brand, it can be a good idea to change how the buttons look so they fit in better with your web design. This is something a web design company will be able to help you with (such as by changing the colour of the buttons so they go with the rest of your design).

Consider additional content | Social Media Web Integration

As well as integrating your social networking content with your web design, there are other aspects you could consider. One example is the QR code. This is a relatively recent development that works a little bit like a barcode. These can be placed on websites and other forms of advertising, and they can be scanned by smartphones with cameras (and the right app).

These codes then take the person using the smartphone to a particular webpage on their phone: this could be a page offering more information about a product, a special offer, your social media page or a mobile version of your site. As more and more people start to use smartphones to browse the internet, it makes sense to start considering developments that could help you access the mobile internet market.

Small Business Web Design | Social Media Web Integration – www.medianovak.com

Keep it fresh | Social Media Web Integration

Finally, if you are serious about integrating your social media with your web design, you need to make sure you keep your social media fresh. Update your Twitter and Facebook accounts on a regular basis and make sure they’re full of appropriate, useful content that is relevant to your business. If your Twitter feed then updates on your website’s homepage as well, this helps to keep the content of your main site fresh, which in turn can help with your SEO strategy. This makes social media a useful tool for building your presence and engaging with customers, so it is definitely something worth thinking about.

Chelsey Evans

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Twitter works as a tool for sharing what you know and learning from others. This means that if you are opting to have Twitter as one of your business tools, then you need to furnish your followers with new ideas, information and services.

Define Your Purpose and Goals – Twitter for Freelancers:

Come up with reasons that make you use Twitter and the influence you would like the social media services to have on your business. It could be that you want to drive traffic to your website, or to use it as a way for your business to find clients, employees and get some market intelligence to enhance its competitive strategy.

Have the right people handling your account. -Twitter for Freelancers:

Your Twitter username will be the official image of your business and you need to guard it from any misuse. Remember anything coming out of the business through the handle is public. Have someone who knows the real issues of your business handling the profile. Ensure that the person is a good listener and has enough knowledge about social media, the market and your business. In addition, it is wise to use real names of the people who handle the account to build trust. Use the Twitter background and the username to create a brand identity for your business.

Create the right association. – Twitter for Freelancers:

You might have to follow all your customers and anyone interested in your brand, but not all these people will have something good to share. Use Twitter lists to filter spammers and the not-so-attractive users. On the other hand, you ought to find connectors. Use the search feature and browse through people’s profiles to find those who already command attention of others, and then connect to them. If they speak to you on Twitter, they will create an authority buzz around your business on Twitter and this will be the social proof you need to gain more followers, admiration and eventually clients.

Use third-party apps to boost your consistency. – Twitter for Freelancers:

Be committed and consistent in your use of Twitter. Just like advertisement psychology, people need to know that you are present and listening to them. You never know when someone will want to engage with your business, but you can create the right environment parameters for him or her to do so, by being consistent and always present. Taking part in social causes on Twitter, such as re-tweeting campaign messages creates a sense of reciprocity that works like magic on Twitter.

Use it to make other Twitter users and business like you. Several third-party apps allow you to make automatic messages in response to certain triggers that you define. They also let you schedule tweets so that you do have to physically log in to send an update.
In the end, your strategy on Twitter will differ based on the intricate details that affect and define your business. Overall, you will need reciprocity, commitment and consistency as well as authority. Talk to a professional at Tight Line Productions to get you on the right track.

Small Business Sites | Design & Development – www.medianovak.com

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Pair Typography with Photography | Photography Web Marketing

Typography is visually attractive text, paired with or over the photograph. The wonderful thing about this trend is that it can be used a number of ways. You can blend images with bold text or go for a more feminine feel. It’s really hard to mess up on this, especially if you review some basic typography paring guides. What’s popular right now is to use just a bit of text to aid people in quickly grasping the purpose of your image.

If you’re snapping shots with your iPhone, you can use an app called Over to layer text on. It’s pretty simple to use and is a steal for just $0.99. Things to watch out for with Over: (1) uploading to Instagram right after tends to cut off just the tiniest lower bit of the photo, so position your text higher, (2) you can’t edit your photos in Over, so first use an editing app to add filters or make any necessary light adjustments.

Photography Portfolio Sites | Design & Development – www.medianovak.com

Filter This, Filter That | Photography Web Marketing

Courtesy of Instagram, every single good photo now has a filter to it (and chances are it’s a vintage filter). To get an idea, check out the Over link above and see the marketing photos on their app store. Just about every photo has a filter on it, be it vintage or saturated tones. Needless to say, your photos should too. Apparently no one is interested in a straight up shot – and I get why. Applying a filter stimulates an emotion and adds depth to any normal photo.

For just under a buck, KitCam is a pretty nifty little app that lets you take/import photos and add necessary filters before you share them. Designed for the iPhone 5 but suitable for 4S, KitCam helps you (1) take a level photo, (2) play with lens types and (3) add a filter from a selection of filters that would shame Instagram. Now here’s the best part: you can do all this in video mode so you can come up with some really cool videos.

You can still make filters work for you even if you don’t have fancy gadgets. Basic free IrfanView will do the trick. To achieve a basic filter, up the photo’s gamma. This alone gets your photo to have a matte feel, like images used for luxury marketing. To get it to have the trendy vintage feel, follow up a gamma boost with an increased color saturation. Usually you’ll just have to bump up the color field for one shade, like red.

Composite Photos | Photography Web Marketing

Take two or more photos together and blend them into a single image – and you have a composite. Composite photos were already pretty big in graphic design, but now they’re making their way into photography as well. You’ll need Photoshop and a designer’s eye in addition to good photos. The upside here is that you can add texture to your images and make one image work in multiple ways. This trend is just starting to take off, so expect it to really come into full swing later in the year – but why wait till then to get in on composite images?

Shireen Qudosi

The post Top Trends in Photography Web Marketing @medianovak appeared first on .

It is free to sign up for a standard account, which will allow you to share up to 20 photos per week. Your photos are beautifully displayed with large thumbnail previews and a clean, uncluttered interface. The site isn’t bloated with features but it has all the basics such as commenting, favoriting and following.

Tips for Establishing Yourself on 500px Photography

- Start by filling out your profile and uploading a few (but not all) of your best photographs. This will allow visitors to decide if they want to follow you.

- Explore other users’ photographs on 500px and leave a few meaningful, worthwhile comments. People will see your comments and often click on your name to checkout your work. This is how you can start to collect a following.

- If you are on twitter, facebook or other social networks, post a link to your 500px profile so your friends can follow and “like” your work.

- Every day or two upload a new photo. Spreading out your uploads means you will always have fresh photos appearing on the homepage of people who follow you. This will result in more views and votes in the long run.

- Be selective and keep the quality of your uploads as high as possible. Most of the people on 500px are photographers so they tend to appreciate photographs that are technically good (i.e. sharp, well composed and well processed).

Popularity | 500px Photography

You can either “Like” or “Dislike” each photograph on 500px and these votes are used to calculate a score. If the score is high enough, the image will appear on the popular photos page and this results in a ton of exposure for you and your work. Over time, the algorithm gradually decreases each photo’s score so the popular page always remains fresh. With every vote, you can watch in real-time as a picture’s score goes up or down. This allows you to track your images as they climb the popularity rankings, which can be quite addictive!

This means brand new users often upload just one or two photos and (if they are good pictures) they can make it straight onto the front page of popular photos.

Photography Web Design | Design & Development – www.medianovak.com

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1. Take a step back, and curate your best work. | Online Portfolios

Take the time to look at all of your work and carefully choose the right pieces for your online portfolio. Choose at least five projects so you can demonstrate the breadth of your work, but be selective. Remember, it’s always better to have a portfolio of a few projects that are stunning than dozens of projects where some of them are just OK. The quality of your portfolio is only as good as your weakest project.

Online Portfolios | Web Design & Development – www.medianovak.com

2. Keep it simple | Online Portfolios

Keep the tabs to a minimum. There needs to be a stock few but deviating from that can get labyrinthine and too much too handle for some potential clients. There should be an About Me section somewhere on the site that clearly defines who you are and what you do. Although it should be fairly obvious you take photographs, explaining what type of photography you specialize in can be helpful. Going against the “keep the tabs to a minimum” rule, one place that could truly benefit is separating various genres of photography. Wedding Photography and Landscape Photography are best served separately. Having the two on the same page would be chaotic and unfocused. Give focus to everything. Be very clear with the tabs names. Now is not the time to get creative with your words. Stick to something everyone can understand.

3. Keep the website design simple, and let the work take centerstage. | Online Portfolios

When designing a portfolio, you want a website that is straightforward. You want your content to be the focal point, rather than a distracting design.

Your website is a vehicle for people to find your work. You don’t want the site to be overly flashy or unconventional — that will make the content more difficult to access. Simplicity in the interface and visual design of your website will push your work to the surface, where it should be.

4. Don’t say too much all at once. | Online Portfolios

Slamming everything you need to say on the site in one place is a rookie move. Separate paragraphs gracefully. Take a note from online periodicals and utilize the Grid and Column design. It streamlines what you need to say in a geometric way. After you have managed to make it look good, it also needs to sound good. If you can say something in 5 words, don’t let yourself get carried away with 20 words. Remember, keep it focused and concise. People should be spending more time looking through your images and not looking up what you mean by promising the client appears illecebrous in every shot.

5. Contact is key. | Online Portfolios

Since you never know which image is going to speak most to your new potential client, contact information on every page is the best way to ensure you capture every sale. Make it unobtrusive but obvious. The bottom of the page is a good way to organize the information in a streamlined manner. It is vital to make it easy to contact you. There should be a dedicated page on your site as well that displays a phone number and email address. A simple tab labeled “Contact Information” or even “HIRE ME” should suffice. The email address should be professional and not something that resembles a text message from a 12-year-old. To make it even easier, a contact box that allows people to email you directly from the website without having to open their own email is best.

6. Show off only what you are really good at. | Online Portfolios

A portfolio doesn’t necessarily have to be your entire body of work. It needs to be a clear representation of what you are only really good at. This is a great time to get honest with your work. If you aren’t too good at that, ask some close friends to give their honest opinion on what which pieces they like the most. If you already have an account on a photo-hosting site such as Flickr, use the statistics on what viewers like most to showcase those photographs in your new portfolio. The point of your new portfolio is to display what you do the best and not what you do pretty well. You should have a few pictures that are exceptional and not a page full of mediocre photographs.

It is also important to watermark your images but even more important not to destroy the image with a monstrosity of a watermark. Distracting viewers from the photograph is the last thing you want to do. A simple, small watermark at the bottom of the photograph will be enough. There are also a lot of sites, such as Flickr, that don’t support Right-Click+Save maneuvers that allow people to steal your images. For those brave enough to tackle HTML, you can disable Right-Click+Save on your own. Either way, watermark with discretion while keeping your images safe.

Online Portfolios | Web Design & Development – www.medianovak.com

Another thing to keep in mind is the importance of being specific with what you are showing people. If you are a writer and a photographer, make separate websites for separate skill sets. A photography portfolio should only speak towards your ability to take pictures. You don’t want to confuse people who came to your website looking for a wedding photographer by showing them your published Arts and Crafts articles. By all means, link to other online portfolios you manage in the About Me section of your site. Shameless self-promotion never hurt anyone.

7. Speaking of shameless self promotion… | Online Portfolios

After you have constructed the best possible representation of who you are as a professional, you need to promote the site you worked so hard on. Search Engine Optimization is the best way to go about it for free. If you are a Monterey Bay-based Family Portrait Photographer, label your site accordingly. Then explain in the About Me section where you are from, what you do and what you specialize in. Don’t use Search Engine phrases in every other sentence. It needs to be organic or else you’ll lose people based on desperation alone. Be specific with who you are and what you do. This step ties back in with the questions you asked yourself in step one. If someone searched for “Monterey Bay family portrait photographer”, they should be able to find you with no problem.

The post Seven Rules for Building Online Portfolios @medianovak appeared first on .

The first step is to take a long hard look at your brand image. What words would you associate with it? What adjectives describe your brand? Is it masculine or feminine? Is it strong and mighty, or soft and dainty? Take a good look at the personality of your brand and give it some real concrete terms. What will your brand positioning be in the marketplace? Think of five words that describe your brand. You’ll be looking for typefaces that communicate the personality of your brand or product.

Photography Logos | Web Design & Development – www.medianovak.com

Is It Unique? | Photography Logos

Here’s a fun fact: A very large percentage of graphic designers HATE Comic Sans. Of all the default fonts installed on your average computer, Comic Sans is often one of the few “handwritten” fonts. For this reason, it gets used by almost every mom running a bake sale who wants her signs to look “fun and friendly” (no offense, moms.) Sure, it works, but the problem is it can make your company look generic. It can be tough to pass up something you are familiar with, but a font which is too familiar will end up hurting you. Your brand will blend into the vast ocean of competition, and that’s not what you want, right?

Does it fit with your graphics? | Photography Logos

If you have a graphic icon involved in your logo, take a look at the style it is made in. Does it use sharp, geometric shapes, or does it have soft rounded corners? Is it created with thin or thick lines? You want a font which can mesh well with the rest of your logo. This usually means matching the style of the graphic (an illustration with sharp edges will probably go well next to a font with sharp edges), but sometimes you want to add a little contrast. Having a typeface of a slightly different style can add interest, but there should still be something that ties the type and graphics together.

Are the letters spaced properly? | Photography Logos

This can be a little tricky to notice if you’re not a designer who obsess over type, but it is still an important part of your logo. The spacing between each letter (referred to as “kerning”) is not always perfect by default. Professional designers will have the eye for this kind of thing, but the main idea is you don’t want letters touching (unless they all are) or being awkwardly spaced. It gives the impression your company does not pay attention to the little details, and that is almost never good for business.

Once a type style has been established, unique touches and adaptations can be made in order to tailor the logo for what it represents. This can be done in any manner of ways, from replacing a character in the logo with a unique one, using imagery to replace a character, manipulating the shapes of characters, or even molding several characters together in order to unify the message of the logotype with the type it’s self. It should capture the spirit of the company, and the brand that organization is trying to build.

Photography Logos | Web Design & Development – www.medianovak.com

All of these elements combine to create a finished logo that effectively communicates the identity a company wants to put forth. Without the use of masterful typographic style, none of that would be possible. So next time you look at a typographic logo that is successful, analyze what the designer did in order to make this happen. Is it simply words typed onto a surface, or was there careful thought and planning that make this logo so effective? Chances are, it’s the latter. After all, anyone can type out a “logo” in Word, but only a person with a designer’s eye can create something masterful with simple type. Let us know what your favorite typographic photography logos are by commenting on this post!

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When users decide to press ‘play’, they are asking to be shown something — asking to be given the content in an integrated, multi-disciplinary form — rather than digging through the content and exploring the meaning themselves. Video is therefore a different method of engaging audiences than image and text. With video, the experience of comprehension is more immediate, driven by the trio of story-telling elements available and the deterministic nature of the restricted timescale. The amount of information that can be displayed through one second of video vastly outnumbers the amount of information that can be read. This means the emotional response – the kneejerk reaction – often comes before the full appraisal of the content or the comprehension of the meaning.

Whether you choose to do-it-yourself or hire a pro, marketing your business with online video doesn’t end with the production. Remember, videos need to be seen. Here are a few tips to help you make the most out of your video marketing:

1. Aim for Authentic, Actionable Content | Online Video Marketing

Don’t worry about stock photography, templates, or videographers who will make you look like all their other clients. Be authentic. Be personal. After all, this is your big chance to highlight your strengths and show what really makes you different. Keep the video short and the less scripted, the better — since customers are jaded by typical sales pitches and marketing buzzwords. Creating authentic video that captures the human element behind any business allows customers to connect on a personal level.
And don’t forget to incorporate a call to action. While your authentic video builds trust and drives action, viewers must be given a reason and a way to call you, visit your website, or stop by your store. Be sure to include some action path — for example, a trackable URL, a coupon, discount code, or unique phone number to call. This not only encourages viewers to engage with you, but also provides a tangible way to measure the results of your video.

2. Optimize Video for Google Search | Online Video Marketing

The advent of blended or universal search has changed the search game. Search engines now display more and more videos, images, blogs, maps, and books in their results. These new search algorithms weigh video heavily, giving you a great opportunity to increase your relevance in search results (and even achieve that coveted first page ranking on Google). In fact, Forrester Research ran an experiment on the top-searched keywords and discovered that videos have an 11,000-to-1 chance of appearing on the first page of Google’s results, while text has a 500,000-to-1 chance of making it on the first page — in short, video has a 50 times better chance than plain text for getting to the top of search rankings.

Videography Web Sites | Design & Development – www.medianovak.com

3. Add Video to Your Facebook Page | Online Video Marketing

Most likely, your Facebook fans are already customers — the social network gives you the chance to strengthen existing relationships, build your brand, present special offers, as well as find some new customers as you reach into the extended networks of your current fan base. On Facebook, use video to show the human side of your company. Think fun and creative. Show a ‘behind the scenes’ peak at your office or shop. Use video to announce a new contest or special. Post video highlights of past events, customer testimonials, etc.

4. Put Video on YouTube and Other Video Sites | Online Video Marketing

YouTube has quickly grown from a network of user-generated content to become an invaluable repository of content. Next to Google, YouTube is the second largest search engine, with more than 3.5 billion queries a month according to comScore. YouTube and other video sites are great vehicles to reach an audience who might not find you otherwise. Best of all, you can create a branded YouTube channel and host your videos without incurring any bandwidth costs. And don’t worry — you don’t necessarily have to create the next viral sensation to find success on YouTube. Small businesses can create valuable new relationships and build sales without generating a million views.

5. Add Video to Your Google Local Business Listing | Online Video Marketing

By adding video to your business listing on Google Local, you’ll be able to tell your story and connect with those people who are looking for your products or services, at the very point in time when they’re actively researching or ready to buy. This ultra-targeted form of marketing is highly effective for driving clicks and calls. And amid a list of company names, addresses, and phone numbers, an engaging video brings your listing to life and sets you apart from the crowd.

Most Importantly – Get Started | Online Video Marketing

There’s no time like the present to get started with video. While spare time is always in short supply for the small business owner, online video marketing can be less time intensive and is relatively low cost compared with other marketing initiatives. Most importantly, video will reap dividends in both the short and long term.

Morgan Brown

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Image Selection | Sizing Photos for the Web

For many websites, in order to fit in and match the design of the site, it’s important for images to be consistent in dimension and orientation throughout the site. This can be particularly true on a site like a blog that uses a featured image at the top of each post (and a thumbnail version of that image site-wide to represent that post). On some sites, only vertical (portrait) oriented images work, and others rely on landscape (horizontal) images to fit right in with the site.

Photography Web Sites | Design & Development – www.medianovak.com

Sometimes it’s even important to look at color vs. black and white photos—for some minimalist style website designs, you’ll see all photos on the entire site are black & white. Of course, this is a design choice, but in a case like this, a color photo would stick out like a sore thumb. The important thing here is just to make sure you follow your own guidelines of consistency and formatting that work for your website…have a good eye for design.

Image Size | Sizing Photos for the Web

Size isn’t everything for website photos and images. Most of the time, you don’t want to completely dominate your written content with an editorial image that just doesn’t fit the overall scale of the page. Sometimes it’s helpful to even look at the overall size and shape of your text on a page and almost think of that like it’s an image itself—and only then matching up a perfect picture to complement it with harmony.

Image file size is another important consideration to keep in mind. Remember that many visitors have slow connections or under-powered mobile devices. Don’t overwhelm their systems with a huge file. Photoshop does a good job helping you resize an image for the web—and if you have access to Adobe Fireworks, its “Export for the web” feature really gets the file size down to a bare minimum without sacrificing image quality. Paying attention to image size leads to a better quality web experience for your visitors.

Automation Considerations | Sizing Photos for the Web

With many CMS’s like WordPress, the system automatically lets you choose from a range of sizes for your image once you upload it and are inserting the image into the content itself. On the surface, this seems great—but there’s a catch… When you upload a huge photo, let’s say 4000 x 2000 pixels or so (roughly the output from a 10 Megapixel digital camera), the image file size is actually quite large. And WordPress doesn’t downsize the original image at all; it only tells the page to shrink its display of the image to a more reasonable size. So the large original image will still have to load each time a visitor hits the page.

Bottom line? Even when using automatic upload/image resizing that’s built in to the web system you’re using, it’s still wise to work with an original image that’s close to the size that you want to actually display on the page.

So remember, when it comes to website images, bigger isn’t always better. There are multiple considerations that go into sizing photos and images for the web, but perhaps the most important overall is aiming for consistency throughout the site.

Portfolio Web Sites | Design & Development – www.medianovak.com

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There are 5 website copywriting mistakes that will really hurt your business (and website):

1. Dull Appeal | Website Copywriting Mistakes

Some website copy is just so dull. It doesn’t excite the online users, thus, it isn’t expected to attract anyone. What makes a copy boring? If it is written in a very formal tone. An interesting copy, on the other hand, is one that is conversational in tone. It makes reading easier. It is interesting until the end. Some copies are interesting on the first part but lose its magnetic pull on the later part. If you want to guide your readers to finish your sales piece and go on with purchasing, you should maintain high interest all throughout website copy.

Small Business Websites | Design & Development – www.medianovak.com

2. Failing To Think From The Customer’s Perspective | Website Copywriting Mistakes

As a passionate business owner you may feel particularly excited about the finer details of your products and services. As an example, you may have produced a car tyre that guarantees a high level of grip, no matter the road conditions. Unfortunately the typical website visitor will have neither the time nor the inclination to read about the superior rubber moulding and various design processes that were used. Rather than incorporating mundane details, you should write in a clear and concise way, highlighting the features and benefits that will be of general interest.

3. Excessive Keyword Usage | Website Copywriting Mistakes

What passes as SEO copywriting today is often nothing more than keyword-stuffed, unreadable content. Sure, the sites might grab some high rankings in the search engines, but what’s the point if your human visitors can’t read your clunky content? The key to great search engine copywriting is combining the best of both worlds–keyword optimization and traditional copywriting fundamentals.

4. Failing To Build A Sense Of Community | Website Copywriting Mistakes

The most successful websites are generally those that engage fully with the online community. They might feature blogs which inspire conversation and invite customers to suggest ideas for improvement. It is also a good idea to give your website a personal touch by including a mixture of client testimonials. Webmasters who don’t follow these guidelines will be missing out on the opportunity to build a loyal community of followers and brand advocates.

5. Not placing copy correctly within a design format won’t get you the results you want. | Website Copywriting Mistakes

Specifically, if I want to call you and can’t find the phone number, I probably won’t stay on your website. Website copy should be accurately placed within your website so it’s easily readable and understood by the reader. That can mean bullet points, but not all the time. Sometimes, a separate text box is in order to set information apart.

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The main benefit of having a mobile site is that you can target your mobile audience very well. You can put all the information they are looking for right at their finger tips. Your mobile site will work on smart phones as well as dumb phones.

The drawbacks are several. Since your desktop site and mobile site are two separate entities, when you update your website, you will need to update your mobile site as well. You will have to allocate internal resources for mobile site development and content re-writing and adjustment, like scaling down the images. If you have a huge site, it might take a long time to scale the site down and determine what content to include in the mobile website. There are also some code adjustments you need to do for search engines. In addition, there are limitations on tracking your visitors and their actions on your mobile site.

Responsive Site Design | Design & Development – www.medianovak.com

Responsive Site Design

There are many benefits to responsive site design. The main benefit is that once implemented, the website will scale based on what device was used by the visitor – desktop or laptop, mobile phone, or tablet. Images, columns, navigation will all adjust to the device size and resolution, taking up the entire screen real estate. In addition, because you only have one single site, It requires little maintenance once implemented and is a good long term solution. A responsive website benefits from exposure to all visitors – mobile or desktop – and steadily gains popularity on the website because of links and sharing.

Sounds perfect? Well, there are still some drawbacks.

The website content then needs to be reviewed and edited to accommodate both desktop and mobile viewers. If the website has a lot of content, it will need to be reduced. It is important to be very selective about what content to keep and what can be deleted because every page can and will be accessible on every device. With a small screen and less time to browse, it’s important to present the most important content to mobile users. It is critical to have concise content, friendly navigation, and quick-loading images in order to delight mobile users.

What mobile solution is best for you? | Responsive Site Design vs. Mobile Design

Whether it’s responsive site design or mobile website, it has to fit your business and your visitors.

We recommend responsive design if you have a small website that has similar goals for mobile and desktop visitors. It is also a good solution if your website has uniform content and not very complex. If you are redesigning your website or just creating one, it might be a good idea to also invest in responsive site design. One thing’s for sure – be ready for an extensive initial development.

If you have an established website, you might want to stick with your mobile site for now. When you are ready to redesign your website, plan for the extensive work on making your redesign responsive. Another reason to have a customizable mobile site is if your mobile visitors differ significantly from their desktop counterparts. If you, the business owner, have a different goal for those who use mobile devices to look at your website, you might be better off with a separate mobile website.

Responsive Site Design | Design & Development – www.medianovak.com

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Every time someone comes in contact with your brand they either like your brand a little bit more or a little bit less. There is no such thing as a neutral brand impression.

The internet has a phenomenal memory. If you’re rude to even one person that person can tell literally millions of people. On the flip side, if you’re incredibly nice to people and you inspire others in some way, people won’t forget that and over time you’ll grow a tribe of people who love what you do.

Photography Sites | Website Design & Development – www.medianovak.com

1. Know your mantra | Building a Better Photography Brand

Who are you? Think of a way to tell your potential clients in less than 6 words. Choose words that describe your work, your approach to your work, and yourself as a person.

Congratulations – you have found your mantra.

2. Know your mission | Building a Better Photography Brand

This is where you distinguish yourself from the competition. Let your potential clients know what you provide that they can’t get anywhere else.

This is important for business positioning. Know what your competition is like. Knowing what you’re up against will help you figure out what makes you different and help you create a one-of-a-kind business plan to carve out your own market share.

3. Know your target audience | Building a Better Photography Brand

What kind of photography do you specialize in? Who would be most likely to commission your services? How should you go about getting in touch with them?

Consider their characteristics – what they’re like, what they like, and where they’re likely to go.

4. Get inspired | Building a Better Photography Brand

Here’s the fun part! Pick out a collection of things that you love and that you feel are representative of your business. Your ideas can come from outside of the photography field. Use it to develop a visual interpretation of your muse! It’ll give your audience some insight into what kind of images you hope to create with your work.

Consider creating a style board on Pinterest.

5. Unleash your creative side | Building a Better Photography Brand

Throw your own personal touches on your brand – your logo, the fonts you use, promotional images, etc.

6. Stay consistent | Building a Better Photography Brand

You can ease up on your chosen brand as you move between mediums (print, online, advertising, promotion and sales) but make sure you remain consistent.

7. Show off your best work | Building a Better Photography Brand

Select your top 10, 20 and 30 pieces. There’s no need to put more than 60-70 photos in your online gallery. Make sure you keep your favorite images front and center in all forms of your promotional campaign.

Photography Sites | Website Design & Development – www.medianovak.com

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If you are a designer looking to specialize in the identity industry, this article will help you identify your strong and weak points. If you are an entrepreneur looking to educate yourself before hiring a good logo designer, this article will help you understand part of the complexity behind the process of creating a custom logo for your business.

Small Business Logos | Website Design & Development – www.medianovak.com

What makes a good logo?

1. A good logo is easy to read and comprehend. It looks good on everything from a business card to a humungous billboard.
Technically speaking most logos have a simple font, no more than two colours and are a rectanglar in shape – square logos are difficult to use.

2. A good logo is well-coordinated. It uses a supporting mark and strap line to add to the logo, expanding its potential. Does your business have this?
The parts of a logo to consider are 1) a mark 2) a company name and 3) possibly a strapline.

Each part supports the other. For example McDonalds has the mark of the golden arches, the name McDonalds and the current strap line of “Its Mactime now”.
Effective, memorable, easy to read, and identifiable (in any country). The perfect logo? I think it’s getting close.

3. A good logo can be adapted for use across all media effectively and remain distinct and recognizable.
Your logo will be applied in countless different ways – from letterhead to tee-shirts, truck livery to packaging, invoices or on-site signage, print ads to Powerpoint presentations.
A good logo is consistent across the whole company. Will it work everywhere? Or is it a tricky piece of artwork that is difficult to use, or is so bland it gets lost when used?

4. A good logo utilizes a simple font that is easy to read and duplicate. If it’s distinctive enough, the public will associate the font with your company. (You could recognise the McDonald’s “M” font, even without any colour).

Be good at research | Good Logo Designer

One of the most relevant skills in the process of becoming a good logo designer is the ability to find relevant and useful information. Think about it: without knowing details of the client’s industry, the market and understanding how competition uses their identity to market themselves, how one would know they are designing a relevant logo?

But that’s what the briefing is for, right?

Yes, you’re spot on, but the truth is that the great majority of small clients, and starting entrepreneurs, don’t know how to prepare a briefing. Heck, some of them don’t even have this data available when they approach a designer for a logo.

Sometimes even larger organizations don’t understand the peculiarities of the logo design process, and fail by not providing enough information in their briefings. Knowing where to get the date, and what questions to ask is an essential skill.
Ultimately this skill will help to direct the design to a relevant solution.

Be able to think conceptually | Good Logo Designer

Once the designer has all the information relevant to the project — which should include the client’s briefing and data from the designer’s research at least — the following step would be to analyze the data to define the boundaries of the project.

In order to do that, the designer should look at the data by using analytical tools such as brainstorming, mind-maps, color-wheels, mood boards or any other analytical tool that help to better understand the identity problem and identify what may or may not be a good concept to be explored.

Small Business Logos | Website Design & Development – www.medianovak.com

Sure there’s a lot of practical work here, but once the designer has a clear vision of the big picture, being able to find a solution which is aesthetically pleasing but also has a deep conceptual connection to the initial identity problem is, more than anything else, what makes a good logo designer.

Think of it in this way: a logo without a concept is a logo without a soul.

Being able to think conceptually, and find hidden meaning in between what initially would seem to be unrelated data, has a profound impact in the process of creating a good logo, consequently it is this skill that will help to direct the design to a unique solution.

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When it comes to tracking your online reputation (or your competitors’ reputations), many people think they need a social media monitoring tool. And while those tools are certainly handy, that’s not the only way to find out what people are saying about you.

1. Simple Searches. | Protect Your Online Reputation

How often do you conduct simple online searches for your company or product brand names? Are you happy with what you find? Don’t just perform a general web search. Perform a news search as well. Make a point to conduct these searches routinely.

2. Google Alerts. | Protect Your Online Reputation

A simple but effective free tool, with Google Alerts you’ll be notified by email as Google finds matches to your chosen query (like your brand name). You can control the frequency of these alerts as well.

3. Glassdoor. | Protect Your Online Reputation

A jobs website, Glassdoor differs from similar sites with its “employee generated content,” including anonymous reviews and ratings of a company and its CEO, written by employees and former employees.

As an employer, you should routinely monitor your Glassdoor entry. If your company doesn’t exist in Glassdoor’s database, it means that no one has submitted a review. Anyone, including the CEO, can submit a company review–they just need a verified company email address. And Glassdoor has launched new free analytics tools, called an Employer Account, designed to give companies more insight into who’s viewing their profile and how their stats compare to competitors.

4. Social Mention. | Protect Your Online Reputation

Enter your brand or product name into SocialMention and it will pull in results from across the web (blogs, Twitter, bookmarks, comments, events, images, news, video, etc.) and breaks them down by various analysis points. You can also sign up for email alerts, an RSS feed or download any query into a CSV file.

Small Business Websites | Website Design & Development – www.medianovak.com

The best way to manage your online reputation is by generating positive search results that will rank as highly as possible in a Google ( GOOG – news – people ) search and edge out anything negative on the list of search results. Once you’ve established yourself online, use buzzwords that appear in job postings to describe what you do. Always check the boxes on LinkedIn that say you are open for opportunities. And be as specific as possible, using words that show up in job descriptions, especially if you work in a niche industry. Don’t shy away from being upfront about who you are and what you’re looking for.

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Plan Your Web Presence | Startup Website Development

Now that you’ve made the decision to put a shiny new business Web site among the tens of millions of others on the internet, you’re no doubt in a hurry to see the face of your company looking back from the screen – slick, professional, inviting, with eye-catching graphics and exciting text that just begs new customers to check you out.

But right now it’s important to take a breath, clear your mind and plan, plan, plan.

Defining your Customers and Mission | Startup Website Development

You may think this goes against common sense, but the essence of your Web site isn’t really about you. What? It’s true. Sure, it presents your business face to the world and you’ll carefully make choices later on to put that together.

Startup Websites | Startup Website Development – www.medianovak.com

But your Web site is a specialized tool, one that enables you to reach countless new customers and, if it’s a retail site, sell to them and process their purchases.

Here, your primary purpose is to know your customers so well that you answer any questions they might have before they ask, then make it easy for them to buy what you’re selling.

This bedrock principle applies whether you’re creating a one- or two-page site that simply tells who you are and where you can be reached by e-mail, snail mail and phone; or a fully functioning retail site with hundreds, even thousands, of pages and a “shopping cart” that let’s your buyers collect products and pay for them, comfortable that their financial and other personal data are secure.

Text, Images and other Graphic Elements | Startup Website Development

You might as well get going now on writing copy – the text – for your Web site, and how you intend to use images.

If your writing skills are sharp, follow your diagram of Web pages and decide what you want to say on each. This is a rough draft, so don’t sweat over it too long.

Writing effective Web copy is a special skill, and you need to edit and rewrite your draft along some specific guidelines. The broader ones:

- Don’t make your Web site look or read like an ad. You may be planning to attract and sell online space to advertisers, and you’ll confuse visitors if your content looks like ad material.
- If you refer to your company as “we” in your copy, be sure to address your customer as “you.” Engage them in this personal experience.
- Keep it simple and kill jargon. The point here isn’t to show your mastery of insiders’ language, but to make your customers feel welcome, at home and included.
- Write like you’re talking face-to-face, using contractions if it sounds natural. Don’t write: “If you happen to encounter anything that raises questions, we are prepared to address them.” Do write: “Questions? We’re here to answer them.”

Make Key Design Decisions | Startup Website Development

This is where the hard work you did in Step 1 comes into play. Having a clear definition of your target customer will help guide many of your decisions when the specific work of designing your new business Web site begins.

Doesn’t everybody want basically the same things from a Web site? Well, yes and no.

Any visitor wants to know quickly what your site is about, what you have to offer that’s of value to them, a well-designed system to move them through its pages and freedom from sensory assault by unexpected, unwelcome noisy and flashy graphics.

Your target customer may also have special needs that should be included in your site design. The same features that are meant to serve them may also be just as welcome to a general audience.

Startup Websites | Startup Website Development – www.medianovak.com

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Understand how it works | Selling Photos Online

Microstock companies sell inexpensive stock images, illustrations, animations, and videos submitted by a large pool of professional and amateur artists. The big four agencies are iStockphoto (now owned by Getty), Shutterstock, Fotolia, and Dreamstime, and each one has different membership and technical requirements. Generally you sign-up, make sure your camera takes large enough images (nothing smaller than 2mp), and start uploading your photographs. If an image is accepted, it will become part of that site’s stock inventory. If one of those images sells, you receive a small payment.

Selling photos online is not easy money. It will take time to build up a decent sized portfolio (at least 100 pictures) before you see any sizable return. Payment systems differ from company to company, but it’s typically a small flat-fee or percentage every time someone purchases one of your images. You can submit your photos to as many different agencies as you like. If you do well, an agency may offer to sign you to an exclusive contract which means more money per image but you can only sell them through that site.

Photography Web Sites | Web Site Design & Development – www.medianovak.com

There are countless microstock agencies, but when getting started, it’s best to go with one of the better known and established agencies such as Fotolia, iStockPhoto, Shutterstock and DreamsTime. There’s no harm in placing the same images on each site, to see where your work does best.

When adding photos to a microstock site it’s good to always keep adding new work, in order to keep your portfolio updated and get you noticed.

Fotolia | Selling Photos Online

We have already reviewed Fotolia, a popular microstock site, but we looked at it from the point of view of the buyer. If you’re a photographer and want to sell your photos on Fotolia, what you get paid depends entirely on your ranking on the site and the image’s exclusivity, among other factors. You could get paid anywhere from 20 to 63% for a single image download. Fotolia complicates things a little bit for photographers due to its various subscription plans. If a user downloads the image via the subscription download option, you will receive 0.25 to 0.40 site credits, which you can cash out via Paypal or Moneybookers once you’ve earned a minimum of 50 credits.

Shutterstock | Selling Photos Online

One of the best-known microstock agencies, Shutterstock is often at the top of photographers’ lists as far as earning are concerned, so if you’re going to choose just one agency, it should be Shutterstock. Shutterstock only pays anywhere from $0.25 to$2.85 per image, but the higher rates are limited to photographers with extremely high lifetime earnings. The potential for the volume of sales, however, makes up for that. That said, your images do go through a pretty stringent vetting process before your images are accepted.

DreamsTime | Selling Photos Online

DreamsTime is a good place for beginners to start as its vetting process is probably the most lenient out of all the sites listed here. Photographers receive a commission which ranges from 30 to 60% of the price, while images sell for as low as $0.20 per image.

iStockPhoto | Selling Photos Online

While you could potentially get the highest earning per image from iStockPhoto, the site’s vetting process is extremely stringent as well. Photos accepted by other microstock agencies could very easily be rejected by iStockPhoto. Photographers are paid a commission which ranges anywhere from 15 to 45% depending on various factors including exclusivity

How to get noticed online | Selling Photos Online

Of course it isn’t enough to just put your work online, even on sites where the audience is coming straight to you. The first step to making sure that you get noticed on these sites is to use categorization. Make sure that you label your work with as many appropriate tags so that if someone is looking for your kinds of photos or subjects – they’re going to find them.

The next step is to promote, promote, promote. Put together a professional looking portfolio with your own domain.

Photography Websites | Web Page Design & Development – www.medianovak.com

It should go without saying that social networks are an essential part of your self-promotion. Twitter, Facebook and Google+ can all be used to either drive traffic to your online store or website. With a Facebook page or a Google+ profile, you can even share a taste of your work directly on the site.

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What Social Networking Platform(s) Should I Use? | Using Social Media for Your Business

Unfortunately, there is no “silver-bullet” answer to this question. There are many social networking platforms that are used for various purposes and attract different types of users. For example, Twitter is a great micro-blogging platform for short encounters that can be useful in sharing brief updates, announcing service outages/restorations to customers, or referring customers/partners to detailed information on a given topic. Facebook on the other hand is great for extended interaction with stakeholders as it supports longer posts, conversational interactions, and a more immersive experience. Thus, the answer to this question will depend on several factors:

- The type of business you have
- The stakeholders you’re trying to reach/engage (e.g. prospects, customers, partners, employees, etc.)
- The social networking platforms those stakeholders use
- The activities you want those stakeholders to perform (e.g. read your content, share your content w/ their friends, endorse your business, participate in a contest/promotion, make a purchase, be a brand advocate, etc.)

Web Site Design & Development | Using Social Media for Your Business – www.medianovak.com

Your answers to the above will influence the makeup of the social media strategy and campaign you’ll need to achieve your business goal. Your business goal may require you to establish a presence on a single social networking platform or it could require you to establish a presence on multiple social networking platforms and to coordinate activities across those platforms and your business website.

I Don’t Have Time To Post Updates On Multiple Social Networking Platforms | Using Social Media for Your Business

Business owners struggle to find enough time in a day to help customers, interact with business partners, manage employees, and run their business – let alone finding extra time to engage on social media. Add to that challenge the fact that it’s quite easy to lose track of time when engaging in social media and have minutes turn into hours.

1. Get Organized | Using Social Media for Your Business
Once you have a handle on the business goal you’d like to achieve using social media for your business and have a strategy for pursuing that business goal, a good first step is to get organized. Whether you’ll be sharing this responsibility with a team or doing it yourself, it’s important to outline who will be handling which activities and how those activities will be performed. This can be somewhat informal in smaller organizations, but in larger companies RACI charts and a documented social media policy are a good idea.

2. Set A Schedule | Using Social Media for Your Business
As with all of your responsibilities, you must set aside time to engage with your stakeholders on social networking platforms. It’s OK to time-box this activity as that will encourage you to be more efficient, focused, and productive. It’s also important to note the importance of sticking to whatever schedule you define as your stakeholders will expect to hear from you at those designated times, and if your schedule becomes erratic or has long lapses of “radio-silence”, you can quickly lose the following and level of engagement that you worked hard to establish. Think of your social networking time as “store hours”. Once customers learn your store hours, they’ll come to your store during those hours and expect you to be open for business. Now, imagine the impact if you set your store hours, then didn’t show up to open your store for several days or weeks. What would happen to your customers? The outcome would be similar in social media if you set a schedule and did not honor it. That being said, the schedule you define (e.g. daily, weekly, bi-weekly updates, etc.) is up to you – the important thing is to be consistent.

Another important factor to consider is that all of your social networking interactions do not have to be real-time. As you’ll see in the next section, there are several social networking tools available that will let you schedule your updates to social networking sites. For example, if you normally post updates to Facebook on Wednesday afternoons, but are planning a two-week vacation, you can schedule those updates ahead of time to post on the two Wednesdays that you’ll be away – ensuring continuity for your stakeholders.

3. Set Smart Alerts | Using Social Media for Your Business
As you start to amass a large following in social media, it’s easy to become overwhelmed by the volume of people and posts you must respond to. There are a few key things you should keep in mind for dealing with this.

Your Community Can And Will Help You: As you build an engaged community in social media, they’ll often step in to help each other when you and your team are tied up. For example, if you post a solution to a product issue on Twitter and are delayed with another matter before you can share that same information on Facebook, a member of you community may jump in to field customer questions on Facebook and refer customers to the information you shared on Twitter. This behavior can be quite helpful in managing the volume of interactions in social media and should be encouraged and rewarded. That said, you’ll also want to monitor these interactions where possible, so you can jump in with additional information and/or corrections as appropriate.

Prioritize Your Notifications: Social networking platforms and the above integrated tools will let you set alerts for important occurrences, but you have to prioritize those notifications – especially as your following grows. For example, on Twitter you can set notifications for various activities including: when your tweets are favorited, when you’re followed by someone new, when you’re sent a direct message, when you’re mentioned in a tweet, etc. If you set all of these, you’ll get swamped with notifications and will quickly get overwhelmed. With each social networking platform you’ll have certain behaviors that you’ll try to encourage and will want to acknowledge and possibly reward. Set your notifications with those behaviors in mind, so you won’t miss those key interactions.

What are you Social Media tips for staying productive and efficient?

Web Site Design & Development | Using Social Media for Your Business – www.medianovak.com

Wilson Toussaint

The post Struggling To Leverage Social Media For Your Business? 4 Tips That May Help appeared first on .

Making that kind of impact through your website is key to creating a compelling user experience. It’s no secret—using relevant visuals to reinforce textual content will help deliver your message, increase engagement and drive online conversions, be they sales, bookings, or even simple inquiries. Yet many miss the opportunity altogether.

Photography Web Site Design & Development – www.medianovak.com

Planning starts with the budget | Photography Web site Design

Oftentimes, companies budgeting for a new website or online marketing campaign won’t assign the appropriate funds to photography, claiming they’ve already got some decent shots on file, or insisting they can ‘fill the space’ with pictures they’ll take themselves. But knowing what we do about the importance of compelling imagery, this is one line item that should never be overlooked. With every new message, every new campaign, new imagery should be planned. Not re-used, not just sourced, but planned—from the budget stage, to defining the context of the required image, to the wireframing of the key pages of the website—and before commissioning the shot itself.

Defining the purpose | Photography Web site Design

Focus on the purpose of the images as you plan. Think, “what ‘thousand words’ is this picture trying to convey?” An effective website is going to pique the interest of the user from their landing page, and continue to intrigue them as they explore further into the site. The combination of website architecture and design, paired with engaging content and imagery, dictates the online experience of the user and their interpretation of your message and brand positioning. This can be described as ‘visual storytelling’ and shines the focus back on the importance of powerful imagery.

Original vs. stock | Photography Web site Design

Budget will generally dictate whether original photography is an option versus stock photos, but ideally that decision isn’t made until the required shots are defined. In some cases, stock photography will fit the bill and provide a more affordable option, but benefits of original photography include:

No compromise—get the shot you want and don’t settle for some thing that’ll merely work;
Exclusivity—nobody else can use the same image, especially not your competitors;
Unlimited use—you can re-use it in multiple mediums at your discretion;
Branded look—matching the image with your brand’s attributes;
Context & authenticity; and, most importantly,
Communicating your message simply.

Best fit isn’t necessarily best practice | Photography Web site Design

At MediaNovak, when we design and develop sites for our clients we always recommend using a photographer to get unique and bespoke images. It is easy for agencies to simply find a “best fit” from a library of images but we want your site to be the best it can be. We take pride in our work and recommend photographers who do the same. You care about your business so why would you not invest in great photos to show customers exactly who you are and what you do.

Photography Web Site Design & Development – www.medianovak.com

Bespoke photography ensures you get exactly the images you want: there is never a compromise. This gives your brand credibility and a fresh and very personal image..

Unique photography, created just for you, has also been proven to deliver tangible results in terms of visits, clicks through rates, and engagement.

Isn’t hiring a photographer more expensive? | Photography Web site Design

Not necessarily. Stock photography can be heavily licensed and restricted meaning you may be penalised if you use it in more places than you originally intended. Purchasing an image for use on a website and then using it in a marketing brochure could see you unwittingly breaching the terms of your purchase license and subject to a heavy fine!

The post Your Brand Through the Lens: The Value of Great Photography Online appeared first on .

1. Where will the logo look its absolute worst? | Professional Business Logo Design

This is normally a photocopied / faxed / laser printed document. All of these have one thing in common… they will display your logo in black and white. When designing your logo options we supply a black and white version for your perusal as well as a colour version. This enables you to focus on the shape of your logo without being swayed by the colour. If, for example, you were given a logo design concept in red and you do not like that colour then it is much harder to look objectively at the design. The logo design should work in a single colour before any colour options are explored.

Logo Design by MediaNovak – www.medianovak.com

2. Use a limited colour palette | Professional Business Logo Design

A good logo design rarely uses more than 2 colours. If you think of all the iconic corporate logos we see in our everyday life, there are few examples that use more than 2 colours (Coca Cola), with the majority making use of just one (Apple, Nike, Adidas). In fact, the last 3 we mention do not even have a specific colour attached to their brand.

3. Large and small, big and tall! | Professional Business Logo Design

All logos should be clear and readable and work at any size. A good rule to ask yourself is ‘would my logo design still convey the desired message work when reduced to the size of a postage stamp?’. Marks are regularly used as avatars and favicons and again need to work at a small size.

4. Gradients and shadows don’t necessarily make a good logo design | Professional Business Logo Design

Gradients can be costly to reproduce in print and are all too often used to the detriment of a design. The same rules apply, a logo design using gradients should also work in single colour. Many web based companies are now using gradients, multiple colours and shadows to add depth to their logo designs. This is fine as a logo should be designed to work to it’s target market. If you know your logo will mostly be used online then feel free to experiment with gradients and shadows… but remember the golden rule, it should always work in single colour first and should not rely on the gradients to convey its main message.

5. Avoid using photography | Professional Business Logo Design

Faces of people or detailed images and patterns can reduce the recognition value of a logo design and they certainly degrade in quality when it come to reproducing them. Your logo design should be vector based which can be re-scaled to any size without loosing quality. Whereas raster based photography relies on PPI (pixels per inch) which can degrade in quality when used at multiple sizes.

Professional Business Logo Design | Web Design – www.medianovak.com

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You don’t want to make rash decisions that you will regret later on. Here are 5 things to avoid when choosing a domain name for your business.

Avoid abbreviations | Choosing Domain Names

Unless your Fridge Toaster manufacturing business is known as FTM, then there is little to be gained by having an abbreviated domain. A domain name needs to reflect and promote your brand, by what you want people to remember you for. Similarly, avoid Pty Ltd, Ltd, mgmt, and similar abbreviations in your domain name.

Avoid hyphens | Choosing Domain Names

Sometimes if fridgetoastermanufacturing.com is already registered, fridge-toaster-manufacturing.com can seem like a good compromise. Unfortunately, apart from this being hard to remember, it can also signal to Google a risk of spam, which will detract from any search optimisation activity. Generally, any domain name with more than two or three hyphens should be avoided.

Web Design & Development – www.medianovak.com

Stuffing a domain with keywords | Choosing Domain Names

For a while, registering keyword rich exact match domain names was a sure fire way of ranking well and getting traffic. In October 2012, Google released an update which made it harder for “low quality exact match domains” to rank well. Google are very focused on brands, seeing them as a higher indicator of a quality website, than a small website with a great domain. This doesn’t mean keywords are irrelevant in domains; it just means getting them to rank well will take more work than previously.

Look at the complete picture | Choosing Domain Names

Sometimes a domain that makes sense to you, may mean something entirely different to someone else. This is the problem Pen Island had when they registered penisland.com. Before registering your domain, make sure that the combination of letters in a domain will not be offensive to others. Getting the name wrong may attract the wrong kind of attention.

Choosing an obscure domain space if another popular space is available | Choosing Domain Names

I recommend protecting your brand in all domain spaces. It is part of a good defensive branding strategy to prevent a competitor, disgruntled staff member, or angry customer hijacking your brand. Unfortunately, choosing a domain space which not too many people have heard of will make it hard for them to remember and you may find many emails go missing when someone types gary@fridgetoast.info.com rather than fridgetoast.info. Generally, people expect a domain to be a .com, .com.au, .co.nz, .co.uk and so on. That’s why these registries have a lot of names registered. One qualifier: This depends on your market. If your buyers are part of the connected-technical segment, then you can be more creative.

Web Design & Development – www.medianovak.com

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After some research as to how a website is successful, it turns out it requires content, design, and online marketing, but is a bit more complicated than that. There are some key ingredients, which are fairly self-explanatory, but could take another whole blog entry to explain their importance. Those ingredients include appropriate content, appropriate marketing (SEO, advertising, blogging, social media), and appropriate design. But there is more thought that needs to be placed in the design process, aside from making sure the visual brand is upheld, that can turn a decently successful website into a website that is responsible for generating 50%+ of total leads per month. And that thought process applies to what is called the user experience website design(UX).

Web Design & Development | User Experience Website Design – www.medianovak.com

The user experience is how the user feels when navigating through a website and how they may respond, physically (in terms of actions), intellectually and emotionally to the website. The way the user interacts with the website will actually help determine if they will take action and complete the overall goal the website was designed to incite. If the way a user might feel when navigating through the site is taken into account before and while the website is being designed, the final product will generate more leads.

Usability | User Experience Website Design

There are many factors that go into creating an optimal user experience. They involve combining form and function to carry out a final goal. Breaking them down into steps will help give more insight into creating the optimal user experience website design.

1. Consider the industry the website will be applied to and the target audience that may become users of the site. How are they expecting the site to look and function?
2. Think of the goal of the website and what action you would like the users to complete. Is the best possible outcome a potential lead contacting your company personally? Is it purchasing a product?
3. When beginning to design the site, it is important to utilize the idea of flow. Creating this flow involves the visual design, content and navigation of the site. Is navigating the site cohesive yet stimulating, easy to understand, yet entertaining to peruse and keeps the user’s attention? In creating the main pages and sub-pages, it is important to make sure that the visual flow, as well as the flow of the content, are seamless to make the path to the final goal seamless. This seamlessness can also create a feeling of flow within the user. Flow, as an action, is defined as the state in which one becomes fully and positively immersed in an activity to the point they lose conception of time. Some athletes would describe flow as “the sweet spot.” When users feel flow, they are fully immersed in the exploration of a new and relevant website and are more likely to follow the flow and fulfill the ultimate goal.

4. During the website design process, it is also important to design with a human touch in mind. A user will respond more positively if the website seems as though it was designed for them and what they are seeking when visiting the website. Being as straight forward as possible with both design and content can achieve this, but adding some warm and/or humorous yet professional undertones can instigate the flow you want to initiate. If the user is receiving all the information they are seeking in a stimulating and efficient way, but also feel as though some thought was put into the presentation, as though they are interacting with another human in an entertaining way, they build trust with the website and, ultimately, the company and individuals that work for the company. Initial interaction with the user once the user has made contact is almost always more positive than if the site had been confusing and less welcoming.

While creating a website design that successfully includes all of these ideas might sound like it’s easier said than done, if incorporated into the initial brainstorming process and carried out throughout the design, it will still come through the design and make a noticeable difference in the final result.

Contact MediaNovak for more information on creating a successful website.

Web Design & Development | User Experience Website Design – www.medianovak.com

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Promoting Outside of YouTube with Your Website | Promoting Online Videos

First off, a video on your website makes your website look pretty amazing. It’s an instant eye-catcher. If you’ve gotten a customer to go as far as to visit your website, then clicking that video can’t be too far behind. Plus, a video sort of marries itself to all the content on the website. So if you have any special deals or offers or anything of that sort on the website, all of your calls-to-action are sitting right there, with no need to click further.

Website Design and Development – www.medianovak.com

Share your videos on your Social Networks | Promoting Online Videos

The first thing you should do when you do anything is let the people you know hear about it! They’ll love getting the inside scoop first and if they like you or your videos, they’ll share your videos with their friends.

For example, you can post your videos on your personal and business Facebook walls and encourage others to comment on and share them. You can also tweet about the latest business video you created and mark it with a #hashtag. Then cross your fingers hoping you’ll have developed a new hot topic all the cool tweeps are talking about. Heck, your business network on LinkedIn might even appreciate it if you shared an update with a link to your newest video.

Optimize your video to attract search engine traffic | Promoting Online Videos

When you begin to work with video search engines, you’ll notice that the interfaces change from time to time, as do the policies that govern them. So attempting to set hard and fast rules around your optimization strategy becomes a tricky task.

But whilst each video search engine and sharing site may differ, most share some common factors that provide a useful focus. Some of these factors are things that a user has control over – for example, metadata – while others are engagement-related and thus influenced more by external promotion.

Reach Out To Bloggers | Promoting Online Videos

If you are looking to get a lot of views on your videos in a small amount of time then one of your best bets is to reach out to bloggers. Search for bloggers that cover the sorts of topics that you are making videos about. For instance, if you have created a series of cooking videos, in which you share your favorite recipes, then you can contact food bloggers to let them know about your project. You may never hear back from them, but if you are lucky they could write about you and embed some of your videos on their blog.

Reaching out to bloggers can be frustrating at times, as it can be difficult to find contact information and you could email fifty bloggers and only hear back from a few. However, if you take the time to share your work with relevant bloggers it could pay off.

On a side note, when contacting bloggers it’s always best to personalize it. We know when you’ve just copy-pasted a form email to us, but if you seem to really know about us and about the content that we have covered in the past then we will be more likely to get back to you.

Share Your Videos In Niche Communities | Promoting Online Videos

In the same manner in which you share your video with niche bloggers (such as food bloggers for cooking videos), you should search for niche communities, groups and forums to share your videos as well. If there is a Facebook group for bread lovers then join it and post a link to your bread baking video; if you discover a forum for people who make ice cream then share a link to the video in which you share your recipe for cherry chocolate truffle milkshakes.

Just keep in mind that different groups and communities have rules about sharing links and videos, so check first to make sure that you are complying with the rules and don’t be spammy. It is important to only share your videos in relevant forums and communities that you think will gain something from viewing your content.

By using these simple tips you can quickly increase the view count on your online videos. How have you promoted your online videos in the past? Were the methods you have used effective?

Website Design and Development | Web Design for Videographers – www.medianovak.com

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Step 1 | Photography Logos

Choose a color or two. Gold arches, red bulls eyes and other logos are easily identified with their company’s image because they are simple and bright. Choosing a color that will be used in logo creation chooses what color will be identified with your company. You must choose a color that will be easily printed on a variety of products. If your marketing materials are going to have a white or light colored background, any color you choose will work. If you are going to use a dark colored background on any materials, choose a light and bright logo color to be sure it stands out.

Photography Logos | Web Design and Development – www.medianovak.com

Step 2 | Photography Logos

Keep it simple. A visually complicated logo can be confusing to the mind’s eye. This makes it easily forgettable. In addition, a complicate logo design may not print or transfer clearly. A logo with a clear image or words defines your company within seconds of seeing it. Keeping it simple keeps it memorable.

Step 3 | Photography Logos

Adjust size to fit. A logo that must be large to be seen will not transfer well to small marketing materials such as business cards and promotional ink pens. A logo should be small enough to be size-adjusted depending on what it will be printed on.

Step 4 | Photography Logos

Use appropriate images. People remember things that made them laugh. However, if you are in the funeral business, humor would not be appropriate. Conversely, a serious, understated logo might not work with your children’s activity center theme. The logo image must reflect the overall business model. It also should convey what type of business it is, be it happy and fun, serious and somber or relaxing and calm.

Step 5 | Photography Logos

Hire a graphic designer to turn your ideas into reality. Write down the colors, theme and images you want, and ask him to create several choices for you to pick from.

Photography Logos | Web Design and Development – www.medianovak.com

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Below are four tips on branding for small business operators.

1. A brand is not a just a logo | Small Business Branding

The first thing you need to realise is that your brand is not just a logo. A logo may be a graphical representation of your brand, but it is not everything about your brand. Your brand is reflected in the way you and your staff talk and behave, the way your product is packaged, the way your website and other marketing materials are designed and presented, the service you provide. Your brand is made up of many things – tangible and intangible.

2. Know what your customers are looking for | Small Business Branding

Google is the first place the vast majority of people go when researching anything. When thinking about your small business name consider how people search for the kinds of products or services you offer. Google Insights is a good place to start. With Google Insights you can identify, the types of words people use when searching for your type of business. Tailor your business brand and name accordingly. For instance you may own a landscape construction business, but through Google insights we can see people more often search for landscape design. The business owner would be better served creating a brand name that incorporates design rather than construction.

Small Business Web Design | Small Business Branding – www.medianovak.com

3. Know what is important to your customers | Small Business Branding

The best brands resonate strongly with their audience. Understanding what is important to your audience is the first step of any small business branding exercise. Is it important you’re a local business, or is it more advantageous that you have a global presence? Do your customers value the fact you are mobile and can home deliver, or do they want to ensure your business is established and has a long track record? Knowing what is important to your customers will help you shape your brand and what it communicates on your behalf.

4. Know your competitors and define what makes your business different | Small Business Branding

Take a look at what your competitors are doing. What looks good; what looks bad? What works and what doesn’t? Identify the gaps in the market that your business can answer and shape your brand accordingly to maximise on the niche.

These are just a few ways to get started on building a strong foundation with which to build a brand and grow your business. Do you have any other tips? Share them in the comment box.

Matthew Gain

The post Small Business Branding 101 – Tips for Small Business Owners appeared first on .

And very little happens, because you posted too soon. You didn’t wait until the first post was no longer active. And you wasted an opportunity to further engage your customers.

According to Buddy Media’s study “Strategies for Effective Wall Posts: A Timeline Analysis,” the time that you post content on Facebook can make a big difference in the response you get from your online community.

Engagement affects organic reach. | Facebook Post Timing

Relative engagement makes post timing hugely important. When you publish a post, Facebook first displays that post to a small subset of users.
If few people engage with the post, Facebook will show it to fewer people. If a lot of people engage with the post, Facebook will show it to many people. Success breeds success.

Post timing is often counterintuitive. | Facebook Post Timing

Facebook is a busy place during weekdays: Most people are at work or at school, reading and sharing news, and tons of Facebook pages are publishing content because that’s when the people who manage their pages tend to be working.

But think about how you use Facebook. If you’re like most people, you probably use Facebook at night. Maybe you sit on the couch and sift through your News Feed. For many companies, the best time to post is not during the middle of the day. Try weekday nights and weekends, when people have more free time.

Don’t post again until your last post stops reaching people. | Facebook Post Timing

If you publish a post before your previous post has stopped appearing in user News Feeds, your post may reach dramatically fewer people.

Unfortunately, Facebook does not show page managers when their posts are no longer reaching people. But tools exist to help you find out. For example, PageLever Now provides analytics and insights for those first 48 hours.

Think like a user, not like a marketer. | Facebook Post Timing

Think about the type of content that you’re posting. Is it short and to the point? If so, it’s something you want people to see during the day, when they are busy but still willing to take a few seconds to like, comment, or share.

If what you’re publishing requires more attention, like a three-minute video, save it for later in the day or evening, or maybe a Friday afternoon or weekend, when people have more leisure time.

Build, measure, and learn from your specific results. | Facebook Post Timing

Every brand, every page, and every audience is different. Real optimization comes from looking at your numbers and determining what does or does not work for your business.

If you don’t have numbers, you’re just guessing; never waste time and resources on a guess.

Small Business Web Design | Business Websites – www.medianovak.com

Jeff Haden

The post 5 Tips for a Perfectly Timed Facebook Post @medianovak appeared first on .

Every year, countless executives and marketing directors dutifully write up plans with these kinds of empty descriptions of their target audiences. And every year, these same companies fumble around trying to figure out why they’re not clicking with their customers.

Skip the Stats | Small Business Brand Marketing

Your customers aren’t demographics. They’re not age ranges. They’re not job titles, or geographical regions, or salary brackets. They’re human beings. It seems ridiculous to have to say that, but companies are chronically unable to remember this basic fact.

Get Real With Your Customers | Small Business Brand Marketing

If you want to connect with your customers, you have to stop pushing knee-jerk marketing clichés on them, and focus on understanding who they really are, how they really think, and what’s really important to them.

That soccer mom with 2.5 kids? Her name is Sarah. Yes, she goes to yoga classes, do you know why she goes? She has a minivan, but do you know how she feels about it? Stop making assumptions (because you’re probably way off) and start asking questions. Then, when you start to understand, you can get real in the way you talk to Sarah.

Get Your Company on Board | Small Business Brand Marketing

Once you better understand what’s going on in the minds of your audience, there are several steps you can take within your organization to ensure that this information doesn’t just sit in a dusty binder on some executive’s shelf, but rather that it becomes an everyday part of how your company works.

For example, you can create a “customer persona” (a fictional profile of a typical customer) with a name and a face, to help your staff connect with your target audience in a more direct way.

In meetings, then, they’d no longer have to try to hold an abstract customer profile in their heads; they can simply ask, “What would Sarah think about this?”

This simple change can bring about significant differences in the way a company considers its customers during decision-making processes.

Who are your customers?

Small Business Web Design | Small Business Brand Marketing – www.medianovak.com

James Archer

The post Small Business Brand Marketing | The Real Reason Your Marketing Doesn’t Work appeared first on .

Prominently display your “Unique Selling Proposition“

If you don’t tell people right up front what your specialty is and why they should hire you, they’ll have no reason to do so. Focus your business on what you’re best at and and tell people what that his. This separates you from your competition and allows you to charge more for your services.

Photography Websites | Website design & Development – www.medianovak.com

Allow for super fast browsing of your portfolio | Photography Websites

Make sure people can look through your photos extremely quickly. If someone gets really interested in your stuff, they’ll slow down and take a closer look. But, most people just want to cruise through your work to see if they like it. So, don’t use a flash player that fades slowly between pictures. Make sure there is a forward and back button or arrow that doesn’t move (people like being able to leave their mouse in one place and keep clicking). Make sure your menu navigation is obvious – some people, in an attempt to create a cool design, put the menu in less obvious places – this is annoying. Make sure your pictures load fast. Compress them enough that the file sizes are manageable, but not enough to where you can notice the compression. If your site is still slow, get a new host.

Tell stories| Photography Websites

You’ll hear us say this over and over again: People don’t by photos, they buy stories. Whether its fine art that they want to put on a wall, or its their wedding album, or a child’s portrait, people are hiring you to help them tell a story. So, by all means, tell the stories of each of your portfolio shots on your site. This will help the potential client connect with you, realize your story-telling capabilities, and they’ll want a story of their own -FROM YOU!

Be aware of “The Fold”| Photography Websites

“The fold” is a term that comes from newspaper advertising. If an advertisement is “above the fold”, then it shows up on the paper, above the actual fold of the paper so the reader sees it without having to open the paper all the way up. On the web, “above the fold” means, above the point at where people have to scroll to see it. With screens getting bigger and better every day and internet speeds getting faster and faster, people are pushing the limits of how big their photos on their site can be. Please realize though, that not everyone is browsing with a 30″ monitor.

Capture leads| Photography Websites

This seems to be a forgotten secret all across the web, not just for photographers. If you’re spending time, money, or effort to drive traffic to your website, then you’re completely insane to not try and capture contact information from each and every one of those visitors so that you can follow up with them as leads. We’ll post another day on how to do this, but the basic principle is to offer something valuable in exchange for contact information. This is easier to do than you think.

Photography Websites | Website design & Development – www.medianovak.com

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Projector on the side of a building – Marketing for Videographers

We’re sure that there’s places around your city that have large flat surfaces, right? Well, take yourself to those areas at night with a projector and have your video reel (or a specific item you’ve created) show on repeat on the side of the wall. People driving by will not be used to seeing this type of advertising and they’ll remember it and talk about what they seen to their friends.

QR code – Marketing for Videographers

Put a QR code in the window of your premises and connect it to a mobile page on your website with the details of your business and a list of the benefits of using your firm versus your competition.

Small Business Websites | Web Design and Development – www.medianovak.com

Electronics department takeover – Marketing for Videographers

Get in touch with the owner of a local store with an electronics department and get your video demo reel (or full feature length work you’ve done) shown on the televisions. People are used to seeing cartoon movies showing on the television screens, so imagine how nice it’d be for them to see something awesome like your demo reel.

Create educational products – Marketing for Videographers

If you shoot music videos on a regular basis, you have a wealth of knowledge about shooting music videos, right? No matter what type of freelance video work you do, you’re able to take the camera and turn it on yourself, sharing your knowledge of being a freelance videographer. This will have people view you as an authority figure and boost peoples opinions of your work.

Stock Video Footage – Marketing for Videographers

We’re sure you can look at tons of video you’ve shot and find clips and segments that you never used but looked awesome, right? Maybe you’ve got a timelapse shot of clouds in the sky or leaves blowing in the wind. Take those and upload them to sites like VideoHive, giving you the opportunity to make some money off of your extra work plus getting your name out in a different area.

Hold a guerrilla movie screening – Marketing for Videographers

Make some fliers with subliminal messages on them, spread them around your town letting everyone know that there’s going to be a mystery screening and they’re invited. This will peak their curiosity and you’ll have people lining up to watch your work. This works best if you’ve actually done a lengthy piece so people aren’t upset they showed up for a 5 minute demo reel.

Start your own internet show – Marketing for Videographers

Pick a topic you really love (for instance, I love MMA so I’d choose MMA as a topic) and do a weekly ‘internet tv show’ on it. Make sure you’re shooting in the highest quality possible and you could even use video transitions from VideoHive to really make your videos feel like a television show. Add in the “shot by” information into each of your videos at the end as well as in the description. You’ll build up a fan base for your show and add additional authority to your videography work.

Shoot an important event – Marketing for Videographers

News stations want to have the “first look” at any big news that happens, so if you’ve got your camera out and you’re able to shoot an event and submit it to the news, you have a chance of getting your video aired live on the air, plus on their website. Hell, you could even stage a fake protest outside of your offices and film it, submit it to the news and see if they’ll believe that it’s a legit protest. A win/win for your business!

Flash drive business cards – Marketing for Videographers

Everybody has business cards, but not everyone has a flash drive that they give to prospective clients. Your potential client gets something unique (custom printed USB Flash Drives can be purchased here, for instance) and they also have a free flash drive to use afterwards. Giving these to potential businesses as your business card will get their interest peaked and they’ll be much more likely to look at your video reel on the flash drive.

Support a worthy cause – Marketing for Videographers

Yes, I am saying that you should get out there, find a cause you believe in and shoot some promotional videos for them for free. This will take some time, but the results outweigh the time you spend working on the project. From the free publicity that comes with working for a worthy cause to the promotion that the company will give you (they’ll be quick to tell others who did their video and how awesome you were). Invest the time now and reap the rewards.

Small Business Websites | Web Design and Development – www.medianovak.com

Mike Smith

The post 10 Guerrilla Marketing Tactics for Videographers appeared first on .

1. Choosing the Wrong Keywords

Many small business owners think there’s no harm in having countless keywords in their campaigns just to cover their bases, but this is false logic. First of all, having too many non-performing keywords in your google addwords campaign can actually bring your overall campaign down, which in turn can lead to increased expenses to generate the same results.

Second of all, if you focus on only choosing keywords that generate clicks but no conversions, you’re helping Google make a tidy sum off of you without helping yourself.

2. Failing to Identify Unique Aspects of your Product or Service.

Before you implement your Google AdWords campaign, you must understand exactly what it is that makes your organization stand out from the competition. By identifying your unique products, services, or offerings, you’ll see clearly how you can rise above your competitors and zone in on the keywords or phrases that are unique to your business.

We’d recommend that you perform an analysis of your competition. Have a look and see what they’re doing, and which phrases they’re using. After you’ve conducted a competition analysis, and you understand what makes your products or services unique, you’ll be able to come up with a strategy that will topple your competitors.

3. Poor Use of Landing Pages | Google AdWords Campaign

Unless you’ve purposely optimized and tested your landing pages, you are leaving money on the table. Landing pages need to be short and attention-getting with a strong offer and clear call to action.

How to fix it: Hiring a professional web design company to design PPC landing pages is worth the investment because the returns are exponential. Think of the long-term effect if you received just a 10 percent lift in your online leads. At its basic, your goal on your landing page must match that of the visitor. If you do that with a clear next step for them to take, you will be miles ahead of your competitors. Cut out the extra noise; make it easy and clear what you want the visitor to do, and you will see better results.

Small Business Web Design | Search Engine Optimization – www.medianovak.com

4. No Geo-targeting Exclusions

You may be only targeting your ads to the Phoenix metro area, but did you know that Google will also show your ads to consumers in China? By default Google will show your ads to people searching for or viewing pages about your targeted area, even if they are not located in the city that you are targeting.

How to fix it: In the location settings, you will need to manually exclude the areas in which you do not want your ads to show. This will prevent anyone in Nigeria, for example, who searches “phoenix granite countertops” from seeing your ad. To be even more limited, change the advanced location options to only target ‘people in my targeted location.’ This setting won’t target people in Canada, for example, who are looking for fabricators in Phoenix.

5. Not Implementing Conversion Tracking

Without conversion tracking, you probably don’t have a clear sense of which keywords are generating desired actions for campaign success. Google provides conversion tracking code for free.

6. Not Tying Your Conversion Tracking Into Your Google Analytics

Speaking of free, Google Analytics is one of the most powerful marketing tools out there, and it too is free. As a bonus, if you connect your AdWords conversion tracking to your Google Analytics, you can see all kinds of data your Google AdWords campaign is generating.

7. Creating Single Ad Groups | Google AdWords Campaign

If you categorize ads that target related keywords into a common AdWords ad group, you’ll establish a high level of control over your entire Google AdWords campaign.

Let’s image that you own a sporting goods store. You might start by grouping all the ads you’d targeted towards hockey skates into a single ad group. You’d then create another ad-group which would contain ads that targeted hockey sticks, another that contained ads for hockey gloves, and so on.

Organizing your ad group structure in this manner gives you the ability to create in-depth reports on each ad-group, and to make real changes that have a significant impact on those ads’ performance over time.

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If your logo design doesn’t match your brand personality, consumers will be confused. They won’t know what to expect from your brand because they’ll feel like it’s sending conflicting messages to them. Consistency is essential to brand growth, and your logo design is a key element of overall brand consistency.

Photography Logo Design | Photography Websites – www.medianovak.com

You also need to analyze your brand in relation to your competitors. Where does your brand personality fit within the market of competitor brand personalities? If your top competitor is the old reliable guy who has been around for years, then you need to determine if your brand should be “old reliable #2” or the modern, innovative brand that breathes new life into the market.

Brand Personality | Photography Logo Design

Regardless of what personality you want your brand to have, the ultimate decision makers are always consumers and the ways they perceive your brand is what really matters. Their perceptions are what will ultimately define your brand personality, but you can nudge those perceptions in a specific direction through creative marketing initiatives and messages. 


In other words, define what you’d ultimately like your brand personality to be, and then create a logo design, marketing messages, and campaigns that consistently communicate that brand personality. It takes time to turn first impressions of your brand personality into lasting expectations of your brand promise. Give consumers a chance to get to know your brand personality through consistent interactions with them.

Therefore, when you come up with logo design ideas, make sure they are appropriate representations of your brand personality. Any logo designs that don’t match the personality you want consumers to associate with your brand need to go. The best photography logo design will embody your brand personality and bring your brand to life. Don’t settle for anything less.

Photography Logo Design | Photography Websites – www.medianovak.com

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Since the selection of images can be so crucial, we plan to cover the topic in three separate articles, each covering guidelines that will help you learn to evaluate and select just the right images for your site.

1. Does it convey the right feeling? | Effective Website Photos

Whether intentional or not, images communicate mood to your audience. Color, background, facial expression, and other less obvious features combine to evoke feelings in a way that may not be obvious at first. You may, without realizing it, be conveying an incorrect sense of your service or company. That’s why it’s important to look at image details critically, getting others’ opinion on how they are affected by them.

2. Does it add information? | Effective Website Photos

In Broadway musicals, there are no extraneous songs – every song contributes to the storyline, moving the plot forward. They’re substantive and content-rich, not just afterthoughts or embellishments.

Your web images should be the same way. They should pull their own weight on your web site, not just sit there and look pretty. When you’re selecting, ask yourself: will this image merely decorate the page, or will it contribute information?

3. Is it (at least fairly) unique? | Effective Website Photos

The wonderful thing about stock image sites is they make it easy for you to find and buy high-quality images. The terrible thing about stock image sites is they make it just as easy for your competitor — or anyone else — to find and buy the exact same images. So it’s possible to see the image you just bought for your home page being displayed on a billboard or brochure for a completely different company. And that’s no way to stand out in the marketplace.

There are a few ways to avoid this.

First, you can simply create your own custom images, or hire a professional to do so. Assuming your designer or photographer isn’t re-using old material, you’ll end up with an image that’s unique to your company. The downside of this approach, of course, is cost and time.

Second, you can purchase exclusive rights to a stock image. Exclusive rights are typically available for only certain images. Look for “Rights Managed” images, or contact the stock image site.

Third, you can select more expensive images. Being willing to pay $49 – $300 or so for an excellent image will keep you out of the low-priced image mosh pit.

Fourth, if you don’t have the cash to spend on more exclusive images, you can at least try to avoid the ones that are super-popular. On iStockPhoto, images are notated with icons once they’ve been downloaded 100+, 500+, or 1,000+ times, which gives you an idea of the odds of an image turning up on someone else’s website or packaging.

Small Business Websites | Web Design and Development – www.medianovak.com

Sandra Niehaus

The post How to Choose Effective Website Photos and Images. Part 1 appeared first on .

If you have a brand, you need a brand strategy. Here are some guidelines for crafting one — and making the most effective use of your small business brand.

1. Define your small business brand.

Some small-business owners rush ahead with a great idea and never get around to establishing a distinct identity and a clear purpose. At some point, it becomes necessary to define who you are before you’re defined by the competition. That means knowing the answers to the following questions (and making sure everyone who works you for knows them, too):

- What is our company’s mission?
- What benefits and features do we offer our customers?
- How do we want customers to think about our business?
- What key messages do we want to convey to them?
- What makes us different from everyone else?

Small Business Websites | Design and Development – www.medianovak.com

Maybe you want to be known as an experienced, dependable business. Maybe your enterprise is focused on offering cutting-edge alternate solutions. Do you see yourself as high-cost and high-quality or low-cost and high-value? All of these considerations go into defining your small business brand.

2. Promise and deliver.

Businesses live and die by the brand promises they make. For example, when you tell customers you offer outstanding service each and every time, they will hold you to that claim. If you consistently deliver, your brand and your reputation are strengthened in your customers’ eyes. That’s why customers become loyal to certain brands — and recommend them to their family and friends.

3. Have a consistent look and feel.

Yes, your logo does have a place in your brand strategy. The look and feel you choose for all of your marketing materials should appeal to your target audience. More importantly, you must present yourself consistently across the board. Stick with the same colors and imagery your letterhead, business cards, homepage, social media, brochures, etc. Tinkering with logos or modifying your brand message to appeal to different segments only leads to confusion.

4. Integrate your brand into everything you do.

Everything related to your business, from advertising and hiring to distribution and fulfillment, should be part of your overall brand strategy. Whether it’s a direct mail piece, an email blast, or a Facebook update, each customer experience is an opportunity to reinforce your brand promise. The same goes for how employees answer the phone and what salespeople say when contacting prospects.

Your brand represents how customers think of you and your business. The most effective small business brand strategy requires you to influence their perceptions with everything you do.

Small Business Brand Design | Web Design and Development – www.medianovak.com

Lee Polevoi

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WHAT IS RESPONSIVE UX DESIGN?

The “UX” in responsive UX design is short for user experience. The singular purpose of responsive web design is to enhance and improve the user experience for those who visit your website. Also known as responsive web design, this approach has an inherent fluidity that not only optimizes the viewer experience, but also adapts to whatever device that the website is being viewed on. A website that implements responsive web design can be easily viewed on anything from a laptop to a smart phone to an iPad.

Small Business Websites | Responsive UX Design – www.medianovak.com

The “UX” in responsive UX design is short for user experience. The singular purpose of responsive web design is to enhance and improve the user experience for those who visit your website. Also known as responsive web design, this approach has an inherent fluidity that not only optimizes the viewer experience, but also adapts to whatever device that the website is being viewed on. A website that implements responsive web design can be easily viewed on anything from a laptop to a smart phone to an iPad.

ELEMENTS OF RESPONSIVE UX DESIGN

There are a few components that make responsive design work. One of the primary components is media queries. Media queries are what allow the website to adapt to different devices. It recognizes the device it’s being viewed on, as well as the width of the browser, and will let the page use different CSS rules. Fluid grids size the pages in relative units like percentages and ems. Unlike pixels, which are absolute, these units are changeable and easily adapt. The images displayed on the page will also be sized relatively to keep them in consistency with the rest of the page.

PREVALENCE OF MOBILE DEVICES

The reason why responsive web design has become such an important approach is because of the prevalence of mobile devices. Browsing the Internet via these devices has become a primary way for people to experience the web. It is often much more convenient as mobile devices can be used almost anywhere. Because of this, web designers realized the need to make their pages just as accessible and attractive on mobile devices as they are on personal computers.

CONSISTENCY

Responsive web design also gives your page consistency. This is important as you want a viewer’s experience to not have a great contrast, depending on the device they use. You don’t want them to have a negative viewing experience on one device that they do not experience on another. This can easily turn away loyal or potential visitors as it will inadvertently reflect poorly on the quality of your site. Responsive web design ensures that your page’s look and feel will remain at the same level of consistency from one device to another.

Small Business Websites | Responsive UX Design – www.medianovak.com

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If you want to get the most out of Twitter, consider scheduling a thorough “cleaning” of your account. All you need is about half an hour and a few online tools to turn down the noise and turn up the value.

Here are three steps for streamlining and cleaning up your company’s Twitter account:

1. Unfollow low-quality accounts. | Improving Your Twitter Strategy

If you’ve actively been using Twitter for a while, you might be following a significant number of accounts that don’t add anything to the conversation. These include spammers, abandoned accounts and people who don’t follow back. The good news is there are several online tools that can help you identify and remove these accounts from your lists.

If your ultimate goal is interaction, stop following people who haven’t followed you back. FriendorFollow is a popular service that makes it easy to see and disconnect from any non-followers. The tool can also help you locate accounts you haven’t followed back. FriendorFollow is free if you don’t mind unfollowing accounts one by one. If you want to unfollow in bulk, you’ll need to upgrade for $9.99 a month.

To remove unactive members from your follow list, UnTweeps is a simple, free program that helps you unfollow any accounts that haven’t posted in the last 30 days.

2. Follow new people. | Improving Your Twitter Strategy

Breathe new life into your account by finding new people to follow on a regular basis. This can help you network within your business or locate new customers. Look for people who post regularly and have a large number of followers. These “influencers” are likely to introduce you to their circle of friends if you retweet and reply.

To identify influencers, start with the “Who to Follow” box in your home page sidebar. From there, check Klout, a popular online service that ranks people based on their overall social media influence. Also try WeFollow, the Twitter directory that ranks accounts by category.

3. Give your profile a fresh look. | Improving Your Twitter Strategy

Since Twitter updated its profile page design, you can change the background, the header and your profile picture, as well as your bio. Enhance your branding by creating your own exclusive background. Choose a color that compliments your logo then go easy on the additional graphics.

The place to get creative is in the header. You can post a montage of photos that tell your company’s story or feature holiday or seasonal products throughout the year. Your header should say something about your personality.

Also, take a look at the recent photos in the sidebar. Your account should look lively and up-to-date, so regularly delete old photos or add new ones to push them off the front page.

Small Business Websites | Web Design and Development – www.medianovak.com

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First, lets go over why it is beneficial to the success of your photography business to have your images online.

Benefit #1: Your Photos Can Reach More People Online. | Image Protection

If you have a digital portfolio online, it is able to travel around the world and reach countless more people faster than if you tried to hoof it around your city with the binder of your printed portfolio.

Photography Websites | Web Design and Development – www.medianovak.com

For example, an internet user accessing the internet through a fiber-optic connection will access information on any website almost at the speed of light. And depending on the server that is hosting your website, you can have thousands of users accessing your images simultaneously. According to Mashable.com, the average American spends 13 hours per week on the internet. Over the last five years, internet usage is now rivaling TV usage. That’s pretty significant for photographers considering whether or not to put their portfolio online. According to Go-gulf.com, there are over 2 billion active online users. That is about 30% of the entire world population. By having your portfolio online and available for any number of those users to interact with, you are saving yourself a lot of walking.

Benefit #2: Posting Your Photos Online Saves You Money. | Image Protection

Can you imagine how stressful it would be to print enough portfolios to host a get-to-know-you meeting for 1,000 people all in the same room? You’d have to rent a banquet hall which could run you upwards of $3,500, spend probably another $3,000 in high-quality photo prints, buy all of the binders for at least $700, pay someone to assemble all of those binders, pay for the gas to travel to this crazy event, maybe pay for a few therapy sessions to de-stress your brain after the event…. no thank you.

The handy thing about having an online portfolio is that it is instantly accessible from anywhere and you don’t need to carry anything around with you. They can be updated easily and allow you to use features which will make your work look professional and displayed to its full potential.

Benefit #3: Posting Your Photos Online Saves You Time. | Image Protection

Again, your site doesn’t have to be complicated. You could have one page that is all about you: why you love photography, your experience, what you would bring to their photography needs, etc. That saves you at least 15 minutes of small talk with that room of 1,000 people from before. Then, you could have another page just with your pricing and package information clearly and concisely posted. That could save you two hour easily with those 1,000 people because you won’t have to answer questions that are specific to only them. Maybe your last page on your website is just your portfolio; clearly organized into specific categories so people can easily navigate to the type of photography that they are looking to hire you for. This page alone could save you countless hours of answering questions about what types of photography you do. If you ever want to update your portfolio, all you have to do is hop on your computer and upload new images. No more running around to all of your local coffee shops that are hanging your work to swap out displays with expensive re-prints. Just think… you can run an entire photography expo for thousands of people in your pajamas sipping your favorite cup of coffee. All you need is the internet. Then you have the rest of the day to do something else you love rather than sitting in meetings.

Now that you’ve explored why its a good idea to have your photography portfolio online, let’s talk about how to keep your images safe online. The best place to start is by knowing your rights. The US copyright laws are all available online at http://www.copyright.gov. If you are in another country, make sure to check your own countries copyright laws for discrepancies.

In the US, you can choose to register individual or groups of photographs (an entire wedding) with the Copyright Office to have them legally protected against fraudulent duplications and publications. You can either file hard copies of the image(s) or file them electronically. It will cost you to register with the Copyright Office but some photographers prefer to have the legal image protection.

Watermarks | Image Protection

There is another way to keep your images safe online. This method is faster, cheaper, and MUCH more simple. It’s called “watermarking”. You’ve seen these images before. You’re googling for a specific picture and up pops tons of great images with that strange white “x” or logo printed right over the image. That’s “watermarking”. It’s a simple way of image protection. Basically, it “ruins” the image so other people can’t steal your work and claim it as their own. The best part is that it can also act as free advertising for you. For example, you put up an awesome photo from your shoot this past weekend on facebook and it starts getting passed around like crazy. If it’s watermarked with your logo or url… BOOM! Free advertising. No one will have to ask “Wow! Which photographer did you use? I want to use them too!” They’ll know exactly who you are.

Photography Websites | Web Design and Development – www.medianovak.com

Image Protection | 5 figure photography

The post How Photographers Can Protect Their Images and 3 Reasons Why They Can’t Afford Not To appeared first on .