Dave McLean Photography: November 2010

Tuesday, 30 November 2010

16 Handy iPhone Apps for Better Blogging

16 Handy iPhone Apps for Better Blogging: "

This post originally appeared on the American Express OPEN Forum, where Mashable regularly contributes articles about leveraging social media and technology in small business.

The statistics indicate that small businesses with corporate blogs receive 55% more web traffic than small businesses that don’t blog. That’s why it is so important for companies to explore the possibility of adding blogs to their marketing and social strategies.

Blogging isn’t just writing posts. You have to choose images for your posts, monitor your blogging platform and analytics, market your blog and constantly think about new post ideas.

To keep your blogging activities flexible, there are several iPhone apps that you can use. This allows you to keep up with your blog no matter where you are.

These 16 apps will help you do just that. Add your favorite apps for blogging in the comments below.

Blogging Platforms

BlogPress ($2.99) provides complete mobile blogging, including text, images and video. It supports multiple platforms such as Blogger, WordPress, TypePad and many more.

If you don’t need to have multiple platforms at your disposal, there are some apps for specific blogging platforms available. And many are free.

WordPress for iOS (free) allows you to moderate comments, create or edit posts and add images or videos. You can use this app with both a WordPress.com or self-hosted WordPress.org site.

And if you have a Squarespace site, there’s an iPhone app (free) to create and manage your Squarespace site entirely from your iPhone. It also offers “seamless importing” from WordPress, Blogger, TypePad or Movable Type sites.

Images and Video

Strong images or videos increase reader interest and engagement, so they’re an important part of every blog post. And there are several apps that can help you find, format and insert them on the go.

Photobucket Mobile (free) allows you to upload photos and videos to your blog, Facebook or Twitter. The app also provides access to a searchable media library, with uploading capability and album management.

Adobe Photoshop Express (free) provides one-finger photo editing. You can crop, adjust, filter and add effects or borders on the go.

CellSpin ($1.99) offers the ability to capture video, photo, audio or text and upload it simultaneously on all of your social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, etc. This could be an easy way to send out photos of the team at a company event to your entire network (at one time!).

Marketing Your Blog

Once you have your blog up and running, you have to start marketing it. Some of the best ways to market your blog are via other social media sites.

Twitter (free) provides you with the same real-time search and trending topics you enjoy on your desktop.

If you are looking for more organization, Tweetdeck (free) provides the ability to create groups, manage multiple accounts as well as sync to your existing desktop Tweetdeck account.

Facebook (free) gives you access to not only your personal Facebook account but any company Pages to which you’re assigned administrator access, as well. So you can check your Pages and respond to comments.

Analytics

After spending time marketing your blog, it’s only natural to want to see the traffic numbers. Analytics App ($6.99) provides complete mobile access to Google Analytics.

Analytics Pro ($6.99) also provides access to Google Analytics, along with features to export data into reports, as well as grouping and sorting of accounts. In addition, it provides an intuitive date picker for setting the date range.

For a quick check on numbers like subscribers, Twitter followers and page views, Ego ($4.99) offers a single dashboard to check the statistics that matter to you.

Idea Gathering

Bloggers are constantly looking for their next post idea. To make sure you don’t forget your best ideas, consider a note-taking app.

Evernote (free) allows you to create text, photo and audio notes that will sync with your PC, Mac or Web. A nice feature is Evernote’s search capability, so you can store and catalog a lot of thoughts without losing them.

If you’re already using Microsoft OneNote, MobileNoter (free) can be used as a standalone app or synced with OneNote. It allows you to create notebooks and share your information. This could be very handy if you have a multi-contributor blog and want to exchange ideas among several people.

As the name implies, Simplenote (free) offers a straightforward, easy note-taking app that syncs with your computer. It’s a great place to jot down a list to reference later.

And while we’re talking about ideas, don’t forget to set up Google Reader on your iPhone so you can read your favorite blogs when you’re out of the office. Other blogs are a great source of inspiration.

Writing a blog is hard work. But it doesn’t have to be a burden. Finding a few apps that can make managing your blog a bit easier makes all the difference. What apps are you using to manage your blog? Leave a note in the comments.

More Blogging Resources from Mashable:

- 15 Excellent Corporate Blogs to Learn From
- 10 Tips for Corporate Blogging
- 10 Free Drupal Themes for Small Business
- 20 Free Social Media Icon Sets For a More Shareable Website
- 5 Hot Design Trends for Aspiring Bloggers

More About: Adobe Photoshop Express, Analytics Pro App, blogger, blogging, Cellspin, corporate blogging, evernote, facebook, google analytics, google reader, iphone, List, Lists, microsoft onenote, mobile blogging, photobucket, photobucket for iphone, simplenote, squarespace, tweetdeck, twitter, typepad, Wordpress

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Your First Glamour Shoot – NSFW

Your First Glamour Shoot – NSFW: "

Guest Post & Photo by Joe Farace – Follow Joe on Twitter

Developing a good working relationship with your model begins from the first moment you meet at the casting session—before the shot— but nowhere will your personality, working style, and communication skills are more helpful than when you have a model in front of your camera.

Before starting the session, tell the model about the kind of photographs you have in mind. Explain the kind of shot you are looking for, tell her the type of attitude you want her to express, and share any other information that will help her do a good job. If you have done a shot similar to the one you are working on, show a print from that session to her.

Respect a model’s privacy. Start by giving her a private place to change and do her makeup. Do not hang around when she’s changing clothes. When working with new models give her some additional time to warm up. This might be a new experience for her and many beginners will be a bit awkward at first—particularly during shoots that involve nudity. I use this same warm-up time to shoot some test shots for obtaining the best exposure and I’ll show the model what they look like so she has a sense of how she looks. Your can never compliment a model too much during a shoot. Talk her through the steps as you are shooting, and once she gets the idea of what you want, you can easily repeat the series again with different garments.

Another important rule is never touch a model. If it’s absolutely necessary for you to do so, ask permission first, but try to have her do it. Some photographers—I’ve noticed this in some wedding shooters—are used to touching their portrait subjects to place them in a pose. They get into this habit because of the high pressure and time crunches under which most weddings are photographed, where there is never enough time to talk people into poses. If you want a specific pose, show her by putting yourself in the pose so she can see what it looks like.

If you are doing a shoot in which the model is wearing lingerie or is nude, respect her privacy by offering a “closed set” environment where only the minimum number of people are watching her. Working quickly and professionally to minimize the time she spends waiting for you to get ready. If you are fiddling with lights and seem unorganized or clumsy, the model will lose her enthusiasm for the shoot and become bored. This boredom will show in the photographs and make the session a wasted one.

With experience, every photographer will develop his or her own personal style of working and communicating, but let common sense be your guide and treat each and every one of your models politely, professionally, and with respect.

Joe is the author of a new book called Joe Farace’s Glamour Photography: The Digital Photographer’s Guide to Getting Great Results with Minimal Equipment

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This post sponsored by WHCC – White House Custom Colour – Get Five Free 8×10 Prints From WHCC

Monday, 29 November 2010

How to Promote your Photography using Facebook

How to Promote your Photography using Facebook: "

A Guest Post by Saurabh Jain.

Being an amateur photographer, promoting my photography from commercial stand?point was difficult. I started my own website (burning a good amount of cash) whose promotion took me endless mailers and sharing on social networks, resulting in a page?loads exceeding my expectations however, generating almost no business. I had a feedback mechanism which never saw light of more than a couple of dozen comments. Upon investigating I concluded that reaching out to mass audience is possible via mail but to remain fresh in their memory is not possible and eventually you are branded as a virtual terrorist disguising under email bombing!

Therefore, I decided to give Flickr a try, I received considerable amount of comments and small business. No doubt Flickr is a great photo?sharing and networking tool but nothing beats Facebook, though it doesn’t provide you with great photography tools like Flickr, when it comes to promoting your commercial interests or otherwise.

Flickr enables you to connect to a large photographer community which may not really boost your business since most of them do what you are also looking at. However, through Facebook you really reach out to the audience who would be interested in hiring your services or buying your prints (if they like your work that is).

Best way to promote your photography is to start your Fan page (best naming option would be “(your name) photography” or name of your studio).

Starting a Fan page is easy but you should take care of certain things right from the onset to ensure a smooth run:

1. Pheromonise

As butterflies are attracted to beautiful flowers so are humans. People will be attracted to your photos if you can titillate their visual senses and unless your photographs appeal to them they wouldn’t lift that finger to press the like button. Hence, before starting a fan page have a backing of strong photographs which will pheromonise the fan base.

2. Rule of Patience

Having created a Fan page, do not rush to upload all your work at once. Hold on! take a deep breath and control the anxiety to showcase your work. It is a slow rather laborious task which is sure to reap benefits if carried out patiently.

3. Customer is the king

Start with uploading a couple of your best photos. Invite your friends requesting them to join the Fan page. Be polite and thank them once they have joined. You would want to treat others as you’d like to be treated.

4. Respect their “wall”

Most important thing to do is not to clog your page with more than one photo a day. It will help you get a more focused response from your fan base and will keep them away from blocking your posts appearing on their wall.

Posting a lot of photos at a time may irritate the viewer resulting in a more negative publicity rather than positive. Also, a person loses the patience to sit and comment on all the photos. Having a single photo ensures that you get all the eyeballs you year for!

5. Quality matters

The guru?mantra here is “Focus on quality rest all will follow” Upload only the shots which make you say out loud “Wow”. Posting not?so?good photos or just for the sake of posting will only result in a lower brand value. Make sure when you post, you post the best!

6. Touch their hearts

Be proactive and alert! Create content which has a chronological, social or political importance and touches your fan base.For example on Children’s day I posted a photo of a kid in her dad’s arms and gave out a message on female infanticide which got me hits of over 300 people. The photo was shared by a lot of users which helped me gain more user base.

7. Tag people

Don’t shy away from tagging people. It only increases your brand value and fan base. As, a photo once tagged is displayed on the wall of the entire friends list of that person. Moreover, people feel happy if they are being tagged.

8. Be choosy

As getting that one shot may take several agonising hours so does getting users to your fan page. Consider some interesting facts from the most popular fan pages.

Roger Federer’s official page with 5 Million fan base gets only 0.5% response (includes likes and comments)at max per post.

Facebook’s own page which has over 26 Million fans gets roughly between .1 to .3% response.

Therefore, reach out to a set of audience you think could help you with the business. If you are a wedding photographer, it makes little sense to promote your page to someone in Iran when your operational area is limited to India. It will surely increase the number of users but may not lead to commercial benefits.

Personally, I am very choosy of who joins my page and with a fan base of around 450 my photos receive response of somewhere between .8% and 7% with an average of 4.2%.

Being selective has helped me stay close to constructive criticism and has helped me generate constant revenues which otherwise may not have been possible. Initially, it was a little tough but as the good work started spreading, word also spread. My work has taken me to a lot of places across India (all expenses paid).

9.) Ads

Once you have constant revenues, you may opt for Facebook ads which are highly customisable as per age and locational preferences. They work out real cheap!

If you take care of above points it is sure to result in a great fan page with quality fan base. Do you run a fan page? How is your experience from commercial stand?point?

note from the editor: Don’t forget to check out the dPS facebook page here. ‘Like’ us to stay in touch.

Check out more from Saurabh Jain on his… Facebook Page!

Post from: Digital Photography School