yes you should have a blog!

<p>So I just finally had a few seconds to rub together and had a chance to look over the trends month to month of the different pages on my site. And as some of you predicted, my blog without a doubt gets WAY more hits than any other page. Some months more than double the hits my main page does. That means that people aren't going to my main page and clicking on the link to the blog. They are finding the blog probably on google or something, and then going straight to the blog. The numbers I'm seeing without a doubt make a VERY strong case for me to keep up the blogging actively. <br>

For those of you who don't have a blog yet, don't be afraid, it's much easier than I thought. Download wordpress onto your server and download the free plug in for a better image viewer nextgengallery I believe it is called, and go from there. <br>

Hopefully this uptick in traffic will lead to more clients. ;)</p>

<p>-Vail</p>

<p>I do a WordPress blog and use a ProPhoto template on it to actually use as my main site, and people have responded quite well to it. WELL worth the investment.</p>

<p>I think having a blog is a very important aspect of communication and staying connected with past, current and future clients.</p>

<p>Squarespace has great tools to creating a blog and website. they are a fee based website though. You also might look into tumblr.com as well. they have alot of free themes. I find these sites better than wordpress.</p>

<p>I also have way more traffic to my blog than my main site - which is certainly at least partly due to the fact that my blog was around for at least a year before my official .com happened. Still, though, once I've got the traffic, I can't let down!</p>

<p>My Blog is the one part of the site that has remained "Under Construction" for far too long. For me, the most important reason for updating the blog, is to show potential clients that you're working. The failure in my most recent attempt at keeping a blog, was that I felt like my entries were more geared towards other photographers: I used these shooting conditions, or this piece of equipment, etc...</p>

<p>In that respect, I think I used it as a tool to catalog my achievements and proper uses of techniques, instead of showing off my work to future (or existing) clients... Any advise on how to proceed as I begin to dig my blog "out of construction!?"</p>

<p>I have geared my blog in three directions. The first is creating entries that the couples will want to share with their friends and go back and look at time and time again. The next is making sure they are personable and try to give potential couples a flavor for what I would be like as a photographer and as a person. And the last is just general advice for brides and grooms with things I pick up along the way. This seems to pick up traffic.</p>

<p>Vail you have the right idea...the ideal blog article should be about something your potential client will want to read, or a question or problem they might have....Examples are "Five things to consider when choosing a wedding photographer". This is what people will link to and ultimately will cause you get to qualified traffic and leads if you do it regularly.<br>

<br />Also important is using relevant keywords in the title of the articles (as in my example above, probably should be geo-specific)...Even more crucial is making sure the blog is on the same domain as the main website (and not blogspot.com, wordpress.com, etc.)<br>

<br />Here is a treasure trove of information on blogging and how businesses should be doing it:<br /><a href="http://www.hubspot.com/business-blog-marketing-hub">http://www.hubspot.com/business-blog-marketing-hub</a><br>

<br />Please let me know if this makes sense of if there are questions....Good luck!</p>