And if you haven’t been following the progress of the Options Panel feature I’ve been working on, I’ve decided to build them for new blogs and blogsites for free. No, it’s not part of the sale, it comes standard!

In order of least to most important:

1. Not blogging enough. I have the same issue myself, but like you I’m sometimes too busy to blog on a weekly or bi-weekly basis. But one of the most common questions I get asked is “how can I improve my SEO and Google rankings?”. Well, the simple answer is, you’re not blogging enough! And by blogging, I don’t mean just posting photos, but TALKING about the photos, photo shoot location, etc.. that help with generating more content that the search engines LOVE to read. The quantity and frequency of the content is what will send search engines crawling on your site. If you take a look at your stats, often you’ll find the search engine bots crawling, and that’s a GOOD THING! This is just one way to increase SEO, but the rest is for another post.
2. Having too many blog posts on the each page.  This might be something you’re unaware of, but the default for WordPress is to show 10 posts per page. That’s fine if your blog posts are only full of text, but photographers (especially you wedding photographers!!!) are notorious for an over-abundance of image-filled posts. I have one client (I will not name names) literally had at least 100 images on their front page, and that was only with 3 posts!!! And they were wondering why their blog was loading so slow… Ok, so to set the number of posts per page, go to Settings—>Reading in your blog admin and set the “blog pages show at most” to something like 5, but it all depends on how many images per post you average. I would suggest 5 if you post no more than 3 or 4 per post. Make it less if you post more.
3. Forcing large image files to fit your blog width. Some of you may not even know you’re doing this! But if you’re uploading full size image files (i.e. full res, larger than 1000 pixels wide most likely), but you see that they fit just nicely in your blog, it could be because your themes style sheet is FORCING your images to fit. That’s all nice and dandy except of course, your image file sizes are larger than they need to be and will therefore slow down the loading of your blog pages. The BEST thing to do is to figure out the width of your blog post and set the medium or large image size to THAT. So say your post width is 900 pixels wide, then go to your blog admin under Settings–>Media. These are the settings where you tell WordPress what sizes you want your image to be resized to after uploading a full res image file.  Now set the medium or large size to that width.  I also suggest using that same number for the height so that your files stay the same file size regardless of orientation. Lastly, you then use that size (medium or large) for the size you insert into your posts. Of course, you can set this number to be less than your post width, but DON’T set it larger or you’ll have unnecessarily large file sizes.
4. NOT watermarking your images. This is the #1 way to safeguard your images. I know, some people think they’re ugly and intrusive, but some may be done discretely yet can be difficult to remove. I highly recommend doing it, either using a batch process in Photoshop or Lightroom, or using a plugin like Scissors that will automatically watermark your images after upload. Regardless if you have a right-click disable script in place or if you make sure not to do #5 on this list, there are still going to be tech-savvy people out there using the print-screen key stroke on their computer to take a screenshot of your blog. There is NO script out there that you can install on your blog that will prevent people from doing that. The kind of watermark I suggest is similar to the one I use on my photography blog, a low opacity strip across the lower section that doesn’t cover faces and would be difficult to remove without cropping off a good part of the image.
5. Hyperlinking images to the full sized (full resolution) version. This has got to be my biggest pet peeve. I’ve seen photographers’ blogs that have copyright messages and right-click disable scripts installed everywhere on their blog, but then they don’t realize that they’re linking the images to FULL RESOLUTION versions of their web-sized images. That’s basically telling anyone, “hey click here and download this image for free!”  There may still be a few photographers out there that “give” away their images on CD for cheap, so maybe they don’t care that the images are then accessible on the web, but most photographers I know who want to protect their product wouldn’t want this situation to occur. So here’s the simple fix: before you insert your images into your post, make sure where it says “Link URL” in the image dialog box, it’s set to “none” and not “file URL” or “post URL”. Post URL isn’t what it sounds like. It will actually add the URL for the attachment page, which uses a page template you may or may not have, but it’s basically a page that shows just that image. I don’t recommend using it unless you aware that you have an attachment page template in your theme files.

I hope this list helps you in your quest to blog effectively, efficiently, and most importantly, creatively for your photography business.

Here’s a screenshot of what I’m talking about:

So how can you get one for your theme you ask? Well for now, they’re not available just yet because I still need to work out some programming issues, but for anyone who signs up for a Blog/Blogsite package this month, I will be adding one to the theme I build for you so that I can practice and test it out. For now, these are the options that are definitely available:

Main Options:

• Background color and pattern
• Blog column background color

Header:

• Logo pattern and size
• Logo Text and size/color
• Header and Logo background color

Menu:

• Menu background color
• Menu headings color
• Menu home text
• Menu home text link

etc….

There are also options for the Post and Footer sections, but you get the idea. I’ll most likely be practicing and testing for the next month and will probably offer Options panel add-ons by the end of September for a pretty minimal cost. The process of adding it should work for nearly all themes, although some themes are already built-in with options. The beauty of this system is that you can request what options you want, to a certain extent. Some blog builds can get pretty complicated so some changes can’t be included in the Options panel simply because the layouts would break (custom scripting is an example) or just look messy (i.e.custom borders and edges). But if you want some pretty straightforward, simple options that you can have control over any time you want, then you now have that luxury!

So remember, if you’re looking to sign up for a blog or blogsite package, this month would be the time to do it because they will come with a built-in Theme Options panel!

Lower Prices on Tune-Up Package!
With WordPress upgrades getting easier and easier to maintain, I’ve decided to lower the price on the Tune-Up package by $25. Tune-ups for existing clients is now $125 and $150 for new clients. You’ll still get 5 customizations and WordPress and active plugins upgraded.

New Maintenance Package! $150 for 4 months
Available to existing clients who previously signed up for a Complete Blog or Blogsite Package, this maintenance package gives you peace of mind that your blog is working smoothly. Need a customization? No problem. For a 4 month service period, customizations are included as long as you stick with the same theme and layout. Have a problem with a plugin not working? Also included, as well as any WordPress version upgrades. Exclusions: blogsite upgrades (i.e. custom gallery pages info template pages). If you are looking for complete theme re-build, see the next option….

Theme Re-builds $260
Also only available to existing Complete Blog and Blogsite package clients. Want a completely different look and layout? A brand spanking new theme re-build is what you want. Same support service period and unlimited customizations are included as the other blog packages, just less expensive for my devoted clients!

Horizontal Blogs $800 $600 for a limited time
This at-first strange layout has slowly gained popularity in the blog world. Never one to back down from a challenge, I came up with my own theme, which can be customized with your logo and branding. Note: there are some limitations because of the nature of horizontal layouts. It’s been tested on multiple browsers, but not all mobile devices (not compatible with the Facebook mobile browser).
For a demo of the horizontal theme, view the Blogs for Photogs Horizontal Theme. Contact me if you are interested and want to find out more information.

Become an Affiliate and earn free customizations!
Are you a photographer or photography service provider? Do you have a banner link section or page and interested in bartering for advertising? Contact me if you’d like to become an affiliate and earn free customizations for your blog or blogsite.

I’ll be fixing this issue for clients who still fall within their support period, but if you want to hire me to do it, it’s just $50 or included for free if you sign up for a Tune-Up package.

Well now, I can say I have it probably 85% figured out. I’ve worked hard in getting my photography blogsite working correctly on an iPhone and I think I now have it to where I’m quite happy with it. Here are some goals I was trying to accomplish:

• increase text size to increase readability on small devices
• format the width to increase visibility of post images and text (many blogs are wider than the default 980 pixels width allowed)
• insure that galleries are viewable (non-flash compatible)
• verify menu compatibility
• verify forms are operational
• overall formatting of theme structure works correctly

When I say that I’m 85% there, I have to admit that I can’t be 100% sure only because I don’t own an iPad, so I can’t verify the layout on that device.  THIS is one of the reasons why I’m offering a special this Spring.  For any custom blog or blogsite, I will create a mobile version of  your site for free. In actuality, you’ll be helping me out since I need more practice in creating mobile stylesheets.  If any of you have Androids or iPads, that would be a double bonus for me.  For blogsites, I always install a non-flash compatible photo gallery system, so portfolio galleries always show up.  I’ve also found a flash slideshow plugin that stacks photos in posts when viewed on a non-flash browser.

Here’s a side by side comparison of my blogsite that shows the difference between what it looks like on 1) Firefox for PC 2) Safari on an iPhone 4 and 3) mobile plugin called Wapple Architect.  Click on the thumbnail to see the pc screenshot.

Firefox on pc
(1440px widescreen reduced to 1200px):

custom mobile style on Safari on iPhone (320px wide):

Mobile theme using Wapple Architect plugin

As you can see, the iPhone version is more readable now with the text and width adjustments.  If I were to leave it alone and just let the default stylesheet load, the text would be TINY and the width of the blog would make image viewing difficult as well.  The mobile plugin theme is….yuck.  It doesn’t look much like my blogsite and images are small, and I had to hack it quite a bit to show the first image at all.

Spring Special: Free mobilized style for all Complete Blog and Blogsite Packages – sign up by April 30th, 2011. The cost to mobilize an existing blog theme is $50. After April 30th, the cost to add on a mobilized theme will be $100.

I’m currently trying to figure out an easy fix, but seeing as the plugin has cornered the market on the inline comments and comment forms functionalities, I have yet to find an alternative.  For now, my only suggestion is that you DON’T upgrade to WordPress 3.1 if you haven’t already, at least until the plugin developer comes back with a fix, which hopefully will be soon.  He announced nearly 9 months ago that an upgrade was imminent so I’m crossing my fingers and toes that it will be very soon.  Maybe my message to him about the plugin being broken will prompt him to release it sooner.

Again, inline comment forms (typically on the front page of blogs, not individual posts) are returning error messages with the current WordPress 3.1 upgrade.  Comments are still coming through though, but at least you know to inform your blog visitors that their comments are still being received.

The Tune-up package is only $150 for existing clients and $175 for new clients. Just fill out the Sign-up form and be sure to mention the January special. The deal ends at the end of the month.