What to add to website?

[Biomech]

Hello once again all

I have a quick question. I have my website up and in the process of finishing it off. What I want to do is add a reason for people to return and read over my "blog" and site. Does anyone have any ideas of what I could add to make people want to meander through a bit more?

I could add technique and technical articles - which would be fine but I see it as counter productive - why are people going to hire me if I've just told them how to do it / better their own photography? (note: I'll be chaing the "blog" section to "news" tonight)

The only thing I can think of thus far is some kind of updating time lapse photojournal type thing. I don't know, like progression of a local build or renovation, decaying of an apple - you know.

All ideas welcome

Cheers

[BigFuzzy]

Every single website that has a regular readership has one thing in common. Content. Frequent and unique content. It's that simple. You need to find a way to create unique and consistent content that causes people to return to your site.
I can't tell you what exactly that will be for you, but I'm assuming it'll be photography related. Therefore you need to ask yourself what you have to offer that none of the 100billion photography sites offer and provide that. Or at the very least, if it's going to be a photo-blog like so many others, you need to ensure you provide even unoriginal content in a way that is distinctly yours.

Does that help?

[Biomech]

Yeah helps a bit, I just can't think of "what" content to put up. Like I said, I don't want to be writing guides for potential clients to better their own photography - otherwise they won't need me :P

[BigFuzzy]

I know some people who use their blog entries to talk about the shoots they've done recently. How it went. What went wrong. What they learned. New techniques used, etc etc.

I've always wanted to create a section of my site where people can submit photos for critique.. but then I just use DPS. Eventually, when i get banned for taking shots at some member here with an overblown sense of relevance (myself included!), then I'll start my own critique section and try to fuse humor and education all in one.. IF possible.

[lonni]

Hi

I personally will continue reading and checking someones blog for a number of reasons, obviously content, but also if i like the authors writing voice, getting to know them a little, some people add little personal annectdotes, and if it is soemthing different.

You can add plenty of photo related stuff on your blog, remember your target audience is you customer, the photo consumer, not photographers so technical stuff is not needed.

In my blog i share a number of things including:

photos i like from other photographers, usually really famous ones like ansell adams so i dont direct customers away from my own business

local exhibitions and my thoughts on the work

Sample images from recent shoots with anecdotes about how beautiful the subject was, how easy they were to shoot etc, the clients will love to hear you gushing over them

Sneak peaks, usually the best few shot i see from a shoot, i edit it quickly within a few days of the shoot, keeps teh customers from bugging you and they usually will direct their friends to your blog to see them.

I write about each of my products, albums, print and paper types, and tell the customers how much tehy need to, what they can do with it etc, basically a sales pitch. I try to dress it up a bit, a post on wall canvasses was disguised as a home decor article, album post was disguised as a perfect fathers day gift etc.

Photography related quotes

I also do some how to get the best from your photographer tips, like make sure you see a wedding photographers whole album for one wedding so you can see you are not being shown a few good shots from each event and have the rest turn out crap, another popular post was about dressing for a family portrait shoot, illustrated with my own images, tips included colour coordination, no busy atterns etc.

I show some landscape shots of the locatiosn i shoot portraits in and write why i like them.

Do some style related ones, If you are a wedding photographer i would reccomend doing some posts on wedding trends, to get the brides reading, baby photographer cute outfits, toys etc.

I hope that helps, it should keep you going for a bit.

[Peter Ahrens]

It might help to look through blogs that are similar to yours and see what sort of content they are writing and what you find interesting.