Learn to customize your photography blog!

Quit banging your head on your desk and learn how to do it for real! Hosting? Who? CSS? What? You're a photographer not a computer programmer for cryin' out loud! The next photoblog101 workshop starts the week of October 10...stay tuned for registration information.



Archive: ‘workshop participant spotlight’



Workshop Participant Spotlight: Megapixie Photography

Tuesday, December 28th, 2010

Annemie is an August 2010 workshop participant.  And she rocked her blog.  She’s a portrait and wedding photographer in Chapel Hill, NC.  She went the distance with a rounded-corner top and patterned border.  Doesn’t the pattern just work perfect with the neutral gray background?

Want to know my favorite part?  The part that just jumped out at me and totally made me smile?  She gave herself credit for the blog right in her header.  Hello proud student!

Isn’t that so cute?  I love her slideshow too.  Sometimes it’s awkward and almost painful to crop pictures to work in such a wide horizontal space.  She took her time and designed slides that accommodate traditional cropping & keep the viewer interested.

Stop by Megapixie Photography and give sweet Annemie a pat on the back!

written by:  Nancy

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Product Spotlight | Splash Page Editors

Saturday, December 4th, 2010

Tired of the plain ol’ plain ol’ stuff that EVERY photographer seems to have these days?  We thought so, otherwise you wouldn’t be here, reading our info about customizing blogs from scratch.  If you wanted to be like everyone else you’d buy a limited capability template, right?  We know that isn’t you but this product just may be something you can use…

Well, if you’ve purchased a flash site it probably came with a default 3 or 4 link splash page, but those can be boring.  Why not think about doing something MORE fun and more YOU with something completely custom? You can always create a splash-page in photoshop (CS+) using the slice tool and then uploading to your site, but these solutions are WAY more dynamic and inexpensive too!

Deco Imaging has a great subscription software service called “Splash Page Editor” which is REALLY neat.  You only pay when you need to use the service to change your splash page, not every month.  So, you can update 1x for only $15!

OR…

Kimtown.com has the most awesome-ist (that is a word, really!) Splash Yourself Editor.  Kimtown’s is not only very affordable ($35!!) but eASY as well.  It’s JAM PACKED with features.  Check out what Tamsen – a Niagara family and newborn photographer has done over at Creative Clicks Photography.  She’s MAXED her SEO by having two domains and using an effective splash page! (shown in transition of her slide show below)  Wow, her site is looking GREAT!

The Splash Yourself Editor has a full featured back-end area to make modifications.  The thing that makes me love it most though is the slideshow feature.  It has a very “high-end” feel but is super easy to do!  Go ahead, visit Tamsen’s site and check out how cool this looks!

photography-blog-seo-custom-splash-page

As the slow season approaches consider updating YOUR web-presence.  Start at the top with a high-end splash page but make sure it leads to a completely CUSTOM and great blog… our next workshop signup is in just a few weeks so STAY TUNED.  If you want to get a head-start, the workshop workbook is at a low into price of $129 through the end of the month :) .

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Workshop Participant Spotlight: Jenn Campbell Photography

Sunday, August 8th, 2010

Photoblog101 workshop participants are churning out some really unique blogs.  Jenn Campbell started from scratch.  She’d seen photoblog101 on Clickin’ Moms and Willette Designs.  She signed up, secured hosting & domain registration and was off (like a prom dress?  like a rocket?  to the races?)!  Check it out:

workshop participant spotlightShe’s incorporated a custom background texture, added padding and shadow at the top of the blog, customized her font and link colors, added a border around her slideshow (oh yeah, she totally learned the whole slideshow bit in the workshop too!) and completely customized the bottom footer area.  She also did a lot of work with plugins including the “share on facebook” option you see at the bottom of posts.

Something tells me Jenn will continue to personalize this blog but it’s so great to see what she’s done with what we taught her.  This workshop takes all of the guesswork and frustration out of customizing your own blog.  I’m hoping she sticks around the graduate forum when her session is over so we can watch what she does with this blog as well as continues discussion with other graduates.

Please stop by www.jenncampbell.com and leave her some love.  She’s worked hard and done such an impressive job.  Yay Jenn!!

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