need Ideas on how to marked my photography business

[neusphotography]

Its a landscape photography company and I'm just trying to get the word out there about it. The company is called Northeast United States Photography. here is the link if anyone wants to take a look http://www.neusphotography.webs.com I was wondering if anyone knew of any ways to help me market ideas. Your help would really count.

[Anbesol]

Welcome to the forums. I am confident you will be pleased with the photography counsel you receive here.

First off, you posted this question in the wrong forum, this is 'off topic', this belongs in the forum "Photo Business and Law".

Secondly, I would ask more specific questions to get better answers. Specifically, what kind of photography do you offer, and more importantly what clientele are you seeking? In order to help you on marketing ideas, we'd need to know specifically who you are marketing your services to.

Hope that helps.

[mn shutterbug]

For one thing, I'd come up with a different website. The type is incredibly tough to read and nobody wants to have to join anything just to view someone's photos. I won't and didn't.

[neusphotography]

does it bring you to the freewebs sign in page or are you just talking about my mailing list because the only thing you could sign in is the mailing list at the home page which is totaly optional..

[mn shutterbug]

The name of your business is at the top, with a dark gray background. Halfway down, it asks a person to subscribe to the site by entering your name and email address.

[jetrim]

OK I've browsed through your website, and to put things as nicely as possible, the first thing you need to invest in is a spell checker because misspelled words sprinkled throughout a "professional" web site does NOT look very professional. Next, if you are trying to jump into this on the cheap, AT LEAST get an e-mail that reflects the company/website name (neus@free-mail.com or something similar). Actually, websites are not prohibitively expensive in the grand scheme of things, about the cost of a decent 4gig CF card - per year (and then you get unlimited e-mail adresses XXXXX@neus.com). I pay about $6/month for 600gigs of space and that includes 3 choices of photogalleries with shopping cart plug-ins available for each along with a ton of other helpful software for content management. My website is totally unrelated to photography, though I do keep a private gallery on it to host my own photos for display here and elsewhere, and the points I've made above are just general business advice, not photography specific.

One of the big nit-picks here and at other photography sites is keeping the shot framed level and plumb, unless it has been obviously skewed for artistic effect, especially water shots. Recheck your offerings and I think you'll agree that a great majority need to be rotated 1 to 2 degress.

Before you get angry and write me off as a crusty "old timer" or "forum bully", understand that I have been here a VERY short time, but my photography has improved immeasurably due to great wealth of talented individuals here that have helped me along. That's what I'm trying to do for you. You may not like what I have written, but it's better to here it now, than from a potential customer, later - or worse yet, sit at home wondering why nobody ever visits your website a second time.

Last thing. Do a google search on "SEO" and read until your eyes bleed (stands for search engine optimization) you will learn more than you ever imagined possible about what it takes to promote your website on the internet and get to the top of the search engine lists so people know you're out there with something to offer them.

Good luck,
Jet

[neusphotography]

OK I think It should work now I have confermed from someone else with a different ip address then mine that the site is up thank you for your help in pointing this out to me.

[neusphotography]

no way thanks for the advice I'm doing this to put some extra money in my pocket. You typed a lot and I am going to fix what you pointed out... thanks for writing check back soon.

[another view]

I just checked out your site and you seem to have fixed some of the things others have brought up. One thing that's a big pet peeve to me is spelling and grammar. If you're putting together a professional website with the goal of doing business with people, you should really get all of this right. The Catskill Mountains are the name of a specific place and should be capitalized and I don't think it's appropriate there to abbreviate "Mountain". Sentences should always be followed by two spaces after a period and then the first word of the next sentence should be capitalized.

I see a lot of things like this on your site. Frankly, I see a lot of that in your posts here ("marked" should be "market"?) but this is more casual than a something that represents a business. First impressions...

Continuing on the pet peeve angle, I see this more and more and it makes me cringe. Our local newspaper not only does things like this but gets a.m. and p.m. wrong fairly often. A major manufacturer of light fixtures (a supplier I've used in my line of work) used the wrong form of a word on their home page. I can't remember what it was, something along the lines of there, their or they're, but the impression stuck. Proofreading a couple of times, maybe by more than one person, is a good thing to do.

[Skyman]

I have to politely disagree with another view in regard to the two spaces after a period. I was told that once many years ago, but it actually flies in the face of good formatting. If you think of the text as a design element in your page, keeping a persons eyes inside the text in the same way you would provide a point of interest in a photograph will aid the reception of your message. Using a double space after a period creates a subtle gap in the text that can allow your eye to drop off the line you are reading. This is especially true when using sans serif fonts and if several gaps line up to create a "river" in your text. This is why professional typesetting applications such as indesign or quark offer very precise control over the kerning of text, but I digress.

With regard to your website. Spelling and Grammar are only half the battle. You have less than three seconds to grab someone's interest before they hit the back button so make that time count. I had to read your first paragraph three times before I could work out what you actually meant.

Always understand that just because you are thinking about something a lot doesn't mean your audience will make the knowledge leaps that you make. In fact assume they won't make those leaps. There is often a big difference between what you say, what you mean and how that is understood by those you say it to. (read that last sentence carefully it is a simple concept but hard to apply)

unless you have a branding concept (your homepage design is out of sync with what you are actually selling - not to mention the annoying banner adds they are definitely not professional and wouldn't encourage me to buy your work) I wouldn't bury your photos like that as those that do click through to the gallery would be expecting a different style of photography than what is actually there.

That comment about images not being exactly how they are displayed, anyone who buys your photos and doesn't already know that falls under the caveat emptor category, however that statement should be made part of your terms and conditions. You need to ensure the purchaser is aware of exactly what they are getting (file format, pixel ratios) you also need to come up with a license type that suits you.

That is my thoughts anyway. Good luck, I hope it turns into something profitable for you.

[neusphotography]

Wow I just noticed how my subject should have said market instead, that was a typing mistake. The problem is I type really fast. Thank you for your help everyone I take no offense to anyone's advice. This is my first business and I am still in college learning. Again thanks for pointing out what I have missed. I tried to make corrections that were already brought up tell me what you think.