Hi all, I have created a website aimed at photographic talents. The idea behind the site was to allow users to upload their best photos to me, which i will then go ahead and create an article from to promote the photographer (1 article a day) Obviously creating one article a day, the site will grow in time, but my biggest concern is bringing in the initial traffic....?? Right now i am keeping the site very simple - ive also gone with a simple and clean theme with high resolution images being displayed and no sidebar content. From experience, what is the best way to gain traffic to a site, i've put in the effort to modify the site to make it look the way it is right now, and willing to make the effort to gain traffic also, just need to know the best way how. Is my site ready to publicise yet? or should i add more to it beforehand? All comments and critiques are welcome and will be taken seriously... Website: www.hdsnapshot.com If there are some photographers on these forums who would like to get involved please do submit your work
You could try uploading some photographs on deviantart and add a link under them to your site. People often visit the authors site if they like what they see. You could also make a facebook page that would link back to your site and you can try twitter.
Why don't you try the Pinterest? start sharing photos and followers. You will have some fans and fans would check your website. Google sees you have direct or referral traffic and then they would also send you traffic.
Hey nsta. First of all - I love your idea. I've got lots of ideas for you for long term growth, but let's start with initial traffic, as you have mentioned. Here's what I would do to right now: 1.Beef up the site a little more. Add more content, especially photos. You can even upload a few photos of your own. You see, visitors to your site who arrive only to find a single photo will be put off. So get some photos, at least 5 I'd say.. 2.Create a little giveaway, maybe a small report about photography, maybe a how-to report, and start building your list. I'm sure there are many posts here about that subject. The thing is, building your list is crucial to the growth of your blog as the people who love your site are your best audience. Once they're on your list you'll be able to communicate with them and when there's a new post on your blog you can let them know and drive traffic to your blog. 3.Start blogging regularly. I'd say 3 times a week at least. You can have a photo blog, with only captions or a few words about each photo. There are many photo blogs and lovely WordPress photo blog themes for free. Just do a search. 4.Start commenting on other people's blogs. Relevant blogs of course. And leave thoughtful, interesting, relevant comments. This will drive interested parties to your blog. 5.I second what other posters have said about social media. Twitter is a must in my view, but also Pinterest, Flickr and Tumblr are very much photographers' friendly. You can find a lot of great information on how to use social media effectively on Social Media Examiner . 6.Read this case study of a guy who started a photography blog and how he built traffic to it. This can inspire you: http://www.incomediary.com/3-month-summery-of-a-new-blog Let me know once how you're doing and I can help you as you go along. Hope that helps
Set up voting and have a contest. Win a $20 gift card for the most outrageous, best, funniest, or whatever, photo. Publicize that in a few places and it should do a few things to help your site: 1.) Bring Visitors 2.) Provide Backlinks 3.) Get you some content Use appropriate blog comments, social bookmarks, classified ads to promote the contest. If you are going to use different catagories for your photos then start off with an easier one. Win $25 in free diapers for the cutest baby photo. Gift card from Amazon. You could also offer a free 3 day 2 night stay, as a larger prize. At one time I could get hotel certificates for $5-$6 each. Hit the newlywed or bridal planning blogs. Win a free 2 night stay in Las Vegas or ??? To get it started you could always pay microworkers to add photos and or bookmark. Good luck, Steve
Yes, actually contests are a great idea. For affordable microworkers I there are two websites worth checking out: Fiverr Amazon Mechanical Turk
Social Media today seems to do well with images, especially Pinterest. Photographers could definitely be there.
The best advice is, think about where photographers hang out on the web...or off the web. Go to those places, and put your website link in front of them. It's pretty simple
There are some ways to increase traffic on your site... - Write more content - Get your own domain - Guest blog - Link to others posts - Pay attention to your stats....etc
Thanks to all!! Very useful and informative information I've created my first post on my website here at www.hdsnapshot.com - I would like to know how you all feel of the layout and design of my frontpage and content pages - i was going for the minimalistic clean approach with a emphasis on bringing out the images. Does anyone know of any photographers who would like to make a contribution to test it all out? Would love to write a few more posts to get the ball rolling.... Thanks for all the help thus far!!!
Try using the Google Keyword tool and type away with ideas that you believe would closely related to what you are trying to offer. Then use that list of keywords or keyword phrases. Create articles on a different site. Place banner ads to your site and build quality links to your site. I would try to create mini sites at least 10 with 5-10 articles a month. On different hosting accounts, then link those sites to your site with quality backlinks. You will establish your primary site as the most important website on the internet related to your niche. Market research is critical for the success of your site. Best of luck!
Its not about photography site. Generally, the rules of making your site popular are the same - use SEO, use social network sharing, use youtube advertisement, use PPC advertisement etc.
Thanks to all so far, Ok i got my first photographer showcased today, and would like to know if this article has enough content for viewers to be interested to see more. You will also see the way i would like to lay out my articles to showcase the photographer! Things i've been doing in the past few days after your advice... 1) Created Facebook/Twitter/Pinterest Accounts 2) Followed photographers on twitter, and have about 30 followers on twitter now 3) Pinned images from my article posts to pinterest, so if i had 5 images in a post, id pinned them all separately with a link back to my site. 3) Indexed my site with Google, Bing and Yahoo, created a sitemap, and image submit for sumbission to these search engines Am i on the right path?...im thinking of promoting my site with giveaways, like a $50 amazon voucher for the best image submitted, or maybe 3 x $20 vouchers for the best 3 images submitted to draw some attention... Should i wait a while before starting the giveaway as i dont have much of an audience yet? any other hints to make my site more appealing? Thanks in repsonse!
Facebook and twitter can be quite good for this purpose. These will take time but these methods are free. You can post about your website on photography fan pages on Facebook. This is really an effective way to promote your website.