Hey Tofurious… WTF Man?

by on May 17, 2012 in Thoughts

Dear Tofurious,

WTF Man? I guess you really, truly are without shame. Are you and David Jay secretly lovers? It’s OK if you are, I’ve marched in San Diego’s Gay Pride parade carrying the Equality flag before, so I have nothing against it if you two are together. I mean you must be. You both have this delusional megalomaniac thing going on where you actually think your products are quality, and where Ethics and Integrity mean nothing to you.

Look, I’ve produced a couple stinkbugs in my time. My Flaunt Uploader was released a little prematurely, but I have taken the comments and I’m back at the drawing board trying to get it right for people.

And… making WordPress themes with shitty code is one thing (well… you really did fuck up the RSS url’s in that RSS icon, so people couldn’t subscribe correctly). I’ll admit, I’ve made a few bucks fixing Tofu themes.
But when you create a plugin and then just blatantly copy another person’s artwork to promote it, that’s just plain chickenshit.

Shall I remind you:

This is Phil Derkson’s artwork for his popular Pin It button. Yes, it’s even more popular than the one that Jamie Swanson and I put out.

Does it look familiar? It should, because you FUCKING COPIED IT!

You want to make plugins that are slight variations off of others, that’s great. Go ahead. That’s what makes Open Source/GPL amazing.

However, I don’t know if you’ve noticed but while WordPress and Joomla do pretty similar things (publish and manage content for websites), they have their own identities.

As of this writing Phil’s plugin has had 43,945 downloads.
Mine and Jamie’s has been downloaded 11,429 times.
And you’re what??? Charging for yours? $25 bucks!!! Shit you are delusional.

But I get it… The joke’s on the photographers that will actually purchase it. There may be a few. You have reach and numbers… You might get a thousand or so. But then you’ll just be laughing all the way to the bank. $25k in one of your back pockets, and David Jay’s hand in the other.

Interview with PPA Magazine

by on May 17, 2012 in Studio News

Last month I was interviewed by PPA Magazine on the topic of web design and SEO, it was supposed to be for their online edition only. But surprise!!! I actually made it to the print version as well. My good friend Jamie Swanson from The Modern Tog caught me on Facebook chat the other day and told me all about it. How cool is that?

Well, I couldn’t be more stoked. I’m delighted to be able to contribute to the photographic community.

Here are some tearsheets that Maria Bernal sent me. I guess it’s time to renew my PPA membership :)

Someone Stole Paul Von Rieter’s Domain Name!

by on April 23, 2012 in Online Branding

Last Thursday I was in the middle of a phone call with a client discussing their upcoming website design, and in the span of 3 minutes I received a text message, email and a voicemail all from a frantic Paul Von Rieter (pictured left), exclaiming that someone had bought his domain name out from underneath him. Now Paul, if you remember is one of the two photographers Flaunt Your Site now sponsors and manages all their website design, hosting and SEO. We were just starting to get into a new redesign for Paul when this happened, and the tires screeched to a halt.

When I called him back I found out that he had failed to respond to his expiring domain notice that he received back in February. Whether he missed it, or got busy and didn’t open it, wasn’t quite clear to him. So I asked him to call GoDaddy where he purchased his domain and to find out how to contact the people that purchased it. He went off and did that, and that led to a 10 day battle of wills, and Paul forking over $600 to get his domain back. It was stressful on both he and I, but we have the domain back, and his site is finally back up.

So let’s take a look at the “why” of this whole thing.

Why Jerkoffs buy Expiring Domains

Ok… They’re not all jerkoffs. There are plenty of people that legitimately want a domain that was not available at the time and got in line to purchase the domain when it became available.

But there are those jerkoffs that buy expiring domains with the worst of intentions. It’s called Cybersquatting. They get lists of expiring domains and seek out the domains with lots of links pointing to the site, and strong Domain Authority (similar to Page Rank). The purpose of this is two-fold.

  1. They could sell the domain back to the original owner if the owner forgot about the expiration and wanted it back (there are international laws against this, but we’ll get to that in a bit). This is what happened in Paul’s case.
  2. If that doesn’t pan out, the domain can be used in what I feel are shady SEO tactics of either creating a “micro-site” with that domain and linking to sites that in order to boost their rankings. Or simply redirecting the url to another site, which gives that site all the links and Domain Authority the expired domain used to have.

“You said there are laws against this?” You ask…

Well, yes. There is an international law against someone purchasing an expired domain with the intent to sell it back. The problem is that it is extremely difficult to prove intent. In this email (excuse the poor English – we believe our Cybersquatters hail from Germany – see photo for what we think he looks like), you can see their attempt at playing dumb, and allowing us to ask for the domain first.

We don’t want to have it necessarily. A lot of other domains to buy. I’ll ask our developer how many hrs he has been working with it and I guess it’s possible to auction it back to a reasonable price. Never happened before and we have never sold anything. Don’t know yet.

The Expiration Process

Based on some numbers I found from 2010, GoDaddy itself has about 20,000 domains expiring each week. This accounts for more than $1 Million weekly! Some of these are people intentionally ditching their domains, but some are bound to be accidents. Don’t be one of the people that forget and make GoDaddy richer, most of you know how I feel about GoDaddy.

It might help to know the process when you forget to renew your domain. I’ll let Mike Davidson, brought us Newsvine and an all around cool internet dude, explain:

Contrary to popular belief, domains do not expire when they say they do. If the owner of a domain does not renew by the expiration date of the domain, the domain goes into “expired” status. For 40 days, the domain is in a grace period where all services are shut off, but the domain owner may still renew the domain for a standard renewal fee. If a domain enters this period, it is a good first indicator that it may not be renewed, but since the owner can re-register without penalty, it can also just be a sign of laziness or procrastination.

After 40 days are up, the domain’s status changes to “redemption period”. During this phase, all WhoIs information begins disappearing, and more importantly, it now costs the owner an additional fee to re-activate and re-register the domain. The fee is currently around $100, depending on your registrar. When a domain enters its redemption period, it’s a good bet the owner has decided not to renew.

Finally, after the redemption period, the domain’s status will change to “locked” as it enters the deletion phase. The deletion phase is 5 days long, and on the last day between 11am and 2pm Pacific time, the name will officially drop from the ICANN database and will be available for registration by anybody.

The entire process ends exactly 75 days after the listed expiration date.

After that, the rats are all over the domains. Good domains can get swept up in minutes. So the good news is that if you miss the initial expiration date, you can get it back. Just don’t let it go too long or it’ll cost you to get it back.

So How Can You Protect Yourself

It seems to be a very simple task of renewing your domain every year, but as we’ve witnessed mistakes happen. Not only has it happened to Paul, but just ask Foursquare, their whole site went down after forgetting to renew their domain. Here are a few tips on how not to let this happen to you:

  1. Register for 10 years. The longest period you can register a domain for is 10 years. When it costs you ~$100, you may as well. (Please note, that this will NOT improve any SEO value to your site as some have been led to believe this by the Website Grader).
  2. If you are auto-renewing, make sure that you have a valid credit card or Paypal account hooked up to your domain registry account.
  3. Absolutely ensure that your domain registry companies email does not go to your SPAM folder.
  4. Do NOT buy the “Private Registration” add-on that most places will sell you. While this won’t help you with an expiring domain, it will make sure that your domain is not registered under GoDaddy’s name. It’s always best to have your name be the one that’s published with the domain publicly, so there is absolutely no doubt that you are the de facto owner.

The Wrap Up

$600 is a lot of cash, but it could have been much worse. So remember, don’t be like Paul, keep your domains renewed.

*This blog post has been approved by Paul Von Rieter to ensure that people learn from his stupid mistake.

Two Rings Wedding Photography – Design Spotlight

by on April 6, 2012 in Client Spotlight

Two Rings Weddings is a new wedding photography collective formed in Austin, Texas. They were looking for a soft and airy website to match the delicate style of photography they aim to deliver their clients. We approached the site with a modern, yet serene visual experience that allows people to identify with the company, but focuses their attention to the photography. Everything down to the custom social icons were designed with that in mind. Please have a look at their site, and the photography they’re producing. You won’t be disappointed.

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Paul Von Rieter and Maria Bernal Join the Flaunt Your Site Team!

by on March 22, 2012 in Studio News

I am pleased beyond belief today to announce that Flaunt Your Site has become an official sponsor for two of the most talented photographers on the planet. Maria Bernal and Paul Von Reiter may have very opposite styles and backgrounds, but there’s no denying that they are both remarkable image makers.

Maria

Maria Bernal was making prints in her own darkroom, her father built for her, before she was even out of elementary school. Photography has been her life’s passion since. Her wedding and portrait photography take on a rich flavor of high end European fashion, and demonstrate her unwillingness to let anything be seen that isn’t worthy of hanging on her top client’s walls. Her awards are many including PPA International Photographer of the Year in 2011, Austin Photographer of the Year 3 years in a row, and has been published numerous times, most recently taking the cover of PPA’s Professional Photographer Magazine.

Paul

Paul Von Rieter is the wedding industry’s Golden Child. While his own passion with photography started just a few years ago, he’s quickly become one of the hardest working and methodical photographers around, and is one of the best story tellers around. Paul’s knack for documenting amazing love stories has landed him in the Rangefinder Magazine “Nikon Wedding Series,” as well as being featured in just about every wedding blog online! No kidding, here are just a few: Vera Wang, The Wedding Chicks, Grey Likes Weddings, Forget Me Knot, and Ruffles and Pearls called him one of the top 5 wedding photographers in the world!

Flaunt Your Site looks forward to a long relationship with both Paul and Maria, making sure that their design, hosting and SEO, are on the same level as the amazing images that they produce every day.

Flaunt Your Site’s New Logo!

by on March 22, 2012 in Studio News

Some of you at WPPI got to see the brand new logo and cards that we had made up for Flaunt Your Site. The new logo design and card layout was done by our super talented designer Jonathan. We hope to have a new website design up in the next month which will feature this brand new logo. So keep your eyes peeled.

Until then, let us know what you think of the new design, and let us know if you are looking for a new logo of your own.

Froxy Photography – Design Client Spotlight

by on March 6, 2012 in Client Spotlight

“How about racing stripes?”

I’m not sure if it was the affirmative response, or the combination of Australian accent combined with the profane “F*** yeah.” But somewhere in there I fell in love with Xanthe Roxburgh and Naomi Frost. Two enigmatic visual artists disguised as wedding photographers from Newcastle, in New South Wales. They were looking for something that matched their bold, left-turned approach to life and photography.

Their logo, which Xanthe came up with, was the foot on the rock for the whole site. It established the color and it really helped with the direction. As we went on, often times on Skype while Xanthe’s little boy Arlo ran around the house naked after his bath, the only comments I received during the design process was “Could you make it bolder?”  So I ditched all the textures and pretty things that most other wedding photographers want and asked her about the racing stripes. And that’s when everything started to come together.

There are a few really great custom touches that we put into the site that I was quite proud of. Because they do wedding and portrait photography, I had to create a call to action that worked for both. “Book a Wedding” doesn’t work for portrait sessions, and “Book a Session” doesn’t work for weddings. So harnessing the power of WordPress and PHP, I was able to have two call to actions, but display “Book a Wedding” only for blog posts that have been assigned the “Wedding” category, and for anything else, “Book a Session” gets served up.

The Froxy Ladies as they call themselves are so much fun, you definitely need to have a look at their website, and their work. The imagery they do is quirky, eccentric, sometimes bordering on being Not Safe For Work (NSFW), but you will love what you see and if you live in Australia, you’ll want to “Be Shot” by them.

An Open Letter to David Trust and PPA About SOPA

by on January 27, 2012 in Thoughts

Dear David,

In light of your email to PPA members today about SOPA and PIPA, I’d like to speak to a couple of the things you addressed.  More specifically the actions that internet users were using “heavy-handed tactics” in order to spread “false information.” And what is being presented to the public as to what those bills would actually do.

Before any of that, I’d like to say that, I’m a photographer and I care about the protection of my images just as much as anyone. And I do believe that there is a solution out there to accomplish that protection. I completely disagree that that this was the way to do it.

So on to it…

The Internet is one of our sacred gems. It has no borders, we don’t need passports to visit our friends with tools like Skype, iChat, etc. And there is an innate freedom that exists there. For someone to restrict that freedom is something that will cause people to rise up against that threat.

Copyright is not, as you incorrectly attribute Google and Wikipedia with saying, censorship. But the practice of blocking of sites to viewers is.

Consider these scenarios:

  1. You’d like to visit someone’s house, but police prevent you from entering because there is a bomb in the house.
  2. You’d like to visit someone’s house, but police prevent you from entering because the person {may have} stolen something.  *Thanks to Nathan Johns @Austin_Photog for adding “may have” above since due process is diminished in these laws.

While the first scenario, authorities are protecting your interests (living and all that), the second is something on the lines of Marshall Law. Stripping the freedom from internet users is just that, stripping freedom.

To be clear there are countries that do restrict access, China, Burma, North Korea, Iran, Cuba, and a few more. I don’t think we want to end up in that list. It starts with blocking a few sites, but who decides what sites are Kosher, and what aren’t? It’s too much power for any one person, or group of people to possess when our freedom is on the line.

I’m fully supportive in a bill that actually targets the perpetrators. But this is something that must be fully thought out, and will involve working with other countries in order to achieve. The target should be the Copyright violators, and not the restriction of people’s internet access.

You should also note that the majority of photorgaphers I speak with, including rather heavy hitters in the industry, and many PPA members, have consciously opposed both SOPA and PIPA. This would point to a clear contradiction in how PPA represents member’s interests. They all understand that freedom is more important than ©.

Sincerely,

William Bay

 

Update:

Both Trey Ratcliff @treyratcliff and Scott Bourne @ScottBourne have come out and spoken against PPA’s support in SOPA and PIPA.

From Trey: “Infuriating! The Professional Photographers of America say crazy things in their latest email about SOPA!”
From Scott: “Sorry @OurPPA your positon in favor of #SOPA has just established you as utterly out of touch. You may be well intentioned but you’re wrong!”

Let PPA know how you feel.

PPA members can go here: http://www.ppa.com/articles/497/SOPA-and-PIPA-Dont-Be-Fooled.php and add your comments below David Trust’s letter letting him know that PPA does not have their members interest at heart in this case.

Also write to their Twitter account @OurPPA and let them know what you think.

Two Bright Lights Partnership

by on January 25, 2012 in Marketing

I’m very pleased to announce that Two Bright Lights, have generously offered all Flaunt Your Site SEO clients a 20% discount on their services. It’s essentially 2 free months of Two Bright Lights.

If you’re not familiar with them, you totally should be. Two Bright Lights takes all the heavy work out of submitting to all the great blogs out there like Style Me Pretty, June Bug, Grey Likes, and all the other popular wedding blogs out there. In addition, they are constantly working to get other photo blogs in the mix, like maternity, baby, and lifestyles.

We all know that getting great links from editorial blog posts from high authority sites like these will skyrocket your sites in search rankings. That’s exactly why we created this partnership.

If you’re a current client, we’ll be delivering a coupon code, and for new clients the code will be in your SEO Action Plan.

3 SEO Things to Focus on in 2012 for Photographers

by on January 20, 2012 in SEO For Photographers

3 SEO things for photographers to focus on in 2012

Despite having a rather heavy first half of the month, I wanted to write up a post that would point to a few easy areas photographers could focus their efforts this year.

I’ll assume you already have the following handled:

  • Having an HTML based site that search engines can crawl, and plenty of good naturally written content.
  • A solid grasp of what keywords you’re seeking to rank for.
  • Healthy links that come from a variety of locations like blog comments, quality directories (not the paid or reciprocal ones), and most importantly editorial links from blog features and write ups.
  • Engagement through Facebook and Twitter.
You should have all those done already. The following is the next level and it will be a big focus in 2012.

1. Pinterest

2012 will be the Year of the Dragon according to the Chinese (I was born Year of the Dragon, so that’s good. I think…). But it most certainly will be the Year of Pinterest to the rest of us trying to promote our photography businesses.

The marketing adage is to go where your demographic goes. And you can’t get much better demographics for brides than 20-30 year old crafty hipster chics pinning away on Pinterest. They all like bowtie wearing men, and those mason jars that everyone seems to love.
All kidding aside the average Pinterest user is likely to be female and interested in unique designs and good photography. Not only should your website make it easy for people to pin your photos, you should have an account on there and be connected to all those hipster chics so they can see your latest and greatest photos.

Why else you should be using it:

How it will affect your SEO:
Directly it will affect your SEO by having a very powerful site linking back to yours with multiple
How to take advantage of Pinterest:
Well, if you haven’t, you should definitely use our Pin It On Pinterest WordPress plugin. It was the first plugin out there and it is by far the best. And the 1.0 version we’re planning to come out soon will be even better.
Get that plugin installed and let people start pinning your photos online. There already great sites out there that are receiving a huge amount of traffic from their content that has been pinned already.

2. Google +

OK, I’ll admit it. I waited awhile to adopt this one. Part of it was that I just didn’t want to hop on another hype without really seeing where it would go. Both Google’s Buzz and Wave were flops, and I had no interest in spending time on something that could have easily vanished.

As it turns out, Google + has become quite a hit, with features like group video chats and the ability to separate friends into unique circles so certain people can see certain things with greater ease than Facebook and Twitter. It looks like it has some great potential for the future as well. Not only is it getting the “thumbs up” from users, but it appears as if 2012 will see a big push for integrating Google + into your everyday search results.

Social Search

People with Google + profiles and business pages will become much easier for Google to vet. And websites that are tied to that profile will have a definite advantage. Connections  on Google+ will yield results on searches with your friends profile pictures on the search results making them stand out more.

 

 

 

You’re Circles of friends will be a huge endorser of your business by sharing your website on Google + and using the Plus 1 function on your website. Their friends will see that you are being endorsed by them, and you’ll have an instant recommendation.

Rel=Author

One of the cooler things that Google has rolled out is the Rel=Author tag. It’s still in the early stages and not everyone is able to see the benefits of it. But it’s intent is to have rich snippets show up next to blog posts and articles that you write based on your Google + profile picture.

 

Early Adoption is Key

These two features may not seem that big of a deal, but anytime you can get a little advantage in the SERPs, you should take it. If you were in the #3 position, you could potentially get more clicks to your site over the #1 position, simply by having that Rel=Author tag applied. Just imagine what that will do for your longtail traffic searches. You’ll definitely have a leg up on your competitors if you implement this early on. Eventually all the themes will catch on, and add these features, so it’s best to be leading the pack and get in quick.

3. Local Search

Local Search isn’t new, but the prominence of Local will increase. We’ve seen a few variations of how search results have been displayed, but where things seem to be settling lately is the Universal Search Result, which displays a mix of Local and Organic results. You can see in the screen grab below how the organic and Local results are co-mingling together.

The first 2 results are organic, but the next 3, including one of our clients Tall and Small Photography from Bloomington, are for their Google Places listings.

 

Optimize for local and organic

Things that you would normally do for organic are very important, but there are a few things that will improve the likelyhood that you will make it into the local results as well.

  • Reviews! Make sure that you are getting reviews on your Google Place page, Yelp!, Wedding Wire, etc.
  • Citations. The more evidence that you are a legitimate business the more evidence Google has to promote you as a fully vetted business. Flaunt Your Site has a solution to speed up the process of obtaining the necessary citations. See our Local SEO section for more information and contact us to get set up.
  • Ensure that you fill out your Google Places page completely, upload photos and videos, have your hours available, and don’t to skip the services provided part.

Get crackin! 2012 already started.

The first thing you should do is add me on Google +. Then get out there and start engaging. The sooner you jump on the newer things, the more advantage you’ll have over your competition.

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