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What a Week!

13 October

Sitting here on a Friday night (or is it Saturday morning?), watching Social Network, and thinking back on the past five days of work, I can say without a doubt it’s been a remarkable week. Perhaps the most impactful week since Flaunt Your Site began!

Our first employee, Walaa Habib, joined the company this week, and the velocity at which we’ve been able to express the passion and the purpose for Flaunt Your Site has jumped ten-fold. While I’ve had a vision for what the company has been, I haven’t really been effective in expressing that to the world, or even current clients. With Walaa coming on board we’ve been able to tackle the whole area of client fulfillment I’ve long wanted to do. And all the other projects we’re planning. I really want our clients to have an experience that they don’t get from other companies. A tactile experience that goes beyond getting just a website or an SEO plan completed for them.

We’ve just booked our latest client, and I’m looking forward to sending them an actual welcome packet (a first) that they can hold in their hands. I’m also looking forward to much, much more. Earlier tonight, I was present to my first real client, Shari DeAngelo. Three years ago, before we were even known as Flaunt Your Site. It was just me doing my best to design and code (translation: “hack”) custom sites together. Shari came to me, needing a custom website that would work for her. Without her and without a number of subsequent SWPB’ers (a group of amazing wedding photographers on Flickr), Flaunt Your Site wouldn’t exist today.

I owe this week’s achievements, and all the successes to each of our past clients and to each and every member of SWPB.

I’m moved and touched by what Walaa, and I are creating, and I can only imagine as Flaunt Your Site grows, what we can provide together as a team, for future clients. I’ve only been able to produce so much on my own, but what I’ve wanted to produce for each and every one of you will take a remarkable group of people to accomplish. And I’m committing to you all right here and now to assemble that team.

William

 

A new member of the team

09 October

Hi Everyone, I am Walaa . I joined Flaunt Your Site  team last week. It’s been great. I have learned many things about  websites , SEO and photography and I can’t wait to learn more. 🙂

What Photographers Need to Know About the Google Places and Google Plus Local Merge

01 June

In January I predicted 3 things to focus on this year in the world of SEO and online marketing, and while my 1st prediction, Pinterest, was a no-brainer. And my 2nd, Google Plus, was going to have a large impact on Search, I had no idea that the 2nd, and the 3rd, Local Search, would actually come together in as a whole new creature. Well yesterday Google announced it. All Places Pages have now become a Google Plus Local Page. And if you’d like to read more about it, you can hop over to the Google And Your Business blog.

I’m not here to break the news, but prepare photographers for the changes and what’s to come. Yes, there’s more to come.

First and foremost… 

  • All Places Pages have already been converted to Google Plus Local Pages.
  • If you have already claimed your Places Page, you will still manage your new Google Plus Local Page from the same place.
  • If you have a Google Plus Business Page also, don’t fret, the accounts will be able to link in the coming weeks. Hopefully they combine the two accounts into one for ease of use. Google is still recommending people to sign up for Business Pages on Google Plus, so there is definitely some thought going on that we haven’t seen yet.

The Changes

Here is what people will see while doing a search. It looks similar whether logged in or not. In this case I searched for “Folsom Wedding Photographers,” and of course, friend and client Teresa K‘s listing pops up to the top of the Local Listings pack. You can see that instead of the old Star rating, she has a new score out of 30. Hers is 30/30 cause she’s so damn awesome at what she does. If you click on the Title, you’ll be taken to her website, but if you click on the “14 Google reviews” she has (let this be a lesson to you all that reviews are important! We’ll touch a little more on that in a bit.), you will be taken to the new Google Plus Local Page.

Below are two examples of what the page looks like when logged out and logged in to Google Plus. Aside from having the Sidebar and Hangout window available to you, there is a nice little difference on this page, and that is the addition of the +1, Share and Add Public Photos. That makes this page truly social in that these features all are tied into their Google+ accounts. Ultimately it will affect SEO as well for people with Google + accounts. All the +1’s and Shares will shape people’s Google Circles, and impact the way people see search results.

The other thing that will enhance SEO is that these pages will be Indexed in with Organic Results (not just part of the Local results)! This could give you an additional advantage over your competitors if you are keeping your Google Plus Local Page updated and well optimized.

Now to utilize Google +

  • Reviews: Reviews are one of the reasons why some businesses show up ranked higher in Local Results. In the example above, with Teresa K you can see that she is well cemented in the first position and has 9 more reviews that anyone else. If you have a Reviews page on your website that points to things like Yelp and Wedding Wire, you’ll need to change the URL to your Google Reviews page now.
    If you don’t have a Reviews Page, you should create one right now.
  • Circles: I don’t think I need to mention that the larger your Circles, the more influence you will have on people, and the people in their Circles as well. That being said, go add me to your Circles now. 🙂
  • Update your Google Plus page. Whether or not you use it as much as Facebook, the more you use Google Plus, the bigger advantage you’ll have over your competition when it comes to Google Search. I’ve heard the complaints about the lack of adoption and I can totally get it. Stick with it though, and there’s nothing saying you have to devote major hours daily to it. A weekly update may just be enough. You’ll have to gauge it based off of your own experience and what you see your competitors doing with it. (Keep me informed).

Now go forth and get Reviews! 🙂

Hey Tofurious… WTF Man?

17 May

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

17 May

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 🙂

If you’d like to read the full article and get some great tips, read the full article on PPAMag.com

 

Someone Stole Paul Von Rieter’s Domain Name!

23 April

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

06 April

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.

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

22 March

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!

22 March

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

06 March

“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.