Damien Franco dot Com

Blogs Aren’t Web Journals Anymore

Posted on August 21, 2008
Filed Under Blogging | Leave a Comment

I was speaking with a co-worker that I really hadn’t had a chance to get to know before hand. Somehow the conversation of “future” came up and I asked what her plans were.

She expressed an interest in Journalism.

Naturally I asked her if she blogged and she gave me that sort of look I tend to get from people that still think blogs are personal. You know the type. They were first introduced to a blog through MySpace or something like that. Maybe they even tried their hand with a couple of posts about their feelings and hopes and dreams. Then they give up on it because no one is reading it and maybe they posted something they shouldn’t have.

The simple truth:

Most people still think blogs are personal journals or diaries. They have no desire to read blogs and no desire to write blogs.

Most people don’t realize that blogs have changed dramatically in the past couple of years. Blogs are used for business purposes in all aspects across the globe. They are used to create leads for sales, drive traffic to websites, build personal branding, sell artwork, and more.

Most people don’t realize that the website they turn to, everyday for their news or gossip or whatever, is in fact, run on a blogging platform. As more people realize that blogging is no longer “web journaling” and it becomes more and more mainstream, business persons will begin to build blogs.

What does that mean to you?

Quite simply it means that the sooner you get your blog going, the more established it will be. That’s called authority.

Are you an authority figure in your community? Do you want to be? How would blogging help to establish these things for you in your particular field?

Hey Artists, Find A New Media!

Posted on August 12, 2008
Filed Under Blogging, art, online presence, photography | Leave a Comment

If you spend any amount of time on the web, and I know you do, you’ve seen many discussions on all forms of business struggling to adjust to “The New World of Business”. This is seen as more and more Web 2.0 companies are being started, then finding their audience, then acquired by a major corporation, oh yeah and forgotten by all when they are neglected by said corporation.

And if you read any magazines or blogs about business then you’ve no doubt read about the struggles of “brick and mortar” businesses floundering their way around the Internet and failing in their attempts to reach a new audience. Doesn’t it sound great to be in business for yourself?

It should. The small businesses are nimble, flexible, and able to adjust and roll with the punches.

You need to think of yourself as a business if you want to succeed as an artist. But I’m not telling you something you don’t already know… right?

So consider that most artists aren’t changing with the times. Most artists are still trying to fight for the same piece of cheese not realizing that the cheese in question is getting smaller, and smaller, and… well, you get the drift.

Recent article by A Photo Editor talks about the problems facing editorial photographers.

With more and more photography headed online where the distribution and printing is virtually free it seems like publishers could still manage to pay for original photography so their publication doesn’t start to resemble google.

While it may seem that publishers could do that, they aren’t. You’ve got micro stock photography sites that have just about destroyed Getty. Think Getty isn’t scrambling? How about Photoshelter’s take on Getty’s relationship with Flickr?

You have many choices when it comes to selling your art online. There are sites that will allow anyone to “dump” their images (whether it’s photography, painting, sculpting) on a site for free. All you do is just sit back and wait for the sales to come through (yeah right).

So what’s wrong with that?

The problem lies with having your work displayed next to mediocre (and sometimes worse) works. People have been “sold” on the idea that if you take a ton of pictures and upload them to a site then something is bound to sell. When it doesn’t then they just abandon that account and try the next site.

Do you really want to display your works next to that?

I say take control. Go with someone who is pushing your target market. Work as a team with other artists to help push you to the top of all of this “noise”.

Build an online presence! This is the direction that every business is heading. Having a website and adding it to a couple of directories doesn’t cut it anymore (it really hasn’t for a while).

There is good news. It’s still early in this game. The majority of people (including artists) do not use their ability to build a real online presence to their advantage. The sooner you start, the better your results will be in the long run.

This is going to be the key to successfully selling your works on a consistent basis, whether your intentions are to sell them online or to garner enough attention to land exhibits, shows, and publications.

So what are you waiting for?

How’s Your URL Looking?

Posted on August 9, 2008
Filed Under Blogging, SEO | 2 Comments

Found this article through Connie Benson Bensen. There are other community strategy links to check out, but I wanted to look at this one in particular.

Do write posts on how to use features of your product.
Do write about what is happening in the industry or reaction to relevant news.
Do provide readers with an inside lane behind your operations.
Do offer RSS or Email updates
Do engage with your readers via comments
Do blog about topics with authority
Do ask a colleague to proof your blog for spelling, grammar, and your possibly offensive jokes
Don’t just copy and paste a press release
Don’t attack your competition
Don’t write about internal promotions or corporate back slapping. “GO TEAM! You Rock! You’re a legend! We’re all f*cking great!” are fine for internal communications but not for general consumption.

Excerpt from “http://aloa.uplink-web.com/?p=55″ article on PR tips for startups. Read the article it’s good. There is one thing I want you to take specific note of. Looking at the url of the blog post shows that they are not using their blog software to it’s full potential. The specific url for the post is ?p=55 which is absolutely just terrible. All that tells search engines is that this is the 55th post on the blog. It contains no information as to what the blog post is about. This can easily be remedied in Wordpress by assigning the “permalinks” to “day and name” or “month and name”.

This option can be found under settings/permalinks and works wonders for your blog.

Had this blog been properly set up the url would have looked something like “http://aloa.uplink-web.com/2008/08/08/10-20-pr-tips-for-startups”
which of course tells search engines that on 08/08/2008 an article was written pertaining in some way to PR or public relations, it’s a tips article, and it’s targeted to startups. Much better than “this is the 55th post written on this blog”.