How to Harness the Web and Increase your Business

(A discussion with a group of the top creative producers in the UK, who were all for their own reasons wanting to diversify and use the online web presence as a major asset in their developing business strategies)

What I shall be sharing here are some fundamental principles involved in having abd maintaining a web presence.

By web presence that could mean a web site, social interaction through Facebook, Twitter etc. These ways of connectivity allow anyone to 'reach out' to others, tens of hundreds, thousands and potentially millions. The reason? Social networking, business building, information imparting and making money.

You may be interested in any of these or all of them.

Some or all of the information I share may be familiar. Some or all may be completely new to you - whatever your level, one thing is important. Never let the technology take you into fear or 'I am no good at this, that or the other'.

Here I am particularly addressing the desire to utilize the Web as an extra or even full time income stream.

Multiple streams of income (MSIs) are the secret (not so secret) formula that those who are successful use to bring in more than what one source of income can.

So what is the bottom line in revenue on the Web?

One thing is for sure - if one wants a presence on the Web that makes even one good sale, it needs to have traffic (visitors) and that traffic needs to be interested in what you are offering.

I know for a fact that what I am sharing with you now works 100% and does what it says on the tin - Web sites that Work.

Why because I have (along with hundreds, even thopusands, of others) proven its effectiveness and run successful online business with what was in some cases offfline lines.

In many cases it has opened up a completely new approach to meeting the technological changes and possibilities that is changing our whole business and information modalities.

Whether we would like a library resource, individually or collectively or both, whether you wish to be seen as a unity or as parts of that unity (Members of that unity) or just Joe or Joanna Photographer etc, professional photographer for hire or any other manifestation of your chosen merits, there is a pristine and not greatly spoken about way of succeeding on the Web.

Why not spoken about?

Most people have not ever come across it

Too many people are still approaching the Web with an off-line mentality (be it selling, design, customer (mis)understanding etc.....

Fear of change - yes even if it does mean success.

For your industry, one that is being forced into change the hard way....

It is in my opinion - and because of the depth that I am having to research this collective niche - a virtually unexploited area that covers such a huge market share from executive advertising needs to amateur interest that I can confidently predict that those of us who take this new medium (the Internet) and make it a central part of our business model in the ways that I outline here, that not only our collective and individual profile will rise high but the value and market for our products will grow relative to our ability to meet the needs that we are able to easily identify.

So prepare yourself for an eye opening innovative and solidly tested way of renewing your business.

I shall first of all deal with the medium itself and how any web venture, individual or collective needs to approach this medium.
The approach is one that will yield long term growth at minimum expense (already challenging the concept of money thrown in MUST result in success -a costly error of judgement that too many have discovered too late on the Web) in relation to results and which will satisfy the three elements that are the bedrock and basis of the Internet.

They are....

Those that use it for results (your visitors)

Those that use its content for quantifying information resources - the Search Engines

Those that profit from supplying to the above (us)

Before I begin - a word of advice.

Get yourself comfortable, give yourself time and make a good hot drink and sit back and start. Maybe even better to print it off and sit in your favourite comfortable chair.

You are going to need and want time to digest this first edition!
Ready? OK let's go.......

Craig has hit the nail on the head "...but at the end of the day in
order for this to work we have to give the customer what he/she wants

in an easily useable manner."

THIS IS KEY KEY KEY....Success is the outcome to this proposition....
Now what might you ask is that?

Because knowing what your customer/ potential customer wants is the nub of all business success - if you can supply it when they ask, everyone wins. If you try and supply what you think they might need you lose.

On the street it is finding it in the shop, offering a great studio or following the trends that others set

i.e. Location, Location, Location

On the net it is simply and initially one thing -

Information, Information, Information.

It is the the quality and pertinence of that information that is going to win your potential customer base to who you are, what you have to offer and what you deliver. It is also the secret to building a long term and solid visitor/customer/ client base.

Remember one thing for the rest of your successful days - no-one (except your gran and loved ones - are ever initially looking for you on the web.)

Shock horror - but it is absolutely true...

The assumption that you or your company are important has killed more sites and drowned more dosh than Bill Gates ever had! Slight exaggeration but you get the point

No, for all the travellers on the web you are nothing.

What you have to offer is everything.

To remedy this what needs to be done is for you to make yourself known as an essential expert in the niche and field you are promoting -

That something becomes something so valuable to the visitor that they not only gain the answer to their initial search enquiry but then are given insight, knowledge and understanding into a raft of useful stuff that they did not realise they even wanted to know.

Your landing pages must over-deliver as well as answer their initial search enquiry. Then they are really chuffed.

As a complete cold call into your world they have been satisfied big time.

Amid all the dross of link farm sites (those with hundreds of links to everywhere) that pretend to give value but deliver dead end dross and have positioned themselves at the forefront of Google due to heavy expenditure, crafty games and piles of useless keywording that work for a few days then get beaten back by the hyper intelligent Google 'bots.

Amid all this rubbish your visitor has stumbled across a site that gives value - Value and so much more.

How many times has that been the case on your journeys through the Web?.

We just want the really useful and not the crap.

With this the visitor turns from cold to warm. He/she now feels that they have stumbled across someone who really knows their onions and not only have they had their search query answered but the extras they have discovered make them eager for more.

This is the result of CTPM working seamlessly.

It is the mantra of true success on the web.

Whether you are a photographer, weasel farmer, holiday junkie professional, retoucher, print gallery owner or fitness expert or any of the other billion pursuits that exist, if you create a site that adheres to CTPM then you will not fail.

What therefore pray is this CTPM?

CONTENT - TRAFFIC - PRESELL - MONETIZE

These four words are the foundation to the most successful web sites that are on the web

Carried out in this order it is not only essential but it is an absolutely imperative recipe for success

Most sites on the web do the opposite - MPTC - that is why most sites die or barely exist. They go for the money first and remember the rest later - if at all.

Remember the ethic that works on the street in the retail wonderland is .....Location, location, location.

In Web land it is I

Information, Information, Information.

That is why content is so essential. It delivers what the punter wants, it satisfies the 'bots from Google et al big time and it brings you the growing band of visitors that are happy and eager to leave their e-mail address and details.

This initial act of faith is really important. In a world where everyone loathes their details ending up on spam lists and subjecting themselves to overt intrusion, the act of handing over this £10 note to someone comes with a trust that has been earned.

Why £10 - because you must realise that the address details are of absolute monetary value. Because someone has given you permission to communicate with them and ipso facto eventually persuade them to buy something they really need.

How you do that is in the art - remember CTPM.
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SIDEBAR:
If someone came up to you in the street and said " Oi! mate,wanna buy this great little camera?" you would tell them to get a life or worse - even if you did just check to see if it was not your mate's recently stolen one! - but I digress, you certainly would not feel any trust and confidence in this uncalled for intrusion would you.
Likewise on the web page - Buy this, Buy that - is the biggest click out/ turn off anyone can have. It is akin to the street vendor. They need to feel that it is 100% their decision as to when and how they purchase. They need to have their trust and confidence built on solid ground. Your success is mentoring them through that field through showing them what they need and what will help them over and above the call of duty .

Showing them that you really know your stuff, offering them titbits of valuable info resources advice etc. will prove to them that you ARE the professional along with the inbuilt usefulness of that advice, tip or trick.
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Take our esteemed Digital Plumber.

Now Paul has a barrow load of expertise, tips and tricks to wow anyone who seriously wants to resolve their dilemmas and/or problems.

You all know first hand that his advice is the first port of call for many and its success is proven by all the thanks and gratitude that are the testimonials on the forum.

Paul could have a site in the making that will I can say without a trace of doubt, be one of the most successful around. He will definitely have a rich seam to mine.

Someone I know who is, in his field very similar to Paul from an expertise point of view and passion, took his knowledge and prowess and now runs a site, if not several, that draws tens of thousands of visitors a week to the site and with the raft of overt and covert revenue streams, takes home enough to have given up the day job and spend his life with his passion and holidays

He knew how to and...
All because he understood and practices CTPM.

Without the Content you have no Traffic

Without the Traffic you have no-one to Presell to

With no-one to Presell to you have no Monetization

Paul has his field, Glen has his, Craig has his and you all have yours.

Define what it is for you. Ask yourself how you can develop your knowledge and expertise in the way that Paul can and has.
Do not say you have not got that - You are not Paul, Jonathan, or Tom, Dick or Harriett - you are you with all the great stuff and gifts you have learnt, experienced etc.

This is your CONTENT

So how do I get the TRAFFIC?

By making sure your content is answering the questions that visitors are asking.

Whaaaat?

How the heck do I know that - I barely know how to search the web let alone know what anyone else is wanting or asking.

Ah! yes, precisely but you do ask the web questions don't you like anyone else when you Google on the Web.

So if you knew how to find out what the very same questions that others were asking in the way that you do and then being able to create a page that answers that question - would not that be the licence to print money that we all dream of?

(Here is a sneak at a very preliminary search for what people are looking for - don't try and understand the figures at this stage just witness that this is what is available - who is looking for landscape photography?)

Yes and No.

You see if you think that then you have immediately put the M in front of CT and P. Of course I am not saying that the M must not be considered but get it in the order it must be. That is the No, by the way the Yes is that what you have been able to do is pre-empt the questioner and lay out a landing page that due to the pristine way that you have constructed it sits up the top of Google awaiting the visitor's search criteria question.

A couple of sites that do not need any presentation criticism but merely to show you two sites by professionals who are 'getting there' - they do not use the proposed way of building but both have reasonable rankings for traffic - A National Geographic photographer with an interesting take his site ranks around the 1.2 million mark yet has been up since 2001

Top 3% of websites

Photosecrets -

Ranked at around 135,000 which is very fair and probably gets a load of traffic but his sales are good because of that even though they may not be everyone's cup of tea. But he sure doesn't starve. However he has been up since 1995, so good ranking is result of logevity

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At this point I would really appreciate you not making assumptions or
judgements about one of my sites that I am about to use as an example.

I want you to think 'yoursitename.com' instead of my site - the one that you will be creating. Every site created in the way that I am demonstrating is bound to be successful. That is all you really need to know.
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So when I started to create my site - I found out that yoga wear was a well searched for keyword combination and thus one of the pages I created figured that keyword.

Put it into a Google search and as I write it brings up two sites of mine in positions #5 and #7 respectively in a return search of 5,230,000 sites. (see here)You will even find another of my pages at number 33 under this search - (That is Google Web not UK) on UK I am #3

How much did I bribe, pay Google, create nifty little snitch techniques to get posted up there?

£0.00 - Merit my friends and knowing what and how to do it properly but most of all knowing what they are looking for.

(Please bear in mind that I did this barely knowing what HTML meant, let alone did. I had help you see, just as you will have, so stop sweating and just relax knowing even the techie stuff is no hurdle.)

BTW - Ignore the few up top in light blue shading, they are paying lots for being there and what they don't realise is that searchers are more likely to go to the non-sponsored links as they know these have not been paid for and thus the real info is in the top few by merit.
At some stage you may pay for a slot here but what you will then know is your ROI (return on your investment) and also the likelihood of conversions (those visiting divided by those who buy - why this is important is that it means every penny you spend you are pretty certain to get back with a profit. Now that is what is called targeted ad spending)

It's essential to spend your pennies wisely and profitably and as it is of choosing the choice unexploited areas that are dime buys not several dollars a click. But that is not for now, that is later.
So knowing what people are looking for and then supplying it, you are there up front and inviting.

Take another keyword phrase - Ashtanga Yoga dvds - see how I am in 4th 5th and 9th place? This is a very healthy product area that I sell, around the world

Oh look I cannot resist this one - out of 71,000,000 returns on the search for body mind health my little page is number 2 out of all of them - wow eat yer heart out Getty and Alamy!!!

Do I make my point or do I make my point?

You see the secret here is not only knowing what the punters are looking for but knowing how many are looking for it and how many of your competition are supplying it - Demand over supply = profitability. This is the equation that will change all your lives, let me assure you.

As I have alluded to earlier - I have been researching on your behalf and at my expense - :0)

In fact it has been such fun and so eye-opening that I have convinced myself that it is now time to do my photo site!!

You see, when I started out on this caper I firstly knew ziltch about it all and found the Web a complete mystery and a little fascinating.
I also had just backed off heavily from mainstream commercial work - sod the buggers was my attitude then - they don't deserve me so I took the next great passion I had - yoga and made it my focus. I was too brassed off with the world of advertising to be fired up about creating a photo site so went where the fire happened to be burning.

Today thanks to you guys getting me to focus on my life passion again in earnest - I see a photo site developing.

Now before you all think - well if he is going to do it with all the head start of expertise that he has - then I won't stand a chance. STOP! STOP right there.

Rule #1 - I am not you and you are not I
Rule #2 - I cannot possibly know or supply the knowledge that you have and vice versa
Rule#3 - Many out there want YOUR knowledge and expertise AND my knowledge and expertise
Rule#4 - Believe in yourself
Rule#5 - For a greater share of the market and customers share and link your sites with other high performing sites, so if one is successful all can be
Actually make rule #4 the number 1 !

So the argument that has been mooted is that..."well it's all very well selling widgets or fitness products but photos and fine art prints are a different thing entirely."

(That I might add is the attitude of the dinosaur and ignoramus.)
I agree however entirely with the statement by the dinosaurs but would add - so get selling fine art prints and photos.

That of course is our mission so let's show you how.

CONTENT

There is a market for everything - true some are larger than others - but a market all the same is there to be tapped.

Now let us take just a few examples in our neck of the woods:
Say you were a landscape photographer and you wanted to get your web site up and running and your target market needed to attract an audience who were looking for landscape photography.

This could include those looking for Fine Art prints of landscapes
Those wanting to know how to best become a landscape photographer (never underestimate the number of people that really want to learn from the professionals and this student invasion will I assure you bring an income stream to you that would make a lecturer at the LCP wince with pain.

Those looking for landscape images that would fit into their design requirements above and below the line and the usual other suspects.
Those that had need of finding a landscape photographer.

Those that were looking for a "Rocky Mountain photo" or "photos of mountains"

Those that wanted to know about photography copyright law in relation to landscape photography

First off what are they really looking for?

Duhh! Landscape photography of course.

Yes, but we know they are looking for just such examples designated above

This for them would be the most valuable information that they would want and that you could supply. Remember the way we can dig this info out as above link to search term?

Now If I told you that over a given search moment on the web there were between 400 and 13200 searches for "landscape photography for sale" would that make you perk up a little?

And if I were to tell you that there were around 1500 sites offering info and detail on this search criteria at any time would you give up and get a desk job?

Then I tell you that 1500 out of 56 million is pretty scant, then would you get back into your seat and listen on?

Because if we put that info together we are able to extrapolate that the profitability (read good page to build for) is is between 264 and 8700.

With 14 being a so-so keyword and 100 being a good keyword you could well see yourself sitting at the forefront for this request at Google et al for ranking for this keyword combo, knowing that there is a steady stream of niche traffic inputting this info.

This is the TRAFFIC building mechanism that will bring you the targeted focused and hungry visitors that you have built your site around.

That they come and land on your deeply content-rich site page that gives them an insight into the world of landscape photography for sale is great.

Imagine how within this page's content you talk about the archival and "art" value of possessing such landscape photography. This leads on to archival values/how to's etc and also the merit and value of a photo collection. All keywords that have a certain visitor content but that you are educating your visitor in for free - over delivering value

You may then refer them to another page you have chosen to feature on your site which talks about Gallery and museum-hung images, under the title of Met of Art, since you have already established this keyword to bring a lot of traffic.(that by the way of explanation is referring to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in Washington, which also gives opportunity talk about the Met's take on photography as art etc establishing the fact that it is now caché and accepted as a collectible art form - then on the back of this to bring in other galleries organisation, Canon whatever).

If then you get them to go off to these outside links, you also make sure you have a relation with these links by way of any referral commission that might be available. Even if that is just promotion your exhibition or others at the organisation. When there is quality site link that recognises your pass on of traffic for their benefit it is called affiliate commission recognition and is one of the major sources of revenue for well performing sites that send targeted traffic to partners who recognise that such niche traffic is a boon for their sales, promotions or whatever else they are into.

Affiliate marketing tools are something that come as a standard package in the program that I am illustrating and it is by the way the simplest most comprehensive way of improving your rank and financial status on-line.

Also let us say you are addressing on that page how to become a landscape photographer. You then would link to another page where you discuss this in depth. The market for keen amateurs wanting to become experts in landscape photography or at least polish their skills creates a huge market catchment of those willing to be tutored by the professionals.

With helpful hints and tips you gain the credibility whereby these visitors will happily buy a download -e-book on the subject and even relish the possibility of receiving over 6 months say a mini course that they download and work with.

This is an excellent way of sharing your knowledge at the same time as creating worthwhile revenue streams.

It can be and has been for many a very rewarding income for very little work (just the initial creation usually)

With all this rich information content you are in the perfect place to introduce them to your own gallery of images and sales items on the way.

Thus you stimulate the sales of original work.

Where you are targeting high end print purchasers and agency commission work you would be able to see what criteria they are searching under through your initial build and have pertinent copy for them.

However if you find that part of the market very slim indeed for on-line interest as I suspect it is - because they still rely on their narrow search options that include the Web far down the list - then the best approach is to research deeply all the avenues where there are people looking for what you have to offer and go offer it to them. I mean they are customers as well and if you need to educate them as well at their cost and their benefit then you are creating a whole new base of market potential to explore.

Remember there are hundreds of millions of web seekers out there who have an interest. You can find your relation to that interest and target it with a precision that the Creative Handbook would die for.
Even when you create an info link to the work of Ansel Adams, his images are not going to take your business away from you, Moreover he is going to establish in your visitors mind the juxtaposition of one great photographer to another and more.

In your research you will find which is useful to use and talk about.
End line - you will lead them to your work, others work that you have a financial interest in and/or the organisation , other great galleries around the world that you have already introduced yourself and your work to and have perhaps offered to have some of your images featured on their guest pages along with a small article about yourself and your work that links back to you. The ways of maximising your profile are many and too many for this initial report to cover.

I have found in my own experience that this sort of research apart from being absolutely fascinating throws up all sorts of marketing opportunities that I never realised before. Knowing that the research is also investment in my future profits, it's a WIN WIN for all.
The other thing I may mention here is that once I had built my pages, I was astounded at the sort of visitors I was getting and that my well crafted pages were returning to me.

As a direct result of this one of the markets totally unexpected that has arisen is that I am now the global distributor for three recording artists that before were superb but unknown and now really well known due to their profile being promoted through my pages. Basically I loved their sounds and it was apposite to my site and I talked them up. Their CDs and the sound clips that people could listen to there and then were enough to get the chatter going and the niche to talk amongst itself and refer back to me for sales.
Audio and video are two areas that are huge potential for you to explore in getting the viral message out successfully.

Imagine then this working not only for you but for many allied areas that you have always felt should be known to a greater audience.
This means by extension that the organisation can be promoted as a great leader of best practice and professionalism and the association of each to organisation of course brings that cred.

However the greatest cred is what you are able to build through your usefulness as a major site on the web.

When your visitor becomes aware of the intrinsic value that is being endowed into the image and when you start to refer them to the page on Fine Art photography where you discuss your personal take on it and what drew you into that area in your career. (Ansel Adams etc) you segue them deeper and deeper into realising that they have one of the world's experts in the profession at their finger tip. Wow
Because you seamlessly give them focused and inter-related content and links that give them so much more than they originally intended finding they are now utterly convinced that this site has to be on their favourites list. With RSS feeds, forums on site and other ways, you will keep in touch and show them that their decision was well merited with you/your work.

It will undoubtedly be their wish to leave you their e-mail address with an idea that you can keep the communication with them going - this being done through your monthly or whenever friendly Newsletter that keeps them posted, offers new avenues of learning and exploration and of course enables them to perhaps purchase some of your images for a slight discount because they are truly on the inside track.

You see always giving value, value and over-delivering. The fact that you may have a small Photoshop creative e-book to also offer them for a good price to help in their gaining skills that they download easily, becomes yet another value product that they grow closer to you and spread the word of mouth even more eagerly. More on all this later...

Yes because they found you this way on the net, they will see you as a class act, and you haven't spent a penny on advertising yourself in the old mould way. Because you are so high on the search engine the association is that you must be famous/rich/successful/ knowledgable/ worth keeping in touch with.

Now choose the ones you want to take from these and make them happen. But most of all you must realise that you are now being seen by many more people.

Because when you start getting the traffic the reputation builds. Word of mouth viral/ Newsletters/ Blogs, you name it - you are on a roll and there are people listening.

By the time the whole thing is working you only need say that some of your finest prints are able to be found here and they are off to get their mini collection be it postcards, greetings cards. fine art posters even with the free screensavers of favourites that they automatically are able to download for their pleasure.

Sure they are 72dpi with no way of being reproduced as anything of quality so no worries that images are getting in to the wrong hands
This is where you begin to create and devise new revenue streams from products that you create.

That you create them from finding out what people are looking for in that area is easy for you because you will have the kit to dig deep into this seam of hidden knowledge.

(That is where the figures earlier were gained from to show you what keywords and stuff was being looked for)

You can even create freebies from some of your work as a taster. They are free to use them for their screen saver and why not then take a line where you suggest ways they can think about making their own pics for others too like you.

They then can pick up on this and you realise that you have a growing list of e-mail addresses that want you to tell/teach them how to take great pics and they want to hear it in your own style
This is all PRE-SELL

What you now have in development is your first E-Book. This creature is the beginning of your viral online downloadable bank filler.

What do I mean by that?

Well E-Books are one of the hottest products on the Web. They are (usually) PDF downloadable items that vary in length and cost but to take an average at $20/$40 a get to know how to take great pictures will find an eager shaft of customers who day and night, week in week out, year in year out download and pay their $20/£40 for this gem of yours.

This is what today's self publishing new media is all about.

Copyright?

We have ways to lock these publications so they go no further than the downloaders screen. Apart from screengrabs nothing leaves the computer. If it does it shuts down. More on that later. But for copyright safety this is an excellent way to show work without fear of rip off big scale. What a great way of showing a portfolio of images/ stories/ whatever of your work.

Now all you have to do after creating the tome is check your bank account regularly for the payments that come in.

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SIDEBAR: :
On the subject of copyright you will of course have instructional and interesting pages dealing with this subject and why it is something that everyone has an interest in promoting. This gets the message out and virally over the months and years the consciousness of the general public is pricked to action and awareness. This is the education that we all so dearly would love to inculcate.

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Sounds easy doesn't it. It is. But it also requires a willingness to share your vast depths of experience and also produce the thing in the first place.

There are all the tools out there to do this so technical savvy is no problem

Finding and developing your market place is also no problem technically. That exists. It is powerfully accurate as I have illustrated above.

So this my friends is the beginning of getting you on the web map with meaning and significance.

This is where you can begin to build up the product that is you.
And we have not even touched the subject of a communal library
Not even broached the fact that you mostly all have web sites already with your work on it, Great keep them they are doing a job, We are talking getting traffic to them - well that is the traffic that will bring the top end work, the RM work, the photo/image based products you conjure up....

Not even talked about how each photographer can be "an agent" for another. Sell their prints, send them over to their site with cookies that recognise that and pay the sender a healthy 15% commission ( or whatever you agree with each other) when the customer buys their mate's print

We have not even broached the fact that you are able to command Google to pay you revenue for every click they get onto their ads from your site (an area that I bring in a paltry $200 a month and some of my more hardworking acquaintances bring in $1000's a month from this source alone)

We have not even touched the subject of gear review and preferences that sends people off to the camera stores online that pay a healthy 5-20% commission on leads and sales (Affiliate partners). Imagine that someone goes off to buy a Nikon and then decides to get the Apple gear to help them in the Lightroom. Bingo $5,000 at 5%=$200 for a mere suggestion. And so it builds.

As a trusted professional they listen to you and therefore when you say that the Flextight scanner is in your opinion the greatest toaster since sliced bread they will take your trusted word and go buy. All you do is make sure your link has the necessary marker that says it is from you (easy peasy - that is Affiliate marketing - a breeze)

That's Monetization! and you didn't feel a thing did you!

The Presell was the nonchalant informative, insight loaded, value driven answers that you in your own very personal style have shared with your visitor alongside shwing them a doorway into your own production.

The whole trust and credibility thing is building because of your willingness to share and allow people to learn, grow and benefit from what you have.

Yes it's subtle and it works like magic because of its honesty, integrity and sheer volume of usefulness.

So where are we?

So far I have given you the slimmest overview of how important the creation of a precision crafted web presences is how much you can build and gain from having a web site that works

How gradually it becomes a honeypot for those looking for what you have to offer

How it becomes a larger and larger source of revenue and interest and traffic flow

How creating that traffic flow costs you little outlay apart from the crafting of great content pages

How you sharing with your audience the day to day life of a professional in blog, RSS, forum you name it brings in even more traffic and traffic means those eager to learn and buy and that means more revenue from more and more reliable and easily maintained sources.

I have touched on some of the myriad ways of getting to the top of the search engines for very minimal outlay.

Ah yes - I hear you cry - but this is going to cost an arm and a leg and where am I going to find the time to spend on this angle of my career.

One: The cost of all the technology that I have touched on and all the technology that comes with it that I haven't even alluded to is less than two days assistant's fees - if you pay them:) The tools alone are the Hassleblads of web control

Two: The expansion of your skills is limitless

Three: The amount of time and input you put into it is entirely up to you. (Remember the question in the poll?)

Imagine it as a ten day program where each day can be just that or one week or one month or even one year

At the end of it whichever time scale you choose to implement, you will have a result.

Four: If you truly do not have time to handle this or would prefer the experts to help you then that is fine. You know where to go, but I really do say that everyone can do this - look at me for goodness sake - a dummy two years ago and now successfully running sites on the web.

For example I put my all into my effort and had twenty pages of my site up in a couple of months.

My traffic went from under 10 a day to a hundred a day in three to four weeks After two years it is moving up and around 700 unique visitors a day. (Please bear in mind that UNIQUE means those that have never set foot on my site before. The return visit figures are somewhat more than that of course.

So all in all I should be hosting nearly half a million people a year that will be passing through my site by year end. I have some great ideas for converting that sort of traffic into paying customers just as I now see the opportunities for myself and many of you to turn the photography sector into a new revenue source.

And that is from a dummy who knew virtually nothing at the start
I want you to imagine that we could have at least 10 /15 of us that have sites operating at this level if not considerably more and as they are all linked we begin to create a creature that has pulling power on a level that attracts and offers expertise and product on a scale of quality that Getty could only dream of.

The Library Option

Now we know what the present library model is and that can be replicated and we become just another upmarket library.

A bit pointless since what we are putting up is the best of the world's imagemakers - or at least some of them.

By constructing a central site that delivers images, copyright rules and regs, modes of conduct, how to handle model releases, location and client communication and all the rest of the business of being a top photographer we offer the very best and most experience in one place.

That this could spread to offering a research for where to find for all and anyone brings in major asset potential for having all sorts of ancillary services on board - then you really have a service that is attractive to many.

At this stage I sense a deal of déja vu as it was in '85 that I created a project that would have become the Black Book of the web(It actually turned into Google eventually) . History has proved that my prescience in these matters was exact and targeted so what I am suggesting to you all today is really worth noting and actioning as it is simply the way forward on many levels.

We keep up with all the latest best practice, scandals and unfair treatments - dealt with in a reporting objective way - articles that really bring the ranking 'bots salivating to our sites and we incorporate all the most valuable and resourceful stuff that anyone wanting to be an image maker could ask for.

Well thought out links and invitation to ASMP, EURO bodies etc to submit expert articles on this site as the landing site of necessity for all, even Art Buyers, will in a short while make it a fount of great objective purpose for our and allied industries.

There are specific ways to find the best sites to link to so that our visibility and ranking all benefit. These ways do not cost fortunes if anything and that is what is important for us the relative minnows to enable growth into the whales of the web!

A Forum akin to the Yoga-ez one would enable many many people to talk to and share with experts across the field. This alone becomes a huge traffic puller. Every site could have one and the format is easy to monitor and control - I know of course because I have had one for a year or two.

The site can become so much more than Getty or others because it is in the business of informing first and by default selling through trust without loss of integrity and standards. When you are small and relatively off the map to start with - this is important.

Also it would have a powerful array of satellite sites (the photographers own info sites) that support promote and benefit from the symbiotic relation.

This from the Search engine's point of view and needs is very important and gives us all a great leg up in marketing terms and for few pennies again you see. ______________________________________________________________

-Another side note from the forum:
I mean I have to draw your attention to Getty's latest "viral" promotion (Been taken down since this article was written! Maybe they got the point).

I have filed it under BAD IDEAS! Frankly it does nothing but toss itself off and try and be far too clever.

Its proposition is nowhere , it takes an assumption that just having a flash item for people to play with is going to get their profile up.

Let me not knock their financial clout to do these things in the first place. It is their choice of course but for all of us who have quality embedded as a given and creativity that is bursting to be exercised and a far shallower pocket there are major influencing ways of directing our purpose to the same and wider clients that prove our right to state that we have what it takes and what they are looking for.

There is a place for Flash originated art and web design but it will never have the pulling power that we all need and can achieve.

CTPM is what does it and will continue to do it no matter how clever people think they can be with their own money and design formats!
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Back to the subject in hand:

HOWEVER - and this must be thought out very carefully - WHAT ARE PEOPLE LOOKING FOR?

Because if we gaily offer the same old formula - library - we may be completely missing many other revenue streams.

First we need to ask what people want and act on it with quality images that are priced for all occasions. The point of having sections that may well include illustration and other forms means that we can carry quality and scope across a wide range.

This however is a long term project so we can grow organically.

First off if we wish to have an image outlet it can be both individually driven as well as a collective resource.

Let us not make the mistake of developing most of our energy on creating a LIBRARY (read Monetization model) before we have developed the profile, content and traffic that becomes its life blood and will be driven to whatever image resource we develop.

To start with both individual and a general sales point can be simply incorporated without the sort of admin headaches that are associated with a major library site.

Autonomy is a great asset to individuals as much as a collective point of reference is for an idea - Organisation (Art of Photography)
Sure we can investigate the best ways to get a mechanical delivery system up and working and if we are clever it can be tweeked to provide and individual model for everyone that wants their own referencing and sales of their work and products.

Links and cross referencing comes as a given and part of the execution.

Design - how important is it?

Contrary to what many might believe it has little importance to the success of a web site. That is one reason why the greatest designed sites- - unless they have the real meat of successful web building are non-starters from a financially and ratings point of view.

Good clean easy navigation is all you need. We do not want to get into the mindset that design is the most important element. Yes get some good clean lines and look and feel but if we let a designer loose with flash and all the bells and whistles from the outset, then you really are in trouble from getting the most out of site success.

It is absolutely understandable that a vehicle for professional photography needs to have great presentation just as we all do with folio presentation but do not be lured down the road that it is the B all and end all. It ain't!

Clean simple presentation with great content and well crafted pages is what wins.

Remember you are trying to influence the robots just as much as the public. No robots first no public of any influence to follow. Unless you are wanting to spend all that wasted money into offline advertising in the usual places that get nowhere.

Surely you must have learnt a lesson or two from the very industry that has pulled the wool over everyone's eyes for so long!

Leave them with their fantasies and let us move into pay dirt web wise.

Also let us indeed cultivate as much press column inches and awareness to point people to the new birth, leading the way has been part of the original mission statement with the organisation. Nothing wrong with developing the buzz in all sorts of ways but bottom line, we need to create the proposition first.

My initial suggestion is that we create an image resource site that works in the same way as optimised sites for the individual but that also has the whole delivery system built within it.

The specific structure would be a mix of best web building practice and convenience for use by both buyer and seller.

However since the initial presell needs to come from individuals' sites the development of a collective site needs to be of equal focus as the individual effort.

I am now going to get this up and ask you to mull over all I have put in before we move to the next stage.

Please post your questions and comments so that I can feel where everyone is.

I apologise if it rambles a bit and jumps around a bit. This comes from comments arriving from you all in mails that i try to address on the fly!

Jonathan Trapman....©2009-2011