comments

Zeke - buddy! Great article. I want to learn these tools so I can offer them as services myself one day! Between virtual tours, pay-per-click campains, blog creation, and audio/video "casts" ... any business of any size can have a voice ...

Keep sharing your insight ... and thanks for sharing! P.S. Still have you in mind for future work ;)

Wordpress is a great platform. I say just start plugging away at it and become more familiar yourself.

It's all scary, the PHP, CSS, etc. But if you follow the instructions for each piece you are trying to set up, you may be surprised ... it just takes some time to take away the fear of f***ing something up ... and to start the building process with wordpress.

Remember - "Pages" stay on your site as static. What you put on a "page" will be there for the long haul (i.e. about me, contact info, etc.) ... it's the categories that you'll want to consider before you writing posts are put up work. How can you categorize your photos (people, architectural, etc - and can photo's hit other categories like "additional lighting used", "HDR", "natural lighting", "commerical", "experimental", etc. So prethink what categories would be appropriate for your posts, and make those categories ... so when you do post, you just check all the boxes that apply to that specific post.

For example on bayareavr.net, I may hit "virtual tour", "commercial", "san francisco" .... or "photography", "experimental", "thoughts". etc.

Absolute plug-ins - Spam blocks (Akismet), NextGEN Gallery - awesome for photos, and some kind of stat tracking program like wordpress stats or google analytics ... there are many more, but having a spam filter, a nice photo gallery, and tracking stats seem to be the strongest for me.

Best practices: keep your topics focused on your niche. Try to blog 2 times a week - although it's been over a month since I have ;( I think tutorials are a great way to go. If you can educate someone, there's a good chance that people may point to that tutorial - share some of that knowledge! Take an extra minute to link to the references you are talking about - make the blog entries more dynamic. Pay close attention to your stats plug in ... what are people viewing? What are they coming back for?

For example, I create virtual tours. When I capture a great scene, I can take that stiched photo - and crop my favorite part of the spherical image to make a wallpaper. I have found that people come to my blog by looking for wallpapers more than looking for virtual tours or panoramic photography. So once I noticed the trend - I started to create more wallpapers - giving the readers more of what they were looking for. Am I big on wallpapers - not really. Do I hope people will see m virtual tours - absolutely ... and do I hope that people look for wallpaper, find a virtual tour, and then go to about me, or bayareavr.com my commercial site to find out more about my business - OF COURSE - that's the end goal!!!

Good luck - you will find TONS of info ... and will be joining a very large community.

Hi Phil,

Great article. I like it alot because I'm never afraid to try to network, or contact someone, in the hope that we have a mutually beneficial relationship.

But when it comes down to may "approach", I am kind of all over the place. I do not have a systematic approach (it's semi-systematic, but not even close to what you mention in your article).

I'll try out your advice and post my results in a few weeks. I think this article is well thought out - thanks.

Eli Poblitz bayareavr.com

I'll pass on the promo to friends :)

Hi Bob,

As a virtual tour provider, I am "banking" on the idea that print is becoming a past time. I use the idea/cost of print to help promote my services.

While I completely agree that print has it's purpose, and will never die, I think that there are more creative ways to advertise that don't take up so much space. When I think of your question - "how many phone books do you get?" - I instantly think of the space those books are consuming.

When I make a "sale", I remind clients that when they use a high quality 360 tour to "flaunt" their business, it's a one time cost. They do not have re-print costs. That brings up the other benefit - online tours are "green" - no landfills are being filled.

Print is not dying, it's just not dominating.

Hi Mike - you seem like a cool dude ;)

How many hours a week do you put into the production/distribution of your podcasts? I'd love to hear more about your experience with podcasting ...

Hi Kim,

I use Google Checkout to invoice my clients. They are slightly cheaper than paypal and have a big plus for me. I run an adwords campaign to try to attract clients and when Google Checkout charges me my % of my transactions, it actually get's funneled back into my adwords account.

So for example, if I do $2500 in sales and am charged $50 for the transaction fees - the following month, I get a link for a credit of $50 that can be used for my adwords campaign.

That loophole right there is enough for me to keep using google, let alone the cheaper fees and the strong brand recognition when people do process using google.

Outstanding photography Jamie! I hope you find some good Biznik business :)

Hi Gabriella,

I look forward to your insight from any information you share. I'm doing my best to transition from bad HTML, to proper web standards with CSS.

I recently received an email from an ABC - SEO company, and from the research I've been doing I was weary to even think about replying. I advise all Biznik community members to be weary as well.

Thanks for sharing your insight. Maybe I can push business your way one day!

hmmm ... free analysis? Sounds great! I have my SEO books with me ... but I haven't learned CSS yet to take advantage. I've thought about using wordpress for my site rather than what I have, but I'm kind of attached to my site.

RE: the 25% discount - what is it that one would sign up for? Let me know more about your company (and pricing of course :)

Eli

Very cool work! Oh the hours you must plug in behind a monitor :)

Let me know if you ever need an image (real) to work with (play with) with the 3d rendering.

Take care,

Eli

Hi David,

That's an outstanding promotion. It will be great to hear some of the Biznik community success stories if they take you up on your offer.

I can't make it this month - but I will definately shoot for next month!