Stock Photo Links

Archive for the ‘Website Submissions’ Category

LinkedIn is a powerful Social Networking site that is particularly useful for anyone with a photography business to promote.

Register/Login to your account and create your profile and resume.

http://www.linkedin.com

Take your time and add relevant, interesting profile information. The secret with any Web 2.0 marketing is to do it like you mean it … if you just go through the motions to try and build links and skip over the ‘shared content’ part you’re missing the point!

Make sure you include a few relevant keyword phrases … don’t overdo it … put your main keyword phrase in there 2-3 times, plus a couple of others once or twice.  Remember it is primarily for real people to read, so don’t go stuffing too many keywords in there.

Then add links to your various photography websites …

Creating your links and anchor text

1. Click on My Profile => Edit My Profile

2. Click the Edit link beside your websites.

3. This will let you edit your additional information (click edit).

4. Add a web site listing. Start by taking the box that says “Choose” (it may say ‘My Website’, ‘Comany Website’ etc, and select “other”. This will let you to specify keyword rich anchor text.

5. Enter a keyword phrase that describes  the page you’re linking to. This is used as the anchor text, so make sure it’s ‘readable’ and totally relevant ot the page content.

For example, if the page is a lightbox of ‘Custom Car’ photos, you might enter ‘Stock Photos of Custom Cars’. If it’s a photo page, always try to include the words photos or images or photography.

6. Then enter in the URL, … and check it first in a separate window … and then click Save Changes.

Making your links visible

1. Look for the link titled “Edit Public Profile Settings” in the upper right portion of the screen. Click on it.

2. Then on the next screen make sure that the “websites” box is checked.

3. Click Save Changes.

You can have up to 3 URLs in your profile so use them wisely.

If you have your own website you might choose to link to:

1. Your Home Page or Portfolio, with “Your Name: Subject Stock Photography” as the link text … where Subject is a keyword phrase describing one of your key subjects or fields of work.

2. A Photo Page such as a Lightbox or a Gallery, and again, the link text should be a specific keyword phrase and the page should be totally relevant to that phrase. ie. Golden Retriever Stock Photos.

… and this last link is important …

3. A different website page that links to your website, ie a Facebook page, or an article published on www.EzineArticles.com, or a profile on another stock photography portal website.

Altenratively, if you don’t have your own personal website, but a presence on a photography portal instead, you might take a similar approach …

1. A link to your main profile/portfolio page

2. A link to a photo lightbox or gallery set.

3. A link to another webpage that links to your main web presence

This extra link to an external website is known as 3-way linking or ‘triangular linknig’ and is extremely valuable for SEO. It’s something you should do regularly when you’re promoting your web presence. For every 5-10 links you set up to your main web precense, always try to add one to a different website that links to your pages.

OK, back to LinkedIn to finish off … as with all Social Marketing, the secret is to use the website yourself!

The best way to do that is to set it as an extra ‘home page’ tab in your browser, so it opens every time you launch your web browser. Then whenever time permits, you can login and do something …

You can update your status as appriopriate …  look for the What are you working on now? heading …

• Any time you’re adding new photo content, post a note and link it to your portfolio.
• If you make a new gallery or lightbox or album, let people know with a direct link.
• If you do any other web marketing … blogging, articles, video etc … give it a mention here as well.

It all adds up and people will check it out!

Have fun … and look me up for a new ‘connection’ when you’re done!