{"id":2002,"date":"2015-06-11T15:24:22","date_gmt":"2015-06-11T19:24:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ninew.wpengine.com\/?p=2002"},"modified":"2015-06-11T15:24:22","modified_gmt":"2015-06-11T19:24:22","slug":"how-does-a-photographer-find-his-or-her-blogging-voice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/9wdigital.com\/how-does-a-photographer-find-his-or-her-blogging-voice\/","title":{"rendered":"How Does a Photographer Find Her Blogging Voice?"},"content":{"rendered":"
Photographers often ask me if they should blog and what they can possibly talk about.<\/p>\n
Blogging can be daunting. Writing is hard. It takes time. People will judge the result. And why should anyone care what you have to say anyway?<\/p>\n
Well there are a few good reasons for a photographer to have a blog and many people grow to really enjoy the exercise.<\/p>\n
Two main reasons: to build an audience and to improve your Google ranking.<\/p>\n
As your blog grows it will get noticed. Regular quality posts will accumulate more page views, more comments and more links pointing to your website. The composition of your audience will never be 100% composed of potential clients. You will attract amateur photographers looking for tips in your specialty, locals with time to spend online and people who are simply interested in whatever it is you blog about, typically what you photograph. But 100% of your potential clients could – theoretically – be members of your audience and they will take note of you as a potential hire.<\/p>\n
Google will notice you too. Google’s spiders love nothing more than crawling a text-rich web page. Text is easy to reference and understand (not so for images) and says almost everything about the content of a website. That on-page analysis feeds into Google’s ranking algorithm and directly helps determine which keyword searches your site should come up for. So a blog about underwater photography will boost the ranking of an underwater photographer’s website. Makes sense.<\/p>\n
Use the keywords that make up your core SEO strategy in your texts and titles but make sure your texts read normally and don’t come across as exercises in artificial keyword-stuffing. This is an important point: always prioritize human readers over Google. Your blog is your voice and your ultimate targets are humans. Accumulating and engaging a wide audience of human readers is always the best SEO strategy.<\/p>\n
The incoming links that you will accrue tell Google that people think your website is interesting. Your ranking will benefit directly. People love to share, point out and give credit when due online. If your blog adds something new to the table it will definitely attract links.<\/p>\n
I can tell you what you should avoid. No personal musings about happiness. No empty pep talks. You are not a guru. No one is waiting to hear your life guidance. Stay away from the personal as well. What matters to you – the time you spent with your dying grandmother – is of no interest to anyone else. Your weekend walks, your family news, your thoughts on this year’s World Series (unless you’re a baseball photographer with relevant insights) don’t make good blogging topics. There is an infinite supply of boring material out there, don’t add to it.<\/p>\n
Instead aim for what is best described as interesting<\/em>. A million solicitations tug on our attention every day and only the ones that bring something of value get our time. Your posts need to make the cut. Remember that kitten videos pass as interesting so don’t underestimate the competition.<\/p>\n