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Get a Blog:
One Photographer’s Insights
By Ethan G. Salwen
Andy Batt
I use a blog in disguise: andybatt.blogspot.com. It’s the FEED section of my site: www.andybatt.com.
ES: Tell me about your “hidden” blog.
AB: I have incorporated a blog into my main Web site: www.andybatt.com. It’s in the right, bottom corner, and it’s called FEED. It’s not meant to stand out like a typical blog. I’m using the technology and the core idea of what a blog can be, but I’m not jumping on the blog bandwagon. The basic idea was to use blog technology to deliver fresh images and ideas to anyone viewing my site. I’m very minimalist about this blog because I wanted to use it to serve a simple idea, and also because I wanted to do something that I could see myself keeping up on for a long period of time. The blog is really an extension of the idea behind the entire site.
ES: In what way?
AB: We decided who we were building the overall website for, what they would want from it and how we were going to kept it fresh. The FEED blog helped us meet our objectives.
ES: How so?
AB: The majority of our clients are art directors and art buyers. Based on research and experience we knew that this audience wants to spend limited time at photographers’ sites. They want an immediate return on the investment of their time. So our site has no entry page, and uses a customized flash module to display images. It’s all there on a single page. However, we did want to preserve a subtle interactive relationship with the audience, so we decided to make the site longer than a normal screen. This forces the viewer to scroll down to see the bottom of the page. It’s simple, but it does engage the viewer. The other subtle effect of the long page is that initially the emphasis is on the main portfolio. Then, after scrolling down the viewer encounters the REFRESH and FEED sections.
ES: How often do you update content?
AB: When we redesigned the site, we planned a specific timeline for updates. Once every six months we change the content in the WATCH section. Once every other month we change the content in the REFRESH section. And every Monday we add a new image to the FEED section. The old FEED images go into the STACKS section, allowing them to stay there indefinitely.
ES: What blogging application do you use?
AB: The FEED section is powered by Blogger.com, but it has been completely designed into the page, so it is really a “blog in disguise,” or a “hidden blog.” I’m taking advantage of the ease of using Blogger’s software without creating a typical blog.
ES: It doesn’t look like a blog, but it gives you flexibility of a blog?
AB: Yes. One of the most important discussions my Web designer and I had was how I was going to use the FEED. We talked a lot about the motivations behind the act of blogging. The most important consideration was simply, “Will I do it?” We realized that we needed to create a blog that I was motivated to update. If we created something too complicated or without a reward, the odds were that the blog would end up very dusty, very fast. So we stripped the idea down to its basics. I would post a new image every week, and write a short caption about the image. The images could be future portfolio images, or they could be experiments, or just something I found interesting.
ES: And it’s working?
AB: Definitely. Through the FEED section I’m now communicating to my audience once a week with a fresh image. They now have a reason to check in at least once in a while, knowing that at least one image will be new to them.
ES: How are you promoting FEED?
AB: We send out an email promotion about once a month to a select list of clients directing them to the site to check out a new FEED image. I also take advantage of the Blogger to aid in our promotions. Every time I post, Blogger automatically pings weblogs.com. And since Google is tied directly into Blogger our site is frequently spidered by Google.
ES: How do you select your images for the FEED?
AB: As with all marketing, you really need to know who your audience is (or what you want it to be) and cater to that audience. You need to ask yourself what message you want to deliver, and work from there.
ES: In addition to your FEED blog, you also maintain a personal blog about digital photography for photographers at www.andybatt.blogspot.com. What is your motivation for doing this?
AB: I maintain this informational blog as part of my desire to “give back” to the photographic community. It started as an experiment, just to give an outlet for some of the work I do for ASMP Oregon and the occasional teaching I do for workshops. I already had all this helpful information in the form of handouts that were just sitting on my hard drive doing nothing.
ES: Tell me a little about your audience for this blog. It seems like a major amount of work, and I can’t imagine you doing it unless you had a community of followers in the blogosphere.
AB: This is where the compelling part comes in. When this blog was shiny and new, I was interested in posting ideas, and aggregating helpful bits and pieces of information about digital photography, like links to useful Web sites. But that interest wore off after a year or so. Now I am in the process of rethinking how I can reposition this blog to serve more as an advice and education column for photographers just starting out in the world of commercial photography. Again, I need to craft a compelling reason for me to add new posts. Otherwise I won’t do it.