Wordle and what it taught me about SEO

Think Splendid is one of the blogs that I read everyday (I just went into my google reader to see how many blogs I follow and it is 50 - yikes!) If you haven't heard of them yet here is a little bit about them from their website:

"Welcome to Think Splendid, the blog of Splendid Communications! We are an online media consultancy serving the wedding and hospitality industries. We help companies discover and maximize their online voice in order to effectively increase their brand presence and add to their bottom line.

We believe that social media is a return to old-fashioned roots of real conversations rather than a high-tech race to keep up with the next big thing. While the tools will always evolve, the need for businesses to communicate effectively and deepen relationships with their customers will remain.

Splendid Communications subscribes to the view that the world is a bakery that produces fresh opportunities each day and not a fixed pie where each person has to fight for the last crumb. The purpose of our blog is to encourage you to Think Splendid; both in business and in life."

Yesterday I ran across this article on their blog which shows an easy way to evaluate your blog's keywords using a site called Wordle. When you get to the site you either paste in a bunch of text or enter in your blog's url and it creates an image of the most commonly used words on your blog. The bigger the word the more you use it. I entered the address for the Mollie Tobias Photography blog and got this:

Evidentally I say "Great" a lot. Weddings shows up big which is good, but both "photography" and "Mollie Tobias Photography" are nowhere to be found! There is also no mention of portrait photography, another big area of my business. You may be asking yourself why this information is important. Solid question. It is important because search engines use these keywords to rank your website or blog when they deliver search results. Of the 367 impressions (times my website showed up as a result of a google search) last month, 212 of them were when someone searched for "photographer", "photographers", or "photography". Makes you think huh?

So, now if you see a post on my blog that just says "wedding and portrait photographer" over and over again you'll know why. Okay, I was kidding about that part. I wouldn't do that just to increase my SEO (and because they have little bots that find out that is what you are doing and take you out of the search results completely).

Whether you use this site for checking your website's keywords or just for fun be sure to go on over and check it out. Have a lovely (notice I didn't say the "g" word?) Wednesday!

Picture Monday - Annie and Christina

I had so much fun doing photos for Annie and her sister last Wednesday. I can't show you too much yet, but here is a sneak peak at one of my favorite series of images from the day. You can really tell how much fun these two have when they are together. Have a great Monday!

Weekly Fixations - November 27th

So much to love about this wedding at Style Me Pretty. Flowers with feathers, and that dress...I am loving colored wedding dresses more and more and I especially like the cheeky reversal putting the bridesmaids in white or baby pink and the bride in a statement color. While you are there, check out this eye candy too.

I have been seeing a lot of really creative, super colorful florals lately like these at ruffled and these at Helen Carter Weddings. Love the blues and purples. I didn't even know that blue orchids existed.

I have been wrestling with this dilemma about handwriting addresses vs. having printed labels. I want my business correspondence to have a personal touch, but I also want it to look professional. Is typed impersonal? Is handwritten unprofessional?

The first part of Scott Kelby's Gonzo gear guide is out here. I am thinking about picking up the 24" softbox myself and would love the 18-200 lens.

This is a nice article on finding your officiant from Weddingbee Pro.

These bridesmaids dresses from Two Birds are so amazingly awesome that I kinda want one for myself - just because.

This is an awesome idea featured at Green Wedding Shoes...have a photographer tag along when you propose. Love her reaction.

And because I love Etsy...awesome jewelry here and those cute little paper puffs that I really wanted for Halloween here.

There is a great guest blog on Scott Kelby's site by Austin Mann. He has such a great attitude. I especially like what he said about giving old equipment to a child rather than selling it.

Style Me Pretty does these cute features where they take an inspiration board and make it into reality. This one is very pretty (and I love the sofa) check it out here and here.

Not sold on doing an engagement session? Read this article from Helen Carter Weddings before you make up your mind.

This is a very instructional article over at Digital ProTalk about dealing with difficult lighting and background situations. I was dealing with a similar problem at Weddings for Warriors (mid-priced hotel hallways are NOT cute) and I completely agree that as a pro you are not able to just phone it in. You are being paid to get a great image NO MATTER WHAT for your client.

Weddings for Warriors, Part 2

Because it is a holiday weekend coming up I thought I would do a "Picture Wednesday" and post the rest of the weddings for Warriors photos today. This is going to be a busy weekend for me, but I plan on taking tomorrow completely off and doing nothing but eating and hanging out with my Mom.

Remember to take a moment to be thankful for all that you have and also give a thought to those who have had a hard year or who have had losses in their families this past year. Have a Happy Thanksgiving!

Picture Monday - Weddings for Warriors, Part 1

Here are the first round of pictures from Weddings for Warriors. We got moved inside at the last minute, which forced me to be creative to get some good shots in a mid-priced hotel hallway, but it was a great experience and I would love to go back again next year.

Congratulations Shaqwaun and Jacquelyn!

Weekly Fixations - November 20th

I really love the layout of these save the dates, I think that it would be great for a promotion flyer. I actually keep really well designed junk mail. Weird, huh?

These totes would be a totally cute bridesmaid gift or memento. Or, you can just get some to cart your groceries around. You know. Whatever.

I posted a little while back about a super cool family tree program. Now, Inspired Goodness has a fun DIY version that is a "wedding tree" and uses thumb prints of all of your guests as a guest book.


If you are crafty check out the Brooklyn Bride card swap. You make and send cards and then get back handmade cards in return.

I love pretty much everything about this inspiration board from Flights of Fancy. The color scheme, the invites, the abundance of layers and ruffles...


I also think that this post at Ruffled is great with all of these budget wedding dresses. Stylish, and still on budget? Priceless.

The Happy Book, reviewed by jomygoodness, just sounds fun.

This is a good article by Chenin at Boutwell studios about tips for travelling to weddings.

Download these free printable holiday labels from i do it yourself. Now. Then, while you are there, download this font too.

Great article at Helen Carter Wedding on choosing a caterer.

Something about these photos just make me think of a nice quiet weekend alone somewhere fabulous *sigh*

Consider this your permission

And because I am a huge dork and I like teen angst vampire movies I'm ending with the fact that I am SO excited to see the new Twilight movie tonight! Yeah!

Have a great weekend!

Automated vs. Made by Hand

Sometimes I get thoughts from the absolute weirdest places. I have this tin of Burt's Bees hand salve that I carry around with me in my purse. Yesterday I was sitting at my computer procrastinating and rubbing some on when I noticed that the color was applied unevenly around the top rim of the tin. While not a giant catastrophe it did trigger a whole mental conversation with myself (only child dontcha know) about the risks and rewards of automating processes versus doing them by hand.

This may sound random but I think that it relates to photography a lot more than you may think it does at first blush. Most all photographers will agree that shooting your camera on auto or "P" is horrific and unthinkable because you are letting go of any artistic control that you may have over the final outcome of your image. Okay, I'll buy that. You are a pro and people pay you for the vision that you project onto a scene and render on (digital) film.

So, doing things by hand and having complete control must be the best way to go for all aspects of your photography, right? Not so fast. What about actions? I'll bet that you don't print all of your own prints by hand either. You can probably see where I am going with this.

We use automation to save us time and because automation is supposed to deliver us with more consistent results than if the same project was done by hand. Obviously, as was the case with my tin of Burt's Bees, automation needs to have hands on monitoring to be sure the product is still meeting standards. So, it is up to us as photographers / business owner's to come up with a system that balances the need for quality, consistency, artistic integrity, and time management.

I do not have a perfect system in place, but I was reading something on Chenin Boutwell's blog where she was talking about workflow tips. The thing that she said that was like a Eureka moment for me was that you must have your 3-5 "looks" that you use and stick to them to avoid spending massive amounts of time experimenting. Why didn't I think of that? Obviously even actions aren't a silver bullet since each photo is unique, but I am going to start being more conscious of what I want my "looks" to be and incorporate them into my workflow. I already have one in mind that I used for the Weddings for warriors photos (they are edited and ready to be posted soon!)

What are your tips and tricks for balancing the need to control vs. the need for automation? I'd love to hear what others are doing for their workflow!