We had a friend come to our PUG group recently. His blog is www.furrygoat.com, and he gets 100,000 hits a week. Of course we had to buy Steve dinner and find out how this is possible!

He gave some really great tips, so I put it in a video for all of you! Hope it's helpful! My editing skills are definitely not like Josh's!

And check out yesterday's post if you get a chance. It's a sneak peak at the DVD series!

So excited!!

Wow...100,000! Thanks so much for sharing!

That was a great video clip! Your kids are awesome too!! If you want help with "crop"ing your pictures for albums, drop my wife Catherine (OSP ShabbyCat) a line, she's a Creative Memories consultant and will hook you up!

Me Ra - that little video is a gem!! Sooo cute! And what a great PUG gathering you all have up there!

Thanks for the tips!! (need to go blog) LOL.

I've found one thing to be soooo true that coincides with all the tips mentioned on your video... I actually get the most response from the NORMAL, everyday stuff and nonsense that I write... like "BlogStalkers Anonymous" or a post about cute French movies I've fallen in love with.

Can't WAIT to see more of your video - can never fail with a combination of you two and Josh together!

See ya in Vegas soon

wow, come share your new in sight and tips with us TONIGHT for the OSP-Seattle get together

Great tips and videos! Your DVD looks Really Awesome! Thanks for all you do Me Ra

Thanks!

Thanks for sharing...good stuff!

So great! Wonderful tips! Love the video and the sneak peek.

And I'm a huge scrapbooker! I use paper and do digital scrapbooking, too. If you ever want some tips, feel free to write.

Thanks for sharing! Those were great tips!

Great Stuff Me Ra!

I Hyjack'd your blog post on mine.

Keep an eye out for my photography blog party coming soon!

Looking forward to the DVD and esp the Nutty Professor

saw this earlier, thats a great video! i so wanna check our ur pug it looks like it'd be a great time!

Thank you ! Great Info! I will implement some of it tonight!!

Hey guys!

What a crazy day! I literally posted the blogging tips and then headed out the door to take Pascaline to school, then to Cosco with Blaze, then home to make lunch, play time, nap time, to the gym and now I'm back. Phew!

So glad the tips are helpful! I can't tell you how much they've helped our blog. Especially categorizing your posts. All just easy stuff, but you wouldn't think of it unless someone pointed it out. And you're so right Liana! The personal things are such a hit too! It's amazing how many brides contact us saying that they've been following the blog for months.

Josh and I are just chomping at the bit to show you more sneak peaks! Glad you liked the first one so much! Way till you see the next one...




Wow J! Totally honored! I think the Nutty Professor is blushing! And photo blog party? What's that!??? Totally got my interest perked!




Sounds like a blast Corey! Sorry we can't make it. Pasc had the flu yesterday, and we're feeling like we need to lay low tonight.

And WOWZER!! Check out Anne's blogging tips! AWESOME Anne!

Thank you for the info. That was really helpful and totally made sense!

Thanks!

Hi Me Ra!

I was so excited to discover your blog recently! I adore it and it is now officially on my list of top 5 blogs to visit along with Anne Ruthmann, Mike Colon, Jessica Claire and Photo Joe.
So, I just checked out your friend Steve's blog and I have to scratch my head and wonder what keeps people coming back. I don't mean to be disrespectful, and maybe it's because as photographers we are so visual, but there is no eye candy there. Seriously, without it, it just seems boring. I'd hate to think I was just shallow, because I love some light reading but photos are what leave me wanting more.

And again, thanks for your refreshingly honest and insightful blog posts. They are the best!!

~daria

Thanks for sharing, MeRa! Those tips are super helpful, especially since we just started a blog last week.

We missed you at the OSP-Seattle meeting...maybe next time when your son is healthy!

Also, we live in Redmond and haven't connected with any other Pictage users. Would it be possible for us to visit your PUG next time you guys get together?

100k per week!! He need some ads on that site

Daria, I first have to say that you have the cutest avatar. I just love it! Are those your kids?

And your question about Steve's blog is great. I didn't really get it either at first. Steve was one of the head program architects at Microsoft, so he thought he would start a blog about things that are interesting to him in the tech world. This guy is so smart, it's insane. For those of you who use Outlook on your PC's, he was one of the head guys behind desigining it.

It's amazing that he only writes a few sentences, never has any images, and gets 100,000 hits a week. I think it's because he has developed his niche well. People know his blog as the "potpourri tech" type blog. He just got hired by Yahoo to take their community building to the next level, and I know his consistency in his blog had to help with landing that job.

In fact, funny thing is that his boss walked in on him watching the video yesterday that we put together. His boss got such a kick out of it that he sent it all over Yahoo. And I guess he also used it in a presentation for the Yahoo board today! You just never know who is going to see your blog, connect with, and pass it on. After doing what Steve does, for five plus years, people know what to expect from him and keep coming back. Pretty cool huh!





He actually has ads in the archives, but he says that making money off ads doesn't really go far. A couple hundred dollars a month? Nothing to quit his day job for.




Sounds like it was a blast! And the weather was just perfect! We would love for you to come visit our PUG sometime. We aren't doing one in March, but the Seattle group is on the 29th. If you check it out on Pictage's PUG webpage, you'll get all the details. Hopefully we can see you in April!

Thanks for the plug!!! I think Steve has a lot of great tips - many which we seem to have in common!

I think it's really important to make sure that the hits we're receiving are RELEVANT to the brand we're trying to create, which goes along the lines of his tip about creating a "niche". A "niche" and a brand can be strengthened by sharing things that are a little outside of your actual photography, but connect to clients in a way that pictures of strangers may not be able to. For example - I'm a bit of a tree hugger... and I want to attract clients who care about the environment as well... so every once in a while I'll share something about ways which you can be more environmentally friendly. In other words - a "niche" may be your specialty, but once you've established that "niche", you can find ways to expand upon it and offer other content that is RELEVANT to your brand and the clients you want to attract. If you attract 100K hits to your blog and 99,000 of those hits are based on random google searches that turn up results that aren't relevant to your brand - than you're receiving a whole lot of traffic from people who really don't care about your blog or what you have to offer. It's better to receive 500 hits from people who really care about what you have to offer, than to simply pump your blog full of things that will attract random search engine "hits".

A note about linking: A lot of people don't realize that a great way to get more incoming links to their blog is to post comments on OTHER blogs and include a link to their own blog (or website - whichever you want to rank higher in search engine results!) So - don't just visit other blogs... make sure to leave comments when it's something that interests you and you would want your brand linked too, because it's quite possible that in a google search of your name or website, those comments will pop up eventually!!

Thanks Me Ra!

Nope, I borrowed them.

Yes, they are my peanuts: Summer (8)and Baxter (6).
They were my inspiration for getting into photography!

I think that is why I can relate so well to your story.
I don't know too many moms that can successfully balance a career, family, exercise, friends (and sanity) and come out the other end with a genuine smile on their face.
So thanks for the inspiration!
~daria

It was fun! I will check out the PUG webpage...we haven't entirely figured out all the ins and outs of Pictage, so meeting other users would be VERY helpful!

On another note, we started applying some of the tips in the blogging video and we've had 40 visitors since last night. We started our blog a little over two weeks ago, and had only had about 20 hits in that two week time! Thanks again!

Airika

Me Ra...I've said this before, but you're amazing!!

as always