See what you are doing wrong
on the internet
By Randall Tomaras
Page 1 - This is Page 2

 

Are all web sites created equal? Well you can tell that by looking at them. But a better question to ask yourself is; “Is my site relevant to the key words that people type in the search engines. If it is not, they won’t stick around and they won’t buy. You can tell a lot about your site with one quick visit to www.Alexa.com . Web sites used to be measured by the number of “hits” they received. That was fine until people started to design with photographs or image text because each image was equal to a hit. So if you had 50 images on a page, you received 50 hits. Then it went to unique visitors, which is a measure of one computer visiting a site in a 24 hour period. Web designers started to optimize pages for popular key words, like "Britney Spears" when they really sold TVs. People would move off that site quickly, but the company counted it for a unique visitor. So when you are in Alexa here are a couple new terms to look out for – Bounce and Time on Site.

The Bounce Rate is how many go to your site and only look at ONE page before they leave. If you have 10,000 people a day look at your site and you have a Bounce Rate of 70%, you really only have the interest of 30% or 3,000 unique visitors. If that is the case you really need to improve your relevance. Now photography has a higher bounce rate than most because there are still a lot of people surfing for smut. The 3 month average Bounce Rate of Best USA Photographers on June 24th was 33% which is excellent and places us ahead of organizations like  SmugMug, Professional Photographers of America, Kodak, Big Stock Photo, Corbis, Photographers.com, Photography Directory, Flickr, Webshots, National Geographic Society and many others. In fact Best USA Photographers was Number 10, but we will improve. (Just checked July 7th and we are number 2 now)

Time on Site is how long do web surfers stay on your site. This is a true sign of relevance and also a great buying sign. If someone stays 3 to 5 minutes on your site that is considered a success for most photography sites. As of June 24th, Best USA Photographers had a 3 month "Time on Site" average of 13.9 minutes making it Number 1 of the top 40 web sites that list photographers. There were only 4 that had an 8 minute average or better. Naturally the longer someone is on your site the better. Why would they stay on your site? Give them a reason and you'll have buyers, not just lookers.

Number of times on your site is important. Research will show that people will use a photographer or buy their photographs only after they have visited several times. The problem with that is most people who surf the web can’t tell you how they got to your site or even what the name of the site is. So how are they going to get back? Social Bookmarking is becoming more popular, but you still have to wait for them to come to you, which brings us to a very critical point.

Are you waiting for them to come to you, or are you going to them. Those are the only two ways you get a customer. If we as photographers are going to survive we need to adjust to the economy and the marketing methods. We can no longer be an industry of order takers. Best USA Photographers is changing over to a public relations firm from a portfolio site because programs and events need to be designed around photography buyers. We have to give them value. We have to develop a trust. To develop that trust we have to be selective in who we choose for Best USA Photographers. That is why people are staying on our site. These programs, events and web sites are very time consuming and they would be very costly if one photographer had to do it alone. Our programs will be designed to create interaction and communication. So create a web site that people can get involved with, one that they trust, and one that has value to them.

Internet marketing is too costly for most individuals. If you find it is difficult to find the time to do marketing with traditional mediums, it is not going to get easier with the internet. For one thing traditional mediums are fixed, they do not change much. The internet is all about change and you have to latch on to one of the few great internet marketers to keep you up to date. That costs money. We spent $20,000 last year and will probably double that next year because we have staff to train in new techniques. If you are a software programmer and can develop top of the line automation programs, you will save both money and a considerable amount of time. Since top programmers like that understand their value, they sell their services for a good price. You can either hire their services or hire a staff of 100 to complete the necessities in a timely manor. While our staff is under 10 we do subscribe to over $3,000 of services a month that save us over 10,000 hours of labor. Internet marketing has become so time intensive that you can not do it cost effectively without the proper tools.

Best USA Photographers is as much (if not more) for the buyer, as it is for the photographer. If you think it should be for the photographer only, you missed the point of what has happened to the market place and good luck with the old style of marketing. The statistics are VERY clear. The internet has provided a way for people to control what they do with their lives. Lately you have seen major shifts. Everything from major corporations and industries falling to presidential elections won. Yes, there is a major shift in the way we market. No longer will people be force fed. Consumers will rule, not CEOs. You would be wise to do something about your marketing.