April 10th Wrap-Up

Stacey and I would like to thank everyone who was able to make Tuesday's PUG meeting. One again we had double digit turnout!

In review, for the month of April we went over the following topics:

Paul Fletcher - Spotlight Studio
Pictage's new proof books
Pictage's new companion albums
Pictage's learn site
and we held a roundtable discussion on blogs

The majority of the roundtable discussion focused on the purpose of using blogs, the approach to take toward a blog, and how to increase exposure and viewership.

What were the themes we came up with?

#1) A blog serves photographers very well because it allows our clients to keep up with us and see our latest work very quickly.

#2) Should your blog be personal or business? The general agreement was that it should be a combination of both. The business portion helps clients see some new work and that you really are a photographer where the personal side lets people into your life and gives them an idea of who you are as a person.

#3) Post as often as you can. This helps make people want to come back more frequently

#4) Find a niche/become an expert - try and find something unique to post about. Incorporate that idea into your blog, it will make people want to read more frequently (one very successful blog is about a guy who talks about being boring).

#5) Look for unique features and things to add to your blog.

#6) LINK, LINK, LINK - Linking helps you in the google search engine. There are countless ways and things you can link to.

#7) Use keywords in your posting titles - The search engines look at these posting headings.

Some photographers blogs that were mentioned that various people like
simple photo life
[b]eckers blog
gosip - jessica claire
me ra koh
open source photo
cup of joe photo

I hope everyone enjoyed the conversation and were able to leave with some new ideas.

For those of you who may be interested, I am attaching a PDF of the Agenda for the Pictage topics.

Housecleaning items:

#1) Who would be interested in attending a 1 day workshop if I am able to set it up. I am thinking of trying to get Zack Arias bring his one light photogrpahy workshop to town. The following are various links to what he is doing.

www.onelightworkshop.com - workshop site
www.usedfilm.com - Zack's Music Photography
www.KillTheFill.com - Zack's Blog

The cost would be $325 - $350/person for the day. This would be open to anyone you think would be interested and we would be looking for 8+ people to attend.

Zack does a lot of music photography and typically lines up a band or two in the area to shoot.

I think it would be interesting a different yet somewhat minimalist way to approach lighting.

#2) Does anyone have ideas as to what they would like to have for topics in the next year? Two things we are looking at so far are storage ideas (External Hardrives, Raids, etc.), a workflow discussion, and a group shoot; however, we are always looking for additional ideas.


In closing, congratulations to Bjorn Meisnerr for winning the $100 in Pictage credit, and the reward of doing June's Studio Spotlight. We are also hoping to have Noemi do next months spotlight. Stacey and I hope you are all doing well and we look forward to next month's meeting.

Take Care,

Jason and Stacey Thon
Staja Studios

April 10th PUG Meeting

TUESDAY, APRIL 10, 2007
7:00PM

Staja Studios
5205 West 73rd Street
Edina, MN 55439

Local Agenda:

Studio Spotlight: Paul Fletcher

* Are you using a blog to MARKET your business?
* The points we are going to be looking at include:
- Are you currently using a blog?
- Should your blog be strictly business, personal, or a mix?
- What do you want to accomplish with your blog?
- Is your blog sending a consistent message with your site?
- What blogs out there do you enjoy reading (if any)

Pictage Agenda:

* New proof books
* Companion books
* Pictage learn site

We look forward to seeing you all there.

- Jason & Stacey