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Friday, April 6, 2012

Photographers: Compare How Your Website Ranks

Ok, so if you know me, you know i LOVE Zach Prez and his marketing tips for photographers. If you don’t currently follow him, run don’t walk to his website to sign up for his FREE newsletter.

His latest post talks about website analytics and compares data he generated from a survey of 100 photographers. It’s actually pretty interesting to read and see how you compare. For example:

Photography Website Analytics Comparison by Zach Prez

Average Site Metrics:

Photographers with less than 5 years of experience can expect about 500 people per month to their website or blog. Zach also goes on to share average pages per visit, page views, time on site, and age of site.

Visitors:

Wedding photography sites can expect more traffic on average than non-wedding sites, coming in at around 428 visits per month. In addition, blogs outperformed standard websites, and photographers with a blogsite can expect the most traffic.

Average Bounce Rate:

79%. This means, nearly 8 out of 10 people to your webpage don’t click anything! For a tip on how to lower your bounce rate, read the full article.

Traffic Sources:

Search Engines: 29%
Referral (from websites other than your own): 50%
Direct (email newsletters, business cards, etc): 21%

Zach’s Key Takeaway: Build your site or blog for those who don’t know you yet. Only a small portion of your visitors came directly because they already know who you are.

Load Time:

A slow loading site makes people impatient and can cause visitors to leave. Zach suggests doing simple things like compressing images, deleting unused blog plugins, turning off music, and offering a mobile version of your site increase your ability to be viewed. Don’t get penalized by Google for having a slow loading site!

Mobile Friendly Sites:

An increasing percentage of the average photographer’s audience comes via mobile devices. Yet, only 15% of respondents are implementing a mobile-friendly presence. What are you waiting for?

Social Media:

Facebook is still the social media favorite, followed by Twitter and Pintrest. The average photographer has…

Facebook: 679 Likes, 132 monthly visits
Twitter: 322 Followers, 8 monthly visits
Pinterest: 156 Followers, 40 monthly visits

Online Advertising:

Google Ad Words, Facebook, or advertising somewhere else? Where you advertise and how much varies, but almost a third of photographers invest in online advertising. The ones that do advertise report getting significantly higher levels of web traffic &730 visits per month vs. 450 visits without)

LOVE this great marketing information? Then go check out Zach’s blog to read the article in full and sign up to get his newsletter.

Here’s some of the educational tools I’ve benefitted from that Zach offers:

Photography Marketing Guide:

Photography Blog Success

55 Smart Web Ideas for Photographers

I hope you enjoyed this post! Want more?
♥ View my Photography Portfolio
♥ See What I’ve Photographed Lately
♥ Browse my helpful Articles for Clients
♥ Check out my Tips for Photographers

Monday, April 2, 2012

San Francisco Corporate Conference + Event Photographer

Having an event in San Francisco?

Rebecca Wilkowski Photography offers photography services for corporate meetings, award shows, galas and benefits, fundraisers, trade shows, fashion shows, private parties, holiday parties, class reunions, birthday parties, and more!

Whether you are looking for a photographer to cover a tech event, society gala, or a non-profit fundraiser, contact Rebecca Wilkowski Photography to handle your San Francisco event photography needs!

Just a few of the San Francisco venues we service include:
The Moscone Center
San Francisco Concourse
Fort Mason Center
San Francisco Zoo
The Warfield
Ruby Skye
Palace of Fine Arts
Olympic Club
Regency Ballroom
Julia Morgan Ballroom
Bentley Reserve
San Francisco Legion of Honor
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
San Francisco Asian Art Museum
San Francisco War Memorial and Performing Arts Center
Davies Symphony Hall
Herbst Theater
Bill Graham Civic Auditorium
W Hotel
Mark Hopkins Intercontinental Hotel
Fairmont Hotel
San Francisco City Club
San Francisco City Hall

Monday, April 2, 2012

George Clinton of Parliment + Funkadelic at the Regency Ballroom San Francisco

I recently had the pleasure of photographing funk and soul great, George Clinton, at the Regency Ballroom in San Francisco. Clinton is best known for his lead role in the groups Parliment and Funkadelic, and played a major role ind developing the musical style that has since been dubbed P-Funk.

Collectively, the group has existed under various names since the 1960s and has been known for top-notch musicianship, politically charged lyrics, outlandish concept albums and memorable live performances. The two bands combined the elements of musicians such as Jimi Hendrix, Sly and the Family Stone, Cream and James Brown while exploring different sounds, technology, and lyricism.

Clinton and his musical crew has influenced numerous musical groups in diverse genres including R&B, hip hop and rock. Alongside James Brown, George Clinton is considered to be one of the most sampled musicians ever. In addition to being sampled, Clinton has also worked alongside many of the major names in music over the past 3 decades, including: Red Hot Chili Peppers (produced their album Freaky Styley), Primal Scream (contributed to several tracks on the album Give Out But Don’t Give Up), Tupac Shakur (on the song “Can’t C Me” from the album All Eyez on Me), Ice Cube (on the song and video for “Bop Gun (One Nation)” on the Lethal Injection album); Outkast (on the song “Synthesizer” from the album Aquemini), Redman (on the song “J.U.M.P.” from the album Malpractice), Souls of Mischief (on “Mama Knows Best” from the album Trilogy: Conflict, Climax, Resolution), Killah Priest (on “Come With me” from the album Priesthood), and the Wu Tang Clan (on “Wolves” from the album “8 Diagrams”).

In addition to his musical talent, George Clinton has also appeared in films such as Graffiti Bridge (1990), House Party (1990), PCU (1994), Good Burger (1997) and The Breaks (1999). In 1997 he appeared as himself in the Cartoon Network show Space Ghost Coast to Coast. Clinton also appeared as the voice of The Funktipus, the DJ of the Funk radio station Bounce FM in the 2004 video game, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, in which his song “Loopzilla” also appeared. (Source: Wikipedia)

Clinton was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1997 with fifteen other members of Parliament-Funkadelic.

The Regency Ballroom
1290 Sutter St
San Francisco, CA 94109
(415) 673-5716

Events, Live MusicTags: Funkadelic, George Clinton, Parliment, Regency Ballroom San Francisco, San Francisco Concert Live Music Photographer, San Francisco concerts live music, San Francisco Event Photographer

Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Namaste Yoga Oakland & FreeMeditationBench.com

FreeMeditationBench.com is the brilliant idea of local hobbiest woodworker Nic Taylor. With every bench he sells, he releases one free into the wild…at bus stops, in parks, at the library, in a tree, wherever. As he release the benches, he photographs them and sends out the location information via Twitter. It is Nic’s hope that his benches will help to bring the benefits of meditation into people’s lives. To be notified when and where Nic release benches, you can follow his Twitter feed. You can also buy his benches through his Etsy Shop.

I had the pleasure to photograph the benches at my favorite yoga studio in the East Bay, Namaste Yoga & Wellness. Namaste was opened seven years ago by Kimberly Leo, an Oakland native and devoted yoga practitioner. Namaste has two locations, the first on College Avenue in Rockridge, and the second on Lakeshore in the Grand Lake district. The popular yoga studio offers a variety of daily yoga classes suitable for all ages and levels of ability, as well as a Wellness Center which offers a variety of bodywork modalities including acupuncture, acupressure, and massage styles such as Thai, Prenatal, Sports, Cranial Scral,Shiatsu, Deep Tissue, and Swedish.

FreeMeditationBench.com
Web: http://freemeditationbench.com/
Twitter: twitter.com/freemedbench
Etsy: http://www.etsy.com/shop/lhamo108

Namaste Yoga + Wellness
Web: www.namasteoakland.com
Grand Lake – 3229 Lakeshore Ave., Oakland, 94610 • (510) 832-9642
Rockridge – 5416 College Ave., Oakland, CA 94618 • (510) 547-9642

Eco-Friendly, For Clients, Photojournalism, PortraitsTags: FreeMeditationBench.com, Namaste Yoga Oakland, Oakland Photographer, Oakland Photojournalist, san francisco photojournalist

Friday, January 6, 2012

Buena Vista Carneros Winery Sonoma

When asked if I wanted to shoot a cover story for Tasting Panel Magazine’s January/February issue about Jean-Charles Boisset and his Sonoma winery Buena Vista, I was like, DUH!

If you know anything about wine, Sonoma, or Jean-Charles, you know this was a great time. With the magazine’s Northern California Editor Deborah Parker Wong assisting, the day was filled not only with great photo taking, but also some fun eduction about wine, the rich history of Buena Vista, and Jean-Charles’ plans for the wineries growth in the future.

According to Wong’s article, Jean-Charles Boisset’s family-owned company, Boisset Family Estates, added the iconic 155-year old winery to its holding in May of 2011. In December of 2011, Buena Vista introduced a new series of Sonona wines crafted under the guidance of consulting winemaker David Ramey and debuted a complete label redesign across the winery’s portfolio. The 2011 vintage marks the return of wine making to Buena Vista where no wine has been made on-site for more than 20 years. In addition to the winery’s well-known wines, Boisset has resurrected the Private Reserve wines and introduced the Vinicultural Society, a series of small-production wines that will be available only at the winery and to club members. Boisset’s interests are also educational. He has introduced historical tours, performing-arts events, and an interactive visitor experience, with the goal of teaching the winery’s visitors about the history of wine in California. Boisset doesn’t limit the education to wine lovers, however. He also has plans in the works to create a more in-depth educational program for industry professionals, which will include demonstrations of Sonoma’s terroir, a museum of historical wine making tools, a culinary center and more. Buena Vista’s grounds will also get a face lift, with plans for seismic retrofitting, a redesign of the cellar, replanting of estate vineyards and restoration of the riparian habitat.

Entrance to the wine cellar at Buena Vista.

Buena Vista’s “Sonoma Series”: The Count 2008, Cabernet Sauvignon 2010, Zinfandel 2010.

Owner Jean-Charles Boisset, shown sitting outside the Buena Vista cellar, as Count Haraszthy gives a tour to visitors.

New packaging inspired by the winery’s cira-1860 labels.

New packaging inspired by the winery’s cira-1860 labels. The soft, aged patina look is achieved through the use of techniques such as foil stamping and sculpted embossing.