Installing a Premium Blog Theme
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The new design for the case study blog has gone live and in this post I’m going to look at the 3 stages I took to do it. And here’s the before screenshot of the blog.
- choosing the theme
- installing the theme
- setting up the theme
1. Choosing the Theme
With the amount of Wordpress themes available and the quality of the themes, picking one to use can be easier said than done. But I was after a premium theme that would take my blog design to the next level and give me greater flexibility. This also meant that I would most likely have to be willing to pay for a theme.
I didn’t mind that if it means I’m getting a quality theme. The old theme that I used was a Brian Gardner free theme, but I have long been an admirer of his Revolution themes that are premium customizable themes for $79.95 (US).
The decision came down to knowing what I wanted and being able to find exactly that from a source I already knew in Brian Gardner. As soon as I found his site I knew that one day I would be using one of his premium themes and planned for that. Now maybe I’ll start planning for him to do me a customised one…
After a bit of deliberation I decided on the Revolution Pro Media theme for now!
2. Installing the theme
I was a little bit apprehensive about installing the theme because there’s a lot more to it than an ordinary free theme. But the Revolution Themes have their own instructions and a set of tutorials and a support forum so there was no need to worry.
The problem was going to be how do I install and then fiddle about with the theme to customise it, without driving any visitors mad? I looked at various methods like local hosting and plugins, but these gave me permission problems and compatibility issues that I didn’t want to waste time on figuring out. So I decided to use a simple plugin called the maintenance mode plugin. It’s really easy to use and as you can see from the screenshot it does what it says!
Installing the theme itself is just the same as any normal theme the only difference being once installed there is more to do. The Revolution Pro Media theme has it’s own options page for a start, and also a lot more files in the theme editor to play around with. I found it easy to use and adapt to what I wanted, but that was mainly because of the support forum and the tutorials.
3. Setting up the Theme
To say this theme is customisable is an understatement, it’s a brilliant base to build a unique and quality site from, and it’s been written with this in mind. I on the other hand have had very limited knowledge of HTML and CSS so I have kept it fairly classic, but it’s also so incredibly close to what I wanted to do in the first place that I was happy to just tweak a little. Here’s the after screenshot showing what the new design looks like, to compare with the before shot.
As I’ve said above the best and quickest way to set the blog up and get it running is to use the tutorials and the support forum. If you are wanting to do a little more they even have a list of approved designers to help customise it for you.
It’s a work in progress in my eyes and at some point I will do more with the header, but I am really pleased with the results so far. I’ll just take one thing at a time and the next thing is a Newsletter.
In the mean time please feel free to visit The Photographer Blog and take a look around at the design.
Mandy
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Site Search Tags:My 30 day challenge results
My 30 Day Challenge
When I first talked about setting myself a 30 day challenge I said that I would report back with the results. So here they are…
This is all part of my ongoing process of building and growing the case study blog. Which is becoming more and more interesting, and it is really helping me learn more about blogging. So the following statistics are for the case study blog which is The Photographer Blog.
The challenge was to do some form of marketing everyday during May to increase traffic and awareness of the blog, as well as posting. I stated I would use 3 different types of marketing techniques, forum marketing, comment marketing and guest posting, and to then compare them against April’s results to see how I did.
How did I do?
Well first of all I didn’t manage to guest post which was one of the 3 marketing techniques I had set, but I did manage the other two. And I started the month quite well doing something on forum and comment marketing each day, even if it was small. Here’s the figures for May along with the figures for April so you can compare:
April
Unique visitors 559
Number of visits 1358
Page views 3537
Daily visitor - highest 59
Daily visitor - average 45.27May
Unique visitors 648
Number of visits 1465
Page views 4255
Daily visitor - highest 65
Daily visitor - average 47.26
As you can see there has been at least 10% growth in all areas. I am very pleased with these results, especially when I compare them against the amount of marketing I ended up doing over the month.
What did I learn
It was a very interesting exercise because it didn’t go how I had planned, but that turned out not to be a bad thing!
While commenting one day I came across a new blog (to me) and more importantly a post about seeing your blogging as a business, and not just blogging. It is something that I had read about before and was contemplating, but hadn’t made the decision to act on it or not. But I must have read that post at the right time, because it really hit me as what I should be looking at doing with the case study blog and it gave me more direction.
So although the case study blog showed steady growth, my marketing efforts had been nowhere near where I thought they would be. But what I did come away with is a new way of thinking about and planning my blogging. Which I am working on at the moment and should have some results to show in the near future, and this is why my focus shifted from the marketing.
As for the 30 day challenge, it is something I will build into my daily activities on an ongoing basis.
I think with blogging you are constantly learning but I am definitely in the middle of an interesting part of my journey that I will continue to share.
Mandy
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Site Search Tags:blogging as a business, marketing, statistics, the photographer blog, TrafficSee How Easily You Can Improve Your Blog
As I said in my last post I am making improvements to my case study blog, well actually completely changing it.
It’s come to the stage where I can just carry on blogging as usual on the case study blog, or I can really show what I have learned about my journey with digital photography and take it to the next step. Well I am going for the next step option!
Over the next couple of weeks I will be making some major improvements to the blog, which will include completely re-designing the blog, adding some new features and updating the administrative side. So you can see why I need a couple of weeks.
Shopping List…
I am going to need everything from a new theme to even changing the passwords on the back end of Wordpress. So here’s a little look at what you can expect:
• New premium Wordpress theme. I want to use a premium theme because they give better quality than the free themes, and I don’t have the budget yet for a custom one.
• Adding a free weekly newsletter that readers can subscribe to.
• Expanding on the categories and posts to include: more how to articles, new projects and inspirational photographers.
• Upgrading all plugins and even Wordpress if the compatibility with my plugins is ok.
• Buy a DSLR!
Nothing like giving myself a large workload, but I feel held back at the moment so it’s definitely the right time to do it.
Exciting times…
I’m very excited about this because it’s all about the new way I am seeing my blogs, and this one in particular. I have been talking about this in more depth in this post. Up until now I have been putting off any improvements I wanted to make to the blog. Until I had written more posts, or the blog had become bigger, or any other excuse I could think of to stop me from stepping outside of my comfort zone, and trying something new. I’m sure it will be a learning curve and I suspect it will be steep, but that’s all part of the fun, and the achievement. I’ll be talking about it all here.
Mandy
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Site Search Tags:premium wordpress themes, the photographer blogPlanning my next move
So as I talked about in my last post I am going to be making some changes to my blogs. But first of all I have to write out some type of plan for what I am going to do, and how and when I am going to be doing it. If I’ve found anything it’s that the better planned you are for what you are going to talk about and write about, the better the blog will flow.
Core objectives
And that starts with the core objectives for the blogs, what kind of blog do I want to write and what type of blogger do I want to be. These haven’t changed, I still want to be a respectful blogger to my readers giving them value and being honest. Also to be respectful to my fellow bloggers, by not spamming in any of my traffic generation techniques, only trying to add to the conversation and also to make new friends.
Mindset
This is all part of the mindset for blogging knowing what you are prepared to do and where you draw the line, what type of blogger do you want to be.
Words are strong things and what we write here can be seen by anyone and that is always something to consider. I feel it’s important to be aware of the impact you can make on others around you.
But now my mindset is newly enthused and looking towards planning my blogging in a new way, with business in mind. So I need to reach out and get out there more by starting to do some things I’ve not done before, like working with other bloggers whether that will be interviews, guest posting or other projects. Without worrying about rejection, and making sure I’m ready in case it happens.
What am I doing with the blogs?
I’m going to look at the blogs from an ‘on page’ point of view to start with and get the content and layout right for what I want to do. Then I will look at how I want to improve the ‘off page’ or marketing side of my blogging.
Firstly this blog, I am going to spring clean the content and check all the pages are up to date. I have already changed the way I advertise on the blog and I will be adding a advertise page for direct sponsors. But this is primarily where I share what I have learned about blogging, with the possibility of compiling it into a more structured ebook in the future.
Secondly, I am going to be completely overhauling the case study blog - The Photographer Blog, so it will be unrecognizable. This is the blog where I put into practice what I have learned, so it is the natural choice to have my recent ideas added to it. Which I will talk about in more depth in the next post.
The changes will include everything from a complete redesign, right down to the simple things like making sure I respond when I am emailed by a blogger or by a reader, which unfortunately I haven’t been very good at so far. And that can be improved by simplifying my email accounts. The changes will have an all round affect.
Mandy
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Site Search Tags:mindset, planning, the photographer blogPromoting Your Blog with Blog Directories, Should You Do It or Not!
This is the first in a series of follow on articles from this one: How I plan to get traffic to my blog.
Promoting your blog with blog directories is one of those techniques that can cause a bit of controversy, should I do it or not?
It is a tedious job and can take a long, long time to do, and won’t bring a flood of traffic in, but it could bring in a trickle of traffic and put your name out to a wide ranging audience. A lot of people tell you to submit to dmoz, an open directory project (if you do be careful because you only get one chance).
But is it worth it?
The problem is eveyone submits to blog directories so it’s not as effective as it used to be. Plus you may have to provide a linkback to the directory to gain submission, and that can make a blog look messy. And it can be regarded as one of the least useful link building techniques, due to the links being of poor quality. Skellie has an interesting article on link building called Hansel and Gretel link building.
I have found two articles giving a large choice of directories to choose from, an article on Blogging Tips listing 75 websites that you can submit your blog to. And I’ve also found a list of 55 RSS directories on Dotsauce that you can submit your feed to. So the choice is yours!
What am I going to do?
Now I had planned to go for it with blog directories and submit to as many as I could for the case study blog, to help get The Photographer Blog out there. But after reading Skellies article I have started to change my mind. I’m thinking about the time I will spend submitting to them all, verses the quality of links and traffic that I will get for my efforts.
So I am going to do things a little differently with the case study blog and stop my plan of blog directory domination. I am going to submit to just one dmoz and see if I get in, I’ve never submitted any of my other blogs to it, but I would still like to give it a go and see what happens.
I’m going to spend my time using other link building techniques to get better incoming links and traffic to the case study blog. This is quite a departure from the ‘bog standard’ information that you get and what I originally learned about blog directories as a traffic technique. But I want to take onboard what Skellie says and take my traffic techniques for the case study blog to a new level.
Mandy
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Site Search Tags:blogging tips, dot sauce, SkelliewagHow I Plan to get Traffic to my Blog
After writing the 3 month case study review for The Photographer Blog when I said my aim for the blog over the next 3 months was to grow it’s traffic, I thought I would look at how I am going to try and do that. And this really leads on (part 2) from the post I wrote about planning for the case study blog when I was setting it up.
There are loads of traffic generation techniques out there that I could use, but to make any of them effective I need to plan what I am going to use and how I am going to do it. And the quicker I do that the better. Here are some of the traffic techniques I will be looking at over the next couple of weeks:
submitting to Search Engines and Blog Directories
commenting
forums
guest posting
social networking
blog carnivals
I think strategic planning for a blog and looking to the future is very important, I need a goal to work to for the blog otherwise I will just be going around in circles. I am going to be using the techniques that I know and have learned. They are just regular blogging techniques but it will be interesting to see how well they perform in this niche and with this blog.
I said from the start of the case study blog that I was going to share what I was doing to create a blog and build it. And I have lots of information already about the case study blog and setting it up so far in the case study category.
The reason I am doing this is to help others with their blogging but also to help me as well. It will be really helpful to see which technique works best, and learn from what I am doing with the case study blog to improve my blogging for the future. And writing my experiences down helps cement what I am learning more.
I’m enjoying the process of looking closely at what I am doing with the case study blog, and learning along the way. I don’t know how well it will work but whatever happens to the blog it will be fun finding out.
Mandy
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Site Search Tags:the photographer blogCase Study Blog Review
At the beginning of March my case study blog, The Photographer Blog will be 3 months old so I thought it would be a good time to do a quarterly review of how it is doing. I said I would report how it is going, but it does make me feel a little nervous being open and revealing all. Anyway here it goes!
Statistics
In mid January I started using Awstats so I am 2 days off having a complete month of data, but it has still given some good information to work with. So the figures I quote here are for visits and will be for February because it gives a better overall look at the month (minus 2 days).
Monthly visits: 776
Unique visits: 251
Daily visits: 50 (highest - avg 30)
Considering the amount of marketing I was able to do this month I am quite pleased with the results. I used comment marketing, forums, social networking which was Stumble Upon and a blog carnival.
Conclusion
Overall I am a little disappointed with the progress so far of the case study blog, I have learned so much since starting this blog and I was raring to use all the techniques regularly and see how well my second blog could start off life. But at the end of the day that is my fault because I haven’t been able to spend as much time on it as I had hoped, for one reason or another. Although that is life and I have to accept it and look to the future, all it means is it will take a little longer than I thought to get where I want to be.
Saying that it has performed a lot better than this blog did when it was 3 months old, so at least what I have learned about blogs works, and I have moved forward with blogs. All I have to do is find a couple more hours in the day and everything will be great.
Looking to the Future
I am looking forward to the future and the next 3 months. I enjoy my blogging and trying out new things. I want to put more time into the case study blog and see how much more it grows. Also I would like to start a weekly newsletter for it. It’s definitely an exciting time…
Mandy
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Site Search Tags:the photographer blogThe Photographer Blog Launch!
I am officially launching the case study blog, The Photographer Blog. I have been writing to it for a couple of months and now I have decided it’s time to tell everybody about it. I have been documenting it’s progress from the planning stage onwards on this blog in the case study category, and will continue to do so.
I have waited until now to spread the word and start to market it because I didn’t want visitors going to an empty or new blog. Also I wanted to settle into writing the blog, get a feel for it and find my voice a bit first before going public. What I mean by ‘going public’ is the blog has been live since it was created but I haven’t seriously marketed it until now.
So what’s it about?
The Photographer Blog is a photographers journey, my journey. It looks at my love for digital photography and taking photographs, and it will also explore stock photography which I am interested in. I would like to foster a community of photographers who can share and grow in their love for photography. And I am looking forward to writing to it and learning from it as I go.
So if you are interested then please visit and explore The Photographer Blog, and let me know what you think!
I hope to see you there.
Mandy
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Site Search Tags:blog launchHave You Made These Mistakes When Starting a Blog?
I have started a new blog recently which I have been doing a case study on, following its creation and statistics - The Photographer Blog, and I didn’t want to make the same mistakes I made when I started this blog. Which on the whole I didn’t, but I did come across a new set of problems with trying to write to two blogs at once.
- Posting became less frequent on this blog due to researching the new blog, and then posting a lot to it because it’s new.
- Researching took a lot more time than I thought it would and put out my posting schedules for both blogs. Consequently the new blog launched over a month later than I had planned.
- If my organisation had been better could I have avoided this happening? Organising and planning the blog is fine but if it’s not carried through then it all goes wrong.
- My two blogs are about completely different subjects, digital photography and blogging. So they do not overlap very well, if I had two blogs in similar subjects they could help each other more and link together better.
- Writing to two blogs is a lot more work than I thought it would be. Therefore I have been spreading myself too thinly when it comes to marketing them. Which is a major problem as that is where I will generate traffic.
The positive thing that has come out of this is that I have recognised the problems, and can work towards changing them, learning from my new mistakes and improving for the future.
Has anyone else experienced similar problems when writing to more than one blog?
Thanks
Mandy
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Site Search Tags:Top 5 Ways to Increase RSS Subscriptions
I have said before that the main aim for the case study blog - The Photographer Blog is to attract readers and then try and convert them into RSS subscribers. Here are 5 ways that I have used to make it easy for readers to become subscribers:
1. Large RSS button/icon
2. Place the button above the fold on the blog (area visible when the blog loads)
3. Write an article explaining what RSS is and how it works
4. Place a call to action at the bottom of each article
5. Post regularly
I have only listed 5 so as not to overwhelm you with information. I may be wrong but when I see ‘top 35 ways…” it puts me off a little because that is a lot of information to take in. But also when you are listing that many items I think they can get a bit diluted, so I try to stay 10 or under and use what I feel are the most important ways.
So I’ve set up the case study blog using these methods, and hopefully they will help readers to see the benefits of subscribing to an RSS feed, and make it easy for them to do so. You may also notice that this blog uses these methods as well, although I haven’t managed to post as regularly as I would like recently. But it is all for nothing if I haven’t got readers or traffic coming to the blog in the first place. So that is the next job on the list!
Thanks
Mandy
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Site Search Tags:RSS, the photographer blog
