Lessons

Lesson Info

Creating my First Website

Ready to jump right in this we're gonna kind of like fly through it so where we left off was in talking about the why we're using websites in regards to marketing and it being a game changing things of that nature now I have listed here a block sight now people ask why I don't use a blawg as my main vehicle a block sight for me doesn't work it doesn't make sense because I put so much of myself out there in such a different capacity I talk about my dog I talk about my obsession can tomato sauce I talk about the christmas gifts that I bought if an editor of magazine editor or to come to my blogged during the month of december she would scroll through when the thirty one days of nothing to do with my port follow or who I am is a business person should have a lot to know about me I don't think that's the fair representation of who I am is a business person who where I want her to go is my website because my website is the best professional version of me I once heard it said that my website...

a website is your handshake and your blogger is your voice I do believe in having to isolated megaphones for those types of things because the things that I talk about on my block may not be as palatable for the first touch or taste for somebody I might want to be attracting that's what I definitely want to work towards now as we move forward from there I wanted to start creating organic marketers because we're so far we've talked how much money have I spent marketing nothing very much like what chase had just referred to he doesn't invest in traditional forms of marketing and for him it was like mailers are different things that pertain to the commercial world for myself um I'm not going to be advertising in magazines or traditional like wedding blog's or things like that because I can create for my own self organic marketers that are very cost effective now you want to empower them to talk about you specifically on facebook because it's leverage and people can see it a lot there's a lot more connected tive ity with facebook and that's far more the social media realm that a lot of my clients are using as opposed to twitter I do believe that twitter is like an avant garde it's people who are very friendly it's an industry thing you'll notice that a lot of our clients are not on twitter so I'm going to use like facebook for me is a larger megaphone to reach to potential brides than twitter is but twitter is the larger megaphone for me to reach two photographers so I'm gonna focus on where my marketing efforts to get more business will be facebook now it wasn't enough for me photographers would ask oh well wired to tagging clients and facebook it wasn't enough for me to tag clients and facebook photo by photo because it was extracting the very thing that made that photo different and that thing that made the photo different was me it was the imager it was not the image so by uploading a gallery of forty five pictures, what you're doing is you're making it about the pictures and less about who's taking the pictures so how could I then create a jasmine store experience? How could ashley goodwin created? How could tim king create that facebook experience within the facebook framework? Um, I want to talk a little bit about how I used facebook and what the trains should happened for me to make the transition to actually start posting things in a way that was going to be direct, reflective off my business and before I get there, I was speaking about this notion in oregon, a group of photographers were asking and I kept on talking about how I use these things called plus sites plus sites plus sites use this thing called plus like people like what our plus sites, we don't get it and I said, okay, well, basically plus lights are division of my website that I'm and and that I'm able to embed in facebook a small division of my website that's dedicated to a specific set of clients that people could what view in facebook without leaving the area of facebook because people like facebook, they don't might not want to click out and leave their current viewing structure this is for them if that then becomes the case, I don't just want photos, I want a plus site and people like, well, what do they look like? So there I am in oregon and we had an internet connection, so I get out from the keynote presentation I go to the internet and what I pull up is there, plus I and I show them what was happy during that and unbeknownst to me in the time that I had started the presentation to opening the plus side on facebook, she had posted a status update, we're going to get there to show you step one, two, three and four so this is what a plus night is that I post in on facebook this is what it looks like basically is personalized to them. Photographed by jay star this is the start of their story. We have sarah salem, chris lyle that's a people are seeing when they click on this there, then moved to this page I am extraordinarily driven by magazine inspiration. I literally graft, grabbed, stripped out a magazine and modified it put you port fault polaroid pictures and I could swap out these images and this this story and that, says gallery what the story is is simply the blogger post the text from the block post and what the gallery is the slide show because water slide shows what commercials many advertisements, I'm not putting the images, I'll talk about it while I do that, I'll do that capacity, so when somebody can click on the story they're taken to the storm when so many clicks in the gallery, they're taken to a separate page that is just the slide show. This is the jasmine star experience branded within facebook I'm maintaining the experience I'm maintaining ownership of how I want some of you feel within that as they move from that this is the girl this was carrying karen, and you can't see what she says, but she hyperlinks my name jasmine store is a rock star girls if you haven't picked a wedding photographer want incredibly talented and super fun one she's your girl so her comment showed up on my wall, her friends most my brides have an average and average person on facebook has around three hundred fifty friends. This status update went to three hundred potentially three hundred and fifty people with her linking directly to me and not only that if other people liking what she has to say, and she has comments all of them endorsing what she has to say love, love, love all of them you look gorgeous and peter so handsome left her captains to bang and that's my new word for you and peter banging these people are saying to her you made a good decision I haven't done a single thing to make these people say you're making a decision what I did do was I wrote and I went and I post it on her wall ah plus site and I'm able to tag her and peter I do the same thing for a wedding and she then contact any of her bridesmaids family members within the plus side if she wants to, people can comment on it and they could like it her friends then validators again on the wall I love your pictures big justin starr fan karen the pictures are gorgeous. All of these people are what doing what advertising for me. How much does this cost me? Nothing. It's an additive to what I what it caused to have a show it website is thirty nine dollars a month that thirty nine dollars a month this plus site comes with it the capabilities to do that comes with it. This was jeannie she got married a couple of weeks ago. I said it before and I'll say it again and again jasmine star is amazing love her so much she gives out a link to where we want them to go to go to my branded experience and here's the plus side. All of these people down here are validating her decision to use me as her wedding photographer. Here we go again here we have a plus site I tagged my client's she's in italy and she writes love can I just say how he spent so much money buying internet minutes just like in view our slide show again and again what this is showing up on facebook and all her friends feeds she's saying I appreciate you a couple days later she writes yes, I change my profile picture again I would probably do it six more times next week because I love our wedding photos people validate her decision all of this is word of mouse marketing. It takes me five to ten minutes to pick together a plus sight because I had already done the work for the block post. Yes, I will tag clients in pictures, but I will tag him in two or three from an engagement session and beneath I say feel free to go to this length to view the rep to the pictures. If they do not want teo, they will possibly see this on her wall. All I am doing is empowering different forms of megaphones for my clients to talk about me what are you doing and does your website allow you to do the same thing? That is simply the question straightforward that's all that I got so we now move into okay, so here we go, so show it if you go to show it dot com backslash jay star live you'll get one month free to try it out. You have to download it within forty eight hours here's the beauty of it it's it's not for everybody. I totally get that because part of it is that you have to design the web site yourself not very many people like that. The beauty is if you go into the site, you could check out what they have it's called style groups style groups looked like already done websites where you can drop and drag your pictures and what is that kind of sound like templates. But you have come here and you've heard me talk. If you use that, I will come out you in harpoon you you have to change things on there, you have to make it your own they're giving you a starting block and saying aaron here's, the starting block now move. In addition to that, my design I worked with the designer for my website and we're gonna get into that but she has a separate website where she sells style groups for one hundred and fifty dollars if you use one of her cell groups and you do not change anything again, you better run for me because you know better, she's just simply giving you a style. A starting point. Her website is site house as I t house that's again a starting point. Ideally, what I want you to do is tow have marketing mechanisms in place for you to make smart strategic and personal decisions and how to market yourself. Tim, did you have a question? I'm so sorry. I thought I saw her hands. Are we okay? Um let's see? Perfect. Cool. We're going to go into this section where we going? What are we doing this or what? Oh, ham stopping. So glitter ful? Yeah, he's like standing there? Yes. Okay, this is going to be the last section teo to marketing to my approach to marketing. So, so far we've gone through social networking. We've gone through community and we've gone through image. Okay? People are wondering. Well, what the heck is going on? You haven't spent any money and you haven't done anything extravagant. I know I'm sorry to let you down, but this is all I have. This is all I do and I'm working and I love what I do and I love my client this is the type of marketing that I want to do. I want to create conversations about the client, and I could be in control of them inside of an environment that facebook provides for me that notifies all their friends that they're talking about them because for me with the slide shows became was to get clients within the bride's inner circle anybody who went to the wedding, the bridesmaids, the cousins, the sisters, the family. But what facebook then became to me was open me up to her fourth circle of friends, the girl who she knew in fourth grade who wasn't invited to the wedding she's now seeing wedding photos, the conversations about the bride connecting all of them around that unified, wonderful moment in her life and who then is the owner of that conversation? Me and you, everybody has the same possibility. I've talked so much about myself, so let's brewing this around, so kind, I know I'm annoying, I'm annoyed for you bring it back to you because what I want this to be about is I don't want you to come here and, like, drink the purple juice and feel all warm and fuzzy because it's not gonna be about that if you guys came here, I picked you guys know that you were gonna change. Jj and already in one day I hear of these great big, amazing changes, and it makes me so happy, but like, literally, this is about you and it's about anybody who's watching online, what makes you different? This is what the main question the million dollar question is going to be like literally, I don't want to be like, oh, yeah, no it's, what makes you completely different from anybody else? And yes, you could start with a big picture could be gender. You could feel that being a male or female is advantageous either way make it an advantage. You could feel that your ethnicity is an advantage. You could feel thatyou're history that your culture, anything could be an advantage as long as you make it an advantage and you play to your advantage because I want you to capitalize on those differences. Ah lot of times we become like we should hide behind this mask of sameness in the industry. When I got in, it was all about black websites with script writing because totally a diligent wedding photographers were having black websites with script writing, and I was like, I'm want to be legit, so I'm gonna have a black website script writing no life html website. Script writing everywhere it was so weddings I was so legit um all of a sudden when they had the opportunity to create a new website was wholly brandon I went the complete opposite I was like oh my god like handwriting do you think I like script writing I've never been an intel a sized girl so now I had the opportunity to showcase and capitalize on my differences I want you to be different this is exactly what chase talked about I had that conversation that just happened right now totally wasn't planned but I should actually act like itwas like I had it all yeah I came in we had a secret conversation he said like I say to be different and being different doesn't mean that you're trying to be somebody else you're just being you and by being you you start attracting the same type of clients they firmly believe it and that type of client ends up being an evangelist not just a happy client I want evangelist I want people who are gonna pass me name around so I can grow my business and end up taking care of them in the process this goes back to a notion that I discussed in the very first creative life it's his rule of attracts or repels anything that you put online I want you to make people feel something about you I want you to attract them to your similarities and I wanted to repel from you from their differences. This is what it's about you don't want to work with people who can afford, but they really don't like you because then you have the potential of having dissatisfied clients. If you have having consistently dissatisfied clients, maybe you're doing a bad job at branding yourself to showcase who you are and, oh my gosh, people are already so annoyed totally sounded like oh, you know. So like I said, like I had just mentioned I had my very first website in two thousand seven in two thousand eight was the first brandon website um, in between getting my first one sending brandon website, it was about a year and a half, and this is one thing that I want, you know, people what people see now on what they can look back all she got this one since what this website and do the man it took me a year and a half to find my voice, and I was working hard and I was working diligently at it again and again and again, you cannot possibly think that it's going to happen overnight that's one thing that he definitely wanted, like camera home, so what we're going to talk about now is the power of your website. And how I specifically used my website to drive people to where I want them to be and to get the type of client that I want. So this is going to be the how and the why? Because remember I told you, I can't just say it's not enough to say get a website because then I sock because I know how to do it. Righ okay, noah, because I clearly don't want to thousands and thousands of mistakes, so, uh, update since two thousand eight because this is when I got the first brandon website, right? So I'm going to fill in the gaps because what happens is that yesterday was really focused on the first two years because that was the starting point, but within the first two years and now I'm going into five point five years, well, there's so much to cover there, and I'm gonna give you, like, kind of like a really abbreviated version pyramid version. So in two thousand eight, I launched yes, him before we go forward. I think some people probably are curious about this photo. Thank you so much during the break, people in the chat room we're asking about these photos and I don't then tim was around, I like him remind me, so this was taken in montecito. The clients we're getting married in santa ynez and I'm in orange county photographer and they brought me there so for me was destination wedding but oh, I love me some central california I could shoot there every day and twice on sunday it's so beautiful so he has this beautiful house in montecito we decided to do a morning session because couldn't it was in my schedule I said, hey guys, if I'm traveling to you I have to do it in the morning they said great got two thousand eight o'clock she was looking fabulous he was looking amazing they made breck ofthis together it was a lifestyle shoot they thought outside of the box and if your client is throwing you a softball, you better deliver. I was like, oh please, oh, please oh please I was like hustling for this year so here part of the reason how it was strongly back because the morning like come out and he took them out of the garden because it's too bright outside, so I brought them indoors. What you don't see is I hate revealing my light sources to the left because it over exposes that part of the image so to the left here and you could see it like the highlights here there's a big window and this is not a window here wall window there's light coming in here there's light coming in here his head is down I could shoot this letter like a two point oh two point five he doesn't have to be so short because he's not the focus she is I want to draw that distinction between them and how I position then was like initially had her leaning but I was like no, they're on a couch let's make this a lot more intimate ah lot more this is their home and I intentionally included the chess pieces because that was a part of his lot in their lives together and that was it. So that's a photo but thank you for that. Okay, so you guys if there are other photos like you know that pique interest I yeah we talked I launched the first brand website in two thousand eight and when I launched my new website in two thousand eight, I raise my prices across the board fifteen hundred dollars because where did we leave that pricing conversation yesterday? I was kind of at the three thousand dollars thirty five hundred between three thousand four thousand is that mark in southern california because you're not low end and you're not the mid range photographer, right? So what could I do to get out of that? Because I simply could not just raise my prices arbitrarily I will get swallowed whole I would lose my business because it wasn't a smart decision. What I needed was a game changer with a game changer became was my website anything that you could do big enough to shake things up to be like? I have come to play ball that's what the website it because at the time I had started growing and the blob hits are growing and remember how I said, people are going to the bog? No he's going to web site, it was a total mismatch. I couldn't get the types of weddings that I wanted, because nobody trust me in that capacity. I get this web site, and now I'm saying, I'm put together two and a half years into my business, I can say, I'm going to compete with you mid range photographers who I have looked up to and I had admired and you guys shunned me, and now I'm here to play, we're gonna be meeting with the same kind of clients, and we're going to go head to head, and I did it wrong, but I must tell you, and I assure you that there are right ways to do a little bit of wrong that's exactly what the website did. One thing that I don't want to do is ever think that ever have people think that I forgot what it was like, tio meet at starbucks or to shoot weddings for three thousand dollars or for whatever they may be. I never forget that you never forget your roots. You remember always where you're coming from. I'm glad to say that I made decisions to move out of that market. So which is why I'm a huge proponent of creating game changers if you don't like where you are, today's the day I'm telling you to your face, you need to change. I don't like where you are and what you just expect things to get better. You have to make big changes for big results. This is what we talked about, ashley yesterday. You want a better business, you better make big changes for me. That was my website one and two dozen a about a first printed website, and I put my prices on my website starting at fifty five hundred dollars. What the heck was I thinking? I was paralyzed at we launch the website and you had a little bit. We ordered pizza had some bubbly listening to coldplay. Okay, now we're putting into contacts called play like so trendy now back then, it was cool, okay? It wasn't cold plate, I'm like, oh my god on like, I was a great, excited tennessee girls like we should change the prices. We should change. I just did the stupidest thing. You clearly that's my life. I make these big things. I'm like whoa and all of a sudden it's like you're an idiot. Jd said no we had waited for this. This is why we did this. Don't back down soon enough and slowly enough magazine editor started calling coordinator started sending clients my way. Why the dots were connected. The brand had finally been homed in. It took me a while to get there. But if you want to move in two different markets that getting a good, reflective personal website is the best way to get there. One thing I launched a new website a few months ago in october of two thousand ten, I launch the website. I loved my websites in two thousand eight, but in two years I had become a very different photographer. I needed a website to reflect that. Furthermore, I saw what I had done on my website being replicated too often in other websites, the minute that's happening one, you're on a very good track, but to you need to change it up real quick because nobody knows who did what first be first be first to gain it's always be the first to be the best and if you're not going to be different he's definitely. Okay, so here we go. We're gonna move in to what I needed and what I wanted specifically for my client. I needed a distinct client profile, and that was what a website was able to give me. I've learned from two thousand eight to two thousand eleven what? My webs that can do. And that is to create and noah distant climb profile. I knew that my clients are inspired by fashion. I basically know their age, their demographic that was chairs, more interest, what their education level is. I remember going back to the few slides ago we talked about who is your client. I know that. So because I know who my client is. I can then cater a website to that client to attract that client. So then it becomes a self fulfilling prophecy. Why do a lot of my bride's looked the same? And I'm not talking about looks. I love the fact that I shoot colors, shapes, sizes, creeds, ethnicities I shoot all of but there's this little x factor with all the brides, I think is they could all be friends, all kind of shop and wear the same clothes that kind of watch, very similar tv shows they're all dated and met their spouses very similarly, weirdly, oddly, why I know my client I create a website for that client and yesterday like I said, I'm marketing to myself because if I'm gonna spend eight hours with a bride on the wedding day I want to really, really, really like her we have the power to do that I could have done I could have made the sweeping changes without a website I'm not saying it is only possible but I am saying that this how I could jump to a new market and raise my prices fifteen hundred dollars was by that website I could have done it without it but I could not have done it as fast I couldn't have justified and I couldn't have moved in such a swoop and have people see this is why um I'm really different because of my website, but what I want to talk about is why is a website important? And I don't mean this in a hotel s so terrible terms like let's get literally down into what we're talking about it I shot this photo at a one point to you um her legs honey was the focal point the light they were in a candy shop in manhattan beach there's window light from behind them and the floor was kind of like pushing light back into them, their side windows all around them I'm not revealing the light source so there highlighted on their legs and she was like hot lays, right? I mean, clearly so I'm definitely gonna hide like that. And I do think that her fiance appreciate me for it, so we're good. Why is a website important for me? That's the main question because once I atomize what is for me, then you can define your own goals if we shared goals. Awesome. I give you a little cheat sheet for what I did. If you have new goals, you set your new goals and then you find ways to implement them. This is my twin sister. People always say if I'm putting my own engagement photos no, uh my twin sister is bianca that's her fianc? Nah, I like him, but I blurt him out in this photo. I shot this at a one point too, because I'm shooting her and I distinctly want him on a different plane of focus in a different area. We randomly found this boat in somebody's front yard and I went to that I was met go ask if we could shoot in the front yard. I was too scared. I was like, they're going to say no to him he's like this big, like, you know, like, I'm muscular guy and he knocked a nobody was home, I was like, great, we're sure in front of the boat s okay um great and I was shooting I think like I saw one hundred one sixty and I don't necessarily remember the shutter speed off the top of my head but I will shoot wide open whenever whenever possible um what I wanted from a website was something that will help me attract a very specific clientele we just spoke about that who is your client who are you going after how can you implement that my website also I wanted it to help me create ah validity on the web because remember going from the html website moving to a new website and even the website that I have now I needed to create a different source of validity I changed from the two thousand eight website to the two thousand ten website two distinctly show people I am changing and I'm doing things differently that's what I wanted to do and that's why I think everybody could do I wanted my website to buttress my online brand if you have a website that you think is impeding your bland you need to go home and you need to change that a sap if your website is not helping you it is deterrent it is distressing it is holding you back you jumped into a deep ocean and that website's gonna be a stone tied around her ankle quickly go home and do something get that fire into your bum because what your website should be is a storefront well out we now live in an area and I think I even said this yesterday we don't live in like small town america anymore how clients are shopping for us are online and the best part of it I love it claims are bringing me into the most private parts of their life their viewing my web site in their bedroom in their living room, in the kitchen there showing the family on their iphone on their ipad they're showing me off in their private rooms at work that's what I want how am I approaching them in their private world? How does it make them feel if your website is old? If it's outdated if it has funky music, if it has script writing, if it has, you know, like curls font and that's not curls font is you the graphic designers like getting a nervous twitch? Yeah, no, if girls want is you to, you know, take it and own it. But if you just did that because you just thought it would be cute and potentially attract, somebody change it market to yourself, margo okay, the graphic designers like no, basically, I want your website, I want excuse me, my web site, to be the best version of me because you all know clearly I'm standing here and you're like we don't know how you have a business, I don't know either, but my website sure sells a different version of me s o that's ideally what I want really a lot of people to move towards I'm gonna take a couple questions, but we're going then move on to how to make your website work for you because not only having a website but having a web site that allows you to market at the same time that's how we're gonna get into kenna it's about a question from contributor s so are you saying is your website compatible with all the mobile technology that's available today? So do you think it's important to do that? I get this question asked often yes, well so what I did with show it so show it is a flash based service so it's not necessarily showing up on ipads and iphones, but I created a mobile device compatible website so it's not the full fledged website so people can access my website however they like but I don't necessarily think that people are shopping for me on their iphone. I think that if somebody had mentioned hey check out jasmine death star dot com because I don't own jasmine star dot com it's jasmine hyphen star dot com if they said check out her website, they might go there and dog ear it or email that link themselves or whatever the case may be I wanted to be accessible on a mobile device on a mobile device but I don't necessarily think it's the linchpin so the option is there but if you're gonna be making that type of investment I've come to believe that their viewing it in like a a legit format but yes, both those options are available have a question from m b who would like to know how often you change the photos on your website or do you do they stay the same until you redo the entire site? I changed websites like so I talk about this in my branding workshop so I like signature images or brain did images whenever I feel like I have a signature image I just dropped the image I could swap out a photo and like three seconds I'm doing that constantly because I want to keep it fresh I want to keep it more like me I've shot since october I've you know, shot a different amount of weddings and if I captured somewhere in there not only branded image is but a signature image that I want to make sure that that goes in there um I'm gonna move into house make a website work for you again not just using a website to sell your business but also market it simultaneously because what I wanted it to help me do was I wanted to help me connect online but I want you lies, teo to start thinking about what you want for your website like literally like I'm spewing a thousand things at you but really when you go home you need to sit down and say, what do I want? This is gonna be the key thing I wanted me I wanted to allow me to connect online and how could I do this? How could somebody come to the website and just look at me and I feel like I know this person how I started this workshop by my connection with my photographer I simply got what he did and I needed my own when you come to my website what's the first thing you see a video hi, welcome to jazz and star feel free to look around I love it when a bride becomes a friend interlaced with that is me interacting with bride on the wedding day it is showing what I'm wearing it's showing that were laughing and showing that we're having a good time. It also shows that if we're having that good a time she's probably not that high maintenance all of that I am putting out on the web without me having to say it at all she clicks to a different page and as she clicks to a different page each paige transition in between each paid transition there is a video transition of me laughing he's shooting be working that way somebody can feel like they're having a behind the scenes sneak peek of me working without me having to do anything at all the written word on my section isn't all about me my bio section and what do I tell about my bio section l a gear pump shoes my little pony don't talk about thirty five millimeter film I don't talk about developing film when I was in college because too many people developed film in college, too many eight year olds were holding a thirty five millimeter camera. Too many photographers own five d too many photographers are part of the same organizations to many photographers edit in photo shop. Too many photographers are too much the same, so I'm gonna talk about what I like listen, we're gonna go head to head on photo shop, I'm gonna lose we're gonna go ahead and head to head on photos I might lose we're going toe to head to head on being judgment star I win, so you're going to buy a division of me to be at your wedding that's what I think is going to be the defining marker off what we do because again people buy out of emotion and people who feel emotionally connected to you that's a competitive advantage one thing I want to also to do was I wanted to foster destination enquiries this is a question that I got asked a lot when I put it on facebook how did I start getting destination weddings well the first step to acquiring destination weddings with slide shows so then remember is ward of mouse and let's just say she grew up in montana in the fourth grade and her parents moved in high school and she ended up being in newark city and then went to school in the boston area okay so now we went to montana, new york and boston well her fourth grade friend friended her on facebook and she's in montana and she sees the slide show that then became the first step if she were to come to my website how can I foster trust in an entirely for market she can't fly to me for the meeting theoretically she could but I don't think she will so when she comes to the website I need to make her believe and know and show that she can trust me you can't gain trust without showing exactly or you can it's just harder I'm all about doing things easy buddy don't work harder work smarter put things out that show you out they help you gain trust like I mentioned before the website became a game changer I was able to raise my prices I was able to get a different clientele I was able to work with coordinators I was able to foster destination weddings all from getting a branded website wasn't hard work absolutely stinking heart I remember crying a lot of time and yes I sound like I'm a crier I said on my birthday that jd surprised me with lunch on my birthday and he surprised me by having my sister be there and we haven't celebrated our birthday together in about five or six years we celebrate with our family but a few days earlier and I was so surprised I was totally caught a fard completely surprised I was like where is she what I just lost so I put it on twitter that I cried because I saw my sister and somebody said oh you're such a crier and I'm like okay I want you don't know me ok I am tough tough as nails but when I was putting together the website I cried on multiple occasions because I felt like it was so hard to define who I wass I didn't know who I wass and finally I had to put the pedal to the metal and say who are you what do you want? What are you inspired by what kind of weddings do you want to shoot who do you want to work with? All of that is hard stinking work do it it pays off in dividends thank you for bringing that back I felt like I was like I had a moment I had a moment I had a moment basically what we want to do ultimately which I was just shows you is to create conversations in person conversations on flying conversations and conversation specifically about the client, these air, the things that I wanted from my website so if these are the things that I wanted for my website and these are things that could start making my website work for me, those are the types of things that he definitely wanted to move towards because at the end of the day I definitely knew and this is what I want to help everything again and again there is on ly one you there are too many people who do it the same camera too many people who edit with the same software to many people who went to the same art school but there's only one you and you need a website to showcase that because that's what people are buying remember it is not about the photographs it is about the photographer I've come to believe that yes, what she said was so true you need images to define you, but once you get into the market where you are defined by your work, what then when the brightest choosing between equally defined three four all three photographers take equally defined photographs in areas that are eagerly defined to themselves? How then did she? What is then the market thing that pushes her over personality seriously seriously so then we're going to move now onto how to create a website that's reflective of you okay how now let's get busy we're gonna get to the how so we talked about what now I talked about the y and then I talked about what I wanted my website to do for me once I figured out what I wanted it to do for me then I had to then decide how do I create this website okay so for me it was to have have a starting point have a starting point that I felt confident with um this photo was taken again at a one point to I was in los angeles we're in you know, a little ripe area she's in this gorgeous uh, sequence dress in some fabulous feels that you can't see because monitor on what is up with me having the girl in the foreground and the guy in the background it was just the photos I promise so I have a lot of photos I'm sure no one shouted at one point to she was an open shade was probably shot between one hundred one hundred and sixty so and that's marie this is the bride who's going to be married in may in like the philly area for the auction so I believe in having a starting point so when it comes back down what what do you suspect was my starting point from your one what was the thing that it constantly went back teo to revisit teo like gage my work and get inspired your locker my locker yes yeah my locker my magazines that was my inspiration that was my starting point so I went to my starting point and start ripping out everything pages after pages after page of just things like like indiscriminately and once I was able to rip out things indiscriminately I had a pile of papers pile I laid all the papers down in our living room and jd came home and was like what the heck it's like the onset of quarters I was like don't worry it's making sense making sense and then I started picking up the favorites within the piles and the minute I siphoned it down I had to ask myself why I liked those things why did I like that? Why did I like the color and asking yourself why you then get those reasons to articulate to your graphic designer when it's time to make those decisions also I needed a starting point and for me I work to the graphic designer because it was a far better decision for me I am a better editor I'm a better viewer idea maker than I am a producer that's what a graphic designer does now I understand I want to the graphic designer by the name of promised tangeman she's expensive but my business, my brain has grown in a different capacity so I can make different decisions if I was in my year one year to a year three phase I could never afford promise if that was then my option, which is what I would think ashley's question wass promise has sight house it's one hundred fifty dollars to buy the style group and then there's a tutorial on how to change things out to make it your own. I've seen other photographers by two style groups and meld them together and get pieces of different pieces and put them together. It looks like a totally rad new different website. They change the font they mailed to different websites. Together they put their own pictures, they've moved the navigation bar from the top to the bottom completely custom website for three hundred dollars that looks entirely like their own. Can we rethink what we know if the hustle out shoot, outrun out hustle? Add to that out think completely and entirely so. Site house dot com is a great starting point and on a photographer what I'm a firm believer in outsourcing, right? So why would I not outsource the very thing that I think is gonna be a defining factor in who I am and the business that again more than anything, when you're building your website, you need to know what you want because there's nothing worse than going up to a graphic designer and being like oh, you know, because I did that my first year I went to a graphic designer I was just like oh, just give me a j in star and because I was trying to be legit I told him give me a script e j star honest to god those words he gave me seventy five script e j stars and I hated them all and I hated them all I hated them all because they were they weren't even me that's why I hated them and I couldn't bring myself to say these aren't me but I was like up the seventy five this one is the least horrid and that was my first logo the script e j star was my first love and that's what I use but it was entirely not me so you have to know what you want you know you want you could then articulate that to the graphic designer or when you're working with the style group or whatever the case may be, I want you to have a critical eye when you view the building of your website because I'm talking specifically we're not talking about costumes even if it's a custom site or even if you're working with choi you need have a critical eye you have to be able to keep it real with yourself k I r how does this page make me feel when you look at it? I want you to take the christi cropper from the element and I want you to look at the page and say do I see christie that's the question do I see john that's what I saw jon's writing this morning I was like, oh john john the cameraman I think has been panning in on your writing and it makes me envious on makes me envious I it's like I wish I had johns writing because I would create a brand around my photography and like writing I could just see him scanning the elf a bit him ron and him putting the alphabet as the titles of where his links go him incorporating the fact that he's an architect into could you just having like I don't know if this is what it's called but disappearing lines or vantage point his own sketches and then placing pictures on top of that I'm giving idea let me run, isn't it? Isn't it like I see that kind of stuff and it's totally john and it's him embracing he's not hiding behind the fact that one he's very smart two he went to school three he invested for he's disciplined five he's hungry six he's taking a risk toe leave what he wanted and that is all set in a website with him having to say nothing at all that's what you could do with a custom website? I think that that's powerful, critical eye, if you were to look at his website, john would look at the website, can he look and say, this is me? If it does not say you get out of it or change it, period the end as I was building my two thousand ten website, this show this in the last creative life course, I did the last bit of life course, and I had it I had it, I hadn't posted my new I did critic light in august in my new website came on october, but I was working with the graphic designer then, and this is the list that I center things to amend for. The web site, the first web site I saw I loved I was like, oh my god, it's awesome here's your changes! I need a bio section take up the j star logo from the top of the home page, not the grave vertical lines of the navigation menu bar more emphasis on the typography of the words on the pictures scan samples and sent them to her, which is what I didn't need to know for myself omit the victory line on the top in the bottom of the navigation bar, please check both or check both options just thin gray line thin grey line in white line at collections page the font typography on the table of contents colored numbers, different fonts. I want numbers of the subject text and the subtext all to be different. Is the highlighting in each section going to be on the website? Or is it just for the demo now changed the arrows at the bottom of the favorites. Paige, this is what you need to do every time you're putting anything out on the web for yourself. Does it look like me? Does it feel like me if it does not? Do not be okay with this is you. If your child was going to go for his first grade pictures, would you let them wake up from bed and go? No. That's a division of your child that somebody's gonna document. You're going wake a mop and comb their hair. Make him look a little nicer than they usually go. Right? So why would we not do what's wrong? Aaron time son's. Great pictures did all of that and he into the light. Wait. No, I mean that picture. Probably great. He's in the back of the picture. I'm senior here. You're young. You should put that in his senior yearbook, I love you. Definitely have a critical eye and these are the types of things that I would love for you ideally to do as you move there this is what was the end product this is the website that we've launched in two thousand ten and it's entirely different so different from what we wanted the inspiration for me started off with a table of contents because my block looks like a magazine but what am I gonna do? Recreate the magazine for my website lame easy cheap if it's lame easy or cheap don't do it so I wanted to rethink the magazine so how could they rethink the magazine? Judy and I had this conversation for months for months just talking about rethinking the magazine how can you rethink magazine a magazine only comes in one form well maybe we could take weakened so we started watching on top chef and you how they deconstruct food like deconstruct the pb and j and you're like what the heck on then they do it it's like foam and fire so how could we deconstruct a magazine? And so for me, when I came across a table of contents that was going to be the source, I felt one thing that ended up being the driving factor of the entire website so don't ever think that you have to think the entire dea idea find one thing you find really cool and then move from there I knew that I wanted a sliding gallery because it was one different. I hadn't seen it too often within the it exists everywhere on the web, I had it necessarily seen as prevalent in the wedding photography area. So that's why I wanted it again. Wedding section and engagement section both section both slide to the side in between each section. I've incorporated the one thing that I wanted to do. Writing in a room full of people. You only see him on a scale of one to ten. She ranks hot she's, the kind of girl you call your mom about all of those things. I wrote forty things about my ideas about love, these air, nobody else's, sometimes any looking magazine how they have those itemizes pieces of text that airlifted up. I wanted to create that idea. So I had ripped out that from w magazine. I said, how can incorporate this into the website by simply superimposing on top of the picture that's how it was able to incorporate magazine elements without looking blatantly like amazing my ideas. Here shoots are slide shows again. What did my wedding photographer do? Slide shows to create emotional connection and not just still imagery. In addition to that also in the side, text have the story that I wrote about the client again. All I am doing is putting things out there that are making me different and make people feel something about me the stars stark section are people talking about me featured in section are magazines that I have been featured in about section is well about me the documentary section are videos about me, the life in between section or the things that I like and the collection section is a big picture of me, so you know who you're paying and you know what you're getting this goes back the idea I don't think I'm cool don't become great, I want you to feel something and finally finally, like five years after it started, I felt like, oh my god finally, this is me right now I don't know if it's gonna mean two thousand twelve for me right now this feels good and I'm proud and this website whose is me and if your website does not use you, it does not drip you, it is not excrete you, you're doing it wrong and I hate to say it like that, but finally had a form to create that type of environment that I wanted. One thing that I want to reiterate again and a again is that the quickest path to perfection is procrastination everybody waits for it to be perfect and I'm here to tell you, five years after the fact it's not perfect but it's far better than when it wass it step by step by step I'm telling people do it wrong because in the process of doing it wrong you start out finding what's right you will never ever people always say I'm gonna run a marathon I'm gonna run a marathon listen you're not gonna run twenty five miles without running the first mile so get out there and do something and then realize it's not working for you and then you change it from there it helps you define what you're doing wrong and in order to find out what you're doing right I don't know if that really made sense I just said it really fast hopefully whole if you were tired and really did it you know I think we'll take questions and maybe questions like five minutes and then writes a less the celestial thumbs up I was like okay, we're back on the questions like five minutes so I have a question from cid valera and you're talking about having your website b u so the question is is it appropriate to include personal projects along with the business website on the web site? Yes I guess it depends on the personal project maybe there's a separate tab on the web site this is personal projects and if you volunteer like a children's hospital anything that showcases who you are is good but it is personal projects like like tim, he shoots nightlife I don't know if personal projects would be a good tab on the wedding section and it's like girls in like their booty shorts you know their future claims I know I don't know did hands on what that what the event I mean what the project is it's just too many um mitigating variables are defectors yeah I'm andrea roe had asked if you create the video clips for your own side or do you have someone else do it? And I'm just wondering how important you think video is to put on your site well very personal clearly looking to chase right? He was on his computer in hawaii staring at it it wasn't perfect and I'll say it wasn't great but it made me like him a lot more my videos literally are from ah five d walking and you only need the transitions I only needed a three second clip and you just get the clip and you drag it onto the show it's sight and that's it you're done it's super easy to put a video clip in the website so you're doing that yourself yeah j t did some of them I had when I was doing of working with the videographer for the promo video yet extra clips I was like let's put this one here always listen they're one was shot without two were shot with a home video camera a foot came around so you can do them with your own point of shoots remember you only need three seconds and you can make it slow super friends kind of walking in a stutter step visit slow you're like you don't need it doesn't need to be fancy whatsoever but if you have like the seventy even the rebel x t I or the t to the s e c to order for tito I whatever it has video capabilities your money dude set your five year old within just a move towards mommy moved towards me oh good, totally good do you dio your plus sites yourself like you have a template for them and you let him out or it's every client gets the same plus I but I had a designer design me the plus okay I worked with michael fermented m y and tedy dot com I sent him what I want him m y n td dot com e sent him what I wanted and he created that plus site before promised created my website I was working with you I didn't know until finally I came across I loves michael when he did for me but when I met promised I felt like our personalities clicked like extraordinarily so michael is extraordinarily talented but when I talked to promise I felt like promise could together make me a lot stronger than I could on my own and she I like I looked at her in our style and I felt like I want what you can get me if that makes sense, okay, thinking one last question before we go to lunch, yes, okay, so this is from remix and the question is, I am a fifty seven year old woman, and I don't like to reveal too much about myself. These are pictures of my beautiful granddaughters, etcetera, because I'm afraid that a potential client will choose the young cool girl or guy over grandma to take their pictures thoughts um, you're a nice person and you're a good photographer, you know, maybe she doesn't look like she's fifty six, but I don't I don't know her, so please take no offence and remixes is so cute, but I don't know if people are looking even think you're thirty five, you know, like, am I being offensive at all? Please forgive me like okay, so nobody's looking at her thinking all I wonder, you know, if people know what she's looking like nobody's looking her being like, oh, she must be twenty five or thirty she is who she is. I think a graceful woman aging is beautiful, something could confidently say I have been shooting longer than you've been alive great, awesome age with grace own it mix it up, and I have known a fifty six year old women who are doing a lot more than the thirty five year old girl, so you just shake what your mama gave you, you know, shake you gave your granddaughter. I mean, whatever. I understand there are people, people, different strokes for different folks. I understand that what I put on the web might not be for everybody but it's, okay, for her to put out certain things about your personality. Maybe it doesn't have to be her grandchildren. Maybe she does yoga. Put back that you do yoga that makes you connect a ball with a lot of people put out that you may be spent a little too much and christmas gifts that makes you connected with people, put them back like reese's pieces that makes you connect about what people put out things that will make you connect a ble with people or push people away simultaneously.