A new approach to on-line marketing

It's time. John's Photography needs to grow. After hours of bookreading and internet jockeying, I'm ready to build a website.

A few months ago, I made my first attempt at putting my biz on the web by creating johnsphotographysd.blogspot.com. Yes, that's (John's Photography - ' + sd.) It's a tough domain even for me to remember, it's a free blog based on a free template and it's what I like to call a "one-page wonder." If professional photography sites are Cadillacs, this thing is a tricycle. I'm gonna do something about it.

Like any aspiring amateur, I've got ideas. Where do they come from? They derive mostly from caffienated daydreams or from frequent wanderings of the internet. Today, I was in the middle of one of those random internet wanderings and I found a goldmine of inspiration for my future website. This is gonna happen.

Many books on photo business say that many photographers fail because they focus on the wrong things (pardon the pun). I know it sounds cliche, but the most successful photographers run customer-centric businesses that actually give a rip about who buys their stuff. John's Photography is focused on the customers in every way.

Sure, I could create the flashiest, intricately-designed, most interactive theme-park of a web experience for my potential clients, or I could simply and elegantly communicate to them exactly what they want to know.

What questions does the customer silently ask while visiting my website? (my best guesses):

- Does John actually take good photos? (portfolio)

- Who/how/where/what is John? (biography page)

- How does John offer his business? (packages, prices, business model)

- Why should I choose John to take my photos?

- What do I want from my photography? (from the customer's perspective)

- Is John going to be a pain to work with? (a well-designed page of text summed up as "No.")

- How do I pick a photographer in the Brookings area? (I'm gonna help the customer help themselves. Yes, I might actually link to my fellow photogs' websites to give my prospective customers some flavors to taste. This is an (possibly crazy) idea I have to keep me on my toes.)

I want to communicate the above things in a seriously convenient and easy way. I don't want to miss the point with this thing. Getting carried away on my website would create an unwanted effect on the nature and attitude of my photography career. One thing I really don't want my website to refect is the mild narcisism which I've developed through the use of this blog, Facebook and Twitter. After all, unlike those three things, my photography is about the person on the other side of the camera, not me.

By the end of the summer, I hope to have a clean, scalable, simple, effective, informative, satisfying, slick, impressive website for you and your friends to enjoy and re-visit often.

Please feel free to share any ideas, examples, links or comments as I go about renovating the online presence of John's Photography. I can definitely use the help.

Thanks!
John

On the steps of the Campanile

Twenty-two days ago, I asked the most important question I've ever asked to the most important person I will ever meet. Here's how it went down:

So there I was, it was a typical Wednesday afternoon in Brookings. As I walked out of Daktronics at the end of the workday, Stacy walked into Subway for the workevening. I guided my car into the yellow lines in front of my apartment and paused for a moment, took a deep breath, and told my self, "Yep. This is the night. Let's do this."

I immediately put the Green Machine into rewind and headed for the place to which I unconciously head the most whenever I need something: Wal-Mart.

Before I spill the rest of the story, I should provide a little background for you, my valued readers: I'd had a burning diamond in my pocket for over three months beforehand. I knew the style/cut/size she wanted, so I went and got it (by the way, don't go to a jewelry store if you're not sure what you're looking for. Jewelry salespeople are worse than used car salesmen.) The time was finally right, and I was ready.

So, there I was, wandering the toy aisles of good ole' Wally World searching for the last thing that I thought I would ever need: purple sidewalk chalk. Why? Because Stacy likes purple, and John's got something to write.

They didn't have purple, so I settled for a set (box?) with blue and red pieces. (The best $1.05 I've ever spent.)

Stacy had to work until 9, and it was about 8:30, so I scooted over to the Campanile to scribble a question on the eastern steps.

Stacy was done at 9, changed/cleaned up a little, and we went for a typical hey-it's-nice-outside-so-we-should-go-for-a-walk walk. We chatted and giggled about dorky things as usual while I inconspicuously herded Stacy across campus towards the Campanile green. Needless to say, my chest was pounding, and I was f-ing excited.

We eventually started walking counter-clockwise around the Campanile while Stacy was giggling and giving me crap about something. Eventually, she was walking between me and the eastern side of the Campanile. She was not seeing what I brought her there to see, so I stopped.

"What's wrong?" she said as I paused.

"(Cough) umm (cough) there's, uh, there's something over there," I nervously pointed at the steps.

"What?"

"Umm... there's.... something on the.... (cough)...."

(Looks around the Campanile towards Medary.) "I don't get it."

"Uh.... What's on the steps right there?" I made an obvious point directly at what I had written 30 minutes earlier.

She finally shed her confusion as she spotted the red and blue writing on three steps of the Campanile:


Stacy, Will you marry me? (heart) John

As she internalized the message, I fumbled and struggled to get the ring out of my jacket pocket and nearly lost my (very loseable) balance as I got down on one knee.

She turned around with her hand over her mouth, repeating "Oh my gosh... Oh my gosh... This is happening." Her suprised eyes met my nervous/tearing eyes.

"Will you marry me?" (Voice cracking with emotion.)

Before I could say "me," she blurted out a hearty "Yes!" and I proceeded to try and put the ring on her right hand.

"No, it's supposed to go on the left," and then she let out a small but cute I'm-smarter-than-my-struggling-boyfriend giggle (I had heard it many times before, but it really melted my heart this time). I finally managed to wiggle the ring onto her finger, and we hugged the hug of hugs.

I then produced the red chunk of sidewalk chalk from my other jacket pocket (I didn't want it to get all over the ring) and wrote "She said YES!!!" below the message to inform any curious passers-by of the outcome.

We basked for about 30 minutes sitting on top of my sidewalk-chalked message in the most memorable moment either of us has ever experienced. Neither of us could stop smiling.

As our butts began to get numb from pressure of the limestone step beneath them, we decided to call the moms and the grandmas to spill the news.

That's how it happened. I'm ready to spend more than the rest of my life with this girl, who is also my best friend, and the most talented giggler I've ever met.

Thanks for reading,

John

I'm back.

Life afforded me the motivation and time to do this, so I'm blogging for the first time in about six weeks. It feels good to be back.

Well, since my last post, I've come up with a lot of ideas and topics to talk about, so I'll just do a quick overview of thoughts for this post. I don't want to bore the crap out of everybody. These will all be their own posts:

1. I'm engaged. I asked Stacy to marry me on May 20, and she said yes. Yes. This is cause for a nice long blog post in the near future. Stay tuned.

2. I've been tweeting. A lot. Follow me: http://www.twitter.com/johnnelson1

3. I moved into a new apartment. I'm flying solo. It's delicious. Pics to come soon.

4. I made Stacy a blog for her birthday. (I think she likes it!) http://stacykiecker.blogspot.com/

5. The development of and news from John's Photography.

6. How to get the camera out of the bag. A personal story.

Thanks for reading!
John