Product Photos - Part II - Overview of the Camera

By: Jim Manley

Great product photos start with the right understanding of your tools and how to use them. Probably the most important tool that you will use to create great looking product photos is your camera. You don't need the most expensive camera to take great product photos. Just use your creativity to make your photos a compliment to your creations.

The most important thing to remember is that there is a disconnect between your web page and your potential customers. EVERYTHING you do on your website should be geared toward narrowing that disconnect. Usually that means very clear pictures, and multiple angles. Make the customer feel comfortable buying this product. They are placing their trust in you that you will deliver what they expect. Don't disappoint them.

When taking pictures, remember that your photographs should convey information, just like a chart or graph. That means remove things that don't help convey the important information to your customers. This does not mean that you should make your photos dry, and boring. This means, think about what information is important to your customers. What type of fabric goes with this necklace? How big is this bracelet?

Lastly, get familiar with your camera. Read the instruction manual. If you don't understand some terms, look them up. We'll try to go over some of them here, but there's no substitute for just doing it. Don't worry, no one is looking, so it doesn't matter if you take the worst picture in the world. Use it to get better. Send me questions, or better yet send me your photos, and I'll give you some quick pointers.

Product Photos - Part I - Introduction

Over the next few months we will be exploring ways to get the most out of your product photos. This will involve an in depth look at a number of parts to taking good product photos. These parts include the camera, the lights, the product, and the actual shot itself.

It will be important to understand each of these aspects in order to take great product photos. I would encourage you to take out the instructions to your current camera and become familiar with them. Also, take your camera out and start taking some photos just for the fun of it.

Be sure to send me any questions you have along the way, and I'll make sure to touch on each of them. I would also encourage you to post your own suggestions for our readers, and share any information you would find helpful.

Part XIII - Social Networking

A more recent internet phenomenon is social networking. Social Networking sites allow users to create personal webpages, include pictures, videos, blogs and other sharable media. Friends and family can view this media, give feedback, and post it to their own page. There are also a number of means to communicate with people by posting bulletins, posting comments to another user’s page and sending email.

The success of social networking can be seen in the success of MySpace.com and FaceBook.com. These billion dollar companies have tapped into the desire of many internet users to connect with old and new friends via the web or through similar interests.

Businesses have taken advantage of these platforms to increase communication with customers, and potential customers. This platform allows you to connect with more web users, and communicate directly with them. These platforms also can generate more links to your website, increasing your traffic and our PageRank.

It is important to remember that these platforms and forums are not there for you to get up on your soap box and tell the world how great you are. That is what press releases are for. It is best if you use them as a way to answer questions people have about about your industry. For example, if someone posts a question about the difference between Sleeping Beauty and Kingman turquoise, an informative forum response can expose you to new customers and let them know that you know what you're talking about.

Part XII - Social Book Marking

Social book marking is a relatively new phenomenon on the internet. Basically, an individual saves web pages or web sites that they like to a second website where they can share this information with others. Social bookmarks are considered highly reliable since they are not based on paid advertisements, but true opinions of other web users. Examples of social book marking sites include del.icio.us, Blue Dot, Diigo, Furl, My Web (Yahoo!), Netvouz, Simpy, StumbleUpon, Kaboodle and BibSonomy. All of these sites provide different features, but the applications are basically the same.

When users book mark your site, they are creating a new link to your site, creating more links. Second, these links expose your site to new users with similar interests, increasing your traffic and customer base.

You can increase the number of users that book mark your site by giving them the tools to bookmark your web site. A simple link, or even a web page that allows users to easily add your site to their book mark list is often all that is needed. Visit the websites listed above, and make yourself familiar with how they work. Many of these sites will offer tools to you to help increase your visibility on their site.

Part XI - Shopping Indexes

The web is filled with information for users to find anything, including the best prices on products they want to buy. Users go to shopping indexes, and search for products they want. Users can then compare prices side-by-side and go to the vendor’s site for more information or purchase.

Some shopping indexes provide this service free to both vendors and customers. Google’s shopping index called froogle.com offers this service for free. Yahoo!’s shopping site requires you to create a store on Yahoo!, which costs money. Amazon allows you to set up a store through them, which also costs money, but could generate more exposure. Integrating with these shopping indexes will increase the number of links to your website, and could generate more leads for customers to your website.

Do a search for shopping websites and see what different sites require. If their needs are more technical than you can handle, find out how much it would cost to have someone take care of the technical side, or teach you how.

Shopping indexes can be a great way to increase the exposure of your site and your products. Be sure to carefully weight the costs and payoffs associated with including your products in shopping indexes.

Part X - Public Relations

An often overlooked technique for small businesses is tooting your own horn. It is important for you to let the world know about important things that happen at your business. The simplest way to get this information out is by creating press releases. These are usually very short, and strictly fact based. Once these are circulated, the recipients can write a full article or reprint the press release.

There are many resources online for both writing and distributing press releases. Some press release distribution outlets can cost a fee, so be sure to figure out if you want to spend the money to get your word out there.

Articles written from you press releases will provide more exposure for your business, and more links from electronic versions of these articles. Best of all this costs nothing. Local, and state newspapers are always looking for information like this. Many of the magazines that promote the types of items you sell could be interested in your press releases. Additionally you could use the contacts you have made through your link-to-campaign to build your press release contact list.

Additionally, with the rise of the blogging culture, it is important to include bloggers on your press release distribution list. Be sure to start with friends and family, and expand from there.

Examples of press releases would be new products or product lines, new hires, personnel changes, big sales, volunteering, sponsorship or non-business related events in which you participate.

Another way to get your company name and website out onto the web is to apply for awards both online and elsewhere. Many of the contestants, qualifiers and winners will receive press coverage, and links from the contest’s website and the press. That coverage could grow exponentially if you were to win an award.

Part IX - Link to Campaign

As we discussed earlier, your site’s PageRank is a major contributor to where you appear in search results. The best way to increase your PageRank is get links to your site from other sites. Not only do links on other sites increase your PageRank, but will also increase the traffic to your site.

Since you do not have control over other people’s sites, you have to devise a strategy. Not only is it important to generate links on other websites, but to ensure that the text in these links work best for your needs. This will involve traditional sales techniques and public relations strategies. The web also offers many emerging means of adding links to your website, including shopping indexes, social bookmarking sites, and social networking sites.

How Does a Link to Campaign Work?

Google provides a tool to see how many sites link to a particular site. Type "link:yoursitename.com" into the Google search function. For example, Thunderbird Supply Company would search for "link:thunderbirdsupply.com". Google will provide a list of larger website that link to the site specified. You could also use this tool to see who is linking to your competitor's sites.

How Do You Generate Links?

The process of working a link-to campaign is very similar to the sales process. First you contact the people you know, or websites that already link to you. Then you generate leads through those contacts for more links to your site. Contact these leads and try to get links to your website, and more leads for people to contact. This process can continue infinitely, or can be cut off at any point.

Is your company a part of any associations? If so, insist on having a link to your website from any association website. Many association websites already have their member companies listed on the association website. Make sure that your company is listed, that there is a link, and that the link is worded properly.

Another source of potential links to your site is your vendors that you purchase from. Many of these vendors are happy to provide publicity for their customers, because they know the more you sell, the more you will buy from them.

Non-product vendors have websites, and are happy to showcase customers to help improve their image. These vendors could include software vendors, business machine vendors, etc. Contact these vendors about placing a link to your site on their site. There are other companies that you may work with that would be willing to place a link to your website on their website.

There are other means of getting links to your site through newsletters and blogs. This user generated content, and potential links are invaluable, not only to generate links to your website, but also to increase visibility to potential customers. You need to contact these newsletters and blogs, introduce yourself, and solicit links to your site.

The current customer base is another valuable asset. These customers that come back to your store could be a large generator of links to your site. You need to engage your current customers to see if they have websites, and if so, if they would be willing to link to your website. You would then ask for references from these customers.

A valuable source of links can be found through your competitors. Create a list of websites linking to your competitors’ websites, and add them to your leads list.

Create a “Link to Us” section on your website to make the process of linking to your site simple. This section should include materials that webmasters can use to create better links to your site. These items include images, suggested link text, colors, and general instructions if people want to link to specific areas of your site. Having these items available makes it easier for webmasters to link to your site, and increase the odds of getting those precious links.