by Betsy Finn, http://www.learnwithbetsy.com

So you’ve probably considered starting a blog… or have one that you’ve thought about updating more often.  I wanted to share a few tips and tricks with you, so you can get the most out of your blogging experience.

Keep it Casual — Yes, some companies only use blogs for press releases and the like.  But if you’re in a business where personality counts (yes, people choose you as their photographer partially because of your personality) — then why should you deprive the blogosphere by trying to keep things formal?

Update Often — You want to develop a solid readership base for you blog, right?  Well, what’s to keep your clients coming back to your blog if there’s only a flurry of new posts every three weeks?  You don’t have to post every day, but if you’re going to have a low post frequency, your readers deserve to know that.  (e.g. if you plan to update on Fridays only — why not make a sticky post on your blog mentioning your Fun Friday Posts?).

Plan Ahead — In case you missed this feature, you do have the capability to publish posts on a past or future date.  While I don’t recommend trying to fill in the gaps of time where you forgot to post… This feature can actually be very helpful for remembering to publish new content.  Instead of having to sit down and write a blog post every few days, you can dedicate an hour or so to writing a series of posts — that will be published in the future.  Obviously this works best for posts that are a little more structured… (as opposed to “here’s what I did today”).

Spread Things Out — Yes, you might have a flurry of weddings or portrait sessions you’re dying to post on the blog.  But instead of posting them all at once and then going for a week or two without another post, why not use my “Plan Ahead” tip and space out those posts?  What this will do for you is give maximum “viewability” to each post (that really cute kid session won’t get lost between the twenty weddings you just published if you spread things out).

Be Visually Consistent — If you can, make sure your blog’s theme jives with your main website.  You’re a professional, and your blog should reflect that.  While it might be cool to try out every new theme you get your eyes on… it will confuse your clients to see constant design changes — especially if they don’t correlate with your website.

Be Positive — While you need to let your personal voice be heard, in general you need to keep things positive and upbeat.  Do your clients really want to have their portrait done by a photographer who constantly bemoans their lot in life… or complains that things aren’t going well?  Obviously there’s a time and a place for seriousness — but don’t use your blog as a venue to constantly share woes and negative things.

Keep Control — Yes, hosted sites like blogger.com and wordpress.com are “convenient” — but you aren’t in control.  When you have your blog on a site like one of these, you can’t completely customize your theme, your url is not yourname.com — it is yourname.theirname.com.  Why not direct as much traffic as you can to yourname.com?  WordPress.org is my favorite tool for a self-hosted blog.  You get flexibility, customization, and the peace of mind knowing your content is not going anywhere anytime soon.

Hopefully these tips should help you get started.  Improving your blogging technique is a process — it takes time… but in the end you’ll be glad you did.  And if you fall off the bandwagon every once in a while, remember, that’s normal!  All bloggers go through spurts; it’s part of being human.  So don’t beat yourself up if you find yourself falling back into old habits — just take a moment to refocus, and start making those changes you want to make!