People have been using photo-sharing sites like Flickr or Google Photos for years but there has been a shift towards sharing photos in a more personal way. Linking to other sites or sharing on a social platform like Facebook gives up some control over your photos and content. Instead, professional and amateur photographers are using custom domains like dominey.blog to showcase their work. Whether it’s professional photography or just a hobby, the .blog extension is perfect for anyone looking to start a new photo blog and take full ownership of a little piece of the internet.
Getting started with a photography blog is simple, and you can be quick to set up. Here, we explore some of the main points you’ll want to consider before you start your photo blog and how to set it up and make it successful.
Before You Start
Determine Your Why
The first thing to determine before you begin working on your photography blog is your goal and motivation in creating one. Photo blogs can be used for a number of reasons:
- Sharing photos with friends and family
- Creating a portfolio of your work for potential clients
- Organizing your personal photo collection in a more accessible and easy-to-search way
- Starting a professional photography business
- Building up your personal brand online to showcase your talents and interests
- Showcasing your love for photography and wanting to extend your hobby to others
Each of these are great reasons to start your own photo blog, but determining your specific focus before you start will help you to refine your vision.
Choose a Focus or Niche
Another important consideration before starting your photo blog is the type of photography you want to concentrate on. There is a wide variety of possible themes, such as these to name a few:
- travel photography blog
- food photography blog
- fashion photography blog
- street photography blog
- food blog photography
- family photography blog
- maternity photography blog
- lifestyle photography blog
- landscape photography blog
- nature photography blog
- aerial photography blog
- sports photography blog
- architectural photography blog
- wedding photography blog
Your options are almost endless, so having a specific focus will go a long way to making your photo blog stand out online and attracting your target audience.
Finding the Perfect Domain Name
Now that you’ve refined your purpose and focus, you can start searching for the right domain name for your blog.
When choosing a domain name for your website, it is recommended to keep it short, memorable, and easy to spell. Check out this article for more tips on picking the best domain name for your blog.
With over 1.9 billion websites, you need to find a way to stand out. Using a .blog domain allows you to immediately communicate who you are and what you do.
Take a look at the following photographers who use .blog domains, for some inspiration:
Emilysphotograpy.blog – Emily uses this for her photography business and has used her blog to brand herself in her niche: dog-friendly weddings and family portraits.
Natureview.blog – This blog was created to showcase high-quality photography of animals and nature.
Leica-camera.blog – This blog was created by Leica to showcase their cameras. It features photo essays that serve to highlight the quality and capabilities of their range of cameras. In this case, it is an extension of their main website which displays their products in this unique way.
Picking a domain name doesn’t have to be a frustrating process. Have fun and use your creativity to pick the perfect name for you.
Getting Set Up
Now that you’ve chosen your domain name, it’s time to start building your blog.
Depending on your level of technical expertise, you can choose to build one using HTML, a website builder, or content management system (CMS).
There’s a wide array of web hosting companies to choose from too, so do a little research to select the one that best suits your needs. Here we cover some options on choosing the best blogging platform. Regardless of where you host your site, most will offer a variety of options including pre-made templates so you don’t have to reinvent the wheel.
WordPress, for example, has hundreds of templates to choose from, created specifically for photographers. To name just a few:
- Elegance Pro
- Divi
- Ultra
- Neve
- Coastline
- Fargo
- Shutterup
Keep in mind that some templates may come with a one-time cost.
Other hosting providers, such as Squarespace, also provide templates designed specifically for photographers. Their platform is designed in such a way that you can choose a template and then simply drag and drop new elements or delete old elements, so it is a good choice if you have never created a website before.
Your template is also not set in stone, so don’t worry about making the “right” choice – your needs will change over time, and so will your tastes! You can make changes at any time.
No matter how you choose to design your blog, you will want to ensure that you are focusing on the niche you determined at the beginning of this process. Give your best, most compelling photographs the starring role on your website to draw in the visitor.
Promoting Your Work
You’ve built and launched your blog – now it’s time to show it off to the world.
How you promote your work will largely depend on your goals for your photo blog. If you have created it to share photos with friends and family, let them know about your new website through social media or email.
If you are building a business with your blog and need it to be properly categorized by search engines, you need to ensure you are optimizing your site. A few search engine optimization (SEO) principles to follow include:
Add alt-text to all of your images
Search engines do not have the ability to understand your photographs unless you provide them with a text description. You can do this by adding “alt-text” to each image, describing it. Doing this will also boost your chances of appearing in Google Image search results rather than just text-based search results.
Add text content to your photo blog
Even if you are using your blog as a portfolio, which means it will be image-heavy, you need to add some textual elements to your blog to help search engines understand what your website is about. Add in keywords and keyphrases that relate to your specific niche, like “wedding photographer in Detroit” can help you show up in search results and get traffic to your blog.
For more SEO tips check out these articles, 7 SEO Best Practices That Every Blogger Should Follow and How To Grow Your Blog Audience.
Ultimately, remember that there is no one correct way to start a photo blog and no one way to promote it — every blog creator has his or her own story. From picking a theme to posting with clarity, these tips should be able to help guide you towards launching your own successful photography blog.
Knock Knock WHOIS There 