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Protected: Urbine Proofing - Public Highlight Pics Coming Soon
By Dave Conklin | March 8, 2008
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The 10 Greatest Photography Blogs On The Planet
By Dave Conklin | March 3, 2008
I have taken 10 of the best photo blogs on the planet and listed them worst to best below… Keep in mind that to even be on the list you have to be darn good. Here are the contestants…
So what the heck qualifies me to vote for the best photo blogs on the planet? Absolutely not a darn thing. Except for the fact that I love photography (I try my best… this is really a hobby site with a bit of a biz kick). I do subscribe to about 30 photography blogs (which is where these sites came from). I also am the co-founder of an internet marketing company that shall remain nameless (but you could find it if you tried).
So, anyway… here’s how I did this. I started off by selecting 10 of my favorite photo blogs that I currently subscribe to. I then thought about how to measure their “insane greatness” and I came up with this…
- Design… of the blog… not the photography. This isn’t a list of the best photographer… it’s the best photo blog. This category is 100% my personal opinion… which, again… shouldn’t really mean that much to you.
- Search Exposure… of the blog… not the photo site. The blog’s total number of search terms that appear in the top 20 of google were researched and recorded. The sites were then ordered 1 through 10 and given points accordingly.
- Back links… to the blog. Again, each blog’s number of back links from sites outside of it’s domain was calculated and then the sites were ordered 1 through 10 and given points accordingly (I just said “the sites were ordered 1 through 10 and given points accordingly” again, didn’t I?).
So, first… here are the first place winners for each category…
Design:
- The Wiebner’s Photo Blog - This Lancaster, PA Photography studio is owned by Joel and Rita Wiebner. They recently had their site redesigned by Infinet Design, a photo blog designer and it’s BANGIN’! I actually met these guys a while back when they did some shots of me and my team. However… that had nothing to do with me voting them number 1 for design… it was mainly because of three factors… I LOVE the favorite photos section at the top and how they get there as well as the use of inline comments (I’m jealous, because I haven’t seen any wordpress plugins come out yet with that feature) and of course the incredible heading images to each blog post.
Search Exposure:
- OK… if you’re not “SEO Savvy”, this one may confuse you a bit… but here’s how the measurement works…
- There is a tool that we utilize that shows us all of the search terms that a domain or page shows up in google under in the top 20 results. I added up the total number of “top 20’s”, gave them a point for each and then ordered them 1 - 10… the winner for the most search related traffic is… I know it’s killing you!
- Jessica Claire’s Photography Blog. Jessica’s blog is pretty sweat… but it’s also getting more search related traffic than any of the others in this list. The site has 117 keyword phrases appearing in the top 20 of google which includes terms like the ones in this image (sorry for the image… don’t want google to think I’m spamming):
Backlinks
Backlinks to each site were counted as well. I did this because I kind of look at a backlink as a vote… and why should I be the only “vote”, right? That would be communistic or something… wow… that doesn’t make any sense… so here’s the winner with the most back links:
- Becker’s Blog… and he KILLED it by the way with a whopping 15,800 back links from outside of his domain name. To put that in perspective, our 10th place blog (which is a GREAT blog), has 135 back links. The point is, that’s quite a difference. I love his blog… I’m not a fan of all the posts that don’t contain images, though… Use that iphone, Becker!!! Give us some pics of these poker tourney’s you’re heading to! 8 )
So there are the winners for each category… funny thing here… they were all designed by infinet design. At least they all say they were.
The Results
OK, so here are the result in reverse order.
#10 - Ana C. Photography Blog
This blog was recently redone as well. I think they have done a really nice job with it. The site actually placed well in terms of design.
Category Ranking Breakdown:
- Design: #5
- Search: #10 (3 ranked terms in the top 20 google results) - One of these is for “arizona child phoenix photographer”, which I thought was a good keyword for her.
- Back Links #10 (135)
#9 -Lyon Photo Blog
I really like this site’s picture quality… as I do the other blogs mentioned…
Category Ranking Breakdown:
- Design: #9 (The site is clean and basic)
- Search: #8 (13 ranked terms in the top 20 google results.)
- Back Links #7 (1,020 links pointing to her site.)
#8 -Laura Novak Photo Blog
The design of this site is very feminine. There’s obviously nothing wrong with that because that’s her target demographic. I am a HUGE fan of the photography that she does.
Category Ranking Breakdown:
- Design: #8 (Now, this was totally selfish on my part. The site is actually very clean and professional looking… it’s just not my personal masuline taste. I wouldn’t be a good “real” judge I guess.)
- Search: #7 - Tied with Wiebner (16 ranked terms in the top 20 google results.)
- Back Links #8 (627 links pointing to her site.)
#7 -Sean Flanigan Photography
I like Sean’s style… I love his images…
Category Ranking Breakdown:
- Design: #7 (The blog is very professional looking…)
- Search: #9 - (11 terms that the site has ranking in the Google top 20)
- Back Links #6 (1,260 links pointing to his site.)
#6 -Jesh De Rox Experiencial Photography
For being 251 years old, Jesh does a pretty good job of keeping the blog up to date. The photos ROCK that Jesh does! There’s definately a consistent style to the images.
Category Ranking Breakdown:
- Design: #10 (Very basic… helps you to focus on the images more.)
- Search: #4 - (This blog gets quite a bit of traffic, ranking in the top 20 for 41 terms in Google)
- Back Links #8 (562 backlinks.)
#5 -Grazier Photography
I have to say that some of my absolute favorite wedding pictures that I was this year so far came from the winter wedding that Grazier did. It was their first wedding of 2008 and I just love it… I have showed it to multiple people. An outdoor wedding in the snow is just awesome. Grazier’s site is VERY well done. They have 69 keyword phrases that rank in the top 20 of google. More than everyone except Jessica Claire. This high traffic number put them up in the results.
Category Ranking Breakdown:
- Design: #6 (Again, simple and professional.)
- Search: #2 - (This blog gets a lot of traffic, ranking in the top 20 for 69 terms in Google)
- Back Links #9 (There are 438 back links to this site. It’s possible that they moved the address of the blog recently, which would explain this. If they used a 301 redirect then the traffic would remain to the new site but the back links would not.)
#4 -Wiebner Photography
OK… I have to be honest. I REALLY wanted these guys to win and I’ll tell you why. We’re both in Lancaster and my photographic inspiration and enjoyment came from these guys. I had a great interest in photography when I was younger and when we did a few photo shoots with Wiebner I fell in love all over again. They hardly know who I am, but I feel like I know them because I read all their blog posts so intently. I definately would be considered a blog stalker with these guys. Anyway, so we’re from little old Lancaster County Pennsylvania. I have a really hard time finding companies that grasp technology out this way, so it is AWESOME to see Joel and Rita doing it so well. In my opinion they have the BEST design or ANY blog I have EVER seen in terms of it’s appearance and usability. Infinet Designs did an awesome job with it. The problem is that their traffic numbers just aren’t there. They appear in 16 top 20 search results in Google… so they lost a lot of points there. I love you guys!
Category Ranking Breakdown:
- Design: #1 (Wow… read comments above.)
- Search: #6 - (16 top 20 keyword phrases)
- Back Links #5 (For their number of back links (2,760), they are going to be getting better search results soon… they just need to make sure that the backlinks are targeted correctly)
#3 -The Image Is Found Photo Blog
These guys… along with Wiebner are my favorite. Jodi calls them my “internet friends who don’t know me”. I guess I’m a freak. They announced one time on their site the show Yo Gabba Gabba, a kids show. I got my twin boys turned onto it and have been singing the songs since. Nate and Jac are totally awesome and I have to say that if I ever head out west I will probably try to attend one of their photography classes. Their blog design is fun and fresh (as they would say), their traffic is good and their back links are really solid… that’s why they’re in the top 3!
Category Ranking Breakdown:
- Design: #4 (I love the inline comments, the rotating graphics at the top and the fact that when they post something personal… there are photos attached)
- Search: #3 - (These guys have 48 keyword phrases that appear in the top 20 results… pretty good for a photo blog)
- Back Links #3 (Let me spell this out… eleven thousand one hundred back links… these guys are well liked and are doing something right to have that many back links. Remember, our #4 site had less than half that many)
#2 -Becker’s Blog
Quite possibly the most financially successful (I’m assuming) members of our roster here, Becker has inspired many. I believe he would have taken the cake if I would have counted all of this sites for the traffic rankings, because his blog doesn’t have that much traffic from organic results. There were only 39 keyword phrases in the top 20 results… I was kinda surprised with that. Especially considering the INSANE amount of back links to the site. It could be the incredibly competetive market that he’s working in… I’m sure there are many photographers SEOing the web sites to get ranking.
Category Ranking Breakdown:
- Design: #2 (The actual design is the best of the group, but Wiebner got some bonus points for the cool “toys” and the post entry headings)
- Search: #5 - (30 top 20 keyword phrase rankings)
- Back Links #1 (15,800 back links from sites other than his own. WOW! NUTS! I have a 4 million dollar per year company who’s website has 15,700 back links, so this shocked and amazed me that a photographer would have so many. I’m not sure why there’s not more traffic to the site though… I’d have to look into that)
AND THE NUMBER ONE PHOTO BLOG ON THE PLANET IS…
#1 -Jessica Claire Photography Blog
Congrats, Jessica… and I bet that you LOVE that you beat Becker! Rub it in (I think they’re friends by reading their blogs). Jessica’s blog is definately the most stylish of them all. It’s SUPER girly though, so when I’m in need of a bit of estrogen… I fire up my laptop and log on. If there was one thing that I remember about her it’s the flare. She taught me that it’s ok to have lens flair sometimes. Jessica’ enjoys about 15,400 back links to her blog… almost as many as Becker’s. She has more traffic than anyone on the list though with 117 top 20 keyword phrases… that is awesome. She gets a ton of comments on her posts, too. Again… I love the fact that her personal posts have pictures in them… even it they’re point and shoot.
Category Ranking Breakdown:
- Design: #3 (Wiebner’s got more toys and Becker’s just more masculine… My wife would have voted her above Becker though with design)
- Search: #1 - (117… yes, 117 top 20 keyword phrases… and they’re listed above in case you missed it)
- Back Links #2 (15,400 back links from sites other than her own. There are many people that would pay BIG MONEY to have that many.)
So there you have it folks… the Greatest Photography Blogs on the Planet (According the me anyway). Please take a look at these photo blogs on your own and subscribe to their feeds. While you’re there, send em a congrats for winning this contest.
What photo blogs did I miss? Who would you have voted for? Let me know in the comments and be sure to leave a link…
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Photography Featured in The Oxford Tribune
By Dave Conklin | February 25, 2008
A photo from the National Penn Bank shoot was used for an advertisement in the Oxford Tribune… Exciting stuff (for me anyway)!
In addition, they used the photo to create an ad that they’re running “in branch”.
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Big Boy Beds Have Arrived!
By Dave Conklin | February 17, 2008
Wow! We in the Conklin household can’t believe how time flies by so quickly. The boys will be turning three in a few days and one of their gifts from our family members is… you guessed it… Big Boy Beds!!!
Tonight was the first time that they are using them and they did EXTREMELY well. I only had to go in one time to get them back in the bed once we left their room at bed time. Their faces just lit up when I brought the beds in the room.
Here are some pictures for the celebration…
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PR Pics with Howard
By Dave Conklin | February 13, 2008
I had the opportunity to visit with Howard Urbine last week to get some pictures for a bit of upcoming PR and Marketing stuff. We had a great time traveling around he and his wife Diana’s amazing property in Quarryville. Howard did almost kill me in his golf cart though.
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Rory, Steve and I… Prospect MX Pics
By Dave Conklin | February 11, 2008
So… Rory, Steve (my business partners) and I have launched a company called Prospect MX. We are providing web marketing solutions to companies all over the country. We have solidified relationships already with Hershey, Sun Motors, Select Security, Executive Image Solutions and others and are extremely excited! I did some PR shots today for us to use on some sites… Here’s what I came up with:
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Peoples Bank of Oxford, Division of Penn National Bank
By Dave Conklin | January 15, 2008
The incredible folks over at Peoples Bank of Oxford (A Division of Penn National Bank) had me come to do some group and head shots. And these weren’t your normal, boring bankers! These guys and gals were fun to work with and I really enjoyed hanging out with them for a few hours! Here’s the pics…
You’ll notice that many of the pics are the same. I used some different post-processing methods to create a few different looks because I’m not sure where these pictures are being printed to.
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Evan Haines is One!
By Dave Conklin | January 12, 2008
Happy Birthday, Evan! And congrats on getting through year number one of parenting, Matt and Heather!!!
Here are some pics from the birthday bash. We love you guys! There are a TON of pics here. I didn’t edit them all, so enjoy but don’t be too hard on me 8 )…
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DPS Post and another image
By Dave Conklin | January 7, 2008
I was playing around tonight online and found a site called digital-photography-school.com. It’s kinda neat for a guy like me who loves photography. In their forums area they have different assignments that you do for fun. This weeks was “purple”. So, I had to come up with something purple. I submitted the orange and scissors picture below. While I was looking through some pics to post I found this one of Rory and did some post processing… Here you go!
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Solanco Basketball
By Dave Conklin | January 6, 2008
The other night the girls and I went to see the Solanco Boys Basketball team play against E-Town. While we were there I got some pics of a friend of the family, Henry Glackin.
I threw this together for him when I got home and got it printed. I was pretty happy with how it looked. If you’d like to see it, let me know… I have a copy at home.
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