I’ve been working with the creators of StartUpNation since 2001 when I was hired to shoot Rich Sloan doing yoga on the conference room table in the Birmingham Michigan office of the up and coming StartUpNation.  I was recently offered the opportunity to blog about photography if I thought I could contribute to entrepreneurs and start ups. I think I can so I’ll give it a shot.  I’ll be talking about all things photography, from how to do a shoot in the office, to what’s the best stock agency for what your needs are, to rights and usage contracts.  I’ll be answering questions about any thing relating to the business of photography and photography in your business. If I don’t know the answers I’ll look to the vast knowledge base of my peers and will share what I learn with you, so post your questions and comments about you’re photographic quandaries here, and I’ll help you along the image driven super highway of successful businesses.

I should tell you a bit about me.
I began my career as a photographer early in life.  My brother had a darkroom in a closet at our house when I was a sixth grader.  It didn’t take long for my teachers at school to see an opportunity to recruit the next news paper and yearbook photographer.  That’s when I learned that you can have fun and provide a needed service at the same time.  I could get credits for graduation if I work on the year book and news paper staff!  Life was good.  Then one day I was handed a press pass to cover the cheerleaders for a story for the news paper, that was all the motivation I ever needed to pursue my career.  When I was a senior in High School I was introduced to an advertising photographer in my home town of Detroit named Ameen Howrani.  He let me watch him work one day, he was shooting a news crew for the local ABC affiliate.  It was very glamorous, they had food there!  I was face to face with the local anchor man!  That’s when I decided that advertising was where it’s at.  Fast forward 25 years.  I have photographed some really great people, some incredibly beautiful places, and some of the most interesting stuff you’ll ever see.  I picked up a few professional sports teams along the way as well.  Namely the Detroit Red Wings, Detroit Tigers, Detroit Lions, and currently Tampa Bay Ray’s as well as the NHL, NFL, MLB and other editorial venues related to sports. I’ve had unprecedented access to closed door behind the scenes events in the NFL, NHL, and MLB to name just a few. I was given the opportunity to shoot a book for the Detroit Red Wings called “48 Hours with the Detroit Red Wings”. Its a chronological documentation of what happens in forty eight hours in the world of the Red Wings Hockey team.  I was able to travel with the team to photograph players, coaches, and staff. We took two days to shoot the book so we could show the travel aspect of how the team lives on the road (and above the clouds).  During that shoot I was given access to coaches meetings that had never been photographed before.  One of the best experiences I had with the Red  Wings was Flying on the team jet to Washington DC to the White House to meet President George W Bush.   I was given an assignment by the Detroit Tigers Baseball team to shoot an eighteen page photo essay of Tiger Stadium during the final home stand ever to be played there.  The parting shot was Al Kaline in his nineteen sixty eight world series uniform (it still fit), pondering his days playing in that historic stadium.  The cover shot was of the stadium from the corner of Michigan and Trumble on a Friday night with fireworks lighting the sky.  I was able to get images never before captured, such as the neon Tiger Stadium sign from the roof of the press elevator.  I’m currently team photographer for the Tampa Bay Ray’s Baseball team, and have a nice client list of local and national companies and agencies as well.  I live in the St Petersburg area of Florida where I’ve lived for the past six years.  Before that I lived mostly in the suburbs of Detroit with a few years in New York city.  Please feel free to see some of the photographs I mention here at www.kovich.com

As I wrote a while ago here in my blog about the Twitter squatter who was trying to extort StartupNation, there are definitely systems in place at the social media companies that support ethical companies and certainly intellectual property rights of individuals and companies. Twitter worked on our behalf to wrestle away the /startupnation account for us given that it was a registered trademark owned by our business and was obviously strategic to us as well as a source of confusion in the marketplace under the squatter’s control. They quickly moved the account into our control.

Now through the encouragement of Daliah Saper of Saper Law, we’ve done the same thing at Facebook. In less than 24 hours, by following their simple, clear instructions, we were able to pull www.facebook.com/startupnation away from the squatter and now have that username as our own, appropriately so.

Here’s the simple, step-by-step process we followed in case you have a squatter issue and/or trademark issue as it relates to a Facebook username:

1. Go to the bottom of any Facebook page. Click on the link called “Terms.”
   For your convenience, that link is here.
2. Scroll down to #5, “Protecting Other People’s Rights,” and select “How to Report Claims of Intellectual Property Infringement”.
   For your convenience that link is here.
3. For copyright infringement, scroll down to “How to report claims of copyright infringement by users” and select the link.
   For your convenience, that link is here.
4. For trademark (or other intellectual property concerns), which was what applied to our situation given our registered trademark for StartupNation that the squatter was unethically using for their benefit, scroll down to “How to report other claims of intellectual property infringement by users” and select the link.
   For your convenience, that link is here.

We are always looking out for you and hope that you find similar success and satisfaction in the process, which is set up and well enforced by Facebook.

We hope that you can soon make your own blog entry titled, “Me 1, Facebook Squatter 0″!

Rich

If your site traffic is low (check your Google analytics to find out), it’s time to take a closer look at your site.

The good news is, you can make a few, free changes that result in drastic improvements. To start, ask yourself these questions:

1. Do you answer visitors’ questions immediately?

When people visit your site, they are looking for solutions. Give them the information they need right away so they don’t go elsewhere.

It’s important to be succinct and focus on the benefits your business offers. It’s all about your customers.

2. Is your site user-friendly?

When visitors arrive at your site, do they know where to get the data they need, or is your site a confusing mess of graphics, videos, links, audio, and more?

Keep things simple, and make it easy for your site visitors to know what you have to offer in just a few seconds. Provide the most important information at the top of your screen so people don’t need to scroll down your page to get it.

And don’t forget to put ample space between headlines, paragraphs and graphics. You want your site to be easy to navigate and read.

3. Are you stuck in the past tense?

Take a quick look at your content. Do you talk about things in the past? If so, change all of your verbs to the present tense.

For example, replace copy like this:

“Our customers saved over $2,500.00 when they used our Widget.”

with:

“Our customers save an average of $2,500.00 per month when they use our Widget.”

You’ll add a boost of action to your online copy by changing your verbs to the present tense.

Small Edits Can Lead to More Traffic.

These are three, small things you can do to improve your Website right away. Take some time to make these updates, and then check the results.

• Are site visitors spending more time on your site?
• What links are they clicking on most?
• Are you making a better, first impression?

You may be surprised at what a few, small changes can make!

Having a good site doesn’t need to be difficult.

When it comes right down to it, customers want solutions to their problems.
Provide value and an easy way for them to find answers, and you’ll significantly improve the overall results of your Website… without spending a lot of money.

Do you need help boosting sales, awareness and credibility with SEO copywriting and publicity? Please write to me here or check out the free information at www.rembrandtwrites.com.

Addoway: An online marketplace for fashion, collectibles and more that integrates with Facebook’s social graph to recommend merchants your friends have bought from, know personally or have identified as having great deals they want to share with their friends. Addoway rewards shoppers for sharing deals they like on social networks with a virtual currency called “Addo Bucks” that shoppers can cash in for discounts on Addoway purchases, free gift cards from popular retailers like Starbucks and Best Buy or access to limited-entry giveaways of popular products like an Apple iPad or Nintendo Wii. Addoway offers a free online storefront for merchants with easy importing and inventory management that syncs with eBay and its recommendation engine and social sharing platform provides merchants with an easy way to spread their products virally.

BigCommerce: Robust online selling solution that provides merchants with a handful of tools, including drag and drop design, simple distribution to eBay and shopping comparison sites, automated email marketing and mobile commerce features. On the social side, BigCommerce provides subscribers with a way to distribute their inventory into a shop on their Facebook fan page. When shoppers visit the fan page and click an item they like, they are redirected to the merchant’s BigCommerce store off Facebook to complete the purchase.

Payvment: Shopping cart solution tailored to selling on Facebook. Payvment’s system allows merchants to set up a free online shop on Facebook. Payvment’s Facebook stores are searchable, allowing shoppers to search all Payvment stores from within one seller’s fan page at once. Unlike a lot of other Facebook store applications, Payvment allows shoppers to purchase right on Facebook without having to redirect to a third-party website to checkout. Payvment uses PayPal to process payments.

Sellit: An embeddable “mini-shop” that can be distributed across the web and on social networks. Sellit’s social turns stores from online marketplaces into a pretty cool flash mini-shop with a sample of that store’s best products. The mini-shop can be displayed directly on blogs, social networks and more. Sellit offers “Ad Paks” that enable merchants to have their mini-shop distributed to thousands of locations on the web as an advertisement for the store. Sellit has established partnerships with some of the most popular online marketplaces like Etsy and Cafepress.

Wildfire: Promotion builder for social networks. For quite a while Wildfire has been providing small and large businesses with promotional tools for social networks, and recently launched a self-service platform to enable merchants to run their own “Group Buying” promotions from within their Facebook pages. The deals work similar to Groupon. Merchants can set up a special promotion (i.e. $20 for $40 worth of merchandise from their store) and then require that a certain number of people buy the deal in order for everyone to get it (which encourages buyers to share the deal with their friends). Wildfire charges a fee per campaign and per day that it is run.

Have comments on one of these tools or any others? Tell us in the comments below.

(Disclosure: I am a partner and advisor to Addoway)

About the Author: Corey Kossack is a Managing Partner at Game Change Ventures, focusing on partnering and consulting with startups in the areas of social media, consumer Internet and e-commerce. Corey is also an Operating Partner at Game Change Ventures’ first Internet startup, Addoway, a social marketplace that helps you buy and sell with your friends and the people they know. Formerly Corey was one of the world’s largest retailers on eBay, built a $1M company from scratch at age 23, has led multiple startups and received numerous awards for his entrepreneurial achievements.

One in particular is Microsoft’s launch of its WebsiteSpark program.  The program is geared toward small web design firms of ten or less employees and allows them to tap into the full resources of Microsoft for a mere $100 exit fee after program completion.  Website Spark not only puts you in touch with Microsoft’s network of partners and experts for training and sales leads, but it also gives you the opportunity to showcase your work in their marketing and networking events.  The real beauty of the program, however, is the free access and training for their full-featured software such as Expression, Silverlight, SQL Server, Windows Server, and Visual Studio.  That alone is a goldmine to any cash deprived start-up.

While Microsoft’s new effort certainly isn’t completely altruistic, it is well received.  They are looking to build brand loyalty that will translate into lifelong Microsoft customers and who could blame them.  I commend their efforts supporting the web design and development community and I can’t wait to see how the WebsiteSpark program graduates fair in the real world.  A new era of David and Goliath has been born.

(click to watch video)

Have your heard of any other tales of big business’ helping small business? If so, I’d love to hear them!  Just comment below or email me heather@glamajama.com

• Not all your visitors are the same. If you sell a $29 book and a $5,000 coaching program, both audiences are very different from each other and need different marketing approaches.
• Creating a marketing message around a specific call to action will get you a much better response. Landing pages are ideal for this.

So, What Do Landing Pages Look Like, Anyway?

These are some of the most important things you need to keep in mind when you’re working on your landing pages:

• Make Them Short. Write a powerful headline that attracts attention, use a bulleted list for your benefits and have a clear call to action. That’s it.
• Keep the Important Stuff Above the Fold. “Above the fold” means “what you can see without having to scroll down”. Get rid of that huge logo you have. It’s not about your company; it’s about your visitors. The three most important elements of your home page (headline, benefits and call to action) should be above the fold.
• Make Sure Your Copy “Flows” Well. Your copy needs to follow a logical path. Show them the problem first, a solution to the problem second and finally show them what they need to do to take action.
• Have ONE Very Prominent Call to Action. If you ask people to do 10 different things, you’ll lose them. Ask for ONE thing and make sure your call to action is the focal point of your landing page. Are you tired of seeing those big, red animated arrows showing you where you need to click? Guess why they’re everywhere. Because they work!
• Include Testimonials. Talk to your salespeople and discover what are the most common objections people have about your product. Then, get testimonials that overcome those objections. For example, if a lot of people complain about your high prices, get a testimonial from someone who thought your prices were really high but decided to give it a shot anyway and now he’s really happy that he did, because your product is much better than the cheaper options.
• Make Your Message Consistent. If your Google AdWords ads say “Get a FREE Trial” and your landing page is all about buying the paid version, you’ll turn people off. Make sure you have a consistent message across your marketing path.
• Get Rid of Distractions. You don’t need a navigation menu or links to other pages on your site. Define your funnel and stick to it. If you absolutely need to display more information about something, make the links open in new windows.
• Don’t Ask Too Much from Them. Ask for only an email address if possible. Maybe a name. But stay away from those long forms and definitely don’t ask for any sensitive information (credit cards, social security number, etc.) If you need to get this kind of information, ask for an email and name on the landing page and then ask for the rest of the information in the next step. That way, if people don’t complete the process, at least you have their contact information and can get in touch with them later.
• Credibility and Risk Reversal. You need to show people why they should trust you (note that I said “show”, not “tell”). In addition to testimonials you can use case studies, expert endorsements, before and after shots and any other kind of evidence that can back up your claims. You also need to show people how they’ll come out on top even if your product doesn’t work for them (think “guarantee”).
• Privacy Issues. A simple line saying “We hate SPAM as much as you do. We won’t send you junk mail and we won’t give your email address to anybody” should be enough.
• Test, Test, Test. There’s no way to know for sure what headlines, marketing approaches and calls to action will work best unless you test them. Use Google Website Optimizer to test the most important elements of your landing page.

This one’s called Google Rocketship and it’s the most simple, easy-to-follow, supremely affordable advice we could assemble to ensure that your website is positioned to make it to the top of search results on Google.

What does ranking high on Google searches do for you? If it’s not obvious, it sends you free, pre-qualified traffic to your website and what you sell. With an effective “Search Engine Optimization” (SEO) strategy for your website, you stand an infinitely better chance of having lots of traffic - the kind you want - coming to your site. The tricks of the trade for a layman is exactly what Google Rocketship teaches you.

It’s a three-part series, but you can just sharp shoot and download one at a time or just get a single ebook in the series if you want. For members at StartupNation (which is totally free), we’ve discounted the series price to 60% of the list price. A huge discount, in other words.

To motivate you a little more, listen to my recent podcast with Jonathan Smith (”From Zero to $100 million”) who optimized his website with the very principles we recommend in Google Rocketship and reeled in a $100 million dollar purchase order… UNSOLICITED! They found him at the top of Google and gave him a call!

Download Google Rocketship and get your website rockin’ with qualified traffic and new customers! By the end of one weekend, your website could be transformed!

First off, it’s been a banner year for us. By December 31, 2009, we will have served over 9,800,000 pages of content in the year gone by. That’s leaps and bounds above anything we’ve ever achieved before. Incredibly exciting and trending very positively, by the way. 

We achieved this as a result of great efforts on the part of team members Brian, Tom, Joel and Oleg with contributions from various additional contractors.

Here are 10 strategies that worked (plus a bonus strategy):

1. Using best practices in site usability design, such as our global navigation (also called, “persistant navigation”), which is available on any page and quickly gets users from one place in the site to another.
2. Search engine optimizing the site so Google loves us and gives us first page results in many small business-related searches.
3. Keeping the content constantly refreshed at the site, many times offering content that’s part of a series, not just stand-alone, and offering insights from really smart bloggers.
4. Running and publishing highly engaging contests (like our Home-Based 100 and Leading Moms in Business rankings) and offering voting widgets to contestants for them to use in their marketing.
5. Developing ever more extensive relationships with publishing partners who carry our best content (like Yahoo Small Business and MSN).
6. Using Twitter to announce the latest and greatest epiphanies, resources and events here at StartupNation.
7. Issuing press releases with strong, topical news-oriented angles instead of simply announcing a new product or service or feature set that is just part of the “noise” media deal with daily.
8. Parlaying every media opportunity (whether TV, print, radio, online or at events) into a bigger idea, a next appearance, a series of appearances, or entirely new opportunities.
9. Giving our active members introductions to our media contacts to make StartupNation ever more useful in our members’ efforts to build successful businesses, which in turn stirred up lots of great new visitors via positive word of mouth.
10. Launching Groups that can be public or private and allow people to convene around themes, interests, geographic locations, etc.
11. (BONUS) Using email marketing on a permission basis enabled us to “stay in front” of our community and remind them to utilize our great resources and offers. (If you aren’t signed up for our newsletters, use this link to sign up.)

During this year, Facebook loomed large, accounting for 10.44% of our traffic - the single largest referring site (other than the search engine, Google).

StumbleUpon accounted for  6.4% of our traffic.

Twitter accounted for 2.82% of our traffic.

These might seem like smaller percentages, but our traffic comes from a very “long tail” (a great book, by the way), meaning lots of smaller sites contributing smaller amounts of visitors. At the time of authoring this post, according to Yahoo Site Explorer, 112,313 is the number of in-bound links to our site from various sites, each one driving a little traffic our way and adding up to our banner year. 

Next year we hope to serve significantly more pages of content, providing ever more value to people who want to pursue a dream, start and grow their business, and live a more fulfilling life being their own boss and controlling their own income.

Again, we are very appreciative of your activity at our site and we hope you spread the word so millions more pages of helpful content can be transformational to people near and far.

We wish you success and a warm, refreshing holiday!

Rich (and StartupNation team)

Click here or on the image below to view that advice.

Let me know if you have a cool story you’d like to share with ABC News Now or if you have a burning question to ask. Just send me a personal message at my profile.

Here are some of the essential Google tools for your website to ensure that your website is very Google-friendly and that you are leveraging available resources to market your business online:

Google for Webmasters
A detailed overview of how Google indexes web pages.

The Google Channel on YouTube
A collection of more than one-thousand videos covering everything Google.

Google Webmaster Central
One-stop shop for webmaster resources.

Google Webmaster Tools
Detailed reports on your web pages’ visibility on Google.

Google Webmaster Tools Checklist
A checklist to help you get up and running quickly on Google Webmaster Tools.

Google Webmaster Central Blog
Official news on crawling and indexing sites for the Google index.

Google Webmaster Central Channel on YouTube
A collection of more than 100 useful videos.

Google Webmasters Help
A list of support resources.

Sitemap Generators
Tools to create XML sitemaps.

Google Business Solutions
A directory of Google services to help you market your business.

Google Local Business Center
Tools to help you get your business listed in Google and Google Maps.

Google AdWords
Create and run online ads for your business.

Google AdSense
Contextual advertising solution for web publishers.

Google Keyword Tool
Confirm keyword query volumes and research keywords for your website to target.

Google Trends
See trends in the way people are searching.

Google Insights for Search
Compare search volume patterns across geographic regions, categories and time frames.

Google Base
A database for you to submit online and offline content and products.

Google Product Ideas Blog
Updates from the Google product ideas team. See the future right now.

Google Analytics
Web analytics solution providing you with insights into your website traffic.

Google Website Optimizer
Web page testing and optimization tool.

Google Checkout
Secure checkout process similar to PayPal.

Google on Twitter
Follow Google on Twitter.

Google Webmaster Central on Twitter
Get the latest updates from the Google Webmaster Central team via their Twitter feed.

These are just a few resources to help you create and promote a great website that drives your business growth. If you need additional help, feel free to leave a comment below. Thanks!