livebooks blog

Michael R. Soluri is a New York City based fine art documentary photographer, speaker and author of Infinite Worlds: the People and Places of Space Exploration (Simon & Schuster). His work is widely published, exhibited and in permanent collections. He also has made presentation at a number of national museums and NASA related venues. Michael’s photography has appeared in numerous American, European, and Brazilian print and online publications like WIRED, Smithsonian Magazine, New Scientist, New York Times, Time, Discover, Air & Space, NPR, Family Circle, Mother Earth News, Wired UK, Grazia, Amica, Vogue Brasil and Claudia. To see more of Michael’s work, visit his liveBooks8 website: www.michaelsoluri.com

Q: How would you describe the aesthetic of your website in three words?

MS: Visual, elegant, graphic.

Q: How often do you typically update your website?

MS: I seek consistency in my visual branding. As a result, there is not any set time. I typically update when I feel a need to revise gallery images, copy text, or make new additions to my Media.

Q: How do you choose the photos you display on your homepage?

MS: Because my website is custom-designed, I use only one photograph. As a result, it is a challenging communication process based on an essential question that I explore from the user point-of-view: What is the visual essence of what I do?

Q: What is your favorite new feature of liveBooks8?

MS: Personal control over the design specifications, aesthetics, and gallery elements of my site.

Q: What’s one piece of advice you’d offer someone designing their website?

MS: Patience. It’s a learning curve. Be prepared for a creative journey in designing and implementing every aspect of your site.

Have a website you’d like us to feature? Email us at social@livebooks.com.

liveBooks is happy to announce that clients are now able to proceed with checkout with our built-in billing management tool. Choosing your payment plan/package and finalizing your payment details has never been easier. Below you will find a detailed step-by-step tutorial that will get you on your way to publishing your site without a hassle!

 Paying for your Subscription

1. Select the Active Site in the navigation bar
2. Select Account

3. Select Trial Sites under the Manage Account header

4. Select Buy next to a Trial site you want to pay for

5. Select a Subscription

6. Input payment information

7. Submit your payment

FAQ

Q: Does my paid subscription automatically renew?

A: Yes, it does. All paid subscriptions will renew automatically on both the monthly and annual subscription levels. In order to stop your subscription from automatically renewing into a new bill cycle, we recommend that you cancel your subscription before the month or year ends.

Q: How do I know when my subscription renews?

A: You can find the exact renewal date of your annual or monthly subscription in your account panel:

1. Select the Active Site in the Dashboard navigation bar
2. Select the Account button
3. Select Subscriptions under the Manage Account header
4. The renewal date is located under each active subscription, it will show you this: “Service through XX/XX/XXXX”

Have more questions? Contact us at help@livebooks.com!

Stephen Gosling is an English Wedding Photographer based in Washington, D.C. He graduated from Liverpool John Moores University with a B.A. in Documentary and Fine Art Photography. To see more of Stephen’s work, visit his liveBooks8 website: www.goslingphotography.com.

Hi there, I’m Stephen and I’ve been shooting weddings in Washington, D.C. since 2007. I shoot 10-12 weddings per year for my ideal clients; fun couples who want to relax on their wedding day. I got started in photography when I bought a camera to take with me to Spain when I was 16. I was very interested in landscapes and nature photography at the time but that evolved into an interest in shooting people.

Q: How would you describe the aesthetic of your website in three words?

SG: Relaxed, authentic, un-structured.

Q: How often do you typically update your website?

SG: Every 6ish months.

Q: How do you choose the photos that you display on your homepage?

SG: When I’m editing weddings and I come across an image I just know I want it on the homepage. I put those images in a folder on my desktop.

Q: What is your favorite new feature of liveBooks8?

SG: I’ve always loved the SEO featured with liveBooks from the very beginning. And the SEO tools are still great!

Q: What’s one piece of advice you’d offer to someone designing their website?

SG: Don’t skimp. A professionally designed website with exceptional back-end features is worth its weight in gold.

Have a website you’d like us to feature? Email us at social@livebooks.com.

Spring is officially here – the time of year where we can start putting away our winter coats and boots and get excited for warm weather, sunshine, and being outside. Spring is also the time of year that allows us to take inventory of the old, polish it up, sweep it out, and dust it off. This same concept of “spring cleaning”  should apply to your business as well – and most importantly your website. When was the last time you really did an overhaul of your site? If it’s been awhile, now is the perfect time and we’ve compiled a list of things to focus on first to get you started!

Content Clean-Up

Make a conscious effort to do a truly comprehensive content clean up. This can range from something as simple as going through your portfolios and galleries and deleting older photos, adding new work, or moving images around, to actually digging in to your analytics and seeing which pages get the least amount of traffic and editing from there. Website design trends are moving toward cleaner, simplistic, and clutter-free – so really evaluate whether each page of your website is absolutely necessary and providing value to your audience.

Update Your Events Page

One of the things we see all too often is event pages that are far outdated – even by a few years. Take the opportunity to make sure your website is updated with your upcoming workshops, speaking engagements, photo expeditions, or any other important events you’re partaking in. Nothing looks more unprofessional than inaccurate information on your website – plus, this will be a great way to promote the events you care about and hopefully garner more attendees.

Calls to Action

One thing we’ve often noticed that’s missing from photography websites are clear calls to action. While most of the focus should be on your imagery, you also want to make sure you’re telling your audience what you want them to do. Whether that’s booking you for a job, project, ad campaign, or even buying prints, tell them what you’d like them to do and make it easy for them to do it. Having a button on your pages can be an ideal way to lead customers to your end-goal: contacting you!

Update Your Contact Information

If you’ve recently moved your studio or changed your contact phone number, it may be time to look over your contact page. Is your new contact information up-to-date? It can become easy to overlook this simple step, but doing so may cause you to lose a great deal of clients!

Also, try to have your contact information readily available in multiple locations on your website. Customers don’t want to search through countless pages to find your phone number or address. Remember – adding a map to your pages can be an ideal way to attract new customers!

 SEO Optimization

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) should be something you focus on all year ’round, but if it’s not your strong suit definitely take the opportunity now to pay extra attention. If your goal is to increase traffic to your website (which we think it should be!) then make sure your keywords, tags, descriptions, titles, and content on your pages are working for your business. If you’re not ranking as high with search engines as you’d like, it might be time to overhaul your old SEO tactics and start fresh with these tips!

Experiment With New Website Designs

We know that completely changing your website design is a huge undertaking – but small, subtle changes can be made to create a fresh new look without all the stress of a total re-design. Switch up the images on your homepage. Change the names/titles of your portfolios. Add a new page – such as a blog – to your website. All of these changes will keep your website up to date, as well as give returning clients new things to look at and explore.

Want to explore other design templates? Take a look at all of our responsive templates now to begin!

What “spring cleaning” are you conducting on your website? Email us!