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Editor’s note: Dan’s words of advice were featured in liveBooks latest report, “8 Blogging Truths for Creative Professionals.” More of Dan’s honest and heartfelt narratives can be found on his blog at http://smogranch.wordpress.com.

My earliest memory of writing is from elementary school. In a small, spiral bound notebook, I managed to compile hundreds of pages about a group of mushroom people.

I was convinced of its brilliance. Then I promptly lost the notebook. Note to us all: backup your work. I didn’t write for the next twenty years, but as I began my photography career, something changed in me and writing on a daily basis became a part of my life. But let me be painfully clear. This was not a choice I made. This was something I had to do.

There was something inside of me that needed to come out and photography was not enough, still isn’t enough. I remember my first, adult journal, or diary, or whatever you want to call it. One of those black and white speckled jobs from the supermarket, a “composition book,” I think they call it.

I began to fill them.

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With nearly 100 million iPad, iPhone and iTouch devices in use across the planet, liveBooks’ CMO John Philpin was recently interviewed by TWiP host Frederick Van Johnson to find out how liveBooks is responding to the lack of Flash on those devices. As it turns out, it’s all under control. In the podcast, John and Frederick explore our new iPhone and iPad settings, which are now available to all customers through the liveBooks editSuite.

Frederick and John also discussed how liveBooks plans to advance along with the ever-changing world of technology that we are part of today – and what it all means to you as a liveBooks customer and a creative professional.

Interested in hearing more? Listen to John and Frederick in this podcast, which can be found on PixelCorps.tv.

As some of you may recall, we recently conducted a survey centered on blogging and the habits of bloggers. We wanted to know why you blog (or don’t), how often you blog, how you promote your blog and more. The results revealed key insights into the blogging world of creative professionals, and we gleaned several important truths which we have captured in our new paper, ‘8 Blogging Truths for Creative Professionals.’

The ‘8 Truths’ help guide you through the world of blogging, provide advice on how to leverage your blog to help grow your creative business and feature tips from influential bloggers in the creative community such as Vincent Laforet and David Airey.

From our survey results, it is clear that most of you experience frustration with how to approach blogging and our belief is that this then deters you from setting up your own blog.

Now, I know that you (like us) hate the idea of ‘shameless self promotion’ – but I think this is one of those exceptions and you will be happy to learn that we now offer a solution to this problem with liveBooks Companion Blogs.  No longer is there any need to spend hours trying to find a template that ‘kind of’ looks like your website, or toil through the troubles of hosting your blog in cyberspace.

While this is an answer to just one of your blogging qualms, we know there are several other concerns you and thousands of other creative professionals face on a daily basis, which is why we encourage you to take a peek at our latest blogging report. Let us know what you think about the report. Do you agree with the truths? Do you have any truths to add to the mix?

If you want to read the paper in it’s entirety – follow this link and request the paper.

The most essential step in creating an effective marketing plan is to first decide who you most want to work with. If you don’t have a specific answer to that question, you will not know where to begin to look for them.

Almost every photographer who calls me for photography marketing help has the same basic issue: “I want more work. How do I get it?” I wish there was a simple solution to offer, but like any goal worth going after, it first takes some understanding of what the end result looks like.

One of the first things I do is ask: “What kind of client do you want to work with? What kind of work brings out the best in you?” or the corollary “What kind of work does NOT inspire you – on any level?”

Many times I get “I don’t really care. I just want work!” While I totally sympathize with that general need (in this economy especially!), any viable photography marketing plan MUST begin with narrowing down the best client/market niche for YOU to pursue.

The process I go through with my clients is, of course, far more individualized and in-depth, but here are a few key questions that will go a long way in helping you choose strategies and tactics to reach YOUR ideal prospects.

They’re simple questions, not easily answered, but ones which are critical to your success. When you’ve found the answers to these questions, you have the start of a road map that can help you avoid marketing activities that will not give you as high a return on your investment of time and money.

-What kind of clients could most benefit from what I bring to the table?

-What do I do that an advanced amateur photographer could not do as well – or at all?

-What market segments will NOT appreciate my level of professionalism?

-If it is an uneducated market segment, am I willing to do “whatever it takes” to help those potential clients understand the real value I add to their business?

-What kinds of assignments/projects do I always love doing?

You’ve probably heard the advice “it’s important to first know where you want to go before picking up a map.” Knowing your destination will determine which marketing map you actually use.

Many marketing resources discuss this concept in depth, but I prefer the succinct wisdom of Lily Tomlin: “I’ve always wanted to be somebody, but I see now I should have been more specific.”