livebooks blog

‹ Home

We know that with the beginning of a fresh new year, many people get wrapped up in new projects and goals. Why not make one of them cleaning up your website?

Here are a few tips that will help get your website ready for a new year with a fresh start.

1. Update your image gallery: Sometimes you get caught up with work, whether it’s at photoshoots, editing images, creating editorials, and forget to update your website with the new images you’ve created. Updating your images is an important part of showcasing your work. This is especially important for your homepage. Now is a great time to look at your recent jobs and see which images would be best to showcase.
2. Check your links: It’s important to check your external and internal links continuously throughout the year. Links that don’t lead your audience anywhere create a poor user experience. They are less likely to go back to your website once this happens. It is especially important to check external links as other websites may change page names, website URLs, etc. Internal links are equally as important but are under your control. Check these every time you change a page name within your website.
3. Optimize your SEO: SEO is one of the most important aspects of your website! The liveBooks8 platform allows you to control SEO on a page/photo level as well as as on a site-wide level. It’s important that all of your SEO tags, descriptions and titles be up-to-date. Now is a great moment to look over these parts of your website. Still need some help understanding what SEO is and how you can optimize it on your website? Read here.
4. Remove any outdated information from your pages: As a new year begins, it brings the opportunity to showcase new works and events that you would like your clients to see and attend. Potential clients interested in attending your events and conferences could be lost if they see that you have not updated information for the 2018 year.
5. Update your website’s copyright footer: Your website’s copyright year will not automatically update. Make sure that if you have a copyright on your website and change the year from 2017 to 2018. This is especially important in the footer – the place where most people forget to look through.

These simple tips will make your website look both cleaner and more professional. As the new year begins, make sure to set aside some time to complete these tasks. They will make your website look both more professional and will help attract the right clients in 2018.

Article reposted in partnership with Wonderful Machine.

Wonderful Machine is a production company with a network of 700 photographers around the world, including many photographers who use liveBooks. Today we’re featuring Wade Griffith Photography and one of his latest projects.

“A few years ago, Cinemark contacted Dallas-based photographer Wade Griffith about photographing their first Luxury Loungers. He shot a couple of chairs and one model in-studio, and they used those images for several years for all their marketing and branding needs. This year, Cinemark reached out to Wade again to do a much larger shoot using six models and featuring their updated Lounger design in two different Cinemark theaters located in the Fort Worth area. Wade was excited when he received the call and was thrilled to expand what he had started in the first shoot.

The goal of the campaign was to advertise and market these new Cinemark Luxury Loungers to a diverse audience. The photos were aimed to help show that the updated recliners are electric-powered, plush and oversized and that they also have footrests and cup holders. The tagline of the project was “The Best Seat In Town,” which reinforces the notion that these chairs are the most comfortable and enjoyable way to view a movie anywhere.

Once Cinemark contacted Wade about the shoot, he put them in touch with his producer, Kaylah Key, who then handled all the details and coordination of the project.

After several emails and phone calls back and forth with Cinemark, we were able to put together an estimate and timetable that was mutually agreed upon.

Days before the shoot they scouted both Cinemark theater locations in Plano and Allen, Texas to review the shot list and discuss the strategies that would make this shoot a success.

The shoot was completed over a two day period. The goal was to get 40 final images of the Luxury Loungers with and without models and props from various angles. The crew arrived each day at 8 am with the shooting scheduled to begin around 9 am and wrapping up at 6 pm.

Wade enjoyed working with both the models and the production team.  The Cinemark staff was also very nice to work with, as they helped stage and approve the images as they were taken. In addition to the scheduled shots, Wade also captured some wide angle shots of the entire theater to supplement what he had.

Overall, we had a great team and we were very happy with the results of the shoot.

The main challenge to getting the best images possible was setting up the lighting equipment in the theaters. When they got there the first day they realized they had underestimated how long it would take to set up.

We had a very large scrim that we were using as a shoot through and putting it together ate up most of our setup time. So, there was some pressure to make the time up once we started shooting, which we did.

The campaign has just been released to the public and all the feedback Wade has received from people has been very positive. The client was very happy with the photos and Wade believes they captured exactly what they were hoping for.

I love being on set with a great team of creatives and interacting with the models all day long. It’s an exciting experience, and I enjoy the collaboration that takes place to create great images.

Currently, there are no future plans with Wade and Cinemark. However, Wade is hoping that this successful campaign will lead to more work with Cinemark. As the popularity of these Luxury Loungers grows, he is sure it will create a demand for more marketing and advertising of this type of products in the future.”

See more of Wade at wadegriffithphotography.com

Rusty Bradford is a native Texan born and raised in west Texas. He moved to Santa Barbara, California to attend Brooks Institute of Photography where he acquired degrees in Advertising Photography & Industrial/Scientific Photography. Both gave him the knowledge to venture out into the world of advertising photography.

Rusty is an established Dallas photographer whose low-stress professional demeanor vividly contrasts to his edgy and explosive photographic style. Informed by his prolific experience with hundreds of photographers on countless locations around the country, Rusty has been able to cultivate a visual style that is uniquely his own. He specializes in product, food & drink photography.

2. How would you describe the aesthetic of your website in three words?
Clean, Simple, Functional.

3. How often do you typically update your website?
Typically twice a month I sit down and update photos or edit content to help maximize SEO capabilities.

4. How do you choose the photos that you display on your homepage?
I try to pick images that will capture the viewers attention fast. Know who your potential clients are and pick images that you feel with grab there attention and showcase your talents in those clients eyes.

5. What is your favorite new feature of liveBooks8?
Being able to maximize my SEO capabilities through the new admin interface is my favorite new feature. It has allowed my to greatly increase my index rankings thru google. This was crucial for me since more and more creatives seem to be finding talent this way.

6. What’s one piece of advice you’d offer to someone designing their website?
My one piece of advice for someone designing their website would be to start the process as soon as possible. There is always a learning curve and it takes a lot of trial and error to tweak the design to the exact way you want it. Be patient and try to have learn and absorb as much knowledge as you can from other people. Don’t be afraid to make mistakes at this point you will learn from them.

Check out more from Rusty’s website here.

Richard Jung grew up on the west coast and opened my first studio in the American Can Building in Dog Patch – San Francisco in 1995. That’s where he discovered liveBooks and has been a customer ever since. He migrated east to New York city for a short stint and through work ended up in London where he’s been ever since, although he does miss Mission St. favorite, Taqueria Cancun! More »