You may have spent a great deal of time and money creating the perfect Website – your photography images may be superb, but if people cannot find your site your images and talent along with your business may become a white elephant.Promoting your Website is not that difficult but will take up some of your precious time. My advice for you is to set out a few hours per week for this.If your Website is new the chances are that Google, Yahoo or any search engine won’t index your site for a few months. And it may even take several months before they place it to appear when someone types in a search phrase that suits your site. So you need to give your photographs and business a reasonable chance of getting paying customers.When a search engine index’s your Website it looks to see how many links point to your site. The more links you can create the better your site will rank, but only if they are the right kind of links. Don’t spend hours and hours online getting thousands of standard ordinary links. Get links that relate to your site. Get links from other photography sites.Photography Directories are a great way of creating free advertisement for your site and also a great way of getting valuable links to your site that search engines will recognise.Before you submit your Website to directories, research the correct keywords that best describe your site. If your photography site is Landscaped based you need to optimise your site correctly for the keywords Landscape photography.Once you are happy with which keywords best describe your site start submitting your site to Photography Directories. Most photography directories require a return link so you should create a links page for this alone.When you are submitting your website you need to use the correct keywords that best describe your site in the link title to your site. The link title will be the title on the submission form. You will also need to create a good definitive description for your site. This should be no more than twenty-five words and should start with the keywords that best describe your site. This is what people will read – this is where you sell your site – a good description will enable potential customers to enter your site.Once you have completed the form click submit and move on to the next directory. There are many good photography directories online – some specialised in certain areas of photography, more cover all areas of photography. Once you fill out the submission form correctly you will start to see the rewards.Some directories will charge you when creating a listing; my advice is to research such websites before you part with your hard earned cash. Stay away from link farms and link companies that offer you thousands of links – these sites don’t rank well with search engines and may harm your site in the long run.While photography directories are just one way of promoting your site; they are the easiest and quickest way to get started. Creating good quality inbound links to your site will help you achieve excellent search engine ranking for your site resulting in more and more traffic entering your photography site.In part 2 of Promoting your photography site, read how to gain exposure from entering photography competitions.
Managing Former Peers (A Cheat Sheet for Busy Managers)
Managing former peers is probably your most immediate challenge if you’ve just been promoted. Below we suggest five key steps to managing peers.”Congratulations… you’ve got that promotion you wanted so badly. Now go fire your best friend.”5 Steps to Managing Former Peers
Decide if you actually want the job of managing peers
Reach out to all stakeholders
Establish one on ones with your new direct reports
Strike the balance between over and under managing peers
Be a professional
Decide if You Actually Want the Job of Managing Former PeersJust because you are offered a promotion, doesn’t mean you necessarily have to take it. You need to think through whether you want the added burden of managing peers. Some things to keep in mind:
Your peer relationships will change whether you want them to or not. Don’t be naïve enough to think they won’t.
You can’t control others’ attitudes and/ behavior. Even if you are ready to make the new relationship work, that doesn’t mean others will be as willing.
If your personal relationships at work are really important to you, you may want to decline your new role of managing peers.
Reach Out to StakeholdersFor anyone in a new position of leadership, it is crucial to reach out to important stakeholders. It is especially important when managing former peers. You should speak with your new direct reports, your boss, and other people you interface with often. Here are some thoughts as to what to ask them:
What would you focus on if you were me?
What can be done better?
What would you suggest is the top priority?
Be systematic and thorough – even when it becomes onerous and time consumingEstablish One on One Meetings With New Direct ReportsWhen managing peers, it is important to establish structured and regular one on one meetings with these people. Well-executed one on one meetings will ultimately save you time, and make managing peers easier. These meetings provide an opportunity to:
Set expectations
Reinforce and reward desired behaviors and performance
Communicate and clarify roles and goals
Update status on action plans.
Best of all, regular one on one meetings significantly reduce the number of “drive-bys” or drop-in meetings when managing peers.Strike the Balance When Managing Former PeersDo not come on too strong and micromanage your new situation. BUT… you are no longer “one of the girls”, either. If you experience any significant challenge to your authority, you need to deal with it directly and quickly. Also make sure you delegate appropriate when managing peers. If you hoard all the work yourself, you will ultimately fail.Be ProfessionalProfessionalism is paramount when managing peers. In order to do so effectively, you need to detach yourself from your personality, and rather view yourself as the new manager of the group or department. Here are some guidelines for maintaining professionalism when managing peers.
Stay focused on facts
Maintain confidences
Tow the company line. You are management’s representative in your work group. You undermine your own credibility, and are not doing your job if you don’t properly represent management views.
You need to refrain from company gossip and going out for cocktails with you direct reports should be done with extreme caution.
Don’t play favorites
3 Things to Remember About Managing Former Peers:
Figure out if you really do want the opportunity. Most often you do have the opportunity to say “no”.
Your friendships will change. It won’t be the same once you are the boss.
Communicate several times. Everyone in a new leadership role should look to over-communicate by a factor of ten.