A Wordpress Photo Blog built for photographers by a photographer

Why pay for it when you can get it free!

A photo from the photo blog of Gary Gardiner at myfinalphoto.com

From the blog of Gary Gardiner at My Final Photo

That’s right! Your own WordPress Photo Blog. I’m a professional photographer and understand the difficulty building a photo blog that shows your portfolio to prospective clients, highlights your most recent photography, advertises your studio, or just for personal use.

I will make that new photo blog happen. And, I don’t charge for it! Hard to believe? Believe it! I’ll do it for free because there are some things that just need to be shared.

Here’s the process for me to build your photo blog.

Getting Started

You’ll need a place to register your domain and a place to host it. The hosting site I recommend, and use, is Dreamhos t. It doesn’t matter which one you choose. Description of the hosting plan is listed below. (I am paid a commission for each referral so please use my link below. That’s what makes this free for you.)

The Second Step

The Second Step is to e-mail me (signup@freephotoblogs.com) the confirmation you received from the hosting company. I will then be able to log in and do all the free things I need to do. You may receive several e-mails from the hosting company. The only one I need is the one listing your domain name, login name and password. You should change this after I’ve installed and configured your blog. I’ll send you an e-mail telling you how to do this and a few other ideas you can consider.

The Third Step

The Third Step is to e-mail me (signup@freephotoblogs.com) the exact e-mail address you want to use for the new Free Photo Blog. Example: yourname@yourdomain.com

The Fourth Step

The Fourth Step is, in the same e-mail as The Third Step, tell me the name of the WordPress Theme you want to use for your Free Photo Blog. There are thousands of free themes available and it’s easy to get confused. I recommend you start simple with a two-column theme such as ClassicMag, Ocular Professor, Thematic, or Zack990. You can change themes quite easily in the WordPress administration module so this isn’t a big deal.

The Fifth Step

The Fifth Step is to keep your hands and arms inside the vehicle at all times. Sit back and let me setup your photo blog. It will take me, at most, 72 hours to complete the work. At best, it can happen within 24 hours. The only caveat is something called DNS needs to catch up and know where to direct people to your new site. This might take 72 hours but your site will probably be created long before then. I’ll e-mail you when it’s completed.

There’s more!

One of the great things about WordPress is its extensibility. That is, you can add all sorts of plug-ins to make it do some things automatically so you don’t have to know anything about programming. It will do automatic backups of your database, create Search Engine Optimization (SEO) keywords and titles, Google SiteMaps, Contact forms, Social Media bookmarks and links, and just about anything you’d want to do with a blog. I’ll be installing the following plugins to make your Free Photo Blog more efficient and useful.

AdSense Deluxe – Place Google ads on your page and earn revenue. We should discuss its use.

Akismet – Stop spam comments. You’ll need a wordpress.com API to make this work. I’ll explain how.

All-In-One SEO Pack – The number one Search Engine Optimization plugin. Creates SEO keywords, titles, and descriptions. I’ll send you an e-mail with some hints for making this work best for you.

TinyMCE Advanced – Enables advanced features and plugins in TinyMCE, the visual editor in WordPress.

Google XML SiteMaps – A requirement if you want Google to be able to quickly add your posts to its search engine. Also used by Yahoo, MSN, Bing, and Ask.com.

ShareThis – Simple Social Media bookmarking so other people can share your site.

Viper’s Video QuickTags – Quick and easy posting of videos on your site from YouTube and other popular sources.

Database Backup – Simple backup of your WordPress Blog.

WordPress Related Posts – Generates and displays related posts so users can find other related posts quickly.

WP – Contact Form – A simple drop-in form so users can contact you easily.

WP Super Cache – Very fast, efficient caching plugin.

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DreamHost

Dreamhost will give you a free year new domain registration with its annual plan. Its discounted using my Promo Code (Promo Code Signup) and there is no setup fee. Dreamhost provides basically the same service as the other two hosts I recommend with a different fee structure. It’s greatest difference is the WordPress installation adds three pages of theme choices so you can decide quite easily to modify your theme after I’ve completed your Free Photo Blog install. Signup here.[ top ]

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If you have any questions let me know. Please use my links for the hosting sites. It’s important that we keep this service free with my small commission from each.