Eight is Great!
SierraStock.com
Promotional
Efforts |
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Development of Incoming Links |
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Refinement in Presentation of Site Content |
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Sitemap Submissions |
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Google Base Listings |
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Google Adwords |
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Yahoo Directory Listing |
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Third-Party Advertising |
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Third-Party Contextual Links |
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Direct Mail Promotion |
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Networking |
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To borrow a classic line from The Simpsons, from an episode that shows Ringo Starr attempting to catch up on more than three decades of fan mail, I apologize for the lateness of this newsletter.
There is plenty to catch up on since the last newsletter, but I want to first congratulate everyone on our latest milestone of 8,000 images (and I see that some of you have already noticed that 10,000 images isn't as far away as it used to be).
The site is looking great, and we've just about got everything humming along as it should be at this end.
To briefly recap, while attending to a badly-needed switch to a new data architecture back in January, we unintentionally introduced a bug that had an unfortunate effect on our outreach to seach engines. It took about two weeks before we could see traffic dropping, and another two weeks before we found the error and put it right.
In the month since, we have been over the site with a fine tooth comb looking at anything and everything we are doing, as well as reading volumes on the most current search engine techniques.
Although you really can't see much changing on the site (other than the loss of a few mouse-over effects), we've put in two other substantial changes in the site organization and presentation since that fix -- to both human visitors and search engine crawlers. We're currently implementing one last change that will round out a sweeping series of improvements to the site.
While we have yet to return to the traffic levels of last January, when the site changes we've implemented start to be reflected within search engine rankings, we're expecting a five-fold or better increase in search engine traffic.
We had brief taste of sales activity in January, and we're certain that will return as we get site traffic back on the positive track. We just need to stop making changes to the site organization so that information can "settle" in the search engine index rankings.
On the Google Front: What you can do to help
The majority of our search engine improvements are geared toward increasing relevance to any particular phrase or keyword combination. Of the more than 50,000 unique pages of content currently on the site, more than a third are already included in Google's search index. They are rated on two factors: how relevant they are to a given search term, as well as how well the site that hosts them can be trusted. This is where the concept of "pagerank" comes in.
For several dozen obscure terms and mispelled words, we actually rank #1 in Google's search rankings, primarily because of the relevance of the indexed content relating to those terms. However, for more general (and far more useful) terms, Google doesn't trust us enough to distinguish our content from automatically generated spam content. The problem is we're too relevant to too many desirable search terms, and our "pagerank" is not currently high enough to overcome Google's programmed dislike of spamming techniques. It is possible the site has not "aged" enough from Google's view as we really have only been open to its crawlers for just under six months.
What we do know is that any and all outside links pointing back to the site will help the effort. Already we have more than 120 incoming links in Google's index (which ought to count for something), and it is something we work to increase on an ongoing basis. Even if you don't have a website, if you participate in online forums, adding a link to your photographs in your signature line will create additional incoming links. Even better -- including the words "stock photography" in your link will help raise Google's trust in our relevance to that term.
If you have questions on how to do this, please ask.
Featured Photographer: Arnold John Kaplan, APSA-AFIAP
 Beginning with this issue, we're adding a new feature where we will introduce you to some of your fellow contributors. Given that there are no formal criteria as of yet for determining who gets featured, member Arnold John Kaplan (username "ARNJONPHOTO") stood out for a number of reasons: not only is Kaplan our most prolific contributor, we have every reason to believe he's our most experienced photographer, having started in photography in 1928. That's not a typo.
You can find an excellent article about Kaplan featured in the Cape Cod Art Association newsletter, of which he is an active member.
"I try to keep in good condition, exercise and eat right," noted Kaplan in a recent conversation. "I see my doctors twice a year, and I've outlived some of them."
Kaplan had retired from photography more than a decade ago, although he still maintains stock representation with a few agencies, including Getty. When he learned about SierraStock.com from a fellow club member, Kaplan was motivated to dust off his archives and get more of his images represented online.
We're proud to have Kaplan on-board with SierraStock.com and greatly appreciate his (and others') contributions.
SierraStock.com Wins an ADDY!
Earlier this month, SierraStock.com was awarded a Silver ADDY by A2N2, the Northern Nevada chapter of the American Advertising Federation.
We are especially pleased to win this award, in particular because advertising professionals are a key part of our customer demographic.
Congratulations are due to everyone who has contributed to the site. We expect more awards to come.
Submit Your Images on CD/DVD
As a reminder to those photographers with many digital images to upload, you can save time and increase your sales prospects by submitting your images on CD and/or DVD.
Send your images to: Sierra Stock, Inc.
1221-A Haskell Street
Reno, NV 89509
Please make sure to include your SierraStock.com user name on your CD/DVD.
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