The design glorification is coming.

And because we’re in alpha mode, you and your wallet are benefiting.

What’s holding you back? Let us know if you see some kind of problems with our website and directory for photographers.  We’re open to feedback as we try and build the best group of socially engaged photographers in the world.

Read? Go list yourself and your photography business…

Lets go over a couple reasons why you are holding back:

1. As a photographer you expect to be overcharged on everything and if you’re not, then the product or service is probably a joke. Some Directories are out there charging photographers $50/month.  Yes, that’s PER MONTH and adds up to $600 per year.  Sure compare that with a print advertisement or other advertising and that’s a pretty good deal.  However, what are you truly receiving for that cost?  Perhaps these directories that I’ve come across started like MegaPixeld and offered a really low cost.  I am not sure but what some are offering is nothing new. If you’re holding back because MegaPixeld is too cheap right now, that’s okay because eventually the prices are changing.  They will be changing appropriately though and offering new ways that are current and forward thinking.
2. Most photography websites like to flood you with the same information and product pitches time and time again.  Perhaps you’re holding back because MegaPixeld isn’t offering prizes to win Kevin Kubota actions or A Triple Scoop Membership for a day.  You ask yourself “How boring is this place? I want free stuff!”  Perhaps we’ll be offering some really rad contests but not for the same old things you see on every website and feeding the same photographers families.  As much as we love to know that top photographers are feeding their families, we also want lesser known photographers to gain exposure and have the ability to grow.   We look to help the socially engaged photographers that are working so hard to grow their business and a listing in our directory could give just enough boost to shoot photography for 1 more month into the future.  We need you to do your great work.  We promote you and not just the same old photographers seen everywhere.
3. I’m not an A-List Photographer and starting this project is nothing special to you.   This could be worst assumption you ever make.  As a photographer myself, I built this website and photography directory because I was upset with how hard it is for emerging photographers to build search engine ranking and gain the exposure they so deserve.  Our passion to help people live a remarkable life through photography is overflowing and MegaPixeld is only going to become a greater resource as time goes by.   As the resource grows, the price for everything here is going to change.

So What’s the Price to List your Photography Business Today?

Free Photography Website Listing

You can simply list your photography website and business today for free. The listing is limited but it puts you in the directory and sends a link to your business website.

Plus Photography Website Listing

A ONE TIME fee of $9 is required to create a Plus Listing for your Photography Business, Photography Website, or Photoblog.  If you have 3 websites, you can buy 1 for each.   The fee is NOT monthly or Annual. View exactly what consists of a Plus Photography Business Listing…

Pro Photography Website Listing

A ONE TIME fee of $17 is required to create a Pro Listing for your Photography Business, Photography Website, or Photoblog. Again, if you have a number of different websites the fee is PER listing.  The fee is NOT monthly or Annual. View exactly what consists of a Pro Photography Business Listing…

When will Prices to List Your Photography Business Change?

This is a super awesome question. There are a number of factors that are going to come into play for our future pricing adjustments and we want to share them so that as changes happen, they don’t seem random.

The biggest reason for a price increase to list your photography business in our directory will be related to Page Rank and our growth as a website.  As we grow and our page rank increases, there is a greater value to every single photographers website listed within the directory.  The authority being sent to every website linked from us will be stronger.  The earlier this relationship is built, the better it becomes over time.   We have no idea how quickly page rank and growth will happen here; however, we’re applying a slow and steady, organic method because it’s the only way we know how to do it.   Let’s look at an example:

Right now, MegaPixeld sits at a Page Rank of 1 out of 10. This sure beats no Page Rank and a 0 out of 10. I don’t know when the Page Rank will change and when it does, the pricing will change.  The same will happen if the Page Rank falls.  This change is only fair; however, there would be no refunds or partial refunds if a photographer listed at PR4 and the next month the website became PR3.  With a monthly or annual subscription the fee would adjust with PR though.  The change from a ONE TIME fee to a monthly or annual subscription wouldn’t happen until PR3 is reached.   Anyone that listed during the one time fee structure would never have to pay subscription model though.   The one time fee model would simply become grandfathered and no long an option for new listings.

With PR1, you’re seeing the prices at $9 and $17.  A change from PR1 to PR2 would increase the prices by $3 – a Pro Listing would become $20 and a Plus Listing would be $12.

A change from PR2 to PR3 would increase the prices by $5 and the structure would move from a one time listing fee to a new subscription model with the choice of Monthly or Annually.  A Pro listing would become $25/year or $2.49/month – A better deal going to those that pay on a yearly basis.   A Plus Listing would become $17/year or $1.99/month.

Let’s Wrap This UP

The point of talking about the price of listing your photography business in our directory is to let you know that right now is a key time in our existence.

We’re looking to provide a huge value to photographers that are early adopters of the vision that is MegaPixeld.  We want to create a world class photography directory for socially engaged photographers to build their photography business and increase the serendipitous benefits that can occur from being engaged in the photography industry.  We want to promote the up and coming photography business so that it grows in the area it’s trying to work within.  We want more people to be able to live a life that involves photography everyday! We want you to have the ability to grow your business without being obsessed with if your listing is getting hits or not.

A number of photographers are already experiencing boosts in their search engine ranks! This means more eyeballs are finding their websites for the specific keyword of which they want to be found.  It’s not just more traffic, it’s more traffic searching for what the photographer is offering.

We hope you consider listing today.

Make sure you sign up for our mailing list though because we’ll notify of pricing changes, special ways to list your photography website, and other benefits as we grow.

Our RSS feed is important too because we’re going to be talking about other features soon – micro features that will help show off your personality as a photographer and business.

Common mistake #1: You can be rich, but not filthy rich… in anchor text

The best way to boost your rankings is to build rich anchor text links. For example, if my startup KISSmetrics wants to rank well for the term “web analytics” I need to get other websites to link to KISSmetrics.

When convincing these sites to link to me, I ideally want them to link with the phrase web analytics as the link text instead of my company name, KISSmetrics.

If more people link to you with the keyword you want to rank for as the anchor text of the link, your rankings will start sky rocketing for that keyword.

But what you may not know is that if you get too many links that are rich in anchor text your rankings will drastically drop after a while. So you have to rotate the anchor text up and ideally make it natural.

In essence having rich anchor text is good, but it can’t be too rich. I usually try to keep my anchor text rich for less than 10% of my links.

As Neil mentions, keyword rich anchor text is very very important.  At the same time, you want to keep those anchored links to be natural.   Getting blogs to link to you with the exact keyword rich text that you desire is not easy.  Bothering bloggers and websites to later update their blogs is not really an option – unless you want to nag.  I’m cool if someone asks me once.

That said, our Plus and Pro listings offer the ability to tell us the anchored text that you desire to build page rank and SEO awesomeness.   The chance that you’re getting too many filthy rich links is pretty unlikely.  Most people seem to link on your name, company name, click here, or read more.

Our Pro Listings are already talking about their SEO movement and it is exciting to hear.  We want you to be the one talking next!  Even if you don’t opt to go for a Pro Listing right now, you can also see that simply listing as a free account will help your photography business and website!

A small button can go a long way. We believe that a strong feature for a world class photography directory comes in the form of the Facebook like or recommend button. It’s that same button you’ve added to your website only it serves a few purposes here too.

When traffic lands a photographer’s website listing, they are instantly presented with a number of visuals and our eyes are being trained to go right to the Facebook Button. We’re obsessed with it because of our own websites and our own narcissistic impulses being strengthened by the use of Facebook. Meaning, it’s not just photographers with websites and businesses that are obsessed with seeing a lot of recommends and likes.

Since traffic quickly glances to the Facebook Recommend button, it’s going to have an impact on the overall photography listing. A large number of recommends is always going to have an impression! People are going to wonder why they don’t know about the photographer, why they aren’t already connected via social media, or want to see if the photographer has done something special recently. If the photographer listed is in the area of the potential client, it’s a no brainer that they’re going to go look at the photographer’s website.

When we listed Scott Frederick’s HDR Photoblog, his Facebook Recommend button took a jump to 6 right away. Looking at his HDR Photography in Philadelphia, you can see that he’s obviously killing it and people support his work. If I was looking for unique perspectives and photographic art from Philadelphia, I probably found a contender. Scott suddenly seems like a pretty influential photographer within the HDR Photographer category here.

Simple and Free Form of a Testimonial

If you provide any photography services, from child photography to wedding photography, the Facebook Recommend button can be a simple and free way for a testimonial from a client. Once the portraits have been delivered, a photographer can ask the client for feedback, thoughts, and criticisms. Perhaps a photographers already send clients to a survey monkey type website, Yelp, or some other form of feedback website.  Depending on the current system, we believe sending the client to your MegaPixeld listing for a quick recommendation cannot hurt.  If that client was referred to your photography business, chances are they have friends that used your photography services. One Facebook Like or Recommend can suddenly turn into a handful.  See this as influential social proof for your listing within our photography directory.

Remember the Facebook Recommend feature is present on all listings.  Photographers that have upgraded to Pro Listing status already look great, sending more traffic to their listings and getting more recommendations.

The point of the Recommend button isn’t to feed the EGO of the photographer or photography business.  The point of the Recommend button is to create an attractive and influential listing that feeds and inflates the photographers bank account and allows them to continue on the path of photography.

What are you waiting for?

Start growing those influential recommendations for your photography business today!

awesome image: [ Mooi ]

Instead of adding that feature, we’ve removed it. As photographers, we want you to have time to work on your photography, post-processing, and connections and marketing. The last thing we want you to do is spend time reviewing your statistics here.

You can’t base ROI from listing views and clicks to your website. Sure the more views your photography business listing is getting, the better that feels. You can always track the source of traffic on your own website analytics as well. Trying to offer that as a feature doesn’t seem to come off as an added benefit, but seems like noise or fluff.

By not offering directory listing analytics, it doesn’t mean we’re not keeping track for you. Trust us, we’re running analytics and we’ve got ideas to show off on your behalf. We’ll to do the work and keep your photography listing campfire going.

We’ll have more on this topic in the near future!

I recently saw this on a number of photography directory type websites. They said to place the link on your website and then email them. This would speed up the time it would take to list your photography website or give your website some kind of priority within the directory.

While this is a nice way to encourage eager listings, the directory is really looking for back-links to build their authority and rankings within search.

While we plan to create some rad looking buttons for photographers to put on their website, these buttons and links will not be necessary at all. The links won’t speed up listing time or placement within the directory.

We want to continuously educate photographers on making their own listing more relevant via inspiration. As I mentioned, the links back to MegaPixeld are unneccessary but being scarce with your own linking could come back to bite you.

Links make the internet go round. Links build rank, authority, trust, page rank, and relationships. Understanding the power within a link and the anchor text of the link will help you save money on search engine optimization.

Linking to MegaPixeld

If you link to us, to your photography category, and link to your photography business listing then you’re letting Google and everyone else know that this website, category, listing are cool with you. The more often these links occur and get picked up by search engines, the better that page feels inside.  Overtime, your photography category and photography business listing are going to build rank and authority and pass it right back to you again through the outgoing links.

Now do you see why linking back to MegaPixeld is not necessary? However, it is recommended to build a more powerful listing.

In our minds, this entire notion of not requiring a link back reinforces those PRO listings. A photographer that has put a small investment, $17 right now, will probably share their listing on social media, and their website. These photographers have an understanding that being a bit vocal about their listing here will get picked up by search engines sooner too. Potential clients may have a bit easier time locating or stumbling upon the photographers website or listing in the long run compared to the photographer that wanted to be scarce with their hotlinks.

We’re of an abundance mindset here at MegaPixeld. We’re in love with links and find opportunities to link to the photographers listed within this directory. It’s like putting you’re photography business and website on our radar.

Remember there is great power in links for your listing within our world class photography business directory.

When we got the upload from Mark we were blown away by his New York based HDR and Street Photography!

Rightly so, Mark wanted his work to be front center and became a Pro Listing. The photography listing for Mark Garbowski Photography is hitting the initial vision for a listing within the directory.  Showing off the awesome photography, listing important info about how the Mark Garbowski Photography website is formatted and ways to get in contact via social media.

Since we published the Mark Garbowski Photography in the photography directory, I’ve noticed his Klout score has changed 3 points.  We have no idea if posting these buttons is giving Klout scores a boost but it’s a pattern we’re got our eyes on.

Oh and If you’re an iPad owner, check out their site because you’ll find free iPad wallpapers to use from NYC *bonus*

Check out the Listing for Mark Garbowski Photography

I know, as a photographer myself, I would expect to be massively overcharged here.

Or I come and expect that I should NEVER be charged here! Listing your photography business is actually free and we feel that $17 for a PRO listing is awesome.

If you’re opened a photography business recently, you know how difficult it is to market. If you’re now an experienced photographer, you also know how difficult it is to market and we see MegaPixeld as the place that you wish was around when you started.

Early on, do you really need to spend X on a full page ad in a paper? You may eventually need to go an expensive route in marketing and advertising your photography business, but is that in your budget right now? If it is, sure maybe we’re not right for you. Come back when our price is 10x what it is now and we’ll be happy to help you!

Putting a listing your Photography Business is committing to making a decision! You’re making progress. Your photography business or photography website is listed in another location. It’s “advertised” in more than one place on the web. A place where potential clients can search by area and type of photography.

If your photography business doesn’t have $17 to market or advertise right now, cool – List for free! Or consider the Plus Listing upgrade.

We’re going to be continually looking for ways to help promote our photographers listed here. We’re going to find ways to improve your photography listing because it’s going to help more people find your business in one way or another!

We’re not going to become an irrelevant photography listing like the rest out there – the ones that give directories a bad name.

We’re not going to let this place become static. A world class photography directory would never exist if we did those things.

List Your Photography Business

Upgrade Information

We just wanted to note how to get your listing up so that it can start building PageRank and do more for your photography business.

Step 1:

Step 1 is where photographers are doing awesome! As a photographer or someone that runs a photography website, you go to the page titled: List Your Site

On the List Your Site page, you must register before you’ll be able to sign in.  Registering helps with the spam issues that most of you are probably aware of today.  Nothing else happens with your e-mail.

Step 2:

After registering, you’ll be sent an e-mail from our MegaTeam and it will contain your password (that only you will know) and the link back to the List Your Site page.  Once you sign-in, it will almost seem as if nothing happened. It’s because you’re on the same page, just signed-in now. Rad!

Step 3:

There is a beautiful green button that you click to “Create Entry.” Like magic, you’re not given some input fields to fill in with your details of your photography website and business.

Here is what you’ll be asked:

Title of Your Listing

Let us know the name of your Photography Website or Business

Content

This is the copy of your listing.  We recommend to write more than a few words. Think of it like your website’s About Page or telling a potential client about your photography business.

Take a look at some of the other listings to get an idea.

Your Location

We want to know where you’re based and do your photography work. If you do a huge amount of travel, this is when you’ll talk about it in the “content” area.

A lot of locations won’t be in our system yet because you need to list for it to be in the database. If you don’t see your location, we offer another place to let us know or you can always tell us in the content area.

Types of Photography

There is a desire to select type of photography listed. We would ask that you limit the selection to 3.  If not, we’ll probably select the top 3 in alphabetical order and then e-mail to let you know.  Yes there are people behind this manually inputting information.

Select your focus.  If you don’t have one, choose “General Photography“

Features

This is another list of options to select from.  We want to add more ‘features’ over time that give a bit more insight into what someone might find on your photography website.  ie Updated Daily, Accepts Guest Posts, Ability to Submit

If a photographer was looking to build up their blog, they might want to look at all the listings that accept guest posts.

Again, try to select the features that are truly representative.  Selecting them all is pointless and we’ll let it go. That means, we’re fine with it but your listing will look unprofessional. ah ha.

City, State/Prov, Country

We give an example to type over in the input box. It’s pretty self explanatory. This is an important place if your location was not listed in the earlier options.

Upload Image

We want you to upload an image of your website aka a screen shot.  If you’re unsure on how to make a screenshot, no problem.  click here

We want to see the homepage of your website for the first image of every listing in one form or another. It’s open to interpretation.

Step 4:

Click Upload Your Listing

You’re done! That’s how it goes to get your free listing up on MegaPixeld.  You’ll be in the World Class Photography Directory and you can tell all your photographer friends on the other side of the world.

Where the Magic Happens: Step 5

The magic of MegaPixeld happens once you’re free listing is up and you decide that you want to go PRO (or Plus).  Serendipity kicks in and you can show off some of your best photography work right there.

A few of the Features:

• 2 Keyword Rich Links – You tell us what Anchor Text to use
• 10 Promotional Photographs of your choice
• Noted as a PRO Listing
• Social Media Buttons

Learn more about upgrading your photography website listing…

While imagining MegaPixeld, I have to look at the photography directory from the perspective of a photographer, a potential client of the photographer listing, and from the outside looking in. I wanted to be able to find other photographers that I might want to connect with right away and that meant being able to know more about them.  Wanting to know more about the photographers that list instantly played well into the perspective from the outside looking in and from the perspective of potential clients of the photographer listed.

What I could have done but Didn’t…

I could head over to a list that a photographer keeps updating (usually maintained though) on their website – as there are plenty of them popping up. As easy as it would be to connect by simply clicking through to their Twitter page and following, I have no idea what type of photography these photographers are into, if they are full time or part time, or many other factors that come into play.

Instead I wanted to integrate Social Scoring via Klout

The Klout score doesn’t give me all of those details specifically either. However, here’s what the Klout Score is:

The Klout Score is the measurement of your overall online influence. The scores range from 1 to 100 with higher scores representing a wider and stronger sphere of influence. Klout uses over 35 variables on Facebook and Twitter to measure True Reach, Amplification Probability, and Network Score.

True Reach is the size of your engaged audience and is based on those of your followers and friends who actively listen and react to your messages. Amplification Score is the likelihood that your messages will generate actions (retweets, @messages, likes and comments) and is on a scale of 1 to 100. Network score indicates how influential your engage audience is and is also on a scale from 1 to 100. The Klout score is highly correlated to clicks, comments and retweets.

This is one of the social ways we are trying to introduce a bit of personality to each listing. Of course the first way is for you to give a description of your photography website, business, and self. A lack of description is something we’re noticing with listings uploaded and we’ll tackle that later today.

How does it provide insight into the personality of a photographer or their business?

When you click on the Klout Score, you’re instantly taken to their Klout Profile (see the Klout Profile for Scott Webb) that gives you a total breakdown of it all. It shows who influences them, who they influence, and what their most influential topics are currently.

You might see a listing for a Wedding Photographer with a Klout Score of 11. Instantly, I would wonder if they just joined Twitter and different social media channels or what’s going on. Clicking over to the Klout profile, I might realize they only follow 6 people and 5 are celebrities. They don’t yet take social media too seriously and thus I’m not going to waste my time following. They won’t add any value if I follow them.

The Klout Score as a look into the personality and engagment also plays an important role with potential photography clients. Clients use social media too. Clients are going to have higher Klout Scores than you in their interests. Understanding social scoring, clients are going to look at the Klout Score of potential photographers to get a bigger picture.

You never know where this could lead. It provides ways for clients to connect with you on so many more levels. Suddenly you as a photographer could go from a random option to someone they like and want to get to know. Your photography business just got on the short list or catapulted to number one.

Many Reasons to Integrate Klout and Social Scoring

Social scoring is going to change your life.  A lot of it is actually quite mind boggling right now.  This morning, I was thinking about Klout, Kinect, iPhone, and meet ups. Put those ingredients into a blender and let them collide for a while to see what is produced.

Klout is only the beginning of social scoring.  We’re keeping an eye on things as they emerge because we want to add it to listings if it will help photographers or help photographers strive to be better and connect with clients.

Who knows, perhaps Nikon or Canon may come to MegaPixeld sometime and look around at photographer listings.  They may run a marketing campaign much like Virgin Airlines, for a new flight route, offered free flights to people with influential scores on twitter.  Maybe you’ll be the next photographer to secretly be testing and using the next Nikon DSLR?

Not a Feature for Everyone

Unlike the Remember feature of Evernote on every photography listing, the Klout Score integration is only for Upgraded listings. An integrated Klout Score is reason enough to upgrade. Having that on your photography listing says a lot to other photographers and potential clients. As we mentioned, you never know what it could lead towards.

We’ll be taking a lot about Klout and social scoring with the photographers listed here.  We’re not shy about linking to your photography business either.

What are you waiting for? Go List and Upgrade