PhotoShelter Newsletter | February 2009

Hey everyone! Plenty of exciting insights, feature updates and news to share this month! Enough to fill two newsletters, but we'll squeeze it into one. Enjoy!

In this month's issue:

• Online Training: February & March Webinars
• Survey Results: Do Image Buyers Hate Your Website?
• Beat the Feb Blues: Upgrade Today & Get Bonus Storage
• New Features: Google Analytics, More Display Options, Blog Linkage
• Get Featured on our Homepage
• Shout Outs, Back Pats & High Fives

On with the show...

February & March Webinars: New Classes!

The next slate of free online training sessions will help you get the most out of PhotoShelter, provide tips on boosting your search engine rankings, and look deeply at the many sales options through PhotoShelter.

• PhotoShelter 101: Intro to PhotoShelter - 2/20, 3/4, 3/18
• Get Seen: PhotoShelter's Guide to SEO - 2/25
• Monetizing Your Archive with PhotoShelter - 3/13

Registration is required as space is limited. View the full webinar calendar and sign up today.

Survey Results: Website Guidance from 550+ Image Buyers

We've all been there. When considering website design and key features, most photographers trust their artistic intuition, and sadly their business mind is rarely even invited to the creative brainstorm. Any idea what background color your customers prefer? Image size? Watermarks? Page layout? Download capability? Your business mind would say - "Ask them!" So, that's what we did.

We gathered website intelligence from over 550 commercial and editorial photo buyers at the world's most recognized magazines, ad agencies, corporate design groups, and book publishers. Today, we're giving that research report to you at no cost.

The results are eye opening. Turns out, several simple features and design elements will make a visiting buyer really happy (like instant pricing). And, some commonly used features really tick buyers off! (Ahem, music and long flash intros.) In fact, these insights fueled some quick updates to our own website templates as well. With PhotoShelter you have the flexibility to update your website according to buyers' most critical preferences.

Want to share the research with friends or on blogs? Non-members can request a copy too.

February Savings: Upgrade to an Annual Standard Account, Save $30!

See how photographers like you are succeeding with PhotoShelter's Standard Account.

Get access to all of PhotoShelter's rich website customization features when you upgrade to a Standard Account. With our templates, you can create website with e-commerce in under 5 minutes, or weave PhotoShelter into your own website.

Hurry, this savings offer expires 2/28. Upgrade today.

New PhotoShelter Features: Google Analytics, Blog Linkage, More Display Options

More exciting new features released today! All are based on members' feedback and a few hot tips we picked up from our Image Buyer Website Survey. Among the updates:

• Add Google Analytics. Fine tune your marketing with better visitor tracking.
• Add a blog link. Tie your brand together online and build your search traffic.
• Add keywords to page footers. Help Google find you with customizable footers.
• New display options. Try dark styles for Crisp & Farah themes, more thumbnails per page, and the ability to mouse-over images for details & large previews.

That's just a small sample. See all of today's updates.

Be a PhotoShelter Featured Photographer

Looking for additional exposure? One fun new opportunity is our Featured Photographer selection. Every month, we'll pick 20 images submitted by members, and the 20 chosen photographers will be showcased in multiple areas throughout the PhotoShelter website. Where? The homepage slideshow, our new product tour, and our blog. Details.

SHOUT OUTS, BACK PATS, HIGH FIVES

	To Anthony Suau, who won the 2008 World Press Photo, Photo of the Year. Kudos Anthony!
	To Vincent Laforet, who won first place in the World Press Photo Sports Action category, and Julian Wainwright, who took third place.
	To Cameron Davidson, who is selling prints to raise money to support a small orphanage in Pignon, Haiti. Grab his viral slideshow and help out his cause!
	To Charlie Mahoney, who won the Travel Photographer of the Year "Life" category.
	To Karl Blanchet, a member of the Luna Collective, who recently published volume #3 of Lunatic Magazine, which covers contemporary photojournalism.
	To Stacy Pearsall who will appear on the Oprah Winfrey Show showing her conflict images. February 26, 2009 - tune in!"

That's all folks. Digest today's news, use it to succeed online, and keep us posted! We want to hear more about your achievements, and as always, your feedback.

Still bald, and writing live from the NANPA Summit in New Mexico,
Grover Sanschagrin