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Why I left Squarespace.com

Hello and Good day,

For those of you that don't know me, I'm Jim a Photographer out of Jacksonville, Fl. I've been shooting here for quite some time. Ever since the first time I picked up a camera (which was a film camera) to today I have always been enamored by the art. A few years ago I started following some content creators on YouTube, I learned quite a bit from them and thought to myself "Hey I could do that!". One of them in particular (no I'm not going to name drop) had an ad that they made for a company called Square Space, Wherein you could build your very own website with the greatest of ease. I thought to myself that it would be a great idea and very beneficial to be able to have a place that I could post all of my photos, videos, podcasts, and events etc... They were offering a promo code that you could get like 10% off the total price of your first website, I jumped at the offer and set out designing a website that I was proud of and would be happy sharing with the general public. The cost was not very bad when you consider the service they provide, I was well on my way to achieving all of my goals as a Photographer and as a teacher of photography. 

Skip to today, and things in my life have made a very different turn. The cost of living has gone up, and not much has happened in the way of pay increases.  I will also admit that I am still working a full-time  job, that is not something i've attempted to hide from my public. We all know that gear costs a-lot  and the one thing that I have yet to do is to put 100% into my photography business. There have been many things that have kept me from doing this over the years, too many to discuss here (and none that I want to share at this time). However as I get older and older and the days slip by like minutes, I have a renewed passion for this idea. I have made a promise to myself that I will give it my all, and that it is finally time for me to be doing what I love and making a living wage for doing it! I also wish to continue creating helpful content for the general public on my YouTube channel which you can find by looking up my handle on YouTube @jwmphotography . 

Oh yeah I got distracted about what this blog is all about! As I was mentioning in the above paragraphs, I found myself in a position where i could not afford to renew my squarespace subscription. So as quickly as my wonderful website came into my life, it was gone. I was chatting with my friend Omar Safi and he was telling me about how google offers a web service at very little cost. So of course I was intrigued because I very much loved having my website. So the very next day I sat down and began my google journey, I was shocked at all of the offerings they had that i was unaware of. I stumbled my way through all of the apps they offer, and finally found "Google Sites", I was shocked and very pleased to find out that the cost of a google site is almost next to nothing! If you already knew this fact, then what the heck man? Why haven’t you shared this info with me??? 

I had no idea that it was an option, and of course it might be as extensive and intricate as a Squarespace site, it does the job just fine! It has features such as embedding pages, adding images, connecting your google drive, using themes, and no limit to how many pages you can create (or none that I've found anyways). It is just as simple to use as Squarespace simply drag and drop images, move text boxes wherever you’d like, change fonts, change the color of the background, and many more. Like I said, It isn't as robust as a Squarespace page, however for those that wish to have a website to send clients to , or potential business partners it absolutely  does the trick! I'm sure I am behind the eight ball on this because god knows how long this has been a service that Google offers, but I'm in now! I have only just started this site and as such there isn’t much to show here. I literally have to start all over again, updating my photo galleries, as well as my blog. I had quite a few writings on my old blog and I could’ve copied and downloaded them for migration to a new site, however I wanted to start fresh!

If you are someone that has been to my old site, thank you for joining me over there. I will also love to thank you for joining me over here, I know for you it's a simple url change from .net to .com, but for me it's a bit more involved, and it means so much more to me this time than it ever has in the past. This will be the website that I want, that I made from the ground up, and this time it's so much more affordable to do so! 

Feel free to click the link above to go to my youtube page ( yes that really close up photo of yours truly ) I will ask that if you can please subscribe, like, comment, and most of all share the crap out of it! 

Are you marketing yourself enough, or the right way?

As someone that has been a creator for a while I have often tried different styles of marketing myself. I have used all of the social media platforms, website marketing, email marketing, and so on. I have had very little success with any of those, but I have had to ask myself " Am I doing it right? ". In the past I would only make a post when I went out on a shoot, or had some fresh images to share with the public, I even went as far as to boost my posts on social media. I feel like this gives my followers and potential followers a sense that i'm not very busy. It is only logical that the more you post wether its new or an older post that you're reposting, posting more helps. Remember that little thing called " The Algorithm ", yeah I imagine that the only way to beat that thing is to overload the system. Now I've never really cared about "followers" , "subscribers", and the like. However it only stands to reason that the more people you have following you on your socials , the more people will see your work. This in turn gives you some sort of notoriety , it shows people that you know what you're doing and builds a bit of trust in you. 

As I am no expert in this matter I have tried numerous things to further my career, and will continue to do so. As of late i've kind of let myself slip a bit, what i mean is I have done very little in the way of marketing myself. If you've been following me for a while, you know I attempted to start a brick and mortar business with a friend last year . Needless to say that we have since disbanded (for a lack of a better term). It didn't seem to work out the way we both had intended for it to, so we both decided to move on. I gave myself some time to recalibrate and get back to basics, which is exactly what I've been doing for the last 6 months. However I am ready to get back in the saddle again, and this time I really want to give it my all!

Here are a few things I'll be doing differently, 

• Going to more events

Going to paid events can be great for meeting other photographers, and networking with other artists 

(models, venues...etc) This could be a great way to have people see your work that may not have otherwise, as well as finding new and upcoming models for projects that you might have in mind. 

• Posting and re- posting

Posting more frequently as in up to 3 times a day, but post with a purpose, ask yourself what are you hoping to gain from this particular post. Re-posting older content is always something that I've stayed away from because once I've posted it I'm done with it. Well we can no longer think this way! Go back into the archives and find something that is 3 months old and re-post it! I bet you'll get a great reaction, remember that the algorithm might not have shown it to some of your followers yet, also you may have new followers that never even got the opportunity . I feel that most people that follow someone based on one post, will possibly go and look at the first 3 or 4 posts in the grid, most can't be bothered to go through someones entire grid.

• BEING REAL WITH MYSELF

Often times when a post falls flat or things just aren't going the way I think they should, I would get a little depressed and curl up into a ball and feel sorry for myself, this does absolutely nothing for my career . I need to be real with myself and do a daily gut check, really looking at "what did I do today to achieve my goals?". If the answer is "NOTHING", well then I have only me to blame for that, and I had better complete some task before I go to sleep. There are people out there in the world that when things don't go exactly how they planned, they will blame others for it. I have only myself to blame, this is the exact reason for the daily gut check! I can no longer play the victim in my own story, I have to change my role to hero!

• Ask for help

So many times I have wanted to ask other artists for help creating things, and I haven't because I was shy, or I thought they might charge me. I can no longer afford to feel like this and think this way, and neither can you! We have more resources out there than we'd like to think or even acknowledge . I know personally I love to be asked to collaborate in projects with people. There are so many resources out there and one thing i've learned from trial and error is that you'll never know if you don't ask!

I am going to attempt to make the remainder of this year a great one as well as moving forward. I will be bringing you things that were successful as well as the things that might have not worked for me so well. I look forward to writing these blogs and keeping you updated on my progress as a creator as well as helping you with these great ideas along the way! I believe it is possible for us all to do the thing we want to do instead of just scraping by and existing merely never to enjoy this short life and simply be a cog in the machine. As I move closer to death (morbid thoughts, I know) I find myself wanting to do something, anything other than simply existing for others to make the gains and live the life they want. In other words when we are tired of working for others, like REALLY TIRED of it, we will do something about it. This blog entry is probably more for me than anyone else, however, if you have gained anything from it then I'm happy. Take care of yourselves, value what you do, and go CREATE!!