AMA's Free Virtual Event- Free Registration

https://vts.inxpo.com/scripts/Server.nxp?LASCmd=AI:4;F:QS!10100&ShowKey=1970&GroupID=Non-Member%20Registration&AffiliateKey=10285&AffiliateData=EMAIL1

AMA's Free Virtual Event - February 25, 2010 (9am - 5:15pm CST)

You do not want to miss AMA's Free Virtual Event - Social Media: Cracking the Code for Business Marketers on February 25, 2010 (9am - 5:15pm CST). Register now, there is no need to travel or leave your desk.

The social media revolution is happening now, and quickly gathering steam.   With broad implications for so many aspects of our lives and businesses, there is no shortage of opinion on how to capitalize on this amazing new space.  But what do you really need to do to establish a solid social media presence now and in the future?  And in a world that seems full of B2C ideas, what's working for B2B marketers?

Cut through the clutter and get the insights you need from leading experts at this free AMA virtual conference. We'll focus on:

Utilizing Social Media Tactics for Lead Generation

• Understand how to utilize a social media platform to cultivate, identify and qualify leads
• Know how to identify the social media platforms you should invest in

Leveraging Social Media as an Engagement Strategy

• Execute a social media plan as an actionable part of the marketing and sales plan
• Learning how to leverage social media to convert leads into successful sales 
 

Measuring ROI of a Social Media Program

• Utilize available tools and technology to measure the success
• How to establish targets and success metrics

Social Media Boot Camp

http://www.marketingpower.com/Calendar/Pages/Landing%20Page%20Social%20Media%20Boot%20Camps.aspx

Winter Marketing Educators' Conference

http://www.marketingpower.com/Calendar/Pages/WinterMarketingEducatorsConference2010.aspx

Calendar of UpcomingEvents in Marketing- Search Engine Optimization and Marketing

http://www.marketingpower.com/Calendar/Pages/2010%20TS%20Search%20Engine%20Optimization%20NewYork.aspx

PDN Photographers' Virtual Trade Show - Program

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

- 11:00 Eastern Time
Keynote: Best Holiday Buys For Photographer

- 1:00 Eastern Time
High Glamour, High Fashion Weddings with a Flow

- 3:00 Eastern Time
Finding A Digital Workflow That Works For Me

- 5:00 Eastern Time
Get Found: Search Engine Optimization for Photography Websites



Thursday, December 3, 2009

- 11:00 Eastern Time
Keynote - The Perfect Print
 
- 1:00 Eastern Time
The Power of Branding

- 3:00 Eastern Time
PhotoShop and Lightroom: The Dynamic Duo

PDN Photographers' Virtual Trade Show

Don’t forget! The PDN Photographer’s Virtual Trade Show is Tomorrow!

If you have not registered yet, you can still do so at:

http://vshow.on24.com/event/17/09/02/rt/index.html?eventid=170902&sessionid=1&key=522AAA6C522974380126D9ADBFA70609&partnerref=emailafriend

Event Photography Picture Creations Studio

Album Design by MS Design

Retro Style

By MS Design

New Design Concepts- The END

By MS Design

New Design Concepts- The Rocks

By MS Design

 

New Design Concepts- The Fishing

9 Tips for Organizing Your PPC Campaigns (2 of 2 continued)

6. Organize ad groups around keywords

Campaigns are for organizing your ads conceptually. By the time you get down to the ad group level, you need to start specifying ad groups in terms of specific keywords. Not concepts --keywords. So under the “Action” campaign for your movie rental site you might have the following ad groups:
• Schwarzenegger
• Stallone
• Bruce Willis
• Sci-Fi
• Monster
• Etc.
Obviously this can turn into a huge number of ad groups very quickly. That’s the idea. It’s much better to have 50 ad groups with 20 keywords per ad group than to have two ad groups with 500 keywords each. Why? First, using this method you can write specific ads for each ad group that actually contain the keywords
under that ad group. For example, the “Schwarzenegger” ad group could contain many keywords, such as:
• Schwarzenegger flicks
• Movies starring Schwarzenegger
• Movies starring Arnold
• Arnold Schwarzenegger
• Best of Schwarzenegger
• Schwarzenegger action movies
• Etc.
(Are you starting to get the idea of how your keywords can balloon?)

The ads under this ad group will all contain the word “Schwarzenegger” and therefore there will always be a match between the
keyword searched and the ad displayed. Not only does this create the critical keyword/ad relevance factor that Google likes, but you’re likely to see a better click thru rate because the visitors see the relevance too. Both of these factors will improve your quality score and result in a lower cost per click (CPC).

Another reason to use plenty of ad groups is that you will find it easier to determine which ads are working well for you by looking at it from the ad group level rather than zooming clear down to the keyword level and peering at a massive list of keywords. It’s a way of breaking the data down into manageable chunks just as we did at the campaign level. Again, you’ll want to triage at the ad group level before diving into the keywords themselves.

7. Use the “Sculpture method” to get your campaigns under control

Let’s say you’ve set up 20 campaigns with 20 ad groups per campaign. You have 20 keywords and two ads per ad group. That’s 8,000 keywords and 400 ads to keep track of. Now it’s time to start analyzing their performance and making adjustments. But how?

Chances are, in the beginning you will use the “sculpture”
approach to managing your campaigns. This means that you will notice situations that look like they could be improved and make little adjustments in an ad hoc fashion, chipping off some CPC here, building up some keywords there. For example, you may notice that you are showing up near position one for a given ad
group and, looking closer, you see some keywords that might get you into a decent position by bidding significantly lower. This is a perfectly fine way to gradually mold and sculpt your campaigns into the basic shape you want.

As you do this, you must always be aware of the date range you are looking at. The metrics for one date range may be completely irrelevant or even misleading to the question you are currently trying to answer. On one hand, you want to make changes based on the most recent data. If you make a change to a keyword bid based on the last months’ of data, you may not be factoring in that the CTR for that keyword has changed significantly in the last week. So all things being equal, you want to make changes based
on the most recent data. On the other hand, you don’t always have enough data recently to reach a valid conclusion. You don’t want to make decisions based on the behavior of just a few individuals, so you may need to expand your date range at times. Of course if expanding the date range means you muddy your results because you’ve made big changes during that time—well, now we’re back to the first case.

There’s more to optimization than just making bid changes. Optimization also includes modifying ad copy so it flows better with the keywords that generate traffic and modifying landing pages to meet the expectations set by ad messaging. Pausing or deleting poorly performing keywords is another effective way to improve and optimize campaign performance.

Obviously, keeping track of many ad hoc changes is tricky. An indispensible tool when using the sculpture method is the “My Change History” located in the Tools section. If you are ever in doubt about why some metric has suddenly changed, you’ll often be reminded of what caused the change right there.

8. Conduct controlled experiments

The “Sculpture” method is best used in the beginning as a quick and dirty way to get your campaigns under control. Once you’ve achieved a certain level of stability, however, you’ll want to switch to more controlled experiments in order to determine ways to optimize your campaigns. The sculpture method is based on gut
instinct and assumptions—for instance, you may assume that being in position four for a lower cost is more optimal than being in position one for a higher cost. Controlled experiments allow you to turn assumptions into facts. If you think being in position four is more cost-effective, find a keyword that has been consistently showing up in position four for a while and test it.

There are basically two types of tests: a “Time Split”, where you compare the performance of elements across consecutive time spans, and an “A/B Split”, where you compare the performance of elements against each other simultaneously.

Generally the A/B Split is preferable because with the Time Split you introduce the time factor. For example, if you compare an ad’s performance in October against its performance in November, changes could have as much to do with the approaching holiday season as with changes to the ad itself. However, sometimes the Time Split is your only option. In the above example you would use a Time Split because Google does not provide a way to simultaneously apply two different bids to a given keyword.

To execute a Time Split on bid adjustments, mark the date, and bump your bid to push the ad into position one. Let it run that way long enough to collect a significant amount of data. Then check to see if your cost per conversion has changed significantly. Simple.

A/B Splits are also straightforward. Simply set up two distinct versions of the ad you are testing and let them run long enough to collect significant data. One thing you will want to do when testing ads is go into the campaign settings and ensure that “Ad serving” is set to “Rotate” rather than “Optimize”. This will cause both of your ads to be displayed a roughly equal number of times. The “Optimize” setting, (which is set by default), will cause the better performing ad to show more often. But you aren’t leaving it to Google to automatically optimize for you—by conducting your own tests you’ll be able to expedite the process of finding the most effective messages.

While A/B Split tests on ads and Time Splits on bids discussed above are among the most important types of tests, there are actually several others you should consider:

Landing Page – comparing conversion metrics with different versions of the landing page

Day parting – testing performance between the same ads during different parts of the day or days of the week

Geotargeting – comparing performance from different location either within the your country or worldwide

Match type – testing the performance of exact, phrase, or broad match keywords

Regardless of what type of test you are conducting, three key points about controlled experiments must be emphasized:

1. You must get significant data. If your control condition gets two conversions and the test condition gets three conversions, you are not ready to conclude this experiment. Those numbers just aren’t big enough to be statistically reliable.
2. There should be no other major changes other than the factor you are testing. For example, if you are testing the effect of a bid change, you certainly should not change the ad text associated with that keyword or the design of the landing page. Those are pretty obvious. But some changes are not as obvious and not even subject to your control. For example, a competitor who suddenly enters the scene with a very compelling offer could throw off your results. In order to avoid the possibility of random factors throwing off your results it’s best to conduct experiments as quickly as possible. That means conducting experiments on your highest volume keywords.
3. When measuring test results, use rates or percentages rather than absolute numbers. For example, while comparing the performances of two ads, conversion rates are a better metric than the number of conversions. This ensures data is not skewed by the level of impressions an ad receives.

Once campaigns attain a level of stability, it’s best to set-up a systematic process of reviewing performance. Set benchmarks for performance and use the process to effectively monitor, regulate, modify and optimize keywords and ads against this benchmark.
Analytics can help expand your keywords effectively and sync your campaign with seasonalities and industry trends at this stage.

9. Use a Tool Like LyrisHQ PPC Management

While the AdWords interface is quite capable, it is far from perfect. To expedite and extend the management of your campaigns in a powerful way, you can use a tool such as LyrisHQ PPC Management.
Lyris HQ provides an enhanced interface to the same data you manage through the AdWords site. It incorporates visual data representation techniques that make it much easier to identify abnormal data that might require your attention. It also includes a “Problem Campaign” report that automatically identifies those campaigns, ad groups, keywords, or ads that aren’t performing well and it puts them in a handy list.
Lyris HQ uses advanced Web 2.0 technology for a friendlier environment with a lot more dragging and dropping and a lot less clicking and reloading. This is a huge time saver.
Integrated keyword research tools go well beyond those provided by Google, allowing you to more easily build the most complete set of keywords.

The Lyris HQ PPC Management tool also emphasizes the tracking of campaigns for web analytics. Rather than a single tracking parameter, the system will automatically append a set of tracking parameters that allow you to easily segment visitors from any campaign, ad group, keyword or ad. When combined with the organizational structure described above, Lyris HQ PPC Management gives you the ability to perform granular analysis on your campaigns based on visitor behavior after the click.

9 Tips for Organizing Your PPC Campaigns by Lyris, Inc. (1 of 2)

1. Understand the Google AdWords structure

Many people who use Google AdWords are not entirely clear on how the system is designed or why it is designed that way. But understanding the system design makes all the difference.

First, it is worth knowing a brief history of PPC advertising. The original PPC system was GoTo.com (circa 1998), which later became Overture, which was then acquired by Yahoo. Th is system used a straight bid-for-position auction model.

In 2002 Google introduced a new concept into the PPC model - relevance. In this new model, the click thru rate (CTR) and other aspects that related to ad quality factored into the placement of the text ad, allowing the cream to rise to the top and discouraging irrelevant ads, which ultimately resulted in a higher overall CTR
and more revenue for Google. This was a better mousetrap, and the rest is history. Today Yahoo and Microsoft AdCenter are both standardized on this model.

In order to accommodate what they knew would be very large numbers of keywords and in order to facilitate testing that could contribute to the quality of ads, Google designed the Campaigns => Ad Group => Keywords/Ads structure that is used today.

Under this model, an AdWords account can contain multiple campaigns. Each campaign can contain multiple ad groups. Each ad group is made up of up to 2000 keywords and up to 25 ads. For a search on any given keyword under a particular ad group any one of the ads associated with that ad group can be displayed. This allows you to conduct tests of which ads perform the best.

The key is relevance. When a visitor searches on a specific key word or phrase, those words need to appear in the ad itself. That’s how relevance is established. And the AdWords model provides you with a way to associate specific keywords with matching ads.

Thus, Google has provided a taxonomy within which you can organize and test a wide range of ads across a vast array of keywords and always show the visitor an ad that is highly relevant to them.

Now that we are clear on the structure and purpose of the system we’re using, let’s investigate how to utilize it to its full potential.

2. Organize campaigns around specific concepts 


The campaign level provides your first opportunity to organize your ads. You should create multiple campaigns that are oriented to very specific concepts related to your business. These concepts are typically something like product groups or target markets.

For example, if you’re managing the web site Top 5 Flicks (http://www.top5flicks.com/) you might want to organize your campaigns into genres such as “Action”, “Comedy”, and “Drama”. If you sell and rent videos, you might want to organize your campaigns that way too. Or you might even want to combine these concepts and have campaigns such as “Action Rental”, “Action Sale”, “Comedy Rental”, etc.

Don’t hesitate to create multiple campaigns. You’ll be glad you did when you set up your ad groups as described on page 3.

But first, a few more tips about organizing at the campaign level.


3. Separate campaigns for content and search networks

Google campaigns are organized into two very distinct types: Search and content-targeted. The search network (which also includes Google’s search partners’ sites) displays your ads along with the organic search results in the search engine. The content network is a vast collection of websites that have incorporated Google ads into their website using Google’s AdSense system. In the content network, Google matches your keywords to the content found on the website, as opposed to the search network where your keywords are matched to what the visitor typed into the search field.

If you set a campaign to run on both the Search and Content networks you have just made your ability to track performance much more difficult. Why? Because the clicking behavior of visitors from the search and content networks tends to be quite different from each other. Visitors from search ads tend to be much more purposeful. They are more likely to be looking for what you are selling. Visitors from content ads tend to be more impulse clickers and may be less likely to convert.

You can expect click thru rates (CTR) from search result ads to be something like 100 times the rate of content ads. For instance, you may get an average CTR of 2.00% from your search ads and 0.02% on your content ads. Combine these into the same campaign and your overall campaign CTR may be something like
0.95%, which doesn’t tell you anything meaningful.

Not surprisingly, the cost per click (CPC) from content ads tends to be much lower than search clicks. So with content and search combined, not only is your CTR all muddled up, but so is your cost information. You may find yourself wasting time in a futile attempt to understand just what the data is telling you.

The other reason to create separate search and content
campaigns is that the keyword grouping, ad messaging and optimization for search and content are quite different. While grouping keywords for a search campaign, your focus should be on grouping similar keywords so the ad messaging is focused. While grouping for content, you will probably want to choose fewer keywords and keywords of different types so they trigger relevant content.


4. Separate campaigns for fat head and long tail keywords

Having created two different campaigns for the search and content networks, you may want to take a further step and create a separate search campaign for your “fat head” and “long tail” keywords.

For every category of products or services, there are a few keywords that have a high volume of traffic. These are called fat heads and they usually very broad words which can refer to a wide range of products or services. They have high traffic volumes and therefore attract more bidders, resulting in a higher cost. Their conversion rates tend to be lower but in terms of volume they usually get the most conversions.

Long tail keywords on the other hand have lower volumes but are naturally more specific. They tend to happen later in the purchase cycle and generally have higher conversion rates higher quality leads.

So using this method you would now have the following campaigns:

• Action movies – Content
• Action movies – Search (Top Keywords)
• Action movies – Search (Long Tail)

By putting your popular keywords in a separate campaign you can more easily focus on that campaign on a regular basis without having to wade through the masses of long tail keywords. Of course you’ll still want to peruse those long tail ad groups, but since there is less money on the line you can deal with them less frequently.

Another critical reason to separate these ads is budget management. On Google, budget is allocated at the campaign level. If your fat head and long tail keywords are all combined under the same campaign, the fat head keywords can burn up the entire available budget, thereby limiting exposure of your more profitable long tail keywords. To ensure this does not happen, it is essential to group the keywords by potential volume.


5. Filter Campaign Summary by Network

A dropdown control in the upper-right corner of the Campaign Summary allows you to display only traffic from the Search network, only the Content network, both Search and Content separately, or both Search and Content combined (the Summary view). Because you have defined your campaigns to separate the search and content traffic, you can view this report in the Summary view and still be able to see all your content and search traffic separately.

Now you can sort the Campaign Summary on various columns and it will reveal areas on which you need to concentrate. If you  sort this report by cost and you don’t see all your “Top Keywords” campaigns clustered toward the top, then you should check out your “Long Tail” campaigns to see what important keywords have
not been identified. Sort the column by CTR and you may see the “Long Tail” keywords near the top while the “Content” campaigns cluster at the bottom. If you don’t, you’ll want to take a closer look because there’s probably room for improvement.

The idea here is to give yourself the data you need to triage your ad groups because, as we will see, you don’t want to just go meandering through your ad groups aimlessly—you may never return!

ad:tech NY - Doors Open Wednesday

Wednesday, November 4:

• 7:30am Registration Opens
  
  
• 9:00am Opening Keynote with Sir Martin Sorrell, Chief Executive, WPP
  
  
• 9:55am Keynote Roundtable “The State of the Industry”
  
  
• 10:00am Exhibit Hall Opens
  
  
• 1:00pm Lunch Forum: Incorporate Social Network Intelligence in your Marketing Strategy – and Win!
  
  
• 4:30pm ad:tech New York Welcome Reception in the Exhibit Hall
  
  
• 5:10pm Keynote Roundtable “The Numbers Guru, the Video Maven and the Media Guys – On the Future of Video Online”
  
  
• 7:00pm Bands and Brands Cocktail Party at Roosevelt Hotel

Thursday, November 5:

• 8:00am Registration Opens
  
  
• 9:00am Keynote Presentation from Jonathan Miller, Chief Digital Officer, Chairman and CEO, Digital Media Group, News Corporation
  
  
• 9:55am Keynote Roundtable “Global Perspectives in the Digital Age”
  
  
• 10:00am Exhibit Hall Opens
  
  
• 5:00pm Exhibit Hall Closes for 2009
  
  
• 5:10pm Keynote Presentation “Follow the Money – The Buyers Weigh In”

Friday, November 6: NO EXPO ON FRIDAY

• 8:45am Registration Opens
  
  
• 9:00am Keynote Presentation “Wikipedia, Wikia and the Optimistic Future of Media with Jimmy Wales”

Social CRM Virtual Summit- The largest online conference for social media and CRM professionals

You're invited to participate in the largest online conference for social media and CRM professionals on Wednesday, November 11th, 2009.

At this virtual summit you can:

			Ask for real-world advice by chatting live with industry experts and practitioners from companies including Barnes & Noble, Best Buy, Juniper Networks, Lenovo, National Instruments, Redfin and T-Mobile
			Learn about social trends impacting your business from thought leaders: Mike Fauscette (IDC); Paul Greenberg (The 56 Group); Bill Johnston (Forum One); Brent Leary (CRM Essentials); Jeremiah Owyang and Ray Wang (Altimeter Group)
			Download dozens of valuable white papers, podcasts, and presentations
			Network with other like-minded professionals in a virtual lounge

 

New Design Concepts - The Motorcycle (2 of 3)

Where Vintage meets Modern........

(Design by MS Design,
Photography by Stanislava Georgieva, http://www.stanislavageorgieva.com/)

MS Design

MS Design

OPENING NIGHT PARTY

When: Wednesday, November 4 – Begins at 7:00pm
Where: Roosevelt Hotel


Text NYCPARTY to 66937 for updates, info and your mobile ticket. Join us and don’t miss the special surprise guest performance!

Tatto Media- GIVEAWAY!

Gold sponsor Tatto Media, a leading behavioral advertising network, will be giving away an amazing Apple product package to one lucky attendee!
Featured in the package will be a 3G iPhone, iPod Nano and Macbook Pro. 

How can you win? It’s simple - just give your Apple Pack Giveaway ticket (found with your attendee badge) to one of the Tatto Media staff members at booth #1310 before 4pm on Thursday, November 5, when the winner’s name will be drawn! Winner must be present to win.

Location: Tatto Media Booth - #1310

ad tech- WELCOME RECEPTION

4:30-6:00pm Wednesday, November 4, 2009 in the Exhibit Hall

ad tech- November 4-6, 2009 at Javits Center

My other favorite expo is coming next week. 
Here are the highlights:

Location:
Jacob Javits Center
655 West 34th Street
New York, NY 10001

Register, if you still haven't:

https://register.ad-tech.com/default.aspx?e=New%20York%202009?ref=eEMNY84

Schedule:

http://www.ad-tech.com/ny/adtech_new_york_schedule.aspx?ref=ePBNY9B4

Speakers:

http://www.ad-tech.com/ny/adtech_new_york_speakers.aspx?ref=ePBNY9B4

Exhibitors:

http://www.ad-tech.com/ny/adtech_new_york_exhibitors.aspx?ref=eEMNY84

Invite business partners or client prospects to join you and explore the digital opportunities together:

http://echo4.bluehornet.com/forwardthis/ft.php?mID=2165490&em=mastoyanova@yahoo.com&ch=7e5eca0bf5a15fc045ea85464571e91f 

Sepia colors by MS Design

New Design Concepts - 1 of 3

Where Vintage meets Modern........

This design style represents a combination of Vintage and Modern elements. It is aggressive and emphasizes the beauty of photography as well as the design elements at the same time.   
What do you think? 


(Design by MS Design, www.digitalalbumsdesign.com, Photography by Stanislava Georgieva, http://www.stanislavageorgieva.com/)

The Street

by MS Design

The Wall

by MS Design

PDN's Bash - 2009

PDN's Bash 2009- Photo Boot

PDN- Day One

The show was crowded as always.
The bash was full of people in the industry making contacts.
The bash at the  ballroom was fun.
To summarize: It was a great Day One.

Don't forget, the PDN PhotoPlus International Conference + Expo 2009 begins tomorrow!

Show schedule for Thursday, October 22nd: 

The Jacob K. Javits Convention Center at 655 West 34th St. (on 11th Ave., between 35th and 36th Streets) in New York City.

Registration: 7:30AM - 5PM
Conference: 8:45AM - 5:30PM
Preview for Gold Expo Pass/Conference Attendee Badge Holders only: 9AM - 10AM 
Exhibit Hall Open: 10AM - 5PM
Keynote Speaker - Harry Benson: 12PM - 1PM
Special Event: 6PM - 7:30PM
PDN PhotoPlus Expo Bash: 9PM - 1AM (taking place down the street from the Expo at the Hammerstein Ballroom at the Manhattan Center - 311 West 34th Street between 8th & 9th avenue) 


Bring a Friend…it’s FREE!
The deadline for free expo registration has come and gone, but your friends and colleagues can still get in to the exhibit hall absolutely free! All they have to do is register online and use VIP Code FRIE1. Here is the link:
https://www.xpressreg.net/register/phot109/regInfo.asp?h=&dt=10/21/2009%206:01:44%20PM&prevb=&iq=&e5=&k=&st=1&o=206369&promo2=&sc=FRIE1

70 Beauty-Retouching Photoshop Tutorials

Beauty retouching is probably one of the most popular application areas in which Adobe Photoshop is used extensively. There are two simple reasons for that. First, Photoshop offers a variety of advanced tools to smooth out skin and hair, optimize body proportions and emphasize some beautiful details. And second, if you have some experience with Photoshop it is easy to learn the basics and quickly produce very impressive and beautiful results.
Of course, beauty-retouching is a quite deceptive art. The masters of Photoshop create illusions which are hard to tell apart — unless you have both a genuine photo and the final result in Photoshop and can directly compare them. In fact, every day we consume perfectly retouched stars and models online and offline which just look different in the real life.
Still, it is not the reason to avoid learning advanced Photoshop techniques for beauty-retouching and study examples of how it is done in practice. The list below presents both image-tutorials as well as video-tutorials. Most examples have a before-vs.-after-comparison and you can follow the modifications with Photoshop step-by-step.
http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2008/07/15/70-beauty-retouching-photoshop-tutorials/

You may want to take a look at the further Photoshop tutorials selections we’ve presented earlier:
http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2008/01/10/adobe-photoshop-tutorials-best-of/
http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2008/03/28/adobe-photoshop-video-tutorials-best-of/
http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2008/04/03/adobe-photoshop-tutorials-rainbows-glows-and-light-effects/

This information is brought to you by MS Design.

The Biggest Event in Photography Begins Next Thursday

Here's a short selection of just some of what you'll hear at the Conference:

FC11 - Creative Adobe Lightroom 2
Oct 23, 2009 – 3:30 PM to 5:30 PM
Sponsored by Adobe

In this hands on session, you'll learn how to make the impossible, possible—and have a wonderful time doing it! Join Julieanne Kost to discover how being a little unconventional in the way that you process images in the Develop Module can lead to creative breakthroughs and inspiring images.

SC11 - The Fine Art of Black & White
Oct 24, 2009 - 3:30 PM to 5:30 PM

Join Sean Perry as he demonstrates his favorite image enhancing strategies - beginning with a raw scan and detailing the process to the final master file, articulating Photoshop from a wet darkroom point of view. Learn how to better express their camera and print making experience into effective digital darkroom techniques with Photoshop.

FA2 - Luck, Preparation, or Both? My Photography and Other Stories
Oct 23, 2009 - 8:45 AM to 10:45 AM
Sponsored by Canon

Join photographer Simon Bruty as he dispels the myths of sports photography with a presentation of memorable photographs and the stories—both technical and anecdotal—that transpired behind the lens.

Create 3D photo- Web solution for online sellers

3DBin is your user-friendly / low-cost / high quality software solution for 360° objects photography. We automatically process and weave together your object or product snapshots to create animated flash files for your website or use it as your tool for on-line auctions sites like eBay. Using 3DPhotos allows your visitors to see more details with a full 360° view of your objects or products. Take a free spin with 3DBin the 3D marketing solution for customer satisfaction.http://3dbin.com/

Photography by J Paul Studios

Design by MS Design

Photography by J Paul Studios, design by MS Design

Part Three: Using Twitter for Business

Use Twitter for Marketing

1) Use Twitter to drive people to your company’s website. Tweet about interesting resources your employees have posted on your blog or website. Have you recently published a white paper that people can download for free? Tweet about it, linking back to the download page on your website. If the content on your site is truly remarkable, people may start tweeting about it on their own! They can share your resource to their friends on Twitter.

2) Monitor your brand on Twitter. Using the aforementioned Twitter Search tool (http://search.twitter.com), you can search and track what people are saying about your company, products, competitors or any other hot words in your industry. Set up an RSS feed to receive all search results in Google Reader. If you find someone tweeting about your products or a person who is looking for a solution that your product provides, let them know!

3) Use the Twitter “Favorites” feature as a list of company testimonials. To the left of each
tweet in your Twitter stream, there is a little star. When you click the little star, that tweet gets added to your Favorites Tab. As you track what people are saying about your company in Twitter Search, favorite all of the positive tweets. Third‐party testimonials are valuable by showing the public what other people think of your company. The next time someone asks about your company, send them the link to your Favorites page. The URL for this page will be http://twitter.com/USERNAME/favorites.

4) Use Twitter to promote events. Tweet‐ups are a great way to get to know your Twitter community offline. The next time your company holds an event, fundraiser or open house, tweet about it! Best practice is to send people directly to an event sign‐up page.

Think of a hashtag for your event before you start tweeting about it. Earlier in the eBook, we mentioned how HubSpot used #IMS08 for the Inbound Marketing Summit. Selecting a hashtag for your own event will be beneficial in a few ways:

a) During the event, people often use the hashtag while live‐tweeting, or tweeting what they see/hear in real‐time. The hashtag will aggregate the event tweets, building an online conversation around the event.


5) Use Twitter to promote new tools. Twitter users love new toys, especially if they create some sort of outcome, grade or analysis of the person using the tool. Make the results of your tool/grader as easy to Tweet as possible. Perhaps you could add a “Tweet this grade” function. Make sure your tool is as easy to share as possible!

6) Establish yourself as a thought leader in your industry. By tweeting about useful resources and thoughtful tips, you and your company will eventually develop thought leadership, and people will consider you an expert in that particular subject. Be sure to link to your own resources as well as others.  People who are not at the event will see your hashtag and perhaps use it too. A popular #hashtag often sparks curiosity, and people will go to http://search.twitter.com to follow the conversation around the event.


Use Twitter for Public Relations

1) Develop relationships with reporters, bloggers and other media people through Twitter.
Reporters and big‐time bloggers are incredibly active in social networks, especially when gathering information for stories. Two resources that have a great list of the media people on Twitter are:
Media Outlets:
• https://twitteringjournalists.pbwiki.com/Media+Outlets+Using+Twitter
Media People:
• https://twitteringjournalists.pbwiki.com/Media+People+Using+Twitter
• http://mediaontwitter.pbwiki.com

2) Watch for tweets about editorial opportunities. Because the nature of Twitter is very quick‐response, it’s a great place for media people to look for last‐minute, additional resources for their stories. When following bloggers and reporters on Twitter, keep close track of their tweets and scan for any opportunities.
It’s also a great idea to send reporters tips to other links and resources simply to be helpful and
improve your relationship with the media person, even if it’s in regard to another company. The
media person will be thankful for your help and more likely use you as a reference when the
subject is applicable to you!

3) Direct Message reporters instead of sending them an email. By sending a direct message, you
are forced to create a short concise pitch that a reporter is more likely to read. Also, direct messages are very casual, and some media folks prefer DMs to email pitches. Also, it saves you the time it would normally take to write a lengthy pitch. Remember, you can only DM people if they follow you back. However, don’t pitch too much; they could easily unfollow you making it much more difficult to connect.

4) Use Twitter to check in on your media person before PR pitching. Check to see what the person
you’re about to pitch is up to before contacting them. In the event that the person is sick, having a bad day or away on travel—it may be best to contact him or her at another time.


Use Twitter for Customer Service

1) Respond to concerns people tweet about your company or products. Designate a specific person in your company to track your company name and products in Twitter Search. That person can address any negative comments, give feedback and help customers solve their products in real time. The speedy response will impress the customer! Comcast at http://twitter.com/ComcastCares does a great job tracking and addressing customer concern.

2) Use your company account to update customers with any temporary down‐time. If you work for a company that offers an online service, let your followers know if you anticipate down‐time or if there is a glitch you are working to fix. Your customers will be less upset and more appreciative that your company is
trying its best to relieve the problem.

3) Be sure to follow back everyone who follows your Company Account. Although it’s acceptable
to pick and choose whom you want to follow back in your personal account, there’s no reason to limit who your company follows. If you want, set up an auto‐follow account with a third‐party tool like Tweetlater (http://www.tweetlater.com – note, this is not affiliated with HubSpot). Also, the added benefit of following back everyone who follows your company account is the ability to DM you.

4) Do not send an auto direct message whenever someone new follows you or your company.
It’s easy to get into the trap of automating your Twitter activity. Many people will set up an auto direct message (or auto DM) to be sent to every new follower. This looks artificial, and could make you appear
apathetic about building true relationships with your customers.


Track and Analyze Your Campaigns

Now that you’ve integrated Twitter into different elements of your campaign, it’s important to find
components that you can track to judge its effectiveness. We recommend tracking the following metrics
in your campaign.

1) Reach: Total number of followers. This number is your raw distribution power.

2) Response Rate: Average number of @replies per tweet. When you sent out a link or a question, how many people respond?

3) Branding and Awareness: How often people reference your company or products. Use Twitter
Search to track.

4) Twitter Grade: Your overall effectiveness of your Twitter account. Calculates the number of
followers and the influence of their followers. (http://Twitter.Grader.com)

5) Sales Funnel: Number of visitors from Twitter who visit your company website that convert to leads.
Using the data from these elements and tracking it over time, you should be able to make smart decisions about how to further utilize Twitter in your campaigns.


Conclusion and Additional Resources

After reading this eBook, you should have the baseline knowledge to get your Twitter account started
and begin growing your network. Remember that the Twitter community is dynamic and rapidly developing space. Be creative and think of other methods to apply Twitter to your campaigns!

Want to learn more about using Twitter for Marketing and PR? Download the free webinar for lots of tips and tricks to drive your inbound marketing to increase traffic and leads using Twitter. (http://hubspot.me/?Twitter)


This information is brought to you by MS Design.

Part Two: Setting Up and Optimizing Your Profile

Step 2: Personalize Your Profile

Now that you have your account, you need to personalize it. It is important that you personalize your
account before you begin interacting and following people. Before you add information, your account
looks boring. If you start following people without a personalized profile, it is less likely that person will
follow you back. You may even be mistaken for a spammer. Your profile is where you can reference your company, your blog, talk about your interests and list your location. Click the Settings Button at the top right corner of your screen.

The first item in your profile is your name. Always list your real name when using Twitter for business.
You wouldn’t introduce yourself with a fake name at a tradeshow. Why should you do it here?
For your URL, or web address, it’s best practice always to include a link. Put a link to your:

• Company website
• Blog
• Personal website
• LinkedIn Profile

In the “One Line Bio” section, be as descriptive as possible. This is your elevator pitch—your opportunity
to convince people to follow you back. Consider it a snapshot of your background. You can include:

• Your company
• Your position
• Your hobbies/interests
• Your specializations
• Your recent projects

Also make sure to list your location. Many people follow back those located in their geographic area to expand their local network. Put it in standard City, State format so it can be picked up by lists for your
area. Don’t lose out on this opportunity. The last option in profile settings is the “Protect my updates” box. By clicking this, your Twitter stream
will be private, and no one will be able to see your updates without following you. We do not
recommend clicking this to protect your updates. Many people judge whether to follow someone back
through the type of information they tweet. You are as valuable as your updates; don’t keep people
from getting a peek!
If you’re worried about random people or strangers seeing your updates, remember that you are in complete control over what you say. But feel comfortable being yourself. After you fill out your profile information, it’s time to add a picture of you, also called your avatar. It’s important to put a face to your name. For this step, visit the Picture Tab. Then pick a nice, smiley photo to represent you. (If you’re creating a company account, use your logo.)


Step 3: Start Tweeting

Even before finding people to follow, we recommend tweeting a few things that will give people an idea
of the type of content you will be tweeting. Your most valuable asset is the information you provide.
So what can you tweet about?

Types of tweets:

1) An observation: Tweet about what you’re doing, thinking or feeling
2) What you’re reading: Post a link to an interesting blog post or news article
3) What you’re watching: Post a link to a cool video from Hulu or YouTube
4) What events you’re going to: Share a link to the next conference you plan to attend
5) Promote your content: Post a link to your most recent company or personal blog article
6) Promote someone else’s content: Post a link to someone else’s blog article as a helpful resource
7) Chat with someone: Send messages using an @ sign (to be explained later)
8) Retweet what someone else has said: Retweet (using RT or Retweet in the beginning of the
message) to repeat what someone else has said

If your profile is all set up, click here for a great first tweet about what you are reading right now!
(http://hub.tm/?WPXOU)

Remember that everything you say is public! Don’t say anything you wouldn’t say at a networking
event. Even if you delete a tweet, it might still be archived on the Internet and could be found.


Step 4: Find People to Follow

Building your network is the most challenging and time‐consuming part of using Twitter. Expanding your
network doesn’t happen immediately; you need to commit and take the time to use Twitter effectively.
By following people, you will receive their updates on a regular basis in your Twitter stream. This is your
chance to learn about their lives, check out the blog posts they are reading and meet the people they
interact with. Following a good‐sized community can be valuable and fun!
But where can you find people you would want to follow?

1) Twitter Grader (http://Twitter.Grader.com): This is a free resource offered by HubSpot. You can use it to discover the “Twitter Elite” of your city and search for people with interesting information in their profile. For example, find people who list “software development,” a specific company or a location in their Twitter profile.
2) Twitter Search (http://search.twitter.com): This free resource—previously called Summize—is a search function that helps you find people who are tweeting about specific words. For example, you can find people who have tweeted about “public relations.” Follow people talking about the topics you enjoy. Also, use Twitter Search to see who has tweeted about your company.
3) Follow People Your Followers are Following: Once you begin receiving updates from a
handful of people, watch to see whom those people chat with using an @reply. Maybe that
person would be fun to follow as well!
4) Follow Thought Leaders and Bloggers: See if any of your favorite bloggers are on Twitter.
Many bloggers include a link to their Twitter account in their sidebar or personal info section on their website.
5) Collect People’s Twitter Names at Events: Like we said before, many social media‐savvy people will include their Twitter handle on their nametag at an event. Write down their names and follow them later. You can find their Twitter account by adding their handle to the end of http://twitter.com/USERNAME. For example if someone tells you to “follow HubSpot,” you can type http://twitter.com/HubSpot in your browser’s navigation bar to find us. If you are not sure if someone you just met is on Twitter, ask!
6) Follow Hashtags (#) at Events: At many events, the organizer will establish a hashtag (Ex: #IMS08 was the 2008 Inbound Marketing Summit), so anyone tweeting at the event can include the hashtag (#) in their Tweet. Follow those people who are at the same event as you who you may not have met in person yet. (This is a bit more advanced, and hashtags will be explained in more detail later in this eBook.)

Following Don’ts:

• Don’t follow too many people at once: Best practice is to follow no more than 25‐50 people a day, because there will be a time gap between following people and having them follow you back. If your profile says you are following 2,000 people and only 30 followers have followed you back so far, it appears that 1970 of those who you followed chose not to follow you back. This unfavorable ratio makes you look like a bad person to add to one’s network. Wait a little bit to give people the chance to follow you back before
finding a new batch of people to add to your network.
• Don’t follow hundreds of people at once and remove all who don’t follow you back: Although
many people do this in order to have a “valuable ratio” (or more followers than people you’re
following), it is artificial network building and not a best practice.

Step 5: Get People to Follow You

Following people and receiving their updates is great, but in order to have valuable two‐way conversations, you need people to follow you back and receive your updates too. This is why it is so important to get your profile fully set up before reaching out for new connections. If you follow someone who doesn’t already know you, you need to have sufficient information about you in your profile so that person can make the decision whether to follow you back or not. Having followers is important, because they are your network who will see your tweets. Think of your total number of followers as your Twitter reach.

1) Make your company’s Twitter usernames easy to find. Create a page that lists all the Twitter handles of the people in your company. By giving your customers an easy way to interact with individual people, it helps them get to know the type of people who work at your company. It also gives insight to your brand!


2) Make your tweets useful resources so people need you. You are what you tweet. People will want to follow you if they think they will get value from your content. You want to avoid making your Twitter account purely a promotional tool. Would you subscribe to a newsletter if it didn’t have anything useful to say? What specialty knowledge do you have that you can share?


3) Interact with those people you follow who don’t follow you back yet. Make sure to monitor
your Twitter stream, and comment on what people are saying. Give feedback; compliment
people. The key is to engage.



Step 6: Engage With Your Network

How do you tweet at a specific person?
In order to send a message to another person on Twitter, you need to use an @ before the person’s
name. Think of it as the “address” of tweet. Remember that this type of message is still public, viewable
by anyone in the world.
Here is an example of how you would send a tweet to HubSpot.

Example: @HubSpot What’s up?
By putting @USERNAME at the beginning of your tweet, Twitter knows who to send it to. This type of
tweet is also called a reply or @reply (Pronounced “at reply”). All of the @replies you receive will go
into your @Replies Tab.

If you don’t put @USERNAME at the very beginning of your tweet, it will not go to that person’s replies.
Example: “The other day I checked out Twitter Grader by @HubSpot”

The above tweet would not go into HubSpot’s Reply Tab. Also note, anytime you put an @ in front of
someone’s username, it automatically becomes a link to that person’s profile. This feature makes it easy
for you to check out those people’s profiles and engage with them as well.

It is also possible to send someone a private message on Twitter. These are called direct messages or
DMs. Send a direct message by either going to that person’s profile or clicking the “message” link on the
right hand side of the person’s profile or by tweeting D USERNAME and then your message
Example: D HubSpot Do you want to meet tomorrow? This will be a private message that won’t go into
the public Twitter stream. You will receive an email with the direct message, and it will also go into your Direct Messages Tab. However, you can only DM people if you follow them and they follow you back.


Part Three: Using Twitter for Business- Coming Up NEXT...

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The conference: 200+ speakers and 60+ value-driven panels with topics ranging from online video ads to social media to multi-channel marketing.

The expo: 250+ exhibitors, seven keynote presentations, exclusive parties, lunch forums & more!

http://www.ad-tech.com/ny/

Setting Up and Optimizing Your Twitter Profile

So now you need to get signed up for Twitter!
Before signing up, consider if you want a personal or a business Twitter account. Both are good for a
company to have, but serve different purposes.

Company account: Represents the company as a whole. Use this type of account to:
• Keep your customer base up‐to‐date on your events
• Promote recent blog articles or news
• Update your consumers about products/services
• Give real‐time updates at conferences and events

Personal account: Used by an individual employee at the company. This account type is more
personalized, can be used to talk about non‐company related things and is better for direct relationship
building. Use this type of account to:

• Act as a liaison to the public for your company
• Update people on what you’re working on
• Share tidbits about your personality
• Expand your company’s network and make connections

For this eBook, we will walk through the steps for creating a personal account. The set up for a company
account works almost exactly the same; however, the name of the account should be the name of the
company and the content of its updates should not include individual or personal information.

To get your own account, go to http://twitter.com and click the “Join the conversation!” button.
Clicking this button will bring you to a page where you will select your username and password.

Your username is very important. This name will be how people will refer to you on Twitter, and
potentially how people will acknowledge you if you ever meet any of your Twitter followers offline.
Think of your Twitter handle as your personal brand name. That’s how important it is.

Ideas for Twitter Handles:
1) Your full name (JamesDean)
2) A variation of your name (JDean)
3) A combination of your name and your company (CompanyJane)
4) A combination of your name and your industry (MarketingJane)

Making your Twitter handle as close to your name as possible will make it easier for people to recognize
you at a conference or event. However, sometimes people will put their Twitter handles on their
nametag to avoid confusion.

Using your real name on Twitter helps you look like a real, authentic person if someone stumbles upon
your profile.

If you will be the only person representing your company on Twitter—and you do not plan to make a
company Twitter account—why not use the third option and make it a combination of your name and
company? Don’t feel obligated to do this; you will have the opportunity to put your company in your
profile (explained in the next section).

Twitter Handle DON’TS:
1) Don’t make your Twitter handle something completely random (TigerMan). This is a lost
branding opportunity for you and your company.

2) Don’t use numbers (Joanne123). Unless there is a reason for the specific numbers, it looks
juvenile. It also conjures the old AOL chat room days. It gives you the appearance that you aren’t
putting thought into your username.

3) Don’t use an underscore (PR_Max). Using an underscore won’t hurt you, but be aware that it
generally is never done. Use at risk of seeming unaware of the “social norms.”

After you choose your handle and click “Create my account,” it will bring you to a screen asking to check
if your email contacts are already on Twitter. If you have a Gmail, Hotmail or Yahoo account, feel free to
see if anyone you know is already signed up. (However, this is not a required step. Feel free to skip.) If
you do decide to check, beware of the prompt asking if you’d like to invite them all to Twitter. This will
send a message all your contacts. Only do this if you want to.

Design by MS Design

Twitter from a Business Perspective

In short, Twitter is a relationship building and relationship maintenance tool; the most obvious business
use of Twitter is to meet potential customers and leads the same way you would at networking event or
trade show.

However, you can also use it to:
1) Develop and promote your brand
2) Interact with your customer base
3) Track what people are saying about your company and brand
4) Create buzz around upcoming events
5) Help individual employees act as liaisons to the public
6) Promote other content you’ve created, including webinars, blog posts or podcasts
7) Develop direct relationships with bloggers and journalists for potential PR placement

This eBook will first explain the steps to get involved in Twitter and then explore how to fully utilize it
from a business perspective.

Basic Twitter Vocabulary

Twitter Handle: Also known as a username. This is the name you select to represent yourself.

To Follow: To subscribe to someone’s updates on Twitter. You do this by clicking the “Follow” button on
that specific person’s Twitter page, which can be found at http://twitter.com/USERNAME. (Insert the
specific person’s username into the URL, like http://twitter.com/HubSpot). When you follow someone,
their updates will be displayed on your Twitter page so you know what they are doing.

To Follow Back: To subscribe to the updates of someone who has recently started following you.
Whenever a new person follows you, you receive an email alert from Twitter. In the email, there will be
a link to that person’s profile. By clicking the link, you can check out who they are and decide to follow
them back or not. It is not required to follow everyone back, but many people like to.

Follower: A person who has subscribed to receive your updates. You can see your total number of
followers on your Twitter profile page.

Update: Also known as a tweet. They can be no longer than 140‐characters. (Later we will talk about
different types of updates.) You post your update in the white text box under “What are you doing?”

@Reply: A public message sent from one Twitter user to another by putting @USERNAME at the
beginning of the tweet.

Direct Message (or DM): A private message sent from one Twitter user to another by either clicking the
“message” link on their profile or typing D USERNAME.

Twitter Stream: A list of a person’s real‐time updates. Every time you post an update, it goes into your
Twitter stream, which is found on your account page also at http://twitter.com/USERNAME.

Tweet‐up: An event specifically organized for Twitter‐users to meet up and network, usually informal.

Hashtag (#): A tool to aggregate the conversation surrounding an event or theme. Created by combining
a # with a word, acronym or phrase (#WORD).

Retweet (or RT): To repeat what someone else has already tweeted. People do this if someone has said
something especially valuable and they want their own network to see the information too.
(Example: Retweet @USERNAME: Check out this cool resource).

Twitter 101

So, what is Twitter?
Quite often, people’s gut reaction to Twitter is, “No one needs to know
what I’m doing” or “I don’t care what other people are doing.”
While this may be the surface view, Twitter is also a great way to expand
your network. In the words of Chris Brogan, Twitter is a useful communication tool that allows you to
interact with people around the world in three different ways:
1) Send a short message to a bunch of people publicly
2) Send a short message to a specific person publicly
3) Send a short message to a specific person privately

Twitter is also referred to as a "micro‐blogging" service, meaning you can post short updates limited to
140 characters or less. Why? Originally, the limitation was created to make Twitter compatible with
mobile phones and text messaging. Now, it’s a useful characteristic that allows users to receive rapidfire,
concise information from many, many people!

Inbound Marketing and the New Rules

The majority of today’s “traditional” marketers use outbound marketing to reach their audiences. For
message distribution, they use print media, radio and TV. For lead generation, they use direct mail, cold
calls and email blasts. These methods may have worked in the past; however, by using tools like
TIVO/DVR, email spam‐blockers and caller ID, consumers block messages they don’t want. People now
control how they consume media and what messages they care to hear.
But all is not lost! Consumers still want to learn about the best products and services for their needs.
The key is they want to find this information on their own, most often by using the Internet. For
example, someone might peruse the blogosphere to read first‐hand experiences with a particular
product. Maybe that person will also search for reviews online or engage with others in social media to
learn other views and opinions.
Instead of continuing to push marketing messages out, effective marketers adapt to this consumer
behavior by creating marketing campaigns that pull people into their business. This strategy is called
inbound marketing. Inbound marketers offer the public useful information, tools and resources to
attract people to their site, while also interacting and developing relationships with consumers on the
web. Inbound marketing tools include blogging, content publishing, search engine optimization, social
media and social networks.
Twitter is one of the most powerful social networks for your business.

How to Use Twitter for Business - Beginner’s Guide

Dear friends,

Because of the raising popularity of social networking websites many businesses ask the question:
HOW TO USE TWITTER TO PROMOTE MY BUSINESS?
I will be publishing the most important steps a business must follow to achieve success with Twitter using a guide by HubSpot.  Here is the table of Content and the first part of those valuable lessons:

Table of Contents

Intro to Twitter
Inbound Marketing and the New Rules
Twitter 101
Basic Twitter Vocabulary
Twitter From a Business Perspective

Setting Up and Optimizing Your Profile
Step 1: Sign Up for Twitter
Step 2: Personalize Your Profile
Step 3: Start Tweeting
Step 4: Find People to Follow
Step 5: Get People to Follow You
Step 6: Engage With your Network

Using Twitter for Business
Use Twitter for Marketing
Use Twitter for Public Relations
Use Twitter for Customer Service
Track and Analyze Your Campaigns
Conclusion and Additional Resources

PDN PhotoPlus Expo BASH!

Thursday, October 22, 2009 at 9:00pm

Hammerstein Ballroom at the Manhattan Center

311 West 34th Street (between 8th & 9th avenue)

New York, NY

 

https://www.xpressreg.net/register/phot109/promostart.asp?f=1
 

 

Photography by Umberto Esposito 3

Album design by the designers at MS Design  

Photography by Umberto Esposito 2

www.digitalalbumsdesign.com

Photography by Umberto Esposito 1

Professional Photographic Associations:

APA www.apanational.com - Advertising Photographers of America
ASMP www.asmp.org - American Society of Media Photographers
ASPP www.aspp.com - American Society of Picture Professionals
BCA www.bca.org - Biocommunications Association
CPI www.mycpi.com - Commercial Photographers International
EP www.editorialphoto.com - Editorial Photographers
IAAP www.architecturalphotographers.org - Association of Architectural Photographers
IAPEP www.iapep.com - International Event Photographers
NANPA www.nanpa.org - North American Nature Photography Association
NAPP www.photoshopuser.com - The National Association of Photoshop Professionals
NPPA www.nppa.org - National Press Photographers Association
PACA www.pacaoffice.org - Picture Archive Council of America
PMA www.pmai.org - Photo Marketing Association
PPA www.ppa.com - Professional Photographers of America
SAA www.stockartistsalliance.org - Stock Artists Alliance
SPS www.studentphoto.com - Student Photographic Society
WPJA www.wpja.com - Wedding Photojournalist Association
WPPI www.wppinow.com - Wedding and Portrait Photographers International

Current Lightroom News

http://lightroom-news.com/

Current Photoshop News and Portal to Digital Imaging Sites:

http://photoshopnews.com/

Why should photographers outsource design and retouching services?

If you could gain some extra hours each week, what would you do with them?
Take some time off? Spend it playing with the kids? Work on marketing and growing your business? Spend more time doing what you love - taking photographs? Simply regain a little sanity?
You don't have to do it alone, and you don't need the complications of employing staff. Simply outsource specific tasks to the professionals, and free yourself up to do the tasks that only you can do - or the ones you enjoy!
Give yourself back the time and freedom to be creative!

Photography by Adriatic Studio

Album design by MS Design

Photography by Adriatic Studio

Art effects by MS Design

Check out the Album Competition at WPPI

http://www.wppionline.com/winners.aspx

News by Wedding Photographers International (WPPI)

The Second Half 2009 8x10 print competition will open on September 25, 2009!

PDN PhotoPlus International Conference + Expo 2009

The biggest event of the year for photographers is approaching. Of course I am talking about PDN PhotoPlus. It was great that there was a preparation for this event earlier in the summer, when a Virtual show of the event was made. I visited the show and it was great! The only difference was that it was happening in front of the computer.
Even if you missed PDN's Virtual Trade Shows on May 21 and June 11, 2009, you can still see all the great seminars. Visit the Virtual Trade Show archive for a replay of Technology Specialist Dan Havlik's keynote, "The Rise of the Combo Camera: How The Latest Still and Video Tools Can Make you a More Versatile Photographer"; "Best Practices on Promoting Yourself and Your Work," PDN's Jeanine Fijol, photographer Kevin Meredith and presented by MOO;  "Cutting Edge Portrait and Wedding Photography" featuring Kevin Kubota and PDN deputy editor Jacqueline Tobin; and many more. And you can do it all from your computer. You can also hear panelists' answers to questions submitted by the live audience.

Registration for the PDN Virtual Trade Show is easy and it's free. Click on the link below to register (or, if you're a return visitor, just enter your email and password.) Once you're in the trade show exhibit hall, head to the Auditorium to see a list of all the seminars you can click on and play.
http://vshow.on24.com/event/14/17/88/rt/registration.html?eventid=141788&sessionid=1&key=FEC0D98EF9DD57D1EFCD16826A740772&partnerref=ARCHIVE
(Information provided by PDN Gear Guide)

Introduction

Dear Visitors of this blog,

I would like to introduce MS Design Services for Event Photography and offer some interesting details about our work, which is also our passion.
I have a small team of graphic designers and we love working with pictures by various photographers. We focus on enhancing the beauty of their images and create unique layouts for each client. We also tell a story trough design effects and the sequence order in which given event is happening.
Sometimes it is challenging working with demanding clients, however it is rewarding to see that after all the hard work, they got exactly what they were looking for. Even more exciting is the feeling when the photographs, which we are working with are so amazing, that they are inspiring us on entire new level, much greater than we ever thought it could be.

Thank you for visiting this blog! Expect much more insights and helpful information. Don't forget to follow the newest updates and share MS Design's blog content with friends.

 Sincerely,
Mariya Stoyanova

Purpose of this Blog

Dear readers of MS Design's blog,

Our purpose by creating this blog is is to expand the community of photographers and graphic designers by discussing important industry matters, sharing useful information and exciting experiences.

The content of this blog will contain  important events information, links and answers to questions from the industry and not only. Please feel free to post questions on the blog content. You will be getting answers to your questions on timely matter.

Finally you may contact us to request our services as album designers. We provide unique layouts, quick turnaround (5-7 days) and server space to upload your images online. For more information, please visit our website at www.digitalalbumsdesign.com.

Thank you!

MS Design's Founder and CEO