Hello all,
As you likely know (since you are reading this) our blog is the primary avenue for us to provide some insight into our business and pass along useful information to others. The content of the blog, however, varies dramatically – from technical issues and insights, to product reviews, to general company announcements. While this is a very convenient forum to disseminate this information, few people regularly subscribe to blogs. To provide an alternative forum for our announcements, one that directly engages our friends, we have initiated a company newsletter. This newsletter (which can be signed up for at http://cityescapesphotography.com/newsletter-popup.html ) is expected to be issued approximately monthly, and will be used to share information such as new releases, specials, and other items of general interest.
We use Google group to manage the email list for our newsletter. This free forum allows us to collect email addresses directly from our web site, through the simple web page listed above, without requiring a google account. By adjusting the group settings, we have set it up so that only the list owner – namely me - can post to the list, and that the email addresses of our members remain private. The site also automatically archives the email messages that are sent – providing an easy place for members to look up old postings. To ensure maximum dissemination of these announcements, we email the newsletter to both our Google distribution and our blog site at the same time. From there, the blog's RSS feed sends it on to Facebook and other general distributors. We considered having the blog's RSS feed directly send email to the group list, but we did not want every blog post to be converted into a newsletter, since some of the postings focus on topics of non- general interest.
Our Flickr site (http://www.flickr.com/photos/cityescapesnaturephotography/ ) is a place for us to post snapshots of our trips. While Jodi is focused on taking photographs that are appropriate for our business, I often take snapshots that will help us remember the trip. These are not at the quality of Jodi's pictures, but can be fun in their own right, and help us preserve our memories. Since many of our friends have asked about our excursions, we have decided to post a small number of these snapshots on-line to better share our experiences in the field.
While we wanted to share these shots, it was important to us that we clearly differentiate them from the photos that we sell, since they are significantly different. Flickr provided an excellent forum for us to share snapshots with our friends without complicating the management of our primary gallery. Furthermore, since Flickr provides an RSS feed of the pictures through its photostream, we can automatically propagate these snapshots to other locations such as Facebook. Other photo sharing sites, such as Picasso, provide a similar functionality. We chose Flickr because it simply met our needs while providing additional features that we might want to pursue in the future.
Terence
City Escapes Nature Photography
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