Here’s a quick list of the pros and cons of being a freelance and working remotely.

The PROS of being a freelancer and working from home:

• You make the rules and have absolute control over every aspect of your workday.
• You can make as much money as you want and you get to keep it (well, about 75% of it after taxes).
• Skip the long commute! When you’re working remotely you just pick up your laptop and get to work!
• You can work from the comfort of your own bed, snuggled up on the sofa, in your assigned seat on an airplane, or oceanside with a cool drink in your hand.
• As a freelancer, you can write-off your home office, marketing expenses, mileage, equipment costs, and other business expenses when you do your taxes. Be sure to check the IRS’ website for details.
• Take as many vacation days as you’d like!

The CONS of being a freelancer and working from home:

• You have the power to make yourself incredibly successful, or not.
• Your time and effort equals money and you’re responsible for making it all happen.
• You need to purchase whatever equipment and software that it will take in order to make your freelance business successful. This can quickly add up and cost you a pretty penny.
• Because you can literally work from anywhere, people will expect you to be working wherever you are. Be sure to set boundaries for yourself so that you get some downtime. Otherwise, you’ll quickly get burned out and even consider heading back to that exciting 9 to 5 lifestyle.
• When you’re working remotely, taxes get a lot harder! It’s so nice that you can write things off, but rules are sometimes in the grey area and this can cause a lot of undue stress. Lessen your burden by keeping very detailed records and hire a professional to do your taxes.
• Time = Money, I mentioned this above. So take as many vacation days as you’d like, but don’t forget that you aren’t getting paid. If you’re relying solely on freelance work, the paycheck stops when you stop delivering. So be cautious with how you schedule and diligent with your budgeting to make sure you’re covered at the end of the month.
• Freelancers do not get fringe benefits, including health care. If your spouse does not have health insurance that covers you as well, be sure to plan accordingly.

Ready to get your freelance business started? It all begins by setting up a simple website that serves as your marketing hub to showcase the products and services you have available for clients to purchase. If you’re all ready to do it all yourself, head over to BlueHost to get your hosting set up and install WordPress. It’s super simple!

If you need help getting your website established, let me know. I’d love to help.

Here’s how you can reach me:

Amy Sallie
ATTERBIE LLC
Hudson, OH 44236
amy@atterbie.com

Today we covered:
The Pros & Cons of Being a Freelancer and Working Remotely

You may also be interested in reading:
How to Start a Blog In 9 Minutes

In the spirit of honesty and full disclosure, this post contains affiliate links, which means that I may get a commission if you decide to purchase anything from one of my favorite companies listed above. I only recommend products and systems that I use and love myself, so I know you’ll be in good hands.

The post The Pros & Cons of Being a Freelancer and Working Remotely appeared first on Atterbie.

Responsive web designs are those adapt to the size of the screen, no matter how the site is being viewed. In short, you create one design that automatically adjusts the way it is viewed – no additional design required. Adaptive web design is where you take one main design and then create individual layouts based on standard screen sizes. It requires a lot of additional work on the front end when you’re setting up your site.

The pros to responsive web design:

• Less work on the front end, as you only create ONE website that will work on any screen.
• There are a large number of responsive theme options available to WordPress users, making the design phase easier.

The cons to responsive web design:

• Because your site is fluid and will match whatever sized screen its faced with, you can not absolutely predict the way in which it will appear for the user.
• The more control you desire over the way your site is viewed, the more time it will take to adjust your responsive options and set up your main design.

The pros to adaptive web design:

• You have absolute control over the presentation of your site.
• This is the latest and greatest when it comes to website design.
• Load time is much faster on adaptive sites than responsive.

The cons to adaptive web design:

• Requires a LOT of work on the front end, as you are required to set up multiple designs in order to fit a number of different standards screen sizes.
• There are less themes available to users and require a little more research in order to find one that will best suit your needs.

Not sure which one to choose for your new website? It really comes down to what you’re hoping to accomplish within your site and how you can create the best user experience in order to increase conversions. If you’re a total DIYer and ready to start developing your new site, head over to BlueHost to get your hosting set up and install WordPress. It’s super simple!

Ready to get started on developing your new website? I’d love to help!

Here’s how you can reach me:

Amy Sallie
ATTERBIE LLC
Hudson, OH 44236
amy@atterbie.com

Today we covered:
Responsive Vs. Adaptive Web Design

You may also be interested in reading:
How to Start a Blog In 9 Minutes

In the spirit of honesty and full disclosure, this post contains affiliate links, which means that I may get a commission if you decide to purchase anything from one of my favorite companies listed above. I only recommend products and systems that I use and love myself, so I know you’ll be in good hands.

The post Responsive Vs. Adaptive Web Design appeared first on Atterbie.

Just to make sure we’re clear here… I’m talking about a self-hosted blog that’s built in WordPress. While it’s not 100% free, the cost is as low as $3.95/month (totally affordable, right) and you’ll have full ownership and control over the content.

You will be able to use this blog or website, whatever you want to call it, to promote your brand and start making money!

How to Start a Blog in 9 Minutes

Step 1 in How to Start a Blog:  Go to BlueHost.com and click on ‘Get Started Now’.

Step 2 in How to Start a Blog:  Choose a plan.

BlueHost offers three options – Basic, Plus, and Prime. If you’re just getting started you can stick with the basic plan. It will provide you with more than enough to get started. End up needing more power or extra storage space for your email? You are free to upgrade your plan at any time. Here’s a quick screenshot of the three BlueHost plan options.

Step 3 in How to Start a Blog:  Choose a domain.

One of the perks of signing up for a hosting account with BlueHost is that they include registration for one domain name. That means it is absolutely FREE with your new hosting account. Even if you already have a domain name that you love, I highly recommend that you take advantage of this free domain name that they offer and register something new even if it’s just a back-up for your site.

Step 4 in How to Start a Blog:  Create your account.

Simply fill in the blanks and click on ‘submit’.  It’s super easy.

You’ll notice that there is zero setup fee (it’s totally free) and there are a few other options that you get to choose from:

• Domain Privacy Protection – $0.99/month
  Totally optional, but super helpful if you want to avoid spam calls and prefer not to have your personal information published on a domain registration site like whois.com.
• SiteLock Security – $1.99/month
  Extra security for your site. If you’re hosting confidential information or are afraid that you’ve got something spammers most definitely want, go ahead and sign up. Totally up to you.
• Codeguard Basic – $2.99/month
  Automate your backup system with CodeGuard Basic. If you don’t want to think about backing thing sup on a regular basis or need the confidence of knowing that your info is secure in the cloud, go for it!
• Bluehost SEO Tools Start – $2.99/month
  Would you rather not learn all there is to know about SEO? Bluehost has a plan that will help automate things for you and make sure that your SEO is taken care of.
• Comodo PositiveSSL – $3.33/month
  Keep your site and your customers secure with a security certificate.

Need additional information in order to make a decision on which to purchase? No worries, just click on ‘more info’ and you’ll learn everything you need to know. I’ll tell you from experienced that I’ve worked on sites that use all of these options and also those that use none. What you choose when it comes to how to start a blog is completely up to you.

Step 5 in How to Start a Blog:  Install WordPress.

Once your new account is complete, chances are that BlueHost is going to take you directly to a ‘Getting Started’ page that will guide you through the process of starting your blog.  You can choose if it’s for personal or business use, and then opt for a free them in order to get started.

Watch for my next blog post that details how to choose the best theme for your new blog!

Have a comment? Need help? Leave me a comment below or get in touch.

Here’s how you can reach me:

Amy Sallie
ATTERBIE LLC
Hudson, OH 44236
amy@atterbie.com

Today we covered:
How to Start a Blog in 10 Minutes

In the spirit of honesty and full disclosure, many (not all) of these are affiliate links, which means that I may get a commission if you decide to purchase anything from one of my favorite companies listed above. I only recommend products and systems that I use and love myself, so I know you’ll be in good hands.

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The post How to start a blog in 10 minutes – Domain name appeared first on Atterbie.

Specific SEO methods may vary, but the basics remain the same; keywords, metatags, descriptions, titles, headers, filenames. If you’re at all interested in SEO or if you are a DIYer and built your own site, chances are that you’re already familiar with most of these.

But, do you know the secret magic behind Alternative Text aka “Alt Text” aka “Alt Tag”?

What exactly is Alt Text?

A description of the image it is tied to.

No matter what web host, software, or platform you are using for your site, there is always the option to fill in an Alt Text field for your images. You can usually find this field under image options along with title, caption, description, etc.

Technical definition: An attribute added to an image tag in HTML.

For example, here’s a screenshot of what my edit screen looks like (via BlueHost) for the photo above:

If you have any trouble finding your Alt Text fields, feel free to reach out in the comments below.

What does Alt Text do?

Search bots can’t see photos. Your image may be worth its weight in gold, but those darn bots just don’t care. What they DO love and take note of are image titles, descriptions, captions, and alt text.

Here’s the short list of how Alt Text works for you.

1. Help search engines (those mean ole bots) understand what your image is all about.
2. Display text inside the image container if for some reason the image cannot be displayed.
3. Serve as the default filename should someone right click and save one of your images.
4. Serve as the default description should someone pin your image to Pinterest.

What should you use as your Alt Text?

Utilize this space as another plug for the keywords and phrases you’ve already identified to help you reach your target audience. Your Alt Text does NOT need to be the same for every single image, so use it to your advantage and adjust where necessary.

Why is this an important part of SEO for Photographers?

Photographers have a unique opportunity with their websites that other businesses do not. Your work is based on creating images that clients love and your website is the best place to show them off. This means that you are generating content (that your clients TRULY want to see) on a daily basis without even trying.

Take advantage of this opportunity by publishing as much of your work as possible on your website.

My #1 recommendation to photographers that want to increase their search engine result ranking is to blog. Blog each and every session. Include a short story about your clients or details on the props you’ve used to create a specific image, to make sure that you’re hitting the word count minimum. Then, make each blog post beautiful using the photos that you’ve worked so diligently to create.

Each post you publish will have a dramatic impact on your site’s ranking as they’re satisfying the search bots in two ways – through the actual content you’ve written and the images (with alt text that includes keywords) you’ve shared.

Do yourself a favor though, before you publish to your blog…. set up the Alt Text for each and every one of the photos within your post. While it adds another step to your process, it really only takes a few extra seconds and I promise you’ll be happy with the results.

I’m not a photographer, but I love alt text opportunities and sharing photos.  

Each of the images included in this post were created by Lovebug Photography by Courtney Ucker. She’s amazing!

If you are ready to get your site in front of potential customers and trying your darnedest to get your SEO in order but just can’t seem to get results, please get in touch with me! I’d love to chat with you about your goals and come up with a plan of action steps in order to achieve them.  

Here’s how you can get in touch with me:
Amy at Atterbie
PO Box 951, Hudson, OH 44236
Email: amy@atterbie.com | Call: (234) 380-1753

I can’t wait to hear from you!  Amy

Atterbie is a digital marketing services agency located in Hudson, Ohio. We specialize in website development, search engine optimization (SEO), local SEO, content writing (blogging), and digital marketing strategy.

The post Atterbie – Search Engine Optimization Hudson Ohio – SEO Hudson Ohio – SEO for Photographers – Alt Text Details appeared first on Atterbie.