The Lousypoet

So I sat down and started working on Carolyn’s business logo.  She really likes the whole teal/orange colour combination, so I worked with that palette.  I decided this time around to go with the monogram style logo.  Here’s the variations I came up with.

So initially I figured I would do the classic monogram contained in border box look.  To keep it a little fresh and slightly funkier, I skewed the box so it didn’t contain the full monogram and was slightly of kilter.  The next version was the monogram just on its own above the text, but pulled and warped so that it was the full length of the name.  The next two versions are the monogram set at the front of the name, in the case of the first, the M in the monogram is actually used as the first letter in the last name.  The next one separates the monogram from the name, but leaves it at the front still.  Finally, the last two were melding the monogram and name together so that it was actually the monogram itself that separated the name from the word photography.  The only difference between the last two designs is that I trimmed the tail of the M in the last one.  I actually like the trimmed look best of these two, and I think this design is my preferred of the bunch.  Problem being, it just looks so pedestrian and common.  It says nothing of the photographer, her business, nor is there anything iconic about it.  In fact, it looks just like what it is, amateurish.  Given these designs, I think I like my original kick at the can better than all of these.  I’m just trying to plot it out in my head what I can do that will be professional, funky, and maybe kind of fresh, so people don’t feel like it’s the same thing they’ve seen dozens of times before.  Also, I don’t think these colour combinations work that well in a logo.  Maybe in larger doses in images or designs, but in a simple logo they just seem to get lost.

So it’s back to the drawing board on these.  I’m just not sure what direction to take.  I’m wondering if I should do the remodel on the website and see if that gives me any direction.  That was how I designed the original logo, it came about while I was designing the website.

Not so much because I’m a superstar, it’s just it’s something I really enjoy. Graphic design is something I could spend hours looking at, studying, and then putting my own spin on things. Maybe when Carolyn’s done school I’ll see if I can pick up some part time courses.

Anyway, I’m in this frame of mind because I’m thinking Carolyn’s website needs a makeover. It looks really amateurish, and her logo isn’t something impactful that would look good on a business card or letterhead. I’m doing my research, and marketing is a huge part of surviving this photography thing. Looking better than your competition can sometime be more important than your images. I suppose that’s a sad statement on the attention spans of our society, but sometimes you just have to roll with it if you want to make it.

Carolyn’s a big fan of the grunge look, which seems to be having a huge surge in popularity. I can understand why, I feel pretty drawn to it myself. The conundrum is how to making something professional first, and then kind of grungy and funky at the same time.

I’ve spent hours looking at logos that existing photographers are using, and they almost all use their monogram in some manner. Thing is, I was told by someone that if you are going to be a professional photographer, you should market yourself, not some random made up business name. Because the goal is to become big enough that you are what people demand. I mean, look at Joe Mcnally, Chase Jarvis, or Zack Arias. These guys are doing it under their name and are a huge success. So really, the business should be Carolyn Macpherson Photography. Just what to do with that….

The existing logo looks like this,

It has that grunge factor, but there’s no real pop to it.  It lacks colour, which I think it could use, and I suppose the whole Photography backwards is a kind of lame attempt at being original.  I’m giving it some thought.  I’ll need to look at the fonts we have.  Maybe play around with Carolyn’s signature.

I’m also left with what to do about her website.  I’m leaning toward a clean design.  She might not like the lack of serious grunge, but we need to start thinking about this as a potential business, not to mention that an online portfolio is part of her final course marks, and I want to make sure we have this thing nailed down before that deadline gets anywhere close.

So I’m currently awful at Twitter. I admit it, I’m a hardcore lurker. I rarely raise my head from the muck to draw any attention. This isn’t such a great idea to get others to follow you, or to show a publisher that you can build some kind of personal hype machine around your book, but seeing as how publication is quite some ways away, I’m not going to stress over it.

That said, Twitter can provide some links with great insight into writing in general, using Twitter, and just generally making yourself known on the web. In that spirit, here’s four links I found interesting today;

Cheryl Klein posted four techniques to get to the emotional heart of your story. It’s quick, to the point, and extremely useful.

Jo-Lynne writes a great article giving seven ways to be worth following on Twitter.

Following this link will give you some great tips on being creative.

Finally, if you want to get more interactive on Twitter, this link will give you some great points.

Several months ago, I created a Twitter account. I admit that I did it during a phase where I felt compelled to sign up for everything I thought might promote this here website. I suppose that drive came from an insane idea I had that by putting links for this site in numerous places, I might

a) Drive more traffic to the site

b) Improve my Google Pagerank

c) Make mountains of money from Google Adwords and Paid to Post programs

Well, I no longer do Paid for Post (as I stated back in May) and when I started using the new layout, I decided to fore-go the Google Adwords (no one was clicking them anyway), so all that linking was redundant.

According to my pagerank counter, I don’t get shit in terms of traffic each week either, so that was a huge bust.

And last but not least, my Google pagerank currently sits at 0, so that was about as big a bust as could be!

Now, this has been a long winded-round-a-bout way of getting to me being on Twitter. I never did use it until I convinced Carolyn that it might be a good networking tool; once I saw how much she was using it, I decided to join the fun.

One of my watches is Writer’s Digest. They’ve got a great mag, some really useful online content, and provide some great insight into the craft of writing. So they just posted a few tweets that I had to share.

The first is a cool little idea that could provide you with some much needed inspiration during those dry periods of creativity. It is to type a few words into Google and see the results that the autocomplete suggests. I’ll let them tell it in their own words, go check out How to Write a Novel Using Google’s Autocomplete.

Secondly, is a great list that might entice you to Twitter (if you want to be a writer). Meryl K. Evans (@merylkevans) wrote a great article called 50+ Writer Uses For Twitter. This one got me pretty psyched about using Twitter, and I added her to my following list.

I suppose it’s for links like these, and hopefully a whole bunch of others from Meryl’s list, that I’m trying to increase my Twitter presence. If you feel so inclined, you can Follow me on Twitter (@Lousypoet).

A while ago I wrote about setting up a Cafe Press Storefront. In that time I’ve made one whole sale. Now, I suppose I should be bummed about that, but seeing as how I only ever did two designs, I guess it only goes to figure. Anyway, through another website I discovered Zazzle.com!

In many ways it’s like Cafe Press. You create original art that is then fitted onto products. Zazzle creates these products and ships them to your customers. By doing this, you earn a commission off every sale.

The benefit of Zazzle though, is that it offers far more products, and is entirely free. Cafe Press would only allow you to create a finite number of items if you were using the free site. If you wanted to offer multiple items, or a ton of different designs on the same style shirt, you had to pay to upgrade to their pro account. Not something I really wanted to do when I’m just doing this for some fun.

So I’ve decided to set up shop over at Zazzle. I’ve put the original designs I had at Cafe Press up for sale, and I’m hoping to do some more soon.

If you want to check out the store you can visit http://www.zazzle.com/Lousypoet*.

So for now, I’ve opted to go with Michael Tyson’s Wordpress theme, Elegant Grunge. I kicked the can around what I wanted to do with the site, but I just kept coming back to this theme. Since I just couldn’t get myself to come up with anything better, I decided to give in and use the theme as it is. This is a first for me. I always make changes to the themes I use. I can’t think of a time when I didn’t do anything, not even an original title graphic! Maybe if I find myself with some time I’ll put a little effort forth and come up with at least a little something original.

None the less, I like the simple look of this. It’s got a little personality, but it’s muted and I’ve been thinking I wanted to go to dark text on a lighter background, instead of the reverse which is what I’ve used in almost every version of the Lousy Poet to date!

So here it is for now. It’s a change, and I can live with it. I think that’s all I really need for now.

So I finally broke down and purchased a copy of Artful Blogging. My impressions of this magazine I will save for another day, but let me say that it has inspired me! I realise now that in truth, this has rarely been a blog. In essence, this is a website that I have often packed with filler in order to keep the appearance of activity. Let’s face it, the Word of the Day only exists for the purpose of making it easy to post every day. It is fluff. A mass of insubstantial, space filling, fluff. I realise in reading the testimonials of these talented bloggers, that I have never given myself to blogging in the truest sense. I have been here to fill space with mindless drivel that is available just about anywhere on the net.

You see, the problem here is simple when you tear down the wizard’s curtain… I don’t know who I am.

This site initially existed as a static website where I posted prose as I completed it. This meant that the site’s content changed only marginally over large amounts of time. So I decided to hop on the blogging bandwagon and change the site into a blog. Only I never truly considered what my blog would be about. While I wanted to be a writer, my content was neither copious enough, or of sufficient quality, to be the sole basis for a blog. While I enjoy reading and watching films and anime, I don’t love, nor analyse them, enough to create a truly interesting blog based on them either.

I apologise if this sounds as though I am merely whining or trying to be a narcissist, but really this site is about who I want to be on the net.

We are receiving a decent tax return this year, and I’ve asked my wife if I can use a small portion to buy myself a digital point and shoot camera. I have a desire to get out there and take pics, and then write something that is fitting to the image. That is what I want to do. Perhaps I will also indulge some time with Carolyn’s latest fascination, Copic markers. These things are wicked cool, and she’s going to a course to learn all their inner workings at the end of March. We’ll see where that leads.

I guess what I want to do is get my hands dirty. Get out into the world and make something real. Stop pondering the what ifs and the maybe I shoulds and just do something. Naturally, that is going to require some changes.

While I enjoy the current layout of the Lousy Poet, I need the content area to be wider, and I can’t help but feel that the site is a little too dark in colour for what I envision. I think what I will do is get to work on a new layout and when I get my camera, start doing some work. When I have a few things put together (at least enough to call a decent start) I will officially relaunch the site.

Now I only have to decide if I keep the fluff or if I should just let it all go and stick with real, meaningful content. Just to be on the safe side, I’ll probably stick with both;)

Until the sky falls,

Rob

I’m not sure if I just want to add something, or just overhaul the whole damn thing. I guess it all depends on the kind of time I find myself with in the next few days. Is Twitter worth getting into? I know Neil Gaiman does it, but is it really all that useful? I think there’s a plugin for Wordpress that will display your twitters on the site. Maybe I’ll look into that, I also have an update for my Now Readiing plugin. It hasn’t worked properly ever since I upgraded to Wordpress 2.7…

So a free way to get some traffic to your site is to join webring.

Admittedly, it’s been a while since I was really all that involved with Webring. They changed the rules a while back, adding a paid level to their membership, and at the time I just wasn’t that interested in continuing. Besides, the site I had active on the rings was my Evangelion website, and since I had let that go, I wasn’t in much the mood to get overly involved again.

Well, as time goes by, you find yourself wanting to get some targeted traffic driven to your website. And, since the blogosphere is wide and vast, a little sense of community doesn’t hurt.

So, back to Webring I went. I’ve now registered the Lousy Poet in a number of rings, and I’m seeing at least a few unique visitors a day from it. Actually, it’s pretty cool. Webring now keeps stats on the total people who have visited your site via the rings, and how many people visited per day. There are more advanced stats available if you upgrade to the paid membership.

For now, I’m sticking with my free membership. It allows you to have up to five pending webring membership requests at a time, which I find is sufficient because most webring masters have you approved within a day or two. You can also create your own ring if you feel your particular niche is under served. I created one for Unpublished Original Poetry. We’ll see how many people join. Right now, it’s just the poor old Lousy Poet holding down the fort

Anyway, if you haven’t joined already, give it a try. Click on the image below to get started. And if your site has poetry that has not seen the glory of publication, maybe consider joining my little ring at http://v.webring.com/hub?ring=unpublishedorigi.

Did you know that aside from 12 days I have posted something new every single day since July? I think that’s more than I have ever done on any incarnation of The Lousy Poet.

With this post, I will have 467 posts, 39 pages, 37 approved comments, 2533 spam comments, 31 Categories and 161 Tags. And most of that is within the past year because this incarnation started at 0 in November of 2007 (and I only posted things on 1 day in November and 1 in December of that year!).

Just thought I’d share