Author: Bill

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Resurrecting an old but popular Ocean City website.

A travel/business directory style site is being repurposed for local art and entertainment.

I am in the process of resurrecting an old travel/destination website, Visit Ocean City at www.OCtheBeach.com, that had a major server crash last year. I am also repurposing it to be an art and entertainment resource for the Ocean City area. We live two miles from Ocean City and do like the music/entertainment at many venues in the area. I will focus on our favorite entertainers and venues within the Beach Resort Area from OCMD to Bethany Beach and Rehoboth Beach because those are the ones with which we are most familiar.

The focus on Ocean City art will, of course, feature photography by me – and be billed/promoted as Bill Swartwout Photography and USPictures. For “Visit Ocean City” I have chosen to feature Pictorem as our POD (Print On Demand) fulfillment partner because they offer free ground shipping within the United States and Canada, where most of our site viewers reside. The produce high quality work and have a satisfaction guarantee. See the intro article here: Ocean City Art Gallery.

Bill Swartwout Photography Ocean City MD Header Image

For many years, OCtheBeach.com was a premier travel directory for the Ocean City area and provided information about local businesses and, of course, a way to book a hotel room. The original site was launched in Late May of 1999 and served for nearly two decades as one of the more popular Ocean City Websites. We were even a member of the Ocean City Chamber of Commerce for 11 years – until they started to directly compete in the hotel reservations market, which was our main source of revenue.

OCtheBeach.com is being “reborn” to coincide with its 23rd “birthday” and is, once again, providing value to Ocean City visitors. There are myriad other websites and (of course) Facebook sites and groups that extol the virtues of every place to dine, stay and play. Visit Ocean City will offer a slightly different “view” of the Beach Resort. We hope you, too, will find it useful.

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Defining One’s Muse for Creating Art

If I do have a muse it is in the form of Mother Nature.

Starting as a child of 11, when my parents gave me a home darkroom kit, I spent most of my time shooting and printing captures of Mother Nature’s creations around where we lived. That has continued throughout my life.

My photography is defined in the way I capture light and shadow and endeavor to do so in the way those elements are created in natural scenes, be they landscapes or seascapes, night or day.

Fenwick Island Dunes and Waves
Fenwick Island Dunes and Waves and Sea and Sand in the Afternoon Sun

I could not say why I “create as I do” but I know that if something out there catches my eye, I will go and take a look. Someplace in my mind I like to think that my photography attempts to capture some of the beauty seen in nature. No matter what medium or the camera used, I have tried to capture the essence of what is seen in nature through the camera. Being able to do so allows me to enjoy every shoot and, as a result, my camera becomes an extension of my eyes.

It is true that the architectural endeavors of mankind are also creative and beautiful and at night they may need artificial light (man-made) to be seen. However, during the day it is Mother Nature that brings out the designs, forms and textures of that architectural “masterpiece.”

Historic Waccamaw River Bridge in Black and White
Mother Nature sets the stage for the creations of man, the bridge and the pier are surrounded by the texture, light and shading that sets this scene apart from normal – especially in a black and white presentation.

My goal or wish, through my photography and writing, is to share with you the view of Nature that I have come to know over the last half century. Just as a painter strives to find unique ways in capturing and creating images, I too am always searching for a variety of creative outlets in photography and, occasionally, in writing.

Photography with its many disciplines is vast, it has been said that there are as many definitions as photographers. My photographs may not be for everyone, but if someone wants to see my work I invite them to do so at:

Link to: My Full Gallery at Pictorem

Link to: My Ocean City Gallery at Pictorem

Link to: My Full Gallery at Fine Art America

Link: Fenwick Island Dunes and Waves Panorama

Link: Waccamaw River Memorial Bridge at Conway in Black and White

The world is full of photographers, the ubiquitous cell phone camera has made sure of that, and anyone can look at the creations of others and say to themselves, “I could do that.” But do they (or we) really have the “eye” to see it? The creative eye that takes something out of nothing and creates a work of art? What does one need to do in order to create art? I have been striving to answer that answer for a very, very long time.

What I am seeking is what my Muse gives me when I visit her throughout the wonder of Creation’s pathways. What is within me seeks expression in the form of capturing a feeling or mood which often resides in the compositions that appear before me. For me it starts with an idea and evolves into the moment of commitment to an image. That is what I endeavor to share with my viewers and buyers.

Camera Screen with a Scene of the Indian River Bridge at Sunset
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Initial Results from my Personal Daily Blogging Challenge

I am seeing growth in traffic and page views beyond my expectations.

Let’s begin with a caveat: One must keep in mind that I am comparing January numbers, one of the slowest sales months, to December and the holiday shopping season. Therefore, I believe any growth AT ALL is a significant increase.

Graph of User Growth USPictures January 2022
Graph of User Growth USPictures.com mid-December, 2021 though the end of January, 2022.

One is tempted, possibly because of innate vanity to describe success based on feelings or “what I think” is happening. That is all a feel good, pat yourself on the back, reaction and may be OK in general conversation. However, what follows is my sharing of actual data, the metrics of which are derived from the Analytics service from Google and from AWStats, an internal statistics package on my leased server space.

Remember the rationale for this is a rebranding of my USPictures domain and to create more SEO “juice” (search engine results) for my own sites – rather than for the stockholders of FB, Twitter or any POD with a forum.

While I have several blog/websites related to (supporting) several of my art photography collections, I have chosen to focus the first part of the year on my personal blog at BillSwartwout.com and my “rebranded” site targeting United States landscape/seascape images at USPictures.com.

USPictures.com was “moved” from being pointed to my premium site at Fine Art America to its own server space in mid-December so I could offer more choices for my customers, including the Free Shipping at Pictorem, another quality POD (Print on Demand) company. See “Rebranding and an Art Challenge.”

Therefore the numbers for USPictures.com and BillSwartwout are based on a comparison of daily averages, not one month vs another month. This is to keep things on an even keel, so to speak.

The Results Are In:

I am not sharing actual numbers, just percentages. The following percentages increases are for BillSwartwout.com & USPictures.com, respectively

Number of Visits: 124% and 189%

Page Views per Visit: 187% and 174%

SEO/Organic Search Results: 175% and 325%

Averaging all of those results yield an average growth in one month of “Daily Posting” of nearly 200% (195.6% to be exact).

But Wow, those Organic Search Results, a 250% increase, are far better that what I was hoping to see at the one-month mark. That means the longer I can keep growing the sites’ SEO the less dependent I am on Social Media.

Hey, these increases are after only one month of Daily Article Posting, or Blogging, if you like. Imagine what may/will happen after another couple of months. Or the whole year. Not too crabby, eh? – Er, I mean, not too shabby.

Yum - a Big Crab Claw Image Matted and Framed

Right?

Geno Prussakov, a long-time affiliate marketing colleague, about a dozen years ago, decided to try posting one new article every day for a solid year in order to help his business grow. He did and it did. AM Navigator at https://www.amnavigator.com is one of the best Outsourced Program Management Agencies in the world today. I am proud to call Geno a friend.

I would certainly appreciate any observations or comments you care to make (below). Your critique or insights may help me improve my outlook and or marketing strategy.