Dan Oksnevad Photography Interview Name of your website?Dan Oksnevad Photography Your name? Dan Oksnevad Your Location (city, etc) Minneapolis Please give us a short summary of your website? My website is a place to showcase my photography portfolio.~~ What inspired you to launch your own website? It is essential in this day and age to have a website for your business. In the photography field an online portfolio is especially necessary to your marketability and success. When did you first launch your website? It went live in early 2009. How did you decide on a name for your website? I just used my business name. What makes your photography different from your competitors? Our contemporary wedding style is a fusion of multiple approaches to wedding photography. We offer brilliant colors, bold contrasts, and a balance of classic elegance and modern glamour. Portrait sessions are orchestrated to create vibrant images of the bride and groom and wedding party. The moments of getting-ready, the ceremony, and the reception are captured candidly, allowing the emotions and story of the day to be told as it happened. How does your website compliment your photography style? I went with a flash website - featuring large galleries 900px x 530px to display my images. While flash is far less SEO friendly than HTML - it offers much more elegant design and presentation. My new blog is currently being coded in HTML - a more SEO friendly companion to my main flash website. What is the eventual goal of your website? I would like to continue to build my website and blog - and updating each year with the latest weddings I have photographed. If you had an unlimited development budget for website, how would you change it? I would certainly hire a SEO expert to continually ensure that my site is searchable, and getting the maximum exposure. I would also change some things in the flash coding, making my site more unique and visually stimulating. If your site got really big, really quickly, would you be able to keep up with the demand? There are only so many weekends in a year to photography weddings. The absolute maximum I would take on in a calendar year would be 40 weddings. If my website hits begin to explode and I reached that towards that maximum number of bookings, I would pursue a referral system to other photographers in the industry. What unexpected costs and headaches have you had to deal with? The greatest problem with my website has been the What has been your biggest challenge? I originally began my business in Chicago, but moved to Minnesota mid 2009. As much of my web-traffic and leads were generated through a local word-of-mouth network - I had to essentially start over. However I have seen a great response in 2010, and am very pleased with my bookings for the year. What method has been most successful for promoting your website? Without a doubt word-of-mouth. Secondly online advertisements (via PPCs) have yielded positive results with relatively low cost. How has running your website differed from your expectations? When I first began my lead generation and customer targeting was not solely directed to my website. However, with time and experience I have moved my efforts to almost exclusively direct leads to my website. How long will you continue to keep your website up if you don't enjoy big gains in traffic, income or popularity? I will keep my website up indefinitely. I may change the website design, layout, hosting, domain name, or a number of other things, but as long as my business is in operation I will always have an online presence and web-based portfolio. Do you focus only on local clientele? Our primary base is in Twin Cities area, but we do focus on the Midwest as well, and photograph several destination weddings each year. We are available for bookings year-round, and travel to all destinations is welcome. What is your website address? Dan Oksnevad Photography | 
