What's in YOUR blog Mike and Anna Costa?

Ok, so last week I introduced a new "column" here on my blog called "What's in YOUR Bag?" where I featured the lovely and astonishingly talented Jasmine Star. Well last week I also wrote an article for DPS called Building Your Blog: 10 things to consider when building your rockin' photoblog encouraging aspiring photographers to get their name out there the best and fastest way they can, through a photoblog. Thus I decided to make this week's installment of "What's in YOUR bag?" a little twist on the original concept and ask Michael and Anna Costa for some info on what makes their blog SUCH a BOOMING success.


Michael and Anna Costa are a world renowned husband and wife photography team out of Santa Barbara, CA. This young team is storming through the industry, and they're making quite the splash. They're dead center on the radar of many industry leaders:

Be sure to take a second to check out their website and PARTICULARLY take the time to join their rock star photog forum: Photo For the People| a Forum.
Without further ado, I give you Michael and Anna Costa:

ME: What blogging service, ie blogger, wordpress etc. do you use for your blog?
COSTAS: We have two blogs! His & Hers? Anna's blog is a "Blogger" blog and Michael's is "Big Folio Blog."

ME: Do your images appear true to what you imported from your computer once they're published on your blog? Do you feel your blog allows for a good representation of your work?
COSTAS: Yes! We love how both our blogs show off our work accurately.

ME: What do you LOVE about your blog service/hosting?

COSTAS: With Big Folio - we love the clean, designer layout of it. It is a seamless transition from our website to our blog because the looks are so similar. I love the blogger blog because it's user friendly and everyone is comfortable posting! Since so many people have a blogger blog it's very familiar to use. Anna's blog was created to interact with clients/friends/family & fellow photographers more - so it's been great in that way, the bigfolio blog is more an extension of our portfolio.

ME: What would you change about your blog service/hosting?

COSTAS:

• For Big Folio - We would change the method of leaving comments. Since they are going for style and design, the comment links are really small and they are also repeat for every image post - even if it's within the same over all post. It makes creating a conversation type atmosphere a little more challenging.
• For Blogger - If you customize your URL away from the standard "blogspot" they make it a lot more difficult for you to customize the blog. We can see why they do this, but it's still sort of annoying!
  

ME: What do you think constitutes a good blog?

COSTAS: One that drives traffic! For us, it's really the person that is posting that makes or breaks a blog. If the content is interesting, personal and is updated regularly then you'll have a lot of people checking it out. As far as design/functionality, we'd say a good blog is simple and easy to use. If you are trying to portray a image of yourself then the design needs be there. But it all depends what your going for!

ME: Any particular tips for "pimping" out your blog?

COSTAS: If you already don't know how to "pimp" out your blog - save yourself time and energy by hiring someone who does!

ME: Anything else you'd like to add?

COSTAS: Blogs are awesome and are an amazing tool to connect with people you would never have had the opportunity and constantly show new work to the industry, clients, etc.

Michael and Anna,
Thank you so much for being such
fantastic contributors to the photographic community.
I wish you every wonderful success
and hope that our paths will cross one day soon.

xoxo,

Natalie

**Please note: If you have follow up questions regarding this post, please include them in the comments below. If I am unable to answer them all, I will compile them and send them over to Michael and Anna for their response. Please don't inundate this couple with inquiries. They were EVER SO KIND to give us the scoop in the first place, let's not add more to their already LOADED plate. Thanks!

Happy Shooting and have a great weekend!