marketing

But of course not on Wordpres.com. That would be a major no-no here.

Alright folks. Here’s this. I originally started this blog with the innocent idea of sharing my experiences as a dad and as a potential photographer, while every now and then including a post or two about the great web and mobile apps that make our lives so much easier and cyber-connected these days. Networking and getting to know great moms, dads and photographers along the way was another reason I started Dad’s Pixels.

Then SmugMug came along. Well, actually I’ve been a customer of theirs for about 7 years now but it wasn’t until recently that I realized this magnificent photo storage and sharing solution I have firmly believed in for all these years could somehow help me put food on the table.

Bottom line is I have joined their Partners Program and plan to blog about their offerings with two objectives in mind: One; to help fellow parent-ographers (see what I did there? Parents + photographers = parento… oh you know what I mean) make the most out of their online photography endeavors while B) Making a little bit of money on the side thanks to the purchases you my dear reader will hopefully make once you click on the occasional affiliate link I plan to insert here and there. Thus my reason for moving Dad’s Pixels from WordPress.com to Squarespace and launching a new version of the website. Please read the update below.

Anyway, I’m glad I’ve let that out of my system. I will continue to update this affiliate-free, no-ads version of Dad’s Pixels (in case things don’t work out at Squarespace and I decide to come back to WordPress.com) writing about family, photography and the web and only every now and then will I write reviews and blog posts containing affiliate links on the SS version, which is where I’ve moved the domain dadspixels.com. Whenever I do, that’ll be the first thing you’ll be notified of so you can decide whether you want to continue reading or not.

So that’s that. Wish me luck, will ya?!

UPDATE: I came. I saw. I didn’t conquer. Nope. Not in my wildest dreams. August came and went and the numbers never added up, so as of yesterday (September 12th) I’ve stopped throwing my money at Squarespace (as fine a service as they are) and decided to come back to WordPress.com, where it’s a lot cheaper to keep a blog no one reads anyways. So you keep on wishing me luck y’hear?!

It’s all your fault, SmugMug.

I’ve been a happy WordPress.com user for a number of years now. I enjoy the sense of community the platform provides and its ease of use; with little or no technical knowledge required in order to run a decent looking blog. My only issue is how monetizing your blog, ads and affiliate links are all major no-no’s here.

Enter SmugMug’s Partner Program. SmugMug is no doubt the premier photo sharing service and I really believe in the solutions it offers. I would endorse and recommend this service any day and twice on Sundays; with my eyes closed. I believe the value SmugMug brings to the community of photo-loving dads (my target audience) is of such caliber that partnering with them seemed like a match made in heaven and an obvious option.

Thus my current predicament. Is it time I moved this blog to a self-hosted .org version? Or maybe go with SmugMug’s pals over at Squarespace; which by the way offers gorgeous website-making solutions aimed mainly a photographers and photo-bloggers.

Your two cents would really come in handy right about now, so if there was ever a post of mine you were planning to comment on, please make it this one, would you?

UPDATE: After careful consideration I decided to give Squarespace a try for a few months but I’m sorry to report things never really worked out. At least not the way I had envisioned. Months came and went and the numbers never added up, so as of yesterday (September 12th) I’ve stopped throwing my money at Squarespace (as fine a service as they are) and decided to come back to WordPress.com, where it’s a lot cheaper to keep a blog no one reads anyways. You are now free to go ahead and continue not reading this blog.