Lady in Butterflies
This photogenic dog is a family member of my brother’s family. The kids love her greatly. In a post 2 days ago, I talked about starting a new site (within my regular site) for my enhanced animal images that I make. I take a photograph of an animal companion (this one is supplied by my brother) and put them into a field of flowers or butterflies.
Lady in Butterflies, Digital © Diane Clancy
Yesterday Neda responded to my post with, “Good idea. Want some suggestions for the new business? How about “Petproject†or “Yourpetproject†or “digi-petâ€?? Submitting these just for fun!” Thank you, Neda for being enthusiastic and having suggestions!! I appreciate your ideas!
I hadn’t thought about having a new name for this part of my business. I have been using “Enhanced Animal Images†for these images. I have also been using the words “animal companion†rather than pet to show the significance animals have to many people. What do you think? What would you like to see on a site? Maybe pet is more direct and honest. But I have a fawn and bear cub too.
But I hadn’t gotten further than that. This new site it not set up yet – but I am planning to use www.dianeclancy.com/animals as the address of the new site. It may not be quite as effective as a whole different site and url, but it is more cost effective.
I would love to get your feedback on these issues. Do you think it should be clear the animal images site is part of “Diane Clancy’s Art”? Or should this little site look totally different, as if it is an unrelated site? I remember when I took that day long internet workshop, the people running the workshop were marketing multiple sites for people to purchase. Of course, they showed samples of their success stories. Often people’s sites had a similar “feel” if they were marketing the same item with just a different slant.
Would it be useful to have links into my main site (as this blog does)? How about linking from my main site to this animal portrait site. (Notice that all of a sudden they are portraits …) I have a section of my main site devoted to these images. Do I leave that section there or just send people to the other enhanced animal portrait site?
Thank you for your help – again – in setting directions!
~ Diane Clancy
Technorati Tags: enhanced animal images, Neda, animal portrait site, marketing
Diane, you are too kind. Thank you for putting my little contribution on your blog…Thinking about the business angle is always traumatic for me…My advice 🙂 is go with what your heart tells you. One the one hand, it’s good idea to have name recognition. On the other, you will have a totally free hand in “inventing/exploring” a totally different way of doing things. If you have the energy, go for it. Best of luck!
Sounds like a great idea.
Hi Diane,
Just kicking a few ideas around here. What if people had a favorite animal that wasn’t necessarily a pet? (Such as a medicine/totem animal?) When I first saw “enhanced” on your website, I was expecting something like restored photographs of animals, so maybe there is a better choice of wording. I think I might be tempted to have this page stand out from the rest of your website but to make it clear it is still part of your site, with links back to at least the home page.
~Sue O’Kieffe
http://sacred-circle-mandalas.blogspot.com
Wow – thank you for the feedback I have gotten so far – please keep the comments coming – they are being quite helpful!
Thank you to all three of you for your encouragement! you have each been helpful.
I like the idea of having it clearly be part of my site but a little separate – in my heart that is how I want it. I was thinking of a similar but different background color and such. So it feels related but a little apart.
OK – about “Enhanced” – that is excellent feedback that you thought it meant restored. So I need some new words here. If it isn’t enhanced, then what is it?
I am glad I am being able (I think anyway) to let go of one of those cherished notions that I created – that clearly isn’t expressing what I want to express.
Any ideas? Thank you!
~ Diane Clancy
I was just listening to a marketing cd yesterday that emphasized how you can’t (and should not try) to be all things to all people. Choose a narrow niche and go deeper. Better yet, choose more than one niche and market those separately.
If I saw Enhanced Animal Images, I would think you were talking about animals in general. I think your niche of people’s pets is a good one and you might have a name that is very clear, such as Digitally Enhanced Pet Images. People might have different ideas of what “digitally enhanced” means, but in general they will think that you are adding or changing something to the image.
If you think that there is a large enough market for totem animals, you could have another site or page for that. Digitally Create Your Totem Animal might be a good plug for that. You could offer a free mini-course on how to determine what your totem animal is and then use that email list to let people know exactly what you do.
Thank you again for all this feedback! Neda also emailed me and gave me some similar suggestions.
What do people think in terms of “pet” vs “animal companion”? Animal companion is a lot of mouthful for a name. So is “digitally enhanced” but maybe that is needed.
I would love to get some more feedback on this! I always thought of my kitty as a companion rather than pet – but the word, pet, wouldn’t have stopped me. Perhaps pet is just right! It wouldn’t be the first time I was wrong!
Then going back to Neda’s comment “How about “Petproject†or “Yourpetproject†or “digi-petâ€??” Just want to pin this down so I can get my business cards printed!!
But it is important not to rush, I know, I know.
Please keep talking with me,
~ Diane Clancy