A rather frazzled wedding photographer asked out aloud why her wordpress.com based blog/site was suddenly seeing advertisements that she hadn't approved. I quickly contacted her and let her know that because her site was (nameofherbusiness.wordpress.com) she was having WordPress dictate what goes on her site. What she has is a “managed” blog site. One easy solution would be to move to a self-hosted site.

Thankfully, there are ways to move your content over to a site that you have more control over. Also, if you are just starting out as a photographer and want to do it right, read on.

Full disclosure – not long ago, this site was hosted and managed by Typepad. In a future post, I'll go into more detail about why I moved from that managed option to a self-hosted solution.

I first came across this blog post: How To – Move From WordPress.com To WordPress.org. If that's a bit too geeky, check out the graphic below:

Like this infographic? Get more WordPress and hosting tips from Synthesis.

And, if that doesn't do it for you, you may want to sign up for this FREE 9-part course called Site Set-Up Kit. Produced by Wendy Cholbi and Pamela Wilson, it's targeted towards beginners and they promise that it will be jargon-free. Even though I publish this and other blogs using the WordPress platform, I signed up to learn something new.

Tiffinbox, for example, is a self-hosted site. That means, I pay to host it on a server owned by BlueHost.com [affiliate] and I get to decide on what gets published, including advertisements. When, not if, you start considering where to host your blog or your website, I recommend BlueHost as an option. They routinely rank high among website hosting companies and I have always found their customer service to be very prompt.

So, if you have a website or blog hosted and managed by say, Blogger, Typepad or LiveJournal, where you really do not have a way of controlling all of the content you see on your site, you should be going the self-hosted WordPress route.

Yes, there is a little bit of work involved in setting it up. So, if you have any questions about that feel free to ask in the comments section below. I am happy to help as best as I can, or, I will direct you to a resource who will address your concerns.

I just stumbled upon another blog post about setting up a self-hosted WordPress website by Michael Hyatt. Check it out too!

Today's guest blog is by Phil Hollows, the Founder and CEO of FeedBlitz, the email and social media automation service and premium FeedBurner alternative. He’s also the author of “List Building for Bloggers” – the leading book on email marketing and social media for people like us. See how to set up email services on FeedBlitz and follow Phil on Twitter.

Who, you? Neglectful? No, way!

Surely I’m talking about that other guy down the street. You take great care of your clients, your art and your business. Right? What could you possibly be neglecting?

You see, while we’re all busy worrying about blog posts and Facebook and Twitter, you’re probably neglecting your site’s most important asset – its email subscribers.

You’re not alone – tens of thousands of other bloggers, businesses and enthusiasts are making the same mistake right now. Tools, themes and widgets have enabled us all to become accidental email marketers, letting a fabulous resource go to waste.

The good news is, with a little work, you can make a huge difference to how quickly your list grows, how well subscribers engage, and – ultimately – into building your business through repeat sales and referrals.

Why? Because becoming an email subscriber is work. Squiggly letters to sign up. Dual opt in. Because of this work, though, these people are really committed to you. They loved what you say enough to put themselves through this process just so that they can hear from you again – what a compliment!

So don’t neglect them. Here are a few core tips, taken from my book “List Building for Bloggers” (use the code TIFFINBOX at check out for a 40% discount) that you can put into place right now:

1. Put your email subscription form above the fold.
2. Have exactly one email subscription form; choices can confuse.
3. Incentivize visitors with a reason to sign up.
4. Deliver that reward when they do using a custom landing page or autoresponder.
5. Brand your mailings so they stick in readers minds.
6. Subscribe to your own mailings so you get the real subscriber experience.

Once your list is growing and becoming more engaged, it can be used to help reward your most committed readers. A Facebook “like” is an air kiss – casual, with no commitment. An email subscriber’s commitment gets your foot in the door. Give them the same focus and attention they’ve shown you.

You can use that commitment and that trust. For example, as well as having your content emailed to them from your blog you can:

a. Ask for referrals.

b. Offer exclusive promotions and discounts (especially during quiet times of year)

So go on. Step it up! Stop being an accidental email marketer. Take a little care and take advantage of this powerful, universal medium. You won’t regret it!

So, do you have a list of people to whom you write to regularly? What lessons have you learned from your experience? If you don't have a list, would this blog post motivate you to start one? Let us know!

Remember to use “TIFFINBOX” when you check out List Building For Bloggers and get 40% off!

Stuart Little, our next guest blogger, is a Photographer, Writer, Blogger and Photoshop Educator with over 18 years experience in the field. Stuart has been teaching both Amateur & Professional Photographers since 1998 and he is based in the Scottish Coastal Town of Ayr in the West of Scotland. Visit Stuart's website http://www.alittlephotoshop.com.

Thanks to Seshu for giving me the opportunity to share with you a really cool and utterly simple technique for creating a rounded border from within Lightroom 3.

When Adobe brought out Lightroom 3 they added 2 new features to the post crop vignette that made creating vignettes even better than before. So much so that the older paint overlay style has kind of been forgotten until now.

You can watch the video for all the juicy know-how but for those of you who just want to get stuck in via your RSS reader then slide all the post-crop vignetting sliders to the left for a black rounded border, job done, nuff said. Yep! its that simple But here is the another cool thing. If you want a white border then just take the amount slider all the way to the right.

Best thing of all. You can save the whole lot as a simple preset so that one click will take care of it all in future. Fire up the print module and set the background colour to compliment the border colour. Make sure you are using custom layout and then you can drag n drop the round images directly onto a layout ready for printing. Although if you are going down the inkjet route I would go for a white border and save yourself some ink. Enjoy the video tutorial and dont forget to swing but alittlephotoshop.com for more Lightroom 3 training and free workflow actions for Photoshop.

Stuart has offered to send me another blog post, this time about creating a tilt-n-shift effect in Lightroom 3. Here's the deal, though, for that to happen I need to see at least 20 comments from you. Ask questions or suggest an alternative way of creating round corners. But I do need to hear from you. So, will you chime in? If you liked this post by Stuart, I think you will enjoy the next one too.