Over the weekend you may have noticed my site being down, then up, then down again and now finally back up.

There was a hosting issue with my old hosts that was thankfully resolved by moving to the wonderful Media Temple. I have been using Media Temple for a few other sites for a while now and I was planning on moving this site over in the next month or two but the hosting issues forced my hand. Apart from being really flexible & customisable, they also offer more features than my last hosts so it’s all good. If you are interested in having your hosting with Media Temple then please check them out via my referral link http://www.mediatemple.net/go/order/?refdom=thehipshooter.com

The referral site thehipshooter.com, is a photography site I am in the process of designing and building between other work. Watch this space for more info.

Links:
http://www.mediatemple.net/go/order/?refdom=thehipshooter.com

In the online world of today you can either be a somebody or a nobody. Both have their benefits but to be either will take some work depending on how long you have been on the internet, and how long you have been using your name on it too.

The benefit of being a nobody is that you have anonymity and your name brings up nothing [important] when you search around for it. The disadvantage is that if you want people to know who you are then they will also have trouble finding anything about you.

In an industry based on and around the intenet it pays to be known. Anonymity won’t get you noticed so you need to promote yourself and get out there. From now on you are a brand. You have to market yourself to your client and user base just like any other product.

1. The first step is to own your own domain name. If you can’t get your name because its a common one or your parents named you coca cola because they thought they were funny then try to get one with a close a match as possible.
2. From now on all your profiles on websites need to be all under the one brand name. The more you use it the more people will see the one brand. Use your social networks [myspace, facebook, bebo etc] to spread the word. Setup a blog and comment on other peoples blog.
3. Make sure you submit your URL to google to get the ball rolling. Once google knows about it it will crawl it each time it updates it’s index. Make sure you link your pages together from different sites. Point them all to your domain name.
4. Remove any material that could be bad for your brand. If you blog about how you hate the world and how evil you are that won’t help. Employers do search google etc to see what comes up.
5. Just hope there is no crazy murderer with your name. If you brand yourself well enough then his page will hopefully be pushed further down and off the first few search pages. Do a search on yourself just so you are prepared.

Your brand is now fully spanked. With it all setup you can now promote yourself to everyone you know without the fear that some bad things might come up. Just make sure you are ready, branded and all setup before you promote.

So you think your good at Photoshop do you?? Here’s your chance to lay your cards on the table and show me what you got.

A good way to show off your work and to test your ability is to enter competitions. There are whole ranges of different types from beginner to expert with variations to the rules depending on the site.

All competitions have slightly different rules but in general they work as follows.

• Every entrant is given the same image or theme
• A deadline is set to create a new picture
• Enter your created picture
• Voting begins
• WIN!!! (or not)
• $$$ (maybe)

Some competitions will even give you cash prizes, but in general you have to pay to enter them so you better get skilled up before you waste all you hard earned cash loosing. Test your level with the free ones first. Below are a few sites where you can test your skills against other photoshoply minded people.

http://www.photoshopfaceoff.com/
http://photoshopcontest.com/
http://www.photoshoptalent.com/
http://www.pixeladdiction.com/
http://www.worth1000.com/default.asp?display=photoshop