This weekend in Perth is the first running of a WA round of the Dutton Rally series... and I've been running around covering it...

I've decided that this weekend, I'm going to do things the way I want to do them, and I'll sort the photos and get them online the day I take them.

Which means you can see the photos from the Dutton at:
www.highoctanephotos.c...ine&cat=15

Now, as I said, this is the way I'd LIKE to do things, unfortunately, it's not the way things usually work out, for example, look at the Motorvation photos. These are being held back as they've been promised to a magazine, as happens with my drags photos... This is neccessary because they're paying for them, so I can't really go and put the photos online before the relevant magazines go to print.

Don't get me wrong, I _love_ to see my photos in print, and to know that I'm not the only one.. but, at the same time, I'd like to see HighOctanePhotos.com and LandBarge.com (and Car-Porn.com too where it applies) given a bit of recognition as media outlets... HighOctanePhotos.com had 225 visitors yesterday alone... and has had 2261 unique visitors this month alone... If I got just $2 out of each of those visitors, I could afford to quit the day job, and just look after the website, but unfortunately I'll never get anywhere near that return... and while 2261 is not a bad number of visitors for what's almost a full month, it still needs to be a bit higher really...

Mainly because, while I have no problem at all getting accreditation for most motorsport events in WA (V8 supercars and WRC being the exceptions) I still get the old 'sorry, major media organisations only' line when I try to expand my horizons by shooting non-motorsport events... and... 'sorry, no freelancers', I wonder at what point I stop being a freelancer and become a media publication in my own right... Do I need to charge $7.50 a month to visit the site? that can't be it, there are free entertainment newspapers in most capital cities that are classed as major media outlets...

I guess the simple solution to these issues involves getting the name out there and setting a target of 4000 unique visitors per month by the end of the year (about double the average over the last 6 months or so) and to find a few site sponsors to help pay the bills... (Camera gear ain't cheap, and neither is insurance (or the lack thereof))

Anyway, if you got this far, you're probably doing better than I would have, so thanks for taking an interest in my rantings

Hey Fil,
have you ever thought of advertising on TV? Like on the cruizin' episodes on Access 31, or even putting ads in the local rag?
Would get alot more people interested maybe?
I have been spreading the word aswell as much as i can to get people to come and have a look, other than doing those things i don't know how else to advertise.
Maybe make up a few flyers and pass them out at Motorplex and stuff?

The problem is, it appears HighOctanePhotos.com gets better circulation than a lot of 'major magazines' (well, magazines that manage to survive)

Unfortunately, because it doesn't cost $8 to look at it, my viewers are considered less important than magazine readers...