by Miserere and Peter Zack

  

This might come as a surprise to you, but maintaining a blog is a tough job. You might think writing a few hundred words takes no time at all, and if they were random words that would be true, but writing a few hundred words that concisely outline and expand on a topic in such a way to be both informative and entertaining does take time. It’s not just about the writing either; we tend to provide abundant links to other sources in our articles, and these sources are not chosen at random. I can speak for myself (Miserere) and tell you that when I include a link to a page explaining a term or concept, I’ve probably read 10 or 15 similar pages before deciding which one to send you to. We take pride in what we write—there would be no point writing it otherwise.

I must mention the equipment reviews, which Peter and I write after spending a few weeks with the camera or lens in question so we can give you opinions and insights that a late afternoon stroll taking pictures can’t give you. We don’t just throw a bunch of spec numbers at you, but instead try to give you a photographer’s perspective, gained by taking many pictures in different conditions and using the equipment as if it were our own, something that we find lacking on the major review sites.

Then there’s the boring backend HTML, CSS, PHP and other assorted coding paraphernalia that needs to be taken care of. If the site works, looks good and all links go where they’re supposed to, then it means I’ve taken care of that part. The aim here is for you not to notice that everything works and to just enjoy reading and roaming EtL.

So why do we do this thing called Enticing the Light? Because we love Photography and want to share our enjoyment of it with you. We also want to share our frustration with it too. Our hobby/profession is not all rosy coloured under a sky of fluffy white clouds, and it’s important to us to communicate both the good and the bad. You can tell what our state of mind is by the frequency of articles: When we’re happy there are more of them, when we’re sad there are less. But we’re always here, thinking of new things to say, and telling you new things to think.

That doesn’t mean we couldn’t use a little help, financial or otherwise. We want to keep growing as a site, and we’re not going to lie: We wouldn’t mind having a bit of profit left over after the site bills are paid each year. We’re human, and we’re photographers, and we’d love for the hard work we put into EtL to recompense us with a new lens each Christmas.

We have plans for improving EtL, features we plan to implement in the near future, but there are also some things you can do to help EtL continue to grow strong into the future. Following are 5 easy ways you can help EtL.

  

1: Send Us Stories

If you come across a story on the news or an interesting article or blog post related to Photography and find yourself thinking I bet other photographers would love to read this, send it to us! We’ll share it with everyone, maybe add our own comment or spin to it, and everyone comes out winning. Be sure to send us a URL to your gallery or webpage so we can link to it—we always reference our sources.

  

2: Write a Guest Post

Do you think you have something to say about Photography (or maybe just a small aspect of it)? I bet you do! Then why don’t you write it down and e-mail it to us? If you think you’re not a good writer or English is not your native language, we’ll be happy to work with you in editing your text. But we are, after all, a Photography site, so words aren’t a requirement; have you been on a trip recently or just completed a photo project? Then send us your photo essay and share it with thousands of readers.

  

3: Tell Everyone About EtL

Spread the word! Did you just read an article that you don’t agree with? Publish a response on your own blog. Did it make you think? Post a link to it on your favourite Photography forum and start a discussion. Maybe you just thought it was a cool post that you’d like others to read, then go wild and use the social site links found at the bottom of each post. Stumble, Digg, Tweet, Reddit or Facebook us—or maybe do all! You can even e-mail the story to your buddies; how old-school is that? The point is, the more people know about EtL, the better.

  

4: Purchase Your Photo Gear Through Our Affiliate Links

As you can see from the column on the right, EtL is associated with the 3 main vendors of photographic equipment in the Western hemisphere: B&H, Adorama and Amazon (US, UK and Canada). When you enter their stores through the links we provide and make a purchase, EtL receives a small commission. You pay exactly the same price, so it’s no loss for you.

We are especially happy to have B&H onboard because they lend us equipment to test. For this reason, I would encourage you to consider them first when purchasing through EtL—the more sales they see coming from us, the happier they’ll be to lend us equipment, and we may even get a chance to test some exotic gear every now and again.

The easiest way for you to use our links without ever forgetting or having to think about it is by bookmarking them. That way whenever you go to their sites through your bookmarks they’ll know EtL sent you. Below are the links to each site; what you need to do is right-click on each one of them and then choose ‘Bookmark This Link’ (in Firefox) or ‘Add to Favorites…’ (in Explorer). Alternatively, you can copy the text of the link and manually edit your current bookmarks for the sites.

• B&H: http://www.bhphotovideo.com/?BI=5704&KBID=6578
• Adorama: http://www.adorama.com/?KBID=65274
• Amazon US: http://www.amazon.com/?tag=entitheligh-20
• Amazon Canada: http://www.amazon.ca?tag=entitheligh04-20
• Amazon UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk?tag=entitheligh-21

There are two simple yet important rules you need to follow to ensure EtL receives the commission:

1. Items that were already in the cart when you go to the vendor’s site will not generate a commission. You need to delete them and then add them again after going through our link (or bookmark).
2. After items are placed in the shopping cart, you must complete the purchase within 24 hours.

A question I get asked is whether non-photography items earn us a commission too. The answer is absolutely YES, even on Amazon, anything you buy (socks, books, frogs, lawnmowers, pens…), however small, helps us a lot, and the number of items gets factored in too. So don’t be shy, give it a try, see if there’s anything you can’t buy.

  

5: Make a Donation

That’s right, we’re now accepting donations. What do you do when someone does you a favour? You buy them a drink, right? Well now you can do the same for us. If you’ve just spent the last 2 hours reading articles on EtL and feel like it was time well wasted, consider inviting us to a coffee, a beer or maybe even a bottle of wine. Don’t worry, we drink responsibly, and we never drink and write. Well, almost never.

We’ll be leaving the above buttons on the right column for the sake of visibility, but like all donations, they’re optional! All our content is free for everyone, and we’re pleased to keep it that way.

Thank you for your continued support!

        –Miserere and Peter

  

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