Blog on Photoblogs

In my last post about where BOPB is heading in 2010 a long-time follower of the blog made a comment which I found quite interesting.  Basically his point was that photoblogs are dead and that Flickr (has been) and still is the place to be when it comes to posting your images online.

Bob was one of the first people to comment on the blog, and I have always found his opinion to be thought provoking, this one included.  While I can see his point, I tend to disagree with his feeling that photoblogs are dead, and here’s why

100% control

Running your own photoblog gives you complete control on how your work is presented.  Sure, it takes time away from being behind the camera, but I feel in the end that a big part of how your work in interpreted depends on its display, and you just don’t get that type of flexibility in Flickr (or anywhere else)

Flickr in general

I’ve had a Flickr account for ages now, and it has always been an awesome source of inspiration and has busted me out of many creative ruts, but there’s something about running your own photoblog.  Sort of like printing your own work, that gives you a feeling of creative control that you don’t get from Flickr.

Photoblogs 2.0

I hate when something is termed as 2.0, but I think that in the case of photoblogs, it really does apply.  The days of simply posting a daily image are gone.  People want more – tutorials, text, a story – it takes time, but in the end it’s worth it.

Online brand building

I’ve always felt that photoblogs much like regular blogs are nothing more than a means to an end.  You shouldn’t for a minute expect to make any money (directly) from your photoblog, but I truly believe that if you keep at it, you can build a personal brand which in the end may translate to dollars.

Anyone care to share any thoughts?

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I guess by now it’s become pretty evident that Blog on Photoblogs fell off the track a wee bit at the end of 2009.  I’ve been spending quite a bit of time thinking about where I would like the blog to go in 2010 and would love to hear your thoughts.  If you have any suggestions please feel free to leave them in the comments or use the contact page to send them my way!

Thanks for the support in 2009 and here’s to a great 2010!

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So a few posts back now, I mentioned reading about Trent Reznor’s suggestion about giving away your work in order to build a fan-base with the hopes of parlaying (don’t you just love that word?) the folks who take the time to register and download your stuff into raving fans who in the future would be willing to pay for other work.  After a bit of head-banging, cursing (only a little), and several late nights at the keyboard, I managed to modify my pixelpost photoblog to do just that.

I’ve started the process with a single image in a few sizes, so the implementation of the idea is slightly limited right now, but I always preach about just doing something so it’s a start. 

 I made my decision on which image to use and sizes to offer based on data from Google Analytics.  I added the iPhone and Blackberry sizes just because I thought it would be cool.

 Suggestions and comments are always welcome!

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So the other day, I get an email from a friend of mine asking me to have a look at her blog because some of the links, which were working a few days ago are now dropping everyone on a 400 bad request page.

Before I even have a chance to open up the site, I get another e-mail saying that she thinks that spammers have hacked her WP site! To make a long story short, in the end her WP install had been compromised and there was actually a hidden admin user in the system!

Have a look at the attachment it shows 4 administrator users, but there are only three users total – something doesn’t jive.  I cleaned out the bogus admin user and patched up the install to 2.8.4, and now everything seems OK.

If you are running your photoblog on an older version of Wordpress, patch it right now!

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Just yesterday I came across a post on the Google Webmaster Central Blog which I though quite a few of you would find interesting.  Google has recently introduced a simple way to filter image search results based on the license associated with the image.  I think that they could have gone much further like how about not hiding the option on the advanced search page, and maybe make it default to “labelled for reuse” – but you have to start somewhere right?

I know that it’s not perfect, and that it still won’t stop anyone from just using your images willy-nilly, but every little tool helps, and besides it’s super simple to add the required tags to your photoblog.  I’ve already implemented a super simple version on my photoblog.  Check it out, you may find it useful.

Resources:

RDFa

Creative Commons

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So I stumbled across this article today by Trent Reznor (yes, that Trent Reznor) and it struck me that the same rules could apply to photography on the Internet.  Let’s face it, for most of us this is just an expensive hobby – and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that.  But if you want more out of it, you’re going to have to build your fan base.  So why not give away copies of your high-res images in exchange for an email address? People are getting what they want, and you’re building an extremely valuable database of people who are interested in your work.  If you do it right, you can turn these interested fans into your 1,000 true fans.

Just make sure you don’t spam the folks who have actually decided to give you some info.  Use a service like MailChimp to help manage your list…

Give it a shot and let me know how it goes.

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I came across an interesting post this afternoon about a possible security issue with Wordpress.  Since so many of you use WP to run your photoblogs, I figured I would pass along a link.  The fix is super simple, and I have implemented it on all my sites without issue…would recommend that you check it out.

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So a few weeks back now, I got a question from Jason about getting his work into a gallery the first time around.  I forwarded his question onto a friend on mine you runs a local gallery here in Toronto called The Cryptic Canvas, and she was kind enough to give me some pointers.  There are some awesome tips in here so enjoy.

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