Flickr

I said that I would tell you about where you could show your photography on the internet and the first place that comes to mind is flickr. After all it is most likely known as the original photo sharing website and as such you would think is your first port of call for getting your images noticed on the internet, well yes and no.

Should you have a flickr account, the answer is yes, it is a no brainier. Flickr is no longer the simple photo sharing site that it started out as but has evolved like any site has to stay in the public mind and photographers also have to evolve, no longer can you just post your images to flickr and expect recognition, no matter how good your images are. The fact is that you are more likely to be found by someone wanting to steel your images that you are to be found by someone wanting to buy your images but do not let that put you off this is the internet and there is a lot of scum about after all.

If you do not have a flickr account yet then get one, using the name that you want to be known as across all your other internet accounts, if you already have a flickr account then use that one, especially if you already have a number of followers or have had the account for some time and have a number of images uploaded.

It is had to draw attraction to your account unless you have images to look at but before you add any images, add them to a site where people can buy the image, whether that be as a wall print or a greeting card. When you have a place where people can go and buy your images then flickr is not just a place where you can show your images but it is a shop window that will help to bring in people too your store to buy your images. Where ever you have your images for sale, that site will have information on creating links too the sales page for that image, so that when you add a photo to flickr, in the description you put the link to where people can buy your image.

On flickr you can create different portfolios or sections, so that when someone arrives at your main page they can see that you have images on: landscape, close up, Wedding, flowers, B&W, urban and so on. Even T shirts, greeting cards and Christmas gifts. Putting your images into different sections helps people find what they are looking for and it will also help you market your different images. So on your social media account instead of just posting too your flickr account you can post too your landscape images or your flower images giving you a better response to your social media posts.

When adding images to flicker reduce the size and quality of the image, this will reduce the chances that someone will steel the image only upload the smallest images after all a lot of people looking at your photos will be doing son on mobile devices like a smart phone and if some likes the image they will follow the link to see it in a larger protected format. Putting your image on flickr with a link to where you can buy it also creates a back link that helps the search engines find your work, which in turn helps a wider buying audience find your work.

Flickr is kinder of a social media site, which means that you follow people for people to follow you. Which makes flickr an enigma, because flickr is mostly photographers and on every other social media site photographers have a very bad reputation in that they will follow you and then stop following you after you have started to follow them. They may think that will give them some air of importance but is not very social. So who should you follow? Well people whose images you like, for a start but rather than just following accounts that have the same type of images that you have why not expand your self and have a look at styles and subjects that are unknown to you.

Another way to grow your following is to interact with other accounts / photographers, when you find an image that you like why not leave a comment. The photographer may then visit your page and leave a comment on one or more of your images, at the very lest you will now have a link for search engines to follow from their account too yours on Flickr. If they do not have a lot of followers then the person is more likely to leave a comment on your images but if they have lots of followers then it is better for the search engines.

You can take this a step further if they have a link to where they sell their images. Follow the link and you may find a new place to sell your images and if you are already a member then log in and leave another comment, this has the same effect as above but this time on a site where you both sell your work weather that be Zazzle, Smug mug or Redbubble. Another dimension to this is that every time they promote their work there will be promoting that link back to your work.

Next time I will be looking at one of the places that you can sell your work.