How can I get people to look at my photoblog?
Discussion
We all enjoy snapping away and I know I for one like people to have the occasional look at my shots and make comment. However, it depresses my how few people I can cajole into clicking on a link to my little blog.
I know I know, maybe I should write something interesting to go with the pics; join facebook and have million friends or mailbomb everyone in my address book whenever I post. But what I'd really like is for people interested in photography to look and critique - not just say 'great pic' because I twisted their arm.
Where should I be promoting it?
Anyone got any tips/stories of success?
All help appreciated.
- and to prove I'm not just fishing for views I'm not even going to post a link!
I know I know, maybe I should write something interesting to go with the pics; join facebook and have million friends or mailbomb everyone in my address book whenever I post. But what I'd really like is for people interested in photography to look and critique - not just say 'great pic' because I twisted their arm.
Where should I be promoting it?
Anyone got any tips/stories of success?
All help appreciated.
- and to prove I'm not just fishing for views I'm not even going to post a link!
Getting regular traffic to a blog is hard work.
Put some good photography up but also you have to put some work into interesting content along with the photos.
I get a fair few hits on my star guide and the other bits but I really need to finish my 4 part guide and carry on with other thoughts / ideas , all takes a lot of time and effort and you have to plug away at it for a long time to get impact unless you get something going viral.
Put some good photography up but also you have to put some work into interesting content along with the photos.
I get a fair few hits on my star guide and the other bits but I really need to finish my 4 part guide and carry on with other thoughts / ideas , all takes a lot of time and effort and you have to plug away at it for a long time to get impact unless you get something going viral.
A lot of these things are organic, if you are posting things people want to see and like they will share and drive traffic that way. Also, if there is text with the image you are more likely to get people arriving from search engines, than if it is just a photo posted - again this relies on the images being the sort of thing people are searching for.
If you want to post pictures for comments, forums are the best, or something like Flickr may be a better option than a personal blog.
If you want to post pictures for comments, forums are the best, or something like Flickr may be a better option than a personal blog.
As said above, if you want people to look at and comment on photos then something like Flickr is definitely the easiest.
Driving traffic to a blog needs a lot of work. To show up in organic searches you need a chunk of relevant text (usually at least 300 words), regular posts and use of relevant keywords in the text and alt tags (but not to the point of keyword stuffing or Google will hate you).
I drive quite a bit of traffic to my blog through social media too, but again it takes a lot of effort. If it wasn't for my business I really wouldn't bother.
Driving traffic to a blog needs a lot of work. To show up in organic searches you need a chunk of relevant text (usually at least 300 words), regular posts and use of relevant keywords in the text and alt tags (but not to the point of keyword stuffing or Google will hate you).
I drive quite a bit of traffic to my blog through social media too, but again it takes a lot of effort. If it wasn't for my business I really wouldn't bother.
Agreed with the organic idea. It's the amount of sites linking to you that really makes the difference. I just checked on Alexa.com and I have 250 sites that link into mine. I'm also top of several Google searches which helps a lot. It has to be said that I've been building traffic up over 15 years to the same address - which really helps.
Oh... and living where I do generates most of the traffic!
Oh... and living where I do generates most of the traffic!
craigbunyan said:
We all enjoy snapping away and I know I for one like people to have the occasional look at my shots and make comment. However, it depresses my how few people I can cajole into clicking on a link to my little blog.
I know I know, maybe I should write something interesting to go with the pics; join facebook and have million friends or mailbomb everyone in my address book whenever I post. But what I'd really like is for people interested in photography to look and critique - not just say 'great pic' because I twisted their arm.
Where should I be promoting it?
Anyone got any tips/stories of success?
All help appreciated.
- and to prove I'm not just fishing for views I'm not even going to post a link!
Err I will, so it's crispyimage!I know I know, maybe I should write something interesting to go with the pics; join facebook and have million friends or mailbomb everyone in my address book whenever I post. But what I'd really like is for people interested in photography to look and critique - not just say 'great pic' because I twisted their arm.
Where should I be promoting it?
Anyone got any tips/stories of success?
All help appreciated.
- and to prove I'm not just fishing for views I'm not even going to post a link!
- Do the basic SEO stuff, take a check on Powermapper, I note you don't have a sitemap, Google loves sitemaps and in a straight fight for the same keyword you will lose.
- My site's traffic is split referral 52%, search 28% and direct 20%
- About 150 people visit every month, browsing about 10 pages which takes 2 minutes
- And Smugmug internal stats claim they view about 3800 images in total
- Good SEO, which is nearly automatic because I use Smugmug
- Join the big photosites AND contribute to the forums e.g. photo competitions
- Remember to post a link when you post a photo (again in a competition thread)
- Join other sites that mirror your hobbies i.e PH people like car pics
On my site http://lx3.smugmug.com/ this is the most popular content http://lx3.smugmug.com/Other/Panasonic-Lumix-DMC-L...
Conclusion
- Good SEO
- Technical comparisons that help people choose equipment
- Competition threads
- Helping others get the best from their equipment e.g. shoot in this mode and here is an example
- Spending lots of time on the above
Ranking algorithms change periodically, but in brief the best ways to drive traffic to your blog are as follows (in no particular order):
Links from reputable and relevant sites
Avoid keyword stuffing or cloaking - you will be blacklisted for this
Using unique or longtail keywords and use wisely - place them in the heading of each blog post, in the first paragraph (particularly the first line) and in the body of the post. An H2 or H1 header can also be useful
Content is king - you will rank far higher if the people who find your blog stay on it as long as possible, so give them a reason to stick around and avoid a high bounce rate. Make sure that what you write is specific to your audience and will engage them into reading more and hopefully returning.
If you want people to comment on your Blog, you will need to give them a reason to comment (see above)
If you want image feedback or critique there are places like Flicker, however you'll attract a very wide range of commentators some of whom may not be particularly knowledgeable.
All of this takes time and effort and it should be an ongoing process. Always avoid these so-called companies who claim they will get you to the top of the rankings and a high flow of traffic - if anything they will harm your rankings.
Links from reputable and relevant sites
Avoid keyword stuffing or cloaking - you will be blacklisted for this
Using unique or longtail keywords and use wisely - place them in the heading of each blog post, in the first paragraph (particularly the first line) and in the body of the post. An H2 or H1 header can also be useful
Content is king - you will rank far higher if the people who find your blog stay on it as long as possible, so give them a reason to stick around and avoid a high bounce rate. Make sure that what you write is specific to your audience and will engage them into reading more and hopefully returning.
If you want people to comment on your Blog, you will need to give them a reason to comment (see above)
If you want image feedback or critique there are places like Flicker, however you'll attract a very wide range of commentators some of whom may not be particularly knowledgeable.
All of this takes time and effort and it should be an ongoing process. Always avoid these so-called companies who claim they will get you to the top of the rankings and a high flow of traffic - if anything they will harm your rankings.
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