So does anyone here still have a photo blog? I still have one that is active, and now they seem so old-fashioned since Facebook and social media has monopolized what people see online. I hate to give up on mine since I’ve had it for over 10 years, but by looking at the stats it seems the only visitors on mine are when I go back to look for spelling errors.
So just wondering how many people still are working on blogs, and also to see which ones people follow? Thanks!
Hey Brian,
I have a hiking blog, but not a dedicated photography blog. I do read other photographer blogs. I like Michael Frye and Andy Mumford. But, for the most part, I’m following photographer’s who have a YouTube channel.
I have a blog on my site but I last time I posted anything there was a year and a half ago. I think I would pay more attention to it, but like you I don’t really see anyone reading it. I too am curious to hear other people’s experiences with their blogs.
I’m still pretty active on mine. However, the recent content is geared more toward news, updates and marketing (e.g., new photo uploads, some trip reports), and much less of the deeper, philosophical or analytical stuff I used to enjoy writing.
And the main reason is because parenthood has taken away any extra time I might have to ruminate about my work. The lack of time to write is, surprisingly, what I miss most about my professional life before becoming a dad.
Max
The two benefits to a blog are potential SEO traffic and building an audience for educational products. I wouldn’t get caught up in how many comments you get. It doesn’t matter. What matters is having a business strategy and using as part of your tool kit. The other thing is if you just enjoy writing about your work then just consider it another creative outlet.
I maintain a blog at DesParoz.com, and try to post images and photography related stuff up there fairly regularly.
Sometimes I am more disciplined than others.
Hi Brian, good question for a first post!.
The internet is a cloud of constant climate change. A lot has changed since I started my site in 2010. I was inspired to create one at a workshop by my future MLP mentor Moose Peterson. He asked the class what we did with our images. Most everyone said their images would get stored on a hard drive. It was just before the industrial internet (Facebook, Instagram, 500px, Flicker, Yahoo, meetup, etc.)., and I figured that I’d create a website to share my images.
My criteria from the beginning were not to use any 3rd party clouds, to pay and own a highly configurable theme, to use a quality independent hosting company and to own & create everything myself. I was not going to trust my content to anyone except myself, no matter how much extra work or cost. My site would be add free, solicitation free, sign up free and newsletter push free. Finally, my landing page images were not going to be thumbnails, but use 100% of the page fold, to fully celebrate images at ratios that did not stretch, warp, compress, or crop. Image integrity had to be maintained.
My website has morphed into my cloud. I have become a knowledgeable webmaster. My web performance scores very, very high, or straight A’s. I have blocked Google and other reputable bots from indexing my images, so I don’t fret too much about the content being stolen. The flip side of that is that it is a low visited/viewer website.
But my site environment is not about “Likes.” It is similar to NPS; it is about trying to share, at my best level, the best of photography.
I write articles on image-making, gear, video tips, WW1 aviation, travel locations. To date, I have a few thousand posts/pages.
Additionally, when I lead workshops, I use the site for the students to access, workshop content, workshop sign up, and downloads. Finally, the first blog links to a sister website where I store client images for them to access or download.
I recently put up a page called ‘Years of Months.’ What a unique way to reflect on your life of ten years of image-making by month and year.
I read that only a small percentage of photographers can write about their work. A web site/blog completes the circle for me, much like making the print of an image.
Blogs I follow:
Moose Peterson
Scott Bourne
Alain Briot
Hudson Henry
Vincent Versace
Lee Varis
Scott Kelby