Do you bother with a blog?

Hey all,

I'm sure this has been done before a load of times, but never any harm in asking again.

Just wondering if m/any of you guys bother with a blog at all, on your (photography) website?

I'm forever intending to do a blog that I update regularly, but never seem to get round to it. I cover a fair few local events and such here and there, so I know I could do a 'local interest' type of blog, but often there'd be a period of time when I'd not be doing anything like that at all (and would instead be doing portraits or such) so I'd not be able to do a regular thing with it (were it gets updated every X amount of time, for example, because every so often it'd go dead for a while).


I was just wondering if anyone has one and do they use it much? I've been asked a handful of times when out and about if I have a blog that people can read, but I always say no (as I don't have one) but I've been thinking about it.


I know a few people that have "how I did this" style blogs, and some of them are great, and offer great insight and are useful for ideas or learning, but they only benefit other photographers, so they seem a bit pointless, all in all, and I wouldn't go down that route with it.


So yeah.. anyone got a blog? Do you update it much? Do you find it very time consuming or regret starting on it at all?

dinneenp

I guess this question is aimed at professional photographers?
I'm 100% amateur, have a site and put 99% on my content into the blog section

Blog section includes my latest shots, not just my best shots. I suppose for my the site/blog is an extension of my flickr page so I think why not throw up a lot of photos (all which I think are good).

if i was a pro I'd think differently maybe or at least put up less content there.

magicbastarder

the question would be, if you have a blog, who would you be hoping to attract, who would repeatedly visit your blog?
i.e. is it for your friends, or is it by way of a 'casual portfolio' you can send prospective clients to? or is it for an extended anonymous audience who will visit it on the strength of the quality of shots on it?

Well professional and amateurs are both going to have to put similar effort into a blog, I suppose, really, aren't they?

I suppose, I'd like my blog to become popular and have people looking at it regularly, as it'd help my name spread further if it were that way (or I could use it as a platform for selling prints after events or if it got overly popular and got thousands of views regularly, could try to sell advertisement space or such) so I suppose that one of my intentions would be to blog to make money indirectly, but I'm aware that you'd have to be regularly updating for a long, long time before many people would bother looking at it, at all.


So on that front, it's probably not something that's really gonna pay for itself, but I wouldn't mind doing it, anyway, just to see if I got into it and enjoyed it (I'd imagine most people 'blog' about things because they enjoy it or want their opinions heard?).


I just checked the traffic on my site, and it seems to vary a lot. Some days it's gotten 3,000+ page views (not unique visitors, just page views), other days it's doing nothing at all (and I rarely update my site, though it does have a few hidden pages, that I use as viewing pages for after I've done a portrait session or such, but those 3,000+ figures don't seem to occur on the days I make these viewing pages accessible. My site seems to get (mildly) popular at random times).



How do you find it, Dinneenp? Is it something you enjoy doing? Do you take photos and get excited and thinking about putting them on the blog, or do you look at it as a chore that you just do for the sake of it?

I notice your blog's text content (or what I've seen of it) is very minimal. It seems to focus much more heavily on the photography. I'd imagine if I did one, it'd be fairly heavily text-based (at least 50/50).

Did you intentionally make the choice to include only minor amounts of text, or did it just kind of end up that way?

Fujiguy

From an amateurs perspective, i am currently writing a blog nearly everyday, have even launched a website with a public gallery, forum and shop, and the blog is all about me trying to go from amateur to semi pro ( or paid photographer ) and i am really finding it fun to update, pass on some tips as i pick them up etc, and share what shots i have taken that day ( even if its just a macro out my back garden )

My mate came up with the name ( thetogblog ) and he helped me make the website and we do videos on YouTube to do with photography. I am really enjoying the blogging but making videos for YouTube can be a pain. At the end of the day i don't claim to be someone im not, im just a guy who loves photography who sets himself challenges every day to help learn more! I highly recommend it!

dinneenp

One can put little or much work into a blog-
Use Flickr/pix.ie urls for images (quick) or name your photo (eg Claregalway friary sunset) to get more hits through image search. 1 photo is named Harrods old days, another under the kilt. Old posts but both get views through search terms everyday.

I find blog handy to get new visitors- post on twitter- new blog post Claregalway friary at sunset and link to blog post.

Also tweet relevant people (I tweeted Tom
dunne, he rewetted) and got over 200 hits that day.

I set out to post mainly photos, not text.

I enjoy using the blog section, look forward to it. Can schedule blog posts too so they'll post automatically on X date.

kensutz

I have one going but haven't updated since the EURO's. I have a draft done up and must finish it. Think that's my evening sorted so.

dinneenp

I was typing on a smartphone yesterday so fleshing out my reply now

You can post to blog very quickly, even automatically with some tools, software.
Or put in a lot of effort and include meta data, titles, keywords etc.

I like blogging as it's another channel that you can get comments & feedback through.

You can then use your blog for marketing, attracting new viewers. My tweet to Tom Dunne attracted 200 unique views to that specific blog post on one day. Hopefully some of those visitors will have browsed my site and return.

you can inlcude your blog url on various sites that list blogs, photoblogs etc. All which can generat extra traffic.

If you don't have a blog section why would you get regular repeat visitors to your site? the blog features the newest photos...

Here's a few examples of good blogs- http://wvs.topleftpixel.com/12/07/17/ posts a photo almost everyday.

http://www.ronanpalliser.ie/blog/ a lot of text, explaining about behind shots, tech setup. Obviously takes a lot of time and effort.

Ah, I'd probably not do a daily thing, myself. I think I'd try to do it as a local interest type thing. People love local stuff these days, so could be worth a punt.


I'm not a twitter person at all. Have an account (I think?) but never used it. Seemed complicated. Would you say it's very beneficial to be a twitter user if you have a blog to promote?


I must give it a shot, sure there's no harm in it. Try and cover a little bit of everything I suppose. Will have to think up a couple of posts first though, so i dont just do one or two and then never look at it again :pac:

AnimalRights

I have never done a blog, way to lazy.
Not even my own site, Pixie tailors most of my needs.

Necronomicon

I started a blog earlier in the year, and have found it to be a very worthwhile venture. My motivation stemmed from weariness in using Pix.ie/flickr/500px which were becoming nothing more than image dumps, and I wasn't really thinking too much about what I was uploading. I also love writing and wanted an outlet for that; so those two factors made the decision for me. I'm pretty selective about what I upload and write about, and as a result I'm generally happier with my output when looking at the blog than I had been when looking over my Pix.ie profile (though I'm still using that too).

I haven't put an awful lot of work into it - I think I probably average an article every month or so - which makes its apparent visibility surprising to me. I've had loads of strangers either comment or 'like' various articles, and I'm not sure where they're coming from. I haven't bothered with any web analytic type stuff.

I use the free version of Wordpress, and have found it very intuitive. It took just about all the work out of setting up, allowing me to focus solely on writing.

dinneenp

something to consider, not just for blogging- http://www.thephotoargus.com/tips/5-great-ways-to-optimize-photos-for-search-engines-traffic/