Photo Blogging 101, Part 2
Now that you’ve been snapping away, you’ll want to build your photographic following. WordPress.com has an excellent photo blogging community, which you can tap into by following these tips and tricks.
Tags, topics, and phloggers, oh my!
Tags work to connect your blog to the larger WordPress.com community, so you can see others who are writing, or photographing, the same subjects as you. By tagging your post as “Photography” or “Black and White,” your posts will be included in the respective Topic page so that other viewers can find your site. If you haven’t added tags to your posts before, you can learn how to do so here.
However, tags can be used for more than just bringing traffic to your site, but as a networking tool as well. As your photo blog grows, taking some time to look at other photo blogging sites can both help you to find inspiration, tips and tricks, and new ideas, as well as put you in contact with your fellow photo blogging compatriots.
You can start following new topics in your WordPress.com reader by going to the WordPress.com Reader and inserting “Photography” or any related tag into the “Add a Topic” text box.
The Photography topic page from the WordPress.com Reader
Building Connections
One of the best ways to boost readership and build a following is to do the same in return. This means that when you see a photo blogger that you like, comment on their post! Comments and pingbacks help to create connections between bloggers and their readers.
Blogging is about community and sharing, and this sets the tone. Just recently, I wrote a blog post inspired by a post on 1000AwesomeThings.com. I linked back, and hopefully turned a bunch of new readers onto the site. Because there was a decent amount of traffic sent to his blog, or maybe because he received a pingback, Neil Pasricha then came and commented on my blog! This is the author of two #1 International Bestselling books! I was so thrilled. I emailed Neil to thank him, and that began a back and forth, where I was able to ask him his blogging tips.
From Bestselling Author Shares 3 Tips for Building Your Blog Audience
In browsing other photo blogs, you may see that many photographers add information about their camera and set up to each post. Generally, photo bloggers will include the camera they used to shoot the image, the aperture and f-stop information, and the lens. This is a great way to explain both the tools you’re using as a photographer and another method of contributing to the photo blogging community by sharing your experiences.
The Duotone theme automatically pulls your digital photo information and displays it in the left sidebar.
Protecting Your Work
Through consistent posting, commenting on other blogs, and tagging your posts, you can continue to build your photo blogging readership. As you get your work out there, it’s also important to make sure that it’s protected. For photo bloggers on WordPress.com, we recommend that you watermark your photos. This means adding a copy right, such as “© Erica’s Photography,” directly to your image with a photo editing program. Watermarking your photos helps to prevent others from taking your images and pretending they’re their own.
If you’re interested in licensing your work as well, the Creative Commons license is an excellent way to both protect your work, while still contributing to the photographic community as a whole. Creative Commons licenses establish you as the owner of your product, but still allow for others to use your work. For example, among the various Creative Commons licenses, you can state that anyone is allowed to use your work as long as it’s attributed to you and they’re not using it for commercial purposes. Better yet, they can follow all of the above rules, and may also build on your work, similar to sampling when it comes to music beats.
Now that your photo blog is well on it’s way, don’t forget to stay tuned for more tips and tricks with our final post on Photo Blogging 101. (Missed the first post? You can check it out here.)
Posted: Monday, May 21st, 2012 at 1:00 pm. Filed in HowTo, Photos.
Tags: creative commons, Photo Blogging 101, photoblogging, topics
May 21st at 1:45 pm
Thanks for these wonderful tips! I’ll be sure to apply them to my photo blog.
May 21st at 1:52 pm
Love the tips, and love the idea of watermarking, but I can’t help it, I just don’t like the look of it. I’d almost rather risk others taking them. To me, a watermark is just offputting. Maybe I’m a little too trusting.
May 21st at 1:56 pm
I definitely understand that
If you choose not to watermark, a good alternative is to have a copyright notice on your blog by using a text widget:
http://support.wordpress.com/prevent-content-theft/
May 21st at 3:52 pm
Thanks for the tip, I’ll definitely try it
May 21st at 2:02 pm
Thanks Erica, just added the text widget to my blogs.
I created a photblog and also try and add the little © to my photos. Anyone have any opinions as to the best colour background for a photo blog, please?
May 27th at 9:03 am
White, as simple as that
May 21st at 2:21 pm
Also not crazy about watermarking, it can also become unreadable when resized in thumbnails and such.
May 21st at 2:39 pm
good idea…
May 21st at 2:46 pm
I’m excited to start a photo blog! I’m a camera bug and love to snap photos of any and everything. Now I can share them with others. Thanks for your wonderful tips.
May 21st at 2:48 pm
Some great tips there, thanks for the info.
May 21st at 2:52 pm
Great post. I have to say that the watermarks ruin a photo for me. It’s a shame there isn’t a tool to disable copying as there is in Flickr.
May 21st at 3:23 pm
I just started watermarking my images – granted, I’m still just a budding photographer but I think it’s a wise measure, and shows other readers your serious about your work.
May 21st at 3:27 pm
I am now contemplating setting up a photography blog, but will stick to music for now.
May 21st at 4:00 pm
I have yet to go out and get some of my own photographs although am looking into doing this. I unfortunately do not have the best camera
But I make sure that all the photos that I do find and want to share on my blog I make sure I attribute the owner right into my post so that people know that it is not mine. I also have put on my blog as a side note that I do not claim any copyright to any of the photos that are posted. Just in case I cannot find the photographer (owner) of the piece. Furthermore, I say it is mine in my post if it is. I am mainly here to post beautiful photos for everyone to see.
May 21st at 4:11 pm
I’M NEW TO ALL OF THIS… THANKS FOR THE TIPS
May 21st at 4:15 pm
These are great tips…going back to look at past posts now. Thank you!
May 21st at 4:15 pm
Thanks for the inspiration, Erica… I did start one after reading the first ’101′. Thanks for the continued tips.
May 21st at 4:32 pm
Good, relevant, information.
May 21st at 4:34 pm
Great post … We are looking for ways to improve our blog and your posts have been quite helpful. We have stopped using a visual watermark on the pictures (still revamping web site) and have become a fan of digital watermarking (dimimarc.com). Would like it if wordpress would disable the save as function on images etc …
May 21st at 4:39 pm
Great, Thanks
May 21st at 5:00 pm
Great tips thanks, I need all the help I can get.
May 21st at 5:25 pm
Kind’a like the tips and Information shared
May 21st at 5:30 pm
Great tips. As a novice photographer, things like this really help.
May 21st at 5:38 pm
great job guys!
May 21st at 5:45 pm
Thanks Erica, I am new at blogging and appreciate the tips. I will begin to apply your instructions that I never knew how to do before. I didn’t think I needed the copywrite protection because I take pictures as a hobby. So thank you for opening my eyes.
BE ENCOURAGED! BE BLESSED!
May 21st at 5:47 pm
I hope my photo blog follows some of these rules.
May 21st at 5:56 pm
Nice photos!
May 21st at 6:06 pm
Thank you for the post – would be nice if save as was disabled.
May 21st at 6:08 pm
great tips… Allready trying them out:-)
May 21st at 6:31 pm
Great post. I just started a blog and I can definitely use some of your tips.
May 21st at 6:32 pm
Thanks for the tips – also, for any Photoblogger; be patient – don’t expect hundreds of viewers withing the first few months. But, if updated regulary – the viewcount will increase steadily (atleast that’s my experience).
May 21st at 6:33 pm
Thank you for your email highlighting your tips and pointing me to the community. I’m still working on my knowledge base with wordpress.com and my blog. The challenge i am having right now is what I can and cannot do with my template(s) such as adding tabs, etc. and getting familiar with the dashboard.
May 21st at 7:14 pm
One thing is for sure, you get what you give. So one way of letting others appreciate your talent is by appreciating their talents. Read and let read
May 21st at 7:17 pm
Nice!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
May 21st at 7:17 pm
By the way, good photos aren’t just limited to photo blogs. I blog on recipes and yet I find that pictures are a great way of visualizing any recipe. They make people want to try the recipe out
. One of my recent edits is at http://wp.me/p2opoh-7S I haven’t watermarked the pictures but yes you are right, even food photography should be watermarked. Will do you for my future posts… Cheers 
May 21st at 7:36 pm
Good sound advice! I haven’t started my photo blog yet, but it’s on the agenda for this week. I plan to incorporate some of the tips and ideas that I am receiving here.
May 21st at 7:44 pm
cool
May 21st at 7:48 pm
Great article !! thanks a lot !
Sigal
May 21st at 8:05 pm
Nice!!
May 21st at 8:16 pm
Great article !! thanks a lot
May 21st at 8:42 pm
Great article, Erica! I am a new blogger, and really appreciate articles such as this one. Little by little, I am learning!
Thanks again.
May 21st at 8:56 pm
great blog I have updated all my tags after reading this! Keep up the good work
May 21st at 8:57 pm
Agree, great article.. but have a question regarding tags ..
When I started with this I assumed that the ”tag” was just a local thing for my own blog. Now I realise that they are kind of shared, yea if you use the same ”tags” of course.
Question; are there any page where you can find all ”tags”, or the most used ones? And are there any rules or recommendations for how to use them.
Im having a photoblog and the tag “black and white” is pretty obvious, but whats the difference between “Photography” and “Photography (2)” and “Travel” and “Travel (2)” for example? Or is there no rules or recommendations for this and just up each others fantasy when creating or using new tags?
Have just changed one of my tags from “black&white” to “black and white” just to be seen in tags that seems to more commonly used
May 21st at 9:01 pm
Great questions! You can find the top tags/topics via your Topics tab on the WordPress.com home page, or here. You can also search for any tag via this page as well.
Tags are generated by bloggers themselves, though it’s most useful to tap into an existing tag. The one rule (so to speak) is that we recommend that you use between 10 to 15 tags and categories (in total) for your post to appear in the topics page
May 21st at 9:13 pm
Ok, cool, assumed that was the case.. with the “tags”..
..helping a friend right now to set up a photoblog and recommended him before he starts to send up any pictures on the blog to think in which categories he want to put up his pictures, which in the end will be his top “tags “ ..
many thank for all help and inspiration..
May 21st at 9:35 pm
Hi, this is a really interesting post
May 21st at 9:49 pm
amazing picture
May 21st at 10:58 pm
Great tips! I love seeing other photograper’s work.
May 22nd at 12:00 am
Thanks for the tips
May 22nd at 12:08 am
Reblogged this on quocphongnd.
May 22nd at 12:32 am
This is cool!
May 22nd at 1:04 am
Reblogged this on iflicks.
May 22nd at 1:55 am
Reblogged this on abrightertomorrow13 and commented:
Great ideas
May 22nd at 2:24 am
Also, how to put this kind of photo gallery? I have seen a flickr gallery like this too:
http://www.traceycaponephotography.net/zen/chicago-photography-urban-landscape/
Thank you!
May 22nd at 11:56 am
The gallery in that page is actually using a different service (Zenphoto) that is separate from WordPress.com. If you’d like to add a gallery to your post, you can do so by following this guide.
May 22nd at 2:46 am
Excellent tips Erica! I love photography and plan to feature more of my own as I learn more in my photography class and my amateur skills improve. I admire the awesome talent in the photography community on WP and hope to join them someday. TY!
May 22nd at 3:01 am
Thanks again, Erica. Being a new blogger, I have a question.What is a ping back and how do I use it?
May 22nd at 11:53 am
A pingback is a type of comment that’s created when you link to another blog post, or if someone links to one of your posts. For example, if you were to write a block post that had a link to our Photo Blogging 101 post, we would receive a pingback to let us know that you referenced our post in an article.
You can control your pingback settings via your Settings > Discussion page from your blog’s Dashboard.
May 22nd at 3:32 pm
Thanks for your prompt reply. You make blogging fun and exciting.
May 22nd at 4:54 am
Nice
May 22nd at 5:19 am
Great tips for the beginners like me… Keep going.
Looking forward for more tips, thanks lot.
May 22nd at 5:53 am
nice share,,,
May 22nd at 6:25 am
I hate putting watermarks on my work too so to get around the copyright issues I export my photos through Lightroom and add a border with my logo. It doesn’t take away from the photo but it does require a bit of time to implement.
May 22nd at 6:51 am
Great tips and I think I will start watermarking my photographs… hopefully I will figure that out. Thanks for sharing.
May 22nd at 6:58 am
Great tips. I especially liked the quote from Rachel Bertsche – and one of the many reasons I love wordpress is that the community aspect is done so well, with tags and likes and follows made so easy it would be stupid not to interact with other people.
May 22nd at 10:45 am
So good !
May 22nd at 12:19 pm
This has been a great series. Most of the blogging advice I’ve seen is geared towards writers so it’s nice to see some tips for photographers – thanks! Looking forward to the next post!
May 22nd at 3:24 pm
I’m struggling a little to find blogs that relate to my topics. I’ll keep trying. It most likely is because I’m Bipolar and need to slow down a little.
I mean I can find blogs when searching on google, I’m just having trouble learning how to tag to my wordpress.com website.
I’ll keep trying. I am able to understand the photo blogs but not the blogs I’m interested in.
Thanks
May 22nd at 3:31 pm
Very helpful information!
May 22nd at 4:57 pm
Thank you for the goldmine of information, Erica V. For that, and the above list of interested photo-bloggers, all of whom merit visits too, let me offer you the virtual apple (lower case), on behalf of all the curious students here in class 101.
May 22nd at 5:16 pm
nice tips
i like your post
May 22nd at 5:27 pm
Nice Blog! I would like to hear more in the future.
May 22nd at 5:56 pm
Thanks for the wonderful tips… I also prefer giving a little story behind my photographs and photoshoots like a small intro of what I’m doing or how it was done…. do check out if possible fotoslave.wordpress.com
May 22nd at 6:17 pm
Excellent post! I too use watermark on my blog, although now that I think about it, I think I will make it much smaller so that it doesn’t become too obstructive. Thank you for the tips.
May 22nd at 8:07 pm
Excellent post, full of helpful information. Thanks for this !
May 22nd at 11:15 pm
Thank you for your reply ..nice post
May 23rd at 1:15 am
I am so gratefull for these posts! I’ve really just started phlogging and I’m LOVING it. But more than that I’m really appreciating all the great advice you’ve given us! Thank you for taking the time to help us newbies out!
May 23rd at 9:34 am
now i,ll make a photo blog
May 23rd at 10:59 am
Excellent tips! Everyone should watermark their own photos. People will steal your work!
May 23rd at 2:34 pm
Thanks. Ilike it
May 23rd at 5:37 pm
Thank you for such a great tip! Really find the WordPress blog so useful
May 23rd at 7:52 pm
Hmm, here is a question that really shows how newbie I am, and when I get the answer my face will probably turn red for a few minutes ☺
Anyway, when I upload a post, a few munites after I get “likes”, (which I like of course). But these people who have find my newly uploaded post, where and how do they find it? There must be some page where newly uploaded post´s are seen or? What have I missed?
May 23rd at 9:14 pm
Great question
Generally, visits will come from your blog’s subscribers/followers, as well as the Topics pages that are connected to your post tags.
May 23rd at 8:15 pm
Excellent tips, Erica! Along with entering competitions, commenting fellow phloggers’ articles is an awesome help for both feedback and visitors. And it introduces you to great picture ideas – and sometimes jealousy as well, since you can’t be at every single place in the world taking pictures^^
Regarding the watermarks: From my personal point of view, everyone should consider using it. If you have a standard picture editing software, you can paste a picture of your choice and reduce the Opacity to something about 60 or less percent. With this, viewers will not be distracted by your watermark and still, you have your name on your picture.
May 23rd at 10:45 pm
Hi
Great article and lots of useful tips about Photoblogging. I do think watermarking has its purposes, but for the serious image thief, it really doesn’t present much of an obstacle – watermarks can easily be removed.
Kind regards, Erik
May 24th at 12:03 am
Oh goodness my photoblog has exploded with visitors! Thank you Erica for linking my photoblog in this tutorial.
May 24th at 2:54 pm
thanks — very helpful
May 24th at 2:58 pm
Great tips that i am to going follow hoping that it will out do my husbands blog!!! Thanks for the tips.
May 24th at 3:02 pm
Earlier in this thread, Piglet in Portugal asked about background colours…In my experience, grey seems to work very well not only in Photoshop, but also within a blog–it’s neutral, doesn’t distract and reinforces the midrange colors (or grey tones) in your images.
May 24th at 3:42 pm
I like beautiful photography as much as other people. However, I think that there’s too much emphasis on photography over content – especially when it comes to getting Freshly Pressed. Overwhelming majority of posts that are FP’d have pretty pictures. Some have good content, but I’ve seen too many that just have 2-3 sentences attached to them. There are soooo many that fall short of the tags that they’re assigned. i.e. they are tagged under family or travel but they don’t say much about either. Don’t get me started on a lot of the food ones that feature other peoples’ recipes…
May 24th at 9:23 pm
Remember, too, that watermarks dont have to be garish, huge and distracting to the point that they diminish your images!
May 24th at 10:24 pm
Thank you for the tips!
May 25th at 1:13 pm
Thanks Erika, great tips. I must improving my tagging.
May 25th at 4:45 pm
Great tips … really enjoy photography and then creating completely new images with the photographs
May 26th at 4:13 am
Thanks for the help. I write and re-post a good number of blogs and don’t get many visitors. I’m going to try your tips and hopefully I will start building a community.
May 26th at 7:09 am
thank you for the sharings. cool
May 27th at 7:26 am
I’ve had a daily photoblog running for nearly 5 months now and it requires a lot of effort and dedication.. when you build a following who enjoy your photos it’s very well worth doing it though and you “meet” some great people
May 27th at 7:54 am
Thanks for your two posts about photo blogging. This will definitely help me with my newly renewed blog!
May 27th at 2:22 pm
this was soo cool Ill do it for my blog now on
do check it out
May 27th at 5:15 pm
nice read. thanks
May 28th at 3:41 am
I’ve just started watermarking, and here are some tips:
Use a bold font but make it small, that way you can still read it when it’s reduced.
Add a drop shadow or stroke (outline) if you can so it shows up on any background.
Make your watermark slightly transparent – remember, it’s there as proof of origin and doesn’t need to dominate the image. Discreet logos are best, or why not include your URL? If people like your work they will know where to find you.
May 28th at 9:40 am
thank you for the great tips
May 28th at 7:54 pm
Thank you very much for your advices! Soon I’ll be posting a blog about my favorite past time: photography! As soon as I organized myself I’ll be working on it. Be well!
May 29th at 7:19 am
I’ll try it from to day
May 29th at 9:02 pm
Professional and well known photographer Trey Ratcliff has a different spin on the use of watermarks. He doesn’t.
https://plus.google.com/105237212888595777019/posts/UTKKo5Su6Rj
May 30th at 12:13 pm
Just getting started so I really appreciate the tips!
May 30th at 1:07 pm
thank you for the tips ! I learned a lot. I get to read part 3 first before this though
) just the same, it was a great read …
May 30th at 6:01 pm
Thanks for the tips! I have a quick question, though…I have been trying to put a copyright notice on my blog and I followed your directions (go to Widgets and add text, then add copyright notice and hit ‘save’) and it won’t show up on my blog. I am using Duotone. Any advice??
May 31st at 11:12 am
Reblogged this on BookRepublic.