A rough guide to photoblogging

A rough guide to photoblogging

Photo via Jjjjound


Photoblogging is all the rage these days, with everyone and their nan having a blogspot or tumblr account filled with images from all over the place.

Photoblogs are great, but they do have a downside – soon enough they go full circle (usually within the first few pages) and most of their content will be identical to all of the others – this self referring is what will eventually probably kill the genre.

Here is a loose guide to making the most of your photoblog and (hopefully) not going the way of the Dodo and doing it for the long term.



1. Go beyond.

9 out of 10 photoblogs recycle their content from other photo blogs, fffound, yayeveryday and so on. Resist the temptation to do this and go beyond
the usual places – people want original content, they don’t care if it takes an extra couple of days before it appears on your site. If they’ve seen it all
before they’ll get bored. Try to look for content in places you wouldn’t normally look, sites that are alternative to your genre (architecture, fashion, photography,
research, science etc), go to second hand shops, libraries, record shops, galleries, anywhere you’re likely to find an abundance of interesting imagery which
more than likely won’t be anywhere else on the net


Via Escapism2009


2. Take your own photos.

This may seem like a no brainer, but the fact remains that most photoblogs don’t ever bother showing stuff they’ve photographed themselves. You don’t
have to be the best photographer in the world to do this successfully as long as your content is on point and relevant.

Via onehundredtrilliondollars


3. Know when respect is due

Most photoblogs don’t bother linking back to where they got the images. Why? Probably a mixture of laziness and not wanting to reveal their sources. But odds
are that the majority of your viewers have been on those sites or they will be in the near future. The benefit of linking back, amongst other things, is that the
site you refer to is more likely to return the favour, thus giving you more sweet, precious, juicy hits. Also your visitors will appreciate the links as it widens their
digital horizons and will return to your blog in the hope for more of the same. A good source of external links is considered a worthwhile site, just as one with
good photos would be – a combination of the two is a winner.


Via Getnloose


4. Know your subject

The mistake a lot of photoblogs make is to make their subject matter too wide. Diversifying is cool, but only if it stays relevant to your audience. For example,
posting pictures of hot, topless girls holding spray cans makes sense on a graffiti blog, but posting a load of naked chicks for no real reason is both irrelevant
as there are 100.000 blogs with just that out there and also it makes your blog too nsfw for a lot of visitors to visit. Your visitors will appreciate the relevance of
your posts and will return on the basis that you will give them more of the same.


Via Jjjound


5. Narrow for the win

Relating to the point above, your photoblog will be a whole lot more credible, the more narrow your subject matter is. If you’re into tags, stick with tags. If you’re
into train graffiti stick to that. Diversifying your content is much easier to gather and means you can update more, but visitors are more likely to stay faithful if they
know what to expect from you.

Via Fucknfilthy

I’m by no means trying to claim we do it any better than any other blog or that we follow these rules to any extreme. But see the above as a rough guide to making
the most of your blog. HYB 2010 Two FTW