At Photoble, we try to showcase a variety of interesting and unique photos from various photographers. When it comes to selecting which photos to feature, it’s a hard job. Trust me, if I had the time and resources to feature 100 great photos, I would.
This post would hopefully help the photographers out there who want their photos to standout from the crowd and gain some public exposure. Here are 10 tips to help get your photos get featured in blogs, magazines or simply receive more views. I’d be mainly focusing on getting noticed on Flickr. However, most of these tips can be applied to your online portfolio or any other photo platforms.
1.) Get a Flickr Pro account
If you’re serious about photography, upgrade yourself to a Flickr Pro account. When I first joined Flickr, I wasn’t sure about doshing out the money for Flickr Pro. However, a Flickr Pro account offers you more flexibility and a variety of tools such as access to stats, create multiple sets and collections and have unlimited uploads and storage. For a year, it’s only $24.95 and it’s definitely worth it!
And no, Flickr did not pay us to write something about them!
2.) Have a good title
I know sometimes it’s easier to default to titles like ‘IMG_4597’ or just ‘untitled’. Yes, I’ve also done it plenty of times. However, if you put in a bit of thought, it could make your photo that much more interesting. Look, it doesn’t need to be creative or ‘out there’, even just naming the photo by what it is could help it appear more often in searches.
Good title: Bellydancer with orange scarf
Bad title: Image_2345 Untitled
3.) Tag it with keywords, the more, the better
When you’ve spent ages uploading photos, the last thing you want to do is go through each one and tag them with relevant keywords. Nevertheless, if you want that photo to appear in a relevant search, put in that extra minute and come up with some good keywords. Think outside the box a bit too, you can tag your photo with keywords relating to the color, camera used and even time of day taken.
For the example above, here are some good keywords you’d include:
bellydancer, dance, red, orange, scarf, skirt, flow, move, warm, pose, flow, silk, transparent, light, shadow, 50D, Canon
4.) Have a short description
I’m not looking for your life story here, but just a few short sentences about the shot and what inspired you to take it. Having keywords in the description section would also help your photos appear more often in searches.
Good description:
I wanted the movement of the transparent scarf to be frozen in time and I really like the lighting and colors in this photo.
Model: Eszter Edl
Studio: First Zoom Studios
5.) Tick the Creative Commons box
When it comes to featuring photos on a public blog, website or magazine, the first place where I’d search in Flickr are photos with a Creative Commons license. “Creative Commons is a non-profit that offers an alternative to full copyright.”
Having your photo under a Creative Commons license doesn’t mean people can start reproducing your photo and sell it for a profit. In fact, there are different licenses you can select from, for example Attribution, Noncommercial, No Derivative Works and Share Alike.
6.) Make it a habit to upload
It’s a numbers game in the end. If you have more great photos out there, the more likely one would be picked. Also, readers would come back more often to check out your new photos. Try to upload new photos once a week or every two weeks. If you can even just upload a photo a day, that’s still better than nothing.
7.) Try to have a full-image available
We’re about displaying good, quality photos on our blog. When it comes to photo inspirations,we’re not looking for print standard resolution or a super large image. Having your photo at least 500px (wide/tall) would be enough.
8.) Go easy with the watermark
I’ve seen great photos on Flickr but only to be ruined by an ugly, easily noticed watermark, dead center on the photo. I encourage all artist to adopt a watermark. However, don’t make the watermark take the focus away from the photo. Have it subtle, small, transparent and towards the bottom of a corner.
Bad watermark: 
Good watermark: 
9.) Submit your photos to different groups
What’s great about Flickr is its photo community. You have amateur photographers, to the professional ones with the fancy cameras and equipment. Join groups that interest you and submit your photos to those groups. It’s an easy way to get inspiration from others, receive useful feedback and even get noticed.
10.) Don’t be scared to approach the editor
When it comes to publicity, it’s not just a one-way street. We would all love it if we get approached by editors all the time, but sometimes, you would need to approach them. Follow blogs/websites/magazines on Twitter and Facebook to get the latest news. Don’t be scared to even drop them an e-mail with a great idea for a blog post and some samples of your photos.
Take interest in them and they’d take interest in you. If you wish to know about upcoming Photoble articles where you can contribute, follow us @photoble or follow me @yiiee
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