20 Creative Ways To Make Your Photostream Popular
Written by Anurag Bhateja on August 2, 2010 – 2:32 am -First of all, this article is dedicated to few friends in photography whom I really admire for their work and dedication towards the passion. I am following work of few friends online and offline. While studying their work, I observed some tips and tricks of making the photostream popular both on Flickr and Facebook. Followed some of them, adopted, tweaked and then collected them. Some worked for me and some didn’t. Well when we try someone’s foot steps, this happens. You may succeed or you may fail. Now I can not mention all the names here but will make sure that the credit goes to the particular person 
- This is the very first tip I got when I started using flickr. Always comment (prefer compliment in public) on other’s work. (This tip was give by Capt Suresh Sharma back in 2008. Still works!)
- Always be humble when someone asks a question on your stream. Never avoid replying to any comment. This will make the visitor regular.
- Always try to mention location and EXIF details. This will help you in getting feedback from experts in your friend list. You can even ask them to visit your photo and give feedback. Some may don’t but some will do for sure. If they like, they will surely comment and will follow the work.
- Follow and comment on famous people work
(prefer to keep it positive). I know this is nasty but this works! - Say thanks to your visitors when you achieve a landmark. Like if your photostream crosses 10,000 visits benchmark, post a flower photograph or something like that to say thanks for the support.
- Keep track of comments. Those who comment on your stream, prefer to revert back with a comment on their photographs.
- If you have a friend in photograph, tag him/her. Let him/her see what you have uploaded. You can even allow his/her friends to comment on the photograph (in facebook you have to choose the privacy settings). In Flickr of you tag, anyone can comment (if comments are open).
- Prefer not to tag people just to show the work. Many people get irritated.
- Stay in your limits. If someone is crossing the limits in comments, prefer either to delete the comment or to reply in a humble manner. Its always to stay away from problems.
- Do not try to create controversy with your photographs. it works with blog posts but not with photographs. They may ruin your image. Though this do not apply on nude artists and journalist photographers.
- Do not show that you have more knowledge than others. There are people who will try to pull you down and will drag you in some stupid conversation in your photo comments. Happened with me and wasted hell lot of time with them. So better stay away and work on some constructive tips.
- Tag your photographs properly. Say if you have uploaded a photograph of a flower clicked in say fragrance garden sector 36 Chandigarh, then add location, city, name of flower, if you know biological name than that too, your name, your camera name, your camera model, lens used and colors of flower. This will help search engines to track the photograph.
- Geotag your photograph (option in flickr). This will help you in getting search results when someone search for a particular location say “rose garden Chandigarh”.
- Do not over process your photograph and try to keep it natural. Color enhancement and a few tweaks are important but do not mess with the photograph much till until you want to present it as photographic art. If you are uploading an art, please mention it. Let people comment accordingly.
- Make a photography page as artist in facebook. Invite your friends to join it but do not spam them.
- Update your stream regularly. Add a photograph after small intervals of time say one in every 24 hours or once in two days. This will help you in getting regular visitors as they will visit you to see your work often. Also they will be able to see photographs on their wall (facebook) and photographs from contacts (flickr). (This is very common tip for both photographers and bloggers. We always keep blogs updated so to make sure the subscribers get something regularly )
- Click something unusual. Something which is not your regular forte. Ask visitors to comment on how it looks and all. How you can improve. Be open to harsh comments.
- Always give title and description to your photograph. Do not make it too long but write a little bit about the upload. This will help people understand it (especially when it has some art in it). People love to comment when they can see some story in a photograph. If you explain the story yourself, more comments will pour in for sure).
- Start a photo contest. This can be done on your photography page. You can even give them goodies. Recently a friend, Deepa Netto has some something similar and gave filter kit as a gift. Though it was not a photo contest but was a small comment contest but it was a hit.
- Dedicate a photograph to someone you admire. Tag him/her
let people see what inspired you and whats the outcome This will surely increase comments.
Now these are 20 out of a long list I have studied. Try to follow them and see the difference
Tags: facebook photos, flickr photos comments, how to make your photostream popular, increase comments on photographs, increase visitors on photos, make photos popular, photo albums facebook
Posted in Photography Tips and Tricks | 2 Comments »
Importance of Controversy
Written by Anurag Bhateja on March 4, 2010 – 8:48 am -If we look for the definition of controversy, it can be defined as “Controversy is a state of prolonged public dispute or debate, usually concerning a matter of opinion”. In our daily life, we come across a lot of controversies which is related to us in either or the other way. It can be about family, work, nation or anything. Each and every situation is handled in a different way so that the controversy can be avoided as much as possible.
Now, have you ever thought if there is any significance importance of this word? Why there are so many controversies around us when this is a negative word? The answer is, its important! Ask a politician or a News channel about the importance. If there is no controversy around, what will they do? If such situation occurs, they won’t have any work to do! They literally are earning their bread from controversies only.
For us, the bloggers, this particular word can do magic. I am not saying that you should concentrate only on controversial topics, but there is no harm in creating or following one, once in a blue moon. What happens is, we humans are always running behind whats happening around us and try to find how the particular thing is affecting us. Keeping this fact in mind, you can work on either starting a new controversy (which is VERY dangerous) or can start following one and add your views on it. For example, if you look for the phrase “Suicide and its preventions”, you will find numerous bloggers who write about it and tell how to avoid that particular phase of life. Another example can be noticed as “death of Micheal Jackson”, or “affairs of tiger woods” or even “god exist or not”.
The thing is, talking about such things sometimes help, though not always. Lets take example of some famous people. I am sure you remember the time of Bill Clinton. Everything went so well and then Monica literally ruined his career. Shashi Throor, the young face of Indian politics, is always in controversies because of his statements either on twitter or in meeting. George W Bush will always remain a idol for controversies because of his decision of attacking on different nations. How can any Indian forget the face of Rakhi Sawant (I really do not want to remember her for any reason even for controversies) or Rahul Mahajan (really can not stand his laughing style).
In the above given examples, the image of every person is not so good in eyes of public. The reason could be that they are celebrities and politicians. Famous and soft targets of Media. You are not. I know this is rude but you really are not! You can play with things around to a certain limit. The world of Internet is all about the number game. How many visitors you are getting, how many people are sharing your work and in end of the day how much revenue you made. Working and writing on happening controvercies (keeping in mind that your words won’t harm you) can bring a huge number of traffic to your blog/website.
You can play with words. Without taking any name or pointing anyone you can write about a lot of things and a lot of stuff happening around you. Remember, the biggest scams came into lime light just because of controversies. Controversies created by people like you, like me or anyone in this world can do the work in both constructive and destructive way. The only thing you need is to decide how big shot you want to play keeping yourself safe .
Tags: controversy, controversy and me, controversy and you, important of controversy, life with controversy
Posted in Blogging Tips | No Comments »
Sending Mail: Points To Remember
Written by Anurag Bhateja on November 5, 2009 – 10:14 am -E-mails, without any doubt, a part of our daily routine which makes our life very easy. When e-mails were started, they were often taken as casual mails but now a days professional emails are used just as we used to do mailers to our clients and other people with whom we deal with. If you remember, your school Language teacher used to teach you how to write formal and informal letters. The time has changed and we are using emails for the purpose but still some people do not use the basic rules of writing a mail.
Emails also have To, From, Subject, Body and option to add signatures but somehow we are just so casual that we do not bother to write things specifically especially in formal mails. I am here presenting a small point to remember list for you. I do not know how much they will help you but in hope it will here I go
Emails are just like regular paper mails which we write. They also have informal and formal formats. First lets talk about informal mails as they just need a little of explanation.
Informal Mails: While writing informal mails via emails, you just need to keep one thing in mind that if you are asking about something specific in mail then please describe it in subject in 2-3 words as normally informal mails are of least priority. Keeping just this point in mind, you can write the mail in the way you want. You can even close the mail in one line!
Now lets count on the formal mails:
- Always use proper subject: Hello Sir, Information, Quote etc won’t work. Be specific. For e.g. if you are sending quote for say xyz project then write “Quote for XYZ“.
- Always greet properly: While starting mail always write, Sir or Madam or Mam and if you do not know who is reading the mail then write Sir/Madam or Respected Sir/Madam or whatever you like to greet with. You can also mention “Accept our warm greetings” or a phrase like this.
- Always mention previous conversations: If previous conversations over phone or during a meeting need a mention in the mail, please specify. Like “In reference to our telephonic conversation on so and so date“.
- Take care of changes in attachments: This is very important as I have faced issues many a times. If you are sending attachments to someone and has changed some matter in the attached file then neither keep the same name as of the last attachment sent nor send the email without mentioning it in mail. Otherwise there is a possibility that your new attachment goes unnoticed.
- Always use signatures: Signatures in email are not like the signatures you do on your cheque book. Use a good format in your signature. Add your name, company name, designation, website address (if any), address(if required) and phone number.
I hope they will help a bit. Keep mailing and keep reading
Take care.
Tags: emails, ethics in email, ethics in mail, formal email, informal email, points to remember while sending email, send email, sending email
Posted in Tutorials | 1 Comment »
