Photoblogging - How To Start A Photo Blog

Photo blogging is a different kind of blogging, which is primarily focussed on pictures and not on text or articles. The pictures are usually accompanied with a caption or a brief description and rest is left for the viewers’ imagination. Unlike the usual blogging, in photo blogging you don't have to think much before posting a new post. But that said, it doesn't mean the authors of the photo blogs are not talented or it's a matter of seconds or minutes to publish a new post. Their talent and creativity is all visible in the pictures taken by them. Photographers see the same things that we do, but with a different angle and that is how the pictures are presented.
Nowadays, the content of the photo blogs is not limited to the pictures taken by the cameras. You can see a number of digital pictures on Internet, created by either modifying the pictures taken by cameras or creating them from scratch in photo editing software like Adobe Photoshop (shareware) or Paint.Net (freeware).

Photographers can blog and display their pictures either as a hobby or a profession. People show case their work on these blogs, either giving away the pictures for free or copyrighting their work and selling them online.
The pictures are usually presented as thumbnails with watermarks and the actual full size image is made available for download after a successful payment, either directly by email or using sites like DepositPhotos. You can also check out DepositPhotos' official blog for the latest trends in photography and photo blogging.
To start a photo blog, you should either be a good photographer or you should have a good professional camera. In short, if you get more than 10 likes for the pictures uploaded by you on Facebook, then you are already in a position to start a photo blog.

Where to blog...
You can either create a blog of our own, on any of the blogging platforms like Blogger or Wordpress, or you can create an account at websites like Flickr. Personally I would suggest you to host and display your images on your own blog, as that will give more credibility to your work. But at the same time you should also use sites like Deposit Photos to sell the pictures, this will give more exposure to your collection.

Promote your work...
Use the potential of social networking to publicize your work across the Net. Post links to your work in sites like Facebook, Twitter, StumbleUpon, Digg etc. But remember there's a difference in promoting and spamming, and in the long run spamming will do more bad than good for your blog and business.

Be creative...
As applicable to any work, creativity and novelty is the key to get successful in any niche. Do a proper research before buying a camera, play with its settings, try post modifications in different picture editing software. And bring in the best content for your viewers.

And protect what you want to sell...
"If it's online, then no one can guarantee its protection" - this is applicable to almost anything available online. But that doesn't mean you can leave your hard earned work open to thieves and data pirates. Use different techniques to keep pictures safe from getting copied.
If you are planning to sell pictures on your blog, then display only thumbnails along with watermarks. Also do have a "License" or "Terms of Use" page on your blog, clearly mentioning the copyright terms and conditions.

A suggestion...
At times do publish some good quality pictures with a "free to use" license. This will get you more viewers and regular visitors. And these visitors will sooner or later become your clients or will get you more clients.


For more ideas and inspiration head over to this list of 50 Inspiring Photoblogs on SmashingMagazine.