getting traffic to my blog

[kriepl]

Hey everyone,
I have a quick and hopefully simple question.
I have had a photoblog now for about 7 months, and I was curious what are some ways to get people to my site? I don't want traffic for traffic's sake. I am just looking for visitors (other photographers) to possibly leave comments and critique my existing work, whether the comments be good or constructive. I love learning from other poeples ideas of how they would have done something different or possibly applying a technique another way, etc etc.

Here is what I have done so far:
Listed my site on photoblogs.org
listed on coolphotoblogs.com and photos.vfxy.com

I also have been visiting many other photo blogs and leaving comments as to my appreciation of others' work. Not only to give credit to those who do quallity work but also in hopes to become part of the photoblog community and get those same people back to my site.

Visiting all these other blogs...some that have not been out much longer than mine, have dozens of comments per image. So I am just basically wondering if there are there avenues for me to visit in order to increase the visitors.

Thanks
kevinR.

[jaywilliams+]

I find one way to get good traffic is to start using social networks.
Sites such as Del.icio.us and stumbleupon are both great options.

But in order for it to be effective, you've obviously need to become a fairly active member in the community.

That's my two cents. :-D

[dakwegmo+]

If you figure it out let me know. I've had my site listed at all of the places you noted, plus many others. I actively comment on others photos and cross-post all of the photos from my photoblog to Flickr. My photoblog is in the signature of most of the forums I visit, and has been listed on several friends websites. All of these efforts have garnered lots of visitors but few comments. I average several hundred visitors a day (not including bots), but I have only slightly better than 1 comment per image posted.

I hope you have better luck than me figuring it out, and if you do please share your findings.

[austriaka+]

Best way to receive comments is to comment comment comment.
In the beginning you have to write your comments into about 50 photoblogs per day, and do this every day on a regular basis. The most important thing is that your name is becoming known as an eager commenter. (use the same name over all the blogs of course ;-))

Second thing is to select the blogs where you are commenting.
If you are browsing a lot of blogs, watch out who is commenting there. You'll find names which show up again and again, those are the people who are willing to write comments and their blogs you should visit. Another important thing is to find "connections", finding out which people comment on people who left a comment.

There are some bloggers out here who receive a lot of comments just because they are so good and rarely comment themselves (examples: http://www.xoverip.info/pb/ or http://actinique.com/)
But most of them receive comments from people where they left a comment themselves.
So don't watch out for blogs with much comments but for the commenters in those blogs and leave your note there.
Do this for a few months (!) and do it honestly, write more than a three words sentence and express your honest opinion.

This sounds like cheating? Yes, perhaps. I don't know. The game of give-and-receive-comments is a really strange system, and if you want to take part you have to follow the rules :-)

I did this for quite a long time last year and succeeded in receiving between 15 and 20 comments per image.
Then I had no time anymore for spending hours per day on commenting photos and the count of comments per image dropped to 3 or 4 per day which I receive without being very active as a commenter. But I found a few people I can almost call friends, who return to my blog from time to time and stay in contact by that (what is really worth more than 20 comments per day).

[kriepl]

wow, great response. Thanks so much. I do comment on others' sites, but not to the extent that you recommend. And to visit the 'commentors' sites and post comments there....I JUST started applying that technique. Again, not to the extent you recommend.
But I suppose i can do this. Prior to starting work every morning i check my HUGE list of photoblogs anyway, i guess it wouldn't hurt to comment on every one of them. If each is honest and sincere, it should be a quick process.

oh and thank you for the comment on my latest image. :-) This is exactly what I crave for....comments and peoples' personal opinions on how they would have tackled something differently. Thanks. a great way to learn.

...it's odd, as a creative person in my day to day work, i tend to be very sensitive to critiquing and overly opinionated constructive criticism, but in my photography, which is a hobby i whole heartedly welcome it.

thank you again.
kevin r.

[austriaka+]

a useful tool for your comments statistics is this Addon:
http://www.pixelpost.org/extend/addo...-statistics-1/
Of course you should visit the blogs of your "top commenters" regularily, this is sort of politeness.
The other point: reduce your huge list of photoblogs to those in which you are really interested and combine that with the blogs of people who give honest critique (and a lot of course ;-))

To gain visitors, the weekly photomemes are a good point to start with, although this leads rarely to comments. It is great fun anyway :-)

[mgd711]

Unfortunately the world of Photoblogging is down to a lot of M&M's (Mutual Masturbation).

I started photoblogging 2 years ago in the hope that I'd get comments that would help me improve my technique.

For 4 months I got no comments, then I realized that with a bit of M&M I'd get comments back. A few of the sites I visit there photography is rubbish but they get lots more comments than I do simply because they comment on lots of other sites. Don't let the comment numbers game fool you into believing these sites are great photographers, they just have better networking skills. Some of the best work out there gets very few comments.

It dosen't take long before it all becomes a real pain in the arse, now I comment on a few friends sites and photoblog for my own pleasure.



Mike

[kriepl]

mike: thanks for the input.
kind of the same of what austriaka was saying too.

I would assume the commenting would turn into an 'M&M' type of deal. But I would hope the comments would still be honest.
I suppose i am like you in a way, where I really am not looking for comments in numbers, but more or less, quality critiques. but i guess either way you have to spend time commenting if you want comments back whether good or bad.

thanks.
kevin

[mgd711]

Kevin,

Its a bit of a vicious circle,

people leave nice comments (even if the image is crap) or don't comment on the image at all just so they don't offend you and you still go to there site.

I've had a long discussion with a couple of blogger friends about this. They wanted me to leave real comments, some critique etc.. on there images. I explained that if I did that 1. there other commenters might take the hump with me for not saying nice things and then stop visiting my site or 2. take the hump with me and then attack my images......

So its really a no win situation.

If you want critique on your work you won't get it through blogging, better to find another site for that and just enjoy blogging for what it is.


Mike

[austriaka+]

A place for getting real honest comments is http://onexposure.net
It is almost impossible to get photos published there but if you succeed, you know that your photo is really worth it.
The best thing is that you can submit rejected photos for critique, and this critique is very honest, often more than you like it.
Try it out, the basic membership is free, and it is a real great place to learn, at least to see what kind of photos people like ;-)