Two new homes

[iamback]

As part of my plan to increase my 'internet footprint' in order to increase my visibility, I have created two new accounts today - both related to my photography but not, exactly, photography themselves. They will be low-volume in terms of uploaded work.

The first is a YouTube channel which I will use to display various little videos I sometimes make that serve as 'background' or 'context' for my photos, as well as for slideshow videos I make specifically to showcase a series of photos or a theme. I have already uploaded a first very short video (of the 'context' type). I have yet to learn how to link these videos back to the related photo pages (but I know it's possible). At least some (probably all) of my work here will be licensed under a Creative Commons license.

The second is a DeviantArt site intended as the home for what I call "The pleasant accidents of imperfection" - a concept which I explain in my first journal post. Here, too, a first upload. I'm releasing all work here under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike license, and also making prints and photo products available for sale.

Comments are always welcome, of course!

[terrie]

Wouldn't it be easier to have one place rather than being scattered hither and yon? '-}}

Terrie

[iamback]

Originally Posted by terrie

Wouldn't it be easier to have one place rather than being scattered hither and yon? '-}}

For me - maybe. But there are several reasons for using different sites, including making it easier for prospective clients as well:

1. Different sites provide different facilities: for instance YouTube provides code so you can embed videos in other sites; those other sites that allow embedding do not allow uploading videos
2. It also means that I can separate work according to the type of work, and present each type in a way and context that best suits it. For instance the "pleasant accidents" find a natural home in DeviantArt where there is much more emphasis on cooperation and reuse of work than there is on RedBubble or a strictly photo website like PhotoShelter. Assuming that people generally will be interested in a particular type of work, this also makes it easier for them: e.g., those who want to see only my photographs don't need to make detours around my "pleasant accidents".
3. Geography: Some sites target, or are mainly geared to, specific geographical areas. If you want to reach clients world-wide, you should try to 'cover' your area by different websites. Also things like currency, tax and shipping costs can play a role, and make one site easier to use than others for buyers.
4. The fourth reason is Search Engine optimization (SEO): by linking all these sites (and more!) to each other - in the different ways they have for linking out - I am creating incoming links from 'authoritative' sites for each which helps with ranking in the search engines.

PhotoShelter provides excellent guides for photographers on how to apply SEO, for instance Planning a Strategy: SEO Cookbook and more - their advice is sound (and works), and applies to others than only photographers as well: browse around, it's free, too.

[terrie]

Different strokes (approaches) for different folks...'-}}

You have 5 different places in your sig and a total of 7 given your 2 new places. It just seems to make more work for you and take you more time to maintain all of those sites when, with perhaps the exception of YouTube, having one place (your own domain?) to maintain would be easier and maybe more efficient? Is there any reason you couldn't create a master portal on your own domain and then divvy up that domain for all those threads--again, with perhaps YouTube the exception?

I'm obviously not one of your clients but the scattered approach makes it difficult to really latch onto who you are, what you are doing and where you are going...

Terrie

PS...all this is written by someone who has not updated her own website in eons and really, really should get down to doing that sometime real soon now...'-}}

[iamback]

Originally Posted by terrie

Different strokes (approaches) for different folks...'-}}

You have 5 different places in your sig and a total of 7 given your 2 new places.

And those are only part of the mix! And there are also microblogs, blogs and similar. The trick is to build a network of links - and I've only just really started with that. (I cannot do it all at once anyway... but I took two important and long-planned steps today.)

Originally Posted by terrie

It just seems to make more work for you and take you more time to maintain all of those sites when, with perhaps the exception of YouTube, having one place (your own domain?) to maintain would be easier and maybe more efficient?

Easier, maybe.

More efficient, not, because it would be much harder to present different work at their best and in the best context. Soon you'd have different accounts at the same hosting site. There's also the fact that sites like RedBubble and deviantArt have a strong social aspect - which you'd be totally missing if you just use your own site.

More effective, certainly not. For the geography reasons I already mentioned, for the reason that different sites offer different types of products for sale, and for the SEO reasons I mentioned.

Originally Posted by terrie

Is there any reason you couldn't create a master portal on your own domain and then divvy up that domain for all those threads--again, with perhaps YouTube the exception?

Plenty. I'd have to have all that content on my own domain (that soon ads up to a huge amount of web space) - which gets expensive. Most of these hosting sites can host much more professionally than I have money for, and are free or cost less than it would cost me to to 'provide' all the same services they do. I don't need a merchant account either - these sites handle all the payment, printing and shipping (including send backs, charge backs, damaged goods...). Then there are the promotional tools some sites offer.

If I had to do all of that myself, there would be no time left to actually take and process photographs.

Originally Posted by terrie

I'm obviously not one of your clients but the scattered approach makes it difficult to really latch onto who you are, what you are doing and where you are going...

To an extent that is true - if you assume there are people who want to see all of it. But mostly it will be people interested in photography finding my photographs on a site in their geographical area. Or coming to that site via YouTube which basically PR and promotion only - I'm not selling anything there. People interested in weird abstract stuff, or reusing 'textures' will find their way to the deviantART site, and stick there - possibly led there via a link from a photo site, etc. It's a matter of getting them where they really want to be and look around.

But it should all be made accessible and pulled together by a single place that links to all the other (main) sites (but not hosts any content). Retaggr used to provide a very useful unified profile service but they stopped, and I have not found a good replacement yet. Meaning that I'll have to do (and host) that bit myself.

[terrie]

marjolein: The trick is to build a network of links - and I've only just really started with that. (I cannot do it all at once anyway... but I took two important and long-planned steps today.)

That, I think, would go a very long way to answering the point I was trying to make but wasn't making it well...'-}}



>>if you assume there are people who want to see all of it.

I wasn't assuming anything...I'd like to see it all...'-}}

Terrie

[iamback]

Originally Posted by terrie

I wasn't assuming anything...I'd like to see it all...'-}}

Then you'll soon have a way to find it all - but not yet! Still looking for a service to replace Retaggr (which had a convenient embeddable widget so you could update your stuff once and have it visible wherever you embedded it); otherwise I'll have to do it myself and that will be much more work.

[donmcc]

I can see why someone might want both. YouTube is very much a better known and more accessible site. But they are very vanilla. One uncovered female nipple on a photo and your work will be pulled.

Deviant is much more forgiving about what it allows ... I don't know if there are any restrictions at all beyond legal ones, like child porn.

[iamback]

Originally Posted by donmcc

Deviant is much more forgiving about what it allows ... I don't know if there are any restrictions at all beyond legal ones, like child porn.

Yes, they do have strict rules (Loads of 'Policy' documents I actually read or skimmed through before finishing signing up), and a reporting system as well. Under-age nudity strictly forbidden, and 'adult' stuff needs to be flagged as 'not safe for work' or some such.

Not that I do any of that, but they do have rules, spelled out clearly.

I've now worked out my system how to cross-link between RedBubble and deviantArt for related images, and in place for the two I uploaded to DA so far. Gotta do some other stuff before I work out linking from YouTube - doing it the other way is easy from Redbubble: they have a special code for embedding a YT video.

[annc]

I like your approach, and thanks for the links. Now that I'm um, retired, my plan is to look at my sites, which badly need a total reorganisation now that the reasons for some of them have either disappeared or changed dramatically. I need to remove some completely (and have already stopped renewal of about 8 domains) and optimise those that are left, so the SEO stuff is particularly interesting.

Thanks as always for providing new ways of doing things and making me think!