My amateur status as a photographer has now been set, and I wasn’t even trying that hard. Here are the details of what happened with a few parting ideas on how to “get famous”via Flickr. To start, I was contacted by an online travel guide, asking for permission to publish one of my Flickr pics in their latest version on London. Here’s the link where the pic is published, which includes my name and a link to my Flickr pic. Granted, it’s nothing fancy, but it has become my most popular photo by over twofold. This is the 3rd request I’ve received to use my Flickr pics in other’s material over the past year or so, and while I’m far from famous, it’s been an unexpected upside to publishing my pics on the Internet.

Guidelines for a good Flickr presence:

• Always give photos tags, a title, and a description. A nature shot is good, but it’s 10X better when you know where and/or why it was taken.
• Make the good pics public, and keep the duplicates private. A few snapshots of your dog is good, but clicking through 100 speed shots can get tiresome.
• Post your best pics on your blog along with a post. This will give your post some nice spice while publicizing your pics.
• Add a Flickr “badge” to your Web site. This is a nice way for visitors to see random samplings.
• Use photo sets whenever possible. This allows photos to be grouped with one description, and a photo set can have a separate link.
• Turn on Flickr stats. This is a manual process, but it gives you an idea of what photos were more popular and when.