Social Media Marketing for Photographers // Photography + Community

Photographers are often a gear-obsessed bunch, and we occasionally talk about gear and products here, so I thought it might be interested to take a look at the best-selling items in Amazon.com’s Camera & Photo category as we reach the end of June 2010:

What’s interesting to me is that there are a couple themes at the top of the bestsellers lists: pocket-sized video cameras and waterproof cameras.

1. Flip UltraHD Camcorder, 120 Minutes (Black) – a very affordable mini camera from the company that made the category popular.
2. Kodak PlaySport (Zx3) HD Waterproof Pocket Video Camera (Black) – A waterproof camera, likely to be popular for those summer watersporting activities.
3. Canon PowerShot S90 10MP Digital Camera – the Canon S90 is my pocket camera of choice – great images and a huge set of features for a camera of its size.
4. Polaroid t1031 10.0 MP Digital Still Camera – it’s a 10 megapixel camera for less than $65. Wow.
5. Fujifilm FinePix XP10 12 MP Waterproof Digital Camera – another waterproof camera, this time of the still variety
6. Canon PowerShot SD780IS 12.1 MP Digital Camera – Canon’s PowerShot SD series cameras have been popular for a long time… I wasn’t surprised to see the SD780 amongst today’s most popular products
7. Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS7 12.1 MP Digital Camera – Panasonic has become a big player in the compact camera market in the last couple of years…
8. Flip UltraHD Camcorder, 120 Minutes (White) – the pale version of the product that’s at the top of the bestseller list.
9. Canon EOS Rebel T1i 15.1 MP CMOS Digital SLR Camera and EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS Lens – the only DSLR to make the top 10 bestsellers is Canon’s T1i, offering great still images and HD video.
10. Kodak Zi8 Pocket Video Camera (Black) – Kodak’s popular Zi8 pocket video camera wraps up the top 10 list.

Check out these products – if you use the links above and end up purchasing through Amazon, a small commission will be returned to me that helps fund the operation of this site. Thanks for your support!

Tagged as:
cameras,
equipment,
lenses,
photo,
photo gear,
photography

As mentioned in yesterday’s article, Photoshelter just released some new changes to their service. Better websites for free, better SEO, and easier customization are the themes of these updates.

More Photographer-Centric Branding for Free and Basic Accounts

Previously, Photoshelter’s free and Basic account types had Photoshelter-themed image galleries. With the latest updates, photographers on these limited plans will now have their brand featured prominently on a new default website template.

Better SEO and Google Optimization

Photoshelter will now submit Google sitemaps (including the new image sitemap features) for all accounts. Previously, users had to manually configure Google’s webmaster tools for Photoshelter. What’s a sitemap? It’s a file that helps Google (and other search engines) better index a website by describing the site’s layout and how often various parts of the site are usually updated.

Easier Site Customization

It looks like Photoshelter has added some additional customization features that will make it easier for photographers to edit HTML directly and have further control over their site templates. There are two new customizable page templates.

Shorter, Cleaner URLs

For photographers not using their own domain name, their Photoshelter site will now feature a cleaner subdomain URL structure. Instead of a URL like photoshelter.com/c/username, photographers will now have a website at username.photoshelter.com.

What Do You Think?

Are you a Photoshelter user? What do you think about the updates? If anyone is interested in signing up with Photoshelter, that referral link will save you up to $30 on a new account.

Tagged as:
Photo Sharing,
photography,
photoshelter

I swear that when I tweeted this morning:

I had no knowledge that only a couple hours later, Flickr would unveil a newer interface. Flickr has been enhanced with several updates to photo pages.

Similar Look; Several Enhancements

The overall look remains similar, but here’s what you’ll find with the new Flickr photo interface (along with a few editorial comments):

• The default photo size has been increased to 640 pixels wide (up from 500 previously). Bigger is better, but in these days where it seems that everyone’s default resolution is at least 1280 pixels wide, I’m a bit disappointed that only half of that is being used for a photograph.
• A new lightbox view, accessed by clicking on a photo, opens a black-background lightbox for image viewing. I don’t see this as being used by many folks, but it’s nice to see a black-background option being available. Even better would’ve been the ability for users to choose their background color for the page.
• Photo titles now display underneath images (near the description) instead of at the top of the page. The image comes first, the supporting words second.
• Photos with geolocation data display a small map on the right. The camera information is displayed in this same area. Both of these items are more prominant than the previous small-font display that was down near the bottom of the sidebar.
• Navigation buttons to move to previous/next images are now fairly prominent. A new “filmstrip” look replaces the older single-photo options to move forward or back within the photostream or image set.
• Several of the options that were previously in various above-photo menus have been consolidated into an “Actions” menu. This results in a cleaner interface, but it’s going to mean an extra click if you frequently used some of those options.
• Previously viewable only to photo owners, Favorites are now public and displayed along with the comments.
• Licensing information is now displayed more prominently, including on the “All Sizes” view of a photo.

First-Glance Conclusions

Overall these are evolutionary, not revolutionary changes. I think it’s definitely a step in the right direction. When I got word of the new interface I’ll admit I was kind of hoping for some bigger changes but I suspect Flickr users might have revolted at anything too radical.

For power users who might be enhancing Flickr with Greasemonkey scripts, my suspicion is that most of these scripts will need to be updated to accomodate the user interface changes. Incidentally, I use about ten scripts that enhance Flickr, and none of today’s announced changes addresses the shortcomings that I overcome with scripts.

I’m not really sure where Flickr is headed. Perhaps these changes are the first step or are needed to support some bigger innovations that have yet to be announced.

Get Started with the New Interface

The new interface is technically in a beta period right now, but signed-in Flickr users can opt-in to the new design. Use this link to opt-in to the new Flickr photo interface.

Read more about the changes in the announcement blog post, the Flickr FAQs, or a Flickr Group that’s been set up for discussion.

Tagged as:
flickr,
Photo Sharing

Late last week, Flickr rolled out a change that widens the reach of it’s collaboration with Getty Images and allows anyone on Flickr to offer their photos for sale via the Getty program.

Previously, the Flickr+Getty partnership was essentially invitation-only, where selected photographers would be invited to have selected photos represented by Getty. Now, photographers can opt-in to allowing any of their public photos to be licensed via Getty. Photographers will see a “Want to license your photos through Getty Images?” link in the “Additional Information” section of their public photo pages. Clicking the link leads to the preferences screen (shown partially in the screenshot) where a photographer can opt-in to allowing Getty to manage licensing of their public photos.

For photographers who choose to participate, a link will be added to all of their public photos page that allows a viewer to request to license the photo. When a request is made, a Getty editor will manage the deal between the photographer and the buyer.

Will This Impede Licensing Deals?

At first this sounds like a great way for photographers to license their work, but I’ve started to think more about it and I wonder how this might over-complicate the behind-the-scenes licensing deals that already occur on Flickr. It’s not uncommon for a photographer to receive a licensing request via Flickr and work with a buyer to arrange terms and payment; will the introduction of Getty into the picture lead to less of the informal deals? Might folks be put off by the formal nature of introducing a third party?

And What About that Non-Commercial Angle?

As most Flickr users know, Flickr prohibits commercial use of the service. From their terms of service:

Flickr is for personal use only. If we find you selling products, services, or yourself through your photostream, we will terminate your account.

We’ve seen in the past that Flickr is quick to delete accounts without warning for this reason. By rolling Getty licensing out to every user, it’s clear that Flickr is fine with commercial use as long as Flickr gets a piece of that deal. If this was about allowing users choice or flexibility, I’d be able to add a link that allows users to license photos directly through me. That’s not what it’s about. By forcing users to license through Getty, Flickr can control the terms and presumably earn a portion of Getty’s proceeds on the deals.

Are you going to offer your Flickr stream to be licensed via Getty? Does this feature excite you or do you feel limited by the lack of licensing options on Flickr?

Tagged as:
ecommerce,
flickr,
getty,
getty images,
Photo Sharing