Have you ever uploaded an image to Blogger and later wanted to pull it but discovered you don’t know where that photo is stored? Or, do you host your art blog on another service which limits the amount of images you can share with your readers?
Maybe you even have to limit the number of photos you share on your blog because you pay for your own hosting. . .
Flickr’s photo sharing service solves all these problems and more. Here’s how:
1. Flickr provides an easy-to-use platform
Flickr allows you to upload, edit, and remove photos with the simple click of a button. You can upload batches of photos at one time, save them in sets, tag them for searchability, and include active links back to your website in the description area of each photo.
Flickr offers both a paid and a free service. The free service limits you to 300MB of bandwidth, whereas the paid service, for just $25 a year, gives you unlimited photo storage space and bandwidth.
2. Flickr also creates free exposure for your images
When you publish artwork on your blog, only your readers see them. When you load your work onto Flickr, you gain an entirely new audience. And the best part is that Flickr allows you to choose which rights you give viewers on every photo you upload using their Creative Commons Licensing.
If, for instance, you only want viewers to be able to view your image but not share it or use it, you would choose “All Rights Reserved.” If, however, you choose “Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs Creative Commons,” other bloggers are able to use your images on their blogs, provided they give you credit. It also ensures that they won’t use your material in commercial work, or create any projects with your work.
3. Using Flickr cuts down on your blog’s bandwidth
When you upload an image to your blog, every time that image is viewed, it takes up precious bandwidth. If you’re using a free hosting service, like blogger.com, that’s not a problem. But if you’re using a paid service, those images will eat away at your bandwidth and ultimately end up costing you money.
4. Artwork on Flickr is always available to show
Hosting art on Flickr means you have a portfolio ready to go at a moment’s notice.
If you’re on vacation and have a chance encounter with a gallery owner who just happens to show interest in your art, all you have to do is log into your Flickr account and you can instantly give the gallery owner a presentation of your best work. Just remember to create a set of your best work before you leave for vacation!
Flickr is also portable in the sense that if you ever choose to switch from a free hosting service to a paid one, you don’t have to worry about tracking down your photos and painfully reloading each individual image. The link code used with each image will automatically reload the images when your blog transfer is complete. (Exporting tools for transferring blogs between platforms usually only move text, you’d have to reload your images.)
5. Flickr creates an off-site backup of your artwork
Aside from loading sized images for the purpose of enhancing your blog, you could also load larger images, set them to private, and create an external back up.
Now before you start uploading your photos to Flickr, it’s important to read the fine print and take the time to fill out all the account information. There is a section that asks if you want to allow your images to be licensed with Getty Images and it’s automatically set to “yes,” so if you disagree, you need to turn it off.
Happy uploading!
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