The Artists Guide To Flickr
If you haven’t used Flickr as part of your brand awareness programme you are missing out. Whether you are an artist, photographer, designer, craftsperson, beginner or experienced there are numerous ways to promote and present your work.
Flickr is a photo sharing social network through which you can share images of your work for public or private viewing. Because of the strong community element it is easy to join groups of like minded artists, or even start your own group. To open a Flickr account you need a Yahoo ID. Get it free at Yahoo.com
There are two levels of membership and if you want to upload more than 200 images you will need to upgrade to a Pro account. This will cost $25/year. The advantages are worth the money. Just before I wrote this article I looked up what you get for your cash, copied the info. and am now pasting it here
- Unlimited uploads and storage
- Unlimited sets and collections
- Access to your original files
- Stats on your account
- Ad-free browsing and sharing
- HD playback for high-definition video uploads
When I joined Flickr I received an email explaining that as I use Yahoo for my email and therefore already have a Yahoo account I qualify for free Pro membership as long as I keep my email account. This saves me $25 a year, and could be worth you looking in to.
Flickr makes it easy to place your images into sets and collections which can be batch edited. You can have your collections public or you can restrict them to whom you choose. Great for wedding photographers, designers and others who may be commissioned by a company or individuals that don’t want the whole world seeing their business.
You could use Flickr to allow potential customers to see where you live, what your studio is like etc. Still or video shots will turn you into a real live artist rather than somebody that the public meets through your web site.
Some artists upload small images of their work with their name and contact printed underneath the image. They allow these images to be downloaded by bloggers and web masters to place on their blogs.
ONE WORD OF WARNING
Flickr does not allow selling from your account. By all means use your account to show your work, and to let people know who you are and what you do but DO NOT try to sell direct.
