Thanks for dropping by. I tend to agree with you, for the most part. Blogs are largely little more than self-promotion. I think it’s a hard line to find, between spam and actually publishing reasonable content. Well, it’s not really hard, but it’s very easy and all too tempting to simply spam the world with ‘hey look at me’. And for many people, the latter approach seems to generate a healthy business.

I think the ‘slave to the process’ comment is important. I know some folks who say it’s critical to post every day, but I tend to disagree. It’s more important to post when you want to. After all, it’s my blog, right?

Hey Richard, thanks for the link. Excellent post, which, for the most part, I tend to agree with.

Hey Mark,

I think the link juice and traffic are important – if not the most important, function of the blog. It can help, for example, to make a page with really defined SEO, that is harder to do with standard thumbnail/gallery/image websites, particularly if they’re dynamic pages. If you have an all-static website, then the blog really shouldn’t be that much more beneficial in that regard than your regular pages.

Lastly, as you said, it IS self-publishing, and that in itself is worth a lot. It can be just as important a form of expression as photography, if not more, and together I think the 2 can be great – powerful words and emotive imagery is exponentially more moving, often, than either by itself. And, as with any expression, we can learn a lot about ourselves along the way.

We can also learn a lot about writing. I’d like to hope I’ve improved a little over the last few years. I’ve certainly read up some great articles on writing, and would hope that I’ve at least gleaned something of use there. Well, I know I have, to be honest. So it’s a good thing, for me, to be blogging.

That actually ‘putting pen to paper’ makes a big difference to our thinking, doesn’t it? It’s one thing to have an idea bounce around the ole noggin’, but fleshing it out and embellishing it, trying to stay within the lines, can really clarify things for ourselves, of no one else.

I’ve also learned a lot about web design doing this. Working with the templates and trying to customize that to fit my site has been both frustrating and productive. In fact, I see now I need to make another tweak or 2 to this one.

Cheers

Carl

I know mine for me has simply given me an outlet to put more of what I think about photography in writing, instead of just floating around in the empty vastness between my ears. It has given me some space for self reflection on my own work and why I took interest in any particular thing. Then I figure maybe it if is interesting to me, it may be interesting to someone else. Therein some communication starts that might never have been. It can also be helpful from a journaling perspective to look back upon what you wrote for a little more introspection.

Is Social Media a Waste of Time for Photographers

Well, I disagree with your first statement. Maybe rephrased it is more closely aligned to how I feel. But it depends how you measure ‘value’. Lots of people might blog and enjoy it with no ‘identified marketing goals’ at all. And those people may well have as much to say, and oftentimes more valuable information, than those who have a set strategy that fits your defined parameters.

I agree with the self-publishing role – it’s a fantastic opportunity for a voice. Points 2 & 3 resonate well, for sure.

Richard, I look forward to your post tomorrow. Let me know when it’s up.

Cheers

Carl

Personally I can’t imagine not blogging. It’s a no brainer for me, but its not necessarily for others. I don’t recommend it for everyone. It takes a great deal of commitment and consistency to achieve benefits, but that effort is worth it if you can stick it out. To each their own. Reaching customers or potential customers can be done multiple ways not just through blogging.