Check out these tips for public speaking images:
Top 10 Ways to Get Attention on Flickr
Image by Thomas Hawk
"What is more pleasant than the benevolent notice other people take of us, what is more agreeable than their compassionate empathy? What inspires us more than addressing ears flushed with excitement, what captivates us more than exercising our own power of fascination? What is more thrilling than an entire hall of expectant eyes, what more overwhelming than applause surging up to us? What, lastly, equals the enchantment sparked off by the delighted attention we receive from those who profoundly delight ourselves? – Attention by other people is the most irresistible of drugs. To receive it outshines receiving any other kind of income. This is why glory surpasses power and why wealth is overshadowed by prominence."
Caterina Fake, Co-founder of Flickr, 2005.
A couple of years ago I wrote a post called Top 10 Tips for Getting Attention on Flickr that proved fairly popular. A lot has changed at Flickr in the past 2 years though and how imagery is rated and ranked on the site has also changed. That said, I thought I’d write a fresher updated post on the top 10 ways, presently, to get attention on Flickr.
Back in 2006 when I wrote my original article on how to achieve popularity on Flickr my photostream had been viewed almost 400,000 times. According to a Flickr stats page that’s been added since that time, the view count for my pages on Flickr now stands at 9,953,328. It should pass 10 million sometime this week. I’m averaging about 14,000 page views a day on Flickr.
Some of how one gets attention on Flickr has remained the same since 2006. Other stuff has changed.
1. Take great pictures. This was my number one way to achieve popularity on Flickr in 2006 and remains the number one way today. Despite all the other things that you might do to promote your photography, none of it will matter if your photos are not interesting. Everyone can be creative. Some are more creative than others. Sometimes your gear and photo processing matters, other times it doesn’t. I’ve seen incredibly beautiful and creative photos taken with a toy camera. And I’ve seen incredibly beautiful and creative photos taken with a ,000 digital Hasselblad. I’ve seen people upload interesting things from a crappy iPhone camera and I’ve seen people upload interesting things that they spent 8 hours on Photoshop with. But, the better your photos are the more likely that you will get attention. Taking great photos is a prerequisite to everything else in this article.
This said, there are certain types of photos that tend to become more popular on Flickr than others. Provocatively posed female self portraits or photos of attractive women in interesting poses, extremely saturated photos rich with eye candy like color, cityscapes, night photography, photos depicting movement and motion, silhouettes, dramatic architecture, unique portraits, creatively arranged macros and cross processed and some film photography.
2. The order that you post your photos to Flickr counts. The number one way that your photos will likely be seen in Flickr comes from your Flickr contacts looking at their Flickr contact’s photos. At present Flickr allows you to set your contacts most recent photos to their last photo, or their last 5 photos. Anything beyond 5 photos in a single batch upload will largely be buried on Flickr. If you are uploading more than 5 photos at once, make sure that you upload your best 5 photos last and what you consider your very best photo last of all. Frequently people will upload a batch of 30 photos from a concert or something with no thought as to which will be the last 5 of the 30 in order.
3. Consider places outside of Flickr to promote your photography. Do you have a blog or a photoblog? If you want more attention on Flickr you should. Flickr makes it very easy to blog your photos, you simply cut and paste the html code above your photo and you are now photoblogging with a direct link back to your photo. My blog, thomashawk.com is my number two external referrer of pageviews to my Flickrstream. Are you on FriendFeed yet? You should be. It’s easy to set up and makes sure more people see your photos. Pownce (when it is working) is another place to post interesting photos.
4. Do you have your settings on Flickr configured for maximum exposure? After Flickr itself, Google drives more traffic to my Flickrstream than any other source, even my blog. Yahoo search and both Google and Yahoo image search drive traffic as well. But your photos will be blocked from appearing in search engines unless you authorize Flickr to display your images in search engines. Make sure your photostream is set to not "hide your stuff from public searches," here.
Same goes for the Flickr www.flickrleech.net/” rel=”nofollow”>Flickrleech, Compfight, Technorati and lots of other places that use the Flickr API to extend your photos outside of Flickr. Make sure that you’ve authorized Flickr to allow API access to your photos here.
5. Explore. Explore still remains the number one way to get photos viewed on Flickr. Explore uses Flickr’s "Magic Donkey" algorithm to each day highlight 500 of what Flickr feels are the best photos on Flickr for that day. It’s a very popular section of the site despite the fact that everyone seems to constantly hate Explore and decry its mediocrity in selecting exceptional photos. Explore has changed and evolved a lot since it was first introduced at Flickr a few years back. Initially things like *when* you posted your photos mattered.
Whether or not Flickr chooses your photos for Explore is still very much a mystery. But there are some things that we do know. The more faves, comments, tags, etc. your photo gets, the more likely it is that it will appear in Explore. Explore also uses averaging in their algorithm now. This means that if your average photo gets 5 faves, then you’ll need to do considerably better than average if you hope to see that photo in Explore.
Photos are also constantly dropping in and out of Explore. I’ve got 157 photos in Explore at present but I’ve had buy levitra 446 that have appeared in Explore at one time or another. You can check out which and how many of your photos that have been showcased by Flickr in Explore here. Just change my Flickr ID at the link above for your own.
6. Groups. Speaking of Explore, if you really want to get a particular photo in Explore consider adding it to a group that encourages tagging, faving and comments of photos. Photo critique groups are good examples of this. Some of the photo critique groups play games where tagging and commenting on a photo are part of the game. Flickr does not distinguish between a photo that has been commented on or tagged organically vs. one that is included in some sort of photo critique game. If you want to boost the likelihood that your photo will be selected for Explore consider putting a strong photo into one of these pools. Photo critique groups on Flickr run the gamut from nice and friendly photo critique groups like TWIP’s, to hostile and brutal photo critique groups like DeleteMe Uncensored (note NSFW and maybe not the best group if you are easily offended).
Whatever the case, the key to groups is participation. If you simply dump a bunch of photos blindly into random groups you will likely not get much benefit. In fact, Flickr actually penalizes photo rank if someone posts their photo to too many groups. But posting your photo to selective groups where you participate will encourage activity on your photos and photostream.
7. Tag for Exploration (especially your most popular photos). Why has this photo of mine been viewed over 27,000 times on Flickr? Well in part because it shows up on the first page search results on Flickr for the search term guitar. And why does it show up in searches for the word "guitar?" Because I’ve got the photo *tagged* guitar. By tagging your photos appropriately you can ensure that more people will see them in search. Think of other ways that you can tag your photos. Are all of your photos taken in San Francisco also tagged "California?" They should be. Are all of your photos tagged "self portrait" also tagged with your name? Again, they should be.
The better you keyword and tag your photos, the more amoxicillin likely they will show up in searches that take place on Flickr. Even if you think that your photos will never be popular enough to rank highly in search, remember that there are other ways that Flickr users can filter search. You can search just by your contacts photos on Flickr for instance. So even if you don’t have the most popular sunset photo amongst millions on Flickr, you might have the most popular sunset photo amongst your contacts because you tagged it.
A note that I’ve seen some people on Flickr abuse tags. They will tag every photo with girl, sunset, cat, etc. Even if these things are not in their photo simply to try and trick people into getting to their photos through search. This sucks. I’m not sure what/if/how Flickr penalizes people who do this, but it’s a crappy thing to do and ruins the search experience for everyone. Tag early and often, but only tag your photos with tags that truly are accurate and descriptive.
8. Geotag. One of the more interesting ways to find photos on Flickr is through exploring photos that are geotagged on a map. When I’m going to a new place that I’m not familiar with, frequently Tadalis SX Flickr’s "Explore the World Map," is one of my first destinations. But of course your photos will not show up here if they are not geotagged. The best way to geotag your photos is actually at the file level before you upload them. I use Geotagger on the Mac which allows you to use Google Earth to geotag your photos. You can also download the free software program from Microsoft Pro Photo Tools to geotag photos on a PC.
Check what Flickr considers your most popular photos and make sure that you geotag (and more descriptively tag) these photos especially — even if you have to geotag these shots on Flickr using their tools. Geotagging has been documented by Flickr staff as increasing the Flickr "interestingness" rating of a photograph.
9. Consider creating a few "best of" sets and feature them prominently on your Flickrstream. Frequently when people first discover your photostream they don’t have time to check out your entire stream. But if you make it easier for them and create a few sets that highlight some of your best work they may stick around longer. I’ve created two such sets myself. My 10 faves or more set and my 25 faves or more set. These sets highlight what are some of my best work according to the Flickr community and are my two most visited sets on Flickr. As my photos are faved 10 or 25 times I add the tag fav10 or fav25 to these sets and then use SmartSetr to automatically generate these sets.
Make sure also that you change your Flickr page layout from the boring default one to one that highlights your collections and sets better.
10. Tell everyone you know about your Flickrstream. Are you active on other social networks? Is a link to your Flickrstream prominently displayed on your blog? On your Facebook profile page? Be sure to include a link to your Flickrstream in every profile that you are on with other sites. Consider buying Moo cards (even though Moo.com has been lousy for me lately and won’t let me buy anymore cards from them) which highlight your photostream that you can give out to people that you run across while out shooting. Tell your friends and family and your offline "real life" contacts about your Flickrstream.
Bonus tip: Reciprocation. Above everything else, perhaps the most important thing about Flickr is that it is a community and a reciprocation based community. If you think that you can just post your photos on the site and they will garner thousands of faves and views simply because, you are wrong. Even the best photos on Flickr will not get very much attention if you simply upload them to the site and never participate.
Flickr has been built to encourage reciprocation. In fact a recent study cited reciprocation as the number one key to popularity on Flickr. Every single time you fave or comment on someone else’s photo you are giving them a link back to your own photostream. While you may not have the time to check out *everyone* who faves your photos, spend time each day faving and commenting on other people’s photos on Flickr. By sharing with others the fact that you appreciate their photos they will return the favor. Be generous with your faves and comments. Remember, other people like the attention as much as you do.
On digg here.
Update: An interesting link to comments Flickr staff have made about the Explore algorithm here. Thanks, Ole!
MS Casanova / Peter Deilmann Reederei / Docked at Amsterdam
Image by bill barber
From my set entitled “Amsterdam”
www.flickr.com/photos/21861018@N00/sets/72157602418470116/
In Online Viagra my collection entitled “Rhine Main Danube”
www.flickr.com/photos/21861018@N00/collections/7215760702…
In my photostream
www.flickr.com/photos/21861018@N00/
Just over a year ago, Karen and I cruised the Rhine-Main-Danube System. The tour covered the following countries: Netherlands, Germany, Austria and Hungary. The cities we visited included Amsterdam, Xanten, Cologne, Koblenz, Aschaffenburg, Wurzburg, Bamberg, Nuremburg, Regensburg, Passau, Vienna and Budapest. It was a lovely trip, and I came home with over 2000 photos, most of which I posted between October, 2007 and May, 2008.
The following articles deal with our ship, The MS Casanova, operated by Peter Deilmann Reederei
Reproduced from Deilmann Casanova Review
By Durant and Cheryl Imboden
www.riverdiscounts.com/5496294_14881.htm
Peter Deilmann Reederei has operated cruise vessels on European rivers since 1983, when the Donauprinzessin joined the line’s existing fleet of ocean ships. Today, the company has 10 ships on the rivers of Western and Central Europe, together with two luxurious ocean vessels: the MS Deutschland and the sailing yacht Lili Marleen.
In fall, 2004, my son and I spent a week aboard the MS Casanova, a five-star river vessel that moved from Northern Italy to the Rhine, Danube, Moselle, and Rhine-Main Canal for the 2005 season and beyond. This illustrated review describes the ship, the service and amenities onboard, and the distinctly European style of river cruising that Peter Deilmann offers to cosmopolitan travelers.
MS Casanova: the ship
Casanova was built in 2001 for cruises on Italy’s Po River, where ships must be able to cruise under low bridges and fit comfortably in narrow, shallow canals. As a result, it’s smaller than many ships that cruise Central European waters, with a length of 338 feet and a beam of 32 feet, or 103 m by 9,70 m. The ship could be described as a "boutique vessel," since it accommodates only 96 passengers.
Most public rooms are on the Verdi deck, or main deck, which also has 26 of the the ship’s 48 passenger cabins. A staircase leads down to the Rialto Deck, where a foyer separates the restaurant from the 22 lower-deck staterooms. The Sundeck, an open area on the top of the ship, offers deck chairs, tables, and plenty of space along the railings for sightseeing and picture-taking.
Passengers enter and leave the ship via the reception area, located amidships on the Verdi deck, which acts as a buffer between the public rooms and cabins. A doorway on the starboard side of Casanova leads past a boutique/hairdresser into the large and well-appointed lounge, which amoxil online has a bar, a library corner, a small dance floor, and a piano for entertainment.
Audience and ambience
Like other Peter Deilmann river vessels, Casanova serves a multinational audience. This makes it different from its leading competitors on the European river-cruising circuit, which operate separate vessels for the U.S. and Canadian market (Viking) or cater only to North American travelers (Avalon Waterways, Uniworld, Vantage, etc.).
The bulk of Deilmann’s guests come from German-speaking countries, but a substantial minority are from the U.S., Canada, and Britain. On our cruise, about a third of the passengers were American or Canadian, with one British couple on board. Most of our fellow guests were in their 60s or older (a fairly typical age range for European river cruises).
The ship’s ambience has a strong German flavor, but don’t go looking for stereotypes from yesteryear: The waiters, stewardesses, and reception staff are more friendly than formal, and the dress code on most evenings is "smart casual." You’ll notice the Teutonic influence mostly when you turn on the TV–where German channels predominate–or if you request water in the restaurant, when you’ll be asked if you want bottled mineral water or American-style ice water. (After the first meal or two, your beverage stewardess will remember your preferences.)
All ship’s announcements are in both German and English, and separate versions of the daily newsletter are published for Deutsch- generic levitra online and English-speaking guests.
Overall, Casanova and Peter Deilmann Cruises offer a more cosmopolitan atmosphere than you’d find on a vessel that caters primarily to U.S. and Canadian travelers. With Deilmann, you feel that you’re in Europe when you’re aboard the ship, not just when you go ashore. Whether that’s good or bad depends on your tastes and whether you prefer mingling with the locals or sticking with fellow foreigners.
Casanova’s staterooms come in three flavors:
Queen cabins. In these 16 staterooms, the queen-size beds have separate mattresses, each with its own duvet when the stewardess removes the bedspread at night. This means you can snuggle or maintain separation, depending on whom you’re traveling with.
Twin cabins. These 30 cabins have twin beds on opposite walls. One berth converts into a sofa during the day.
Junior suites. There are just two junior suites, both on the lower or Rialto deck. They have queen-size beds and are slightly larger than the standard queen and twin cabins.
Rooms on the Verdi or upper deck have cleverly designed French doors overlooking the water. Open the left half, and you have a floor-to-ceiling screen to keep bugs at bay. Open the right side, and you can lean out to take pictures, check the passing landscape in more detail, or get a feel for the weather.
Cabins on the Rialto or lower deck have fixed picture windows.
All staterooms are attractively decorated with generous expanses of wood paneling, drapes, pictures on the walls, etc. Casanova’s designers gave a lot of attention to details, as the inset photo of a ceiling light will show. The gold-trim motif is also used on the custom cabin furniture, which includes built-in closets, nightstands with storage space, and a desk with minibar. (I did notice one small oversight: Casanova’s duvets are filled with a thin polyester batting instead of down.)
The bathrooms are extremely well-designed, with luxury touches such as glass shower enclosures, marble and ceramic walls, wooden toilet seats, brass faucets, and sinks that have marble countertops in a beautiful brown-red marble above a wooden storage cabinet and shelves. There’s a retractable clothesline in the shower stall, and you’ll find plenty of racks and hooks for towels and dressing gowns. (Your stewardess will supply bathrobes on request.)
Finally, the TV in each cabin has a good assortment of channels–mostly in German, but with BBC World and CNN to keep you in touch with what’s happening back home. Casanova also has closed-circuit movies several times a day in both German and English.
Dining
Germans have a reputation for taking their food seriously, and the quality of hotel and restaurant food in Germany tends to be much better than in the United States or Britain. So it shouldn’t come as a surprise that Peter Deilmann’s Casanova lives up to its five-star ambitions in the dining room.
Breakfast consists of a buffet with fresh fruit, cereals, rolls, dark German breads, croissants and other generic levitra pastries, cheeses, cold cuts, herring, smoked salmon, etc. Waiters are on hand to serve beverages, amoxil online whisk away dirty plates, and take orders for fresh-cooked eggs or daily specials. Mineral water and sparkling wine, which you pay for at lunch or dinner, are free at breakfast. (Nicole, our beverage stewardess, told us that some guests like a glass of Prosecco to wake up in the morning. I tried a quarter-glass as a test but decided to stick with coffee. My son was pleased by the hot chocolate, which was excellent.)
Lunch is a choose-your-own-adventure affair where you can fill up a plate from the buffet or have a full meal served course by course. On most days, I grabbed a few salad and fish items from the buffet and skipped directly to the main course or requested pasta as an entrée.
At dinner, the menu typically features an appetizer, two soups, a fish or pasta course, a choice of entrées, and dessert. (On gala nights, a sorbet precedes the main course.) The restaurant’s wood-and-marble buffet table is laid with a salad bar (with the term "salad" encompassing such luxuries as shrimp and fish), which is replaced by a selection of cheeses and fruit at the end of the meal.
Deilmann doesn’t skimp on ingredients: High-quality fish is on the menu at nearly every midday or evening meal, and we were served lobster, large shrimp, lamb, veal, and duck at various times during the cruise. Baked goods are also excellent–most notably the cakes and other desserts, which are baked on board by a full-time pastry chef.
If sightseeing leaves you hungry for more than three square meals a day, you can top up your tummy with boullion at 11 a.m., finger sandwiches and cakes at afternoon tea, or the late-night snack in the lounge at 10:30 p.m. (On our voyage, Jozef–the Casanova’s excellent pianst and vocalist–offered musical accompaniment during afternoon tea, the 6:30 p.m. cocktail hour, and the evening snack.)
About beverages:
Coffee, tea, ice water, and fruit juices are free. Other drinks cost extra at lunch and dinner, although complimentary sparkling wine and Kir Royale are served (and replenished generously) on gala nights. If you order a bottle of wine or mineral water in the dining room, your waiter will mark the bottle and save it for future meals.
Drink prices are in line with what you might expect on a European luxury vessel: On our cruise, a glass of German draft beer cost €2,80, a bar-size bottle of soft drink was €2,50, a 5-cl glass of vermouth cost €2,90, grappa was €3,80, and whiskies or cocktails were in the €5,50 to €6,90 range. Featured wines on the dinner menu typically cost €20 to €25, and a quarter-liter of the house white or red was less expensive than a glass of wine in a typical U.S. restaurant.
Service
Casanova has an unusually large staff for a river ship that carries only 96 passengers. Peter Deilmann claims a passenger-to-crew ratio of 2.5:1, or "about the best crew to passenger ratio of any river vessel." There’s even a physician on board.
The multilingual restaurant, bar, housekeeping, and reception staff were a hardworking bunch during our cruise, and they were also highly-trained professionals. Our waiter, Mladen Tomljanovic, was a nine-year veteran of cruise ships, and our beverage stewardess, Nicole Hoppe, had three years of professional education and apprenticeship before joining Peter Deilmann Cruises. Mladen, Nicole, and other members of the restaurant and beverage staff worked together as an efficient team, delivering service on a par with what you’d expect on a luxury cruise line or a five-star hotel.
I was also impressed by the crew’s warmth, friendliness, and overall good cheer. One evening, the younger staff were kind enough to invite my 18-year-old son to join them at a nightclub that was popular with riverboat crews. (I resisted the urge to play chaperone, spending the evening with a Donna Leon mystery instead.)
Tipping suggestions:
The Casanova’s newsletter recommended dividing gratuities of €6,50 to €7,50 per passenger per day among the service staff, and passengers were encouraged to make additional contributions to a tips box at the reception desk for other members of the crew. I thought the recommended figures were a bit low for staff who worked 15 hours or more per day, so I gave €50 each (for two passengers) to our waiter, beverage stewardess, and cabin stewardess, plus another €50 for the crew box.
(Note: Tips for bar purchases should be made at the time of service, since the person who serves you a drink may not be your regular beverage stewardess or waiter.)
From Professional Travel Guide
www.professionaltravelguide.com/Cruise/Cruise-Lines/Peter…
This German-built river boat from Peter Deilmann Cruises launched in 2001 and was refitted in 2006. She sails with up to 96 passengers on a wide variety of itineraries along the Rhine, Moselle, Main and Danube rivers from mid-March to early November. This slim, trim triple-decker is an all-white 338-ft beauty with red trim. She has a width of 32 ft and a draft of 4 ft and shows a classical profile.
Peter Deilmann founded this German company a quarter century ago, first with oceangoing cruise ships and then riverboats. His two daughters carry on the tradition from the company headquarters at Neustadt in Holsetin, Germany operating eight high-end riverboats and the cruise ship Deutschland.
North American and German speakers come aboard in varying numbers depending on the itinerary and departure. Most are 50 and older. Very few children are found aboard, and there are no special facilities for them. The riverboat crew is fully bilingual, so there are no language problems. Suggested per diem tipping rates are US for waitstaff and US for the cabin attendant.
The Casanova used to sail on the River Po in northern Italy, and now she is found plying many different itineraries lasting from 7 to 14 days. She may be based at Amsterdam, The Netherlands, for cruises on the Dutch and Belgian waterways or along the Rhine and Main in Germany. She sails with the Mozart on 7-day Danube River trips based at Passau, Germany.
Her most ambitious cruise is a pair of sailings between Amsterdam and Budapest, Hungary, via the Rhine, Main, Danube and connecting canal. Some shore excursions are included in cruise-tours but not for cruise-only fares. A money-saving tour package can be bought for most itineraries. Depending on the numbers, the buses may be separate for each language or bilingual, and the same goes for the guided walks.
The panoramic restaurant has a stately Italian Provincial elegance with classic highback chairs and cherry accents, a circular compass rose of yellow glass on the ceiling and a buffet station. The room can accommodate all passengers at a single sitting. No one has time to get hungry, with breakfast, morning bouillon, lunch, tea, dinner and midnight snacks. Excellent multicourse luncheons and dinners feature Continental fare and wines of many countries. Evening meals can feature nine courses on some nights, so expect to spend a lot of time at the table.
English-speaking passengers are seated together at reserved tables and single sitting. Evening wear often sees men in jacket and tie. The tastefully furnished lounge brings passengers together several times a day, with its plump sofas and armchairs, panoramic views, well-stocked bar, and nightly entertainment and dancing. Announcements, menus, and daily programs are all provided in English and German.
The sun deck topside has plenty of deck chairs and blankets, and a doctor is onboard. Standard cabins are 140 sq ft, with two minisuites of 160 sq ft, all beautifully appointed with desks, TVs, phones, radios, closets, and baths with showers, hair dryers and robes. Beds are twins and queen-sized, and the upper deck cabins have French doors. Bedding is European-style with duvets and feather pillows, but synthetic materials are available upon request.
As of 2008, there is no smoking inside any Deilmann vessels. Smoking is only allowed on deck.
Post processing:
PhotoShop Elements 5: increased midtones, sharpened, posterized, canvas filter
