The Googleplex Blog

Making Money with Photoblogging

Recently I was interviewed by Wired News on the subject of how possible it is to make a living as a blogger. The interview was in connection with my new book, Google Advertising Tools: Cashing in with AdSense, AdWords, and the Google APIs.

The Wired interview focused on the general question of whether one can make a living using AdSense from web content. (For details about working with Google's AdSense, see my book.)

Right here and now I plan to tackle a subset of the large question the Wired interview (and my book) tackle. The subset is how to make money with a photography blog. I happen to be highly qualified to share information about this because I create the successful Photoblog 2.0.

Photoblogging happens to be particularly interesting to me, not only because of my passion for digital photography, but also because traditional professional photographers have neglected it as an approach to supplementing their income. As such, it has some real benefits over (for example) creating photography for stock purposes: you get to create whatever photographs please you, as long as your content pleases or interests others. Your blog can be as good or as bad as you make it; no one tells you what or how to photograph.

Of course, I wouldn't be about to give my "secret sauce" away if I thought there really were a secret sauce. But there isn't. You won't make money without worthwhile content. And the fundamental rules still apply.

So let's step back for a second and examine what makes content "worthwhile"—and explore the fundamental rules of making money with web content.

I don't think it would be possible to create a winning photoblog without a genuine interest and passion for the subject. So this interest and passion is a starting place.

The first rule of web monetization is that traffic translates into revenue. If you have enough visitors to your site, some of them will click on the AdSense ads on your pages, and make money for you. There's essentially a formula here: you get so much (on average) for each 1,000 site visitors.

The second rule is that worthwhile content translates into traffic. In the case of a photoblog, you'd better have great photos. "Great" is in the eye of the beholder and may be iconic, ironic, or narration rather than pretty. Check out my Photoblog 2.0 and see for yourself whether my photos have this kind of "worth."

Worthwhile content probably also means words as well as photos. For example, here's a link to the Photoshop Techniques section of my Photoblog 2.0. The draw here is that readers can find detailed how-to information that they could otherwise only learn from books or workshops.

The third rule is that some content is "more equal" than other content. Basically, advertisers bid against keywords, and you are paid when visitors click on your photoblog on ads placed on the basis of these keywords. Think for a moment about what keywords are going to be most valuable to advertisers. It's either going to be something with a very high potential value for a single customer acquisition, or something where advertisers might expect that some click-throughs translate into immediate sales.

An example of the high potential value keyword is any content related to high-profile litigation where lawyers are looking for plaintiffs. Think mesothelioma (and note all the ads on Google's search pages when you search for this term by clicking my link; each of these ads can be worth as much as $20 per click to content providers).

It's a little more useful to a photography blogger to realize that a great deal of photography hardware is purchased online. If you can discuss cameras and lenses without perverting your content, you are likely to attract some fairly lucrative advertising.

The fourth rule is that on the web community rules. It's essential if you want to generate quality traffic to become involved with your photography blog in something bigger than yourself whether it is a photoblog ring, or a community of passionate photographers such as Flickr.

Here are the four rules you need to follow to create income from your photography blog put more succinctly:

1. You have to figure out how to draw traffic (see my book for some tips)
2. You have to provide passionate photos and worthwhile (or interesting) text
3. Your blog will make more money if it has some references to photographic hardware
4. You should become an active member of web photography communities

More briefly still: traffic + content + community = $$$.

Harold Davis: Photographer rides again!

Obviously, I've been neglecting this blog, but it is not forgotten! One of these days I'll come back to this subject matter with passion and verve!

In the meantime, I've been photographing. Some recent highlights:

	Monster Art Nouveau Lens Baby Macro
	Fog Bank
	Lights of the City
	Brilliance of Venus

I keep adding compulsively to my Photoblog 2.0, so check it out! You can also view my photostream in Flickr.

Copyright in the Era of Flickr and Google

I need to make some preliminary explanations before I get to the heart of this story.

(1) This story is about digital photography -- but the general issues it raises apply equally well to almost any kind of intellectual property that can be represented digitally--meaning music, video, software programs, and more.

(2) I am an active and enthusiastic member of the flickr community. I use my flickr photostream to display my photographs to other flickr members, and to power the image management behind my Photoblog 2.0.

Within the flickr application, you can assign different access permissions to your photographs (essentially, available to the public, only to friends, or only to family). But in order for anyone to view your photos, and in order to use them in my own blog, access has to be set to public. This means that anyone can display my photos on the web, whether or not I've given them permission to do so.

(3) I've changed the name and identifying details of the person using photos from flickr without permission (which is what this story is about). For two reasons: it wouldn't be fair to identify the person (they didn't know I'd blog about it) and I'd also like to pursue my flickr addiction without personal acrimony.

(4) A flickr badge is a group of pictures from flickr that can be displayed on your own website. Flickr generates the code for you, using either HTML or Flash. The pictures must be marked for public access, and can be based around the work of everybody on flickr, a single flickr photographer's set, a Flickr group pool, or using tags (to name the most common way badges are generated). Photos can be set to be random or sequential. This page shows a Flash badge using my photos.

Got all that? OK. Here goes.

I am a member of a variety of group pools on flickr. In a group pool, photographers with interests in common all submit their photos, creating a kind of library.

Recently, I noticed on a fairly prominent blog a flickr badge consisting of random photos from one of the group pools I belong to. The blog author is the flickr administrator of this group pool. I will call him X (and the group in question Y).

I wrote X:

I'm writing to express a little concern about the flickr badge from the Y Group that is displayed on your blog. I assume that you are showing a random selection of photos from the group. While most people would be glad and flattered to have you display their photos (I certainly would), some of the photos in the Y Group are "all rights reserved" (mine, for example - which I accompany with a copyright notice).

So I think as a matter of form and respect, you need to ask permission. Perhaps this could be accomplished by starting a discussion thread on the group (and asking if anyone objects) so it wouldn't be a logistical nightmare. Or, as an opt-in mechansim, you could designate a unique tag for people to use if they want to be included in your display - and create your badge using the tag.

I really don't mean to be a pill here, but I think photo rights are quite important...

X responded as follows:

It took me a while to figure out how I was going to respond to your comments. As a professional photographer and designer I make a living selling my work ... [and] I share your concern over proper use and photographers rights. Having been a long time member of Flickr ... (not to mention many personal sites showing my work) I've seen my work stolen and passed off by others as their own work many times. So many times, in fact, that I do not put the majority of my photos ... on the web. If you value your work, and it sounds like you do, then I don't believe Flickr is the place for you to showcase it properly.

Flickr holds no discretion in who is able to view and use photos posted to groups. This is evident through the site flickrlicio.us which routinely republishes copyrighted material on their site without permission. The Flickr Badge which I (and countless others) use allows you to sample photos from a group or from everyone regardless of copyright status.

Out of respect for your wishes I have changed it to show only my photos I have posted on Flickr. I have, on file, permission from all but a few of the members of the Y Group allowing me to use their photos. For this reason I did not perceive there being a problem. For that I apologize. It was not my intent to offend you.

If the situation with the Flickr Badge continues to be a problem for you I urge you, in my official capacity as admin of the Y Group, to pursue this matter with Flickr (Yahoo!). You also might consider marking your photos as "private only available to family and friends" and setting your download permissions similarly so they are not abused.

Have a nice evening.

I wrote back:

Thank you for your email. I, too, have given your email quite a bit of thought. Where I come out is that I think you missed the point of my original email.

I was not asking you to remove the Y group badge from your site. In fact, I think the variety of photos from the group enhances your site, and that group members would be pleased to have their pictures shown in a badge on your site.

I was asking you to get appropriate permissions, which should not be a hard thing to do (you say that you already have these for most members). For one, I would be happy to extend permission for my photos.

My further suggestion was that you add a discussion thread to the group so that members (and potential members) would know the use you were making of the photos.

I also noted that you could use a special tag to generate a badge, which would allow people to opt-in to your badge display. (A private group by invitation would be yet another possibility.)

The fact that others make use of copyrighted materials without getting permission that you mention doesn't seem very relevant to me. As a general principle, if someone else does something wrong, this doesn't make it right for us to do it. The fact that you are a professional photographer (which I did not realize) should make you even more careful about rights issues.

Regarding your more general comments about flickr and the use I make of it, I am a very enthusiastic member of the flickr community, although I understand some of the drawbacks of widespread image dissemination that you mention. I'd be happy to discuss my uses of flickr, why I do so, and my strategies for dealing with these matters in another email if you'd like.

It's important to me that our discussion not turn acrimonious. As I indicated, I am a reader and fan of your Y blog (and have sent traffic to it via links on my sites). I also like the Y group on flickr. So I think you took my comments the wrong way -- I was suggesting a minor procedural fix to what you were doing, not scrapping the whole thing.

All this raises alot of interesting issues--and they don't have very much to do with flickr. The truth is that it is easy to find images on the web, for example using Google Images.

One way or the other anything you can find and view on the web, you can also copy and use for your own purposes. The only real limitation is that photos displayed on the web are not suitable for high quality reproduction.

Of course, having the ability to do something neither confers the legal right to do so nor makes it OK to do it. I own the rights to my photos, and nobody should be displaying them without my permission (which, by the way, I'm usually pretty happy to give).

Ultimately, there is an inherent conflict between intellectual property lockdown--which means no one gets to see your work--and the desire for dissemination that all intellectual property owners have for practical and emotional reasons. Your intellectal property is only safe if no one sees it, but photos that no one sees do not get appreciated in the marketplace (or otherwise).

By the way, the flickrlicio.us site that X mentions features the "Babes of Flickr"--and is a great deal of fun if you are into this kind of thing.

Travels with Harold

If you've been reading my Photoblog 2.0, you know that lately I've been to some lonely and lovely places that are surprisingly near to where I live in Berkeley. Here are links to the stories that tell in pictures and words about my autumn trip to Yosemite, the eastern Sierra, and Death Valley. In other words, the Table of Contents...

	There and Back Again!	Yosemite Valley in the autumn and a map of my trip
	Dark is the Valley in the Morning	Wandering feet in Yosemite
	A Rainbow of Light!	Well, what other kind is there?
	Sunset from Sentinal Dome	High above Yosemite Valley
	Processing a Photo for Flickr	...and Lake Tenaya reflections
	The Hitchhiking Millionaire	Reflections in Lake Tenaya and on wealth
	Risk Management	Sharing Hot Creek with a volcanoe and a risk expert
	The Deepest Valley	Owens Valley
	Beyond Westgard Pass	Gateway to the desert and Nevada
	Seeking Methuselah	The Oldest Living Things
	Rhyolite and Ozymandias	Ghost Town at Sunset
	Death Valley Sunrise	Desert sunrise from Hells Gate
	Zabriskie Quilt	Patterns in the desert
	Lonely Road	Stovepipe Wells to Lone Pine
	Mount Whitney Sunrise	Dawn on the eastern Sierra crest
	Crossroads of the Cowboy Universe	Alabama Hills
	Homeward Bound	Autumn in the eastern Sierra

Digital Photography and Photoshop Roundup

Here's a roundup of articles about digital photography and Photoshop I've published recently in my Photoblog 2.0:

• Processing a Digital Photo
• Fun with Phlowrs and Photoshop
• Opening Camera RAW in Photoshop CS2
• The Evolution of Photography
• Without My Polarizer I Am Blue
• Would Ansel Like Digital?
• Shine On, Ersatz Moon
• Yosemite without People
• It's the Lens, Baby

Digital to Digital: The End is Flickring

I wasn't quite sure whether to post this piece on the coming end of Kodachrome, the battle between digital photo processors and home digital printers, and the certain ascendancy of digital photo services (such as Flickr - goodbye to all that paper!) here or on my PhotoBlog 2.0 (mostly reserved for photos). PhotoBlog it is!

My new digital photography site is up!

My new digital photography site is up and running! Check it out:

Digital Photography: Digital Field Guide

The companion blog, Photoblog 2.0.

Note: the Googleplex Blog has not been forgotten (although my postings have been a little slimmer the last few days as I've struggled to get the new site up!). Photoblog 2.0. will be for my photographs, and for issues related to digital media and technology.

Officially, Digital Photography: Digital Field Guide is the companion Website for a book to be published by John Wiley (with the eponymous title). However, the site has taken on a life of its own.

It's great to have an attractive venue to display my digital photographs. I've also enjoyed the technical aspects of putting together the site. I decided to use a Flickr account to manage my photographs. Flickr does a great job of organizing the photos, tagging them, and creating a digital photo community.

The privacy settings make it easy for me to have public pictures, which appear on Digital Photography: Digital Field Guide, and also to maintain private photo galleries for friends and family.

The Flickr site is built around syndication, and every set of photographs you can imagine can be syndicated. Flickr does a less good job of archival management for me: the format is limited to Jpeg so I can't store the original RAW format "negatives" using Flickr.

A really cool Flickr feature: you can blog a photo right from Flickr! This makes it easy for me to upload new pictures straight from my camera and blog them with one pass!

Flickr supplies "badges" either in HTML or Flash that one can post on one's own site (either of one's one pictures, or of public Flickr photos generally). These badges are cool, but a little limited from a formatting perspective (and likely you'll want to fool with the code a little to match your site graphics). I used these to some degree on my site, but where I really had fun was with the Flickr API, which expose a great deal of flickr's functionality.

Since my site is written in PHP, I used (and modified) OberKampf, a PHP wrapper library for the API written in PHP. A great deal of fun, shows my photographs off to great advantage, and makes many photo management chores very easy for me.

My flickr wishlist (bearing in mind that Flickr is the cat's pajamas): ability to archive RAW formats, "primitive" functions that allow image effects such as rollovers, fades, dissolves -- both as part of "badges" and in the Flickr API.

Who put those ducks adrift...

...on a sea so wide?

Julian had me take the original photo of ducks in his tub, which was composited with a sky to use as a technique illustration for my forthcoming Digital Photography Digital Field Guide.

Down to the Sea in Boats!

Julian and I went out to Point Reyes on Saturday! We had fun hiking the Tomales Point trail. The wild flowers were marvelous. Then we went down to McClure Beach, where Julian had fun in the tide pools and I made sure he didn't get swept out to sea (the waves were pretty wild, and the open Pacific stretches straight to Japan). Julian and I hiked back up to the car wet, sandy, tired, and happy - with some really nice shells.

On the way out, we also stopped by this wrecked tug boat parked in a mud bank off Inverness. It's at about a 45 degree angle and easy to climb aboard if you don't mind getting a bit wet, so we had a great time exploring it.

Fun with Digital Photography

What's a boy need except a tripod, a digital camera, and something to photograph? I'm having fun with taking pictures for my Digital Photography Field Guide (Wiley Publishing). Here's a photo I took yesterday:

Related link: Digital Field Guide companion site (a work in very early progress)