Do you blog?

[bigdog]

Do you blog?

A lot of photographers and artists have blogs. I started one about a year ago to promote an exhibition (last October) of analog photographs. I elected to continue the blog and just write about photography in general and my own work.

However, maintaining a blog takes a lot of time. Not the computer maintenance; the writing and editing of posts and articles.

Do you blog?

What's your traffic (readership) like?

I'm finding the stats on my blog are making it just not worth the time I spend. I have no illusions that I am making the world better for photography or photographers by blogging, I just thought it would be mildly entertaining. But there are thousands of blogs! Hard to be heard in all the noise.

[Drew Bedo]

I do not blog. Anything I have to say, I pretty much say it here.

[Corran]

Yes, a lot. See below in my signature obviously.

I do it primarily as a "diary" of sorts for me. What lens, film, camera, etc. - plus accessible anywhere. Many times a student, friend, or online acquaintance has asked about a certain piece of gear, film, or place and I could direct them to examples or information. I have kept up with tagging my posts with lenses/places so I can reference things easily. I can also put a ton of images from a place or day in one place, while linking to it from just one or two images here or other online fora.

I don't know about "making the world better" but I have gotten many an email or message telling me they enjoy the blog or simply found it informative. Certainly my most well-read entries are reviews of a sort for a camera or lens, especially obscure/old/vintage stuff. While I am not monetizing my blog at all, I do think the potential is there with some work, especially in the area of old, rare photography stuff, especially film.

I am currently pondering some expansion on this with Youtube videos/vlogs. I have recently started watching a few "shows" on YT and I'm quite amazed at what one person or a small group can accomplish, and I am proficient with video editing already anyway.

Overall I am approaching 50,000 views since late 2011, which is pretty small, but again I am not "targeting" an audience right now. Some reviews on my blog, especially ones for some uncommon Nikon lenses, get hundreds of views a month though. That's where the market is.

[RSalles]

Last week or so I have started mine. Lot of content to upload, let's see if I have the time to update it,

Cheers,

Renato

[paulr]

I don't keep up with the photo world enough to blog about it, so I just read other people's blogs, and occasionally comment. I blog about about food.

[Bill_1856]

What is "blog?"

[Corran]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog

[fishbulb]

I've had several blogs, with one over ten years old now. I don't update them much more than every six months, because, as others have said, its a ton of work for little reward.

If you want to successfully blog and get a lot of readers you should probably look at some of the most popular blogs. You will probably notice that most of them write about gear half the time (the online photographer, petapixel, photography life etc) or all the time ( the brand rumors blogs like nikonrumors, lensrentals, etc.). Most of them regularly publish inane inflammatory articles to drum up readership, comments, etc., such as Canon vs Nikon, film vs. digital, crop vs. full frame etc. They make money with advertisements and affiliate marketing referral links. Your blog should look also good on a PC, tablet, RSS reader, and mobile device and have good search engine optimization.

[Preston]

No blog, no facebook, no twitter, no instagram, no...nada, except for my web site.

I just did a major update to my site. It was sadly out of date, and it took a ton of work. That was enough for me. I'd rather be out and about, or doing a bit of guitar picking.

I have read some well done blogs and I can see they take a lot of work. More power to those who choose to do one.

--P

[Drew Wiley]

I have zero interest in all that nonsense. I will get around to re-doing my own website one of these days, but no hurry. And Preston, your new site is certainly nice. I recognize that exact rock and lupine bloom at Sonora Pass - was that taken when I met you up there? Think that was the day I lugged my 8x10 up Blue Canyon.