Getting Seen
Flickr has many many ways to get found and be seen. Photos can be searched for by tags from the top search, but the Explore page offers many ways as well. http://flickr.com/explore. You can search by most popular tags, location, even camera model!
Groups: http://flickr.com/groups/
This is the best way to get seen on Flickr. There are possibly millions of groups to join and even be invited into on Flickr. These are usually themed to a topic. LIke colors, or style of photo or such, and there are thousands and thousands of crafting groups on flickr. Sometimes there are multiples for even the most obscure thing.
I make pincushions and look how many there are! http://flickr.com/search/groups/?q=pincushions That’s just PINCUSHIONS! If you do pottery, sewing, fiber arts there are even more!
But if there are many to choose, which groups are the best to join to get seen?
I advise joining the largest ones that directly apply best to what you do. You can filter results by “group size” so start there, look at each group before joining, see if you really like it. Larger groups have more people in them, but they don’t always have the most views so don’t choose the 13,000 member group over the 600 meber group when the smaller one might be more active and give you more eyes on your pictures.
Also make sure the groups have rules you can apply to. Some moderate entry, some moderate how many pictures you can add at one time or in a time period or have in the group total. If that doesn’t match your needs and desires, if might not be the group for you.
Contacts?
People who make you a contact simply like your pics. They might want to see more, or they just want to know when you add more. You get notification when they add new pics. Most of my hits come from my contacts. These are the people you want most of all. This is your customers and fans. Comment on their pics too when you can.
You can make them contacts as well if you want, but the list of YOUR contacts can get long really fast and when you get your notices on who has added pics often you can ind yourself looking at junk you don’t know or care about. I know many will say “friend everyone who friends you” but I only add people I truly want to see more of. Life is too short you know?
You can make contacts friends and/or family as well, to allow them special access to any sets you’ve made that aren’t public to everyone. use these sparingly. Save them for the real things.
Whew! That is pretty comprehensive.
People should know though, that even if you set your photos so that no one can download and print them, they still can download and print them. It’s just a little more work but any photo from Flickr can be saved to someone else’s computer and printed. Their “spaceball” trick will only slow down a determined image thief, not prevent them.
If you really REALLY don’t want anyone saving your photos, it’s best not to put them online at all.