As I stand here watching my friend cook her pasta from [Life2], I think about what I have to blog about next. Earlier today I followed at least 100 more people on Flickr, and faved a lot of photos that I liked. I do this every so often, but lately I feel that if I don’t do this, then it will have an adverse effect on promoting my blog. As anyone with a blog knows, being active on Flickr has become vital to getting desired blogger spots in Second Life stores and events. What does it mean to be active?
Hair: ~Tableau Vivant~ Shiny hair – Naturals II
Skin: Glam Affair – Cleo – Jamaica
Dress: DRIFT Sexy Lil Dress -Oriental Set w/HUD
Pose: Manifeste
Kitchen: LAQ Decor
Location: Giano Estates
Once, being active simply meant if you had a Flickr account. Lately, it means having at least 500 views and the number of faves to go along with them. A good ratio to aim for is to have at least 1 fave for every 10 views. As for 500 views, I personally feel like this is a lot to obtain for someone who is not used to hardcore promotion on Flickr, or doesn’t have many active Flickr users following them. Morgie has written a terrific guideline to help all of us who are struggling to get the push that we need to qualify for the latest requirement for SL bloggers.
Why do I say latest requirement? As I pointed out in Sophee’s post on the relevance of SL blogs with the emphasis on Flickr as of late, everyone is always looking for ways to promote their items or their events.
I think the emphasis on Flickr photos will favor those who tend to be better at photo composition and post-processing than those who are not. In addition, I think those who set aside time to place their photos in many groups and follow many active people (in the hopes that they will return the favor) will also be favored. For people who use Flickr to simply host their photos, it may be harder to get the views. This may cause stress to bloggers because they will ask themselves any of these questions:
1. If I don’t make artsy photos, does that make me a bad blogger?
2. If people don’t view/fave my photos, does that make me less of a blogger?
3. Am I only as good as my views or faves in the eyes of designers/event coordinators?
4. In order to be a good blogger, do I also have to be a good photographer?
Do you see how these questions (and their answers) focus on only one aspect of what goes into a blog?
What I think bloggers need to understand is this: Your blog is not only your personal space, but it’s also your personal brand. The people who are asking all of these requirements don’t necessarily care about your brand – it’s about what you can do for them to help get their message out there. You have to position yourself so when the next big trend to promoting for an event/store comes around, that it won’t be such a drastic change for you.
With regard with Flickr, every blogger should already be on Flickr, posting pics, following people, and have a list of favorite photos. I will even go as far as saying that your blog should have a link to your Flickr somehow. So now, with the latest trend focusing on Flickr, it is just a matter of building on what you have already started.
Still can’t meet those requirements?
What’s the worst thing that will happen if you don’t get accepted to a bloggers’ group? That you won’t be able to blog their items? Sure you can. It may mean that you will have to pay for it if you are styling an outfit, but most want to see how you use their products before applying to their group.
As bloggers, we will always look for ways to promote our blog. This may or may not be influenced by current trends in promotion. But always remember why you started blogging in the first place, and try not to let some people’s preferences for promotion dictate your entire blogging experience.
Moni's World 
Reblogged this on {K}iss {K}iss and commented:
My good friend Moni shares some very important point on the SL blogging and Flickr. For all my fashion bloggers, this is something worth reading.
I *heart* this so much, reminds us to re purpose our perspective as fellow bloggers ❤
Thank you!
Wonderfully written post, Monica! Balancing the efforts of creating meaningful blog posts with sharing them through social media can be quite the challenge. But just as you’ve written, I’ve seen remarkable and uplifting changes take place when I made the shift from thinking of Flickr as a place to store photos, and seeing it as a vibrant community that thrives on interaction. There’s so much that can be learned from the talent shared there as well. Well worth the time and effort for SL blogger, and you can make some great connections and friends there as well! 🙂
Thanks – and yes I agree that Flickr is a good platform to interact with and to learn from others. For instance, I didn’t know videos could be uploaded to Flickr, and I think that took creativity to another level.
I don’t get the whole “has to have 500 fav’s” thing, I blog because I love it. Sure its lovely when someone fav’s a photo you took time over – it makes me smile ! But I’m not buying into the whole following/fav’ing fandango – if a designer wishes me to blog something I do, if they don’t “oh well”. Id also like to mention the trend of blogging with no words – you know a great photo then just a list of links where to buy it – I personally find that dreary, I like to talk about the item, how I wore it, why I chose it etc (perhaps people hate that – I dont know !)
I agree – the number of views & faves should be for your own personal development. If people like what you did, great. If not, okay.
I think some people like taking photos moreso than writing on a blog. It’s also easier on people who do not speak English as a first language (although there are blogs in different languages as well). I remember there was a thing where people who did not talk about what they were blogging about were not favored by designers. I’m sure some still prefer writing on blogs.
Awesome post and I personally use my flicker to highlight one picture out of the many I post on my blog. I blog because I just love writing my rants and raves – my journey in SL and RL. I figure if peeps want to see what’s behind the images they would read my work.
I personally not into the fave culture and like in RL I am actually shy presenting my work and like it to stand on its own. Once it’s publish I don’t feel I own it anymore – it’s in the public domain. My English professor told us that upon reading a novel – we could have written it. So if I write or create something, I thing of it in the same light.
Thanks for your information and insights💋
Thank you! I do that as well when I have more than one photo. And your perspective on ownership of content is intriguing – I had to think about what you said.
About 12-13 years ago, I used to find/read personal websites done by people. I used to like discovering new sites by referral links from other personal sites. I still remember their names as if I knew them personally lol. Back then in order to stand out you had to move away from the WYSIWYG sites and build it yourself, for places like geocities and angelfire were very basic in template design. To me, it seemed easier to stand out and on its own because
1. it was less content
2. Since you had to build it from scratch, it had your personality embedded in the site
Now with sites like WordPress and Blogger, there is so much content out there, and much more similarities because of the templates used to set up these blogs. It’s hard for work online to stand on its own without pushing it out there. This frustrates me too because I can have good content, but I can see how I fall short when I approach my glass ceiling on how many readers I can reach.
Reblogged this on ZZ Bottom misadventures in Virtual Worlds!.
Reblogged this on Second Lara.
You really gave a lot of thought with this blog post and mirrored a lot of my own with the own flickr faves and pushing to get more followers ~ very well written and thank you for posting this ♥
You are welcome 🙂