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Creative Commons License photo credit: Beneath_B1ue_Skies

Last week I shared with you another way for freelance photographers to present their resume. Online picture sharing sites can be utilized to showcase your talent and allow the viewers to form an opinion of your skills and qualifications without words.

Today I will focus on how you can best utilize the three sites mentioned in last week’s post.

Let’s begin with Flikr. Besides the library of your work offered, you also have the capacity to link your flikr account with your online blog.

Maintaining a blog is a wonderful way to promote yourself and spark the interest of others in your skill or product.

You can configure your external blog right through the flikr site, guided through the process every step of the way and finishing with a test post just to verify everything is working correctly.
These are the blog sites currently supported by flikr:

How it works

When you post your photograph, you can offer the option of adding a ‘blog this’ button. Now your photograph is ready to find a permanent home within yours or anyone else’s blog. It’s a great way to promote your talent and direct others to view your full portfolio.

You can set up as many blogs as you like, should you prefer to categorize your marketing efforts. This can come in handy if you want to have a way to track your clients and their tastes, creating the opportunity for more intimate marketing.

By combining both approaches to marketing yourself and your work, you are getting the maximum potential out of both mediums.

Now let’s take a look at shutterfly. Another neat way to combine your marketing efforts is their personalized gift section. Why pass out a boring business card when you can gift your clients with a mouse pad featuring one of your works? Constant exposure as they surf the net.

And who’s to say you can’t offer a variation to your work in the form of merchandise?
Just one more way to create a presence in the world and make a few dollars at the same time.

Be sure to check out their Pro Gallery.

With this feature, you have an online storefront to sell your work, and shutterfly does the legwork and you enjoy the profits. No need to have a storeroom full of merchandise, you can direct clients right to your pro gallery page.

Ok, let’s finish up with photo.net. This site is one of the more educational places to network with others that share your passion. With over 800,000 members consisting of other photographers, both amateur and professional, it’s a great place to:

  • Expand your contacts
  • Create relationships
  • Share industry thoughts and feedback

All while keeping up to date on the latest news and equipment.

News articles are written by members of photo.net and read by the group. Feedback and interaction is in abundance for nearly every article. Have conversations without even being in the room at the time, what a concept!!

For live time chat, there are 38 photography forums that you can participate in. Over 3000 posts a day travel thru the computer lines. It’s like attending a photographer’s convention right at your desk!

Where ever you choose to feature your work and interact with others of a like mind doesn’t matter. What matters is you optimize all the avenues offered at the site to make the most of your marketing presence.