I'm sure this topic has come up a billion times, but I'm new, so humor
me.

So I just got my photoblog off the ground, and I've been absolutely
amazed at how fast it's picking up pace.  I know some people are kind
of protective about this, but would some of you mind telling me how
many hits you get on average, how many of those are first time vs.
returning, how many comments you get, and how long your blog has been
active?  I just want to get some sort of gauge so I know if the numbers
I'm getting are good, or normal, or pathetically low..

stacy
http://savoir.photopholio.com

I'm active since january this year and since then I have 'a circle' of
people who regulary visit and post on my blog. Comments are still a
little low with the occasional peak, but that's nothing I'm worried
about.

--
Wim Bollen
www.threehundreddotsperinch.com
[The Next Dimension Of Crap]

If you can, I would advise you to try your hardest not worry about
hits.  Too many photobloggers are obsessed with numbers: favorites,
hits, referrers, comments, etc.

After a while it just starts to make everything taste bad.

On the other hand, I can see how you may simply just have an honest
question...  I'm just trying to point out that worrying about hits can
really make things less enjoyable.

(I can't help but feel that the rankings and favorites on
Photoblogs.org have played into this sort of mentality...  That's why
I'm working on a new version of the site...   I'd like to steer things
in a more productive direction.)

-b

On 7/5/05, stacyreeves <stacyree...@gmail.com> wrote:

--
Brandon Stone
http://www.photoblogs.org/
http://www.brandonstone.com/
http://www.lbstone.com/

Brandon,
This is a very sober and well timed post. I was looking forward for a
few sad days of seeing exciting statistics posts, but now you have
ruined it.

Seriously though, what does it matter how many visitors or comments a
blog has? Are these some sort of an indication of quality of work? I was
under impression most photographers shoot for the sheer pleasure of it
and not because they take part in a blogging Olympiad.

Nikolai

---------------------------------
http://picturism.razouvayev.com
s t i l l s    o f     t i m e
---------------------------------

Yea..that...

The number of hits you get..or the number of comments you get does not speak
for how good your photography is.    Not even 1 bit ;)

I dont get any comments (ok so I dont have comments...but yea..you know what
I mean hehe).

Barb @ Jinky Art wrote:

This is just such a great idea :-D
I'm disabling my comments right away... Thanks :-D

Nikolai

---------------------------------
http://picturism.razouvayev.com
s t i l l s    o f     t i m e
---------------------------------

36 Visits Per Day, I get zero comments, and it's been active for 13 months,
but only 1 month under my new domain.  I rarley look at the stats because
i'd prefer not to know how much traffic i'm getting, I fear it would affect
my shooting habits if I worry too much.. I just simply shoot for fun, and
only put them up on the site for friends and family to see or whoever else
wants to take a look.

- Mark
www.sporadicmovement.com

It's just a simple, honest question.. I'm not going to go cry myself to
sleep if everyone has way more hits than I do.. I was just curious!  :)

I used to have a stats package set up but it was for the whole domain,
my photoblog is just a subdomain, so I never knew how many visitors I
was getting. A couple of months ago we moved all of our domains to new
servers and separated mute from its root domain.

I was going to add stats to the new directory but in the end I didn't,
not really from any conscious decision but I can tell you that I'm much
happier not looking at stats than I am looking at them. I remember from
when I did have stats that the trends in data didn't really seem to
have any connection to the number of comments I got or images I put up
so I doubt they'll give you any genuinely useful motivation for
photography.

Seriously though, what does it matter how many visitors or comments a
blog has? Are these some sort of an indication of quality of work? I
was
under impression most photographers shoot for the sheer pleasure of it
and not because they take part in a blogging Olympiad.

well, these are photoBLOGs, so blogging is part of it. you cant deny
that. and what other purpose is there to photoblogging than getting
more and more people to see your work? there is a distinction to
photoblogging and photographing. photographing is going out and
shooting with your camera. period. when you photoblog you are
purposfully making a statement that day by uploading a specific photo
for that specific day. its not a randomly generated task. its
purposeful. you are making a statement, and the statement is that you
want the world to see this specific image (for whatever reason). in
other words photoblogging is a weblog in photographic form. why
photoblog if you dont want people to see your work?

personally i love photographing because i enjoy the thrill of being out
there and capturing something worthwile (at least worthwile to
me...hehehe). i feel like photography is a great tool to express myself
and has been for years now, but i wanted to do more with my work and
deceided to create a website to showcase some of my work online. i
wanted more people to see my work. i enjoy shooting and getting the
best shot i can get, but i also want people to see my work to help me
evolve into a better photographer. then i found out about
photoblogs.org and fell for it all. the sense of community and
appreciation of the fellow photographers through their comments, i
admit it... i love to get comments. theres nothing wrong with that or
with wanting to know who is visiting your site or how many people are
visiting your site. i would say that there is no magic number that will
tell you if your doing "well" by some point in time, thats just not the
case, dont worry about numbers. but also, dont feel bad about wanting
to get comments and wanting more people to see you work because that is
a big part of the reason why people have graduated from just
photographing to photoblogging. people make art to share their
experiences and maybe make somthing that someone will connect with. and
photoblogging is another way to get more people to see your work, why
else are you photoblogging instead of just photographing?

I completely agree, Dimitri.. I'm not ashamed that I want to show off
my work, and that I want lots of people to see it.  I kind of study my
numbers and look at how they correspond to the photo posted that day..
For example, if there were a huge number of people who never went past
the first photo on a certain day, I assume that photo isn't very
appealing.  But if the number of multiple visits by the same person
goes up, I assume that photo is good.  I use it to help sort out what
goes in the portfolio, what I should consider selling as a print, and
so on.

A few hundred at most in a month, but I get POUNDED by spiders and
stuff, kinda weird.  Most of the people who visit my photoblog are
people I work with, other students, or friends and family, cant say
I've ever been popular to the random crowd.

My photoblog is personal motivation, to shoot, edit, archive, go back
through and learn when times are slow.  I love photography, so much it
scares most people.  I'd love for comments from more experienced
photographers, just to push me, learn faster, learn more, stretch what
I know and all that fun stuff.  But the eye of the general audience is
more important in many ways, cause if I do role through school and get
my photojournalism degree, it will help to know I have the strength to
"win" the crowd over.

But yeah, overall, not too much at all.

i certainly dont look down on anyone whos out to make some money on the
artwork they are making. (ive certainly sold my own photos). more power
to you, and if you need to check your numbers to know whats good and
what isnt thats your own perogative, but thats not at all what i was
saying, i personally would never and could never alter what im
photographing because i thought someone would like this or that more. i
sorta have my own internal gauge of that, and no ones comments will
sway that. i do feel that merely being out there and photographing
helps you evolve into a better photographer. and having a supportive
community (and admittedly most of my comments have been supportive, and
have encouraged me to shoot more) helps you to shoot more and in turn
helps you to evolve into a better photographer.

theres no judgement from me, but there seems to be a bunch of it when
numbers, and hits and comments etc. etc. are talked about.

Forums are a much better source of learning then photoblogs.  Much better!
;)

Self-gratification?

Of course there's a distinction just like there's a distinction between
photographing and publishing books or cooking but I don't think there's
a type of distinction you're trying to make. There would be no
photoblogging without photographing, thus photoblogging is part or
continuation of photographing and not distinct from it. It's different
only in a sense that blogging is a different communication media.

I don't. I don't, usually, make any statements nor do I specifically
upload any particular image. In fact, I often upload old images I find
somewhere forgotten in an archive or even publish images I re-interpret
if I feel like it. Does it mean I'm not photoblogging? If I'm not, maybe
someone can point me to a rule book to consult/correct my deviations with?

Again, not necessarily. A photoblog without purpose is still a photoblog.

I want people to see my work, I never implied otherwise. What I
definitely do not want is to adhere to some pretentious rules of
photoblogging or to assent to some, in my view, unacceptable definitions
of what a photoblog is. I publish my work on the net, sometimes I feel
like captioning, most of the times I don't. I publish what I like and
when I like. I edit/delete my work freely and feel no guilt about it
simply because it's _my_ work and I'm free to do with it as I please,
I'm the creator after all. I enjoy reading someone's comments when it's
clear to me from the comments that the image touched someone and the
person actually responded to the image. But, "Oh, nice pic, like this
shot" type of comments found on all popular photoblogs are utterly
useless and look like spam to me. I mean, every dog on the block knows
the more you comment, the more traffic you get. Question is, the one
you're replying to actually, why should I care about traffic, comments,
popularity if what drives me is the pleasure of image making? To infer
from that that I don't want anybody to see my work is to infer something
that is absent from my point.

Nikolai

---------------------------------
http://picturism.razouvayev.com
s t i l l s    o f     t i m e
---------------------------------

I think you simply mistreat your images :-D
Unless the image is commissioned, the author is the final and ultimate
judge whether or not the image is appealing. If you're the only one in
the world who thinks your image is appealing, then it is indeed
appealing and the opinions of others should not matter.

Why? But more importantly, what is a good photo? Or a bad one for that
matter?

I think traffic is a very misguided indicator of what to sell. You can
sell *any* image if you find the right buyer and offer the right price.
Selling images, *essentially*, isn't different to selling nails. Problem
is, a lot of people need nails but very few want to pay anything for
images, especially today. Consequently, creating images won't
necessarily lead to fattening your bank account, sale skills ought to be
involved, probably even more than that of the photographic skills.

Nikolai

---------------------------------
http://picturism.razouvayev.com
s t i l l s    o f     t i m e
---------------------------------

On 7/6/05, Nikolai <psal...@swissinfo.org> wrote:

I'd agree with that, some of my images that have had very little
traffic have gained some serious interest from some specific people
regarding prints and stuff.

--
Aegir Hallmundur
http://www.paperpixel.co.uk/

I agree that "hits" or number of comments are not the most
important thing. Of course when you put your photos on-line you wish
that people are going to see it and leave comments.
One of my favorite photoblogs is http://www.weaved.net/ and I think it
is a nice street photography, do you know that one? I don't see any
comments there but his work is still great! Sometimes it takes time
before people will find you.

As Brandon said, don't fall for this "number race"; the whole fun
is gone then.

Greetings

Ula

---------------------------------------------------

on-line diary:   http://www.ulamirowska.blogspot.com

Stacey,

I was one of those that looked at my stats everyday, too. My stats doesn't make any sense to me and lots of people make a big deal of comments and stats.  But it does give you some reassurance at the start of photoblogging that you're actually getting out there and being seen - call that an inner desire to show the world your work? And there's nothing wrong with that. When I first started I hardly got any hits at all, I moved domains, and I became what some would call a "comment whore" but I loved posting comments on other people's work and not the negative sort either.  I found that, yes, I got return hits - people were being complimentary to me because I had shown some form of "the positive" to them. I don't believe in giving bad comments or trying to undermine what another person interprets as his/her work.  If I do think that there's something wrong then I'll email the person direct - but then that's just me. Today, time dictates how many comments I can give - sometimes I don't
 comment at all - but I'll still get visitors, which is really nice and supportive - and I'm grateful for it. (and I'm sure even those P.bloggers that have their comments turned off are appreciative that people do get to see their work as well.)

Photoblogging is about interaction of sorts through the visual and some written words (in some cases) don't beat yourself up about the numbers that visit your site - if your work is good to some, then you'll get return visitors but it takes time.

On a photography note, my photography is totally separate from my photoblogging. IMO, there are some photographs on my site that are just not really that good and I've still received comments on them. The best way to see if your photography will sell is to get it into a small gallery or to get what YOU think is a good photograph printed up and sold off.  Methods for doing this I believe are in this forum somewhere, if not there are many good books on the subject.

You'll see, as time goes on people will give you return visits because not only do they like what you post, but they form a "communication" of sorts with you - but that's if you want that from your blog.

My experience of Photoblogs.org has been an excellent one- and I think it's the coolest site on the net :-) (I've been with P.blogs now in one capacity or another for over a year, maybe more.)

Good luck with it Stacey, I hope it all proves as positive to you as what it's has for me.

Elizabeth.

http://www.sightsbyelizabeth.com/sights

I completely agree, Dimitri.. I'm not ashamed that I want to show off
my work, and that I want lots of people to see it. I kind of study my
numbers and look at how they correspond to the photo posted that day..
For example, if there were a huge number of people who never went past
the first photo on a certain day, I assume that photo isn't very
appealing. But if the number of multiple visits by the same person
goes up, I assume that photo is good. I use it to help sort out what
goes in the portfolio, what I should consider selling as a print, and
so on.

I agree 100% with you Elisabeth. I also used to be a statistic eater
and checking my stats everyday. It was good for a while but then you
get to the point when you think 'Fuck it. If they don't like it,
that's their problem'.

The thing I've learned is that you shoot and post photographs for
yourself and not anyone else.

On 7/6/05, Elizabeth Sheldon <s1ghtsb...@btinternet.com> wrote:

--
Wim Bollen
www.threehundreddotsperinch.com
[The Next Dimension Of Crap]

One of the reasons I began photoblogging was to separate the work I was
proud of from the mess of photos hidden in my computer. I consider my site a
virtual "wall." Since I don't have the room or the money to print and frame
them, the photoblog is a way to display them. Getting people to look and
comment on them is a nice bonus, in my opinion.

However, I can understand the curiousity of hits. If I post to Photo Friday,
I can get over 100 visits in a day, but on average without participating in
any memes, I'll get 30-50 in a day. Of course there are occaisional spikes
for other reasons (showing up on photoblogs.org
<http://photoblogs.org>list, for example).

I tend to look at my stats to see where people are coming from. I've been
surprised lately at a couple non photoblog-related sites that are linking to
me. That's fun.'

Andy

On 7/5/05, stacyreeves <stacyree...@gmail.com> wrote:

Stacy,

I'll make you feel better ;-)

I've been photoblogging about a year (only abut 6 weeks at my new
domain) and I average about 9 visitors a day (and falling), and
virtually no comments. Most of the traffic I get typically goes to my
regular blog rather than my photoblog.

I'm doing my best not to care about those numbers, but I admit, I do
look at them. What's really depressing is that now, the comments I DO
get are all comment spam, which makes me want to shut off the feature
altogether. Even with MT-Blacklist running, more spam gets through than
actual comments. Bastards.

-----------------------------------------------------
Robert

Between the Covers [blog]
http://robertsheard.com

Border Trench Safaris [photoblog]
http://bordertrenchsafaris.com

I get, more or less, 40 visits a day, but I have a low rate of comments,
which freaks me out because my purpose on my photoblog was to receive
some feedback to improve my photography. Like many photobloggers, I like
to be visited, but I don't try to make a competition out of it. I'm very
happy with it, and in the nine-ten moths it's been active, I've found I
really improved my skills in photography just by tracking other
photoblogs of the community and updating mine in a regular basis.

--
Adrian Daine

http://www.puntodefuga.net

I am with Andy:

As many have said, I started out by obsessively checking how many hits,
how many comments...etc.  Once it dawned on me that there were some
inconsistences in all of this (i.e. seriously good images were left
alone while mediocre shots - my estimation - got so many 'Great Image!'
and 'Superb!'), I started to wonder why I cared what you (the
collective You, that is) thought....and then I looked at my habit of
skimming through other's blogs and not leaving a mark....and then I
came to the conclusion that this all means...well...nothing....in the
end.  This is a rat-hole that we all (if this thread is any indication)
all go down at some time.

These days, I do keep a counter on my blog....but as Andy said, I just
look at it and see things like telekom.at, wanadoo.nl, net.br and even
a .ru doman or two...and I think...."Wow, that is pretty cool"....and
then I look at the referrals....and there are the ones that I
expect...the photoblogs.org ones, the flickr ones....but then there are
some search page links...and those are the ones I like.  I got one the
other day that came from a search of "my life after near death
experiences"...I have no idea how I showed up there...

And Brandon, I will say this about the photoblogs.org favorite
list....to me, it is totally meaningless.  I know what you probably
intended it to be, but I see it as a popularity contest - not really
having anything to do with the quaility of the blog site...or the
images therein.  Please don't take that as a criticism of your site (I
really, really appreciate your efforts!) - there are so many good
points!...but this is one that I tend to ignore.  Just my $0.02...and
that is exactly what it is worth! :-)

To all...have fun...make pictures!...don't worry about the rest!  There
are no rules...there are no processes....just do it...if it isn't fun,
then why do you do it?

David
http://danielphoto.blogspot.com/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bisbohemian/

I like to check now and then the amount of hits but a large portion of
the hits are from search engines etc... mostly what i use my stats for
are to see where traffic comes from so that i can add a link to that
persons site etc... For me sharing traffic is what its all about and the
more exposure everyone gets, the better. There are so many discovered
photoblogs out there and ones to be discovered.

Sean Stearns
http://www.sensationsflux.org