| Well
Come To Photo
Sharing Sites' Section! |
|
|
More Links 1
2
What is Photo
Sharing Site?A Photo Sharing Site is a site where you can upload and
share your photos with the world.
Photo sharing
From
Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Photo sharing is the publishing or transfer of
a
user's digital photos online, thus enabling the user to share them with
others (whether publicly or privately). This functionality is provided
through both websites and applications that facilitate the upload and
display of images. The term can also be loosely applied to the use of
online photo galleries that are set up and managed by individual users,
including photoblogs.
The first photo sharing sites originated during the mid to late 1990s
primarily from services providing online ordering of prints (photo
finishing), but many more came into being during the early 2000s with
the goal of providing permanent and centralized access to a user's
photos, and in some cases video clips too. Webshots, SmugMug, Yahoo!
Photos and Flickr were amongst the first. This has resulted in
different approaches to revenue generation and functionality amongst
providers.
While photoblogs tend only to display a chronological view of
user-selected medium-sized photos, most photo sharing sites provide
multiple views (such as thumbnails and slideshows), the ability to
classify photos into albums, as well as add annotations (such as
captions or tags) and comments. Some photo sharing sites, even small
ones with only a few million photos, provide complete online
organization tools equivalent to desktop photo management applications.
Desktop photo management applications may include their own
photo-sharing features or integration with sites for uploading images
to them. There are also desktop applications whose sole function is
sharing photos, generally using peer-to-peer networking. Basic photo
sharing functionality can be found in applications that allow you to
email photos, for example by dragging and dropping them into
pre-designed templates.
Photo sharing is not confined to the web and personal computers, but is
also possible from portable devices such as camera phones, using
applications that can automatically transfer photos as you take them,
to photo sharing sites and photoblogs, either directly or via MMS. Some
cameras now come equipped with wireless networking and similar sharing
functionality themselves.
Revenue models
Photo sharing sites can be broadly broken up into two groups: sites
that offer photo sharing for free and sites that charge consumers
directly to host and share photos.
Of the sites that offer free photo sharing, most can be broken up into
advertising-supported media plays and online photo finishing sites,
where photo sharing is a vehicle to sell prints or other merchandise.
Paid sites typically offer subscription-based services directly to
consumers and dispense with advertisements and sometimes the sale of
other goods.
These designations are not hard and fast and some subscription sites
have a limited free version. Consumers can share their photos directly
from their home computers over high speed connections through
peer-to-peer photo sharing using applications. Peer-to-peer photo
sharing often carries a small one-time cost for the software. Some
sites allow you to post your pictures online and they will then project
the image onto famous buildings during special events, while other
sites let you insert photos into digital postcards, slide shows and
photo albums and send them to others.
Some free sites are owned by camera manufacturers, and only accept
photos made with their hardware.
Online photo finishing
Because printing at home for consumers is potentially time consuming,
costly, or low quality, a number of providers offer the ability to
create high quality prints from digital photos, on photographic paper.
Typically the customer uploads their digital photos to the site and
then orders prints and gifts which are then delivered by mail. To
facilitate the sale of prints and gifts to family and friends, these
sites typically offer a limited form of photo sharing. Because the
primary revenue model is to sell the consumer back their digital
information in the form of prints and gifts, the online albums
typically do not allow friends and family to download the full size
original images, and the images may be deleted if no purchases are
made. Nevertheless, because the primary revenue model of the printing
sites is to sell prints and gifts, the photo sharing service is free
and hence attractive to many consumers.
Subscription-based photo sharing
In return for a fee, subscription-based photo sharing sites offer their
services without the distraction of advertisements or promotions for
prints and gifts. They may also have other enhancements over free
services, such as guarantees regarding the online availability of
photos, more storage space, the ability for non-account holders to
download full-size, original versions of photos, and tools for backing
up photos. Some offer user photographs for sale, splitting the proceeds
with the photographer, while others may use a disclaimer to reserve the
right to use or sell the photos without giving the photographer
royalties or notice.
From the turn of the 21st century, some sites began integrating video
sharing as well.
Peer-to-peer photo sharing
With the introduction of high speed (broadband) connections directly to
homes, it is feasible to share pictures and movies without going
through a central service. The advantages of peer-to-peer sharing are
reduced hosting costs and no loss of control to a central service. The
downsides are that the consumer does not get the benefit of off-site
backup; consumer ISPs often prohibit the serving of content both by
contract and through the implementation of network filtering, and there
are few quality guarantees for recipients. However, there are typically
no direct consumer costs beyond the purchase of the initial software,
provided the consumer already has a computer with the photos at home on
a high speed connection.
Peer-to-server photo sharing
While peer-to-peer solutions operate without a central server this can
create problems since some users do not leave their computers online
and connected all the time. Using an always-on server like Windows Home
Server which acts as an intermediate point, it is possible to share
photos peer-to-peer with the reliability and security of a central
server solution. Photos are securely stored behind a firewall on the
Windows Home Server and can be accessed only by those with appropriate
permissions.
Peer-to-browser photo sharing
A variation on the peer-to-peer model is peer-to-browser, whereby
images are shared on one PC with the use of a local (on the host
computer) software service (much like peer-to-peer) but made available
to the viewer through a standard web browser. Technically speaking,
this may still be described as peer-to-peer (with the second peer being
a web browser) but it is characteristically different as it assumes no
need to download peer software for the viewer. Photos are accessed by
regular URLs that standard web browsers understand natively without any
further software required. Consequently, photos shared in this way are
accessible not only to users who have downloaded the correct peer
software (compatible with the software in use by the sharer).
Peer-to-browser sharing has (similar to peer-to-peer) reduced hosting
costs, no loss of control to a central service, and no waiting for
files to upload to the central service. Furthermore, universal web
browser access to shared files makes them more widely accessible and
available for use in different ways, such as embedding in, or linking
to, from within web pages. As with peer-to-peer, the downsides are lack
of off-site backup, possible inhibition by some ISPs, and limitations
in speed of serving.
Web photo album generators
See also: Comparison of photo gallery software
Software can be found on the internet to generate your own photo
albums, usually to share photos on the web, using a home web server. In
general, this is for advanced users that want to have better control
over the look and feel of their web albums and the actual servers they
are going to run on.
Privacy and security
Online theft and photo fraud have become major issues in the photo
sharing market. The US Ad Council recently created an advertising
campaign to warn users of the dangers of posting personal photos to
public websites.
Photos classification
Photo sharing sites usually propose several ways to classify
images. Most sites propose at least a taxonomy where images can be
grouped within a directory-like structure in so-called "galleries".
Some sites also allow users to classify images using tags to build a
folksonomy. Depending on the restrictions on the set of users allowed
to tag a single document and the set of tags available to describe the
document, one speaks about narrow and broad folksonomies. A folksonomy
is broad when there is no restriction on the set of taggers and
available tags. When there are limitations, the folksonomy is called
narrow. Another mechanism is coupling taxonomy and folksonomy, where
tags associated to galleries and artists are cascaded to the galleries
and artist's pictures. Broad taxonomies have interesting properties
like the power law.
Some sites including Panoramio and Wikimedia Commons show their
geocoded photographs on a map, helping the user find pictures of the
same or nearby objects from different directions.
Online photo sharing websites
* Atpic
* BlueMelon
* Flickr
* Fotki
* Imageshack
* Imgur
* Interartcenter
* ipernity
* Jalbum
* Kodak EasyShare Gallery
* .Mac
* Panoramio
* Photobucket
* Phanfare
* Picasa
* Piczo.com
* SmugMug
* Snapfish
* Shutterfly
* Webshots
* Woophy
* Zooomr
See also
* Comparison of photo gallery software
* Digital photo frame
* File sharing
* Image hosting service
* List of photo sharing websites
* Online file storage
Promoting With A Photo Share Site
As I said before as an internet marketer you have many options to
choose for promoting and marketing your website or business for free.
But every technique require some knowledge and exceptional skill to
work. You can even use a photosharing site to promote or expand your
business. One of the problems with the popular networking sites is that
you can usually only add photographs that are already online. I mean
hosted somewhere. A photo share site can be use to upload your images
and pictures and then you can use those pictures on any site. It is
really easy to upload your pictures and images to online photo sharing
sites and web galleries so you can even add photographs when traveling
and is a great way to back up your images.
But most important thing is choose a right photo sharing
site.
There are many free options but some add 3rd pary ads and some do
not.LenzUs is a free photo sharing site which do not insert 3rd party
ads and so photo albums look professional. LenzUs is extremely easy to
use, even allowing uploads from your cell phone camera. With free
accounts you are allowed to upload 25 megabytes of imagery every month
and are allowed an unlimited amount of storage space. If you decide
that you need to upload more pictures every month or want to support
the downloading of your hi-res photographs, affordable upgrade accounts
are also available. No matter you use the site as free member or as a
pro but one thing is certain : LenzUs is the best online photo sharing
site you will find for online promotion.
What makes a good online photo sharing site?
There are several free photo sharing websites out there to choose from.
Some of them allow you to post your photo sharing gallery free. But in
most sites right next to your digital photo masterpieces are shown all
manner of distracting and unattractive commercial advertising. Not on
LenzUs. What makes LenzUs the best online photo sharing site is that
it's both free of cost and free of ads as well!
Create Your Own Photo Sharing Gallery
To create a photo gallery in LenzUs is extremely easy and any one can
do that.LenzUs allows users to drag and drop photographs directly from
their computer into their account. For even greater convenience, you
may email photo files or even upload pictures from your cell phone. And
organizing pictures is both easy and fun to do!
Advantages Of Free Photo Sharing Sites
Free photo sharing web site like LenzUs allow
individuals,webmasters,businesses or bands to upload and share their
digital photos with others. This allows others to view the images. Once
you upload the photos,it is ready to share and distribute over the
internet. You can use the photos in social networking sites or anywhere
else around the internet.
Free Photo Sharing Websites
A free LenzUs account is a powerful tool for your business or group.
There is also upgrade facility available inLenzUs if you need more than
25 upload a month and want to provide download facility. There is no
easier way to get your images on the web than LenzUs, your source for
web gallery hosting.
Photo Sharing Sites to Boost Traffic
There are lots of free photo sharing websites and most people love to
share photo from international vacation,traveling and even photos of
their children. We all love to share and boast our experiences with
others. Because of this obsession with connecting to the rest of the
world is responsible for existence & creation of photo sharing
sites.
Photo sharing sites allow you to upload,share and publish
your
digital photos on their site. Uploading your photos to the photo
sharing site allows you to categorize, edit, and share them with the
rest of the world. Free photo sharing sites are a great way to host
your photos for free so you can easily add them to your website, blog,
or social networking site. After uploading your photos the photo
sharing website gives you the codes which you can copy and paste to
insert them on your site.
You can promote your site,your product and yourself through
using photos and other images.
-One most important thing you should
keep in mind is
whenever possible insert your site url on every image you are going to
share with others.
-1st upload cover images of your
product,website
header,blog header,site logos in different sizes and in various designs
and ask for feed back to site visitors,blog readers,your
friends,family,in the forum,in the discussion groups etc etc
-Collect or create the photos of your
product which shows them signings or at speaking event and post them.
-At the time of product launch post your
photos & image links in tweets and social network updates.
- You can also upload photos relevant to
the topic of your book or doing the setting of your book.
- Post photos from your book itself. I
mean from inside the book.
- You can also insert your product
images in your blog and ezine but post them with appropriate content.
-I have included a site below from where
you can find better quality,inexpensive images. Many free ones,too.
- Everyone includes personal
posts/messages on his
blog and social network. What you should do is to post your personal
photos with each and every person post. Personal photos of your
pet,child,house,car,wife etc. And you will receive more comments
because of these photos.
-If you do not know then it is true that when you
post any
image in your facebook photo album the image also displayed in the news
feeds and also visible to your friends.
-When you post status update,insert your images as
well.
-In your facebook profile there is a facility to
display
image with facebook applications like My Profile Box or Profile HTML
& there you should insert your product image
-On the 2nd page I have included a Photo Sharing
Site(PSS)
with which you can keep tracks of all your uploaded images and post
them across the internet. They also allow comments on photos as well
and I suggest you to use this site actively for image hosting.
-I have also included a PSS where you can upload
multiple
images and use your profile page to display all your images as photo
album by linking your profile page with your website or blog. This PPS
also allows to add friends and make comments on other photos so if you
actively browse and submit or post some nice genuine comments on other
members' photos same will happen to your photos and you will also find
new friends and prospective buyers. The site is owned by yahoo so you
will also get an authoritative link back from the point of SEO. You can
also use keywords and tags with your images and you can also search
images through keywords and post comments. There are applications are
available to display your photos from this PSS to directly on your blog
or you can feed them directly to your social networking sites' profiles.
-I have included many useful PSS as well.
Free Photo Sharing Sites & Free
Traffic
As you know free photo sharing sites allow you to
upload,share and publish your digital photgraphs and images. There are
many ways with which you can use these free photosharing site to drive
traffic to your site.
Do this to receive free traffic..........
1. Create and
optimize your photo sharing
profile. Be as descriptive and real as possible.Use your targeted
relevant keywords in the description and use tags,too.
2. Don’t
use poor quality photos. If you have do not up load.
3. Add tags &
keywords to every picture. Make sure they are unique and descriptive.
4. Add a title to the
picture with relevant keyword.
5. describe your
picture including relevant keywords.
6. Add links to your
primary website or blog in every picture.
7. Join and post your
best photos to groups that are relevant to your niche or business.
8. Participate in the
community. Comment
on other people’s photos, your own photo views will increase.
9. Start your own
group & grow your network.
10. Use the vanity URL option. Make sure you add your
keywords e.g. http://www.flickr.com/photos/freetraffic/
11. Post personal as well as business pictures.
Don’t be afraid to your looks & uniqueness.
12. Take full advantage of the editing features
which allow
you to resize, change the color, and add text to your photos.
13. Categorize your pictures into groups & make it
easier to work with.
14. Use photos on your site. You will gain a link
back for seo purpose.
Do not worry about finding free photo sharing sites. I have
listed all good ones in this section on the next page....
backlinks from Photo Sharing Sites
Why your site need backlinks
As I have explained you again and again in each section. Search engines
count backlinks to give rank to your site in the search results(For
detailed information,read seo section).And naturally higher
the
rank of your site in the search results,higher your chances for
receiving free traffic. Today, it is easier to promote our online
profile than to promote our website because we can include all the
details about ourselves plus add in all the links to our different
websites with just a single profile page.
Bloggers & Photos
Photograph is a very powerful tool which can attract lots of visitors
everyday to a blog or a site. Let me explain:Just only photographs will
not fetch you more traffic but a blog with photograph on it
will
definitely get extra traffic as compared to those without the
photograph and also receive repeat visitors. All bloggers are not
photographer and so the bloggers will always need to look for the free
online photograph which they can use on their blog site. The demand for
the free online photos is very high so take advantage of this demand in
your favor and drive some repeat free visitors to your blog. If you are
a photographer yourself then you can not only drive traffic to your
site by using photographs on your blog but also promote your own work
to the potential buyers who may want to buy your photos directly from
you.
Lets get Started
There are lots of photo sharing sites online where you can upload and
share yourphotos to million of internet user everyday. If you are using
Flixya to share your photos, then all you need to do is just to leave
the photo embed feature on so that bloggers can use your photos on
their blogs and you get lots of backlinks back to your own Flixya
profile.
If you are using Flickr, then you will need to change your photo
license type from All Rights Reserved to Creative Commons License in
order for bloggers or anyone to use your photos on their sites. Below
are the steps that you need to take to set up the Creative Commons
License for your photos in Flickr:
1) Log into your Flickr account, go to one of your photos under your
Photostream.
2) Click on the 'c' button next to the green button under your
photograph and you will land on the 'Set A License For This Photo' page
where you can start to change the photo license setting for your
photograph from the default setting of All Rights Reserved to Creative
Commons License. You will be asked to select the types of creative
commons license you wish to use, read each of them carefully and choose
the one that fits you the best. You can also set a default type of
license for everything you upload into Flickr under Your account / Set
a default license page or you can also change the license on all of
your existing photographs in a batch if you wish to do so.
3) After you have done with all the editing works, go to your profile
page and add in your website url. And that is it! Whenever someone
clicks on the backlink of your photo on one of those bloggers' blog, he
willdirected on your Flickr's profile page. You also can bookmark your
entire Flickr profile page on Delicious and drive more traffic to it.
Newest Photo Sharing Site
Fotopedia is a site where photographers who take part in building the
encyclopedia. They allow blogs and websites to distribute their
pictures using the Fotopedia's widgets and will get free
traffic
from those backlinks in widgets to their profile page. This site is
user friendly and anyone can easily learn when one has joined.
How Photo Hosting Can Promote You?
If you are just starting your own business as a photographer or you are
simply doing this as hobby then photo hosting is for you. Photo hosting
is a way wherein you can share your pictures with anyone in any part of
the world without even paying for membership fees. All you need is your
digital camera and your computer and you can easily share your work to
the world.
If you have a blog site or your own website, a photo hosting site will
come in handy. Since these sites will allow you to obtain the quality
of your pictures unlike in blog sites wherein they shrink the pictures,
you can share your pictures at its finest.
First, you have to look out for a wonderful site with amazing features.
Most sites allow their users to create their own photo albums. They
also allow users to edit their photos through resizing, image contrast,
adding texts, cropping and so on. You can also add a caption under the
photo so you can share the story behind every photo you make.
There is a choice on whether you would want to use their free services
or membership packages. If you choose the free services, you do not
have to pay anything but you can still enjoy the perks of being a
member. The only downside to being a free user is that you do not have
the control over your pictures. You cannot change the mode of your
pictures into private and your photo links will automatically
cross-post in your blog or your other web site. However, if you are a
professional who would like to promote yourself, this will be a good
thing for you since anyone is entitled to view you and your works.
On the other hand, if you sign up as a member, you will have other
privileges. Although even signing up as a member is for free, you will
have the ability to control your images. You will be able to put a
privacy mode to your photos so that the people who you only know can
view your photos or videos. Another thing you can control is the
cross-posting of the link of your newly uploaded photos to your blog or
other sites. You will be able to choose if you want it directly
cross-posted or not. This will come in handy if in case you have
private photos that you do not want to share. This option is best
suited for those who are going to use the site for a more personal
reason than a professional one.
Once you have chosen the site and the services you want you can easily
access their program. The user interfaces of these sites are usually
very easy to use. All you have to do is to browse the images that you
want and then after you are finish, you can click the
“upload” button. After a few minutes, your image is
uploaded to the site and you will be given a link that you can share
with anyone, anywhere in the world!
Make excellent use of your Photo Hosting Site
Today, it is inevitable that the Web has become a place for users to
present and share the moments in their lives through blogs, forums, and
other interactive Web activities. The advent of digital
cameras
has also contributed to the success of photo hosting
as people constantly look for easier and better ways of connecting with
their loved ones around the world as well as sharing captured moments
of their lives. This reason alone can be very advantageous of
if
you are a photo hosting site.
Most users who want their images placed on the Web do not want to be
troubled with the cost of having their own photo hosting site as it
incurs a great cost on their budget. As such, they turn to
photo
hosting services being offered online. Web users want low
costs,
if not, free photo hosting services to help them share their images
online especially in their blogs, web galleries, online auctions, and
forums. Once they decide to join an online community that
allows
them to upload their photos, they search for the control panel button
of the site and follow the instructions for uploading their
images. The instructions are usually easy to follow and only
involve selecting the images in which the users want to upload from
their personal computer files. After which, the images can
already be viewed on the Web.
If you are a photo hosting site, you should consider the fact that
users choose photo hosts that provide them with outmost
services.
You may provide them photo hosting services either for private service
use or public service use. These are options, which most
photo
hosts provide their users. If users choose the private
service
use option, you should consider offering them with unlimited number of
folders, more GB of band width, and unlimited views of their
images. This is because private service use involves charges
that
users should pay for having high security on their image
files.
More so, by being private, they are able to organize and manage their
image files conveniently. On the other hand, if users choose
the
public service use option, you should consider offering them with a
number of monthly band widths that comes along with other photo hosting
features. You may provide them with up to 10,000 views for
their
uploaded images.
One of the few differences between private service use and pubic
service use is that users who avail of the public service option use
the same image hosting site that everyone else uses. This is
to
say that the public service use option lacks in security as well as
privacy for the users. Thus, if the primary goal of the users
is
to share their images as a professional photographer, advise them to
avail of the private service option so that their images would not be
corrupted by other users. Professional photographers usually
choose photo hosting providers that offer customizable features.
Nevertheless, most professional and non-professional users turn to
photo hosting services that will save them with numerous space and band
width while sharing their images online. Thus, if you want to
be
successful as a photo host, you should consider the different needs of
users and be able to provide them with services that suit such needs.
Using Photo Sharing Websites in Your Social Media SEO Campaign
One element of social media which is sometimes over looked is photo
sharing websites such as Flickr and Photobucket. These sites allow you
to create an account and upload your photos and images.
The importance of these photo sharing sites is that once you have added
your photos you can create descriptions, titles and keywords just like
a web page on your website. The photo albums
you create can be linked into your website or blog and used as a
sideshow.
By creating these albums with their descriptions, titles and keywords
not only can people view your images within these sites but they will
also appear within search engine results especially image results and
this has to be good for your website.
By making the images as attractive as possible so people want to search
for them and view them as this way you are increasing your chances of
traffic to your website.
To get the people who view your images to your site many of the photo
sharing sites allow you to add a direct link into your website from
either the image itself or through your profile page on there. The easy
the link is to find the higher the levels of traffic to your site. You
can then see the impact of your images by studying Google Analytic and
seeing how many people linked into your site from the images
Always remember to ALT tag all of your images on your website too so
you get maximum exposure on image search engine results, every little
bit helps with your SEO and SEM campaign.
(())================
An Easy Way to Gain Visibility: Online Photo Sharing
With the advancement of technology, the opportunities of marketing
yourself or your business have become endless. Gaining that much needed
exposure is a simple click away! Today, online image hosting
companies are lending a helping hand to marketers in the form of photo
sharing.
Photo sharing grants you the opportunity to provide viewers with a
representation of how you want to be perceived. An image, logo, or live
photographs are all examples of content used for online photo
sharing. Providing an illustration creates an everlasting
effect
that may be beneficial for you in the long run. Placing appropriate
content is very important because one harmful image could be your
downfall. For example, figure skater Nicole Bobek’s mugshot
photos were viciously placed online. As a result, a negative perception
of the star has been generated.
Sharing your photos online increases the amount of visibility you
receive. Your business is able to reach an unlimited amount of
individuals who surf the internet every single day.
Online networking sites, such as Facebook and Twitter, allow you the
opportunity to post, edit, and share pictures. Users take advantage of
this free tool every single minute and day of the week. The world's
leader in online news and information delivery, CNN, uses Facebook to
exhibit their photographic efforts. By using Facebook they
are
reaching a younger generation, but at the same time gaining more
exposure. Some of their Facebook photo albums include: Election Night,
Debates, Inauguration, and Behind the Scenes: On the Set.
Businesses and individuals should take advantage of the free
online photo sharing sites. These sites include: Photobucket, Flickr,
Picasa Web Albums (Google), and Facebook.
(())=============
The Advantages of Online Photo Sharing
In the last decade, photography has become an increasingly digitised
medium. But while many have revelled in the convenience and
high-quality photography that digital cameras have granted, others have
lamented the loss of traditional photographic printing - claiming that
many digital cameras are not built to provide long-lasting photographic
memories. While these complaints hold some ground, developments on the
internet over the past few years have meant that there is now an easy
way to maintain the longevity of your photos: online photo sharing.
The burgeoning popularity of online photo-sharing sites has seen the
emergence of many successful internet brands in the new generation of
web 2.0 sites. Photo sharing sites have flourished as more and more
people - both professional and amateur photographers - continue to post
their work and invite comments, links and general debate about their
photos.
Uploading your photos and sharing them online has a range of benefits.
For starters, if it's your child's first birthday party and you're keen
to share the photos with family and friends across the world, you'll be
able to do so - both simply and affordably - by placing them on an
online photo album. Sharing your photos in this way avoids the expense
of having to post photos to multiple recipients by mail, and is far
more convenient than emailing large photo files that can take a while
to download. What's more, using an online photo sharing site can also
act as storage space for your photos, so you'll be able to keep them
for an indefinite amount of time without cluttering up your computer's
hard drive.
If you're a budding professional photographer, placing your photos on
an online photo sharing site can be a great way to get yourself noticed
by your peers. Many photo sharing websites let users add tags to their
photos, so that other members of the photo sharing community will be
able to easily find and view photos on similar subjects or from the
same geographic location.
Tagging photos that you've uploaded to a photo sharing site means your
photos will have much better visibility, and will also be likely to
generate more user comments and constructive criticism of your work.
Search engine Yahoo!, for instance, have recently started incorporating
photos of famous world landmarks into their search results.
Online photo sharing, therefore, has a variety of merits that can be
enjoyed by a cross-section of web users. Whether you're a developing
photographer keen to share your work with the world, or you simply want
to find an easy way for your grandmother to see photos of your new
baby, online photo sharing is the answer for you!
Share Photos Online - How to Choose a Site For Photo Sharing
Millions of people share photos online since it has become so easy. On
most sites, you can just click on the "Share" button, enter one or
multiple email
addresses, and click send. What could be easier?
It gets a bit confusing, however, deciding which site to use. Sure, you
can use any of them and most of the photo sharing sites will work fine.
However, why not take advantage of some of the other features that are
offered? Different sites offer different options, so you can explore
and then decide which features are most important to you.
Here are some things to consider:
Photo Galleries and Display
How will your photos be displayed? Do you have a choice? Are there ads
on the site?
There are many different types of galleries, some more sophisticated
than others. A common display method is to show thumbnails of an album.
You can then click on a thumbnail to get a larger view. Other types of
displays might be slideshows, collages or stacking. With stacking,
clicking on the top photo brings you to the next one. Fotki offers this
option, among other choices.
Free and Premium Accounts
Most photo sharing sites offer both free and premium accounts. Premium
accounts have a fee associated with them, but they offer more features.
So take a look to see if the free account is adequate for you or if
perhaps some of the upgrades are important.
Photo Printing
If one of your main objects is to send your digital photos out to be
printed, check around because pricing can vary. In addition, different
types of papers are used and delivery or pick up times are different.
Printing quality should be checked out also. Some sites will give you
free photos on your first order, and this is a great way to try a site
out.
Privacy Options
Do you want only certain people to view your photos, or would you like
them available to everyone? Sites may or may not offer privacy options,
but most do. Sometimes when photos are public, they will also appear in
such places as Google Images. This may or may not be something that you
want to occur.
Backup
Although there are many backup methods, you can use photo sharing sites
as a backup system. Look for one that keeps your original file size.
Some that do, charge for an Archive CD if you never need to get those
photos back.
Communities
Forums, contests, and blogs can all be part of a site. If you are
interested in "socializing", look for these features.
Photo Removal
Make sure the site does not remove your photos after a certain period
of time. For example, Kodak Gallery has the right to do this if you do
not purchase an item (even one 4 x 6 print) within 12 months.
Take a look at a few photo sharing sites to see which one you like. You
can try most of them out for free.
Some sites you might consider are SmugMug, Kodak Gallery, Shutterfly,
Picasa Web Albums
, and Fotki.
Watermarked Photo And Marketing
How can you make use of included watermarks on photos to create sales?
Many of you know the main need for visible watermarks in your
photos. Having them discourages image thieves, promote the
copyright of the product/image, and (for the purpose of this article)
can offer you a free form of advertising.
Upload some of the product pictures to popular and/or free image
hosting and photo sharing sites , taking care that your visible
watermark is included.
Why? Google and Search engines trawl these sorts of site for
use
with their Image Search option. When your product's picture
is
relevant to the search, it possibly might appear as a result, and since
the watermark is attached you have given yourself some advertising at
no cost. This method might be a little manual, but can also yield nice
results.
I recommend Photobucket.com.
Name the picture identical to your product before you upload it onto
the site (since this will be part of the URL , thus increasing SEO
value). When you have uploaded the photo, you further label
them
online by using such options "Name", "Tags", and
"Description".
Filling these fields in makes your photo even more likely to be
properly indexed and searched for.
Quick advice
Name = Use the product name or a strong keyword
Tags = Use relevant/ targeted keywords
Description = Something about the product or something about
you
Upload your products to social shopping websites , making sure that
your visible watermark is attached.
Why? Sites like these not only give more online exposure to
your
products themselves, but are traffic magnets and are often free to use
and add to (think facebook meets Google shopping).
If you
have a watermark included with your pictures, you can advertise not
only the product for sale, but also yourself as a source. You
might find some websites are a bit more manual to upload to than
others, but most are a breeze to make use of.
An excellent example of this(and my favorite) is
kaboodle.com. If
you are not taking advantage of sites like this one, you are really
missing many potential sales.
Post to websites like eBay , making sure that your visible watermark is
included.
Wmhy? Looking around eBay, you will see many of the auctions
for
identical items also use exactly the same mphoto. If you have a
different looking photo for the same product, especially if it looks
better and has your watermark on it, buyers are likely to not only
notice your product, but your watermark and thus you as a seller at the
same time.
eBay (which we all know) is not free, however, there is nothing
stopping you from giving it a go on a site like ecrater.com that
incidentally is free to advertise on. Also worth noting is
the
fact that these types of sites are also used by search engines for
their image searches results as well, so having your watermark if you
are trying to make sales anyways makes perfect sense for even more
online presence.
Here are some ideas as to which kinds of watermarks are good to use,
and the ways they can help with your marketing
Your name/company. Using a name that’s catchy or easy makes
people likely to search for you online. Example, Mobiles From Morpheus,
or MobTech Torches
Email Address. Providing your email address in a watermark means that
if somebody wants to ask questions about buying, or the product, they
easily can (can be risky though).
Website Address. Just like an email address, it will make it easier
form people to find you. Also encourages people to visit your site, and
possibly buy different products.
Logo. Logos are good to create a branded feel for your phones.
Photo Web Hosting For Your Needs
Photo web hosting sites serve different purposes for different people.
You may be a professional photographer building up your portfolio. Or
you may simply want to share your photos to your family and friends.
Either way, photo web hosting plays an important role for your photo
sharing. They provide storage and bandwidth so you can link it up to
your web page, your profiles in social networking sites, and more.
A photo web hosting site is a website that stores your digital images,
so you can share your photos to your family, friends, customers or the
general public. They give you bandwidth and storage for all your photo
needs, and they also give you security features allowing limited access
to pictures according to your preference. Photo hosting sites generally
fall in two basic categories: the free and paid categories.
If you are on a tight budget and your hosting needs is simply to share
it to family and friends, the cheapest and convenient option available
are free photo hosting sites
. Free photo hosting sites are generally advertising supported or offer
paid services that have more quirks than their free service. There are
so many social networking sites that can host your pictures, just as
long as you don’t mind the advertising that goes with it. You
can
choose Facebook or MySpace, or if you prefer blogging sites, there is
Blogger which can work similarly well.
If you are more serious about photography, you might want to pay for
photo hosting services. They are priced for a small fee only and they
give you a basic photography package. Paid hosting services are
generally subscription based, to be paid monthly or annually. They will
disperse all the annoying advertisements from your site. If you are
paying for the service, they will ensure that all the services are
premium and topnotch.
If you are a professional photographer, you might want to get the best
possible hosting service you can find. It doesn’t necessarily
mean the priciest, it really matters on the services you’ll
need.
Consider the different options. You may want to look into some
considerations, such as:
* Amount of storage space;
* File formats allowed for uploading
(jpg, bmp, etc.);
* Photo management;
* Gallery presentation styles;
* Ability to add keywords or tags;
* Ability for users to add comments;
* Download options; and
* Subscriptions and friendly URLs.
Along this, it helps to try out trial versions first, to get a feel of
their website, user interface, and features.
The most popular and highly praised photo web hosting sites are the
following:
* Photobucket
Photobucket is a highly organized image and video hosting website,
which keeps all your photos neatly into photo albums, has a free photo
editor, a scrapbook builder, slide show creator and numerous album
themes. Free plans get a free 1GB storage.
* Flickr
Flickr allows you to upload your photos and videos into collections and
albums, which can further be grouped. Tagging your images and videos
will make searching easy later on. It also has a built-in image editor,
to crop, edit and add effects. You get free 100 MB storage for a free
account!
How to Earn Money From Free Image Hosting Website
In today's digital age, taking pictures and sharing them with others is
really simple. With digital cameras, photo editing software, and
picture sharing sites, you can well place upward your favorite photos
for everyone to view. Popular sites like MySpace, Ebay, and Blogspot
allows their users to upload photos to have their various member's page
seem best. And uploading images to these sites can be done
simultaneously with the assistance of picture hosting sites.
Image hosting sites like TubeImage.com makes picture sharing a jiffy.
Upload your pictures to their place and you can share them elsewhere
over the internet. And because your photos are stored on their waiter's
difficult effort, you can suffer the one in your private computer and
it won't issue often to you. But make you recognize that that's not all
what TubeImage. Can offer?
Aside from dependable picture hosting, TubeImage. com too creates a
chance for their members to gain additional income by merely uploading
and sharing their pictures. No setup fees and no start-up charges of
any kind will be required from you just to jumpstart your opportunity
to gain over the internet. You can go region of the place's revenue
sharing plan armed simply with your prints, shots, and stored images.
To gain bucks while sharing your own pictures, all you have to make is
to record with the place. Once registered, you will allowed to upload
your images along with your Adsense publisher's code to indicate ads
along your pictures. Every moment someone clicks on your pictures, he
or she will be taken on TubeImage. com's place where they can regard
the picture in complete size. The principal page where your image is
uploaded contains the ad. Whenever your visitors snap those ads, your
earning will stack upward in your Adsense story.
If you wear't have an Adsense story still, it's really simple to
produce one. Just get through an easy sign-up procedure with Adsense.
Follow their advertising guidelines and you will be capable to obtain
Adsense checks amounting to $100 and upward each more. Earning through
TubeImage. com is as simple as that!
So if you are an involved member of any cultural networking sites,
auction sites, and blog sites, the work of uploading and sharing
pictures get easier with picture hosting. And if you can gain extra
income by doing the things that you are already doing all along,
wouldn't you go that road instead? There's no marketing and no learning
original things. It's an easy income generating chance that everyone
can make!
There could be new picture hosting sites out there that has the same ad
revenue sharing plan. But not one of them can vie with what TubeImage.
com has. It's because TubeImage. com gives 1001001121220f the revenues
to their members. So it's really incorrect to say that the plan is a
revenue sharing plan. Because no one's sharing with the money you gain
from the ad clicks you have!
Today is the moment to shift to a distinct picture hosting service. And
if always you aren't using one still, you should begin to love its
benefits decent now. TubeImage. com have distinct tools to have picture
sharing on forums and all new websites as slow as 1-2-3. Each user is
given their own Control Panel where they can make, handle, and share
images and photos. It is too potential to hold your pictures on a
personal booklet then simply selected folk can view it. Or you can
select to share it publicly, without restrictions, to all users of the
internet. So, shouldn't you begin 'tubeimaging' today?
How To Earn Money Easy & Ebay Sellers: How Photo Sharing Sites
Can Save You Money
Are you an eBay seller? If you are, you likely already know
the
importance of having pictures in your eBay listings. There
are a
many eBay buyers who will not buy an item on eBay if they haven't seen
a picture. In fact, many eBay buyers like to see more than
one
picture. The only problem with this is that posting a number
of
pictures on eBay can get expensive, especially overtime.
However,
there is a way that you can give your potential customers what they
want, more pictures, without having to go broke while doing so.
If you are looking for a way to have multiple pictures appear in your
eBay auction listings, but you are urged to examine websites that are
known as photo sharing sites, if you haven't already done so.
Photo sharing websites are sites that allow you to post digital
photographs online and sometimes even videos. There are a large number
of internet users who use photo sharing sites to upload and share
pictures with friends and family members over the internet, but many
internet users are also starting to use photo sharing websites to help
combat their eBay seller fees, particularly the fees associated with
having multiple pictures in an eBay auction.
If you are interested in giving photo sharing websites a try, to help
you save money when selling on eBay, you will need to find a photo
sharing website to use. To find a number of photo sharing
websites, you may want to perform a standard internet search.
Your standard internet search results will likely include PhotoBucket,
which is a free, well-known photo sharing website. Of course,
you
can use just about any photo sharing website you want, but you are
advised to look into PhotoBucket, as it is free and easy to use.
Speaking of using PhotoBucket and many other online photo sharing
websites, you will need to create an account. You should be
required to fill out a small form, which may request a little bit of
information about yourself, like your full name or your email
address. You will also need to create log in information for
yourself, including a screen name and a safe password. Once
you
have that finished, you should be able to use the photo sharing website
in question, whether it be PhotoBucket or not, to help you start saving
money.
When using a photo sharing site, you will see that different sites have
different instructions that need to be followed, but the first step
will be taking pictures of your eBay items. Then you will
need to
upload them to your computer and then follow the photo sharing
website's instructions on how to upload your photos to their
site. In most cases, this is a relatively simple process,
which
tends to involve selecting a few pictures from your computer's hard
drive and then hitting an upload button.
Once your pictures have been uploaded, you should see thumbnails or
smaller versions of them. With PhotoBucket there are little boxes
underneath each thumbnail that can be used to select the picture or
pictures of you choice. You will want to select all of the
pictures that you want listed in a particular eBay listing.
Then,
you should be able to find a link that allows you to generate an HTML
code. This will lead you to another page with a lot of
information on it, particularly HTML links. Many photo
sharing
websites outright tell you which HTML code links you should use for
eBay. Copy the code and paste it in the description of your
eBay
auction listings and you are good to go; your pictures should appear.
Using a photo sharing site is optional, but it is definitely something
to look into. As an eBay seller, you want to profit as much
as
you can and this also involves eliminating unnecessary expenses.
Shipping eBay Items to Customers
If you stock the products that you sell on eBay, as opposed to drop
shipping, you probably spend a great deal of time and money shipping
items to your customers. If you are a big success on eBay, this could
quickly become a problem. Organize your shipping practices before they
get out of control!
Keep stamps, packing materials, and boxes on hand. You can have these
items delivered to you, which will save you a lot of time. Use large
padded envelopes instead of boxes whenever possible. These envelopes
are easier to handle, and usually cheaper to purchase. Furthermore,
they often weigh just a little less than cardboard boxes do, which will
save a bit of money on the postage. Purchase stamps and packing
materials online. Not only will you save time, you will save money as
well.
If you ship a lot of packages, purchasing your own set of postage
scales will increase your efficiency – the expense will more
than
pay for itself. Other items you should invest in include a rubber
stamp, label printing software, a good printer, and labels. Either use
a stamp for the return label, or keep a large stock of pre-printed
return labels. All you need is a plan and a little bit of organization
to successfully ship your eBay items.
Online Photo Sharing
You’ve probably heard of or have taken part in the raging
trend of digital photos and online photo printing
. But, did you know how photo sharing services can impact the way you
exhibit priceless memories? Photo sharing services give budding
photographers fun and flexible options for their images among other
special features.
Many photo sharing services allow users to upload their digital
photographs straight into their online galleries. Users can also add
tags, headers, and even arrange prints in funky slideshows. Like
MySpace, several photo sharing sites let you invite friends and loved
ones to “join” your group and view new photos
whenever you
update your gallery.
6StarReviews.com notes that one photo sharing service , DropShots gives
their customers a desktop application that makes drag-and-drop photo
features a cinch. Many photo sharing services make the transfer-stage
simple for those who aren’t experts in the technology
department.
Another great photo sharing site is Fotki, which allows
members’
friends and family to leave comments on their digital photo galleries
. There is a world of opportunity in sharing digital memories and some
of the best photo sharing services are recognizing the practical needs
and entertainment-wants of avid photo fans.
Go Online For Easy Photo Sharing
The Internet has revolutionized all of our lives in so many
ways.
One of the most visible examples is easy photo sharing - with the click
of a button, you can send a picture to a friend or relative on the
opposite side of the world in a matter of seconds.
When selecting a photo sharing website, look for one that gives you the
easiest way to share photos online. It should be designed primarily
with easy photo sharing in mind. Research shows that the first thing
people want from an online photo services is safety - a secure place to
save their cherished photos. People also want a site that allows easy
photo sharing. Once they know their photos are safke, they want to
share them with family and friends quickly and easily.
The best services will let you get to sharing very quickly. It should
be as simple as deciding which photos you want to share, clicking a
button, and then sending the photo to the people in your life. You
should never have to attach a file to an email. Also, you should look
for easy photo sharing sites that allow you to share an entire folder
filled with hundreds of photos, if you so choose.
The other feature to look for in a complete easy photo sharing site is
the ability to do more than just share photos. You should be able to
create and print Keepsakes such as photo albums, calendars, cards, and
story books. Then, you can either order and print these items and have
them delivered to yourself or a friend, or you can share them
electronically.
Many of the popular photo sharing sites allow you to save your photos,
but make it difficult to keep your photos private. Easy photo sharing
sites that put you first will allow you to keep your photos private.
There are some that do not allow you to create keepsakes, and others
who simply want to upsell you to as many keepsakes or prints as
possible.
In order to experience truly easy photo sharing, you want to look for a
site that gives you the best of both worlds - a fast way to save and
share your photos, and an easy way to create keepsakes you'll be proud
to share with family and friends.
After all, there's really nothing like easy photo sharing for staying
in touch with the people in your life. A quality website will allow you
to share on many different levels. Whether you simply want to quickly
send a photo from a fun weekend to a friend, or take a little more time
and create a memorable keepsake that you print, the easy photo sharing
website you choose should allow you the freedom and creativity to do as
you please.
There are many sites that will do this. So take a look around on the
Internet. And remember to upload your photos to a couple different easy
photo sharing sites to test them out. Then, you'll be able to find the
one you like.
A Few Words Of Advice On Speedy Photo Sharing
The speed at which we are communicating is moving faster and faster,
largely due to the Internet. Email, instant messaging, video
conferences on laptops ... you can send a message to someone
faster now than ever before.
Photo sharing is an excellent example of an activity that's been
greatly impacted by this speed of light communication. In days gone by,
sharing a photo could mean anything from giving a friend a copy of a
print to spending $150 on a high school yearbook. It meant both
face-to-face contact - for example, sitting down with a family member
and viewing a photo album - and long-distance contact, such as sending
a faraway friend a handful of prints in via regular mail.
Fast & easy doesn't mean it's less complicated
Now, because of the recent rise in the number of photo sharing sites on
the web sharing a photo has taken on new meaning. A lot of people still
attempt to simply email photos. That can be a problem, since file sizes
can clog up email in boxes and outboxes. Others send links to photo
sharing sites and invite friends to view the photos. That works very
well, but many sites require registration, which can be a barrier for
some.
Still others open their photos up for the whole world to see. These
open, public viewing sites can pose real security risks for the person
exposing their personal life to the world. One wrong picture or piece
of information could open your life to people you don't want to know.
The paradox is that even though photo sharing has become faster and
easier, it has, in some ways become more complex. The difficulty comes
in choosing the way you share your photos. In the old days, your
choices were limited. Today, there's a multitude of choices.
Remember, you are always in control
This paradox can be seen in a variety of other ways we communicate.
Remember when a house had one phone? If you do, you've probably got a
little gray in your hair, because that was quite a while ago.
But compare that thought with today, where most homes have at a minimum
two phones, possibly two or three separate phone lines, and each member
of the household has his or her own cell phone. Which number do you
call to get a hold of whom? And if a telemarketer were to get a hold of
all your numbers - look out!
If you're not careful, the improved technology can end up complicating
your life. You have to really keep in mind which phone number you're
handing out, and to whom.
The same thing goes for photo sharing. While it's great that you can
send photos anywhere and to anyone, it's always best to exercise
caution when sending out any kind of personal information.
When you register on open social networking sites, which encourage
broad sharing, be sure to change your options to private. (Unless, of
course, you really want the world to see your photos.) At sites geared
more towards just sharing photos with people you really know, the
options are a bit simpler. You control who sees your photos from the
very start.
Regardless of the photo sharing site you use, just keep in mind that
technology is changing so rapidly that there will be new, better and
even more exciting ways to share photos in the coming years.
Watch Out for This Craze: Video and Photo Sharing
Video and photo sharing is one of the hottest craze in the internet
. Users, most of them teenagers are hooked to their computers uploading
pictures, videos and comments and share them with friends and would-be
friends around the globe. These teens want to let it known that they
have exciting activities and are willing to share these experiences to
others.
Many video and photo sites are immediately accessible by just keying
the right words. Once there, the teenagers are required to sign up and
log in to the members areas. From there, these teens can now navigate
and maneuver on the site and do whatever they want. Of course,
exploring the site and using the tools are within the site’s
terms and policies.
What attracts the teenagers to use video and picture sites is the ease
in sharing their memorable pictures and videos with the capability of
enhancing, distorting and manipulating these videos and pictures.
Through the tools, the resulting effects will make these pictures and
videos funnier, more interactive and more captivating. The texts could
also be changed and backgrounds can be added. What a way of blasting
your memories across the globe! Some sites would allow the users to use
multiple pages until they will run out of ideas and creativity. These
video and photo sites will definitely be photo albums or lockers in the
web. What’s more, most sites are free to use, if others ask
for a
fee, they are so cheap.
Video and phot0 sharing through the internet is the best answer to the
hassles of sending photos and video clips to friends and relatives
anywhere in the planet. Previously, one has to pay postal service
providers at high costs just to let others see these pictures. The
distance involved and the length of delivery time would sometimes erode
excitement. Usually, when the package arrives at their destinations,
its worth had already been overataken by current developments. Through
the internet, sharing becomes so cheap and easy, and you can do so
daily or more times a day. Send your photos, and in a few minutes, you
will receive photos from your friends. Another good point is that when
videos and photos are placed on line, they can stay there as long as
the account remains active. Since they use the space provided by the
site, it will definitely free the space of the computers where these
pictures are originally uploaded.
Video and photo sites are also giving another benefit. Placing videos
and photos online will give the teens the opportunity to be noticed.
The way the pictures are presented might earn an invitation to a paid
online job. This is not only giving satisfaction to the teenagers of
the site by having their photos and videos being shared, but will
accomplish a budding photographer's dream of getting noticed and earn a
few bucks.
The teens want to register in an online video and photo sharing sites
and can earn more benefits than one can imagine. It did not only allow
the teenagers to know more about their friends, they will also be able
to improve their computer skills, photography skills and learn tips on
improving their skills better. With over 240 sites that can be tapped
online, the teenagers can have a wide range of choices before they will
make their picks.
5 Reasons to Share Albums Online
Photography has changed its format from analog to digital, improving
the quality of photographs. Digital cameras have immensely contributed
to the digitization of photographs. So, the days of storing thick photo
albums are gone. It becomes very hard to maintain the old albums and
it’s harder even to share them. Earlier you had to visit post
offices and spend a lot of money on mailing your photographs to your
friends. Now you don’t need to waste time or money over this
because sharing photo albums through the Internet can be done
instantly and without costing you anything. Everybody wants to share
the beautiful memories or incidents of their lives with friends and
family members. This method of sharing albums instantly with a person
who is miles away from you is amazing.
The top 5 reasons for sharing albums online:
• There are many websites
allowing photo sharing
facilities. Professional and amateur photographers can post their
photos on these websites and get comments and links. This helps them to
become popular and gain recognition over the Internet. They may even
get the opportunity to earn as they gain popularity as photographers.
If photography is your hobby then upload your photo albums on photo
sharing websites and get noticed.
• Through websites that allow
photo album
sharing, you also get the opportunity to share the precious moments of
your life with your loved ones without wasting any time and money on
postal services. Photo sharing websites allow you to upload old photos
or antique images and share them with your near and dear ones. You can
also make a collection of photographs in an online album and share them
with the person you want to gift them to.
• You can instantly share
photographs online
through photo album sharing features of social networking websites.
Sending photographs as email attachments is very time consuming. But
when you share your photographs, you just need to create an album and
upload photos to it only once. Then you can share it with whoever you
want to. Thus, you save a lot of time and money through online sharing
of albums.
• Photo sharing sites can also
be used as
storage devices for your photos. Storing photos here won’t
engage
space on the hard drive of your computer.
• Some photo sharing websites
allow tagging that
helps you to easily find other photographs related to the subject.
Tagged photos also improve the visibility of your photographs.
Online photo sharing websites offer a variety of facilities and tools
through which you can make your photo sharing experience even more
exciting, attractive and valuable. It helps to maintain the longevity
of your precious photos and is the easiest way to share the best
remembered moments with your friends and family. Sharing increases
happiness so why keep your happy moments to yourself only? Now you can
share them with your loved ones. Sharing photo albums are not only to
share memories, rather you can share your works and even find
recognition as online photo sharing can help people in their
professional field too.
Online Videos And Photo Sharing: Get The Most From Your Mobile Phone
Online video and photo sharing is the great way to share your life and
events with friends and families as well as online friends. More and
more people are using the internet
and creating online profiles that allow them to share their memories,
photos and more with their friends online. Sites like Myspace are
booming because it allows people to come together and share their lives
with friends from all over the world. Distant relatives can now stay in
touch and you can even find and meet up online with old high school or
college buddies. Online videos and photo sharing have literally changed
the way that we communicate with each other.
In addition to using these great services online, digital cameras and
cellular phones are making it easier to keep track of your life. Did
you know that most mobile phones now allow the option for you to take
and share photos, videos and more with other people? The average cell
phone is much more than just a phone; it has now become a full
communication, storage and sharing tool. You can use this in
combination with internet tools to share your digital memories with
people you know.
There are now many great photo sharing tools that were not available
before. You no longer have to tell people about your life; you can
literally show them with your photos and videos online. Think about how
much it will enhance and enrich your online life when you can easily
and quickly upload and share all of your photos and videos.
What's more is the fact that it's simple to do. Many have found it to
be easy to use their cell phones or other technologies to share photos
and videos, meaning there's little reason why anyone shouldn't do it.
Do you know how annoying and time consuming it is to set up all of your
photos and online videos to each and every one of your online profiles?
You have to add it to your MySpace and then add it to your blog. What
if you have more than one blog? Then you also have to add it to Xanga
or Google Pages or anywhere else on the internet that you share your
virtual life. Wouldn't it be much easier if you had a great way to
upload it to all those places at one time? You can save time uploading
and get back to enjoying your life.
Do you want a way to create original videos from your computer and then
share with other people or upload them to your blog, MySpace or other
online community? You can also take original photos, photos from your
mobile phone or photos from your computer's hard drive and use them to
create your own virtual MediaBox. This makes it fast and easy to update
your profiles on all your favorite social networking sites in no time
at all.
Wouldn't you love it, if you could use a free tool to help you manage
and upload your virtual life, and save time posting and editing and get
back to what you enjoy most- living your life! Well, you can. There is
no doubt that online videos and photo sharing opportunities will
continue to grow by leaps and bounds. As a point of fact, it will
continue to incorporate into our daily lives, making it easier and more
effective to do the things we love and want to do.
The Best Photo Hosting Sites In The Web!
Photo hosting
is an easy way to share your photos online. You do not need to know
about HTML, CSS, RSS, or any other complicated codes of the matter. All
you have to do is upload your photos on the photo hosting site, and
link it to your personal web page or site. You leave all that
mumbo-jumbo to the experts.
Most photo hosting sites are free, but to access better features and
benefits, you may want to pay for their services. If you want to buy
prints, you will have to pay them a standard fee.
Here are the best photo hosting sites we have stumbled on the web.
* PBase
Although not exactly free, PBase is one of the best photo hosting sites
in terms of good value for your money. It is not that expensive,
considering the features and benefits you’ll get,
it’s
practically a steal. You pay $23 a year for 500 MB of storage space,
where as $60 a year for up to 1,500 MB of storage space. It has a
brilliant user interface, beautifully laid out galleries, and so much
more. You can try out their free 30 day trial to get a feel of the site
and see if you’ll like. Believe me, you most certainly will.
* Flickr
Flickr is the most popular and most widely known photo hosting site
around, with very good reason behind it. It’s free, easy to
use,
and very user friendly. Sort, categorize, and group your pictures, and
add tags and captions so they will be easier to find early on. The
interface is quite simple yet fun to use. People can visit your page;
they can comment and rate your pictures. Or if you prefer to make your
photos private to be viewable only by your family and friends, you can
do so.
Flickr also has a blogging feature, where you can display your Flickr
photos on your blog page in a side bar. You can even send your photos
directly from your camera phone to your blog!
With all these features stated here, plus their bargain fees and rates,
it’s no wonder why people are flocking over to use
Flickr’s
photo hosting services.
* Webshots
Uploading your photos is easy with Webshots thanks to their photo
desktop software. You can upload your photos straight from your desktop
easily. You can keep track of all your images and albums right from
your desktop! Create wallpapers, sscreensavers and slideshows to make
your photos more fun and interactive.
You can show your photos openly to the general public or limit them to
your family and friends only. You can also keep track of the
individuals who download your images, for Webshots will notify you each
time they do. You can make prints, or send gifts of your photos for
yourself, your loved ones, family and friends.
* Photoshop Express
Of course, Adobe Photoshop is a household name, known as a photo
editing software. Now Adobe brings to us Photoshop Express, a site that
combines photo hosting and photo editing at the same time.
Photographers are given a powerful array of photo editing tools.
Moreover, you can access pictures from other sites such as Photobucket
and Picasa, so you wouldn’t have to upload your photos twice
over.
Top 10 Online Photo Sharing Websites
The age of digital photography has not been popularized by the ease
with which we shoot or edit the photographs, but the ease with which
they are shared worldwide! As with the advent of digital photography,
Internet
has also enhanced its reach simultaneously on a global level. And this
has led to the mushrooming of websites that cater to photo sharing
needs of the enthusiasts. However, a few of these online photo sharing
sites stand out with the help of their excellent quality and popularity.
Flickr – It is the most popular photo online sharing website
that
has gained the maximum exposure worldwide. Started as a site for
sharing video-game screenshots in 2002, it has incorporated free
amateur accounts and $25/ year Pro-accounts that offer unlimited
uploads, prints, and other features. Video-sharing too has been
recently added to the website’s host of features.
Shutterfly – It is also one of the leading photo sharing
websites
preferred by college forums and university forums across the world.
Uploading, printing, editing and mail-to-order photo prints are
available as services from this website. One of the leading features
that allow university students’ forums to take active
interest in
the site is its ability to let groups and teams to share and use photos
on other websites, provided they have the login and password.
Webshots – Founded in 1995, it is one of the oldest photo
online
sharing websites that allows you to upload, share and use custom prints
of 1000+ photos and images. On possessing a Pro-account, the user can
have an advertisement-free home page for uninhibited sharing and usage
of photos!
PhotoBucket – It had the top spot in photo sharing website
lists,
and still has a cult fan following – especially, among
MySpace
users and bloggers. Providing ‘easy to use’ tools
to make
slideshows, share albums and other online photo sharing facilities, it
has also supplemented its range of services with new-age technologies
to keep the young crowd flocking to the site.
Smugmug – This site has become a premium choice for
professional
photographers, though it is also a great option for novice
photographers. The only issue with Smugmug is that there is no free
account available, although online photo sharing tools like Smugglr has
kept the members busy and happy!
Tiny Pic – Tiny Pic is one of the latest additions to the
list of
photo online sharing websites that has earned a place in the top 10
through its sheer innovative and user-friendly feel. You can also share
your favorite videos with the images on the site, such as a documentary
on London’s life along with stills on the same subject!
Picasa Web Albums – An able online counterpart to the desktop
application Picasa, Google’s Picasa Web albums let you create
and
share albums and upload almost 1GB of free photos. It also helps you
buy extra storage that can be used in tandem for your Gmail account.
Fotki – Fotki has introduced a novel feature that was yet to
be
explored by online photo sharing websites – photo contests.
With
unlimited photo storage spaces for blogs and low-priced prints, Fotki
has certainly become one of the most admired options for amateur and
weekend photographers eager to share their ‘masterpieces in
the
making’!
MyPhotoAlbum – Started in 2004, it is for those who wish to
keep
personalized photographs and share albums among peer groups and family.
It makes the photo online sharing experience better than the
conventional upload and prints, with a lenient attitude towards niche
photo album creation.
RockYou – This is not the usual photo online sharing website.
It,
instead, allows members to download and implement different widgets and
applications for an optimal usage of photo sharing on similar websites.
More of a complementary website than a mainstream success, it helps
your experience with the photo sharing websites improve drastically!
Thus, registering with one of these sites will give you a taste of how
creative and tasteful the art of digital photography and photo online
sharing has become today!
Top 5 Online Photo Sharing Websites
In so many consumer activities the consumer is told how to use a
particular product. In the technology sector, however, this practice is
almost discouraged. Once people figure out how a particular
technology product works they will use it as they see fit,
not
how somebody else deems fit.
How it was supposed to be used
One of these particular product areas is family photo sharing. A
customer/user can simply upload a photo to an online photo sharing site
or album service like Epson online photo albums. Once an image is
posted it can be used for family photo sharing or to create a family
album. This is how the process was supposed to work, and work well it
did. The process, however, was not how the average user saw the process
working.
How it is being used
In today’s photo sharing sites marketplace the whole process
is
undergoing a “fine tuning” of sorts. The online
photo
albums approach was nice but it did not quite appeal to the individual.
The process was more family based. Although there is an ongoing
evolution at work, people want an individual approach or an approach
that links them up with people of like photo image interests. One
particular group likes images of dog noses while another something
else. But as is often the case in all other things internet people will
flock together and this is what is happening in the photo sharing
websites arena.
Top sites
Classifying one photo sharing site against another is difficult, but if
looked at from a general numbers and user point of view, an idea of
which photo sharing sites rank where can be approximated. Looking at a
set of sites from a numbers point of view it is readily apparent that
Photobucket is the leader among photo sharing sites. It may or may not
be the leading site but in terms of the number of people using the site
it is the number one site. For the most part, this ranking is
attributed to its primary use as a tool on MySpace.com. Other leaders
according to MySpace usage numbers include:
• Image Shack
• Tiny Pick
• Imgdump.net
• Flicker
Two worlds
The differences between a numbers leader like Photobucket and a user
interface perspective is the ever changing dynamic between mainstream
photo albums and the social networking aspect of photo sharing.
Although Photobucket may be the photo sharing choice in the social
networking category a package like Flickr can be said to be a leader in
the mainstream photo sharing world. These users may be more accustom to
using something along the lines of Epson online photo albums.
Meet in the middle
As is usually the case in these technology oriented situations the two
will come together to create a common form that all may be comfortable
with. Right now, there are many ideas as to what works best. Some photo
sharing sites do better in one aspect and others do better in other
areas. There is, at the moment, still a flux in the market. Where it
will land is not yet certain.
Top 5 Trendy Sites for Photo Online Sharing
Pictures say a thousand words and indeed they are the best means to
keep memories alive. Whether it’s your friend’s
wedding or
your first birthday it is actually possible to live bygone moments even
after decades. However, lovely memories are best cherished when shared
with your loved ones. Here comes the significance of photo online
sharing in the present era. Prior to the advent of the digital age, the
most popular means of photo sharing was to take double or triple prints
and either mail them or give them to the person we wanted to share
with. But then, this was not only expensive but also time-consuming.
The dawn of the digital age and Internet to be specific has been
instrumental in easing out the photo online sharing methods.
Especially, the free online photo sharing websites available have made
things further hassle free. No emails, no attachments; you simply need
to upload photos and specify the email address of the people on your
photo sharing list. You can even create albums and display them on any
social networking account you have. Since there are varied photo online
sharing websites available, finding a few trendy websites that stand
out in the crowd is tricky. Below is a list of four photo-sharing
websites that are not only popular and offer free online photo sharing,
they are the trendiest of the lot as well.
1. Flickr: It is still the reigning portal in
terms of
features, popularity and audience when it comes to online photo sharing
websites. Originally envisaged as a video game screenshot sharing
portal in 2002, Flickr soon surfaced as an online photo sharing website
with a bustling community. Even though, this Yahoo! owned portal offers
limited space and often users are pressed to pay for unlimited
accounts, Flickr users are increasing every single day. The portal
allows unlimited uploading, sharing and other features. A recently
included feature is the video sharing facility.
1. Photobucket: Another prominent contender to the
title
of trendy photo online sharing website, Photobucket is a favorite among
the younger people. A few years back, this portal was popular as the
most hassle free image hosting and sharing portal, especially, for
online community forums and blogging sites such as MySpace, etc. With
Photobucket you can create and share albums, devise slide shows and
share them too. The site has recently turned eyeballs with its
technology driven features. It attracts both amateur and professional
photographers.
1. Shutterfly: A popular pick among university and
college
forums, Shutterfly is another name among the trendy and popular online
photo sharing portals on the web. This website allows you to upload,
edit, mail-to-order and even print photos. However, the reason behind
its popularity among student forums is the unique feature of the portal
allowing teams and groups to share and even use photos on several other
websites.
1. Smugmug: Though a paid photo online sharing
website,
Smugmug is the first choice among professional photographers. However,
the best part of the portal is its attractive and user-friendly
interface which turns it into one of the trendiest portals in the true
sense.
1. ThCult: For starters, TheCult is by far the
coolest
photo sharing website. Its interesting interface offers images
displayed under different categories. You can upload any kind of image
you like and share it with nth number of people you want.
So, to get started with online photo sharing you have to first register
with one of the above mentioned websites and start sharing.
(()())===========
Twitter for Photos - Attaching Images on Tweets
How to make use of Twitter for Photos? Twitter in itself does not
directly support photo sharing, but there are 3rd-party image or even
media sharing services you could make use of to attach photos and maybe
even audio and video to your tweets!
The third-party services that allow you to share images on Twitter have
varying capabilities and may make you able to share images through ways
that other such services are unable to. For example, Twitpic may make
you able to share photos on Twitter through SMS or email while Twitgoo
does not provide such a method.
Now, you are probably wondering what these twitter image sharing
services to make you able to use Twitter for Photos. Below I will list
some of the third-party services and a short description on each to
help you decide which ones would best suit your needs. Your account in
twitter is what you will most likely use to log in to most, if not all
these image sharing services which make them very much convenient to
use. There is no need to you for register again!
- Twitpic - first to be mentioned is this largely popular website for
photo sharing on Twitter, which gained immense popularity for
displaying the first photos for Hudson river incident. You can use your
phone, Twitpic's site, or though Twitpic's API you could use for your
own application. Do not worry, if you do not understand what an API is,
then you would not have any need of it.
- Twicli - this is not just a photo sharing service, but a media
sharing service that has support for high-quality video and audio
attachments! It also has a tagging feature which is patterned after
Facebook's which allows you to tag your friends and followers on the
photos and videos you upload. It also makes you view photos in all
sizes available and has great audio and video quality. It is truly an
impressive third-party service which I find to be my favorite so far!
One more thing, they welcome user input and suggestions over what
features users would want added to Twicli and they actually take the
time to see what majority of users want and act on it- a simple yet
effective way to keep users loyal and know what to add and improve on
their service.
- Pikchur - is an image sharing service. It enables you to do photo
uploads from your mobile device. What makes this stand out from other
photo sharing services, is that it enables you to share photos to
multiple social networking sites with just one upload! Highly ideal for
you people who have accounts on many different social networking sites.
Pikchur enables you to post photos at twitter, Facebook, flicker,
brightkite, jaiku, tumblr, friendfeed, Plurk, identi.ca and koornk.
- Yfrog - this service allows you to share videos and photos with a
very simplistic, user-friendly interface. This is ideal for those who
just want the bare essentials for photo or video sharing and
immediately get to start doing these things pronto!
(())===============
Zoomin.com: photo printing, Personalized Gifting, and Photo sharing
service
The whole world is moving towards digital everything. We have eBooks,
electronic forms
and even electronic transactions and currency. We've been hearing
several proclamations of print being dead and the promise of a paper
less world. Still, when it comes to photos, you have to admit, there's
no replacement for the good old feel of paper. The joy of sitting
around a coffee table with family and friends passing around a bunch of
photo albums is not only nostalgic, but also much more fun than looking
at a computer screen.
Zoomin.com, one of India's top photo printing websites, and the winner
of our 09 Web Award, recently went through a revamp. ZoomIn is a photo
printing, personalised gifting, and photo sharing website all rolled
into one. We decided to put it though the grind and see what it's
cracked up to be.
Overview
Zoomin.com offers a host of different products, which make for
excellent gifts, such as mugs, bags, mouse pads, calendars, t-shirts,
and so on. Each of these products can be customised by having your
favourite photos printed on them. Besides these items the website
offers photo books and regular photo prints in 13 different sizes right
from 2 x 3 inches to giant size 12 x 36 banner prints. You can even
immortalise your precious memories on canvas prints as well as collages.
Features
The Zoomin.com website has a clean layout and the buttons are activity
based – such as 'create', 'shop', 'share' etc. The entire
site
navigation is displayed at the bottom panel so you're never more than a
click away from any feature on the website. Once you complete
registration you can upload an unlimited amount of photos which can be
shared with anyone. Zoomin.com also features Picasa and Flickr
integration so you can even import albums from these services. Simply
supply your username and password, and Zoomin.com imports all your
data. You can specify which albums to import/upload, but each import
from third-party image hosting services seems to create a new album;
definitely a bug. Currently support for RAW and PNG is lacking but it
is coming soon.
Yea we're obsessed with Quake and Warcraft III
The process of ordering a product from Zoomin.com is very simple. First
pick the type of product you want – mugs, prints, mousepad
etc.
Then choose a photo from the albums and customise your product by
resizing, adding text, choosing styles etc. And finally the payment.
All creations are stored in My Creations, and can be opened later so
that more copies can be ordered in the future. A feature to share
creations would've been nice. There are also some designer styles
available from IdeaSpice and others for certain products such as
invites and mugs. The interesting thing about the customisation applet
is that what you see is indeed what you get. More on that later.
The website also features interesting offers from time to time. For
instance, the last week of December had the Deal of the Day scheme
wherein members could pick up items for a whopping 90 per cent discount.
Pricing
The pricing offered by Zoomin.com is extremely reasonable. Standard 4 x
6 prints cost Rs. 4 each and carry a flat delivery rate of Rs. 25 for
any quantity! A softcover 5 x 7 photo book will set you back by about
Rs 495, while an eco-friendly tote bag will cost you Rs. 150. A
customised mouse pad (perhaps with your clan logo) is a cool Rs. 225.
The website offers various payment options including netbanking.
Service and quality
Zoomin offers doorstep delivery all over India and in fact to the US,
UK and Canada. The website also assures you of prompt and speedy
delivery. We decided to test the service and quality by actually
ordering a few products. We ordered an assortment of 4 x 7 prints
comprised of picturesque photos from a recent Mangalore trip, and a
customised coffee mug. The customisation applet for creating the Coffee
Mug was indeed very user friendly. There are several font styles,
borders, backgrounds and clip art overlays you can put over your base
photo or image. Once our creation was complete we were able to save it
for later. Besides the mug we ordered 20 photo prints in both glossy
and matte finish. A set of high quality images as well as some that
were deliberately low-quality were used.
It is interesting to note that while ordering prints the website
instantly raised an alert for the photos that were of low quality.
Apart from a choice of glossy, matte or metallic finish each photo
could be tweaked in terms of ropping to adjust white spaces images that
were of a different aspect ratio. Colour correction was also available.
We ordered the same photographs both with and without colour correction
and noticed a distinct difference in the two. Colour correction
analyzes photos and adjusts color and contrast for best results
(perhaps even red-eye reduction). The delivery was very prompt. In the
next three days the photo prints arrived, which was the partial order,
and we were indeed drinking from our Digit Mug on the 7th day. The
order tracking system was also flawless, providing information on each
step of the delivery process.
The print quality was exceptional for both the photo prints as well as
the coffee mug. The paper used was Kodak Royal which is a high-quality
paper. Even the low res image came out quite well. As for the mug, the
quality of the underlying material (ceramic) and even printing was
standard quality. The preview for the mug was exactly as the finished
product. No shifting, cropping, or pixelation.
Who's the competition?
There are quite a few websites operating in this space in India. On the
one hand, there are sites such as Snapfish.com backed by HP, and on the
you have estudios.in, itasveer.com, gkvale.com. The last one is popular
photo studio in Bangalore that has diversified into photo printing and
sends printed copies and customised gifts anywhere in India. Each of
these websites has one USP or the other. Either a product category that
is not available with others or cut-throat undercutting on price. Take
the case of picsquare.com, offering a customised wall calendar (11" x
17") for just Rs 649 – a size not available on Zoomin.com.
Check
them out and tell us about your experience with them in the comment
section below.
For more detail on Digital Photo Frame log on to
http://www.thinkdigit.com/
Free Photo Editing Software - Five Recommended Programs For Image
Editing
If you have read my article, Free Photo Editing Software
- What Features Should I Look For, then you will have some ideas of
tools that are available. Although there are many editing programs
available, I have used quite a few. These below are ones that I would
recommend. They are all free.
Paint.net
This software is pretty straight forward and easy to use. It also
offers some advanced features, such as layers and curves. It's resizing
screen showing your image only appears after you do a save. This is not
bad, as long as you are aware of it.
Irfanview
Know mostly as an image viewer, Irfanview is an editor also. It has a
multitude of features, such as batch resize and being able to change
thumbnail sizes when viewing your images. It also offers a huge amount
of image file types if you want to change the extension of a photo.
That being said, I find this program to be the most confusing to use. I
do not use it regularly. I would assume that if I did, I would get used
to it. It does, however, have a lot to offer.
FastStone Image Viewer
Again, great as an image viewer with some very useful features. I like
that you can view both images, the original and a duplicate for
editing, together. Once you have enlarged a photo to take up the full
screen, various options are available by moving your mouse to the top,
bottom, left or right parts of the screen.
For example, go to the top of the screen and a thumbnail strip of all
of your images in that folder will appear. You can click on any image
and it will then be the full screen photo. This is a useful tool,
allowing you to work with a full screen image and easily see your other
pics in the folder.
Web Resizer
This is actually a website. It's strong feature is how it resizes
pictures, but you can also do some simple edits. It is very easy to
use. It clearly shows what your image will look like by comparing
different file sizes for the same picture. Upload a photo to work with
it, and then download it to save it on your computer.
Picasa 3
Picasa 3 is photo editing software, but it also offers some other
things. As an editor, it has a wide range of tools, divided into three
categories. It's other features are that it is an image viewer and
organizer. You can also send your digital photos to an online printer.
If you choose to use Picasa Web Albums as an online photo sharing site
(and for storage), you can sync it with Picasa 3 so that edits and
changes made in Picas 3 will automatically be made in Picasa Web Albums.
You can download any of these free programs and try them out. Although
none does everything, you will most likely find one that meets most of
your needs.
More Links 1
2
|
