Hello, hello, my favorite Traffic Hacker:
Wanted to share with you something neat I’ve just discovered – might be a great addition to your future marketing promos!
So I am working on redoing my Promote Your Blog: 10 Steps to Ultimate Blog Promotion post – you know things change, strategies improve, etc.
Flickr, the photo sharing site, has always been on my blog post promotion list as a way to back up my blog post images, get links, and maybe an occasional visitor or two.
It’s easy, so why not, right?
Well, today I was actually paying attention to what I was doing on Flickr (go figure… ?)
And I discovered something… that made me all giddy.
Flickr for Links and Traffic
[thrive_lead_lock id=’11077′]
Ahem… Is it possible that by the end of this email you’ll lose all respect for me, as in ‘Can’t believe she didn’t know that; doesn’t everyone?…’
I’ll take my chances.
Up until now, I’ve been:
- uploading images from a newly published blog post to Flickr
- adding naked URLs (as in https://trafficgenerationcafe.com/emoji-marketing-guide/) to image descriptions
- had my setting on ‘All rights reserved’ – because they are… MINE!!!!!
Today I tried to actually use anchor text in the description and… it does work!
Mind blown… 😉🤓
Not only that, but you can create albums based on your blog posts and add anchor-text description to your albums!
Not only that… but you can actually change your settings to ‘Attribution‘ – meaning anyone can use the image as long as they place a link back to you.
That way, people who are looking for free images to use for whatever – their blog posts, for instance – can actually find your images, might follow you back to your site, might share it with others…
You see all the possibilities?! I certainly do.
Yay! It was worth getting up at 4 am this morning… ☕️ ☕️ ☕️ ☕️ (yes, that’s four!) espressos might’ve had something to do with the giddiness as well…
Just in case you are not sure what anchor text is or how to write a link with it, read:
3 Ways to Add Links on Flickr
2. in the photo album description:
HOWEVER, your profile link will most likely get you no traffic, since your profile itself is very well hidden in the dropdown menu (why, Flickr, why?…):
How to Get More Value out of Flickr
GROUPS.
I had no idea Flickr groups exist until a friend of mine, Vincent Brown of Vintuitive.com, told me so – great tip; thanks, Vin!
You can navigate to groups by clicking on… yes, ‘Groups‘ while in your profile or even create your own Flickr group. And become a true Flickr groupie!… 🙂
You can also find the complete list of all Flickr groups here – in a much more effective text format.
Toggle the ‘Relevant‘ button at the top right to make it a bit easier to find what you are looking for.
Will You REALLY Get Much Traffic from Flickr?
Hmmm… my guess is probably no. Just being honest here…
However, this strategy is easy to implement, it gives you a way to back up and organize your blog post images, and it builds your presence across various platforms.
Links are an additional bonus.
True, those links are nofollow. But you know what?… even nofollow links have value. Read The Blogger’s Guide To Nofollow Links at SearchEngineLand.com to learn more.
Flickr Marketing Takeaway
So now, when using Flickr, I will:
- upload images from a newly published blog post
- add varied anchor-text links to image descriptions
- create albums based on topics or blog posts
- have my setting on ‘Attribution‘ so that my images can be used by others.
Here are some examples of how I did it based on my newly published Emoji Marketing: 😂, ❤️, and 💩? [Beginner’s Guide]t:
[/thrive_lead_lock]
Easy peasy!
So… what do you think?
From Ana with love ❤️
Never Used Flickr Before ,Thanx For the awesome info will try it soon 🙂
First time for everything! 😉
Thank you so much Ana.
It is very excellent and helpful article. Excepting from you more and more.
You are very welcome, Rakib.
Ana Mam,
Are the links from Flickr Dofollow or Nofollow ?
I’ve heard that Nofollow Links are useless and holds no value. Is that right, Nofollow links don’t have any Seo Value ?
They are Nofollow, Samba; you are right about that. However, even Nofollow links are good for SEO.
Check out this post I mentioned above: http://searchengineland.com/bloggers-guide-no-follow-links-240373
Hey Ana,
I just stumbled on this post.
I never use Flickr but backing up images and using this set to generate more traffic is a good reason to.
I’ll have to add this to my weekly routine!
Thanks for the share!
Happy you’ve found it, Sherman; thanks for coming by!
Hi Ana,
Very informative post. Never thought about using Flickr.
Where is the setting for Attribution?
Thanks, Nathan.
Attribution is set after the image has been uploaded. Click on it in your stream, that’s where you’ll see a drop-down menu for Attribution.
You can set your default license here: https://www.flickr.com/account/privacy/
If you use Corel PaintShopPro x9, you can also upload images directly to Facebook, Google+, or Flickr. Create albums and/or upload individual photos. If you have set your default license as any of the attribution options, you don’t have to go to Flickr directly each time; you just add the info to the description when uploading.
Thanks for this tip, Ana. I hadn’t thought about it in a long time, and have definitely been underusing Flickr.
Thanks for the tip, Holly!
And thanks for coming by – always a pleasure! 😃
On Flickr if you add a link to your site it is a NoFollow link. If you about Nofollow link you will never link using it as a SEO strategy. It can be only used to derive traffic only (if it can).
Nofollow links still have value – SEO and non-SEO, Vinod. Here’s a good read on the subject: http://searchengineland.com/bloggers-guide-no-follow-links-240373.
It would be nice to always get dofollow links, but that’s not reality. Plus it would indicate to Google an unnatural link building pattern. 😉 A good SEO strategy always includes both.
Hi Ana,
Thanks for the informative post. Its well researched and highly informative. I have used flickr over the years but had no idea it could be used to generate traffic. Thank so this great insight. Its certainly something i need to look at.
Good work!
You are so very welcome, Meloney.
Thanks for this article Ana; I am in the process of exploring and adding to more graphical representations of the way I move forward with my marketing strategies. To date my strategy has been mainly through article marketing, but time-permitting, both re-purposing existing content, and adding fresh content directly to, social media like Flickr is rapidly appealing to me more and more.
With regard to the recent Yahoo security issue, would you (be able to) suggest using Flickr with Yahoo or Google play. I currently work with Windows 7 but may consider a Mac when I change my laptop within the next 12 months. Thanks
The more I think about it, Ian, the more amusing it seems to me (or maybe I simply find myself that amusing… ? )- we, writers/bloggers, write more words (articles) to promote words we’ve already written (blog posts)…
That makes video marketing sound like an even more logical next step, doesn’t it?
Not quite sure what you meant by ‘using Flickr with Yahoo or Google play’.
Hi Ana, yes, I agree.
I was pondering the sign-in options, one being Yahoo, and that Yahoo (security issue) had been in the news at the time of my comment. Not wanting to be flippant, but I think that security will always be a challenge to all Information tech though, not just Yahoo; sadly, it goes with the territory. Thanks, Ian
Gottcha… I personally use and highly recommend using Dashlane, the password manager (I use the free version and love it).
It automatically generates strong passwords (and you don’t ever use the same ones over multiple accounts!), remembers them for you, and warns you about any security issues.
That’s truly the best we can do to protect ourselves online… other than to never sign up for / use anything! ?
Hi Ana ..
I used to understand that flickr is just an image sharing site. When i saw your post i got to analyse about flickr and find the way to bring traffic from it. Thanks for this helping post, Ana.
Pleasure!
Okay that’s so weird. I could’ve sworn I tried to do this in the past and it didn’t work! But I tried just now and you’re right, it does! Totally building some Flickr links tomorrow, thanks for the heads up 😉
Pleasure, David. I suppose it might’ve been a more recent change on Flickr…
Hi Ana, All this discussed by you is just new to me. Before I don’t know that flicker can also help us in providing links. I will definitely use this trick mentioned by you. Thanks for sharing this with us.
Happy to help, Abhinandan.
Hi Ana
I just started to blogging and am still learning to find better ways to write fresh and atrractive posts. Some bloggers in my country highly recommend your site and I find it is completey true.
Thanks to you for sharing brilliant ideas. I just got to know that flicker has various functions for us.
That’s very kind of you and of them, Hajar.
To tell you the truth, looking for fresher, more interesting ways to present content will never end. There will always be something new/different out there – live streaming, 360° videos, then virtual reality, then… who knows, right?
In a way, it just makes it all the more interesting to be in business! 😉
Thanks for the mention Ana,
It’s great that you picked up on the potential of using the Creative Commons licensing aspect too. This is one of my favourite features of Flickr and why I began using Flickr in 2004 while managing a team of developers to build free websites for community organisations. Having such a huge repository of free images to use was a great boon for our community project.
You may have noticed that all my images are licensed in the most open of the six Creative Commons licenses – “CC By”. This gives me the greatest possibility of others reusing my images. I want others to use my images as they contain my branding and therefore act as free advertisement of my brand, Vintuitive. This is one of the best kept secrets of Flickr and why I continue to use Flickr.
Unfortunately, many still misinterpret the rules of the CC licenses and don’t implement them correctly. As a result, they inadvertently violate the terms of the license. As well as attributing the owner of the image with a link back to the source of the image, any reuse of CC images must also include a description of the particular license used. this is most often done by simply linking to the page of that particular license on the Creative Commons website. You can find more information here: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/
I hear you, Vin.
That’s one of the reason I don’t like using Flickr images – it’s not always possible for me to link back appropriately; for instance, when I use images for videos, SlideShare presentations, etc.
It’s amazing how many site owners still use other people’s images without ever giving a second thought to ownership rights, etc, right? As a result, many get into trouble. I gave a few examples of that here: https://trafficgenerationcafe.com/create-free-images-for-blog-posts/
Thanks for coming by!
Great tool in my link-building arsenal. Thanks Ana!
A thought on getting more links…
A lot of times in blog posts I do a creative commons search (https://search.creativecommons.org/) in order to find great photos that I can use legally in exchange for a link/attribution.
Flicker has a large creative commons community and ends up being the place I often find many of my post’s pictures on. So it stands to reason that if you make sure to mark your pictures with the creative commons license, and make them easy for others to use… then you’ll end up getting some link love from picture-needy saps like me.
Good luck linking!
A very good point, Joseph; thanks for the input!
Hey Ana,
I had to come down here after reading this post yester-night to study and look at this traffic hack closely. I’ve not been using Flickr in anyway at all and I think this time, I should.
Funny it’s asking me to subscribe again to view the post although I subscribed yesterday on my mobile phone and now? I’m using my PC.
Eitherways, I think I’ll go take a look at it again from mobile.
Thanks for sharing Ana, This is one of the best I’ve read this week so far 🙂
Babs
Thanks for making it back to actually digest the hack, Babs – I love it when people don’t just read it and go ‘Oh, that’s nice’, but make it their own and put it to work for their businesses!
RE: having to subscribe again… this is the first time I used this particular plugin this way. It’s my understanding that current subscribers won’t actually subscribe again – just ‘validate’ their existing subscription. I can see how it might look though. Will go back to the settings to see if I missed anything. Thanks for the heads-up!
After writing the blog post, the main focus to drive traffic is the first priority. Everyone doing some stuff like Social Share, Crawling etc. to get the response on the recent post. Like Flickr helps to drive traffic on recent share links. Thanks @Ana for Great Post.
You are very welcome, Vijay.
Thank you for the post Ana,
I didn’t know we can use flickr’s image description to add links. I have been using flickr to store my personal photos as backup storage. But now with this strategy I will try to drive traffic to my blog.
It’s almost a shame not to, right, Hitesh?
Hi Ana,
Thanks for this post! I didn’t think the way that we can use the Flickr to get links. As mike said, I use to add my images to Instagram but not on Flickr.
I’ll add the images over there and get the links from there as well. Thanks for making it clear, have a good day everyday!
Pleasure, Sakthi.
It’s easy, quick, and beneficial – so why not, right?
Thanks Ana! I’ve been saving some images to Flickr… mostly those that I share to Instagram, so those should have a link in the description if I included it in my Instagram caption. That will be something to test and pay closer attention to. Great ideas.
Do you use an app of some sorts to repost your Instagram images or just do it natively after sharing them?
And thanks, Mike – honored you came by!
I do it using the native Instagram sharing toggle. I *do* IFTTT though to repost Instagram images to Twitter and a Pinterest Board. Those work very well. I tested using IFFF to also share to LinkedIn but those don’t have a good presentation.
Good to know; thanks, Mike!