Monday, November 5, 2012

To Share or Not to Share

We all know that Flickr is the social networking site to upload your pictures, but to also share with your friends or family. Other users can also find your pictures if set to public and share. What sets Flickr apart from many other sites is they add a Creative Commons licensing to all the pictures you upload.

Why have a Creative Commons License on your pictures? It keeps others from taking your photos and trying to use them on their own websites or blogs and taking credit for a picture they didn't take. It wouldn't necessarily pose a problem of most family pictures, but you are a photographer trying to make a living on the pictures you take. Then thousands of others are using them without giving you credit. You lose money.

The upside to this problem is to use a Creative Commons License. You have many options on how restrictive you want for each photo. Users will still share your work, but have to give you credit. This is a great way to drive others to your website or blog! You can generate more traffic and possibly more clients.
I personally do share my pictures. There are times I add a logo of my blog to a picture in a spot that would be hard for anyone to edit. Many times I take pictures for giveaways, and not upset if others share my pictures. This is why I also add in tags to bring more traffic to my blog. I do receive a few hundred visitors looking for pictures and find my blog.

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