My first photo hosting account was Flickr, to which this blog serves as a complement. I added a second, DeviantArt, in 2009 at the request of a model with whom I'd worked (my debut subject, Sazza). And now I have a third: Tumblr. I've heard of it, and seen a couple of FB contacts using it, so I thought I'd try it out for myself. Seems to just be a sort of combination photohost and blog, but it's early days yet.
Flickr and DeviantArt both generate similar amounts of traffic, although in different ways. Initially, dA's genre-grouping system will give me the most eyeballs, but it dies down quickly; there seems to be more of a "here and now" vibe about the place. By contrast, Flickr's tagging system and greater visibility to search engines means that traffic keeps on trickling in, and over time I ultimately tend to get more views there.
They do have one thing in common though, which they don't seem to share with Tumblr. Boobies for traffic. Images of nude women, which I've been taking for a couple of years now, almost always get hundreds or even thousands of views without a great deal of effort. It doesn't bother me at all, nor is it surprising; on the contrary, it's exactly what I'd expect. But so far Tumblr seems to operate differently. It's certainly possible that I'm just misreading the data, but despite posting several shots of naked women, my most successful Tumblr posts so far have been on the subject of salmon leaping (38 "notes") and a close-up of a rope and chain (37 "notes"). Most peculiar...
