The Internet

Something I was thinking about while enjoying a cup of coffee

There are tons of ads and materials to waste your money on that may get you more traffic to your site and possibly a new career in photography but, is it all worth it? Recently, I have been giving a lot of thought about where to take my passion and drive. However, As a teacher in South Korea, you sometimes get the feeling that there is only so much that you can do. The truth of the matter is that while you are living here, you can achive anything. Just look at Simon and Martina from Eat Your Kimchi.

I respect them because they show you that if you produce something that you are passionate about you will get noticed, but you do have to be committed to what you do. If you look at a lot of the “producers of Korea” as I like to call them, they are pounding out the material at an insane pace.

Everyday, I see new and amazing shots from Sungjin Kim, Robert Koehler, Justin Howard,  Jimmy McIntyre and the whole horde of awesome photographers. Dylan Goldby and Flash Parker and constantly running workshops and producing professional shots for a publications across the globe. Chris Backe and Steve Miller are running circles around the country taking shots and filming in different locations to bring you new and interesting stories. They leave me breathless just trying to keep up with just reading their blogs. Gregory Curely is writing for numerous publications around Korea and the world.  These are just a few names that will come up when you are looking for talented people producing great work in Korea. It is no wonder that I constantly see these people getting better and better at their craft and they are getting noticed!

So, if you ever wonder why National Geographic, Google, The Korea Tourism Organization and anyone else is NOT beating down your door to give you that dream contract, you have to look at what you are contributing. I am assuming that you are probably a decent photographer/blogger, so it goes without question that you have talent. It is just how often you produce that quality.

The internet is a fickle creature. Think of it a lot like a news feed on a facebook page. You could get a lot of hits one day and be lost in the mix the next. The trick is to commit yourself like “The Producers” above and commit yourself to putting out a consistent effort. This also goes for Flickr and 500px as well. I think we are all guilty of the “Dump and Run” where we drop 50 photos of the site without titles, tags, descriptions, exif data, etc.  Hell, I still do that…. not proud to admit that, but I am resisting the urge to just give a title and the most obvious tags imaginable.

By staggering your image uploads and taking the time to give the proper information will allow people to find your work. For those that are already following you, one or two photos will keep you at the top of the page and not overload them.  If I see 50 photos uploaded, I may get through a few but chances are that I won’t make it through all of them. So stagger them out over more time and chances are your followers will keep up.

Other than that, there is no magic mix to bring more traffic or people to your site or photos. There is no program, pluggin, service or app that will draw people to you. Follow your passion, staying on top of your game and producing great work, over time, will draw the internet to you. So with that being said, get out there and produce something!!! Make it yours and keep at it!!


Jason Teale 

Photographer, educator, podcaster

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Photographing Korea and the world beyond!