Posted by Ann Bernard

I wish I had the interest, passion and talent for photography because photos, pictures...aka Images on the internet are very powerful. 

Communicating Via Pictures
The saying goes that pictures are worth a thousand words…pretty convenient thing when you don’t have the time and inclination to write! 

Human beings are pretty visual and we are definitely curious.  Always use what you know about human nature to your advantage.  Give people what they are looking for…on a regular basis.

Communicate your interests, passions, life, hobbies with your fans through the use of pictures.

Pictures of What!?!?
Your Life.  It’s great to have pictures of yourself, crew and shows.  That’s a really good start but in order to effectively communicate via images with your fans you’ve got to dig a little deeper.  It’s also how you’ll be able to drive interest and traffic to your site/blog. (Btw, did you get one of those yet?!?)

Take pictures of your pet(s), favorite food, flowers, simple things in your neighborhood, things you see while on the road, instruments, costumes, books…anything that compels you.  The things you are interested in, mean something to you, are passionate or curious about.  Be creative.

The type of pictures and the things you take pictures of are going to help people figure out who you are, they’ll help people connect with you and discover things you have in common.

The pictures will become a method of driving new traffic and interest in you and what you are doing.

Picture Driven Community/Sites
Here are some recommendations of top sites/communities to create an account to post your pictures.

• Flickr
• SmugMug
• PhotoBucket
• WebShots
• Google’s Picasa

Don’t simply post your pictures on MySpace…pictures on MySpace don’t get indexed the same way as pictures in the sites above.  Plus, MySpace isn’t necessarily appropriate for more personal pictures of your life.

However, do use the widgets and bring some your pictures to your other online profiles.  Remembe it's about creating content on your extensions and bringing that content to your end points.

Tag, Tag, Tag and Alt Tag
Create a few albums…separate them by shows, cities you visit, routines, interests, passions, family and randomness.

Within each albums, tag your pictures as specifically as possible.  The tagging is what the search engines use to index the pictures.  Don’t underestimate the power of Google Image Search.

Taking It A Step Farther

Use your own pictures in blog posts.  Hint, hint…take some pictures of something and than write a short spill about it.  Use Alt Tags when you post pictures on your blog for greater results.

People will start finding you and your pictures.  They might also repost/use your pictures and link back to you because of them. 

Make it easy for your fans to write about you…aside from the music, performances, games, shows or events you’re part of.

(ps. I'm wrong for not having an image attached to this blog post) 

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