Link Building With Your Pictures

This post I was a little nervous about pushing to the public mainly because the potential for abuse, and we all know that most link building techniques do get abused quite badly. With that being said, I had recently worked with a photographer and the research I did for his campaign lead me to the data for this post. If you’re a photographer and are wanting to expand your business you’ll find this resource quite handy, and a great way to build up a relevant backlink profile in the process. So I hope these link building resources get used wisely and I don’t wanna see a bunch of people using other people’s pictures to go on a link building bonanza.

This client in particular had a good response from the search engines with these methods and is rapidly showing improvement within the serps. Another killer factor that makes this work and doesn’t piss off any of the sites is of course great content. If you’re going to be showing off your work you best make sure those photo’s are your best work because I saw a lot of his work get very popular on some of these sites. This photographer specialized in scenery shots within his state and had a nice stockpile of beautiful shots that managed to capture the attention of a lot of people.

I approached the campaign with a couple different angles in mind, one being a whole host of picture/photography sites that let you submit your work and get nice juicy links. Two being the use of a hosted gallery with an embed feature. I found a few different open source gallery scripts that worked great, and the only thing I had to do was some minor PHP coding to make sure a link back to his site was obtained when embedded.

Wallpapers:

Everyone loves a nice wallpaper for their desktop and we were able to make use of a whole host of juicy wallpaper sites out there. A lot of these sites will allow you to submit your work and receive a link back which is great. This is where the great content comes into play because if you have a good shot your wallpaper could become quite popular. I also connected with local bloggers in his area to let them know of his new wallpapers and we managed to snag a few great links, and the bloggers were more than happy to do so. Sometimes you have to get the word out about your content instead of relying it on going viral. I’m going to keep the list of wallpaper sites to a minimum but here are a few that allow you to get a link back for your work. A lot of the sites are not all too quality so they might not be worth the submit. There are a lot of these sites out there so use the Google commands to help weed them out easily.

Wallpaper Seek – Submit
Wallpaper Cube – Submit
Wallpaper4God – Submit
IndieWalls – Submit

Screensavers:

The same sort of work goes into screensaver sites as the wallpaper ones. If you have a bunch of great themed pictures you can create a cool screensaver and submit that around the web for exposure and links. I recommend going to any one of the free music websites with mp3 downloads and finding commercial free tunes to spruce up the screensaver, which will increase your approval odds. I know this method is spammed often and you have to watch out for low quality sites, so make sure you’re submitting your finest work. Again I’m only going to post a few here but you can use Google to find hundreds of these sites, so submit with caution.

DesktopScreensaver.com – Submit
FreeSaver.com – Submit
Saverpit.com – Submit
Screensaversplanet.com – Submit

Social Pictures Sites:

I knew before I started this client’s campaign that there were a lot of great social photo/picture sites out there and it lead me on quite the journey. For a photographer these sites are a goldmine for attracting not only links, but attention to your quality work. These sites though are where my concerns for mass spamming come into play, and I can’t stress enough the need to be ethical in your marketing efforts. Some of these sites you cannot obtain links from, but if you have great content it is worth the exposure especially if you have a watermark on your work.

Zoto is a great alternative to Flickr and features a very nice minimalistic design that makes browsing photos easy on the eyes. You can’t get any links from Zoto but it’s great for social media marketing and getting that exposure you’ll be needing.

Fotolog is another social picture site that is very active and has a whole bunch of features such as embedding, user profiles and a friend network. You can get nofollow links within your profile and in the picture description. So there’s no need to upload watermarked photos here because you can just link to your portfolio and attract some attention.

Photosig is a great little site that has been booming with activity lately and I found no shortage of amazing pictures. If you’re working and come to this site prepare to find yourself time warped 2 hours ahead because there is so much to look at. Aside from being able to host your galleries on here there is a very active forum and and a bunch of useful articles. I think my favorite part about this site is you get critical feedback from other photographer’s. Aside from all that you can get a couple dofollow links to your homepage or portfolio, so make sure you fill out your bio.

DeviantArt should be no stranger to any photographer or artist as it is one of the largest photo and art websites on the web. I love the site even though it looks like Myspace in regards to its awful design and content cluttering. Regardless it is a place you shouldn’t overlook especially when it’s free to sign up and post your work. It’s also a great place to network and get in touch with other photographer’s and your pictures can rank easier if you want to go after longtails. Last but not least, you can obtain dofollow links in your photos comments and on your profile page.

More Photography Social Sites:

• http://smugmug.com/
• http://www.buzznet.com/
• http://www.webshots.com/
• http://pixrat.ibibo.com/
• http://www.shareapic.net/
• http://jalbum.net/
• http://www.zooomr.com/
• http://www.imageloop.com/en/index.htm
• http://www.iimmgg.com/
• http://www.scrapblog.com/
• http://weheartit.com
• http://www.phanfare.com/
• http://photosynth.net/
• http://vi.sualize.us/
• http://www.photoshop.com/
• http://www.dumpr.net/
• http://www.glogster.com/
• http://www.dailybooth.com
• http://www.photoshelter.com