Zero To Three In 90 Days – Thanks Flickr!

Back in February I posted ‘Flickr Follows‘ excited to find we could add do-follow one way links back to our sites.

I started adding photos to my Flickr account from my personal photo blog including a link back with each one. Today I was adding a few pictures and noticed I had a Google Page Rank of 03/10. Not bad considering I wasn’t ranked at all three months ago when I started the blog. Other than Flickr I’ve done nothing to improve my SEO. I don’t even add key words or a description to most posts.

I thought for sure I was going to owe that page rank boost to Flickr, and I do but for an entirely different reason. I checked the links Google recognizes back to PassionatePhoto.com [link:passionatephoto.com] and was surprised to find only eleven links to the blog, seven of which were internal (my own site). None were from Flickr! After almost two months Google hasn’t recognized a single link back from my Flickr account.

Why The PageRank Boost Then?

I still owe the boost to Flickr, indirectly. I was fortunate enough to have Boing Boing, with a PageRank of 8, find one of my photos of Detroit and use it on one of their posts ‘Detroit and the future of America‘ which already has a PageRank of 5 for that particular page.

When I added the photos to Flickr I used Creative Commons Attribution and added the following statement below each photo:

Feel free to use this photo for your website or blog as long as the complete watermark stays visible and readable. If you need to crop out the watermark or it becomes unreadable please link to http://passionatephoto.com/ with photo credit.

I sure am glad I decided to share my photos with other websites. I also appreciate Boing Boing linking back to my site because they didn’t have to with the terms I set up. As my photos increase and improve my photo blog will grow as well. This goes to show, being nice can pay off sometimes, even when you’re not looking ;)

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Brian on April 12, 2009 | Filed Under SEO

36 Comments

Kikolani from Blogging, Poetry, Photography  on April 13th, 2009

I think the links on individual photos are nofollow, which would explain why Flickr doesn’t show up in your backlinks. But yes, the benefit of Flickr is a lot of people search those images to use on their site, and will later credit back to your site. So nice job! Imagine what that PR could be with some SEO work? :)

~ Kristi

Kikolanis last blog post..Twitter Lingo & Tips For New Twitter & Facebook Users

Brian  on April 13th, 2009

You’re reading my mind Kristi. I think I’m going to start working on it a little now. It didn’t matter before because it was more or less just a personal photo blog with no income potential. It will make a great test site and income opportunities are everywhere. I can always monetize it later.

Yan from Tubaligation  on April 13th, 2009

I suppose that one PR5 backlink from Boing Boing is enough to give you a PR3. Just like how one PR7 will give you a PR5.

The hard part is how and where to get it from.

Good job, Brian. Don’t forget to pass some when you reach PR7.

Yan

Yans last blog post..Will I Get Pregnant If I Have Tubal Ligation Reversal Surgery?

Hesham  on April 14th, 2009

Brian, this is great news, well done!

I don’t use Flickr at all, but I upload my photos on my blog directly to my hosting server, and add some description, photos are great traffic source, I have one nice post with a photo gallery that bring to me nice traffic everyday from Google search!

My Life Thinking blog was in the page rank of 4 , but now I went back to 3 , don’t know exactly why this happen but let’s see what the coming a few month will bring to me :
good work,

Heshams last blog post..Looking for Twitter Websites that help you to Manage your Twitter Followers by Automated Way?

Brian  on April 14th, 2009

@Yan, Hi Yan, that’s one thing I am sure of, I wont forget my friends when I’m rich and famous lol

@Hesham, It’s funny you brought that up Hesham, I was going to look into Google image search and see how much that helps. Do you get any traffic from image searches that stick around the site and comment? I’m not even sure how we check something like that.

Hesham  on April 14th, 2009

I am not sure also, but I just see on my blog stat what people search for, and everyday people search on my photos for specific posts!

Some times i just want to stop looking for “how and what” to rest my brain, and just focus on posting on my blog, but what to do, I think I cam carouse to know more about it :)

Heshams last blog post..Looking for Twitter Websites that help you to Manage your Twitter Followers by Automated Way?

Brian  on April 14th, 2009

Ha Ha, That’s brilliant Hesham. I have to put that quote in my next issue. I know most of us can relate to exactly that:

“Some times I just want to stop looking for “how and what” to rest my brain, and just focus on posting on my blog”

Sire  on April 15th, 2009

Way to go on the PR Brian. I have a question for you. What do you use to get the watermark on the photos?

Sires last blog post..A Related Post Plugin For Wordpress Makes Sense

Brian  on April 15th, 2009

Hi Sire, I use an old copy of Paint Shop Pro 7 but you can do the same thing with the free image/graphics editing software GIMP. You just create a separate layer for the text and then decrease the opacity of that layer until you get the effect you’re looking for.

Sire  on April 15th, 2009

I have Paintshop Pro but it seems you have to pay to get a personalized watermark. As for the creative commons license, which particular one did you use?

Sires last blog post..Blogging As A Source Of Information

Dennis Edell  on April 15th, 2009

@Brian – friggin awesome dude! High congrats for that my friend.

I remember one of my very first sites gaining a 3 quickly and I only had ONE incoming link at the time from another 3…never did figure that one out. LOL

Dennis Edells last blog post..Understanding The New Rules Of SEO

Dennis Edell  on April 15th, 2009

@Yan – I will be introducing something soon that will turn that difficulty completely upside down. ;

Dennis Edells last blog post..Understanding The New Rules Of SEO

Dennis Edell  on April 15th, 2009

@Sire – there are quite a few free watermarking tools around now. I’ll pass them on as I come across them if you wish. :)

Shoot me an email so I have it handy.

Dennis Edells last blog post..Understanding The New Rules Of SEO

Steve | Trade Show Guru  on April 15th, 2009

hey Brian,
1.Congrats.
2. PageRank is voodoo to me. There is no sense in trying to figure it out. It just “happens”…
That said, it would be interesting to see what you got if you really “tried”. :)
Congrats again. ~ Steve, the trade show guru

Steve | Trade Show Gurus last blog post..Trade Show Booth Staffing Secrets

Brian  on April 15th, 2009

@Sire, I’m running behind as usual. I don’t have Paint Shop pro on my laptop and that’s where I do video from so I made a very fast tutorial using GIMP and put it on YouTube. It’s pretty much the same deal, just reducing the opacity of the layer.

Brian  on April 15th, 2009

@Dennis, Hi Dennis, it’s pretty hard to understand anything Google does. They seem to make up the rules as they go along.

Brian  on April 15th, 2009

@Steve, Hi, it’s been a long time. I think I’ll do just that, try to play around with SEO a little. Truthfully I haven’t done much with any of my sites.

Sire  on April 16th, 2009

Thanks for that Brian, that video was really helpful. It was really good to hear your voice as well.

Sires last blog post..Blogging As A Source Of Information

Salwa  on April 26th, 2009

Congratulations on your pagerank. I have been trying to get mine up. Anyway we’ll see on the next update :)

Salwas last blog post..Traffic Monday: Driving Traffic Using Article Marketing Techniques

Brian  on April 26th, 2009

Thanks Salwa, Google PageRank is a little over-rated anyway. I was just looking over your site and you have some great content there. I have added your site to my friends page:
http://extremeezine.com/friends/

Placing A Watermark On Your Photos Is Good For Digital Photo Security | WassupBlog  on May 6th, 2009

[...] was reading Brian’s post on Zero To Three In 90 Days – Thanks Flickr!, but the thing that interested me wasn’t his miraculous PR jump from ‘Zero to [...]

Luis from Marketing Business Review  on May 15th, 2009

Hi Brian,

I just recently use Flikr. I just use it to be found it with some keywords, I am just beginning hope it works like it did for you.

Luis

Luiss last blog post..New Theme Finally Fix It

Brian  on May 15th, 2009

That’s great Luis. What’s your Flickr profile link? Send me a friend request.

Marketing Business Review  on May 17th, 2009

Hi Brian,

I finally understood how to add contacts, lol. I added you. I do not know if you need to accept me or how did it works at Flikr?

Luis

Marketing Business Reviews last blog post..New Theme Finally Fix It

Brian  on May 17th, 2009

@Luis Yep, I had to accept you and I just did. I like the photos you have up so far. Thanks for adding me.

Sadie  on June 17th, 2009

An AmazinG post and hopefully with this info I will be able to improve my current rank which is a PR0 to something that has higher digits.

I just had no idea that photo’s could be used as a vehicle to gain link juice.

Thanks much for the post and the share…8o)
Sadie´s last blog ..-A Real Danger My ComLuv Profile

Brian  on June 18th, 2009

Hi Sadie, It’s not really the photos, it’s just a way to encourage others to link to your site. I assume any content that others would want to use on their sites would work just as well. I need to get busy and start uploading more photos.

Traffic is a big topic and a lot of those commenting on this post are experts. I would encourage you to take a look around their blogs and see what they have to offer. A wealth of information on their blogs.
Brian´s last blog ..Extreme Advertising Turned Landmark My ComLuv Profile

luke from web design leeds  on June 22nd, 2009

what google does is still a mystery, probably always will be, like the flickr theories

Brian Reply:
June 23rd, 2009 at 5:50 am

Hi Luke, It’s true. Then when things start to clear up just a little they go and make a bunch of changes. That’s what makes SEO so complicated. It’s still fun to play around with it.
Brian´s last blog ..Ezine Advertising Myths My ComLuv Profile

BlogrPro  on August 15th, 2009

I am not using Flickr. But based on ur success, i will try now. And 1 suggestion to u. If possible show the full title of posts in recent posts column.
BlogrPro´s last blog ..Uniqueness in Blogging! How to do? – Part 3 My ComLuv Profile

Brian D. Hawkins Reply:
September 23rd, 2009 at 7:11 am

Hi BlogrPro, when you get your account setup add me as a contact/friend http://www.flickr.com/photos/extremeezine/

Good advice on the recent posts column. I also want a divider or space in between the titles of the popular posts section. It may be beyond my expertise but I plan on giving it a try.
Brian D. Hawkins´s last blog ..Chasing The Guru Ghost My ComLuv Profile

Ricky from blogging tips  on September 22nd, 2009

Wow!!! That is an inspirational story. I heard that it is a good source of traffic but never used it personally (lazy a$$).
Ricky@blogging tips´s last blog ..10 Reasons Why Bloggers Are Twitter Spammers Or Atleast Sucks As A Twitterer My ComLuv Profile

Brian D. Hawkins Reply:
September 23rd, 2009 at 7:16 am

We’re a lot alike Ricky because I’m a fellow lazy a$$ too. That’s why it took me until the next day to reply to your comment and over a month for BlogrPro ;) Actually I somehow missed BlogrPro’s comment. I probably put it off for a while and then forgot all about it.
Brian D. Hawkins´s last blog ..Chasing The Guru Ghost My ComLuv Profile

Harsh Agrawal  on October 18th, 2009

I have been using this trick from long.. Every screenshot I take, I upload it to my flickr account and add a note to give credit to my blog and I guess it works. But never keep track of it.
Harsh Agrawal´s last blog ..How To Install wordpress Locally Using WAMP My ComLuv Profile

Brian D. Hawkins Reply:
October 18th, 2009 at 12:50 pm

I was searching for your Flickr account and found your post How you can use Flickr to drive huge traffic to your blog?. Great minds think alike. I added you as a friend BTW.
Brian D. Hawkins´s last blog ..News Related AdSense Site – First Month = One Hundred Dollars My ComLuv Profile

Keith from SuperiorFenceProducts  on December 2nd, 2009

On my first blog, it was recommended to me that I host my photos on flickr or another site, so I did (never got an explanation other than taking up space and taking longer to load from the server). Not sure if it helped me or not, I did reach PR3 in 90 days too, but I also built about 1000 links back to my site (not sure how many were do-follow) and had articles written about me from some other prominent bloggers which linked to me. Sometimes it is amazing what people think of a fence guy writing a blog! LOL

After reading this article I realized I stopped using Flickr on my new site, so will go back to it, thanks! I am @thefencepost on Flickr
Keith@SuperiorFenceProducts´s last blog ..Vinyl Privacy Fence Products My ComLuv Profile