Yesterday I got a pleasant surprise when a flickr contact told me that my picture of Crimson Marsh Glider had made it to #1 position on Flickr Explore for 7th Oct 2009. Some friends asked how or what I did because it is well known that making it to explore is based on a complex secret algorithm and it is not just the quality of your photograph that counts.
There are several articles which describe the perception of the authors on how to make it to explore some more complex than the other but after getting 8 pictures on explore 5 of them in a row I guess it is not so difficult to get into explore – I focused on
- Take reasonably good pictures and don’t clutter your photostream
- Post around 12:30 to 1:00pm IST
- Put in relevant tags
- Add pictures to only a few groups – 5 to 7 seem optimal – most important AVOID GROUPS WHICH SAY THINGS LIKE POST 1 AWARD 3
- Have contacts who comment on your photos and favorite them – but this seem to be relative so if every photo has 100 comments and 100 favs it does not count
Lastly don’t fret about not getting into explore – it is in no way a commentary on you photography skills – some very lousy photos can make it to #1. That said, if you do get there, bask in your day of glory 😉