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King Of What? And Other Stuff…
May 25th, 2009
Sunset on the Malecon, Havana, Cuba.
Hey, folks. Hope you’re having – or had – a great long-weekend. I’ve got a real grab-bag for you this morning before I fade off into a couple days of potentially inconsistent presence here again.
I had a nice exchange with one of my readers this past week about the Photographer and The Blog series I did a while back. She asked if content was still king in light of competing claims that relationships were king. Good question, indeed, and as I’m a fan of good questions, I took some time to let the whole issue percolate, and it raised a more fundamental question:
King of What? No doubt about it, the internet is full of some potentially powerful tools for the photographer – both to create an audience for our work and to find clients, build community and participate in a culture of learning. So, is content the king of the whole darn thing? Or just one piece of it? The more I thought about it the more sure I became that while – to really belabour the metaphor – there can only be one king per kingdom, there might be multiple kingdoms, and I think it looks like this:
Relevant Content is King of the Pull. Great content is still the king of the castle when it comes to pulling people to your blog. People that don’t know you and have no reason to come to you will come for great content. And great content will keep them there too – so long as it remains relevant. But is that all you want? You’ve attracted people but in order to engage them and build a community, you need something more.
Relationship is King of the Keep. Relationships and a growing community will keep people, and engage them on deeper levels in ways content alone can’t do. Pulling people in to your blog with content is fine, but connecting with them will turn them into fans, and a growing community to which they feel connected in some way will mobilize them become part of the effort to build and grow that community.
If you are looking to merely draw people in, content still works. But if you want to build something bigger (and, I would say, better) then you need to connect with people, engage them with your heart as well as your mind. Why does this matter? It might not, depends on your goals. But most people want to draw readers to a blog for a reason and more often than not I think that same reason might be better served by great content and a level of connection and relationship with the reader. Not unlike a great photograph, in fact.
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In other news. By the time you read this I’ll be up and heading to the airport en route to Tampa to spend a couple days working and playing with Scott Kelby, RC Concepcion, Brad Moore, Scriv, and the rest of the gang down at the intergalactic HQ of NAPP. Very excited to be back down there among some of my all-time, no-holds-barred, favourite people. They have this great culture of creativity down there, one that just seems full of energy and laughter. And some great restaurants too. Sun. Food. Friends. Could you ask for more? I think not. So, things’ll be light around here.
The Within The Frame Podcast, Peachpit TV. I’m hoping the first of the Within The Frame Podcasts is out by then, and I can point you to that. The podcast is a critique-based opportunity for me to discuss some of the concepts in the book; if you want in on the action, join the Within The Frame group in Flickr HERE, and be sure you also go HERE to give us consent on your images.
Amazon.com Reviews. Hey, do me a favour? My book, Within The Frame, is really gaining momentum and I’m getting some truly gracious emails about it. If you’ve read it, please don’t stop sending the emails – they’re really encouraging – but if you could take a moment to post a comment or two on Amazon.com, I’d be super-grateful.
Within The Frame, Downloadable Bonus Chapter. Also, be sure not to miss the downloadable bonus chapter of Within The Frame. It’s called The Travel of Art, and it’s a gear-focused, geek-out-on-travel-stuff look at my process for traveling – everything from what I take, to how I take it and keep my gear and me safe and healthy. Read the last two pages of the book, the details are in there on how to access that bonus material..
I have to agree… There is no spoon…erm.. I mean King.
When I was a kid, I sed to love these sweets we have over here called Fruit Gums. The flavours have changed somewhat since my youth but, back in the day, I loved the black ones that had a kind of liquorice taste to them, the red ones, like the yellow were nice and fruity, and although the green ones were a little sour I thought, they were still nice, along with the others.
I used to love liquorice allsorts as well and with those, you could actually buy each of the different types in a pick ‘n’ mix section so that if you just liked the coconut ones, you just bought the coconut ones. I guess someone somewhere decided they’d sell more that but for me it was a failure. Call me a glutton but the reason was simple. I used to love nothing more than running down to the shop with my precious coin in hand, buying a packet of either my fruit gums or liquorice allsorts, and then stick a large handful of them in my mouth all at once, savouring the delicious flavours as they each took their turn to light up my eager taste buds.
Happy memories of course, but my reason for telling this story is that in later years the memory of those days became a metaphor for life for me. The joy of those different flavours mixing together I usually equate to things such as patriotism or nationalism where I see the blending of peoples and cultures being greater than the sum of the parts but, it applies to all things for me and as much as we all look for and seek that one thing that will provide all the answers to our questions, invariably I seem to find that the answer comes from many sources.
If your writing was boring i’d come and have a quick look at the pictures then clear off. If the pictures weren’t good but your writing was, i’d read your words but doubt their value. If the forum was the only content, I wouldn’t hang around even if the relationships were good because even for me, sometimes there’s a time to stop talking (hard to believe I know lol) and a time to get inspired and out there. And the list goes on.
For me, your site works because it isn’t ‘one thing’ as I myself am not one thing. It feeds my desire for choices or flavours. Some days I come here and I only want those little black sweets. Other days I want the whole lot in one go. If there’s to be a King, I would therefore humbly submit that it’s variety, choice, or the blend of many things.
Regards
Cool post David, I really like the concept of the two kings
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Now a question: how do you play for keeps? i.e. how do you engage your readers?
David, where might one find the bonus chapter? As I will be going to Africa with you, I have many questions about what to take and how to take it.
@ Paul — The last line of David’s post: “Read the last two pages of the book, the details are in there on how to access that bonus material..”
[...] and Read More: pixelatedimage.comSHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: “King Of What? And Other Stuff… – David duChemin (pixelatedimage)”, [...]
David, thanks for your insight. I especially liked the conclusion, …”not unlike a great photograph.” It’s interesting to think about the skills we are developing as being transferable.
[...] david du chemin had a great entry on the idea of content vs relationship when it comes to images. im a big fan of davids, and i think its worth the time to check him out. you can read the entry HERE. [...]
The problem with the Peachpit/Safari site is that they claim that WTF’s chapters are not available yet. Supposedly, I will be notified when they are, but as of 1 June, I haven’t been.
I’ll be surprised if they do, since I went through the same thing with Joe McNally’s first book and never was able to get the extra chapter.
The book itself is more than worth the price—I am halfway finished. Just wish we didn’t have to go through the Peachpit/Safari puzzle palace to get the whole thing.
The problem of not being able to access it (above message) was that I used the code on the final page of the book for Safari press. Don’t use that, use the information in the last few pages of the final chapter to register it at Peachtree to get the bonus chapter.
I mean Peachpit…
[...] David duChemin: King of What? and Other Stuff [...]