Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Focus On: Tag Words

I've been featuring the work of POE members, both here and on my own blog for a little over a year, and in all that time one thing has piqued my curiousity above all others. Why was it, I wondered, that in all my searches for work by POE members, the same names kept popping up?

Our Team currently has over 1800 members, and most of them are unfamiliar to me. That may not seem odd to you, but in the past 14 months I've spent quite a bit of time looking at and searching through the work of POE members. I'm not saying that I have a more extensive knowledge of our membership than anybody else, but with the exposure I've had I would expect to have encountered many more of you than I have.

There are of course cracks in any system, and it would be expected for a certain number to have fallen through, but not as many as apparently have. The reason that so many members are absent from my searches is that while I'm using the search term "poe team" not everyone is including it in their allowed list of 14 tag words. So, not only are they not showing up on my radar, they're also not showing up when any other contributor is looking for member content to include on the POE Blog, nor is their work showing up when anyone wants to include POE images in their treasuries. So, if you want to improve your chances of having your images show up on our blog, as well as any number of treasuries, follow these two basic steps:

1.) Use all of your 14 allowable tag words.

2.) Ensure "poe team" is included in that list.

I took a random and unguided tour through a number of member shops looking for images that didn't have "poe team" included as a tag word; here's a taste of what I've been missing.

The Mittens - UNCLELEE



Ice Car - gregbphotography



Gothic Self Portrait - Jenkiabaphotography



Self Portrait - KaraPesznecker



Old Stories are the Best Stories - keithdotson



Yellow Peril - AbiBoothPhotography



Uptown Theater No. 3 - Carolineanissa



Sacramento Gold Tower Bridge - bobkeenan



Winter Night, New York City - bradmeese



Emergence - LensArtwork



Morningstar Mill and Dam - mcresearch



Vintage Plymouth - NebraskaSky



Baby Chinnos - PhotographyByAnita



Alone - photographybyGray



FISHING BOAT 1 - RabbitHoleProduction



Skating Backwards at The Wharf, San Francisco - SerantoniDesigns



Paris ( 01 ) - SenArt



Tulips - stillpoint



Reflections of Barcelona - trekkerjen



Seven - zseike

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"PhotoGrunt" is Steve Raley, a photographic documentarian from Seattle, Washington.  He captures images wherever he goes, and he  frequently even uses a camera.  His work can be seen on his websiteblog and his Etsy shop.

11 comments:

jen said...

I am always so inspired by the photography found on ETSY, I am amongst enormously talented and creative photographers. Thank you for including my photo here... I shall from this point forward ensure to include 'poe team' in my tags.

Anonymous said...

This is a stunning selection and very good advice as well. Thanks!

Jen Kiaba said...

Great collection! Thanks so much for the feature!

Lens Artwork said...

This is going to sound bad, but I wasn't aware to include the tag. Good to know to make that change and for going forward.

Also too, thank you for including one of my pieces in here. Glad you enjoyed my work.

Gray Artus said...

Thank you so much for including my photography in your blog post and the words of advice. I am new to the Etsy family and this is my first attempt in years at selling my art. To say the least I am finding it to be a challenging step thus far and am slowly learning that tag words and exposure are a huge steps in the right direction!
Thanks Again,
Gray

Roy said...

I'm now in compliance - I thought the POE logo was de rigeur.
Roy Murray

Celtic Cat said...

I try to put it in at least a percentage of my listings.

SenArt said...

Thanks so much for the feature!
All photos are beatiful & all photographer are magnificent

Kara Pesznecker said...

Wow I am honored to have been included and noted that I need to add the POE tag :)

Suzi Smith said...

like others have said... it isn't something i'd thought of. It's taking a while to see how teams can work!

Anita said...

OMGoodness! Thanks for the reminder! I always get stuck when trying to think of 14 tags and never think about using "POE" as one of them! I will go through my shop today and add POE" to each of my listings. Thanks again!