American Photo Q & A

Jay DeFoore, editor of the American Photo magazine blog PopPhoto has posted the Q & A from the session he used to write his recent article on influential bloggers.

Here's Jay DeFoore's interview

JD: Do you have a mission statement for the blog?

DD: My mission is directly connected to what I try to do as a teacher -- connect and stayed connected with my students. The web, especially blogging, is an excellent medium for keeping conversations going between us. If I have a mission, it is to extend my teaching beyond the four walls of the classroom, literally blogging can do this. It's just amazing.

I believe, the blog acts like a railroad switching yard for ideas and information. The purpose of my blog is to expand whatever understanding we have of our increasingly visual world by opening up the lines of dialog between professionals, enthusiasts, students, and teachers.  I think it works. I love blogging because it feeds me intellectually and emotionally -- there's this incredible feeling of immediacy that comes from posting and answering emails about the blog that I haven't found elsewhere.

JD: What's been your most successful blog post yet? Is there one you're most proud of?

DD: I am not sure about what a successful blog post might be, but there have been times when I have written something and another blog or e-zine asks me to write something for them or that they want to repost my work.

I have had about four or five posts make there way around the world this way. It's a kick to look at what I have written translated into at least eight languages including, Italian, Spanish, German, Polish, and Japanese. The piece I wrote about the use of the camera phone in the London bombings was this way. It absolutely amazes me who is reading my work. It's not always great writing but at least I am consistent. This essay was used in The Digital Journalist as well as Freelens (a magazine from Germany).

I guess what I am most proud of about blogging is that I have been doing it pretty consistently for more than three years now. I have hundreds of post, some short and some really, really long.

I post at least 4-5 days a week if I can and I am proud of that fact. It takes a lot of energy to write and post, but it is also a thrill because I feel that I am contributing to something much bigger than just what's on my mind.

JD: How much traffic does your site get, either in page views or unique visitors?

DD:  Traffic is generally about 1,000 visitors a week, which isn't a lot in the blogging world. I get about 300 unique visitors a day. The interesting thing is that if I post a lot, more people will pick up on the site and send it around.  However, what I write about is pretty specific so I've never expected anyone to really read my work regularly. What happens is that with the tags people will be out there Googling for something specific and they will stumble across my site.

Another thing is that I try not to be overtly political, although sometimes an opinion creeps in. I try to keep my audience in mind -- mostly students and professionals. The best way I have found to track traffic is to locate who is linking to the blog. This is, in my opinion, a more realistic measure of the blog's purpose and effectiveness. If people are linking to your blog, it means that you gain social capital through the networking factor. I am very happy that people take the time to look at my blog, but it's not the only reason why I do it -- I do it because it is a kick in the pants to be able to write every day about the things I love most about photography.  I wouldn't have this outlet without the blog I don't think -- so there it is.

 

JD: Do you have a mission statement for the blog?

DD: My mission is directly connected to what I try to do as a teacher -- connect and stayed connected with my students. The web, especially blogging, is an excellent medium for keeping conversations going between us. If I have a mission, it is to extend my teaching beyond the four walls of the classroom, literally blogging can do this. It's just amazing.

I believe, the blog acts like a railroad switching yard for ideas and information. The purpose of my blog is to expand whatever understanding we have of our increasingly visual world by opening up the lines of dialog between professionals, enthusiasts, students, and teachers.  I think it works. I love blogging because it feeds me intellectually and emotionally -- there's this incredible feeling of immediacy that comes from posting and answering emails about the blog that I haven't found elsewhere.

JD: What's been your most successful blog post yet? Is there one you're most proud of?

DD: I am not sure about what a successful blog post might be, but there have been times when I have written something and another blog or e-zine asks me to write something for them or that they want to repost my work.

I have had about four or five posts make there way around the world this way. It's a kick to look at what I have written translated into at least eight languages including, Italian, Spanish, German, Polish, and Japanese. The piece I wrote about the use of the camera phone in the London bombings was this way. It absolutely amazes me who is reading my work. It's not always great writing but at least I am consistent. This essay was used in The Digital Journalist as well as Freelens (a magazine from Germany).

I guess what I am most proud of about blogging is that I have been doing it pretty consistently for more than three years now. I have hundreds of post, some short and some really, really long.

I post at least 4-5 days a week if I can and I am proud of that fact. It takes a lot of energy to write and post, but it is also a thrill because I feel that I am contributing to something much bigger than just what's on my mind.

JD: How much traffic does your site get, either in page views or unique visitors?

DD:  Traffic is generally about 1,000 visitors a week, which isn't a lot in the blogging world. I get about 300 unique visitors a day. The interesting thing is that if I post a lot, more people will pick up on the site and send it around.  However, what I write about is pretty specific so I've never expected anyone to really read my work regularly. What happens is that with the tags people will be out there Googling for something specific and they will stumble across my site.

Another thing is that I try not to be overtly political, although sometimes an opinion creeps in. I try to keep my audience in mind -- mostly students and professionals. The best way I have found to track traffic is to locate who is linking to the blog. This is, in my opinion, a more realistic measure of the blog's purpose and effectiveness. If people are linking to your blog, it means that you gain social capital through the networking factor. I am very happy that people take the time to look at my blog, but it's not the only reason why I do it -- I do it because it is a kick in the pants to be able to write every day about the things I love most about photography.  I wouldn't have this outlet without the blog I don't think -- so there it is.