Gallery Views
When the views in my gallery where in the upper 900,000s, I was thinking how cool it would be to see it turn over to 1,000,000. A “view” is registered only when someone clicks on a thumbnail to see the larger image. I was even thinking of some type of contest like a free print to whoever sent me a screen shot of the counter at 1,000,000.
Well, I kind of forgot about it, got busy, forgot to promote the idea, and stopped watching it. Sometime in the recent past, who knows exactly when, it rolled past that 1,000,000 mark. Oops! It is kind of hard to have a contest when no one knows about it and the promoter forgets as well. Oh well, maybe 2,000,000?
There are a lot of theories in how to structure an online photo gallery – and some of them more specific to professional vs. personal. Some feel they want to put as many images as possible to offer variety, others just want a few selections of only their best to represent who they are as a photographer. I suppose I fall somewhere in the middle ground. I certainly don’t claim to know any secrets or strategies, but you can pry them out of me for $99.95 – payable in 3 easy monthly installments. (kidding) The images in my online gallery are still only a small fraction of my total image archive. Time really is the limitation for how many I can process and put up.
I don’t see there being a right way or a wrong way. However, I think if you are going to have a a sizeable number of images online, you need to make it easy for people to browse through them. I find it quite difficult to enjoy a gallery where I don’t know where it starts and ends. I try to offer a lot of different versions for navigation – top menus, side menus, text links, pages, thumbnail views and such. It seems to work because I have had many image buyers comment on how easy it was to get around.
Now and then I get the itch to start changing it around, but I have so much data in the gallery database now, it would amount to a huge effort. That time thing again.
Anyway, so here’s to the next milestone, whatever and whenever that may be…
Ed- congrats in the site. I will head over and check it out.
Jim – I don’t fixate on the numbers too much and know what u mean.
Laurie, Cindy, bob, Reza thanks alot!
CONGRATULATIONS my friend!
Beyond amazing! Congratulations to you.
a huge congrats- I’m not at all surprised though, as I know for myself I could visit your galleries every day (if not for that time thing) and always find something new and intriguing.
That is an impressive number. Congrats.
Congratulations Mark! I had a similar thought a while back, but I’ve passed on noting such milestones. As I got closer to saying something about it on my blog I kept thinking of the McDonalds signs I’d see as a kid. XXX million served then a couple years later it was X billion served and now I’m sure its XX billion. That imagery in my head kept my eye on the creative side and less on the numbers. Not to downplay the metrics landmark, it is certainly a sign of succes and I congratulate you… just don’t let it distract you from your craft. I look forward to being on of the many to navigate through your photos in the future.
Congratulations! I have to say that after reading this a few days ago and visiting your website, I was inspired to get my website up and running. I had the URL since January and just parked it. I got my website (www.itsmynaturephotography.com) up and running over the weekend. Now its just a matter of adding on. And I have you to thank, Mark.
Congrats man! That is truely an impressive number and a high compliment.
Thanks folks! I appreciate the comments.
Oh man, that IS a big number. Congratulations Mark! I will have to go take a look now 🙂
Viewed 1,000,000 times WOW! Congratulations 🙂
You have a lot of beautiful and creative work in your gallery so its not so surprising to see such a total.
Wow! A million of anything seems like a lot! Congratulations. You have a beautiful gallery. I hope that those clicks are turning into lots of $$$ for you, or whatever you want them to be.
Congratulations on your milestone. I rarely check my stats – guess I should probably pay more attention to them. Though I don’t know what I’d do if they were horribly low, or what I’ve done right if they are high!
Alas, that 1 millionth viewer will never know how close they came to being the grand prize winner. 😉
Congratulations on the impressive milestone and I too fine your galleries friendly and beautiful.
Congratulations Mark to this really impressive milestone. I’m sending you virtual champagne and caviar canapes 😀 Thanks also for mentioning an interesting theme – sorting and presenting web gallery. Another thing to think about for me.
At the very least, we should have had a virtual champagne toast to that significant milestone. A belated congratulatory salute. Here’s to that two million mark.
I will join the chorus of those who find your galleries easy to navigate. You must be doing something right.
That is an impressive milestone Mark. I agree that figuring out navigation versus quantity is always a tough thing to balance. On one hand, not enough quantity means less views and less opportunities to sell and on the other hand if your nav sucks then people will not come back.