starting a photo theme

Originally shared by Philip Daly

So, you want to start your own Photo Theme

……. and are completely confused about what to do!

My original post (http://goo.gl/BhC3W) was a general overview. This one is about the practicalities of starting a theme for those who don’t know how.

We’ll assume you’ve run a thorough search to ensure you’re not duplicating an existing theme and that your chosen hashtag is unique.

I’ve narrowed it down to 6 simple steps to make it as easy as possible. I’ve deliberately left out the curation of a theme as there are several ways of doing it and it would require a whole post of it’s own. I may yet write one but, for now you can visit Simon Kitcher ‘s excellent Curation tutorial here:(http://goo.gl/WC3ME). N.B. You’ll eventually find you’re own way of curating, one that you’re comfortable with, so no worries 🙂

1. Announce it to your followers in a post with an accompanying photo explaining exactly what your theme is about and include the hashtag.

2. Contact the 3 main list owners and ask for your theme to be included…

2a: Eric Leslie (http://goo.gl/UTrp8)

2b: Ray Bilcliff (http://goo.gl/4q3Uq)

2c: Rolf Hicker (http://goo.gl/Ua6Ba)

3. See the about page on Daily Photography Themes for the themes list and ask for your theme to be included in the relevant list.

3a: You can also contact the Admins: Kjetil Greger Pedersen , Kol Tregaskes or myself although we would ask you use the page first.

4. It’s not required but it’s recommended to create a Page for info, updates & curation of your theme. One advantage to pages is that if your theme becomes popular, you can ask friends to help out with curation by making them admins on your page thereby reducing the workload for you but still keeping the theme centralized and uniform.

4a: Page recommendations; Fill in the profile – Explain the who, why, what in the about section including a link to your profile.

4b: Write a post or two about your theme including photos. An empty page may put potential participants off.

5. If you do create a Page, please submit it here: http://goo.gl/IiiJ5. For updates and info on the Photo Pages see here: G+ Photo Pages Directory.

6. Make sure your participants know you’re involved by checking out their submissions and commenting on as many as you can. People may lose interest if they don’t see the curator getting involved, even if they enjoy the photos.

That’s it, it’s not as complicated as it may have seemed.

If your theme is popular, it will get shared around and discussed leading to new participants.

FYI:

There are no rules, these are just recommendations.

There is no official Google involvement in Themes, but they do love them 🙂

Google Official Photos Page #photography