Inspired by a great post written by photographer Eric Kim, 100 Things I Have Learned About Photography and by the success of a piece I wrote a while back, Top 10 Photos You Can Stop Shooting Already, I wanted to share some observations I’ve noticed about photo blogs. After running this photoblog for two and a half years, I’m not ready to say I’ve seen it all, but I have seen a lot. Here’s my list of 46 Things I Have Learned About Photo Blogs……and yes, your comments are highly encouraged!

1. Great cameras do not create great images, great photographers do.
2. Default Blogger templates suck.
3. Photographers that don’t list a biography are missing great opportunity to connect with their viewers.
4. Even if you have limited writing skills, any text is better than no text at all.
5. Black and white photos will make your photo blog more artsy looking.
6. Making real money selling photos on your blog takes hard work.
7. Using a dark background makes a blog difficult to view and read.
8. Page hit counters are so “1998″.
9. Regular postings do increase your traffic.
10. You really do need your own domain name to be taken serious.
11. People love pet photos.
12. The newer the photographer, the larger the watermarks used.
13. There are more NYC street photographers than you can imagine.
14. Model photos really are a dime a dozen.
15. No one brags about their Android phone photos.
16. Most photographers do not understand the importance of using title and alt tags for their images.
17. There really is an art to using a flash properly.
18. Most photographers feel the need to share what type of equipment they use.
19. For first time photo bloggers, 50 page views a day should be your first traffic goal.
20. Email newsletter programs, like Aweber or Mail Chimp, are great ways to grow your audience.
21. Facebook has quickly become the second most important traffic source behind Google.
22. Focus your SEO on Google. Fewer people are using Yahoo and no one uses Bing.
23. Less than one percent of photo bloggers change their font type.
24. Most viewers do not understand how to use RSS feeds.
25. Photos with people are more interesting than photos without them.
26. There is no shortage of wedding photographers.
27. Photoshop is worth the price.
28. No one shoots film anymore.
29. Great lenses are more valuable than great camera bodies.
30. Most photographers start promoting their photo blogs too early. 20 posts is a good number to shoot for before telling the world.
31. Twitter is a great tool to help promote your posts. Consider using a ReTweet plugin as well.
32. 85% of visits to your site will be from new visitors.
33. People from the Philippines love photography sites.
34. Flash sites are a real turnoff for most viewers.
35. Tutorials and how-to articles are the most shared posts you can produce.
36. Most of the comments you receive will be spam, but holding comments for approval kill viewer interaction. Leave commenting open and edit daily.
37. A lot can be learned from visiting other photo blogs. Subscribe often.
38. Learning to use creative and effective post titles is half the battle for good SEO.
39. Flickr is still alive and well.
40. Subway photos never get old.
41. The Big Picture by the Boston Globe is the best news photo blog in the business.
42. Tilt shift photography is very cool.
43. Every photographer should own a point and shoot camera.
44. Most photographers avoid shooting video.
45. Visitors love viewing videos.
46. You must develop a passion for blogging as well as photography to have a success photo blog.