Well guys, this is one of the secrets I really hope WikiLeaks will reveal one day! :)
Flickr created a real mystery around their ranking system which produced a massive hype within the users. Myself, I spent at least 3 days trying to crack the Da Flickri Code. Not because I wanted to get explored every day (well, not only!) but more because I just wanted to get how it works, at last. Using all my upper-intermediate knowledge of Excel (where I transferred the statistics of my 250 photos uploaded on Flickr so far) I managed to work out a few formulas based on logarithms that were quite close but still didn't correspond correctly with the ranking of my photos sorted by Flickr Interestingness. So I gave up and decided that the only way to get the secret algorithm is to get hired by Flickr Company (maybe). LOL
Anyway working with the huge amount of the statistics of my photos I noticed a number of dependences between activity around the pic and its ranking. And here they are.
1. FAVORITES.
Favorites are the main element that affects on your photo ranking. The more favorites you have the higher the photo will go. Don't even bother to check your photo in Explore Top 500 if it was marked as favorite less than 5 times on the upload day.
2. COMMENTS.
Same as with favorites (the more you get the better you do). But with the same amount of faves and comments, the latter would equal about twice less. Besides, comments made by you are not counted at all, so don't spend time postwhoring in your own thread - it will not help you at all and more likely will alienate other users.
3. VIEWS.
Some users think it is the key element of getting explored. Not at all. Actually views are counted when the system needs to rank the photos with all other equal activity elements (for example, two photos have the same number of comments and faves). But overall, by my calculations more than 150 views may equal just 1 fave. One of my photos has 350 views with 0 comments and 0 faves and Flickr charted it lower than a photo with only 39 view but 1 comment and 1 fave. Although there is one dependence between views and ranking that I noticed: the more views you have from referral sites than from Flickr pages the higher your photo would go. This is how Flickr tries to attract new users I guess.
4. GROUPS.
There is a lot of discussions about how adding photos to Flickr groups affect on Interestingness. I made few experiments and I can officially announce that adding photos to groups do NOT affect on the ranking of your photo whether you add it to 1 group or 60. The only thing is that some groups are black listed by Flickr staff when compiling Explore Top 500. Thus, if you added your photo to a group with the striking slogan "Post #, Comment on #, Fave #" or with simple name "P1/C1,A1,F1" (even if your reason was to add a picture of a flower to a flower group as it also says in its title), your photo will not get through to the Explore. Forced commenting or favoriting is considered as cheating.
5. TAGS.
This is a very important element! By my observations every tag that you add gives you extra points. But not more than 10. Every next tag after the total number of 10 would not help you anymore.
6. GEOTAGGING.
After geotagging your photo Flickr's algorythm always propels it higher up the Interestingness chart. So don't be too lazy and drop your pic on a map.
7. DESCRIPTION.
Believe it or not but description does not affect on your interestingness position in any way. Lazy photographers can shout happily now. :)
8. GALLERIES.
If your photo has been added to someone's gallery just say thank you but don't believe it will help you to get explored - it gives 0 points to your photo's interestingness.
9. NOTES.
Adding notes (by you or by other users) does not affect on the photo's popularity score at all. But adding a person as a note may block the picture from getting to the sacred Top 500.
10. DATE, SIZE and EXIF INFO of the photo.
Impact of all these elements was not confirmed by my investigation. But some users say it does affect on the ranking. Personally, I think it does not.
So these were 10 main activity elements you may find on Flickr and the affects they produce.
Some people say that without description or geotag your photo would never make Explore. This is not true. I saw plenty of exlpored shots without description, geotagging, tags and groups altogether. All these elements only add more points to your final score. But the main goal is favorites and comments.
Summing up, if we draw a chart pie of a 100% Flickr success, the slices would be:
40% - favorites
25% - comments
15% - views (10% external traffic, 5% Flickr users)
10% - tags (1% for each tag, total 10 tags max.)
10% - geotag
Sounds easy but the last question is how to attract those favorites and comments if you can not add photos to groups popularizing photo awarding? Here are some hot tips for you:
- comment and fave other users' photos. It is very likely that they will visit your photostream and comment back.
- look through explored photos, add to your contacts people who comment a lot. Active users usually add many photographers to their contact list and comment on all their new uploads, so try to get on that list too.
- try to add only your best photos and don't upload too much as you can be deleted from other users' contacts as a photospammer. :)
- don't forget to tag and geotag your photos. After that they will probably be captured by Google and similar searching systems and you will receive some boost of external traffic.
- integrate your Flickr profile with major social networks. Your friends from Facebook and Twitter or the readers of your blog would also give you some fat daily views numbers.
- participate in various competitions organized everyday in lots of Flickr groups. Actually this is the best way to use the groups on Flickr.
- be active, nice and make friends. I think this is the key element of your success.
I hope it will help you to sort out Flickr Interestingness and to make Explore.
Good luck!
Serge Freeman
(my Flickr photostream)
