Flickr, I Forgive You.

I hate to admit it, but the word of mouth marketing (WOMM) and the peer pressure to be a Web 2.0 amateur photographer is too great for me to resist.

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Even after my horrible, horrible experience with Flickr, I have finally conceded to sign back on and upload away…even though the process is still slower than molasses (2-3 minutes per photo, if not longer…..this sucks if you have a lot of photos).

BACK STORY: Last November, I forgot my Flickr account password and it took customer service two days to manually reset it. Apparently the merge with Yahoo/SBC Global prevented me from resetting my password via e-mail because of the confusion over whose jurisdiction it was to help me. After making multiple customer service phone calls and e-mails to all three parties, I got an apology and a link to reset. However, after that annoying ordeal, I angrily blogged about my dissatisfaction on my discontinued Xanga (entry is titled “Fuck You Flickr!”) and vowed to never sign on to Flickr again.

REALITY: Unfortunately, when so many people that you know have a flickr account that they update and engage daily, it is really hard to be the odd ball and use something else. So for a trial period, I am going to take Flickr back, but if you piss me off again, so help me………just don’t expect me to purchase a Pro account anytime soon!

So what crazy PR/Marketing campaign brought on this sudden interest in becoming a picture person? Thanks to my photo-taking and design-savvy friends and family who sent me links via IM to two cool new web-base applications and services (see below), I now want in on all the fun.

• Blurb - Scrapbooking for people who hate scrapbooking. Basically, it’s a publishing service that lets you design and print you photos into nicely bound soft/hard cover books with dust jackets. I am currently working on my first book, but it might take me a while to finish as my artistic gene is a bit under developed (the result of a liberal arts education and two years at The Agency).



• Photoshop Express - Photoshop for people who can’t justify buying the real thing. This is a very cool web-based version of Photoshop that’s free and allows you to edit your pictures with Photoshop tools that have been simplified for people like me. Now I too can adjust lighting and clean up a pimply face.

Now for all you newbies and oldies to marketing who are still scratching their heads at how to run a proper WOMM campaign on-line….the IM technique is how it has been done, but for a more cutting-edge way to do it, I suggest that you look into Twitter and master it. So on that note, please stop with the direct mailing pieces and get with the program.