How to Disable Facebook and Other Notifications in Chrome | Dramel Notes

Your social networks want your attention. Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, even online collaboration tool Slack – they want you to know when you have a message, and thanks to a new Chrome update, these apps can tell you even if you don’t have the right app installed.

All they need is for you to be signed into Chrome, and for you to have agreed to receive notifications.

But what if agreeing to these updates isn’t what you intended? What if their incessant beeps and whirrs is what made you sign out of the social network’s apps in the first place? Could you be ready to flush your smartphone away, almost hammered into submission by the news that Eric from accounts has uploaded a new Simpsons/Discworld mashup?

Hold on – there is a way around this. These notifications can be disabled.

Enabling Social Network Notifications in Chrome

Receiving notifications usually occurs when a website offers you the feature upon visiting it. This happens because you have notifications enabled, but you may not be aware of this prior to feature being offered.

You can check for it in Settings > Site Settings > Notifications – you’ll find that the default option is Ask first, and this allows you to specify whether you want notifications on a site-to-site basis.

For instance, upon visiting Facebook, you’ll see a popup giving you the option to Block or Allow notifications, sent from the browser to your Android’s notification area.

Note that notifications are not available in Incognito mode.

Which Social Networks and Websites Offer Browser Notifications?

Various websites and services offer browser notifications, a practice that saves you installing an app that would do largely the same thing. Along with Facebook, eBay, Vice News, Product Hunt, Pinterest and Slack – among others – are offering support for browser notifications, which will enable you to stay up-to-date with the latest notifications.

This might mean information about an item you’re bidding on at eBay, or a message from a colleague on Slack. And it might mean someone replied to your comment on Facebook.

As useful as these updates are, of course, things can start getting out of hand. One of two updates might be useful, but having them buzzing your phone every five minutes – which can happen, particularly with Facebook – can be particularly irritating.

So, how do we disable these notifications in Chrome?

How to Disable Mobile Social Network Notifications in Chrome

Say Facebook notifications in Chrome are becoming spammy, but you still want to know when eBay is sending you a message. The way to deal with this is to open the Chrome browser on your Android device, and visit the website you want to disable.

In the address bar, tap the lock, and in the drop-down menu, select Site Settings > Notifications > Block. You’ll need to repeat this for any other websites you want to prevent from sending notifications.

Meanwhile, if you want to block your phone from ever receiving notifications through Chrome, you can open the Chrome menu and go to Settings > Site Settings > Notifications and select Blocked.

And don’t forget, these services almost all have apps (Facebook in particular), whose notifications you may be able to configure in more detail.

Social Network Notifications on Your Desktop

This isn’t all about the mobile Chrome browser, however. It’s just as likely that your desktop version of Chrome will give you the chance at some stage to receive notifications that you might soon find are irritating you.

To allow or block notifications, Windows and Mac users should open the Chrome browser menu (Chrome OS — which you can try on most PCs — users can access this by clicking the account picture in the status area), then Settings > Show advanced settings > Privacy > Content settings…. Find Notifications, and choose from Allow all sites to show notifications, Ask when a site wants to show notifications or Do not allow any site to show notifications, depending upon which option suits you best.

Disabling notifications for particular sites is again a little different.

In Windows, click the bell-shaped notification icon in the system tray at the bottom-right corner of the desktop, then the gear icon, and untick any website that you want to disable notifications for. This can also be used to disable notifications for apps and extensions.

Mac OS X users should follow the same steps, but they’ll find their notification icon in the menu bar at the top of the screen.

Chromebook users, meanwhile, should wait until a notification appears, and click the number in the lower-right corner that indicates this. Next, click the settings icon, and untick the website, app or extension that you wish to disable.

That’s it — no more irritating notifications. Well, not until you get your next spam email or SMS text message…

Chrome notifications can be useful; they can also be frustrating. Have you used them? Perhaps you disabled them due to over-active alerts? Tell us about it in the comments.

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How Instagram Filters Work, And Can You Tell The Difference? | Dramel Notes

As Instagram continues to add new and interesting filters for its users, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to get a handle on which filter works best with what kind of image. So we figured we’d do something about it. Here you’ll find everything you need to know about what each filter does, what it’s best used for, and we’ve got some examples for you to look at.

Before we get to the list, it’s important to note two things. First, the use of Instagram filters, like just about anything in the art of photography, is incredibly subjective. Second, there are no hard and fast rules. Sometimes, a filter works with an image you wouldn’t expect it to. Don’t limit yourself to these suggestions.

How are Instagram Filters Made?

Instagram founder Kevin Systrom has taken to Quora a few times to explain to users how they come up with their filters. In response to one question he says:

It’s really a combination of a bunch of different methods. In some cases we draw on top of images, in others we do pixel math. It really depends on the effect we’re going for.

For instance, Lomo-fi really isn’t much more than the image with boosted contrast. Whereas Toaster is one of the most complex (and slow, yet popular) filters we have with multiple passes and drawing.

In another, he says:

Our filters are a combination of effects – curve profiles, blending modes, color hues, etc. In fact, I usually create them in Photoshop before creating the algorithms to do them on the phone.

Now, on to the filters. This is the complete list of filters currently available in the app but if you can’t see any of them, open up an image, scroll to the end of the filters, and hit ‘Manage.’ There you can turn filters on and off.

Clarendon

What it does: Originally released as a video-only filter, Clarendon was later made available for photos as well. It intensifies shadows and brightens highlights in your photos.

Use it for: This filter looks great with pet photos and minimalist images where you want the colors to pop.

Gingham

What it does: Gingham is another previously video-only filter. When you use it for your photos, it washes them out. If using with a darker photo, it gives it can give it a yellowish tone. If using it with a photo filled with light, it gives it a brighter, dreamy look.

Use it for: Gingham is reminiscent of some of the more popular VSCO filters, and gives images a vintage feel. This is definitely one for the hipsters and fashionistas.

Photo: Markus Spiske

Moon

What it does: This filter was also originally meant only for video, and was named after an Instagram team member’s dog. Think of it as the black and white version of Gingham, with slightly more intense shadows.

Use it for: This filter is best used for the ultimate vintage look. Moon works best with portraits.

Photo: A. Vahanavati

Lark

What it does: Lark brightens your images and intensifies all your colors, with the exception of red.

Use if for: Use lark with your outdoor nature landscapes and outdoor portraits. The filter does great, albeit subtle, things for sun-kissed skin and greens and blues of trees and skies. It can also be a good filter for some food shots to bring out some great colors in the dishes you want to show off.

Reyes

What it does: Reyes is a relatively new addition to Instagram’s vintage filters. The filter desaturates your image, brightens it up, and gives it an old-time feel.

Use it for: Reyes is another great filter for portraits, particularly if you’re trying to hide any blemishes on your skin. If you usually use another app retouching your photos, you won’t need to do that with Reyes.

Juno

What it does: Juno is another filter which intensifies colors, but this time, its brightening up your reds, yellows, and oranges.

Use it for: Street photography really pops with Juno. The filter makes the grungy look grungier, and gives photos a rich, deep tone.

Photo: Phil Roeder

Slumber

What it does: This filter creates a yellow mask which desaturates most of the images colors.

Use it for: Slumber has a very fitting name as it really adds a dream-like quality to your photos. Use this filter if you want a combination of a vintage and romantic feel. This works particularly well with street photography and nature shots.

Photo: Sjoerd Lammers

Crema

What it does: Crema is another vintage filter, that desaturates images, and smooths out (but also washes out) skin tones.

Use it for: Crema appears to be popular with Instagram users for food shots, but in particular for their coffee shop shots. It also works really well with outdoor nature-scapes, whether green or blue, and city shots.

Photo: Daniel Carlbom

Ludwig

What it does: Ludwig is an intense filter. Warm colors are warmer, cool colors are darker, and shadows and highlights more pronounced.

Use it for: Ludwig is a good filter for cityscapes, buildings, sunsets, and can even add an interesting effect to black and white photos.

Photo: GMP Architecture

Aden

What it does: Aden is a low-contrast filter which softens your images, desaturating them slightly, and giving them a pastel effect. It also warms the cooler colors.

Use if for: This filter works well with portraits as it also has a skin-smoothing effect. Aden also works beautifully with fall images and photos with lens flare.

Photo: Jerome Decq

Perpetua

What it does: Perpetua will brighten an image, and enhances its green and yellow tones

Use it for: Perpetua works well with outdoor shots, especially on the beach. You probably won’t want to use it with portrait shots as it gives skin a very unnatural tone.

Photo: Chris Combe

Amaro

What it does: Amaro brightens the center of your photo. And I mean really brightens. In some photos, it appears to add vignetting to the border of your images.

Use it for: Amaro can give your photos an aged appearance. It works particularly well with fall photos, and street photography.

Mayfair

What it does: Mayfair warms up the colors of your photos, placing something of a spotlight in the center of the image, with very subtle vignetting around the corners.

Use it for: Instagram suggests you use Mayfair for brightly lit images, together with the app’s Lux feature, which auto-adjusts contrast in underexposed images.

Photo: Bit Boy

Rise

What it does: Rise gives your photos a subtle, yellow glow, brightening up your image, and giving it just a hint of vintage.

Use it for: As is the case with most filters that have a vintage feel to them, Rise is great for portraits. You’re ready for your closeup with this filter.

Photo: Ranna Nicolau

Hudson

What it does: The Hudson filter definitely gives your images a cooler look — and by cooler we mean colors. Any warm colors in your image are going to be tempered, and it also adds a subtle vignette to your photo.

Use it for: This is a great filter for outdoor shots — whether you’re taking photos in a bustling city center, or a gorgeous nature shot, particularly if you’re going for an icy, winter look.

Photo: Paul Churcher

Valencia

What it does: If you’re a child of the eighties, this filter, with its yellow tint, will look like your childhood photographs. Colors are just slightly brightened, kind of like you flipped a switch on the scene.

Use it for: Valencia is a pretty versatile, all-purpose filter, as is shown by these photos with the filter. Use it with an image you want to look old-school.

Photo: Jonathan Lin

X-Pro II

What it does: This is by no means a subtle filter. It bumps up the contrast, adds a strong vignette, and makes all of the colors warmer.

Use it for: You’ll want to avoid using X-Pro II with closeup portraits because of the effect it can have on the skin, but it works really well with wider shots — city, nature, and fashion shots all look good. You’ll just want to start with an already bright image.

Photo: Soe Lin

Sierra

What it does: Sierra is another dreamy filter, which is comparable to Rise. That said, it has a darker feel than Rise, thanks to some vignetting, and a well-lit center.

Use it for: This is a filter that works well with outdoor nature photos and photos of objects. This is probably another hipster favorite.

Photo: Ewan Munro

Willow

What it does: This monotone filter is the closest thing Instagram has to a sepia filter. It’s somewhere between black-and-white and sepia without appearing kitschy.

Use it for: Willow looks great on skin so it’s a must-use for portraits. It also works great with beach scenes and macro nature shots.

Photo: Takuya Asada

Lo-Fi

What it does: Lo-fi brightens colors by bumping up the saturation, while also adding shadows to your photo.

Use it for: Lo-fi is often recommended as a must-have for food photography, but it also works with photos with lots of trees and grass.

Photo: Michael Stern

Inkwell

What it does: Inkwell is Instagram’s basic black-and-white filter.

Use it for: This versatile filter works well with portraits, and has an interesting effect on outdoor nature shots.

Photo: Christiaan Triebel

Hefe

What it does: Hefe is another filter that increases color saturation, adds a bit of vignetting, and warms up your image.

Use it for: This is an easy way to increase saturation in any image with just one click. This is particularly useful with nature shots.

Nashville

What it does: The filter’s pink tint warms up the image’s colors, while also simultaneously brightening the whole picture.

Use it for: Nashville is similar to Valencia in terms of the old-school look in your photos, but is slightly more pronounced. This is another good filter to use with any image you want to look vintage.

Photo: John

Earlybird

What it does: Early bird desaturates your image quite a bit, with the bright colors still coming through. It also adds a sepia tint and vignetting to your photo.

Use it for: This is Instagram’s original hipster, vintage filter. Just about any photo instantly feels like it was taken decades ago with the help of Earlybird.

Photo: Katherine Lim

Sutro

What it does: Sutro adds a very noticeable vignette, darkens your image, and gives images a smoked look, with particular emphasis on purple and brown colors to achieve this effect.

Use it for: Use Sutro for just about anything except for portraits. (Unless you want your subjects to look like zombies. If that’s what you’re going for, then Sutro is your best bet.) Naturscapes with Sutro look more mysterious, sunsets more sinister, and cloudy skies more intense.

Photo: Salva Barbera

Toaster

What it does: This is another filter that will look familiar to a child of the eighties. The filter adds a burnt, dodged center to your photo with a strong red tint. The filter, essentially, toasts your image, making images look like they were taken with instant film.

Use it for: Toaster works well with outdoor images, preferably during the day. Night shots taken with your phone don’t look good with Toaster.

Photo: Zach Dischner

Brannan

What it does: Brannan is a high contrast, high exposure filter which brightens your photos and gives them a yellowish tint.

Use it for: If you want your portraits to look like they were taken a century ago — this is a great filter for you. Otherwise, its an image that works really well with waterscapes or nature images, giving them a wintry look.

Photo: Logan Campbell

1977

What it does: The aptly named 1977 gives your images a faded look, adding a red tint.

Use it for: Photos are instantly old-school with this filter, and if you’re a child of the seventies — this is one you will recognize and love. It looks best with outdoor beach and lake scenes, and looks particularly good with lens flare.

Photo: Dave Bloggs

Kelvin

What it does: If there’s a little bit of sunlight in your image, Kelvin makes it look golden, like the photo was taken during that perfect moment in the late afternoon, when the sun is shining just right.

Use it for: Kelvin works with photos with a lot of natural light, or a concentrated amount of artificial light.

Photo: Kate Hiscock

Walden

What it does: Walden brightens the center of your image, adding an icy blue tint to your colors.

Use it for: Walden is at its best when used on portraits, but also works well with any well lit images, giving them an even more vintage look.

Stinson

What it does: Stinson is a subtle filter that brightens your image, washing out the colors ever so slightly.

Use it for: Stinson works well with portraits and beach shots, or any image you want to brighten up a little, and give a subtle nostalgic and vintage look.

Photo: Vinoth Chander

Vesper

What it does: Vesper smooths out skin tones, and also adds a yellow tint that, like with many of Instagram’s filters, it gives it a vintage feel.

Use it for: Portraits. Portraits. Portraits.

Photo: Radio Free Barton

Maven

What it does: Maven darkens images, increases shadows, and adds a slightly yellow tint overall.

Use it for: Maven works well with architecture, and has an interesting effect on blue skies and green lawns. You’ll want to avoid it with portraits, in large part because of the shadows it adds to your images.

Photo: Kai Lehmann

Ginza

What it does: Another brightening filter, Ginza adds a warm glow to your photos.

Use it for: Outdoor photos, weather landscapes, seascapes, portraits, or city shots, look good with a bit of Ginza on them, as do fashion shots.

Photo: Paul Fundenburg

Skyline

What it does: Skyline is like the autocorrect of filters. It brightens colors in your image, giving them a nice pop.

Use it for: Any image you want to brighten a little.

Photo: James Willamor

Dogpatch

What it does: Dogpatch increases the contrast in your image, while also washing out the lighter colors.

Use it for: Instagram recommends using this filter if you’re going for a dramatic look. Like many Instagram filters, its better used with a brightly lit image. The filter doesn’t work well with a dark night sky.

Photo: Mark Fischer

Helena

What it does: Instagram points out that Helena adds an orange and teal vibe to your images.

Use it for: Helena offers Instagram users a great way to add a bit of warmth to your image. It works well with portraits and with outdoor shots.

Photo: Don Crossley

Ashby

What it does: This filter gives images a great golden glow and a subtle vintage feel. What’s nice about this filter, compared to filters like Rise and Sierra, is that it does so without increasing shadows in the image.

Use it for: Portraits, or any image you want to give a very slightly vintage feel without it being very overpowering.

Photo: Jenny Downing

Charmes

What it does: Charmes is a high contrast filter, warming up colors in your image with a red tint.

Use it for: Busy street and city shots work well with Charmes. The filter works particularly well with dimly lit images.

Photo: Jocelyn Kinghorn

Want more suggestions on how to use Instagram? Check out how travelers can use the app.

Now we turn it over to you. What are you favorite Instagram filters? What do you use them for? Let us know in the comments.

Image Credits:Medium format Camera by Philip Hunton via Shutterstock

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#Instagram Tests Multiple Account Feature by @dantosz | Dramel Notes

Instagram may finally be looking to solve one of its major user hangups – the inability to manage multiple accounts from a single dashboard, similar to the way you can in Facebook or Twitter.

Currently, in order to have two accounts with the photo-sharing platform, you must completely log out of one and re-login with another email address and password.

This is cumbersome for brand managers, social media account managers, and anyone else who wants to have more than one account.

The new multi-login feature was first reported on Twitter by user @fro_rouge last week.

Instagram Multi-aacount pic.twitter.com/gWKPOcvKbh

— Rogue (@fro_rogue) November 25, 2015

Currently, the feature appears to be in beta testing mode and only available to a limited number of Android users. Instagram has not said whether this feature will be expanding, or when it might be available for iPhone users.

Recently, Instagram changed its developer policy, which will restrict third-party app access to the platform. These new restrictions are set to go live next summer, which could be the reason they are testing this feature now.

If Instagram does roll out this feature for all users, it would make life a whole lot easier for many marketers.

Are you part of the Android test group? I would love to hear your thoughts if you have tried this new feature.

 

Featured Image: Bloomua / Shutterstock.com

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How to Make Money from Your Smartphone Photography | Dramel Notes

If Instagram was a country, it would have more citizens than the United States.

400 million digital citizens make an awful lot of photographic memories. 40 billion photos and counting actually. How many are you taking? And what are you doing with them?

Maybe, you are stitching them together as memories. Maybe, you are putting them up against the best in photography contests.  Or maybe, you are someone like Mike Gutkin who puts his smartphone and photography skills to good use by making money from them. It’s hard to argue with someone who has 63,000 followers on Instagram!

In a Verizon Wireless story, he has the best advice,

“Dive right in.”

Thanks to the sheer number of apps and stock photography sites, selling your photos for some extra cash has no narrow hoops for us to jump through. The obstacle is the skill level.

Make no mistake – it is hard because it is creative. It is hard because everyone is a smartphone photographer. But as many have already proven, it can be done. Let’s first understand who will buy your photos.

Who Will Buy My Photos?

It is cheaper for brands and companies to buy photographs from community-powered stock photography services than from professionals. Buyers look for photos with creativity and realism, rather than the staged images from traditional agencies.

Stock photography can also get boring after a while, and stop saying those 1000 words you want them too. They may not be localized enough to reflect culture and festivals. They might not be timely enough to capture a breaking news event or even something as mundane as a college football match. Brands today often prefer user-generated images that are taken from everyday life. For example, babies, photos of family holidays, people working in natural settings and so on.

Traditional stock photography outlets are also looking beyond digital SLRs. Your camera doesn’t matter any more — anything with emotion sells.

Fotolia which is a well-known stock photography biggie has got into the game with Fotolia Instant. Shutterstock might have a strict rule for contributions, but it also gives registered users the Shutterstock Contributor app for discovering what customers want and contributing to the pool. A similar offering comes from Dreamstime.

If you don’t want to sell your shots, sites like Photoshare will gladly accept your smartphone snaps for educational use.

Sell Your Creativity with 7 iPhone Photography Apps

There are stock photography websites. And then there are specialized photography apps with a community behind them. These apps are a single window solution to taking a photo, automatically getting it authenticated, and then submitting it for a sale.

Twenty20

A large community of mobile photographers use Twenty20 (earlier known as Instacanvas) to explore photography and earn cash from their own photos. Nearly 300,000 photographers and 46 million photos give brands and digital creators a lot to choose from.

Use the free Twenty20 iPhone app to join as a photographer. Those without an iPhone can use the website as there is no Android app as yet.

Twenty20 has a good explanation of the type of photos that get sold.

How do I sell a photo?

1. Upload your high-resolution photos with detailed descriptions and keywords. This makes them easier to be discovered.
2. Participate in Challenges around specific themes. A new challenge is posted every day.
3. Submit your photos to the Signature Collections. These are photos are nominated by the community with a final selection from the editors.

How much can I earn?

Twenty20 gives out a commission of 80%. A single photo can sell for $20, $40, or $80 depending on the size of the photo purchased. You earn 80% of the sale price on each buy.

There are other price points that depend on the kind of inclusion. There are four ways to make money from your photos on Twenty20.

Download: Twenty20 for iOS (Free)

Snapwire

Snapwire is a connecting platform for more than 200,000 photographers and buyers who are looking for custom photos. Photographers follow Requests and Challenges from brands, creatives and small businesses who need to license authentic custom photos.

Requests are open only to approved photographers of Shooter level or above. Challenges are open to all. Requests pay more than Challenges.

The crowdsourcing site follows a leveling system that rewards photographers based on their performance. It has seven levels: Explorer, Shooter, Advanced, Expert, Elite, Pro, and Master. Each has its own perks.

Follow the How to Succeed tips and tricks for selling your first photo on the platform.

How do I sell a photo?

1. Follow the creative briefs of the challenges and requests. Upload your photos.
2. Buyers nominate the best photos and photographers are awarded points. Photographers are paid for their winning photos.
3. Photos can be liked by both buyers and photographers. Unsold photos can also become a part of Snapwire Marketplace for future purchases.

How much can I earn?

Snapwire pays out 70% of every photo sold on a buyer’s paid Request and 50% when your photos sell in the Marketplace. You retain the copyright to your photo.

Download: Snapwire for iOS (Free) | Android (Free)

Foap

Foap is one of the simplest places to sell your mobile photos. The iPhone and Android photography marketplace is one of the many corners of the web you can turn to for micro-jobs in your free time. Some of the world’s largest brands like MasterCard, Hyatt, Volvo Group, Absolut Vodka can buy your photos.

The payout isn’t terrific ($5 per photo) but the dollars can add up if you are regular contributor. One of the benefits is that you can sell the same photo as many times as you like.

Foap has an excellent community portal. Here’s a brief guide on how to sell well here.

How do I sell a photo?

1. Follow the Foap Missions which use specific topics to encourage contributions.
2. Create a portfolio of your best photos for better exposure to buyers. Tag it well.
3. Rate other photos even as you upload your own. Explore the photos that sell, and the Foap community portal for insider tips.

How much can I earn?

Every photo is priced at $10. Foap pays out $5 each time one of your photos sells. The photographer owns the photos. Missions also offer larger prize purses starting from $100.

Download: Foap for iOS (Free) | Android (Free)

Clashot

Clashot is an online “photo bank” — which is just another way of saying crowdsourced stock photography site. The free mobile apps for iOS and Android help you make, publish and sell photos. After a quick moderation process, the photos are stocked for sale at Depositphotos.

Question 8 in Section 2 of the FAQ should fill you in on Clashot’s requirements for photographs selected for sale.

How do I sell a photo?

1. Upload photos around a particular theme or common subject that is offered on the app.
2. Learn about new offers through regular notifications in the Clashot app and on the website.
3. Photo themes can be customized and offered to users by their geographic region.
4. Photos are open to peer review and comments from other users.
5. Take part in contests on the site.

How much can I earn?

Photographers earn up to 44% of the profits from each sale. Prices on the site start from $5. Do remember that one photo can be sold an unlimited number of times to an unlimited number of people.

Download: Clashot for iOS (Free) | Android (Free)

Moment (Getty Images)

Getty Images is the top stock photography company in the world. Its specialized mobile app for iPhone photos is less known. That’s probably because the app is currently intended for existing Getty Images and iStock contributors. Users without contributor contracts can only view the content submitted by other users.  They cannot submit photos.

The company has however made a commitment that this policy will change, so keep an eye on Moment for your own moment to shine.

How do I sell a photo?

1. Follow new requests for creative and editorial photography in the app.
2. Approved photos are licensed for sale on Getty Images and/or iStock by Getty Images.

How much can I earn?

Royalties will be paid according to any existing Getty contributor agreement. There wasn’t any hard data on actual sale prices.

Download: Moment for iOS (Free)

EyeEM

EyeEM is a creative filter photo app first and a stock photography site second. The EyeEM Marketplace is an offshoot of the community behind the app. You can use the EyeEM camera and its 24 filters to shoot and upload the photos to the Marketplace. You can also just upload any other photo from your camera roll.

EyeEM has an option called Open Edit which helps you learn editing tricks from EyeEm’s top photographers. Notice the Open Edit icon on some photos. You can also reap benefits from EyeEM’s Tutorial Archives.

How do I sell a photo?

1. Follow requests and upload photos.
2. Take part in community photo competitions for prizes and exposure.
3. Participate in these Photo Missions and also Learn & Shoot Missions via the app.

How much can I earn?

Prices start from $20. Revenues are split 50/50 between the photographer and the company. The same photo can be sold to different clients. The non-exclusive rights also allow you to use and sell the photos anywhere else.

Download: EyeEM for iOS (Free) | Android (Free)

Scoopshot

Scoopshot is a Finland-based hiring platform for photographers around the world. News outlets, bloggers, brands and companies as well as individuals crowdsource requests on Scoopshot. Photographers send them specific photos or videos. Scoopshot as the middleman takes care of image rights transfers and monetary transactions.

The site has gathered 1,800 accredited professional photographers in 55 countries so far. Scoopshot is open to both photographers and videographers.

The Scoopshot blog is a good read to understand what sells on the micro-stock photography site. This very early blog post on sweating it out with a smartphone camera is inspiring too.

How do I sell a photo?

1. Sign into the service and set up a portfolio of photos.
2. Participate in tasks announced by companies and buyers. Tasks may be sent by geographic location.
3. Showcase your photography skills in daily contests. Members vote for the best photos. Nine daily contests run every day.
4. With a focus on real photos, Scoopshot does not encourage use of filters to modify an image.

How much can I earn?

On Scoopshot, you can set your own price if the photo has some good news value. Brands set a price around the tasks they announce. This can range from $7 all the way up to $150. Daily Contest photos that get sold receive $5. A photo picked up by an online publisher also receives a percentage of the advertising revenue via Scoopshot’s In-Image Ad Network.

Download: Scoopshot for iOS (Free) | Android (Free)

What About Instagram?

Let’s not forget the smartphone photo community that started it all. Though there is no direct way to make money on Instagram, some time and effort can yield wonderful results. The secret sauce is in “engagement” — more followers on Instagram could open up opportunities, even among the billions of photos on the social network. I will keep it brief, but look at the two platforms below:

Mobile Prints – Use your Instagram photos on MobilePrints.com to make and sell framed prints, canvas prints, greeting cards, and more. Buyers can use the Pixels.com app for iOS and Android to visualize the artworks before purchase.

The Mobile Media Lab – A creative agency that sources photos from influential Instagrammers around the world. It connects brands to the right Instagrammer for specific campaigns.

You would also do well to follow these eight tips from my fellow author Rob Nightingale on how to get noticed on Instagram. Number #3 on the list is the one to remember always: use only your best photos.

Honorable Mentions of Other Crowdsourcing Photography Apps

The business model of the seven stock photo apps is similar. Every photo submission is beaded around assignments, themes, and contests. Here are a few more that deserve attention:

• Stockimo
• Picsastock
• 500px Marketplace
• Fotolia Instant
• Iconzoomer

What Are You Doing with Your Smartphone Photos?

Smartphones can take great pictures, you just have to focus beyond selfies and work on your creative eye. The bad news is that the number of photos uploaded each day outstrips the number of people buying them. The good news is that people are earning a decent amount of money from their smartphone photos instead of letting them become memory bytes for the future.

Pick the right app, or more than one app and try your luck. An app like Foap might be good for a smartphone photography beginner. Snapwire might demand a keener photographic eye. Even if you don’t sell a single photo, rest assured your photography will get better by the day as you combine learning with crowd wisdom.

Have you sold a photo yet? What is the best tip you can offer? Tell us about the photography apps on your iPhone.

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5 Free Tips to Increase Your Instagram Followers by @ChappyMargot | Dramel Notes

Instagram is my social media soul mate. I’ve been on the platform for over three years, and it’s hard to imagine a day without it. It takes all of the clutter of Twitter and the “I really don’t care about your life” updates from Facebook, and simplifies your experience into a visually engaging feed of highly filtered photographs, ahhh. It’s everything I’m looking for when waking up in the morning, killing time on the train, or drinking wine post-work.

Mindless, visually engaging updates from friends, brands, and celebrities; yes I’m in full-blown Insta-love. And clearly, I’m not alone. With over 400 million users, Instagram is the fastest-growing social network amongst adults in the U.S., according to Pew Research Center.

Now that the majority of consumers are Insta-obsessed, marketers have been scrambling to keep up. For many the territory feels unknown and intimidating. You’ve mastered the art of the 140-character tweet and you’ve devised a strategy to reach customers through the cluttered Facebook news feed, but Instagram is like starting from scratch. Marketers are ashamed to see their follower count at 10 people after 4 weeks of posting updates.

Here’s a few tips to get your act together and start generating a much higher, less-embarrassing follower base free of charge.

#1: Use Trending Hashtags

#DUH. You know what hashtags are unless you’ve been living under a rock. You probably use them on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and even Google+ (if you’re into that). Nowadays, most wedding events are even branded with a couple’s hashtag. Why? Because of Instagram. People post pictures and rather than stalking unknown attendees, you can see all of the Instagrams through the common hashtag page.

But, which hashtags should you use for your business? Popular ones. Shockingly enough, the hashtag #ourcompanyisthebestandyoushophere isn’t going to get a lot of traction. Instead, use the search icon to see which hashtags are currently trending.

Check out the brand below that did just that with the trending hashtag #veteransday (this was on Veterans Day, of course). Not only did they take a powerful topic and hashtag, but they made it relevant to their brand offerings:

If you’re not sold on the day’s trending hashtags, check out which tags your competitors are having success with. If you have a hashtag in mind, but are unsure of the volume, search for it yourself to see how often users are utilizing it.

Time and time again we’ve heard that how over hashtagging can be harmful, so how many hashtags is too many hashtags? An interesting study from Buffer, which analyzed a set of users with 1,000 or fewer followers, found that interactions are highest on Instagram posts that use 11 or more hashtags. “Don’t sweat your amount of Instagram hashtags,” says Buffer’s Kevan Lee. “They could be your best bet for growing a fast following on Instagram.”

With that said, use common sense. You don’t want your 50+ hashtagged post eating up a follower’s entire mobile screen.

#2: Tag People in Your Posts

I’m not talking about your mom or some rando on the street. Tag people you either want to connect with for partnership reasons or people who you believe fall into your target buyer persona(s).

Someone who does this really well is oats enthusiast (who I happened to study abroad with in college), Rachel Mansfield. I literally watched Rachel grow her Instagram following from the ground up, and with almost 20K followers and a beautiful blog, the brand she’s built is really impressive. One thing I’ve noticed about almost every one of her mouth-watering posts is that she tags other bloggers or food brands in her Instagram posts.

I’ve even seen this result in other bloggers re-posting her content to their large Instagram audiences or sharing her recipes on their sites. Partnerships can evolve from the simple tag of a photo, which will often greatly increase your reach and follower base. It’s pretty remarkable!

Do some research to determine who to tag and then start including these brands or individuals in your relevant posts from time to time. Make sure you mix up who you’re tagging to not annoy potential connections.

#3: Like & Comment on Others’ Feeds

This one’s pretty self-explanatory and shouldn’t be understated. It’s worked on myself multiple times. For instance, my boyfriend and I often truck up to his family’s house in Camden, Maine for summer weekends, and when a new restaurant in town liked one of my Instagram photos from a weekend excursion we decided to dine there after browsing through their Instagram profile and checking out their menu online.

Moral of the story? Interact with your target audience and followers will ensue!

#4: Include Your Location

Speaking from the example above, without including the location “Camden, ME” in my post, the chances of the restaurant finding me, liking my photo, and making us aware of them were likely nonexistent. Using geo-tagging when creating a new post will help people find your brand. People often search for photos by location, myself included, so ensuring you’re tagging the location of the photo, especially for high-popularity locations (think Central Park or popular downtown hang outs), is a simple way to expand your reach.

#5: Promote Your Instagram Everywhere

You’ve likely built up a presence on other social networks, whether it be Facebook, Twitter, Vine, or Periscope. Think about the strategy you used when growing those channels. Did you promote them on your website with social share icons? Did you include links on your blog to your social channels? You should be doing the same with Instagram to grow awareness.

Start off by connecting your Instagram account with Facebook to upload the fan base you’ve already built. Run Instagram campaigns across your most popular social channels to build more exposure. Encourage your employees, partners, and brand followers to get involved by sending out reminders that you’re on Instagram. Send a company-wide reminder to add a link to your company Instagram in employee email signatures (this is especially important for customer service, sales, and whoever else is interacting with leads and customers). Include your Instagram handle of your business card and LinkedIn profile.

Also, create your own unique business hashtags and unique hashtags for specific campaigns, and ask your employees, customers, and partners to use them. “KitKat uses the tag #haveabreak to incorporate their fan’s photos under a tag that praises their catch phrase. The nearly 12,000 posts are right on target,” says MadeFreshly content manager, Rachel Daley.

Be aggressive about exposing everyone who touches your brand to your account. If you fail to get your account in front of people, growth can’t happen.

Now that you have all the secret tips and tricks at your fingertips there’s no excuse to not grow your following. Before you know it you’ll have a larger fan base than Kim Kardashian, so get to work!

 

Image Credits

Featured Image: Image by Margot da Cunha
All screenshots by Margot da Cunha. Taken November 2015.

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Instagram Account No Longer Needed for Instagram Ad Campaigns by @Rocco_Zebra_Adv | Dramel Notes

Facebook launched Instagram Ads a while ago and while the launch was highly anticipated, many businesses didn’t jump on the opportunity to advertise on Instagram. The Instagram audience might not be for everyone and ads required a linked Instagram account that of course needs upkeep.

Starting form the first week of December 2015, businesses can now run Instagram Ads without having an Instagram account. This means that advertisers can now increase engagement and scale up low cost conversions with Instagram Ads without ever having to create and use an Instagram account.

What’s New With Instagram Ads

Before the latest change, advertisers needed to link an Instagram account their Facebook Business Manager.

Disadvantages:

1. Businesses needed to create, optimize and manage an Instagram page
2. Businesses needed to create an audience on Instagram to create some organic reach with their posts
3. Businesses often didn’t want to allocate resources to an Instagram profile without knowing if it’s worth their while

Starting from the first Week of December 2015, Instagram ads can be created by using the Facebook Ad Manager without having an Instagram account and without having to link an Instagram account to the Facebook Business Manager. Instagram Ads are now available as Placement and can be selected as target of an ad set.

Would it be better to have and link an Instagram account? Facebook says yes:

“We recommend (but don’t require) connecting an Instagram account to run ads on Instagram. Representing your business with an Instagram account may help you get better results for your ad.” – Facebook

How to Set up Instagram Ads Without an Instagram Account

1. Go to your Facebook Ad Manager and create a new campaign (or use an existing campaign.) Go into an ad set of that campaign and add Instagram as a target method of your ad set:

2. Go into the ads of that ad set and create a new ad.

3. When creating the ad, select your Facebook page as a destination

You will now be able to advertise on Instagram. Advantages of Instagram ads include but are not limited to:

• Use all of the targeting methods available on Facebook
• Use all of the bidding options available on Facebook
• Pay only when somebody clicks on your Ads
• Manage your Ads directly from the Facebook ad manager
• Track conversions though the same pixel you already use for Facebook ads

 

This post originally appeared on international-ppc.com, and is re-published with permission.

Image Credits

Featured Image: tulpahn/Shutterstock.com
All screenshots by Rocco Baldassarre. Taken November 2015.

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3 Facebook Ads Features You Aren’t Using (But Should Be) by @180fusion | Dramel Notes

With a staggering 84% of internet users having at least one Facebook-owned account (Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, WhatsApp), it’s safe to say in many ways Facebook has taken over the world.

And while most of Facebook’s current growth is coming from “fast-growth markets” where Internet populations are expanding rapidly, recent findings indicate that roughly 72% of US adults who are online are Facebook users and 31% are Instagram users. Plus, nearly 3/4 of Facebook users and 2/3 of Instagram users active on these platforms DAILY!

What this adds up to for businesses is simple: regardless of your demographic, those customers are using Facebook and Facebook-owned properties regularly. This makes paid advertising on these platforms among the very best ways to reach potential customers with the right marketing message at the right time.

Facebook has made targeting relevant customers simple with a world-class ads platform that leverages the ability to target users according to a wealth of demographic, psychographic, and behavioral information that Facebook has collected (and bought) expressly for that purpose.

While all of this is no secret to most marketers, what is challenging for many is keeping up with blistering pace of innovation and change on the Facebook ads platform, as Facebook has been adding new features (and improving old ones) on almost a weekly basis for the last year.

So, in the spirit of sharing the “latest and greatest” features Facebook Ads has to offer, here are three recent and relevant updates to the Facebook Ads platform that many advertisers may not have noticed or may not be using yet:

1. You can Now Create Instagram Ads Through the Facebook Ads Platform

Recently released from public Beta on September 30^th, Instagram Ads are now available worldwide to all advertisers through both Facebook Ads Manager and Facebook Power Editor.

Since targeting options for Instagram Ads are exactly the same as those for Facebook Ads, extending any targeting you’re already using for Facebook Ads onto Instagram should be simple. Or you can create new audiences for targeting using Custom Audiences or Facebook’s new “Detailed Targeting” (see below).

There are, however, a few differences worth noting:

• Instagram Ads are only currently only an option for four of Facebook’s 14 Campaign-level objective types: Website Clicks, Website Conversion, App Installs, and Video Views. As such, advertisers may have to add separate Instagram Campaigns to their accounts instead of simply adding Instagram as a Placement in current Ad Sets (segmenting into separate Campaigns, or at least separate Ad Sets, is probably advisable for tracking and reporting purposes anyway).
• Recommended Ad sizes differ from those on Facebook. Instagram recommends using square ad images that are 1080 by 1080 pixels for both image and carousel ad formats.
• If Instagram targeting is not viewable as an option in Power Editor, a “manual reset” of Power Editor may be required for it to show up (this can be done using “Help” -> “Reset Power Editor,” found at the top right in the interface.)

2. You can Now Create Lead Ads that Allow Users to Fill out a Contact Form Without Leaving Facebook

On October 7^th, Facebook announced that the Lead Gen Ads format they’ve been testing since July is now open to all advertisers.

This format integrates a lead signup form directly INTO Facebook Newsfeed Ads (mobile only). Once ads are clicked on, a customizable lead gen form opens with the user’s Facebook contact information (pre-populated, but can be edited by the user), allowing users to sign up for an email list/free consultation/etc. with a single click, and WITHOUT ever having to visit an advertiser’s landing page.

Having this lead capture functionality integrated directly into the ad units themselves provides a seamless user experience for the subscriber, and some lead gen advertisers are reporting 4X reduction in CPLs versus their previous social advertising efforts.

The biggest drawback of this ad format at present is the difficulty of lead retrieval, as Facebook does NOT currently deliver these ads by email or have the ability to push them to most CRMs via API (only a few are supported). For the time being, advertisers will have to manually download these leads in spreadsheet format from the “Publishing Tools” section of their Facebook Page.

As with the new Instagram targeting feature, if the option to launch a Lead Gen Ad Campaign is not available as an option in Power Editor, a “manual reset” of Power Editor may be required.

3. You can Now Use Detailed Targeting to Expand or Narrow Audience Targeting

In late October, Facebook Ads very quietly rolled out a long-awaited change to their Ads Targeting system that dramatically improves the ability advertisers have to narrow ad targeting down to very specific audiences.

The update, called “Detailed Targeting,” adds more filtering fields to the Facebook ads interface, giving advertisers the ability to use as many filters as they’d like to either ADD or EXCLUDE additional Interest/Demographic/Behavior characteristics for each audience being targeted.

Now, with each additional filtering field added, advertisers can select either the “Expand Audience” option (the “OR” logic function, which until now has been the only option for Interest targeting) or the “Narrow Audience” option (the “AND” logic function) in order to make audiences more specific and improve targeting:

The most important improvement is how the new logic engine allows advertisers to target users based on MULTIPLE overlapping “Interests” for the first time. This improved targeting allows relevant ads to be served to the most specific audience possible, and should thus improve ad performance for all advertisers using it.

As mentioned previously, if “Detailed Targeting” options don’t appear to be available through Power Editor, a “manual reset” is likely needed to get them to show up.

Conclusion

These features are just the latest (and some of the most exciting) in a string of Facebook Ads updates that show how dedicated Facebook is to improving the Ads experience for both users and advertisers. Testing these updated features, and others like them that are likely to be released over the coming weeks and months, promises to make 2016 a very exciting year for Facebook advertisers who are willing to invest in testing new functionality.

How will these features change the way you use Facebook Advertising in the new year?

 

Image Credits

Featured Image: Image by Scott Cohen
All screenshots by Scott Cohen. Taken November 2015.

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