I have posted just under 1,000 photos on Flickr over the past few years. According to Flickr’ stats, my photos have been viewed just under 35,000. If that seems like a lot, consider that isn’t 35,000 people, that’s 35,000 views (average = 35 views per photo). Odds are that no more than two dozen people have seen most or all of my photos. (And anyone who hasn’t seen them all never will at this point – can you imaging how long it would take.) I consider a good ‘audience’ around 50 people. One hundred views is a lot.
However, I have a few photos that have been seen by a much higher than average number of people. For the longest time, my most-seen photo was one I half-jokingly call Albuquerque Wetlands: lush greenery in the bottom of a concrete arroyo near the Big-I. I attribute most of those viewers to John Fleck, because he highlighted that photo.
Two photos have started moving up this year. A photo of a pasque flower started climbing this spring and surpassed Abq Wetlands handily. Then, even more surprising, a photo of a big brown spider jumped in the past month or two, each day gaining more than a dozen views. Spider has now eclipsed pasque flower and all others as my most seen photo. (For the record, I have far better photos of spiders and flowers.) I don’t know if someone has linked to each of these photos, but I can’t imagine people are searching every day for these images.