this video is brought to you by Squarespace when it comes to sharing our photography online there are so many options and it becomes really overwhelming trying to decide what is worth our precious time and energy a lot of us can tend to focus on a platform that isn't necessarily serving us well or we spread ourselves too thin trying to be everywhere all at once and this leaves us feeling frustrated tired and unmotivated so in this video I'm going to give you the pros and cons of a selected number of platforms that I have personal extensive
experience with I'm going to share with you who I think these platforms suit based on goals skill personality and what you want out of sharing your photography with the world just remember as you're watching this video every platform is not for you and that's actually a good thing after watching this video you will have Clarity on which platform is the best for you and what is worth you spending your time on in 2025 before we break down the options we must address something that is so very important and will save you so much time answering
this question what is your why in other words what are your reasonings and goals behind wanting to share your photography with the world what do you hope to get out of it do you want to build community are you wanting to monetize this endeavor do you want to grow your presence as an artist in the hope of having something like a gallery show maybe you are just wanting to have fun and challenge yourself or meet a group of black-m minded people online who you can share your beloved photography hobby with whatever your reasoning is this
step is really integral and you must dig deep and be honest with yourself when asking this question because you don't want to choose a platform based on something that is somebody else's goal or expectation or want only to waste your precious time and then lose momentum as a photographer sharing your work with the world let's jump in to the different options where you can share your photography online and Beyond in [Music] 2025 the first platform we're going to talk about is substack this is my absolute favorite if you are not familiar with substack I'll give
a brief overview so basically it is a newsletter platform that gets sent out via email to people who subscribe to your newsletter substack is also its own app and platform with a separate interface that kind of Acts a little bit like Twitter a little bit like blog post like we used to do or something like Tumblr you can share images writing and you can also monetize on substack with paid subscriptions it is gaining a lot of popularity lately there are so many people jumping over to substack who are frustrated with things like Instagram so let's
start with the pros of substack there are a lot there's very little barrier to entry when it comes to posting on substack which is really great if you want to take a chance and start posting on there if it doesn't quite work out or fit with you it's okay you are not losing much because you've just made some posts on there you could literally get started right now with a substack that shares both your photography and your writing your opinions your camera reviews whatever it is that you want to share you could literally after this
video have a substack done by the end of the day good news for photographers is that substack allows you to share your images uncropped and in high resolution unlike Instagram you can caption these images within your post and you can just add a few little bits of writing and make it mostly photography based I am finding that there is a real Community an actual Community feel on substack and people are willing to spend more time with your content it also goes direct to someone's email as opposed to being out there in an algorithm where you
don't really have control over who it's being delivered or shown to if someone signs up for your substock they're going to get it in their email it's also great for people who love writing and I do find a lot of photographers also have a flare for writing whether it's technical reviews or something like poetry this gives you the ability to go deeper with your community and show people more than just your photography the engagement on substack is a lot more quality as well and you'll find that people are willing to have conversations and you can
also direct message on there it really is such a great platform and I think it's still very underrated now let's go over the few cons of substack it's not just as simple as starting a substack and then loads of people will sign up and see it you do have to work to make things unique or interesting with your headlines and you have to get people to actually open that email newsletter that's being sent to them there is a little bit of strategy here in making sure that you are thinking about what someone would want to
read keeping them engaged with the written word which actually isn't as hard as it sounds in 2025 when video is dominating especially as people are getting very fatigued with that kind of empty content I actually to be honest with you really can't see many cons to starting substack because it is so easy to just get started today but I would say if you really really do not like writing you are somebody who struggles to write and you do not enjoy it maybe substack is not the best but you could 100% jump on there and just
share your photography there are plenty of substack accounts that are very photo focused less words more photos so have a look around on the platform see what other people are doing I will link some of my favorites below and see if substack is something that you think you would like to do in [Music] 2025 all right let's go to the big bad wolf everybody loves to hate this platform especially photographers and that is Instagram I actually think that Instagram is going through a few major changes this year that will be beneficial to photographers I am
noticing that static posts are getting a lot more reach than they used to if you post them correctly with carousels and engaging captions which is great news for all of us who just want it to be like how it used to be where we could post our photos I'm also noticing that older content is being pushed out and things aren't just dying after 24 hours which is really great I think that Instagram is trying to rival YouTube with more Evergreen styles of content which gives your content that you've put a lot of time and effort
into or really great photo that you've posted more opportunity to get in front of more people on the platform I also think there's a huge shift this year where the platforms are carving out their own specific audience and Niche rather than all competing with each other for the same thing which just leads to everyone creating the same types of content I know that there's so many people out there who have all these like social media predictions and there social media gurus I am 100% not trying to be one of those people I am just trying
to make sure that you don't give up on Instagram as I do think it's changing and it can be a very powerful platform if you know how to use it right a little tip on how I use it to make it work for me as a photographer I think of it as the handshake it's my billboard it's the trailer for the fulllength movie that is here on YouTube I have things like a podcast a substock a YouTube channel and I really want people to come over here or there because that's where I can really really
connect with you so I use Instagram to show people a little bit of it you know talk about cameras talk about things just in a light way get you involved and make you feel invited and then you can discover me on all of the longer form platforms that are way more valuable and exciting for me to create so if you start to reframe your mind and think of Instagram in that way like you're just spreading the word trying to find your people and then use something like substack how I mentioned earlier that's an email list
that you own not something that meta owns that would be a great strategy for 2025 so let's cover some pros for using Instagram as photographers chances are you probably already have it so you don't need to set it up you can just change your strategy a little bit and get moving for 2025 it's really great for discoverability there are so many people on the platform and if you know how to create content for it it can be so so powerful in the last 30 days I've had over a million people view my Instagram which is
crazy whilst posting on Instagram might weigh on you emotion Al it's actually really not that big of a deal to make a quick post or you've done a quick little reel it doesn't pop off it doesn't really matter you can do another one it's a lot more of a task to create a whole YouTube video for like no one to see it trust me I know how that [Music] feels okay so the cons and I'm just going to keep this brief despite what I said about static posts and carousels and things changing video is definitely
still very dominant so if you're on Instagram it's kind of more or less forcing you to do video on that note though I will share a video that I watched recently by Evan ramp who's created a whole Instagram account where he's just posted photos every day static posts only really interesting experiment if you are Keen I'll link it below a huge con of Instagram is that it's really hard to build any connection can photographers relate to this you post a photo and either you get no engagement or people comment and they just say fire fire
fire or Banger or whatever it is which is really nice and lovely to have but it's not actually inciting any true conversation or discourse around photography it's really hard to get actual true valuable engagement on the platform and build community as everything's moving so fast and it's quite sort of throwaway so who do I think Instagram suits well if you are somebody like me who enjoys loves being on camera I think it would be the perfect place for you to put your time and energy into if you don't mind playing the game a little bit
and being strategic with what the algorithm wants then it's perfect for you if that sounds truly awful to you and you have a very negative mindset towards Instagram like all you do is complain about it feel frustrated by it and think that it owes you something you want it to be exactly how it used to be that is never going to happen it will only move probably more towards how it is now those days are gone they're over and if you can't get over that literally just delete the app and just forget about Instagram because
if you come at it with that mindset you will never get anywhere on the platform sorry but someone had to say it if you're a photographer feeling frustrated by the new Instagram grid layout and want more control over the way your work is represented then I would recommend building a website with Squarespace and unlock the freedom to customize your online presence the way you see fit the design intelligence feature allows you to unlock two decades of industry-leading design expertise so you can build a bespoke gallery that showcases your Photography in your own way there are
plenty of features like an online shop and SEO tools that allow your website to grow with you as a photographer so you can sell prints guides or presets and show up more in search my favorite thing about Squarespace is the endless opportunity when it comes to adding pages fonts drop-downs and being able to customize it all myself without needing to hire someone every time I want to make a change or add something so give your photography the online presence it deserves by heading to squarespace.com for a free trial and when you're ready to launch go
to www.squarespace.com Lucy Lumen to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain links are in the description to get started with Squarespace today the next platform might be quite unexpected to you and that is podcasting I really believe that there are not enough podcasts in the world and everybody is listening to podcasts more and more so there is definite room for everyone especially if you are someone who wants to share your thoughts your ideas you want to interview people maybe you want to do camera reviews offer tips there's endless things you could
do with podcasting and it is very very very easy to get started in fact I would say it's maybe the lowest barrier to entry on this list which might surprise you whilst it's all well and good to have a fancy microphone and that's something you can do later on you can literally get started with your phone just speak close into the microphone and have some kind of recording app and you've got a podcast you can also host your podcast for free there are free editing Services podcasting builds real deep connection you are able to fully
flesh out your ideas and not have to squish them into like a minute real or Tik Tok you can really go deep on a subject or a topic if you're some who wants to talk about the history of a photographer or the history of a camera or something like that where you've done this really great essay you can read it out as a podcast and I'm sure so many people in the photography space would want to listen to that podcasting is great too because it can also be repurposed in so many other ways even if
you're not filming it you can easily get a transcription of what you've said and you can chunk it out and turn it into a substack there you go podcast and a substack in 2025 you're welcome personally I think it's a lot easier to hold someone's attention attention on a podcast think about when you put your headphones in to listen to a podcast you're normally driving exercising doing a chore I don't know walking around cleaning the house something like that and you'll give it a lot longer than you will when you're staring at your phone looking
at all the other shiny YouTube videos you could be watching and click off the one that you're watching right now please don't do that to me all of these pros of podcasting is why I brought mine back this year because I have a lot of thoughts clearly and a lot to say and podcasting is a very easy way way for me to just record what I'm thinking in the moment and then put it out for you guys to listen to whereas with a YouTube video I need to set up all of this lighting and record
and then edit and it's a lot more involved so check mine out below if you need some podcasting inso or if you want to see what I've been sharing this year on the podcast so there are a few cons of course and one of them is quite big and that's discoverability it is very very hard to get discovered on a podcasting platform and someone needs to do something about this because I am always looking for new podcasts and I Google photography podcasts or movie review podcasts to find them and I really wish that Spotify or
apple had a better way of showing me new podcast that they think that I would like so because discoverability is hard and you have your podcast and you obviously want people to listen to it you will have to do some form of marketing around it probably the most fun thing about having a podcast is interviewing people you get to learn while you're talking to them and you're audience will 100% love the diversity and getting to hear from someone new the bonus here is that your guest is likely to post on their own social media and
spread the word that they were a guest on your podcast and this will expose you to Their audience giving you new [Music] listeners the next platform is YouTube so I have been on YouTube for a little bit longer than 3 years now and it has totally changed my life it's projected my personal photography into a whole other realm I've built connections made friendships and had career opportunities that I could only dream of in the general landscape of social media YouTube in my opinion is King but that doesn't mean that it's easy often the platform with
the highest return whether that be exposure or financial return will be the most difficult I know a lot of you dream of having your own photography YouTube channel so let's jump in with the pros the great thing about making photography YouTube videos is you get to go a lot deeper than just your photo if you are somebody who has a particular process around how you create images YouTube is such a great way to share that with your audience often when we put a face to the photograph it is a lot more powerful and if you
are somebody who really wants to attach yourself to your work and there be an artist side of what you're doing YouTube is the perfect place to do that out of all of these platforms I think YouTube is really high up there with building connection and Community I have people who have watched this channel from the very beginning and they never miss a video just look at Ally from one month two cameras she has built up a very large devoted community in such a short space of time just through something Niche like sharing vintage digital cameras
so if you're sitting there right now and you have something specific in photography that you love definitely consider sharing it on YouTube the other great thing is that YouTube is so amazing for Evergreen content this means your content lives on for a really long time so you might might notice that when you search something on YouTube you'll get a video pop up that was put out five or even 10 years ago and the algorithm is still serving that to people it means that the effort you put in creating is going to last for a lot
longer than something like Instagram or Tik Tok in terms of money making opportunities which isn't the only reason to start a YouTube channel in fact if that's the only reason you're starting it maybe don't but there's definitely a good opportunity to earn some extra money as a side hustle or maybe you take off and it becomes your full-time job it's a lot easier to do that on YouTube than it is on Instagram just to put it into perspective and to be totally transparent with you this channel earns between 3 to 500 Australian dollars a month
just from ad Revenue so you really need sponsorships or getting huge amount of views to be earning a full-time living from YouTube based on what I earn from ad Revenue my hourly rate is pretty bad but that's okay because I enjoy doing it let's go over some cons of YouTu YouTube it is a very steep learning curve if you have no prior skills think about it you need to deal with lighting if you're going to be talking indoors like I am now you need to learn video which if you're a photographer there'll be some crossover
but video is pretty involved you've got audio you then have to edit the video you've got to work out how things work on YouTube like thumbnail title you know all the optimization for things like that so you're really wearing a lot of hats so consider that if you are starting a YouTube channel and make it easy for yourself there's always room to work up to better looking videos better sounding videos you can learn as you go and still be putting stuff out that is what I did and look at me now you have to understand
that YouTube is a long game so if you're someone who's really impatient or you want something to be happening like right now and you need that immediate satisfaction YouTube might not be the place for you because it does take a while for things to grow and take off and you have to believe in yourself and the process keep being strategic looking back improving and really stay the course you do not need to come out of the park with your first YouTube video being perfect I know photographers are often perfectionists just go back and watch my
early videos some of them are so cringe now and I consider taking them down but I won't because I think it's important to show where I started I have a video that I first shared on my Channel about the nickon l35 AF and it has about 30,000 views now it still gets viewed now but I say some really cringe things in there and it's definitely not filmed or lit in a professional way but it really doesn't matter it's just about getting started another con to starting a photography YouTube channel is it's very saturated because a
lot of people want to do it don't let that put you off but there is a very sort of high standard I think because photographers tend to be people who are maybe interested in like the technical side of things as well so there's a lot of like swishy good-looking channels out there which kind of raises the bar whereas in other niches on YouTube you'll look and you'll see that like the bar is a lot lower but don't let that put you off like I said get started and then as you go you can build and
get better I would say that YouTube is for a person who enjoys a challenge likes learning and does to some extent enjoy like the editing process or the technical side you know you want to be buying like a new gear and work out how to make things look good or sound good or do transitions or just have some level of interest in that whole process because that is a huge part of it if you don't really commit to YouTube and put out consistent videos in some form it will be really hard to build any momentum
but in saying that you might just want to put out a couple YouTube videos try it and have fun make it your goal for 2025 and be fine with it not growing in these huge numbers and that's totally fine it is really fun making videos I would really urge you to choose one to two platforms and just focus on those get those under control first and then you can move on or have these strategies where you're repurposing content in other places to sort of spread the word about you and your work overall the messaging here
is finding what works for you and making sure that it aligns with your goals and what you want make sure you're picking the platform that reflects that there is also of course options offline and out in the world if you are somebody who is not really taken with the whole online thing then you might want to prioritize in Real Life Connections if this is you I would suggest submitting to open calls for gallery shows or magazine features possibly making your own Zen you could sell prints in local shops just getting out there in your community
joining photography groups maybe you share your photography with the people in that group privately if you have a dream of being shown in a gallery it's really good to be attending other people's shows and connecting with local artists or Gallery owners and kind of connecting with those people so they know you're there and then they can come to you if they think that something would be suitable for you and your photography I truly believe that pairing that technique with some sort of online presence will definitely help you because let's face it it's 2025 and everything
is largely online so why not take advantage of that as well my top Peck out of all these platforms would be substack I reckon that's where it's at in 2025 so if you start a substack let me know and I will subscribe to it I'm really excited to see what you do over there whilst posting on Instagram what I'm trying m i trying to say the virus
