WOW. Four years. You might be getting tired listening to me talk about this website as my “labour of love” and yes, I feel your pain but it is what it is. I could not have begun to think of where this selfish project would take me back in early 2015 when I had the simple thought, “Hmmm…I should have a website” but hey, life is a series of surprises followed by eventual understanding.
Thank you to every single one of you helping make this little website one of the most comprehensive film photography resources on the planet. I honestly couldn’t have done it without you. As I begin year five I might not be posting as much of my own photography as I was before but you’ll still find the same writings on film photography, film photographer interviews, news stories, projects, and contributed articles as you did in year four. More in fact.
As of June 1st 2019, EMULSIVE has over 1000 film photography articles and interviews – nearly 2100, if you count my photography in the mix. It’s a little mind-boggling to be completely frank. 2018-19 was an amazing year and I went from featuring the work of 180 contributing authors to over 300. Being able to share their work and perspectives on this wonderful world of film photography has been a gift. Thank you.
In less than stellar news, I did happen to make a few missteps last year. Most were minor, easily addressed but there was a biggie. I started a podcast with Hamish Gill over at 35mmc. UGH. Still, you have to live by your mistakes and the Hypersensitive Photographers Podcast is mine ours 😉
You live, you learn and speaking of which, learning played a BIG part on the website last year – something that is going to continue for the foreseeable future. From more darkroom-related guides and articles to articles on process and technique, EMULSIVE continues to inch closer to the space I’d envisaged over four years ago – somewhere film photographers of all ages, levels and areas of discipline could visit to be inspired, share their knowledge and hopefully, learn something all the while.
The site is still ad-supported and that’s not going to be changing. However, since the beginning of the year (following a change of hosting infrastructure/platform), I’ve been making small, meaningful changes to the types and number of adverts being served and reducing their impact on how fast the page loads. Readers on mobile devices should have seen the biggest change with a ~60% performance boost year on year. This work will be continuing through the rest of the year and as a reader, you should notice a few big leaps over the next three months especially.
My presence on Patreon is still very much active and if you’re supporting me there right now, I’d like to hear your feedback – how do you want me to engage there? Is there anything more I can be doing for you right now?
Which leads me to my final point: I’d like you to tell me what you want to see here on EMULSIVE over the coming year. What kind of articles, long-form writings and direction would be most useful to you right now and beyond?
I’m looking forward to hearing what you have to say.
~ EM
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13 responses to “Four years of EMULSIVE – a retrospective”
https://t.co/9DCn2ObAXW
One suggestion: personality quizzes. I REALLY want to know what B&W chemistry I’d be.
Happy Birthday!
Four years of great job! Congrats lad!
Congrats, chief. No mean feat as I well know.
You’ve certainly done a grand job with it. I visit almost daily to see what super interesting articles have appeared. Like most of us, I have a website too, the traffic of which fails to insignificance compared to what I imagine yours must get. The regular appearance of articles is mind boggling. You must have nearly a dozen queued at any point in time. That is truly inspirational. My site, despite my varied efforts, gets single digits of visitors each day despite a fairly frequently updated film-related blog. And my adverts placements generate literally zero income. Maybe you should offer consultancy advice to other photographers like me, trying to increase their website usefulness. I’m sure there would be interest.
Thanks Ted, that means a lot. Making sure there’s an article ready to be published 5-7 days a week isn’t a small feat and a dozen is about right. I try to keep a few weeks worth of articles ready in the event of inevitable delays, rewrites and timing problems. Getting “noticed” isn’t easy when you’re starting out and my advice would be this: focus on one GREAT piece of content per week and promote the hell out of it. As far as consulting goes, hey, anything is possible.
“focus on one GREAT piece of content per week and promote the hell out of it.” : I entirely understand Em, and I know you are right. The problem I find though is this: these days, it seems almost “socially unacceptable” to plug your own content, or maybe I am just self-conscious that I might come across that way. For example, if I write an article on my site, and link to it in the Negative\Positives FB group, I am self-conscious that I am simply directing people to MY content. It seems fine if someone else does it, but I just feel a bit awkward doing it (bit like laughing at your own jokes). And sadly Google searches don’t even seem to account for much traffic. I did it the other day (posted a link to my article) relating to the use of glass instead of plastic holders for the Epson scanners, but I only did it because I read a discussion about it in the group so felt it was relevant, and as it happened, several said it was helpful. Anyway – this is not a post about “helping Ted with his site”….so lets revert back to your article. 4 years…who knows what Emulsive will be like in another 4 years!? Probably have AI engines talking to us about film, hey.
I totally understand where you’re coming from on the “socially acceptable” front and honestly, I still suffer from it now and then. My take: if it’s something you truly believe to be of value, share it. There may be one or two people who won’t agree and it’s up to you if you want to defend yourself (or the content of the article). If you’re still concerned, reach out to the group/page/site admins and ask if they would be ok with you sharing the content. It’s worked for me in the past and I don’t see why it wouldn’t work for you mate.
I feel your pain Ted. I’m in the same boat. I’ll visit yours if you’ll visit mine:)
I’ve visited and now I feel worse! I love your layout. I think I need to look at restructuring mine! By the looks of it you are clearly more well travelled than I am . I noticed a few of London from similar vantage points that I have used. Clearly we have similar minds at least.
Wait, there’s a Patreon page I should be looking at?
4 years! 😮 Congratulations EM!