Working Around Errors Uploading Images to Blogger

The extremely annoying problem of not being able to upload images with Blogger (discussed at Error Uploading Images to Blogger) can be worked around.

First open your Picasa page. Maybe you didn't know you have one. But if you've been using the blogger image uploader, you do. That's where they are stored. Go to this URL https://picasaweb.google.com/home . If you are logged into your Google account it will automatically bring up the various blogs you have under that ID. Click on the blog you want to add a picture to.

Then choose "Add Photos." I've circled it in the image below that shows my Picasa page for Grazing the Ditches



This will take you to a screen where you can either drag the image from your folder into a large box, or browse your files to find it. When the image (or several) shows in the box, click OK in the lower right corner. This will throw you back to the upload screen.

Now you need to get back to the album you want. The only way I've seen to do this is click on the Home tab, and then the Album for the blog I just added to. Once you have that open, the picture you just added should show in the thumbnails. Click on the image and it will open in a larger size. You can then right click and choose Copy Image Location (or whatever your browser calls it).

Paste this into your blog.

If you don't know how to code it to show up, follow this example: <IMG SRC="http://your-picture-url.jpg"> (or gif, etc. insert the correct URL for the image)

You can force it to align to the left or right by placing the following between IMG and SRC: ALIGN="LEFT" (or right)

These commands to not need to be in capital letters. I just did that to identify them as tags.

Of course it would be nice if the uploader would work, but this makes it possible to post when we are ready, not when Google decides to work.

Self Hosting Sharkbytes Photos

After deciding that Shareapic was no longer a service that I wanted to be associated with, I set out to develop my own photo gallery, with advertisements. I got some encouragement from John at Make Nothing Online, and I have begun what could turn out to be a huge project. But I am very happy to have more control over the advertisements.

Not everything is organized quite like I would like it yet, but I've made a start. Comments and criticisms welcome.

Sharkbytes Photo Gallery

web ad income Oct 25 (4 blogs, 2 web sites, writing): Adsense $.11 Adgitize $.59 Project Wonderful $.02 My Survey $.10 Clixsense $.07 ______________________ Total: $.79

I Think It's "Goodbye Shareapic"

 
Well, just a few days ago, Shareapic had a major database burp and lost a lot of pictures. This included ALL of mine. Their solution is for the owner to upload them all again. Of course, this will result in different URLs for the pictures, so I would have to go back and change every single link to those pictures.

Coupled with the difficulty in organizing folders, the pop-up ads, and the scantily clad girls (not quite porn), I think that I am all done with them.

John, at English Wilderness, showed me how he is hosting his own pictures, and including ads. I think that I will begin setting up something similar. It will be easier to do (I have no trouble with the coding). I can organize my pictures better, and hopefully will make a few pennies. I was only making about a penny a day at Shareapic.

So I will lose my 50 cents I have banked there. Whoopie-doo. But I've spent a lot of time making that half dollar that I'll never actually have. A lesson learned, I guess.

Shareapic Temporarily Suspends Payments

web ad income October 10 (4 blogs, 2 web sites, writing): Adsense $.11 Adgitize $.61 Project Wonderful $.03 Clixsense $.13 Chitika $.03 ______________________ Total: $.91

 
 

web income Sept actually cashed out (4 blogs, 2 web sites, other writing): Adgitize (income - ad cost) $8.87 Private Ad sales $55.00 Textbroker $39.40 Shared Reviews $45.45 Associated Content $2.58 ______________________ Total: $151.30

Trying Associated Content Slide Show to Monetize Images

I've been a writer at Associated Content for over two years, and have mixed feelings about the venue, but they have recently added the ability to create slide shows.

This presented itself as another possible way to gain income for showing my images. You can earn for "performance payments" only, and the rate is the same as articles. That means you get $1.50 for 1000 views. So this morning I set out to create a slide show there to see how much I like it.

First of all, you can't get the interface to work in Firefox. They don't say that anywhere; I had to communicate with an author friend to find that out. So you have to use Internet Explorer. I haven't tried it in Chrome yet.

Their terms for image use are quite strict. Even if you only use your own photos, if there are people in them you are supposed to be sure to have permission from each person to use the photo. This is really the way you are supposed to use photos anywhere, but AC will suspend you in a heartbeat if someone complains that you posted a picture of them without permission. That's not like a law suit, but it would be the end of that income stream.

The interface to create the show is as cumbersome as any of these sorts of photo upload sites. No big surprise there. But another real annoyance is that you only have 255 characters to label each image. You can use as many images as you want, however, in a show.

Here's the biggest drawback in my mind. I want a way that people can see a larger version of a picture that I might use on a blog. This is not going to do that for me. The images are displayed in a tiny thumbnail strip at the top of the show, and then the "full-size" display is no larger than what I can put on a blog. So that hope is completely dashed.

Perhaps the only use for it to link from a blog would be to show additional images on a similar topic, rather than clogging up a blog post.


See my first Associated Content slideshow Flickertail Observed in Minnesota
See I Love/Hate Associated Content

web ad income Sept 16 (4 blogs, 2 web sites, writing): Adsense $.13 Adgitize $.54 Project Wonderful $.02 Shareapic $.02 Clixsense $.01 ______________________ Total: $.73

Shareapic vs Shared Images

I've been only moderately happy with Shareapic, and have been looking for another image host that would pay for views. While cleaning out some emails today I discovered that I already was a member of Shared Images (sharedimages.org). I believe that I signed up for them as the result of a writing assignment many months ago to review the site.

Well! I liked what I saw about the payment options, although it is difficult to predict exactly how well one would do there since there is a scale that measures "quality of traffic." And I'm not even going to tell you more about this site because I really don't want to go back there, or send you there. In fact I've asked them to delete my account.

I had set up an album there as a result of the assignment, but had never uploaded a picture. So I did that. It was mildly annoying since the maximum size is 1MB, which meant that if I were going to use them every photo from my camera would need to be resized and saved before uploading- a real space waster unless I took the time to delete each one after uploading.

But the final straw was when I viewed the image to see what kinds of ads they would serve to gain their income. It was pornography, plain and simple.

I know that the ads at Shareapic are sometimes a bit racy. I know that they accept ads from some places that I believe to be scams. But at least the girls in their ads have a few threads of fabric over certain places. No such luck at Shared Images. And the poses are not artistic if you get my drift. I'm no prude; I'm fine with fine art. This was not art.

So for now I will put up with the inability to organize my galleries (albums) at Shareapic, and the sometimes annoying ads. But I'll keep looking for another option to earn a few pennies with my pictures.

Shareapic Temporarily Suspends Payments

web ad income July 15 (4 blogs, 2 web sites, writing): Adsense $.15 Adgitize $.56 Project Wonderful $.02 Shareapic $.02 Clixsense $.04 Chitika $.09 ______________________ Total: $.88

Shareapic Temporarily Suspends Payments

I signed up with Shareapic in early July. My reactions to how it works have been mixed, and now they have temporarily put payments on hold. Not that I've earned enough money yet to get a payment...

The reason quoted for the payment suspension is: "Shareapic is temporarily ceasing the issuing of payments to members in order to pool money to fight a pending lawsuit. Members will still accrue their image view & referral earnings as usual, however payments will be put on hold until further notice." Despite their strong warnings about members posting copyrighted material, some people will do it, and someone is suing Shareapic for not catching the offender soon enough.

It may not affect me at all, assuming they can get this settled and resume payments. My account is not growing very fast, and there is a $20 minimum payout. Despite their example calculation that they pay $2.00 per 1000 views, there is a big disclaimer about the source of the traffic. They pay less for views from the Far East. And what they distribute is a percentage of what they take in, not an absolute value.

The reality is that I've had 1260 image views, and have earned 26 cents. The site is awkward. You can created unlimited galleries, but there is no way to organize them, or to organized pictures within the galleries. I've labeled pictures by leaving the first comment under them.

Their revenue comes from showing ads. So far, people who have viewed my pictures there say that the ads are not too annoying.

Also, they state "no adult content." This translates to no hard porn. The site is full of racy pictures that are definitely soft porn. Of course, no one needs to look at any of this to see my images, but with thousands of this kind of picture being uploaded to the site, you can make some assumptions about the general quality of the membership.

Nevertheless, assuming they can get the law suit settled, it is a way to earn money with picture views. They have been around for several years; in other words, they are not a new web start-up company. They claim over 250,000 members. This gives the site some credibility in my mind. I think I'll try to wait it out and see what happens.

Shareapic.net

web ad income Sept 4 (4 blogs, 2 web sites, writing): Adsense $.06 Adgitize $.53 Project Wonderful $.04 Shareapic $.01 ______________________ Total: $.64

Trying out Shareapic

There are lots of great picture sharing services out there, but I have decided to try out Shareapic.net. You are paid for views of your pictures at the rate of about $2 per 1000 image views. This can vary by the month, and traffic from some countries is worth less than others. For bloggers or other web sites, one can link to either an individual picture or a gallery.

Users retain all rights to their pictures, but must accept that others are likely to link to them. No adult content, and all photos uploaded to the site must be the property of the member that uploads them.

Once you sign up, it's awkward to get to the login screen. Click again on "Sign Up," and then on "Members Area." This will then present the login boxes. To get to the FAQ's you need to look at the small print at the bottom of the home page. All the appropriate information is available, but it's not necessarily easy to find.

Once you are a member, you can create galleries and upload pictures.

Shareapic.net