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It's against the rules - it's commercial use of your account. Flickr doesn't allow you to host images for commercial websites or blogs.
Posted 46 months ago.
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Are there any alternatives for commercial use through Flickr or a related site?
Posted 46 months ago.
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Well, I'm not sure about what Dr Keats is saying. You're allowed to post your photos offsite as long as you link back to their photo pages on Flickr.
You cannot post any sales info to your photos' titles, tags, or descriptions or to use your stream solely to sell items. Have a look at the Community Guidelines:
www.flickr.com/guidelines.gne
Posted 46 months ago.
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« Flickr doesn't allow you to host images for commercial websites or blogs.»
And why not ?!!!!!!!!!! Flickr is also commercial !!!!
Posted 46 months ago.
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Zoomix Flickr has rules. See the link I posted. You cannot use Flickr to sell things out of your stream.
That said, I don't see where they couldn't post photos to their stream and then link to them from their site, so long as their stream isn't littered with commercial language. But I may have missed staff's statement about it.
Posted 46 months ago.
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I wasn't planning to have any commercial language in the photostream. I would post only very simple photo titles (no descriptions). It wouldn't be stated that the photos are from a tour, what the tour is, that the poster is the tour owner/operator.
But most of the pages on my website are presenting (selling) the tour. Some pages are more informational about the area.
(I could post a link to my site in this topic, but I'm not sure that's allowed.)
Posted 46 months ago.
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KathyandCharley
from what you are describing as the use and description of the photos - I think you'll be ok and there is no breach with Flickr TOS.
And even if you place as description and title: "Tour of France 2008"
all will be fine, as long as you don't sell anything on Flickr directly
Posted 46 months ago.
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I wanted to bump my question again, since there are conflicting interpretations in the responses from Dr. Keats and zyrcster.
I did send a message to Flickr, but I was advised to bring my question to the forum.
Thanks.
Posted 46 months ago.
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I did send a message to Flickr, but I was advised to bring my question to the forum.
Who advised that?
The problem is that flickr's community guidelines are a bit vague at times. It say that you shouldn't use your account for commercial purposes and using flickr to host images (photos) for a business website could well count as 'commercial purposes'. The appropriate staff message is from 'Stewart' here:
www.flickr.com/help/forum/16649/#reply93810
Photos of a tour that you are selling are essentially no different than photos of items that someone is selling via Etsy, or stuff that someone is selling on Ebay.
I don't think that zycrster would agree that an Etsy seller using flickr to host their product catalog would be within the community guidelines, and upon reflection would agree that Dr Keats has it right, you definitely shouldn't be doing that.
If you put descriptions under the photos saying that they are from some tour that you run, then again I don't see that as any different from an Etsy user saying this is some knitwear that you can find on my store. It really is bordering on salesy verbage
Posted 46 months ago.
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Even without any descriptions at all, if your sole purpose with posting images on Flickr is to display them outside of Flickr for commercial purposes, then that's not really what Flickr is for. In the same way that people with eBay auctions can't use Flickr to host the images.
All you need is a place to host images, and there are other photo-storage sites out there with this purpose in mind. Quite frankly any professional web site shouldn't be relying on an external site for it's content display. If something happens to Flickr, or your account is deleted, then that completely breaks your web site.
Posted 46 months ago.
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I don't think that zycrster would agree that an Etsy seller using flickr to host their product catalog would be within the community guidelines, and upon reflection would agree that Dr Keats has it right, you definitely shouldn't be doing that.
In re-reading Stewart's statement, yes, if a Flickr account is solely a product catalog for a commercial site, then that does seem to run counter to the guidelines.
However, we all *know* that the etsy users (and others) here are using their streams as product catalogs, but that's somehow OK as long as they don't have anything in their tags/titles/descriptions that indicate the products are for sale.
Posted 46 months ago.
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zyrcster edited this topic 46 months ago.
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I'm not sure that Etsy users host their store content here, I've never seen that being suggested, and Etsy hosts images for the user stores on their site anyway.
Posted 46 months ago.
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I don't quite understand Flickr's stance on commercial use! I don't sell from this site as I am a member of various stock sites but I do sell on my, dare I say it, PBase site who have no such restrictions and many pro photographers have their work shown there.
Sheila
Posted 46 months ago.
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Sheila Smart Photography wrote I don't quite understand Flickr's stance on commercial use! I suppose it's just not what they want their site to be. And what's wrong with having a photo site that isn't for selling? I know a lot of pro and semi-pro photographers who are really happy to have someplace to share their work and to talk with other photographers and with friends -- and to leave the selling behind and elsewhere.
Posted 46 months ago.
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Sheila... I don't understand also but we will understand when Flickr will give you the permission to sell with Getty or an other big man !!!!!! It's commercial !!! Hi ! Hi ! Hi !
Posted 46 months ago.
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Sheila - that's because not everyone wants to be in an environment where the smell of the almighty dollar/pound/euro/yen is pervasive.
If your photos are good, you'll get private FlickrMails offering to buy them, I promise.
Posted 46 months ago.
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"I'm not sure that Etsy users host their store content here".
That's not what Zrycster was saying - it's that some (and ONLY some, a minority) are using Flickr as an online catalog for their Etsy store, with images of their creations, complete with prices and the URL of their Etsy store in the photo description. Yep, Etsy images are usually stored on Etsy servers, while the Flickr account is essentially being used as a second sales point.
And if you spend, say, 20 minutes going through "Everyone's Photos", you'll find a swag of non-Etsy people who are using Flickr solely as a catalog. Click on anything that looks like a "product shot", and spend a minute or two browsing the user's photostream. Some even have "store" as part of their user-names...
Posted 46 months ago.
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Dr. Keats
Those folks* get deleted on a regular basis. I've reported some of the egregious violations and it's usually less than 24 hours before they're gone.
*online catalogs
Posted 46 months ago.
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ColleenM edited this topic 46 months ago.
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Yeah, I know - I do the same. Doesn't alter the fact that they existed - and the countless ones we haven't seen...
Posted 46 months ago.
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Dr. Keats 
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