Trying to Get Explored

Since becoming active on Flickr, I've become more and more interested in getting one of my photos "Explored" (in other words, ranked among the top 500 most "interesting" recent photos on Flickr on a given day). This effort has kept me challenged for many months, despite zero success.

Here's the closest I've gotten so far, I think:

This photo was viewed about a dozen times, favorited by two people, and commented on two or three times within a few hours of uploading. That was enough to make it shoot up to number four in popularity among my own photos, and it certainly got more attention than anything else I've uploaded recently.

So what makes one Flickr photo more interesting than another? I'm not really sure (obviously?), but I've gotten some ideas by reading up on it. The general consensus seems to be that new photos are given an "interestingness" ranking based on the number of views and comments, and especially the number of times others have marked it as a favorite. Apparently, the faster these views, comments, and favorites are accumulated, the more interesting Flickr finds the photo and the more likely it is to appear on the Explore page.

Some folks say that it helps if the photo is linked to a location on the Flickr map, as well. However, it seems that adding lots of tags to photos or adding photos to a large number of groups may actually counteract the positive affects of views, comments, and other factors.

So how does one get a photo noticed without adding it to lots of groups or adding a crazy number of tags? As with many things in life, I think it pays to know people. The more people you know on Flickr, the more likely it is that they'll watch for your new photos and view, comment, and favorite them. And how does one get to know people on Flickr? Easy, silly. View, comment, and favorite their photos, and upload your best photos to Flickr.

At least I think that's the way it works.