Is there a compelling reason to use flickr?

Or any other major image hosting site for that matter? I had shared an article a couple of weeks back about the importance of flickr and success in photography -http://photo.net …ing-flickr-for-marketing/, but I just don't like to put my good stuff on services like that (let alone anywhere on the web, really). Plus, it doesn't make sense to throw yourself in a sea of everyone and everything to help you succeed. I would think it would be better to separate yourself from the churn.

I was just curious on others peoples thoughts on using flickr.

I use Flickr to post a lot more images than I show on my website (all watermarked of course). I try & show only what I consider my best on my website, but I have sold images that they saw on Flickr & not on my webite..beauty is in the eye of the beholder kind of thing. I have a link to my Flickr on my site so if they want to see more it's there. Case in point, I have a guy that is spending over $500 for some of my images (landscape-cityscape)...4 of them he saw on Flickr, ones that I didnt consider to be my best, (and actually had to go find them in my collection...) but they obviously triggered something for him to part with his money....
I sold 1 for a book cover from Flickr.because it wasnt on my site...
I also use Flickr to see what keywords have been used and which images come up for those words, and make sure those are inputed into my personal site.
For me at least its worth it, for others maybe not

I read the article a few months ago. I used to have a pro account, but I let it lapse 2 years ago. I'm seriously thinking about subscribing again because of the article. I never uploaded my hi-res stuff anyway. I limit to ~600px with a watermark.

IMO, it's just another way to be found.

Flickr and similar services are really great places to post up images that can easily be shared with friends/family. If I were to move to any sort of commercial venture I would use a different venue for display and sales. But, with my Pro account, I can upload an unlimited amount of my stuff up without having to muck with resizing, etc...and then can upload images here or link to coworkers that I share images with, etc.

I really appreciate self managed presentation, if that's what you could call it. I never look at flickr. I happily check out most photo sites I come across and enjoy the different web sites and great photography. flickr looks so boring to me with it's bandwagon approach and just plain plainness. The effort people take to do their own thing is simply more interesting.

Those are all good points though.

I "quit" Flickr two years ago because I got tired of the groups and the stupid awards. That said, I think Flickr is a good way to be found. I'm just not going to join too many groups...LOL!