How to Choose Brilliant Images for Your Blog Posts

A guest post by James Adams, editor and contributor to the CreativeCloud blog.

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An image - worth thousand words!

We are living in a world that rewards instant gratification; people do not want to take the time to read a book, if the movie is available. In other words, "a picture is worth a thousand words." It should not be difficult to see why illustrations are important when keeping readers interested in your blog posts. Pictures can help readers to follow your writing more easily, breaking up the text so that it doesn't look like one long, tedious piece of work.
Here are some tips on how to choose the best images for your blog posts:

(#1.) Relevance - blog posts are generally there to persuade readers to show interest in a certain topic, product, or service. Adding pictures to help illustrate those concepts can only help, but don't go overboard. Shy away from adding pictures for the sake of adding pictures. Make sure that you are putting up illustrations that are going to add to the relevance of your text, not take away from it. It is easy to add too much, so try to keep it straight forward and to the point, just like the text.

(#2.) Copyrights - always remember that not all images are available for your use. There are copyrights for images that are on the internet as well as copyrights for images that are in print. If you want to avoid any problems that you might encounter with copyrighted materials, use your own images. Go looking for images that give relevance to your post and take the pictures yourself. If that doesn't seem like a viable option for you, there are public image sites that you can locate off of any search engine. Most search engines will provide you with an image option; type in the object or term that you are looking for and browse through the hundreds of images that are available to use without objection. If you find an image on another blog or site that you would like to use, remember to be courteous. It is polite to send a short email or contact the owner of the site asking for permission to use the image.

(#3.) Editing - it is important to do minor (and sometimes major) editing on your images before just sticking them up on your blog. It is more than aggravating to have to wait an eternity for a page to load because the file is too large. In fact, in this "instant gratification" world, no one waits for a page to load for very long without just moving along. If you have a file to add that is of larger size, put a thumbnail up on the page. If users want to wait to view the full photo, they have that option. If not, it doesn't create problems when loading. When finalising photos or images for your blog post, keep clarity in mind. A clean and crisp image gets the point across a lot better than an unclear one. Photoshop is a great tool to use before putting pictures up on your blog; you can add or subtract from an image as needed, and sometimes it is needed.

(#4.) Avoid - there are some things that you should try and avoid when choosing images for your blog post. For instance, animations are great and can potentially add just the right ingredient to your post, but it is important to think about internet connections. Some people don't have the fastest connections, and you don't want to alienate parts of your audience. It is also a good idea to stay away from background images; they can slow the process of loading your page down to snail pace. Account for those readers who may want to print your post without the background attached.

(#5.) Include - there are images that are better to use than others and should be highly considered. You want to make sure that you are using unique illustrations. If people have seen the image a thousand times, it loses its weight. People associate certain objects with a product or service and you want your readers to associate illustrations with your work. Include pictures that capture the essence of what you are trying to relay to your readers, it doesn't have to be completely literal. Capitalise on reader satisfaction by using photos that mean something to them; use pictures of people, kids, animals. Everyone likes to laugh, so adding a humorous image is a tool that will keep readers returning to your page. This is your chance to shine, to set yourself apart from similar blogs or from those that are selling the same product or service. Images can very easily turn into a mascot for a particular product, site or service. Mascots can be very beneficial to a business and finding a good one starts with searching through images that are relevant to your end goals.

Image credits: The Thinking Blog

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James Adams normally reviews consumables for Canon printers at the UK's biggest online supplier of printer cartridges, Cartridge Save.

10 Tips For Optimizing Your Blog For Printing

With a few simple steps you can optimize your blog for printing, add printable vouchers, and save your blog viewers a lot of ink and paper. In less than 10 minutes, you can improve the professional look and functionality of your blog and convince visitors to comeback, whether it is to buy from you or to simply visit again seeking more information. You can make your blog look great on the screen and on the printed page. Blog plugins allow you to increase readability by choosing which elements from your blog are included on the printed page.


Plugins to Optimize Your Blog for Printing

Quick Online Tips and HP suggest using plugins designed to make your blog printer-friendly. A few popular plugins that omit unnecessary information from the printout are: PrintWhatYouLike, PrintFriendly, Cleanprint and HP Smart Web Printing. VoucherPress adds functionality to your blog to print custom business content for your consumer.

1) PrintWhatYouLike (WordPress version 1.5 or higher)

PrintWhatYouLike is a free plugin that will automatically format your WordPress blog for printing and allows users to save the blog in a .pdf format. You can also sign up for a free account and customize how you would like your blog to print.

2) PrintFriendly (WordPress version 1.5 or higher)

PrintFriendly adds a "printer friendly" and a ".pdf" button to your blog so that users can use to create a printer-friendly version and save paper and ink by customizing which areas of the blog are included in the printout. It is free.

3) Cleanprint (WordPress version 2.0.2 to 3.0.1)

Cleanprint is another free plugin that allows the user to customize which areas of the blog are printed. This plugin is unique, however, because it allows the blog to be printed in a professional "magazine-like" format with logos and headers intact, but optimized for a printed format of the blog. One drawback is that it is only compatible with selected WordPress themes.

4) VoucherPress (WordPress version 2.8 to 3.0.1)

The VoucherPress is a free plugin allows you to create and print customizable certificates and vouchers and to collect visitor e-mail addresses for your database. It can be customized to contain unique offer numbers for tracking and the user can set expiration dates for each offer once a particular number of visitors have downloaded a certificate or voucher from your blog.

5) HP Smart Web Printing (Blogger and Drupal compatible)

HP Smart Web Printing is an Internet Explorer plugin that converts your blog into a .pdf format where users can choose which areas of the blog are included on the page.


Printer-Friendly Blog Design Tips

Your blog may look organized when you view it on the web, but have you ever tried to print out pages from your blog? Most blog themes have been designed and optimized for viewing online, but when visitors want to print pages to read later, they end up with an unreadable mess. With a few simple modifications to your blog design, you can create an eye-pleasing format that is readable online and in print.

1) Add a CSS style sheet

Marketing Tech Blog and WordPress for Style recommend adding a print.css style sheet to your blog. You can choose which areas to display and change the text formatting and the margins of the page. The style sheet code will need to be added to the header of each page of your blog.

2) Change the margins

The Search Written usability blog suggests changing the margins of the page within the print version of your blog to maximize printable area and save paper and printer ink for your blog readers.

3) List the URL for links

It is also helpful to set your print version up to print out the URL for links on your blog entries since you can't "click" on the page once it is printed! You can also list the URL as a footer in the printed version if you don't want the URL to interfere with the text readability of your print out.

4) "Un-float" tables

Going to Print recommends "un-floating" tables in your HTML for printed versions of your blog, this prevents blog areas from printing across two different pages.

5) Set the page background to white and table backgrounds to transparent

Another great tip from Going to Print is to set all background colors to "white" and all table backgrounds to "transparent" in the print version of the blog to save ink and increase text legibility.


Conclusion

It is easy to make your blog printer-friendly with a few easy modifications to your design and the use of clever plugins that make your blog look professional and optimize the visitor's experience when printing your blog pages so that they will want to return again and again.

James Adams works at Cartridge Save where he writes reviews of newest Lexmark supplies. When he has time, James enjoys writing about advertising, design and tech.

3 Unconventional Offline Marketing Techniques for Your Blog

We've read all that we can, about how to drive more traffic to our blogs. We know everything there is, to know about SEO and writing guest blogs and 'dofollow' links and so on. After a while, though, some of that stuff, as helpful as it is, can get a little old and we find ourselves wanting to have a little fun with how we market our blogs.

That's where unconventional offline marketing comes in. While you'll still want to devote a vast majority of your resources to the standard methods of attracting traffic to your blog, you should also consider having fun with some different approaches to offline promotion. Of course, be sure that these methods won't turn people off to your brand. It's all about balancing the marketing with how it affects your readers.

Here are a few ideas to consider as you try to attract new readers to your blog. Feel free to take these and adjust them however you can to suit your content and niche. And remember: have fun!

Undercover Marketing

This technique requires that you subtly place advertisements for your blog in places that many readers might not expect to see an advertisement. Consider your niche carefully when you do this, as you'll want to try to target the audience that would best fit your content. If your blog is about personal finance, then consider printing cheap bookmarks and hiding them in books in the financial section of local book stores. If your blog is about food or drinks, you could print stickers and stick them on the backs of products in grocery stores so that people will see them after they've purchased them. You can also enlist your friends to help you spread these subtle advertisements in other cities.

Gimmick Marketing

This might be a little more expensive and risky, but it can't hurt to try a one-time advertising gimmick and hope it generates some attention. Again, think carefully about how you want to represent your brand. For example, remember Battlecam.com? That's the site that paid a man to paint the domain on his chest and streak an Obama rally. You don't have to be as crazy as that to get good buzz; something as silly as hiring a guy in a bear suit to stand in Times Square with a sign could be enough to get a bit of new traffic.

Crowd Marketing

Have you ever walked the strip in Las Vegas? If so, you might have been surprised to suddenly find yourself holding a card for one of the many clubs or casinos in the area. Most likely, someone held it out and you took it without even thinking. You'd be surprised at what people will take when they're hurrying through a crowd. If there are any crowded areas like this nearby, you can print up a bunch of cheap business cards and simply hand them out to people. When you do so, make sure to thrust it into their hand so they don't have an option to turn you down. The simple human connection could be enough to get them to remember your url.

By-line:
This guest post is contributed by Alvina Lopez, who writes on the topics of accredited online schools. She welcomes your comments at her email Id: alvina.lopez @gmail.com

10 YouTube Videos About Writing That Are Worth a Look

A guest post by James Adams, editor and contributor to the CreativeCloud blog.

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There are two primary aspects of good writing: technical and content. Technical factors include the proper use of punctuation, spelling, grammar and form. Content speaks to the purpose, reader interest and composition of a written piece. Here are ten YouTube videos which address the different factors of good writing.

1. Writing Lessons: How to Write a Feature Story

John Graden discusses how to write a feature story for a magazine or newspaper. He relates the importance of having a good headline and talks about the 'So What?' factor. This three minute video is packed with useful information.

2. How to Write a 5 Paragraph Essay

This short series of five videos discusses the steps to writing a five paragraph essay. The author talks about pre-writing, preparing your word document, writing your essay, proofreading and formatting. This video stands out because of the cogent examples that it provides.

3. 7 steps to Better Blog Entries

This video takes four minutes to discuss the seven essential steps to receiving a better response to your blogs. The instructor's style is entertaining. He shows quite a lot of interest in the subject that he's talking about.

4. How to Use Commas in English Writing

Many writers miss the function of commas. The instructor clarifies the proper use of commas in writing and explains when they should be utilized. The video itself is nearly seven minutes long and thorough in its approach.

5. Writing Tips: How Can I Become a Better Writer?

Read as often as you can and study the techniques that superior writers use in their works. Though this video focuses on how to become a better creative writer, the tips contained within can be extrapolated for non-fiction.

6. 7 Tips to Get Into the Article Writing Zone

One complaint that writers have is that they are not completing the articles that they start. The author of this video attributes that to not being in the proper mindset. He then outlines many ways to get writers into the 'article writing zone.'

7. Top 10 Reasons for Article Rejection

Why do articles get rejected on EZinearticles? Meet Gary, a stick figure guy who has decided to write the top ten reasons for article rejection. Some issues include stolen or ripped content, blatant sales pieces and localized niche articles. This offers valuable information to would-be article marketers.

8. Power Writing (1 of 2) Brian Tracy

This YouTube posting is strictly audio and makes it on this list because the content stands out. The ways to create content are covered within the span of two ten minute offerings. The ideas presented center around the fact that the writing phase and editing phase should be separate within any piece of writing.

9. How to Write a Strategic Marketing Plan

This informative video takes the best practices for creating a marketing plan and distills them into a precise and easy to watch format. Creation of a great business plan is vital for both online and brick and mortar businesses.

10. Ray Bradbury speaks about writing

Ray Bradbury encourages writers to read often and have passion about their writing. He states that if you don't enjoy the writing, do something else. Bradbury is a living legend. His stories have won nearly every writing award in existence. Sometimes, the best advice is given to you by the masters.

Hopefully, these insights and tips will help you become the best writer that you can be.

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James Adams is a full time writer who reviews products such as the HP 901 for Cartridge Save. He also writes posts on their blog about advertising, art and design.

10 Tips to Take Your Writing to the Next Level

A guest post by Tom Walker, editor and contributor to the CreativeCloud blog.

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© RandomAsAllways

So you would like to give your writing a little more pizzazz huh? Taking your writing to the next level may sound simple in theory, but is often easier said than done. It is often easy to get set in your ways when it comes to counter productive writing habits, and breaking those habits can be difficult to say the least. But with some effort, and by making use of certain tips and techniques, you may be able to shed those habits that are keeping you from advancing your writing to the next level.

Here are some tips that might assist you in taking that next step in your writing, making your work clearer, easier to read, and more effective in conveying your thoughts, theories and ideas.

1. Tighten Up
Tightening up your work by looking for and eliminating unnecessary words and sentences can be a great way to better your writing. By reducing the clutter within your work, you may be able to present your thoughts in a clearer, more concise way that is easier for your readers to follow.

2. Watch Your Length
Whether you’re writing an article, essay or a post for your blog, it’s important to remember that with faster technology and access to more information, the attention span of a large portion of readers is dwindling. Long sentences, paragraphs, even articles may be a turnoff for readers of an increasingly ‘need to know now’ world.

3. Slow Down
In many instances, it’s fine to blow through a rough draft. Doing so might even help you get your ideas down faster without leaving out pertinent information, but when reviewing your work it can often be helpful to take it slow. By taking your time and focusing on the words you have written and the information you are attempting to convey, you may catch a multitude of errors you made during your initial work.

4. Re-read
While you might think you’ve just written a perfectly formed essay or article, you may be surprised at how much you missed or how many mistakes you made along the way. By proofreading your work, you’ll likely pick up quite a few spelling and grammatical mistakes as well as possible content and structure issues as well.

5. Re-read Again
For many writers, just reading a rough draft once isn’t enough. Consider re-reading your work in another form to get a different perspective on it. If you wrote and proofed your initial draft on a computer, consider printing it out to read it a second or third time on paper. Maybe reading your work on paper isn’t enough though. You may want to read it aloud, which could help you to catch mistakes you would have scanned over otherwise. It’s quite possible that you’ll still be finding mistakes or adjusting the work on the second, third, or even fourth reading.

6. Let It Sit
If you have the time, letting your writing sit for a while may increase the odds of catching mistakes when you re-read it. Allowing your brain time to rest, recuperate, and forget the words it has just put to paper can provide a fresh outlook when you come back to proofread.

7. Write For Your Readers
Knowing your audience may sound like common sense, but it can make a big difference in how you write. For example, using overly complicated terms for a younger audience or modern slang for an older audience can make your writing seem awkward.

8. Don’t Overindulge
There are varieties of ways in which you may overindulge with your writing. Telling personal stories, making jokes, talking too much about yourself, using profanity, making sweeping assumptions or generalizations, taking a ‘holier-than-thou’ approach -- you probably get the picture.

9. Sources and Interviews
Citing credible sources or utilizing interviews in your work may increase the strength of your writing, grab your readers’ attention, and give your work more conviction.

10. Take a Chance
Getting outside your comfort zone and trying or learning something new can be a great way to raise your writing to the next level. Experimenting with your writing and the techniques you use can lead you to knew ideas and increase your abilities.

It can be important to remember that when it comes to your writing and elevating your skills, it’s often about continued practice and the reading of other writers’ works. Often, the more you are exposed to writing and the techniques involved, the better you can make your own writing. Constantly being on the look out for new ideas, tips, and methods that other writers use can help get you to that next level.

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This guest post was written by Tom Walker, a writer who works with an online store offering HP 363 ink and toner. He manages their blog about print design, vintage advertising and the arts.