I have a confession to make, I don’t do photos as much as I would like. I love photos and blogs, and actually photography has been one of my favorite hobbies. Now with 2 kids, a mortgage, a few high tech ePeople to manage, who has time? I have been coaching and evangelizing blogging for a long time, but until last week I did not add photos to my blogs. That was a mistake, I want to help you avoid.

I think it’s important to write about photo blogging, and everything we can share to help us make our blogs more impactful. The problem, I use to believe was, well, I don’t really have a lot of photos, do you? Most people don’t know how they can use photos for their blogs. The biggest news I can tell you, Yes you can, and it’s easy.

Yes, you can Jazz up your blog with a photo or two. Here are some tips on jazzing up your blogs with Photos. I usually add at least 3 photos per blog now days, but back when I first wrote this blog, I only used one.

1. Do any Google search on “Free Photos” and you will find many small to big photo sites providing amazing photos you will love. My favorite is Sxc.hu, but Flickr is not bad as you have to ask individual permission, but just love the name, what can I say.

2. Every time you blog, spend at least 5-10 minutes looking and finding the best photo for your topic, make it a unique photo and beautiful.

3. Give credit where it’s due. Always give the website and the photographer if you can, credit by mentioning their name. Do it with your name of the photo saved as for example the photo above, has the website name in. I did that for them, they didn’t require it.
4. Be contextual, pick your photo on the blog topic. This will help with the search result and Google search marketing, and SEO. Be as descriptive as you can, but don’t over do it. Yes, that will actually have a positive effect and get your website ranked higher in the search engines too.

5. Use an Alt Tag, on every photo even your blog every time. But, What is it you say? You are right, that could be another post on it’s own. An Alt-tag describes the image for search engines so they can index it. It’s the same for a video blog too. Alt-tags use to be a big craze a few years ago for better search rankings, and SEO. Here is a few don’ts: Don’t stuff keywords, don’t upload huge files, don’t place weird or strange photos. Make them beautiful, as we are professional bloggers here:-0)>

I believe that photo and video blog sharing along with blogging are some of the top reasons for the success of the Internet. The Web 2.0 social networking world is full of blogs with colors, photos, videos, empowering the human network. Go blog your way to the top!

Are you worried about differentiating yourself from the millions of other blogs out there? After all, one could view the blogosphere as a massive haystack with a few valuable, glittering needles hidden inside it – the blogs with valuable content. The search engines help people discover the needles, but it’s up to the individual bloggers to get them to use the needles to sew and make something great (okay, I definitely stretched the limits of that metaphor).

One of the best ways to be sticky is to create a site that is a feast for the senses – an elegant design and bold images for the eyes, interesting videos and podcasts for the ears, and luscious language that paints a picture in your readers’ minds. Be creative with your word selection and try to choose the most precise, accurate terms to express your ideas.

First of all, a thesaurus is your friend, whether you rely on an printed and bound book or you use websites like Thesaurus.com. Thesauri are especially valuable when you notice that you’ve been using the same words too many times and as a result, your writing is flat, boring, and/or redundant. A quick trip to the thesaurus to find alternative options can liven things up in no time, and you might discover new terms that work even better than your go-to phrases.

You don’t have to neglect SEO and your keywords to writing appealing posts, either. First of all, it’s important to integrate a significant variety of keywords into your posts – using only two or three constantly is a dead giveaway that it’s SEO copy and many people will click away (and it doesn’t matter how much traffic SEO sends your way if they leave within a second or two). After all, don’t you want people to stick around, so you get multiple pageviews, interesting comments, and incoming links?

Another way to inspire your writing is to keep a folder or set of bookmarks filled with quality writing by people you admire. You can pull it out when you’re feeling unmotivated to get your creative juices flowing. Personally, I use del.icio.us for this – I have tags for “inspiration” and “writing” and “creativity” and more in my account. Social media is for more than just connecting people – you can use it to organize your ideas, sources, and inspirations.

Last but not least, it’s important to remember that the number one way to become a skilled writer is to practice, practice, practive, and then practice some more. If you’re serious about improving your work, it’s important to write something everyday, even if it’s just a short paragraph or two, and to read the work of other writers – you never know where you’ll pick up a new technique or interesting insight.  Remember no matter how much you SEO, search marketing is still about writing great content.

Almost all bloggers are going to encounter critics at some point, especially bloggers who are passionate about their topics and committed to sharing their ideas with the world. Passion and conviction can polarize people, and it takes courage to publish your thoughts, especially if your topics are in any way controversial.

Criticism is a Fact of Blogging Life

A thick skin is vital to participating in blogosphere, because you are opening yourself up to criticism in the form of comments and emails, and even if you don’t enable comments or provide a way for your readers to contact you, that won’t necessarily stop them from talking about you – but isn’t that why you started a blog?  To make people aware of you and your company?  However, it’s important to differentiate between constructive criticism and flames (criticism for the sake of being derogatory or insulting, essentially taking cheap shots in order to pick a fight).

Examine Your Critics

Basically, you have to understand the source – know when to take someone’s opinion seriously and when to dismiss it as a mere feedback.  For instance, you’d take the opinion of an expert in your field much more seriously than someone completely unfamiliar with it, so take a look at who is doing the criticizing.  Also, pay attention to the numbers – are many of your readers disagreeing with you on a particular point or is there is a lone dissenter? Remember that you can’t please everyone all the time, and if you try to do that, there’s a good chance that you’ll end up with a bland, entirely forgettable blog.

Be Open to Change

No matter how much expertise you have, it’s always important to be open to new ideas and concepts.  In fact, that’s one of the many reasons blogging can help you achieve your business goals – it’s a continual learning process that forces you to keep up with the latest news and trends in your field, and exposes your ideas to many more people than any other method.   Blogging is a form of media, after all.  By publishing your thoughts, you’re inviting others to join the discussion, and they may have some amazing knowledge to share.

Promotion and marketing are usually the main motivations that business bloggers have for starting their blogs.  Yes, they may want to join the conversation in the blogosphere in order to learn more about their niche and interact with other smart people, but in the end, their goal is promote their brand – and there’s nothing wrong with that.

However, many business blogs focus on how wonderful the company is, or how awesome their products are – and while that may be true, a company may provide top-notch services and their products may indeed change users’ lives, these bloggers are neglecting to realize that they are not taking full advantage of their presence in the online community.

In order to really promote your brand, you have to take the focus of you, your abilities, and your products.  You have to make the reader the hero.  Tell your readers what you can do for them, use your blog to provide value by sharing your knowledge, and show them how you, your company, and/or your products can improve their lives.

Testimonials from happy customers can help accomplish this goal, as long as they give a concrete reason why you’re great – be sure each testimonial offers specific examples instead of generic praise.   For instance, if you’re a real estate agent, you would want to feature a testimonial about you found your client their dream home in an ideal neighborhood and helped them negotiate an excellent price, not a testimonial stating “X is a wonderful, hard-working agent.”  If you are going to use testimonials, have your customers tell the blogosphere how you changed their lives.

But while testimonials alone can make your blog good, teaching and helping your readers improve their situations can make it great.  From self-help bloggers like Steve Pavlina (“Personal Development for Smart People) to career bloggers like Deborah Ng (Deborah Ng’s Freelance Writing Jobs), bloggers have used their sites to promote their expertise and brands by helping others.   They’ve made their readers their heroes, and because they truly want to see them succeed, they’ve achieved success themselves.

Making your reader the hero can also lead to a boost in terms of word-of-mouth marketing.  After all, if you help someone solve a problem, they are that much more likely to tell their friends and family about your blog and your business, because people tend to share content that they consider useful and valuable.

In conclusion, remembering that it’s not all about you can have a positive effect on your blog and your business. After all, if it weren’t for your clients, customers, and readers, you wouldn’t even have a business – so make sure they get to be the hero by focusing your blog on their wants and needs.

How many times have you heard the phrase “think positive!” or “focus on the positive!”?  A lot, right?  Well, I’m going to say it again, because keeping a positive slant is especially important when it comes to blogging.

The vast majority of the people reading your blog don’t know you in real life – they don’t know what you’re like in person, they don’t know your likes and dislikes, and they don’t know if you’re having a bad day. Your blog is your introduction to them – it is the face you present to the world wide web.

It goes to follow that if you use excessively negative language and constantly complain on your blog, your readers will get an impression of you as a negative or unpleasant person.  Of course, no one’s life is 100% sunshine and rainbows, but if you’re using your blog as any kind of business or promotional tool, I would suggest that you vent elsewhere.

This doesn’t mean you have to be just thrilled with everything, either – it is possible to state that you don’t like something without being vitriolic.  For instance, say you want to review a book that covers topics in your niche, but you didn’t actually like the book for whatever reason.  State your opinion, explain why you didn’t find the book helpful, tell your readers what you thought the author could have done better, and if you can, recommend some alternative books on the subject.  Criticism is good if it is done constructively.  

“What if I’m just having an awful day, you may ask?”  First of all, remember that you don’t have to post every single day, but if it’s been a few days and you really want to put something new up, try writing about someone else.

First of all, try reading other blogs in your niche or related news wires – chances are someone wrote about something interesting. Do a links post (where you post multiple links with a sentence or two to place them in context so your readers know that they are clicking on) to point out the good things.

Last but not least, you can look to YouTube (there’s always something entertaining on YouTube) or check out popular tags on the social bookmarking sites (hint: see if any of your keywords are tags on those sites – it can be an interesting way to see what other people in your niche are writing as well as checking out what readers valued enough to bookmark).   If you’re ever at a loss for positive blogging words, find something positive to say about someone else.

SEO, or search engine optimization, is a really hot topic in the blogosphere lately.  There has been tons of discussion on how to best optimize your blog, what keyword tools to use, and whether or not SEO should even matter for bloggers?  I even wrote a series on it myself.

I’ve always been of the opinion that although SEO is an undeniably helpful tool, search engine optimization alone will not result in success (no matter what some search engine marketers will tell you).   It’s not a magic potion.  Yes, SEO will help get readers to your website, but if you don’t provide compelling content, they probably won’t stay there, bookmark it, or subscribe to your feed.  Think of SEO as a major component of your marketing campaign for your blog, the star product.  The quality of the product has to come first, and like a good product, a good post can get some word of mouth promotion in the form of incoming links and social media mentions.

You’ve got to provide value for your readers in some way, shape, or form.  Blogging is a conversation, it’s a two way street, it’s a way to engage directly with your target market. Yes, a high ranking on google for your keywords will drive traffic your way, but it’s up to you to make that traffic stick by writing posts that benefit your readers.

After all, you don’t want to them to click away immediately (an exception here are the keyword stuffed sites loaded with advertising where the only goal is to serve as a tollbooth on the information superhighway that is the web – the readers come in, hopefully throw some change the blogger’s way in the form of clicking on an ad, and end up leaving pretty quickly).  After all, a good website is both search engine friendly and reader friendly.

Of course, if you’re using your blog as a portal to your business and personal brand, you want readers to stick around and keep coming back.  This is especially important if you’re an authority blogger, because then quality content and useful articles that inspire people to link to them are absolutely essential.  In addition, it’s likely that well-written articles from a knowledgeable blogger will naturally contain lots of keywords and search terms (hey, when you’re writing about a particular thing you tend to mention it a lot).

Of course, using targeted keywords in your titles (especially your titles – I’ll say it again – use keywords in your titles!), tags, and anchor text is important, as well as just generally seeding them throughout your posts.  Some bloggers like to keep them in mind and place them in their content with the terms as they go along, and some prefer to write the copy first and then figure out ways to add keywords in later.  Both ways work equally well, so you’ll have to discover what method works best for you through trial and error.  This post from Matt McGee over at Small Business SEM is an excellent primer on the “perfect storm” of keyword usage inside a website.

It’s also important to deep link to older posts that cover related topics.  Not only does that direct your readers to more of your relevant content, it keeps them on your site for longer.  Linking out is also key – besides the fact that citing other articles lends you credibility, it generates goodwill and gets you on other blogger’s radar (they’ll notice your links through their trackbacks or stats).   Speaking of linking out, the Copyblogger has written a stellar series on SEO called SEO Copywriting 2.0.

Finally, one more thing about SEO – your biggest results probably won’t occur immediately.  Besides the fact it takes time to build up a collection of good posts, gaining popularity and getting linked on other blogs typically isn’t an overnight thing.  Yes, you may know your blog is awesome and that you have valuable content, because unless you’re already pretty well known in your field, it might take some time for others to realize that too.  Just remember that each post is another step towards blogging greatness.

Branding a blog is not unlike branding a business – you want to design a brand that encapsulates your core characteristics, that makes you stand out from the crowd, and that sums up your philosophy. I’m not talking about pretty logos or a memorable slogan, however. In order to succeed in the age of Web 2.0, your brand/blog must be dynamic, beneficial and/or entertaining – or preferably all three. Today’s readers are savvy, demanding, and fickle, so there has to be substance behind the hype if you want your message to stick.

When you begin your blog, ask yourself these questions:

1. What do I want to say? Try to narrow your message down to a few sentences. Think of it as a blogging mission statement (you can put this on your about page).

2. What do I have to offer? What unique skills and knowledge do you have to share with your readers? How can someone benefit by reading your blog? This can can become the basis for your cornerstone content.

3. What is my niche? No one can be all things to all people, so focus on what you can do well. Define your niche so that your blog and brand can be tailored to it (this is also important for SEO purposes, as it helps you to focus on the best possible keywords).

4. Is this sustainable in the long run? Do I have enough to say on this topic to maintain a blog? If you are blogging about your business, (hopefully), you’ll be very passionate about it and have more than enough to say. Remember that creating a successful blog, like a successful brand, requires time and commitment.

5. What sets you apart from the competition? What makes you and your business stand out? Can you describe in a few words? Why should someone read your blog?

As an example, here are the answers for this blog:

1. What do I want to say? In a nutshell, I help bloggers make their blogs better; in particular, I teach to people use blogging to promote their businesses.

2. What do I have to offer? A finely honed writing ability combined with an knowledge of new media and web 2.0 topics, and an awareness of trends in the blogging community.  Plus, I’m patient, friendly, and a good teacher.

3. What is my niche?  Yes, I’m one of the many who blogs about blogging, but I’m focused on helping small business owners and entrepreneurs create compelling content and maximize the potential of their blogs.

4. Is this sustainable in the long run?  Definitely.  I clearly have lots to say, and the blogging community is incredibly dynamic and innovative, so there are always new topics to cover and lots of blog fodder.  I’ve developed blogs before, so I understand the time commitment.  Finally, blogging is something I’m passionate about on a personal level, because starting a blog literally changed my life (ultra quick summary – I was planning on going into a completely different field after I got my B.A., but I started a fashion blog as a hobby, fell in love with the world of blogging and online media, and the rest is history).

5. What sets you apart from the competition?  I consider myself a writer as well as a blogger (just because the web is more informal medium than print doesn’t mean that I shouldn’t put my best face, or posts, forward), and I teach people to use their blogs as a means of active communication, connection, and involvement with their readers/markets instead of just a promotional tool.  I’m in this to help other people succeed.

This post is being submitted to ChrisG on New Media’s Branding Round-up, so click the link for more posts on branding and how it relates to new media.

And a Happy 4th of July to my American readers!

You’ve probably heard the term search engine optimization , or SEO, being used before, but you might not have realized how simple it is to apply some of the techniques to your blog.  By choosing the right platform, much of the nitty-gritty design work will be done for you, but it’s up to you, the blogger, to create quality content that uses SEO to target new readers and promote your brand.

Search Engine Optimization is the process of improving the volume and quality of traffic to a web site via search engines and search results.   The goal is to achieve a high ranking, or to show up early (ideally in the top five) in the listings for relevant search terms, or keywords.  Many SEO techniques can integrated in your blogging to ensure that your blog ranks highly in the search engine results for the keywords that are most important to you and your business.

Although SEO isn’t the only thing to consider when setting up your blog, it’s important to keep it in mind from the very beginning.  First of all, you need to make a comprehensive list of all the potential search terms, or keywords that people could use when searching for your business, product, or service.  Pay particular attention to synonyms, alternative phrases, and even misspellings (www.thesaurus.com is your friend here).

Next, you want to place your most important keywords in title and tagline.  For instance, if you’re a real estate agent based in Chicago, use those words in your title – a possible title and tagline would be “A Chicago Real Estate Blog: From Lakeshore Drive to Wicker Park”.  Not only is the title the first thing your visitors notice when they come to your blog, it’s what the search engines display in their results listings.  Be sure to place your text before your logo or any other images in order to maximize your site’s findability.

Once you’ve started actually blogging, be sure to use your chosen keywords liberally in your posts, categories, and tags.  A high keyword density is key to search engine optimization.  To continue with the Chicago real estate agent example, some obvious keywords for that blogger would be Chicago Real Estate, Chicago Condos, Wicker Park Real Estate, South Loop Condominiums, and other related terms.

If you’re blogging about your business, it’s fairly easy to place keywords within the content naturally, because you’d probably use the phrases while discussing those topics anyways.  Aim for organic, natural usage instead of just repeating keywords for the sake of placing keywords amongst other keywords in your content (see how annoying that is to read?).  You don’t want to counteract your SEO skills with unhelpful content.

Combining SEO techniques with compelling content will make your blog a powerful component of your brand.  The simplest way to do this is to put yourself in your readers’ place – you want to make your blog easy to find (the SEO aspect) and beneficial for your readers (the compelling content).  Quality content will also inspire other bloggers and site owners to link to you, and link building – getting others to links to your site – is absolutely vital for SEO success.

Organic keyword use in the context of interesting, informative posts is especially important in regard to link building, the next aspect of search engine optimization that I’ll be covering as part of my SEO for bloggers series, so be sure to check back soon!

Blogging is all about building relationships – with fellow bloggers through linking and commenting, with readers by providing compelling content, and with potential clients, customers, and employers though marketing yourself (and your product if that applies).  This post from Guy Kawasaki’s excellent blog reminded me of the importance of expressing your personality and how sometimes the best PR is result of simply being yourself.

Here’s my favorite part:

“You don’t have to seem all grown-up and boring. Every entrepreneur feels vaguely disreputable. Maybe you drive a crappy car. Maybe you never went to prom. There are enough stuffed suits in this world to fill fifteen Wall Street Journals a day. As anyone who watches American Idol will tell you, what this spun-out, over-hyped world is absolutely famished for is a little genuine personality. And, outside of your technology, it’s probably the only thing you have. So stop trying to be like IBM and just be yourself.”

It’s simple advice, but in the effort to seem professional and organized we often forgot that sometimes the PR spin machine sacrifices personality for slickness and a fancy first impression.  In the end, however, your clients and customers aren’t doing business with your publicists, they’re doing business with you.  Blogging is a hands-on way to build a personal connection with your readers – and it’s really, really easy once you get in the blogging groove.

Besides the all-important relationship with your readers, blogging lets you reach out to other bloggers in the same industry or niche.  Commenting on other blogs – don’t forget to put your blog’s URL in the appropriate blank – is one to make a name for yourself in the blogosphere.  By maintaining a blogroll (a list of your favorite blogs in the sidebar), you can promote other talented bloggers, and they can promote you on their own blogroll.  Once you become an established blogger, you also can volunteer to do guest posts and create blogging carnivals relevant to your subject matter (I’ll be discussing both of these strategies in future posts).

Blogging is also immediate and candid – you’ll be able to update your blog as often as you want and share news with clients and customers almost as soon as it happens. Besides, keeping your own blog will give you some “internet street cred” within the blogosphere and social media networks, and that’s increasingly valuable in the Web 2.0 era.  However, this isn’t the main reason to start blogging.

The two biggest reasons that blogging is an excellent PR move are:

1. Transparency.  Blogging makes you accessible and open, and this fosters trust from your readers.   After all, if you’re willing to share the details of your business and your life with them in an unfiltered manner, you’ve probably to be an honest, real person to do business with – and in business as in all things, it’s better to be liked for who and what you really are, than hated (or worse – ignored!) for what you are not.

2. Passion.  No one will ever be quite as passionate about your business as you are, especially not a paid-for publicist or PR agency.  People respond to passion, so don’t be afraid to let it come through loud and clear in your blog.

So you’ve defined your message, your personal brand, your niche in the business and blogging world.  Whatever you want to call it, it doesn’t matter if your blog isn’t interesting or memorable.  The key is getting people to remember your message – to make it stick in their brains.
“Sticky” messages don’t necessarily have to be revolutionary, but they have to be engaging and relatively simple to understand.  One of the easiest ways to make your blog sticky is to tell your readers a story.

People remember and respond to stories and anecdotes much more easily than plain facts (obviously, facts and stats are important, but plain factual statements and data does not normally make for compelling content).  If your readers identify with you or find you entertaining in some way, they’re much likely to subscribe to your feed or bookmark your blog – and to patronize your business.

People also just plain enjoy stories – personal anecdotes, fables, etc. They draw the reader in and tend to resonate much more than basic instructions.  You can market pretty much anything in the form of a story, from an actual tangible product (think TV commercial here – those are generally 30-60 anecdotes) to an idea or concept.

One example of using a story making a concept sticky is the original Aesop Fables. For instance, the tale of the tortoise and the hare.  The purpose of the tale is to tell readers that “slow and steady wins the race”, but it couches that in the form of a cute animal story.  Granted, that’s an incredibly simple example, but the simplest messages tend to be the stickiest.  Think about it – almost everyone knows – and can retell – the fable of the tortoise and the hare.

You don’t have to a brilliant copywriter to write a sticky story. Look to the classics – from literature to marketing schemes, there is tons of writing out there that you can draw inspiration from and create parallels to in your blog.