Archive: March 2008
So you've got your shiny new blog all set up. You've decorated with a nice theme, installed some tools, put a few useful things in the sidebars and written your first few posts. You've gone to the Izea Boards and other online communities and invited everyone to come take a look/see. Now you need to convert them to regular visitors who will return time and again. There's really only one way to do that. Content, content, content!
Find your voice. Comb those first few posts and look for your voice - the personality that you portray through your blogging. As your blog matures your voice will develop its own distinctive characteristics. Are you letting it shine through in each post? Blogging allows us to connect, personality to personality, and your most faithful readers will be the ones with whom your voice resonates most clearly. Don't stifle it! If it comes with a Southern accent, allow it to shine through your choice of words and phrases. If it craves action and excitement, let that energy power your posts. Be sincerely you in every post. You'll soon begin to build a community of faithful readers who want to read every word you write.
Be consistent. Post on a regular schedule - every day if you can. Examine each post to insure that it is consistent with attitudes and ideals you've previously shared. This is especially important when it comes to your sponsored posts. Your readers will recognize your insincerity if you fill your blog with posts that don't speak with the voice they've come to know. If your readers know that you are devoted to a healthy lifestyle, they'll see the contradiction if you encourage them to check out a new fat and sugar-laden snack. Look, instead, for opportunities that fit your voice and the natural flow of your blog. Try to find a personal tie-in with each sponsored opportunity, an anecdote or reference that make the connection real. Your sponsored posts should be an enhancement to your blog, not a distraction for your readers to skim past.
Offer some ongoing content. Establish features that your readers can look forward to. Start a weekly contest or meme, share silly headlines on the same day each week or tell the story of your fascinating life in installments. Regular features give your visitors the incentive to return for more.
Encourage dialog. Let your readers know that communication is two-way. Answer every comment. Encourage reader feedback by asking questions or soliciting opinions. Request their home remedies for a toothache or their best comfort food recipes. Answer their replies with more questions: Will margarine work as well as butter in that dish? Do you know if that comes in family-sized packages? Email your responses to each of your commentors so they'll know to return and keep the conversation going. Postie Owen Cutajar has created a Comment Email Responder that will do this automagically for you. It is, in my opinion, the most useful plugin you can add to your blog.
Blogging is a flexible artform. Bend and shape the ideas and tips you find and to make them work for you. Building a community around your blog takes time and work, but will be well worth your efforts. You'll be rewarded with new friendships, increased blog traffic and a more marketable blog.
Yesterday I asked Posties--hey, Advertisers are welcome to also--send in photos of themselves wearing something green. After all, we want to share IZEA Loco with everyone! And we received two submissions, who get to share in our monthly cakeplow fun today.
Here they are:
Postie lisamariemary:
Postie Heather in Beautiful British Columbia:
Want to see your face get cakeplowed at the next IZEA Loco? Just send a photo of yourself wearing green, to ashley[at]izea[dot]com and I'll make sure and hang on to it.
I travel frequently and sometimes I have no Internet access but I still would like to blog. My travels are for work mostly and they take me all across the USA and sometimes Canada (Heather, I tried to get a trip to Washington state 3 hours from Bellingham, WA and would have driven up to see you if you could have met me over the border but it didn't happen. Sorry). Almost everywhere I go I have telephone access, and I have been saved many times by my phone when I have needed to create a blog post.
You might not know it but your blogging software services allow you to send blog posts in via e-mail. If you are using MMS on your cell phone you can also do this and send the text, picture or video message to an e-mail address. You can do it without a service plan for Internet access on your phone. I have unlimited picture, text and video messages on my phone plan but no Internet access and I have always been able to send text messages to e-mail addresses.
I use Blogger for a couple of my blogs Google is not God and The Wired Kayaker. I use Wordpress for my other two blogs The BenSpark and Read to Me, Dad. Each of those blogs has code in place where I can e-mail blog posts to my blog. So why not do so with my phone? Flickr and Buzznet are photo hosting services that I use to host my photo-a-day images. Both of these sites have e-mail addresses where I can automatically send photos. I used to use a service called Audblog to record audio messages and have them posted to my blogs automatically.
At Blog World Expo I learned about a service called Utterz. This service gives bloggers the ability to create a blog post including: text, audio, video and pictures using just their mobile phone. It combines each of these forms of communication into one cohesive blog post that you can have automatically posted to a number of places like Twitter, Flickr, YouTube and to your blogs (many of the major blog platforms are represented, Blogger, Typepad, Wordpress). You are not limited to just your phone either, if you are online you can use a webcam and microphone and upload an existing image.
My daily routine of taking a photo and posting it to my blog is somewhat of a ritual in that all the pieces need to fall into place in order to get it done. First off I am always on the lookout for the daily photo. I take it and then construct the day's post around it. Maybe the photo is just something I liked and there is no story surrounding it. Maybe it is the focus of the actual post. Either way the photo is important.
There have been times when I have not had my regular cameras on me when I've wanted to take a photo so I used my camera phone to snap the daily photo. By using Utterz I can quickly post my photo to Utterz with text and a title. Then I make a quick phone call to add audio to the post, and sometimes I get even more ambitious and add video to the post as well. And if I truly have no Internet access I can decide through the phone to post that message to The BenSpark.
Other times I take my photo, crop it in photoshop and then write the photo-a-day post for the day in Wordpress. I make a phone call to Utterz to record the audio portion, then I upload the photo and write some additional text, I add tags and wait 10 minutes (you have ten minutes to add audio and images together before your autoposting kicks in) for the image to automatically be added to Flickr. I then copy and paste the Flickr text to my uploaded entry on Buzznet (I still post to Buzznet because my photo-a-day widget, that many posties have on their blogs, uses the Buzznet code.) I also add the image to my photo-a-day set on Flickr and to a couple of groups on Flickr. I copy the Flickr code for the image and add it to the daily post on The BenSpark.
It might sound a bit confusing and convoluted but it is what I do to do what I do each day. The thing that has greatly enhanced the time it takes to get this whole thing done is the ability to do much of it on my mobile phone. When I have downtime I can start a draft post, save it and wait. Then if I see something I want to have as my daily photo I can shoot it and wait. So, when I finally get a chance to start my little ritual of posting each day I can already be somewhat ready to go.
I'm not saying that Utterz is the only way to go for mobile blogging. However, I know of no other free service that lets you post to up to 14 separate services in one phone call. And you can set up multiple connections to the same services if you would like, so if you had more than one blogger blog, each one could be a separate connection for manual or auto posting. But at the same time your Twitter stream would be updated to let people know that you posted a blog post. I have seen many Posties using Twitter to let their followers know that they have posted to their blog so I think they would benefit from being able to do that automatically when they post to their blogs.
There are many ways to blog, not all of them involve a computer. Think outside the box and you will become a better blogger and a better Postie. So, you really should just 'Phone it in' once in a while (Did I mention that I like bad puns?).
Drew writes four blogs, is an avid kayaker and a Transformers fan, he also does a mean cake plow. He recently completed taking 1000 consecutive photos in 1000 days. You can visit him at The BenSpark, The Wired Kayaker, Read To Me, Dad, Google is not God.
Mobile post sent by BenSpark using Utterz. Replies. mp3
Yep, afraid it's true. This may be our last $1K Tuesday for a while so I wanted to let you know as early as possible. And, man! is it early! Or late, I guess. Whichever, I'm sleepy but excited to get $1K kicked off this week! The first Opp's been released already. Are you the lucky Postie who's in the process of making $50 right now?? If you are, congrats!
And if you're hearing about $1K Tuesday for the first time, here's how it works:
* A total of 11 Opp's will be released via PayPerPost by IZEA between
midnight (beginning of Tuesday, March 25) and 11:59 p.m. (end of Tuesday)
Eastern Standard Time.
* The total payout of those Opp's will be $1,000.00 to the lucky Posties who grab them. Ten of the Opp's will be worth $50.00 each, and the granddaddy Opp is worth $500.00!!!
* Any and all Posties with an approved blog in PayPerPost's Marketplace will be eligible for these Opp's.
* They will be open to all locations, all ranks, all categories.
* Each will require a link & a Disclosure Badge (you'll need the ITK Tools for the badge).
*
Once you accept one of these Opp's, you will be temporarily benched so
each Postie can grab only one of the $1K's. No worries - that has no
effect on your Tack Ranking.
Once you snag one of these Opp's, just follow the simple instructions in the Opp. We'll review these just like any other Opp, and send you an email with the results!
As before with $1K's, the last thing we want these Opp's to be is predictable. The Opp titles will most likely not give them away as $1K's. And you may be just as likely to see one released at 2:00 a.m. as 10:33 p.m., or any time in between. Maybe we'll release 5 in a row that are exactly an hour apart, or maybe 6 of them all at the same time.
If you're still not sure if you want to join in the fun, maybe some of the Posties who have grabbed a $1K before can leave a comment here - was it worth it for $50 or $500 to watch for the opps on Tuesday? Were you making plans for the money while you were typing your post? Did you get writer's block when you realized you actually grabbed a $1K?
Good luck, Posties! We can't wait to read those $1K posts!!
When I first signed on for PayPerPost I didn't know anything about promoting my blog. I had only been blogging for a few months and had a small group of regular readers, mostly people who knew me from various online communities. I quickly discovered that the best-paying opportunities were out of my reach because I had no status, as determined by a mysterious algorhythm that apparently controlled my fate. I also discovered that there were people who were willing to help, but I had no idea what they were talking about half of the time. To all of the new posties who find yourselves in the same position today, this is for you.
One of the most exciting aspects of IzeaRanks is that we know how our RealRank is determined and can take steps to improve it. It's all about traffic and links. One of the best ways I've found to get both is through the postie community. There is no substitute for quality content built up over time, but using methods posted in the Marketing and Promotion forum on the Izea Boards will get you off to a good start. Below are some of the most popular ways posties support each other.
Install a blogroll: A blogroll is a list of links to blogs. There are several blogrolls listed in the forum. When you add your blog to one you'll be linked to everyone else who is already listed. Check with the blogroll administrator to find out how to be added and how to display it on your blog.
Ask for some loving: No, this isn't the kind of loving that requires a moral compromise. Ask for some linky love. You'll be asking other posties to either link your blog through their blogrolls or to write a post promoting and linking your blog.
Visit and comment on do-follow blogs: Do-follow blogs have had the no-follow attribute removed or disabled, so you'll get a linkback whenever you comment. There's a do-follow blogroll in the forum. Make genuine comments relevant to the posts you're commenting on. Most bloggers delete comments that don't contribute to the discussions they're posted in. "Good post" is not a good comment. Neither is "Thanks, I didn't know that."
Have a contest or promotion: There are numerous good examples in the forum. Everyone likes to win prizes, even if you're just offering a linky love post.
Participate in a meme: There are two basic types of memes. For one type you may be tagged by another blogger and asked to post on a particular subject and to tag other bloggers. If you see one you're interested in, it's fine to ask to be included. The other type of meme is a regularly recurring feature, usually weekly or monthly, and doesn't involve tagging. Cass's Self Portrait Sunday is a good example. Both types of memes encourage other bloggers to link to you and visit your blog.
There are many more ways to promote your blog to your fellow posties. Visit the Izea Boards, get to know the community and scroll through the archives for some more ideas. Posties are generously supportive, whether you're a newbie or an old hand. If you join in with that same spirit you'll always find someone there who is willing to help you out.
It's kind of hard finding a good picture for this post. I mean, what's a waterfall mean? I played with the idea of osmosis for a bit, but figured it was too Grade 12 Bio for my taste. So I stuck with the waterfall and this disclaimer: I'm trying to convey the notion that traffic flows. It mostly flows from a place of higher traffic, to a place of lower traffic. It's a simple, maybe obvious notion, but it's at the essence of how I initially built my readership.
Scott in the comments to my last post had it right: I've spent exactly $0 acquiring the traffic we see today on OhGizmo. Nothing. Not one cent. And that's because there are tons of tools out there that will bring you this traffic without you having to revert to paying for it. But it's important to understand the basic principle: traffic flows from high to low.
What this means in terms of your own blog is that you should try to find the heavyweights in your field. There usually are. In my case, in the gadget field, there were sites like gizmodo.com and engadget.com that were (and still are) getting astronomical amounts of traffic. In the political area, you've got sites like huffingtonpost.com or dailykos.com. And so on. Do some research. Go to Technorati. Find the big guys.
Once you've done that, the heavy lifting starts. You should get familiar with these sites, get to know the sorts of things they're interested in. And then go out, and find more of that cool stuff for them. If you have a political site, go scouring news sites for a quote, a bit of information, a picture, a sound bite or anything that your big politico blogger might be interested in. Write about it on your own site, and then send him a tip. A short, simple tip with a link to your article. If you have a gadget site, or a gossip site, the same applies. And if things go well, they'll give you credit for the news, and traffic will start building. From that highly trafficked site, to yours.
However.
And this is important. Do your homework first. Make sure you've read them. Make sure you know what interests them. Make sure you don't tip them to something that they wrote about two years ago. Make sure that your article contains all the information your guy (or gal, or team) will need to write theirs.
Make sure that the tip you're sending them is actually interesting. I'm saying all this because the "sending a tip" trick tends to get overused. And if you send tips at the drop of a hat, for lame stuff... you'll get sent right into the spam folder.
The second thing you can do is: submit. There are so many sites out there that will accept submissions of your work and can send tremendous amounts of traffic if done right. Digg.com, Slashdot.org, reddit.com, collegehumour.com, fark.com, etc. The purpose of this article is not to tell you how to be successful at submitting to those sites. I'll do that some other time. But the point again is that between tipping and submitting, you have the two most important traffic building tools.
Sure, there are tons more. Networking, leaving comments on other sites, etc. They all work to some extent. But for me, the two methods I outlined were sufficient. And for the sake of clarity, here they are again:
- Find the heavyweights in your field.
- Study them.
- Find information that could interest them and write about it.
- Send them a quick, simple tip.
That's for tipping. I emphasized step 2 because it's the one most often overlooked. And it's probably the most important one, and the one that served me best.
Submitting articles works in pretty much the same way, except the editorial process is different. I'll do a full post on that soon.
Next post, we'll look at optimal ad placements, performance, and all that nitty gritty stuff that you should get comfortable with if you're serious about maximizing your site's income potential.
In my previous post I talked about a few factors in choosing a digital camera. In this post I will elaborate on a few more things to think about when looking for a new digital camera, an essential blogging tool. We looked at price and megapixels. Today we will explore some other factors in choosing a digital camera, storage, image stabilization, zoom, and memory cards. There are so many factors in choosing a camera and I hope that I can help explain in plain English many factors to help your decision making process.
Storing photos: Another factor to consider is storage. When you take higher megapixel images the file size is going to be larger. A 10MP (Megapixel) image is usually about 3-4MB (MegaBytes). You can easily store about 500+ images on a 4GB (GigaByte) memory card but eventually you have to take those images off the card. Even with the ability to erase the junky photos your images are going to start eating up space.
One way to take care of the space issue is to burn your images to DVD. DVD's store 4.7GB of data and they are very good for storing images. But unless you are really good at organization you are going to have to hunt for the archived images by inserting multiple DVDs till you find the right one. Another option is an external hard drive, this way you can access up to 200 times the number of images that you could on a DVD. Whatever you decide you need to back up your images. An external hard drive is great for being able to access images quickly. However, you should also have either a second external drive or burn images to DVDs. Backup is very important. Storing your images on your computer hard drive alone is not a good idea. Backup is essential and an absolute must do. Backup, Backup, Backup!
Could you imagine losing the first photo of you holding your child?
What do you want your camera to do? Are you taking snapshots, more professional images, action images, or video? With snapshots you'll do fine with a point and shoot digicam, but you might be disappointed with photographing fast moving things like kids and pets. However some cameras have a kids and pets setting that is pretty good. Even though a DSLR is the peak of perfection a point and shoot is still a great option. Take into consideration these additional options when choosing a point and shoot.
Steady shots: Look for a camera with some sort of image stabilization, there are two kinds: digital image stabilization and optical image stabilization. Optical is better because the image stabilization is built into the mechanics of the lens itself. Image stabilization helps keep images sharp when taken by unsteady hands. Digital image stabilization is basically an approximation, a very high tech one, that can be accurate but an approximation none the less. Go with optical when you can.
Zooming in: As with image stabilization optical zoom is much better than digital zoom. Optical zoom comes from the physical moving parts of the camera lens. Digital zoom comes from the software within the camera and 'makes a guess' about what the image should look like. While they both can get you closer, the optical zoom is going to be much clearer. Point and shoot digital cameras usually have both optical and digital zooms and by taking the two together and multiplying them you get your total zoom. For example a 2X optical zoom with a 3X digital zoom is a 6X zoom camera. When you test out the cameras in the store ask the sales clerk to help you turn off the digital zoom. Then take a look at the zoom.
Memory Cards: What is the best option for you? Well, take a look at the digital items you have already. In my house we have many cameras and I made sure that they all took SD cards so that if we are out shooting and we fill up one card we can easily swap in a fresh card from another camera. I can also use the same cards in our PDAs and, with an adapter, in our camera phones. Being able to swap cards out has made the difference between happiness and frustration on many trips.
Some computers have memory card readers already built in, many laptops which have limited space have slots for the smaller size memory cards like SD cards. Staying portable is one factor that is important for me so I went with SD cards. You can transfer your images with a wire and USB but I hate taking extra stuff with me on trips.
Card Speed: Another thing to keep in mind is the speed of the memory cards. Faster speed may not always be a benefit because your digital camera might not even be able to handle the high speed cards. Check the camera manufacturer for the best memory card speed for your camera. Memory card speed helps with writing images to the card faster so your camera is refreshed to take the next image sooner.
Card Capacity: Memory cards have certainly come down in price in the past few years and you can buy a 2GB to 4GB card for short money. Some things to consider when buying a memory card are:
- How often do your move your images from your card to your computer and back up devices? Often I do this nightly but if I go on a trip I want to make sure I have plenty of capacity for many photos.
- What quality setting will you shoot at. I always shoot at the highest quality in case one of the images is worth printing.
You should also be aware that there are two formats for each memory card, there is regular and High Capacity, so for example a regular SD card is SD and a high capacity one is SDHC. Make sure both your camera and your computer can read SDHC before buying one of those cards.
While researching these couple of posts I came across some great resources. Here are a few of the best.
What are some resources that you use for digital photography information?
In our next installment we will move the camera off the automatic setting and explore some fun things you can do right on the camera.
Drew writes four blogs, is an avid kayaker and a Transformers fan, he also does a mean cake plow. He recently completed taking 1000 consecutive photos in 1000 days. You can visit him at The BenSpark, The Wired Kayaker, Read To Me, Dad, Google is not God.
The Blog Battle Royale IV Champion has been determined, and it is the owner of Besenjimom.com. The post she submitted for the contest is: http://www.basenjimom.com/2008/02/19/blog-battle-royale-pancreatic-cancer-awareness/.
The all-around awareness raised for Pancreatic Cancer, coupled with this blogger's recent experience of loss of her mother to the disease, were the determining factors in being named the Champion. If you have a few moments visit her blog and click on the "Pancreatic Cancer" category to read about her contribution to this cause.
We'll be working with this blogger in contributing $1,000 to the charity she supports! Please join me in offering-up congratulations.
Technorati Tags: Blog Battle Royale, blog contests, blogging
This might be a rather basic "tip," but it's certainly something every Postie should be familiar with (and we get many tickets associated with it). The post is a little long but there's a wealth of information included so try to stick with it!
So....
Your blog has been accepted. You’re poised to be the best blogger the world has ever seen. You find a great PayPerPost Opportunity (Opp) you want to write about on your dashboard, reserve it and…. then what?
What does it all mean? How do you make sure that your post meets all of the requirements? What on earth is buzz? Don’t panic! With these simple tips and techniques you can make sure you craft the perfect Opp every time, and eventually make more money.
The first thing that you want to do is to read through your Opportunity description. You do, after all, want to know what the heck the Opportunity is, don't you? This will let you know what the advertiser expects from the post you're writing. It will usually contain background about the advertiser as well as what information they wish (and do not wish) to be included in your post. It should also give you a general idea of how they would like that information to be presented. This section may also include additional links that the advertiser would like included in the post, so please be sure to read this carefully.
Tip:
After you've reserved a post you have six hours to write the post, publish it to your Blog and submit the post URL to us. If you have not submitted the post to us within the six hour reservation window, the reservation will automatically open back up to the Marketplace.
Just under the Opportunity Description is a box containing the required link. This is the link that must be present in your post in order for it to be submitted successfully to the Marketplace and accepted in review. All links will start with "a href=".
Tip:
Anchor text can always be found between the >< of the required link. For example, in the link < a href= http://payperpost.com>PayPerPost "PayPerPost" is the anchor text.;
Under the required link will be any tracking image links or required image links that will also need to be added to your post.
Tip:
Although a Custom Tracking Image is used for tracking purposes, it does not actually produce an image. Sometimes you might see a dot or a small square where you have inserted it, but there is no actual image. However, as long as you have pasted it into the text of your post, we'll find it.
Next to the opportunity description you will find a quick rundown of the Opp. requirements including the main category of the Opp., it’s expiration date, the minimum number of words your post should contain and what sort of type and tone your post should be.
There are three different Post Types in the PPP Marketplace, Buzz, Review and Opinion. We will be discussing these individually and giving examples in upcoming blog posts, however, here are our definitions of each.
Buzz: Meant to get the word out, spread the word.
Review: An honest review of a site or product, a detailed or analytical evaluation. These may include the pros & cons, improvement suggestions or ease of use of the product or site.
When providing a review, Posties may be asked to walk through certain areas or processes on a website, or share an experience they've had with a product offered to them by the Advertiser.
Opinion: Input, feedback, thoughts, opinion a Postie may have on the topic of the Opportunity. What do you think: Good or bad?
Finally, at the bottom of the Opportunity Details page, you will see all the segmentation information for the Opp. There are several factors involved in the segmenting of Opps including domain, rankings, location and categories. If even one of these is a mismatch with the advertiser, the Opp will be segmented and you will not be able to take it or post it to a non-qualifying Blog.
Even More Tips:
Before accepting a post submission, the PPP system checks that the required link, tracking image and any required image links appear in your post exactly as they do in the Opp. Should you receive a submission error, be sure to check that your blog host did not add or misinterpret characters or text to this link in HTML.
In order for your sponsored post to be accepted, your Interim posts do need to be comprised of at least 3-5 sentences of original content. Interim posts are defined as the posts immediately before and immediately following a PPP sponsored post. These posts should be non-sponsored, original content that is engaging. These posts should not be simply fillers to satisfy sponsored content requirements.
Categories must match EXACTLY for an Opp to be available to you. For example, if an Opp chooses Blogs with a "Technology" category and you have chosen the specialized category Technology/Gadgets, this would NOT be a match.
The system will only allow you to hold one reservation at a time. If you take a second reservation before you have submitted the first, the first reservation will cancel and open back up to the Marketplace.
It's one of the most frequent laments posted on the Izea Message Boards. The RankSpank minimized opportunities for most of us. That's out of our control, though, so we need to move on. We're all looking forward to the elimination of PR as an opportunity requirement in Social Spark. Let's concentrate until then on things we can control. Mr. Fab offered some excellent tips for tidying up our blogs. Now let's look a at a specific improvement that might bring us more available opps.
There are six general categories and twenty-five specialized categories available to us on our "my blogs" tabs (under the "my account settings" tab on the PayPerPost Dashboard.) How well do the categories you're using on your blog fit into those categories? You may benefit from some re-organization and tightening up. I blog about many topics on my general blog. I have forty-six categories. That's entirely too many! Several of them can be eliminated by combining them under "entertainment" or "living," and my blog reviews should be categorized under "blogging" instead of the topics for the individual blogs. Once I've finished re-organizing, I can take a new look at the categories I've selected on the "my blogs" tab. Properly categorizing my posts can increase the opps available to me.
Niche bloggers may have the opposite problem. If you blog exclusively about one topic, you may be very limited in the categories you can claim. Last week I suggested that some niche bloggers might benefit from injecting more material from their personal lives into their blogs. Use that personalization to broaden your categories. If you write about blog monetization, consider adding a regular feature about what you do with your own earnings. Are you financing a college degree with your blogging income? Maybe you're investing in the market, remodeling a fixer-upper or finally coming to visit me in Hawaii. Share it! Maintain your focus on your niche, but look for ways to tie in your other interests. A regular feature that your readers can come to count on will build their loyalty and allow you to begin accumulating posts in a new category. It's a slow process. Two posts about your Disney vacation won't qualify you to add travel or entertainment to your "my blogs" tab, but a series of posts over several months will. Your patience will be rewarded when you can add a new category and new opps become available to you.
Be honest with yourself when you're selecting categories. Claiming categories without the content to back up your choices is asking for grief. Advertisers and reviewers routinely evaluate blogs to make sure that the categories are fairly represented. Poor choices can lead to bans and rejected posts. If you're not sure what categories best fit your blog, ask for help. Posties frequently assist with such requests on the message boards, and Customer Love is available to offer expert guidance. They can help you make the category selection process work for you.
Ever since I was a kid and could hold a camera, I did. I've used film, VHS, and digital cameras. At any family function you will see me behind a camera documenting the events of the day. I shoot photos on a daily basis. Often I am asked by friends and family alike my advice on buying a digital camera. I own quite a few and use them all for different purposes. I have a few more but I ran out of hands.
A digital camera is an essential tool for a blogger. Why? Well, for one thing you can't do some opps without one. But beyond taking opps and using the digital camera for them a digital camera allows you to communicate your ideas visually. Think of some blog posts that you have read lately. Was there an image on the post? Did the image draw you in and make you want to read more?
I've been seeing posts written that say that you should cull Flickr for legal images to post to your blog. I think that is cheating a bit. Today's digital cameras are so easy and inexpensive that you should be taking your own shots and including them in your posts. I might be a bit biased because my daily blog post focuses on the photo that I take each day. My own personal rules dictate that any photo I put up on my blog has to have been taken by me. This goes for my Photo-A-Day as well as the photography memes that I participate in. There are tons of different photo themed memes out there. Participating in them can help drive more traffic to your blog and photos that you took yourself are always better (in my opinion) than anything you snag from Flickr.
So, what does one look for in a digital camera? Ask yourself these questions:
How much can I afford to spend? If you are buying a digital camera for blogging purposes remember that you may be able to deduct it as business equipment. That is well and good but you still have a budget to contend with. Budget the amount you want to spend on a camera. If it is for basic snapshots I would say about $150 for an adequate to $250 for a really cool Point and Shoot (POS) camera. If you are going to try and sell your images then we are talking many more dollars say $600 - $$$$. Remember that you are going to pay for bells and whistles so make sure you want them before you decide.
What the heck are megapixels? If you see ads for cameras and when you go to stores you are going to see cameras with 2MP to 14MP (yeah there is a 14MP DSLR one out there, *drool*). What does that number mean. With more megapixels you can blow up an image and print it out without distorting or pixelating the image. So are you going to be printing 8X10 prints or higher? Probably not but you may print out 4X6 photos. So if you are primarily printing 4X6 or not printing at all you could get by with a slightly lower megapixel camera.
Here are examples of a 2MP, 4MP, 7MP and a 10MP image.
Image taken with a 2MP camera phone.
Image taken with a 4MP digital camera.
Image taken with a 7MP digital still/video camera.
Image taken with a 10MP DSLR using a 70mm-300mm lens with macro.
Do you see much of a difference in quality between the 4 images? Not really. Now if I printed each of these out in their full resolution there would be some major differences. However, we are not going to be printing the images instead we will be posting them to our blogs.
Each of those images above was cropped to 450 pixels by 350pixels (a dimension that fit well on my first blog and I haven't seen the need to change). I also set the pixel size to 96 dots per inch or dpi. Why? For load time, unless you are planning on reselling your images through a photo hosting site you don't need to post them with the highest dpi. Usually 72dpi or 96dpi works great.
In the case of the images from four cameras above I could get by easily with a 2MP camera, but it sure is nice to have all the advanced features of the 10MP Digital Single Lens Reflex (DSLR) camera. But talking about those features will be saved for the next post.
Are you using photos on your blogs? What kind of camera do you use?
I am splitting this post into two parts. Part one asks a few basic questions about selecting a digital camera to buy. Part two will talk a little about bells and whistles of digital cameras.
Drew writes five blogs, is an avid kayaker and a Transformers fan, he also does a mean cake plow. He recently completed taking 1000 consecutive photos in 1000 days. You can visit him at The BenSpark, The Wired Kayaker, Read To Me, Dad, BenSpark 2: Electric Boogaloo, Flatwater Tech and The BenSpark Utterz
Several folks have been wondering what's going on with the latest round of the Blog Battle Royale contest. Well, the Finalists have been determined (by myself, Karen, and Glennis), and they are (in no particular order):
Submission #1
Title: Blog Battle Royale - Pancreatic Cancer Awareness
url: http://www.basenjimom.com/2008/02/19/blog-battle-royale-pancreatic-cancer-awareness/
Submission #2
Title: Why I Walk
url: http://www.3daymom.com/2008/02/22/why-i-walk/
Submission #3
Title: What cause does Family Caregiver Info support?
url: http://familycaregiver.info/what-cause-does-family-caregiver-info-support
We've reached out to some of our Advertisers who have previously run charity Opportunities/campaigns within our marketplace to help us decide on a Champion! We'll announce that individual at noon (12pm EST) next Wednesday, March 19th.
Great job on all the posts, and thanks to all who submitted an entry! Keep up the good work on supporting your causes, and please feel free to continue sharing your blogs with us.
For our three Finalists, please e-mail me directly at ashley[at]izea[dot]com with your mailing address and t-shirt size so I can mail out your Finalist PostiePack.
Technorati Tags: Blog Battle Royale, blogging, charity, contests, non-profit
Oh, I'm not even going to talk about the snow here in the east coast. The snow IS the news (there's just so darn much of it!) for most of us. But to me, it's yesterday's news. That's right. From here on out, it's nothing but sunshine and clear skies ahead. Yup.
I'll have to get better at brainwashing myself.
In any event, let's get on with the article. Focus and Branding. It's important. Remember, my advice is for people wanting to turn their blogging commercial. In order to be successful at this, you basically have to pick a topic, and stick to it. I know a lot of people like to use their blog as a personal diary, talking about personal things, and whatnot. And that's totally cool. Some personal blogs actually may make a good amount of cash, but far and wide, the most successful blogs are strictly topical. Gizmodo.com is about gadgets. Techcrunch.com (all y'alls favorite) is about new online startups. Kotaku.com is a successful gaming blog. And on, and on. And it makes sense for things to be this way. It goes to the essence of branding, and why we need to have brands in the first place: human nature demands it.
At PostieCon, I said something that I'm very fond of. It's my definition of branding: "Branding is associating yourself with a concept, and searing that in people's minds". And the reason associating yourself with a concept is important is because this is the way people think. It's the way people think of you. Branding is what our brain uses to make sense of the clutter. It's what we use to find what we're looking for in a sea of competing offers.
Think of it. If you're looking to purchase a luxury car, what do you think of? Mercedes, Bentley, etc. If you're looking to buy some household items on the cheap, what do you think of? Wal-Mart. If you want a quick, satisfying bite? McDonald's, Burger King, etc. Luxury watch? Rolex. These companies have all picked an area of expertise, and worked their bums off in order to sear that association in your minds. And you reward their work by giving them your money any time you're looking for an item that falls within their focus.
Blogs should be no different. However, it's important to keep something in mind. Not only should you build a brand, and associate yourself with a concept... but you should make sure this concept is lucrative. As I said at PostieCon, you very well may be passionate about underwater basket weaving... it's unlikely you'll make millions writing about it. Don't get me wrong, you could get a following, even a devout one. But there just isn't a whole lot of money in that area, so advertisers will be harder to come by. Branding works for readers, but it also works for advertisers. If an ad agency is looking to spend some marketing dollars on good automotive blogs for instance, it'll serve you well to have established your brand is that area.
So... if you pick a good topic, and start building value for your readers and advertisers around that topic, you'll be on your way to making good money. Of course, you still have to get people to notice you, your value-building, your branding, your hard work. I'm talking about traffic. You could write books about getting traffic online. I'll spend less time than that. Next article, I'll give you the ways I used to build traffic for OhGizmo.com. It'll by no means be a complete list, only what I've done.
But let me finish here with one question: over the last three years, how much money do you think I've spent getting traffic for OhGizmo.com?
Did you know you were supposed to move the clocks ahead ('spring ahead!') this weekend? Or did you make it through all of Monday without even knowing you are an hour off from everyone around you? Maybe you don't live where daylight savings is observed and you think the rest of us are a bit odd for changing time.
No matter - it is important to know, though, that it is less than 1/2 hour until midnight EST, and another $1K Tuesday!
Are you ready to get paid $50 or $500 for one post? We offer 10 Opp's for $50 each, and 1 Opp for $500 during the hours of 12:01 a.m. through 11:59 p.m. during $1K Tuesday! We have several advertisers who already pay $50 or more for one post, but our Posties tell us it can be difficult to grab those Opp's. The recent changes to pagerank made it even more challenging. So these posts for $1K Tuesday will be open to everyone. Check out the details on the last $1K Tuesday post.
Have a great Tuesday - we'll do our best to make you part of this $1K Tuesday!
As Ted mentioned in a post last week, we're going to be traveling quite a bit in the coming month or so. Right now we're in Austin for SXSW 2008, Interactive Festival! Day one is already off to a good start. We'll keep you posted on the events over the next few days. ** We are also Twittering the event if you'd like to stay updated that way. **
Well, here we are in March. I was born in March, which means I am a Pisces. Being a Pisces means that I am sensitive, creative, and I love cheese. Guilty on all three counts!
I will be 46 years old this month. Does it strike you as odd that I could actually have grown this old without having matured a whole lot? Physically, I feel every bit of 46 but mentally I think I will likely always remain stuck in my early twenties, much to the chagrin of Mrs. Fab and whomever I happen to be working for at the time.
The other day I had what I thought was a good idea: a paintball battle between IZEA and Posties. I like the thought of stalking those guys through the forest or on a structured course. Then I got to thinking about what good shape the IZEA peeps all seemed to be in: Ted; with his feline grace and agility, Peter; with his lithe frame and runner's build, Gordon; with his rippling athleticism (seriously, the dude could have been in 300), Ashley; with his...um...with his...well, Ashley would be on our team, I guess.
In retrospect, perhaps I won't mention that idea. However, I still am considering staking out the roof of their office building and dropping water balloons on them as they leave for lunch. That's just the kind of guy I am.
As the release of SocialSpark grows ever nearer, I have been toying with the idea of writing a song about it. I have been churning out quite a few song parodies lately, and I'd really like to turn one into an IZEA anthem of sorts. The trick is finding just the right song that lends itself well to a re-write. Does anyone have any suggestions?
Did anyone notice the revamped look of the IZEA Boards? The ranking system changed as well. I don't remember what I was listed as before, but now I am listed as an "initiate". I'm not sure how I feel about that, to tell you the truth. To me, it kind of feels like there may a chance of some hazing in my future. That, in turn, reminds me of my old fraternity days, aside from the fact that I was never actually in a fraternity. Maybe I was thinking of Animal House...
Oh, should anyone out there want to run me through a spanking machine, you know where to reach me!
We've been having a friendly debate on the IZEA message boards about how long a blog post should be. Some interesting studies have been referenced and The Elements of Style (the definitive guide to writing) has been cited. While some good points have been made, some of them just aren't relevant to what we do. Many bloggers focus tightly on conveying topic-specific information in each post. Their posts tend to be concise. Some bloggers are more interested in weaving a story or making a connection with their readers. They may need more words to accommodate their style. Neither style has to be wrong for the other to be right. Blog posting is not "one size fits all." Other than satisfying the minimum word requirement for our sponsored opportunities I think it's okay for us to relax and stop worrying about word counts. If your post says what it needs to say, it's the right length.
Readers come in many varieties and the way they read my vary depending on what they're reading. If I'm looking for a recipe for that gritty, Southern-style cornbread my mother used to make or a pair of red shoes to match a new outfit, I may scan dozens of websites, quickly eliminating those that don't supply what I want. In our forum discussion, Magnusgrafex (a prickly character we have to read because he makes us think) referred us to some studies which seem to conclude that most people read the web that way. While I have no reason to doubt these findings on web-reading habits, I question whether they are applicable to blogs. The amount of time that visitors are willing to invest in reading any website depends on what they're looking for. If we're seeking specific information on a typical website we are likely to use the hit-and-run method the studies identify. Blogs are not typical websites. Blogs invite visitors to enjoy the reading process itself, as well as to absorb whatever material is being presented. Many of us read blogs the same way we read books, savoring each word regardless of how long it takes us to finish reading.
Condensing our writing to suit arbitrary word limits might result in a bad fix for something that isn't broken. This can apply even to niche blogs which are more information-oriented than creatively-driven. Using the "no more than 300 words" limit discussed in the forum, here are some posts we would have recently missed:
From Mrs. Mecomber, our current Blogger of the Month: Lake George and Fort Ticonderoga, NY (1246 words)
From Dan Rua: Where is Jason Calacanis's Disclosure, to People AND Machines (551 words)
From Ted: IZEAFest 2008 (383 words)
Would you immediately click away from these posts because they're too long? If you had written them, what would you have trimmed away to get them below 300 words? Each of them could be condensed to dry facts, but the voice of the blogger would be lost in the process.
Bloggers who are typically long-winded (raising my hand meekly) may very well need to apply more stringent editing standards as they write. Those with "just the facts, ma'am" blogs might find their readership increasing if they inject a little more personality (and a few more words) into their posts. Look at your stats for "length of visit." Are you satisfied with the number of visitors who are staying long enough to read what you've written? Do your comments indicate that you're engaging your readers' interest? How many of them choose to subscribe to your feeds? Adjusting the number of words you choose to use could have a favorable impact on your traffic, but brutal trimming to satisfy a self-imposed words-per-post limit might leave you with a blog that you don't enjoy writing and visitors don't enjoy reading. Likewise, imposing limits on the number of words you'll read could rob you of a lot of good information and some entertaining reading. If producing and reading quality content takes precedence, the importance of word counts diminishes.
How long is a good blog post? As long as it needs to be.
Hey IZEA Peeps! Sorry we skipped the Tip of the Week last week (if you must to know - it was my bad!) But to make up for it, I hope I can offer some great info regarding our new Customer Support portal.
Late last year, we introduced a new kind of support portal for our customers. As a customer, you don't need to do anything differently to reach us. Simply click any Contact Support link after logging into your account if you are a registered user. If you're not yet registered, you can use any of the Contact Support links throughout the site. This takes you to the new support portal in a new window, without losing your place in your PayPerPost account! (that's improvement #1!)
Once in the support portal, here is what you will see:
This offers you many options for self service, delivering immediate information and answers. We are updating the information here regularly so even if it's just been a week since your last visit, be sure to check our current info.
First, there's the Glossary. In the glossary, you will find terms that relate to general online marketing and blogging as well terms that are specific to the IZEA process. Having a tough time deciding which categories best fit your blog or opportunity? Check out our Blog Categories in the Glossary.
Next up is the Knowledge Base, where you can peruse our FAQ's or search for your topic, using the Troubleshooter link. We have separated the information items into different listings, based on the type of IZEA customer - PPP Advertiser, PPP Blogger, IZEARanks, etc. However, you will notice even when you log in as a PPP Blogger, you will still be able to see quite a few FAQ's in the PPP Advertiser section, and vice versa. We will continuously strive to remain up to date and timely, and the Customer Love team is great at identifying trends in customer issues. If it's not in the FAQ's yet, but we have an increasing number of folks with the same question, it's an easy add.
Sometimes it can be tough to find the answer you're looking for by simply sifting through FAQ's. We appreciate not everyone has time to do that. So you can simply do a search of our Knowledge Base. Either click on the Troubleshooter link in the Knowledge Base, or choose Submit a Ticket as search is one of the steps in submitting a ticket. All you need to do is enter a key word or phrase in the related section, and any matching topics will pop up. Want to see more details of one of them? Click 'See Complete Answer'.
Finally, if you cannot find the information you need, Customer Love folks are thrilled to help you out! Click on Submit a Ticket, if you haven't already. Here's why it is so important that you log into your account before clicking on Contact Support if you are a registered user: Some of your account information is auto-populated into our system when you are already logged in. This saves us time in beginning research, and will help get you an answer more quickly. Please also remember to add as many details as possible, especially when submitting a ticket about a specific page on the site, link or opportunity, prior communication, any system issues. Once again, this saves us some time-consuming guess work, and helps ensure we give you not only a faster answer but an accurate & useful one!
One of the aspects we loved the most when selecting the right new tool is that it allows YOU to rate US! Yep, that's right! We strongly encourage you to use the rating system of 5 stars (1 being lowest, 5 being best) when reading through the information we've provided in FAQ's or the Glossary (you'll find the stars toward the bottom of the information item). Have some extra time? Feel free to read up on several topics and rate them. We've already done one round of updates to the FAQ's and info based on the ratings received. Anything with low ratings was reconsidered and reworked, in most cases adding more detail. For example, the FAQ of 'How do I know if my blog qualifies?' was changed to offer more details.
On the Customer Love side of this new tool, we can more readily access your history of communication with IZEA. Please understand, you may see some 'canned' responses as part of your ticket answers, but don't take that personally! The entire Customer Love team put a lot of time into creating just the right answers to fit common questions We focus on remaining personable, even in our canned responses. Nobody likes receiving an incomplete automated response - and our standards are higher than that. So when the 'canned' response doesn't address your full question, you can be sure to also expect details specific to your situation.
Have a request for specific information to be added to the Knowledge Base? Find any incorrect info out there? Feel free to let us know by Submitting Feedback with your suggestions.
Look for more options and features from this support portal in the coming months. As you might imagine, we are adding information and preparing for SocialSpark. After release, we can dedicate even more time to updates, improvements, corrections, & regular maintenance.
We come to the last stop on my mini Blog America Tour. That last stop was at IZEA HQ. I arrived just in time for the Leap Day IZEA Loco on February 29th. My day began by being picked up by Ashley and Travis at my hotel. We drove over to the IZEA offices in downtown Orlando. Travis was taping the ride, I was taping the ride and both Ashley and I were talking non stop. Ashely was such a trooper as he had been on death's door the past few weeks. He was too sick even to twitter, so as you can imagine he was pretty sick.
We arrived at the offices and Travis brought me upstairs while Ashley parked his car. Entering the IZEA offices made me so jealous that the IZEA team has such a fun and colorful place to work. Make no mistake I know that they work hard, very hard to produce some of the most amazing services for advertisers and Posties alike. Believe me, you will be blown away by SocialSpark. I just know that my collection of Transformers, and other desk toys would fit much better in the IZEA offices instead of my current one. The walls were all IZEA colors, green, purple and teal. The place looked amazing. And as I walked through there were tons of people who were smiling, happy to see a Postie visiting.
Ashley caught back up with us and we continued around the offices. We caught up with Marty and Britt, I had met Marty, Britt, Ashley and Travis in Boston at CollegeFest 2007 and it is always fun to see them. I got to see their desks. We (Ashley and Travis and I) had arrived just in time for the IZEA loco to begin. This month there was a costume contest as part of the festivities. Trevor and Andrew were dressed as Mario and Luigi from Super Mario Brothers. They had AWESOME costumes. I think my favorite costume however was of IZEA's HR director Glennis. She looked like a mad scientist after a small explosion.
Ted was face painting everyone in sight. I went over and Ted gave me a superhero mask as well as some larger sideburns. Then he asked me to paint his face as well. I was pretty stumped for a design so I went with 'evil' Ted. I found that funny because if you meet Ted Murphy in person, he's the furthest from 'evil' that you can find. However, he's been painted as the 'Snidely Whiplash' of the Internet. So to be ironic I gave him a handlebar mustache and soul patch. I was then given the loco microphone and asked to host IZEA loco for a while.
I went into a big board room and started saying hello to everyone I saw. I finally got to meet Veronique in person. She said that my blog being named BenSpark was deceptive because my name is Drew. I explained the story behind the name. And then she told me that if we (she and I) had a blog it would be called "Cor-nett" or "Ben-vous" and a few other names. I was speechless and she said that she had that effect on men. Veronique was a cool as I had thought she was gonna be.
I then interviewed Priscilla. It was her birthday as well as her 1 year anniversary at IZEA. She had the double whammy on her for later. Priscilla had some fun earrings and a great feather boa as well. I wasn't the best interviewer, so I was allowed to go get something to eat. I think that made it better for everyone for me to stop asking questions awkwardly.
It was then time for the monthly awards. First was the award for Advertiser of the month. That award went to Western Creative. They were on the phone so we all gathered in the conference room around the speaker phone and Ted gave them their award. Then the award was given out for the Postie of the month. I was given the honor of giving that one out and it went to Rebecca Empey. The last award of the day went to the Rockstar of the month. This was an award for an IZEA employee. This month the award went to Larry, for his code ninja skills.
After the awards we had a pinata to smash as well as some cake plows. Ted asked me to do my cake plow, Mr. Fab style, however no one stepped up to do the Courtney part of the tribute so I did a regular cake plow. I had a hard enough time getting the cake out of my goatee. I'm pretty sure that it would have been tough to get it out of what little hair I have left. I put all of that together in this little video.