July 4, 2023

A Picture Tells A Thousand Words – 10 Places to Find FREE Images

We are sure you have heard the cliche, “a picture tells a thousand words”, but there is real value in using images to promote your content. Images help your readers learn, grab their attention, explain concepts and inspire. It has been found that only 20% of what people read sticks. However, if you put that information into an image format, suddenly the percentage of information takes a huge leap to 80%. Content on social media accompanied by an image is more likely to receive engagement. Our Top 10 Favorite Places to Find and Create Images  Canva Use Canvas drag-and-drop feature and professional layouts to design consistently stunning graphics. FotoJet  With FotoJet you can create graphic designs, make photo collages and edit photos. Choose from a variety of templates and powerful easy to use tools. No registration required. Pik-to-chart Take your visuals to the next level without hiring a professional designer. Watch this 1 min demo video to see if Piktochart is right for you Pablo Type any text you’d like into the text box and choose an image as a background or upload your own. Once your creation is complete share to Twitter or Facebook in the click of a button or add to your Buffer queue. Here is a quick get started demo Pexels Best FREE stock photos in one place. Just enter your search term and find a selection of photos for free download. Pixabay Get access to over 900,000 FREE stock photos. You can download, modify and use them royalty free for anything you like without attribution. Coverr FREE Videos for your homepage. Suffer from a case of the Mondays? Coverr releases 7 new videos for use every Monday…… problem solved. LinkedIn Backgrounds Download the best free background photos to brand your header. Flaticon The largest database of free icons available. Get the popular essential pack  Recite Turn a quote into a beautiful shareable image for social media. The ease of creating and sharing content makes this a great tool for anyone.

Promoting Your Blog | 12 Steps to Success

Creating A Successful Blog | 9 Step Guide

If you have read Blogging for Business  then you know that businesses create blogs to expand their online presence, connect with potential customers, promote their brand, and generate online revenue.  This article demonstrates how you can get started with your blog and how to create a successful blog that converts. Choose your blogging platform If you already have a website, adding a blog page should be a fairly simple process. However, if you are setting up your blog from scratch you will need to choose a blogging platform. We love the features and usability of WordPress but there are many other platforms to choose from here. Design your blog using a simple theme  You always want to make a good first impression so this step is crucial.  Your goal should be to design a website that visually appeals to your target audience.  Most blogging platforms have a variety of themes to choose from. We recommended selecting one that best suits your company personality and branding.  If for some reason you don’t like the way your blog theme looks you can simply change the theme or improve upon it as you go. Tip: Use Whitespace to your Advantage Select the best plugins for your blog A plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a website. They can extend functionality or add new features. Whether you want your blog to be found by search engines or make your content more shareable, the best plugins have these things in common: We’ve narrowed the list down to 10 must have plugins: Write content that adds value to your readers Write educational content that answers problems people are searching for answers to. Put yourself in the shoes of your buyer personas . What are you customers searching for? It is important to remember that you are trying to reach people who have never heard of your company so write about your industry, not your brand. Brainstorm Blog Topics Unless your blog is strictly for your own enjoyment, you’re probably hoping to gain or increase readership. So, it’s important to consider what others might want to read or learn about. When brainstorming topics, it is important to answer these questions: When you have come up with topics to write about, pick one to focus on per post and do your keyword research. Use this research in your post to get found online and start ranking higher in search results. Create Your Working Title A working title is something you work off as you start to write your post. It is recommended to Include a long tail keyword in the title. Long-tail keywords are longer and more specific keyword phrases people may use to find your content online. You will likely draw less traffic with a long-tail keyword than you would with a more common one, but the traffic you do draw will be more focused, committed, and more desirous of your services. TIP: Google will only show the first 50-60 characters of a title in search results, so to avoid having this cut off try and keep it within these limits. Optimize Your Blog Search Engine Optimization is incredibly important for a blog to be successful. When you optimize your blog pages you are making your website more visible to people who are searching for keywords associated with your brand, product, or service. How to Optimize Your Blog Content: How to Promote Your Blog Not only do your posts need to be well-written, helpful, and relevant to your target audience, but you’ve also got to make sure you’re promoting them correctly. 9 blog promotion tactics:

10 unique places to discover NEW Content

Are you looking for better ways to find new and interesting content to share on Social Media? When you share good content it’s easier to build a strong community. Sharing great content also increases your credibility. To give the people what they want, sometimes you’ve got to dig deeper. Here are some unique places to look: Find Content in Your Inbox Subscribe to newsletters based on your interests and or industry. Newsletters are often filled with hand-picked articles of interest. The best ones will have one or two new pieces of content that you can share each day. Newsletters/Blogs you should subscribe to: Subscribe to Google Alerts The more informed we are, the more valuable and influential we become. With Google Alerts, you can set up industry keywords and or phrases and monitor the web for interesting new content. Instructions to set up Google Alerts. Check Out Flipboard  Flipboard is a news aggregation and social network aggregation company and a great place to find news on any topic. Flip any article into your own magazine or category to keep a running of your favourite articles for reading or sharing later. Participate in Online Forums Content doesn’t need to be in the form of a blog post, article or link for it to be good. Quora is great for collecting unique insights on whatever topic you’re focused on. Join Niche Facebook Groups Just like in your news feed, people share things that they find interesting, as well as some of their own content. The difference is, most groups have guidelines, so people only post pieces that are relevant to the topic of the group. Seek out Relevant Twitter Lists Twitter lists ensure you never miss a post from the people you trust the most. You can make lists based on a variety of interests or topics. Review Trending Topics The top social media networks also have a pretty good idea of what content is popular so why not use this to your advantage. Google+ tracks its rising content in a section titled What’s Hot. Its algorithms pull up-and-coming content.  To reach this feature, click on the Explore link on your top navigation bar, then choose “What’s Hot” from the list of tags. Twitter has a search feature that lets you see what others are talking about based on keywords you enter and below shows a list of trending hashtags. Facebook Trending helps you discover relevant topics being discussed in real time. Get Pocket Pocket is your place to quickly save, discover, and recommend the stories that interest you from anywhere on the web. Try Klout Klout suggests shareable content that your audience hasn’t seen yet. It tracks how retweets, likes, and shares affect your Klout Score. Visit Content Gems Set up broad content searches and filter by popularity, or go niche and discover content in your area of specialty that nobody else is sharing.  Make sure to utilize the add article feature to share your content and increase your exposure online. TIP: Use Sensory Words to provide more details and examples in your writing!