image courtesy of dbang

Finding Relevant Images

Writing a post for me is an incremental process. I figure out the topic first, I come up with the main headings as an outline next, and then I start writing each section. It is not until I am half way through the article that I start thinking about what graphic might be a good match for what I am writing. Once I am done with the article, I have a pretty good picture in my mind of the image I want to attach to the post. I visit the following resources in this order to begin my search.

• iStockPhoto or any other affordable stock photo site. There are a ton out there, but I think iStockPhoto is the best. Most of the time, I can find exactly the image I am looking for and pay $1 for the rights to use it legally.
• Flickr.com. There are millions of images on Flickr.com, many of which have been given a Creative Commons license. This allows you the legal right to use the image as long as you give proper credit to the original source. If you see a link under an image on a blog, it is usually because it is being used under the Creative Commons license. The only reason I don't go to Flickr first is because there are SO many images that it takes longer to find the one that might be best for you.
• Google Image Search. If my first two searches fail (which is rare), I then hit old faithful - Google Image search. Most often, the image I am looking for already exists on some other blog. I don't just rip it off and post it as my own. I usually reach out to the blog owner first and ask if I can repost the image. You'll be surprised how often someone says "sure".

Time To Learn PhotoShop?

Lately, I have been taking a different tactic whenever possible. Instead of paying for images, if I can, I will create my own. All it takes is some practice with PhotoShop (or...(keep reading)), an occasional digital camera, and a few minutes to go through a couple tutorials. My good friend Bryan over at GrandMasterB has made a name for himself by providing some amazing PhotoShop tutorials. Take one look at his site and you'll know he is a very talented graphic artist. He has a whole section of his blog that is dedicated to PhotoShop tutorials that teach you how to create awesome RSS logos, eye catching banners, and killer text images. Spend some time reading Bryan's tutorials and I guarantee...you will quickly realize that when you have a vision for an image in your head, you don't have to search hours to find it. You can probably just create it yourself.

Bryan is also one of the nicest guys I have met in my blogging lifetime. If you aren't sure about how to use that Pen tool, or need any other help with PhotoShop, just shoot him a quick note. I'm sure he'd be happy to help however he can.

But I Don't Want to Pay for PhotoShop

Guess what...neither do I! In fact, I don't use PhotoShop at all. I can honestly say that GIMP has become my favorite program of all time. It is a FREE Open Source alternative to PhotoShop. Anything you can do with PhotoShop, you can do with GIMP. You can even follow tutorials that were written specifically for PhotoShop and accomplish the exact same results very easily with GIMP. Check it out. It takes a little practice, but it will be worth it. Pretty soon you'll be PhotoShopping (or Gimping) anything you can get your hands on. :)

Jeff

I'm sure its happened to all of us at one time or another. You're checking out your blog, reviewing comments or editing an article. Then you see it...the Google ad that is sticking out like the drunk guy with the tie around his head at your sister's wedding. Not that you have anything against the lifestyle of course, but let's be honest...it can be a little embarrassing when you're blog about cute little puppies starts displaying ads for "Hot Lesbian Lovers".

This happened to me very recently on my entertainment blog, Buzz Pirates. I made a bad joke about Hilary Swank being the object of affection for a certain lifestyle. And wouldn't you know it...the Google AdSense script picked those few words out of the crowd and decided to use that single phrase as the focus of their ads. So I decided to do a little digging to figure if there was a way to block certain words from being used by popular ad services. It turned out to be easier than I thought, but may not be something everyone is aware of. So I hope this little tip will help you to ensure that ads displayed on your blog remain relevant to your actual content.

The two primary ad services I use on BuzzMyBlog.com are Google AdSense and Kontera ads. It turns out that both of them have simple tags that you can place around words that you don't want to be used for generating contextual ads.

Google AdSense

In order to block certain phrases from being considered for AdSense ad generation, simply enclose the undesired text between HTML comments labeled "google_ad_section_start(weight=ignore)" and "google_ad_section_end". Like so...

<!-- google_ad_section_start(weight=ignore) -->
   Every lesbians fantasy, Hilary Swank
<!-- google_ad_section_end -->

Kontera ContentLink

Kontera has a similar approach for filtering unwanted phrases from being labeled with their in-text ContentLink advertising. Simply enclose the text with <span></span> tags that have the attribute "name='KonaFilter'", like so...

<span name="KonaFilter">
   Every lesbians fantasy, Hilary Swank 
</span> >

Using these simple tips, you can ensure the advertising on your page remains relevant to the topic of your niche. I will be sure to update this post with any tips for other ad services as I learn them. Let me know if you have any requests or questions by leaving a comment.

Jeff

I have recently become addicted to Digg (see my other blog for proof). At first, I thought Digg was all about being another place to promote your blog. The more I use it though, the more I realize how wrong I was. In light of this, I thought I would take a second and give you the REAL skinny on Digg. If you still want to use it to promote your blog, I'll give you a few tips. But hopefully after reading this, you'll realize how that is not even necessary.  

What Digg Isn't

Digg is not a blog promotion tool. They don't have a category about blogs and I am sure that is not an oversight. Don't even bother trying to submit your latest blog post about making money online because the Digg users don't care. It will just be a waste of your time.

What Digg Is

Digg is a social network that helps you find the VERY best of the Internet. If you want to read something interesting, something funny, something GOOD...go to Digg. The users of Digg are very proud of this. They don't mess around or put up with any crap. If your article is not something that can be considered "the best" of the Internet, it will get buried quicker than Tatum O'Neal in a pile of cocaine.  But if your article is good enough, the Digg users will acknowledge it and give it some votes. If your article is GREAT, it could earn enough votes to make it to the front page of Digg and you will get more traffic than your server can handle. 

The Wrong Way To Use Digg

A lot of bloggers make the mistake of going to Digg and submitting their latest post. No matter how brilliant the article may be this just won't work. As I mentioned, the Digg users are very protective of their content. Submitting your own work is against everything the service stands for and won't be tolerated. Why? Because there too much bias - of course you think your work is the best of the Internet! But everyone else may not agree. Spamming all of your friends and asking them to Digg your article is just as bad. That is not how the service is supposed to be used and you will not get good results if you use it that way.

The Right Way To Use Digg

This is going to sound very counter intuitive, so please bear with me as I try to explain. In order to get the most out of Digg you need to completely forget about your own content. That's right, forget about it. No matter how badly you want your post shown to the Digg community, its out of your hands so don't even think about it. The creators of Digg are brilliant. So are the users. This combination of human judgment and super smart computer algorithms is what makes Digg so unique and powerful.

Digg is all about building a good reputation. Digg something good, and your reputation will go up. Digg a piece of crap and your reputation will go down. If you don't Digg anything at all you will have NO reputation so anything you submit will be ignored. Your submissions are very precious. They should be used very carefully because they will have a HUGE impact on your reputation. The goal of submitting something is to make it "popular" by getting on the front page. Period. Do not submit anything if you don't think it will make it to the front page. The only time you should submit something is if you are lucky enough find something REALLY awesome on the Internet that no one has Dugg yet. If you are fortunate to make such a discovery and the Digg users vote your submission to the front page, your reputation will skyrocket. More people will follow what you're Digging and the things that you do Digg will have a better chance of getting more votes. 

Take FamilyGuyFan, a Digg friend of mine, for example. His Digg Stats are shown to the right. He has Dugg over 43 THOUSAND articles, images, and videos! Yet he has only submitted a mere 191 items for consideration. Those 191 items must have been very good because 59 of them went on to make it to the front page of Digg. Were they his content? Probably not. But his Digg reputation has become huge. Anything he Diggs now has the potential to turn to gold.

See...are you starting to get it yet?

A great way to build your reputation is to start adding as many friends as you can in your Digg profile. Be prepared - your inbox will start filling up with shouts from friends asking you to Digg an article. I know what you must be thinking...previously I said not to spam your friends with Digg requests. This is different. These shouts are for items that have ALREADY been submitted to Digg. Theoretically, they are already among the best of the Internet. If you Digg it, you can contribute in sending it to the front page and your reputation will go up because of it.

So Can Digg Help My Blog or Not?

Not directly. But what you can do is make it easier for your readers to Submit and/or Digg your article if they think it deserves it. See the Digg badge at the beginning of my post? I put it there to make it easier for you to Digg this article. I won't ask anyone to Digg it. If someone thinks it has the potential to become popular, they will go ahead and Digg in an effort to increase their reputation. Remember...the ultimate goal is to submit something that will make it to the front page. I have just made it easier for my readers to do that because they can just click on the badge to submit it directly from this page. 

I won't put the badge on every post of my blog. I will be the first to admit that BuzzMyBlog is not really about the topics that Digg users are interested in. So on this blog, I will only put the badge up on posts that I think might have a chance of doing well. My other blog, however, has much more in common with normal Digg content. It is a humor blog that makes fun of bizarre news, celebrities, and other hot topics. So on BuzzPirates.com, I do put the badge up on every post. 

If you want to add the Digg badge to your posts, here is the code to do it in WordPress.

The code above adds the badge before your post content. If you want it on every post, edit the Main Index Template (index.php) in the WordPress Theme Editor and paste the code just before the call to the content function that looks like this:
<?php the_content('Read the rest of this entry &raquo;'); ?>.

If you only want it on certain posts, view the HTML in your post editor and paste this code at the very beginning. You can adjust the spacing by changing the padding numbers. From left to right in order, the four numbers adjust the spacing on the top, right, bottom, and left of the badge. Change the numbers to align the badge with your text. 

How To Get on the Front Page Of Digg

Finally! The answer you've all probably been waiting for. Getting on the front page of Digg is easy. Simply write something that TRULY is among the VERY BEST of the Internet! Ok, maybe its not that simple. But it is the ONLY way. 

Good Luck!

Jeff

Image courtesy of fredsbabe

Do you ever feel like your blog is stuck in a rut? It happens to all of us. But have you ever thought this - why wouldn't it be in a rut when you wake up day after day and do the exact same thing when it comes to your blog? You write a post, ask a few friends to Stumble it, announce it on Twitter, and broadcast it on BlogCatalog. You might get some decent traffic, but it always seems like the same amount. Your blog just doesn't seem to be growing. Guess what...its probably not! When you do the same thing over and over again, you are becoming visible to the same people over and over again. These people have seen (and hopefully like) your blog already. In order for your blog to grow, you need to do something to get exposure to new and different people.

Here are a few ideas that might help get your blog in front of a new audience. 

• Guest Post - This my favorite way of finding new readers. It gives you a chance to show off your skills to a whole new crowd. My recent guest post on ProBlogger brought in tons of traffic and many new feed subscribers. If your post is good enough, almost any blogger will be glad to post it now matter how popular the blog is. If you've got a great post, shoot for the stars and ask the A-Listers!
• Follow Blogs In A Dfferent Niche - Could your blog appeal to more than one niche? Most can. A great way to find new readers is to start participating on blogs outside of your niche. You've probably gotten familiar with many blogs in your niche, but there are millions more out there. Becoming a regular on a blog in a new topic will introduce yourself to a whole new croud of people.
• Pay for Advertising - Yes, its true what they say...you don't need to spend money to have a successful blog. You don't have to, but you could. Spending a little money is a great way to get a kick start on some new traffic. Project Wonderful has some very inexpensive ads, but to be honest, its a little hard to find ones that get good results. If you are going to spend the money, my recommendations are with a StumbleUpon campaign or Google AdWords. StumbleUpon is great because it is so simple. It costs $0.05 a visitor. Period. You tell them how many visitors you want and that is what you pay for. I do recommend trying Google AdWords for one very important reason. It helps you really understand the keywords in your niche and who might be using them. Click here to
• Run a Contest - Personally, I am not a fan of contests when they are nothing more than pure self promotion. However, running a contest is a great way to get some traffic and new subscribers. The best kind of contest is one where everyone gets something out of it no matter what. What's in it for people when all they have to do is subscribe to your feed? Make people contribute something of value to everyone else. Maybe the funniest joke, for example. That way, all your readers will get something out of everyone's contribution. It obviously doesn't hurt to have an awesome prize too. If you don't want to spend a lot of money, why not enter a few contests yourself. Anything you win you could then give away yourself.
• Classifieds - Do you even realize how many people read Craigslist? My wife and I put a few things in the community yard sale this morning. Last night I posted an ad on Craigslist describing what we had and specifically asked people to stop by and say hi. I cannot tell you how surprised Mrs. Buzz was when people came by just to say hi! She didn't think anyone would read it! We sold everything and made a few hundred bucks. Craigslist is great, but just be careful. They are SUPER intolerant of spammers. If you post even looks or feels like it might be spam it will get flagged. If you have something that people will like, just choose your words carefully.
• Think Outside of the Box - I know...I hate that cliche too. But sometimes thinking outside the box is what you have to do to grow your blog. Who was the first person to run a contest on their blog? What about the first person to post a meme? I don't know who they are, but I bet they had amazing success because they did something that no one else had ever done. Think of something new and something original. If it catches on, it will not only bring traffic, but it could bring a huge amount of exposure and attention! (if you've got a really good idea let me know if you need some programming help! )

Its pretty easy for a blog to fall into a rut. Hopefully some of these tips will inspire some new ideas that will keep your blog flourishing.

Jeff

Maybe I am being a little paranoid, but it seems to me that bloggers in general are a little too trusting with strange code they place on their blog. TNX.net is paying for reviews throughout the blogosphere and it seems a little fishy to me. Paranoid or not, I thought this post might help raise a little awareness and at least make you think twice before publishing something you're not sure about.  

The Bottom Line

You should guard your blog like you guard your house. You wouldn't just give any stranger on the street a key to your house, would you? Of course not. But for some reason bloggers have no problem letting strange people execute code on their blog. Running someone else's code on your blog is like giving them their own window into your home - a window they can climb into anytime they want and take stuff, move stuff around, or add some really bad decorations.

So what exactly do I mean by "running strange code"? Every time you ad a new widget, gadget, whose-it, or whats-it, you have to follow directions to download a snippet of code and paste it into your blog's template. With that done, every single time your blog is loaded in someone's browser, that code will execute to add whatever exciting feature its supposed to do. It is important for you to realize that piece of code you added to your template now has complete and total access to the remaining content of your blog. If you execute some untrustworthy code the consequences could be unimaginable. Here are just a few things that some unscrupulous code might do:

• Hijack Your Affiliate Links. When you are getting paid to endorse a product on your blog, a company will give you a special link to use so they know potential customers came from your site. Untrustworthy code on your blog could very easily search your blog for those referral links and replace them with their own. Now THEY will get credit every time YOU refer a customer.
• Affect Your Google PageRank. Google awards blogs with relevant topics and lots of inbound links by giving them a high PageRank (see this post for more on PageRank). Google has also been know to punish blogs that pay for links or use other embedded code that attempts to trick the Google algorithms (which is often mistaken as Search Engine Optimization or SEO). If your blog runs code from a source they do not consider legit, they will definitely lower your PageRank, which in the long run, could cost a lot more than the few bucks you made in the latest link exchange scam.
• Severely Slow Down the Load Time Of Your Blog which can piss your readers off enough to keep them from ever returning. How many times have you visited a blog that took an hour to load only to find that it had widgets a mile long in their sidebar flashing and animating and practically giving you a seizure. Do you ever go back? I don't. Every time your blog runs another piece of code or widget that you pasted into your template, it is practically like making a whole new request for another web page. If you have 10 different widgets, it is like going to 10 different blogs and waiting for them all to finish loading. Now you see why some blogs take forever to load!

Helpful Tip! If you are interesting in learning all that your blog is really loading behind the scenes (or any blog for that matter), I strongly suggest the LiveHTTPHeaders PlugIn for FireFox. You can use it to see all the requests and responses coming in and out of a single web page. You would not believe the amount data some blogs make you download that is nothing more than useless junk.

Am I saying that every piece of code you run on your blog is dangerous? Of course not. Take Google AdSense, for example. You certainly have nothing to worry about there. But notice how all the ads somehow magically match your content. Its proof that those code snippets have access to the rest of your blog. Its okay to run code from Google AdSense and other reputable services because they are trustworthy companies who can be held accountable for any wrong doing. Plus the code was written by Google Engineers (who have replaced NASA Rocket Scientists as the smartest people alive) so you know it is optimized to limit the impact on your blog.

All I am suggesting is that you be vigilant. If something smells fishy, it probably is.

A Perfect Example 

Raise your hand if you've been contacted by TNX.net to try out their service and do a paid review for it. Sorry to burst your bubble, but they didn't scout you out specifically because they love your blog. They (whoever they are) have been busy asking thousands of blogs to review their service for cold hard cash. Most people are excited at the chance to make their first $40.00 that they gladly accept without considering just what the service is actually doing. And what they are doing is not cool in the eyes of Google.

Before you start getting too nervous, don't worry. They aren't doing anything super dangerous. If you have signed up for the service you know that they give you a boat load of code to download and paste into your template [RED FLAG #1 - a lot of code could be doing a lot of bad stuff!]. What this code is doing is using raw TCP sockets to have your server contact their server to download the links they want to display on your page. They do this behind the scenes so the links appear in your blog as content you actually put there yourself. It is an attempt to fool the search engine algorithms that penalize those that attempt to cheat the system. They even claim right on their home page that they can improve your Google PageRank [RED FLAG #2 - Google keeps the PageRank algorithm a closely guarded secret]. By the way...your blog will not finish loading until it has contacted TNX servers somewhere in Germany [RED FLAG #3 - a private DNS registered to an IP address in Germany? Come on! Red flag city!]. So you are now at the mercy of their servers.

Good ole' Vlad from TNX contacted me as well, but something just didn't feel right to me. Here is an excerpt of our dialog:

Vlad:

Hello, we would like to pay you to review TNX.NET on BuzzMyBlog.com. Please send me your PayPal address. [RED FLAG #4 - if their services is so great, why are they paying everyone?]

Jeff:

Hi, I would be happy to do a review. Does it have to be a positive one?

Vlad:

It can be a neutral review. We will pay you $40. What is your PayPal address [RED FLAG #5 - why won't they let me write my honest opinion? If its a good service they have nothing to worry about.]

Jeff:

Paid reviews on my blog cost $500.00. Since there is a risk of it affecting my PageRank, it has to be worth more than $40.00.

Vlad:

You can use nofollow.

Jeff:

Ok, I will.

Vlad:

So do you agree for $40 for the review with nofollow? Please provide us with your PayPal email.

Jeff:

No, I agreed to use nofollow. Reviews on my blog are $500.00

No further response from Vlad...

As I said in the very beginning, maybe I am just being a little paranoid. But there are definitely a lot of shady people out there so a little paranoia might be a good thing. Who knows, maybe TNX.NET is a good service. If anyone out there thinks so, leave a comment and let us know. What I do know is that it will definitely slow down your blog and it is definitely something Google will not tolerate. That, along with all the other RED FLAGS I pointed out, didn't make it worth it to me to give them an open window into my blog.

I encourage you to be more vigilant on your blog as well. Before you post that code, check it out and see what it is doing. If you can't figure it out, drop me a line. I'd be happy to check it out and let you know what I think. You can never be too careful.

Jeff

ps - Vlad...here is your honest review. I'll be expecting my $500.00

If you are considering starting your own blog, you may be wondering how I got this far (I have had a whopping 3 readers so far!). Seriously though, some may not find it easy to figure out those first few steps to getting an online blog presence. Sure, you can use a blog service, like Blogger or Wordpress. In fact, I think they are both very good blogging platforms. However, there are definitely some benefits to hosting your own blog. When you host your own blog, you have more freedom to customize it, are able to be more creative, and most importantly, you can choose the best platform for your needs. So here is a quick checklist showing exactly what I did to get started.

1. Come up with a catchy name for your blog
Ok, BuzzMyBlog may not be catchiest name out there (you'll see why I chose it soon). Once you have a good name, register the domain name. I use GoDaddy.com to register my domain names. Their website is a little confusing because there is a lot of "stuff" there. But they do offer a lot of good services and their prices are very affordable.

2. Open a Hosting Account
You would not believe how cheap some of these accounts are these days. You can get a basic web hosting account for as little as $3 bucks a month! You might have to upgrade as your site/blog grows, but that should get you started. You often have the choice between Windows or Linux hosting. This really depends on your own level of experience and personal preference. If you are just getting started, a Linux hosting account will be your best bet. With that, you can choose a blogging platform based on PHP that uses a MySQL database. If you want to use ASP.NET and need a SQL Server database, then choose a Windows hosting account. (Don't let me scare you with talks of databases and PHP and ASP, etc. - you don't need to know it to have a successful blog).

I chose to open a Windows hosting account, again with GoDaddy.com. I chose a Windows hosting account because I have a lot of experience with ASP.NET and want to be able to customize everything to my liking.

3. Choose a blogging platform
A good blogging platform is vital to the success of your blog. The platform will handle a lot of the magic behind the scenes like trackbacks, pings, and referrals (I will discuss these in more depth in a future post). Luckily, most web hosting companies will provide an option to set up a blog platform automatically. Take advantage of this because you can still customize it later. If you have a Linux hosting account, your best choice is by far WordPress. If your web host doesn't install it for you, you can easily upload it and install it yourself. The installation script is super easy - you just need to know your MySQL settings.

Since I have a Windows hosting account, I went with BlogEngine.NET. I am very happy with it. It is very powerful and easy to customize if you are familiar with ASP.NET.

4. Customize your theme, then blog away!
It might take you a little while to get the hang of your new blogging platform. One of the best ways to get the hang of it is to customize your own theme. This does require some basic knowledge of HTML and web page design. A good idea might be to start with an existing theme, copy it, then play around with it to tweak it to your liking. Change the colors, add your logo, change the font, etc. In no time your blog will be completely unique.

Once your framework is established, start blogging away. It is important to generate good content as quickly as possible (like I am trying to do now ). Also be sure to include links in your posts - they are very important and I will discuss them in more detail in another post. Once some good content is established, we can talk about attracting more visitors.

Happy Blogging!

As we left it last time, the next step is to attract visitors to your blog. But how do you know who has visited your blog? Most web hosting companies offer some basic web statistic tools or log files. These are usually pretty lame. If you use a blogging service, such as Blogger, you might not have access to log files at all. Regardless, the best web statistic tool I have seen by far is Google Analytics. The stats are clean and obvious. They show you the number of unique visitors, where they came from, how long the stayed on your site, and how they got there. They even have a neat map that shows you all the places in the world users came from. You can also perform some advanced tracking of specific goals. Setting up Google Analytics is as simple as adding a small script element to your blog's header. Many blog engines even allow you to do this from the settings page instead of having to modify the template code. Definitely check it out, it is well worth it.

Once you get Google Analytics setup, don't get frustrated. It take up to 24 hours to see some real stats. The stats are then updated roughly once a day.

I was so excited to check out my first report of user statistics. I logged and and saw some neat charts, graphs, and maps. Then I realized I only received 3 unique visitors. The most active visitor was from my own town. Yup, it was me. The other two visitors were blog syndication services that denied my blog because it was too new. D'oh! Not a single legitimate reader has read my blog yet. It sure is lonely in the beginning. Its important to stick with it though. Once we get more content, we can start taking advantage of blog services like BlogRush and BlogFlux. I'll talk more about them in posts to come. In the meantime, cheer up. Things will get better!