Did you ever think that having images on your blog would actually drive traffic to your blog from the search engines? Don’t overlook this fact. Yes, it’s true that most search engines only find your website with text, titles, and keywords. But thankfully, there are a lot of ways to get them to actually “see” the images you post on your blogs and websites, as well.  I’m not talking about TinEye or Google’s search by image.

Alt tags and title tags are the key. They’re there for a reason, so make sure you use them! Google’s bots and crawlers eat them up like delicious chocolate pudding cups. If you don’t use them, they might just see the default image title, which might be something like IMG_3535.jpg and they’re not really interested in that number (nobody is). The more you describe your images, the more you will be able to ensure they can be found in the search engine image searches. Related text in the post, and related keywords will also assist in getting them indexed and ranked in these image search results as well.

When people browse for images of a certain topic, they might just stumble upon a link over to your website. Then, they might just poke around a while, and like what they see. They might even buy your product or service. This isn’t a longshot, because think about it – you’re doing targeted marketing, all because of your specific stock image selections.  Make sure that when you’re writing an article about dogs that you don’t use a photo of a gorilla.  This is obvious.  Take the general gist of what the blog post is about, and use some royalty free stock images from that same theme or subject.

Blog posts filled with nothing but text might contain great information, great for SEO.  Rich content is always valuable to have.  As you probably already know, we really only have about 6 seconds to capture a web visitors attention, before they decide to leave.  Why not ensure that you aren’t losing people because of a lack of visuals?  You almost have to compare web surfers like toddlers or infants with uber short attention spans.  How long is a baby going to flip through a children’s book that has nothing but text in it?  The images are what gets them to keep turning the pages, as they browse and investigate further.

Here are a few pointers: Make sure the stock images you license for your blog are specific enough to what you are blabbing about. You want stock images that both look good, and that tell a story.  Generally, stock images that are smaller, lower resolution sizes are extra cheap. They are almost always more affordable than higher resolution stock photos or vector illustrations.  You don’t have to break the bank, to breath more life into your blog.  Not only will it be more aesthetically pleasing, but those little images will help drive more traffic to your website.

We live in the age of the SHARE! People of the masses generally think that they have the right to freely share everything and anything, digital. It’s all good, just SHARE it all. You had to have heard about the SOPA dilemna by now, partly involving these issues.  While sharing content can be great, in some ways; in other ways it hurts businesses. Some reason: why pay for something when you can get it for free? That’s what mothers have been saying all these years to their daughters. Why buy the cow, when you can get the milk for free? If you run a business of your own, you probably already know that it’s always good to give a little something away for free.  I’m not talking about being free and loose with your goodies, whoring out the whole store.  It’s a simple fact that quality content helps you to get more traffic, to advertise, to get backlinked to, and even to grow a large following. We do that here using giveaways, coupon codes, even by posting creative inspiration and tutorials, or maybe even some funny stuff.  Content is key, with any online business. Free samples work great in grocery stores, and restaurants. You need to woo potential customers over with a little something something, in this age of information overload, and fierce competition.

Pinterest is one of the hottest social bookmarking networks right now, along with Tumblr as another major blogging and bookmarking platform.  Both platforms are really cool, and many actually enjoy using them.  Another similar one is VisualizeUs, and there are probably a slew of others.  What’s the big deal about them?  These websites make it a cinch to “reblog” or “repin” anyone else’s posts.  That means you can easily take; no wait, “SHARE” someone else’s post with a few clicks of the mouse, so that you will then have that content on your own page.  You don’t know where the content of the post really originated from, but it’s all in good fun… right?  Sharing and hotlinking random images with these services right now might seem innocent to most.  If you have a Pinterest or Tumblr account, you’ve probably done it yourself.  Maybe you’ve reposted a cute comic, or a photo of an adorable kitten playing with string.  Maybe it was that really cool car photo, or the hilarious stock photo that nobody can find any real use for, other than to laugh at it.  Guess what?  This is going to change a lot about the way most people think about hotlinking. Read the rest of this entry »

This is a powerful example of how rewording such a simple phrase gets an entirely different reaction. The blind homeless man has a cardboard sign with the words “I’m Blind – Please Help”. An onlooker stops and changes his sign to read “It’s a beautiful day and I can’t see it”, and then the spare changes starts coming in like money is falling from the sky.

Thinking outside the box (as cliche as that expression is) when it comes to slogans and advertising propaganda is definitely necessary. Sometimes being overly simple and direct with your message can cause your audience to overlook it. We all are being inundated with information on a daily basis; so much that we tend to zone most things out, sometimes without even realizing it. Think about this video on your next marketing project, whether you are designing a simple ad, or titling your next tweet or blog post; I know I will.

There are a lot of people that don’t really see the value in having a free Tumblr blog, for a few different reasons.  Maybe you’ve got a pretty hopping WordPress blog already, so why should you need another stupid blog to have to manage?  If you aren’t running a business online, and don’t care about getting more hits and search engine traffic, then Search Engine Optimization (SEO) probably isn’t on the top of your list of concerns.  If you just want a basic blog that is easy to use and post to, then tumblr is amazingly simple and easy to get started.  It’s even easier than a free wordpress.com or blogger.com blog.  This article is mainly considering tumblr as a tool to drive traffic toward your other websites.  Here are some reasons why I think tumblr is pretty awesome, as a supplement to your existing website or blog.

1. You get all dofollow backlinks to any url you post on your blog. This is great for SEO and developing quality backlinks.

2. There is an endless stream of cool eyecandy, videos, articles and content that you can reblog. What’s the point in this, if there is duplicate text and content?  Well, when it comes to reblogging articles, I don’t really see the point for SEO.  Google and the search engines don’t take very well to duplicate text.  What they do like, is unique text.  So, if you’re going to reblog a video, photo, or other media – try and rephrase the description and keywords, maybe even the title a bit, so that it’s a little bit different.  It might help for a little while, until people reblog the crap out of it again.

3.  Tumblr reblogs create awesome content for tweets and twitter microblog posts. It’s so simple to set up your twitter account, so that every time you reblog on tumblr, it will tweet the description and the link to the site, photo or video you are reblogging. It’s pretty easy to keep the descriptions under 140 characaters, and makes finding cool content to feed to your followers a cinch.

4.  The viral-ness of tumblr is great if you’re trying to promote your youtube videos, photos, music, and more. If people like what they see, then they will reblog it.  Every time it’s reblogged, it will link back to your original post or website!  Every time I post to tumblr I see it as planting a little seed, here and there.  You never know what’s going to start getting popular.  An important thing for this to be the most effective, however, is having enough followers to get the ball rolling.  Remember that content is key, and if people like your taste, the style of the stuff you post on your tumblr blog, they’re more apt to follow you.

I’m no expert, but those are the conclusions I’ve come to – let me know what you think!  Here’s a link to my tumblr stream – please follow me, and I’ll follow you back.

Don’t you just love the smell of fresh fruit?  Or maybe the smell of fresh plastic is more your thing… like when you get some new electronics or maybe some new camera gear?  Well, I decided to finally go WordPress with my blogging.  It will be better for SEO and also will be a lot more customizable than my previous blog host.  So far I’m loving it, but I did happen to kill an entire Saturday migrating over and tweaking things to get them the way I wanted.  In time, this web stuff gets easier.  It’s always a pain in the balls to get them started, and then after that it’s just a little maintenance and design things here and there.