Contributors – Page 5

Understanding Creative Commons Licenses Made Easy

September 18, 2015 Beth Devine

Now that you have new image sources — and even more — that you’ve probably never heard of before, free to use for your blog posts and other creative pursuits, it’s the perfect time for an easy-to-understand explanation of Creative Commons licenses.

Because let’s face it, Creative Commons licensing is almost as difficult to understand at first glance as legalise. Oh, the horrors. Relax and fear not; this is going to be a breeze for even those of you who fear the dreaded clicking on “agree” to lengthy terms and conditions imposed on us with every piece of software we use.

Oh, the jargon. Will it never end? Here it is in common English, complete with my own personal disclaimer: I assume no responsibility for anything legal, even the lack of jargon. (Hint: I am not a lawyer.)

Go to the CC license site for each license deed and legal code for full explanation. If you really want to roll up your shirtsleeves, click here for a handy License Versions chart that compares all the different licenses.

But first, a little trick from Creative Commons. All CC licenses require attribution. To help you with remembering this, start with a simple acronym. Think “TASL” for Title, Author, Source, License. This handy mnemonic device means thinking about a bunch of threads hanging from a knob. How hard can it be?

The next time you’re wondering what to do for image attribution, ask yourself:

What’s the title of the image? (If there is one, include it.)
Who’s the author or owner of the image? The word “creator” would be better, but then that would mess up the acronym.
Where can the source be found? This is usually a URL or hyperlink to the image.
What’s the license of the image? There are now eight different Creative Commons licenses, so name it and create a hyperlink to its Creative Commons license page.

There are good ways to do this, and not so good ways. The good ways are all going to clear the TASL-minimum. Did you know that including the title is only a requirement for CC license versions 3.0 or earlier? And it’s optional for 4.0? Go with TASL and you’ll be covered.

On with understanding the Creative Commons licenses:

Attribution License

For this attribution only license, give the creator of the image the correct attribution by following TASL. You can use the image however you want, distribute it, and make changes to it for both commercial and non-commercial use. Indicate if you’ve modified the work from the original in your attribution.

Attribution-NoDerivs License

This is the same as the attribution except for the one all-important difference. You can’t modify the image in any way, including cropping, changing color, and adding text. It must remain in its original, unaltered condition in order to use it for any purpose you want, and with all the TASL requirements.

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License

This license allows you to share the image for non-commercial purposes only, but that’s it. No altering it in any way. The TASL still stands, so don’t forget to give attribution to the original creator.

Attribution-NonCommercial License

This is similar to the attribution only license except you aren’t allowed to use it commercially. Remember the TASL requirements, give attribution to original creator, and use the images only in a non-commercial way. You are allowed to modify the image, just be sure to indicate you’ve done so.

Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License

You can use the image, manipulate it in any way, but only for non-commercial uses. You need to give attribution to the original author. The one caveat here is that the share alike gives you rights to the new work you created when you changed it. Your new, altered work carries the same license, which means others can again alter the image, etc. .

Attribution-ShareAlike License

Can you guess what this one is by now? You must give proper attribution, manipulate the image in any way for either commercial or non-commercial use. The same share alike portion applies, giving you the same license should you build upon the image, and anyone else who builds upon your new work.

Public Domain Dedication (CC0)

This is a new addition to Flickr’s licensing, a popular free image source. This particular licensing carries the CCO or “CC Zero” restrictions, meaning zero restrictions. There are “No Rights Reserved” and no copyright restrictions. Feel free to make changes, even for commercial use, no attribution or permissions needed. Thank you very much, Flickr.

Public Domain Mark

Also new to Flickr, this license carries no known restrictions under copyright law. Go ahead and modify and distribute it as you wish, commercial purposes included, no permission or attribution required. See other information as noted in license.

Your Creative Commons 101 course is now over. It’s up to you to stay informed, follow the requirements, and be a happy image sharer.

More Free Image Sources You’ve Never Heard Of

September 9, 2015 Beth Devine

Searching for little known, free image sources proved to be so fun I found you more. More visuals to make your online work pop out. More exciting ways to enhance your blog posts, eblasts, memes, infographics, social media shares, and all your other visual content marketing.

These sources give you free images under a form of Creative Commons licensing. Check each site before you use their images to make sure you’re following correct operating procedure. This way everyone’s happy in image-use land.

Give each title a click to discover what’s new. I don’t promise you loads of cute cat images, but I bet you’ll find a free image source you’ve never heard of before. If you don’t, I owe you a cat photo.

Tookapic

Tookapic offers both free and premium stock photos. You can filter by “free photos” which gives you the CCO licensed photos. They prefer dogs, but the Tookapic blog offers advice on photography, including Tips and Tricks, Photography 101, Tutorials, and Photo Ideas. So you can go right ahead and take photos of cats with all your newly acquired wisdom.

Snapwire Snaps

Get seven free photos every seven days. Photos are public domain and free from copyright restrictions. Download their collection by the week, currently showing week one through sixty, or do a quick search and see what pops up.

Jay Mantri

Beautiful landscapes and close-ups for your free, do-anything use. Check out his archive and see for yourself. Sign up for seven new free images each week and get something perfect for your creative efforts.

IM Free

Their collection features unusual categories such as BW (black and white), ambient, and icons, as well as the more typical fare of nature, business, and health. All the images are free and for commercial use. Some require attribution, so be sure to check before using. You can also build a website if you feel the urge.

Negative Space

Negative Space adds twenty photos each week that you can sort by color, copy space position, and fourteen categories, something not all sites offer that dish out weekly updates. All photos are under the CCO Creative Commons license, so you can use them commercially and no attribution is required. No cats to be found, the one negative about Negative Space.

PicJumbo

Get new free photos delivered to your inbox for commercial and personal use. New photos added daily from a variety of categories, including sunlight, Christmas, and abstract. PicJumbo says attribution is greatly appreciated. 2,108,672 photos since it started in November of 2013, and not a single cat image. Sigh.

Wellcome Images

You can now get ancient manuscripts, etchings by famous artists, and early photography and advertisements in free, high-resolution format from over 100,000 images available through the Wellcome Images collection. Most images are released under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) license so you can use them free of charge for both personal and commercial use, with acknowledgement to Wellcome Library.

Whether you want to dabble in the morose with images of hysteric and epileptic patients from the Salpêtrière Hospital, or you’re interested in 1887 studies of motion, or a 1384 Persian horoscope, you’re bound to find something unusual and obscure in this historical collection.

Wylio

The word “wylio” is Welsh for “to look at” or “watch.” Thanks to Wylio, you can look at their compilation of photos collected from Flickr, all easily searchable under the Creative Commons Attribution license. They not only curate awesome photos for you, they also give you a free re-sizer, code embedder, and credit builder to use.

Choose your image, select a size slider to set your dimensions, then choose an embed code to automatically upload your photo within a responsive design like WordPress. Wylio generates the embed code, you just add the attribution. All this from “a lean, scrappy, bootstrapping web start-up, located in the small town of Dayton, Tennessee.”

And they have cats, loads of ’em.

Magdeleine

Magdeleine has both CCO public domain and attribution-required licenses, with images easily sortable by both categories. Each curated image displays its license by either hovering the cursor over the image, or with a license stamp in the upper right corner.

You can also sort by eight other categories, the most hits coming from nature, objects, and people. If you’re looking for a color to highlight, you can also search by thirteen color categories.

If you’ve discovered at least one free image source you’ve never heard of with this post or my last post, then I’ve done my job. If not, then you’re spending far too much time online. Or you’re a fellow cat-enthusiast who’s hoping I’ll send you that cat photo I promised.

Image credit: My photo of Longwood Gardens, PA, resident summer house cat, who clearly owns the place.

Free Image Sources You’ve Probably Never Heard Of

September 1, 2015 Beth Devine

commercial and personal use — “Green Eggs and Cat” by Nantaskart, used under CC BY / Desaturated from original

Posting images on social media can be a tedious task when you keep resorting to the same old free image sources. From your business or personal blog to the vast array of social networks, it’s time you spice up your images with sources you’ve probably never heard of, or lost track of, or forgot to bookmark.

When using free image sources, always check the license conditions. It’s a dog-eat-dog world (my apologies to all dogs; this reference is purely idiomatic) and prudent users know to proceed with caution lest they find themselves at the wrong end of a potentially costly legal accusation.

The license conditions can sometimes include legalese that is tricky to understand. Want something in plain English? To read about the legal ramifications of using images incorrectly in simple words, check out The Ultimate Student Guide to Images, a helpful guide that explains copyright, fair use, creative commons, and lists free sources that I’ve included here. Or check out my Use With Caution: How To Avoid Image Copyright Violation post for the low-down.

There are many online resources for free images with a Creative Commons license of some sort, giving you generous use and reprint rights. Here is a list of free image sources with at least one (or two, or more) that you’ve never heard of. Just click on the source name to be transported to a world of new photos.

You can thank me later — read to the end to find out how.

Gratisography

Free high-resolution photos added weekly for both commercial and personal use. There are no copyright restrictions on these pictures, all taken by Ryan McGuire from Bells Design. He not only has a keen eye, he also has quite the sense of humor. Images are searchable by category only.

Behold

Behold takes your searches and looks at what is inside the images at the pixel level. This way it searches like a computer would, rather than using only image tags and filenames like most search engines.

Try searching for images that “look like” a particular visual concept, such as an animal. You can get to this page by first doing a general search. Or go here and try it to see for yourself. Be sure to check each Flickr image for its individual license before using.

Unsplash

Subscribe and get ten new photos every ten days for free from Unsplash. All the photos are licensed under Creative Commons Zero, so you can do whatever you want, including copy, modify, and distribute them, even commercially, without getting permission or giving attribution.

There is no search function and photos aren’t grouped in any categories. You can wait for your inbox to deliver more awesomeness, or you can go to the site and scroll down to your heart’s content.

Death to the Stock Photo

Get another ten photos free in your inbox the first of each month from Death to the Stock Photo. Each month a different category is selected for delivery. Check out their own license here, which includes certain restrictions like no redistribution, always include this license, and ways not to use the photos. Try their easy-to-read version also.

One user calls the monthly Death to Stock photo packs “the new Saturday morning cartoons.” If that isn’t enough of an enticement, you’ll get a bonus pack of ten photos for immediate download after signing up.

Sadly, there were no cat photos, but the images are all high quality resolution and versatile. Their catchy tagline reads, “This isn’t just a mailing list. It’s a movement.” A bit provocative, isn’t it? Works for me. Now find the cats and it’s all good.

Superfamous Studios

You can use the photos from Superfamous Studios, a studio based in Los Angeles, for commercial and personal projects, just be sure to include credit.

For ha ha’s, wave your cursor around the home page. How cool is that, right? And check out their butdoesitfloat, a part of Cargo, a personal publishing platform and not part of the free image resources. But wait until you’re done reading this post. You might never return, come up for air, and see the light of day again.

Little Visuals

Before Nic, the owner of this site, passed away, he shot some eclectic, eye-catching photos. There are no new photos being uploaded, but the images that are here are amazing and all posted under the CCO license to be used however you want.

If you’re so inclined, a link is included to donate to the family’s fundraiser in support of S.A.D.S., (Sudden Adult Death Syndrome), the cause of Nic’s death, to help them supply schools and sports arenas with portable defibrillators in Nic’s memory.

Life of Pix

Created by LEEROY’s amazing photographers, a creative agency in Montreal, Life of Pix photos come with no copyright restrictions. High-res photos are added weekly, and the site includes a category search tool under the gallery heading, with lots of great textures and industrial images.

Splitshire

Free stock photos with no copyright restrictions, sortable by category. They prefer dogs to cats, something entirely forgivable, considering how terrific the dog photos are. Unique, top-quality images for both commercial and personal use by web designer Daniel Nanescu.

If you found at least one source you’ve never heard of, you owe me a cat photo. Just be sure to include any licensing requirements when you send it along.

More WordPress Security Mistakes (Yes, You’re Making Them)

August 15, 2015 Beth Devine

You’re making more WordPress security mistakes besides those updates you keep neglecting to do. Avoiding regular updates is the most common security mistake, but there are more mistakes that also put your site at risk for attack.

Because WordPress is open source, those miscreants who wish to do harm can easily obtain the source code and study it for ways to hack in. Combine this with the popularity of WordPress and it’s like you have a bulls-eye target on you.

The good news is you don’t have to do anything drastic, like change to a much less user-friendly CMS that doesn’t have all the fabulous plugins and themes, all for free. All you have to do is follow these tips to button down your site and stay safe from attacks.

Lacking a First Line of Defense: No Security Plugin

There are many security plugins to choose from with different pricing, including some free options. While it’s true that having too many plugins can be a bad idea, having one that actually protects your site is a no-brainer.

This list of the Top 10 Essential WordPress Plugins is a good place to start. It includes Wordfence, a personal favorite of mine. These give you an extra layer of security by addressing the issues most prevalent, leaving you free to run your business worry-free.

Installing Bad Plugins and Themes

If a plugin is available for free that you would normally have to pay for, consider this a giant red flag. A pirated plugin or theme may be free, but it’s also going to be potentially rife with dire consequences.

Disreputable plugins and themes come with a catch. Not only are they dishonest and often stealing from hard-working developers, they can be infected with malware that will inject malicious code into your website. Once they’ve made this connection to your site, it’s like a backdoor where they can get in and do all kinds of damage.

Beware also of WordPress themes that look totally safe. If the theme isn’t from the WordPress Theme Directory, or isn’t from a source you know and trust, then you shouldn’t install it. There are hundreds of themes available, and they all have to pass selection criteria that includes possessing no unsafe code.

Surfing In Public Wi-Fi Waters

Sure, you’ve heard it all before, but do you really avoid using your credentials and private information on the internet when using a public Wi-Fi hotspot? These places include high-density areas such as airports, libraries, hotels, cafes, and, of course, Starbucks.

The ease with which attackers can steal your information is due to the fact that, according to Public WiFi, public WiFi networks are “almost always unencrypted, which means that anyone with cheap, easily available software can listen in and access everything being sent over the network.”

The hacks in a public WiFi hotspit can include Sniffers, Evil Twin, Man-in-the-Middle Attacks, and Sidejacking. The names are almost enough to steer you away from exposing your website and other information to attack.

Using “Admin” For Your Username

Your WordPress site has an automatically generated username with the Administrator role. This role has permissions that are referred to as admin, which allow this user to do anything they want. An Administrator has total power over the website, including deleting your whole site.

The last thing you want to do is keep the original username “admin” as the name for someone who has total access. This is the first thing a hacker will use when trying to break into your site. Once they’ve figured out your username, then all they have to do is guess your password. You’re giving away half the access information with admin still intact. See the list of targeted usernames in the recent brute-force attack here. Clearly admin is a common guess.

You can do one of two things:

Don’t use or, even better, remove your admin username. But before you do this, create a new user with the admin role. Functioning under this new username, you can delete the old username of admin.
If you want to do this in C-panel, read this user-friendly post on How To Change Your Username. If I can do it, you can too.

The Wordfence plugin allows you to block any IP address you want, so if you find one is continually attempting to log in using the admin username, block it.

Using Really Obvious Passwords

The list of top passwords for 2014 contains the same weak passwords, with “123456” and “password” holding the top two spots. It appears that all the advice on the internet about using strong passwords is going unheeded.

Use your imagination when creating your passwords and follow the Google’s tips, use a password generator, or take Edward Snowden’s password advice to John Oliver and use “pass phrases” that are easy for you to remember, but difficult for computers to crack. Try one of the top five password managers to help you remember them all.

You can always sign up for a worry-free program with your web hosting company and let them take care of all your site’s security. If you’re running a small business, it’s a huge timesaver as well. Good luck — it’s a Digital Wild West out there.

Are You Making This WordPress Security Mistake?

August 12, 2015 Beth Devine

All it takes is one security mistake on your WordPress site for disaster to strike. Yet users continue to make this single most common security mistake — even though it’s easy to avoid.

To avoid this mistake, you need only do one thing. Don’t ignore your WordPress Updates. It’s that easy. Go directly to updates. Do not pass Go. Do not collect $200. Or it will be game over.

Even the big guys are vulnerable. Microsoft had one of their sites hacked because the WordPress site in question was running an older version of WordPress. Turns out the attackers hacked the content to promote online casinos, including adding links and new pages that were injected to show embedded content from other gambling websites. Supposedly it was a scammer and not a group of “professional” hackers, demonstrating how easy it is for someone to attack your site on the basis of outdated software.

Why Ignoring WordPress Updates Is Like Driving In The Wrong Lane

When you ignore your WordPress updates, you are eventually going to run into trouble. Sooner or later, that oncoming vehicle is going to show up in your headlights. It’s best to stay out of the way of potential trouble and keep your WordPress site updated.

Here are a few things that can go wrong:

Your site can be infected with malware. This malware will then infect any visitors to your site.
If you have a membership only site with people who are paying to get content, they will also get their computers infected.
Visitors to your site can be redirected to an offensive spam site, leaving them to forever associate you with this unhappy experience.
Your email list can be stolen and all your subscribers sent spam, with the potential for other hackers to purchase your list and spammed by them as well.
Your search engine ranking can fall when Google determines your site to be infected with malware. Getting your site blacklisted takes time and effort to recover from.
All your hard work goes down the drain with one bad slip-up when your reputation is damaged.

Get Your Updates – They’re Free!

Every day there are developers out there discovering new bugs and security loopholes in existing software. There are graduate students assigned to the task of hacking into various accounts to test the site’s viability (and the student’s prowess).

When the vulnerability is serious, the developer will issue a release for an immediate update. When this happens, it means update now before the hackers find out and attempt to take advantage of your website’s security loophole.

So instead of ignoring your theme and plugin updates, get them as soon as they come out, and get them regularly. Like a reliable vaccine to a new epidemic, don’t wait around to see how things pan out before you get inoculated. Act proactively before your WordPress website gets infected.

Remember, even deactivated themes and plugins are vulnerable to attack. If you’re not using them, it’s best to delete them.

The Best Remedy For Your Update-itis

You know you have update-itis if you’re constantly avoiding or forgetting to update your WordPress site. It’s okay, you can admit it. It’s not contagious (I hope), but it is risky business.

The number one thing to do is come up with a back-up method as your safety net. By backing up your site before you do any updates, you’re covering your keister in the event that something goes wrong. This is a good precautionary measure because sometimes plugins or themes can have wonky

There are a few things that will make updates even easier:

Automatic Background Updates is a recent feature that came out with WordPress 3.7. Please tell me you have updated to 3.7. If not, do that first. Then you can rest easy knowing you automatically have background updates happening for maintenance and security to your WordPress site. Whew.
The WordPress security team is working to give you more automatic security updates for plugins. Once you have WordPress 3.7, these updates will be supported as they are offered. The automatic security updates for plugins will be voluntary by the end-user, unless the WordPress security team deems it “an issue severe enough to warrant” a required opt-in.
Set up Google Webmaster Tools to alert you if Google finds malware on your website in the event all your updating has failed you somehow.
Install the WordFence plugin and get email alerts when your installed plugins need updating.
WordPress makes it very easy to keep your website up to date. Just be sure to make a current and complete backup of your database and your files before you do any updating, or have it done automatically each week.

There are many ways to backup your website, but two of the easiest ways are:

Create a backup from your web hosting cPanel.
Use a backup plug-in that you can install in your WordPress dashboard that will automatically backup your site at set intervals.

Don’t let update-itis cause your website to suffer. Stay updated and stay safe!

5 Reasons To Blog for Your Business: Blogging Resistance Beware

July 28, 2015 Beth Devine

The debate continues. To blog or not to blog appears to be the ongoing content marketing hand-wringer, although the statistics show that businesses that blog are thirteen times more likely to have a positive ROI.

Your Business’ Future Depends On Machines

Still, the blogging resistance prevails. For all you blogging cynics out there, think of the future. By 2020, it’s projected that your customers will manage 85% of their relationships without ever speaking a syllable to a human.

Your customers are going to be busy researching your business online, without any direct contact with you. How are you going to personally influence them? With a blog, they can easily learn more about you.

I read an interesting dialogue in a comments section of a marketing blog recently. The commenter was making a case against blogging, asserting that it’s not for everyone. The comments were borderline caustic and appeared meant to provoke. This is the sort of behavior you sometimes see in someone whose last defenses are crumbling.

In other words, no matter how hard the commenter argued, the evidence speaks for itself. The one good point the commenter made was to maintain that blogging makes sense when you have enough time and resources.

What Will Blogging Cost You?

The one thing blogging costs you when resources are limited is your time. Instead of investing in pay-per-click to get new leads, with its requisite advertising spending of often hundreds of dollars, give blogging a try.

Your business blog will continue to work for you long after you’re done writing a post. No ad space or ad campaigns that will cost you money and time. Consider doing a blog in conjunction to your advertising expenditures.

Blogging Value Is Endless

Even when you’re at home and watching reruns of Mad Men, your blog is working for you. That’s how your blog is able to continue creating 67% more B2B leads than businesses who don’t blog. Your old blog posts are just as valuable as your favorite TV reruns.

Visitors will continue to find them when they search, long after you published them. Keep your content relevant and updated, and your post’s value will go on and on, like Monday Night Football.

That Downtime of Yours? Wanna Use It?

Is your main blogging objection lack of time? That’s like saying you don’t have any downtime. Or as Boost Blog Traffic calls it, mundane time, or weird time. Those hours you spend driving back and forth, doing mindless chores, or the unavoidable waiting you have to do for appointments and meetings and standing in line.

You may not be able to jot anything down, but you can use this downtime to think creatively about your business and the things you want to share. You can also listen to podcasts and audiobooks to help you stimulate your creative juices. Find titles related to your industry and begin making a list of potential ideas.

It’s often the idea that’s the most difficult to generate. Once you’ve nailed the topic, the process is on its way.

Get More URLs and Get Found Online

Consistent blogging helps you get found online. So you’ve heard that one before? And you’re still not blogging?

Every time you publish a blog post, you give the internet surfers searching for your content the opportunity to find you online. The more posts you write, the bigger your chances are of having new visitors to your website.

When you do the math, it’s simple. 100 posts = 100 URLs. For each blog post, you’ve created a new URL. Your website alone doesn’t do that since there are a limited number of pages a typical site should reasonably have.

For every blog post you publish, it helps you reach the right audience who is interested and searching for your valuable content. Your website traffic is tailored to the people who are interested in what you have to say, thanks to the relevant blog information you’re sharing.

If you start blogging now, you are staying ahead of the game. The future for a successful business involves more online content exposure, and 37% of marketers says blogs are the way to go with content marketing.

Begin educating your audience now and stake your claim in the world of online engagement. The resistance is caving one blog at a time.

3 Content Marketing Mistakes You Don’t Want To Make

July 23, 2015 Beth Devine

To understand what you’re doing wrong, first you need to understand what content marketing is. Here’s a definition of content marketing from HubSpot:

“Content marketing is a marketing program that centers on creating, publishing, and distributing content for your target audience — usually online — the goal of which is to attract new customers.”

Content marketing includes a wide range of examples because so many different types of content can be used. Content mediums can include blogs, infographics, web pages, ebooks, white pages, apps, videos, webinars, and podcasts. With content marketing, you own the content. By consistently creating and sharing content, you are attempting to impact the behavior of your audience.

Here are three mistakes that you don’t want to make in your content marketing:

Your topics aren’t specific enough.

One of the ways you might discover this error is as you create the content, you realize it’s way too long and extensive. So you decide to try and make it into two blog posts, or break it down into more than one video. When there are too many details or too many variations on the subject, it’s impossible to give effective answers.

Start by creating a specific title to help you stay focused. HubSpot has a great article on how to get from a topic to a working title to help you write a blog post, but it could be used to keep you on track with creating something specific for any content marketing medium.

Focused topics have more depth and meaning. And since content marketing is all about sharing content you own and telling a story in the process, it will be much more memorable when it’s specific.

Remember, you can always change your working title once you’ve completed your white pages, app, blog post, etc. It’s just supposed to help you stay specific and avoid drifting off into distracting details, like Dory the helpful surgeonfish in Finding Nemo.

You don’t know who you’re talking to.

It’s the same rule of thumb that you apply to your social media. Knowing your audience is something a successful marketer must always consider in order to have effective content. For example, I’d write “You don’t know to whom you’re speaking” if my audience was comprised of a class of degree-seeking English majors.

Ask yourself “what’s important to them?” and then connect in a way that shows you care and you’re for real. Knowing your audience entails being authentic. But what is that, really? Seth Godin asks “Is authenticity authentic?” and wonders if it’s even possible to be authentic in a world where everyone is trying to succeed.

He says that in order to get around the inevitability of inventing ourselves, we need to be consistent. Stick with the same story, the same voice, and answer their questions using the same desire to make an impact.

The best way to do this is act like a human. The best way to know if you’re human is if you can easily fill out a CAPTCHA. If you are having trouble with this task, then it might be time for an emotional overhaul.

Use your human emotions to create memorable content marketing that will connect with your audience. Show your empathy for their needs in your answers to their questions and they’ll be more likely to stick around.

You aren’t listening. (A.k.a. “Can you hear me now?”)

Knowing who you’re talking to isn’t the end game. You also have to show you’re listening. The best part about this is that you will get to know your audience even better when you’re a good listener.

How do you do this? Besides interacting with them on social media and in comment sections, keep up to date on what’s relevant. Set up Google alerts for companies, industries, and topics that are of interest. Follow your customers, prospects, and industry leaders on social media, and get involved in the discussion.

If you’re listening, you’ll want to keep the communication a two-way street. If possible, every comment directed to you should be answered, even with a thank you, and all questions warrant some kind of response.

Your content marketing strategy is a conversation in the making. Content that’s interactive is more likely to draw an audience. They are going to feel a connection to you, and this connection could help you develop a relationship. Guess who they’ll think of the next time they want to buy the very thing you sell?

Good luck with your content marketing, and stick around for more from a real human. I can even pass a CAPTCHA test without squinting.

Tips for Thinking Up Blog Content for Small Businesses

July 19, 2015 Beth Devine

Small businesses who blog are ahead of their competition. A small business owner with a blog generates 126% more lead growth than those who don’t, according to a HubSpot study on 2,300 customers.

Kudos to you if you’re already a blogging. If you’re not blogging yet, then what are you waiting for? Here are some tips for generating blog content to help you get started, or to jump start some idea brainstorming.

Use Your Customer’s Questions

You’re so close to this one, it’s easy to miss. Like when my mom used to say, “If it was a snake, it would’ve bit you.” You’re looking right at one of your easiest blog topics every time a customer asks you a question.

Your blog is not for you, it’s for your customers. When you use their questions, you’re helping them solve a problem. What better way to show you’re listening and you care about your customer’s concerns than to give them the answers.

At the same time, you could be giving them new insights about your business that helps you stand out.

Use the Don’t-Do-This Tactic

We all make mistakes. But we’d rather not. Use your blog posts to provide ways to avoid common pitfalls related to your business. Think of current issues that plague your customers and write about how to eliminate them.

Tie in your services or products, but only in a very non-promotional manner. Blog posts aren’t for hard selling. Use your blog to increase awareness on problems and topics that your business is designed to handle. Write about the failures and struggles you’ve encountered in your business that could help your readers.

Share your stories in a way that gives your visitors a look-see into your business, but doesn’t toot your horn. When you give answers with a don’t-do-this approach to problems, you’re also demonstrating your authority on a subject.

The next time your visitor has a question or concern, they know where they can go for some help.

Spy On Your Competitors for Ideas

If you are aware of what your competition is doing, you’ll be more prepared to advance your own blog strategy. If your competition appears to be making a mistake, avoid doing the same blunder. If they’re doing something fabulous, think of how you can try to outdo their efforts.

Spying on your competitors is easy with free tools to analyse their data. With SEMrush, you can discover new competitors, what their best keywords are, and what they’re using for display advertising, organic and paid search, and link building.

Another handy tool is Buzzsumo. You can do a quick search on key phrases or terms to see how content that’s related to your industry is doing. You can also find out who the top influencers are in a particular niche to further your idea-generating spy efforts.

If Sherlock had been internet savvy, he would applaud your genius.

Research Keyword Terms

If you want to blog about something relevant to your business, Google Adwords Keyword Tool is a great way for discovering the keywords and keyword phrases internet surfers are using to search for your product or service. Google Webmaster Tools shows you the keyword queries being used to find your site, so you can check to see if you’re on the right track.

Try using these keywords terms for your blog title, subheading, and in your meta tags, as well as to generate ideas for your blog content.

Build on a Good Quote

No need to reinvent the wheel when there are reams of quotables out there. Use a quote to inspire your next post, making sure to credit the source.

Search a particular topic or person using the word quote after the search term. Visit Bartleby.com for thousands of quotations from famous authors, Goodreads for more recent quotables, or Google Book Search for references to books of interest for quotes.

You can build your entire post around a particular quote. Quotes from famous people and industry leaders will inspire your readers as well as your writing.

The Official Blog Post Ideas Generator

Matthew Loomis of Build Your Own Blog has created the Blog Post Ideas Generator, a terrific free tool to help you think of blog post ideas when your brain is failing you. It can help small businesses get creative when in a crunch. Try it out; it’s fun!

Loomis also has a bunch of videos for WordPress users to help you get started blogging. Helpful tutorials include creating an about page in minutes, installing a plugin, and changing font and background color.

However you do it, do it with your own distinct flair. Find a way to communicate using your own voice, giving your blog some personality. Blog those ideas of yours with something besides textbook-speak so your readers will know you’re human.

Your IP Reputation and How To Protect It

July 9, 2015 Beth Devine

IP address reputation — “Lucky” by woodleywonderworks, used under CC BY / Modified from original

Your IP address can earn a bad reputation when suspicious activity is detected. Let’s say you have spam or a virus coming from your IP address. This can get you blacklisted by spam databases or banned by a country’s firewall or a content delivery network.

As a result of blacklisting, anything you email from your website won’t get delivered. Your new subscribers to your website won’t be able to get beyond the initial subscribing stage and won’t receive password approval or your welcome email.

Are You Sharing Your IP Address With a Bad Site?

If another IP address within your content delivery network is blacklisted, then your website’s IP address could also be negatively affected. The bad reputation of another website can rub off on your website.

Most hosting providers will share your IP address with hundreds of other websites. In the event that one of the sites you’re sharing your IP with engages in spam or gets a virus, or is blocked by a country or a large network, your site could also share in the negative fallout.

If you think your IP address has a bad reputation in error, or due to sharing an IP address with a hacked site, you should request an investigation. Inform your web hosting provider of your concerns.

How To Check Your IP Reputation

To find out if your IP address has a bad reputation, you can check it with a number of free online tools, including Barracuda Central, MX Toolbox, What Is My IP Address, and IP Void. For a list of ways to check for potentially malicious websites, check out Zeltser’s list.

You also want to prevent your site from being spamvertised. This is when a hacker has placed a piece of code in your site that redirects viewers to a different and often unsavory website. The hackers send out emails with your website’s redirected link because their own site has already been blacklisted as spam.

WordFence is a great plugin for preventing spamvertising from happening, and if it does find something, they will alert you that your files have changed. If you pay for the premium service, you also get an early warning system built in for spamvertising.

How To Check Who Is On Your IP Address

By doing a reverse domain lookup, you can check to see what other sites share your IP address. You Get Signal is a tool that checks for and lists other sites on your web server. The list isn’t guaranteed to be complete (and it probably isn’t). As long as none of these sites are being blocked by spam monitors, your site won’t share in their bad reputation.

Norton Safe Web or Unmask Parasites will scan a URL to see if it’s safe. If it’s been hacked, infected, or is otherwise unsafe to browse, it’s probably not a site you want to share your IP address with.

How To Deal With Suspicious Activity

In the event you discover an issue with your site’s IP reputation, let your web hosting company know. They can help you to get it sorted out. The better you know your web hosting company, the more reassured you can be that they aren’t allowing questionable sites onto the shared server.

Web hosting companies who are web savvy (particularly those with a team of superheroes) are going to be paying attention, and they will investigate suspicious activity for you. Your IP reputation matters. Make sure you know yours is good.

Why Your Small Business Needs a Website

July 1, 2015 Beth Devine

small businesses need a website — “Smart cat” by Lori, used under CC BY / Modified from original

Your small business needs an online presence to survive. Without a website, people won’t be able to find you. I mean that literally. We live in a world where we Google before we shop, before we get in our car and drive anywhere new.

Gone are the days of phone book white pages and oversized Rand McNally road maps. When you’re looking for a place to buy the world’s best cat litter, you don’t search in outdated formats. You’re going to ask Google, use your GPS, and set course to the best deal in town.

To Beat Your Competition

So what happens if people don’t find what they’re looking for online? They’ll go to the competition, that’s what. Not having an online presence means you’re not being found, which means you’re losing out on business opportunities.

Having a website shows you’re a legitimate business. Having a professional, updated, easy-to-navigate website shows you’re the type of business who cares about your product or service. Who would you be more likely to buy from, a sloppy, outdated website, or one that reflects a business with a progressive website?

To help promote your business, make sure your business site is connected to all the relevant sites: the three top search engines, Google, Yahoo, and Bing; and other online directories such as Yelp, Merchant Circle, Yellow Pages, Trip Advisor, and BBB. Depending on your business, there are a variety of online sites who will list you for free.

Business discovery sites like these are what help you get found. Without a website, there is no information for indexing programs to share with potential customers who are searching online. Your first impression is often your website, so don’t give the wrong one with an unavailable URL.

Here are three good reasons why your small business needs a website:

To Give Your Customers Convenience

People shop differently in today’s digital age. Window shopping is occurring online more and more, competing with an afternoon stroll down Main Street. And when customers are ready to buy, they’re more likely to research their next purchase through the help of Yelp or Google or Shopzilla.

According to comScore’s quarterly State Of Retail report, online shopping reached a total of $61.6 billion in Q2 2014, up 13%, accounting for 11.6% of consumers’ spending for both mobile and desktop.

People want to use the internet to research, compare, and buy. And it’s not just individual customers who are doing this. The 2014 State of B2B Procurement Study shows that 94 percent of businesses are doing some type of online research as well.

It’s never been more convenient to shop when the digital world of products and services is no further away than your keyboard. Without a website, your small business isn’t providing customers with the convenience of easy shopping.

Before they can shop online, they have to find you. We already know how that’s going to work out if you don’t have a URL address. Give your customers an online printable map option, embed a Google map, and make sure you provide a street address as well as email and phone number on your website.

Think of your website as your digital business card, complete with a full-color brochure attached. Can you imagine someone showing up to your business and not handing them one or both of these? Even when a customer forgets your business card, they can find you online. You’ll never run out or misplace it, the information can be easily updated, and the content can exceed any printed format.

To Build Relationships With Your Followers

Having a Facebook page is a great way to help build relationships with your followers. But without a website to link to, you’re sending the message that you’re not that interested.

Through a website, your small business can send regular e-newsletters and stay in touch with blog posts. Sending emails is a great way to offer discounts and specials on your services or products. By establishing a relationship through these channels via your website, you can develop a relationship of trust.

One reason e-commerce won’t replace brick-and-mortar stores is due to the trust that’s forged from a perceived sense of permanence, reliability, and familiarity. In order to convey a similar degree of security to your website visitors, your website must be designed to show that you’re thinking like your customer. Studies continue to show, for example, that free shipping and speed of delivery increases online sales, not low prices alone.

Substituting online for what you can’t give tangibly in order to create a relationship involves using all the tools available, from a site designed to meet your customer’s needs, to using social media, to answering common questions with blogs and helpful site content. Don’t forget to include testimonials in strategic locations that demonstrate your customer loyalty and satisfaction.

You Need a Team of One

Your small business website needs to appear as if you have a team of professionals who are working to keep your online presence active and available. This appearance is achieved far more easily than keeping your physical storefront polished and inviting. The only team you need is you, and your web hosting company for any additional website work.

You don’t need to update your website everyday, or even every week. New content management systems like WordPress make it a quick job to stay on top of things. With the support of your web hosting company, you can present a professional and engaging website with minimal maintenance.

« Previous Page
1
…
3
4
5
6
7
…
28
Next Page »