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Increase blog traffic with Flickr

Increase blog traffic while also enhancing the appearance of your site with free pics from the photo sharing site Flickr.

Daily Traffic
Originally uploaded by Burning Image

It's easy to post photos from the site to your blog once you've signed up for a free account.

To proceed, simply:

• Visit www.flickr.com/blogs.gne to add your blog to your new account then click "layout" to select the way you would like photos displayed in your posts
• Scroll to the bottom of your Flickr home page and select "The Commons" or "Creative Commons" to search images requiring attribution only for reuse or those in the public domain
• Search for photos, preferrably with captions containing words or phrases related to the keywords or phrases in your post. (See the example with this post.)
• Select the "blog it" button above your chosen photo, replace the caption above the text box with the title of your post, write your article in the text box and hit "post entry"

Part time business ideas include blogging

Blogging places among the top 10 part time business ideas in a recent article from BusinessWeek and Yahoo! Finance.

Now go blog about this
Originally uploaded by nightthree

The article  by Jeremy Quittner and John Tozzi estimates an average income of around $24,355 a year presumably from online advertising.

In addition to blogging, other money making ideas presented include:

• Baker with an estimated inclome of $41, 000 per year
• Ebay seller with an estimated revednue of $22,196
• Floral designer with an average of around $$21,700 annually
• Jewelry designer, about $30,000 per year
• Pet sitter, around $22,183
• Photographer at $26,249
• Translator or interpreter, bringing in about $21,541
• T-shirt vendor, an amazing $48,000 yearly
• Web designer again high at $42,104 

The last job on the list could also be handled by bloggers, who share many of the same HTML and other coding skills and can use blog platforms to create standard Websites.

Feel free to tell us about your success story earning from your blog...or about things that did not go quite right. Here's more on how to get started!

How to add a blockquote to your professional blog

When considering how to add a blockquote to your professional blog, first locate a block of text from another blog or similar source you wish to use.

Tumblr Blockquote Menu
Originally uploaded by Lilly

Blockquotes add variety to the text of any post and are a more permanent and visual way to incorporate information from an external source into your post than a simple hyperlink.

To add blockquotes simply:

• Cut and paste the block of text you wish to use to your HTML document
• Add the HTML tags <blockquote> and </blockquote> to the beginning and end of your block of text
• To further set apart the text add the tags <em> and </em> inside the blockquote tags to italicize your text block

Your blockquote should look like this in it's HTML form:

<blockquote><em>Here is my happy blockquote created especially for this demonstration. I hope you like it!</em></blockquote>

Important Tip: As a best practice include information on the source of your blockquote with a link to it's location on the Web if possible. ALWAYS use citations when quoting someone else's words.

For more on adding blockquotes and other special text blocking, see the the video tutorial below from The New Boston:

Measuring blog traffic for visitor loyalty

Measuring blog traffic for visitor loyalty may be the single most important step in discovering the true success of your blog.

While many bloggers follow traffic numbers to determine how many readers visit their site daily, Google Analytics also provides a means for determining how many of the readers are return visitors and have visited your blog repeatedly for information.

Measuring visitor loyalty on your blog can help you:

• determine how much of your traffic is due to one time or two time visitors and how much is due to visitors who may have returned 50 or even 100 times to your blog
• give a better picture of the community your blog is building by showing how many faithful readers now return regularly to your site
• help you measure the overall success of your blog by helping you determine the difference between a slowly increasing following and the normal peaks and valleys of day to day visits

Watch this video from Google on how new customized tools can help you learn more about visitors to your site:

Creating a stickier professional blog with lists

stickynote
Originally uploaded by J_O_I_D

One way of creating a stickier professional blog is by including lists in your posts.

In his book The Tipping Point, author Malcolm Gladwell defines "stickiness" as the quality of a message or idea to be memorable and to spur others into action. 

Basically, including lists in your blog:

• Organizes information for the reader in easier to digest and remember portions
• Breaks up big clumps of text making your article more attractive visually and your points more meaningful 
• Helps build an argument by giving the reader a list of reasons why you believe what you do and is thus a halmark of good expository writing
• Makes it easy for readers to share even more important on the Internet where getting others to spread a compact outline of your ideas is the name of the viral marketing game.

Successful bloggers have made great use of lists to create posts that grab attention and are often linked to and become the building blocks of posts and comments on other blogs.

Former Apple fellow, author and venture capital firm manager Guy Kawasaki has made great use of lists on his blog and in his books.

What are some ways you could use lists to make your next blog post more interesting?

Professional blogging with Wikimedia Commons

David Teniers d. J.
Originally uploaded at Wikimedia Commons

Professional blogging can take advantage of the huge resources of Wikimedia Commons including many public domain images.

To use public domain images in professional blogging to promote your business, visit Wikimedia Commons and use "search" to find public domain images.

Then insert the following code to post public domain images to professional blogging promoting your business:

<DIV style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 10px; MARGIN-LEFT: 10px"><A title="photo" href="insert the address of the Wikimedia Commons page containing the public domain image"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 5px 5px; WIDTH: 240px" alt="" src="insert the address of the full resolution public domain image" <strongr="<br"><span style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; FONT-SIZE: 0.9em"><br></span><A href="insert the address of the Wikimedia Commons page containing the public domain image">insert the name of the image or creator of the public domain image</A><br>Originally uploaded at <A href="insert the main address at Wikimedia Commons">Wikimedia Commons</A></A></DIV>

Other sources of Creative Commons and public domain images for professional blogging promoting your business are Flickr (See this post) and MorgueFile.

For more on Wikimedia and its creative content resources watch this video:

The art of linking for blogs/Web sites

Of all the tools available when creating your blog or other Web 2.0 site, none may be as versatile and useful as the hyperlink, also commonly called a link.

Still the greatest challenge may be getting others on the World Wide Web to link to you, as Ross Dunn of Stepforth Web marketing explains in this edition of Web Marketing Today:

Still bloggers can use links for a variety of useful things to enhance their own Web sites. For example:

• Providing links to other blogs (or just other resources on the Web like Wikipedia or other informative sites) adding quality and interestg to your site
• Encouraging others to link back to your site not only by linking to their sites from your posts, or articles, but also from lists of additional sites called blogrolls usually along the rail of your blog. 
• Creating comments on other blogs and chat Web sites with links back to your blog to attract interested visitors. (To learn more about how to do this properly read our post on comment etiquette) 
• Creating links on social bookmarking sites, social networks and new Web site hybrids like Squidoo to draw visitors back to your site to learn more about who you are and what you do.

For more on how to create links on your blog or Web site visit our post on "Add links to your blog/Web site with simple HTML" and for more on our custom blogging services visit this post as well.

Better writing for your blog/Web site

Olivetti Typewriter
Originally uploaded by plindberg

If blogs are a conversation, professional bloggers should be sure they are never at a loss for words.

One way to organize thoughts in a blog or other Web site post is to take a cue from traditional print journalism.

To learn more about how to construct your blog or other online posts consider the inverted pyramid used in traditional news writing.

Simply start with the most important information you have to communicate toward the top and add more details as you go along.

Top your story with a snappy lede, a short and clever first sentence meant to grab readers' attention and draw them through the article.

For more on the pyramid style and its history in traditional newspapers (and perhaps a hint at why it may still be a helpful form in new media like blogs) check out this video from eHow:

History of the Inverted Pyramid Style -- powered by eHow.com

Get blogging ideas from Google Alerts

Originally uploaded by Marcin Wichary

Hiring a professional blogger is one way to ensure relevant and regularly updated content to your business or organization's Web site.

However, another simple way of finding relevant content upon which to base your own articles for a do-it-yourself Web site is through Google Alerts.

Simply visit the Google Alerts site and enter search terms related to the service, product, or cause your business or organization is trying to promote.

(You may need to experiment with several search terms to find the one or more alerts that supply you with the updates you find the most helpful.)

Consider terms you think people looking for your Web site might enter in a Google search when choosing your search terms.

Then simply choose the news, blogs, web, video groups or comprehensive selection to search all online content for your search terms choose the number of times you wish to be notified of updated content (beware, Google Alerts can easily fill your in box)

Enter your e-mail address, wait for the confirmation message and voila. For more details on setting up and costumizing your Google Alerts see the below video with Bonnie Boots of The Internet Wizards:

Enhance your blog with video

Video Set for Episode 02 (Camera)
Originally uploaded by Racum

Any blog post looks better with video.  (See more here on how our professional blogging services help you create better blogs for your customers or clients.)

Embedded video adds interest, may increase the amount of time visitors spend on your blog and is very easy to install.

Websites offering video able to be imbedded in your blog include:

• YouTube
• Blip.tv
• eHow
• LiveVideo
• glumbert

Search for video on any of these sites that fits your topic and then embed it into your blog using the simple instructions below:

For more information on custom webdesign, search engine optimization and other web-based sevices available through PostRanger.com, visit our additional services website and fill out the form for more details and pricing.