Blogging from Flickr

In the last several blog posts you learned some easy ways to start using SEO to get more traffic to your blog. I wanted to take a moment and tell you just a little more about using Flickr with this technique.

In the last blog post, I said that if you have a Flickr account, you can set up your blog(s) from your account page. You can also set your own copyright preferences for your own photos. For more information on this, visit http://creativecommons.org/choose/ Based on how other photographers set their own copyright preferences, you can blog about some photos directly from Flickr to your blog.

Yes, Flickr accounts are free and very easy to set up. No, Flickr doesn't pay me to promote them; I just use Flickr for most of my online photo management and love how it works.

Once your Flickr account is set up and your blog(s) are set up, do a keyword search. I did a search in Flickr for "Ceramic Paint Pens" (quotes make sure the exact phrase is searched, not single words in the phrase.) If you see a picture you want to blog about and the copyright settings allow others to blog it, just hit the "Blog This" button and blog it from there.

 

Easy peasy.

Here's how my blog post looks:

Soup tureens with ladle., originally uploaded by Terry Wallis.

In this Flickr picture, photographer Terry Wallis mentioned how he bought ladles separately and used ceramic paint pens to paint them to match the tureen set.

I posted this directly from Flickr. If you click on the picture it will take you to the Flickr page where this photo is located.

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One more super easy SEO trick to boost your blog

In my last two blog posts I shared some tips on using basic SEO to get more traffic to your blog. I hope you've had some nice results from these tips. Today I've got one more thing you can do to build on the last post.

In the last post I suggested using Google Analytics to find out what keywords people were using to get to your site, and then blogging about these keywords. Using that trick, let's go one step further.

1. Go to Google Alerts and type in your keyword. Select what kinds of sites/blogs you want to search, how often you want to be alerted, and where the alert should be sent. In my case, I set up a Google Alert for "ceramic paint pens" (in quotes so Google searches that exact phrase.)

2. Like in the last blog post, you'll need to give it a week or so for the results to show up. When they do, browse through the links and see if anything would be of interest to your readers. I found this intriguing and related blog post at Re-nest. (The tea set shown there is amazing, isn't it?)

3. When you've found something interesting, blog about it, using your keyword three to five times. Write your own content with your own opinion and viewpoint. Be sure to get permission to re-post any relevant pictures found on the other website. Include a link to that site - partly as a courtesy to your readers if they want more info, party to add credibility to your own post, and mostly to give credit to the owner of the original content.

Your loyal readers will appreciate you sharing some interesting and related info and you'll have something fresh for your new readers. Don't be surprised if you get a mention at the other website for sharing their info with your readers.

Where else can you use this SEO trick? It depends on what your keyword is. Instead of just setting up a Google Alert, I have also found great content to blog about with a keyword search at the following sites.

Crafts, handmade goods, art - Etsy or Artfire

Food - try recipe sharing sites such as Recipezaar

Local stuff, travel, scenery, misc - Flickr

(If you have a Flickr account, you can set up your blog(s) from your account page. Then, if you see a picture you want to blog about and the picture owner has chosen to allow others to blog it, just hit the "Blog This" button and blog it from there. Easy peasy.)

If you try this on your blog, comment here and let me know how you liked it.  Don't forget to get permission before using any photos - and let the owners of the original content know that you've posted about them whenever possible.

Cheers!

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Another trick to get more traffic to your blog

In the last post I shared a tip that uses basic SEO to get more traffic to your blog.

Here's another very easy way to get more traffic to your blog - capitalize on your own keywords. Ok, it takes a little work and a lot of patience to get it started, but once you have it up and running, it's very very easy.

The screenshot below is from a Google Analytics report on my Pass It On Plates blog.

As you can see, the most popular keyword search that brings people to that blog is Ceramic Paint Pens.

So try this on your own blog.

1. Get a Google Analytics account. You'll need a Google account - if you have a Blogger blog, you already have a Google account. This is easy to set up if you know how to insert code into your blog. If you are not comfortable fiddling with the HTML of your blog, ask a tech-y friend for help. We don't want you to lose or damage your blog.

2. Once your analytics code is installed, you'll have to be patient and wait a week or so to see the results.

3. When you've had sufficient time for analytics to gather data on your blog, take a look at the keywords people are using to find you. Click Traffic Sources and then click Keywords. You can also change the timeline at the top of the page, if you want to see more than the past month.

4. What's the most popular keyword? Use it when writing your blog posts. Repeat the keyword three to five times (this tells the search engine spiders that this is a focal point of your blog post) and blog about this keyword more frequently than other topics. There's no rule that says you have to write every other post about this keyword, but as long as 30-50% of your posts focus on this keyword, you'll drive traffic to your site looking for information about this keyword.

In my case, since Ceramic Paint Pens is my top keyword (and in the picture you can see that my top 5 keywords bring in mostly new visitors, not repeat visitors - so my readership is growing) I try to blog about these more often than any other topic.

Give it a try and let me know how it works for you!

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Here's an easy way to get more traffic to your blog

No matter what you blog about, this easy trick will boost your traffic each time you do it. Make this a consistent habit and you could see a steady and regular increase in your blog's traffic. This tip makes use of basic SEO (Search Engine Optimization.)

1. Go to a popular homepage type of website like Yahoo and look up that day's popular searches. You can see this day's popular searches in the box on the upper right (shown in the picture above.) Today's top 5 popular searches are: Sandra Bullock, Amanda Knox, Jayson Williams, the Health Care Bill, and New Moon Reviews.

2. Incorporate one of these top search subjects into your blog post. Each of these subjects is a keyword, so for today's example, using the name Sandra Bullock is a keyword.

3. Make the post relevant and interesting to read, and repeat your keyword a few times. (Three times is good, five times is better.)

This may take a little creative thinking, but works like a charm if you do it right. 

When people surfing the internet type in your keyword, your blog post will come up in the listings. Actual mileage may vary depending on the keyword you chose, where in the listings it landed, and how interesting your text is, but you should see a bump in traffic.

Try it out and comment here with your results!

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Viral Blog Posts: Controversy

Another tip on how to create a good viral blog post: Controversy

Like it or not, controversy sells. Remember Burger King using Sponge Bob's big butt to sell burgers? As parents objected, more and more people sought out the ad to see what all the fuss was about.

I'm sure that was Burger King's plan in the first place.

An unintentional controversy - which worked to the product's benefit - was when the first Harry Potter books came out. Some parents objected with claims of witchcraft, which drew more people to the books to see what they were complaining about. Of course, the books would most likely have been as popular without the controversy, but the news of these parents wanting the books banned backfired created a lot of extra buzz.

Can you create any kind of controversy to help your blog or business?

There is an ongoing controversy on Etsy over who was the first artist to come up with a certain kind of item (such as scrabble tile pendants); do you dare to boldly announce that you started the trend with the "original" version of your craft?

If you have a restaurant, how about inviting your competition to a good-natured challenge to a blind taste test on a similar item? Invite the press and the public. Gutsy, but sure to create controversy. And local buzz.

Is there any way you can "push the envelope" so to speak in your line of work?

A local coffee drive-thru here in Salem, is appropriately named Bikini Coffee Co: The female baristas wear bikini tops year round.
You can imagine this created some controversy - and a lot of publicity.

And a lot of business.

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Viral Blog Posts: Humor + Picture

Last Wednesday I shared a blogging formula with you on how to create a good viral post.

Today we'll explore the first item on the list:
Humor + Picture

Of all my blogs (I author or contribute to 8,) the one post that has received (and continues to receive) the most traffic is this:

True Redneck Tube Top!!!!
Originally uploaded by Pam's Inbox

True Redneck Tube Top!!!!

This was taken in front of the Gardendale, Alabama, Walmart while she was going to the Flea market.
This is hysterical! Look at it closely.

Now I ask you...
Who but a redneck... stands and looks at a pair of men's briefs and
says hummmm...I can make a nice summer top from these!!

On the other hand...$6 for a three pack is a good price!!

Unless you're in a unique niche market, showing off upside down underwear with the crotch cut out (and technically this is a tank top, not a tube top) probably won't do squat to help you market your business. BUT - would you like some ideas on how to tweak this so it works for you?

Most of my traffic to the above blog post finds it on the keyword "Redneck tube top" or "True redneck tube top." What keywords are most commonly used to find your site? This is SEO in its most basic form and you can easily use it to your advantage.

With carefully selected keywords in mind, can you think of something business related that is just as funny? Is there a picture that goes with it? Blog about it.

Have you surfed around funny blogs like ebaumsworld, dribbleglass.com, or fail blog? Is there anything there that relates to what you do? Blog about it. (Be careful with your use of images and respect any copyrights that may apply.)

Have you received a viral email related to what you do? Post it to your blog. (That's where the above email came from.)

Try looking through Digg.com or other similar sites to see what's popular in humor right now. Blog about the blog post that's getting all the attention. (Even if you don't use a picture.)

Next Wednesday we'll explore the next viral blog post idea on the list.

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++ Breaking News ++

According to BlogBadly.com (and re-posted by one of my mentors, BradBlogging.com) you get more traffic with viral blog posts.

What makes a good viral blog post? According to Max at BlogBadly.com you should try one of these formulas:

• Humor + Image
• Controversy
• Breaking news
• Info + Lists
• Funny Cats
• Cool Trick + Video
• Fun Game
• Outrageous Claims
• Ron Paul

Oooooookay, not sure about Ron Paul, but if you think about any blog post (or email for that matter) that nearly everyone knows about, chances are it uses this formula.

How can you use this as a marketing tool for your business?
We'll explore this every Wednesday over the next month.

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Add a Recent Comments widget

Are you a comments junkie? While totally guilty of not leaving a trail of comments everywhere I go, I LOVE comments on my blog posts.

Here's a way to engage your readers in your blog content and possibly coax more comments from them: add a widget that shows off recent comments to your blog.

It looks like this.
These are the most recent comments from my family blog, The Adventures of Pam & Frank:





Want to add one?
Here's how you can do it in your Blogger Blog:

1. Start a new HTML widget in your sidebar.
2. Copy the code in this text box and paste it into your widget.
   
   <br /><script src="http://www.freewebs.com/filer/blogger/rc.js"></script><br /><br /><script>var a_rc=<br /><br />
   
3. Without adding any spaces, type in the number of comments to show. I have mine set to show the 5 most recent. Remember to type in the number - don't spell it out.
4. Now copy the code in this text box and paste it into your widget.
   
   <br />;var m_rc=false;var n_rc=true;var o_rc=500;</script><br /><br /><script src=""><br /><br />
   
5. Now for the good part. Where are the comments you want to show off? Copy the URL of that blog and paste it here without adding any additional spaces. Don't forget to include the http:// part.
6. Now copy this last section of code in this text box and paste it at the end of your widget.
   
   <br />/feeds/comments/default?alt=json-in-script&callback=showrecentcomments"></script><br /><br />
   
7. Save. Drag it to the location where you want this nifty widget, then save the layout.
8. Look good? Yay! Not showing up? Let me know here and I'll see what kind of troubleshooting I can do for you.
   
   
   
   
   

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Make a clickable photo link

Today I'd like to share a basic blogging tip on how to make your photo a clickable link. This will come in handy for all you Etsyians and Art Fire-istas. (Art Fireians? Art Firens? What do you call yourselves, anyway?)

This tip is pretty easy (for blogspot blogs - sorry to other platform users, I'm just not familiar):

Insert a photo into your blog post. You can either upload a photo from your computer or you can upload from a URL. Once the picture is uploaded, click on the photo to highlight it. (You'll get the little white squares in the corner.) Then click on the link button next to the text color button.

When the window opens, paste in the URL (make sure it only has the http:// once, not twice) then click ok.

Ta dah! Your picture is now a link.

Now here's something EVERYBODY should be doing, regardless of blogging skill.

People like clicking on pictures, so make your pictures clickable links as often as possible.

Is this a picture of something you're selling? If you uploaded it from a flickr URL, then it must link back to its flickr page. Make sure it's organized into a set of similar items so people can view your "portfolio," so to speak.

If you uploaded it from your computer or from another URL like Photobucket, then by all means link it to your sales page or shop. Give your readers and viewers every nudge and assistance to make it easy to buy from you.

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(And remember, all comments are do-follow, so your comment left here supports YOU.)

Button with HTML Code Box Tutorial

&lt;a href="http://passitonplatesblog.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"&gt;&lt;img border="0" alt="Photobucket" src="http://i197.photobucket.com/albums/aa39/PassItOnPlates/Web%20images/3205407818_d1cef2eecc_m.jpg" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;

Ever stumble across a blog that has something like this in the sidebar on in a blog post? Would you like one for your blog? It's actually pretty easy.

Before starting, I just wanted to make sure you know that if you want the badge to point to your website, blog, or etsy store, you cannot use your Flickr account. Sure, you could use Flickr to edit the photo and add words or whatever, but you need to upload it to Photobucket.

If you're not too familiar with Photobucket, here's the skinny - it's kinda sorta like Flickr, but with different TOS. Photobucket allows photos hosted there to be used as links to other sites outside of Photobucket. Photos hosted on Flickr have to link back to the original photo on the Flickr site.

1. Upload a picture to Photobucket.

2. When the picture is uploaded, click to edit the photo and resize it to either 125x125 or 150x150. Save.

3. Open another tab or window and go to your blog. Start a new post. If you have a private blog for testing things, use that one. (If you don't have a private blog for messing around and testing things, I recommend starting one. But more on that later.)

4. Go back to Photobucket and hover your mouse over the picture and you'll see a menu appear under the picture. Click the code where it says HTML Code. It should automatically copy for you.


(Yes, I realize how ironic it is that this picture is hosted with Flickr. I prefer blogging from Flickr. Actually, I just really really like Flickr.)

5. Go back to your blog and paste Photobucket HTML Code that you just copied. It should look something like this:

<a href="http://www.pamhawk.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://i197.photobucket.com/albums/aa39/PassItOnPlates/giveawaybadgefeb1-7-1.jpg" border="0" alt="Example Badge"></a>

6. Change URL to point to you. This is the yellow highlighted text in the example above. I have changed it to my own URL.

7. Change alt to your blog or website title. This is the turquoise highlighted text in the example above.

8. Below this, add the following code.

<textarea name="textarea" cols="30" rows="5" wrap="VIRTUAL">

9. Below this, copy and paste another copy of the photobucket code that you edited above.

10. Below that, copy the following code.

/textarea

Make sense? Your completed code should look something like this. (In the box below.)

<a href="http://www.pamhawk.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://i197.photobucket.com/albums/aa39/PassItOnPlates/giveawaybadgefeb1-7-1.jpg" border="0" alt="Example Badge"></a>

<textarea name="textarea" cols="40" rows="4" wrap="VIRTUAL">


<a href="http://www.pamhawk.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://i197.photobucket.com/albums/aa39/PassItOnPlates/giveawaybadgefeb1-7-1.jpg" border="0" alt="Example Badge"></a>
</textarea>

It's ok to leave the line breaks in there. In fact, if you take out the line breaks, your text box will appear next to the badge instead of under it.
Here's the code with the line breaks:

&lt;a href="http://www.pamhawk.com" target="_blank"&gt;&lt;img src="http://i197.photobucket.com/albums/aa39/PassItOnPlates/giveawaybadgefeb1-7-1.jpg" border="0" alt="Example Badge" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt; &lt;br /&gt; &lt;br /&gt;

Here's the code with no line breaks:

&lt;a href="http://www.pamhawk.com" target="_blank"&gt;&lt;img src="http://i197.photobucket.com/albums/aa39/PassItOnPlates/giveawaybadgefeb1-7-1.jpg" border="0" alt="Example Badge" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt; &lt;br /&gt; &lt;br /&gt;

Now test it.

If this blog post is in a private blog you use for testing, just publish it.

If you opened a blog post in your regular blog, click on Post Options (above the orange Publish Post button) and back date it (to maybe a month ago) before publishing it. This way you can test it without interfering with your current blog posts and subscribed readers.

Open a new tab or window and open the same blog where you are currently working. Open another new post.

Navigate to the published post and click on the code in the box. Paste the code into the new blog post. Publish (or back date and publish.)

Look at the published new post. It should be just your badge without the text box.

Good? Yay! Delete this second blog post (with the badge only) and go to the first blog post where you created this. Save it as a draft for future needs. Copy the code and paste it wherever you want.

Not good? Examine the steps above and see if something was overlooked. You may have to "read" the HTML word by word to see if something's missing or incorrect.

...One last request? Post your blog URL here in a comment so we can all admire your handiwork.























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A nosy peek into bloggers' PW stats

I admitted it before and I'll admit it again: I'm nosy.

Not out of curiosity or boredom, but I'm nosy in the same way a mother wants to get to know her childrens' friends and their families. I want to make sure I'm making the kind of alliances I think I'm making.

First I'll tell you how to look at Project Wonderful stats of other blogs, then I'll tell you why you may want to do this yourself. If you're offended, I'm sorry. Hopefully you'll understand when I explain why.

How to check stats of other bloggers:
Yes. You can do this even if you don't use PW (Project Wonderful,) and this info may be useful to you outside of PW. I'll explain why in a minute.

Find the PW ad boxes on the blog you're looking into. Click on the link under the ads as if you were going to advertise on the blog. This will take you to Project Wonderful where you can view the daily visitors and page visits for the past 30 days. If you scroll down you can see where today's visitors came from and where visitors came from over the past seven days.

Don't forget to count comments. Not every blog uses PW, and of course PW only shows the stats of blogs using them. If you're interested in the traffic for a blog not using PW, you can look at the amount of comments to get a general idea of their traffic.

• Does every post (or nearly every post) have comments?
• Are the comments a single conversation between two or three people or are there a variety of commenters?

I don't know what the exact stats are for the number of readers who actually leave a comment* but if you figure that a high guesstimate of 20% of a blog's readers will leave comments, then a blog with about 10 regular comments may have approx 50 regular readers. That's just to give you an idea as you peek through blogs.

*I searched but couldn't find a number. Anyone know what % of readers will comment on a post?

That's the how.

So...why do it?

Most of us bloggers have developed some solid business alliances (and yes, some have turned into great friendships.), either with other bloggers we visit regularly or with our own readers who leave regular comments on our blog posts.

When looking for a new business alliance, it's handy to know what kind of traffic their blog is generating so we know if this is a good fit for us. If a blogger puts the word out there that they would like donations for an auction or giveaway, you may want to know if this will put your product in front of 20 different people each day or 600 people each day. Since donating your item to an activity on their site is advertising for you, you want to get the biggest bang for your buck.

One last note. If you look at the PW stats and see a lot of visits from Entrecard, please keep in mind that Entrecard members visit a lot of other members' blogs, click on the Entrecard widget, then leave without reading any of the content. Stats showing hundreds of visits from Entrecard may not indicate a number of people who actually read the blog you're looking into, so I'd recommend subtracting the Entrecard stats from the overall traffic on that blog.

What do you think?
Do you look at stats of other bloggers? How do you use this information?

(And remember, all comments are do-follow, so your comment left here supports YOU.)

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Become a blog sleuth...find out where bloggers get their bling

Remember when I told you about My Live Signature? (It's in this blog post.)

I told you I looked into a blogger's code to find out where she got her signature from. Maybe I'm nosy or overly curious, but I like click on a lot of stuff and learn all kinds of interesting things.
And then I share it with you. :o)

(Ok, so there's a little of my dirty laundry. Still friends?)

Here's the secret to looking at the code on any blog (or website):

If you use Firefox, highlight the section you want to look at. Right click your mouse on the highlighted section, and a little menu will pop up. Click on View Selection Source. A new window will open, showing the code of your selected area.

If you use Internet Explorer, it's little trickier. Right click anywhere on the page and a new window will open, showing all the code for the entire web page. It's a little tricky because now you have to look for the code you're interested in. If you're not fluent in web design languages, this can be a daunting task.

To make this a little easier, look again at the web page you're digging into. Find some text near the code you're interested in. For example, in the case of this blog post, if you wanted to find the code for this neat widget (and please ignore the "get Widget" thingy. Widgetbox always makes it easy to get their cool stuff):



You would just need to do a search on the words "Kitty Clock" (Hold down CTRL then hit the F key on your keyboard to bring up a search box.) You should see the code right above the words you searched for. Go ahead and try it. The code would be sandwiched between

cool stuff): and You would just

See it?

Now that you found the code, go to the website that features it. In the case of the clock, you'd go to Widgetbox. When I looked at the code for the signature, I went to MyLiveSignature.com. Sign up (if required,) customize what you like, and add it to your blog.

Now for the ethical stuff that is equally important. If you find some interesting code that you want to use, make sure you are allowed to use it. If it was created specifically for that blog, it's theirs to use and falls under copyright laws. You can't use it. You could always go to widgetbox or other widget sites and look for something similar, or contact the blogger who has the cool widget and ask where they got it. You may have to pay for the code, but if it's that fantastic it might be worth it.

If you find some code that you are allowed to use, give credit where credit is due. Introduce the new widget to your readers in a blog post and publicly thank the blogger or give them credit for finding it first. Include a link to the blog or site where you found the widget. You don't have to disclose how you sleuthed around to find the code, but it's a nice gesture to credit them for finding it for you.

And always, if you found some cool code and added it to your blog, post a comment here with a link so we can all visit and admire your handiwork!

(And remember, all comments are do-follow, so your comment left here supports YOU.)

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Embed your comment form

My Pass It On Plates Blog recently switched to using an embedded comment form, like WordPress blogs have. I didn't think much of the change until I logged into my Pass It On Plates Blog and saw a comment from my funny friend Laurie B., who asked:

Laurie B. said...

Hey, how did you get this comment format? I love it....much better than what I've got...oh wise one, can you share your wisdom with this grasshopper?

Pam Hawk said...

Ohh...I have to think about that. What did I do?

As usual, I was fiddling around and saw something intriguing, so I clicked it to see what happened.

Hmmm, let me look into it and I'll let you know.
-Pam December 7, 2008 10:08 AM

A minute later the lightbulb came on and I remembered. It's so easy.

For those of you who have Blogger blogs, you'll love this.

1. Go to your Blogger dashboard. In the address bar on your browser, replace the www with the word draft. Or open this link in a new window/tab: http://draft.blogger.com/home

You'll see the little orange B in the upper left corner switch to a blue B. This will let you know which version of Blogger you're using. Blogger in Draft is just where Blogger adds and tests new features before they add them to regular (orange B) Blogger.

2. From your Dashboard, click Settings on the blog where you want to change the comments form. Now click on Comments.

3. Look for "Comment Form Placement" and click "Embedded below post" then save.

That's it. This will change the format for all the comments on your blog, not just starting with today's date.

Bonus: If you like this, then you have to see what else Blogger is working on. (I love those guys...) Click your Layout tab then click Add A Gadget. This is where they test out new gadgets. Some new ones you may have seen, others may be totally new to you. IOne of their new ones here that they don't yet have (as of today) in their regular Blogger (orange B) gadgets is the "Search your blog" button.

How do I know about all of this? I cheat.
I'm one of the 792+ followers of http://bloggerindraft.blogspot.com/2008/06/new-feature-embedded-comment-form.html and I keep tabs on new stuff in my Google Reader. They tell me when they have something new; I'm not out there searching for it.

Speaking of "Followers," do you have a Follow Me gadget on your blog? It's a Web 2.0 gem, baby. You can see who reads you and get to know them... and if you follow someone's blog you can read the blogs of their other followers and get to know them as well. I love that gadget. But that's another Blog Bling post here. Maybe next week...

If you change your comment form, leave a comment here so we can all swing by and leave you a comment as well.

Cheers!

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I "Do Follow" you

Have you seen this? Did you know that making this simple change is a huge win-win for both you and your readers?
In a nutshell, most blogs are set up as "No Follow," meaning Google won't consider your link when you leave it in a comment on someone else's blog. This was done to prevent comment spam.

Blog Contest Station recently asked how to remove the "No-Follow," so I figured this may be something more of you are interested in.

It is really easy to change the code in your blog to make it "Do Follow," which means that when someone leaves a comment, Google includes your link when it does its thing. When you leave a comment on a "Do Follow" blog, you are ultimately helping yourself and your Google rank.


You may have seen this badge here and there and heard bloggers mention their blog is "Do Follow." I love blogs that are "Do Follow" blogs and jump at the chance to leave a comment.


For more info and to learn how to change your blog to a "Do Follow" blog, check out Randa Clay Design. She also made the icon shown above.


And yes, this blog is "Do Follow." Help your blog's rank by leaving me a comment.
Thanks!

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Incorporating Video Into Your Blog

Last week I posted a brief video of my car into this blog to show my friend Amador how easy it is to post videos online.

Today I'd like to share a quick how-to so you can post your own videos on your blog.

It's a lot easier than most people think. Like I said last week, I don't own a video camera.

Equipment Needed:
#1 - A digital camera that can shoot video. If you're not sure about yours, check the various shooting modes you have: close ups, scenery, action, flash, movies... Your shutter button may have a little movie camera icon on or near it.
#2 - A method of transferring images from the camera to your computer. Could be a memory card or a cable that hooks them together.
#3 - A computer with an online connection
#4 - A blog or other website where the video will ultimately be shown

If you're reading this, chances are you have #3 on the list. If you also have at least #1 and #2, then you're ready to start.

Ready?
First, decide what you will use for your #4 in the above list. It could be YouTube, but I'll be expanding on this concept in upcoming posts and to take advantage of all the great tips coming up, you may want to have your own site (or blog.) At the very least, you'll want a website or blog that will let you submit your video for all to see (other than You Tube.)

Step One: Choose your subject matter.
This first video will be your demo, so don't stress out about this.

If you want to be the star of your demo, set the camera on a counter or cabinet and step back so it can show your lovely face as you recite a short poem or sing a silly song. Actually, you could simply introduce yourself. That would be a short and sweet 15 to 20 second video perfect for your demo.

If you'd rather not be the star (I understand completely,) then find something interesting, be it a family pet, a tree in the yard, or a goofy kid.

Step Two: Shoot your video.
Don't make it too long, just 30 seconds to one minute is enough.
A little camera shake and wobbliness is ok for your demo. You're a real live human.

Shooting tips:

- Make sure you talk during the video to keep it interesting. Describe what you are shooting and explain something interesting or significant about your subject.

- Talk at a comfortable pace, not too fast, and speak clearly. Smile - people will hear it.

- You may want to plan ahead with what you will say to avoid dead space or overuse of words like "Ummm" and "Uh..."

- Make sure there is sufficient light for your viewers to see the subject.

- When moving the camera from one subject to another, move slowly. Rapid movements make viewers dizzy and disoriented with your scene.

Step Three: Upload your video.
If you can take the memory card out of the camera and insert it into a port on your computer, you can upload the video directly you YouTube.

OR - If you need to connect the camera to your computer with a cable, upload the video to a file where you can find it. You can upload it to You Tube from there.

Go to YouTube and either log in or sign up.
In the upper right hand corner, you should see a button that says Upload. Click it and follow the instructions to upload the video you just made.

Your upload will take a few minutes, depending on how fast your internet connection is.
When I upload videos, I notice that YouTube says to wait until I see a message telling me the video is done but it seems to take forever. Meanwhile, if I open a new window and go to You Tube, my video is there, ready to play with. You video may be ready before YouTube tells you it is - you may want to check on it in a new window after a few minutes.

Step Four: Embed your video into your blog.
Note: What blog would you like to post your demo video to? You may want to consider that at this point. Ok. Open that blog. Ready?

When you see your video, grab the code to embed it, and open a new post in your blog. Click to edit the HTML of the post, and paste in the code from You Tube. Add any appropriate comments and publish it.

Ta-dah!

Once you get the hang of this, you should be able to produce a great little video for your blog in about 15 minutes or less.

Coming up next: I've got some big ideas for you! Check back later this week to find out how you can use video in your blog to increase traffic and/or Etsy sales!

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Blog Bling: BlogUpp!

Today's Blog Bling: BlogUpp!

Instead of writing something new about BlogUpp!, I will copy and paste the Etsy forum post I made in mid July, inviting Etsyians to add a BlogUpp widget to their blogs. The nice folks at BlogUpp! also sent me an email clarifying how the widget works, and since I want to keep everything I do transparent, I have not edited anything. When I started with BlogUpp! I was in a hurry (as usual) and did not read the entire FAQ and didn't realize that if I spread the word about BlogUpp! it would benefit me. I am not posting here for my benefit, either, I just think it's a great tool to promote one's blog and invite you to give it a try if you haven't already done so..

I'd like to mention what I like best about this tool (besides the fact that it is very easy to set up and install,) before I give you the copy/paste. You know how when you shop at Amazon.com they tell you "People who bought this item also bought..." What a great tool to show you similar items that may be of interest to you. BlogUpp! has used a similar approach by promoting similar blogs on your widget. This means that your blog will be promoted on other blogs similar to yours (based on your recent posts) and you will most likely discover other interesting blogs on the widget installed on your own blog. It's a win-win, in my opinion.

On to the cut & paste. I initially introduced BlogUpp! in the Etsy forums like this :

Posted 7/8/08 at 11:32am
A new blog widget called BlogUpp! doubled my blog traffic but most of the blogs are mom blogs. We need more crafty blogs on the BlogUpp! network. It's free to join, no signup required - takes <1>http://www.blogupp.com/
-Pam
PS: Thanks!

Oh - if you want to see it in action, take a look at mine.
http://passitonplatesblog.blogspot.com/
It's on the sidebar under my Project Wonderful ad.
Hover your mouse over the images and you get the RSS feed from those blogs. Click and it takes you there. But like I said, they're all mom blogs - which is fine, but I'd love to see more crafty blogs out there so they'll get promoted on my site.

Once you put the link to your site in the box and hit the "Shoot ahead!" button, put their code on your site. Their admins take a look at your site, check the code, and (within about a day in most cases) you're live. Give it a day or two from the time you put the code on your site and you'll start seeing some nice results.

When you first put the code on your site, the BlogUpp! bar is grey. When you're approved the bar is blue. I think not approved is red, but that would usually be the case for gambling, and adult sites. Not a prob here, right?

Wow - when I started this I figured there would be maybe a handful of responses. I promised myself I would do my best to visit every blog adding (or using) BlogUpp and thank everyone personally for joining and helping to promote each other.

I think I visited all the blogs listed in the first 3 pages here, maybe 4? I'll have to check back tomorrow and try to thank everyone else who is participating.
Meanwhile, * * T H A N K Y O U * * to everyone!!
And holey cheese, people - do you realize just how much talent we have here? I have spent a wonderful evening visiting some amazing blogs showcasing all kinds of incredible things.

Posted on 7/10/08 at 2:51pm, about two days into the project...
Wow, I'm seeing a LOT more crafty blogs in rotation on that nifty little widget. Thanks everyone so far!

I went back to the BlogUpp site and clicked on stats.
Have you checked this out? They show you how many times your blog has been viewed, how many clicks you've gotten, etc. And if you post about it in your blog they give you more blog impressions on other peoples' blogs.
That's extra free advertising, baby!

During all of this, I had asked BlogUpp! a question about how it works. Their quick response:

Thank you very much one more time for sharing your finding of the widget. We are impressed how receptive has been the Etsy community to your invitation. As mentioned in our earlier email, we've updated our records and your weblog was assigned  additional bonus impressions, for its extra-promotion. You can see that in your stats under "Additional impressions".

Concerning your questions, you understood it right. Everything that's related to the promotion of your blog, stands under "Inbound", i.e. the clicks to your blog and your blog views within the community. Whereas "Outbound" stands for the clicks and promotion from your blog towards the community. And it's important to mention that for each 10 impressions displayed on your blog in the widget, your blog gains 9
more views in the community, which accumulate in your balance.

You might be seeing in your stats not big figures for the "inbound impressions" lately. That's only because you've been an active clicker, and the system looks to promote your blog on other community blogs with relatively the same click activity, in order to increase the number of actual visitor to your blog. It means that your
impressions sharing is more qualitative rather than quantitative. The growth of the community from your lovely category will render better results, and more new connections for you and your blog.

Please don't hesitate to let us know should you need further information.

Thank You!

Sincerely,

The BlogUpp! Team
http://www.blogupp.com

As usual, when you learn about a new bit of Blog Bling here, (don't you just love alliteration?) post your URL in the comments so everyone can check out this bling on your site. Remember too, that all blog comments are DoFollow, so leaving your comment plus link is an extra shot of Goggle juice for your site. Win-Win.

Ok? So come on, comment comment.

Blog Bling: Slide

Here's a bit of bling for your blog: Slide
I first discovered this at laurie beggin glass musings where she installed an interactive guest book.

Have you seen Slide sliding around the internet? It's a lot of fun to use to make your blog more interactive. Very easy to set up.

I've got a Slide slideshow at the bottom of my family's blog, The Adventures of Pam & Frank, where it chronicles a road trip to Seattle that we took this past summer. A Slide guest book is installed at the top of my Plate Diaries. I installed it recently and very quickly three visitors signed it. I know these people in real life (a very good friend I've known since 6th grade, my sister, and my favorite former neighbor who has stayed in touch for the past 8 years.) What I absolutely love is that while none of these wonderful ladies leave comments on any of my 4 public blogs, they signed my guest book. I had no idea they even read my blogs!

Here's my guest book.

Fantastico!!

Setting up and installing your Slide is so darned easy I'm not even going to give you a tutorial. You don't need one.

Now put your thinking cap on and imagine how you can use Slide to promote your site or product. If you comment here with your idea you get a gold star (figuratively) and everyone will learn what a brilliant thinker you are.

Go forth and slide! Leave a comment here with a link to where you put your Slide and we'll go check it out!

Blog Bling: Quick Ribbon

Here's a bit of blog bling for you to try out: Quick Ribbon.
I discovered this at Psilology, and had to give it a go. The results - very easy, looks good.

I'm using this tool on my Pass It On Plate blog and Plate Diaries to promote giveaways and sales. The ribbon is a link, so when people click it they go to the blog post that talks about that promotion. You could use it to advertise your special events or just point people toward your store/shopping cart. It's up to you.

The Quick Ribbon website makes it extremely easy to design your ribbon. The trick is installing it into your blog. Installation is easy, but it means you have to go into the actual HTML of your blog. Don't worry, I'll walk you through it here.

Install your own Quick Ribbon in 5 steps.
1. Go to the HTML of your blog. As always, copy and paste ALL your code into a notepad document on your computer before touching anything. Save the document.
2. Near the top of your code, find the word <head>. You could hit ctrl+F and your computer will find it for you.
3. Insert your Quick Ribbon code just under <head>.
4. If you have a favicon under <head>, you can put this above or under your favicon. It shouldn't matter.
5. Save, then go look at it.

One note: I discovered that the code makes the entire corner a hot spot, meaning if you click anywhere in the corner, even if the ribbon isn't covering it, it will take you to the link you programmed into the ribbon. If you are using Blogger, this will affect how you get to your dashboard. Just click New Post and navigate to your dashboard from there. It's a little annoyance in my opinion, but I can live with it for the occasional use of the ribbon.

Ok - go try it!
When you have it installed, be sure to comment here with your URL and we'll all go and check it out!

Well that was easy

Check out the URL for this blog in your address bar. What does it say?

Yep.
It used to be http://pamhawk.blogspot.com but now it's a simple and perfect www.pamhawk.com
Worth every penny of the $10 spent this afternoon to buy my own domain.

Would you like a quick 3-step tutorial on how to get your own domain for your blogger blog?
Required skills:

• You must be able to type the name of the domain you want
• You must have a credit card
• You must be willing to use the credit card

Um, that's pretty much it. Comment here if you want the tutorial and I'll post it.

Favicon Tutorial -Making a little tiny picture thingy

A couple weeks ago, I posted here on this blog, and here on my other blog, a little tutorial on how to find hex codes when you're tweaking the color of your blog template.

In the screen shots used for the tutorial, you can see the Firefox various tabs I had open at the time. I was careful to make sure that the visible items were suitable for world-wide viewing, and didn't think much beyond "Is that private information or not?"

I had a good chuckle when Brad from BradBlogging.com left this comment on the post:
LOL. It's pretty cool seeing your favicon in a tab on a screenshot..
Thanks for visiting Bradblogging.com!

Yeah Brad, that actually is pretty cool. I guess the secret's out about what I read when I post. (I haven't heard from Chris Brogan, yet. Score one for Brad for picking this up first - of course Brad, you have two tabs to Chris' one.)

To my dear readers, if you are wondering what the heck Brad is talking about, the favicon is the little picture thingy that you see on the left side of each tab in the picture below. There's also a favicon in the address bar on the browser in the picture. (Brad's favicon is a bold, dark letter "B")

If you look up at the address bar at the top of your screen right now, you probably see a favicon, too. It could be the orange Blogger "B" or my pink zinnia that I use as my avatar everywhere I go.

Would you like to make one for yourself? It's pretty easy. You can do this.

There are a lot of good tutorials out there, so instead of repeating what other folks have said, I'll just point you toward two that are well-written and not too tech-y.

Clickfire.com
Short and sweet. Easy if you already have a website or hosting to which you can upload your favicon image.

bluejar.com
Here, Sarah mentions using Flickr to host your favicon image.

When you get yours installed, leave a comment here and share your link so we can see your favicon masterpiece.

PS: Hey Brad, when you leave a comment here, would you mind sharing how you found this post? Technorati, Google Alerts, etc? I'd like to use it as an example for a future post.
Thanks!
:o)