Photo cred: Nicole Simon

We’ve been thinking about how we’d like to design this blog and how we can keep it simple and effective.  That means keeping the sidebar nice and neat with limited clutter.

One of the first things I thought about was the blogroll, and whether or not it’s necessary.  When sharing links to other blogs on your blog, there are 3 common options:

1. Manually create a blogroll with the links to blogs that you read.
2. Install a blogroll widget.
3. Create a seperate page on your blog for links (this way, you’re not linking out from every page on your blog)

Adding the links manually seems to be of fading efficiency. Today, a lot of people hop around from blog to blog, and tend to change their tastes quite often.  The static list of links hardly ever gets clicked, as the blogroll doesn’t tell you much about the site, just names and links.

Where people once relied on blogrolls to find new blogs, networks like twitter have quickly become the go to resource for blog discovery for many readers.

If you want something more dynamic for your blogroll, that will change with your tastes, you can add a widget…but your options are limited. All the widgets I’ve seen are based on random links, or on your RSS reader, which by the way, is dying…  is the blogroll dying along with it?

Do you still use the blogroll?  Is it effective?  Do we just need more options?

Guest Blogger: Carlos Miceli is the Argentinian blogger behind OwlSparks. He’s a freelance writer and entrepreneur, but most of all, a questioner of things.

Photo cred: Crystian Cruz

The long vs. short posts discussion has been present for quite some time in social media. As a writer who became “popular” because of his short posts, now that I transitioned to longer ones, I wanted to share my thoughts on this debate:

• Marketing-wise, long posts are for the writer, short posts are for the reader.
• It’s more interesting and fun to write a long post. It’s more interesting and fun to read a short post.
• Long posts leave a deeper sense of fulfillment after written. Short  posts leave a more powerful effect after read.
• You learn more writing long posts. You impress more writing short posts.
• Long posts sell less than short posts because of people’s attention span decreasing everyday.
• Also, we are now all expert scanners, judging content quicker than ever. This doesn’t mean we can’t see good content, but that when the content is bad, we know it faster. Better to write a bad short post than a bad long one because of the time it takes.

In the end, the reason why I used to write short posts, is because people want them. It was a marketing strategy. Short sells more, even if the quality is mediocre. Now I decided to write longer posts, and I’m enjoying my writing a lot more. The downside is, the growth of my blog has decreased.

Sadly, it’s the marketing decision you have to make. Satisfy your readers, or satisfy yourself.

A picture can draw the reader in. It provides visual stimulation that can lead into your content. It can serve as a visual representation of the topic. Overall, it just provides a more enjoyable reading experience.   The tricky part is finding pictures that you’re legally allowed to use in a blog post.

There are legal restrictions on pretty much every image on the internet.  Some have more restrictions than others.

Photo cred: Darwin Bell

While many of these legalities aren’t often enforced, you are liable if you use a picture in a manner that violates their terms of use.  Luckily, it’s not hard to find pictures that you are allowed to use on your blog.

So, what can get you in trouble? DeviantArt explains it briefly:

What is Copyright Infringement?

To simplify this question, copyright infringement occurs when you do certain things with a creative work which someone else produced without first getting the proper permission.

Some examples of copyright infringement (this is only a partial listing) can include:

• Placing a photograph or creative work online without proper permission.
• Using a creative work commercially.
• Adapting a creative work of one medium to another, such as making a book into a movie or a photograph into a painting.
• Modifying or editing a creative work without proper permission.

You can read the full page here.  If you haven’t checked out DeviantArt, I highly recommend it.  If you’re going to use an image from this site though, you have to get written permission.

You may hear that you can get around copyrights by attributing the work, by only using a portion of the work, if you don’t use it commercially etc…  You may be allowed to do these things, but no matter what, you need permission, either from the specific copyright guidelines, or from the owner.

Etiquette tips when using images:

• If you can, ask for permission first.  Even if you don’t have to due to the copyright specifications, the owner might appreciate knowing how you’ll be using their work.
• It’s always good form to attribute the picture’s author.  Remember though, that attributing the owner doesn’t override the copyright restrictions.
• Link to page where you found the picture.  It drives traffic to the artists’ work.  They’re helping you, so why not help them?

So now that you know the general rules, here are some great resources to find legal pictures for your blog posts.

1. Flickr Creative Commons

Flickr‘s creative commons is a great resource.  In fact, it’s my go to website.  Just type in a search term, then when it brings you to the results page, click advanced search under the search bar and check off the Creative Commons checkbox at the bottom.

Different pictures have different limitations based on the specific copyright though so be sure to check the copyright info on the right of the picture page.  Usually, the owner just wants attribution.

There are tools that you can use to search through flickr’s creative commons.  Try Compfight out for size.  It’s amazing.

2. Stock.xchng

Stock.xchng is a great resource.  I like how it provides a number of relevant free pictures, but also shows you better quality “premium” pictures that seem to be very affordable, if you find something you really have to have.  In my experience so far, there are less results than on flickr, but they’re more closely related to the keyword.

3. Photobucket

Photobucket has been around for a long time and I really love how they’ve changed over the years. Not only do they gather some truly captivating photos but they also encourage users to use and share them across their blogs and social networks by providing you with the links.

On photobucket, ALL content is available for you to use, with pretty much no strings attached.  Quoted from their terms of service:

By displaying or publishing (“posting”) any Content on or through the Photobucket Services, you hereby grant to Photobucket and other users a non-exclusive, fully paid and royalty-free, worldwide, limited license to use, modify, delete from, add to, publicly perform, publicly display, reproduce and translate such Content, including without limitation distributing part or all of the Site in any media formats through any media channels, except Content marked “private” will not be distributed outside the Photobucket Services.

4. Stock Vault

Stock Vault has some pretty good stuff.  They offer a lot of free stock photos and also provide cheap options if you see something you really like.  According to their terms of use you can use their photos:

1. In digital format on non-commercial websites, multimedia presentations, broadcast film and video, cell phones.
2. In printed non-commercial materials, magazines, newspapers, books, brochures, flyers, CD/DVD covers, etc.
3. Along with your non-commercial identity on business cards, letterhead, etc.
4. To decorate your home, your office or any public place.

5. Unprofound

Unprofound is a bit different from other sites.  You’re free to use their photos for your projects, and even to edit, as long as you let them know where you use the photos.  By their own admition, their search feature isn’t that great unless you use really generic keywords.  They make up for it though by allowing you to search by color, in case you really want your pictures to match your blog design.

Sources: Virtual Hosting

6. MorgueFile

Thanks to Charles J. Orlando for sharing this site in the comments.  It’s definitely worth checking out.  You can search by keyword or browse by a bunch of different categories that they offer.

Right up front they say it, “Free images for your inspiration, reference and use in your creative work, be it commercial or not!”

Definitely worth checking out.

So, go find some amazing pictures and bring some life to your blog.  Using these guidelines, and these sources, you’ll be safe from any legal ramifications.

Let us know if this was useful and if you know of any other great sources for legal pictures, share them in the comments!

UPDATE: Props to Danny Brown for sharing the Photodropper Plugin for you wordpress users.  Makes finding and attributing Creative Commons licensed photos really easy.

UPDATE: Thanks to Deb Mallett for reminding us in the comments that sometimes the people that upload photos to sites like flickr don’t understand the copyrights themselves.  If there are brands or pictures in a photo, they need their permission to submit the photos to the site.  Every site that I’ve seen has provided a message that makes sure the user has the rights to upload, but not everyone follows those rules.

Thanks to Calvin Lee for shedding some light on this topic.

K.I.S.S. or “Keep it simple, stupid” has become a cornerstone of blogging.  Readers’ attention spans are falling fast, and if you’re going to build an audience, you have to make your site is clear, concise and reduce as much noise as possible.

Photo cred: Don Solo

Here are some areas of your blog that you can simplify, without sacrificing value.  In fact, the key is to focus on value.

1. The Sidebar

Wow…you’ve got a lot of widgets over there.  A couple badges? Perhaps even an ad or two?  One thing that many bloggers do is PACK as much as they can into that sidebar.  Sometimes, the sidebar runs lower on the page than the content itself!

Now widgets, badges and ads are great, but too much of anything great can spoil their value really fast.  Think about what you’re adding to your sidebar.  Does it benefit the reader? How is it helping you?  Is it effective?  Perhaps, instead of having 6 small adds, you can use 1 or 2 bigger ads, or just focus on the ads that work best.

If you win a contest or something, it’s great to feature the badge on your site.  After a few months, that badge might not be very relevant anymore.  Keep your sidebar up to date.

2. The Toolbar

This depends on your blog and what you use it for.  For businesses, they tend to need more pages in their toolbar.  For the average blogger, you probably don’t need that many.

Do you have an about page for you and another one for your blog? Can you combine that into one?  You can put multiple things in a page as long as you make it organized and easy to read.

Which pages are the most important?  If there are 10 pages to look through, will that hurt readers ability to find the pages they need?

3. The Comments

Comments are getting busier and busier lately.  Now we have twitter feeds in there, information about the commenter, facebook shares, and more.  There’s a certain level of functionality that you should use in your comments, and then there’s too much.

The comments section can be one of the most vital aspects of your blog.  Make sure it’s easy for readers to browse through the comments and get an idea of the conversation without being distracted by too much information.

I really like the balance that disqus provides.

4. The Content

Some say brevity is king.  Others find more value in longer posts.  There is no “magic” length for blog posting.  You can be extremely successful writing really short but thought provoking posts like Carlos Miceli does, or you can write really long and thorough posts like Olivier Blanchard does.

When you’re writing about something that you’re passionate about, it can be very easy to write “too much”.  It might seem necessary to you, but to the reader, it can be repetitive or unfocused.

Copyblogger had a great post discussing how to avoid taking tangents when writing blog posts.

So take a look at your site.  Is there anywhere where you can simplify things?  Can you find any cluttered areas that are taking away from the valuable content you’re providing?

How else can you simplify your blog?

Photo cred: Guillermo R. de Loizaga

As I see it, there are three general types of bloggers.  Keep in mind, these are generalizations, and will of course have many exceptions.

The Casual Blogger

• Can post whenever the urge to write hits them, at random times.
  
• Can write about whatever they want.
• Doesn’t necessarily worry about stats (hits, comments, etc)
• Doesn’t take into account search engine optimization.
• No clear goals.
  

The Serious Blogger

• Clear set of goals.
• Posts with relative consistency.  May use a schedule and post on the same days every week.
• Consistent topics.  Can have multiple topics but they all fall in line with the focus of the blog.
• Consistent post formats “types” (interview, video, debate, informational etc…)
• Pays attention to statistics to optimize the content that is most successful.
• Uses keywords with search engines in mind.

The Professional (Revenue Driven) Blogger

• Clear set of goals that leads to revenue.
• Typically uses ads and/or affiliate programs.
• Very consistent in post format and rate of content production.
• Lives by statistics, and aims to optimize the #1 statistic: revenue.
• Search Engine Optimized in many aspects.

So basically, the major differences that define the three different types of bloggers are goals, strategy and focus.

So what do you think?  What are the best ways to make the transition from casual blogging to serious blogging? From serious blogging to professional blogging?

(best responses may be included in future posts covering these topics)