I’m not anywhere near into photos and photography as Tara and Smitty are, but occasionally I do post a picture or two. Since I’m not a “photo person”, I don’t have any fancy software to crop, edit, or tweak any of the pictures I might have. Two freebies I wanted to mention to you are Irfanview and Picnik.
Irfanview is something I’ve been using for probably three years or so. It’s a great tool for easily cropping, resizing, resampling, reducing red-eye, etc. Another great feature is that you can do batch processes on any folder or group of files. So anything you do on one, like changing to grayscale for example, can be done to any number of photos with just a couple clicks. Renaming can also be done with the batch tool which can be very handy when standardizing a bunch of files that have crazy names from a camera, scanner, etc.
Picnik is a tool I just learned about last week. It’s similar to Irfanview in that’s it’s free and easy to use. This one is web based and I think the interface is much more simple to use. For my “day job” I train faculty and brainy people with PhDs how to do things on computers. We’re always trying to find simple, easy-to-use tools and applications for them to use. These are two we’ve had success with, and I’m sure you’ll find easy to use as well.
I’m a Computer Programmer by day and Photographer by night. I used to live, breath and eat photography in college and I’m still a active shooter. Over the years I’ve given several goes at having a photo blog and haven’t had a lot of success. One of the major reasons is because it always ended up being very time consuming to select, edit upload, post and link in the photo. Well I am here today to tell you there is an easier way, the way I know embrace.
The solution is to use Flickr. It’s that simple. Get yourself an account, they have free version and for pay version. I shelled out the extra cash for a pro account which allows me unlimited space. It’s very easy to become familiar with Flickr in a short amount of time. It’s simple to upload and organize your photos, something that is very cumbersome in a normal blog setting.
So now you have some photos posted to Flickr and you want to embed them in your blog. Login to Flickr and browse to the photo you want to blog. Above the photo will be a “Blog This” icon, click it to walk through the blogging process. The first time you try blogging a photo, it will walk you through attaching a blog to flickr. You’ll need to know your blog address (url), and user name & password. You can then give your post a title and some text to accompany the photo.
All said and done, I think this is the simpliest work flow for having a photoblog.
Benefits in short… Flickr will…
- Host your images and freeing up space on your web server.
- Manage your images with an amazing GUI.
- Allow you to resize them on the web.
- Provide you a good back up in-case of some disaster, heaven forbid.
- Make it easier for you to photo blog easier and faster.
If you are uploading many photos (more than 1) to Flickr, I would suggest a third party uploader. They are readily avaialble on the internet. I use JUploader for the Mac.
Lastly, Flickr has a great FAQ page if you run into any hick-ups.
I’m sure some of your are like me and have moved, or attempted to move, from one blogging tool to another. I started off with good ol Blogger before it was bought out by Google. I wasn’t too hip on Blogger Beta when they were making the changes so I decided to bite the bullet and figure out Wordpress. Migrating from Blogger to Wordpress is a mostly smooth transition, however, one thing I immediately noticed was my permalinks weren’t quite the same. Then I found a plugin to help me fix that.
Justinsomnia.org has created a plugin called wp-maintain-blogger-permalinks. Pretty self explanatory, right? Just download, install, and click a button in your settings. Not much else you have to do.
Spring is here, it might not be exactly warm right now here in Michigan but, nonetheless it is spring. With that said, this is a good time to spring clean your blog.
I would suggest the following…
Make sure you are up to date on your…
- Wordpress Version
- Plugin Versions
- Theme Version
Over time software and themes will be updated to fix vulnerabilities.
You could also…
- Clean up your categories and tags.
- Revise your static pages to be current.
- You might also think about altering or changing your theme to keep it fresh.
- Filter through your comment spam and possible start using a plugin like Askimet.
- Start submitting your entries to sites like Digg and Delicious to help in marketing.
- Lastly, think about your readers. Email several and thank them for reading your blog.
So if you are like me you are going in a million directions at once. I’m trying to be better about simplifying my life. I’m getting better with help from sites like LifeHacker and ZenHabits.
Here are a few of my tips for making blogging easier and efficient.
- Keep it short - Blog posts don’t have to be long to be effective. I find my self skipping the long blog posts when they show up in my feed reader.
- Keep it regular - Either once a day, once a week, or when the spirit moves you. Make sure to pick a schedule that fits your schedule. Start small like once a week and build it to maybe every other day.
- Blog during off times - For me this is during lunch, while I’m making dinner, or while my wife is watching some snoozer of a chick flick. If you have a cool iPhone you could blog while waiting at the doctor or waiting somewhere.
- Passionate Blogging - Make sure you are blogging stuff you are interested in, otherwise you end up falling off the bandwagon. If you are passionate about your subject matter you will be more likely to make time for blogging.
If you have some more tips drop them in the comments, we’d love to here them.
The pitfalls of personal blogging are well known and well publicized: self-centered and boring content, a scope either too broad or too limited, and poor writing. If you actually want people to read your blog, you’re going to have to avoid those mistakes. Here are some things to keep in mind.
- Pick your audience. This is a general rule for all writing, whether it’s a novel, an essay, or a blog. When you write for a specific person or group, your writing immediately becomes more focused and clear. It’s okay if you don’t appeal to everyone. No one says you have to. Are you writing an update blog for family and friends? Keep them in mind as you blog. While going through your day, be aware of those times you think, “Mom would think this is hilarious,” and then blog about it! Are you detailing your journey to a specific goal — say, running a marathon or adopting a baby or losing weight? Write for others who are in the same situation, or write for people who would be interested in your journey. Are you a minister, a pilgrim, or a seeker? Choose whether you are writing to your peers or those who are somewhere else on your spiritual journey. You’re going to have a hard time writing for both.
- Know the big names in your blog genre. This is actually important to all bloggers, not just those of you who are writing your personal story. No one would start a new political blog without being aware of Daily Kos, right? Would a celebrity gossip writer totally ignore sites like TMZ and Perez Hilton? Find out who are the premiere bloggers in your area. Make sure you’re not stealing their quirks or gimmicks. Knowing about them will enrich your writing, it will trigger your own creativity, and it will keep you up to date on the latest trends in your area.
- Publish often. No one expects you to post five times a day, but if you want readers, you’re going to have to be a pretty frequent writer. You can’t just post once a week or a couple of times a month and expect people to remember that your blog exists. That said, don’t just publish to get a post out there — make sure your writing is good before you throw it all out there. Which brings us to the next point.
- CONSIDER GRAMMAR. One thing you don’t want to be is the equivalent of a 14-year-old on MySpace. Even if you are a 14-year-old on MySpace, you don’t have to write like one. Use spell check. Use grammar check. Write out full words instead of abbreviating them. Use capital letters where necessary. Your blog is not a chat log. Good grammar and punctuation exists to help the reader along. If your readers can’t make it through your content, they’re not going to stick around.
- Consider reader appeal. This goes along with using good grammar and punctuation. If your readers aren’t just your closest friends and family, you’re going to need to keep their attention. Posting photos, creating themed lists, using tags, and posting videos is going to do that. Your job is to make them want to come back to your blog to read whatever you post next, so be sure you’re always posting interesting, relevant content. Not your lunch details. (Unless, of course, your lunch details are really funny or interesting.)
Happy blogging.
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