By Laetitia Paris

How to write on a blog ?

There’s a lot of blogs out there on the Web, most of which don’t entice one to go back regularly to read updates. What is missing from these on-line journals that would essentially make them ‘good’ blogs?

Well, the answers in life usually come down to simplicities. So let’s look at the problem like we were children. Children don’t complicate life with miscellaneous information, and when they speak they tell you straight to the point exactly how they feel and think about a subject.

How to write on a blog ?

How to write on a blog ?

First of all, we should ask the questions,” Why do blogs exist? And what are they here for?”

Well, in an ideal world ‘good’ blogs would help people connect, sharing knowledge and feelings about issues in life. As they are journals written by individuals we would hope that they’d be readable and open to comment by all other people, not just a select group of friends. The key is speaking in a way that is understandable by the masses, get rid of acronyms and local slang that only few will comprehend. Keep the sentences grammatically simple and generally short and concise.

Try to write in your blog as often as possible because if people enjoy reading your thoughts and ideas they’ll want to communicate or at least be filled in regularly on ‘your world’. Ask questions, comment on other blogs of similar content, start communities with others you’ve never met, based on your interests.

Keep focused; if your blog is about thoughts on war and peace, keep your thoughts on the latest movie and how hungry you are for somewhere else. The idea is to incite intelligent communication so that in time our collective stockpile of knowledge and wisdom will gradually grow like a tree in fertile soil.

I think of most importance is the fact that you want this journal to be ‘good’ reading. Of course we all have ideas about what genres and styles we like, but writing from your heart and soul is imperative for the connection with others that you’re looking for. Share yourself; don’t hide behind walls of fear of ridicule and judgment.

In real life relationships trust, respect, intimacy, and unity are all necessary for a bond to form. It’s the same in the ‘virtual’ world; people want to hear from real people-not just one-sided, highly opinionated arguments from egos that don’t want to hear the ‘other side of the coin’.

I believe the ‘blog world’ could become a real asset to humanity

Ideas about sentence structure, grammar, paragraphing, using a thesaurus (varying terms used so as not to sound repetitive), whether or not your blog is suitable for a personal or professional approach, are all important to creating a simple and enjoyable read for the blogging visitor.

By Laetitia Paris

Playing with Photoshop Filters

Ycademy put this new year 2010 under the sign of creation and leraning the basics of Photoshop. I use Photoshop since year to work on my photos, but I must say that it’s just recently that I learn how to give an other dimension to an image simply using some Photoshop Filters… thanks to Ycademy :))

Here are some examples of what we did yesterday, I’ve chosen a  Dragonfly :

Photoshop Filters – Dragonfly 1

Photoshop Filters – Dragonfly 2

Photoshop Filters – Dragonfly 3

Photoshop Filters – Dragonfly 4

Photoshop Filters – Dragonfly 5

Photoshop Filters – Dragonfly 6

By Laetitia Paris

Making Money with Your Blog

Blogging has become one of the most powerful economical forces on the Internet today. Thousands of speedy hands have taken to entering content into blog fields as a way to earn income or write about their life experiences. From its early beginnings with sites like livejournal, blogging for money has become the latest craze. Today, some popular blogs generate close to a million dollars each year worth of advertising revenue. Blogging for money can certainly yield this result with tremendous work!

Pay per Click

Webmasters can make extra money blogging through advertising programs, sponsorships, affiliate programs, merchandising, Adsense, and more. Advertising options for those making money through blogs have been skyrocketing over the past year with the most popular method through contextual ad programs like Adsense that pay-per-click. With targeted ads that reflect your blogs content, consumers are more apt to click. Create a blog with higher paying “keyword ads” ($1.00 a click is common!) and lots of traffic and an extra thousand can be made every month!

Affliate Programs

Discovering income from home blogs also means signing up for affiliate programs. Programs like Commission Junction, Amazon, and Clickbank pair you up with companies who pay commissions for sales through your blogs’ banner ad leads. These products may include soaps, clothing, computer products, and more. All bloggers have complete control over the type of ads appearing on their sites. A third way to make money online blogging is through sponsorships. Highly regarded blogs with thousands of visitors every month can be acclaimed by companies looking to sponsor the blog for advertising space. Although it takes hard work to reach the top, money making opportunities are endless. Remember, there is more room at the top than there is at the bottom!

Making Money with Your Blog

Making Money with Your Blog

Finally, making money through blogs may mean creating other digital assets to sale to act as secondary income streams. Your blog may complement an e-book or course you’re selling and may double up as a discussion board to retain clients. In addition, bloggers can advertise freely on their sites. Monetizing blogs can happen in many different ways. Many freelance writers find themselves hired by bloggers to come up with dynamic content for their journals. This content serves as sales pitches to the contextual ads that may appear on the site, benefiting both the blogger and the “hired gun.”

To start blogging for money, type in blog into any Google search. If you want blogs to pay you instead of launching your own operation, you can do that too. Blogging is an excellent way to earn that side cash. With a little perseverance, you might find your site alongside mega blogs.

By Laetitia Paris

Mixing Black, White and Colors on a Photo

Black and white photography is not exactly what I’m interested in. However I’ve always been amazed by the mixing of black, white and colors on a photo and I was wondering how to make this… my problem is solved now :))

Mixing Black, White and Colors on a Photo

YES… my problem is solved. Now I know how to mix black, white and colors on my photos using Photoshop.

I worked on this photo of a french tree called “Fusain”. Click on it to view it bigger.

Fusain

Its fruits have a beautifull pink and orange. I wanted to have only the foreground fruits colored…

How I did ?

Very simple… I followed the very well explained tutorials from Bianca Gubalke that you can read HERE.

And the result is simply AMAZING !!!

Mixing Black, White and Colors on a photo

Thank you Bianca !!

I won’t miss any of your tutorials !

By Laetitia Paris

Blogging is a New Internet Marketing Tool

Blogging is a concept that started in late 90s. It used to be a way to comment an existing webpage, an opportunity for visitors and readers to react or voice out one’s opinion on the said page. What started as a single-sentence commentary has evolved into pages of personal take on just about anything and everything under the sun. As it continues to move forward, online advertising has tapped into the blog’s potential.

Blogging is a new marketing tool

Blogging is simple :

The simplest way to get your piece on the net is through blogging. No skills are necessary… an average adult can read and type, or at least click a mouse. It’s like having a virtual piece of paper and you just write your ideas, experiences, new products, and hope that the truth behind your articles comes out and entice your reader to also try your product. If you have a PC and an Internet connection (who doesn’t?) then you can blog and advertise.

Blogging is authentic :

In this day and age where advertising saturate our lives, we question the credibility of promoters’ claims. However, in blogs, real people share their real-life experiences, unscathed by paid advertising. Reading blogs about first-hand product use is like talking to people about their first-hand experience. You definitely want to buy a tried and tested product.

Blogging is free :

Because blogging is yet to be proven as a mainstream online advertising media, most sites see it as something to augment current marketing tools and thus offer it for free. Any opportunity for free webtime is definitely a bonus especially to businesses that are starting up. Needless to say, paid blog pages can generate more income for your seriously growing business.

Blogging builds credibility :

As you get more and more into writing your experiences on a particular product or industry, your readers come to realize that they can depend on your posts for their own information needs. As such, you become an expert on it; as a consequence, more readers visit your site and more bloggers link to your blogs. As companies and professional organizations notice the growth of your readership base, they may soon get in touch with you for advertising on your blog page, or make you an affiliate, which pays for every referral generated from your blog site.

Blogging is a Marketing Tool

Blogging builds your market :

Unless you are a Hollywood star, chances are, only your Mom reads your posts. Mom has a lot of friends, so she lets her friends know how interesting your blog site is. But you need not depend on Mom to increase your readership base. Look into the following ways to build your market through blogging:

Use your email… Today, blogging is overcoming the e-mail’s popularity in quickly and effectively reaching and expanding a market. In this age of speed and quick access, logging in and downloading e-mail is simply taking longer than clicking into a blog site. Let them explore your site by using a short e-mail message as teaser to your blog site. If your e-mail is on an entirely different subject, use your e-mail signature to give a link to the site.

Use subscription… An easy way to get your readers e-mail is to give them an opportunity to subscribe to your blogsite. Keep some exclusive information for your subscribers to entice readers to subscribe and give their e-mail address. Just be responsible in using their e-mail address, as the last thing you want is a comment on your blog that you are a spammer.

Understand your readers… Conduct a simple survey for your readers to understand their profile and advertising preferences. Ask consumers to give you feedback on a post, an ad link, or a trial that you shared. In this way, it is like interviewing your readers without the commitment and intrusion of a face-to-face interview.

Join a blog network… a network of blogs maybe a collection of blog sites that share the same industry, interest, readership base, payment mode, etc. Consumers find credibility and convenience in clicking one link to several real bloggers about a single subject. Clearly, more bloggers are better than one.

Use RSS… RSS is the fastest growing technology on the Internet today. As such, having RSS feeds to your blog is definitely another means of generating awareness for your readership base. Having a variety of feeds can add interest to your blog site.

Give your business a boost by effectively using blogging as an Internet marketing tool. And it’s FUN !!

By Laetitia Paris

Choosing a Domain Name for your Blog

In a previous post we said that you need a domain name in order to set-up you blog. Now let’s have a look on the way to choose the right one.

Choosing a Domain Name for your Blog

Think of this… Your domain name is the beginning of the establishment of your presence online. It is then important to take some time and think of the goal of your blog. You won’t pick pinkhamsters.com as a domain if you want to talk about green dogs… right ? Well… that’s just an example, but it’s already the first step.

Choosing a domain name

Here are some tips to help you choose :

Brainstorm a list of ideas of domain names… A domain name that clearly indicates what you do will give a visitor a fairly clear picture of what he’ll find on your blog.

For SEO (Search Engine Optimization) purposes, it helps to have your keywords in your domain name.

Short domain names are better simply because they are easier to remember.

Pick your name as a domain name. You want to promote yourself first and gain authorithy. Your name is your best brand no ?

A .COM domain name has to be your priority. They are the most popular and are the first that Google picked up.

Talk with your friends, family… everyone you can. They will give you ideas. This is how I found my first domain name ;-)

I hope these little tips helped you in your path to get your own blog and if you want to talk about your domain name feel free to contact me.

By Laetitia Paris

Blog hosting

Many blog hosting services are available on the Internet. But the basic question is which one of the services will be the best to start off your business blog program.

Blog hosting

Business people are usually clueless to recent technological innovations which would help them maximize their marketing potentials. For these beginners, it is best to study first the services offered by blog hosts. An ineffective business blogging program may damage marketing opportunities instead of enriching them.

A company may decide to do the following depending on its capacity and needs:
1) Host their own blog service,
2) Pay someone else to host the service,
3) Setup a “blog aggregator page” and ask the employees to select their blog hosting services individually.

Blog Hosting

Choosing a blog hosting

There are paid and free services available for individuals.

For business blogs, they are required to have the latest blogging features; if not, this will prevent them from maximizing their marketing, public relations and SEO potentials.

Keep in mind that blogs should have the following basic essentials:

Comments :  Welcoming comments provide opportunity for dialogue. In business blogs, they are a good customer feedback mechanism. This helps develop better customer relations based from loyalty and trust. Blogging is an innovative way to converse with your customers.

Trackback : This helps in maximizing company and product exposure. Through this service, consumers can get back to you for more posts and updates without the difficulty of locating you. If your blog is popular in a specific online community chances are links going back to your blog site are everywhere online, other blog sites or even websites.

Categories and Tags : These both help in classifying blog searches for ease of navigation and on site search. Categories act as libraries because it classifies posts by subject matter such as business, distance learning, e-commerce, online auctions, etc. Tags, help in the classification, especially in the blog search engine Technorati. Possible customers and new clients locate blogs about certain topics of interest by just clicking the tags.

RSS Feed : Really Simple Syndication is the feed from your blog that is sent out over the internet, and collected through the various newsreaders and aggregators.

If your company is to establish a business blogging program, considerable options should be made available by the hosting companies shortlisted for the services. Free blog hosting services are popular but they are much appropriate for individual online journals. Paid blog hosting services offer unlimited packages best for your company’s needs.

You may want to suggest checking out some blogs that use the host first, read and examine their layout and design. Another important thing to consider is a reliable technical support the host has.

By Laetitia Paris

What is a blog ?

We saw yesterday the basic about setting up a blog. Now let’s look deeper.

What is a blog ?

Apart from the chat rooms, instant messengers and electronic mails created for communication and dialogue beyond turf are the emerging innovations that help man build opportunities for interaction.  The need for a personalized and human face aspect of building online communities is slowly changing the technological landscape of the Internet.

Blogs / “weblogs” or blogging are the newest gift of Internet technology to people all over the world. These are updated posts, crop up entries or personalized life snippets, of mundane or bizarre in nature. For most, a “blog” is a personal, unedited, and authentic journal meant to be shared in an online community. Blog site is a place where bloggers can publish anything; his thoughts, feelings, photos, special events, experiences, comments on issues and so on. It is more of an online diary with videos, links, documents, newsletters and opinions on just about any topics you are interested.

What is a blog ?

Blogs are made to welcome the insights and opinions of all and therefore, should not be written to sound intimidating and too formal. This kind of blog is a sure way to put off the readers. In the basics of blogging, conversational tone would be more appropriate to reach the desired audience.

Having a blog has its own set of advantages

Blogging is all about individuals reaching out to other individuals.

Freedom of Expression… If you want people to hear you out and give their own opinion, this is the best way to create a line of communication.

Networking is at its best…. Having a blog is a good platform for exchanging genuine ideas from consumers to you as marketer of a certain product. Sound opinion and point of view is better than just showing the price quote.

Excellent advertising platform… Blogging is a new way to advertise products, a refreshing change from the traditional advertising outlets and it is cost-effective.

Gauging public opinion on products and services… The key is nice and catchy titles with new ideas presented in your content. This is an assurance of quick and repeated responses from your readers.  Blogs is an excellent spot for the exchange of ideas between the seller and the consumer. Good for measuring public opinion regarding services and products, even political and business matters alike.

Useful tool for internal communication… This will help your company to build a knowledge-based community of employees. Also good for harnessing employee relations and identifying human resource issues in advance.

Other benefits like search engine optimization (SEO) will help your blogs to be seen often by as many people as you wish. This is very good exposure for your products and services.

Now that you see what a blog is and all its advantages are you ready to get yours ?

By Laetitia Paris

What do I need to set up a blog ?

Blog is short for weblog, which simply means a series of online posts presented in reverse chronological order. That’s all!

Most blogs have text content, but there are also photo blogs and video blogs.

What do I need to set up a blog ?

If you want to set up a blog, you will need a platform, a web host, and a domain.

A blogging platform is a computer software program that allows you to write posts and to update your blog. Your platform is also what you use to design the look of your blog, from color scheme to font size. On my blogs I use the WordPress platform because it’s easy to install, configure and work with.

The web host is sort of like the virtual file cabinet where your blog is stored. Your computer communicates with the host when you upload or edit a post.

The domain is the online address of your blog, and usually ends in ‘dot com’.

What do I need to set up a blog ?

Now that you know what a blog is, what a platform is, and what domains and hosts are… you can start considering owning your own blog ;-)

Check this place as I will provide more information on blogging :))

By Laetitia Paris

Writing for the web

Writing for the web is every bit as important as your presentation. The best content in the world won’t ever be read if the presentation is so bad that nobody stays long enough to read it. If you maximize your website usability, your visitors stay longer, read more, and you make more sales.

If the purpose of your web site is to educate your readers and/or lead them to a specific action, (like buying something) then you should seriously consider the following.

Writing for the web

Writing for the web

An other tip of this series of articles is to use clear and consistent website navigation.

Next to pages that take forever to load (and pop-ups), the biggest complaint that surfers have is difficult to understand and/or inconsistent website navigation…

Here’s what you need to take care of :

• Use the same menu on all your pages.
• Use a logical link hierarchy, with related items together.
• Be perfectly clear with your link titles and descriptions.
• Use text links whenever possible.

A website with more than ten or fifteen pages may not need a link from every page to every other page… you can link to each section from each page, but give each section its own “Table Of Contents”.

Every page should have a link to the home page and to the site map. (If you have less than ten pages, you may omit a site map, but your home page should have a text link to every page for search engines.)

With faster-loading pages and easier-to-find information, people will read more of your content and are more likely to take the action that you want them to.

I hope this helped you improving your online presence.