From the category archives:

Basic Blogging Series

Blogging Tips from New Tricks Academy

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I have a weekly marketing group for small businesses that meets for 90 minutes each week. In the group we are setting measurable goals and learning to target activities such as writing blog posts to help reach their goals.  I wrote these tips for them but wanted to share them here too.
Blogging Tips
1. Keep your [...]

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Get Yourself a Favicon, People

Dene thinks not having a favicon on a website is the on-line version of your bra strap hanging out when you’ve gone to the trouble of dressing up and yet you forget to do the small things that matter. Maybe it is more like forgetting to put on your jewelry. But anyway we have noticed [...]

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Ten Tips for Better Blogging

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  1. Stay on topic. Pick a topic for your blog and pretty much stick to it. I mean you can deviate a bit, but people want to know what to expect from your blog so try and give them what they come to you for. Put yourself in the shoes of your users and deliver the goods. You can write down your major category names and then think up posts ideas for each category. Use the list to write from or to research the ideas for posts as you have time.
  2. Present your ideas with visuals. Blog posts are mush easier and more pleasant to read when they include photos, illustrations or videos. Try and use the same size photos and generally the same placement so your readers don’t get seasick scrolling down the page. Remember to check the licensing when you use photos or art work that you did not produce.

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Customizing a WordPress.com Header

On the www.wordpress.com site you will find a plethora of great tutorials and that is where you will also find a link to WordPress TV. I just watched a great little video on how to customize your WordPress.com header (not the self hosted .org version).
In WordPress.com only certain themes allow you to easily change [...]

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Seven Tips For Adding Images to Your Blog Posts

dog-taking-photoImages are an important component to a good blog post. They give a reader a first hint of what the article is about and they can set the tone. Using a visual can break up the text in posts that may otherwise feel too long and they just add a bit of polish to a post and to the site.

It’s easier now than ever to find free images for your blog. One of my favorite sources for images is Flickr. Some of the images have a Creative Commons license that allows the sharing of photos, with some restrictions. Dreamstime is another favorite place to go to hunt images. The photos and images are available at very low price especially when you will only need the 72 dpi resolution option since it is for the web.

Here are seven tips on adding images to your blog posts:

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Three Ways to Avoid Hidden Code When You Copy / Paste into Your Blog

Newbies bloggers beware. You may be creating validation or formatting problems in your blog posts and not even realize it by falling into a little discussed bad habit known to wreck havoc. Usually you will be writing a post directly into the WordPress edit window when adding a Post or a Page. But for longer [...]

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Why you should use a Blog Platform Website

or The Remix version of ‘Why you should use a Blog for Your Website’ originally posted on March 24, 2009

John Bennison, Principal at Bennison Associates and former VP of Product Development at Skywire Software (now Oracle) has quickly become one of New Tricks’ BFF. Not only has John contributed his extraordinary small business coaching and technical skills to the New Tricks growing world empire, but he was kind enough to spiff up our post originally titled ‘Why you should use a Blog for Your Website’.

We like John’s version so much that we are posting it today. See the end of the post for John’s bio.

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