It’s the easiest way to post quoted text to your blog, no matter where you find it on the Web. Just select text to quote, add your comments, then publish it instantly to your blog. It’s that simple!
In light of recent articles about the main stream media not wanting to play nice with blogs it seems like a good time to make your own blog more self relient.
Using photo’s in your blog can be a great way to make it stand out, grab your readers attention and convey a message that just can’t be spelled out.
Unfortunately it can be difficult to find photo’s that you can use legally. You can’t just go grabbing any photo you find off the Web, this can be a good way to get yourself sued if the photo is copyrighted.
Flickr’s Creative Commons is a great way to find photo’s that you can use for free, usually you just need to acknowledge the author, with a link back to the original.
Where things get tricky with Creative Commons is that you usually can’t use the photo for commercial gain. But what if you sell ads on the site or even just have an Amazon affiliate widget on the site? Can that be considered commercial? I haven’t heard of anyone getting in trouble yet but in the litigious society we live in, why risk it?
You can of course pay for services that give you the right to use professional photo’s, but most of us have no intention for paying for anything besides hosting (many don’t even do that).
I’ve found that by constantly snapping photo’s and posting them up on Flickr I’ve begun building my own personal photo gallery.
While snapping my own photo’s may not have the level of professionalism that some blogs have, I think they add a level of personality to the site.
I use to carry around a small digital camera everywhere I went until I got a camera phone. I’ve also found that by setting up my Flickr account to receive MMS’s from my phone not only am I more likely to take photo’s I’m more likely to upload them.
Don’t think about taking the perfect blog picture, instead think about taking as many photo’s as you can.
You never know when that random photo you took will be just perfect for your next blog post . Or more likely you’ll never know which of your photos will kind of work for your next blog post.
And if it’s an interesting photo and has some of your personality in it then most likely your readers will appreciate it more than some obviously stock photo .
Technorati Tags: photo. pictures, flickr, mobile, blogging, tips, homework
Tac, New Comm Biz, Jun 2008Note: The final appearance of your post may be different, depending upon your blog’s style sheets.