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Great Photo Resources to Support Readers

February 23, 2006 by Liz Leave a Comment

When it comes to dressing up a blog visually, great photos go a long toward class and style–if they are well-chosen and well placed to support your message. Photos can draw in an undecided reader and can communicate a message faster and more deeply than words. In that way they can be underscore what you are trying to say, making it more powerful and give it more emotion.

The advantages of using photos with readers have been researched by educators.

  • Photos involve the reader more interactively. Therefore your message gets “heard” more deeply.
  • Visual learners are drawn in by photos. They find the information in instructional photos more easily accessible. They pick up the information there first and process it, then the words on the page make more sense to them.
  • Decorative photos make an article more appealing and inviting. Blocks of text don’t seem intimidating to readers when illustrated by photos.

Well-placed photos also can take an unremarkable template and “kick it up a notch,” giving it the feel of a more sophisticated design. If you have no experience, do give it a try, but read up on design basics before you begin. Add photos slowly and be careful not to have them overwhelm the text in size. Then ask a customer-reader or designer friend to give you feedback on your choices until you feel confident.

Experienced or not, you’re going to need to get some photos–not everyone is a photographer with a great library to pull from. Here are some resources on basic design, places to find free and inexpensive stock photos, and photoshop tutorials.

The first is
Photoshop Tutorials Blog, and not just the blog, but the page with the listing that shows where you might find some smashing images to spice up your blog posts. To access the listing, click this logo

Photoshop Tutorials Blog logo

You’ll find a few more if you visit Presentation Zen and get Garr’s tips on using stock photos.

Presentation Zen Where Can You Find Good Images?

If you’re up for taking your own photos, you might check out this series from Kodak on The Top 10 Tips for Taking Pictures.

Photos are an integral part of any design and add to the “curb appeal” of a any blog or online business. How might you use photos to strengthen your brand, your blog, your business?

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Turning Reluctant Readers into Loyal Fans
Blog Promotion: Checking Out Curb Appeal

Filed Under: Design, Marketing /Sales / Social Media, Personal Branding, Successful Blog, Tools Tagged With: bc, blog_promotion, free_stock_photos, images, photo_resources_benefits_of_photos_in_design, photoshop_tutorials

Turning Reluctant Readers into Loyal Fans

February 23, 2006 by Liz Leave a Comment

In just a brief one-twentieth of a second–less than half the time it takes to blink–people make aesthetic judgments that influence the rest of their experience with an Internet site.

–Kamakshi Tandon
REUTERS, Internet users judge Web sites in less than a blink
Jan. 17, 2006
Liz reading computer

We’ve got less than a blink to grab a reader’s attention. The reader clicks in. Looks. Decides and then . . . and then what? . . . Do they stay or do they leave? If they stay, did what they see lend our words more credibility or did it take some away?

Design, curb appeal, packaging–whatever you call it–it’s what brings customer-readers further into our businesses and our blogs. They recognize what works for them and what doesn’t. If it doesn’t, they’re gone so quickly that even our stats programs don’t know. Try the Blink Test if you want a baseline idea of what your readers are seeing before they blink.

What about reluctant readers, undecideds who decide to stay a little longer? What can we do to convince them to stay? Better yet, how can we turn them into fans?

Capturing the Attention of Reluctant Readers

Uber Reader Sign

In educational publishing, we have a euphemism, “reluctant readers.” It’s used to describe kids who, when they see a textbook, they turn away to find their inline skates. When I write on literacy, they are my favorite customers to write for and about.

I don’t much like that euphemism applied only to those kids because I’m constantly having to remind other teachers that,

. . . we’re all reluctant readers and becoming more and more so. If you’re a skeptic on this point, try reading the tax code–or any “have-to” document on your least favorite subject. You’ll wish that there were something more to see than long columns of endless text, something to break up the boring words.

With more and more ways to spend our leisure time, even television shows are becoming bulleted lists.

Reader Support as Part of Your Brand

Those kids we call reluctant readers do leave their inline skates to read what they’re interested in–things like books on extreme sports and the latest gaming websites and blogs–if they’re made right. Here’s what you can take from educational research to catch the attention of normal, everday reluctant readers. You can use it to brand your blog as a worthwhile source of quality content. It’s one more way, that you can make customer-reader support a resounding part of your niche brand.

  • Use sub-heads liberally. Sub-heads break the text into shorter bits. Subconsciously that not only tells me what this bit is about. It also says I only have to read this far and then I get to breathe again. People not only like subheads, search engines like them too.
  • Use everyday words. A big vocabulary doesn’t bring us closer together, it sets you apart. The word use is a fine one, use it. Don’t set it aside for utilize. That makes me, as a reader, stop to wonder whether you mean something different from the what use would have said. Anything that stops a reader works against your message being heard.
  • Use pictures, images, art, and color to enhance your message. Do this with care. It’s easy to distract. Place only one or two images. Place them where they add value to the text. Try to put images where you’d expect to find them. If you’re not sure ask a customer-reader to give you feedback on how you’re doing. Remember that design seems easy, but it’s not.
  • Take the time to write something short. The point here is to make every word count. Read your post over to take out all of the words that you don’t need. Be lethal. It’s amazing how many extra words you can find when your quest is to go looking for them. A few sentences ago, I turned this into two posts instead of one.
  • Use typographic cues, such as bold and italic, to show what’s important. Be consistent and try not to make everything important. If you use underlined text to show what is a link, don’t use an underline for anything else. If you make everything important, then you’ve really said that nothing is.

Each of these points are about helping reluctant readers like me figure out quickly what’s important and what’s not, so that when I’m done reading what you wrote. I feel like we’re both smart.

Reluctant Readers to Loyal Fans

Ever read something that made you feel like the writer was saying something you always thought? . . . or something that just made you feel smart for reading it? Bet you went back to see what else that writer had to say . . . .

But then, you knew all this. You have a favorites list. You know what it takes to make a fan. I’m just offering some hints on how to get the undecideds to come in, so that you get a chance to do just that.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Success in a Blink and a Blink Test
Business, Blogs, and Niche-Brand Marketing
How to Code Accessible Links–Part 1
What Is Content that Keeps Readers?
Audience is Your Destination

Filed Under: Audience, Design, Marketing /Sales / Social Media, Personal Branding, Successful Blog, Writing Tagged With: bc, blog_promotion, customer_evangelists, personal-branding, reader_support, reluctant_readers, typographic_cues

Business, Blogs, and Niche-Brand Marketing

February 21, 2006 by Liz 11 Comments

Just the Facts

These are the facts.

  • The blogosphere is doubling in size every 5 and a half months.
  • On average, a new weblog is created every second of every day.
  • Municipal Wi-Fi Networks are becoming a reality. Anaheim, CA; Arlington, VA; Brookline, MA; Chicago, IL; Denver, CO;, Miami, FL; Minneapolis, MN; Grand Rapids, MI; New York, NY; Philadelphi, PA; Pittsburgh, PA; San Francisco, CA; Tempe, AZ; and others are already planning or building Wi-Fi networks to be ready in the next 2-3 years.
  • The Technorati Filter By Authority slider gives readers the power to filter out all but the most important blogs in any niche. Will other Search Engine follow?

Business Meet Blogs, Blogs Meet Business

Sounds great. Doesn’t it? Bloggers read blogs. I’ll have more readers. Right? But those readers will have more blogs to read. With new blogs coming at such a stunning rate, it’s reasonable to think that blogs in the Magic Middle might be pushed aside as younger, shinier blogs appear. It’s also fair to assume that readers will limit the searches to only important blogs, leaving me out. What’ll I do to capture their attention?

Niche-Brand Marketing

The wisdom of the Long Tail–that as business moves on line, less and less of what is offered needs to be “one size fits all” and delivered via giant outlet–leads me to niche-brand marketing. I review this list often for my blogs and for my business, or Liz Strauss Consulting wouldn’t be consulting much longer.

  • Define a niche for your business. Choose a niche you truly care about. Find a place to stand. Don’t try to be all things to all people. Do one or two things that play to your strengths and passions. Do those things better than anyone else.
  • Find out everything about the customers in your chosen niche. First and foremost, make sure that said customers exist. Then don’t just get information. Fall in love with everyone of them. Figure out how to crawl into their skin and feel their pain. Know their loves and their wishes. Find their needs and desires. Learn to read what they’re not saying.
  • Define your brand through your customers’ world view. In reality, you don’t define your brand, your customers do. When you understand your customers intimately, find a way to state your brand–what you and your customers stand for–in less than one sentence. Write those words everywhere your customer will see your name, your blog’s name, or your business name. Let them know you mean it.
  • Use your brand to test every decision you make–large or small. Be your brand. Live it. Make your brand show in every detail, every action, every move you make. If you live your brand, and test every decision against it by asking, Will this help my customers see my brand? your customers are more likely to buy into the brand you’ve chosen on their behalf.
  • Be authentic; never skimp on quality; never go against your brand; and you will set the standard. You won’t just be different; you will be unique, irreplaceable. Authenticity cannot be “knocked off and done more cheaply.” Attempts to copy you will only be poor facsimiles. Quality and authenticity are the birthplace of brand loyalty. Customers will know where to find the real thing. Once they find it. They stick with it.
  • When your customers recognize that you care about their needs, value them and the relationship that you have with them. Relationships will always be everything in any human endeavor. Never lose sight of the fact that you and they are people–not users, not clients, not numbers–but folks with thoughts, feelings, and ideas that make you and your business better.

Why Customers Love Niche-Brand Marketers

We are a fascinating species. When we don’t know where to go, we’ll go where everyone else goes. But give us one reason to come to you, and you’ve made a customer–a reader–possibly a friend forever.

We think that people who think the same way we do are smarter than other people. So when you choose a niche that we care about, we think that you’re highly intelligent. We trust your judgment in other things too.

When we find someone who tries to solve our problems and who values us. We’ll go out of our way to do business with you. It’s just not that often that we get that kind of service.

That’s how small niche-brand marketers get to be great niche marketers one customer at a time. That’s how I plan to make this a place where I can put down roots. I want want to be here for a long, long while, making relationships with some really great people.

How about you?

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Related articles:
Chicago Goes Wi-Fi . . . What Does that Mean to Business?
Marketing Strategy ala Mickey Mouse
GAWKER Design: Curb Appeal as Customer-Centered Promotion
Why Doesn’t Pete Townshend Need to Do Promotion?

Filed Under: Blog Basics, Marketing /Sales / Social Media, Personal Branding, Successful Blog Tagged With: bc, blog_design, blog_promotion, customers, niche_brand, niche_marketing, personal-branding, promotion, quality_content, usability

Blog Promotion: Checking Out Curb Appeal

February 13, 2006 by Liz Leave a Comment

Good Read Sign

Steve McKee writes the Smart Answers column in Business Week. Last Friday he was talking about how everything a company does comes down to marketing. His column was replete with examples and well made points, but I was particularly taken with this story.

. . . The other night, my wife and I decided to try a new restaurant. But when we turned down its street, we just kept on driving, never even getting out of the car. It was the sign that gave us pause. It was simply a flat, translucent panel with an amateurish, one-color logo slapped on — the kind of sign you would see on a check-cashing operation in a seedy strip mall. The sign was of low quality and in bad taste — imagery not well associated with a fine-dining establishment. With plenty of other good choices we simply didn’t want to take the risk of spoiling our dinner date.

For all I know, the food would have been amazing and the chef an undiscovered gem, but the restaurant never got the chance to prove it because we naturally assumed the experience would be as unprofessional as the sign. As a result, we passed.

Perhaps after a few more quiet weekends the proprietor will realize that marketing is everything and will do something about the sign. Perhaps not. But I’m determined to apply the lesson to my own business and think about marketing in a much broader context. Are you?

–Steve McKee, Business Week, Smart Answers : All Together Now “Marketing Is Everything,” February 10, 2006

Checking Out Curb Appeal

After I read Steve McKee’s story, I started wondering. How many readers are choosing to drive by our blogs–the same way Steve and his wife chose to drive by that restaurant–because they lack curb appeal? We do make assumptions based solely on how a blog looks. Try this test to see how blog curb appeal works for you.

      1. Choose a keyword or search term that you don’t usually look for. It might be something like memory, dragons, or fortune.

      2. Do the search on Google Blog Search, Technorati, or another blog search engine. Keep your search results window handy in case you need to return to it.

      3. Randomly choose 3-5 blogs from the search results.

      4. Without reading a word, rank the blogs in the order you predict they might rank based on linkage from other blogs.

      5. Then do a link search for each blog on Technorati Advanced Search or another blog search engine to get their actual link stats. ( On Technorati–>[Search>Options>Links to This URL] On Others–>[link: domain.com] )

      6. Rank the blogs again based on your findings from the links search.

      7. Compare your prediction to reality. Did your prediction come close?

Curb appeal changes how we value things. To say it another way. Perception changes reality.

Granted curb appeal isn’t everything. Curb appeal gets folks in the door. Content keeps them. Even without curb appeal, if you can folks to read quality content, they’ll come back again. Still that doesn’t change the fact that curb appeal makes a HUGE difference in whether a stranger stops to read word one.

Curb Appeal in the Technorati 100

In the Technorati Top 100 Blogs, 10 are My Space Blogs. Who says a template blog can’t have curb appeal? Here are three My Space Blogs from the Technorati Top 100 and their link stats as of today.

Technorati 19 has 16,141 links from 4864 sites.

Technorati 81 has 6673 links from 2214 sites.

Technorati 96 has 5792 links from 2290 sites.

Obviously readers find these blogs have enough curb appeal. Like beauty, curb appeal is in the eye of the beholder. Our blogs need to match what our readers expect to see from a blog like ours. A Disney Blog shouldn’t look like Brooks Brothers or a hiphop blog for that matter. We all have sense what our readers will find confusing or won’t find attractive. Don’t we?

Steve McKee’s story stuck with me because my decision tree always starts with eliminating the negatives. That way I have fewer choices to work from. I might be missing something spectacular, but I don’t have the time to kiss all of the frogs I’ll meet just to find that spectacular something.

So many blogs and so little time. Don’t let me drive right by yours, just because I didn’t see the quality on your sign out front. I’m going out to check my sign one more time right now. How’s your sign looking these days?

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Related articles
GAWKER Design: Curb Appeal as Customer-Centered Promotion
Success in a Blink and a Blink Test
Blog Design Checklist

Filed Under: Design, Marketing /Sales / Social Media, Personal Branding, Successful Blog Tagged With: bc, blog_promotion, curb_appeal, Design, personal-branding, problem_solving, producttivity

Fun Find: Button Generator.com

February 4, 2006 by Liz 7 Comments

I was looking at some sites around the Internet that had unique and personal buttons for their blogs last night. That seemed like a fun thing to do. Fun is something there just isn’t enough of in my life during the gray Chicago winter months. So I went hunting for a button maker. I figured it was one more way I might brand my personal blog.

Boyhowdy! Did I find one! What kind of button would you like? Will you be having a menu to go with that?

FUN Find: Button Generator.com
Type of Site: Webmasters’ resource for creating buttons and menus
Target Audience: Anyone who wants a one-of-a-kind button
Content: This site has an easy and a pro generator. It has a huge variety of free choices for making buttons and menus and provides member services. The free choices are extensive and quite elegant. In fact, I found myself enjoying the experience of making choices a relaxing change from a stressful day. (But that could just me be. We know I have that weird side.)

Before you enter there are two things you should be aware of:

  • Free use is on a moving time clock.
  • Link back is required–the linkback button is cool–or you can become a member.

All buttons also come with their own code. We’re talking Super-Buttons. You can use hex charts to change every color. If you use the advanced format you can change every layer of color. You could be here all day. You could be here until next Friday morning!

buttongenerator_com

There are 11 pages of sample buttons. This is just one of them. The menu generator designs menus that match the buttons. How cool is that?

I can’t believe you won’t be able to find something that perfectly expresses you and your blog’s design. In fact, the bigger worry is that this site could very well get you into a button collecting mood. You might even start a button-trading club. Then you’ll have to join Button Generators Anonymous. Please use this information with caution. This site really is addictive. I might just have to become a member so that I can play with the button generator everyday now and forever.

C’mon. You know, you wanna.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

More Fun:
Internet Dictionary and Slang Translator
A Message for Everyone
Top 10 Ways to Become a Miserable Blogger
65th Crayon Finds that Google Doesn’t Use Search

Filed Under: Design, Marketing /Sales / Social Media, Personal Branding, Successful Blog, Tools Tagged With: bc, blog_badges, blog_button_maker, blog_buttons, blog_promotion, button_generator, personal_buttons, ZZZ-FUN

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