It’s always a good week when I find great blogs like the ones rounded up here. There is so much practical goodness here, from where to find great free photos to how to promote your blog, that I bet you’ll have a long list of “try this” items by the time you’re done. I hope you do try something! It’s the best place to start.
10 New Places To Find Quality Free Photos
Written by Brad Knutson
You can never really have enough free photography, can you? If you blog, you’re probably sick of all the recurring, boring, corporate stock photos and clipart that seem to permeate every paid subscription. And yet you can’t simply grab a cool image off Google search and go. Good thing for you that Brad has put together a nifty resource of photo sites where you can use the photography without dipping into your bank account. They may have attribution and licensing requirements but the great thing about these sites is that not only are they free but they tend to be a whole lot more interesting. We’ve found some of the best photos for our blog on some of these sites and now I have a few more bookmarked thanks to Brad!
Read the article at Inbounderish.com and follow Brad @BradSKnutson
How To Build Epic Word-Of-Mouth Without Leaping From Space
Written by John Gregory Olson
In 2012, Red Bull sponsored the current record-holder for highest skydive in history. The event – from the edge of space right down to the ground – generated a ton of buzz. But how many of us can cough up the estimated $65 million it cost to be part of a stunt like that? Excuse me while I choke on my muffin… John has the answer, though, and it’s a relief: you don’t have to! Heck, you don’t even have to spend a single cent to be buzzworthy and to make your customers and prospects love you. I enjoyed the lesson in this post – trust me it’s an important one – and I particularly enjoyed the way John told the story. Read it to be inspired to your own greatness.
Read the article at JGODigital.com and follow John on Twitter @DigitalJGO
How To Increase Blog Traffic: Essential Blog Tips You Cannot Ignore!
Written by Ian Cleary
One of the things I love about Ian’s posts is that not only does he give you great advice but he also includes tools that can help you implement his tips. In this post, for example, one of the tips he shares is to reach out to people who can help you promote your content. All well and good, but don’t you sort of feel left out of the loop when you hear advice like that, as if someone knows something magical about finding people that you don’t? That’s where Ian works his magic because he also suggests a tool to help you track your link-building and promotional efforts. Cool, huh? And that’s just one of the six ideas he shares that you can get started with right now.
Read the article at RazorSocial.com and follow Ian on Twitter @IanCleary
Word Science: How To Use Amazing Words To Get More Shares
Written by Sarah Arrow
Want more of the goods on promoting your content? Well, sometimes it’s all about the words you use to promote it. Sarah shares a neat infographic that breaks down power words into what works for your blog titles, Facebook updates and Twitter posts. You don’t need to burn too many brain cells to work a few of these into your efforts to see if they work for you! But what I particularly enjoyed was Sarah’s two-cents at the end. She mentions a social/SEO plugin that sounds like it does some pretty good stuff, from creating microdata for Google (important!) to letting you customize information that you feed to your social channels (nifty). I’m going to give it a shot and I’d be curious to know if you have used (or plan to use) this type of data for your blog posts.
Read the article at SarkeMedia.com and follow Sarah on Twitter @SarahArrow
How To De-Google-ify Your Life: The Complete Guide To Leaving Google
Written by Joel Runyon
I threw this one in because a bunch of people are starting to feel a little squirmy about how much Google has infiltrated our lives. It has quietly become the thread that runs through everything we do from search to productivity to daily business tasks that we hardly associate with Google anymore. And of course, everything we do online turns into more data to feed the Google advertising machine. Joel isn’t keen on the idea of Google having a hand in so many of our pies and if you share the sentiment, he offers alternatives to pretty much every omnipresent Google service you can think of. You may not want to cut ties to Google completely – after all, many of us rely on it for search marketing at the very least – but that doesn’t mean you can’t diversify a bit so that you’re not altogether reliant on – and feeding into – a single, corporate machine.
Read the article at ImpossibleHQ.com and follow Joel on Twitter @joelrunyon
Have a great weekend and let me know if you found any other great blogs to share!
Thanks for the mention :), and I think you’ll like the plugin. I’ve already seen an increase in Facebook likes and traffic, and area that I’ve never tended to do well in as I dislike Facebook.
You’re welcome! I’m curious to see how it works!