Best Free Tools To Compress And Optimize Images On Your Blog

Guest Post - Our host is Salman Farooqui, who takes a look at image compression and the best tools to help.See How To Become a guest author on Blogging Section.

Image files today are the most used media type to share. However, they are often too large in size to easily share or store. This is where image compression comes to play. Image compression is technique which reduces the image size without significant reduction in image quality. Many people fear image compression because they have a misunderstanding that it is a threat to image quality. Actually, image compression is of two type - Lossless and Lossy.

Lossless image compression

 Lossless image compression involves removal of some of the image data to reduce the size but the image quality remains the same and all the image details are preserved. You won't notice any change in image but the images through this method can only be compressed to around half in size.

Lossy image compression

Lossy image compression can reduce the image size to more than one tenth of it's size but the quality, though not very significant, is reduced. Lossy method will reduce some shades of color that are very similar thus reducing the overall size of the image.

So what are the benefits of image compression in blogging? Well, image compression technique is best suited for blogging. Compressed images not only reduces page's loading time it also takes less space on your hosting space and bandwidth. This is one of the best and most promising method to reduce page response time by optimizing images of your blog. It proves a boon for users who have slow Internet connectivity. They don't have to wait for long for viewing your blog.

Importance Of Page Load Time

Your blog loading time is now part of google algorithm which how decides how to rank a site in google search results. You don't want your blog to be devoid of many benefit,  Do you?

Faster page loading impacts your blog's visitor bounce rate. No one wants to wait for site to load up. If it takes a lot of time people will close your site and probably won't come back. This happens with many new bloggers, they add high quality large size images as their background and on their blog. If you can easily reduce the size of the image then why load those big ones.

Optimizing your images is a must thing to do for better site speed so that users have a better experience on your site. There are many free and useful tools for optimizing images without losing any visible image quality. We will go through some of the best tools to optimize and compress your images before adding it your blog.


Original Image :

 

Compressed Image :

First image is 70kb and second is an optimized image with size of just 9kb. However, different image formats have different potential for reduction in size.

Offline Tools

  
 Photoshop

Photoshop is the first name that comes to our mind when we want some image editing or optimization. When you save an image, use 'save for web' option rather than 'save as' option in photoshop. You will see a significant change in image size without compromising with your image quality. There is another cool photoshop plugin called SuperPNG. It's a free Photoshop plugin for optimizing small PNG images.

Irfan View

 Irfan View is another very popular image viewing and editing tool. Apart from a lot of great inbuilt features, you can use plugins to enhance the features. One such plugin is RIOT (Radical Image Optimization Tool). This plugin creates a save for web option in irfan view menu. You can simply scroll the slider for optimized image size and you will preview the image quality for that size. It is a great tool if you want your image corresponding to a fixed image size.

PNGOUT :

It is useful to optimize pictures created by other tools. The new image is lossless meaning that the new image will be of same quality but with lower image size. It can operate from Windows run dialog box and also command prompt.

OPTIPNG :

It can convert different image to png and can easily optimize png images losslessly. An open source advanced png optimization tool recompresses optimized images further to even more smaller size without any loss in image quality.

PNGCRUSH :

Another great tool for lossless png compression. It tries different methods of compression according to your image attributes and gives you best result. Changes color type, like truecolor to indexed color if the colors are very few which reduces the image size but not the quality.

JPEGTRAN :

A nice tool for optimizing jpeg files. It supports lossless compression between different jpeg files. Another great feature of this tool is that it supports lossless rotation and cropping of images.

GIFSICLE :

Program for optimizing and manipulation, editing and deconstruction gif animation image files. Creating gif animations with GIFSICLE is very easy. It runs on command-line to create and edit gif images.

Online Tools

SmushIT :

One of the most reliable and popular online tool by Yahoo Network for lossless compression of images. It shows you the new optimized image size before compressing.

JPEG Optimizer :

Useful for optimizing digital pictures. Select a compression value from 0 to 99 and click optimize photo to get your result. You can also resize your picture by selecting the appropriate size.
  

Image Optimizer :

Another great tool for image optimizaion. Just visit the site, browse your file, set the quality and get the new optimized image file. A piece of cake.

Picresize :

This is basically a picture resizer tool but you can use it's picture size reduction option. Enter the desired size of the image and press OK.Let's say you have an image of 200KB and you want to change it to 50KB, picresize will do it for you in just a click of button.

TinyPNG :

Lossless png image optimization with full support for transparency. You can drag and drop up to 20 images on tinypng site to get your compressed images. 

Drop your comments and questions below.

Salman Farooqui

About the Guest Author:
Salman Farooqui designs blogger templates and writes articles related to blogger, design hacks and SEO. His blog Kick Blogger publishes free blogger templates.

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Discover New And Exciting Techniques Of Creating Blog Content

Guest Post - Our host is Anna Robeson, Anna is looking at some different types of content bloggers can use and readers will love.See How To Become a guest author on Blogging Section. 

The days of simply writing content and posting it online are long gone. I've heard the phrase „content is king” time and time again, and while I do not disagree with it, hell, I've actually written an article on the subject myself, I have to say that content is not only written. Images, videos info-graphics are also content, visual content, but still, content. The problem with today's internet is the fact that it is over-saturated with information.

Let's be honest, how many of you read articles from start to finish?  I don't. Even if I find something that interests me, I usually skim through the text, and bookmark it for later. Many writers are faced with a major problem: people do not read their blog. Moreover, in most cases, it is the first few seconds that attract a user. You can be sure that a block of text isn't as attractive as a post rich in images or videos. Written content is without a doubt the most popular content creation technique, and it is also one of the most poorly done. Any respected agency will tell you that high-quality content is one of the most powerful business promoters. That being said, let us discover alternative content techniques.

1. IMAGES

 

What most people do not know, is that written content is not the only one that can be optimized and used in order to promote a website. Everybody knows the saying "a picture is worth a thousand words", but in the world of SEO, a picture can be worth a thousand visitors or links. I've seen a lot of web owners who get a decent percent of overall website traffic from images. There are plenty of visual search engines out there which focus their queries around photos and videos. In other words, if you find some eye-candy, you can read the source article, or better yet, you can create truly unique posts which you later pin on a Pinterest board. Never underestimate the power of a high-quality image, because most of the times people want to see what it is that they are interested in, before they read about it. 

2. VIDEOS

 When it comes to videos, things are a little complicated. With images it is possible to takes someone else's work, as long as you give credit to the owner. The days of simply shooting, editing and uploading a film are long gone. Nowadays, in order to get a video noticed you have to take certain steps:

• Did you know that Youtube is the largest search engine except Google? What better way to gain more exposure than by creating an awesome video which you can share on Youtube later?

• Once you've uploaded the video, make sure that you are sociable about it. Believe me, your readership will appreciate the effort that you made in order create it. You can even create your very own, branded YouTube channel, if it is exposure that you are looking for. It is more convenient for users to listen to something while they go about their business.

• Tweak your video for search engines. Basically, in order to apply search engine practices on videos, one has to edit the „Meta-data” of the post. This means that descriptions, titles and data will be branded on YouTube’s and Google's channels.

 

3. INFOGRAPHICS and CONTENT VISUALIZATIONS

 

 I may be treating them at the same time, but Infographics and content visualizations have little to noting in common – except the fact that they are both visualization tools. Infographics represent a great alternative to written content, and a more attractive one if I might add. They are commonly used to present interesting facts in a more visually appealing way.

Concept visualizations, on the other hand, are a great content technique which every specialist should have in his marketing tool belt. They are extremely efficient because they can help explain complex or abstract ideas that are difficult to put into words. Simplicity, and clarity are the two, key qualities that a content visualization should have. I especially recommend it for bloggers who are trying to prove a point, or make a statement, and for business owners who want to make things easier to understand for clients.

4. GIFs and MEMEs

 

Animated GIFs have long been used on forums and chat-rooms, but it was only recently that Tumblr managed to make them go viral. They are a fascinating tool for promoting written content, presenting new concepts and marketing ideas. They are capable of adding that interesting visual appeal that any website needs, and to stimulate and engage with the public.

Are you familiar with MEMEs? If you are not then maybe it is time to do some research. It all began with 9gag, and now there are so many funny Memes circulating that it's hard to keep track. They are catchy, hilarious and impossible to forget. If you want to establish a personal brand, memes are the best thing you could ever do. They may not be useful for content creation, but they are the best way to interact with your readers.

 

5. PODCASTS

A podcast is a multimedia digital file which can be uploaded to a portable player. Many people think that podcasts are a thing of the past, but I assure you that they are very useful. Podcasts, both video and audio are an excellent solution for people who like to jog, who travel a lot or who have to commute. They can easily be uploaded to iTunes or any podcasting platform of your choosing. They give you the opportunity to be original, because they give you the chance to create irresistible and original call-to-actions.

Now that you've learned about five alternative content creation techniques, you will be able to make your web-page more dynamic and flexible. But you don't have to stop here. Music videos, SlideShare presentations, Embedded Tweets and many other strategies await your discovery.

 

Anna Robeson

About the Guest Author:
Anna Robeson is a passionate writer who usually consults with a digital net agency . She is interested in all things tech, and she is constantly scouring the internet for interesting new things to share with her readership.

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12 Things to Do Before Applying for Google Adsense

I know many of you want to make some good money with adsense right?
But it’s not easy to get into adsense program now a days. You have to do few things before applying for adsense.
Google Adsense is world’s larges Ads Network and works at Pay Per Click system. It’s paying rates are better than all of other networks which is the biggest reason it is so popular to all Bloggers and Webmasters. But since everybody is running behind them, they have made the approval system very strict. You make little mistakes and get disapproved every time. So you need a complete guidance and list of thing that you need to do before applying for Google Adsense and supposing that you are ready.

 12 THINGS TO DO BEFORE APPLYING FOR GOOGLE ADSENSE

1. Privacy Policy :

One of the common mistakes that every Blogger makes and that I made many times before finally getting approved. Even though there are people out there who say that having a Privacy Policy for a Blog doesn’t makes sense but they are wrong.
A Privacy actually describes to your readers about what they will get on your Blog , what they should do and what they should not. So obviously there is nothing bad in having a Privacy Policy. While it can affect somehow on your Adsense Approval, you must give it a try. You can write it yourself or find Privacy Policy Generators online (You don’t need a lawyer anyway).

2. About Page

An About has major role and importance if you don’t want to apply for Adsense. But when it comes to Adsense, they are about Zero chances of getting approved if you are not showing this page.About page simply describes about you and your Blog . This will not only help you establish a relationship with readers but it will also make them trust upon you.

3. Contact Us Page

It’s quite obvious that everyone has his/her own opinion. What one of your readers likes may be bothering someone else. Than it is better to give them opportunity to speak up to you and tell how they feel about your Blog, what they want to be edited , what they liked or hated.
It will also show the Google Adsense Team that is viewing your site that you actually care about your readers and not only the money and Adsense.

4. Name/ Email Verification

Make sure to put you Name and Email address in some easily visible area like About Me and Contact Us pages. It will confirm to Google Adsense Team that it is the same person who applied for Adsense and not some spam, crappy bots.

5. Age Verification

I’m really laughing out typing this.
Why?
Because this is where I encountered a problem. Instead of 18, I accidentally published my age as 17 while on Adsense Application Form, it was accurately 18.
Hence there started a problem . Because Google Adsense is not for under 18 people. I realized this problem after being disproved a few times without any legitimate reason. So I advice you to be accurate while typing your age.

6. Minimum Number of Posts

There is no exact answer. Not even one. Because I have seen very established Blogs with 400+ posts and their owner telling me that Google Adsense is rejecting them while somewhere ,people with 40,50 posts are enjoying making money. Exactly what I said that there is no actual answer. However, we can always predict things. According to my experience , you should only apply after you have more than 70 posts. Posts length should must be 500+ words too.
Read : Difference Between Short Length Post Vs Length Posts – What’s Best?

7. Design

Your Blog is the biggest thing after Content. This represents your expertise ,experience and Professionalism. So be careful because anything can kill your Chances.

8. Content Type

Be careful with what type of content you are publishing. Because it is something that truly matters. Google Adsense is not for Pornographic, Illegal Items, Drugs or other Blogs / Sites like that. Also Adsense team won’t be willing to allow you to step in if you own a Non English Blog. Having posts shorter than 300 words in length is also Red Signal.

9. Providing Value

Don’t complain about not making money and don’t clearly state that your are Blogging for Money only and have no other interest in it. Because this will show them that you will not be providing values to your readers any day. Hence another Red Light glows up.

10. Top Level Domain

 

 

Those are gone far away when Adsense used to approve “Blogspot” and “WordPress.com” Blogs. As for today, you must have your own unique domain that specifies your Blog. If you don’t have one yet, stop dreaming about getting approved with Sub domains and go buy a Top Level Domain.
Another important thing about domain is it’s age. Because for most of Asian Countries, Adsense has placed an age restriction. They don’t accept any sites before they are 6 months old.

11. Other Ad Networks

If you have any other Ads placed like Chitika, Clicksor or anything, it’s time to drop them off.
Even Google Adsense allows you to use other Ad Networks along with them, it’s better to remove the ads before Applying and don’t put them back until you get a reply from Adsense Team.

12. Paid Traffic 

Google hates the sites that are getting Paid traffic and mostly penalizes them so there is not a damn chance of getting Adsense Approval letter for a site that is getting paid traffic. You can bring traffic from Search Engines or any other way you want but if you want to earn via Google Adsense the right way, paid traffic is not a solution.

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LinkedIn Tips, Tricks and Resources

As of November 2012, LinkedIn announced it had 187 million members, making it the most popular social network among professionals. LinkedIn is a powerful platform that is not used as often as it should.

Some professionals see no use for LinkedIn, some use it but still leave it on the back burner. Here are a few tips, tricks and resources that will help you use LinkedIn to its full potential.

LINKEDIN TIPS AND TRICKS

1. Complete your profile. Make sure to complete your profile: from your professional history to where you attended school. Be as thorough as possible.
2. Claim your vanity URL. Your profile will look more professional once you claim your vanity URL.
3. Treat your profile like your website. Keep your profile clean and up to date; check for spelling and grammar mistakes, as well as typos.
4. Make your profile public. Change your profile settings so that your profile is publicly visible. Don’t worry, your contact information will only be available to your connections.
5. Connect with those you already know. Start by connecting with those close to you: family, friends, co-workers and colleagues.
6. Use LinkedIn for follow-up communication. Whether you have connected with someone via email, got their business card, or left a voicemail, let them know that you will also connect with them via LinkedIn.
7. Give and receive recommendations. Nothing boosts morale, loyalty and friendship like an unsolicited recommendation.
8. Update daily. Keep people on the loop. Whatever you post will show in the news feed of your connections. Don’t know what to post? Connect your blog’s feed to LinkedIn, that way whenever you post something new it will also show on your connections’ feed. You can also talk about anything business related: upcoming events, seminars, webinars, awards.
9. Join Targeted Groups. Join and become part of niche-related groups; you can even start your own. Answer questions, give tips, be helpful.
10. Define your LinkedIn strategy. Create a LinkedIn strategy and stick to it whether when making connections, joining groups, and creating updates.
11. Make your connections private. There are things best kept private, i.e., your LinkedIn connections. By making them public, you are practically handing your competition your client list. To make your connections private, go to your profile settings and under your privacy controls click Select who can see your connections. Choose only you.
12. Make it easy for others to connect with you. Adjust your settings to make it as easy as possible, such not requiring people know your email to connect.
13. Find out who has viewed your profile. Check your profile statistics regularly: learn what you are doing right or wrong, and when it is time to follow-up with a contact.
14. Make connections where you want to do business. Connect with people inside the company you wish to do business with, or work for. Just remember to be subtle.
15. Include a link to your LinkedIn profile on your email signature, website, and business cards. See #11

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Add a Pinterest Mouseover Button to Your Blog Images

Follow Blogging Section on Pinterest Here

Have you noticed this trend on blogs lately? This is a new feature I’ve seen popping up everywhere. When you put your mouse over an image on the blog, a Pinterest logo pops up prompting you to “Pin” the image. At first I wasn’t sure if I loved this feature or hated it. But after giving it a chance, I’ve decided I love it. :) I don’t know about you guys, but most of the blogs I visit have SO many gorgeous photos to pin. It seems like every photo is “pin-worthy!” Sometimes I have a hard time choosing which image from a post I want for my Pin board, and by the time I finally make the decision, hit the “Pin it” bookmarklet in my toolbar at the top of the screen, and the Pinterest pop-up screen appears with all the tiny square thumbnails, I’ve forgotten which image it was that I wanted to pin — or worse, I can’t tell which image I wanted to pin because the thumbnails are too small! So this is a feature I’ve grown to immensely appreciate, since now I am able to simply pin the image I want right there from the blog post while I’m reading.

If you’ve got a blog and want to add this feature to your photos, here’s how you do it.

FOR WORDPRESS

If you’ve got a self-hosted WordPress blog, you can use the Pinterest Pin It Button For Images plugin.

1. Simply download the zip file from the above link, go to your WordPress Dashboard, click Plugins > Add New > Upload and upload the zip file.
2. Activate the plugin, then from your WordPress Dashboard, go to Settings > Pinterest Pin It.
3. Under the heading Show “Pin It” button on following pages, click All Pages. Click Save.

This plugin comes with the default “Pin It” button as seen in the image above. If you like it, that’s it!

You’re done! :)

You now have a Pin-It button that will appear when a reader puts their mouse over any image on your blog.

If consider yourself tech-savvy and you’re up for a little bit more of a challenge, you can also choose to use your own button style in just a few easy steps.

Customizing Your Button

You can make your own personalized button, or here is a link with some gorgeous, free Pinterest buttons. You’ll probably want to make sure that the button you choose has a transparent background and is saved as a PNG file, otherwise, if it has a background, it will be white on your image. Once you’ve chosen your image, here’s what you do:

• Open the pinterest-pin-it-button-for-images.zip file you downloaded.
• Drag and drop the new Pin It button into the pinterest-pin-it-button-for-images folder.
• Open the ppibfi_pinterest.css file in Notepad or Text Edit and find the following code (it’s right there at the top, very easy to find! :))

.pibfi_pinterest .xc_pin {

width: 80px; height: 50px; /* Please note that the button is 80px x 50px. If you use a different size button, change this */

background-image: url('ppibfi_button.png'); background-repeat: none; /* This is the buttons image. Image can be found in the plugin folder */

It’s easy going from here. As the instructions say, if your button is a different size, change the code to your button’s width and height. Then change where it says ppibfi_button.png to the name and filetype of your image. Save the file.

If you’d like your button to be in a different position, look just underneath the previously mentioned code and find where it says

top: 5px;
margin-left: -1px;

Change these numbers to shift your button to a different position. I changed mine to top: 15px; margin-left: -15px;. You can also change top to bottom to have the button appear in the bottom corner.

Once you’re done editing, save the ppibfi_pinterest.css file, then zip up the pinterest-pin-it-button-for-images folder.

• On a Mac, you can just right-click on the folder and choose Compress.
• On Windows, I believe you can right-click on the folder and select Add to Zip, although I haven’t used a Windows computer in a good seven years, so my information might be a bit outdated. :)

Then follow the previously mentioned steps to install the plugin to WordPress, starting with Step 1.

That’s it! You should now have your own customized Pin It button that will appear whenever anyone puts their mouse over an image on your blog. :)

NOTE: If that all sounded like Greek, you can always just use the button that comes with the plugin. It looks great! :)

My Thoughts On This Plugin

What I really like about this plugin is that if the image is a link to another page, you can still click on the image to get to the link. For example, you can click on any photo on my blog to see the camera, lens, and settings used to take that photo. Also, when I share links or lists and use an image, I will link the image as well so all you have to do is click on the image to get to the page. This plugin does not interfere with that. It will only Pin the image if you click on the actual Pinterest button in the corner of the image. Click anywhere else on the image to be taken to the link.

When someone pins an image from your blog using this plugin, it will automatically fill in the description box with the title of your post. This can be a good and bad thing. Some bloggers (myself included) prefer to write their own description for each image, which may include hashtags or a link back to their blog. This plugin overwrites any custom description you may give your images and replaces it with simply the title of the blog post. So that may not be ideal. However, for older blog posts where you may not have set up a custom description (which is probably the majority of your blog posts, if you’ve been blogging for any length of time) this can be a great thing. It will now automatically fill in the description box with your post title. So as long as you have descriptive post titles, you’re golden!

FOR BLOGSPOT / BLOGGER

If you’ve got a Blogspot blog, there’s a super-easy tutorial to get this working for you as well.

1. Follow this tutorial at BloggerSentral.com: Pinterest Pin It Button On Image Hover.

So what do you do if you’re not a blogger and a blog you love doesn’t have this feature?

Great news! If you love this feature but visit a blog that doesn’t have it, there’s an easy solution. If you use Firefox or Chrome, you can install a plugin where all you have to do is Right-Click on any image to Pin it.

• Pinterest Right-Click Add-On for Firefox
• QuickPin for Chrome

As you can see in the image above, the Chrome plugin automatically fills in the description box with the post title and the name of the blog. I love this! With the Firefox plugin, the description box is blank. Boo!

If you use Safari or Internet Explorer, I’m afraid I couldn’t find a plugin for this trick. If you know of one, please feel free to leave it in the comments! However, you can always install the Pin It toolbar button at the top of your screen.

So What Do You Think...

 I’ve installed this plugin so you guys can see it working on my site. Feel free to pin any image from this post! I haven’t decided if I’m going to keep it yet though. What do you guys think of Pin It buttons that pop-up when you put your mouse over an image? Is it annoying and “in your face” by saying “Pin me! Pin me!”? Or is it a helpful tool that makes pinning quick and easy? What are your thoughts?

Follow Blogging Section on Pinterest Here

NOTE: This Article is been Republished by me. from the website Name Kevin And Amada. To Go to the Original Article Please Click Here. 

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Guest Author Box: Show Guest Author Info Below Blogger Posts

Due to lack of time blog authors often have to rely on Guest posters. In return we offer them with quality back links and advertisement. In order to better serve them it is important to display some info about them in a polite and attractive manner. This will encourage more and more people to write quality articles for you. We are very selective in accepting tutorials written by our readers but once the tutorial qualifies we publish their post in the best manner possible. See the example below which shows one of Blogging Section's Guest Author’s info.

To create this type of attractive box for your guest authors you would need to play with some  delicious CSS and HTML . So then Lets jump straight to the main part!

How To Create Customize Guest Author Info Box

1. Go To Blogger > Design > Edit HTML
2. Back up your template
3. Search for ]]></b:skin>
4. Just above it paste the code below,

/*----------Guest Poster --------*/
.mbt-gp img {
margin:0;
border:0;
}
.mbt-gp-about {
font-size:12px;
margin:0 auto;
padding:3px;
width:580px;
background:#edf6ff;
border:#9ecfff dotted 1px;
min-height:130px;
}
.mbt-gp {
padding-top:10px;
margin:0;
font-size:12px;
float:left;
width:17%;
text-align:center;
border-right:#93C0F9 solid 1px;
}
.mbt-gp-text {
float:right;
width: 80%;
padding:5px;
text-align:left;
font:12px arial,sans-serif;
text-align:justify;
margin:0;
padding:0;
}

   5.    Save your template and jump to the next part of the tutorial.

How To Add Box Below Post

Now whenever you publish a Guest post at your blog, simply switch to the Edit HTML Mode of your Blogger Editor. And drag to the bottom of the HTML codes and just at the end add the code below,

<div class="mbt-gp-about"> 
  <div class="mbt-gp"><img src="GUEST-AUTHOR-IMAGE-LINK" width="80" height="70" /> GUEST-AUTHOR-NAME </div> 
  <div class="mbt-gp-text"> 
    <p><strong>About the Guest Author:</strong> 
      <br />ADD-DESCRIPTION-ABOUT-AUTHOR-INFO-HERE </p> 
  </div> 
</div>

See the screenshot below to know better where to add the code,

Make sure you replace the bolded text with proper details. The image size would fit perfectly if it is 200px by 125px.

You will have to add just the second code for every guest post that you publish. Once you understand on how to do it then doing it again and again would become more like a fun. I just hope you find it useful and worth trying. Take care buddies. :)

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7 Reasons Why Acting Goofy On Your Blog Helps Business

Guest Post - Our host is Brianne Walter, here Brianne explains why you don't have to be serious on your blog at all times.See How To Become a guest author on Blogging Section. 

Bloggers, like any other business owner in the world, take their blogs very seriously. Every bit of information they put on there and every post is somber and serious and high on information. Not many would ever want to tamper with the serious image that they have created in front of their audiences. However, as many successful bloggers know, acting goofy on your blog could be a great alternative to always being super serious. Here are a few reasons why you should consider bringing out your goofy side every once in a while on your blog.

1. It helps you and your content team relax

Goofing around is the easiest way to relax- for you, your content team and even your audiences. While always posting thought provoking, well researched pieces helps you build up your credibility but you have to remember that people love bloopers just as much as the serious stuff. Think of it as something like the signature charming sign off that your favorite news anchor used before ending a news bulletin and you would realize that throwing in a goof or two can actually help your content team feel refreshed by much.

2. It would never be as bad as you imagine

Being goofy on your blog really has no down side. Unless you have no talent whatsoever for comedy, goofing off would never had a bad repercussion on the image of your blog. In fact, posting a goofy pic or video or post on your blog will actually help people get a better sense of your confidence which would automatically get them to see your blogs in a new light as well.

3. It gives your audience variety

Building up a dedicated audience for your blog is hard work. Sustaining this audience could be the real tricky part however. But if you have the talent for providing your audience with variety, you’d have a better chance of retaining eyeballs over a longer period of time. When your audience sees that you can provide them with a bit of variety as well as what your content specializes in, they might be tempted to spend more time on your page.

4. It promotes bonding

A very well known universal fact is that people like the company of folks that can make them laugh. This also applies to the virtual world and the millions of cat videos with felines doing dumb stuff proves that. So, you have to ask yourself, if a cat doing silly things can get millions of page views, a real person doing something similar might be enough to make even your regular audience tune into your page more often. Plus, blogs are more about personal expression for both the content developer as well as the reader and little goof offs every now and then would bring your readers ever closer to you too.

5. It’s entertaining

Yes, goofs are rather entertaining and blog owners and developers should not be ashamed of sharing their own goofs with their followers. Of course you don’t have to make a regular habit of it but posting a picture of a video of behind the scene bloopers etc. keeps audiences entertained while allowing them to see your human side too.

6. You’re cool if you can laugh at yourself

The ability to laugh at oneself is not something that everyone is blessed with though the people that can pull it off without sounding sarcastic or whiny generally are considered the most self confident of all folks. The self assurance this ability gives off is also quite attractive to others which makes making friends and winning admirers a breeze too. If you can admit to and even show off having a goofy side, people will find you cool for sure.

7. It helps you stand apart from rival blogs

No matter what topics your blog espouses, you know that there are at least a handful of other blogs that are writing about the same thing. While this kind of rivalry is amazing for development of content, its quality and putting the reader first, it also makes it hard for both established blogs as well as new entrants to the game to stand out from the crowd. This is where posting about the occasional goof could set you apart and help you create a wider fan base in the long run.

Brianne Walter

About the Guest Author:
Brianne is a writer/blogger. She loves writing, travelling and reading books. She contributes to Hydroxycut.

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10 Tips to Increase Blog Traffic with Google+

Google+ is the fastest-growing social networking site. It's a perfect place to connect with people around the world, build relationships, and drive readers to your blog. To get you started, following are 10 tips to help you increase blog traffic with Google+ right now.

1. Create a Complete Profile or Page

If your blog can be identified as a business or brand, then create a Google+ Page for it. If not, use your personal Google+ profile to connect with your blog audience. The first step is to create a comprehensive profile or page that fully describes who you are, what expertise you bring to the table, how to find your blog, what your blog is about, and what makes it special. Follow me on Google+ here. 

2. Connect with People

Once you've created your Google+ profile or page, you need to start connecting with other Google+ members. Search for people you know first. Then look through the people they follow to find more interesting people to follow. As you spend time on blogs and other social web destinations, look for links to connect with interesting people on Google+.

3. Create Circles

Next, you should create circles to categorize your Google+ connections and then place people into appropriate circles. For example, create circles for your blog readers, your blog post sources, people who influence your target audience, people who can help you promote your blog or publicize it, and so on.

4. Send Targeted Messages

As you publish updates to Google+, you can choose which circles to share those updates with so the right audiences get the right messages. This is a great feature that ensures people don't receive the updates you don't want them to see.

5. Publish Interesting Content

Don't just publish links to your blog posts over and over. That's boring and will be viewed as excessive self-promotion. Your Google+ stream of updates should be interesting and meaningful to your audience, not spammy. Therefore, publish and share interesting updates and links that your target audience will find value in and appreciate seeing.

6. Create Sparks

Create sparks to track keywords related to your blog topic and jump into relevant conversations. Share content and updates that other people publish related to your blog topic that your audience is likely to enjoy, and look for new people to connect with on Google+ and blogs to follow outside of Google+.

7. Host Hangouts

Google+ hangouts are video chats between up to 10 Google+ members. You can host a hangout and promote it as a small virtual webinar or tuturial session. Think of how you can tie a video chat session with your blog topic and what kind of valuable information you could share in such a session. Then promote it on your blog as a special event!

8. Host Huddles

Instead of holding a tweet chat on Twitter, you can hold a Google+ huddle, which is a text chat between Google+ members. For example you can promote your Google+ huddle on your blog as a question and answer session between a small group!

9. Integrate and Cross-Promote

Use social media icons, Facebook social plugins, Twitter widgets, and so on to integrate your blog marketing efforts and cross-promote your content. Give people as many ways to find your blog and interact with you as possible.

10. Be Active

Update your Google+ stream frequently with new content, and make sure you spend time commenting on other members' updates as well. The more active you are, the more likely people are to remember who you are, recognize what your blog is about, and click through to read your posts!

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How To Use Google + Ripples To Find Influential Bloggers In Your Niche

Well, the first thing we should probably do is explain what Google+ Ripples are. For those of you who have not come across this useful tool before, it’s essentially an interactive graph of those who have publically shared one of your Google+ posts.

This visual representation of your publically shared posts by others provides fantastic insights into the natural flow of viral content within your niche, and can help you to identify and connect with industry influencers.

Of course, other social media sites provide this sort of data, but it’s usually only available via third party plug-ins. Ripples is Google’s own effort at conveying this sort of info, and it does so in visually friendly and intuitive way.

Using Ripples

If a post has been shared publically, there will be an option to ‘View Ripples’ when you click the little arrow on the right hand corner of the specific post. If you click this you are then led to a graph, which provides the information.

This graph is quite self-explanatory. The top left corner shows the number shares in total and also recently. Each of the bubbles within the graph displays a person’s name and their status when they shared the graph. The most interesting thing though is the size of the bubble.

The larger the bubble, the more shares that particular person contributed to your post. So, if a person has a larger bubble they have provided more clout or influence for that specific post. This allows you to easily see who’s encouraged others to share onwards.

Clout

We’re all aware of the importance of influencers in an industry and some have more of this ability than others. Google+ Ripples makes it extremely easy to see who is influencing and driving interaction to your posts via a quick look at the size of their bubbles. 

Nurturing a relationship with these influencers is very important and can allow you to reap huge benefits if you’re a little bit savvy. Add to this how visual and easy to understand it is and there’s no excuse for not making the most of it.

Circles

The next step is to group those you deem as niche relevant influencers and those you see as benefiting your posts beyond the immediate repost. Create a circle of these folks and then begin to build a relationship. This is easily done and sending them exclusive content, first peeks, using the hangout feature and also plain old direct interaction go down a treat. That all said, you still need to focus on the other 95% of those in your circles as they are often your bread and butter.

Influential Ripples

It’s also possible to increase the chances of getting an influencer in your field to share your posts with a little calculation and research. There are influencers in any field and then again there are influencers– people who have hundreds of thousands of followers and provide huge potential if they share an article.

The downside is that these people may not be in your circles and so you have no chance of them seeing your Google+ post. Unless!

How to Get the Influence of Influencers

Step One

Firstly, find the largest influencer in your niche or industry and find a post that they shared with their circles. Now look at the Ripple data.

Next, find out who the original poster was and make sure that this original poster has a reasonably strong following.

The industry leader will have shared the original posters post and you can assume that there is an element of trust between both.

Step Two

Connect with the original poster by one of the usual means – Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn – they’re usually on the Google+ profile. Try and build a relationship with that person by providing them with something of interest or value.

When you are friendly ask the person to share one of your posts via their Circles. You can then hope it will catch the influencer’s notice and they will repost it. Of course, if this doesn’t work, it’s still getting a lot of notice via your new found interaction’s followers.

Step Three

Do this with a number of people in contact with the industry leader and you will greatly increase the chances of them seeing your post.

So, take a look at Google+ Ripples and remember that by engaging with these power users you get the extra edge and you and your posts can significantly benefit.

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