I’ve just finished my blogging package ‘The Power of Pictures’.

This is just one of my series of blogging packages I’m creating to help women (and men) towards creating their own successful business blog. The first ones of the series are scheduled to be ready towards the end of July, so watch this space!

I like it when I see pictures in a blog. This isn’t only for photographers and those whose business survives on imagery such as arts and crafts, jewellry and silver-ware, stationery and cards or whatever. I know I am guilty in the fact that I don’t put enough pictures into my blog, but it certainly does make a difference, not ony because it is colourful, but because it enables those who thrive on the visual side of comprehension to understand your point of view better.

But there are a few pointers that you need to know before submitting an image to your blog.

First, do you have copyright? So many pictures are ’stolen’ from the web, both consciously and unconsciously, but it is a crime. This also includes scanning in images from books or whatever, just like photocopying music, which carries a heavy fine. Please be careful about where your pictures come from.

I generally create my own, or otherwise I pay for my pictures from the web from special websites that provide imagery, usually at very reasonable costs. I’m very much aware of copyright, since my mother said she fell foul of this practice in the beginning of her freelancing days, and had to pay the author more for his picture than her commission for her work. It truly isn’t worth it, as it’s very easy to be found out.

OK, so you have your picture, then it needs to be adapted for the web. I use Photoshop because as an ex-graphic designer I have it to hand. It sizes my pictures by centimetres or pixels (whatever you are used to), transforms the image into RGB which is the correct form for the web (as oppose to CYMK for printing), and can create a myriad of file types that are acceptable for uploading.

And once you’ve created your pictures to the exact specifications, it’s very easy to pop into your post – but to find out how you’re going to have to buy my ‘The Power of Pictures’ blogging package that’s available at the end of July!

In a previous post ‘How visible is your networking?’ I explored the idea of putting a photograph on your business card. I have found four examples of people who have done just that!

This is done solely to show who the cards belong to.  How many times have you got home, looked at the business cards you collected, and wondered what the owners looked like? Only the ones that made the most impression probably stuck in your memory. Ironically, it is the most rememberable ones that do put portraits on their networking material.

Mary Flavell is a flamoyant lady who takes over networking events by storm (she is not called the Queen of Networking for nothing). She always looks immaculate and her gushing friendliness emphasises her willingness to get to know what you do, and to see how she can help you. It seems only right that she should have a photograph of herself on her card, although once you’ve met Mary, it would be very difficult to forget her.

Graham Jones is well known as The Internet Pyschologist, and all his media includes a photograph of him, so it’s not surprising there is one on his business card. He has rigidly stuck to this branding, so much so that you only need to see the colours and his portrait at a distance to recognise his company. That’s why its a good thing to choose a particular photograph you are happy with and be consistent with its distribution, both on- and off-line, to enable instant recognition – all good marketing ploys.

Ophelia Messer is a lady who I’m sure was reluctant to put her photo on her business card, but I’m very glad she has. Another rememberable networker, recognition plays a major role if she is to be successful in recruiting for her business. Her invitation for ‘call me now for an informal chat’ is made much easier because of her welcoming grin; such call for actions are more personable if you can see your contact.

And finally John Cassidy, who for a photographer of the rich and famous (he does capture ordinary mortals to make them look fabulous too) it would be strange if he didn’t have a self-portrait on his card. It does, of course, make him look georgous, yet he has chosen a more down-to-earth representation of himself in his social networking. It’s always a good thing to get a chance to show off your expertise through your networking material, and John’s picture has done just that.

Hello Alice,

I do have a blog but I am not sure if I use it correctly. I created my blog to promote my business and to benefit from Google ranking. I am afraid I am not writing as much as I wanted … my excuse not enough time, but the real reason is I don’t really know how to use it correctly and benefit from it.

I am open to suggestions. Please visit www.penelopesweddings.com/blog.

Penelope

–oo00oo–

Hi Penelope

Yes, you’re on the way to producing a great blog! But we need to make it more interesting, for both your readers and the internet spiders.

As a wedding business I’m sure you have some great images you can share – beautiful brides, sumptuous cakes, fabulous dresses, elegant receptions, giggling bridesmaids – advertise and promote your business through pictures! If you have a great set of photos to share you needn’t write that much to go with it, they will speak for themselves.

You need to upload an image that resembles the header on your website so that your blog looks more like its extension. You can do this through the Appearance link on the Dashboard and go down to Custom Header and download a header image. WordPress give instructions on how to do this, alternatively you could use my blogging package ‘Creating a visual identity’ which is part of my ‘Beautifying your Blog’ series I’m creating on my new blogsite.

I’m glad to see you’ve created categories and blogs, but I think you should vary your tags to capture a wider audience for search engine optimisation. I imagine you got these keywords from Wordtracker or some similar provider – great – but other words that are relevant to your post will increase spider activity and therefore traffic to your blog, and ultimately your website. And don’t forget to put the tag cloud widget onto your sidebar along with one for your recent posts.

Post a nice picture of you on your About page, plus a bit more about you and some links to your website. People like a personal touch, especially for the service industry.

And if you want to accumulate a following, get a RSS feed URL from feedburner.com or feedblitz.com and put the code for the chicklit button or new post subscription link into a text widget and place it at the top of your sidebar.

There’s quite a lot to be getting on with here, so take it step by step. But the best way to promote your blog is to keep putting up new posts, preferably short, concise and relevant, regularly rather than frequently, with content gathered from your day-to-day activities that you think will interest your readers and potential customers.

Alice

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Hi Penelope

On further inspection I’ve worked out that your blog is actually a self-hosted WordPress blog attached to your existing website!

To accomplish what I said in my last post, uploading your matching header will have to be done through your ftp provider into an images file, and then allocated to that particular area of the .css within the theme. This is quite techie, so if you are not inclined in that department you will have to get your webmaster to do this for you.

The widget stuff is the same, except that because it is a self-hosted blog you can upload forms into your text widgets and posts, something you cannot do in a ‘free’ WordPress blog. Take advantage of this with a new post subscription sign-up box which is included with your blog’s RSS feed – encourage your followers to keep in the loop with any new information you post.

Alice

Hi Alice,

I just wanted to say a big thank you to you for your very helpful advice on blogging, I have just started my blog and was really unsure the how to’s etc. I will definitely be making it a part of my daily routine.

I would love your thoughts on mine (please be honest) we can only learn from it! http://fijianbeauty.wordpress.com

Again thanks for your honesty and very practical advice.

Julz

–oo00oo–

Hi Julz

Well done for starting a blog! That ’s probably the most frightening step taken, now comes the fun part.

You’re already got three posts up, and the headlines are good, because I immediately knew what you were about. These headlines are also permalinks (URLs) for each post, which have a separate page and identity, especially when it comes to search engine optimisation. They need to contain your keywords not only for your readers but for the internet spiders as well.

Where are the pictures? Your product is very visual, do don’t shy away from posting up images. You need to put a picture of yourself plus some more pictures into your About page too. Include some testimonials too if you have any good ones.

You’ve entered some tags in your posts, good, but you haven’t chosen your categories yet. Categories are like chapters and help readers search for specific posts under subjects. You can list both your tags and widgets with their respective widgets in your side bar.

Your header still has the words ‘Just another WordPress.com blog’. In your Dashboard go into Appearance and choose Custom Header. There you can upload an image for your header, which can also include the correct text to publicise your business. Alternatively you can change the wording to suit, or delete it so it doesn’t show through your graphics.

You can go to town with your widgets: why not put up recent posts, top posts and comments along with your tag cloud and categories. Encourage feedback and interaction, it’s good for everybody.

If you’re feeling particularly techie, go to feedburner.com or feedblitz.com and sign up for your blog’s RSS URL, and put the code for the RSS button and new post subscription feed into a text widget right at the top of your side bar to encourage followers. This is always good for search engine optimisation purposes, and you’ll find lots of uses for it at a later date.

That’s enough to be getting on with. Keep posting regularly, that’s more important than frequently: spiders work better with regularity, and make sure all your posts are relevant and of value, and don’t make them too long. And keep me up to date with your developments too!

I’m writing a series of packages called ‘How to beautify your blog’ on my new blogsite which should be ready very soon; meanwhile you could join my blogging newsletter to keep in up-to-date with my latest blogging news, especially about my blogging teleseminar on 14 May.

Alice

I’ve been working recently with my photographer friend John Cassidy, mainly to get some proper portraits done of me, and to get a better understanding of how important it is to present yourself professionally to the outside world.

One idea we explored together was the idea of putting a photograph of yourself on your business card. Now if you had a series of pictures you were truly proud of, that showed you in your best light, wouldn’t you be pleased to put one on your networking material?

Why should you adorn your business cards with your face? It’s not to show off or try and get into the limelight. It’s because so many cards I receive fail to represent whom they came from.

When you’ve got home from a networking event and you take a look at the cards you’ve collected, how many of them can you remember who the owner was or what they did? Sometimes the information on the card doesn’t give you any clues, as so many descriptions are ambiguous and are full of jargon, and unless you were really efficient and wrote down on the back of the card they can become an enigma.

Now if there was a photograph it could jog your memory and you’d be more likely to retain the card for future reference, and should you meet up again at another meeting the possibility of recognition is more likely.

Therefore it is important to get a true representation for your networking material. It’s no good hiding behind another persona; you don’t want to give the wrong impression so that the reader forms an incorrect opinion of you, either good or bad.

Seth Godin’s blog post “The power of a tiny picture (how to improve your social network brand)” confirms how important it is to create the right kind of picture about yourself. He makes a number of very valid points to consider, such as backgrounds, true likeness, accessories, cropping, etc, plus loads more relevant to social networking. Don’t muddy the waters with fancy gimmicks, keep it clear and simple so that people can truly understand who you are.

The misfortune of the single leaflet (or postcard) campaign is that there is limited space for what you have to say. By choosing only one shot at your potential customer market, you will have to cram in a lot of information into a relatively small space to get the full message across.

The initial reaction, after scanning the grey mass in front of them, is that readers will look for a way out: get rid. Even if all the marketing criteria are met: headline, sub-headline, bullet points, call to action, special offer, contact details, the fact that they are virtually sitting on top of each other defeats their objective.

When laying out your leaflet, the first thing to consider is your margins; wide borders navigate the eye towards a focal point: the message inside. Adequate white space provides sufficient elbow room to allow the leaflet to breathe, so each marketing element has a chance to succeed.

Next, consider which kind of picture you are going to have. Background images can backfire: one particular advert had a relevant picture behind all its text, but it was so complex you couldn’t make out what it was trying to say. Presented by itself it would have been easier to understand its message, therefore providing a more effective contribution.

Another problem with a complex background is that it detracts from the words in front of it. Messages are not easily understood if they have to compete with their surroundings. Clean, clear backgrounds, preferably white or pale in colour, combined with a darker colour for the words, will have far more impact for quick recognition and readability than the reverse.

Pictures should be relevant, and not just a smiling tele-operator who looks good. It’s easy to get a picture off the net that will do, but then it may be so popular that everybody uses it, thus reducing your impact. A good quality, well produced photograph is vital, with excellent focus and presentation within its own frame; a home produced job with camera shake or low resolution taken from a mobile phone will not cut to the chase.

And finally how the leaflet is prepared for the printer will make or break a good campaign. Customers respond to quality, and an obvious product of the office ink-jet will certainly not provide the impression you are looking for. Neither will a leaflet whose pictures are not converted to the printers’ resolution, as failure to do so will result in flat, 2D, uninteresting images that also suggest low quality.

Also the kind of paper or card used will make a difference: good quality with a clean finish will easily sway the customer to read, absorb, understand and therefore take action – ultimately resulting in a sale.

Which elements should you be aware of when producing a magazine? First is the layout and presentation that enables readability, second is its content and reputation for good value, and third is its readership and distribution.

Believe it or not, a magazine certainly benefits from being properly designed. Some are churned out by amateurs using a desktop publishing package downloaded from the internet, producing a collection of pages stapled together with pictures, page numbers and the odd headline.

Avoid cramming your pages up to the hilt with content with no regard for margins or columns. The result is a lack of space so the newsletter layout is unable to breathe, and provides an overall sense of clutter, impacting on the readability factor and easy access to the information required.

Magazines can easily be very busy publications, full of colour and conflicting designs, bombarding the poor reader so they are confused and overwhelmed. The smaller sized publications, such as the A5 versions, are not a very big space to work with, especially if you are including advertising, and particularly if you are typesetting for a customer who wants absolutely everything squeezed into a quarter page.

One thing that always makes me sigh is terrible front covers, especially those community magazines that have a sponsor or major advertiser on the front. As it’s the first thing a reader sees (generally), so wouldn’t a better designed version do more justice, not only to the advertiser, but also the magazine as well? Don’t stick with just the banner containing the magazine’s title (plus issue date and the name of the organisation) emblazoned across the top. Remember consistency creates professionalism. And the same goes for the back too – after all, what people see on the outside will also reflect what’s in the inside.

Images are important to maintain interest and emphasise a point, but use these with care. Don’t straddle pictures over columns to create unsightly word wrapping and without ample surrounding space. Get your photos suitably processed (such as correct sizing, converting to CMYK for printing, adapting to the correct dpi [dots per inch], lightening and fading facilities and colour conversions) to maintain quality. Avoid clipart like the plague as it only cheapens your publication, but finding a tasteful cartoonist is a bonus.

Getting a professional to design your magazine may be expensive initially, but the design factors will become costworthy in drawing in advertisers and increasing readership. And once the first issue has been completed, it’s generally easier to produce the next, therefore reducing the costs involved. Quality of print is also vital: don’t spoil your publication with smudges and misalignments – this doesn’t look good to the reader, and is not appreciated by the advertisers. Inexpensive flimsy paper (and also gloss finishes) can look cheap and nasty, and poor quality of colour, artwork and images result in the same reaction. Maintain your professional reputation by providing good quality from the beginning.

Continuing on the images theme, I was advising another business about their leafleting campaign, and as well as following the AIDA (attention, interest, desire and action) marketing system, suggestions were made that the same pictures should be incorporated into other areas of their visual presentation. They owned a shop, so the window should be dressed to include the same ideas taken from the images on their leaflets. This would add to the continuity of their visual identity and overall message, and would allow the recipients of their leaflets to recognise it whenever they drove or walked past their premises. This stimulation should encourage them to enter, ask questions and eventually make a purchase.

Selecting the right kind of imagery for your promotional literature is just as important as choosing the right words. This was brought home to me when I visited a client recently who was very keen not to have the same kinds of pictures as her competitors, so that her publicity stuck out from the crowd. Her choice searched more into describing how her company would help her customers, not blagging on about her profession and the features they had on offer. These pictures’ poignancy sparked off a series of unconscience thought that stimulated her customers’ reaction and encouraged them to realise they needed her services. Very clever, especially as this concept had already proven its success!

My friend Annie O’Neill (The Divorce Coach) took advantage today to have a free health check on her paper publicity.  She had produced three A5 four page leaflets, one which covered everything, and two others that concentrated on specific areas.

I advised her to have a large, relevant headline and her name and website address clearly on the front page.  This is so that the reader immediately understood what the leaflet was about, and even if they didn’t open it, they knew who the author was and how to find them on the web.

Inside I suggested the text should be put into columns. This is because quick reading benefits from shorter lines, especially as the leaflets were to provide information purposefully for fast scanning to see if it is relevant to the reader.  Sometimes putting benefits into bullet points is applicable here to facilitate the scanning process.

All the images should be relevant and colourful to draw attention to themselves.  Sometimes the pictures say as much as the words (as well as their captions which are also as important) and good quality in both content and presentation provide that professional edge for a good impression.

If your budget allows, getting your leaflets properly printed certainly contributes towards your public image.  But if you are unable to do this, make sure of the quality of the paper, the clearness of the font (typeface), the crispness of the printer’s performance and the colour control to ensure a better publication.

Don’t forget, if you want to know more, or to book your own health check, go ask Alice!

My daughter Josie commented recently on some leaflets: “Shouldn’t the picture be relevant to whoever picks it up, so to grab their attention?”

She’s right – aim the visual aspects of your advertising towards your target market. Don’t reflect your personal favourites and be careful about your business’s image. The customer is king (or queen) and everything should be geared towards them and their preferences.

Take a good look at the pictures in your marketing material, and get feedback from your friends or past customers, to see if they work or not.

Sign up for more Alice’s Actions from my website.