The issue is that the podcasting space is very cluttered. To rise to the top of Spotify, Pandora, iTunes, and other platforms, you need more than just a catchy title or awesome equipment. You need to put the finishing touches on your podcast so it shines. It’s kind of akin to two chocolate cakes on a buffet. Even if the cakes taste the same, the one with the more impressive presentation is going to get more attention. After all, it’s hitting the “sweet spot” figuratively AND literally.

How can you make your podcast as appealing to listeners’ ears as a Food Network-inspired dessert is to eyes and taste buds? Applying the following tips to your podcasting game can be a great start.

1. Do everything possible to simplify the editing process.

A lot of podcasting episode magic happens in the editing stage. The more effective and efficient your editing, the more flawless your podcast will sound and flow. This makes it essential for you to plug any gaps that could make editing harder than it needs to be. (Future You will be grateful.)

One way to streamline your editing is to focus on how you’re recording each session. As SquadCast’s Zachariah Moreno points out, progressive uploads can be your best friend. A progressive upload records and saves all your audio in small, real-time increments. Since everything is stored and uploaded in the cloud as it happens, it can be retrieved right away. You lose nothing and gain the advantage of having your raw files within a few minutes of signing off.

Once your files are in hand, you can start to edit out unwanted elements. Another good tip is to set up a method to identify moments that you want to remove during editing. For example, some podcasters will play a loud click or whistle when they know they’ve made a mistake. Because the loud noise will show a sudden peak on editing software, it highlights the place to edit. And that means your editing job just moved into the “effortless” column.

2. Stick with a format that works for your podcast.

The most successful podcasts follow a formula — but it’s not the same formula for all. Instead, podcasters pick a format that works for their topic area, audience, and intent. By sticking with the same podcast rhythm for each episode, the overall podcast has more cohesion. Rather than feeling amateurish, it feels professionally arranged.

Even if you listen to a lot of podcasts, you might not know all the formats that are out there. Three of the top ones are solo podcasts, guest-driven podcasts, and co-hosted podcasts. Solo podcasts are very intimate and involve one person talking the whole time. They’re ideal if you’re a thought leader or expert sharing vast insights on a certain subject. Guest-driven podcasts are arranged to allow one or more guests to express their views. Typically, they’re back-and-forth Q&As, although they could be set up as panel discussions or debates.

Co-hosted podcasts allow two podcasters to share the spotlight. It’s a smart move to pick a co-host who isn’t just going to echo your thoughts. Think banter over banality. And select someone you like working with, in case your podcast quickly grows a loyal fan base.

3. Release your episodes on a consistent basis.

Nothing can sour eager listeners more than having to wait too long to hear your next podcast. A big error that many newer podcasters stumble into is not setting up an episode recording and release schedule. Many simply assume that their podcast episodes will just kind of find their way into the webiverse. Nothing could be further from the truth, though. As the saying goes, when you fail to plan, you plan to fail.

Constructing a realistic schedule doesn’t have to be difficult, but it does require some energy. As suggested by Anchor.fm, start by mapping out a full-fledged podcasting editorial calendar. Pick dates to record your podcasts, edit your podcasts, and release each episode. If you’re just starting out, you may want to hedge your bets and aim for conservative targets. It’s always better to have some wiggle room folded into your calendar. That way, you won’t be scrambling at the last minute to meet deadlines.

A solid tip to ensure that you stay on track is to consider “bundling” your podcast episode recordings. In other words, record several episodes back to back over the course of one day. Don’t strive for too much, but get a lot of audio at once. Having a few episodes ready for edits will give you breathing room and be a nice jumpstart to get rolling. Just be sure to keep the momentum so you keep deploying episodes at regular intervals.

Right now, the podcasting field is wide open and enthusiasts are in discovery mode. To make the most of this opportunity, you don’t have to break the bank. All you need to do is put some ingenuity and “sweat equity” into building a podcast with a polished foundation.

The post Authentic Yet Polished: How to Hit the Podcasting Sweet Spot appeared first on The Blog Herald.

5 Steps Towards Becoming a Food Vlogger

Step 1: Create a Facebook Page, YouTube Channel, and Other Social Media Platforms

The very first step of how to become a food vlogger is to create a platform for yourself. For maximum outreach, you shouldn’t limit yourself to one platform and rather try to attain followers by utilizing all the available platforms.

Creating a Facebook page and opening a YouTube channel are the two most popular paths nowadays. You should think of a catchy name for your food vlogging platform.

Afterward, update your platform with the necessary initial details about what you want to share with your customers. You should talk about yourself, your attributes, and what you intend to do for the customers. Furthermore, it is better to provide a compelling statement about yourself, so that people are intrigued about you & your channel.

Since the channel is going to be about food vlogging, you can talk about your vlogging interest & experience, your food consumption habits, and more. But you should remember to focus on one single platform at the beginning. After gaining a significant amount of appreciation from people, you should then try to expand your horizon to other social media platforms. But yes, undoubtedly, you need to utilize all the platforms for proper branding.

Step 2: Make a Schedule and Plan

In the second stage of how to become a food vlogger, you should make a plan for your endgame. Additionally, you should think about exactly what you would like to achieve. Many food vloggers are trying to gain their desired popularity. Some others have already achieved their goals. So, for the attainment of your goals, keep working with a plan in mind.

Step 3: Visit Different Places and Eat at Various Restaurants

In this step, you need to go out and make the actual videos. Take a camera or mobile, camera stand and also take a person with you to help you with the whole procedure.

Influencers cut deals with restaurants. They deal in publicity for a free or reduced cost of food. The situation becomes a win-win for both the food vloggers and the restaurant owners.

Make a compelling script and practice what you would like to say. Then, create a good video. The video should be focused on entertainment and educational values. Because many people love food. Those people are always in search of good tasty dishes, and quality restaurants. And just like people who watch reviews regarding techs including mobile phones, food lovers want good reviews regarding food and restaurants. You need to keep this in mind, while you are trying to make the video to the best of your ability.

In the video, it is crucial to include some of the interior decorations of the restaurant and also the essence of the environment.

Step 4: Maintain Your Video-Creation and Sharing Streak

It is important to keep your streak regarding making & sharing food vlogs. Also, try to mix up food Details with the details of the location. Good quality vlogs will include entertainment and possess educational values. So, target that as your primary goal.

Step 5: Communicate with the Audience and Make Live Videos

It is crucial to maintain communication with your target audience. You don’t always need to talk about foods in your food vlogs. You should take time apart to introduce yourself to them. Also, you should show them your hobbies and others. But yes, undoubtedly, you should focus on your primary content. But it is good to mix everything up for maintaining entertainment values. Live videos and streaming videos are the best way to retain and increase your fan base.

Food Vlogging as a Career

Many people have now become an influencer regarding their food vlogging. It can be a good source of income when you get a certain amount of followers. After that, you can lead a solvent life after developing your food vlogging experience to a significant extent.

Issues and Opportunities

Becoming a food vlogger comes with various issues and also opportunities. You should learn about those issues & opportunities in depth. But the potential is vast. So, make sure to follow up with your plans to the best of your ability. After learning how to become a food vlogger, you should consistently maintain all phases of your plan to ensure that your food vlog is successful.

Marketing

Marketing is a major segment of being an influencer. Therefore, it is important to utilize the necessary marketing strategies to develop your brand.

Conclusion

A good vlog will require you to be consistent with your work. Moreover, you need to be capable of enjoying the act of food vlogging, for it to be really enjoyable for the audience. So, make it entertaining for both you and your audience. Hopefully, the article can provide the necessary information on how to become a food vlogger for interested people.

The post Become a Food Vlogger in 5 Easy Steps appeared first on The Blog Herald.

Many professionals in academia are beginning to expand their work to podcasts due to their increased demand from listeners. Many listeners will even use podcasts as continuing education rather than reading certain materials.

Naturally, with more academia appearing on podcast platforms, knowing how to cite it for your own academic work is necessary.

Why it’s Important to Know How to Cite a Podcast

Writing an essay for a college class, conducting research for your current job, or using it as an example during your own blog post are all situations you could find yourself in where a podcast is an answer, therefore, its important to know how to properly cite a podcast and/or it’s individual episodes.

Depending on the guidelines you were given from your particular university or place of work, there are a few different ways to create a citation. So for this post, I will show MLA, APA, and Chicago styles as they are the most popular. Moreover, no matter what format you are using to cite a podcast, there are a few important details you will need to know.

1. Full name of the podcast host or narrator, their username, or possibly the name of the company used to post the podcast
2. Title of podcast
3. Title of episode
4. Podcast platform
5. Date posted
6. URL for podcast

Once you know the basics of the podcast, you will be ready to confidently create a citation for the podcast using any format.

For all of my examples, I will use a podcast from Spotify titled Beck and Call with the episode “Blogging, Babies and Living Your Best Life with Kathleen Barnes”.

Let’s get started with MLA

MLA

The Modern Language Association format is most commonly used to cite resources in literature, humanity, and cultural studies.

Structure:

Last Name, First Name (of whoever posted Or the name of the company Or the Username), Author’s title (if applicable). “Title of the Podcast Episode.” Title of the Podcast, Name of Publisher/platform you listened to it on (only include if different from the author or title), Date it was posted, URL.

Example:

Beck, Merritt, host. “Blogging, Babies and Living Your Best Life with Kathleen Barnes.” Beck and Call, Spotify, 8 Nov. 2022, https://open.spotify.com/show/58gypODekuxuyiSsbojYv0?si=b3a2477ea60146c3

APA

The American Psychological Association format is typically used for work with the social sciences, life sciences, and businesses.

Structure:

Last, F. M. (Contributor title). (Year, Month Date). Podcast episode title [Audio podcast]. Retrieved from URL.

Example:

Beck, M. (Host). (2022, November 08). Blogging, Babies and Living Your Best Life with Kathleen Barnes [Audio podcast]. Retrieved from https://open.spotify.com/show/58gypODekuxuyiSsbojYv0?si=b3a2477ea60146c3

Chicago

Additionally, Chicago Style was unsurprisingly created in Chicago at the University of Chicago and has a mix of APA and MLA voices supporting mostly history, humanities, social sciences, and life sciences.

Structure: 

Last Name, First Name. “Episode Title”. Podcast Title. Podcast audio, Month Date, Year of publication. URL.

Example:

Beck, Merritt. “Blogging, Babies and Living Your Best Life with Kathleen Barnes ”. Beck and Call. Podcast audio, November 08, 2022. https://open.spotify.com/show/58gypODekuxuyiSsbojYv0?si=b3a2477ea60146c3

Conclusion: 

So after reading this blog you should have a better understanding and possibly a newfound appreciation of how podcasts are becoming more and more popular to the point of creating citations. Now that you know how to properly cite your favorite podcasts, it opens up a whole new world for granting recognition to creators in written copy.

The post How to Cite a Podcast appeared first on The Blog Herald.

Before you jump into recording your first episode, there are a few items to check off your list. 

Step 1: Decide on a Podcast Topic

Be sure to pick something you are passionate about, and will not get tired of talking about in depth each week. You will also need to do continuous research on the topic as a form of continuing education. 

Step 2: Create a Spotify Account and Decide on a Name

Seems simple enough right? For many, this can coincide with a blog if you already have one, but if your podcast is standalone, you can pick a unique title that captures what you are looking to achieve. Be sure to double-check that Spotify does not have other podcasts by that the same name, so that you can more easily be found when searching. 

Step 3: Set up a dedicated recording space

Capturing quality acoustics for your audience can make for a much simpler editing process for you later. Making an effort to take away any excess sound and static will be crucial. It will also keep listeners coming back time and time again because great sound quality makes for an easy and carefree listening experience. 

Sound quality will also depend on the equipment that you use to record. Though it is an option, recording with your phone and a set of headphones will not come out as crisp as if you were to record with more dedicated microphones and computer controls. 

Step 4: Record your first episode

Just like there are a few necessary tasks before recording that you should complete, there are a few after as well. You cannot simply record and hit post in one fell swoop. If only it were that easy! 

This is the time for you to have some fun. The best part about recording a podcast rather than recording something similar, for a radio show or something of that nature, is that you have the power of editing. You can take away or add anything that you would like to make the show exactly the way you want it. You can even completely scrap it and rerecord if you wanted to. 

Step 5: Edit

Everything will not be perfect the first time through, but that is the power of editing. You can easily delete clips you do not need, extra periods of silence, or slip-ups with your words. There are tons of different options for editing software based on budget and what you want to achieve with your sound. The most important part of the editing process is listening back through your podcast. Just like writing, it’s important to proofread, or in this case, proof-listen to check for any missteps and to make sure everything flows properly. 

Step 6: Launch! 

Once you are happy with your podcast, release it to the world on Spotify for your friends and family to hear, and then focus on growing your channel. This is arguably the simplest and most nerve-wracking step of them all. It really only takes a few seconds to publish, but it can be easy to feel anxious when finally posting a final product. There are two very important things to remember when posting. 

1. It gets easier with each episode
2. Be confident in your product

Step 7: Promote, Promote, Promote 

Maybe the hardest part in how to start a podcast on Spotify is promoting. Get your podcast out on all of your social media platforms. Extra points if you create dedicated social media accounts for your podcast. Just like growing your presence on social media, you will have to grow your presence on Spotify so that when people search for you, it is the first podcast and account that pop up. You want to make for not only an easy listening experience but an easy searching experience too. With Spotify, they will easily be able to save your podcast. Then, they can even sign up for notifications whenever a new episode is released. 

Step 8: Repeat

Now that you have an episode under your belt, you are ready to really get going. Create a schedule for posting podcasts on specific days so that your audience will be ready for new episodes. Setting the anticipation for each episode to come out will be a marketing plan all its own. While you will still want to promote on social media, setting the standard for what your podcast will be is crucial to your overall image and ease of access. Audiences like knowing what they are going to get ahead of time. Many podcast junkies even have a weekly schedule for their shows that come out on certain days. It is your job to become a part of that schedule!

Wrap Up

Now that you know how to start a podcast on Spotify, what are you waiting for? Begin growing your brand, releasing episodes, and tuning your editing skills on Spotify for your listeners. 

The post The Easiest Way to Start a Podcast on Spotify appeared first on The Blog Herald.

In this article, we will reveal some of the standard ways to grow in prominence and acquire funding for that totally different podcast. As well as how to get sponsors for podcasts.

YouTube

This is an easy way to leverage a regular platform to essentially “crowdsource” your sponsorships. While it may not break out the big ticket numbers, it can grow in prominence to provide a little funding for you to hold out a little longer for that coveted sponsorship.

Given the nature of the topic of your podcast, you may be able to score specific advertisers and get a higher CPM per video. This is even better for academic or financial podcasts. Technology podcasts also rate very well with YouTube’s advertisers.

Podcast Directory

Podcast directories offer great ways of both getting discovered and connecting with sponsors.

• Apple Podcasts
• Spotify
• Google Podcasts
• Samsung Podcasts
• Stitcher
• iHeartRadio
• TuneIn

These all serve as solid directories, and sending your Podcast through a service like Buzzsprout or RSS can help push you to the top of these lists. By connecting through these services you will get pushed through multiple podcast platforms. As a now-retired podcast bro, I can tell you, the people will find you.

Grow Your Following

This is basically the easiest way to get sponsors. There is no shortcut. No secret sauce will help you surmount the 850,000 other podcasts that exist within this space. Be fresh, be inventive. Realize someone has probably done this before. Make it better.

Edison Research claims 70% of consumers are likely to consider a product after hearing its praise from a favored podcast. Sponsors want that to be 70% of 770,000 not 70% of 8. Get your podcast spread and proliferated and the sponsorships will come in time.

Here are some tips to help that become a reality:

• Understand your Genre/Role
• Upload Consistently
• Share on Social Media
• Promote through your Network
• Create High-Quality Content
• Get People Excited

The key fundamentals to this involve utilizing all open channels to make your podcast and brand as omnipresent as possible. Once you break obscurity, having a brand or message that resonates with people in that space will be critical. Ultimately you get sponsors for a podcast, by making your podcast something people want to be a part of. This way, you can guarantee that they will gladly take time from their day and listen. And where the buyers go, the sellers (your sponsors) are truly sure to follow.

The post How to Get Sponsors for a Podcast appeared first on The Blog Herald.

1. Know What You Want to Do

Flesh out the nature of your podcast. These are the simple questions you probably already showed up to the prompt with.

• What am I going to talk about?
• Do I want or have a partner
• What is the group I’m going to try for?
• How do I want to conduct guests and interviews?
• Is this scripted?

After a while, things begin getting down to the nitty-gritty and the questions become more intricate through trial and error. However, knowing what general angle you are taking will be the basis that forms the show.

Importantly Tip 1.5 – Start

An extra podcast tip? Do not spend too much time planning. This is going to be built through action. So action is the state in which you need to be. Make sure you have the plan to carry out the research and necessary acquisitions, but ultimately remember this is to service the action of production, dissemination, and the ultimate selling of the podcast.

2. Have a General Idea of Your Topic

Keep in mind that you are going to need to talk about this, either with another person in a discussion, or by yourself over narrative, story, or points. Regardless you will need to have varying levels of information on your topic. – at least enough to approach it.

While it can be comical to have very passionate individuals argue over a topic of which they know very little, that is not likely going to be the crux of your podcast. Regardless you are going to have to entertain, inform or discuss something. And the level of knowledge on that topic is a metric with which you will have to address and understand to some varying degree.

3. Research Distributing Platforms

This is an actionable podcast tip that is very necessary. ThinkBuzzsprout, RSS, Apple, and so on. These are the distribution organizations that will push your podcast onto platforms like Spotify. Nearly all of them require some form of monthly cost so it is imperative to research them to an extent that you are comfortable choosing the option that agrees most with your intent and pocket.

4. Software, Format, Software

Find your software. Most people think that having a microphone is the most integral part of a podcast. It is not. Having solid mixing software is key. Adobe Audition is an extremely approachable choice for beginners and keeping it within the suite lends itself well to Premiere Pro, should the podcast ever go visual.

Having a mixing software can allow editing and freedom of format that would otherwise be a moment either serendipitous or rare in a LIVE moment, or even more likely hidden amongst hours of content that may lose your audience.

5. Research and Acquire Necessary Equipment

A huge podcast tip? Mics. Mainly mics. Also software. It does not require much to start a podcast. In theory, you can record in a room on a phone and push it out to the internet. Entertaining is entertaining regardless of production quality. However, as you continue to grow you will want to invest in better equipment to best scale your company.

A podcast is an audio-based format, so microphones are a good place to start. Think along the lines of Blue Yeti or HyperX QuadCast. But beyond this capturing audio will be one of the first huge game changers. Combining this with the software will get you nearly to the ceiling of podcast technical potential.

Also, many podcasts gain traction and potentially more importantly monetization on youtube. Reaching the optimum on this will likely require a camera deciding whether your podcast will be stationary or evolve into a mobile “vlog” will differentiate your choices. The EMEET C960 Web Cam is a solid place to start in terms of potential and price output.

6. Build Your Style

As you are prone to eventually nail down technical aspects and understandings, build your style. Have that distinct retention or value proposition that takes what you do to the next level. Why should people come to your particular murder mystery podcast? Why should they laugh with you instead of friends of their own?

Use your compounding experience to build a level of legitimacy around yourself and your mission. Set to establish that differentiation and you will find the value proposition to become ingrained with your own personal branding and the style of which you begin to format and orate your podcast.

7. Network – via People, Platforms, and Algorithms

As you gain comfort, begin taking things to the next level with marketing. Play the algorithm this means touching on topics that are in vogue and having every person willing to push our product pushing your product. Be iconic and entertaining with that value proposition and ride the algorithm. There are several ways to try to cantilever over the grind time that will still ultimately be necessary to grow your following but here are several.

• Use Platforms that Allow for Rapid Dissemination and Growth; Youtube, Tik Tok
• Use Specific Guests to Attract Their Following
• Utilize Unique Takes on Trending Topics to Garner Eyes
• Controversy – but the right kind of controversy

8. Grind

Consistency is key. Regardless of what you are doing. What field you are in. Even with whatever approach you take you must do it, to prove it. Time will allow you to build up many things. Including your experience, eye for good content and pieces, your acumen for finding networking capabilities, and most of all your discography.

By putting in the time, you will build the connections and even go as far as to potentially help others grow in tandem. Ultimately this is the unavoidable work that goes into generating content.

9. Integrate All Aspects into Your Brand

Once you have the experience to put together a good show; the networking strategies to find the right people; the connections to the right people to employ those strategies, and the discography to appear legitimate and have somewhat of a following for your take on the podcast you can begin to integrate your style.

This can be done over time naturally, but it is the ultimate culmination of doing your topic, your way, with your type of people. As things go further down this road of polarization you can find the ads that work best for you, the bits that play best on youtube. And on it goes. This could be called finding your niche. However, I think people try to do this before they understand what they are doing. I prefer to focus on an area and let it build its own take. Over time.

10. Improve the Podcast

Once you have a product that’s existing you can begin to pull it apart and see what it lacks. The main reason this is so far back is that this requires discography. For something to “get old,” it has to be allowed to get old. That means do it. In time your own brand will pull you to the points you should be arguing, the song you should be playing, and the gags you have to be running.

This in turn will let you know what parts are succeeding,  and what the audience wants. Maybe it’s the same format only changing the guest. Maybe it’s the tonality of the story that needs to switch or either be escalated further into. Build your podcast and begin changing it once you have something.

Importantly Tip 10.5 – Do It.

Another podcast tip and it sounds cheesy, but the best point of all is just to start. When you start the problems will present themselves in time. Just take action. If you are taking action the right problems will appear which is an indicator that you are doing something. So have a vision and follow the problems. They’ll get you there.

The post 10 Beginner Podcast Tips to Help You Get Started appeared first on The Blog Herald.

What is the partner program?

YouTube and its parent company, Google, rely heavily on creators posting content every day to support their business via advertisements. Without creators posting new videos daily, companies would not have space to showcase their advertisements. 

Breakdown

Once you are a part of the YouTube Partner Program, you are able to earn a substantial portion of each advertisement put in your content. The YouTube Partner Program money breakdown is as follows: 

Creator: 55%

YouTube: 45%

Seems fairly cut and dry right? Well, I’d say you’re right. The catch is that there is no catch. Once you are in the program it’s actually a pretty fantastic deal considering YouTube doesn’t charge a hosting fee and creators are able to post without extra charges. The tricky part, or what can feel tricky, is getting into the YouTube Partner Program. The application process is actually quite simple once it is explained. 

Application

There is no formal written application, but better described as a process or checklist in which to complete it. Two goals that are a quick yes or no to tell you whether you should think about applying is,  

1. 4000 hours of public watch time within a 12-month period
2. 1000 YouTube subscribers

If you are low on those two numbers, you are not yet eligible to apply, but work hard to boost your numbers to meet those goals and you will be ready in no time. If you are at or above those goals, you can apply to earn money for your videos. 

In the left-hand corner of your YouTube Studio, you will see a monetization tab. Click that and start on your application. As I stated earlier, it isn’t a true application like you would normally think of the word. All this application involves is agreeing to YouTube’s terms and conditions. This is a standard procedure and setting up and connecting your Google AdSense account as one is required to be in the YouTube Partner Program. An AdSense account essentially makes it possible to display ads with your content on any platform. In this case, YouTube would need to connect the two to be able to have the option to show any advertisements with your videos to earn money. 

Timeline

Though the process of applying can be fairly quick, the reviewing process can take up to a month. The best course of action after applying is to continue making content for your page and review YouTube’s advertiser guidelines to know what is and what is not welcome in the YouTube Partner Program. If your page is rejected, the reasoning will most likely be in those guidelines. 

If YouTube does get back to you with admission, you will be able to start earning money off of your videos almost immediately. The YouTube Partner Program features more than one way to earn money through channel memberships and Super Chats. 

How Much Money Can You Actually Make? 

As you may guess, the amount of money earned as a part of the partner program varies from creator to creator. On average, a creator makes between $0.01 and $0.03 per view. The amount depends on several factors including how many views your content video attracts, the quality of clicks from those views, ad quality, video length, and more. With that, a video with over 1 million views potentially makes the creator over $5,000 for that one video. It all depends on the creator and their content. 

Conclusion 

Making content should be fun. So applying to become part of a program that rewards you for creating content you are passionate about can be a huge step in the right direction. Now that you know the ins and outs of applying, take your page to the next level with the YouTube Partner Program!

The post Blog Herald Guide to the YouTube Partner Program appeared first on The Blog Herald.

Happier with Gretchen Rubin

Gretchen Rubin has written several New York Times bestsellers such as The Happiness Project, Happier at Home, Outer Order, Inner Calm, and The Four Tendencies. Gretchen Rubin has the solution when you are on the hunt for ways to live a happier life. She prides her podcast, Happier, on making life a tiny bit happier with each step you take. Whether those steps are big or small, the key is to work on making your life a tiny bit happier from where you started. She focuses on studying human nature, meaning everyone is different, and understands that what works for her may not work for you. The Happier podcast is about finding what does work for you to make yourself the tiniest bit happier each day. She also has an app to keep you motivated and challenged throughout the day while you are not listening to her podcast.

Where Should We Begin? by Esther Perel

Esther Perel is known for her gripping take on the difference between being alive and not being dead. She embraces life from all aspects and takes a deep dive into religion, sexuality, cultures, emotions, relationships, and more. The layout of the podcast is pretty simple, you listen to other couples who are having a chat with Esther Perel about anything going on in their lives. It could be about infidelity, children, or any number of things that go on in relationships. The real-time vulnerability combined with her comedic timing produces a beautiful transcript for anyone listening who is looking for answers to questions they may not have known they had. You never know what you can learn from others. This is why she has anonymous couples on as guests to show what conversations can do for your own life and the lives of others.

The Good Life Project by Stephanie and Jonathan Fields

The Good Life Project podcast is all about finding out what it means to you to have a good life and putting what you need for you at the forefront of the conversation. Community, media, and education are the three pillars of the podcast. They even have a free quiz that evaluates what you think having a good life means, and what you should focus on based on your thoughts. You fill out questions on a Likert scale. This determines how you as an individual feel about your life given your unique circumstances.

10% Happier with Dan Harris

Dan Harris is the author of the award-winning book 10% Happier and turned it into a podcast by focusing on meditation. He has different guests on the show to discuss different techniques for meditation. They target different focuses such as anxiety or stress. Dan believes that happiness is a skill that you can train, like working out your muscles in the gym. At its core, 10% Happier is a platform that focuses on looking within yourself to find meditation exercises. These exercises can show your best form, therefore unlocking your best and happiest self.

Unlocking Us

Brené Brown studied courage, vulnerability, shame, and empathy to create Unlocking Us. She is also the author of six New York Times bestsellers and a guest professor. Brown uses the phrase “embrace the suck”. This focuses on life and puts forth the courage to create empathy for a better life forward. She has guests of all kinds discussing different parts of life. This helps listeners find courage over comfort. It also helps them produce happiness they may not have known existed inside of them.

Conclusion

No matter what you’re looking for in a self-help podcast, there is an answer for you. Just like all of these podcasts preach, there is no right answer, and there is more than one answer. You can use whatever methods and mantras you find to be the most helpful for your unique situation. Now that you have a few of our favorites to start your journey with, you can find what works for you. So go find your new favorite podcast!

The post Best Self-Help Podcasts of 2022 appeared first on The Blog Herald.

The problem is, we can’t go “Eat, Pray, Love” style to “find” ourselves this time, being stuck at home and all. We can’t go on that big trip to Bali to join a soul rejuvenating retreat. Can we do self-improvement at home? Of course! A little self-love goes a long way, and maybe listening to even five minutes of a motivational podcast can change our outlook in life.

Here are some of the best self-improvement and motivational podcasts to listen to for 2021:

Success in Career and Business? The Science of Success

If you feel stuck at your job and are planning to try a new business venture or take on a new career path, personal growth is always the first step. The best way to learn about personal growth is to listen to experts and leaders from all over the world. Their insightful advice to the young and young at heart is surely something no one should miss. Maybe we could learn a thing or two about their experiences and apply them to our own capabilities.

How did they turn their ideas into reality? How hard is it to become a CEO of a company? It may not have that many episodes yet, but there is surely so much to learn.

Need that confidence boost? The Confidence Chronicles

This podcast is raw and honest about a lot of things that many people don’t talk about. It is an enlightening and relatable podcast on building confidence. Hosted by a mompreneur, the raw and unpolished nature of the podcast is deeply appreciated by its listeners. Children in the background, talking about everyday things, the struggles of juggling work and motherhood – these are the things that make it truly relatable.

Trying to be more spiritual? The Truth Seekah Podcast

Spirituality and religion, these are topics that not many people want to talk about. However, these are topics that intrigue many. It may be out of curiosity or out of the need to be spiritual, but listening to this podcast may help find your “truth”. It does not focus on just one religion, it discusses almost all of it. It explores oriental spirituality, churches, Egyptian spirituality, and more. It even discusses other less-common beliefs like UFOs, aliens, astrology, and atheism.

Wanting to “find” your soul and purpose? On Purpose with Jay Shetty 

What is our true purpose? Why do we have the lives we have? There are so many unanswered questions and so many answers as well. This podcast by Jay Shetty helps people build better relationships with themselves and others. How do people create positive energy, how could people let go of pain – these are just some of his topics.

Wish to try something new? Marathon Training Academy 

If fitness is your goal for this new year, why not try to challenge yourself by joining a marathon? This particular podcast focuses entirely on running and marathon training but there are still so many lessons to learn about confidence, consistency, and motivation.

Planning to eat healthier? Food Psych 

Yes, there is such a thing as making peace with food. Food Psych is a podcast by a dietitian nutritionist that helps listeners build better relationships with food. This means that we learn how to accept our size, understand good body image, assessing eating disorders, and more. It touches on over-all self-care and how food can be such an integral part of that.

Focusing on your mental health? Mentally Yours 

The best thing everyone learned for 2020 – MENTAL HEALTH IS AS IMPORTANT AS PHYSICAL HEALTH. We realize this as we got stuck at home. We were left to our devices to entertain ourselves and deal with being by ourselves or with family 24/7. It has brought us closer to what is important to us and the best thing to do for 2021 is to continue this realization.

Coping with grief? Griefcast 

How do we overcome grief? How do we become a person again after losing so much of ourselves from death? Many people may not be comfortable talking about death with another person. Some people are not ready to see a therapist to help them deal with grief. Maybe, this podcast is a first step towards getting over grief.

Is happiness your overall goal? Happier with Gretchen Rubin

From the writer of “The Happiness Project”, this podcast talks about testimonies from people who found happiness in the most ordinary things. If happiness is what you’re after for 2021, this may be one of the good podcasts to listen to.

Also read: Cringe-Worthy Blogging Trends of the Past that WILL NEVER Work Now

The post Tune-in to These Self-Improvement and Motivational Podcasts for the New Year appeared first on The Blog Herald.

What is Mobirise?

Mobirise is a free offline app that needs no coding expertise to use. Since it is offline, you just download the program on your PC or Mac and do everything on your desktop. There is no risk of timing out of your current session as you decide on what images to use on your page. The only part where you have to go online is when you are uploading it on your site of choice through FTP.

All Mobirise pages are enhanced for mobile-responsiveness. That means you can treat your readers on their phones with a similar experience that desktop visitors would have.

Basic building blocks for pages

The free version offers limited themes, but that is already enough to get you started. There are various blocks organized according to website element that you can drag and drop to test different features for your page. There are options for multimedia elements, content blocks, and even timelines. Exploring this part is where most of the fun happens.

Do you visualize having a nice big image for your header? Pick the full screen intro block from the header category, and do not forget to tick “parallax scrolling” on the block’s settings. Need sliders and galleries for photos and video? Choose from at least five options available. Do you want the parallax scrolling somewhere in the middle of your page, but the effect is only available with header blocks? Drag that block down to wherever you want it to be.

Read: Should You Build Your Blog on a CMS or a Website Builder?

Just like a regular text editor, Mobirise allows you to adjust your sentences within a block: pick your font color, font size, and even link settings right there.

While access to the code editor feature has a 69$ price tag (or you can bundle it with other premium blocks, extensions, and themes for $99), the free version has a spot that allows for Google Analytics tracking. Any customization beyond that, however, needs the editor extension.

But you do not have to pay to get the hang of using Mobirise. Purchase the bundle if you think it is worth getting, and if you think it is a good investment in the future. Otherwise, the building blocks available to you are more than enough to get you started with experimenting your content

Or if you are not keen on trying multimedia stories, you might want to build an online store or landing page with it as well.

Publishing online

Putting a Mobirise page online requires your own server. This means it will be separate from your existing page. But before you do this, you can preview the page first. From the Mobirise program, you can click Preview and it opens up a browser with your website on it. That is exactly what your website will look online, in case you are curious, or you do not trust that the WYSIWYG system of Mobirise is accurate

When you are satisfied with your preview, the next step is publishing it online. You can choose to set up a subdomain for your blog, since your Mobirise pages ideally should be featuring content that is different from your usual posts. A simple upload of all your files is all you need to get your new page, or pages, online. In case you encounter a bump, you can easily ask for help from the community. 

Why try Mobirise?

Mobirise is an entirely different platform from your usual content management systems. It might seem less intended for blogging, but more for those types of content that would need something extra in their treatment aside from just using the full-width option in your post. That is your opportunity. If you have special posts, put it separately on a Mobirise page and set up a different tracker. If you do not want to use it for your blog, you can try making your online portfolio with it instead. The beauty of using a program like Mobirise is the ease of doing things saves you time: you spend less time figuring out how things work, giving you more hours to making your content much better.

There are many alternatives out there (and we hope to explore them soon here), but Mobirise seems to be the most noob-friendly and cheapest option, especially if you already have an existing domain and server. All you have to do is ask your provider for help. It is free, and you can opt to skip the paid bundle for as long as you can.

The idea of using Mobirise, or any other digital platform, is for you to explore how far you can set your storytelling differently from the usual blogging. It is a nice change in content production thinking as well, which can help you in the long run.

The post Explore New Ways of Online Publishing With Mobirise appeared first on The Blog Herald.

1. Define its Purpose

Are you looking to venture into sports, business or maybe music? Start by defining the niche of your mobile app before doing anything else. Doing this will allow you to carry out a proper research on what you need to develop the app. The purpose of the app determines how it will be received in the market. You will also be able to stay focused when you know what you are venturing into.

Top Webapps & Tools That All Bloggers Should Learn To Use

2. Gather Information

The second step should be information gathering. Carry out research and gather as much information as you can about the focus topic. You should be able to know the statistics, market data and other information that will help you in the app development process. Information gathering also involves organizing the information gathered in a mind map.

3. Design the Features With the User in Mind

The application should also be designed according to the needs of the market. You should make language considerations, marketing considerations, and other important factors so as to appeal to your core user base. The features you bake into the app should also resonate with the audience you are targeting.

4. Incorporate a Strong Communication System

Most modern apps rely on the internet and different wireless and wired communication systems to function. In order to create a successful app, you need to consider creating a robust system that appeals to all users. The app should, for instance, work well for users with both slow and fast connections.

5. Test it Thoroughly

Another step you should consider is taking the app through a thorough app testing process. Testing the application is important to make it better. You can be able to optimize the performance of the application by running sturdy tests. The only way to remove bugs and get a clear picture of performance stats is by testing the app comprehensively.

6. Accommodate Low End and Smaller Screen Devices

When building the app, be sure to keep in mind the needs of users with small screens and low-end devices. Most users in emerging markets fit into this category and they constitute a large share of the market. You can optimize your app by testing it on different devices. Low-end devices also usually run older operating systems. Be sure of optimizing the app for older systems.

7. Create Avenues for User Engagement

Finally, the perfect app should have channels where you can receive feedback and interact with your users. One of the first places you can engage your users is through the proprietor store. You can respond to user reviews and address user concerns. Creating forums and platforms where you can engage your users is also a great idea.

5 Free Blogging Apps You Need On Your IPhone Right Now

The post 7 Steps to Creating the Perfect App appeared first on The Blog Herald.

In this article, we’ll learn about the various kinds of video content you can use and how to make the best out of them.

Let’s Look at The Facts

As people react to videos, the internet does too!  Let’s see some stats that show the importance of videos and why you should add them to your blogging strategy:

• Posting videos increases the chance of being on the first page of Google by 53 times.
• 86 percent of Internet users watch online video.
• 62 percent of all Google universal searches include video content.
• Social video creates 1200% more shares than text and images together.

We could go on and on…What is it about video that makes it so interesting?

First, videos uses sound, images, and animation, which makes them a very pedagogic way of explaining information. Our brains, which are programmed to exert themselves to the minimum when learning, would rather watch an instructive video than read a manual or even see an infographic. This explains why you can say so much in so little time: videos are a fantastic way of showing what you need to say rather than explaining it.

On top of that, the ability to musicalize and introduce animation means you can engage people’s emotions. Do you know someone who hasn’t been moved by a movie? With video, you can get people to react to different moods and, in turn, they will be grateful! Since your audience will feel identified with what they see –remember engagement and empathy are emotional human assets –, they will feel inclined to watch and share more.  

Now that you know why videos are so appealing, let’s take a look at the top 5 types of videos that can boost engagement and subscribers on your blog.

Educational videos

These are great for bloggers who need to explain something that can be tricky to understand… or even a bit boring!

What makes educational videos so interesting is that they help people understand. And as they do, it is easier for people not only to follow through but also to retain the information that was given to them. This will help you be clear in one strike, which means fewer questions in the comments section of your blog.

Effective educational videos might explain how an app works, expand on a specific concept or show technical information in any way. Animated videos usually work great here (motion graphics, character animation or whiteboard animation).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wtz2OWpAGlg

When making your educational video:

• Make sure you have interesting graphics to show. Visual content goes a long way when explaining complicated stuff.
• Try to be concise with voiceovers. Play with sound and vision instead of explaining too much with your voice. Otherwise, your video will be a recited article!
• Try to keep it short. People retain brief and succinct explanations. If you feel you need to say too much, you can make several videos and publish them consecutively. This is a great way to keep your users engaged and boost your subscriptions too.

How-To Videos

How-to videos can be thought of as a kind of educational video. The difference is that they offer step by step instructions on how to do something.

This is great news for bloggers, as they can help people complete CTA’s easily and even in a fun way. Think about the combinations you could do! For instance, you can attach a super short how-to video to the end of one of your content videos so that people can subscribe to a newsletter, download an app, make a donation, or whatever idea you have.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m9s_nG6sucU

To make a killer how-to video:

• Don’t go too quickly. Remember what you are showing might seem easy to you but is probably new to most of your viewers. Make a script and ask those who don’t know what you are explaining if it is clear enough to them.
• Mark your steps! Divide each with intertitles or lower thirds. This will help your viewers pause in any given step if necessary and will let them organize the information in their minds.
• You can add a quick summary at the end to reinforce what has been explained and help people know if they followed-through correctly.

Webinars

Webinars are described as live web-based video conferences that use the internet to connect the individual hosting the webinar to an audience. To be part of a webinar, you need to sign up and be online at the desired time, although most webinars are recorded and those who couldn’t attend can watch it later (and download the material that was shared).

Webinars have a precise subject matter and enable people to participate when the speaker is live. It is a pretty horizontal approach to talk about any given topic.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CvQXztn4MXI

Before your webinar:

• Prepare a presentation. Remember webinars include visual content so you will need slides or a Prezi document.
• Make your presentation for yourself as well! Besides helping people remember the key points, it can also help you follow your plan and make sure you cover all the promised points.
• Plan some space to ask people if they have questions or comments. Feedback can enrich your webinar and helping people feel included is always a nice gesture.

Video Tips

We love video tips! Especially because they are concise and to the point, which makes them short and certainly much more attractive to internet users.

Instead of writing about a certain piece of advice, you can show it in a short piece of video. Video tips can be included in between a longer article or even be a post themselves. In these cases, they are usually published with a brief explanation that will give them context: why is the tip being posted?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8MQM440DpXM

An engaging video tip:

• Will be short. We can’t stress this enough, tips are intended to be to the point, otherwise, you can make an educational or a how-to video.
• Will include new information: there is a little “wow” factor to video tips. If you keep yours interesting enough, your subscribers will be keen for more information.
• Will be relevant: keep your video tips related to what you usually blog about… or even how you blog! With regards to the subject matter, pay attention to your subscriber’s comments. If you see some question repeated a few times, maybe it’s a good subject to make a video tip about.

Interviews

If you have the opportunity of interviewing an influencer or a celebrity personality on what you blog about, you should record it on video.

Did you know that most of our communication is non-verbal? The tone of voice, expressions,  gestures and overall body language of someone help us understand and engage with what they are saying. Because of this, video interviews project a sense of being true to the interviewee that no other form of interview does.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XCsizEqAoh4

Before approaching an interview video, you might want to:

• Find a comfortable, quiet and well-lit space for the interview.
• Make sure you do not interrupt your interviewee. This will make editing much easier.
• Edit the unnecessary parts. There surely are moments of hesitation and digression that will not add to the video and can make viewers get bored or distracted. (Though you could add a blooper or two at the end to keep that super human touch!)
• Delete the actual questions and replace them with text. If you do this, you can make your video shorter. (But if the interaction between the interviewer and the interviewee is important in this case, better leave that alone).

Now you know: if you are looking to add new subscribers and keep your existing ones engaged, video is the way to go! Shake up your blog with different videos and… keep on blogging in a free world! Let us know how it went.

This post was written by Víctor Blasco. He is the founder and CEO of the explainer video company Yum Yum Videos. He is also an audiovisual designer and video marketing expert. Aside from running the business, he loves studying Chinese philosophy and is a science fiction film and comics geek! The force is strong with this one.

The post Improve Your Blog With These 5 Types Of Blog Video Content appeared first on The Blog Herald.

Writing about games is a multifaceted subject. Writers may focus strictly on reviews or hot industry topics. Others cover both areas and more, providing editorial pieces, too. Whether you are looking to enhance your game blog or start a new one, there is a lot to learn.

Becoming the Best

These are the top tips for being a top game blogger:

1. Deliver Your Voice

Audiences should visit your blog because it’s your blog. In the gaming world, this equates to having an authentic gamer’s opinion. Are you a console fan, or do you prefer PC? If the former, which manufacturer do you favor? Your background and preferences make up the DNA of your blogging voice. If you don’t already inject your point of view into each post, you should.

Your blog is not a traditional news outlet; it’s a conversational place. Speak to your audience and deliver your voice. Look at the top gaming blogs, according to Ranker. Rock, Paper, Shotgun is #1, and it’s filled with opinions. Each post conveys the writer’s train of thought very clearly. Follow that method, and you’ll be on the way to achieving higher levels of success.

2. Vary the Format

Successful game blogging involves more than just words on a website. The best game blogs are rich with multimedia. When is the last time you played a text-based game? If your answer is something other than “never,” you’re in the minority. Modern games are visual, with photorealistic, 3D graphics or retro, 2D styles. When covering a specific game, you should show readers what you’re mentioning.

Add images of level maps, and insert animated GIFs of character actions directly in between paragraphs. Furthermore, link to gameplay videos on your YouTube or Twitch channel. Your game blog doesn’t have to be fully text-based. There are plenty of popular video game podcasts, too, with growing lists of subscribers. Delve into podcasting, and your game blog could skyrocket.

3. Do the Research

You might not have fond memories of writing research papers in school; maybe that’s why you became a game blogger. Researching games involves playing them. When you write about a specific title or series, you should know the topic thoroughly well. This equates to spending more than just a few minutes watching YouTube videos or playing a demo.

The most captivating blog posts are well-researched and informative. You don’t have to master every combo in a fighting game or discover every secret treasure in a single-player adventure. But, you should know enough about the game’s characters, levels, and storyline to inform your readers. Pick up the controller for a little longer, and take notes while you play. For maximum efficiency, record voice memos on your phone or online.

4. Stay Current

Outdated blogs lack the potential for maximum growth. If you’re a successful blogger, then you already know the value of posting consistently. Nothing in the gaming realm remains for too long. One game might be hot this week, and it’s out of the public eye next week. Top game bloggers keep track of trends and stay up-to-date. Monitoring gaming platforms, such as Poki.com, is essential for longevity.

Keep up with the times, and always be aware of the newest games. By noticing brand-new, trending games on Poki, you can post on your blog before others. When people search for that game, your blog will reap the rewards.

5. Get Involved

Your blog isn’t a one-way street. You might be the only person posting new articles, but readers should be able to reply. A comment section is essential for cultivating conversations. The audience can answer questions that you, or readers, pose. They can post messages to one another and have heated debates. Strong opinions are part of what makes gaming culture so unique. Your gaming blog should welcome the community. If it does so successfully, you will be well on your way to the top.

The post 5 Top Tips on How to Be a Top Game Blogger appeared first on The Blog Herald.

Wherever you look – Facebook, blogs, and even Instagram – videos are all the rage. Whether they are short clips less than a minute long or longer TVC-like videos, these materials catch people’s attention when properly created.

But how do you ensure that people actually get to see your wonderful video? There is, of course, social promotion and outreach, but search engines still rule. You’ve got to make videos search engines love. You’ve got to make sure you optimize your videos – titles and descriptions, for example – so they get ranked higher and therefore have better visibility.

There is more that you can do, however. And that’s what the graphic below is going to show you. Don’t just create videos. Make sure you go beyond the script and visuals. Optimize your video to get maximum results.

Source

Related: Creating Killer Videos with Amy Schmittauer

The post How to Make Videos Search Engines Love appeared first on The Blog Herald.

Source

According to Technology Innovations Management Review, a study was undertaken using MRIs to observe brain activity and its connection with consumer behavior. The result of this Neuromarketing study suggested that test subjects associate themselves with objects (including people) seen on video. They tend to think “the person on the screen is me”, and they behave, react, and feel accordingly.

What does that mean to you? The use of video on your blog can be strategic, but there’s a possible downside to using video if you’re not careful. Viewers can experience a lot of sub-conscious activity when they watch your video, so you may run the risk of turning them off in a big way by things you may not think are important. You can create the wrong impression, and this can negatively impact the viewers’ opinion of your blog, or your business, products and services.

There are some things that I see people do when they produce their videos that can sub-consciously or even consciously turn off viewers. I’ll discuss five things you’re going to want to avoid like the plague.

1. Do it Yourself Video.

Okay, some people SHOULD create do it yourself videos. In a previous article I wrote called 5 Tips to Make a Video That Will Help Your Blog Stand Out, I included a number of tips that can help you create a well done, do-it-yourself video for your blog. However not everyone with a blog should make a DIY video.

Here are a couple examples of those who should not create a DYI video:

– Those who are selling something.

If you’re blog is meant to support your sales site, for most products and services you’ll need to project a professional image. In my experience, consumers subconsciously perceive the level of professionalism in a video, and they assign that same level of professionalism (or lack thereof) to the company, products or services being sold.

There’s a lot that goes into making a video appear professional, and most people will notice when the video appears unprofessional. Creating a video with a professional feel to it takes skill, experience and talent. If you’re trying to sell something, I advise you to spring for a professional video production company that has experience with producing videos for business.

For more on whether or not you should shoot your own videos, check out my article called How to Make Web Videos That Get You Results.

– Those who are not comfortable on camera.

If you plan to speak on camera, and you can’t come off as natural and comfortable, you’ll make your audience uncomfortable and you’ll lose them. If you can’t come off as enthusiastic, you’ll bore them and they’ll lose interest quickly. If being on-camera isn’t your strength, I would strongly suggest that you avoid it.

2. Rambling.

Stay on point; make your video tight and to the point. People are busy and most don’t have patience when it comes to reading or viewing a long video on the web. Be careful not to go off course if you’re speaking on camera. Either write a script, or post some bullet points you can stick to and look at while you shoot. Of course, keep in mind that if you’re looking at bullet points, you’re no longer making that important eye contact with the viewer. You’ll want to rehearse so you can minimize that.

3. Giving too much information.

There’s a James Brown quote I like:

“I taught them everything they know, but not everything I know.”

Always leave your audience wanting more! You’re going to want your viewers to return to your site over and over again. If you include everything in one long video, they won’t have a reason to return. Sometimes a topic can work well as a video series. Of course you’ll need to give out enough information in each video so that it’s worth the viewer’s time. Let your viewers know that you’ll be covering your subject in depth, over time.

4. Using small images small images and lots of words on the screen.

Remember that most people will be watching your video on a small screen, or maybe even on a very small mobile device. Make sure to use large, high quality images. If you’re adding words to the screen, keep them to a minimum. Crowding the screen with words makes it difficult to read, especially if the letters are small, and you’ll lose your viewers.

5. Distracting background sounds.

Unless the noise being heard as you record is relevant to your topic, there’s nothing more distracting than noise in a video. It can really turn off your viewers. Do your best to find a quiet place to shoot, and if possible, be careful to avoid noise while you’re shooting such as air conditioning, lawn maintenance, air traffic, street noise, kids in the house, etc.

 5 FREE WordPress Video Plugins

Bio: Greg Ball is the president of Ball Media Innovations, Inc., a full service video production and post-production company specializing in video production for business, marketing, public relations, training, and live conferences, trade shows, meetings and conventions. They also specialize in film and video translation. 

The company headquarters is in the Miami – Fort Lauderdale area, with crews in South Florida and the Orlando area, as well as throughout the USA. Visit the website at https://www.ballmediainnovations.com, and join Greg on LinkedIn and Facebook. You can reach him at 954-432-1274 or 866-570-8612.

The post 5 No-Nos When Creating a Video For Your Blog appeared first on The Blog Herald.

One thing we learn from a very young age is that being liked matters. From being chosen on the best football team to getting that dream job ahead of someone equally as capable, being seen in a positive manner and with positive sentiment is of notable benefit.

The same is true for brands and if people have a high opinion of your services or product, then they’ll find it more desirable and be more inclined to purchase it.

In this day and age brands tend to deal with people on a one-to-one level mainly over social media. So, creating positive sentiment on social media around your brand is important – in fact it matters a lot!

What is Brand Sentiment?

For those not in the know, sentiment is the general emotion or feeling attached to a brand or more specifically a post or piece of content. At the most basic level it’s measured as positive, negative or neutral. The more positive sentiment there is the better for the brand and the better for the brand’s reputation.

You may not know the sentiment surrounding your brand – however there are numerous tools out there to measure it, analyse mentions around your brand and evaluate whether people see it in a positive or a negative light.

Sentiment can always be improved and we’ve no matter how good (or bad) feeling around your brand is, follow these tips and watch it improve.

Be Where Sentiment is

A lot of brands find that there is negative sentiment around them in the places their fans are but they aren’t.

Different brands and their fans and detractors can be active in different areas. Being active where there is negative sentiment allows you to participate in the discussion and change opinions. By researching where these conversations are taking place and then discussing situations, remedying problems and informing people you can really impact positively on your brand. If you’re not making the effort or not on a specific platform; then you can’t alter opinions, or expect to change things for the better.

Listen Before you Speak!

Even though we’re told to engage with our audience constantly via social media blogs, we’re not told to listen enough. Listening to what customers have to say and then responding to their specific queries and needs and providing what they want will bring a lot more satisfaction than just talking a lot. We’re all familiar with the ‘know-it-all’ at parties who talks a lot and bores everyone in sight – don’t be that brand.

One great example of a brand listening to its customers and making a change was Maker’s Mark whisky. Upon deciding to lower the alcohol content of its whiskey from 90-proof to 84-proof it witnessed a revolt about the proposed change from loyal fans and even brand ambassadors. It reversed the decision and kept it alcohol content at 90 proof and in doing so saw a raft of positive sentiment hit its Facebook page to higher than original levels. It’s a very successful example of a brand listening to what its customers want via social media and responding in an apt manner.

Turn a Negative to a Positive

Yes, it’s true that some people are just cranks; however a lot of people that are negative about your brand may be so for valid reason. Responding to negativity by trying to resolve the issue and doing so in a transparent manner shows you not only listen but care about your brand. Often the effort to make things right sees a greater positive sentiment occurs than the original negative sentiment. Turning a negative to a positive can really benefit a brand and often only takes one smart reply.

Plan for Controversy

At Fusewave we believe that by having a customer complaint plan in place you have a way of dealing with customers that works, is consistent and is efficient. Almost half of all customers prefer to complain over social media and by not offering a level of service that quickly addresses the complaint in a prescribed manner you’re going to land your business in trouble. Have a dedicated plan in place to deal with them quickly and keep the sentiment positive around your business.

Ignoring problems often makes for spiralling negative sentiment. Of course, addressing issues before they can even become negative is the key to great customer service. So, if you know there’s a potential issue or negative news story doing the rounds – address it a manner that’s as transparent as possible and limit the potential damage.

These tips will help you improve your social sentiment and increase the likeability of your brand online and in doing so help your brand flourish.

Beyond Google: 5 Social Media Strategies for 2014

How Social Media Can Help Create Your Next Blog Post

The post A Guide to Improving Brand Sentiment In Social Media appeared first on The Blog Herald.

Remember back when we used to read the morning paper over breakfast? Well, that practice is quickly dying out, as print publications are replaced with app subscriptions. Mobile reading apps can adjust on the fly to breaking news developments, giving users a constant stream of up-to-date information. While we want to get the latest scoop on world news, national events, and industry developments, it’s also easy for us to suffer from information overload. So mobile users have a need for apps that can filter the useful data from the rest of the noise. Take a look at these four reading apps that fit the bill for news addicts.

Feedly

This is the ultimate news feed app – not only can you customize the content, but you can customize how it looks on all of your devices. Feedly is a free service that connects directly to your Google account. Once you’ve downloaded the app and signed up, you can enter your favorite news sources, or browse the latest publications based on genre. You can sort your news list into different categories, such as “Tech,” “Entertainment,” and “Business.” This allows you to zero in on updates within a particular industry.

Once you’ve designed the content of your custom newspaper, you can start tweaking its appearance. Some people love magazine layout apps, such as Flipboard, which predominately feature article graphics within the main navigation. The visually inclined can make this their default view. However, others prefer a no-frills, text-based experience. That’s not a problem! Just jump into the settings and choose the “List” option. This will arrange all of your unread articles by title only. And just how accessible is your new Feedly newspaper? Well, you can check it out on Android and iOS devices, and open it from most computer browsers.

Pocket

When it comes to information overload, it can be easy to miss important articles just because you don’t have time to look over them immediately. This is when Pocket comes in. This handy app syncs with dozen of popular news apps, allowing you to save interesting articles for later reading. These articles sync across your accounts, so that you can have access to your future reading list from any mobile device and from your computer’s browser. You might already be familiar with Pocket – this app used to be called Read It Later before it was rebranded.

 The New York Times

This internationally renowned publication translates well in the mobile world. Articles, videos, and photos have been engineered to look their best on a number of mobile platforms, including iOS, Android, Windows Phone, Blackberry, and Kindle. Just like the website, readers can view up to 10 articles a month for free. Once you hit this cap, then you are expected to pay for a subscription to the New York Times, however news addicts will probably find the monthly access fee to be well worth it.

One of the coolest features about the New York Times app is that readers can instantly save an article for offline viewing. This can prove to be very useful, especially if you get stuck in an area without cell reception or Wi-Fi. News stories are presented in a clear, easy to read format, with a minimalistic navigation view. The large headline links and swipe gestures make it easy for phone users to move between articles single-handedly.

AP Mobile

Many domestic newspapers get their stories from the newswire at the Associated Press, so why not go directly to the source with your mobile device? AP Mobile lets readers keep tabs on both global and domestic news topics, and the app will even flash notification banners across your screen (customizable within your mobile settings). AP Mobile is very user friendly, with a picture grid style navigation menu that separates news into categories like Top News, Sports, AP Radio, and Business. These categories are changeable within the settings, so that you can tailor the AP news to your individual needs.

The digital era brings a wealth of information to users fingertips. Whether you’re using news feeds for industry-specific blogs (for example, business coverage) or weather updates, these apps can help keep tabs on what’s both new and relevant. Make sure to download these popular news sources and try them out for yourself!

Image source

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For the first few seconds of Till Dance Do We Part it’s not hard to think this is a real show. It’s flashy and gaudy and just weird enough to be plausible: big audience, technically skilled dancers, and a judge who looks like a cross between Liberace, David Alan Grier and Prince. So, when the camera cuts to a female dancer smacking sidelong into a washing machine, the viewer’s surprised. We’ve just been tricked into watching a nearly pitch-perfect pastiche of reality show–and when the punch line comes, the viewer feels a little cheated. That’s what makes it compelling: for a split second, the viewer is left squinting at their laptop screen, not in on the joke.

But that doesn’t last long, and the punch line becomes genuinely funny. It shouldn’t be, because laughing at people who hurt themselves isn’t nice; but the slapstick element is a reminder of just how absurd the reality television industry has become. With the appearance of appliances comes the relief that a dance competition this crazy isn’t actually real. It’s what makes this video both entertaining and shareable. This month-old Sears commercial is proof that virality sometimes doesn’t happen. But Sears’ brand is recognizable enough that it doesn’t need an instantly measurable ROI, and this commercial will eventually become a gamble that pays off.

Unlike Sears, Samsung gets it. From their ad mocking Apple fans waiting for the latest iPhone release, to LeBron James hanging out with his Galaxy Note II, and even a five-minute introduction to the Note 10.1, these ads get shared and people talk about them. They all pitch products in a positive light. Sometimes they might make fun of those left out but they show how the technology is used properly, not how it gets misused and people have to deal with pain and suffering.

Google gets it, too. From their search app stories to a day with Google Glasses, you again see how technology can be used to make your life easier. These get shared and talked about. There are enough videos of people falling down and embarrassing themselves around. Sure, some may get shared extensively, like a woman walking into a mall fountain while texting, but nobody knew who she was until she sued. People talk about brands when their ads are done right.

Even blender maker Blendtec gets it with their Will It Blend? series on YouTube. They’ll throw anything into a blender to show how powerful their blenders are. Sure, it is funny to see an iPhone turned into dust, but the video truly gets the message across about the Blendtec blender. And people keep coming back looking to see what next they’ll blend.

The Super Bowl is no longer about just football. It hasn’t been for some time. At $3.8 million for a 30 second spot, it isn’t cheap. Nowadays, most ads are even made available before the game. Companies want their ads to be shared, not just seen during the game. And shared for the right reason. Kia didn’t get it this past Super Bowl with their two ads on the bottom of the barrel (Space Babies and Hot Bots). Budweiser (Brotherhood) and a few others did get it right. And, by the way, Budweiser ended up naming the foal Hope. Treat your topic right, and you’re more apt to end up on top of the viral game.

The post Viral Videos – Hit or Miss? appeared first on The Blog Herald.

With the increasing popularity of social media communication, here comes another application that’s been creating a huge buzz around the internet for a while now: the image uploading app. Instagram. Instagram is so popular that it has gained more than 4.5 million users in less than a year. Like Twitter, members can follow your posts but instead of words, you get to post photos and then your follower can “like” your photos and leave you comments, for whatever reason, many people are fascinated by this. But what’s even more amazing about Instagram is that even professional fashion photographers and Hollywood celebrities are getting hooked by its immense popularity. It has even caught the attention of the number one social media site: FaceBook.

This design was researched and created by Infographiclabs

The post Here Comes Instagram: Infographic appeared first on The Blog Herald.

The new iPad friendly addition is a change to the light box. When browsing the site on your iPad you’ll be able to access a full screen photo viewer and initiate a slideshow:

We’re happy to announce some big improvements to the photo light box for iPad users! The light box is a handy, full browser photo viewer available from any photo page. From a photo page on Flickr, simply tap on a photo to view it larger (if available) and on a clean, dark background.

While Flickr has a native iPhone App that taps in to the power of iOS and the hardware, no native iPad exists yet. Flickr may opt to focus on its site and continue improving it for iPad users instead of releasing an official App. As fellow Blog Herald author Darnell Clayton mused, Yahoo’s growing commitment to the service and expanding features to mobile devices hints Yahoo! doesn’t want to shutdown the service like it’s doing with Delicious.

The post Flickr Gets Cozy With The iPad, Adds Expanded Lightbox Support appeared first on The Blog Herald.

Enjoy this great Infographic from our friends at Infographiclabs

The post Top Social Media Brands: Infographic appeared first on The Blog Herald.

But what is clear is that tools like WordPress Direct are becoming more and more common. Part of the double-edged nature of open source development is that, while most will use the license to extend the product in healthy ways, a few will do so in ways that can be used for unethical purpose. Though this is not an argument against open source, more and more tools like WordPress Direct have sprung up, often charging high monthly fees for “maintenance free” blogging.

But what does WordPress Direct do and is it a spam tool? The answer is complicated and made more so by the fact that the nature of spam and even the definition of spam is a moving target. However, it is clear that WordPress Direct, along with similar products, have a lot of potentially dangerous uses and, if its marketing is any indication, those uses are very much by design.

Multiple Uses, Multiple Faces

First and foremost, WordPress Direct is a WordPress installer, making it easy to set up WordPress installations on either your own server or theirs. There is no need to setup databases, install the core files or even fix permalinks and add a theme. The system does that for you.

However, applications that install WordPress are already extremely common. Though most don’t help optimize the installation, most hosts have some variation of the WordPress “One Click” install, often using Fantastico. Furthermore, such installs are usually more up to date, with WordPress Direct saying that they still use the 2.5.x branch of WordPress.

But what has drawn the most controversy is not the installation, but rather, the tools that come with it. WordPress Direct also installs a series of tools that let you import content directly into your feed, including from Yahoo! Answers, YouTube and even other RSS feeds.

Though the WordPress Direct team is quick to tout that the owner of the created blogs is the editor, the truth is that all of the tools can be set to publish automatically, meaning that content is scraped from various sources and republished without any editing or manipulation. Combined with the easy insertion of Adsense advertisements into the blog itself, it is easy to see how one could create dozens of spam blogs very quickly with this tool.

That, in turn, is what has many bloggers very worried.

WordPressDirect Responds

In a comment to the original Mashable article, Marty Rozmanith, a representative for the company said that:

“Those that do (repost content) realize all content requires proper attribution, and our service facilitates that. It also facilitates reviewing content before posting so that spam videos and such do not end up on your blog.

We do not host the bulk of our user’s blogs – they do. If they get themselves in trouble with spamming their own blog, we frown upon it and it usually results to their detriment anyway.”

He goes on to say that:

“For all the content creators reading this — unless you post your content to a ‘user-generated’ content site like YouTube or an ezine article service, our service will never find it. We do not scrape random sites to find content. We use APIs provided to republish content the way those sites intend us to. We automate the embedding that they provide and that bloggers do manually every day.”

However, during my very brief testing of the software, I noticed that much of this appears to be at least somewhat inaccurate.

First, the test “blog” I created pulled content from Yahoo Answers but there was no indication that the content came from there nor was a link back to the source provided. Furthermore, the original question was posted as the blog entry with the replies posted as comments, furthering the confusion. I could not find a way to turn on attribution. (Note: I have already deleted this blog as I did not wish it to be indexed by the search engines.)

Second, though they claim to only pull content from “user generated” sites, their marketing material provides information about how to pull from RSS feeds and, in my testing, it is very easy to do. Any blog, regardless of how it was licensed, can be reused by these sites should the operator decide to pull from it.

Finally, though it is possible to see how one could use this to automatically locate videos and related articles, there are other services that provide this functionality already. Furthermore, to use this tool for such a legitimate purpose would require a great deal of editing and crafting (EX: Pull quotes from articles, add links, etc.) and the automation would save little time.

All in all, most of those that wanted to use this service for non-spamming aims would likely find other tools better suited to what they want to do.

The Good News

The good news is that this is also likely a very poor spam tool. The highest level of membership, which costs nearly $150 per month, only allows users to create 100 sites. That number is fairly tame in terms of spam blog network size and, by requiring each spam blog return over $1 per month in profit, it is debatable how much revenue could be generated. Other tools allow the creation of many times this number of sites at much lower costs.

All in all, compared to other, better-known tools, I don’t think bloggers have much to fear from this service. In addition to the limited network size, adding RSS feeds is a manual process and is very time consuming compared to the other input methods.

Though WordPress Direct’s best uses are spam-related, it is hardly the hardcore spamming tool that bloggers have been taught to fear.

Conclusions

I always find the marketing of products like WordPress Direct to be very interesting. On its front page, the site promises you that it “scours the internet for topic-specific video, audio and article content and automatically combines it on your site to create a truly unique visitor experience,” and that all you have to do is “Simply click a few buttons and WordPress Direct will update your site as often or as rarely as you’d like.”

Most bloggers would instantly recognize this as too good to be true but it is how many spam blog applications, both admitted and not, advertise their wares.

The question is whether WordPress Direct is a legitimate tool that has significant questionable use or a questionable tool that has some limited legitimate use. Though it is always difficult to tell, the marketing clearly seems to bill it as the latter.

However, in his comment, Rozmanith said that “It’s true the sales material tries to make everything look ‘effortless.’ We should update it – it is not a true reflection apparently.” Perhaps this is an indication that he understands the message his marketing is getting and why others, including myself, feel as they do about the product.

But even without the marketing, the tool itself still has a bevy of questionable uses and controversial decisions. Whether this is by design or a mistake is a question only the creators can answer.

The post WordPressDirect: Blogging Tool or Spam Engine? appeared first on The Blog Herald.

The contest is being held by MTV Multiplayer which is celebrating its first birthday.

Who’s eligible?

– You must be video game blogger. Prove it by writing 250 words on why you should be chosen. Learn more here.

-You need to look to be between 18-30 years old (darn MTV. where’s the age discrimination lawsuit?)

– You must be a legal resident of the continental United States or District of Columbia (darn MTV. Where’s the lawsuit from Hawaiians and Alaskans?)

– You must be able to come to L.A. on or around the dates of November 10-12.

The deadline is 12pm ET October 28, 2008.

Good luck!

The post Attention Video Game Bloggers appeared first on The Blog Herald.

Podcasts on blogs are growing in popularity. With portable media players, especially iPods, more affordable and accessible, people are downloading podcasts in addition to music. I’m finding podcasts on file sharing services and media marketplaces beyond iTunes. With the ease of adding multimedia to our blogs improving, it’s natural that we want to explore communication beyond the written word and still photographs.

Today, I want to know if you are podcasting on your blog, or if you are considering podcasting.

If you are podcasting, how is it working for you? Are you finding the experience successful? Is traffic and readership increasing? How are you podcasting? Alone or with a host? More than two hosts? How is that working for you?

What equipment and software are you using? How do you record interviews, edit the audio, convert the audio into various formats, and what is the easiest and hardest aspects of podcasting? We want to learn from you, so tell us how your podcasting efforts are working and how it’s evolved as you’ve learned along the way.

Are you considering adding a podcast to your blog? Why? Have you thought about the format, structure, how to handle the files with uploading, downloading, publicizing, and sharing? Will you add music? From where? Copyright free content, your own original music, or what?

Will your podcast feature just you or will you have more than one host? Considering adding interviews? How? What technology are you considering to add access for interviews and co-hosts? What programs are you considering for editing your recordings?

There are a lot of technical issues that confront bloggers who want to podcast, which keeps many from podcasting. Yet, there is a growing collection of technology that makes the process easier and faster.

Let’s talk about how podcasts work for blogs, or not, and how you can save time generating podcast recordings and publishing on your blog.

The post Do You Podcast? Are You Going to Podcast on Your Blog? appeared first on The Blog Herald.

Web Content and Copyright Rules

Most types of content have some kind of copyright, which means that you can’t use them without permission. While there are notable exceptions — things old enough that they’ve fallen into the public domain, for example — in most cases you don’t want to use anything available online without express permission. Doing so can open you to a host of lawsuits.

However, there are licensing options available for those who want to use content created by others. Some types of licensing require you to pay. Others let you use the content for free as long as you follow the guidelines set forth by the creator. For example, you might have to include a link or credit; in other cases, you might only be able to use the content in certain locations or ways.

Always check the licensing options before choosing your content, even if it’s free. You want to understand the requirements so you can follow them when you use the content. If you misuse a photo, video, sound, or other types of media, it can be considered stealing. There are legal options available to artists whose work is used without the proper fees and attributions.

Evaluating Free Content

With so much content available, you shouldn’t ever have to settle for something that doesn’t fit your design vision perfectly. There are so many sites with such a variety of media available that putting in a little extra time should help you find what you want. For example, you might be able to find an excellent infographic on one site but find mesmerizing scenic images on another.

Look at the quality of the images offered on the site. If there are lots of gorgeous, high-resolution pictures available, you can rest assured that the site is worth your time. It can take some searching and playing with keywords to find the right images, so don’t waste your time on a site that doesn’t offer the content you want. Scroll through some of the featured images and perform a few common keyword searches to judge the quality of the content available.

If you’re worried that the images you’re choosing are overused, try doing a reverse image search to see how often they show up. If they’re splashed across pages similar to yours, there’s a chance that your audience has seen them before. You might want to expand your search to something new. You don’t want to look exactly like every other site in your niche.

15 Great Sites for Legal, Free Content

1. PhotoDropper

If your site uses WordPress architecture, PhotoDropper is a quick way to find and attribute images. It helps you use the right kind of attribution so that you avoid any licensing or copyright issues as well. Since it’s an add-on for WordPress, it’s also designed to place the image on your site. Using something like PhotoDropper can help save you time and energy if adding images to your site is something you intend to do on a regular basis — like on your blog, for example.

2. StockSnap

StockSnap is another site that offers high-quality images for content creators. Everything offered on the site uses Creative Commons CC0 Licensing, which means that you can use the image anyway you want without even attributing it. As StockSnap says in their discussion on licensing, though, attributing the image to the creator is a nice thing to do and you should consider doing it even if you don’t need to.

3. Pexels

Pexels also offers free stock images and videos under the CC0 license, so you don’t have to provide attribution. The site also has an option to download free videos to use on your site. You don’t have to sign up for a membership to use the site, though doing so may help you keep track of the photos that you download. If you’re often going back for more photos, having a record of ones you’ve already used can be useful so that you’re not using the same image twice.

4. Wikimedia Commons

With over 2 million media files, including images, videos, audio and eBooks, all available under Creative Commons, open source or public domain licensing, Wikimedia Commons is a great resource for anyone looking for media to use. Though commonly thought of as just another part of Wikipedia, files placed into the Wikimedia Commons are available for use by anyone and the site is easily searchable. The site also has sound and video clips that are licensed under the same terms of the images.

5. Freesound

Freesound is a site where people upload, share, and use sounds made by others for their sites. It’s a creative commons database with plenty of files available. If you’re editing a video or looking to add creative animations to your blog, Freesound is a great place to start. Like images, sound can be copyrighted. Everything available on Freesound is available without having to attribute the sound or pay for it — which can help reduce your media budget, especially if you use sounds regularly. Free and legal content can help you use your money for marketing or in other areas of your blog.

6. Freepik

Freepik has a variety of media that’s free for personal and commercial use. The site also includes vectors. If you haven’t used a vector for things like logo design and site design before, consider trying it out. They’re ultra-high quality images that can be scaled up and down without losing quality. If you try to resize a picture too often, it might look blurry or distorted. That’s no good when you need the same image on multiple types of projects, like logos, headers and business cards. Vectors are a better choice for these projects.

7. Videezy

Videezy is another site where you can purchase high-definition stock videos, b-rolls, backgrounds, and other types of videos. You need to look at the license on each individual video and make sure that you can use it in the type of project you’re creating. On Videezy, some downloads are only available to be used for free in personal projects. Others are free for use on commercial projects. Just make sure that you’re following the terms of the licensing for each individual file.

8. SoundBible

With new sounds being added three times per week, SoundBible offers a great library of free and legal content for people looking to add audio files to their projects. Whether you’re adding sounds to your blog or editing video to display on it, you’ll find something to enhance your project on the site. Sounds download in an MP3 format.

9. Stock Footage 4 Free

At Stock Footage 4 Free, there are more than 115,000 stock footage clips, motion backgrounds and templates. You have lots of options to choose from if you’re looking to improve a single blog entry or planning an overhaul of your entire blog. One benefit of the site is that each video has a great description. This means that you don’t have to watch a lot of videos to find exactly what you’re looking for. Check out their license agreement to see what kinds of projects you can use their content in.

10. Burst by Shopify

Burst offers new photos for download and use every week. They’re offered to help people create a retail store on Shopify, but you can use them in projects for your blog as well. People can contribute images to the site; you won’t ever know exactly what you’ll find. You don’t have to attribute the images you download from Burst, but in their terms they suggest doing it anyway. It’s a great place to find a revolving series of images so it’s worth checking on a regular basis.

11. FreePhotos.cc

If you want to search a lot of creative commons images at once, FreePhotos.cc offers that service. You can use common categories and tags to find images that are free to use without attribution. This site also offers a subscription service that sends zipped images to your email. This can be helpful if you’re looking for some additional inspiration. They also ask that you link their service to others — like people who you swap blog posts with, for example — if you like what they offer.

12. Clipstill

Cinemagraphs are described by Clipstill as a “living photograph — a still image with seamlessly looping subtle moving element.” They’re usually 3-8 seconds in length. According to the site, they help increase user engagement. This is likely because they’re interesting, in-motion, and able to catch the eye and interest of the person viewing your site. You can use them as you’d use regular images or as a web design element. You have to link to the cinemagraphs you download. They’re all downloadable in MP4 format.

13. Fotor

If you use a WordPress blog, then consider trying Fotor for downloading and using Creative Commons images. It lets you find them and embed them directly into your blog posts and photos. They have more than 335 million images to choose from. If you scroll down the page, you’ll see categories like nature, animals, and religion, among others. If you’re not sure what you’re looking for, scanning a category might help you find something that works perfectly.

14. Life of Pix

Life of Pix offers royalty free stock photos that are high-resolution. They’ll help keep your website looking sharp. They also have a neat feature called photographer of the week. It highlights the contributions of a particular photographer. The person changes every week and the site links to a variety of art that is available from that person. They also have a variety of free and legal content like videos for download, helping you find all the media you need in one place.

15. New Old Stock

One benefit to using older photos is that they can use them without having to pay or use attribution. Once things are free of copyright, they belong to everyone and can be used in any way you choose. All the photos posted on New Old Stock are historical photographs that come from the public archives. The might not be suitable for all blog types, but they’re excellent for aesthetic blogs or anything that needs a touch of old-time flair. Since the public domain has a ton of free and legal content, it’s easy to find historic images when you need them.

The Right Photo

The importance of excellent photos can’t be overstated. According to an article in Entrepreneur, blog posts with photos get 650 percent more engagement than blog posts that consist only of text. This means that even if the content you’re writing is excellent, it will be difficult to find an audience or be shared on social media sites without great pictures.

Text doesn’t capture a person’s interest immediately in the same way that images do. Interesting scenery, groups of people, animals, instructional photos — all of these can help keep someone on your blog long enough for them to be engaged by your writing. If you use relevant images, they can also help signal the content of your post to a reader. This helps them decide right away whether the post is right for them. Since there’s so much free and legal content available, you should be using images in every post.

It’s also important to use relevant images. If someone sees something that doesn’t resonate with their interests, they might leave the page before engaging with your content. You don’t have to stick to a single site to find great stock photos. As a matter of fact, you should hedge your bets and try a few different sites when performing searches. You’ll be more likely to find the perfect free stock photo, video, audio, or vector for your project. While one site might have the right photo for a blog post about one topic, you may find that another site suits a different topic better. So dive in and try a few sites to see whether the perfect stock photo is available for free for your blog.

The post 15 Great Sites for Legal, Free Content appeared first on The Blog Herald.