Article Roundup - Dec. 30

This week, I looked for articles that loosely focus around blogging. Since regular blogging may take too much time for small business DiYers, I've chosen 4 articles that have applications beyond blogging. (Mostly advertising and graphics.)

Leverage Blogging to Build Business Identity, Authority, & Credibility

Pinterest and Blogging: The Good, The Bad, and The Huh - I have to admit, I didn't expect to learn much from this article when I first clicked on it, but I was pleased to see that it had some real content to it. The author talks about how she had to start thinking about the graphics she used for her blogging business in order to have some that were blogging friendly.

Moreover, she talks about some of the mistakes she made. One of her most linked to posts was essentially her talking about a number of projects she had completed using the information from another person's furniture painting ebook, but the people clicking through from pinterest thought they were going to find the how-to instructions themselves and this caused some people to accuse her of bait-and-switch. She responded by changing her graphics to be more clear and by using an app that allows you to create a description that autofills for Pinterest when someone pins directly from her site.

If you're thinking about incorporating Pinterest into your marketing scheme, then it highlights the importance of creating clear graphics that avoid confusion.

How to Use Watermarks with Style - This article starts off with an example of what a really, really bad watermark job looks like, then gives 3 different alternative styles so you can have a watermark on your image to identify your work without making the image ugly. This does not include detailed how-to instructions for the 3 styles, but is meant to give ideas.

Creative Watermarking - How to Incorporate Your Signature into your Photos - this post is aimed at professional photographers, but it includes really good how-to instructions for using Photoshop CS3+ or Photoshop Elements to seamlessly hide a watermark into a photo.

5 CSS Tips for Creating Hierarchy - Although a lot of people will mix two or more font styles (or font faces) in their blog/written ads, using the same font style throughout makes things look clean - but then, how do you distinguish titles, headings, subheadings and other items of relative importance? This goes over 5 ways to do that (not necessarily through CSS).

I picked the CSS article because it applies to WAY more than just blogging. The advice there is solid for any written piece - be it a report, sales copy, website design, client proposal, even a business plan presented to a bank.

Business Article Roundup - Dec 23

How Etsy Gambles with Your Livelihood - 5 ways to protect yourself - this is a recent post from blogger Lisa Jacobs, who focuses on handmade and creative businesses.

How to Create a Style Guide for Your Blog - although this is directed to bloggers, there's a lot of information here for developing a consistent brand across many platforms - the information you decide on using her free worksheets can help you when you are creating marketing materials for pinterest, instagram, physical print, or your own website. (She covers aspects deciding how images will look as well as how text will sound.)

How Color Can Make Your Business Successful or Not - basically: color controls 60% of people's initial decisions about a new or unfamiliar brand. The article here is really short. I've linked to it because it has a nice infographic categorizing the emotional feelings associated with each color. (Something to consider when you create a style guide for your business.)

5 Consumer Psychology Hacks - One of my favorites this week.

Build an Email List to Get More Customers - if you don't maintain an email list for marketing, you probably should start. The article talks about why and provides some resources, including a list of email marketing services (not just MailChimp).