Technology Toolkit

So you’ve found this great blog template. It’s the perfect theme for you….except the pictures won’t work with what you have in mind. If you could only change a few of the images this template would be awesome! Well fear no more because with just a few quick and easy modifications, you can change the images on your blog to be the exact images of your choice.

This tutorial will show you how to replace existing images on your blog with new images.

Requirements:

1. Access to the admin area of your blog
2. FTP access/ability
3. NoteTab or NotePad

I will assume that you know how to navigate within your blog admin area, and that you know how to use your FTP software to upload data to your server.

Let’s get started!

Images for your blog theme are usually stored with this example type of path: /wp-content/themes/mytheme/images/

Fire up your FTP software and connect to your server (using your own domain name), follow the above path with your FTP program and download all of the images to a folder on your computer.

Open the folder on your computer that you just downloaded the images to. You may have to change the view of the folder in order to see thumbnails of the actual images. Find the image that you want to change. Hoover your mouse over the image until you see a little text image pop up.

Notice the dimension on the pop up box. That’s the size of the image that you need to replace. You need to find another image that is, for example, 139 width and 139 height in pixels. Replacing an existing image with another that is the same size will prevent you from going through the process of modifying the code.

You can search the Internet for free photos, or go to websites like BigStockPhoto or IStockPhoto to purchase images. I have found that I do better on the paid sites. I’ve found a few freebie images to use in the past, but they really weren’t of the quality that I needed.

If you can’t find an image that exact size, find one that is slighty bigger and resize it. Open up your favorite photo editor and resize it to the dimension you need.

Now, all you have to do is give the new image the same name as the old image, FTP the new image up to your server which will replace the old image (select YES if the program asks you do you want to replace the file).

Voila! It’s done!

Go to your web browser and refresh the page and you will see the new image. You can repeat this as many times as you want on as many images as you like. That’s the quick and easy way to change images on your blog.

Note: This process can be used for your website too. All you have to do is locate where your images are stored and follow the same procedures.

“Blog”- an abbreviation for weblog. A www – based journal or on-line diary that anyone can use to put there thoughts, opinions, news events; just about anything or any topic you could possibly come up with, in writing and publish it to the net, in some cases, for free.

The popularity of blogs has taken the internet by storm. They have become the easiest and most effective way to present, virtually any discussion or event to a public platform. There are many versions of software available to anyone for the purpose of opening your own blog site. MuseCrafters, Livejournal, JournalHome, Blogagotchi, Diaryland just to name a few. One of the best, in my opinion is Wordpress merely because of its ease of use. The majority of these sites, contains pre made templates and push button publishing, and requires very little technical expertise. Wordpress offers both expert and novice options.

After completing the registration process you will be given gallery options with pre-formatted templates. You will be offered a choice of color schemes and layout criteria for your blog site. Upon completing your choices, you will be prompted to add your name, interest, images and so on. Go ahead, personalize it. Make it as attractive as you see fit. After all this is your gateway to the blogging universe. There are a few sites, like PimpMyProfile or Pyzam that allow a little more creative license giving a more unique feel and look.

One important item you need to seriously consider is whether or not to use your own domain name, or utilize a free site such as Blogger. By registering your own domain name allows you to maintain total control over you blog site, Content, feed back, anti spam control; of which there are several services to utilize. This is especially important because blogs are an exponential way for spammers to invade your inbox.

Total freedom allows you to spend more time blogging, rather than having to deal with site issues. You also have the ability to decide if you want your blog site to be public or private. Would you want your blog to be viewed by outside sources or keep it intimate, only providing access to friends and family? This is achieved by taking advantage of the password-protect option when setting up your blog.

Upon completion of the set-up process, post a few test articles. This will give you the opportunity to make any adjustments to the layout and style that your visitors will see. At first you may just want to create a blog that is centered on what happened throughout the course of your day, or perhaps an event that took place during the blog set-up process. You can write about ideas, fears, and current affairs; anything of interest that would prove to be an enticing topic.

Another good avenue to explore would be to peruse the internet and enter other blog sites. If your sight is a public offering then you can enter a blog site and post your comments. Upon finishing your comments, include pertinent information, such as your blog address. This will provide potential traffic, thus opening an invitation to the creative juices of other writers. An additional step to bringing traffic to you blog site is to include your the site URL of your website on all of your e-mail correspondences to friends, family or potential customers.

Blogging has many benefits and advantages. Getting started is rather easy, but; beware, it can be addictive; especially once you start to realize the potential that blogging provides. Becoming famous and earning serious money, are just a couple of the positive benefits of blogging. Have fun and I’ll see ya’ around the water cooler.

If you’re an online marketer, a blog is one of your most important tools. Many people however fail to optimize the value of their blog because they don’t use it correctly. The blog is not your personal journal or diary although that is what the term blog implies. The word blog of course is derived from the two words – web log. Many bloggers wax whimsical in their blogs, expressing their personal feelings and observations about life in general. This is fun if you have a lot of time on your hands, but the fact of matter is there are so many blogs out there that it is impossible for anybody to read even a fraction of them. For that reason, unless your blog contains specific value to a specific group of people, nobody will read it.

A blog is an important component of thought leadership. Thought leadership is where you demonstrate your mastery of a topic or a skill, through your words, thoughts and ideas. Effective blogging is an excellent way to promote your thought leadership concerning a specific topic, particularly if it’s business related. If you are disseminating valuable new information that people are eager to digest, they will read your blog religiously.

For that reason, the blog should be devoted to your specific niche, and your specific expertise within that niche. Framing your blog entries around current events certainly make sense, but the critical assessment of a blog entry should be the value that a reader derives from reading it. There’s a standard transaction that occurs every time somebody reads your blog. They are giving you their valuable time in return for your valuable information. If you’re not providing them with information that has value, there’s no point for them to read the blog.

Blog entries need to be made on a regular basis. Many people start a blog only to realize it’s a tremendous effort to maintain it, and it falls by the wayside. Unless blog entries are made on virtually a daily or weekly basis, it loses its relevance, and your readers start to go elsewhere. Maintaining a blog in a current status and providing highly relevant and compelling information on a regular basis, is not that easy. This is why you see so many blogs that are useless. If you do not have the time or the skills to write well and to write on a timely basis, it might be worth your while to hire professional writer to maintain your blog for you.

SEO experts know that one of the best ways to promote your business is to blog. Unfortunately, many business owners are under the impression that blogging takes a lot of time, or they have seen too many bloggers who start out with gusto only to abandon their blogs two or three months later. While both concerns are legitimate, there is no reason to let them keep you from starting your own blog. After all, business blogging is a great way to build a following and shorten the sales process.

Rare is the sales blogger who settles in a quiet room with a pencil and a pad of paper to write down his most profound ideas. Instead, most bloggers spend their time reading other blogs and interacting with others within their market niche. All this interaction makes it easier, not harder, to blog. Once you are in tune with what everyone else is thinking and writing, coming up with your own material is a breeze.

Here are 7 ways to quickly generate your own content.

1. Interviews. Find an expert in your market niche and see if she is willing to be interviewed via email. Read other interviews to glean interesting and timely questions, and then ask her those. Most experts are willing to be interviewed because they get some exposure out of the deal, too. And the whole process only takes about 15 minutes.

2. Guest Bloggers. Hunt down an expert in your field who has expertise in an area you lack and ask him to write an article for your blog. Not only will you increase your following by attracting your guest blogger s base, but you will end up ranking higher for keywords that would not normally generate a lot of traffic for you.

3. Rewrite. Read some of your old blog posts and find one whose lesson remains applicable to your situation today. You probably have additional insight now, so share that with your readers. Link to the old post and add your new insights. Thirty minutes later you have a new article!

4. Have a Contest. This provides a bonus post because you not only have to post information about the contest, but you also have to tell everyone who the winner was.

5. Ask a Good Question. A good question can ignite great conversation. Use Twitter to help build a following for your blog if you do not already have one. The great conversation generated by your question will ensure that your readers will stick around. Everyone likes to be asked for their opinion. Let your readers share theirs.

6. Use Lists. Lists are great article-writing tools because people are automatically attracted to bulleted or numbered content. Because it is easier to read and digest, readers are more likely to slow down for listed material than they are for material that is written in multiple paragraphs. If you have found a list that you like on someone else s blog, repost it on your blog using only the bulleted phrases and add a link to the original. Change the title of your post, of course, but always link back to the source.

7. Aggregator Blogging. Scan blogs within your market niche to find articles that you think would interest your readers. Publish one or two paragraphs from each article, link to the original, and add a sentence or two of your own to tell readers what you did or did not find helpful about the article. This is also a great way to start good conversations and build networks with other bloggers.

Do not forgo the opportunity to build links, network, and shorten the time it takes to make a sale simply because you think that business blogging is too time-consuming. Use what is already around you to make the process quick and painless, and you will see what a difference it will make for your business.

When I first started blogging, I never realized what I was in for. As I visited other sites, posted comments, got involved with starting my own blog page within my own website, it never dawned on me that there were ways to create a positive cash flow. There are several ways in which you can earn money by performing what is fast becoming one of the internets most popular activities, Blogging. While there are several ways in which to publish your opinion, very few provide the monetary opportunities that blogging has, and having your own blog site can generate a positive cash flow.

There are literally dozens of ways to make money blogging. Here are but a few:

- Blogging can be a profitable marketing tool. By blogging, you can send search specific traffic to an e-commerce web site thus brining in focused buyers.

- By becoming proficient at blogging you can actually achieve a level that would cast the perception that you are a professional writer, and get paid for blogging on multiple sites through out the internet.

- You can earn cash by offering your services as a blogger to individuals or businesses that are looking to create a customer base through selling links.

- Offer space for sale on your blog site to advertisers. Concentrate on flooding your site with traffic which will in turn make your site a HOT spot for eager advertisers.

You will need to provide your site with relative, quality content, and add and remove content on a regular basis. Give your site a different look as often as possible. Create a reason to keep people coming back for more. Get into the habit of visiting your blog site daily. It is not only important for you to make your site highly visible, but by adding your personal touch on a regular basis, people will become anxious about coming back to see what is new, almost as though they are showing up to see you personally.

The more you can do with your site, the better your return. Search Engine Optimization, or SEO techniques that apply to e-commerce sites are probably more important to blog sites for the simple reason that a blog sites can be a pinnacle for a vast number of affiliate site members. By getting your blog site to the top of a wide number of search engines will prove to be profitable in a number of ways, but for this purpose it’s all about exposure, and making money. There are certain keywords that will assist you in providing a perfect SEO scenario.

Social Bookmarking can also be an extremely useful tool. In case you’re not familiar with social bookmarking, it’s quite simple. Rather than adding a site to your bookmarks on your browser, where you are the only one that can see them, social bookmarking can provide you with an opportunity to share, and others can share with you. It makes searching for valuable information so much easier, especially if you are in a blog site specific to one topic and you want to find out more about the specific topic, all you have to do is look through the social bookmarks that are made available to you. While you are trying to figure out what type of content to put on your blog site, consider social bookmarking software like my favorite, Delicious . Check it out. They make social bookmarking easy to understand, and fun.

Of course, by social bookmarking it provides another means for you to get exposure and visits to your own blog site, again, which translates into cash.

While you are absorbing this information, one main factor to abide by is, “own your domain name” This provides you with TOTAL control! Having control means control over what makes you money. So make sure you use blog site software that allows you to register your own domain name

The key to making your blog site successful is to make it accessible. Using links, offering an affiliate friendly service or permitting ad banners will also offer up a site that will produce results not only for you, but for visitors and potential clients as well. Promote, promote, promote. Once you have a worthy site, the rest is easy. Be specific to one particular topic and saturate yourself with as much knowledge as possible. Remember, “Knowledge is Power” Once you master your initial site, doing it over and over again will enable you to create multiple streams of income, and you will be well on your way.