But that’s pretty much possible!

There would be clients moaning against your finest work, there would be writing projects that turn out something they weren’t supposed to be and there would be times when you [...]]]> A freelance writer’s worst nightmares:

1. a project in limbo
2. an unsatisfied client

But that’s pretty much possible!

There would be clients moaning against your finest work, there would be writing projects that turn out something they weren’t supposed to be and there would be times when you feel like quitting.

Is there a simply way out to avoid all this?

Yes: Ask questions…

By asking questions you get twofold benefits; you’ll gather maximum details about the project and you become an authority in the eyes of your client.

I won many copywriting projects only because the client was awestruck by my ‘professional approach’ of asking relevant questions.

Your time is more important than anything

These questions assume that you have come to terms with your client as far as the pricing is concerned.

But that’s tricky.

In her recent post, Carol Tice of MakeALivingWriting talks about some clients who are not sure of what exactly they want, and would try to use you as a free consultant.

You can end up wasting several precious hours.

Don’t let your initial meeting go longer than 30 minutes. If the client needs more time, tell them you’re happy to help them catch on what they want written at $100/hour from here.

What happens then is explained by Carol herself:

You’ll be amazed how quickly this news concentrates the minds of most business owners and enables them to figure out what they want.

Questions to ask your clients

There can be different questions based on the nature of the copy you’re writing, however, following are some generic ones that suit almost any job.

1. What is the REAL deadline?

Money is the most important factor for you, deadline is the most important factor for (most of) your clients. Make sure you know the exact deadline and you meet it.

2. What do you want this project to accomplish for your business?

Clients do not hire writers because they appreciate fine prose. They want to use your words and phrases to accomplish their business objectives – you better know these objectives comprehensively.

Do this consistently and your services will be constantly in demand.

3. Is this job a part of a larger, coordinated campaign?

Suppose a company is starting a new website and has outsourced their first 5 blog posts to you. To write content that resonates with their whole theme, read their mission statement, web content, press releases and other project materials.

4. Where will you publish this piece of copy; blog, web, press release site etc.?

Knowing the answer will help you adopt the most suitable language and style.

5. What tone and style is the most suitable?

6. Is there any specific geo target?

7. Who are our target audience?

Knowing their age, profession etc. will help you write copy on the right lines. Just make sure you do NOT write for your audience, rather write for you REAL audience!

8. Any other specific requirements?

Some clients will have specific requirements, including but not limited to; including target keywords, search engine optimization, citation, and adding Creative Commons images.

9. Is there anything you would like to be specifically included?

10. Is there anything you would like to be specifically excluded?

11. Is there anything else i can do for you?

It shouldn’t mean you’re hustling for more work. It should be a polite offer that you are willing to go an extra mile to help them. It’s just good customer service.

It’s time to say thanks

Once the project is complete, I always send my clients a thank you note out of courtesy:

Hi there,

Thanks a lot for giving me this opportunity to work with you, it was a sheer pleasure. I am really thankful for your quick and clear responses.  

I’m sure you will be pleased with my effort. However, if you desire any modification/editing, feel free to drop a line and I’ll do it with a big smile on my beautiful face  

Thanks again and have a good day. I wish you very best of luck and hope we will continue our working relationship in future.

Sincerely,

Ali.

Obviously you will become their ‘go to guy’ if they are satisfied with your work and your customer care.

What questions do you ask your clients?

Over to you!

Isn’t that fascinating???

Let’s do it NOW!

Unfortunately, if you browse Amazon, you won’t find many decent gifts for freelance writers.

A few days back, I came across this striking license plate frame – [...]]]> Tell the whole world that you’re Proud To Be A FREE-lance Writer.

A few days back, I came across this striking license plate frame – a superb present for freelance writers– and fell in love with it straightaway. (Yes, I’m mad about cars and anything related to them)

Tried to look serious & failed miserably. No, it’s NOT a mugshot… LOL

About the license plate frame

It’s made of durable, waterproof stainless steel. The lettering Proud To Be A Freelance Writer is engraved in a simple yet beautiful font.

The smooth silver color, sturdy metal structure and polished-mirror finish will complement any license plate.

And yet it’s extremely cheap!

Should YOU really purchase it?

Purchase this license plate frame only if you:

• Have a car, obviously
• Enjoy your occupation as a freelance writer, luxury of being your own boss and relaxation of working whenever, wherever you like.
• Are looking for a present for a writer friend/lover to strengthen your bond.
• Want to reveal that you are in love with a freelance writer (just choose the frame which says In Love With A Freelance Writer).

There is also a cheaper version available, but that’s NOT made of stainless steel and I won’t recommend that.

Following is a part of product description from Amazon with important points being bolded:

Give your vehicle a touch of style and individuality with high quality premium license plate frame made from superior quality 304 STAINLESS STEEL. The frame is weather resistant and rust proof. It has unmatched quality, a durable metal construction and a polished mirror finish, which gives it a unique and expensive look…

This wide-bottom license plate frame is designed to securely accommodate standard American and Canadian license plates 6 inches (height) x 12 inches (width). The wide bottom will cover approximately 1 inch (27 mm) of the lower end of your license plate. The distance between two holes is about 7 inches. This frame can be used for the front or the back of a car.

The lettering and artwork are done with weather and car wash resistant vinyl that is waterproof and won’t fade and will last for many years.

Just make sure your license plate is 6 inches high and 12 inches wide, plus the holes are 7 inches apart.

I had to make minor adjustments for the frame to fit properly, but now it looks INSANELY cool.

You won’t find a better way (that costs you less than 20 bucks) to express your ecstasy of being a freelance writer.

In fact, it can be a smart way to publicize yourself.

At the time of writing this article, there are ONLY 20 pieces left in the stock – order your license plate frame before they are off limits.

Can you name a better present for a writer?

Affiliate Links Disclosure: I believe in openness… This post contains affiliate links – you make a purchase, I earn a few pennies. I, however, don’t recommend any product which I haven’t used personally and found beneficial.

Please make sure the products are right for you before purchasing i.e. Do they really fill an essential need you have presently? Is their price fair?

It’s simple:

Have a relevant idea, and then deliver it in a simple and succinct piece of writing.

If you want to

Do you know how to write better content for the internet?

It’s simple:

Have a relevant idea, and then deliver it in a simple and succinct piece of writing.

If you want to improve your writing, keep the following five points in mind while typing as well as editing.

1. Only write when you have something to say

If you have an interesting point, words will appear on the page as blood spills from a wound. Otherwise, your sentences will be meaningless and boring.

It’s better not to write than to write and sound dumb.

2. Be specific

What’s more interesting and helps you visualize me throwing back some yummy foodstuffs?

I love different types of fast foods.

I love Pepperoni Pizza, Big Mac and Beef Steak.

3. Don’t repeat yourself

Say the same thing more than once and your readers go to sleep.

Is that what you want?

4. Don’t ramble

Rambling is a common problem with writers. You may not realize when you ramble, but the reader will click away as soon as you do.

The smartest approach to avoid rambling is to focus on one actionable point in each post.

Read Mary Jaksch’s interesting post One Tip that Makes Writing Blog Posts Super Easy, where she tells how you should write about one actionable topic.

5. Write short posts with short paragraphs and sentences

Copyright: Diego Cervo - Fotolia.com

A short piece of copy is more interesting, has more impact and saves you a lot of time.

For instance, this article has roughly 400 words, and took me only 23 minutes to write and proofread.

However, some posts deserve more phrasing, e.g. the post about Google PageRank took me two days to complete, has 1143 words and still is one of the most popular articles (both in terms of Unique Views and Shares).

Your write-ups should have short passages and short sentences.

Short paragraphs have more probability of getting read.

Short sentences are easy to understand.

To assess the level of readability of your post, use Flesch–Kincaid Readability Test and aim for a score of 75+.

Follow these five simple rules when you write your next post and see the results yourself.

Besides saving a lot of time, you’ll enjoy writing and your readers will enjoy reading!

If any of these points was helpful, please share this post with others.

Good!

Do you optimize it of search engines?

Great – you’re smart!

Do you over-optimize it?

You’re DEAD!!!

Simply put, any unnatural (and now any ag

gressive) approach to [...]]]>

Do you have a blog/website?

Good!

Do you optimize it of search engines?

Great – you’re smart!

Do you over-optimize it?

You’re DEAD!!!

So what the heck is over-optimization?

Simply put, any unnatural (and now any ag

gressive) approach to getting backlinks is over-optimization.

In the past, people would do anything, from spamming other blogs with fake comments to purchasing links from pages with high PageRank, to get backlinks.

Then, it helped – now, it’ll simply backfire.

What’s new in SEO World?

The head of Google’s Webspam team Matt Cutts, divulged a new Over-Optimization Penalty at the South By Southwest (SXSW) Conference in Austin, Texas the other day:

Google is looking at sites by people who sort of abuse it whether they throw too many keywords on the page, or whether they exchange way too many links, or whatever they’re doing to sort of go beyond what a normal person would expect in a particular area.

Recently, Google removed a few sites including Build My Rank from its index – what an earth-shattering blow!

These sites were solely there to offer paid backlinks in a cheeky way. Sites or blogs, to which such sites were linking, are also facing a life threat.

But how Google spots the over-optimizers?

Matt told how Google nails down those who pay more attention to search engines than their audience:

They usually have a keyword domain, lots of keyword-rich internal linking, and heavily optimized title tags and body content. Their link portfolios will be heavily optimized as well. But their content is weak, their value proposition is low, they’re obviously to human observers only ranking because of their SEO.

Conclusion

Nobody likes being fooled – at least, not Google.

So if you spend more time on trying to fool Google instead of producing top-quality content, you should change your preferences.

If you have hired an SEO company, maybe it’s time to bid them farewell.

Link building and SEO are NOT dead by any means – but their meaning has changed altogether.

Doesn’t it make life easy for writers and bloggers… you and me?

That means one heck of a competition for you!

You should take advantage of even the tiniest of the tweaks to improve your blog, if you really want to stand out of the crowd.

Not easy, but not impossible also.

If [...]]]>

People add 3 million new blogs every month.

That means one heck of a competition for you!

You should take advantage of even the tiniest of the tweaks to improve your blog, if you really want to stand out of the crowd.

Not easy, but not impossible also.

If you really want to know how to improve your blog big-time, first you should exclusively consecrate your blog to your readers and confine YOURSELF to your About Me page.

Your readers have certain expectations from you – you must live up to them.

If you can do so, your bounce rate will decrease, avg. time on page will increase and at the end  your PageRank will skyrocket.

You’ll kill two birds with one stone: hooking repeat visitors plus attracting more visitors.

Let’s see what your readers expect you to do:

They want you to solve their problems

The definition of a blog as per thefreedictionary:

“a shared on-line journal where people can post diary entries about their personal experiences and hobbies”

That’s BULLSHIT!!!

Nobody cares about your personal hobbies (unless you are Michael Jackson or Paris Hilton) – they have better things to do.

People want to read , what makes their life easy.

Always write about stuff that keeps your readers up at night. Suppose, if your readers are freelance writers, their biggest issues would be to find good paying writing gigs, time management etc.

This is the reason behind the high popularity of problem-solving How To posts!

As an example, consider the title of this article again: How To Improve Your Blog ;)

They are curious about YOU

Do you know what I hate the most about blogs?

A blog without an about page!

Copyright: blog-blond.blogspot.com

The first thing you want to know after you’re dazzled by an informative write-up is the writer himself.

If I don’t see an about page, or see one that doesn’t make me feel a connection with you, I won’t be back again.

Your about page must have your name, your bio and some whys and whens about your blog.

About page is a very good place for suggesting your readers to take some action, just like I ask them to subscribe to Writers Blog.

They do NOT  read, they scan

Blog readers are not readers – they’re ‘scanners’. Make your posts easy to scan.

Add a plethora of white spaces, divide the large piece into sections with subheads and for God’s sake, don’t forget to add media to the endless pieces of text.

They are hungry for MORE

Many bloggers practice and preach to post on a “When I Feel Like It” schedule.

Again, that’s CRAP!!!

Don’t have something valuable to say frequently, don’t blog.

I don’t want you to write a post every single day, but it has to be a reasonably frequent schedule.

They enjoy social interaction

Make social networking and sharing the easiest things to do on your weblog.

Nobody will hunt you down on Google to Follow or Like you. Proudly present the buttons at a visible place (header & sidebar are good options).

Poor performance on social media means less exposure, less visitors and less money.

They like easy navigation

Blogs without Tags and Categories are a sheer pain in the neck to navigate around – not only for your visitors but also for search engines.

It takes hardly thirty seconds to tag and categorize your posts, but it will go a long way. 

They want you to confess: It’s Business

Remember the dialog from The Godfather “It’s just business, nothing personal ”?

Good!

It’s time to tell your blog readers the same thing.

If you say it’s a labor of love when there are countless affiliate links and ad units on every page, you’re shooting yourself in the foot!

If it’s business, say it IS business.

If you don’t, it will solidify in your mind and in the mind of your readers that it’s not about making money and probably it will never make money.

Is there anything you’d like to add about blog improvement? Feel free to drop a line in the comments.

Note: Please don’t blame me for not posting on a ‘regular schedule’

This post was supposed to be live last Monday, but my webhosting server crashed and caused this delay.

But you make some deadly SEO mistakes when writing your blog post titles.

The worst thing is that you don’t even know when you commit such slip-ups.

Final outcome: search engines ignore your [...]]]>

You know how to write good copy – in fact, great copy.

But you make some deadly SEO mistakes when writing your blog post titles.

The worst thing is that you don’t even know when you commit such slip-ups.

Final outcome: search engines ignore your great piece, it never gets read and fades into the elusive dust of archives.

That’s a pity!

What to do about it?

When it comes to generating a healthy stream of traffic from search engines, blog title seo plays the key role. Any mistake there means you’re dead in the water.

Let’s talk about the most common headline writing mistakes that really kill your search engine rankings.

1. Your titles are longer than 70 characters

Rubbish…

Copyright: richmanwisco.blogspot.com

Only first 70 characters of your title appear in Google search results.

Watch out, white spaces are also counted in these 70 characters.

2. You don’t pay attention to the keywords

Each post must be crafted around at least one keyword.

A post without a target keyword is like a car without doors – no one will ever get in. Long tail keywords, with relatively higher search volume and relatively lower competition would normally bring better results.

I use Google’s Keyword Tool. It’s the best, free application for you to play with keywords.

3. You don’t start your title with the keyword

Search engines give more weightage to first two or three words in your title. A title becomes more search engine-friendly if it starts with your primary keyword.

However, never do it at the cost of your title’s naturalness and cogency. Your purpose is to get a few clicks, not to appear in the searches only.

Furthermore, when your post is shared on social networks such as twitter or Google+, they use the text in title tag as the headline. So, in case your text in title tag is different from the actual title of the post, make sure it’s catchy and begs to be clicked.

4. You are guilty of keyword stuffing

Keyword stuffing might improve your search engine rankings but reduces your click through rate.

Yet, in some very specific conditions it can be helpful.  The only keyword stuffed post on Writers Blog is: Marketing Definition, Purpose Of Marketing And Article Marketing – makes sense huh?

Be careful when flooding your title with keywords.

5. You write duplicate titles

Search engines are on a spree of removing duplicate content from their databases to get rid of extra ‘burden’.

Duplicate titles from the same domain name can upset Google more than anything. However, you can use similar titles.

6. You write irrelevant titles

As I said earlier, your title is a promise. If you offer your readers anything other than what you promised, they will surely not like it.

Irrelevant titles are the best way to increase your bounce rate. Visitors landing on a page and quickly quitting means your content is not useful – Google’s keen eyes are always watching it.

Blog title & SEO are joined at the hip – a little understanding of how they work can go a long way.

Was this post helpful? Please consider sharing it with those who make these mistakes.

FeedBurner not working… really?

Yes, even stuff from [...]]]>

Hi dear subscribers! You didn’t get my previous (extremely interesting) post: How To Enjoy The Early Days Of Blogging Even When It Sucks, delivered in your inbox because my FeedBurner was not working properly.

FeedBurner not working… really?

Yes, even stuff from the mighty Google can mess up. Not their fault though.

To monitor such issues, I’ve also subscribed to Writers Blog.

When I didn’t get the email, I knew there’s something fishy. I checked my RSS feed and discovered that FeedBurner is not updating it.

After a little probing, I realized it’s a common problem. So I wanted to share the solution with you. In case you ever face it, you would already know what to do.

What caused this issue?

The culprit here is usually any of the two famous caching plugins meant to speed up your WordPress site: W3 Total Cache or WP Super Cache (I use and recommend Super Cache wordpress plugin for writers).

What to do when FeedBurner not updating ?

Follow below given steps to resolve this matter:

Delete the cache

The first thing you need to do is clear your cache from the WP dashboard’s home.

Clearing Cache

When I tried to clear the cache, I came across another problem:

Error: Your cache directory (/public_html/blog/wp-content/cache/) or (public_html/blog/wp-content need to be writable for this plugin to work. Double-check it.

Cannot continue… fix previous problems and retry

To get rid of this problem, you need an FTP client program (I use and recommend FileZilla). Using your FTP client, open wp-content which contains the cache directory. Right click on ‘cache’ folder and choose File Permissions.

You need to edit the Numeric Value field: current value will be 755 (read only), change it to 777 (read, write).

Now go back to your WP dashboard and clear the cache.

Mistakenly, in addition to updating the permission settings of cache folder, I changed the permissions of wp-content to 777 also.

Thanks to the intelligent plugin, it quickly gave a warning that wp-content should not be writeable i.e. 777. So I changed it back to 755.

Pinging your RSS feed

Browse to your FeedBurner control panel, click Troubleshootize and then click “pinging FeedBurner”. Key in the RSS feed address  in the “Web site address” field and strike Ping FeedBurner.

Check your RSS Feed, it should be updated now.

Still the feed not updated?

If your feed isn’t still updated, its’ time to try the so-called “Nuclear Option”!

Scroll the Troubleshootize page all the way down and click on “Resync Now” button.

The Nuclear Option

As per FeedBurner, Resync actually:

Clears our cached version and refreshes its content from your Original Feed

Creates podcast enclosures for items that did not previously have them and contain links to podcast content

Reports any feed formatting problems encountered during the resync

How to avoid “FeedBurner Not Working” in future

Two steps can ensure you won’t encounter this nuisance ever again:

1. Go to your WP caching plugin settings and uncheck the option to “Cache Feed”.
2. Open your FeedBurner control panel, click on Publicize, then hit Ping Shot and activate this service.
   It will update your RSS feed as soon as you publish something new. Normally, it’s updated every 30 minutes.

Have you really got yourself off the hook?

Just publish a test post to see if your Feed is instantly updated or not. If it isn’t, drop a line in the comments and let’s see how to get it fixed.

Please share this post with others who use FeedBurner to syndicate their content.

There’s always more sadness than happiness.

And then you start blogging, expecting it’ll be entertaining plus moneymaking.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t happen!

You get just a handful of visitors, nobody is subscribing, you fail to monetize [...]]]>

Copyright: Andres Rodriguez - Fotolia.com

Your life is packed with tensions.

There’s always more sadness than happiness.

And then you start blogging, expecting it’ll be entertaining plus moneymaking.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t happen!

You get just a handful of visitors, nobody is subscribing, you fail to monetize your blog, nobody clicks on your ads and the money you invested turns out to be a poor outlay.

It happens in the early days of blogging and can be extremely painful. That’s why most bloggers quit during the very first year.

Let’s make sure it doesn’t happen to you.

The secret to producing quality content and keeping the readers hooked forever is MOTIVATION. If you are really goaded and find pleasure in your work, there is no stopping to your creativity.

But how can you stay motivated?

The trick is simple: when its’ not working big-time, find pleasure in small things.

The first dollar

There are two ways I use to monetize this blog: Amazon Affiliate Program and Google AdSense.

When I wrote my first ‘affiliate piece’: How to make a real living as a freelance writer, I wasn’t too expectant.

Amazingly, somebody ordered that book the very next day.

Though my post about Christmas gifts for writers generated a lot more revenue, it never felt as good as when the first sale went through.

Likewise, when there were first two clicks on my Google Ads in one day, I was overjoyed.

Enjoy when your blog earns you the first buck.

The first share

There will be times when you get dozens of tweets, likes, plus 1s etc. every single day. But you won’t feel as excited as you do now when your articles are shared once in a blue moon.

Celebrate your first few shares as a huge success. You have produced something worth sharing.

Don’t forget to thank the kind visitor.

Progressing Google Analytics stats

Beginners spend more time viewing their analytics than actually working on their blog. It’s funny that actually there is nothing much there.

When you see your bounce rate drop from 90% to 60%, you know you have made an achievement.

It’s amazing when green areas start lighting up around the globe under the Demographics tab. You get visitors from countries you never knew existed.

The first comment

New bloggers are envious when they see hundreds of comments on other blogs whereas even spammers don’t show up on their dashboard.

Have a ball when you get the first comment.

I was really excited when the famous freelance writer and blogger, Anne Wayman of aboutfreelancewriting first posted an interesting comment on my post: Bloggers avoid what Yahoo did if you want your blog to plug away!

The first guest post on a famous blog

I had written several guest posts on smaller blogs before my article was published on Carol Tice’s makealivingwriting. It was a major milestone.

Pitch a few big guns and party when any of these says Yes!

Such little things can surely help you forget the downsides of your blog. Enjoy whatever little success you achieve, stay motivated and be your best self!

You should rejoice but…

By pushing the boat out on your first few triumphs you won’t lose hope.

However, this does NOT mean that you should be contented with whatever you get. Always think big and aim high - even sky isn’t your limit!

How did you enjoy your early days of blogging? Share in the comments.

Was this post fun? Please consider sharing it with others.

If yes, read on.

I had loads of them when I started blogging.

After making countless mistakes and doing one heck of a research, finally I have debunked [...]]]>

Copyright: Fotolia.com - Dudarev Mikhail

Do you have any questions or issues about finding pictures for your blog?

If yes, read on.

I had loads of them when I started blogging.

After making countless mistakes and doing one heck of a research, finally I have debunked virtually all the myths.

Actually there are two major snags in finding photos for blog: high price of digital photos and fear of copyright infringement.

For better understanding, let’s keep this post in question-answer format and explore how to find free photos, how to attribute them properly and every other question that matters.

But in the end, I’ll talk about a gruesome scenario that might scare you enough to never use every blogger’s favorite ‘Creative Commons’ again!

Why images for your blog?

As Fred R. Barnard said,

“a picture is worth a thousand words”.

Posts without images are just like cars without paint – absolutely ugly!

Yes, there  are some other types of media that are even more powerful. However, their smaller size, high impact, ease of use and many other characteristics make pictures the most popular option for your blog.

Where to find free photos?

This is the most important question. I use following five ways to find images.

1.       DIY: The best way to go is to take photos yourself – yes, just buy an affordable point and shoot digital camera and ‘bon photography’.
It’s cost-effective, it’s customized to your needs and it’s real FUN!

2.       Google Advanced Image Search: where there’s will, there is a way where there’s search, there is a Google!
Though it might not offer you a plethora of digital imagery, it can solve the problem at times. Make sure you choose the right option in ‘usage right’ drop down at the end of the page.

3.       Everystockphoto: This ‘license-specific photo search engine’ is pretty similar to Google’s advanced image search. It allows a bit more options to restrict your results and combs all the major free stock photo sources.

4.       Flicker: Not all the images on this gigantic photo database from Yahoo are under Creative Commons, but you can filter them by selecting the right option.

5.       Stock.Xchng: Many photos from this site don’t even require attribution but their standard license requires you to

“take the time to comment on and rate the Image you downloaded and do your best to show the work you created with the Image to the photographer.”

However, the higher quality photos from stock.xchng are NOT free.

6. Wikimedia Commons: You may not find amazing photos on Wikimedia but at times you may come across a pearl!

What’s Creative Commons?

Copyright laws are extremely restrictive, and if approved, SOPA and PIPA might make them even stricter.

Creative Commons (or CC) is a non-profit organization devoted to expanding the range of creative work available for others to build upon and share.

They have done the hard legal figuring for you to streamline your preferences with respect to what you can do with others’ work.

What’s image attribution?

There are different methods of attributing an image licensed under CC. Usually, the owner specifies his preferred way.

Most sites use acronyms (which are rather confusing) for attribution.

Attribution-NoDerivs: CC BY-ND

You may distribute the image, WITHOUT editing it, for personal or commercial purposes. You must credit the owner.

Attribution-ShareAlike: CC BY-SA

It’s same as CC BY; however, any new art created by anyone based on this image will also carry the same license.

Attribution-NonCommercial: CC BY-NC

You may edit or build upon the image for non-commercial purposes ONLY. You must credit the owner. Any art you create based on this image will not carry the same license; however, this art can also be used for non-commercial purposes only.

Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike: CC BY-NC-SA

You may edit/modify and build upon the original image for personal purposes only. You must credit the owner.

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs: CCBY-NC-ND

You may share the image WITHOUT editing and for non-commercial purposes only. You must credit the owner.

Attribution: CC BY

You may distribute, modify, and/or build the original image for non-commercial as well as commercial purposes. You must credit the owner.

Which type you should choose?

You may choose any of the following three popular types of images on the web:

JPG/JPEG/JFIF: JPG (Joint Photographic Experts Group) is the most commonly used (and recommended) format. Usually, it’s lossy compression (a data compression method which discards some of the ‘less useful’ data) and is extensively used in the digital cameras.

The major benefit of this format is the relatively small size of the file. However, if images are repeatedly edited, the quality suffers big-time.

It’s also not suitable for images with text, simple shapes having crisp edges and large blocks of solid colors. When the image is compressed or edited, it becomes blurry.

PNG Images: This format was actually developed as a replacement of GIF because the GIF images were subject to a royalty free. It’s a much better compression method and you can also create animated images.

The best result of PNG images can be achieved by selecting true colors, but this results in huge file size. PNG is not supported by most of the older cellphones.

GIF Images: Usually referred for smaller images and thumbnails GIF images have a fixed number of colors i.e. 256 unique colors.

It’s the best format for storing graphics with relatively few colors i.e. logos, simple diagrams, shapes and cartoon images. GIF also supports animation. Unlike JPG, its GIF can handle the compression of images with large blocks of solid color more efficiently.

How to use a copyrighted image?

If you are dying to use a copyrighted image, the only legal option is to contact the owner and seek his approval.

What to do when there is a complaint?

If you get a complaint from someone about an image on your blog, remove it immediately!

It’s interesting that you can evade liability by deleting the image under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).

What’s the Risk in using Creative Commons?

Is there really any risk using the creative commons?

Yes – a lottttt!

Actually there are two such circumstances where CC can get you in trouble:

1. Any ‘moron’ can assign a CC license to the image he uploads, regardless of having the ACTUAL copyrights to do so. If you download such an image, you have infringed copyrights!

2. On some websites, such as flicker, the owner can change the licensing options. The image with ‘some rights reserved’ you gleefully downloaded can become one with ‘all rights reserved’.

So better be careful when using CC!

Have any other question about finding free pictures for your blog? Let’s talk about it in the comments!

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