Amethyst Answers

web creation and social media training for small businesses

Making Your Blog Posts Picture Perfect

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Q. I’ve heard I should use pictures in my blog posts, but where can I get picture to use?

Silver picture frame
Image courtesy of adamr / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

A. It’s true, people are drawn to visuals, and having an image to accompany your post can help increase the number of visitors who decide to read it. There are a few ways you can add images to increase visual appeal. Here are a few popular suggestions to consider:

Use Your Own

Certainly the cheapest, this may or may not be viable for you. You will want to ensure your images are good quality. While you don’t need to be a professional photographer, you’ll want to ensure any personal photos you use are lit well and not blurry or grainy (unless that’s the look you are going for). Pro: you have total control over what is and isn’t included in your image. Con: you may not have easy access to your ideal subject matter.

Purchase Stock Images

There are a variety of websites that offer photos, illustrations and any other type of graphic you can imagine, for a cost. This is a good route to go if you are going to get a lot of use out of a particular image, like in a marketing campaign, for example. Prices vary, depending on the size of file, and how generic – or not – the image is. A photo of Donald Trump will cost you considerably more than “senior businessman smiling“. If you are using these photos for blog posts, even at just $4 per photo, the cost will add up eventually. Make sure you are aware of any licence requirements.

Take Advantage of Creative Commons Licensing

This is my favourite option. It’s the best of both worlds. Free, like using your own, but a wide variety available. You may find yourself returning to a favourite source again and again. Or, you can try doing a creative commons search. There is, however, a catch: you must be aware of the licensing requirements that pertain to the image you decide to use. In most, if not all, cases, you need to include an attribution. Depending on where you get your image from, placement guidelines of the attribution could be vague or general (in your source code or anywhere on your site) or they may be very specific and rigid (on the same page as the image, or even immediately adjacent to the image). Usually the attribution should indicate who created the image and have a link to the site where you found it, like I have done for my image above.

Whichever way you choose to go, make sure your images are appropriate for the content you provide.

This post is part of a regular feature series called Tuesday Tips. Every Tuesday, I will answer some of the questions I receive from clients and readers about WordPress, social media and all other things internet-related. If you have a question you would like me to answer, submit it here.

Why Special Fonts Aren’t So “Font-astic”

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Q. Can I use a special font on my website? Something fancy or funky to make my website different from all the rest?

Fonts
Image courtesy of Vlado / FreeDigitalPhotos.net 

A. This is one of those questions where the answer, technically, is yes; but just because you can, doesn’t mean you should. You can designate any font you want for the text on your website. However, if the computer or other device being used to view your website is unfamiliar with that font, it will display a default font instead. One of the reasons most websites use one of the standard fonts, like Times New Roman or Arial, instead of special fonts is because most computers understand those standard fonts and display them properly. These fonts are considered web-safe.

Also, keep in mind you want your visitors to be able to read your content easily. If your font is too crazy, some people may get frustrated and give up, moving on to a site that’s easier to visually process. Simple, plain fonts work best for big chunks of text, like paragraphs. Many visitors to websites don’t actually read every word on the page. Instead, they scan, looking for keywords that grab their attention. If they are having  a hard time interpreting a fancy font, they will likely skim right past it, potentially missing out on something important you have to say.

If you absolutely have fallen in love with a special font that isn’t considered web-safe, I do have some suggestions. One is to use a “fallback” system: specify your preferred font, but also include an acceptable web-safe alternative. This way you still have some control over what font the reader will see.

Alternatively, if you are using the special font for a header, or to highlight a small bit of text, you could create an image of the text, but that opens up a whole new can of worms that will be dealt with in a later post. (email me if you need more info and can’t wait)

So, to sum up, while you have a wide variety of fonts available to use on your website, the lesson I hope you have learned is: choose wisely.

This post is part of a regular feature series called Tuesday Tips. Every Tuesday, I will answer some of the questions I receive from clients and readers about WordPress, social media and all other things internet-related. If you have a question you would like me to answer, submit it here.

There’s nothing vain about having a vanity URL

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Woman Looking in Mirror
Image courtesy of Ambro / FreeDigitalPhotos.net 

Q. What is a vanity URL and how do I get one?

A. A vanity URL is similar to a vanity licence plate, in that you get to choose how it reads, instead of being randomly assigned some jibberish that means nothing to those who read it. And in the case of URLs, they are usually quite long and difficult to remember.

If you are using various sites like Facebook and LinkedIn for your business, it is in your best interest to claim a vanity URL. First off, it allows your customers to find you easily, especially if you want to direct potential clients to your specific page in marketing campaigns. Second, it prevents someone else from pretending to be you.

Vanity URLs may be available on a variety of social media sites for your specific account, but the two that I come across most often with my clients are Facebook and LinkedIn.

Facebook

Most people are familiar with Facebook vanity URLs by now, but note that Facebook refers to the custom part as a “username”. The format for these URLs (using my own as an example) is http://www.facebook.com/amethystanswers and amethystanswers is the username. If you haven’t done so already, I strongly encourage you to select a suitable username for your business page. Facebook makes the process incredibly easy. All you have to do is:

  1. Go to their Username page
  2. Choose your business page from the drop down menu
  3. Type your desired username in the text field beside it
  4. Click the “Check Availability” button.

Hopefully the name you requested is available, and now yours. If not, try another one.

LinkedIn

A vanity URL for your personal LinkedIn page is helpful when directing potential clients to check out your experience and referrals. It also shows that you took the extra effort to make your page more professional and easy to find.

Set up your LinkedIn vanity URL with these simple steps:

  1. After logging in to your LinkedIn account, hover over your name at the top right side of the screen and click Settings when the options appear. If prompted, enter your password.
  2. Towards the bottom of the Settings page, on the left, choose Profile if it isn’t automatically selected. This gives you the expanded Profile menu.
  3. From this menu, under Helpful Links, click on “Edit your public profile“.
  4. On the right, you will see tons of options for customizing how your profile page appears to others. Feel free to explore and modify these settings, but the one you are specifically looking for right now is in it’s own little box called “Your public profile URL“. Here you will see what your current URL is. If you wish to change it, click where it says “Customize your public profile URL“.
  5. A pop up screen will appear. Similar to Facebook, type your desired name into the text field provided, then select the “Set Custom URL” button.
  6. Note your complete new custom URL. LinkedIn vanity URLs aren’t as straightforward as Facebook vanity URLs. Mine, for example, is ca.linkedin.com/in/christinaworkman. Two things to pay attention to here are the beginning and the middle. Instead of starting with the standard “www” mine starts with “ca”, which indicates I am in Canada. Also, note the “/in/” in the middle of the  URL. If you don’t include that when sharing your URL, nobody will find you.
Now that you have your vanity URLs set up, don’t forget to tell the world! How else do you expect people to find you?
 

This post is part of a regular feature series called Tuesday Tips. Every Tuesday, I will answer some of the questions I receive from clients and readers about WordPress, social media and all other things internet-related. If you have a question you would like me to answer, submit it here.

5 Simple Steps to Schedule a Post on Your Facebook Page

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Welcome to Tuesday Tips. This week’s question is one I have been asked several times in the last few months. Since it’s such a popular question, I thought it would be a good one to kickstart this series.

Q. Can I pre-schedule a post for my Facebook page?

A. You sure can! There are several third party programs available that allow you to plan out posts in advance for Facebook and numerous other sites. But, if you just want to pre-schedule a post on Facebook, there’s no need to sign up for yet another service. You can do it right in Facebook! Here’s how:

  1. Go to your Page and start typing the post that you want to schedule.
  2. Click on the timer/clock icon in the bottom left corner of the post box. (If you hover over it, it says “Schedule or backdate a post”.)
  3. Select the year, month, day and time when you want your post to be published.
  4. When you are done and everything is set the way you want, click the “Schedule” button.
  5. Sit back and relax, knowing your post will go out to your fans at the pre-selected day and time.

This is the debut post for a regular feature series called Tuesday Tips. Every Tuesday, I will answer some of the questions I receive from clients and readers about WordPress, social media and all other things internet. If you have a question you would like me to answer, submit it here.

Kicking off a new series

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I’m excited to announce that I am starting a new series of blog posts, called Tuesday Tips!

I get a lot of questions from my clients, friends and family about their websites and social media, among other things. Sometimes many of them have the same question, so I figured there’s a good chance a lot of other people are wondering these things as well, but just haven’t asked.

Starting tomorrow, I will tackle a different topic each week. Hopefully you will learn something new that will improve the way you use the internet. And if you have a question  you’d like me to answer, you can submit it here.