Images Will Help Your Post - Wordpress Tips

Images are not always necessary but they can help the overall look of your post and make it more appealing to the reading audience.

There are a lot of places that you can get images from, but you must keep in mind that we cannot allow photos to go up on the website that we do not have the rights to use. If you do use an image found on any search engine, it is not likely that we will be allowed to keep it up. To make sure that you are using an appropriate image, you could follow these steps below, using Flickr as a source.



1. Go To: http://www.flickr.com/ and click on the word search in the upper right hand corner. Then on the new page, click advanced search, also located near the right corner.

2. Here, in the the advanced search screen, you want to type in what you are looking for in the search box, choose all three options, photos, screenshots, illustration art, then select box that says "only search creative commons images."

3. Select the image that you want to use in your post.

4. Click on the word "share" located above the image, and a drop down will appear. Within the drop down, click on "Grab the HTML/BCCode."

5. Copy the entire HTML code to your clipboard. Go to your MyFDL post and click on the HTML tab on the post window. Make sure you are NOT in the visual tab. In the HTML side, paste your HTML code.

6. Once you have pasted the code, click back to the visual tab side and you should see your image. Click on the image and choose the icon that appears in the upper left hand corner of the image in order to EDIT it.

7. As shown in my screen shot (click to enlarge) you can edit the size of the photo, its position, right, left, center, and add a caption. You must add a caption to your photo giving credit to the owner of the image. In the caption, include the name of the owner and the title of the image. Example: Ryan Cook - Obama Nation. This info is provided on the page where you found the image. (Title is underneath the photo and owner to the right of the photo)

8. Click "Update" and your image will adjust within the post. In the visual side tab you can physically drag the image to where you would like it positioned as well.

If you are using other image sites make sure that you are allowed to use the image, can locate the HTML code for it, and that you give credit to the owner and title of the image.

If you have any further questions about adding images from Flickr or other sources, feel free to send me an email at ryan@firedoglake.com. I will be happy to help out the best I can.

Writing Like Shakespeare + Thinking Like Aristotle = Blogging Success

Sometimes we get caught up with modern modes of communication, tweeting, poking, and hash tagging, all of which sound more like dirty internet actions rather than marketing and writing strategies.

It's good to take a few steps back and dig deep down to our roots for guidance and support. Remember that good writing matters, and great words "stick." Marketo, a leader in online business to business marketing has been posting a few articles about these topics.

The first of the two articles worth mentioning talks about Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. We will focus on the Aristotle portion of the article for our needs.


Tips for writing from Aristotle:

1. Logos - Be logical. When writing, consider both sides, and deliver the best side with reason. Stick to the facts.

2. Pathos - Be emotional. Connect emotionally with the reader. Think about what they are feeling and target that particular emotion.

3. Ethos - Be ethical. In terms of writing at FDL, or any other new blog, be sure to maintain your credibility by having good strong sources, and data to back up your writing.

(click here for the full article)

The second article talks about writing like Shakespeare. The first step to writing like Will is to actually read his works. Once you have tired from reading, put your effort to good use and start writing; vividly and poetically. You want to make your post memorable and worthy of someones time. Not to mention, if you can make the post stick with them, all the more power to you. Interesting content and a topic of interest to get them involved is of course needed, but keeping them there, and from moving onto the next news source is essential.

Getting Clients To Do You Work

At my company we were $25,000 away from our fundraising goal with only a week left to make it up. We needed something quick, but we did not have the capacity.

What I decided to do was hire our supporters. Crazy right? No, people want to share their stories, they want people to listen, and you are giving them that chance. I segmented a list of people who had completed multiple actions for a specific campaign including donating money. I asked they if they would write a post on our blog and tell 'their story.'

They were so excited to be asked to do a task that they could easily have done and had permission to do before, but since they were asked in a manner that made them feel special and important, they jumped at it, like chum. By sending out 47 emails to a group of high energy clients, I was able to receive 5 very strong blog posts. With their permission, a fundraising ask and donate widget were added into their post.

By doing one hour of emails, and about 2 hours of html support and editing, I was able to increase our capacity by 100%. In additional, the quality of the work increases due to its diversity. Instead of myself or other members of our staff writing as they always do, we had fresh, exciting, and passionate posts from new writers.

Lets not use me as the example all the time. Say you are an advertising company who creates online templates. Have you client write a post on your blog, or a post on another blog stating how wonderful the product was. Make sure to offer a helping hand to your clients doing the work for you in order to optimize their post; backlinks, killer subject lines, and quotes from your company if possible!

Put A Little Google Plus In Your World

I can assure you that everyone on the staff calls are getting a bit annoyed with my constant Google+ blurps and shout-outs. One might think I was invested in it. I can also assure you I would be if I could afford it, but a series of terrible investing choices have left me with only lunch money.

Anyways, Google+ is now open to everyone. After just 90 days of its test trial, Google feels its new social media network is ready for anyone. What does this mean? Well for one, a lot more active users, and two, more of a reason to join up. With more people jumping on the Google social bandwagon, posting articles, statuses, music videos, and other links are going to be much more worthwhile in terms of visibility.

David F, one of our great members contacted me the other day about a post that he had written. I asked him how it was going, and he replied that he did not receive any comments and sounded slightly discouraged. The truth is, we have over 10,000 active writers at FDL, so many posts go unnoticed. The way that posts make it to the front pages of MyFDL and the main site, is by being read, and recommended. The more you are recommended, the better chance you have of being "front-paged" and furthermore, commented on.

Using Google+, where you can sign up here, is a great way to share your FDL posts with friends and followers. Every time that you post a link to your article on Google+, or Facebook for that matter, it will show up on your friends/followers news feeds.

Welcome Post - Blogging Nation

Welcome to my blog on marketing and online campaign strategies. My name is Ryan Christopher Cook and I am the marketing coordinator for CommonSense Media and Firedoglake (FDL). Most of my time recently has been dedicated to developing campaign strategies for fundraising at FDL.

FDL is an online independent new blog that has core writers, but is open to the community in its MyFDL section. This means that anyone can come onto the site and sign up to either comment on articles posted, or to create their own original posts.

In order to stay afloat, the company runs various campaigns and actions in order to receive donations.

What I would like to do with this blog is to cross post some of my articles that I have written over there targeting campaigns and product marketing, and add new posts that deal with business to business marketing, and business to consumer marketing. I hope to bring you new strategies and insights from the industries leaders and some of my own innovative ideas.

Please leave any suggestions or topics you may want me to cover.