Free Images for Blogs and Websites from Google
In: Blogging
18 Jul 2009
Many bloggers and website designers go to Google.com, click on the Images link, find a good picture, save it and upload it to their website. Unfortunately, I’ve done the same thing. Google Images makes it too easy.
Images are like text, do you want someone to copy your latest blog post and paste it on their website? Of course not, but the same rules apply to images. The images belong to the photographers, just like your blog posts should belong to you. If someone wants to share your blog post, you can give them permission . . . just like photographers do with the Creative Commons License.
Google has introduced a new Creative Commons Image Search feature that will help keep you moral and legal with your blog or website. You can search for images that are allowed to be used on your website without permission, and upload them without worry.
(BTW, Creative Commons Images = FREE images and pictures for your website that mostly look good.)
- (2) Comments
- Tags: Blogging, Free Images, Google
I just watched the brand new “United Breaks Guitars” video thanks to a tweet from @cassi_hl. The song and video are funny and well done, but it got me thinking about bad publicity on the Internet and what to do about it. The video is about four minutes long, but I thought it was worth it. Heck, it will probably take less time to watch then reading my typically long winded blog posts. Enjoy:
The United Airlines baggage guys threw the guitars around, broke one of their acoustic guitars, and after a year long battle . . . United refused to do anything about it.
Welcome to the year 2009, where the customer service stakes are much higher. If you don’t provide good customer service, you can end up all over the Internet. Companies pay Internet Marketing guys like me to bury the ripoff.com reports that appear on the first page of Google when searching for their company name. It is that serious.
Starting today, I think United Airlines will realize how serious it is and someone is going to get yelled at. Maybe multiple people. The “United Breaks Guitars” video was uploaded just yesterday, but already has 3,500 views. It should become pretty popular . . . so what should United do?
- Comments Off on What To Do About the “United Breaks Guitars” Video
- Tags: Bad Press Online, Internet Marketing, Youtube
The First Blog I Started Five Years Ago
In: Blogging
7 Jul 2009
I work with a guy who likes to say I’ve been blogging longer than anyone. That’s obviously not anywhere close to being true, but I did start my first WordPress blog in 2004. (No, it wasn’t this newly created site with twenty posts.) Five years of blogging is a long time for the Internet world, especially for Indianapolis bloggers. So what did I do and how did I do it?
I wanted a website of my own. At work I had started creating micro sites, ecommerce sites, and continuing to develop our main website; but, it was for work. I wanted to start a website for myself. It couldn’t be a regular static HTML website, it had to be something cool and dynamic so I could easily update it and impress myself. I tried Joomla, Drupal and then chose WordPress.
But what would the website be about? What topic, niche or interest would I write about? I have tons of interests and could have talked about everything, but I wanted to focus on something that I was interested in and that could possibly make money. I decided to create a community website for the town I live in, Fishers, Indiana.
- Comments Off on The First Blog I Started Five Years Ago
- Tags: Blog, Blogging, Community Website
The Easiest Way to Fail at Social Media for Business
In: Social Media
6 Jul 2009What we’ve got here is . . . failure to communicate. One of the easiest things to do, but one of the most often overlooked aspects of using social media sites like Twitter and Facebook, is replying to followers and fans. Reply, reply, reply . . . it really is that easy.
Imagine if I was talking with you and kept telling you story after story. Then you would respond to one of my stories with a similar story, but I didn’t seem like I was listening and never even commented about your story. I just kept talking about my stories. No two-way communication, just me talking to you.
That’s how a follower or fan of your business feels when they don’t hear from you. They retweet your updates, or ask a question on your Facebook page, but never hear anything back. It’s like they don’t even matter to you. Is that how you want your fans, followers or potential clients to feel about you and your business? You don’t care about them?!?
I thought about this problem yesterday while checking out The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis Facebook page. A fan had asked how they could sign up for the Dino Dig next year, and I’ll admit that I didn’t think she would receive a reply. But, lo and behold, I just checked out their Facebook page today and there are two replies from The Children’s Museum answering both questions! That, my Facebook friends, is how you do it.
So don’t ignore your friends, fans and followers . . . give them some comment love. Thank them for their retweets on Twitter, respond to comments on your blogs and answer questions on your Facebook page. Listening and conversing with others on social media sites is the best way to split up all of the sales pitches you are throwing at them, and the main reason why you are using social media. Look, listen, communicate, make relationships and get more business. If all you do is talk about yourself, people will stop listening. Two-way communication folks . . . it really is that easy.
Look & Listen – who ever thought Mister Rogers could teach us about social media?
- Comments Off on The Easiest Way to Fail at Social Media for Business
- Tags: Facebook, Indianapolis Social Media, Twitter
My last post, How the Indiana Pacers Can Improve Their Internet Marketing, highlighted just a few of my many Internet Marketing ideas for the Pacers. Although I listed the billions of examples that they are currently using, I didn’t come out and say how I really felt . . . the Indiana Pacers are doing an excellent job with Internet Marketing. As a huge Pacers fan who went to about 30 home games last year, and one away game in Washington D.C. where I was constantly mocked by the Wizards mascot, it gives me great pride to proclaim the Pacers’ prowess with Internet Marketing and Social Media in Indiana. You can always do more, do things different, and do things better . . . no matter how good you’re currently playing the game or using the Internet, so maybe I’ll share a Pacers Part Two in the future. That is, if the Pacers get Boomer more popular in search results than the Wizards mascot G-WIZ. Maybe I’ll help push that alien wizard down in the search engines . . .
After I published my Pacers blog post, I also sent a tweet on Twitter with the title to the blog post, a link to the blog post, the tags #Pacers and #Indy, and also used “@indianapacers” so it would hopefully get their attention.
Less than 24 hours later, I received a direct message from the Indiana Pacers on Twitter. They thanked me for my tweets, and wanted to clarify that they don’t delete comments on their Facebook page unless they contain swear words. I would never use swear words on Facebook, and was pretty sure it got deleted, but replied back explaining that and mentioned they were doing a great job on the Internet.
- Comments Off on Twitter for Business Example From the Indiana Pacers
- Tags: Facebook, Indiana Internet Marketing, Indiana Pacers, Twitter
With the growth of the Interwebs over the past decade, the Indiana Pacers have finally caught on during the last couple of years. About two years ago, the Pacers added a new “highlight section” at the top of the page featuring the most important news. They also started a blog section, written by the great Conrad Brunner, providing many updates with interesting information for Pacers fans. The Pacers took their blogging efforts a step further last year and added blogs by the Pacer players, but also included a local Pacers fan and blogger Indy Cornrows, which was a great move. I receive text messages, emails, Facebook updates, and Tweets from the Indiana Pacers about any important Pacers news. Recently they have had live online video of press conferences, video blogs from players, live chats with new players from the 2009 NBA Draft, different home pages for game nights, separate micro sites, special ticket prices available only online, and even gave away free tickets on Twitter and Facebook. Wow, that was a mouthful.
After reading many of the Internet Marketing tactics the Indiana Pacers are currently using, how could they possibly improve their local Internet Marketing, online presence and ticket sales?
- Comments Off on How the Indiana Pacers Can Improve Their Internet Marketing
- Tags: Facebook, Indiana Internet Marketing, Indiana Pacers, Indiana Social Media, Internet Marketing, Twitter
Kevin Hood is on a mission. That’s right, I said Kevin Hood. I must pronounce the word “Hood” with a weird accent, because most of the time that I say my name, people ask me to repeat my last name. I have learned to answer the question with “like Robin Hood,” which usually gets a chuckle and they realize how to spell it. Except the time I signed up for cable television over the phone in college . . . for a year I got a bill addressed to Robin Hood.
Kevin Hood is my name, don’t wear it out.
This is the official Kevin Hood blog post. The reason why I am saying my name a lot is because when I search Google for my name, this guy who shows horses comes up before me. He used to own KevinHood.com, but let it expire several years ago and I snatched it up the second it became available. The other Kevin Hood started a new website about two years ago, with a different domain name, and is still doing the horse thing. His new website has been around longer than mine, so I think that’s why it’s coming up first on Google. Until this official Kevin Hood blog post . . . look out. Get off of me “other Kevin Hood.”
Kevin Hood doesn’t need to remind you that stuffing your posts with keywords is not the ideal way to increase your search engine ranking, but it can’t kill you every once in a while. It won’t kill Kevin Hood . . . I’ll be alive tomorrow. However, therefore, please do note: the search engines can penalize you – so be careful. Do as I say, not as I do.
So what else am I going to do with this official Kevin Hood blog post?
How can I beat the other Kevin Hood in my personal search engine war?
I can remember it like it was just yesterday. Designing a flyer in Corel Draw, taking it to the local print shop to get hundreds of copies, and then plastering them all over the campus of Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana. Who could forget the long trips to Bloomington, Indiana just to hang flyers all over town for our gig the next week at The Bluebird. Or the hour long drive to Indianapolis to hang Cootie Brown flyers for our next show at The Patio. We printed a different flyer for every show, and it had to be unique, colorful and professional. That was the best way to market your band back then, well one of the only ways.
Way back in 1995 we even had a website, but I don’t think many students visited the site unless they were at the computer lab. No one really had computers back then. I was one of the few, and spent late nights designing our site in Notepad, and then Dreamweaver (Version 3.0?) and trying my best to create a good site. Kevin Hood’s first website wasn’t bad considering it was over ten years ago . . .
We even mailed a monthly newsletter to all of the fans that signed up for the mailing list at our shows. I wrote the copy, designed the layout, had them printed, and we all hand folded each one and licked the stamps. I almost forgot about the four page color brochures we had printed and mailed in fancy envelopes with our logo to all of the bars in the Midwest. OK, so I was crazy about marketing even back then, but it was fun and a good experience.
Fast forward to the year 2009 and bands rarely even hang flyers anymore. They definitely don’t mail out a monthly newsletter, and a lot of bands rely on MySpace or Facebook as their only website. Bands didn’t have websites, then they did, and now they don’t again. It’s a lot easier to remind your fans about the next show on a social media site they visit every day.
Having just made some changes, I was in need of some furniture. I think I found “Lizzy” on Craigslist, but can’t really remember. Lizzy has a blog called Lila’s Pockets and updates it with the newest piece of furniture she has for sale. But, like a lot of products, it’s not easy to sell big furniture online so she is marketing herself locally in the Indianapolis area. Fortunately for her, I live in the same town as Lizzy (Fishers, Indiana) so I was a perfect potential client.
Fortunately for me, Lizzy has some really cool stuff. She finds old furniture like coffee tables, end tables and mirrors at garage sales or elsewhere, and refinishes them with a simple vintage look that I like.
Several items that I liked sold pretty quickly, but then I saw a new item in my RSS feed that caught my eye. And then another one. I emailed Lizzy and asked to buy the items, and then picked them up the next day. It was that easy. No auctions, no shipping costs, no weird phone calls for her . . . just a visit from a fellow resident who likes her work.
With such an easy and great potential at-home business, how could Lizzy expand her local online presence?
Google just announced a new analytics-type dashboard for small businesses. The dashboard provides statistics for your business on Google Local pages. Stats such as Google Map impressions, clicks on the map, requests for driving directions, and clicks directly to your website are monitored. It also features the top number of search queries used to find your business, and even what locations driving direction requests come from.
This is a pretty big deal. I’ve always wondered how many times my business was clicked on when looking at the Google Local map. Now I know much more and can improve my listing, advertise locally with Google Adwords and even create free coupons with the new dashboard.
Eventually this will probably integrate with Google Analytics and Adwords, but for now it’s a great idea from Google to get local businesses interested in their directory listing. A lot of people use Google Maps, so get your business on the map today.
- Comments Off on Google Local Web Dashboard for Small Businesses
- Tags: Google Local
Skills
Technology, computers, IT, sales, marketing, website design, internet marketing, search engine conqueror, writing, community, humor and more.
Categories
- Blogging (4)
- Business Blogs (3)
- General (1)
- Internet Marketing (12)
- Email Marketing (2)
- SEO (2)
- Live Internet Video (1)
- Local Internet Marketing (5)
- Marketing (2)
- Social Media (10)
- Writing for People (1)
- Happy New Year Dead Blog Part Dos!
- Happy New Year Dead Blog!
- Advertise Yourself on the Internet Like This?
- Get Crazy With Social Media
- Businesses Designing Their Own WordPress Websites
- Reasons and Challenges: Starting a Local Political Website
- The NBA Needs to Feature Tweets to Keep Them Clean
- Don’t Want a Business Blog? Let’s Call It a News Page for SEO
- Sexiest Social Bookmarking Plugin for WordPress
- Show Me How You Can Get Business With Social Media!
- daltonsbriefs: All very funny! I would add that 2010 will be the year that every unemployed person with a computer [...]
- Ian Rhodes: Absolutely right Kevin - I've had the same conversations - the term 'blogging' is syn [...]
- Kevin Hood : Kevin, I am the horse guy Kevin Hood wasn't aware of any competition between the two of us. [...]
- Kati Davis: I've been suggesting to University's for a while that they use a blog format for their new [...]
- Justin Harter: I best be getting myself busy with this new fangled-technique! [...]