According to the Google Knowledge Graph:

A key performance indicator (KPI) is a business metric used to evaluate factors that are crucial to the success of an organization. KPIs differ per organization; business KPIs may be net revenue or a customer loyalty metric, while government might consider unemployment rates (http://searchcrm.techtarget.com/definition/key-performance-indicator).

Here’s how you can identify KPIs for your blog:

Identify your business goal

In order to identify your KPIs, you must first focus on your high-level business goal that you want to accomplish. As a blogger, start by asking yourself this existential question: “For what purpose does my blog exist?”  A couple of examples of answers to this question might be, “to make money from advertising” or “to establish myself as an expert in my field.”  Once you’ve realized why your blog exists, you can define your business goals and dictate your KPIs.

Define Your KPIs

Next, identify the metrics that tie to your business goals and allow you to measure the performance of your blog.  These are your KPIs.  For example, if your business goal is to establish yourself as an expert in your field, your KPI is the metric that will help you define the success of that business goal.

An example of a KPI that could be used to measure how well you have established yourself as an expert in your field is “Social Shares of Articles On My Blog.”  You can identify yourself as an expert in your field by measuring how many times articles on your blog have been shared on social networks like Facebook, Twitter, and Linkedin.  You may even set a tangible goal such as 50 Social Shares, because Person X is an expert and Person X usually achieves about 50 Social Shares as well.

Identify your Key Metric and Assign a Value to it

Once you’ve defined your KPI, you can tie it to a metric in your analytics.  For example, the “Increase Social Shares of Articles on my Blog” KPI may be directly tied to the “Social Shares” metric that you have defined as a Goal in Google Analytics.  Assign a monetary value to this metric to help you determine how its performance affects your bottom line.

The performance of this metric is the key to giving you the opportunity to brag about your blog and say “My blog is successful, and here’s how I know.”

Report and Filter the Noise

Use your KPIs to guide your reporting on analytics for your blog.  Your clearly defined KPI will help you filter out all the noise created by superfluous data that you have collected in Google Analytics, and focus on the metrics that matter.  Focus on your end goal and work backwards to find out what behaviors people used to reach your end goal.

Iterate and Improve

When you report the performance of your blog, if you focus on your end goal and work backwards, you can then focus in on the potential for improvement in the future.  If you have hit the mark that you’ve defined as your goal, then great job!  Wave your flag and capitalize on your success!  If you discover that have not hit the mark, use this as an opportunity to find out why.  Then, iterate and improve your blog and its content.  The existence of KPIs can be the deciding factor of success for your blog.

The post How to Identify KPIs for Your Blog appeared first on AmpliFound.

But is it possible to earn enough as a blogger to do it full-time? And if so, is it sustainable long-term?

First, let’s talk money

Whether or not you can afford to quit your day job and live on blogging alone is completely up to you. You alone know how much you need to earn in order to maintain your lifestyle. So, once you determine the amount of money you’ll need to earn in order to blog full-time, the next step is to figure out if your blog has the potential to earn that much.

It’s easy to get excited when you read about how some top bloggers are earning upwards of $1 million per year. But it’s also very important to be realistic: highly-successful bloggers like BryanBoy, Pink Peonies, and Man Repeller are the exception, not the rule.

It’s a lot harder to determine earning potential for lower- to middle-tier bloggers, because most bloggers don’t disclose their earnings – talking about money is taboo, you know. But here at AmpliFound, we’ve got a ready-made case study: me!

I ran my own affordable fashion and shopping blog for seven years (from 2006-2013), and I’m ready to break the taboo and talk! First, some factoids about my blog:

• The majority of my blog’s revenue came from affiliate links (mostly ShopSense, some RewardStyle). I featured some sponsored content once in a while.
• In the blog’s heyday, it got an average of 75,000 unique visitors per month.
• I posted between 15-20 posts per week, and each post had an average of 5 links, which meant that the blog had an average of 75-100 affiliate links per month.
• I spent 15-20 hours blogging per week, on top of my full-time work.

Now, the earnings! Depending on the time of year, I’d earn anywhere between $300 and $2000 a month from my blog. The highest earning months were October (when I posted Halloween costumes every day of the month) and December (because of holiday shopping). Earnings would usually drop off significantly after the new year, and peak again in fall and winter. But the earnings weren’t consistent on a month-to-month basis, and even if I’d managed to earn $2000 every month, that wouldn’t have been enough for me and my family.

Since my story doesn’t apply to everyone, here are some more statistics for context’s sake:

In 2012, ProBlogger did a survey of 1,000 bloggers to find out their monthly earnings:

About 50% of the bloggers earned less than $100 a month.

Also in 2012, Jeff Bullas posted some statistics that showed that only 8% of bloggers earn enough to support a family, and 81% never even make $100 from blogging.

The moral of the story? Most bloggers will never make enough money to quit their day jobs.

Is Blogging Sustainable?

But say that you do. Say that you work really hard and build a great blog with high-quality content and engaged readers, and you earn enough money that you can support yourself or your family from your blog earnings. Does blogging in general have a future?

Well, I don’t have a crystal ball, but in the past year lots of big-time bloggers have moved onto other endeavors (see: Andrew Sullivan, Dooce, Young House Love). Furthermore, lots of really smart people are saying that blogging is on the decline.

In this article, Vox’s Ezra Klein claims that two things factor into the decline of blogging:

The first is that, at this moment in the media, scale means social traffic. Links from other bloggers — the original currency of the blogosphere, and the one that drove its collaborative, conversational nature — just don’t deliver the numbers that Facebook does. But blogging is a conversation, and conversations don’t go viral. People share things their friends will understand, not things that you need to have read six other posts to understand… The other reason is that the bigger the site gets, and the bigger the business gets, the harder it is to retain the original voice.

Nieman Lab‘s Jason Kottke has a similar outlook:

The primary mode for the distribution of links has moved from the loosely connected network of blogs to tightly integrated services like Facebook and Twitter. If you look at the incoming referers to a site like BuzzFeed, you’ll see tons of traffic from Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, Stumbleupon, and Pinterest but not a whole lot from blogs, even in the aggregate. For the past month at kottke.org, 14 percent of the traffic came from referrals compared to 30 percent from social, and I don’t even work that hard on optimizing for social media. Sites like BuzzFeed and Upworthy aren’t seeking traffic from blogs anymore. Even the publicists clogging my inbox with promotional material urge me to “share this on my social media channels” rather than post it to my blog.

And the folks at ProBlogger say:

So how many blog comments do you get, huh? Is it anything like the number you had four years ago? I doubt it very much. Practically every blogger I’ve talked to has said comments are on the decline. Why? Two words: social media. Readers are not only using social media to find your content, they are also using their favourite platforms to interact with it, and you. A reader is more likely to share your post on Facebook and leave a comment there than write something on the blog itself.

What does this mean for you as a blogger?

Does that mean that you might as well pack it in and give up your dreams of being a full-time blogger? Absolutely not, but it does mean that you’ll need to work hard to keep up with what kind of content and interaction resonates with your readers.

It’s also important to keep in mind that most top bloggers aren’t making 100% of their income from blogging. Successful bloggers often have side products or businesses that earn them plenty of money. For example:

• Elsie and Emma of A Beautiful Mess have written books, developed two smartphone apps, and run an online shop where they sell craft supplies, e-courses, and more.
• Jessica of What I Wore has taught fashion classes at a local college.
• Joy of Oh Joy! regularly designs products for collaborations.
• Rach of Pink Peonies has her own jewelry collection for sale.
• Gala of Gala Darling, Shauna of Nubby Twiglet, and Kat of Rock n Roll Bride have collaborated on The Blogcademy workshops and online classes.
• Kendi of Kendi Everyday owns a brick and mortar boutique.
• And pretty much every top food blogger out there has written a cookbook.

So, if you’re going to be a full-time blogger, always be on the lookout for (or create your own!) opportunities to expand into other avenues.

So, IS blogging sustainable as a long-term career?

Not for just anyone. But if being a full-time blogger is your dream, and if you’ve got the money, drive, passion, and ambition to give it a shot, then go for it!

The post Is Blogging Sustainable as a Full-Time Career? appeared first on AmpliFound.

If you haven’t yet seen Quentin Tarantino’s 2003 ode to martial arts and critics darling Kill Bill: Vol. 1, do yourself a favor and stop reading this. Go watch Kill Bill. Don’t worry, I’ll wait…You’re back? Perfect. Now stop reading this again, and go take in Kill Bill: Vol. 2, one of the rare exceptions that the sequel actually surpasses the first in every way.

Going off the assumption that you just watched more than 4 hours of sword fighting, severed appendages, and an absolutely epic soundtrack, I can only imagine you couldn’t be more ready to tackle a new blog post. But pump the brakes, Grasshopper, and perk your ears up to one of the most important lessons that may have slipped past your radar faster than the 5 Point Palm Exploding Heart Technique. And that lesson is this: no matter how hard it may be to establish it, the only way to make a real difference through your blog is with consistency.

Source: http://vignette1.wikia.nocookie.net/killbill/images/0/01/Pai_Mei_teaching_Bride_Punch.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20130202021048

Source: http://static.comicvine.com/uploads/scale_super/14/146991/3143844-3969512460-79715.jpg

In case you didn’t take my advice and didn’t actually watch the movies (tisk, tisk), one of the most memorable chapters of  Kill Bill: Vol. 2 takes place during the main protagonist (Beatrix Kiddo – aka – The Bride)’s training from her Kung Fu Master, Pai Mei. Pai Mei commands her to break through a wooden board with her fist, using mere inches to engage the punch. No wind up, no momentum, nothing.

Kiddo is discouraged at first, left bleeding and in agony with each failed attempt to punch through the wood. But as the training progresses, her spirits and her approach both improve vastly. She goes from trembling at the site of the board to having full control over her approach to it. She attacks it viciously without fail, and her training comes to a close with her mastering the kung fu she came to learn with the board being the serving as foundation to the rest of her skills.

How Kill Bill’s Lessons Apply to Blogging

Now, as a blogger whose consistency with posting on a regular basis is my biggest issue, watching this scene speaks volumes (pardon the pun). I feel that the ideas for my pieces always start out with so much hope and vision. I have energy and excitement about what I want to discuss and how I want it to be perceived. But this initial enthusiasm is almost always met with endless questions, all preventing me from actually completing what I set out to write in the first place. While blogging certainly requires diligence like anything else, I’ve noticed that the simple act of writing something, ANYTHING, on a consistent basis is often times the best way to build an audience, establish a voice, and say the things that I want to say.

Source: https://a2rev.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/kill-bill-vol-1-046.jpg

Much like Beatrix Kiddo crossed off the names of each of her five adversaries on her revenge to-do list, here are 5 quick tips to keep you focused on your writing and blogging on a regular basis. By killing these things consistently, you’ll be well on your way to building readership and creating a growing body of work:

1. Kill the noise. Turn off the TV and get yourself to a quiet room (if possible) to focus on your topic and punch through that blog post like Pai Mei ordered Beatrix to do.
2. Kill your inner critic. Just write. Don’t agonize over every syllable you type out. Just get it out onto the page and edit your blog later. We can all be our own worst critics. Squash that voice and drown it out with the comforting sounds of your fingers pounding the keys and carving out a fresh blog post.
3. Kill your browser. Have you ever started writing and immediately found yourself distracted by trying to research a fact for your post? Fast forward 20 minutes later and you’ve squandered precious time that could have been spent writing on surfing YouTube for some of the most memorable lines from Quentin Tarantino’s films or getting wrapped up in analyzing each track RZA chose for a variety of films. Kill that browser activity and focus on writing your blog by using a downloadable app like Dark Room to help you focus and stop you from doing anything BUT writing. (It’s like having Pei Mei smack you across the knuckles for slacking off.)
4. Kill your calendar. Time waits for no man (or woman). It’s important to make time and not allow other commitments to encroach upon time dedicated to your blogging efforts. If you don’t take it seriously, no one else will. Protect your time and kill all commitments that may creep up on you like that snake crept up on Elle Driver in Bill’s dear brother Bud’s trailer.
5. Kill your goals. And by “kill them,” I mean set goals and conquer them. Set mental goals for yourself at first before setting tangible performance indicators for your blog. Your goal could be as simple as getting out one new post every two weeks. Or it could be something as ambitious as blogging every day. (Hey, you might want to build up to that. You can’t break a board in half with your fist without training to make a hairline crack in it at first.)

Source: http://static.comicvine.com/uploads/scale_super/14/146991/3143844-3969512460-79715.jpg

So, the next time that you’re second-guessing yourself about the perfect way to put together the Next Great Blog Post, think of Pai Mei. And rather than bogging yourself down with the nitty gritty, just hit the keys and see what happens. Because trust me, you don’t want the alternative.

Header image courtesy of: https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/185/431359168_ace447d08d_z.jpg?zz=1

The post Killin’ It Consistently: Blogging Lessons from Kill Bill: Vol. 2 appeared first on AmpliFound.

1. You Can’t Make Up for Lost Time — Pace Yourself!

Remember when Romy and Michele found out about their 10 year high school reunion? Remember how excited they were? And how hard they tried to make up for lost time and acquire dream jobs, dream dates, and dream lives in 10 days instead of 10 years? (Because that always ends well, right?)

Romy and Michele may have had style out the wazoo, but they were too narrowly focused on the perceived success and happiness they assumed their classmates had built up over a decade, rather than looking at the joy of what was right in front of them. As a result, they got crabby, burned out, and fought with one another.

Whether you’re starting to work on your blog or are trying to resurrect it after a long dry spell, Rome-y (and/or Michele) wasn’t built in a day. Take things one step — and one blog post at a time to avoid blogger burnout. And even if you do get a burst of energy and feel the need to crank out those blog posts, you can space them out by scheduling your posts to go live on staggered dates.

2. Don’t Try Too Hard to Be Liked

Not everyone is going to like your blog. And that’s okay. The Internet is a really big frontier.  If you spend too much time worrying about whether you’ll appeal to EVERYONE out there on Teh Inturwebz, you won’t be able to really resonate with the people who could become your most loyal readers and advocates.

If you’re wasting your time trying to appeal to the A-Group mean girls who probably wouldn’t like your blog anyway — like that snotty Christy Masters-Christianson and her gaggle of sycophantic girlfriends — you miss out on making honest connections with the loveable, true-hearted (and successful) “nerds” out there like Sandy Frink.

3. Be the Real You — Even if the Real You is a Little Off-Putting

Blogging isn’t all sweetness, light, and positivity. While your blog can be a wonderful platform for talking about something you are most passionate about, every blogger has a unique voice to separate them from their competition. While some bloggers’ naturally kind persona comes across genuinely in their posts, other bloggers have a bit more of a “bite” to their style. If it’s truly who you are, don’t be afraid to serve up your blog with a healthy side of snark. Embracing that side of your personality on your blog may be what sets you apart from others and may make you successful in your endeavors.

Case in point: Heather Mooney.

A sullen, sarcastic outsider in high school, Heather Mooney couldn’t care less what people thought of her then. And she sure didn’t care what her classmates thought of her ten years later, after she became the uber-successful inventor of Lady Fair Cigarettes (“Twice the taste in half the time for the gal on the go.”).

Sandy Frink may not have reciprocated her “thing” for him back in the day, but he still remained Heather’s loyal friend, as did sweet, overly-enthusiastic Toby Walters. They liked Heather for who she was, even when she was being completely obnoxious and throwing some (usually well-deserved) shade at her classmates.

Forget sucking up to haters who are gonna hate anyway. Be yourself, whoever that may be, and it will lead you to blogging success.

4. Don’t Be Mean to Your Biggest Fans

Bloggers — like bands and entertainers — are nothing without a loyal brigade of fans. While a healthy dose of snark can be fun or even endearing in certain blogging circles, being mean and insulting to readers can result in blogger backlash. The Internet is a touchy place and even a perceived slight or blogging faux pas may result in a mass exodus of fans running from your blog as if it just emitted a bad fart.

Be true to yourself, even if you’re a bit of a misanthrope on the web. Just try to be mindful and sensitive about how you treat other bloggers or respond to comments on your blog.

After all, not everyone may be as nice as Toby when they feel hurt by your words:

5. Meet-Ups Can Be a Good Thing… Or Totally Humiliating — but let’s think positive!

Like high school reunions, local blogger meet-ups only happen once in a blue moon. (Okay. They happen a lot more frequently than high school reunions, but aren’t an everyday occurrence.) Meet-ups are a great way to connect with other bloggers and see what they’re up to, get great insight from others in your space, and possibly team up on a project or two.

While they hit a few stumbling blocks on the road to their reunion and had a few brief humiliating experiences, a lot of good came from Romy and Michele attending their high school reunion. They got funding to open up their clothing boutique from Sandy Frink, saw their high school nemeses get their comeuppance, and made a few new friends and connections along the way. If Romy and Michele can do it, you can venture out of your shell and attend a meet-up to help give you a boost, too!

Header image courtesy of: http://schmoesknow.com/

The post 5 Lessons Bloggers Can Learn from Romy & Michele appeared first on AmpliFound.

But the most magical thing about the Harry Potter series is there are a lot of blogging lessons to be learned from the characters. Well, maybe that’s not the most magical thing – but nevertheless, here are five blogging lessons you can learn from the Harry Potter series.

Suffice it to say, this post has spoilers galore! You’ve been warned!

Be Resourceful, like Harry Potter

In his fight against Voldemort, Harry was brave and he was lucky, but most of all, he was resourceful. Remember when he destroyed Tom Riddle’s diary with the basilisk fang? When he used Felix Felicis to get Professor Slughorn’s memory? Or when he used Polyjuice Potion and Decoy Detonators to sneak into Umbridge’s office at the Ministry of Magic? Or the innumerable times he used his invisibility cloak? Harry used the tools he had at his disposal to help himself succeed.

The lesson?

Be an enterprising and inventive blogger. There are countless valuable tools out there that you can use to help you succeed. For example:

• Blogging Platforms (Blogger, WordPress, Tumblr, etc.)

• Productivity Tools (IFTTT, Buffer, Eggtimer, etc.)

• Organizational Tools (Evernote, Trello, Dropbox, etc.)

• Content Ideation Tools (Buzzsumo, Google Trends, TheNeeds, etc.)

Try out as many tools as you can, and add those that you like best to your blogging arsenal.

Overcome Your Insecurities, like Ron Weasley

Being best friends with the famous Harry Potter and the brilliant Hermione Granger would make almost anybody feel like a second (or third) fiddle. And poor Ron also had a whole slew of remarkable brothers and Ginny to contend with at home! No wonder he often felt invisible.

Ron often let his  insecurity get the best of him, like when he was jealous of Harry’s participation in the Triwizard Tournament, when he got tongue-tied around girls, or when his nerves affected his Quidditch playing, but he was eventually able to overcome his inferiority complex to help Gryffindor win the Quidditch cup and to play a huge, important role in the downfall of Voldemort and his Death Eaters.

The lesson?

Bloggers are no stranger to insecurity. It’s hard not to feel jealous of hugely successful, top-tier bloggers like Oh Joy, The Bloggess, or Smitten Kitchen. They’ve got hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of followers, they’re widely respected and adored, and they’ve turned their blogs into full-time careers.

But don’t let that stop you from blogging. Instead of giving up because you’ll never be as popular as those bloggers, use their accomplishments as inspiration to work even harder. Even if you’re never more than moderately successful, you’ll still have the satisfaction of knowing that you did your best.

Have a Thirst for Knowledge, like Hermione Granger

When Hermione wasn’t busy helping save the wizarding world from evil, she almost always had her face buried in a book, whether in the library, or in the Gryffindor common room. She loved to read and that’s what made her so successful. She was always the first to master spells in class, and got the best grades of all of her classmates.

More importantly, her intelligence and research skills often helped Harry in dangerous situations. She was the one who realized that the monster in the Chamber of Secrets was a basilisk and that it was using the pipes to get around the school. She figured out that the Sword of Gryffindor would destroy a horcrux. And her repeated reading of “The Tales of Beetle the Bard” was what led to Harry’s knowledge of the Deathly Hallows.

The lesson?

Use Hermione as inspiration when blogging. Read other blogs to get content ideas. When writing posts, be sure that, when necessary, they’re well-researched and accurate. And never stop learning about blogging. In addition to AmpliFound, here are some wonderful resources that can help build your blogging skills:

• Blog Ambitions

• Minimalist Baker Blogging Resources

• The Blog Herald

• The Blog Stylist

• A Beautiful Mess Blogging Tips

• Amy Lynn Andrews

• Hello Brio

Be a Non-Conformist, like Luna Lovegood

There’s no question that Luna marched to the beat of her own drummer. She was a completely original free spirit and couldn’t have cared less what others thought of her, even when they called her “Loony Lovegood.” She did what she wanted, wore what she wanted, and believed what she wanted. She owned her individuality, and did so proudly.

The lesson?

It’s fine to look to other bloggers for inspiration, but don’t straight-up copy what other bloggers are doing. Figure out what makes your blog unique, and embrace it. You don’t have to reinvent the wheel and come up with a far-out concept if you don’t want to – just be sure that your own distinct personality comes through in your writing.

Evolve and Grow, like Neville Longbottom

Neville was even more insecure than Ron throughout most of his time at Hogwarts. He was timid and forgetful, and frequently bullied by Draco and Professor Snape. But when Voldemort and his Death Eaters returned to power, he knew he had to stand up to them.

Neville didn’t have Harry’s natural talent or Hermione’s smarts, but that just inspired him to work even harder during DA meetings to learn Defense Against the Dark Arts. By his final year at Hogwarts, Neville had become much more brave and confident. He lead many students in a revolt against Snape and the Carrows, and he showed tremendous courage during the Battle of Hogwarts – standing up to Voldemort, and, most importantly, beheading Nagini. By the end of the series, Neville was a completely different person.

The lesson?

Like everything based on the web, blogging is ever-changing. So allow yourself and your blog to change with the times as well. Embrace new social media platforms. Keep up with the latest technology (is your blog mobile-friendly yet?). Redesign your template when it feels stale.

Just as importantly, allow your content to evolve. Just because you’ve done things one way for a long time doesn’t mean that you have to continue doing so. A shift in content or even a rebrand can help you feel revitalized when you’ve been in a creative rut.

What blogging lessons have you learned, from pop culture or from any other source of inspiration? Share with us in the comments!

Header image courtesy of http://www.keepmum.net/

The post 5 Blogging Lessons Learned from the Harry Potter Series appeared first on AmpliFound.

We know you know there’s more to taking a picture than just pushing a button. But, we also understand it’s hard to know where to start when it comes to fancy blog photos.

Last week we brought you some of our best smartphone photography advice. This week, we went straight to some of our favorite blogger photogs and asked them, “If you could give one piece of photography advice to a beginner blogger…what would it be?”

We received a ton of great advice and are so pleased to share it with you, our loyal readers!

So, here you have ‘em – photography tips for bloggers by bloggers!

Diana of Diana Elizabeth

Invest in a good camera! There are many affordable entry-level DSLRs, or consider a mirrorless camera, that’s what I often use and travel with because they are compact so you can put in your purse. If you have the time, learn how to use manual mode, it will make your images out of this world!

Kate of Cookie and Kate

My best advice is to use natural light! Avoid artificial light at all costs. The more light sources, the more shadows you’ll have to contend with.

Gwen of This Fashion is Mine

“The photographs uploaded into a blog post should follow a similar ‘style’. This doesn’t mean you have to take them all in the exact same place. You can be creative and try new things, but all the images in one post will look more like a set if they follow the same ‘rules.’ This helps your blog aesthetic and it may set it apart from others. For example, you might decide all your photos will be taken against a white wash brick wall with reduced saturation or you may prefer bright, bold and striking images. You might have a particular vintage fashion style and want all your photos to illustrate your personality. For this, you can always apply the same filter for a vintage feel.”

Gina of Skinnytaste

“Always use natural light and play around with different angles to see how the food looks best. Also, I like to stick with plates that are white, neutrals or blues. Other colors compete with the food.”

Courtney of Click it Up a Notch

“Have you noticed that some of your images seem more yellow than others? This is especially true of the images you take at night with overhead lighting. This is caused by your white balance being incorrect. The camera tries to guess what the white balance should be but your best bet is to take control of that feature. Either use one of the white balance presets your camera offers or you can use the custom white balance setting and set it yourself with a gray card. My favorite method is using Kelvin for white balance. If your camera has this option it is much easier. Set it around 3300K when using overhead lighting and around 5200K when using natural light.

Learning to use different composition methods will help to make your images more interesting. Resist the urge to put your subject in the dead center of your image. Instead, view your image as if there was a tic tac toe board over it. A grid with nine squares. Place your subject on either the top third, bottom third, right third or left third, along the imaginary line of the tic tac toe board. This method is called the Rule of Thirds. It is one of the first composition guides you learn in photography and can quickly improve your images.”

Radhika of Just Homemade

“Do not give up. Keep making pictures. Learn by observing the photographs taken by the best.

Lighting is key to making great pictures. Where there is good light, there can be great pictures.”

And there you have it – from natural to camera models to believing in yourself – it’s confirmed, photography is MUCH more than just pushing a button. So, get started today and we’ll be asking for your expert advice in no time!

Or, if you’ve got advice for us today – please leave it in the comments section! We are always on the look out for new tips and tricks!

A big thank you to all the bloggers who provided their expert advice. And luckily for you, readers, there’s more where this came from. Be sure to check out all blogs included here for more advice on how to make your blog “picture perfect”!

The post Blogger Round-Up: Photography Tips for Beginners appeared first on AmpliFound.

Promoting your work can be a daunting challenge. We’d all like to write a post one night and wake up the next morning to a hundred thousand views. But, let’s face it, we’re not all Beyonce.

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We can’t just post a blog and hope the world finds it. Promoting your piece is one of the most difficult things to do, even for a seasoned blogger. But without promotion, you’ll rarely reach a wider audience.

So how do you tow the line between humble writer and promotional maven? These 3 tips will get you on your way:

#1 – Locate Potential Audience

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No matter what your subject matter is, there is likely someone talking about that same topic right now on social media. You just need to find them. One of the best tools to do that is TweetDeck. TweetDeck allows you to instantly locate conversations around your subject matter by following hashtags or common phrases. By following phrases associated with your posts, you’ll be able to connect with potential readers who are already interested in your content.

Example: You wrote a post about tips for packing for a business trip. Your first step would be to create a new Column that tracks ‘business travel’ (for tips on that, visit ).   Now you have a list of people who would potentially be interested in your post, you just need to respond to them using the following tips.

#2 – Keep It Personal

Once you find a potential audience, you need to do put in a little work to get their attention — and that means no more cookie cutter responses. If you’re in the habit of creating a canned “you may find this post interesting” response, STOP!

http://cdn2.teen.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Friends-Stop-Doing-That.gif

A personal touch will always get more attention than a generic post. To craft a personal message, think about the value each individual will receive from your post, then create a message that highlights how your post can address their questions or expand on topics they were discussing.

For example:

You come across this comment on another blog:

“I’ve been at it for 20 years but packing for a business trip is still my worst nightmare. I have never found a way to get everything I need in one bag.” – Bob

You respond:

“Bob, I know the feeling. Before I found a few handy tips (link to your post), I was always stuck in the checked baggage line wondering if my luggage made it to the same city.”

#3 – Use Your Judgement

http://sd.keepcalm-o-matic.co.uk/i/keep-calm-and-use-your-best-judgement-5.png

If you find yourself struggling to connect your piece to the person you’re reaching out to, remember: What feels like a stretch to you will feel even more like a stretch to someone who hasn’t read your post. If you send them something irrelevant you’re likely to alienate them from reading future posts.

Use your best judgement and think hard about the ways in which your post relates to that person. As you begin crafting your outreach, be sure to include those points.

These tips should help you promote your blog to a broader audience without feeling obnoxious. Just remember to engage in conversation with people interested in your topic area and make each interaction as personal as possible.

The post You Are Not Beyonce: Tips to Promote Your Blog Without Being Obnoxious appeared first on AmpliFound.

These tips are particularly geared towards my experience with iPhones, but the advice and techniques are applicable to pretty much any smartphone.

So, let’s start with some basic photography rules before we get into the nitty gritty of smartphone photography.  I’ll be using some photos I look with my iPhone of my trusty assistant and muse, Hildegarde, to demonstrate.

This might sound obvious but getting a quality image really boils down to this:  

Start with a well composed, non blurry photo.

You want to start with the best possible photo.  No amount of photo apps and trickery can save a bad photo.  You will save yourself tons of time if you start with a good image.  Does it look out of focus?  Retake the photo.  Is the subject cut off in a weird way?  Retake the photo.

First take – not so great.  Second take – almost there!  Third take, – nailed it!!

Use tools and apps in your phone to enhance your good photo, not to salvage an “okay” image.

For the final image, I ended up cropping it to a square and warming it up a little bit, so that you can see Hilde’s eyes.

Daylight is always better than artificial light.

Use daylight as opposed to artificial light whenever possible. Using artificial light is going to cast weird colors on your subject and make more work for you afterwards to correct the colors. However, try to use indirect sunlight as opposed to direct sunlight.  Indirect sunlight will be kinder to a wide variety of subjects ranging from people to objects.  Direct sunlight will create harsh shadows and could mess up your exposure as well.

The direct sunlight on half of Hilde’s face in the picture on the left is casting weird shadows and is not very visually pleasing. The picture on the right was taken in indirect sunlight, notice how there are no harsh distracting shadows.  She looks about 7 dog years younger!

Now, since we have that out of the way, let’s move on more smartphone specific tips.

Use your smart phone’s native camera application.

With the popularity of Instagram, it is more tempting than ever to shoot your images directly in the app, but photographing this way can slow you down.  More often than not, specific photography apps will have a little shutter lag (make your images look blurry) or take more time to save the image to your phone.  The latter can be annoying if you are taking pictures of moving objects.  The built-in phone app has more than enough features to help you take great pictures.

Go easy on the filters!

With all of the filters applied to this photo, Hilde looks like a vintage sailor from the 70’s

It’s really easy to get caught up in all of the cool filters that you can apply to pictures- but more often than not filter’s end up distracting from your photos.  Think of your audience first.  If you have a food blog, which of these pictures looks more appetizing?

The answer might be neither (if you don’t like pho)!

I generally advise to keep images looking clean and bright.  Using a philosophy similar to this will help keep your images less “dated” looking, as well.  Photography trends and filters will come and go – but a quality image is timeless.

Exposure/Focus lock

Sometimes your smartphone will pick the wrong exposure (making the photo look too light or too dark) — or even the wrong focus. A neat feature in the iPhone’s camera app is the option to lock your exposure and focusing.  All you have to do is tap on the part of the image that you want your focus and exposure locked on and you’ll see the words “AE/AF lock” on the screen, along with an orange box.  That way, you get the exposure and focus that you want, without having to struggle with your phone.

Adjusting Exposure/Contrast in your iPhones native editing app

Even if you use AE/AF lock feature, there will be instances in which your photo is still too dark.  You can open your photo from your album> click ‘Edit’> then the icon that looks like three little circles that are over lapping. Then click on “light”> “Exposure”, from there you can tweak your photo a little lighter, or a little darker.  But be careful not to push the picture too far either way.  Your picture will start to look “grainy” if you over use these tools.

 (Left image: Under exposed, Center Image: As shot, right image: Over exposed just a little bit)

I hope some of these tips and tricks will help you with your smartphone photography.  One of the best things about digital photography is you can take unlimited pictures!  So, if you don’t like the picture, just keep practicing and trying new techniques.  You’ll eventually find your groove.

Leigh Wetterau works at Seer Interactive as an SEO Associate.  She received a BA in Studio Art from Bloomsburg University and an MFA in Photography from Ohio University.  To see more pictures of Hilde and pho, follow her on Instagram, @LeighLeighW.

The post How to Take Great Smartphone Pics for Your Blog appeared first on AmpliFound.

Thanks again for a wonderful year and here’s hoping 2015 is an even better year for you and yours!

The post Happy New Year from AmpliFound appeared first on AmpliFound.

If your new year resolutions so far have involved weight loss or doing good deeds, AmpliFound is here to help make 2015 your most successful year in blogging yet. Here are 3 “I Will”s and “I Will Not”s we’d like you to commit to for the next 365 days.

I will…

Create social media channels to enhance my blog. As I pointed out in my last post about how to reanimate your blog, social media is a great way to complement your content. It allows several benefits:

• Interact with the community and other bloggers

• Publish supplemental content (quick observations through tweets and photos)

• Create more outlets to gain your following

So, give it a try. Set up an Instagram, a Pinterest, a Facebook page, a Twitter account, and start interacting. As time goes on, you’ll find what content works best on these platforms, and which communities are most accepting to your niche.

I will…

Adhere to a content schedule. We know, you got that initial spark, that sudden interest: “I’m going to be a blogger!” Fast forward a few months later, and you’re not quite as motivated, or suffering from writer’s block. Don’t worry, we’ve all been there.

Create a chart in a Google Spreadsheet or Excel document, and make a plan. The following criteria may help you structure how this document will look:

• When? Will you publish daily, weekly, or monthly? Create deadlines and due dates.

• What? On those due dates, what type of post will you be writing? For instance, maybe you’ll publish interviews on the first of each month, and book reviews on the second.

• Where? Which section of your blog will your posts go under? If you’ve created categories, this will also help guide you in knowing what to write.

• How? What’s your word count? Which images are you using? Make sure you note the format of your post.

Why? Well, that one should be obvious. Because you’re a blogger, and you love what you do!

I will…

Write web-readable content. What is web-readable content you ask? Have you ever looked at a block of text that takes up your whole browser, and struggled with the thought of reading it? You’ve become disengaged by a homogeneous blob of words. When things are laid out in short paragraphs (two to five sentences) and in numbered or bullet point lists, it’s much more digestible. We don’t sigh at the prospect of reading, we’re engaged because it’s laid out so simply for us.

I will not…

Make it all about me. Bloggers start blogs because they want the spotlight on them. Don’t take this the wrong way, but you’re not that interesting. Make the distinction between what you find interesting and what your audience finds interesting — then find the overlap. Create content that resonates. Don’t swoon over your random, poetic thoughts throughout the day. Go to a publicized event and capture it like a journalist. Don’t tell us how delicious your friend’s zucchini muffins were. Make your own amazing recipe, and share it with the world.

Get out of your own head, and into your audience’s.

I will not…

Get lazy. This goes hand in hand with adhering to a content schedule, but there’s more to be said about this point. Some of your malaise may be coming from a dwindling sense of inspiration. It’s comfortable for us to keep writing whimsical poetry. It’s comfortable for us to keep blogging about our friend’s delicious zucchini muffins. Here’s our recommendation: challenge yourself, get out of your comfort zone and try something new, even if you’re not good at it.

Is there a new business that just moved into town? Go interview the owner. Never been in a marathon before? Run one and record your experience.

I will not…

Ignore feedback. Have you shown your blog to anyone else besides your friends, your cat or your mother? Now is the time. Reach out to people whose familiarity with you won’t cause bias, and gauge their reactions. Get a sample of unprimed perspectives on the direction of your blog, and see if there’s a trend in the collective feedback.

Feedback may also come in a different form: comments. If you’ve established social media channels, and are promoting your posts through them, comments will also appear here. Listen to your readers and what they want to see. You may get some helpful hints. Most importantly, respond to them. Thank people for their compliments, answer their questions, and try to extend the conversation so others can join, too.

What are your blogging resolutions for 2015? Let us know in the comments!

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