Animated gifs are great. But like any good thing, too much of it is… well, too much. The idea of an animated gif is to create a mini-movie using a few still frames. It’s an easy way of illustrating a point without having to create an entire video. Plus animated gifs are quick to load and […]
Create Simple Charts Quickly
Making data easier to understand through charts is an important part of creating useful content for your website. There are a lot of free online chart generators, such as Online Charts or Raw, which creates amazing cutting-edge chart designs, but most are not so easy to use when you just need a quick chart for your website. Beam […]
When Sending Away Visitors Is A Good Thing
I often hear clients say they don’t want any external links on their site because that will take visitors away. But sending them away can be a good thing. I was working with a liquor store on improving their content and one of the pieces they were working on was a history of wine. The first […]
The “Lessons Learned From” Post
It’s amazing what you can learn from Game of Thrones. The lesson to be learned from this search on Google is that people love to read articles that relate a topic to their favourite show, movie, book, personality, and so on. It can take a bit of work to make the necessary connections, and you may […]
Create An Easy-To-Use Set For Shooting Video
Video is an important part of getting out your message, but setting up a video shoot every time can keep you from doing lots of videos. Make it easy on yourself and create a set that you can quickly get up and running on a moment’s notice. One way is to work it into your […]
Record Your Ideas For Blog Posts
Many writing coaches will tell you that recording yourself talking about your ideas is a great way to get your thoughts out of your head. The theory is, even if you’re not comfortable speaking in front of groups, you’ll probably be fine talking to yourself out loud. And who doesn’t already talk to themselves… Well, the principle […]
Be Careful Linking To External Images
Never direct link or hotlink to media on another site without getting permission or at least giving written credit and a link back to their site. Direct linking or hotlinking is when your site uses the full URL of images, video, or audio on another site. In other words, the media is not being loaded […]
The Memorial Post
When a person dies, we like to remember what they did in their lives, and this can be a source of writing ideas for your site. Whether it’s someone generally famous or someone well known in your business or simply someone you knew, the key is to find a memory that relates to something important to your […]
Check Your Spelling Because It Matters
Spelling errors on a business website say something about its owner(s): lack of attention to detail, lack of knowledge, lack of pride in their business; even more so when the misspelled words are related to their business. Would you trust this dog trainer? Unless you have other information about this person, like recommendations from people you trust, […]
Which File Type Should You Use For Images?
Use GIF only for animations Use PNG when you need: a transparent background, to keep photos high resolution and fast loading is not an issue, simple graphics with few colours such as logos Use JPG for most photos and for graphics with complex colours (like gradients) If you need a lot of technical details about which […]
The Video Post
Video is so important these days, which is why you should include it in at least some of your website articles. You don’t have to make the video yourself. Sharing a video you’ve found on sites like YouTube is also valuable – it’s a version of the Sharing Post – but here are some twists: Summarize and […]