Whats Your Image Like Part 2!
Blog posts are supposed to be interesting and informative but unfortunately all too often they can become very wordy (and I am aware that I am one of the worst culprits there is). Using graphics in your blog post not only breaks up the large bulk of text but can also be interesting and informative when used correctly.
LIKE THIS ONE!
But where can you get your images from? Well the answer all too often is from a Google search then copy and paste the picture, right? Well no it is all too easy to infringe the copyright of others this way. You may get away with it for years but one day you may have a problem.
There are a number of solutions to this problem. Buy a royalty free image from a picture agency such as Fotolia, for a blog these can be relatively inexpensive but if you are using 2 or 3 images a blog post and you are a regular blogger then the cost can be really staggering.
There are plenty of alternatives such as Public Domain (PD) images and Images available under a Creative Commons Licence (CC). Such as these…
A really good place to start is Wikimedia Commons
There are also other sites such as Icon Archive which have images for commercial and non commercial usage, some just require a link back or credit to the graphic artist.
Or you could buy a Royalty Free clipart collection which will allow you to use the images where eve you like without additional fee, as long as you don’t resell the clipart images.
One of the really big players Getty Images has made this service available for non commercial activities such as blog posts etc, by providing an embed code to a large proportion of the images in its catalogue. The image is low resolution but good enough for a blog and has a link back to Getty and the original image.
Here is an example of a Getty image embedded into this blog post.
Try Creative Commons for other sources of images. So if you are looking for images to liven up your blog posts then there are some real alternatives to the Google copy and paste approach which if you are not careful could mean that you are using copyright materials.
Rob, It good to share!!
The Easiest eBay Start-Up Ever?
One of the major problems with selling on eBay is the money you need to spend to invest in stock to resell before you even make a sale.
No matter how much you research your market there is always the possibility that some of the products you buy to resell will be complete turkeys, even if someone else is selling the same product successfully and at a higher price.
After all isn’t the idea of selling on eBay to make money and not to lose it? So here is an opportunity to make start with NO cash at all.
These are products that are available free, you only pay a tiny fee to list the product. This idea may never make you a full time income but it does have the following advantages.
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The products are FREE
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The listing fees are very small
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There are many thousands of these products for you to choose from
I am talking here of using Public Domain (PD) materials or in other word products whose copyright have expired, or are free of any copyright restrictions.
The big boom market is in Audio Books at the moment, the Kindle Fire, Ipad, Ipod and other portable devices that can play MP3 files have fuelled the demand. This creates a business opportunity for us to tap into.
Here are just a few examples of sellers reselling materials in the Public Domain.
Look at the sales numbers 197!
What about radio shows or TV shows or even films in the public domain
Plus it does not stop with audio books, there is a big demand for e-books in different formats for the e-reader market:
Don’t forget video
Any one of these or a similar product will give you a good start plus this is all done on a shoestring, the downside is that selling prices are generally low but apart from the disk, postage and a small eBay fee the rest is yours.
So how do you start in the public domain? Well here is a freebie to get you started, it is by Steve Poke, and as far as PD is concerned he really knows how to make this work as a business.
DOWNLOAD YOUR COPY HERE
Is this one of the easiest start-ups ever? I think so.
If you have found this interesting remember It’s good to share. Please leave a comment.
Want more? Keep checking back for updates.
How Well Do You Do This?
That’s look after your subscribers, remember that people on your list subscribed for a reason, maybe they found or where directed to your blog where you were offering great information or there was something that they found interesting there.
Maybe the subscriber found one of your sales pages that allowed them to optin to get a mini course or a freebie.
What ever the reason they chose to subscribe to your e-mails, so what next, well you need to give them a reason to keep subscribed.
There are different ways of doing this; post informative content to your blog regularly, and you can send them offers for products or services that you feel may be of use or value to them, remember that people will expect you do that.
And you can offer them subscriber discounts on your own products and those of other marketers, most will be happy to do this in return for a sign up to one of their lists.
You can also offer high value content on a regular basis completely free.
There is a fine balance between all of these actions. By offering quality content on your blog you will get a high number of return visitors who may buy something from you particularly if you are reviewing a product on the blog post.
E-mailing offers out, again this is a balancing act only; promote those products or services that you feel would help your subscribers best, why did they subscribe? Look for something that would be complimentary and promote that, BUT only if it will be of value to them.
Never promote crap just because the commissions are better this will bite you on the backside. Also never pester the hell out of your subscribers they will either unsubscribe or just not open your e-mails. Just take today, in less than 24 hours I have had 59 e-mails from the same marketer promoting different products.
Yes 59, do you think that marketer has by best interests in mind or is he trying to make a fast buck? What we call a churn and burn merchant.
Do you offer high value freebies to your list on a regular basis? I try to do this once a month, this maybe a report for something am working on, and occasionally it is a report from another marketer from which I may make a few affiliate sales.
I also use PLR materials as the basis for some of my freebies, but as ever always use high quality PLR materials and make sure you edit them to suit your list.
Last week I sent out a freebie on LIST BUILDING to my list so if you would like a copy of it click the eBook cover or HERE and grab your cover.
I also recorded the whole process on video so if you want to see how I did it click the image and view the video which is on my YouTube channel.
The whole process is recorded in the video VIEW HERE. Hope you will find this of interest,
Rob