Adding Pizazz to Your Blog Posts

Dale Hogan    Design and Development     Blog Design, Blogging, Blogging Help, Fotolia, Images, iStockpoto, online, Plugins, Stock Photography, web, WordPress

Making your blog posts snazzy can be a chore when you’re an active blogger.  With all of life’s demands, it’s hard enough to just find the time to sting together a few coherent sentences and get them published to your blog with any consistency.  What’s needed is a ‘have your cake and eat it too’ solution for adding great, legally licensed images to your posts.  Adding the right images to a post can really make it pop!  Well placed thematic photos and illustrations can aid in garnering the type of attention and traffic you want. read more…

Getting the Most Out of Your Social Media Efforts

DavidM    Business, Design and Development    

So you’ve got a website running and it’s getting some decent traffic but you keep hearing about how social media is the “next big thing”. Sure it’s been around for a while, but now everybody’s doing it. Let’s look at social media as it pertains to online social media networks like Facebook, Twitter, other people’s blogs and forums.

One of the things to consider is that, unlike your own website, social media is essentially out of your control. You can tell people about stuff, offer guidance and even have some success in promoting your product or service but it’s everyone else that is in control. What they say about you, how they share your information and whether they decide to connect with you are major factors in your social media efforts.

First things first. Why are you online? If you are hoping to generate revenue from advertising and affiliate links and you just want big traffic numbers then most of what I’m about to say isn’t likely of interest. If, however, you are promoting your own product or service then the quality of those visitors and the customer service that you provide will be an important consideration.
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T-Shirts!

DavidM    Humor, Life    

Love the Goatminds logo, then check out our t-shirts….new Goatminds Store is up-and-running. New designs are being added regularly. If you don’t see a product you like, you can always try your hand at the designer tool. If you are interested in setting up your own shop, the folks at Wordans make it super easy.

Crack the Cover

Dale Hogan    Photography     Manual, Photography, tips

A little reading time can go a long way to making you a much more effective photographer.  It’s amazing to me how quickly we will part with all kinds of cash for the latest gear but refuse to even crack the cover of the manual that comes with it.  OK, go get your camera manual & camera right now.  Find a nice comfortable spot to sit and start reading.  Take your time and try the different setting adjustments mentioned (that’s why I said get your camera too).  When you’re done, that means you’ve read the entire manual cover to cover, put it in your camera bag.  There are a number of settings and features that you just won’t use every time you have your camera out, so having the manual with you in your camera bag can really save the day.  Why are you still reading this?  Stop reading right now!  Go get your manual and camera.  I said, DO NOT READ THIS ANY FURTHER!
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5 Things I Have Done With My iPad

David Gilder    Gadgets and Stuff     Apple, Computers, Internet, iPad, Technology

Now that I have had my iPad for a month, I thought I would update everyone on what I have been doing with it. I have used it nearly every single day of that period, at home, at the studio, and even out and about. Below, in no particular order, are five areas that I have found regular use for my iPad.

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PDF Application Settings

AWWA    Design and Development     commercial, design, pdf, printing, publishing, settings, workflow

The Ghent PDF Workgroup is the organization for determinations of professional prepress standards for the best practices of publishing workflows. Creation of pdf files has become standard practice. Why would someone be interested in this? Simple: if you design something and want it to print as you intended, you need to prepare the file properly for the printer. Most publishers will ask you for pdf files and not native files (ones created by a specific application). Do not expect the printer to fix your mistakes. Your client will be charged for their time in order to facilitate printing.
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Great Google Goats Alive!

AWWA    Humor     funny, goatminds, goats, going green, Google, Humor, mowing

Apparently, great goatminds think alike. Google has brought in the goats again to mow their grass in Mountain View – 200 goats for a little over a week. This is the second year that they brought in the goats in an effort to reduce their carbon footprint. Seems as if it’s timed in conjunction with Earth Day. Go goats, go! Inherit the Earth. GoMOW go.

Looking at the Camera More Engaging to Stock Buyers?

David Gilder    Design and Development, Photography     Advertising, Copy, design, Microstock, Models, Photography, Sales Trends, Stock Photography, Text

Rahul Pathak over at LookStat (a multi-stock agency statistical analysis webtool) has put together some information about whether or not it is more engaging to have the models looking at the camera, or looking away. He looked at sales trends between images of senior citizens, comparing images where the models were looking at the camera to those where the models were looking at each other or off into the distance. His results were very surprising.
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