Mar/100
Image Space Media’s WordPress Plugin
Are you a WordPress-based publisher? Perhaps, you've been wondering why we haven’t built a plugin for WordPress users.
We have been thinking about how to make things easier for you. Things in the pipeline include a shiny new publisher panel and you guessed it, a brand spankin’ new plugin just for the WordPress community.
Before, implementing our technology was a bit on the technical side for average users. Now setting up our in-image advertising solution through WordPress is simple and easy.
Just install a snippet of our code via our WordPress plugin in your pages. Our system matches relevant ads with your images based on your metadata. Once you’ve activated the plugin you’re ready to start earning money!
Download the plugin here and spread the word!
Feb/100
Image Space Media + SXSW 2010 Interactive
Visit Image Space Media at SXSW Interactive Festival March 12-16, 2010!
In just a few short weeks we'll be heading down to the SXSW Interactive Festival in Austin, Texas. If you're unfamiliar with the event, the annual festival brings together the technology glitterati for five days of panels, showcases, meetups, and parties. Its a great place to connect with industry leaders, learn about new trends in the digital community, and hear about spunky startups -- like us!
We are thrilled to be launching our technology at SXSW! We will exhibiting at the trade show (word on the street we'll have a photobooth on the premise) so if you're attending, be sure to block off time in your schedule to grab a beer and a hot dog at our booth!
We'll also be live tweeting @imagespacemedia and updating our blog during the event. See you there!
Feb/101
Successful Blogs: From Start-Up to Follow-Through
Photo by Sureash Kumar via stock.xchng
Don't lie, you've done it before: started a blog with the best of intentions, had the drive to write a few stellar posts... and then fizzled out. I am certainly guilty of creating at least two blogs that are now abandoned, floating out in the blogosphere, and I will never tell anyone their names because they are too embarrassing.
So how can you avoid the flash-in-the-pan blogging phenomenon? ProBlogging and Chris Brogan's site are fantastic resources for would-be bloggers, written by industry veterans who have years of experience forming their own strategies for building successful blogs.
We have done you the service of aggregating the most helpful advice for the two hardest tasks of blogging: starting a great blog that will attract readers and, importantly, maintain your interest, and then keeping it going with posts that don't feel like a chore to write.
Nathan Hangen of Making it Social provides great tips for the first task of starting a blog in his article 10 Things I Wish I Knew When I Started. Here are some choice pieces of advice:
Narrow Your Niche
This is something that took me a long time to understand. I thought that by covering a bunch of topics, casting a wider net so to speak, that I would attract more people to my blog. The problem with that strategy is that when you do attract new visitors, you throw them off if your content isn’t consistent. They’ll wind up leaving and you’ll have to recruit new readers for every single post. So, try fishing with a spear instead.
When You Have a Blog, You are the Authority
Own It! – We blog from behind a desk and see our lives as imperfect or incomplete. However, to a customer or new reader, you have an incredible amount of authority. If you have gone through the work of publishing content, then you need to step up to the plate and own that content. Take the authority and use it. You might be a 6 or 7 (on a 10 point scale), but to that new person, you are a leader.
Start Networking Early!
I cannot emphasize this enough. Use Twitter, comments, and guest posting as a tool to meet new people. The wider your reach, the easier it is to get noticed. Don’t wait for people to come to you…get out and network. People love personal connections! Go to conferences and shake hands with other bloggers. You never know which contact could turn into a great guest posting opportunity, a JV deal, or a new devoted fan
But what happens if you start a blog you love and then lose that loving feeling? David Turnbull of Adventures of a Barefoot Geek wrote an awesome post on How to Ease the Pressure of Blogging, the highlights of which are after the jump:
Dec/090
Image Space Media Newsletter: December 2009
|
IMAGE SPACE MEDIA News for December 2009 
Welcome to Image Space Media's newsletter for December 2009. HAPPY HOLIDAYS EDITION!! WIN THIS CAMERA! As usual, a big thank you to our publishers using Image Space Media's technology in beta, and for your feedback. Your input helps us identify what areas we need to improve upon. With your help and feedback we've been steadily working to improve our technology. If you have any comments or questions please send them to info@imagespacemedia.com. in this issue:
|
Nov/090
Publisher of the Week: Post Your Food
This week, Image Space Media would like to recognize Postyourfood.com as Publisher of the Week. At Postyourfood, you can post pictures of your meals or rate others.
Using PYF is quick and easy, with no registration required! Simply upload a picture of your meal, title it, tag it, and select a related category. If you don't have an image to upload, you can browse through other pictures (which are categorized by breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks, desserts, and bizarre foods.) You can rate each image you see by clicking a 'disgusted' or 'happy' emoticon.
Visit Postyourfood.com today!
Oct/092
How Images Can Improve Your Blog
Every blogger experiences writer’s block once in a while. Sometimes it seems impossible to think of a unique story or write more than a few sentences about your topic. An effective way to enhance your post and capture your readers’ attention is using great artwork. Images draw readers’ eyes down the page, engaging their emotions and encouraging them to continue reading. Today, we’ll provide you with our top five tips for using images on your website.
- Make your photo relevant to your topic so readers understand what you’re writing about.
- Focus on size. If your image is too large, resize it so it will work on different platforms. Most sites like Wordpress and Blogger allow you to resize your image when you add it to your post. However, keep in mind that Image Space Media does not overlay ads on images smaller than 200x100, so make sure you choose a photo that is larger than those dimensions.
- Be careful about the placement of your image within your post. You can choose to align your image to the left, right, or center. If you choose to wrap your text around the image, you should always try to leave some space between the image and the text. Larger images that are too wide to wrap your text around typically work best aligned in the center.
- Stick with images that look professional. Check out last week's "Maximize Your Image Manager" post for some affordable online image resources.
- Always color-correct your photos. Adjusting the contrast and saturation levels using Adobe Photoshop or a less expensive program can beautify any image quickly and easily.
Since readers tend to scan blog posts, including artwork should one of your top priorities to help draw in your audience. What’s your strategy for using photos?
Oct/090
Tweet your Wordpress posts through Publicize
Are you a Wordpress user? If so don’t forget to take advantage of the built-in promotion tools WP offers bloggers to help increase traffic and reign in repeat visitors.
Last week Mashable highlighted Ping-O-Matic’s new feature Publicize which allows you to instantly post your entries to your Twitter feed. Unlike TwitterFeed another popular plug-in which periodically checks your blog for new updates and posts to Twitter, Publicize is instantaneous and allows for instant feeds.
Increasingly blogs have peppered their looks with “Tweet This,” “Stumble Upon” widgets to attract traffic and hopefully more fans to their content. Of course you can always opt of the service but with many competing voices on the web it seems to be a quick and easy way to reach a wider audience.
Oct/093
FTC to Regulate Social Media Marketing
The Federal Trade Commission is putting limitations on advertising on social media sites in an attempt to make sure that paid endorsements are fair and transparent. On Monday, the FTC updated its guidelines to specify that bloggers are required to publicly disclose “any material connections” they might have to a brand or product they discuss, even those posted on Twitter and Facebook. While these guidelines are not law, the FTC can bring advertisers and bloggers into court for violating them.
To define what constitutes an "endorsement," the FTC examines factors such as:
- Whether compensation or a free product/service was provided by an advertiser
- Previous or future acceptance of products/services from the same or similar advertisers
- The terms and length of the relationship
- The value of products/services received
The FTC says that “a consumer who purchases a product with his or her own money and praises it on a personal blog or on an electronic message board will not be deemed to be providing an endorsement.” This means that independent consumers are still allowed to review their brands.
It’s important for all of our publishers to know about the FTC’s new guidelines. To make sure you stay safe and informed, read the full FTC announcement here.
Oct/090
Universities Connect Through Blogging
What marketing tool are colleges using to reach out to high school applicants? Student blogs!
According to The New York Times, dozens of colleges are putting student blogs on their Websites to market themselves to prospective students. The blogs offer first-hand narratives about student life and the college’s culture. Many high school seniors have become loyal followers of blogs at their top choice colleges and can post comments to connect with the authors and other applicants.
M.I.T. is an example of one university that has successfully integrated student blogs into
their admissions process. M.I.T. bloggers are paid $10 an hour and write about a variety of topics, including tips for the application process and advice for managing the university’s difficult workload. In September, Snively ’11 devoted one of his blog posts to describing his fall course schedule in an interactive video format (see picture).
To learn more about how M.I.T. and other colleges are utilizing student blogs, check out the full article here!
Sep/090
Did You Know?
Image Space Media works alongside other ad technologies to generate incremental revenue for your website. This means that you can implement our in-picture advertising technology in addition to other ad programs such as Google AdSense, banner advertisements, and "affiliate" programs. To learn about these ad programs and other strategies to earn money from your website, check out our Blogging for Bucks article!