October 2009 Archives - 2/2

The Art of Seeing: How Photos Can Make Your Blog Writing Better

A guest by Everett Bogue of Far Beyond The Stars

Bloggers tend to underestimate the power of the art they put on their blog posts, professional looking art can make an immediate difference between an instant dedicated reader and the reader ignoring your blog altogether.

Blog readers do a lot of skimming, so it’s important that you concentrate making the photo that accompanies your writing both specific enough to let the reader know what you’re writing about, and powerful enough to solicit their attention.

I spent the last three years my life making blog photos better as the photo editor of New York Magazine’s blogs. Now that I’ve launched my own blog on minimalism and photography, and I’m working on my own projects, the art is always high on my list of priorities.

Here are eight elements of blog artwork that I contemplate every time I illustrate a story:

1, Simple is always better.

This is the golden rule, always choose an image that has one clear subject and one clear message. A photo with too many objects in it, or too dense a message can really throw your reader off. For my blog I often do a quick silo (art-speak for making a cut out) of every image so that the subject is on a white background for added simplicity.

2, Unique is better than generic.

Aim to provide a photo that your reader hasn’t seen a thousand times. If the image you’ve chosen bores you, it probably bores your reader. Invest the time to find an image that’s unique enough to peek your own interest and it’s a safe bet that your reader will feel the same way. Don’t go too far with this though, an image that’s too unique might confuse or scare your readers.

3, Choose an image relevant to your writing.

Be sure the image you choose is on topic. If you’re writing about writing, don’t choose a photo of a monkey eating a banana, pick an image of someone writing. You might find that your images start to get repetitive, but that’s fine, repetition will build your brand.

4, Stick with a common theme.

Aspire to make all of the photos across all of your blog posts have a similar look and feel. There are a number of ways you can do this: choose a consistent subject, if your blog is about concentrate or self improvement you can always choose photos of people meditating. Another way is by making all of your photos use a similar color scheme, like black and white.

5, Color-correct every image.

Get yourself Adobe Photoshop, or an inexpensive alternative and color-correct your images. The simplest way to do this is to make sure the black and whites in a photograph are pure black and white, by adjusting the contest of the image you can turn a poor looking image into a beauty instantly.

6, Size matters.

Keep your photo size reasonable. If the photo you choose is too big, resize it to a manageable size. Think about all of the different platforms your blog is being read on: RSS, Mobile devices, all sizes of computer screens. If the photo is too large you’re going to overwhelm some of these platforms and your reader in the process. Remember though, photo that is too small won’t be seen at all.

7, If the correct image doesn’t exist, make your own.

This is where you get to be creative! If you can’t find the image you want for your post, make it yourself. For this post I really wanted an image of a photo tacked onto a laptop screen. This didn’t exist, (no one wants to stick a thumbtack in screen, apparently.) So I created my own in photoshop. You can do this using a camera or photoshop, and the possibilities are only limited by your willingness to get creative.

8, Amazing art can save a poor story.

Let’s face it, every once in awhile every writer puts out some really bad writing. Whether you’re going through writers block, or you’re simply hung over and on deadline, you might need to cover up some unusually terrible prose. Outstanding art can tip the balance of reader perception into your favor.

Everett Bogue is a freelance photographer who writes Far Beyond The Stars, a new blog on minimalism and photography. If you found this post helpful to you please support his growing blog by subscribing to his RSS feed.

Illustration by Everett Bogue; Photo in illustration: Skyseeker

Writer’s High – Are You Missing Out?

A guest post by Vin Miller

Most people regard writing as nothing more than a tool for communication. In fact, many of us hold an unpleasant opinion of writing based on the many hours spent doing it for school or work. However, most of this writing was probably about boring topics that made it easy to overlook the therapeutic and inspirational effects of putting your thoughts into words.

Writing Can Inspire Happiness

Happiness is something that everyone wants, but unfortunately, many find it to be elusive. Because of this, most people are willing to invest a lot of money and effort into achieving it. From this perspective, it might seem ridiculous for something as simple and commonplace as writing to be a powerful source of satisfaction and fulfillment, but it really can be!

The unfortunate reputation that writing often bears as being boring and laborious is likely a result of people writing about uninteresting topics and doing so only out of necessity. Granted, not everyone is destined to enjoy writing just as some people don’t enjoy playing sports, but you’ll never know what you might be missing out on unless you give it a fair chance. The key is to write about subjects that are related to your passions and values which means that you need to have some self awareness to fully enjoy the benefits.

My Uplifting Experience with Writing

Despite having done well on school writing assignments and having received numerous complements on my writing from coworkers, I considered it to be nothing more than a communication tool and never really gave it much thought. This changed dramatically after I started my blog.

Surprisingly, writing was one of the reasons why I didn’t want to start a blog. This was primarily because of how much work it can be, but I wanted to become more involved with the internet and thought it was worth a try. I’ve been writing about healthy and inspired living, which is one of my deepest passions, for almost a year now and am still amazed by the effects that it has on my mood and perspective.

As most bloggers know, it’s not a pleasant feeling when you’re running out of time to write the next post, are having trouble finding a topic to write about, are busy with other things, and simply don’t want to write. At times like this, writing can seem like a real drag, and on many occasions I’ve had to force myself to sit down and get to work. However, it never takes long before I’m absorbed in my thoughts, completely engaged, and oblivious to my surroundings. Hours pass as if they were minutes.

My most notable experiences with this have come when I was tired or in a bad mood. Writing is usually the last thing I want to do in such cases, but once I get started, it almost always makes me feel energized, invigorated, and pleasantly fulfilled. The effect has been so dramatic that if I hadn’t experienced it many times for myself, I wouldn’t believe it.

Extending the Natural High

I consider the uplifting and energizing feeling that I get from writing to be somewhat like a natural high and similar to the endorphin rush that many people seek through exercise. Depending on what you choose to do with your writing, there are several ways that you can leverage your work to maximize this effect.

If you’re passionate enough about something to sit down and write about it, there’s a good chance that you’ll also enjoy conversing about it. Once your thoughts are organized and formalized into a document, you can post your work to a blog, an article directory, or simply share it with friends. With minimal effort, you can inspire new and interesting conversation for days, weeks, and even years. People will be reading your material while you’re sleeping, eating, and tending to other aspects of your life. You never know when someone will show their appreciation for your wisdom or offer additional insight that you hadn’t considered, and when they do, you’ll likely find it to be rewarding.

Another great benefit of writing is that it forces you to process and organize your thoughts. This often leaves you with unanswered questions and new ideas, both of which can be very exciting to pursue. Not only does this keep you engaged, but it also helps to expand your knowledge.

Give it a Try!

If you’re not already an experienced writer, one of the easiest and most meaningful ways to embrace writing is to keep a journal. Doing so is therapeutic in the sense that it allows you to process your emotions, and in some cases, may even inspire a revelation or a solution to a problem. You can also write about procedures, stories, concepts, or ideas that you’d like to share or document for future use.

If you find writing to be a rewarding experience, you should consider starting a blog even if you have little interest in becoming a serious blogger. It’s an easy way to organize and share your writing and you never know where it may lead. You can even be up and running in just a few minutes at one of the free blogging sites such as WordPress.com or Blogger.com. What are you waiting for?

Vin Miller is the author and owner of NaturalBias.com which is a blog about maximizing your life through natural health, practical fitness, and a positive perspective.