MelvinBlog

A blog that chronicles my journey on online marketing, blogging, social media, technology and life.

Blogging Experience

Some Thoughts on Storing Photos Online

by ·

I started taking pictures back in 2007 when I was in my early college days and like most people, I only used a point-and-shoot digital camera to take photos. Back then, I would store the photos on my hard drive and then upload it on Friendster. Technology has evolved and from Friendster, I started uploading them to Multiply, then Facebook and then now Instagram.

Looking back I realized that not much has changed really. At least for me, the change was mostly on the sites I’m uploading pictures to. And I find that normal because these photos are majorly tied to the “in” social network which has changed quite a bit in the last 5-7 years.  What changed on my end is my interest in the subject of photography. No I didn’t own a lot of cameras during the period but I became more obsessed with taking better photos and investing on better equipment.

What usually happens is I would take pictures using my entry level Sony Nex 6 camera. I would make sure I take good pictures (note I’m still a novice in this area though) and then once it’s done I would store it on my hard drive but then upload either on my personal Facebook page or Instagram. As we all know, both of those services decrease the overall quality of the pictures. But still who cares? I have my original source on my hard drive right?

Well, not until now. I realized that I need to take a look at a service where I can upload my best shots. Maybe not really just the best ones but every photos that I’d like. A major requirement for the service is that it would not (majorly) alter the photos and eventually decrease the quality.

No I’m not building some kind of a image portfolio here but it’s my personal desire to have a place online where I or my friends can look at photos that I took and hopefully those aren’t too bad for them to feel bad. And so that is why I started searching for the services.

image sharing sites
Image is from ava360.com

Flickr

I actually have a Flickr account and this is where I realized that I have been taking photos for quite some time now. I like the service a lot but it functions as a social network itself which can be a problem. That might take away the focus of me just uploading photos to finding friends, commenting on their photos, browsing other people’s pictures and etc. That’s not a big problem though.

I haven’t used Flickr in years but I remember that you can’t really use the service to upload pictures continuously as they have a limit for free accounts. They also compress your photos (not as bad as Facebook though) and that would only go away if you fork out some money and pay for a subscription.

But maybe it has changed and I’ll just have to take a closer look at the service again.

Photobucket

Photobucket is an equally popular service however I kind of view them more as a casual image uploading site as oppose to something that has a more personal feel to it like Flickr. Nonetheless, Photobucket seems to be as good as Flickr but it has its own limitations for a free account.

I’m personally not too high on Photobucket for some biased reasons but I know I’ll take a look of this service again and see where it fits.

Google Picasa

Picasa is a popular photo sharing service owned by Google. Doing a quick look at it, it seems they have their own share of features that are not available on other platforms. I read that they accept more file formats (including RAW) and they are of course very much integrated to other Google services.

I should take a look at Picasa because I’m pretty much a Google person like most people. I use a lot of Google services but I’m not sure I have any use for the Picasa integration at all (what? integrate to G+? meh!).

Shutterfly

The website of this service strikes me as a a photo and card printing service rather than an photo sharing site but it seems like the latter part is a very good service on its own.

Shutterfly doesn’t have any limitations for uploading pictures and unlike others, they actually store the images in full resolutions and uncompressed. Like other services, they also offer some basic photo editing tools and integration to social networks. And of course, they have this tied neatly to their printing services in case you want to get a hard copy of your photos.

Closing Thoughts

I haven’t reached the point yet where I’m nit-picky with the features that a service comes with so I think I would do fine with all the services I found above. However, I can’t really use all of them and upload to each every time as that would be very silly. It’s also worth-noting that me picking a service doesn’t change the fact that I would still upload photos on Facebook and Instagram since both are services that I heavily use for other purposes.

Overall, I would say Flickr has an advantage as I’m already an existing user there. Unless Flickr has a deal-breaker kind of limitation on their service, then it would be tough for other services to win me unless of course they offer something that is so good that I’m willing to switch and start over from scratch. But who knows?

I’d like to hear your thoughts here. Feel free to suggest other services as well. 🙂

Blog Design Update for 2014

by ·

I hinted at a blog design makeover in my previous blog post and here it is now. Unfortunately, it’s not 100% complete yet and because the current blog theme during the time looked more messed up while this is being cooked up, I decided making this new design live is a reasonable decision rather than continuing with a messed up theme.

There will still be lots of changes that is going to happen over the next few weeks and months however in terms of the layout and structure, this will be it. 🙂 As you can see it is simpler and cleaner than ever and with less elements to be distracted about. I will still run ads as they come but it will not be in the same quantity as it used to before.

Finally, I am still feeling my way on the things that I can do with the new template which by the way is from Genesis of Studiopress still. As hinted on the temporary header, I would like to make the design more picture-oriented. Not that I would start posting pictures solely and forget about writing text, but I’d like to see if I can add something more “artistic” and “creative” to the way I do things and by that I mean running this personal blog. I also don’t have a logo yet considering the old one simply can’t be transferred here. I also wanted a new logo to refresh things up and I’m fortunate to tap the services of a talented graphics designer which happened to be my friend. I’m excited!

As always, let me know what you think and what I can improve more in the design. I will be writing a full blog post on the blog redesign once it’s completed and I’ll go in-depth on what the changes mean to me and to you as my reader.

Looking for a New Theme for Redesign 5.0

by ·

This blog has undergone 4 design changes since it was started in 2009. It’s amazing how each of the blog designs are so different from each other and have different focus. And contrary to what people think when I made these changes, countless hours were actually spent in planning and tweaking the design to make sure they fit in based on how I envision it.

Of course a lot has changed since the last redesign. First is me reverting back to casual posting without any more focus on making money and growing my readership. Second is me leaning towards a simple, even ‘old school’ blog template. No interest in magazine themes anymore, nor do I want carousels and all those fancy stuff that just increase load time. All I want is a theme that features my writing and rambling. Nothing more, nothing less.

With that being said, I am probably sticking to Studiopress as they have some of the best ‘simple and clean’ themes available around. In fact the current design which is called ‘eleven 40’ is still great but since it’s been running this same theme for more than 2 years now, I decided that a change is inevitable.

Well, let’s just say that the theme-searching and overall design planning starts now. Do you have any Studiopress theme that you can suggest to me? Or even no Studiopress theme would also work fine if I happen to like the theme. Feel free to share what you think in the comment form below

How to Launch a Membership Site in 2013

by ·

This is a guest post by Karol K.

It’s no secret that various membership based services are getting more and more popular every year. Actually, the whole craze is not that much about the individual successful services, but more about the whole idea of making something membership-based in general.

We all know companies like Netflix and Hulu – both have been using the membership model for years now. But video streamed on demand is not the only niche for memberships. These days, customers can sign up to a range of interesting things. For instance, some of the more intriguing ones:

  • BagBorroworSteal – handbags on demand (members can rent handbags instead of buying them).
  • NewBeauty TestTube – sampling new beauty products every month.
  • BeCouply Dates – one awesome date a month; for couples (now this is what I call true online dating!).

And this is just a small part of what’s available (I don’t even want to get started on all the online games). Plus, there are more and more services sprouting up every week.

The reason is simple. People. Love. Memberships.

Why? Because they’re cheaper than buying something for keeps. Let’s take a look at the handbags on demand service – BagBorroworSteal. It’s no mystery that a designer, quality handbag can cost you hundreds, if not thousands of dollars. It simply makes sense to rent it for a fraction of the price and then amaze your friends at a party just as much.

(If you need some more data to believe that memberships are indeed the new black then just take a look at how Netflix is doing (via WolframAlpha) – the section labeled as recent returns indicates a 630%+ growth in the last 5 years.)

The big picture here is this: Membership sites and services are here to stay. They are just a more customer-friendly way of doing business and delivering goods.

Which brings me to…

What if you’re a business owner and you want a piece of this membership pie too?

Surprisingly, launching a membership-based online business is quite simple, and cheap (at least when it comes to the technical stuff).

Now, let me set one thing straight. It is cheap, as long as your product can be delivered in a digital form. If you’re the next handbags-on-demand company then it will require some additional setting up.

For instance, I’m a freelance blogger and writer. The membership program I would launch would be focused on digital training for fellow writers and people who want to take their freelance writing career to another level. In a word, everything would be computer-based, so no additional expenses for me. You can easily imagine similar membership programs in other niches. Some more examples: software, content, online articles, videos, tutorials, training materials, freelancing resources, and other digital products.

Without further delay, here are some of the most cost-effective methods of today:

WordPress + WishList Member

WordPress is a pretty recognizable brand online, but just to make sure that we’re on the same page, let me give you a quick heads up. WordPress is one of the leading website management platforms available, and there’s a good reason for this… It’s free, easy to manage, customizable, and extremely functional. In fact, the very blog you’re reading right now is a WordPress blog.

However, it still gives you kind of a manual way of launching a site. I mean, you have to get a domain, a web host, and then install WordPress by hand (either yourself or with some help).

And what you need to do then, since we’re talking membership sites, is to get WishList Member – a premium WordPress plugin. Single site license is $97, multisite is $297.

This is a solution designed for the more internet and website savvy crowd. The fact that you have the site self-hosted means that you can do a lot more when it comes to customization, but you have to be knowledgeable about the internet technologies in order to do so.

That being said, WishList Member provides just way too many cool membership features to list them all here, so feel free to check the official site.

WordPress + Membership

Another possible combination, which I like to call “free + free” is the pair of WordPress and a different plugin that’s simply called Membership (free).

Essentially, launching a site through WordPress + Membership is very similar to doing it through WordPress + WishList Member, only this time you don’t have to invest money. (Well, okay, you still need to get a domain and a web host, but that’s a whole different thing.)

The plugin Membership offers a nice range of features, but it’s not as rich as the other solution on this short list. In the end, if you just want to get started with membership sites as quickly as possible then this may be the best way for you to test this whole business model and concept.

What’s next?

No matter what method of launching a membership site you choose, you still have a lot of work to do when it comes to the actual business tasks, which I’m sure you’re aware of. After all, software won’t do everything on its own. The businesses mentioned above didn’t become popular purely because of the quality of the software solution they were using.

That being said, the membership model is working quite well for mid to big sized brands online already. Will it work for small businesses and startups? I guess we’ll have to wait and see. But products like WishList Member and Membership surely make it easier to happen.

Personally, I think that the sole fact that a person with a cup of coffee by their side sitting at home can launch a membership site in a matter of minutes is simply amazing. Thank you, 21st century!

What do you think about membership sites and their place among modern business models? Is it just a fad or will it last?

About the author: Karol K. (@carlosinho) is a freelance blogger and writer. Every day, he uses SEO and blogging to grow his brand. He writes and publishes posts about freelance writing (to be exact, about how to get paid to write online). If you want to join the freelancing world yourself then feel free to pay him a visit at Writers in Charge.

4 Tech Innovations to Grow Your Business

by ·

This is a guest post by Amanda Green.

Running a successful business requires you to get things right on many levels. This is where new tech innovations come in that help you with your business. Right from document management software to simple gadgets that make your job easier as an an entrepreneur – tech innovations are all around the business world. In the following article we discuss four such innovations that can help you take your business to the next level…

#1: Adapx Capturx Forms for Excel

Digital pens aren’t new – they’ve been around for a long time now. But a lot of them are confusing to use and are focused on “general note taking”. Adapx Capturx Forms for Excel comes with an Anoto digital pen along with a software that helps you focus only on forms. When you fill out a particular form with this pen, only the data acquired from this form is captured, details such as name or social security number. This very limited approach can prove to be a great innovation for businesses who want to use the digital pen technology more effectively.

#2: Dymo LabelMaker PnP

Any device that is “plug n play” makes things easier, and thus can be branded as an innovation. Most of the hardware gadgets out there either require a difficult to find driver or do a confusing software install. The Dymo LabelMaker, which costs only $60 bucks, simply plugs into your computer’s USB port. Its software is directly housed in the device and appears on the screen automatically when you start using it. So all you need to do is take care of the label design and do the printing, nothing more. The app utilizes your computer’s font and lets you add your logo.

#3: Addonics NAS 3.0

You’ll find many reputed companies out there that offer cloud enabled storage devices, helping you make your files available/accessible from anywhere. For small companies/businesses, you may not have a way to access your data over the web, even though you already have a USB drive. The Addonics NAS 3.0 is an adapter that you can simply connect to your current USB drive using a regular USB cable. You also have an Ethernet port to help you connect your adapter to the router. It’s great for bootstrapping businesses that are on a budget, and want easy access when going mobile for a day.

#4: SnapShell® Camera Scanner

The SnapShell® camera scanner happens to be one of the fastest camera ID scanners available in the market today. Its 3 megapixel camera allows you to place an ID card face down, on its window, and press the scan button to capture a high quality digital image in less than 3 seconds. Right from giving you high quality picture resolution (600 dpi true color) to getting easily integrated into a 3rd party software – it is the real deal.

It’s a perfect solution for your business if you have to deal with lots of “human traffic” in a short amount of time. For example, if you run a car rental agency, you can use this camera scanner to get a copy of the customer’s driver’s license as a part of the overall registration process.

Using Email to Grow Your Blog

by ·

This is a guest post by Reuben Dickison.

It is a Catch-22. Polls consistently find that people choose email as their preferred method of being contacted and updated. The same polls find that the highest source of irritation to online consumers is spam. This brings up the obvious question of –

What is the difference between Email and Spam?

Much like beauty – it is in the eye of the beholder. If it is of interest to the person, even if it is pure direct advertising, it is a welcome email. If the person receiving the email is not interested, it does not matter what the message is – they will consider it spam. This is the biggest factor in deciding how to use email to increase traffic to your blog or website.

When implementing email marketing campaigns more is not better. If you have something genuinely useful to say and it is timely it will probably be well received. It is a reasonable presumption that if a person visited your site, registered, and provided an email address then they have some interest in your site or products. This does not mean they all want a daily update on your site.

The purpose of your email updates or newsletter is very simple but often overlooked. It should be to drive traffic back to your website. I subscribe to one blog that I follow quite closely. I get a newsletter once a week (which is too often for most in my opinion). It contains the complete article of new posts. While I find it interesting it does in fact mean I have not actually visited the website in months as I have no need to. This is drastically reducing the value of any advertising they use to support the blog.

To run an effective email system there are some basic steps.

  1. You need to have email addresses. To collect email addresses you must actively solicit them. A call to action to register and to subscribe to newsletters must be highly visible.
  2. The emails or newsletters sent out must be for the purpose of directing traffic to the website. Highlight the most popular posts and pages in the email with a link to go to the complete post. Use your web analytics to determine the most popular.
  3. The more tailored the message the more effective it will be. If the reader can choose categories they are interested in then their emails should focus on those categories.
  4. It should not look like a cloned email every time. Aside from your logo, change up the look and format frequently to encourage them to actual read it as opposed to opening then immediately moving to trash or spam as “the same as always”.

There are numerous free plugins to use to set up email and newsletter campaigns for either specific or ongoing use. The better ones require more set-up and include an email verification (click here to confirm subscription type email) system.

If you want to grow your website or business through the use of purchased or shared email lists then always use an alternative email account to do the mass unsolicited mailings. This will prevent your primary site email from being tagged as a spammer account by the major email servers.

Hiring professional services sometimes makes sense, particularly if there is an e-commerce portion to your website. Whether it is to simply purchase a list or to conduct a full marketing campaign check to make sure that you have access to the account the emails get sent from. If you purchase 5000 emails in a list and 2000 of them are bounced as undeliverable you need to know that and be able get refunded or new to replace them.

Reuben Dickison is semi-retired freelance writer and blogger currently living in the United States. He is writing for email marketing services from emailergo.com. He holds degrees in Marketing and Public Administration with past jobs including consumer financial management, general manager of a multi-million dollar retail business, and private business management training and consulting.

Cost-Effective Ways to Market Your Online Business Offline

by ·

A lot of people these days are so focused on marketing their businesses online that they tend to neglect the offline part. Sure, promoting online is much easier, gives us wider reach and most of the time, is cheaper as well. However, this doesn’t mean doing offline promotions is not worth it.

In this blog post, I will list down some cost effective ways to market your online business offline. These offline marketing techniques should just complement your current online strategies and should still allow you to reach more people without spending too much money.

1. Giveaway items

There’s already plenty to choose from here however you don’t really need to spend too much.  A simple BIC stic pen with your web address in it can easily promote your website. And these pens don’t cost too much at all so you are literally getting more bang for your buck already.

You can also give away more expensive items like T-Shirts, mugs, mouse pads, even a discount coupon for what your business is offering. The key here is to gauge people’s interest and make them curious enough about your business that they would check out your website no matter what.

2.Flyers and brochures

There’s a reason why so many businesses are still doing this and its due to it being still effective. Here you just need to have flyers and brochures made and those simply need to have information about your business what it is all about. You can even go into as specific as listing down the different products or services that you’re selling and the corresponding prices for each of them. You can also combine this with the first method which should entice people more since you’re giving away something.

The key here is targeting the location carefully. If your business provides services that are related to university students, then it totally makes sense to give flyers near the universities. Or if you’re someone who’s providing freelance services, then go to places where small business are located. Overall, you want to target as many qualified prospects as possible so it’s not entirely about the quantity.

3.  Yourself and your resources as a marketing vehicle.

Are you traveling daily to places that are crowded? Or do you drive for more than an hour a day? If yes, then you can make use of yourself in promoting your business.

For example, if you’re commuting and riding trains, you can wear a shirt or anything that mentions your business. That can easily be seen by hundreds, if not thousands of people per day. If you have a car on the other hand, you can put out signs or even have decals on it and make it look like as if it’s a moving billboard.  This will reach a lot of people especially during rush hours.

Those are just two examples and as I said, the sky is the limit here. Why not take a look of what you have and start from there?

4. Sponsor events and competitions

If you want to take your offline marketing efforts to the next level, then you must consider taking part into events and competitions as a sponsor.  With events, you can easily make use of all the three things that I just discussed. The good thing with sponsoring events is that you are given some good exposure as well since the MC’s mention the sponsors frequently throughout the event. A lot of times (and depending on the sponsorship package that you would avail) they also give you time to talk and promote your business. And this is best time to not just tell participants about your business, but also give good valuable information that would make them interested enough to learn more about you.

Sponsoring events is the most expensive among all however if done right, it can easily yield better and quicker results. Just make sure to plan carefully here as the risk is definitely much higher. Don’t forget to consider the audience of the event too. If the target age of your business is 40 years old and above, then it might not be wise for you to sponsor a university event.

Offline marketing can be as powerful and cost-effective as online marketing if done correctly. Its important here to do your homework first, plan things carefully and then execute that plan to perfection. Then simply just rinse and repeat.

Do you have any other cost-effective offline marketing techniques that you want to share? Feel free to let me know through the comment form.