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Oh, it drives me crazy when people make their photos so huge that they make you scroll back and forth.  I used to be bad with putting in links, but now I use them quite frequently, and I've noticed more traffic.

Brad - These are terrific tips, as always!  One thing that I seem to have gotten away from doing is using titles for the photos in my posts.  I need to get back to that.

"Post to your blog consistently"...OOPS! now that I am back from an extended vacation I need to get to work!

Hey look! The three coolest bloggers in Austin made the first 3 comments! YEE HAA!

Allow me, yet another Texan, to comment on your blog!

I think that adding QUALITY photos or graphics should be emphasized too. I've seen some 1980's lookin' clip art floating around out there!

I'm not from Texas, but really appreciate your post!  Thanks for the tip on links.  I think I'll go do that right now...

SUPER duper post and are you sure you want to include an outbound link like Disney? They may never want to come back (just kidding!).  Thanks for your information packed tutuorial, like always!

I strongly disagree with using outbound links as a way to create stickiness. Why would we spend so much time driving traffic to our sites, only to send them away with outbound links??

Stickiness is about great content, interactivity and personalization. The true measure is a combination of how much time visitors actively spend on our site and how frequently they return, NOT how long our page is open while they visit external links.

Very well stated and explained. You are giving us some really good stuff lately to pass on to our new members to get off to a great start on AR.

OMG!  These tips are awesome!  You are such a wealth of knowledge with all of this good stuff!  By the way, I have new music on my blog, though Frank is still there, too!

Did I mention that, I love Disney!  We are Disney Vacation Club Members, original members:)  Hoping to buy into Disneyland, next year!  Love that Magic!

It's a Good Life!

Fran

Brad,

Thanks for all the tips my friend. Your other Tennessee friend! I cannot play the piano like the other one.

Right-e-o.  Consistency in everything...including blogging.  I've had two calls this week because of my AR Outside Blog.

Brad,

Thanks for the thorough tutorial.  A friend asked me a question about my blog earlier in the week.  I told them that I used to just be in the Real Estate business.  Now, I am in the relevant content business as well.

Keith

John - I appreciate your comment and thought, however... The idea behind providing good content "includes" providing outbound links.  If the links to the sites you provide bring value to your readers, then it in turn brings more value to your post or article.  While having the post still open in a tab or window may not bring value for the time it is open, it does create more of a convenience and value factor for your readers.

Are you saying that sending them to "Local School Information", Chamber of Commerce sites, Local events and Community links has no value?  In that comment, I strongly disagree with you.  Only you can choose the links and the value they'll bring to your content and readers.  All these suggestions and ideas "combined" DO create stickiness.

As I disclaimed in the second paragraph of this post, there is no right or wrong way, these are just my suggestions and what has worked for me and some others.  It is your Blog and you can do things the way that work for you.  Thanks for taking the time frequent my Blog and share your candid opinions.  I consider you "respectfully" a "Visitor who keeps Coming Back!"  :-))

Brad:  Lots of great pointers for new, and existing bloggers.  Consistency is a huge hurdle for many of us.  When it comes to any type of marketing, consistency is key.

How do I put my links on my outside blog? I can not figure that out... I got links and I believe you are right on target...just need to know how to do it

Hi Debra - when you create the links in your AR post, they should also appear on your Outside Blog.  If you go to my outside blog, you will see all the links in this post also appear and work there.  You can also create links on your sidebar by going to the Outside Blog menu bar and adding Outbound links there.  Let me know if you need more help with that. :-)

Brad,  enjoyed all the photos. Thanks for all the tips.

We hope to get to the Redwood forest next year.  Disneyland, been there done that. 

Thanks Brad. I believe the ideas are 'sticking' in my head.  I like the teaser lines.....I'll try that for sure next time.

Brad - Always enjoy your posts.  Love the disney link...

Brad -

THANK YOU.  Yet again you have provided me with info I can act upon to grow my business.  You, sir, are the Shining North Star in the AR Galaxy!!!! 

Coleen :)

P.S. Just one question: How do you center photos?  I know how to make them go left, I know how to make them go right....but the "middle" thing (like your redwoods pic) seems totally beyond my grasp....help!

Coleen - one way is to just click on your image or photo while you're editing your post, then use the toolbar option to center the photo.  This is the easiest and fastest way. 

You can also use the "appearance" tab when you're uploading the photo and "center justify" it.  The centering tool looks like this on your toolbar:

All good points Brad.  I had never thought about making the description of my links funny or clever, I thought I had to use keywords for SEO.  Great idea.  I always learn something new when I read your posts!

Brad - I've always been more of a reader and not so much a poster.  I recently decided to try to write more posts as part of my business plan.  Thanks for the tips.  I think I can do this as long as I don't run out of things to say!

Got it! This is so cool. I've been neglecting to post my photos to my Flickr and other photosharing accounts. I'll need more than 24 hours just to do that. Also, I'll need to develop a series of outbound links to use in my market reports and other localism posts. Thanks for the tips.

Stellar post (as usual!!!) -- always learn so much from you, and truly appreciate it.  

Adding that time period helps alot.  I love stats.  I was also wondering home many people click on videos and what length videos are too long.  I can't stand them, but I am not normal.

Hi Brad -- I have a long way to go to improve my posts.  A very interesting analogy about thinking about online newspapers -- a lightbulb went off!

Graet points Brad. I have to work on my "long tail" element in my posts--connecting to my web site etc. I try to mix my blog up with lots of localism posts and coming events to keep them coming back.

Thanks Brad, I just posted after reading your post on '"how to create a blog post for customers". You're always so helpful and encouraging.

Brad.. these are Awesome tips. Thanks for all you do to help boost our marketing !

Well...

At least you included it when you pushed me back :)

TLW...ROAR!

Great advice! I never title any of the photos or graphics. Will do from now on!

Brad - you are a wealth of tutorial wisdom. Gotta bookmark this one. While I do most of this I know I could do more.

The issue of outbound links is a bit controversial I suppose. I can see John's point of folks leaving to visit these links, but IMO the real value IS in providing info you know consumers will be interested in. That will keep them coming back to you.

Jeff

Thanks Brad, great suggestions.  I'm going to try.  No promises though.

Brad, I always follow your advise but this week you've been the bomb! LOL I actually printed the last post and read it as I was writing my blog. I repeated the title and guess what!? Page one for my little blog on the Nashville TN Housing Fair! Woo Hoo. :)

Needless to say I will do it again with this one. Some of this is really starting to sink in. Thank you!

Stacy - you can do it! Just check your email sent folder and you'll never run out of things to write or talk about. 
It's a library of content.  :-)

William - excellent idea, read Erica's comment. #29

Tim - I think 2-3 minutes is max.  Adding audio and video to posts on occasion also contributes to stickiness and potentially reaches to a wider (maybe different) audience, I think having a combination of these things available is good.  Even though some don't like video, others do.  We need to consider what readers and visitors like maybe more than what we like ourselves. ... just my thoughts..  :-)

Erica - there are many ways to keep them coming back and that is one of the best.  You'll here it on AR over and over:
Content Is KING!  Mixing it up is a good thing. 

Chris  - it really is like a newspaper.  Those who just post listings and market reports are missing out on a greater audience and opportunity. Could you image a newspaper that only had the comics and obituaries?  Blogs are like rainbows in the rain, they need ALL the colors. :-)

TLW - you got the whip, you think I'm Crazy or something??  haha!

thanks for all the great comments everyone, enjoy your posting day! 

I had no CLUE that the "title" area of the link is the verbiage that will show up when you hover over a link. NOW, I'm going to get more creative with that. I had just been titling it the same as the link - BORING . . .

Thanks for the tips!

Brad, I read all your posts and am trying so hard to follow your advice!  And it got me writing Localism more (with long tail key words :)  It works, I come up in Google under those searches!

Brad -- you are great with all of these tips... and you make it easy to implement them with clear instructions.  thanks...

great advice...thanks..

I love the description that leads to Disneyland. It doesn't cause me the desire to vacation, perhaps because it's so close we go nearly once a month.

The rest of your advice makes a lot of sense as usual.

All great tips -- you always have some good tips for us all.

Brad...YOU ARE A GENIUS!  I have learned so much from you....and this tutorial is a great one. Thanks for all you do for us and this wonderful community.

I guess I'm doing OK. It sounds like I'm getting it right. I can't complain about the calls I've been getting.  =)

Brad I need to start adding titles to my links. I do it on photos but not the links.

I guess I never understood why?

Does it help with SEO?

Brad - Your posts are excellent!  I have my subscription to your blog locked in :-)

I suck at adding pictures to my posts here... but on my other blog I am in the swing...  I need to swing that stuff over here, too. 

I am constanly trying to stick like glue - LOL. I mean not me personally :) ~Rita

another great post Brad.  I really need to get a better camera and be more aware of what's going on around me so I can take pictures to add to my blog.  I also need to be more consistent with posting.  I think I worry too much about what I think people will feel is beneficial to post so then I get stuck.  I guess I need to realize you can't please all of the people all of the time.  :)

Chanda panda

I'm going to admit up front, I didn't read all 40 comments so I apologize if I've repeated a tip.  I use www.picnik.com to size and edit all my photo's.  It is so easy and I must say I love my ruts, so I almost always size them at 350 and I also use a drop shadow on them.

Brad,

You did a great job of explaining why I need to add the outbound links.  I will make the effort from this moment forward.

Brad - Thanks for the good post and tips on how to make a good blog great.

Thanks for another great informative post today.

Patricia

This sure was timely, Brad, since I just launched my outside blog, MontroseandMore.com.  I have been doing outside links frequently since I started.  A nice result of that is I spend a lot more time exploring the web to see if there are good websites or additional content to link to.  I learn a lot, but of course, it generally means I take a lot longer to write a blog post.  I never thought of the fact that sites I link to would have a way to monitor who is linking and then link back to my site to see what was said about them.  What a great piece of info--and reason to create outside links.  Thanks from Colorado!

~Ninah

Help always seems to come along just when I need it most. Thanks again Brad!! I posted yesterday evening about the opera here in Wichita KS and my post shows up today #7 on the front page of Google. Active Rain really works!!

Joel - Activerain does work great in so many ways, and for so many things.  CONGRATS on making it happen and work for you. I hope you get a ton of hits and leads from that post, then it'll all come together.

Brad I need to start adding titles to my links. I do it on photos but not the links. I guess I never understood why? Does it help with SEO?

Missy - according to SEOMOZ and some of the proclaimed experts and their Search Engine Ranking Factors Article v.2,  they give this opinion and I'd have to agree with them.  Here's some detailed answers from these experts.

Here's what Randfish at SEOmoz says.  I think you'll like this one Missy.

I really like what Shimon Sandler says regarding title tags:

Typically you would use the title attribute on a link when the anchor text of the link does not properly describe the resource. In theory, this shouldn’t happen as your anchor text should be very descriptive of the linked resource, enough so that the user would not need a visual clue like that provided by the title attribute.

Some SEO’s use them, and others say they’re useless. There really is no way without one of the reps saying its true to say if the engines ignore them. Just because the information is not shown in the index, does not mean the engines aren’t using them. I’ve been using them for the last few years, and have very good results. My results may be because of everything else I do, but either way it’s not hurting rankings. So worse case is its not effecting it, best case is, it’s helping.

After much reading and research, I'd personally say it's contributing to SEO and adding more value to the link or Alt-tags for images.

Brad, although not new to the Internet and SEO this has helped tremendously.

I love the linking to Flickr so people can "keep seeing" more pics of you if they want. I never would have thought of that, but that is exactly what many of us do on FaceBook - we get a new friend and zoom through the pics. Genius.

Brad never thought of getting "sticky" in the ARain.  Excellent points though.  I have been pushing harder to get my blogging back up to par.  This helps alot.  Thanks

Great ideas--as always!

Great advice. If it wasn't for you I wouldn't know where to start to make my posts matter. Thanks for all of your help!

As usual Brad some really awesome advice for those looking to drive traffic and keep them coming back for more!

Spectacular stuff here Brad!

Thank you, as always, my friend, for sharing your knowledge with us here in the Rain.

Well done!

Brad,

Tips that I definately can learn from...thanks!

Thanks Brad......all your tips are really appreciated!

Brad, You are my hero! I am learning so much from you! I appreciate all the hard work you put in to this and the patiencce you show and put forth to teach the slow learners....MEANING ME.

God bless,

Carol Riley, Albuquerque, NM, Huntington Real Estate, www.CarolsellsNewMexico.com

Your blogs are always so informative. I feel like a complete newbie and like I need to go back and redo what few blogs I've written.  I was worred that linking to other sites would take people away from mine. Thanks for the grea tips once again!

Just FYI - from the ActiveRain Engine Room... regarding "The Importance of Labeling Your Photos for Google Image Search"  

Filling out the description field will automatically create the necessary "alt" tag when uploading an image. Search engines use the "alt" tag along with other heuristics to determine what images should be displayed when performing a search for images.

Providing a description for each uploaded image is recommended.

Can I just call you "Cowboy Brad?"

Hi Brad and thanks for all the good tips. I'm new at blogging but can see addiction in my future!

I had never thought of the fact that the owner of the sites you sent people to will be able to figure out that I sent people there. Duh! Makes sense.

Now, if someone could just explain to me how they are able to put color in their titles and subtitles and enlarge the letters to make them stand out. I would really appreciate tips on that. Is there another toolbar we can download/use when writing posts?

Thanks again,

Chantal

@Renee - yes!  :-)

Chantal - I use scribefire.com to create custom font sizes and colors with text. It's an add-on to the firefox browser, nit sure if it works with Internet explorer or not. 

You can create colorful text

and make it any size you wish...

Great info, Brad. Thanks. This issue is one I have. I haven't been doing outbound links, and I've never attached a link to a photo. I'll have to do that. And your tip to Chantal, tell me that you use Firefox. Do you use it only? Or do you sometimes use IE?

Hi Marianne - I use Firefox, Safari, Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, and even Flock on occasion.  Many REALTORS have to use the Internet Explorer Browser for their MLS systems and just don't know or realize that you can use any browser (even simultaneously) for viewing other sites and webpages.  Since I primarily use Firefox on ActiveRain, that is why I suggested ScribeFire.com to Chantal.  All I have to do is press "Function + F8" and the window pops up and allows me to create colorful and resized fonts. 

About ScribeFire:

ScribeFire is an extension for the Mozilla Firefox Web Browser that integrates with your browser to let you easily post to your blog: you can drag and drop formatted text from pages you are browsing, take notes, and post to your blog.

Oh, my...that does sound good. I'll give hat one a shot. (er...those a shot.)

Don't know where you guys learn about all of this stuff....but sure glad that you do and that you share it with us!!!

Brad, I'm a bit confused about the tags on photos - I have seen some people on AR who also write SEO posts and they title their photos sometimes with "-----Realtor" or "TheNameOfTheirCity&State" rather than anything relevent to the photo or link. This would be a great topic for a post to go into in further detail. Thanks!

Sharon

Hi Sharon, that would make for a great post, maybe when I get caught up with all the other posts I'm behind with, I'll add that one to the list.  I think relative content, keywords, and tags etc. are always the best bet.  Imagine someone searching google images for a photo of the Niagra Falls and coming up with a photo of a golf course or park bench.  lol~  :-))

Very useful tips! Are tools within active rain capable of doing all that? or do we need extra tools?

Carlos Morales

Hi,

I just want to say that opening in a new window can be helpful but if each open window has another link it can make for too many open windows which will slow the computer way down.  One way to minimize this is to have your links open in a new tab.  It makes it a bit easier to control.  Another thing about blogging is keeping is short enough and to the point.  Photos help break up the lines of typed information. 

Thanks,

KMS

Carlos - all the tools you need are right here on AR.

Kathleen - excellent point, I use tabs as well, but sometimes I require an additional window because I use multiple browsers.  Thanks for sharing that. :-)

This definitely helps me know more - stickiness is good!  Thanks Brad!

I love the idea of the quarky photo and link comments!

I haven't been using descriptive titles. Didn't even think about that. Thanks.