Want More Sales? Analyze Your Traffic Data!

If we want to generate business with our blogsites and social media marketing, we’ve got to find the discipline to analyze our traffic data!

California Olive Ranch DOM Claude Weiller, for whom we provide in depth traffic data analysis, has been ecstatic about the effort claiming, “We’ve adjusted our marketing strategies in response to the data we get from our blogs. The [traffic] analytics are a gold mine!“

Marketing Tactics

Search Engine Optimization and Social Media Marketing are tactics. If tactics don’t eventually translate to business then they’re a waste of time! And don’t be misled by those who’d have us believe raw traffic volume is the win. It’s not - lead conversion is!

Performance Indicators

We’ve got to identify the performance indicators that help measure the effectiveness of our tactics. Once we have those  indicators, we can actually begin to translate tactics into more and more new business. Having traffic convert is a process and it’s also about getting the right message across. With Social Network Marketing the message may be more about creating buzz & conversation to get attention because people’s intent for being there isn’t really business; whereas, with search they have very specific intent so that activity can & should be targeted as business. In either case performance indicators might help us to understand that ‘Denver Real Estate’ is a popular target phrase that gets us lots of traffic & visibility, but maybe it’s the phrase ‘Denver Neighborhoods’  that’s really converting.

Conversions

It starts with capturing anyone who’s looking for something specific and that identifies our content [somewhere, anywhere] as potentially useful. If they visit, then we need to be current, knowledgeable and appealing. Are they subscribing, signing up, filling out forms or even buying something? To make it happen, we have to understand what makes them tick. And the answers are in our traffic data!

Data Points

Some of the data you should be analyzing, or at least outsourcing, for valuable interpretation [See Our Traffic Analysis Services ] might include:

Key Data Points:

•Bounce Rate – What percentage looked at one page and left?
•Unique Visitors – Do we have new visitor growth?
•Return Visitors – Are we building visitor loyalty?
•Total Page Views – Do we have page view growth?
•Avg Page Views Per Visitor – How is our overall stickiness or brand engagement?

Interpretive Data Points:

•Most Popular Pages – what are our most popular subjects and can we expand on them?
•Referral Websites – Where are we getting traffic from and are Twitter, Facebook, etc. driving traffic?
•Search Phrases – What do we have traffic from; what do we not have traffic from and what should we target more often?

Key Performance Indicators:

• Percentage of Traffic Subscribing To Our Blogsite
• Percentage of Traffic Driven To Specific Area of Our Blogsite [e.g. Search The MLS]
• Percentage of Traffic Completing Lead Capture Forms
• Percentage of Traffic Converted to Sales

What works for one company may be different for the next, but let’s think bigger than just pure numbers. Personally, I cringe when someone says “so and so has X thousand page views per month.” There are lots of tricks that can drive traffic, but what’s happening when the visitors arrive?  Tell me about what it’s doing for their business!

The interpretation aspect of traffic analysis cannot be underestimated! It can’t be automated and it takes time, but leveraging what the numbers say to identify trends and solve problems is what leads to improved performance. Once you understand it, you can begin to improve your focus for giving visitors what they truly want. Do that and we’ll begin to convert more!

Related Posts:

1. Overcome the Google Analytics Learning Curve in 20 Minutes
2. When Does Traffic Analysis Improve Lead Flow And New Business?
3. Get Over How Much: Get Into Attracting High Quality Traffic!
   

Wondering how to maximize the effectiveness of your business blog content?  Read on for some quick tips that will help you get the most out of your time and business blogging efforts.  Or, dowload our FREE Business Blogger’s Bible now for a more in-depth review.

What are the elements of an effective blog post?
Let’s analyze it from the outside-in.  In other words, what determines blogging success?  In order to measure effectiveness we need to define goals. On some level each and every business blog post you write should have a goal.  Small or large, this is the first step – know what you are trying to achieve with your content!

Determine Your Goals
The much overlooked and oh so important first step!  To determine goals on a post by post basis you need to take a step back from the big picture of your business blog site as a whole and focus on a much smaller level. With each article you release what are you trying to achieve through your message or technique?

• Exposure/Traffic
• Search Engine Optimization
• Leads/Sales
• Public Relations/Branding
• Building Trust and Authority
• A Combination or all?

How will the type of content and your blogging technique help you to achieve your goals?  Let’s take a look:

Optimize
This is typically #1 on everybody’s list – how can I optimize my content for favorable search engine results?  While there are never any guarantees with search, there are a few things you can always do to ensure you follow best practices:

• Avoid Generic Blog Post Titles (get specific!)
• Keyword Rich Content
• Use of Relevant Active Link Text
• Use of Internal Links (related posts)
• Proper Tagging of Photos and Links
• Use of Call to Action Links
• Proper Use of Categories
• Proper Use of Tags

Want more detail?  Take a look at this post on Best Blogging Practices or request our FREE Business Blogger’s Bible.

Add Value
Ironically, adding value is often the last thing on a business blogger’s mind. SEO often takes the marquee position but people, once you get someone to your article from a search engine what is going to entice them to connect with you?  Value!!  The value your article provides is imperative.  How do you determine value?  Well that’s another blog post but do a little brainstorming about what your target audience wants, help them to solve problems!  Don’t overlook this very important piece of the puzzle.

Link Funnels
Links are helpful for three things: gathering leads, building value and search engine optimization.  On some level, you need all three.

1. If you are looking to get leads make sure you are using call to action links.  What can you offer that will entice visitors to sign up – squeeze pages, forms on your website, enticing offers to gather emails, e-news or blog news sign-ups, free online tools?  what do you have that people want – provide high visibility links to those things!
2. Internal links to related blog posts are great for search engine optimization, always think about linking to a few of your own blog articles so search engines crawl deeper into your site.  This gives you a better opportunity to get indexed for such topics.
3. As mentioned above, building value is an important focus for the reader.  Always weigh the cost/benefit of offering a link to a third party resource (as this is a potential avenue to lose readers), however – offering links to valued resources can make you look like a star!  TIP: have third party links open up in a new browser window!  This ensures your blog stay open in the background while the reader checks out your link.

Good User Interface
Is your post well organized, to the point and visually pleasing?  Have you offered any visuals to help break up all the text?  It’s pretty easy to make a mess of a blog post, spend some time making it look pretty so you don’t lose people at first glance.

Push
Are you getting the most bang for your content buck?  These days it’s pretty easy to connect your blogs to Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter for an automatic push.  Blogging also goes well with email campaigns.  Looking for more comments or feedback on your articles?  Email them to your sphere of influence, ask for these things!  Just make sure you are providing that all important value so your clients are benefiting from helping you out!

Blogging is a fantastic marketing tool, but it will always take a bit of discipline to maximize your content in this medium!  Don’t have a business blog yet?  We can help!  Please contact us today for more information about business blogging, social media and content creation.

What Are The Best Practices for Maximizing Return on Business Blogging?

We’ve done this one before, but based upon questions we’re getting no time is better than right now. Let’s review the very best practices for your business blog posts.

There are never search engine optimization guarantees. Not when more and more competitors are emerging with their own strategies and not when the proprietary Google ranking algorithm is ever changing; however, we have clients all over North America that achieve search engine visibility success with their business blogs everyday! Best practices, when used with discipline, maximize the short and long term value of your blogging effort! And by the way, we’ll look to talk here about balance and being equally, if not more, appealing to humans!

The Best Business Blogging Practices!

Here are the primary points we’d strongly suggest with regards to raising your chance for optimal topic key word and phrase indexing, as well as for human appeal:

1. Have your 20- 25 target key phrase list ready! Ultimately you want to impress humans, but in order to capture them in the search engines you’ve got to be visible for the phrases you believe they will search in the engines and in social networks.

2.  Create strategic post titles! Search engines and humans typically want different things out of a title; to be successful you must strive to please them both. In technical terms, your blog post title is a header tag. This means it’s the first thing a search spider will encounter on a new post. Be specific, so that spiders identify the purpose of the new page, but impactful so that you attract human attention.

3.  Leverage your content! Search spiders tend to look for phrase consistencies in titles and then high in a page. Random spider crawls also digest more content toward the top of a page or post. Without this, at least during random crawls, they may skip your page leaving you with less potential key word & phrase indexing. Create compelling first paragraphs that include your target key words & phrases, but demonstrate a value proposition for humans too. Be human so that you appeal to humans. On the flip side, don’t overuse keywords or use them out of context either. The search engines have filters to flag this behavior. And then too much keyword duplication is also just boring for humans.

4.  Gather and add good links! When competing for search rank links remain an important metric, including those you create to other content of your own. Links matter most when relevant to the purpose of a post and also when they come from a trusted source. The best way to generate links organically from others is to create content others will appreciate enough to link back too. Consider notifying news sources that might be interested in your coverage because they just may link to you. Creating links to relevant articles you’ve already written, essentially voting for those pages yourself, is a proven strategy too. Whether creating or receiving links, it’s always best to have them laid into descriptive anchor text. Search engines prefer anchor text based links! If your page is about widgets and the link comes from text such as ‘the top widgets’ – search engines will recognize and value that more than they would ‘go here’ or go to tomswidgetshop.com.

5. Use Proper Formatting! Most readers give you a few seconds to qualify whether or not they will read deeper into your post. It’s imperative that you make it simple for them to do so. Use simple formatting and a clean layout for every blog post you create. Bold section titles, bullets and numbers are a great way to call attention to your main points. Fonts should be uniform throughout, with photos and links well placed. If it’s a train wreck for the eye, people will typically not give it a chance.

6.  Add Images & Video when possible! Search engines place emphasis on alternative image and video content, so they are actually separate competitive visibility opportunities to text based content. Use proper tagging, as well as descriptive text, techniques so that your images and video are easily understood and working to generate that indexing for you.

7.  Categorize & Tag! Add posts into broader categorization (i.e. a blog post titled, ‘Olive Oil Prevents Alzheimer’s Disease’ should go into the ‘Olive Oil Health’ category) and tags, strictly based upon key phrase emphasis from the blog post content (they are summarizing bullet points from your blog article only – not overall descriptors of your site). Summarized, 2- 4 specific tag phrases will typically do and generally one category per post.

8. Add ‘Call to Action’ & Contact Information! A call to action like, ‘Please, Use Our Complimentary Santa Barbara Online Property Search’, linked to that actual resource drives greater engagement. And in case they’re ready, be sure to have your personal contact information easily accessible! Remember, most consumers will NOT comment.  Most do not want to be a part of the conversation; if they’re interested, most will call or email you!

9. If at all possible, maximize the number of places your blog posts and thereby your brand appear! Social Networks typically offer blogs and while they aren’t going to present your brand exclusively, they certainly offer you an opportunity to be visible to people who may want your product or service. Most of these will allow for your [branded] blog posts to automatically appear via feed, eliminating the need to duplicate your effort. Focus on as much visibility in as many places as possible, but do it with the intention of bringing prospects back to where you sell best. For instance, Twitter is not your brand… but you can use it to get people there

Looking for affordable help with good blogs, content, education and managed Wordpress? Kinetic Knowledge is a leading WordPress Management Service for business in North America.

I got an email from a Top Ann Arbor MI Real Estate Agent client of ours the other day that served as a heads’ up to write this post. If you haven’t noticed for the last several months we’ve been pushing bigger, yet at the same time much more efficient, thinking about business blogging. Think about maximizing visibility all over the web for where you live, sell and present yourself the best online! The point: there are simple ways to maximize your advertising visibility on the web with a minimal amount of effort – this is the power of your blogsite!

The establishment & accumulation of key phrase search engine indexing, back links, RSS subscriptions, email subscriptions, bookmarks, RSS feed connections [your RSS feed direct to other sites and social networks] and overall content activity is the currency of the web. Being visible in as many places as possible is your pipeline of future leads and sales!

BLOGGING CONTENT VISIBILITY

Here is what happens when we post here on Kinetic Knowledge:

* post appears on our site’s home page
* post appears in a category channel or two on our site
* our Twitter accounts automatically pick post up, notifying followers of the new content
* our Facebook fan page automatically picks it up, notifying any followers
* our profile pages in LinkedIn automatically pick it up
* our profile pages in Realtown automatically pick it up
* the post is picked up by any sites or blogs that have an RSS feed connection to us
* a Feedblitz supported email blast goes out to thousands of direct email subscribers
* all RSS feedreaders [i.e. MyYahoo accounts] with a Kinetic RSS feed connection receive the post
* Google and all the search engines are pinged to come crawl and index the new content for keywords and key phrases
* and there are many other places [i.e. FriendFeed] I haven’t gotten around to registering us for that could push us even further…

Each one of of these connections can should occur with each and every post you generate! It should all stem from one heavily branded home base location, with the strategic intention of bringing folks back to where you are truly represented; to where you live and to where you sell!

Getting visible with more and more people and bringing them to where your actual brand lies and to where you sell – this is advertising power of your blogsite!

Kinetic Knowledge is a leading Business WordPress Management Service

Something came up with a client on keyword repetition recently and I thought to run it here as a big reminder and heads’ up!

Obviously, we urge focus on targeted key word & phrase usage in blog posts; however, this post reiterates guidance on using balance for humans who may not appreciate seeing the same words over and over again.

Search engines definitely have filters for key word & phrase stuffing; however, I’ll bet they’re not nearly as strict as those we humans have. Note: when there is too much keyword repetition it tends to be content people will not be interested in reading or linking at!

Simple Guidance Points on Keyword Targeting or Density

1. Best to use target phrases strategically [i.e. Malibu CA Celebrity Real Estate] in post titles, once again in the first sentence or two for emphasis and then maybe one more time at the end of a post. 
2. If needed, mix in similar key phrases
3. Use logic – what would you find annoying or less appealing?
4. Go to quintura.com , wonder wheel or the keyword suggestions tool of your choosing and enter your key word or phrase for actual similarities on what else is being used online

No one ever said blogging was easy, but those paying attention and using a little logic will set themselves a part! There are never search optimization guarantees. Not when competitors are emerging with their own efforts & strategies and not when algorithms are proprietary and ever changing; however, here are some points we’d strongly suggest with regards to good optimization of your blog posts.

Guidance For Optimal Blog Posts … and also that will convert!

• Have your top 20- 25 target key phrases handy!
• Focus titles by using key words or phrases [i.e. Olive Oil Health or Wasilla AK Real Estate Blog]!
• Focus content carefully on targeted key words or phrases – see above bullet no. 1!
• Add links to, in anchor text [in key phrases] descriptive of, other relevant content URLs you’d like Google to see you as relevant for!
• Add useful outbound links to other relevant sources!
• Add images with descriptive Alt Tags  whenever possible!
• Add posts into broader categorization
• Add tags, 2 -3 phrases *strictly* from that page’s content
• Add ‘Call to Action’ [i.e. Search Indianapolis IN MLS]
• Add signature, with contact information

Heads’ Up Business Bloggers!

This post is meant to be a big heads’ up folks. Your password security should be a top blogging priority!

You really must find ways to encrypt passwords to anything you use online these days and that certainly includes your blog! There are people out their working to steal your personal information. Beyond compromising personal bank accounts, they very well may be interested in invading, or even controlling, your sites.

It’s very important to understand that your host cannot prevent the hacking of your user name or password.

No- Nos

Wikipedia defines encryption as the process of transforming information using an algorithm (called cipher) to make it unreadable to anyone except those possessing special knowledge, usually referred to as a key. Now, we’re not suggesting the use of an algorithm so much as we are that you be clever enough to make passwords virtually undetectable to others, save yourself = ‘the key.’

Using your dog’s name, or ‘Janesblog’ is far from careful or clever; it’s certainly not even basic encryption. In fact it risks your blog and your content, which is your time, effort, brand and your money! … so please go the extra mile! 

Password Protection Tactics

One trick that folks can use might be abbreviating a common phrase or a popular line from a song. For instance, take the Pledge of Allegiance. “I Pledge Allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America…” could be the password ipa2tfotuso@.

How about family member first initials starting with youngest?

Adding in numbers capital letters or punctuation marks, if allowed, add additional layers of security. Ultimately, the longer the password and the broader the spectrum of characters, the harder it is to crack.

About.com offers a great set of ideas for Creating Secure Passwords, including detail for:

1. Do not use personal information
2. Do not use real words
3. Mix different character types
4. Use a passphrase
5. Use a password management tool
6. Use different passwords
7. Change your passwords

Your Wordpress Blog offers a tool called a ‘Strength Indicator’. We highly recommend using it. You can find it in your Administration, in your ‘Users’ drop down under ‘Your Profile’. Once there, scroll down to ‘About Yourself’ and ‘New Password’. Create one by entering it twice… and you will get a grade. Trust it! Wordpress suggests you should be at least seven characters long AND, to make it even stronger, use upper and lower case letters, numbers and symbols like ! ” ? $ % ^ & ).

Summary

We’re sure you get the picture, but we couldn’t be more serious & concerned about the securing of passwords. Please, make it a personal priority, if not responsibility. Please, secure your passwords!

Comments ‘Heads Up’

Recently, we’ve seen folks allow bad comments to reach their blog pages and we’re concerned. To be specific, comments are often masked as pleasantries, but they can carry links to bad neighborhoods. It’s a common practice by those nefarious site owners looking to get links from your blog back to their site. And why would you ever allow that, unless a comment truly adds value for your audience?

According to SEMoz 2009 Study on Search Engine Ranking Factors, 2 of the top 5 Negative Ranking Factors relate to outbound links [from your site] to bad neighborhoods or sites. – This post is meant to be a ‘heads up’!

As Eastern CT Real Estate Broker Linda Davis will attest “Buyers and sellers typically research and then they get in touch direct via phone or email. The fact is, most consumers don’t socially network. What’s more, they may not want to discuss business matters publicly.” Jakob Nielsen’s study  suggests that 90% of onliners read, but do not comment; 9% comment some and 1% are just active.

We tend to agree that most sophisticated buyers are less interested in joining a conversation [via commenting] then they are engaging an appealing potential service provider. Comments are by no means a bad thing. They can dramatically improve a posts’ emphasis with useful questions, information or even productive debate.

Discipline For Handling Comments

In any event, when comments arrive business bloggers should have discipline for handling them. Good business blogs  protect you by holding all comments in moderation. When in moderation, don’t just review a comment, but carefully review the back link URL before approving it. In a perfect world, the idea with good comment links is to provide those reading, who might want to check a commenter’s site out, a simple click.

Regardless of whether the comment is pleasant or even seemingly useful, copy its’ URL to another browser and review it for all of 30 seconds. If the link is to a pharmaceutical reseller, clearly you don’t allow it to surface. If bad links slip through, you’ve got outbound link structure to bad sites and you’re being judged by search algorithms for that. Says Top SEO Scottie Claiborne, “Who you link TO matters. It always has. You control it, so you must recommend those links.”

Folks, as a business blogger interested in a healthy brand that competes for competitive organic search results, review all comments. And particularly, review the links that come with them!

Related Posts:

• Comments, Hype, Value and Your Business Blog
• Be on the lookout for a new form of comment spam!

We’ve been looking at the top keyword use factors and then the best overall factors that will influence your search engine page rank positively, but it’s also very important to review the things that will have a negative impact.

Summarizing SEMoz.org’s recent search engine ranking study, let’s have a look at potentially the 5 most negative factors influencing your web presence in the search engines. Again, there’s a battle waged every day between Search Engineers and those that would use various schemes to game their ranking algorithms, making search engine optimization a highly volatile strategic environment. As always, we recommend sticking to the development of consistent, value-adding and business-focused content.

The 5 Most Negative Factors Influencing Your Search Engine Page Rank

1. Server Inaccessible to Search Bots

While server inaccessibility is highly disputed amongst the leaders in the world of organic search engine optimization, the consensus is that your host had better be reliable AND rarely down. According to Ben Pfeiffer, “If the site is not live for more than 48 hours it seems to drop pretty fast from the index.”

2. Content Similar or Duplicate to other already Existing in the Index

What’s important to understand here is that Google doesn’t want duplicate pages in it’s index. I can think of one instance where over 4,100 blogs have the same exact pages and only one gets indexed. Google is not looking to police duplication or plagiarism, but if your pages are neglected by the index the negative effects may include 1) you may have just wasted a crawl / wasted any indexing of good key phrases from those pages, 2) you may have lost some findability and 3) you may have thrown out any back links to that page otherwise favorable to your overall rank. It’s also believed by some that duplicate pages are a bad behavior signal and that doing it often may eventually create a form of trust penalty.  And then finally on this topic, it’s believed by some that Google’s filters detect up to 50% duplication on a page or post.

3. Outbound Links to Bad Sites

This is why we continue to beat the drum about being incredibly careful with comments. Screen them in your moderator carefully because if bad ones slip through, you’ve got outbound links to bad sites that you’re being judged for. Says Scottie Claiborne, “Who you link TO matters. It always has. You control it, so you must recommend those links.”

4. Link Farms, Schemes or the Sale of Links

This one has a strong consensus, but the details are certainly in dispute. I get email everyday, “we’d like to sell you a back link” OR “we’d like to exchange a link with you” OR “we’ll pay you for a link” and I delete them everyday. Look, even if you can get away with it [and Matt Cutts of Google says you won't ] temporarily, is it smart to challenge Google? Why risk your entire past and future effort? Lucas Ng (aka shor), “Google will attempt to identify low quality link-selling neighbourhoods just as it would identify any low quality link neighbourhoods.”  Says Aaron Wall, “I have also seen sites with cheesy reciprocal link directories not rank until AFTER they pulled the reciprocal link list off their site.”

5. Duplicate Title Tags on Many Pages

Your blog should either be designed to generate new page title tags based upon the page’s title or allow for their edit. The point being, be sure you’re not duplicating the title tag over and over. We made this mistake once and were not hurt as a result, but it logical this could look bad to a spider so we fixed it. Also, understand the issue is not key word consistency in your page title tag or post content so much as it is utter duplication.

And that’s pretty much it for now on what the leaders say about the factors you should manage most in your content, but know that this isn’t a static environment. The rules are proprietary to Google and the other engines AND  they are always changing. You may find there’s a completely different emphasis as early as next year. The best bet is and has always been based upon what Google needs, which is good content on every subject so they can be the best conduit possible. Simple logic tells you to develop consistent, value-adding, subject focused content and you should be able to develop a sustainable presence, simultaneously out-distancing the competition.

Related Posts

• The 10 Best Overall Factors Influencing Your Page Rank!
• Top 8 ‘Keyword Use Factors’ influencing Your Search Engine Page Rank
  

Did you know that when you search Google [standard] you are actually searching all forms of content?

Referred to nowadays as ‘Universal Search’ Google search results may include the website or blog text links you are accustomed too and then also [assuming there are any to index], picture images, video and audio files. “The goal”, says Google’s Bailey, “is to present balanced results based on the search term and move away from the heavy emphasis on only textual Web links that existed prior to the switch to universal search in May 2007.”

As a search marketer/ advertiser, the question you should be asking yourself here is, “have I helped Google to understand my business blog pictures?” In fact, Google is so interested in indexing more pictures they have created Image Labeler. The purpose, in lieu of depending on average human web publishing, is to recruit anyone’s help in the development of better technology for understanding pictures.

Note: The Google spider or crawler cannot read the text contained on/ in an image as shown above; however, it can read any alt tags that have been added, only visible to the human eye when a cursor is rolled over the picture. It also reads and follows an embedded link to any other site or page. Clearly, most alternative content [i.e. a picture] is published to the web without any description.

So if Google is looking to index all pictures, if you can index [alternative] content where most haven’t and if some of your purpose online is search findability… why not start immediately? In fact, consider going back into your blog and adding text descriptions or ‘alt tags’ to all its’ pictures.

Typically referred to as ‘alt tags’ or ‘alternative text tags’, your pictures can be labeled easily for search engine indexing and, as a result, consumer findability. Again, Google can’t see text on/ in an image; however, depending on the content editor you have, there should be an icon for uploading pictures. When clicked you should see a pop up window appear with tabs for 1) picture file upload, 2) add ‘alt tag’ data entry [shown above], and 3) add link [also shown above] areas. Sometimes the ‘alt tag’ data entry will be referred to as ‘alternative text’, ‘image info’ or ‘tool tips’, but I’m certain you get the picture.

In summary, knowing that Google actually wants to understand, to index and to include your picture images in consumer search result pages should do nothing less than heighten your sense of opportunity! Why? Because, if not already, all of your picture images are an immediate chance to get a leg up on the competition. Use alt tags and you may generate more consumer findability in the search engines!*

Related Posts:

Pictures, Copyright and your Business Blog

Using Images For Local SEO

I thought this post might be useful to folks who enjoy adding pictures to their business blogs, but that might also appreciate basic information on picture usage, copyright, public domain and the creative commons.

I don’t know about you, but I’d like to add more pictures to my business blog. We spend a lot of time here talking about how to satisfy the search engines, but we must also acknowledge the balance you need in order to satisfy humans. I mean, I’m human… and I like pictures. Don’t you?

Copyright

For starters, we can’t just go grabbing any old picture from the web. I certainly don’t want anyone using my pictures any way they choose. Do you? Copyright law exists to prevent picture copying, including the possibility of civil suits with punitive damages. It exists to protect us all and [ultimately, despite the obvious tempation] that’s a good thing. A little history on the subject: apparently until 1976, creative works such as pictures were not protected by copyright law unless they had a published copyright. If it did not, it was ‘in the public domain.’ Changes to the law occurred in 1976 and again in ‘88, effectively saying that all creative works were automatically copyrighted. The belief being that if there was no ‘copyright by default’ it might undermine the creators’ or an artists’ interest in sharing their work, thereby limiting the public’s’ access to art. In effect, protect art and protect culture.

Copyright law is pretty simple, actually. Any work or picture you or someone else creates is automatically copyrighted. No one really needs to do anything at all to receive protection under copyright law. While one might go to such ends as the Registrar of Copyrights in DC, there isn’t much preventing an owner from exercising rights when someone has blatantly copied their picture.

New Jersey Beach Picture by Jason Burmeister

Now, not to worry because there are good exceptions and opportunities for picture usage on the web including [obviously] those pictures you can take yourself, those in the public domain and then those for use in the Creative Commons.

Public Domain

Public Domain describes any work that is not protected by copyright. For instance, photos are copyrighted unless they’ve given up protection. Explicit permission is one example. Another is if you have a photo on the web, you notice other folks have been using it a bunch and you don’t really do anything to stop it… it’s then in the public domain. Regardless, if the picture is not ours or we don’t have permission the rule of thumb should probably be “don’t use it!” FAIR WARNING: sites that say they have free or public domain pictures may not be reputable… be careful to use good judgement. If the site doesn’t reveal an owner or a means to communicate with one it’s likely not reputable.

Creative Commons

Creative Commons is a nonprofit organization that has delivered a widely accepted means to share pictures. By using a Creative Commons license, which attaches itself to the work, a picture’s owner is allowing others’ usage. This exists outside standard copyright law, because the Creative Commons’ has no legal ground; however, it has been widely accepted… and that’s meaningful. Many people using Flickr.com offer usage via the Commons, which essentially defines various permission standards. I added the picture of a NJ Beach above partly because it’s summer time and where I’d love to be right now but mostly to demonstrate a Commons Attribution License, which allows for the picture to be in the public domain *if the owner receives credit.* In this example the owner has his due via a picture- based link and then another just beneath.

Anyway, I hope this all helps and then I’ve included some resources for when you need a quick fix… or a picture:

Public Domain

• http://karenswhimsy.com/public-domain-images/
• http://www.publicdomainpictures.net/
• http://www.pdphoto.org/
• or you can just search public domain pictures to find a number of resources

Creative Commons

• http://creativecommons.org/
• http://www.flickr.com/creativecommons/

Other Free, possibly with restrictions

• http://weblogs.about.com/od/startingablog/tp/FreePhotoSites.htm
• http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/

US Copyright

• http://www.copyright.gov/