Lately folks have been asking about how to load new content, particularly about loading images, up to their sites from smart phones. I hadn’t actually used the application [=app'] myself yet so I thought I’d do a quick demo’ here while watching the game [NY Giants fan here, go GMen ]

Frankly, working with the mobile to WordPress site App’ is pretty simple. We recommend http://ios.wordpress.org for iphone/ipad AND / OR http://android.wordpress.org for android.

Here’s how: find the WP mobile app’ on your phone or in the apps’ market. On my HTC Incredible [Android Operating system] it was in the apps market, so I pulled onto my phone for regular use. Once you have done this, click register your account via the ‘self hosted’ option [this tip for clients, not on wp.com]; enter your site URL, your login creds’ and you’re ready to go.

Login, choose posts or pages, click the plus sign you see lower left, add  your post title, content, an image [ from your phone's gallery- the one you see here is the beach near where I live @ sunrise] and ‘publish’.

Simple!

And don’t forget to be in the habit of saving every so often too so that, in the event your web connection is ever broken – it happens folks!!, you still have all your work in WordPress not to mention in Word on your desktop. Pretty easy to use, so good luck with it… from Kinetic Knowledge!

Google’s Universal Search, which now places a great deal of SERP emphasis on video and image content [i.e. Alt' or Alternative Content], is a dramatic shift from traditional text dominated search results. It actually reduces the chance [slightly] of your text phrases achieving 1st page search results, while raising the chances for your images or video. The great news is, your business images can generate competitive indexing of their own; however, it’s the descriptive alt’ tags that make it possible!

And let’s not forget that humans really appreciate images!

Image Alt’ Tagging Tutorial For Business Blogs

Know that blog editors can be different, including with WordPress. We’ve certainly modified an editor or two, so there may be minor differences in what you have and what you see below. In any event, here goes:

•Open your blog’s admin’.
•Choose the ‘Write’ tab, which opens your blog editor.

•Choose the ‘Add an Image’ icon, upper right side.

•Choose ‘Browser Uploader’ [it works better for me than ‘Choose Files To Upload’].

•Browse for a file with the desired images on your PC’s hard drive. Images may be those you have photographed or that you’ve downloaded from image based sites, etc. See about Copyright AND Blog Images too.

•Choose your image by highlighting it, press ‘Upload’ and then press ‘Insert into Post’.

•Once the image is loaded into your blog editor, single click the image.
•Two icons will show upper left side of the image, one a thumbnail picture and one a red circle with a line through it.
•Don’t click the red circle, it deletes the image from the blog editor. That is, unless you got the wrong image and want to start over again.
•Click the thumbnail picture icon to open your image editor.
•Look upper left on your image editor and you’ll see two tabs, ‘Edit Image’ and ‘Advanced Settings’

•I always start with ‘Edit Image’, but I certainly use ‘Advanced Settings’ too. We’ll get there soon.
•Once you choose the ‘Edit Image’ tab you’ve got a few data entry areas to choose from and to work with.
•Do you want the image to position ‘left’, ‘center’ or ‘right’, where text will automatically wrap the image? Or do you want the image to be above your post’s text? If above, ‘none’ is your choice. I chose ‘left‘ for all the images you see here.
•Some like to enter an (1) ‘Image Caption’, maybe to credit another owner of the image. For instance, a credit based upon creative commons guidelines, but I don’t like to add captions. So far as I know they add zero SEO value and I feel they lessen the images appeal.
•I usually add an (2) ‘Image Title’ because that’s the ‘alt tag search engine spiders can read as a description for the image. Choose your words carefully, based upon the actual purpose of the image AND/ OR the way you think someone might search for it. Maybe add your name too? Humans can see what you’ve tagged if they roll their cursor over the image. I also always add a (3) ‘Link URL’ that’s relevant. Then I choose ‘Update.’
•Now, single click the image again, choose the thumbnail picture again and then choose the ‘Advanced Settings’ tab.

•Once in ‘Advanced Settings’ you can (1) size your ‘Width’ and (2) ‘Height’, which you may have to play with in order to see what fits or looks best. Different blog’s have different width limitations, so be aware.
•I always ‘Save’ the post with the image in it to see I’m happy with positioning versus the text. I also want to see proper sizing. I do this with the ‘Preview this Post’ option, which sits upper right hand side of the blog editor. Once you’ve ‘Saved’ you can fool around like this without losing anything.
•I also add a (3) 1’ ‘Border’, which adds a black border around, but this preference only. Then I like to add 4’ (4) ‘Vertical Space’ & 4’ (5) ‘Horizontal Space’to create separation between any text and the image.
•Finally, I like to to choose (6) ‘Open Link in a New Window’ and then I ‘Update’.

And that’s how we alt’ tag our blog post images.

PS: You may have seen a post similar to this from me semi- recently. You’re not going mad, we messed that one up. This is a redo, for in case it was useful

If you’re interested in subjects including the value of Blogging for a Business, Search Engine Discoverability, ‘The Long Tail of Search’, Thought Leadership versus Trust, Disintermediation and the potential cost advantages of a Blog… it’s a quick & painless read.

Thanks so much for having us Allen!

To Gain Local Traffic through commenting:

Look for several local blogs that you can regularly comment upon. These don’t necessarily have to be conversations relevant to your business (however, they will be more powerful connections for you if they are), just things that you have some passion in talking about. In theory any local traffic will be relevant to your mission. Local blog commenting will also get those other local bloggers to take notice of you as an author. It is feasible that they will begin to start commenting on your site and use you as a link resource as well.

To Gain relevant inbound links through commenting:

Look for blogs that are having similar conversations to those on your own site. Leave a comment in the pertinent string of conversation and provide a direct link to the relevant blog post on your own site (not to your homepage). This will connect the two similar conversations together and potentially funnel some of the traffic from that third party blog to your own.

**Don’t forget: Just because you leave a comment doesn’t mean it will get approved. Most bloggers practice comment moderation. If you are respectful of their platform and add value through the comment you leave they are likely to approve you, but the discretion is up to them!

• Imagine you wanted to know if someone (whether a blog or news website) was talking about you or your company out there on the web - you can set up an alert to notify you "as it happens" by email.
• Imagine you wanted to join regular blog and news conversations about topics relevant to your business – you can set up an alert to let you know when those conversations are happening.
• Imagine you wanted to know what your competitors were up to – set an alert to be notified of any news about them!

Get the picture?  Alerts are incredibly powerful information efficiency tools.  The following section will tell you how to set up and use your own Google Alerts.  It’s free, try it out!

• You do not need a Google account to set up alerts, however it is to your benefit to have one so that you can manage those alerts.  You can sign up for an account here.  If you already have an account you can also sign-in there.
• By default, Google alerts (when you sign in through your Google account) will default to your GMail account.  You can have them sent to your own email addresses, all you need to do is associate that address in your Google Account:  Click this link only after you have already signed into Google to associate your email.

Once you have successfully signed up for alerts, you can then try out a few things.  Alerts works the same way as a Google query does and give you the choice of what source you wish to receive alerts from.  You can get information from: Google News (only news articles from the wire), Google Blogs (solely blog articles and conversations), the web (everything – links to websites), Comprehensive (all three – news, blogs and web), videos, and groups (Google chat forums).  To set up a query, use the same logic you would when searching for information in Google.  For instance, let’s say I wanted to be alerted when my name came up in a blog conversation.  I would:

1. Set the search terms to "Kristen Veraldi" (quotes are important on multiple term phrases, this means only look for Kristen and Veraldi together – if i had not included them I’d get alerts on everything Kristen and everything Veraldi and everything Kristen Veraldi)
2. Select Blogs as the type
3. Set the frequency
4. Enter the email I’d like alerts delivered to (make sure it’s registered in your Google account!)

 That’s it!  Google alerts would then keep me informed by email if anyone was talking about me out there in any blog conversations!  Here’s another example, let’s say you wanted to keep a close eye on your local real estate marketplace for blogging ideas.  Perhaps you’d set the following (using your own local of course):

Search Terms: "real estate" Vail OR "Beaver Creek" CO 
Type: Blogs and News

Put the power of Google Alerts to work for you today!