Chris asked me a great question:

What’s a good policy on using photos from other sources when you blog?  Can you use other sources as long as you credit them?

I am no expert on copyright, so what follows is mostly ‘common sense’ advice.  What happens if you find an amazing picture on a site that would be perfect for your post?  Do you use it?

My advice is you should use the picture ONLY if you can find on the site where the owner has given you express permission to use their pictures.  If they don’t list this somewhere on their blog, look on their About page, or they may have a Creative Commons logo that will tell you if you can use the content on that site.

So if you can’t tell if it’s ok, assume it is not.  And if you DO use a picture, always make sure you include a link back to the source.  Even if the person doesn’t ask for this (they should).

Now, what’s the best source of pictures you can use on your blog?

My favorite is Flickr.  Flickr has hundreds of millions of amazing photos posted by its users.  When the user uploads the photos, they set whether or not everyone else can use their photos, and under what license.  Not everyone will give you permission to use their photos, but when you are talking about hundreds of millions of photos, the odds are you can find something that will work for you.

Each picture you find will list on the bottom right of the screen either ‘All Rights Reserved’ or ‘Some Rights Reserved’.  If it says ‘All Rights Reserved’, then you can’t use it unless the owner gives you explicit permission.  If the photo says ‘Some rights reserved’, then you can use it, but under the terms of its license.  You can click where it says Some rights reserved to learn exactly what those terms are.

Here is an explanation of the different types of Creative Common licenses:

Attribution: This license lets others distribute, remix, tweak, and build upon your work, even commercially, as long as they credit you for the original creation. This is the most accommodating of licenses offered. Recommended for maximum dissemination and use of licensed materials.

Attribution – ShareAlike: This license lets others remix, tweak, and build upon your work even for commercial purposes, as long as they credit you and license their new creations under the identical terms. This license is often compared to “copyleft” free and open source software licenses. All new works based on yours will carry the same license, so any derivatives will also allow commercial use. This is the license used by Wikipedia, and is recommended for materials that would benefit from incorporating content from Wikipedia and similarly licensed projects.

Attribution – NoDerivs: This license allows for redistribution, commercial and non-commercial, as long as it is passed along unchanged and in whole, with credit to you.

Attribution – NonCommerical: This license lets others remix, tweak, and build upon your work non-commercially, and although their new works must also acknowledge you and be non-commercial, they don’t have to license their derivative works on the same terms.

Attribution – NonCommercial – ShareAlike: This license lets others remix, tweak, and build upon your work non-commercially, as long as they credit you and license their new creations under the identical terms.

Attribution – NonCommercial-NoDerivs: This license is the most restrictive of our six main licenses, only allowing others to download your works and share them with others as long as they credit you, but they can’t change them in any way or use them commercially.

So how do you attribute works on Flickr?

The photo above came from Flickr, from a user that licensed the photo via the Attribution license.  That means I am free to use the photo, and could have also adapted it if I wanted to.  For example, if I want to later use it in a slidedeck, I could, as long as I added attribution.

How I attribute photos from Flickr is via this method.  I add the following at the end of the post ‘Pic via Flickr User (User’s name)’.  I then add two links to this, where ‘Flickr User’ is, I add a link to the CC license that covers the picture.  Where the user’s name is, I add a link to that user’s Flickr photostream.  Now you can do this, or link to the picture itself.  And for some pictures, the user will specify exactly what link they want you to use, and in that case you should if you use their photo.

So that’s where I go for amazing photos, what sources do you use?

Pic via Flickr user Life House Design

Today I spoke in Birmingham, Alabama at the PRCA State Conference, in a session titled What’s the Big(ger) Idea? How to Create Blog Content That Connects With Readers.  Here are the slides from that deck:

Thanks to everyone that attended, I really do appreciate it!

First, I’d like to point you to this video:

Thanks to Robbin for the heads up on this.

Next, I’d like to share a quote from Kathy Sierra:

“Let other companies, brands, apps battle with one another over who has the most awesome product, while the REAL battle is over who has the most awesome users.”

This video and this quote go to the heart of what I think is wrong with 99% of the talk about being ‘awesome’ these days.  All this talk about how you need to be awesome, how you need to create amazing content and how ‘awesome wins’.

Because most of that talk is focused on how YOU can be awesome.  What YOU need to do to be awesome, and how if YOU create awesome content, then YOU are awesome.

Everyone that attended the World Science Festival with Bobby McFerrin no doubt left thinking HE was awesome.  Why?  Because he made THEM feel awesome.  Note with Kathy’s quote, the focus is on who has the most awesome USERS (and it could just as easily be the most awesome customers, or blog readers).

The point is, don’t focus on how YOU can be awesome, focus on how you can make OTHER PEOPLE awesome.  If you are blogger, how can you create content that’s going to help your readers do something they couldn’t do before?  How are you going to help them solve a problem, or be more productive?  What ability are you going to give them that they didn’t have before?

It’s not about putting a spotlight on yourself.  It’s not about beating your chest and bragging about your accomplishments.

But empowering others…now THAT is awesome.

What super power will you give your readers?

Next week I am speaking at the PRCA State Conference in Birmingham, on how to create engaging content.  I’m currently putting the finishing touches on my presentation for this event, and wanted to share some of the tips with you here on how to increase engagement on your blog.

1 – Decide WHO you are trying to engage.  It all starts here.  Are you trying to reach customers?  Potential partners?  Potential donors?  You have to decide who you want to reach before you can reach them.  You should already have your blogging strategy in place that will tell you what group you should be targeting, and why.

2 – Decide WHAT type of activity you want your target audience to engage in.  This is also critical.  You need to first decide who you want to be reading your blog.  Then once they are on your blog, you need to decide what action (or type of engagement) you want them to take.  Do you want them to comment?  Sign up for your email newsletter?  Visit your website?  Email you?  If you don’t know what action you want visitors to take on your blog, you can bet that they don’t either.

3 – Give readers multiple ways to connect with you.  Don’t just hope for more comments, give visitors an option to sign up for your blog’s feed (via both Email and RSS), and give them a way to contact you directly via email.  And if you have a retail location especially, add your phone number.  Believe it or not, not everyone is comfortable commenting on blogs, they may want to contact you privately, especially if they are interested in hiring you or buying from you.

4 – Reward readers that engage in the type of behavior that you want to encourage.  Remember when I mentioned that Comment Redirect is a great plugin?  It does exactly this, when you leave your 1st comment here, you are redirected to a page that thanks you for your comment.  Why?  Because I want readers to leave more comments.  So when they do, they are thanked via that special page.

5 – Ask for the type of engagement that you want.  If you want more comments, then ask for them.  If you want more subscription signups, then add a footer to your posts asking readers to subscribe to your blog.

6 – Don’t moderate comments. Or if you must moderate comments, approve them ASAP.  But let’s be honest, if most people spend even 30 seconds writing a comment and are greeted with ‘Your comment is awaiting moderation‘ then the odds are they won’t be back.  For most new business blogs, comment moderation really isn’t necessary.  As long as your blog has a way to block spam (such as the Akismet plugin), then the only moderation that will be necessary is for the content itself.  For most business blogs it will take a while for your blog’s readership to grow to the point where you are getting frequent comments.  So as long as you are proactive about checking new comments, you shouldn’t need to moderate.

7 – Respond to existing comments.  This is very obvious, but a lot of business bloggers miss this.  Last week’s post on Why Introverts Love Social Media currently has 89 comments, but 34 of them are from me.  You have to write em to get em.

8 – Tailor your content so that it encourages the type of engagement you want.  This goes beyond simply asking for comments or emails in a post.  Think about what type of content would prompt the type of engagement you want.  For getting comments, this is fairly easy.  But what if you want more subscribers or even buyers, you need to create content that will move visitors toward that level of engagement.

9 – Interact with readers on other sites to drive interest back to your blog.  Figure out which sites/blogs current and potential readers spend time on other than yours, and interact with them there.  For example, find sites/blogs that cover your specific industry.  The odds are that some of the people you want to reach via your blog, are already actively engaged on those sites.  If you can go interact with them there, that can lead them back to your blog.  Or maybe if you are a marketing and branding firm, a LinkedIn group on branding might be a good place to connect with people and drive interest back to your blog.  And since you have already connected with these people OFF your blog, they will be more likely to interact with you when they come back to your blog.

10 – Publish new posts based on when people visit your blog.  Check your blog’s stats, and note which days and times have the msot visitors.  If you discover that peak traffic occurs every Monday-Friday from 10am-2pm each day, then there’s your likely window for when you should be publishing new posts.  If you can give your visitors new content when they are on your blog and looking for it, that increases the odds of getting their attention, and getting them to interact with your content.

BONUS: Experiment.  Use these proven tips as your starting point, but don’t assume that each of these are the only ways that YOU can increase engagement on YOUR blog.  Good business bloggers are the ones that can take what has worked for others, and apply it to their own efforts.  But the great business bloggers are the ones that can also create successful efforts based on their unique situations.  Every blog’s readership and goals are different, and need a unique strategy and execution.  Use the above list as your starting point for increasing engagement on your blog, not as the beginning and end.

Pic via Flickr user ausnahmezustand