Top 5 Policies to Make Your Blog Better

I read somewhere  on a list of top 10 blog tips, that people like numbers and lists.  Post titles such as  "12 tips for faster sewing" or "The top 7 Color Mistakes and How to Avoid Them" will attract more attention and appeal to people needing guidance on your subject. Hence the title of this post.

Self-portrait, Lower Belvedere Palace, Vienna

I have been a bit slow with my blog lately.   In addition to just being very busy with other work, I have to admit a large reason why I have not been posting more often,  is that I am feeling inhibited, after finding a staggering number of my images being used without credit or permission, in many cases being passed off as the work of another.  I found one blog using 15 of my images and claiming the work as their own (it has since been taken down you can be assured). I recently saw some of my work on a blog where the titles of the image files were something like "blogger/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/Screen-shot-2010-11-07.png"    The poster rather obviously did a screen grab of the image via an image search, and left the date of the offense right there in the image title for all to see.

It's depressing for a visual artist such as myself, that there are now so many bloggers and Pinterest pinners and Facebook sharers (and splogs!)  out there with really bad manners.  Seems like every time I talk to a photographer they are complaining about blogs and Pinterest and the users of the world wide web's lack of respect for copyright and original content. 

So in a concerted effort not to rant (too much), here is a post on simple policies on sharing content you can enact for your blog, to make it better, more relevant, and ultimately more interesting.

1. Use original content.
What is the purpose of your blog?  Assuming you want people to read  what you are publishing, think about why.   The blogosphere is too full of compiler blogs that just re-post other articles or images or entire blog posts from elsewhere without any comment or editing.  They are boring.  They make their authors look boring. Obvious gimmicks trying to drum up traffic using other people's images or writing is boring.  Please, don't be boring.  Have something to say, put your own mark on what you are doing, reveal a new insight,  say what you think!    Original content will make your blog a valued resource and garner its own, unique  following. Use your blog to express something of yourself.  Otherwise, really, what's the point? 

2. When you post your own images,  mark them.
 Whenever possible if you can add your name or blog address to your image prior to posting it, then it will be clear, wherever else it ends up, where it came from. This can take a little time to do nicely but it's worth it.  I don't think it needs to be stamped across the front obscuring the images, but just noticeable enough.  If you are concerned about not being given proper credit, insist on it, by marking your images.

3. State your sharing policy
A Creative Commons License makes it easy for you to state your policy on sharing and use of your work.  If you are publishing under a Creative Commons License, as I generally am, (see my side bar) your readers will have access to a detailed policy on sharing your work.  

If you want to retain full copyright,  and not have anything pinned or shared or copied, there is a license for that, too, or you can simply say so.  At the wonderful blog  Art and Alfalfa, the copyright notice is posted directly under the header.  I respect Gina's copyright and if I want to share her beautiful and original work with you I can ask her myself, or I can simply repeatedly link to her lovely site so you can go there and see it.

I admit I was pretty flattered to see so much of my work from both my portfolio and my blog being shared at Pinterest.  Note that all of my images are marked and that Pinterest does link back to me.  so we're cool.

4.  Please, give credit where it's due!
I  understand the enthusiastic sharing of beautiful images, but it's just bad manners not to respect a posted policy and in many cases it's also illegal.
Cite sources for images you are posting, and wherever possible the name of the designer, photographer, artist, etc. in the caption or elsewhere in the post.  Do not just swipe images, or do screen captures, to illustrate your blog.   Make some effort to give credit. Your readers might really want to know where those leopard print loafers came from, or who did that beautiful painting.   The original creator of that image was nice enough to share it;  don't be rude by not acknowledging their contribution.
Citing "via Pinterest" is not really giving credit, it's a cop-out that translates to "co-opted from someone else's research."  If you did get an image from Pinterest (or Google or Bing or Wikipedia, etc) you should at least link back to it, or better yet, go to that image and click on it and it will take you to its original site. You won't have to drill down far to find its original source.  Make the small effort to give credit and you appear knowledgeable, trustworthy, and connected.

Before posting this image on Pinterest, I researched its origin using src-img

If you cannot figure out where an image came from, try searching for it using the outstanding reverse image lookup tool called Source Image:   src-img
This is a marvelous free bookmarklet:  put it in your browser toolbar, and when you click on it, it will ask you which image you are looking for-click on the question marks (see above) and it will deliver a Google search of the image or ones similar to it to assist you in finding the original source of it. I have been able to track down the origin of an image in 10 seconds or less. Surely you can spare 10 seconds to find the author or source of an image. Don't you want to know where that wonderful image came from? The above image I traced back to Bruxelles Antiques,  a wonderful site full of gorgeous, original images,  well worth a visit. 

5.  There is no # 5. I just though 5 in the title sounded better than 4. The only no 5 that matters is Chanel No 5.

Lynne Rutter Murals + Decorative Painting