Bloom!

Tuesday, June 19, 2012

5 Tips to Creating Content for Your Blog

Creating quality content for your blog can be an overwhelming task, especially if you’re not an experienced writer. You will find that the more you write, the easier the exercise becomes. This is the system Glen Gilmore (Twitter @unilyzer) uses to write articles for the Unilyzer blog.

TIP #1: Plan Your Articles

Map out 20 -30 article titles ahead of time. This keeps your topic mix fresh and helps avoid writers block. If you know the direction you’re going, you don’t have to re-think each time you sit down to write a blog post. This is also a good time to plan keyword placement. Make sure your articles are informative, but also have a 2-3% keyword density to maximize your search engine optimization. Investing time in crafting your blog post titles. Spend some time and think about a title that will attract and captivate the imagination of your target audience.

TIP #2: Build Off Other Content

You don’t always have to reveal earth shattering news or tips on your blog. It can be just as effective and valuable to your audience to make recommendations, product reviews, or point them to other informative websites. One example of this is embedding a YouTube video in your blog post, commenting on the video, and then add some suggestions or recommendations of your own. The key is sharing information or videos that your audience will care about, not any video will do.

Embedding a YouTube video can be pretty simple!

TIP #3: Have a Point and Get To It Fast

Blog posts should be at a max 500 words. The key is drawing your audience in with the first 1-2 sentences. Replace the lengthy introduction paragraph with one sentence. The second sentence should be your thesis, argument, or point that you are trying to make.

TIP #4: Simple Language

Most of your audience will be people who want to learn something from your article. Short sentences are attractive, easily readable and understood. Like getting lost in translation the point you so anxiously wish to make can be lost by the time the reader finds his way to the end of a long sentence. (an example of what not to do)

TIP #5: No Excuses, Just Do It Already

Writing and procrastination have a tendency to go together. The worst thing you can do is not update your blog on a regular basis. Blogging 4-5x per week will yield amazing SEO benefits. Stop putting it off until tomorrow and start typing something now. You’ll get better with each blog you write!

If you would like help writing or creating content for your own blog, feel free to email Tonia for a free consultation! Happy Writing!

Tonia Lenk is a brand specialist and owner of Ideas In Bloom, a brand design studio specializing in collaboration on projects with clients who are dedicated to excellence, committed to the community and sustainability in the environment. She is a proud mother of three, and writing her first novel. Tonia shares her knowledge & expertise on print, web and brand design to help your business blossom!

Monday, June 11, 2012

Fave Logos

There are a few logos in our garden that we just feel like sharing! These are a few clients of ours who we have worked cooperatively with to create a brand that is uniquely their own.

In industries from travel to design, restaurants to artisans, online shopping to business development, each has its own unique look and feel.

What makes for a great logo?

According to www.justcreative.com, a good logo is "distinctive, appropriate, practical, graphic, simple in form and conveys an intended message."

Follow these five principles to ensure your logo puts your best foot forward.

An effective logo is:

Simple
Memorable
Timeless
Versatile
Appropriate

Simple elements are most memorable. Don't overdo a logo in intricacy. Not only does this detract from its impact, it can lead to difficulty in multiple applications such as web and print. The simpler your logo, the more memorable it will be. Using fonts that are in trend today may not result in a timeless logo tomorrow. Think about using fonts that will stand the test of time, or adapt fonts to your logo style.

Again, Just Creative states that "an effective logo should be able to work across a variety of mediums and applications. The logo should be functional. For this reason a logo should be designed in vector format, to ensure that it can be scaled to any size. The logo should be able to work both in horizontal and vertical formats."

Ask yourself: is a logo still effective if:

Printed in one colour?
Printed on the something the size of a postage stamp?
Printed on something as large as a billboard?
Printed in reverse (ie. light logo on dark background)

One way around creating a versatile logo is to begin designing in black and white only. This allows one to focus on the concept and shape, rather than the subjective nature of colour. One must also remember printing costs – the more colors used, the more expensive it will be for the business over the long term."

With the advent and popularity of four colour printing, your designer should ensure that your colours are 4 colour digital press friendly, and colours like teals and browns can become muted or vary from one printer to the next.

Just Creative states, "How you position the logo should be appropriate for its intended purpose. For example, if you are designing a logo for children’s toys store, it would be appropriate to use a childish font & colour scheme. This would not be so appropriate for a law firm."

"It is also important to state that that a logo doesn’t need to show what a business sells or offers as a service. ie. Car logos don’t need to show cars, computer logos don’t need to show computers. The Harley Davidson logo isn’t a motorcycle, nor is the Nokia logo a mobile phone. A logo is purely for identification.
For further evidence of this, take the top 50 brands of the world – 94% of the logos do not describe what the company does."

Some resources for logo design:

Thank you, Just Creative, for a great piece on effective logo design! For the original article: Click Here