Working at Photocrati I am typically blogging for photographers on a regular basis.
However, every so often I write articles, as guest articles, that need to relate to many other industries.
Actually, even the photography specific articles can technically relate to other industries but many people overlook that.
Today I want to share some simple advice on how to add context to your blog content without making it too difficult on yourself.
Add Context To Your Content
Some of these tips come from the fact that so many photographers are visual learners instead of book learners. So the context I will talking about are things you can do on top of the text portion of your blog article.
1. Audio
Open up Quicktime or another audio recording application on your computer and start talking about the same topic your blog article is about. Once you are happy with the results upload the file to Soundcloud and then embed the audio file into your blog article. Now your readers have a way to listen and read at the same time.
2. Video
Take the audio idea to the next level by recording yourself talking about the topic with video as well. I use software called Screenflow which allows me to record video from a webcam at the same time as recording computer sounds, a microphone and my computer screen. I can then edit the video all in the the software and upload it directly to YouTube. I highly recommend Screenflow for Mac users and using YouTube since it is the most popular video website and the second most popular search engine. So you get that added SEO benefit.
Embed the video in your blog content and let readers also watch you talk about the topic.
3. Slides
Create a simple PowerPoint or Keynote presentation and upload it to SlideShare. Using a website like that has many benefits including the large social network of slide searching, navigating slide by slide and one other large one. With SlideShare any links included in the presentation are converted into regular text links, which provide a search engine friendly backlink.
4. PDF
If your blog content can be converted into a PDF checklist or something like that, then use Scribd to share it with your blog content. Like SlideShare, Scribd will convert your PDF to text which helps add more text to your website, but in a more visual way, and creates backlinks if a link is in the PDF.
5. Infographic
Infographics are extremely popular because they visually show information that would otherwise be in an excel spreadsheet or in paragraph form. Infographics are some of the most Pin’d items at Pinterest but are not the easiest thing to create. Fortunately companies like Infogr.am, Piktochart and Visual.ly make Infographic creation a little bit easier. I’d start there before hiring Infographic designers to create one for you.
6. Photographs
As mentioned earlier that I typically write for photographers, since Photocrati creates and sells WordPress photography templates. On a photography blog it would be strange to not see a photograph included with any article. Elsewhere a photograph can help illustrate the topic better than just text, or add that special boost to help get the point across. The best part about photographs is that you don’t need to use a site like Flickr or 500px to embed them. Pretty much ever content management system has a way to insert image files into blog content.
7. Hangouts
You might think Google Plus Hangouts would fall under the video category, and you could be right. However I am separating it because they are also very different. When I talked about videos I talked about you recording a video of yourself talking and/or screencasting to illustrate and elaborate on your topic. With a Google Plus Hangout you are talking with other people about a topic. So for example, if you are writing about blogging advice then you could have a recorded conversation with other bloggers sharing their advice. You can then embed the Hangout like you would any other YouTube video.
8. Embedding Social
The last item on my list is embedding social posts and this is a fun, but tricky one. I say that because the social networks do not make it terribly obvious on how to embed their posts. But here are a few links to help you out:
Not only can these add a more visual form of getting your topic across, but it provides a way for your readers to interact through social media without leaving your website.
So there we go – 8 awesome ways that you can add more context to your blog content. Each of these are visual and interactive. Take advantage of the free services and embed, create and make it happen.
Bonus Tip: Offer something extremely valuable to your website visitors and watch the leads conversion rate start to raise. Read more about that. Here is the perfectl example for wedding photographers.
Thanks for reading,
Scott
