PhotoFavs Wednesday: Make Your Blogging Easier; 10% Store Wide Sale

Good Morning Everybody,

Sorry for the late post yesterday, Viddler had a hiccup during the encoding process and I had to head over to Vimeo to get the job done.  And, we had a few additional unsuspecting things pop up around the studio, but things finally went live in the afternoon.

DigitalProTalk Contributes To Nation’s Economic Stimulus Plan!

Hey gang, I've got some good news for all our DPT fans. As many of you know, we opened our online store, the Digital Resource Center,  about 7 months ago to offset the expenses of keeping the DPT blog on the air.  Thanks to all who have supported our efforts.  We always try to deliver great value at a fair price and will continue to do just that.

Today we are announcing our first 10% OFF Store Wide SALE - just like Macy's don't you know.  That's right - for 2 weeks everything at the Digital Resource Center will be priced at 10% lower than it's regular selling price.  That includes my Zumbrella, my CBTL photography book, and lots more. Folks are all ready figuring out that’s a pretty good savings on the higher ticket software items. Anyway, head on over and take a peek, lots of good deals  - and save yourself some cash.  Hey, it’s our contribution to the economic stimulus plan.  Here is the link right here.

Digital WakeUp Call Tour 9 Hour/5 DVD Set About Ready To Ship

What a process this has turned out to be.  I had last year's Digital WakeUp Call tour recorded because so many people wanted to see it again.  Here is the deal - I added almost 5 more hours of content to the original program!!!

The DVD is now 9 hours long on 5 DVDs!!! Wait, it get's better.  I've also talked to several of our sponsors about adding addition value to the DWUC tour DVD set. Things are coming along very well in that department.  I'll give you the details as soon as we have them firmed up.

The DVD is currently priced at its pre-release price of only $69.  That was before we found out is was going to be 9 hours long on 5 discs.  I'm holding that price, less the 10% store savings, for just two more weeks. That means you can pick it up for about $62.  That folks is one steal of a deal for all that info.  The DVD will ship shortly.

OK, enough of all the money saving news - time to get on with today's post.  Here we go...

Not A Big Fan Of Blogging? Now Make Your Blogging Easier

You know, blogging on a daily basis and punching out about 1500 or more words a day to many can seem quite daunting.  Lots of us daily bloggers have joked about joining "Bloggers Anonymous" because to many, it does look like an addiction, but a kind of a fun one anyway.  I don't smoke or do drugs - I blog instead ;~)

OK, all joking aside, what's my recipe for getting the job done each day.  I truly believe blogging is necessary to run a successful business.  It's the discipline to stick with it that makes it difficult for most people who only end up making excuses for not getting that part of the job completed.

I thought a peek behind the scenes here at DPT might be helpful for other would be bloggers out there.  Whether you are on using Blogger or WordPress as your blogging platform makes no difference to what I'm going to tell you today. 

It's the tools I use daily that work with with any blogging platform that make my blogging pretty fast and efficient.  Here is how I pull it off.

Hit the “Read More…” link below for the rest of the story.

Those main blogging tools for me are Blogger, Google Docs and Windows Live Writer.

I have Google Docs formatted for my daily posts by date, day, and title.  Look at this screen grab and you'll get an idea how I have the page formatted. Google Docs is ALWAYS open on my desktop all day long. That way, if I get an email, see something on-line that I think may be interesting for our DPT readers, I can quickly copy and paste the info, link, whatever right into my Google Docs.

As the week progresses, my Google Docs just sort of populates with possible ideas and stories.  With this kind of structure, I can actually be thinking about what my daily topics will be.  Topics I don't use can easily be moved to the following week and be in the running as a possible story.  It's sort of like the way a newspaper works.  The good stories make the post. The others get saved for a "rainy day."

Keeping everything in Google Docs also makes the topics easily accessible to me wherever we travel - just fire up the laptop, log in and I'm good to go right where I left off.  I archive each month's posts. Unfortunately, if my document becomes any longer than that, Google Docs starts "hiccupping" on me.  This allows me easy access to all past blogging posts.

Now I've got the posts ready to go, how do I get them up to Blogger?

DAZNOTE: I started using Blogger first because it was so easy to use.  I think Wordpress is lots more sophisticated and I may switch one day.  The fact of the matter is that since Blogger let's me add up to 10 TABS to the header of my blog these days (see above), I may be a while before switching. Those 10 TABS just give me that much more flexibility in DigitaProTalk's layout.

The next blogging tool I use is about the slickest thing out there for blogging.  It's called Windows Live Writer and it is truly a blogger's dream to use. Formatting text and adding images is OK in blogger, but Windows Live Writer puts the entire process on steroids!

I simply copy and paste from Google Docs into Live Writer.  It's easy to format the text of the post and Live Writer "holds" the formatting unlike the less reliable Blogger platform.  The next step is to add the images and art, position and format them where I want, and even adjust the image density a bit if I need to.  Nothing could be easier.

Once everything looks good, just hit the publish button.  You can easily schedule your posts too. I seldom do that since it's always a race for me to get the posts up each day;~)  If you "goof" up a post, just retrieve it, make the changes, and re-post - piece of cake.

Another thing I like about Live Writer is that it's quite portable.  I can always save the posts to "My Weblog Posts" in my "My Documents" folder and easily transfer them to a thumb drive for a later post if I'm traveling.

My last favorite resource/tool is Fotolia.  I was an iStockPhoto fan, but when the prices doubled earlier this year, I finally said no.  I love pics in my posts and would make the trip to iStockPhoto a few times a week.  It simply became cost prohibitive for me to continue that route. 

That's when I decided to try Fotolia - I have to say, I love them. They have a very large selection of really good images and art and the cost is just $1.20/image - now that's fits my budget. I never have any problem finding a piece to illustrate a post and I'm never surprised by the price.

Folks, that about it - Blogger, Google Docs, Windows Live Writer, and Fotolia (and a little blogging discipline) - my PhotoFAVS for today.  Hey, if you have some suggestions for me and any fellow bloggers, please pass the on in the comments section below.

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On that note gang, I'm out of here.  We are gearing up for a BIG 3-day Bar Mitzvah shoot this weekend and I’ve got lots to get ready for the big event.  I'll plan to see everyone tomorrow for another episode of Business Day Thursday.

See ya' then,  -David