Create Your Own Text on Images for Your Blogs and Marketing Your Books

Photo from Morguefile.com. Words added at PicMonkey.com. 

This month we're going to have some creative fun! Oh. Er. Wait a minute. Don't we always have fun here? Well anyway...

I'm sure you've seen those beautiful pictures with the beautiful words on them. I get them all the time on Facebook. But I see them other places too, like on blogs and Pinterest.

Have you ever wished you could make them? Or have you wondered where other people get them or how they make them? (Tweet that!)

I always thought you needed one of those fancy, expensive programs like Photoshop (which I don't own). But nope. You don't need anything like that.

I should have known like so many other things these days there are sites online where you can make these. And many of these sites are... you guessed it. My favorite word... Free!

Some of you right now are just bursting with ideas and can't wait for me to tell you how to make one. Others of you, though, are wondering why you would need such a thing. Or maybe you'd like to have one--or several--pretty pictures with your chosen words on them but you're not sure what you'd do with them if you had some.

Well recently found myself in need of photos. Lots of photos. As a matter of fact, I needed forty photos, and I needed them fast. I knew how to find free photos, but I didn't have a clue how to find forty of them. That would fit what I needed them for. Fast. Just the thought of trying to figure that out made me tired.

Why did I need forty photos all of the sudden? Have you seen my newest blog? I started it on March 2 and you can see it at www.BiblePropheciesFulfilled.blogspot.com. Now here's part of the story behind that blog...

I have thought about starting a blog on Bible prophecy for several years now, but the thought of trying to keep up with another blog kind of makes me crazy. Add to that the fact that I now know every blog post should have a photo so it can be "pinned" to Pinterest and there's another step that needs to be done to keep up with a blog. In early March I was thinking about starting this blog again because if I was going to do it, I wanted to blog for Lent leading up to Easter when many Bible prophecies were fulfilled. So I needed to make a decision: either do it or don't.

I had just decided not to do it. Final decision.

Moments later my husband walked into the room. I told him my decision. He said, "I think you should do it."

Okay... Re-thinking my Final decision I realized that in order to blog for forty days of Lent, I would need forty different photos. Big huge sigh. Where could I come up with forty photos that fit Lent? Fast! It was March 2. Lent started Ash Wednesday, which was March 5. I wanted to post twice before then--an introduction and a pre-Lent post. Yeah. I needed forty photos fast.

Just then I had the brainstorm to do a countdown to Easter. That meant I only actually needed one photo . . . if I could alter it and put the countdown numbers on it.

I remembered hearing on an e-loop I'm on about PicMonkey.com. I checked it out and it looked pretty easy.

Of course I needed a photo. I usually get my free photos to use on my blog from Morguefile.com. Somewhere along the lines I read to use a photo from Morguefile.com on PicMonkey because Morguefile allows you to alter their photos, which some of the other free sites prohibit.

So I went to Morguefile.com and found a photo. It's the same photo of blue sky and clouds I used in the upper left of this post. I downloaded it to my computer, then went over to PicMonkey.com and uploaded the photo there. You don't even have to open an account on PicMonkey. Just click "Edit," upload your photo, and start editing!

I played around with it a little bit, found the T for Text, and was able to put my words and countdown number, starting with 40, on the photo. I saved that to my computer. Then I was able to edit that to put 39 on the same photo, saved it, and continued on my countdown to Easter. Within a couple hours I had all forty of the photos I needed to launch my new blog! How cool is that?

Of course you might want to take a bit more time to find just the perfect photo and chose just the perfect message to put on it. But now you know where to go and one place you can add words to your images or photos. Make sure you have permission to use the photo and alter it. Of course you can use your own photo too.

But there is so much more you can do with this technology! I promised in the title of this post that you can use this idea not only to make images for your blog, like I did, but also to market your books. Honestly I would never have thought of that idea on my own. I'm not that creative. I got that idea from Joel Friedlander on his blog, The Book Designer.

His January 22, 2014, post is titled "11 Ways to Quote and Promote Your Book Using Images." In this article Joel talks about authors using creative graphics with quotes from their books to promote their own books.

What a great idea, right?! I love that idea!

I'm not going to recap all he said here. Instead I'll let you hop over to his blog and read his article. He gives tips for choosing quotes from your book(s) and then gives links to several sites where you can make your own quotes into beautiful images.

In preparation for writing this post I tried a couple of those links and not all of them are working. I didn't find the first place he lists. But I did play around a bit with the second site listed: Quozio.

I made a couple of quotes from my own books just to show you on this blog post, and you can see them below. I took quotes from two books in my "Prophecies Fulfilled" series. I'm very excited that the third book in this series just released: Prophecies Fulfilled in the Life of Jesus! You can see the cover at the bottom of this post.

I have to admit that these super easy, do-it-all-for-you sites still present challenges for me. On Quozio, I "Joined" and opened an account (not required). Then I read the directions, found a quote, typed it in, clicked "Go," and tried out several of the designs until I picked the one I liked the best. All done, right? Well the instructions say to click "Keep" under the image and it will save to "My Quotes." I clicked "Keep" under both the images that I made, but I don't see anything in "My Quotes." So I don't know how that works. Maybe you can figure it out and leave a comment below and let me know.

I was able to share my quote images to Pinterest. I also right-clicked on the image and saved it to my computer, so I have them there. And from there I was able to upload them to this post. So it all works. But I haven't figured out all the ins and outs yet.

Also, at one point while I was clicking around trying to figure things out, a window opened with a URL to my image! I have no idea how I did that. I haven't been able to do it again. Maybe you can figure that out too.

I did download the Quozio bookmarklet to put on my browser bar so I can turn any quote I see on the internet into a beautiful image, but I haven't tried it out yet. You'll see that option on the sight.

Also, make sure to check your spelling! I had to re-do one of my images since I didn't see the mistake until after I clicked "Go." Apparently you can't go back and edit one after it's created.

Plus there are more sites in Joel's article which you can have fun exploring. I'm going to check them out as I have time.

I think this is probably enough information to get you started. I hope you have fun with it. I'm sure having a blast doing this. I think using quotations out of our books is simply genius. (Tweet that!) Finding a great quote is the hardest part.

If you have something other than a book to promote, you could probably use this for that also. Maybe a great quotation from your blog? Or an article you've written? Or your brand? Or your heart's passion? What  new and creative ideas can you come up with to put this to use? Let us know!

This is a quote from chapter 22, "The Star," in Prophecies Fulfilled in the Birth of Jesus.

This image is smaller than the one below because of the choice I made when I put it on this blog, not because it's smaller coming from Quozio. 

This is a quotation from my newest, just released book, Prophecies Fulfilled in the Life of Jesus. It's the very last sentence in the book (not counting the end matter). I have no idea why this image includes the Quozio.com tag at the bottom. Probably has something to do with the way I saved it. The other image above didn't include that. I'm still trying to figure some things out.

So go have some fun creating your own text on images for your blogs, marketing your books, or however else you can think of to use this lovely software! (Tweet that!) I hope to see you, and your beautiful quotations and images, around the internet.

Prophecies Fulfilled in the Life of Jesus 

***  

I'm very pleased that my newest book has released. This book talks about many topics, including the seven Feasts of the LORD and how Jesus fulfills them. It also talks about the lunar eclipses that will occur on the first and last Feast of the LORD in both 2014 and 2015 and the spiritual and prophetic importance of these. You may have been aware for the first lunar eclipse which occurred just a few weeks ago on April 15th. Learn more about it in this book.

You can find more information this book on the Prophecies Fulfilled Books page on my new blog. It's available on Amazon and elsewhere. Your favorite bookstore can order it for your.

7 Keys to (SEO-Successful) Blog Posts

from www.Morguefiles.com

I had a feeling if I put "SEO" in the title of this month's post your eyes would glaze over and I wouldn't see your lovely face here reading my post. I tried to sneak it past you by putting "SEO-Successful" in parentheses. It seems like many writers I know don't want to deal with SEO. But really, if you're blogging or if you're the guest on someone else's blog talking about your book or if you're writing online, don't you want people to find your post and read your stuff? That's what SEO is all about. So let's talk about 7 Keys to making your blog posts more SEO-successful so you can draw more readers.

I don't claim to be an expert on SEO. But I've learned some and, as usual, this e-zine-turned-blog is all about sharing what I've learned in the hope it will help you in your own writing journey.

Probably, nowadays, most writers know what SEO is. But I can see some of you still have glazed-over eyes, so let's talk about what SEO is. SEO doesn't have to be complicated. There's a boon of books written on the subject, but those are for people who are interested or who do marketing or publicity for a living. Writers need to know some about SEO to promote their own writing and make the most of every opportunity for their online writing, but we don't have to get overly complicated. Let's keep it simple: SEO stands for "Search Engine Optimization" and that phrase doesn't have to be intimidating. It simply means there are simple things you can do to optimize (make the most of) search engines and help them find you and your writing. That brings more readers to whatever you write. And that's a good thing. After all, that's what we're in it for, right?

So, let's get started and look at 7 Keys to making your blog post more search-engine friendly (also known as search engine optimized):

Key 1: Write Only One Topic Per Post

Seriously, only one topic per post. This sounds easy, doesn't it. But I find it's harder than it looks. Take today for example. I have so much I want to tell you! Besides writing on the topic of the month, I also want to:

1. Tell you that I have a new book out. How exciting is that?!
2. Encourage you to attend the Colorado Christian Writers Conference coming up later this month.

Now see? While I'm dying to tell you all this stuff in my once-a-month post, those are really two different besides the writing topic of SEO for blogs. If I include these other two thoughts in my post, the search engines won't know where to "file" this post. And you know what happens when something gets filed when nobody really knows where it should be filed: it's never seen by anyone again.

So what should I do? Answer: Stick to ONE topic per post so the search engines can figure out where to file this and then when someone comes asking for it, those lovely engines will know right where to send them.

What about those other topics? I have some options so I'll need to make some decisions. I could:

1. Write them in separate posts. They would each need to be in their owns post because they are different topics. The drawback here is that I've agreed with my subscribers, when this was an e-zine, to only put something in their in boxes once a month unless it's really, really important and couldn't wait til the next month's post. I don't want to raise the ire of my subscribers by sending two more posts in the next few days. Still, when this blog was in the form of a newsletter, I could put this "extra" information in a sidebar and deliver all this information to in one newsletter. I can't do that so well in a blog since it will scramble the brains of the search engines.
2. I could write about my new book and CCWC on other Pages on this blog (the tabs at the top). The drawback here is that I don't know if you'll see it.

So which decision should I make? I'll admit it's a tough one. Right now I'm thinking I will send additional posts, one on each topic, in a few days. My thinking here is that those who read this blog, and who read the e-zine this used to be, know me (or have gotten to know me). And when we get to know someone, aren't we interested in what's going on with them? So wouldn't you be interested in knowing I have a new book out? I'll give myself some time to get my pages updated to reflect the new book, and then I'll send a post to tell you all about it.

Also, because the Colorado Christian Writers Conference is coming up in only a couple of weeks, if I'm going to encourage you to go I need to do it soon.

If my subscribers aren't interested in these topics, that's what the delete key is for.

Another advantage of writing only one topic per post:  busy readers can see at a glance if they're interested and they don't miss important announcements because it's one topic per post. On the other hand, if they're not interested, they can simply press delete.

Key 2: Discover Your Key Words

Now that you know what your one topic for your post is, determine what  your key words are. Key words are important. If you want to increase your readership, if you want to reach more people with your message, then you need to pay attention to key words.

Your key words are those words your potential reader is going to type in to a search engine when he or she is trying to find the very information you're writing.

In other words, imagine your future reader: that person who needs what you're writing about. But they don't know you are writing just what they need. How are they going to find you? Here's how: They are going to access a search engine (Google, Bing, or other) and then type in some words. What words are they typing in? Whatever those words are, they are your Key Words.

Make a note of them. Write them down. Type them somewhere. Learn to choose really good key words. You're going to need them.

Now, how can you know if you picked good Key Words? Or do you have that feeling that you haven't quite nailed down your key words and you wished you had some suggestions for alternate words or phrases? You can get some help with your Key Words at the free Google's AdWord: Keyword Tool. With this tool you can put in your key words and get a whole list of related words and phrases.

Google's AdWord Keyword Tool also tells you how many searches were done for those key words or phrases and the level of competition for those words. In other words, are you competing with a lot of other blogs that are also using those key words? A high rating might mean a popular topic but a lot of competition. Medium competition might mean a significant number of people are searching for that topic but not that many people are writing about it, which might be very good for you.

Considering number of searches and the competition, write down the most promising words and phrases for your blog post topic.

Key 3: Use Your Key Words in Your Blog Post Title

Now that you know your key words, use them in your blog post title. For example, this blog post is about helping you create your own blog posts that attract new readers through SEO, it's about helping you create successful blog posts, and it gives you 7 keys. All of those thoughts are reflected in this post's title.

Since I have learned this much about SEO, and since good SEO techniques have started to become familiar enough to me that I recognize them or, better yet, I recognize when they are missing, I have to tell you that sometimes I see blog post titles that make me cringe. Honestly, I'm not trying to pick on anyone here. I'm only trying to help. So if you see yourself in what I'm about to say, please know I'm not picking on you personally. I see these things a lot, and I just wanted to call your attention to it so you can do better in the future. I cringe only because I know it's a lost opportunity.

I've seen (and actually I've been guilty of this myself) blog titles like:

• Great News!
• Announcing...
• Exciting Stuff!

Ah hem. Blog post titles like that tell us NOTHING. If you think people will click on that post title to see what it's about, think again. They won't. And the search engines will only bring people to your blog post who are searching for "great news," "announcing...," or "exciting stuff." Can you see how that doesn't work?

Practice being specific. If your great news is that your book just won an award, give the title of your book and/or the name of the award. If you're announcing your new book, use the key words of what your book is about to attract people who are searching for information on your book's topic. If your exciting stuff is that you're going to be a guest on TV, say which program.

If you're blogging about writing or publishing, put those key words in your title. If you're writing an online article on a current event, use the key words for that event. If you're teaching on your favorite topic, that topic which is the passion of your heart, put that topic in your post title. You get the idea...

Key 4: Use Your Key Words in Beginning, Middle, and Ending of Your Blog Post

Now take those same key words that you used in your title and use them:

1. in the first sentence of your post, or at least in the first paragraph.
2. in the body of your post, in a way that is natural and organic (not stacking or forcing those words unnaturally). You can use them more than once, but use them at least once.
3. in the last sentence of your post, or at least the last paragraph.

This takes discipline, but it makes a huge difference in your search engine optimization.

Try this: I'm now writing the first and last paragraph of my posts at the same time, and then I fill in the middle. That's helping me more easily get those key words at the bottom of the post without forgetting.

Sometimes this feels awkward and forced. That's okay. Do it the best you can. It will get easier. And it's really, really important for your SEO.

Key 5: Include Links

Two things here:

First, it's very helpful to your SEO to have links in your post that actually link to something helpful that you're talking about. So always, always, always put at least a couple of links in your posts.

Second, you must make the words that form your link count. Another thing that makes me cringe is links that use words like:

• Click here
• More info
• Find it here

Another lost opportunity.

Those words don't count for anything! Make your link titles count by actually stating, using key words, where that link will take you. For example the above link I gave you actually takes you to Google's AdWord: Keyword Tool, so those are the words I used for the title of the link! Not hard. Just do it. It will make you points in the SEO department.

Here's another example. This morning, when I was already planning to write about SEO in blog posts, I saw in a Paper.li I subscribe to a blog post by author and speaker Mary DeMuth titled "25 Best Blog Practices That'll Rock Your Blog!" Though her post isn't about SEO, it is about blogging and I thought her post might help you, too, so I wanted to share it.

Take note that the words I made into the links actually tell where that link is taking you. The Paper.li link takes you to a post I wrote about that Twitter-fed Paper that you can create. Putting words in the link that go with the link score you many more SEO points than a link that says "Click here."

Key 6: Include a Photo

Honestly I don't know if a photo helps out with SEO or not. But I do believe a picture helps your article gain attention, so I included it in this list.

I don't know a thing about Pinterest. I haven't joined that one yet. But I have heard that in order to "pin" an online article in Pinterest there has to be a photo with the article. (If you know Pinterest, you can leave a comment and let us know if I've got that right.)

I do know that sharing a post on Facebook gets a lot more attention if it has a picture with it. So do find a photo to go with your post. You can use one of your own photos if you want to, if you don't mind your face on the internet, or use the image of your book cover or award--whatever goes with your post's topic.

Don't have a photo? I'm sure you know better than to just go take one from somewhere. Photos are copyrighted just like your words, so respect others' copyrights.

There are web sites where you can grab free photos to use in your blog. Google "free stock photos" and you'll find some.

I haven't always put a photo with my blog posts unless I was blogging about something that a photo naturally went with, like my book cover or an event I had a photo from. But I've recently come to believe having a photo is very important and I've been overlooking adding one, so I'm going to try to always include one from here on out. (We'll see if I remember!) Last month I used a free photo from Dreamstime.com. For this post I used a free photo from Morguefile.com. Be sure to read the small print to know whether you need to put a credit line on it. Dreamstime wants you to, and tells you what to put. I used that as the lable for the photo in my computer so the two would be stored together and I'd have it when I needed it. Morguefile doesn't require that, but I put their link on the photo both because I appreciate them providing me a photo and so you would know where it came from.

Key 7: Add a Video

I've learned that adding a video from YouTube really scores you SEO points, too. There are thousands of videos on YouTube so you can find a bit of teaching on your topic or an inspiring song.

You can also use your book trailer. Don't have a book trailer? Here's a post I wrote on how to make your own 30-second book trailer for free.

Bonus Key: Make Sure Your Posts are Share-Friendly

I didn't count this one as an SEO key because I don't know that it helps in optimizing your post for search engines, but it is a pet peeve of mine. (Mary DeMuth mentioned this in her article, too.) Be sure that every post you write is easy to "Share." That means installing buttons at the bottom that readers can click to share your post on Twitter, Facebook, and a bunch of other sites.

You'll see Share Buttons at the bottom of this post, and I hope you'll Tweet it and Facebook it and Google+ it. You can also use the e-mail and blog post share buttons.

On other blogs I've seen a whole bunch of other options and I'm frustrated that I haven't been able to figure out how to add those to my blog yet. I'm thinking it must be a plug-in that people get from somewhere else because I've looked on Blogspot and the ones I already have are the only ones I can find. Maybe you can do better with your blog.

Use these techniques elsewhere too

By the way, all these SEO keys can be applied to your web site, too. And to online articles you write, guest posts on other people's blogs...anywhere you write online. So start practicing and soon you'll be a natural at it.

I'm planning to make myself a checklist so I don't forget any of these steps in future posts. You might make your own checklist.

If you practice these 7 Keys to SEO-successful blog posts, you should see an increase in people visiting your blog and reading your messages. And that's what it's all about, right? You're writing because you want people to read what you write, right? Let me know if you find these tips easy or hard to implement in the comments section below. If you have other ideas for SEO success, please share it in a comment. Or if you have questions about this topic, put it in a comment and we'll see what answers we can come up with. I wish you all the success in the world in your own writing and posting!