Azbloggerscoalition - blogservices

Paint.NET

Paint.NET not only comes with the basics (crop, rotation, color eye dropper, eraser, etc.) but also allows you to add “layers” (like Photoshop) as well as special effects like blur, various text, soft glow, or (my favorite) merging multiple images together.

Website: www.paint.net

Picasa

You can easily adjust the color temperature of an image, crop photos, add subtle (or not so subtle) effects to pictures (like sephia, tint, soft focus, etc.) as well as insert text at various angles.

website: www.picasa.net

Picnik

Picnik is very similar to Picasa, although the website does not provide as many features to its Google sibling (unless you upgrade of course)

website: www.picnik.com

Paint.NET

Paint.NET not only comes with the basics (crop, rotation, color eye dropper, eraser, etc.) but also allows you to add “layers” (like Photoshop) as well as special effects like blur, various text, soft glow, or (my favorite) merging multiple images together.

Website: www.paint.net

Picasa

You can easily adjust the color temperature of an image, crop photos, add subtle (or not so subtle) effects to pictures (like sephia, tint, soft focus, etc.) as well as insert text at various angles.

website: www.picasa.net

Picnik

Picnik is very similar to Picasa, although the website does not provide as many features to its Google sibling (unless you upgrade of course)

website: www.picnik.com

11 ways to add to blog conversation and stand out from the crowd

This post grabbed my attention because I am a newbie blogger on this blog only 1 week into starting a new blog about the user experience of blogging and blogs.

I want my own blog to be great for readers to read so it will help me with my own goals of achieving a better result in my research project, and I’d love that to be a result of creating a place where the discussion and debate will be mutually beneficial. What you give, you get back. Harmony.

I would love it if readers of my blog were inspired, got new ideas, were engaged, because they’d be involved in a discussion about a topic which I believe is the fundamentally most crucial thing to any business and product: the user experience.

This is all about how you can stand out from the crowd and make yourself heard by improving the user experience of your blog. I’m a postgrad student studing computing interaction design, and my thesis is about the user experience of blogging and blogs.

I have so many questions about this topic – and my research project will only investigate one niche aspect of this. Blogging helps me to answer questions for the project, but also satisfy my own curiosity.

The user experience of blogging has been extended by the developments in mobile blogging – and the developments in mobile technologies such as the iPhone has enriched this experience. It’s all so much fun and it’s all moving so fast, it’s like being 11 years old again and back on the ride at Six Flags.

Now I’m thinking What will the user experience of blogging on the iPad be?

To add to ’11 ways to add to the conversation of the blogosphere and stand out from the crowd’  – usability and user experience are critical for any blogger to achieve these goals:

12. Write the best copy you can – make sure the language reflects the lingo of your readers – if they prefer formal language then that will be better understood, if they prefer informal then that will be better understood – you don’t have to compromise your style to keep your readers engaged.I am not claiming I am the best copy writer – I think I write too much – but for more tips  http://www.copyblogger.com/ is useful.

13: Make sure your readers can find your post in your blog and on the Internet – tag, categorise, consider the URL of the post – post your post and then see how your readers could find it. Make it easy.

14. Make sure your readers can contribute to the discussion  – go through the steps they’d have to go through to comment on your blog – if you find it difficult, they will. Make it easy.

15. Make sure that by reading your post your readers will be helped, informed, it will spark new ideas, it will make them think about a topic that already interests them, or they’re entertained.

16. Stand out from the crowd by having a Blog where you’ve thought about the motivations of your readers – I don’t mean change your argument – I do mean write for an audience you have in mind.

17. Bear in mind basic blog usability rules – get your friends and family to read your blog and honestly look at what they’re doing – if they struggle then you know what you can fix to improve Weblog Usability. A great post is the The Top Ten Design Mistakes by Jakob Nielsen at http://www.useit.com/alertbox/weblogs.html

The future of blogging will be where we can all publish content as we wish, for it to be found as we wish, and where our content will look how we want it to look and engage our readers.

I don’t think we’re there yet, because at the moment the user experience of blogging is being dominated by the need to be found by search engines (SEO). Fair enough  – I have the same desire for my own baby blog to be discovered – but then once readers have found your blog, you want to grab their attention, keep them intersted, feel they are being listened to and can take part in any discussion in your blog, and have a desire to take part and then know how to do that.

This comes down to Marketing Communications models like AIDA – and has worked in all forms of communications for marketing professionals – blogging is no different, it’s just a different channel.

Things like the iPad will help to enrich this experience by enabling users to achieve their goals of blogging when they want to blog, how they want blog, how they want to express themselves. Although the device, like the iPad, influences the user experience, I believe the goals of the blogger definitely do – and you have it in your power to make a difference -  whether your users find you on an iPhone, iPad, or ThinkPad.

What if there was no consideration of the user and it was always about getting found on Google? What would happen to Blogging then?

By the way, If you do what he suggests in his video and extend the number of points from a post which starts ’11 ways….’ – then get your numbering right or wrong – I got mine wrong, I added two point ’14′ – doh.