image from DanBrady

You clean your house, your car, even your purse. But what about your blog?

Depending on the size of your blog and how long you’ve been at it, your archives and categories could do for a little impromptu cleaning session. Even a blogger with the best intentions will procrastinate when it comes time for blogging maintenance, but it is definitely a task you have to tackle soon. Imagine all the untagged or miscategorized posts that are floating around on your blog. How will any of your viewers get to that one must-read post if they can’t find it? A quick clean-up session will give your readers more access to your content and will lead to an increased amount of traffic. Plus, all those dead links just leave blog readers frustrated!

Conducting blog housekeeping might seem slightly painful but with planning and time, you can easily tackle this blogging project.

Here are 5 easy tips to help you clean out your blog:

1. Get your blogging archives up-to-date. The easiest way to clean house is to pay attention to your archives. Organize them by year/month and you have just given your readers an easy way to follow your posts throughout the year. For WordPress users, you can use various plugins including the Simply Yearly archive plugin or the Clean Archives Reloaded which will automatically sort and catalog your posts according to date/time.

2. Tag your posts with traffic-friendly keywords. What’s the easiest way to drive more traffic to your archives? Use the best keywords as your tags! By doing this, search engines will direct traffic to your posts because of those popular keywords. To figure out which keywords to use, try Google Insight which allows you to find the most-searched keywords for your blog post’s topic.

3. Clean Out Your Blogroll. Yes, it’s sad to weed out the dead links (RIP Blogs!) but those dead links are just annoying. Plus, they are taking up precious space on your blog. Make it a habit to check your blogroll every month and add new favorite blogs to increase traffic and build relationships with other bloggers.

4. Edit your Categories. Does our category menu look like a never-ending list of random words and tags? It’s time to combine your categories and weed out the unnecessary ones. I recommend this Bulk Category cleaner which allows you to create new categories, delete old ones, and combine smaller ones. By categorizing your posts appropriately, your readers will be able to find relevant information that they didn’t intentionally search for but are happy to have found.

5. Find and delete old links. It’s inevitable- you will find dead links on your blog at some point. Yes, it’s obnoxious but there is an easy way to trouble-shoot that issue: find a plugin. You knew I was going to say that, right? WordPress (aka my heaven) has a substantial amount of plugins that make it easy for you to do site maintenance. For instance, this dead link finding plugin will sort through your posts and notify you if there are dead links. Unfortunately, there isn’t a simple tool that Blogger users can use. But don’t let that detract you!

Now you’ve got the basic rundown of how to clean up your blog. That wasn’t too hard, was it? If you have any questions or concerns, leave them in the comments section! Or if you know of a handy plugin that can help with any of the housekeeping issues mentioned up, do share!

image from CameraKarrie

Think about the last time you took a picture. Did you focus on what was actually happening behind the lens? Or were you preoccupied with your hair and makeup? Don’t lie, I do the same thing too!

Unsurprisingly, when it comes time to snap a photo, we forget the simple photo basics, focusing on other stuff when we should be paying attention. Or we rely on post-production tricks to make the pictures stand out. Honestly, those post production tricks aren’t even necessary if you can nail the basics of photography like composition, lighting, and subject matter. Following these guidelines will help your photos look amazing and professional. Taking your photography to the next level WHILE scoring with fab shots?! Sounds like a deal to me.

image from John Merritt

Content

It doesn’t matter how great of a photographer you are if you are taking pictures of really boring stuff. Piles of earrings. Pair of shoes. Boring! Instead of showing things by themselves or in a predictable group, think outside the box. Think about the objects relationship’s with others. How does it interact with another object? Does it play a dominant role or a submissive role? By asking yourself these questions, you will start to see your subject in a different light. Voila! Inspiration will hit and you will have a fantastic photo. Another helpful tip? Take the perspective of the actual viewer. What would catch his/her eye in your shot? If you need a little help when it comes to figuring out what looks best to your viewer, take multiple photos in many different settings. You never know what will translate well! Need inspiration? Take a photo stroll through Flickr or browse your Instagram feed. Something is bound to get your creative juices working.

image from Michael Flores

Lighting

One of the hardest things about photography, especially in the winter, is finding the perfect light. Too much light and your photo is overexposed. Not enough light and your photo is ruined. What’s a blogger to do? Learn about your cameras lighting settings and understand them! Familiarize yourself with aperture and shutter speed. Discover what settings work best for your location and overall theme. If you love natural light, time your photo shoots accordingly, especially if you rely on the natural light and don’t want to use lighting props or flash. Aim to snap pictures in the early to mid morning, before the sun gets too “hot” (aka floods your picture with sun flares and warmth). If you are doing a night shoot, it’s extremely important for you to get the right light props and do a test run, especially if you are new to night shooting. You don’t want your flash to flood the shot but you don’t want it to be pitch black either.

 image from helgabj

Composition

Last but certainly not least, composition, the way your image is put together, is probably the most important aspect of photography that you need to know. What is filling your frame? How do the props  you are using tell your story? What is their relationship with the viewers eye? Are they placed in the most effective settings? All of these questions are a part of the composition puzzle. Key composition terms to get to know: depth of field, rule of thirds, and point of view. Getting the proper depth of field, or distance between your subject and the space in front of and behind of subject, will make your photos pop, instead of falling flat. Think about what your camera is focusing on. If you are focusing on something close up, your subject will be clear but the background will be fuzzy. That immediately makes your subject stand out, right? It gives dimension to the shot, which will make our viewers more interested. Another composition technique to explore is the rule of thirds, a guideline for breaking up your photo into a grid setting that will showcase the strongest focal points in an eye-pleasing manner. Naturally, the human eye is drawn to certain parts of an image and the rule of thirds really plays into that tendency, making your photos more attention-grabbing. For more tips on mastering the rule of thirds, head over here and start paying more attention to it. You will pick it up in no time!

I know, it seems really technical and confusing but looking at these important photographic basics and understanding them will help you and your blog! Who knows, this might be the one thing that gets your blog’s photos recognized! For more information about photo-processing tips, check out our guides (I, II, III, IV).

Do you have any photo basics questions for us? Share your thoughts or questions below and we will help out…

Let’s talk about the new Facebook. Have you made the upgrade to the newly minted Timeline?

I can’t tell if I like it or not. On the one hand, I like being able to look at my entire Facebook profile broken down into years. On the flip side, ALL of your business is now for all eyes to see. Your parents, coworkers, roommates… Yikes. That crazy sorority party back in 2009? That ridiculous summer vacation in Mexico where you indulged in swimsuits and margaritas? Yeah bad news, my friends.

Don’t be a victim of Facebook oversharing. Set aside an hour out of your day and manage your timeline. For your own sake (and potentially your future career). We wouldn’t those infamous Halloween party pictures floating into the office or study hall, would we?

First things first, get familiar with your  Privacy Settings. This is where you need to pay special attention to what is being shared with whom. The “How You Connect” settings in the Privacy Settings section will allow you to manage who can post on your timeline, what past posts are visible on your timeline and what apps you’ve connected to your Facebook account. You can also customize who sees what on your timeline. Don’t want your parents to see posts from your secret boyfriend? This is where you can hide that guy of yours, at least for the moment.

Another important setting to play with? The Limit the Audience for Your Past Posts setting. You can hide those anger-driven posts about your ex or your overly excited updates about leaving your past jobs. Not necessarily the kind of posts your want your new boyfriend or new boss to see, right?

Lastly, create a customized list of those who need to be blocked from certain content and consider adding bosses, past supervisors, current coworkers, and acquaintances. It’s a precautionary move that will help you in the long-run, in case you forget to change your privacy settings when the next Facebook update comes.  If you wouldn’t share your most intimate details with them, you might want to block their access to their content all together. Your conservative grandmother will thank you for sparing her the grief of reading your rather bold updates.

You check it every hour, on the hour. You can’t walk by something without snapping a picture and posting. You constantly hit “like” when scrolling through your feed. You tweet more because of it.

It’s official: you are Instagram-obsessed. But can this popular photo-publishing application help your blog? How can you make the most out of Instagram? I’ve got 5 ways on how your Instagram addiction can help you and your blog.

1. Speak through your photos.
The beauty of Instagram is its ability to capture everyday moments and share them with your friends. Instead of publishing photos that are a little bland, why not show off your personality through your photos? Love walking through your favorite shop? Prove it! A die-hard fan of jewelry? Show off your bedazzled arm! Make your photos act as our voice and don’t be afraid to speak LOUD.

2. Be active in the community.
Like any other social media application, the only way to grow your following is by being active in the community. You can’t go from 5 followers to 15,000 without work. When you find a photo you like, leave a comment. Hit the “like” button on photos that make you smile or laugh. Discover new photographers by surfing through the “Popular” feed.

3. Share your photos.
Instagram was made for Twitter so don’t be shy! Share those photos on your Twitter feed and Facebook profile. You can configure your photos to automatically share your photos by configuring your sharing settings. Who knows, maybe you will pick up a few more followers on Twitter and Instagram!

4. Get creative.
Ok, so I know I told you to speak through your photos in step one, but it’s really important to make sure your photos are creative and interesting. No one wants to see boring content so before hitting “done”, ask yourself: is this a hit or a miss? A photo of your boots will probably fall flat. But a photo of you rocking your new boots while you are dancing outside? Much better!

5. Play with the different filters.
Yes, the “EarlyBird” filter might be your favorite, but guess what? There are 10 other filters that are just dying for your attention.

Don’t forget to check out the IFB instagram feed, @_IFB,  to get your daily fashion snaps and our Twitter feed to stay connected!