June 2, 2013

Welcome to my new and improved email useletter! You'll keep up with all I'm doing online and you'll get extra tips (that don't go on the blog). This idea came about after pondering the things I don't like about my blog. I'm a fan of quick & useful tips. How about you? Enjoy!

Alright, here it is. I've purposefully avoided talking about this site because I didn't want to share. Selfish I know, but I'm ready now. Are you a not-so-avid picture-taker like me? Do you occasionally need a nice image in a pinch? If you want high-quality images for your posts, check out Pixabay. The images are in the public domain which means you can alter them and use them without attribution (handy). It's not a complete free for all (read the terms here), but if you're only using them in your posts, you're probably good. Find images via the search bar or the Explore link at the top. Once you find one you want to use, click the Download button beneath the image and choose a size. Awesome.

Speaking of images, Facebook recently changed their rules for images on Pages. Your cover image can contain text but it can't contain more than 20% text. Being able to include text (such as a call to action, hint) is great, but let's face it, how can you tell what's 20%? Well, there's a handy tool you can use to determine whether or not you fit within the guidelines. It's called the Cover Compliance Tool. Just paste in your Facebook Page URL and mark the squares with text. (Or you could just ditch Facebook completely and join the party at Google+ which would be my recommendation.) ;)

Did you see my post this week about Thursday, June 6? I'm hosting a Hangout on Air. Woot! I'll be tackling some of the gajillion blogging questions in my inbox. Wanna watch live? You can RSVP here. On Thursday, you can watch the hangout from this link too. (If you're on a mobile device on Thursday, go to the Event page and find the special link just for you.)

Have you written an ebook or a book? Do you have plans to? Do you want more marketing ideas than the average person could ever use in 50 years? Check out Jenny Blake's (LACBook.com) Book Marketing Spreadsheet. Preview it first if you like, but make sure you explore all the tabs at the very, very bottom of the spreadsheet (e.g. About + Resources, OnlinePromo, OfflinePromo, etc.). The tabs are easy to miss so look close! Ideas galore.

You may or may not have noticed. I've been thinking about it for a while. I finally did it. I switched email service providers. If this sort of thing interests you, read about the what and the why in the update at the beginning of this post.

The fact that I have moved 27 times in my life may have left me somewhat socially dysfunctional, but boy do I know how to pick a house. And I'm curious, are you a thinker or a doer? I call this new activity a game when actually it's social studies. Also, chores would go so much better around here if we could do it this way. Do you know someone who could use one of these cool tips? Feel free to forward this to them by clicking the "forward to a friend" link below. Or, if someone forwarded this to you or you found it another way, don't miss out on future goodies! You can get on the list here.