A lot of bloggers recommend adding pictures to the top of every post. While that’s all well and good (and I promise I’ll be doing the same at some point), finding the right picture can be a huge waste of time. You’ve already spent the last ten minutes to an hour writing your post–now you need to take a few more minutes to find a picture, scale it to the right size, upload it to your image gallery, and then add it to the post. Talk about tedious. Yawn.

But it doesn’t have to be this way, thanks to a number of great sites to help you search through the millions of photos at Flickr (and other photo hosts) for one special shot that can make your great post into something truly memorable. Here are the six best tools to aid your image search.

1. Picitup. Picitup is an image searching machine that blows away other web focused searches like Google Images. You start by typing in a keyword that you’re looking for. Hit search and you’ve got hundreds of images at your fingertips.

But a bulky load of images is nothing if you can’t narrow the results down. A good place for bloggers like you and me to start is to switch the settings over to Flickr and select Creative Commons in the process. This gives you access to a ton of high quality (and not so high quality) images that are free to use so long as you attribute the original author.

Creative Commons sorting is not the only way to filter pictures on Picitup, however. You can even break your search results down by color, size, orientation, type of picture (person, advertisement, etc.), and even object shape. The shape search has some issues, but the rest of the settings work really well.

2. Compfight. Thanks to coverage by a number of big name sites, Compfight has generated a ton of buzz about it being the “best” Flickr search app. While it doesn’t have nearly as large of a scope as Picitup does, Compfight more than makes up for it with a friendly and easily accessible user interface.

Unlike so many image searches that don’t show a lot of pictures per page, Compfight breaks free by displaying loads of pictures at once. All it takes is a quick scroll through the first couple of pages to find just the picture you need.

Of course, as with all of the Flickr search apps, Compfight allows you to sort your results by Creative Commons licensing, as well as whether or not you can get the original straight from Flickr. Search can also be done through tags or all text, whichever floats your boat.

3. FlickrStorm. On first glance, FlickrStorm doesn’t look like much (especially in Safari). You type in a keyword and you’re given an assortment of images straight from Flickr with whatever type of licensing you need for your project. And it seems like that’s all this app does.

Then you click on a picture.

Boom, the image pops up right on the side of your search so you never have to leave the page. And it appears in your history to the left so you can compare shots as you go.

Perhaps the handiest feature on FlickrStorm, though, is the tray. Shift-Click on a thumbnail of your choice and that picture is added to the tray. When you’ve had enough photo searching for the day, just click on the save icon and you’re given a website with all of the pictures from your tray displayed in whatever size you want. Link to it, save it, download the pictures in bulk. Whatever you want to do.

4. PictureSandbox. Don’t let the amateurish design fool you. PictureSandbox is a hell of an image search with capabilities that span from Flickr to Webshots to Fotolia and more. Its a great tool if you’re looking for stock photos too–but there are better search apps out there for Flickr alone.

After a search, images are displayed in a similar fashion to Compfight, but not nearly as many per page. You can then click on the images to display a larger thumbnail and show some of the photo’s specs. Unfortunately, there’s no way to sort the images by license, size or anything else.

5. Creative Commons. Then there’s the tried and true Creative Commons site. They have a pretty handy Flickr search engine built into their web page that takes you directly to the Flickr site itself. Searching this way yields plenty of results, but it can take a while for you to find exactly what picture you want thanks to the limited amount of pictures per page. Also, every search from the Creative Commons site ensures that you get a picture with CC licensing, obviously.

6. Flickr. The last great way to search Flickr is to use Flickr’s built in search itself. You don’t get the hundreds of photos at your fingertips like you do with some of the earlier tools, but there are more than enough search options to please even the most diligent image searcher. Sort by camera, content type, licensing and more.

So which app do you use to search for post pictures? Did I forget to add your favorite to the list? Let me know in the comments.

When talking advertisements, most website owners fall into a couple of groups. They either think that young websites should not have ads at all–lest it scare away potential early visitor. Or they assume that early ads are a good way to get people used to the idea that this page will, inevitably, have ads.

I fall into the latter category.

So when is the best time to add ads to your site? As soon as possible. But remember–if your website is young and fresh (like this one), you’ll find that your ads won’t get many (if any) clicks for some time to come. Programs like Google’s AdSense need tons of traffic in order to get popular while affiliate programs are luck of the draw. In other words, you need lots of views to make money through AdSense but quality, focused traffic to make money via affiliate programs–like the ones you see in the right column.

Start small when you add ads to your site. Don’t go hog wild with thousands of different products right from the get go. Tempting as it may be to try and get people to click your links, don’t overwhelm your visitors like some internet marketers tend to do. You want to get your viewers used to the idea of having ads on a website–not drive them away with sensory overload.

So slap a few AdSense blocks in your posts. Throw a handful of 125×125 pixel squares on your sidebar. And keep on posting to get your view and subscriber counts up. Then watch the money flow in.

When do you think is the best time to put ads up? Am I totally wrong in believing that the sooner you do it–the better?

I just moved into a beautiful new home. It’s 2600 square feet. Located in Orange County, CA. And has spectacular views all around.

But the internet didn’t get activated as quickly as I would have liked it to–leaving my blog to fend for itself without any new posts for the past couple of days.

It’s life changing experiences like this that teach you lessons, and I’ve learned a valuable one. Always have a backup plan so you can keep your posts flowing like you never left the computer.

One of the best ways to do this–and it worked flawlessly for my Thursday and Friday posts–is to set your post dates to something in the future instead of publishing immediately. All you have to do is click that edit button to the right of Publish Immediately, and set the date and time to your preferences. When you crank out multiple posts in a day, you can easily set them to publish when YOU want, that way you don’t have to worry about your internet going out, your computer dying, or some other cataclysmic event that could prevent you from getting your posts out there.

To have a successful blog these days, you have to build community spirit. Contests, giveaways, guest posts, and all that are great ways to get people interacting with your site–but nothing screams community to the average visitor than a lively comments section on your posts.

Comments are a catch 22. You need comments to build your blog’s community spirit to boost your success and notoriety on the web–but sometimes it’s tough to get those comments when you’re just starting out. With that in mind, I’ve compiled a list of some of the best tips to get those comments flowing.

• Encourage Comments
  Sometimes all your readers need is a bit of encouragement. Pose a question at the end of your posts or throughout the body. Ask what your readers thoughts are about your posts. If you’re doing some kind of a tutorial, tell them that you’re happy to answer any questions they may have. That little push can help you build tons of comments on your posts.
• Don’t Make Your Readers Register or Fill Out a Capcha
  A lot of people are easily dissuaded from adding a comment to your blog–so don’t make it any more difficult on them than it already is. You readers are spending a few minutes (or more) of their time typing their comment already. Including required registration or a capcha is a great way to turn off a would be commenter. You’ve got a spam filter, what are you so worried about?
• Reply to Every Comment You Get
  What’s the point of filling out a comment if it seems like the blog’s owner doesn’t even read it? Much like you reply to people in a forum, do the same with comments. Your readers care enough about your site and your post to let you know their feelings, so make them feel like they’re welcome members of your community. Plus, adding your own comments further increases the comment count on your posts.
• Choose a Side and Stand Your Ground
  It’s your blog, you can say whatever you want on it. And if you’re looking for comments, you need to stop playing the part of the flip-flopping politician and talk about how you actually feel about an issue. Maybe you love Mac OS X and hate Vista. Perhaps you want to slander people who would spend money on a blogging platform like TypePad. Post a love-fest for Ralph Nader’s presidential campaign. Go ahead. You’ll get loads of comments weighing in on how right or wrong you are.
• Make Your Top Commenters Feel Special
  There are a few plugins out there that make it easy to show off the people who comment the most often. Install one and “reward” those who contribute the most to your blog’s community. Or, if your blog is generating a large amount of income already, consider offering monthly giveaways to top commenters who provide good information with each comment.
• Can People Relate to Your Posts?
  Drafting that perfect post can take a lot of time and effort. And, if you’re not careful, you can come across as sounding elitist, know-it-all-like, or just plain boring. I know I’ve been guilty of all of the above at some time in my writing career. You need to be able to write conversationally, or at the very least, in a style that people can relate to. Since comments are a conversation, make your posts the stepping stones for starting off each topic.
• Turn Off Comment Moderation
  You may be tempted to moderate your comments before you allow them to be posted on your site. I know I’ve gotten quite a few scathing comments on other blogs I own–but let them get posted anyway. Every time I’ve had someone post a negative comment, two more have followed with a positive to back me up. Let the conversation flow naturally–without the need to look over each comment as you get it. When your blog grows, you’ll turn moderation off anyway, so why not turn it off now?
• Don’t be a Jackass
  Remember those scathing comments from the previous tip? Yeah, those comments that you are tempted to moderate but you’re not going to. Whatever you do, try not to respond to those with the same nasty tone as they used. So you don’t agree on a topic or he called you a name–get over it. You have a reputation to uphold, and if you tell off too many people, you’ll end up scaring away any potential commenters.
• Set Your Comments to DoFollow
  By default, most blogging software sets commenters’ URLs to be “nofollow” links which have no bearing on the majority of search engine rankings. By setting comments to “dofollow”, you give commenters a nice little backlink for their troubles. While you may not be too keen on doing this if you somehow feel that you need a level 9 PageRank, everyone else should consider this option.
• Turn on CommentLuv
  CommentLuv is a relatively new plugin for WordPress that automatically finds and adds a link to your commenters’ last blog post. Much like the DoFollow tip, people actively search out blogs that include CommentLuv as one of their plugins, bringing in more traffic and comments to your posts. However, you need to reign over your comments with an iron fist, or you may find spammers trying to take over your site’s comments section.
• Fake a Few Comments Here and There
  Alright, so this last tip is a little underhanded, but it can work. Much like some people need encouragement to post a comment, they also want to feel like they’re not the only people reading the post. If you’re just starting out and not getting much traffic, put a few “fake” comments here and there to get the community going. You can even combine encouragement and fake comments for double the commenting benefits.

And there you have it, a nice set of seven tips to help you get more comments on your blog. If you have some tried and true idea that I overlooked, let me know in the comments below.

I awoke this morning to a pleasant surprise. The much touted WordPress app for the iPhone arrived today. And it’s free. I love free stuff. Don’t you?

While I’m still waiting for it to sync with my iPod Touch, here’s a rundown of the features according to Jeff Chandler.

• Support for WP.com blogs and self-installed blogs version 2.5.1 and higher
• Embedded Safari for true previews of posts
• Full tag and category support
• Photo support for both camera pictures as well as library photos
• Support for multiple blogs
• Ability to password protect a post, save as a draft, or mark the post for later review
• Auto-recovery. This will recover posts which have been interrupted by phone calls

Sounds pretty spiffy, and I’ll definitely enjoy trying it out. I’m pretty sure that personal bloggers will have more use for this than anybody else. There aren’t any more excuses left for not being able to keep up with posting–even when you’re nowhere near a Wi-Fi connection.

Now if only I could type as fast on the virtual keyboard as I can on a traditional laptop or desktop keyboard.

If you have iTunes installed, you can pick the app up here. And yes, that link will open iTunes for you.

Do you have any plans for using the WordPress blogging app? What about another blogging app, like TypePad? Any thoughts on the usefulness of these blogging apps for the iPhone?

[Via the WordPress for iPhone Blog]

Have all of the good ideas for blogs already been taken? Is it too late to start a successful blog? Is every blogging field too crowded by now?

No. No. No.

By no means is it too late to start a successful blog. But that doesn’t mean it’s easy.

I’m not going to be all sunshine and buttercups with you–a lot of the popular niches are tough to break into. Tech is easily the most difficult. There are some big guns in the business–and they’re not going away anytime soon. To make matters worse for the rookie tech blogger, most of the people reading blogs are into tech–and most of those who have even one shining desire to write are going to write about what they love. You guessed it. They’re writing about tech.

The niche is full–but by no means impossible to break into. For a tech blog to be successful these days, it has to come in at a different angle. Reviews and news? Completely overdone. Tips and techniques are great, as are top # lists–but at some point, those niches begin to dwindle.

What about other niches? The make money online (MMO) niche is another one with a lot of competition. But the good thing about a broad topic like MMO–you have access to just about anything you want to talk about. It’s not a walled in fortress of a niche like tech where you only have set few things to write before you have to resort to a review or two. MMO blogs have a much more expansive range and everyone has their own style for making a quick buck or two on the net.

And then there are the untapped niches. We’re talking book blogs. Fashion blogs. Photography blogs. Et cetera.

So can successful blogs still come to fruition? Of course they can. But you’ll need a unique idea or two to get you there. And if unique ideas aren’t oozing out of your ears, persistence is the way to go. No matter if the content is unique, dedication to the blog and an ever growing number of posts will always pay off in the end.

I recently found myself in a heated dispute with some of my buddies over which is better: the built-in web-based dashboard that comes stock with all blogging platforms, or an app built for “offline” blogging? I’m an advocate for all things web based. I mean, look, we’ve got internet connections that go the “speed of light” now, so why not use them. But some people just can’t get past sticking with a program for everything, so I figured I may as well check out a few of the offline options.

I’m currently working on several different blogs, with the possibility of more on the way. All use WordPress, which is a big plus, but the built in interfaces leave something to be desired. Mostly because I can’t post to all of my blogs from a single site. Big points off there. It takes about a minute to move back and forth between my blogs’ admin sites, so not much time is lost, but way more than if I were using blogging software instead.

However, there are a number of great points in favor of the online interface. Biggest amongst them is that I can actively check that my posts are actually getting posted. I’m here, at the site, making sure everything is working correctly. I also have access to all of my plugins and other backend features from the WordPress dashboard–something that most (if not all) offline blogging software lacks. Editing custom fields in most blogging programs is also impossible.

One point I hadn’t thought of which one of my friends brought up was that I could draft posts offline thanks to blogging programs. Well that’s all well and good, but why couldn’t I just draft a post in TextEdit or Notepad or another simple word processor? I have to be online to actually submit the post, so what good is offline composition doing for me?

Despite being adverse to blogging software from the get-go, I decided to give a few programs a try. I’m primarily a Mac user, so I checked out Blogo, Ecto, and MarsEdit to see what all of the fuss was about.

Without going into a detailed review of each program here (I’ll save that for later posts), I can safely say that I now know for sure that blogging software is not for me. I’m not a luddite by any means, but I just prefer the tried and true interface of a WordPress dashboard. Furthermore, I just can’t get past the price tag of each program. WordPress is free. These programs all run about $20 or more. And yes, I know there are free alternatives out there, but that’s another topic.

But enough about me, what about you, my readers? Are you using blogging software? Free or of the shareware variety? Any luck with them? Let me know in the comments.