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e_Marketing Blog What Makes A Good Blog? Since I'm writing a series on "Creating A Successful Blog" I've been looking (not very diligently) for other opinions on what makes for a successful blog. One thing I've discovered is that there is no magic answer to this question. First of all, every blog speaks to a different audience in a different tone of voice. So what one group likes another group will find boring or maybe even overtly aggravating. I stumbled on an instance of this today when I followed a link from Lisa Barone's post called "Six Kickass Writing Resources for Bloggers". First on her list was "What Makes a Good Blog?" by Merlin Mann. Now I must admit there are several things in Merlin's list which I agree with, but I find the overall tone fairly aggravating. For instance, he says, "People start real blogs because they think about something a lot...They make and consume smart forebrain porn. So: where do this person's obsessions take them." Frankly I don't see why "obsession" is a necessary part of blogging. Is it because in order to do real blogging we must express our personality; and expressing our personality necessarily involves creativity; and because creativity is so relatively scarce and difficult that it will not happen without an obsessive focus on something? Or is this just the way an obsessive person looks at it? Of course it takes all types. But there is a certain arrogance and air of superiority about talk of obsession and creativity that I can do without. WiMAX for Portland WiMAX service will soon be available in Portland, Oregon. What is WiMAX? It is a wireless alternative to cable or DSL. For a number of years this technology has promised to revolutionize the delivery of "last mile" service connecting homes and offices to internet access points. But these days the focus is more on mobile applications that make it a viable alternative to standard cell phone services. The provider of this service in Portland will be Clearwire, a company formed through joint cooperation of Sprint, Clearwire, Google, Intel, Comcast, and Time Warner. WiMAX will not be significantly cheaper than the alternatives, but it does promise to offer greater potential for merging disparate services such as internet, cell phone, Voip and cable tv. Squidoo New Look Squidoo seems to have a new edit and publish interface. I've always found it a bit clunky in the past, but now it seems quite a bit easier to add modules. The process makes more sense to me. I just created a lense about Car Repair for a client. |
Cottage-Sales.com - Looking for a cottage or summer home in Canada? You've come to the right place. We have valuable background information on cottage sales and what to look for in a summer home. If you've done any searching for cottages or summer homes, you know this market changes daily. Cottage-Sales.com is a member of the Linknet network of websites. Using Full Color Images on Vinyl BannersFeb 26, 2006 - Linknet Product News Using Full Color Images on Vinyl Banners Feb 26, 2006 - Linknet Product News - from Trade Show BuzzDigital printing has given the graphic designer tremendous versatility. Just a few years ago, printing on vinyl was a difficult, costly, and somewhat unpredictable process. But now vinyl printing has entered the digital age, making it possible to print in full color. That means the designer can use logos, color photos, full color cartoons, special type faces -- all the tools that have been available for full color offset printing for years. Adding full color images to vinyl banners will create banner designs with more impact and a more professional appearance. Putting a full color photograph on your vinyl banner is often the easiest way to do this. When you want to add a photo or image to a vinyl banner design, try to keep a few things in mind. 1. Use the Correct Resolution In order to look crisp and clear an image must have the correct resolution. It is usually best to try to keep resolution at about 100 ppi (pixels per inch) at full size. In other words if you have an image that is 300 ppi at 8" x 10", then you can comfortably blow it up to about 24" x 30" (which will give you 100 ppi). In fact, for many purposes, you can go as low as 50 ppi and still be quite satisfied with the output, because these images are normally meant to be viewed from a distance of at least 10 feet away. 2. Brighten the Colors in Photoshop Second, it is often necessary to brighten up the colors of your vinyl banner images. You can usually do this by increasing the contrast. In Photoshop the easiest way to do this is by "pinching" the levels. Open the levels window and pull the shadows (dark shades) control towards the middle (to the right), and pull the highlights control to the left. This will brighten your light colors and darken your dark colors while getting rid of some of the "mudiness" of the mid tones. "Sharpening" your images will also have a brightening effect. Your images will normally appear much crisper and sharper when you "punch them up" with a bit of sharpening. But don't go overboard. 3. Use CMYK mode rather than RGB Finally, we recommend working in CMYK mode rather than RGB. Vinyl banners at America-Banners.com are printed on CMYK printing devices using solvent inks. Rather than counting on the printing system to convert your RGB (the default color system used on the computer) convert it yourself so you can see what you are going to get. RGB can be misleading since it has a broader color "gamut" than CMYK. There are colors you can see on a computer monitor that you simply cannot reproduce with CMYK inks -- especially not with solvent inks on a medium like vinyl. You might as well know this before you get the printing done. If it is important to reproduce a specific color -- and if you have time -- a proof can be produced on the actual vinyl banner material to show you how it will look. For durable vinyl banners that will be used outside or in bright sunlight (like in a window), be sure your vinyl printer uses true solvent inks. These inks are ideal for full color printing intended for use in bright sunlight or other harsh weather conditions (such as rain). Solvent inks resist fading due to UV exposure, and stand up to wind and rain. Non solvent inks will fade in bright sunlight. Using images (photos, logos, special artwork, etc.) on your banners is a great idea, but we don't recommend using this approach for outside projects unless they are being printed with solvent inks. Solvent inks also produce much more durable vinyl banners for applications like trade show banners or event backdrops where they will be rolled or folded many times, and handled a lot. Rick Hendershot has been involved in advertising and graphics production for many years. For more articles about designing and producing vinyl banners see Vinyl Banner Design.
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