4 Squarespace Design Resources for Outstanding Blog or Websites

You're probably either researching Squarespace as blog/web design platform or are already a happy Squarespace customer. And by now, you've also probably already seen some examples of beautiful Squarespace sites and have thought to yourself, "Can I build a site that looks that great?" Chances are, the answer to that question is yes. But it's not going to happen over night. Today, we'll take a look at four advanced Squarespace design resources that will help you take your Squarespace skills to the next level.

The amazing Squarespace web publishing system allows you to modify most design details without requiring you to know any HTML or CSS code. Their design editing layer provides you with a set of WYSIWYG ("what you see is what you get") tools that enables you to intuitively modify the look and feel of your site. But it doesn't stop there.

While many website publishers will be able to produce beautiful sites without any knowledge of cascading style sheets, or CSS, you may want complete control over the look and design of your site. For extreme design enthusiasts, Squarespace also provides advanced CSS access, allowing you to tweak even the smallest of details. Learning CSS isn't hard but takes a little time, knowledge and patience. (Note: if you don't have the patience to learn CSS and need a professional design, check out the Big Picture Web Squarespace Designer Directory.)

If you're ready to start dabbling with advanced CSS on your Squarespace blog or website, don't go it alone. I've brought together four excellent design resources for Squarespace designers and developers anxious to start taking their blog and website design to the next level:

1. The Squarespace Manual - Sometimes the most effective solution is also the simplest. Before you look to tweak how certain elements are presented, check the manual to see if there are configuration options available to avoid the need for custom CSS in the first place.
2. The Squarespace Developer Community - Squarespacers are, in general, a helpful lot. The Squarespace Community page is a place for developers to post questions and answers on all sorts of development and design tasks. Be sure to check out their most featured posts section.
3. The Squarespace Code Site - Brand-spankin' new, the Squarespace code snippet library is chalk-full with common HTML and CSS snippets necessary to meet common design objectives. Become a web design pro, one tactic at a time. I really hope this site takes off because it's super cool.
4. SquareFam - Dubbed a "Social Network for Squarespacers," Squarefam is a Ning social network dedicated to Squarespace designers. While still relatively small, the membership is beginning to swell along with the Squarespace community in general. 

What tutorials, guides or other Squarespace design resources would you like to see from a part-timeSquarespace developer? Is there a resource you've used that I haven't listed here? What's the first thing you'll research using the Squarespace design resources listed here today? Leave a comment below and share your thoughts. 

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10 Blogging Mistakes, Tips and Tricks: One Year in the Making

This Sunday, May 16 2010 represents the one year anniversary of Big Picture Web, my humble blog/website/company. For the last year, my goal has been to help people use online marketing strategies and measurement tactics to create more successful blogs, websites and social media presences. I've learned a thing or two about blogging in that time, and today, our special anniversary post features 10 blogging mistakes, tips and tricks I've gathered during the first year of Big Picture Web.

Most of us, myself included, aren't writers and learning to blog isn't easy. In fact, I cringe when I look at my very first post. But it's one of those things that gets easier over time. You start to get a feel for your audience. You develop a certain voice. You start to see which posts keep readers' attention and which posts are bombs. All of this information helps you avoid common blogging mistakes and move forward. And so here we are, one year and a list of 10 blogging mistakes, tips and tricks under my blogging belt:

1. Be consistent. The worst thing you can do as a blogger is to be inconsistent. It's way too common to see a new a blogger come out of the gates with a full head of steam, posting three times a week. But by the second month, the blog becomes a ghost town. Don't let your excitement become a blogging mistake. At a minimum, post once a week. Establish a rhythm and then don't waiver. You can do significant damage to your community and readership if your content schedule begins to vary.
2. Don't ignore comments. Comments are screaming indicators of engagement, yet less than 1 in 10 people typically leave comments on blogs. Comments are golden. Comments are social proof, convincing new readers to stick around because others have joined in your conversation as well. Neglecting people that leave comments - unless you're Chris Brogan and receive scores of comments per day -  is not only a huge blogging mistake, it's also very rude. Comments should be a goal on your website and should be highly coveted. If you get one, respond to your commenter and thank them. Go to their blog. Friend them. Send them a birthday card. You get the picture.
3. Develop a content strategy and stick to it. By in large, no one will will read your blog if it's just a "mere online diary," as Twitter friend @passepartout puts it. You need to be offering something unique and useful to a specific audience. If you look at some of my first posts, my direction was horrible. I wrote about incredibly general topics like SEO, email marketing, online marketing in general. Those articles get no traffic and generate very little interest. Now, I blog about online strategy, measurement and the actual software platforms bloggers and website developers use to meet online goals. This much more focused approach has yielded a lot more engagement with folks that come to Big Picture Web.
4. There is no substitute for quality. Great blog posts are like adding a tiny, recurring source of traffic to your site each month. I created a full-on guide for measuring banner ad revenue as one of my first blog posts. I'm still amazed by how much search traffic I receive. Compare that with this post and you can see why the banner ad post receives so many more visitors. Put in the time to create quality content. Your audience will appreciate the extra effort.
5. There is no excuse not to do basic SEO. If you still don't know what search engine optimization is, you owe it to yourself to at least learn the basics. Following a few basic SEO blogging tips like adding keywords to your blog post titles and image alt tags can go a long way to boost your long-term search traffic.
6. Bad usability is a big blogging mistake. Bloggers almost always end up shooting themselves in the foot when it comes to usability. White text on dark font. All caps. A million blinking lights and widgets. Molasses-like site load times. Keep your web page down to the basic elements that will support your goals. Make sure your add-ons don't slow down your overall site performance. Bottom line: poor usability loses visitors.
7. Choose your blogging platform wisely. Before you dig in and start building your website, it's important to look at the options available to you. You'll see that there is an age-old trade-off between flexibility and ease-of-use (e.g., Wordpress vs. Squarepace). Find the niche that suits your needs, then find the quality solution that suits you.
8. Measure your blog. I believe passionately in measuring to improve. And in my opinion, there is no excuse for not installing a basic web analytics platform on your blog (e.g., Google Analytics). How else are you going to know what content is working? I'm constantly looking at my sources of traffic, top landing pages, goal funnels, everything. There are countless insights on how to better serve your community and improve your blog if you just take the time to look.
9. Don't be a know-it-all. It's tempting to write definitive guides for your audience, but it's important to realize that blogs are social content. For example, I use website session recording software Clicktale to see how visitors engage with Big Picture Web. Most people that read a blog post will typically read what the community posts in the comments as well. Your thoughts are just as interesting to the Big Picture Web community as mine are. 
10. That said, I've intentionally left #10 blank just for you. Use the comments below to tell us about your biggest blogging mistake, tip or trick. Both my visitors and I will be grateful if you do.

I certainly appreciate all of the now nearly 1000 visits I get each month to Big Picture Web and hope that this next year is even better. If we haven't connected on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, now's the time.

3 Neuromarketing Thoughts for Your Blog or Website

Does this situation sound familiar? You're shopping for something online and you've found it on several online merchants' sites. The cheapest two options are from companies you've never heard of. Amazon.com is selling your desired good for a few bucks more. Something tells you to bite the bullet, pay the premium and order from Amazon.com. Chances are, that "something" is a subconscious area of your brain making decisions without your conscious knowledge. It's also a cornerstone of Neuromarketing, and today's post features three thoughts to consider on neuromarketing and your blog or website.

Neuromarketing is an emerging science that measures the physical effects of marketing on different parts of the brain. Each section of the brain is used for something different - motor skills, rational thought, feelings - everything has its own purpose . Neuroscientists use high-tech equipment to understand the relationships between exposing consumers to marketing stimuli and the resulting changes in blood flow and chemicals to the different parts of the brain. Clearly understanding these effects are in the best interest of any company hoping to be effective with neuromarketing.

Please read our affiliate recommendation disclaimer here.I've been a fan of neuromarketing for some time now - my most recent post on the topic was on web design and layout back in January. Recently, I purchased the book Buyology: The Truth and Lies About Why We Buy, by Martin Lindstrom. Lindstrom, a neuroscientist and author, shares case study after neuromarketing tidbit after brain physiology fact in this quick read. After reading a good chunk, I wanted to share a few thoughts on how neuromarketing might be able to help your blog or website.

Neuromarketing Blog/Website Thought #1: Brands have profound impacts on our purchasing decisions. One of Lindstrom's case studies involves a follow-up to the famous Pepsi Challenge, a marketing campaign in which Pepsi conducted a double-blind scientific experiment/taste test against Coke. In the campaign's results, Pepsi was chosen slightly more than half the time over Coke. Lindstrom's case study first mirrored the conditions of the original test, which produced the same results. Then, participants took the challenge again, but this time they were informed which drink was which prior to testing. Participants in the second condition chose Coke about three quarters of the time over Pepsi.

The brain-monitoring equipment used in the study showed all sorts of brain activity differences between the two conditions, suggesting that our brains respond differently in purchasing decisions that involve brands, even when there is perceived/actual difference in quality (or price, from the Amazon example). It's clear how having a strong and consistent brand can help your blog or website immensely.

Neuromarketing Blog/Website Thought #2: Your brand is much bigger than your logo. In another study, Lindstrom described an experiment in which participants - all smokers - were shown two distinct conditions of imagery. The first condition involved images of people smoking, the Marlboro logo, other Marlboro branding, etc. Participants reacted as expected, with their tobacco-craving sections of their brain firing off signals loud and clear. In the second condition, the participants were only shown things that invoked the brand, but didn't explicitly mention smoking or Marlboro: a cowboy, a Marlboro-red Ferrari, a desert sunset. In this condition, participants' tobacco cravings flared up even more than when the Marlboro-specific imagery was shown.

Logos, advertising and branding all trigger special filters in our brain that say, "Hey, you may not want to believe this fully because someone was paid to write it in order to get you to buy it." The second condition from Lindstrom's case study didn't involve the brand, but rather the feelings, thoughts, and experiences most closely associated with the brand and was thus able to avoid the "advertising" filter while triggering the desired behavior from the participants.

How does this translate to your blog or website? One of the first tips for bloggers is to avoid being overly commercial within their blogs. Instead, they're encouraged to be helpful and demonstrate knowledge. It's a great way to begin to allow your potential customers to learn about your brand without immediately putting up the "advertising" filter.

Neuromarketing Blog/Website Thought #3: The power of mirror neurons. At the center of many nueromarketing reactions is the mirror neuron. Think of these guys as our brains' most primal form of empathy. Mirror neurons fire when we see others yawn, prompting us to yawn too. Mirror neurons make us want to dress like the cool kids at school. Mirror neurons make us emulate our idols.

They also make us buy stuff. Lindstrom points out that when you get an impulse to buy those new jeans or iPhone, it's our mirror neurons firing up. Buy this and your social status will match that of the cool people. 

If you have a blog or website, use this neuromarketing fundamental to your advantage. Know what "cool" is to your target demographic and be sure to convey how using your product or service will help others get there too.

I'm nearly finished with Buyology, which is a super quick read and packed with much more information and case studies on neuromarketing. I'd encourage you to pick up a copy yourself. What are your reactions to neuromarketing? Does it seem like something you could use for your blog or website? Are there ethical implications with this type of marketing? Leave your thoughts in the comments section below.

How to Build a Blog Following and Trust Online

Do people trust you enough to follow you? To believe you? To buy your product? Many experts will tell you that your online success comes down to that one essential question: do people trust you?

For today's post, I've brought in a friend and ringer to add his perspective. Kareem Ahmed is the Internet Marketing Manager at the McNally Smith College of Music, a social media/SEO/online marketing blogger, and the very first person I ever met through Twitter. Kareem has helped hundreds of people on the interwebs and has agreed to share his thoughts here today on how to build a blog following and trust online.

Big Picture Web (BPW): First impressions can make or break whether a visitors stays on your blog or website. There are dozens of mental triggers that alert us when we should be wary of new sites, according to books like Neuro Web Design: What makes them click. When you help people build blog and websites, what are some of the most important things you can do to quickly establish trust with the visitor of the website? Are there any musts for a homepage, for example? Anything that should be in each blog post?

Kareem Ahmed (KA): It really differs from site to site and what the objective of the site is. Perception is reality, so if you are perceived as a trustworthy source, then you will be one. In terms of selling a product or service, I always find it extremely valuable to include testimonials and/or recommendations...and not the ones that are ridiculously overpromotional. If you really believe in yourself, and the product/service you are pushing, there should be no problem in getting folks to believe you.

BPW: Trust online is very important to search engines, too. In fact, trust and authority are two of the main factors for Google and how they determine how to order their search results.  What are your favorite tips for building trust with search engines?  What should our bloggers do to gain Google's trust?

KA: Trust with search engines is very easy to obtain. Play nice, and they play nice back. White hat strategies work best.

BPW: Follow-up question: Link building is a much advised, yet little undertaken effort that can dramatically improve search results for bloggers. Do you have any killer techniques for building links to blog in order to gain new followers through harnessing more search traffic?

KA: Link building is essential for any successful SEO campaign. I like to start with directories because they are easy to obtain, I have a huge list of them that I begin every link building campaign with. Then I find out where the competition is getting links and I get links there too. The best links come from government and education sites. They provide great authority. I've said it before and I'll say it again, 3 or 4 ultra powerful links are better than 100 crappy ones.

BPW: Best-selling authors Chris Brogan and Julien Smith describe being the go-to person at the center of your network in Trust Agents. Building trust is ultimately about relationships, being helpful and leverage, among other things. What are your tips for building your personal network to gain trust? How might this help you add to your blog following?

KA: Do favors for people, they return them.

And there you have it. I officially owe Kareem Ahmed a favor. Big thanks to Kareem today (follow him on Twitter, seriously) for lending his time and expertise to Big Picture Web. 

What tips do you have for building a blog following? What little tidbit of extra effort or technique goes the extra mile for you? Leave a comment below to share your tips on building trust online.

3 Blogger SEO Tips: How to Attract Traffic to Your Website

Creating a blog for your company provides opportunities for having conversations around the topics that brought your visitors to your blog/website. And attracting more traffic means answering more questions about the topic you know and love. During the course of answering all of these questions, you'll realize you've created a nice, low-cost lead pipeline. In fact, a recent eMarketer article reports that the blog continues to be one of the most cost-effective means of creating new leads. And a great way to attract traffic to a website is through search engine optimization, or SEO.  Today's post centers on three blogger SEO tips on how to attract traffic to your blog or website.

1. Free Google Blogger SEO Tools

When you're writing your blog posts and especially post titles, it's important to include popular phrases and terms specific to your line of work. Including these "keyword phrases" more throughout each article helps Google deliver more searchers to your doorstep. Google has several free tools that always come in handy:

• Google Insights for Search - This search aggregate tool can help you spot trends in what people are searching for over time and by geographic location. Make investments in future SEO traffic by writing about topics that are gaining in overall popularity.

Insights for Search provides search trending analytics.

• Wonder Wheel shows relationships between search keywords.Wonder Wheel - In Google's mind, all search terms are related. Blogging about closely related topics over time will create signals of authority from your site that Google references in its search algorithms.  You can access Google's Wonder Wheel through any standard search result by selecting Show options from the top navigation, then Wonder Wheel from the secondary navigation that appears.
• Search Keyword Tool - Still the best free SEO tool out there, this Google tool allows you to see which keywords people are searching for most and how much competition there is to rank highly for each term. Bloggers typically have the the most luck attracting SEO traffic by selecting keyword phrases that are the ideal mix of high volume and low competition.

 The Keyword Tool shows potential traffic and competition for target keyword phrases.

2. SEO Site Tools Chrome Extension

SEO Site Tools is a new extension for the Chrome web browser that quickly allows you to compare the relative SEO value of a web page.  I had the opportunity to provide some beta testing to Twitter friend and fellow blogger, Carter Cole, who recently launched his new SEO tool on his blog and SEOmoz. SEO Site Tools presents standard SEO scores (e.g., AlexaRank, MozRank and Google's PageRank) as well as all sorts of other SEO bells and whistles, such as features for social media and SEO suggestions.  Tools like Carter's help bloggers aggregate SEO research into one tool, helping them to quickly assess their ability to rank for a particular keyword.

Carter Cole's new Chrome SEO extension

3. Create Excellent, Linkable Content

Many traditional on-page SEO tactics just aren't as effective as they used to be.  Optimizing the placement of keywords throughout your site provides less benefit than it once did.  Instead, the overall trust and authority of the site plays a much more important factor on how a page ranks for Google.  And the ultimate signal for Google for trust and authority is an inbound link from a related website.  If people with similar sites are including links to your site in their content, it's a pretty good indicator that they're referencing you as an expert. Creating plenty of excellent, linkable content is one of the best ways to attract maximum SEO traffic to your blog.

Blogging on behalf of your business can be a great way to establish credibility and obtain low-cost leads. But SEO is just one of many tactics to attract traffic to your website. And there are many more tips out there. Leave a comment below to share your blogger tips, SEO or otherwise, on attracting traffic to your blog/website.