http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?R=1008050

Blogs are not the hottest social media trend of the moment, but they remain a powerful platform for self-expression—and for brand and product recommendations. eMarketer estimates that 51% of US internet users will read blogs at least monthly this year, and according to October 2010 research from blog portal Technorati many will find them influential.

Nearly half of internet users surveyed worldwide said they trusted blogs as an information source, and slightly more said they were likely to recommend a brand, product or service they heard about on a blog. But are bloggers ready to make recommendations themselves?

Among all bloggers, 55% said they review products or brands rarely or never, up slightly from the 53% who said the same in Technorati’s “State of the Blogosphere 2009” report. Among “hobbyist” bloggers—the most common kind—the drop was similar.

In addition, 42% of all bloggers and 40% of hobbyists said they sometimes blogged about brands they loved or hated, down from 46% and 44%, respectively, last year.

Following a brand on social media may keep it closer to the top of blogger’s mind, encouraging more frequent posting on the subject.

But bloggers are dissatisfied with how brands are treating them. Nearly two-thirds of all blogger respondents said they felt bloggers were treated less professionally by brand representatives than were members of the traditional media, and hobbyist bloggers were most likely to hold that view.

Brand representatives must remember that even bloggers who write only for fun expect to be treated with respect. Earlier research from IZEA noted the high value bloggers and other social media personalities place on their endorsements, and if bloggers are credible and have the reach a marketer is looking for they deserve to be treated like the media outlets they are.

Looking to illustrate a blog article ? Plenty of content is available on the internet, but not all of it is accessible (in fact, the vast majority of the content is copyrighted). Here is a few tips and tricks to find Creative Commons (copyleft) content easily.

source : http://www.presse-citron.net/5-facons-de-trouver-des-photos-creative-commons-sur-flickr

When editing a blog dealing with high-tech or information on Internet, software, social media or gadgets, it is not very difficult to find illustrations do not pose a problem of rights: the most time – this is the case Presse-citron – Articles are enriched with images of screen shots or photos of products.

Cela devient un peu plus délicat s’il s’agit de trouver des illustrations thématiques, conceptuelles, ou d’actualité. It becomes a little trickier to find if illustrations thematic, conceptual, or topical. Bien sûr on peut se constituer sa propre banque d’images en faisant ses photos soi-même mais tout le monde n’est pas photographe : La photo, l’autre arme de séduction du blogueur . Of course one can create its own bank of images by his photographs himself, but everyone is not a photographer: The photo, the other weapon of seduction of the blogger .

Il faut alors s’orienter vers des images libres de droits, que l’on peut utiliser et reproduire dans ses propres pages sans risquer de s’attirer les foudres de leurs auteurs. It should then move towards royalty-free, we may use and reproduce on its own pages without the risk of running afoul of their authors. Pour cela, rien de tel qu’un petit tour sur Flickr, qui compte plus de cent millions de photos sous licence Creative Commons. For this, nothing like a little trip on Flickr, with over one hundred million photos under Creative Commons.

Voici cinq méthodes simples pour trouver facilement des photos Flickr Creative Commons . Here are five easy ways to easily find Flickr Creative Commons.

FlickCC FlickCC

FlickrCC est un moteur de recherche qui permet non seulement de trouver des images Flickr Creative Commons, mais également de les éditer avec quelques fonctions sommaires (recadrage, redimensionnement…) et d’ajouter automatiquement les crédits correspondants. FlickrCC is a search engine that will not only find images Flickr Creative Commons, but also edit them with some simple functions (cropping, resizing …) and automatically add the corresponding appropriations.

Wylio Wylio

Un service très bien pensé. One very well thought out. Il s’agit là aussi d’un moteur de recherche de photos Creative Commons Flickr, mais il offre quelques fonctionnalités supplémentaires très intéressantes. This is also a search engine for Flickr Creative Commons photos, but it offers some very interesting additional features. Une fois que vous avez trouvé la photo souhaitée, vous avez la possibilité de la redimensionner et de définir sa position dans votre page, et les crédits photos. Once you find the photo you want, you can resize it and define its position in your page and photo credits. Le code vous est alors fourni pour que vous n’ayez plus qu’à le copier-coller dans votre page. The code is then provided so that you do more than copy and paste in your page. Inconvénient : la photo n’est pas sur votre serveur mais sur celui de Wylio via un lien. Drawback: the picture is not on your server but on that of Wylio via a link. Si celle-ci disparaît de Wylio ou si le service ferme, les images disparaîtront aussi de votre site… If it disappears Wylio or if the service closes, the images will also disappear from your site …

Compfight Compfight

Un autre moteur de recherche minimaliste en Ajax dédié à la recherche de photos dans Flickr, qui permet de filtrer les résultats selon plusieurs critères : recherche par tags ou texte entier, affichage uniquement les photos sous licence Creative Commons, affichage de la résolution originale de la photo (en survolant le trait bleu sous les vignettes), option par défaut, désactivable en passant « Seek original » sur Off. Another minimalist search engine dedicated to the Ajax search photos in Flickr, which lets you filter the results by several criteria: search by tags or full text, display only the photos under a Creative Commons license, displaying the original resolution of the photo (flying over the blue line below the thumbnails), default, can be deactivated by passing “Seek original” Off.

Photo Dropper Photo Dropper

Il ne s’agit pas ici d’un moteur de recherche web mais d’une extension WordPress. It is not about a web search engine but a WordPress plugin. Celle-ci permet de rechercher et d’ajouter en un clic des photos dans vos articles directement depuis votre console d’administration WordPress. This allows you to search and add one-click pictures in your articles directly from your WordPress admin console. Une fois que vous avez trouvé la photo de vos rêves, vous pouvez choisir sa taille (S, M ou L) et c’est fait. Once you’ve found the perfect shot, you can choose your size (S, M or L) and it’s done. Afin que la licence Creative Commons soit bien respectée, les crédits photographiques sont là aussi automatiquement ajoutés en dessous des images. So that the Creative Commons license is met, the photo credits are again automatically added below the images. (je précise que je n’ai pas testé cette extension) (I say that I have not tested this extension)

Flickr recherche avancée Flickr advanced search

Enfin, pour ceux qui souhaitent faire leurs recherches directement dans Flickr sans passer par un service tiers, il suffit de se rendre sur la page de recherche avancée , et de cocher la case « Only search within Creative Commons-licensed content » en bas de celle-ci. Finally, for those who wish to make their research directly to Flickr without using a third-party service, simply go to the advanced search page , and check “Only Search within Creative Commons-licensed content ‘at the bottom of the it. Deux options supplémentaires à cocher vous permettent de définir l’usage que vous allez en faire. Two additional options allow you to check to determine the use you do with it.

This is something that will probably interest only the person that write on a frequent basis on a blog, but this little plugin will allow you in the end to find the best content or to optimize your headlines, etc … Efficient. WordPress only.

WordPress gets A/B testing for headlines with Headline Split Tester plugin.