Blog Tips

CITATIONS

I think that the use of cites as this infographic has is admirable, too many times credit is not given when it should be. I do not think plagiarism is OK anytime.

Obviously a writer/creator will do research to gather information for a post or presentation graphic, or even a video. There are a number of sources for information, some of which I discuss in a blog post I added to my Wealthy Affiliate site: Post Subject Ideas…

I recently followed on a blog posted on the educational site  Wealthy Affiliate  a thorough discussion on this delicate subject… There was some concern expressed about what plagiarism consists of…When is too much copying of information not OK, or is it ever OK?

This infographic is about a subject is covered by literallly millions here on the internet, yet it manages to be unique, original, and provides sources (cites) for where some of the information came from. I think they did an excellent job on this point.

If a writer takes another’s work in totem and uses it verbatim, it definitely is not right. This means they have not done any original analysis and this would definitely be considered plagiarism.

By using the points or ideas or in this case statistics from outside sources, citing the source, then presenting your own take or perspective you are covering yourself against a charge of plagiarism, plus morally it is the right thing to do…

Ok enough of that….Suffice it to say that we all need to be aware of this on top of the other excellent points found in the infographic…

LAYOUT

I think this is a perfect use of an infographic – It effectively tells the main points of the subject of blogging, and does it using few words, while including eye-catching graphics to grab the attention of the reader, and overall it provides many salient points in a succinct manner.

One of the reasons I find myself using more and more such tools is that the way people today search out information is changing. No longer is a blog the only way to  get the attention of your reader, and many will not read a lengthy article nowadays…

It is for this market segment the infographic is designed for and is highly effective for. Creative use of not only the evergreen information, but also the latest points applicable today are in this infographic, and you can tell from the citations they did a lot of research in preparing the infographic.

CONTENT 

I like the way the graphic flows logically through all the elements of blogging, to include important steps
like SEO, social marketing of the blog post, and the surroundings of the post, i.e. what to place nearby the post to increase its effectiveness…

Note they start at the top and work their way to the bottom of a blog post, and the highlights are ones that are pertinent to today’s internet marketing strategy, not some old rehashed information that adds nothing of value to the body of work that is blogging…

I particularly was interested in two points I had not thought of…Adding a short bio on the post page as opposed to having it on a separate page can improve your bounce rate, and secondly adding an opt-in for subscribing to your site  can improve registration rates…

IMPLICATIONS

Once again the excellent work that Social Marketing Writing did with this evergreen subject to make it useful to all viewers through the infographic is commendable.

Note that also by sharing it they are going to get a LOT more mileage through other blogs, twitter shares, and the like…A good example is this post…

Here today, I am using the infographic to emphasize some of the other considerations of blogging I think are important, such as using citations and avoiding plagiarism, both of which are important to include in your “checks” as you prepare/publish material…

CONCLUSION

So please look carefully again at the content found in the infographic, but also think about the other points I bring up. I want all of us to be successful at this internet marketer business, and do it in a professional manner!

Please leave your comments below, I will answer each one personally! Also, if you have a subject you would like to see covered, please add it in the box directly below and hit send – that comes directly to one of my email sites designed for this purpose! Thanks!