Tips and Snips: Creative Website Hacks for Creative People • Page 7 of 9 • Take your web presence from "meh" to amazing

Questions?

Visit Image and Aspect to learn more about your web presence options

About the author

diane-author-300x181 Balancing Consumer Personalization with GDPR

I developed Image and Aspect because I believe that professionals need to have an impactful web presence. One that showcases their unique talents, skills, and abilities as well as their values and style. A presence that focuses on social engagement and connection.

I’m passionate about what I do; I like helping fellow humans, I like having all kinds of social connection with others, and I want to give back, to make the world a better place.

I do much of the designing and coding myself, and I also have a wonderful network of professionals that may contribute as well; photographers, copywriters, branding experts.

I love designing and coding beautiful, elegant and responsive web creations. I ALSO teach and help others who want to learn how to do it themselves.

‘Tips and Snips’ is my blog, and it’s full of information and inspiration to help transform any online persona from “meh” to AMAZING! Sign-up HERE to get blog posts right to your in-box every Friday! I write about Design, Marketing, Search Engine Optimization, Branding, Vlogging, Color Theory, HTML5, CSS3, Bootstrap, WordPress, Social Media…anything you’d want to know to get yourself noticed online.

Diane M. Metcalf, M.S.

Reading time: 4 min

Blogging•SEO

6 ways to use storytelling in blog posts

March 4, 2019 by Diane Metcalf, M.S.I.T. No Comments

Why Tell a Story?

People like reading stories. They’re a great way to engage your audience.

As an example, here’s a little story of my own:

Once upon a time, there was this young, intelligent woman named Diane.

Diane was a web designer and developer. She designed and coded gorgeous websites that got her clients noticed online by showcasing who they are and what they do.

Diane had a blog called TipsandSnips, to help website do-it-yourself-ers. She liked the idea of storytelling, so she decided to start using it on her blog. She hoped more people would enjoy her posts and that she would also grow her audience.

After just a short while, she found it to be a casual, fun, laid-back way to engage her audience. Her blog’s visitors and followers loved it too and her subscriber-list grew by leaps and bounds!

1. Tell a story to give an example

For a quick way to get a feel for storytelling, try telling a short anecdotal story in place of an example. Short, entertaining anecdotes can absolutely make a blog post more fun to read, and they help create a feeling of connection between blogger and reader.

2. Get inspiration from your personal experiences

Generating ideas for stories doesn’t have to be difficult. Use your own personal experiences for inspiration. A laugh with a co-worker, a funny thing your cat did, something that happened during yoga class; these are your stories!

The stories I use in my own posts come from my own life experiences. Stories are everywhere.

3. Align your story with your post

Every story has a message, usually it’s something you want people to take away from that specific story. Your story’s message should align with and support your blog post’s message.

I did that above, in the story about Diane (me). I used that story to show how storytelling can be used in blog posts, which is what this particular post is all about.

4. Use the elements of storytelling

A good story requires 4 elements: a character, a problem, an action, and a solution.

-The story needs a character. In my story that’s Diane.

-The character should have a problem: for example, the character is aspiring to become something, or to overcome an obstacle.

-The story requires the character to take an action to overcome the obstacle or to solve the problem.

-The story needs a solution which is actually the message you want the reader to understand. The message is the take-away of the story.

5. Make it relatable

Stories are powerful if the reader can emotionally relate to the main character. Make your character relatable so your readers naturally understand your message.

6. Use images or color

Adding an illustration or graphic to your story will make it easier to identify with. It can make your message clearer and easier to grasp. Colors help convey emotion, so using blue can help to convey trust, orange conveys creativity, green is calming, yellow is happy.

Questions?

-How Your Personal Brand Makes the Difference –

Other articles you might like:

-Use a Thank You Page to Grow your Subscriber List or Customer Base

Visit Image and Aspect to learn more about your web presence options

About the author

diane-author-300x181 6 ways to use storytelling in blog posts

I’m passionate about what I do; I like helping fellow humans, I like having all kinds of social connection with others, and I want to give back, to make the world a better place.

I do much of the designing and coding myself, and I also have a wonderful network of professionals that may contribute as well; photographers, copywriters, branding experts.

I love designing and coding beautiful, elegant and responsive web creations. I ALSO teach and help others who want to learn how to do it themselves.

Diane M. Metcalf, M.S.

Reading time: 3 min

Design•Job Seekers

Resume’ tips for experienced job seekers

February 26, 2019 by Diane Metcalf, M.S.I.T. No Comments

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports, unemployed job hunters ages 55 to 64, spend a median of 34.5 weeks looking for jobs, as compared to 22.2 weeks for all job seekers.

If you’re an older (or more experienced) job seeker, you need a modern looking, attention-grabbing resume’ to showcase your valuable work experience. Simply changing a few dates and descriptions on your current resume’ will not be enough. You need to consider your resume’s style and design, otherwise, your resume’ could appear dated, which potentially reveals your age. Here are some great resume’ tips for more experienced job seekers.

In a recent AARP survey of workers age 45 and over, three-quarters cited age discrimination as the reason they didn’t find a new job.

Take a look at your resume’ and get ready to completely revamp it to avoid these eight mistakes:

1. Outdated Formatting

Today’s resume’s require style, design, color, and are visually & esthetically pleasing. They provide an attention grabbing stage with which to market your work experience as well as your professional accomplishments and values.

One resume’ tip is to add a pop of color to your resume’s headings, or use a colorful personal logo or graphic. Use a contemporary font like Calibri, Cambria, Palatino, or Verdana, which are still standard typefaces but translate well between operating systems.

Design tip: Use two fonts at most, or use just one font but bold it (or italicize it) in the headings. Leave plenty of white space on the page so reading doesn’t cause eye-strain.

Including graphs and charts is a good idea to add visual interest and to demonstrate how you’ve positively impacted previous employers.

Here’s an example from my own resume’:

41CBFD18-A902-4231-AA5E-F1D892061E64-940x1024 Resume’ tips for experienced job seekers

2. Listing every job

“Recounting unrelated experience from the distant past is a surefire way to make your resume’ seem dated,” says Fortune 100 recruiter and author of Signs of a Great Resume’, Scott Vedder.

“There’s no law of resume’s that says you must include every job you’ve ever had”, says Vedder.

Highlight your jobs from the last 10 to 15 years, and include a “quick nod to a job from long ago when it relates to the opportunity you’re pursuing,” says Vedder.

This helps keep your resume’ to two pages or less, with one page being best.

3. Outdated skill-sets

Employers prefer professionals who have current and relevant skills. Stating a proficiency in old software or in an irrelevant program will draw unwelcome attention. If you need to brush-up on some skills, or learn completely new ones, it’s OK to mention what you’re doing to bring yourself up-to-date.

The same idea pertains to soft skills such as “good listening” or being a “problem solver.” Employers should be able to ascertain that you have these skills based on your work experience.

It’s not a good idea to list obvious skills such as those required for Microsoft Word. Everyone is pretty much expected to have those skills already.

Another resume’ tip is to use the “skills section” of your resume’ to highlight proficiencies that show you’re current with industry trends for the job you’re seeking. If you’re in sales, you’d mention software like Salesforce. If you’re not sure what skills are in demand in your field right now, look through job postings to see which skills are being sought by potential employers.

4. Your email address

A professional resume’ writer, Dawn Bugni in Atkinson, N.C. says “It’s ridiculous to think something as innocuous as aol.com at the top of the resume’ will knock you out of the running, without further consideration, but there is a chance that it might.”

Instead of outdated hotmail or AOL addresses from the 90s, get with it and create yourself a free Gmail account. You’ll thank yourself later.

5. It’s hard to reach you

To save a prospective employer the hassle of searching for you online, make it easy for her by including a link to your LinkedIn profile and your professional social media accounts. I put them right in my header.

Create a hyperlink on your email address too, so it’s easy to contact you.

Design tip: Create a custom LinkedIn URL to your profile page by going to“Edit public profile & URL”.

If you’re in a creative field, it’s a great idea to link directly to your online portfolio or work samples.

See ImageandAspect.com for ideas on how to get an affordable online portfolio, resume’ or CV. Online, you can express yourself uniquely and in ways that aren’t always conducive to paper.

6. You have a “career objective”

Get rid of the career objective already. It’s ridiculously outdated, irrelevant and takes up valuable space.

Instead, use this resume’ tip: write a headline describing your profession and level of experience. Lead with your focus on the prospective employer’s needs and compose a career summary to show how you’re able to meet those needs. Explain your skills, experience and what you’ll bring to the company, in about 50 words, specifically how you’ll add value.

7. Inadvertently revealing your age

Although the Age Discrimination in Employment Act prohibits employment discrimination against persons 40 years or older, lots of over-50 workers see how discrimination can still be a problem.

In a recent AARP survey, 44% of respondents who’d applied for a new job in the past two years reported that they were asked their age or graduation year.

Dont include your high school or college graduation dates on your resume’. I’ve done this as a 50-ish job seeker and I began to wonder if it could be the reason I wasn’t getting any calls, even though I was fully qualified for each job.

I decided to “experiment”, by leaving off my oldest degree and graduation date (1982) and including only the 2 most recent from 2003 and 2013.

If you had to guess my age using my resume’, it would appear likely that I’m in my 30’s (having graduated from college in 2003.) And guess what? I started getting called for interviews.

Interesting.

The best approach is to simply leave those dates off if possible. When applying online, the application won’t move forward to the next screen until you fill in those dates. And of course lying is out of the question. So, there’s still THAT particular obstacle to deal with.

If you have experience with that, or have ideas about how to deal with that scenario, I’d love to hear from you.

Fair? No. Legal? No. But it happens.

For tips on answering age-related interview questions, check this out.

8. Wasting resume’ real-estate

The phrase “references available upon request” is no longer commonplace. You’re always expected to provide references. Don’t waste valuable space on your resume’ with this one.

Questions?

-How Your Personal Brand Makes the Difference –

Other articles you might like:

-Use a Thank You Page to Grow your Subscriber List or Customer Base

January 3, 2019 by Diane Metcalf, M.S.I.T. 2 Comments

About the author

diane-author-300x181 Resume’ tips for experienced job seekers

I’m passionate about what I do; I like helping fellow humans, I like having all kinds of social connection with others, and I want to give back, to make the world a better place.

I do much of the designing and coding myself, and I also have a wonderful network of professionals that may contribute as well; photographers, copywriters, branding experts.

I love designing and coding beautiful, elegant and responsive web creations. I ALSO teach and help others who want to learn how to do it themselves.

Reading time: 7 min

HTML

Embed a TWEET THIS image + URL in your emails

Photo of Twitter TWEET THIS button to add to emails

This tutorial will demonstrate how to create a TWEET THIS link that contains a Tweet, whatever image you want tweeted, and a URL to the web-page you want tweeted with it.

To put this in an email, you must be able to access your default email template or create a new template. I made mine by creating a new template in an automated email program that I use.

Here we go:

1. If you’re including a URL to a website in the TWEET THIS link, go to bit.ly (it’s free) to shorten the URL so Twitter will use it. Copy and paste the new short URL to a blank doc or text file so you can easily find it in a few minutes.

2. Tweet the image that you want embedded in the TWEET THIS link.

This is necessary because Twitter will store the image and you need the specific path to where it’s stored. (If the image isn’t on Twitter, then it won’t show up when using the TWEET THIS link.)

Here’s how to do that:

twittershot-300x102 Embed a TWEET THIS image + URL in your emails

Sign in to Twitter, click “Tweet”, then click “add photo or video”, browse for and Tweet the image. (You can delete the tweet later if you want. The image will still be saved.)

Now for the fun part: You need to find the URL (path) to that image, and there are TWO of them.

You’ll use the URL that starts with “pic”.

Stay in Twitter and right-click the Tweeted image you just posted. “Inspect” it with web developer tools, like the one in CHROME. (TOP RIGHT on Chrome, 3 vertical dots)

twittershot4-300x259 Embed a TWEET THIS image + URL in your emails

To find the correct URL, hit Control+F and search for “pic“. When you find it, copy the whole line pic.twitter.com/XXXXXX.

Paste it where you can find it again in a few minutes.

twittershot2-300x202 Embed a TWEET THIS image + URL in your emails

3.To create the Tweet This link in HTML:

There can’t be spaces in-between words in a URL, so replace all those spaces with %20, like this:

THIS%20IS%20WHAT%20I%20 WANT%20 TO%20 TWEET%20

Next, continuing on the same line, right after the 20, we add the link for the Twitter image (red) that we just tweeted , and the bit.ly shortened URL (blue) for our chosen website.

Remember, no spaces, and close the tag >.Don’t forget the quotes. The whole href needs to be in quotes.

(I’m condensing the code here for easier display)

pic.twitter.com/CfORwODo%20http://bit.ly/2oxajij“>

Now add some text to make a clickable link: (again condensing the code for easier display)

ODo%20http://bit.ly/2oxajij“>ADDED Clickable Text</>a

If you’d rather have a clickable image instead of text, then add the path to the image in an img tag, before the closing anchor </a> tag, like this:

ODo%20http://bit.ly/2oxajij“><img src=”path to image here”></a>

And here’s the end result in an outgoing email!

twittershot7-300x155 Embed a TWEET THIS image + URL in your emails

Here’s what clicking on it does:

twittershot5-300x93 Embed a TWEET THIS image + URL in your emails

Here’s what happens when I click TWEET:

TA -DAA!

twittershot6-287x300 Embed a TWEET THIS image + URL in your emails

Questions?

Other articles you might like: