Topical Round Up Groups for Bloggers

Hey bloggers.   Trying to get your posts more exposure, and maybe some back links?  Have you tried submitting them to round-ups?  

Round-ups are basically posts that link to a number of bloggers posts...things like "10 Easy Kids Crafts" or "100 Vegan Cookie Recipes."  

There are various Facebook groups where people can request content for round-ups (and where you can share your posts if you have something that matches their needs).  A few of my favorites are Blogger Round-up Requests, Blogger Roundups, and RoundupPalooza.

But the problem with these is that it can be hard to find round-ups for your specific content sometimes (especially if you don't share recipes on your site, as recipe round-ups tend to dominate on the general round up sites).  So, I've made a list of topical round up pages I'm aware of.   These may get a little less traffic, but if your blog is geared towards one of these topics, the round ups that are posted here will be more likely to be ones you have content for.  

Crafts and DIY

DIY & Crafts Roundups

Craft and Food Roundups

Home and Garden

Home and Garden Round Up

Lifestyle 

Lifestyle Roundups

Round-ups, Guest Posts, and Writing Service Requests (Mom & Lifestyle Blogs)

Parenting and Kids

Motherhood Round-ups

Mom Blogger Round Up and Guest Post Classified

Round-ups, Guest Posts, and Writing Service Requests (Mom & Lifestyle Blogs)

Homeschool Content Round Up Request

KBN Content & Round-up Requests (For Kid Blogger Network members only)

Recipes/Food

Recipe Round Up

Best Ever Food Round-up

Foodie Blogger for Sharing and Content Round Up

Julie's Recipe Round Ups

Craft and Food Roundups

Religions

Christian Bloggers Round Up

Graphics and Artwork for Blogging About Slavery

Do you want to spread awareness of modern slavery by blogging about it?  Looking for a graphic or photo to illustrate your post?  Below are some  you can use.  The photos are either licenced under Creative Commons, have statements allowing their use on the website, or I've contacted the artist and they have given permission for these to be used by others blogging about slavery.

PLEASE DO READ THE TERMS LISTED UNDER THE IMAGE.  Credit is usually required, and sometimes notification, and some may not be used commercially (which may mean no use on commercial blogs) so make sure to read the text under each graphic to see what you need to do to use it. Also, please DO NOT REMOTE LINK, as this slows down the servers of the sites these graphics are from. Save to your own computer then upload to your blog.



Trafficking Series by Talinakirra

Talinakirra has a series of 9 infographics, each with an image, a word, and a sentence with information about human trafficking. No credit or link back is required to use these images. In her words, "they are there to spread awareness and anyone who wants to use them can, no credit needed." However, if you would like to give credit you can use the following code:  

<A HREF="http://talinakirra.deviantart.com/gallery/?q=trafficking">Human Trafficking Infographics</A> by <A HREF="http://talinakirra.deviantart.com">Talinakirra</A>.

Trafficking Educational Graphics from Mosaic by Jacob Haynes

The first four graphics found here (the ones wholly in black and white, not the ones with color)  are under creative commons licence.  Mosaic Services has stated that images may be used for outreach and education purposes.  For re-use please credit Jacob Haynes.  No derivative works or commercial use.  You can use the copy paste code below to add the credit under the graphic on your blog.  

Graphic from <A HREF="http://mosaicservices.org/">Mosaic Services</A> by <A HREF="http://www.jacobhaynesdesign.com/">Jacob Haynes</A>.

Images by Imagens Evangélicas

 Imagens Evangélicas has a series of similar photos, some with text in English or Spanish, on flickr, which are under creative commons.  Attribution is required.  You can see all the photos here.  You can use the copy paste code below to add the credit under the graphic on your blog.  

<A HREF="http://www.flickr.com/search/?w=69812620@N08&q=human%20trafficking">Human Trafficking Images</A>. by <A HREF="http://www.flickr.com/photos/imagensevangelicas/">Imagens Evangélicas</A>.


Other Sources for Graphics
You can search under slavery or human trafficking at the following sites to find images to use.

Wikimedia Commons
Most of these are under Creative Commons licence or some other open/share licence.  Some requirements, such as attribution, may be required, and commercial use may be prohibited.  Please read the text on the image page carefully to make sure you comply.  

Pixabay - Slavery Images
These are totally free for any use, even commercial.




If you are an artist who wants to contribute a graphic for this list, please contact me at ecarian@yahoo.com.

Sources for Free Graphics

The following places are good for finding photos and artwork to use on your blogs or websites. Most have specific terms for use, so pay attention to those. I give some instructions regarding this in the descriptions on the site.

Flickr

To use flickr to find images that you can use, you will need to do an advanced search. First, search as usual...then click advanced search and then click "Only search within Creative Commons-licensed content."  If you sell advertising on your site you will want to further limit it by clicking "Find content to use commercially."  All of these photos must be attributed, so link the picture back to its flickr page and credit the photographer.  If you want to use a flickr photo that is not under creative commons, you can contact the photographer and ask permission first.  

CompFight

This basically uses Flickr, but has a layout that makes it very easy to find commercial images. Just do your search and click "commercial" on the sidebar under licensing and it will narrow it to commercial sites.

Every Stock Photo

Search for the photo, click one you want to use, then click the licensing tab to learn how you can use it. Most of these are licenced under creative commons.

Wikipedia Commons

Make sure to check the licence each of these is under. Many can be used publicly, some without even attribution, but read the licence carefully.

Pixabay

Pixabay.com is a repository for free public domain images. You can upload your own photos and share your work with others. You can use any image from this website freely for personal and commercial use without attributing the original author. They have really beautiful quality images.

The Graphics Fairy

She posts public domain images, mostly Victorian. You may use these images commercially. She asks that you not use more than 6 on a single project or within a single page of a blog or website.

Percy and Bloom

Collection of 100+ Years Old Copyright Free Images

Open Clip Art Gallery

All graphics donated to this site are required be waived of all rights, including copyright, according to the CC0 Public Domain Dedication. In other words, you can use these however you want.

Creative Commons Content Directories

This lists various sites which collect creative commons material. Creative commons pictures are often free for use, depending on the type of licence. Scroll down to the section on images to find many places you can search for photos.

Free Web Graphics: Where to Get Them (Legally!)

A very good lens with a fairly complete list of places to find free graphics. Has many sites I don't have listed here.

Reusable Art

Reusable Art - free images for crafts and other designers.

morgueFile

Morguefile.com free stock photos - free photos for creatives by creatives. Make sure to read the terms on each photo.

Public Domain Pictures - Free Stock Photos

Carefully read the terms on each picture. If they can't pull up a free picture for your search they will list pictures you need to pay a royalty for underneath, so be cautious.

Free Images and How to Use Them

Another lens on how to use free images and various places to find them, some of which I haven't tried yet!

My Top 5 Tips for Bloggers

Listography is a linky with a new top 5 list every week.  This time it's your top 5 blogging tips, and I wanted to get in on this one, even though I am by no means an "expert" blogger.

1. Tag your posts.  Especially anything that's weekly or monthly.  You may have a blog where you talk about gardening, parenting, and poetry.  The people who are interested in one topic may not be interested in another, and this lets them browse what they want to blog not what they don't.  It also lets you send links to just those topics on your blog.
   
   
2. Forget About Right Click Blocker!  And this is coming from someone who makes money off her art (see my other blog, Scribbleprints.)  It's annoying to your readers, who can't open your links in other tabs, or who are trying to use right click to bookmark your link or send your link to a friend.  What's worse is if they get a rude "Don't steal from me!" pop up message when they try (great way to offend your followers).  And people can steal everything you're trying to protect very easily by some alternative methods (the simplest is highlighting and copying your whole post, pictures and all, right into blogger...so you are basically pissing off the honest readers while not doing much to stop the real theives).  It's better to put copyright info on your blog or to watermark your images.
   
   
3. Learn Some HTML.  (Or CSS).  Yes, blogger does a lot of it for you...but I can't tell you how many times it's come in useful for me to tweak the HTML blogger provides.  With just some basic html I can make pictures linkable, resize pictures, lay out my sidebar like I want, add code for people to copy paste to post my buttons, fix bad copy-paste code from other people's sites, etc. 
   
   
4. Add Pictures!  But don't break copyright.  You can take your own pictures, or find Creative Commons or Public Domain images online.  (Here's a list of my favorite places to find free graphics and photos to use).  DON'T just grab anything off the web.  That's stealing, and is both illegal and rude!  If you want your photos to look really pretty, I also suggest downloading the Gimp or another good graphics program.  It's helpful to be able to crop things at the very least, and you can use color correct to make dull photos really pop.  (This comes into play more on my blog Texifornia then here).
   
   
5. Join Linky Parties or Blog Hops!  I've gained more followers from this than anything else I've tried.  You can get a more detailed description of what a linky party is here.  They can be weekly, monthly, or one time events.  There's a good list of giveaway linkies here (if you have giveaways on your site).  I've started a list of one time linkies here.