If you’re a blogger and aren’t sure if you need to pay taxes, it will depend on whether you’re making money with your blog and whether you consider your blog a business or a hobby. I received the question below and Amanda Henson of High Impact Mom researched the answer and wrote it up.

Dear Blogging Basics 101:
I am building a blog. I thought it would be no big deal to put up a few affiliate banners and make a little spending money, but I didn’t realize that even the smallest income must be reported. Is that correct? I know nothing about how to report my income, or which forms to use. Can you explain how things differ for bloggers (hobby or business?)? Can you recommend a book or article or resource for me? Specifically, if I make less than $600 per year, do I have to file?

Answer: Congratulations on building a blog and great question. Let’s begin by discussing the differences between hobby and business blogging. If you have been lucky enough to make a profit from your blog, or small business, in three out of the last five years the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) considers it a business rather than a hobby. Even more precisely, if you have treated your blog like a business by regularly working on it with the purpose of making a profit, the IRS would also deem this a business and as such would also qualify for business deductions. If your blog is considered a business and you are filing as self-employed, you are also expected to pay self-employment taxes quarterly rather than at filing time.

Wondering what you need to claim? According to the IRS, taxable income is defined as all “employee wages and fringe benefits, and [all] income from bartering, partnerships, S corporations, and royalties.” The blogger must claim all review items, blog conference sponsorships, ad purchases and generally anything you are given that has value. The IRS also states “[y]ou have to file an income tax return if your net earnings from self-employment were $400 or more. If your net earnings from self-employment were less than $400, you still have to file an income tax return if you meet any other filing requirement listed in the Form 1040 instructions.”

As a business you are also able to deduct certain expenses and losses, though it should be noted that it is not generally a good idea for your expenses to outweigh your income outside of any first year start-losses. In order to make sure you’re taking advantage of as many deductions as you legitimately qualify for, I recommend seeking professional advice from an accountant or tax professional.

The long list of possible blogging tax deductions includes:

• Blog Conference Fees
• Hotel costs for business trips
• Mileage for business trips
• Webinars
• Industry books
• Website hosting fees
• Website design
• Jump drives
• Graphic design fees
• Business cards, letterhead

To learn more about tax law and how it affects bloggers, visit these articles:

• Hobby Versus Business — A Significant Tax Difference via Small Business Legal Blog
• 7 Things That Every Blogger Should Know About Tax[es] via ProBlogger
• How to Avoid Legal Trouble, Income Tax Fines, and Penalties as a Blogger via ProBlogger
• What is Taxable and Nontaxable Income? via IRS
• Self-Employed Individuals Tax Center via IRS
• 101 Tax deductions for bloggers and freelancers via Wisebread

photo credit: Dave Dugdale

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Here are my tips for e-books bloggers need to read.

Do-It-Yourself Blog Critique

Author: Melissa Culbertson
Price: Regularly $14, but on sale for Cyber Monday for $10.50!

Melissa has made a name for herself by doing blog critiques at MomComm.com. She was receiving so many requests for help that she decided to create an e-book. Learn how to engage your audience via strong navigation, design, and content — Melissa will show you how. She’s having a terrific deal on her book for Cyber Monday, so now is the perfect time to buy. The book is usually $14, but for Cyber Monday you can pick it up for you or a blogging friend for $10.50! Just use code CYBERAWESOME on November 28, 2011 before midnight and you’ll get the deal.

Mom Blog SEO

Author: Kelby Carr
Price: $19.99

Search engine traffic is vital to the success of your blog. Learn how to set up your blog so it’s as SEO friendly as possible and find and use tools that will help you optimize your content and site so the search engine bots can find you. Kelby explains the ins and outs of basic SEO and how it affects the success of your blog. This e-book isn’t just for mom bloggers! Regardless of your niche, you’ll be able to use the information in this e-book to improve your SEO rankings and traffic.

31 Days to Build a Better Blog

Author: Darren Rowse
Price: $22.49

This book is one of the best-selling e-books online, helping over 19,000 bloggers build a better blog. Darren recently revamped this e-book and every day in the challenge has been updated for 2012, most days have new further reading and case studies, the workbook now has Twitter integration, and the e-book has seven bonus days (effectively giving you 38 days of content)! So even if your blogger already has the book, they’ll appreciate receiving the updated version.

30 Days to Make & Sell a Fabulous Ebook

Author: Ang England
Price: $11.99

One of the best and easiest ways to earn money from your blog is to create your own product to sell. When you’re a blogger, that usually means creating an e-book. Ang England is a successful e-book publisher and she’s sharing her experience and secrets with you so you can start creating your own e-books and establish a new income stream from your blog. The best thing about e-books is that, after they’re written, they are largely a passive source of income.

Please note that each of these links is an affiliate link. 

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And if you’re interested in Headway Themes, let’s just say it would be a really good idea for you to check it out and buy it this week, before November 25. Headway Themes is moving to a new pricing model on November 25. If you buy the individual or developer license before then, you’ll be locked in to lower pricing and free support forever.

Here’s the basic deal: Though details of the new Headway Themes pricing structure haven’t been released yet, if you buy the individual ($67) or developer license ($164; worth it if you think you’ll be using the theme for more than one site), you’ll be locked into the current low price and free support forever. After November 25 the price is increasing and there will be a monthly fee for support.

It makes sense to go ahead and buy your version of Headway Themes now. Yes, they are releasing a new version of the theme, and yes, if you buy before November 25, you’ll still get the new update — for free! In fact, you’ll get all new updates free of charge! Buying your license before November 25 just makes sense.

Why buy the Headway Theme? I met Clay Grant and his team at Blog World Expo in LA and was intrigued by the theme’s easy drag and drop interface that allows you to build a basic wireframe of your blog or website’s design. You truly have the ultimate control of your design with little knowledge of CSS, PHP, or HTML. It’s amazing, frankly.

You can buy Headway Themese before November 25 and ensure you take advantage of these perks (reprinted from the Headway Themes site):

Developer License

• Support for unlimited Headway sites that you own or develop
• Access to Headway Beta releases as we develop them and before final release to the public.
• Full access to our members only Forums, e-mail support and Developer License exclusive resources (If you are building sites for clients, your clients will not receive members only forum support unless they purchase their own personal license.)
• Free Headway updates for life

Individual license

• Support for two (2) Headway sites that you own or develop
• Option to upgrade to the Developer’s Option for only $77
• Full access to our members only Forums and email support if needed
• Free Headway updates for life

I’ve been so busy writing my chapters for Facebook All-In-One for Dummies that I haven’t been able to work on my own projects as I’d like. That includes installing Headway here on Blogging Basics 101. My final chapter deadline is at the end of January and, even though I’ll have some other things to work on for the book (e.g., marketing and online content), I plan to install Headway here and do a thorough review of the theme in February. In fact, I bought several domain names and am planning to expand the Basics 101 franchise and Headway will be part of that expansion. I’m really looking forward to diving in and learning everything about this amazing theme.

Please note that some links in this post are affiliate links. I feel strongly enough about this product’s quality that I’m willing to recommend it to you and help them sell more.

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In general, once you’ve established a community around a specific profile, it’s difficult to move that community to a new page. Move them you must, though. Before the migration tool, you’d need to write several status updates asking your community to click over to the new page and Like it in order to continue to receive updates. You had to tell your community that the current profile would be deleted by a certain date and continue to remind them to click over and Like the new page. It was tedious for everyone involved and you invariably lost some of your community because they either didn’t see your updates or didn’t get around to Liking the new page. With the new Facebook Profile to Business Page Migration Tool you can avoid that hassle.

When you use the tool, Facebook takes your profile picture and moves it to a new business page and converts your “friends” into “Likes” on the new page. It’s important to note that Facebook doesn’t move any of your existing content (including status updates, photos, video, etc.) to the new page. If you don’t back that up before you migrate, you’ll lose it. To back up your information follow these instructions:

1. Go to your Account Settings (the down arrow in the top right of any Facebook page).
2. Click the Download a Copy link.
3. Click the Download button on the next page.

After you’ve made a backup of your content, you can start the migration process by visiting https://www.facebook.com/pages/create.php?migrate and following the instructions.

A few reasons to migrate your business presence from a personal profile to a business page:

• It’s against Facebook TOS to have a personal profile for a business, service, or product.
• Profiles are limited to 5,000 friends; business pages can have unlimited fans.
• Profiles require someone to request a friendship; pages can be Liked by anyone. That means less hassle for you because you don’t have to approve every fan.
• Pages allow you to install applications fro added functionality. For instance, you can install a newsletter signup, create a custom Welcome tab, or install a contact form. You can even create an online store right on Facebook! Profiles can’t use those apps.

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Your Words Have Value!

If you’ve ever found your articles reprinted without your permission — and I’m talking more than what’s considered fair use — then you’ll love today’s article. Ang England explains what scraping is and how to approach a website that’s stealing your content. (Hint: You may be able to turn it into a lucrative opportunity!) Please welcome Angela as this week’s guest blogger and feel free to leave a comment about your thoughts or experiences with content theft. ~ Melanie

**********

Unfortunately in the blogging world there is one thing we’ll all have to deal with sooner or later — content scraping. This is when someone steals a post or article you wrote and publishes it on their own site.

While this used to have some serious SEO implications, these have been recently minimized by Google in new algorithms that help determine which post was the original and which is the duplicate. However, this content scraping is, quite simply, theft. Theft of your work. Theft of potential readers. And a sign of incredible laziness (or ignorance) on the part of the thief.

Perhaps you discovered the theft in a Google Alert you set up (and you should definitely be doing that), when a friend DM’d or emailed you to say “Hey — isn’t this your post you wrote last month?”, or just by pure happenstance. Whatever the method of discovery, I have some tried-and-true ways of dealing with content thieves you might find useful.

Stay Calm and Be Polite When Dealing with Content Thieves

My initial knee-jerk reaction is usually, “How dare they!?” but this is rarely a useful response. If this is a live human being, it’s probably better to try emailing them or using their website contact form if possible to inform them that you are the copyright holder of the post in question (Be sure to link to which post you are talking about). My initial email or comment usually goes something like this:

“Hi! My name is Angela England and I’m glad you found my article about lavender essential oil useful, however this article is protected by copyright and cannot be republished without permission. You can remit a one-time reprint fee of $XXX via paypal to <my paypal address>. Alternatively, I am available to create an original piece on this topic specifically geared towards your audience for $XX. Otherwise this article needs to be removed within 24 business hours. Thanks so much! “

There are a couple of important things to notice in my sample email above:

1. I used a statement rather than a question. A question can be answered negatively and legally can be ignored. Had I asked, “Would you mind taking it down?” They could have replied, “Yes I mind”. You must say “This article needs to be removed….”
2. I invited the content scraper to hire me or pay me. Obviously you can only offer a reprint fee option if that option is available for that particular post. However, I generally charge about $50 more for a reprint fee than I offer for creating an original article for that person. I would rather them hire me to create a new piece than to have duplicate content floating about all over the web. Besides, lots of people don’t realize that blog posts and websites aren’t a free-for-all. Educate them by offering to hire yourself out. This not only creates a potential win/win situation, but also makes it very clear that your words have VALUE and aren’t up for grabs.

Filing a DMCA Complaint Against Content Thieves

One time out of 10 I get a new job when I send that email. One time out of 10 I get a reprint fee paid to me. Five times out of 10 the articles disappear — usually without a single word of acknowledgement to me at all. So what happens the other three times when there is no response, no reply, and most importantly, my article is STILL up there?

Sometimes, especially if it looks like a legitimate website, I will actually just send an invoice via Paypal. In the invoice I price it higher than my initially stated reprint fee (call it a pain-in-the-butt tax), and will include a notice that payment needs to be remitted with 48 business hours or else the stolen article at http://yourthievingwebsite.com/mystolenpost/ needs to be removed. Sometimes this will work, but sometimes it won’t.

If that doesn’t work, you move to filing a DMCA complaint. I usually will do a WHOIS search and find a contact email address and resend my request to that email. I will also contact the host of the site with an official DMCA complaint. And I will contact Google, Yahoo, and other search engines. It’s not hard to fill out the form and it is, in my opinion, important for bloggers and writers to protect their work. The more often content scrapers “get away with it”, the more the problem will continue.

Depending on how much time I have and my feistiness level, I will contact any advertisers on the website as well. All ad networks have rules in place about the type of content that is permissible, and illegally obtained content isn’t usually approved content. Sometimes the ad networks will remove ads before Google gets to the DMCA complaint — either way, mission accomplished. (Usually I only contact a website’s sponsors if someone responds to me with an ignorant email saying something like “But it was on the internet and everyone knows if it’s on Google it’s free to use”.)

I hope this helps you as you battle content thieves and scrapers. Don’t be afraid to contact them and tell them your posts need to be removed. Your words have value and deserve to be respected.

**********

Angela England’s mission is to empower and educate others about blogging, freelance writing, and social media. She is the author of 30 Days to Make and Sell a Fabulous Ebook. You can read more of her helpful articles at AngEngland.com and Untrained Housewife.

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Why I’m Excited About Facebook Timeline, Apps, and Open Graph

In 1995 I was making websites by coding HTML in Notepad. And I was geeked about how things were emerging and new. I had a job that hadn’t even been INVENTED when I was growing up. AMAZING.

Fast forward 16 years. I’ve enjoyed blogging. I’ve enjoyed Twitter. I’ve enjoyed Tumblr and Facebook and LinkedIn. Those were all natural progressions of the path we were on. What Facebook outlined at the 2011 F8 Conference is the first time I’ve seen a new idea that no one was expecting. It’s the first time I’ve been EXCITED about potential in a long while. What we’ve been doing up to this point has been a shadow of our social potential. What Facebook is doing is *really* social.

I recognize there are potential problems. People will definitely have to re-think how they share their information and take more ownership of their privacy. They’ll have to pay closer attention to who they’re sharing specific content with. I’m ready to do that (and have been doing it, but I realize I’m not a “regular” user). I think the bigger issue is that people don’t own their page on Facebook and it shouldn’t be the only place you’re keeping these important life moments. I’m afraid less savvy users — like our parents, for example — won’t understand that. They’ll assume that if they put it on Facebook, it will be there indefinitely for their use. And that may be true, but I’ve been in the space long enough that I know we’re breaking new ground, but you don’t know what’s going to be here (or gone) in five years.

But still . . . I’m excited about the potential.

The issues I point out for less savvy users haven’t really changed. Those issues have been the same issues since Facebook started — you don’t own your content and you shouldn’t use it as your only means of recording photos/video/anything special. The interface has changed and people may be thrown initially, but I think they will adapt fairly quickly.

As for clients, if FB chooses to install this update to pages as well (which they must), I think this allows a much broader picture of the company and can be much more useful with marketing options. Consider that you can create an entire campaign to share with your fans right on the Wall. You’d be able to have video, testimonials, and a soundtrack grouped together for a much more interactive update.

I’ve seen many tweets and Facebook status updates complaining that it’s too much. The new elements are too hard to navigate. I’m not negating the fact that there will be a learning curve, but I don’t think a learning curve is reason enough to hold the process back. We’re finally moving forward and I can’t help but be really excited about it.

Find Out About the New Facebook Timeline, Apps, and OpenGraph

Knowledge is power. You’ll probably feel more comfortable with the changes if you understand what they are and how they fit together. At least I felt better after hearing an explanation and reading more about it — and I hope you will too. To that end, here are some links to help you see what’s coming and why.

Replay of the f8 Keynote. If you didn’t watch the unveiling in real time (or you just want to see it again), you can watch it via the recorded Livestream video on the f8 Facebook page. I’m not a big Andy Samberg fan, but I admit he made me laugh with his intro bit. But what’s interesting about the keynote is how Mark Zuckerberg explains how the new rollouts fit together and will change the way we market, buy, and share products. We’ve been saying “social media” for a few years, but we’re really just now seeing what social can be. Until now, we’ve been treading water. We’re finally moving forward with something innovative.

F8′s Big Facebook Changes: Timeline, Ticker, News Feed, Apps. Can’t quite bring yourself to sit through a few hours of the keynote? OK. This article highlights the main points. It, along with the other links I’m providing, should give you enough to see what the rest of us are geeked out about.

Video of How Timeline Works. Timeline is going to keep track of your updates and content sharing, but instead of just showing the last few days, it will show everything. You can go back to the first day you joined Facebook. Then you can add more information all the way back to when you were born. This is a new way to share the important milestones of your life. I think I heard someone at F8 call it the year-end report of your life. Or, for those of you who love the crafty, it’s like an online scrapbook. YOU get to choose what the focus is. Facebook has an algorithm that will try to choose the important information, but you ultimately have control and can decide what’s featured and what’s not.

Facebook’s Overview of Timeline. Here you can see each element of the new Timeline and see an explanation of how it will work.

How to Enable the Facebook Timeline Right This Second. If you have the developer app installed on your account, you can see Timeline in action right away when you follow the instructions in this Tech Crunch article. If you don’t have the app, click over anyway and you can download it and get started. Quick note: Your App Display name can be anything and your App Namespace can also be anything, but it has a character limitation (I think it’s 13-15 chars max, but I’m not completely sure). Just pointing that out because I originally assigned a namespace that was too long and it took me a minute to figure out why it didn’t work immediately.

How do the New Facebook Changes Affect Privacy?

You are always in charge of your privacy — online and offline. Although it’s not popular to say, it is never the tool’s responsibility to protect you, it’s your responsibility to protect you. Would it be easier if the tool, in this case Facebook, started out with your privacy set to the highest level instead of the most open level? Perhaps. But consider two things:

1. Facebook’s mission isn’t to provide a personal space for you. They want to create a community that is open and whose members constantly share their lives and milestones with others. It makes sense that they would encourage that by setting default privacy to be more open rather than closed.
2. No matter what the default settings for privacy are, you will most likely have to visit your dashboard and tweak those settings for your own needs. Whether Facebook sets those privacy setting high or low, you still have to go in.

The new apps and sharing that are coming to Facebook allow you to have full control over what you share. If you don’t want to share with people, then don’t install the application. If you don’t want everyone to see your Timeline or profile, then change your settings to Friends Only. If you want to share your updates with select people, you can customize your updates by click the Public button below your status update text box and choosing who can and can’t see your update. Your privacy lies with you as much as it ever did. These new changes are not taking it away. There may or may not be instances where you will need to think twice about what you share and with whom, but you should be doing that anyway.

When you do a tour of the new Timeline, you’ll see this message about your new “View Activity” button on your profile: “View all your activity. Your activity log lists all your posts and activity, from today back to the beginning. Go here to change the privacy for individual stories, delete posts and more. This is your private resource — no one else can see your activity log.”

Let me ask you this: Do you use the free wi-fi at your local coffee shop or library or anywhere? Are you concerned that whoever is supplying the wi-fi isn’t covering your privacy? Why not? I know that when I’m on public wi-fi, someone could easily hi-jack my passwords and make purchases on sites that I’ve logged into, so I change my working habits or where I browse when I’m not using my own secure wi-fi at home. That’s my responsibility.

The bright side to us moving ahead and taking control of our own privacy is that we have the opportunity to teach our kids how to be even more vigilant than we are about weighing what’s public and what’s not.

How Do the New Facebook Changes Affect Facebook Marketing?

The recent changes haven’t really focused on fan pages, but pages are affected. A few things you may have noticed about pages:

• Facebook is no longer sharing Likes from within Facebook in the News Feed. What that means is that, if I Like a picture or status update or link on your fan page, my friends don’t see that any more. However, if Like a blog post or article on an external site (e.g., BloggingBasics101.com), then that Like *does* show up in my stream.
• Your fan page has a new link in the left nav called Friends’ Activity. If you click on that, you’ll see the people who you’re connected with (i.e., your FB friends) and how they are specifically interacting with your page.
• The FB News Feed is no longer making fan pages a priority in the feed. They are favoring personal relationships over business relationships. That means your status updates aren’t showing up as much in the News Feed.

Will Timeline, Ticker, GraphRank Break Facebook Marketing? If you’re concerned about the changes I mentioned above, this article will help explain what your options are.

What Should Facebook Page Administrators Do After f8? I stated privately in a few Facebook groups I’m part of that Timeline and apps associated with it will be rolled out to the masses first. Then, when people are comfortable with the layout, it will be rolled out to pages as well. The impact of Timeline on pages will be big. Businesses will be able to curate how their customers see them; highlight specific campaigns and interactions; and create new campaigns that include interactive apps, soundtracks, testimonials, images, and video. It will change the social media marketing landscape completely. This article backs me up.

What Do YOU Think About the Facebook Changes?

And before you answer that, please stop and think about it. Read through the information I’ve linked to. Consider where we’ve been and where we’re going. Look at the bigger picture. This isn’t just about a new interface, it’s about how we’re going to interact with each other without boundaries. It’s about how business will grow over the net ten years. If you get bogged down in the fact that your interface changed, you’re going to miss the bigger picture.

Let me tell you this: I am the last person who thought I’d be swayed by Mark Zuckerberg. I like Facebook a lot and I love social media, but I’ve had a healthy concern about how Facebook operates. I still do. I think about my privacy, I think about what I’m sharing and how, I think about the fact that I do not own my content at Facebook. And I think about the fact that I don’t like a lot of change in general, because I want to know how pieces fit together rather than jumping in blindly. I feel like Facebook did a fairly good job explaining how the pieces fit together. I’m excited about where we’re headed and that we’re no longer on the same, slow path — we’re about to really get social.

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The Question: Can I legally use company logos on my couponing blog?

Dear BB101, I started a couponing blog and I am unsure about the use of images. I don’t really understand what is legal and what isn’t (besides using my own photos). Since it’s a couponing blog I’ll be discussing many companies and products. Can I use their logos legally? It seems like all the couponing blogs do, but I am not sure they should be. What’s the answer?

The Answer: Yes, you can legally use company logos on your couponing blog.

This is such a great question! Coupon sites are making it easier for consumers to save money and try new products, mostly from the comfort of their homes before ever hitting the stores — or from the convenience of their smart phones while in the stores. How brilliant is that? The fact is, we live in a multibillion-dollar coupon industry. Consumers are spending billions while also saving a ton of money. Just last year, 3.3 billion coupons were redeemed according to Coupons.com.

When I started researching the answer to this question, it seemed appropriate to seek the knowledge of someone who counsels others about all things online, so I asked Lucretia Pruitt, Founder Social Media Matters, for her take on this blogger’s question. She explains the reader is really asking two questions: one is about photo copyright, and the other is about trademark use.

Photos and images on the Internet are subject to copyright laws in the US and other countries, making them somewhat different than logos, brand names, and catchphrases that are registered as trademarks.

According to Pruitt, there are three main types of photos/images you find on the Internet:

1. Copyrighted images have either all or some rights reserved. You must have the copyright holder’s permission to use these images.
2. Public domain images are those that no longer have copyright protection either because they aged out of it (max. 120 years) or for some other reason. Anyone can use these images.
3. Creative Commons (CC) licensed images are copyrighted pictures that the creator has marked using a specific Creative Commons license. The type of license determines how you can use the image. Pruitt boils it down even further explaining that the three elements of a CC license are:

• attribution
• whether or not you can make derivatives (i.e., change or modify the image), and
• whether or not you can use the image for commercial use.

At a minimum, you have to attribute the creator (i.e., Photo by Bob Smith) and include a link. You’ll notice this article has an image at the top of the article. That image was found via the PhotoDropper plug-in for WordPress. That plug-in takes keywords you type in, then searches Flickr for Creative Commons images that match. You can then insert the image into your post and the plug-in creates an auto-attribute (you’ll see the one for the copyright image down at the bottom of this article — it looks like this:  photo credit: gabrieldeurioste).

Pruitt notes, “If you are making money off of [your blog], you will also need to have the work approved for commercial use.” This is important to bloggers because a hobby blogger can use a Creative Commons image that has non-commercial conditions, but bloggers who make money from their blogs cannot.

Sites like Flickr.com and Google’s image search have options to search for Creative Commons licensed & public domain images. Just make sure that you go to the “advanced” search options.

Now back to logos and trademarks. Wikipedia gives a succinct definition of a trademark: “A trademark is typically a name, word, phrase, logo, symbol, design, image or a combination of these elements.” Any company (large or small) investing time and money into trademarking their logo will be protective of how their logos are used. As a blogger, when you’re writing about a brand, you will be using their name and other trademarks like their logo under the “Fair Use” doctrine.

Specifically, Pruitt says fair use of a logo or other trademark (not to be confused with copyright) may be asserted on two grounds:

1. You are using the mark to describe accurately an aspect of your own product, or
2. You are using the mark to identify the actual mark owner.

It’s the second one that really applies here. “If you are using say, the logo for ‘Campbell’s ® Chunky ™ Soup’ you’d probably be using it to refer to their actual soup. So what you are doing is covered under Fair Use of a Trademark,” according to Pruitt.

But you’ll note the phrase in quotations above has an ® and a ™ in it. Yes, those two words are trademarks of that company. So when you write about that brand, you should make sure to do it the way that it’s written above. If you’re not sure, it’s better to err on the side of caution and go check the brand’s website. That’s probably where you are getting the logo from in the first place, so it’s just a quick check to see how they refer to the product or brand name.

Trademark and logo use violations are unintentional in most cases. But you don’t want to invite legal action by blatant misuse of a logo or image. A majority of deal or coupon websites seek permission to use a company logo as part of the deal contract.

Any time you are not sure about using a company’s logo or image, ask or consider that perhaps you don’t really need the logo anyway. You can promote a discount or coupon offered by simply using the company name.

Disclaimer: Lucretia and I are not lawyers, but this is our understanding of how it all works. If you need specific legal advice, you should contact an attorney. Better to protect you now than defend you later — or all that money you save using coupons and taking advantage of daily deals could be spent on legal fees.

Thank you to Rajean Blomquist (@rajean) and Lucretia Pruitt (@lucretiapruitt) for researching the answer to this question and sharing their knowledge. — Melanie

photo credit: gabrieldeurioste

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Please welcome today’s guest blogger, Melissa from Momcomm as she shares tips on critiquing your own blog. I’ve gotten to know Melissa over the past year or so because of  Facebook group we belong to. She is a wealth of marketing information and she rocks socks at making blogs better. Today she’s sharing some tips from her new e-book DIY Blog Critique.

I’m sure you love when people tell you how awesome your blog is. But deep down, you’re probably itching to be bigger and better… to sell more products, to work with more companies in social media or maybe to just make people laugh harder.

I’ve been editing and reviewing websites and marketing materials for over a decade now. So when I launched my blog Momcomm, it seemed like a natural fit to start critiquing blogs each week using that past experience. After a crazy-long queue of bloggers wanting critiques, I knew I could do more to help. So, I created the DIY Blog Critique so that bloggers could tackle improving their blogs with a virtual “fresh set of eyes.”

While my eBook covers 43 points in detail, here are five ways to critique your blog right this instant (hooray for instant gratification!):

1. What’s your blog about?

I love how Darren from Problogger puts it: “If you’re fuzzy on what your blog is about it’s unlikely that anyone else will have much of an idea either.”

So what IS your blog about? Can you sum it up in a sentence? Defining precisely what your blog is about will not only benefit your readers, it’ll benefit you too. When you can sum this up, your goals, content, design (okay, EVERYTHING) will become that much clearer.

If you worry that you don’t have a niche, then think of it this way: Are you blogging to inspire? Educate? Inform? Entertain? Don’t be afraid to define your blog that way either.

2. Do your colors match what your blog is about?

Colors visually set the tone for your blog. Overpowering colors may scare people away while sparse color may bore them to death.

Choose colors that compliment what your blog is about. For example, if you write a humor blog then subdued colors aren’t really the way to go. Learn what colors mean (like red can indicate strength) and build a palette that reinforces your message.

3. Are your social media profile buttons easy to find?

Do you have a Twitter account, Facebook page, LinkedIn profile or other important social media profile? Well, make sure your readers know it!

It isn’t enough just to have a widget of your latest tweets or a box showing off your Facebook fans. Use social media icons that link to each account and put them at the top of your sidebar or in your header. Make sure they’re all in the same place as well instead of scattered throughout your sidebars.

If you want to put them in your footer, then that’s great as it reminds people who may have scrolled through all your awesome posts that they should follow you. BUT they should still be at the top too.

4. Is your About page doing its job?

Your About page should be a reflection of three things: you, your expertise and your blog. As you write (or re-write) your page, tell your readers a bit about who you are.

Then give them a bit about why you know your stuff. Even for a lifestyle blog, this is important. For example, if you write about food but aren’t a chef, then maybe you grew up in the kitchen. Or you started creating your own recipes because you’re on a limited diet. Whatever it is, that’s your expertise.

Finally, tell your readers what your blog is about. Limit the use of “I” in this section; it should focus on what the reader will get out of reading your blog (tips, laughs, recipes, fun stories, etc).

While it doesn’t necessarily have to be in this order, these are the magical elements to a stellar About page.

5. Do you write compelling content?

What does compelling mean? To me, it means your content causes people to take action in some way: comment on your post, share your post with others, buy your product, donate to your cause, etc.

Writing great content that drives action may come naturally for some but not for most of us. But there are a few things you can ask yourself before you hit “publish.”

Does your content flow or do you randomly bounce around from one idea to another? Do you use photos in your posts? Can readers relate to the topic you’re writing about or can you spin it in a more interesting way? For example, a post running through what you did each day on your vacation may not be as interesting as a post about one particularly funny or sweet story from your trip.

Hello, awesome!

If you’re looking to make your blog even more awesome, grab a copy of my eBook, the DIY Blog Critique. It’ll guide you through improving your blog’s design, navigation and content and includes a spreadsheet to keep track of your progress.

Melissa Culbertson is a marketing communications consultant, blogger and author of the DIY Blog Critique, a 43-point guide to making blogs more awesome. You can find her on Twitter as @momcommblog and at her blog, Momcomm.

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I haven’t heard social media called a fad in quite some time. Most businesses acknowledge the importance of social media as a key component to their marketing strategy. Most individuals use at least one social network to keep up with friends or family. Social media and the networks that make them up are fully integrated in our every day lives. We can use them as a tool or as a timesuck (both are equally important in my opinion). (And yet, my mother refuses to use her computer unless she’s watching Netflix or sending an e-mail, but that’s another story.)

The following infographic shares fascinating statistics about the growth of social networks worldwide. Some of the more interesting information for me included the following:

• If Facebook were a country, it would be twice the size of the United States and it would be the third largest country in the world.
• Social media may have an impact on whether you’re hired or not.
• Facebook users share seven billion pieces of content every month.
• Although most people refer to the main social networks as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, they aren’t ranked as high as you’d think. Facebook rules them all, yes, but Twitter is fifth and LinkedIn is ninth. Are you signed up with Orkut? Apparently it’s big in Brazil and India.

Source: The Growth of Social Media: An Infographic

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