Work at Home Resources, Internet Marketing, Pro Blogging

I received an email this morning, announcing Picnik was closing. My heart stopped! That’s my favorite, quick, photo editing program. I know lots of people who use it. I’ve introduced lots of people to it who have taken a shine to it.

After taking a deep breath to calm down, I read the announcement . At first it looked as if they were going to be merging with Google+ – which they still might, that’s unclear. But for now, everyone can use Picnik and all it’s premium features for free, up until it closes on April 19th. I’d recommend planning ahead, create as many images for your stockpile as you can in the event a similar option doesn’t present itself right away.

Ironically that happens to be my dad’s birthday which seems to be a magnet for tragic events and bad news – Waco, Oklahoma City, a close friends death. Granted, Picnik closing isn’t nearly as tragic, but still, I feel like I’m losing a very good friend

Once Picnik is gone, what options will we have? What image editing programs do you use?

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Since joining Google in 2010, we have been creating editing magic in Google products while continuing to keep Picnik awesome. But now we get to focus on even awesomer things. Picnik will be closing on April 19, 2012.

Your photos liberated
Amazing photos are created in Picnik, so we have launched a new feature, Picnik Takeout, that easily downloads your photos to your desktop in convenient zip files. You may also elect to copy your photos to Google+ where you can store and share your creations. You may request your photos at any time and use this handy tool as many times as you like until our closing date of April 19, 2012. Learn more.

Premium Refunds
To our primo Picnik Premium members, we’ll begin processing a full refund of your current membership fee within a week of this announcement. By “in full” we mean the whole darn thing. Yep, this means even if you are on your very last day of an annual membership, we will refund you the entire $24.95. Just because we want to say thanks.

Now the Good News – Free Premium for ALL!
To express our gratitude for your support over the past 5 years, Picnik Premium is free for everyone! Use Picnik in all of its premium glory, for free, from now until our actual closing day. Touch-up, Textures, Advanced, and more are all free for you to use!

We have been incredibly proud of building a product that is used and beloved by so many of you. We continue to be amazed and humbled by the photos you create and we are immensely grateful for all of your support, creativity, and passion.

We are excited by the photo-editing fun we have already brought to Google products, like Google+, where you can find many of your favorite Picnik effects in Creative Kit. We encourage you to visit Google+ and give it a whirl.

Please visit the Help Hub for more information on our wind down, and check the Picnik blog for updated information on our April closure.

It’s been awesome,
Team Picnik

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Again, what options do we have? What editing programs do you use? Suggestions?

I found one that may be a nice Picnik alternative – FotoFlexer – check it out and see what you think.

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My Comment Commitment: If you leave an approved comment on any of my posts, I will visit your blog and “share it” in some way whether on StumbleUpon, Twitter or Facebook depending on if I can find a nice fit.

Sometimes it helps to be short, sweet and straight to the point.

With that in mind, here’s a simple list of blogging tips to keep handy.

1. Write to be helpful – attempt to solve a problem or respond to a need in every post.
2. Be brief – keep your post as short and sweet as possible – remember, your readers will typically have short attention spans.
3. Tell a story – People love to read a story with substance.
4. Connect others – reach out to your readers and connect where possible.
5. Share. Often.
6. Don’t over think it – I try to remember – Think long, think wrong!
7. Be thoughtful – always write with your reader in mind. Remember, you’re writing for your reader, not Google.
8. Publish often enough to build a relationship – inactive is just plain boring.
9. Be yourself – speak through your blog and to your audience as you would your neighbor – they’ll appreciate the personal touch.
10. Listen carefully – your readers will let you know what they like – listen to them.

What else would you say? Think about what you would say if you were telling and old friend you’d just reunited with about blogging?

Do you have blogging tips to share?

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My Comment Commitment: If you leave an approved comment on any of my posts, I will visit your blog and “share it” in some way whether on StumbleUpon, Twitter or Facebook depending on if I can find a nice fit.

Originally posted 2010-01-25 01:13:17.

Since blogging became popular, there have been a number of opportunities arise that offer bloggers pay for posting. It’s a great way to earn a few extra bucks with your blog. Again, I’d like to stress that I will not promote something that I myself have not tried and that I have not earned a nice sum from.

The concept and process is really very simple – You promote one of their clients in a post on your blog and they pay you for the post.

You have the option of creating your own text if you’d like to have the ad work into the regular content of your blog better or you can use one of their pre-written ads that’s as simple as copying the text and pasting it right into the html of your blog.

Poof – the blog is posted and before long you’re getting a notification from paypal that you’ve been paid. It’s that simple! It’s such an easy way to earn a few bucks for all your hard work and effort – we all know how much heart and soul goes into most of our blogs!

Again, I will say this is not a way that you’re going to get rich, but by golly you might just make enough to take yourself out to a movie over the weekend!.

A couple of pay per blog post programs I am familiar with are Pay Per Post, an IZEA company and Blogging Ads.

I’d love to hear some feedback from others who have or will be using this service too!

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My Comment Commitment: If you leave an approved comment on any of my posts, I will visit your blog and “share it” in some way whether on StumbleUpon, Twitter or Facebook depending on if I can find a nice fit.

Originally posted 2010-01-19 13:00:00.