You may have noticed that there are new video pins on Pinterest when before it has always been a still image. They recently added this new feature and I am loving it. It is pretty cool to be scrolling along and see a pin start playing. It makes me love Pinterest that much more! Now I can see even more detail about what that pin is about before clicking through! But for a business owner, video pins on Pinterest means something more than to a normal Pinterest user.
Yes, as a normal Pinterest user you get to enjoy videos sharing all the cool ways you can braid your hair, but as a business owner, you now have more opportunity to share your business with your potential customers!
First let me say, don’t worry if you don’t have the option yet to create video pins on Pinterest yet. It is fairly new so it will be available soon if you don’t have it yet. If you do have the option to create a video pin then let’s dive into why this is so awesome for you and your business!
Video Pins Can Benefit Your Business
1. People Like to Watch Videos
It is pretty obvious that people like videos. YouTube, TikTok, SnapChat, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram all have videos on them. Not all of them have always had videos but they have evolved to all cater to videos because people love to watch them! You can tell so much more of your story with a quick video than trying to explain it all over text and with an image. Even blogs have turned into vlogs!
2. Video Pins on Pinterest are Eye-catching
Videos catch your eye when they start playing, you can’t help but watch. If the video is good you are likely to stay and watch it until the end. When you could easily scroll right on past images.
3. Video Pins on Pinterest Stand Out in the Crowd
On Pinterest, it is a sea of images. There aren’t personal posts to break up the images, it is only images. With that said, it is very easy to just scroll and scroll. However, if a pin starts moving and playing an eye-catching video, you can’t help but stop and watch what’s happening at least for a few seconds. And those few seconds of your attention are more than the other pins got!
4. Video Pins Share More Than a Still Image Can
With a video pin, you are able to share with your potential customer more about your pin that with a still image. If your pin image is a delicious recipe but it is a still image that is just one shot to show them how amazing your recipe is. With a video image, this gives you the opportunity to show them how amazing your recipe is. I love watching those quick cooking videos! And I don’t even like to cook! I just love watching them and it gives the illusion that this is quick and easy to make, even when it may not be.
But that video got me to stop, watch, think, and possibly click through. That is MUCH more than a still image recipe pin gets from me.
5. Video Pins are Listed at the Top of the Mobile App
On the mobile Pinterest app, there is a section of video pins at the top after you search for something. I searched for fall soup recipes to show you what I mean. In the search results, there is a list of video pins at the top of the feed. There were also several promoted video pins as I scrolled down that were by big companies like the Food Network. That should tell you that video pins work right there!
Well, now that we have covered the video pins are awesome and everyone’s favorite let’s talk about how to make them so you can join the cool club of video pin makers!
How to Make a Video Pin on Pinterest
My favorite way to create animated pins is with the Adobe Spark App. Since my pins are all about blogging tips, it is an easy way to add some zest to my pins without completely creating an entire video. With the Adobe Spark App you can create your pin very simply and then you click on effects and from there you can animate your text on your pin.
This App is free and makes creating pins very easy. It is something I actually just started using last week. That was when I realized that you could animate your text turning it into a short video that would be perfect for grabbing your reader’s attention out of the crowd of other pins without creating a video.
As with anything, there is more than one way to create a video pin and yes, luckily some of them are free! As I mentioned you can use Abobe Spark but here are some other free options to help you get started.
Free Options
Wave.video
Giphy.com
Adobe Spark
iMovie
Powerpoint
Video Speed App
Wave.video and Giphy.com
I have not personally tried the wave.video option yet but I used giphy.com to create the video above showing you the fall soup recipes example. I just read that the wave.video was an option another blogger used so I included it for you.
The video above from giphy.com would be able to be a video pin because it falls into all the criteria listed for a video pin on Pinterest. That said, that means you could use giphy.com to create animated pins or video pins as well.
This pin was created with giphy.com too and I am going to use it on Pinterest to advertise this blog post. I created three pin images like I normally would do. Uploaded them to giphy.com and set the time fo 3 seconds per image. Then the final step allows you to add an animated sticker. I added the arrow and hit complete!
Now I have a video pin that showcases all of the three pins I created. This is an easy way to set your pins apart from all of the others!
iMovie
If you are an Apple user you can use iMovie to create a video right from your phone. This is where creating an actual video and editing it would come in. If your blog is about cooking you could video the process of cooking something and edit it in iMovie to shorten it and create a video pin.
PowerPoint
You can even use PowerPoint to create a slideshow video. You just need to make sure that the slides are the pin image size but I tried this method and was able to get it to work! It didn’t work for GoogleSlides though. You have to save the movie in a correct format and GoogleSlides didn’t have that option. Also, PowerPoint let me set a timer to automatically change the slides turning it into a movie similar to the pin above and GoogleSlides didn’t have that option either.
Video Speed App
I included this App in the list because it helps you speed up your videos faster than iMovie will let you. Let’s say that your video is of you drawing something and you want to speed it up but iMovie will only go 2x as fast and you need 4x. The video speed app will speed up your video for you so that you don’t lose your viewer’s attention.
I love to watch those videos of people drawing things out but if I have to watch it in real-time I would give up very quickly. When they speed through it I stick around to see the end result because I know it’s coming quickly.
Paid Options
Animoto
Lumen 5
Canva (paid option)
Again, I read about Animoto and Lumen 5 so I wanted to include these options but I haven’t tried them myself. I have tried Canva (the free option) and I do enjoy it so if Canva is something you already use then it may be worth the small investment to enable to video option.
Video Pin Specs from Pinterest
How long can videos be on Pinterest?
File type
.mp4, .mov or .m4v
File size
2GB max
Encoding
H.264 or H.265
Length
4 seconds – 15 minutes
Description
up to 500 characters long, though only the first few lines will show in feed
Aspect ratio
We accommodate standard video sizes including widescreen (16:9)Horizontal -Youtube, square (1:1)-Instagram, FB, and vertical (9:16, 4:5, 2:3)- Pinterest.
Pinterest has a lot to share on their business page on the basics of creating pins on Pinterest. Of course, going there and reading everything straight from them is always the best. This is some advice from myself and other bloggers on what makes a good pin and what to avoid.
Also, you can check out my Free Pinterest Image Course that walks through this information and the programs I use to create my pins.
Are vertical and not horizontal bc they are easily scrolled right past. You can, however, do the square video pin bc they are used at the top of the mobile app.
Add Text overlay with clear easy to read font, avoid too much script font.
Bright colors (or at least contrasting colors).
Watermark – make sure to put your URL or logo somewhere on the image to avoid others stealing your pin and to make it easier for it to be repinned by others.
Eye-catching.
Saveable – the point isn’t to just get an ad of your blog out there in front of people but it is to get people to:
a) save it because then it goes to more people but also
b) to click through
An attention-grabbing title.
Solves a problem.
Branding colors (or at least colors that go well together).
A keyword filled description.
Keep it short (doesn’t give away too much and keeps attention).
Use beautiful images.
Don’t rely on audio with video pins.
Link to Pinterest Business page.
Rich pins added to your account.
How to Upload a Video Pin to Pinterest
Once you have created this masterpiece all you need to do next is to upload it to Pinterest. To do this it is just like adding a regular pin to Pinterest. Click the + sign that can be found on the top right corner of the screen and follow the steps from there.
There is an approval process for video pins, unlike normal pins. I’m sure this is to verify that all videos being uploaded to Pinterest are appropriate. Which I for one am very thankful for! I don’t want to be scrolling along and seeing something I don’t want to see.
Promote Your Video Pins
How do you promote a video pin?
You can promote your video pins by following the steps explained on Pinterest’s business page and after reading up on promoting pins I see that you can not promote GIFs so just be aware of that if promoting video pins is something you think you might do. I would hate for you to create a video pin from a giphy.com and then not be able to promote it later if it took off.
How to Schedule Your Pins
Tailwind
Now that you have creating video pins for Pinterest down, let’s talk about scheduling them out to automatically pin on Pinterest. If you have made it this far to learn how to create video pins on Pinterest I am sure that you have already been pinning regular pins and have either realized it is too much to do all on your own or you have already signed up for Tailwind.
If you haven’t yet signed up and you are feeling a bit overwhelmed on how to possibly be pinning all day every day then I am here to tell you that Tailwind is a lifesaver! I have two different success stories I will share with you on how amazing Tailwind can be.
My Success Stories
When I first started using Tailwind on my new blog within a week my traffic spiked. It went from a couple people a day to hundreds of people a day visiting my blog. I had over 7,000 page views on my very new blog in 30 days. The last week of January is when I started and 30 days later I had over 7,000 page views. I go more into detail on that in this blog post.
Fast forward to me not staying consistent on neither creating content nor adding it to Tailwind and my traffic had gone down. I only have myself to blame but it’s the honest truth I let it all go and basically went back to where I started. I reloaded my Tailwind with all new blog posts and did my normal leave it and forget about it until a couple days later. My traffic took off again! This time I tried my best to keep it alive and I was able to off of that one blog post that was driving traffic in. I was able to get over 20,000 page views in 30 days. I talk all about which pins too off and why in this blog post.
If you actually use Tailwind the way it should be used (and if you are paying for it then you should – unlike me!) then it definitely works. My traffic 100 percent reflects my Tailwind strategy. If I am keeping up with it and adding new content to my blog and to Tailwind then my traffic goes up. If I get behind and I don’t then my traffic goes down. Learn more about how to use Tailwind and give it a try and see for yourself!
Choosing the niche for your blog is a very important first step in blogging. This decision is hard to change later on without starting over. Maybe if your blog name is broad you might be able to. However, most likely you will want your blog name to be what your niche is so again it would be hard to change later on.
For example, my blog name is Mom Blog From Home and it’s about teaching moms how to blog from home. If I wanted to change my niche I could possibly spin it to where I am a mom blogging from home about a certain topic. But I wouldn’t be able to change my niche to teaching people how to care for puppies or something like that.
It just wouldn’t make sense with the name of my blog.
Personally, I have gone through deciding on a niche for my blog many times so I am speaking from experience. I have always wanted to blog but never knew what to blog about. I would change my mind too many times.
Then when I finally decided on a niche, I would buy the domain name and then panic and change my mind again but then it was too late.
I still have some of the domain names I have purchased in the past. It wasn’t until I finally went with my heart and chose to teach about blogging did it all come together.
Why Choosing Your Niche Is Important
Can’t change it later on
As I said it is not something you can easily change 6 months down the road if you change your mind. It is worth taking the time to really evaluate and find the perfect niche for your blog.
Needs to be something you are passionate about
One thing you will hear from other bloggers and you are going to hear it from me as well is that you need to be passionate about your niche. If you are knowledgeable about a subject but you aren’t passionate about it then that is probably not the one to go with.
Let me give you two personal examples.
First, I feel like I am pretty knowledgeable about children. My mother ran an in-home daycare for 20 years so I grew up in that daycare for 15+ years. Once out of college I had my daughter and I opened up my own daycare that I ran for two years. Since then I have worked on and off with the 1-3-year-olds at a private school in town for a total working time of a year.
I have taken many safety courses and training classes plus obviously years of hands-on work. However, though I love them all dearly, I don’t believe that is my calling and it is not my passion.
Maybe it is a skill I have to handle little children when many others can not but again it is not a passion. I had thought about all the different niches I could use that involved children that I would be able to blog about for a long time. But those times when you have had a long day and you just don’t feel like working on your blog, it will be way too easy to give into. If you are passionate about your niche then you will look forward to working on it. It won’t feel like work at all!. Also, then you will strive to learn more and grow in your niche market!
Second, I have some knowledge about health and weight loss. I have my own weight loss success story after finding these awesome products that I have been taking since 2012.
I started them after a friend had lost 30 pounds and looked amazing and was full of energy. I got on the products and the program and I ended up losing 20 pounds and I still am at that 125-pound mark I ended at years ago.
I learned so much along that journey that I would love to share with everyone. However, I quickly learned that people want to have their cake and eat it too….literally!
When it comes to weight loss no one wants to actually put in the work and most are quick to shut anything you say down (even if you have all kinds of proof). It is something I am passionate about for myself but I am not passionate about trying to convince people that it works. I know it does and so for me, that’s all that matters!
You will be blogging about that topic for years (hopefully right?)
If your blog goes well then you should be blogging for years, right? If you grow your blog and you are bringing in an income then that will be your source of income for….well ever! Make sure your niche in something you can stand to blog about forever. Of course, you can also start another blog later on once this one is successful. Although you wouldn’t want to close the first one either way so again back to being able to blog about that niche for a long time.
Investment
There is some investment in starting a blog so you once more want to make sure you know for sure what your niche for your blog is going to be before you make any purchases. The main one that you can’t take back is your domain name. Luckily, domain names are fairly inexpensive so you won’t be out much money if you do change your mind. Read more about how to choose your domain name here.
And as they say, time is money so if you get too deep into creating your blog around your niche and writing blog posts then you will have done that all for nothing.
Now take every topic you came up with and start narrowing it down. Here are some examples.
Health/Fitness
Exercises
Healthy Recipes
Supplements
Clothing
Pregnancy
Health
Clothes
Exercises
Baby room décor
Nursing
Narrow down your niche even more
So that you stand out even further you can narrow your niche down once more! The pool of people that will be searching for Health and Fitness is really large.
That is great but there is also a large number of people providing that information. If you narrow it down to just exercises then yes that narrows down the people looking but it also narrows down the number of people providing that information or your competition.
Then if you narrow it down once more and be very specific then odds are you will have even less competition. Yes, you will have fewer people searching but that is okay because you will have a very targeting audience. You are more likely to get a better turn out with a more targeted audience than to be lost in the crowd of every other website out there on the broader niche.
For example Mom Blog From Home: It is about teaching moms how to blog and how to use that money to pay off debt. I narrowed it down from not just about blogging but to teaching moms to blog, then to narrow it down once more to teach them how to use their blog to pay off debt.
Look for keywords
Keywords are another major part of picking out your niche. If there are keywords in your niche that you could use then that will help drive traffic to your blog. Keywords are words that are popular or searched for often. You can go to kwfinder.com to search for long-tailed keywords and see how popular they are.
If you can use a long-tailed keyword in your domain name then when people search that term you are more likely to pop up.
Competition
Of course, everyone wants to find a niche that has no competition but I once read that having competition isn’t necessarily a bad thing. That means that the niche is in high demand. It must be popular to have others in that same niche. That’s again where setting yourself apart from your competitors comes in by narrowing down your niche to be more specific for a more targeted audience.
Profitability
There needs to be a way to profit from your niche. Unless you are purely blogging for fun. If you are like me, you are looking to make an income and so you need to not only find something that you can make a profit from but something people are actually willing to purchase too.
For example, just because recipes are a popular niche doesn’t mean someone will buy your liver and onions recipes. Sorry for those that like liver and onions I was trying to think of something I wouldn’t (or most people wouldn’t) eat. So make sure that your niche isn’t all about something that no one wants.
To avoid that, a great suggestion is to do some market research yourself and see if there are others out there. Odds are if you can’t find any other sites that are like your targeted niche, then it probably isn’t a good one to go with. It is nearly impossible to be the first one in that niche. Search on Google, Pinterest, and even Etsy if it is a homemade product, to see if it is profitable.
Affiliate Marketing
If your niche is not a product you have made but rather someone else’s product(s) then you are probably looking to become an affiliate for that said product or service to receive a commission off of the sale.
You can be an affiliate for several products or services. Let’s go back to the recipe niche example, you could be an affiliate for a cookbook, cooking utensils, the ingredients, the paid cooking course someone offers, etc.
To become an affiliate either go to the website of the person or company you are interested in and scroll to the very bottom and most of the time there is a link to their affiliate program. Otherwise, you can Google search the product or service and add “+affiliate” to the end to get search results of companies that have affiliate programs within your niche.
Either way, it is a fairly simple and easy process! If you do not see a link on a certain website that you really want to become an affiliate for then find a way to contact them and just ask!
Many bloggers make all their money solely on affiliate marketing! Once you are an affiliate for someone you will receive a special link that you will add when appropriate into your blog posts and when someone clicks on that link and makes a purchase you will receive a commission! Easy peasy!
Sum It All Up
Choose something you are passionate about, something you can write about for a long time, and something that is profitable!
It is bound to happen, nowhere on the internet is safe from receiving mean comments from someone about something. For some people that is literally all they know how to do is to speak hate. And some say you have finally “made it” when you start getting haters.
First off, that is extremely sad. The fact that we have to just accept the mean comments and use them as a milestone of “making it”.
I usually receive nice comments or a lot of spam comments but I also haven’t been out in the spotlight much. I am the more laid back, stand in the back of the room kind of person. Which is hard to be and try and have a blog that brings in a lot of traffic.
Thousands of Page Views
Well, recently I had a pin go viral and it shot up to over 24k impressions in one day. I started to receive around 2,000 more page views a day from that one pin. Once I saw the spike in traffic I, of course, made a few more pins and two out of those three are taking off as well.
At first, it was just one big spike and then it started to trickle but then it picked back up again, thanks to Tailwind, and it has maintained for the last 5 days.
Random Blog Post
Sometimes we plan every detail of a blog post out and other times we just write something up quickly. I like to write as if I am talking to my audience. That can be good and bad.
I tend to ramble even though I feel like it is all relevant.
This blog post that took off was one of those that I just rambled on talking about a fun fact I had found.
Cue the Mean Comments
I didn’t realize it at first until I just happen to see on my pin that there were three comments. I read the comments and two of them were brutally honest about my blog post and how it was too long.
That hurt to read.
The third comment was someone saying “thanks now I don’t have to read this”. So based off of the two comments left that third person decided to not even read my post.
If they didn’t then I’m sure others weren’t either based on the opinion of two people that left a comment.
Take the High Road and Learn From Them
It took me a few minutes do decide not to delete the comments but to learn from them. I had just quickly put the post together. I had already planned on making changes so I went in and cut the fluffy, added a more relevant freebie, and moved around some other things.
I then went back to the pin and commented back thanking them for the constructive criticism (taking the high road). Hoping that would help show that I can handle things with my head held high.
I also hoped that would show anyone else that read the means comments and my reply, that it would still be worth reading to see how I fixed it. So far I have not received any more comments on that particular pin. And as of today, it has over 201k impressions for the month it has been up.
Just Hurtful
On my second popular pin for this blog post, I found three comments on it too. One was cutting to the chase on what my post was about. Another was just stating her opinion about something in my blog post. But the third was just mean.
This isn’t something you can hold your head up high and learn from. I could learn from the first two comments on the other pin saying my post was too long.
I can’t, however, change my freebie because one lady thinks it’s ugly. Her comment was only left to be hurtful. There was no other goal behind it, she was just trying to hurt me.
So how do you handle comments like this?
Delete Mean Comments and Move On
I posted in two different blogging Facebook Groups seeking the advice of other bloggers and I received at least 60 total comments and they all said to delete it and move on.
Almost all of them had been in a similar situation and most congratulated me on “making it” by receiving haters and hateful comments.
It is very sad but it is the reality of life.
People are mean and I’m not sure exactly why but you can’t let them get to you. Which is much easier said than done.
Look at The Facts
I had to stop and look at the facts and remind myself this was one person and one comment on how she didn’t like my freebie. On the other hand, I had over 300 people sign up for that “ugly” freebie. So the numbers show that they all liked it!
I haven’t received any mean comments on the blog post or any emails back after getting the freebie. No one who actually went in, read the post, and downloaded the freebie complained. It was only that one person commenting on how she didn’t like my freebie on one of the pins that had over 100k impressions on it.
I had four pins go viral in one month from this blog post with a total of over 490k impressions combined. So the facts were showing that A LOT of people saw this pin and A LOT of people read the post and over 300 people signed up for the freebie.
I couldn’t let one person’s opinion get to me. (again much easier said than done)
There is a time to learn and take the mean comments as constructive criticism, and then there are times to look at the facts and delete those mean comments and move on.
Don’t Let Mean Comments Stop You
I love blogging. I know that I am not perfect. No one is perfect. But I still love to blog and share my tips and tricks I learn with others looking to start a blog too.
I have got frustrated and wanted to quit so many times but I keep coming back because it is something that I love to do. Whether I am making a bunch of money or no money I will always blog.
However, those mean comments really shook me. I hadn’t had mean comments and to receive those it did make me feel like I should throw in the towel.
Then I took time and really thought it over and I can’t believe I let them get to me like that. This is something I truly enjoy doing and it is my outlet.
The most important thing for any blog to be successful is to have traffic. The more traffic your blog has the more people you can help and the more money you can make! When you are a new blogger it is hard to build up your traffic organically. Most new bloggers rely solely on Pinterest as it is the best way to get traffic to your new blog.
Others use Facebook groups and social media to grow their blog traffic. Then, of course, there is also SEO and hoping that Google sends you some blog traffic love.Another option is to guest post on other blogs or be featured on their blogs.
Guest Posting/Featuring
Here is a list of places that you can add your blog on to get more traffic!
Another great resource to learn much more about growing your blog traffic is this ebook Boost Blog Traffic. I got this ebook when I purchased the Genius Bloggers Toolkit and it is packed full of resources to help grow your blog traffic! Including 100 Ways to Promote Your Blog Post Checklist!
Next is this course by Suzi that teaches you how to create the perfect blog post and submit a guest post to her blog.
Suzi walks you through how to create the perfect blog post and then she gives you the opportunity to take what you have learned in her course and submit a guest post to her blog!
The course Post by Number is only $9 so not only is it worth it for everything that you learn in the course but on top of that, you really can’t beat the guest post opportunity to get in front of Suzi’s large following!
Pinterest
You can’t talk about driving traffic to your blog without talking about Pinterest. It is the fastest way to get traffic to your new blog.
Here are some resources to help you grow your blog traffic with Pinterest!
Pinterest has definitely been my main source of traffic. I try and post on my social media accounts often so I do get some traffic from those and I am starting to see organic traffic as well. It takes time regardless of where you start but as a new blogger, I would focus on Pinterest and looking to guest post and collaborate with other bloggers!
Collaborating with other bloggers is a great way to connect and grow your blog. Plus, it is really fun to work with other bloggers! That is why I started my feature program. I want to help connect other bloggers so we can all help each other grow together!
One of the reasons I wanted my blog to be about helping new bloggers was because I understand how hard the simplest thing was for me at the beginning. As I learned something new it was like a light bulb came on and I was like “Oooh, that’s how you do that!”
Yet, those simple things were the hardest answer to find when I was learning how to start a blog. Everyone would share the basic fundamentals of how to actually set up a blog with hosting and domain names but no one was showing you how to do the little tricks like how to add your profile picture to the sidebar!
So, I decided early on that is what I wanted to blog about. The problem, of course, was that I still had to learn everything to be able to have a blog to then share with others. For me, it has been a slow process. I love learning all these things but I felt I had to know everything before I started sharing anything.
Lesson Learned
I later discovered that was the wrong way about doing it. A piece of advice for you is to not wait like I did. That is part of blogging, you are always going to be learning so don’t wait until you know everything to start!
If I would have been sharing as I went then I would have a lot more done!
For now, let’s tackle this sidebar picture so hopefully, you can have an “Oooh, that’s how you do that” moment too!
I am going to show you how to edit a picture, how to add it to your sidebar on your blog, and how to link it to your About Me page. This way when a reader clicks on your picture it will take them to your About Me page for them to learn more about you!
How to Edit Your Profile Picture
I don’t want to just assume that you have a beautiful picture ready to go. Let’s assume that you need to create one first before adding it to your blog.
If you do have a picture ready to go then feel free to skip all of this and go down to the part where I walk you through how to add your profile picture to your sidebar!
If you are like me then you don’t have an expensive camera or have the time or money to pay someone to take this perfect picture for you and that’s okay! All you need is good lighting and we can make it work!
Here is my profile picture:
It was taken at my front door with my husband’s iPhone. I knew that I needed good lighting and that was the best spot. He had just gotten the new iPhone 8 and it takes amazing pictures so that part helped our process but I will show you how you can still make any picture have a blurred background.
In this picture, I am standing just inside our house and he is standing outside.
This gave the lighting from the sun without it being directly in my eyes like this picture below. This is a picture taken in front of our front door.
The sun was too bright and it made me squint too much and I didn’t like the background at all.
I opened the front door and left it open and then took a couple steps inside still facing the same way and he took a picture from there and it looked like this.
As you can see the phone did blur the background and the lighting from the sun was perfect without blinding me. My eyes are open and brighter and it just looks much better and professional.
A Good Profile Picture
All you need is a good clear headshot to have a good profile picture. But make sure that it doesn’t look like this…
Not a horrible picture but this was taken in our backyard and again the sun was too bright and it made me squint and so my eyes are dark and it’s just not as good as the picture above it. Test it out and try different angles and even different times of the day that would work better.
I have noticed that it is much easier to just use natural sunlight than trying to recreate it with lights. If you can do that then power to ya! I don’t know much about photography so I just stick with sunlight!
Now, once you have a picture taken that is bright, clear, and shows your face well I will show you how to edit it and how to make it a circle if you are wanting your profile picture in your sidebar to look like that.
Edit Your Picture
Now that you have your picture taken you are ready to edit it. If you look at my original picture and then at my actual profile picture you can tell I did some editing.
Not only did I crop it down and make it a circle but I smoothed out my skin and brightened things up a bit because why not right?!
There are several different programs out there that you can use to edit your picture but my absolute favorite is PicMoney!
Many bloggers use PicMonkey so I am sure you have heard of it before but just in case you haven’t let me tell you real quick why it rocks and is perfect for bloggers!
PicMonkey
It is user-friendly. I think I have made it clear that I am not a tech guru so anything that is user-friendly and super easy to use is my best friend. Everything on PicMonkey is pretty self-explanatory and it isn’t a complexed overwhelming software like photoshop (so I have heard) and that alone makes it worth using!
You can save your creations within PicMonkey’s hub. This is a fairly new feature and it has been a life saver for me with making images for my blog. I have created several images that I later wanted to edit a few things on or repurpose them and with the PicMonkey hub you can click edit photo and start right where you left off on that image you created months ago!
Very inexpensive! PicMoney does have a free trial of 7 days and then after that (at this moment) it is $7.99 a month. Completely worth the 8 bucks for something that I use almost daily!
PicMonkey has an app that you can use while on the go to edit a quick picture for Pinterest or Instagram.
They offer Templates of different images you can use for your blog, website, social media, and pins on Pinterest.
PicMonkey has Layouts to show you what size images are on different platforms. For example, if you want to make a Facebook cover for your Group they have it premeasured so you know it will fit perfectly before you even start working on it. No more uploading and adjusting it 5 times.
Now let’s move on to editing your picture inside PicMonkey.
Step One – Upload Picture
When you first log into PicMonkey your screen will look something like this. Not exactly like this if you are new to PicMonkey and don’t have any images created on there yet but you get the point.
As you can see there is my Hub that has all of my images saved so I can go in and edit those images or edit a copy of them and keep the original the same. You can also see the templates they have created for you to use or for inspiration.
Then lastly you can see the layouts that have the measurements already created for you. This makes it very easy to just click on the layout you are needing and go on to creating without worry if it is going to fit or not.
Edit New Image
We are going to click on the edit new image box at the top left to start editing your picture.
Blank Canvas
Next, click on blank canvas so we can enter in the measurements we are wanting. You can choose one of the layouts if you want to it really doesn’t matter too much.
I just created mine using 600×600 pixels and instead of scrolling through all of the blanket layouts I just did it this way to get to the size I wanted.
Custom Size
At the top of this screen, there is an option to create a custom size blank canvas. There isn’t a specific size that you have to have for your profile picture and I will show you later on why that is. I just picked an easy size of 600×600 to make it nice and square.
Add An Image
Then click on “add an image” and add your picture you just took for your profile picture.
The reason I do it this way instead of just uploading the picture from the beginning is so that I have the option to edit the image further with a different box that pops up. If you start with editing an image instead of editing a blank canvas that you add an image too then you don’t get the option to edit it further with the Graphics box that pops up.
Below on the right, you can see the Graphics box pops up but if you just upload the picture instead of adding it to a blank layout then it doesn’t. You can make edits and changes with this Graphics box to your image in addition to the ones I am going to show you below.
Step Two – Adjust Picture
I am going to first make my picture bigger and make it fit the layout I picked. This makes my image bigger and cuts out some of that additional background I had in the original picture.
I do this by clicking on the corners and dragging them to fill the white background. Now my image is fit to the layout we chose and it removed the extra background I don’t need in the picture and it focuses on me.
Especially since in the background of this picture it is my hallway. Don’t worry too much about cutting all of the background out as we will be trimming more of that out when we put the circle frame around it later on.
Step Three – Edit Background
Now that the image is fitted to the layout I am going to go into the effects area on the left side of the screen. From there you can scroll down until you reach the Area tab and you can see there are two different options for blurring out the background and making you the focal point of the picture.
Again in my example, my husband’s phone has already done most of that but this is where you will blur out the background of your profile picture.
Side note: If you have an iPhone 8 or higher you can use the portrait feature in your camera and it will blur the background for you. We now both have the iPhone XR and the camera is amazing!
Here you can see how to blur the background of your profile picture and make you stand out in the picture.
You don’t have to do much of it but just toy around with these options until you feel your picture is perfect and make sure to select apply before moving on.
Step Four – Facelift
This is where I decided to give myself a little facelift because again…why not?! If you go to the Touch-Up area you will see a whole list of options! You can airbrush your skin, whiten your teeth, remove wrinkles, give yourself a tan, and more!
I do not suggest getting too crazy here. You want to make sure the person in the picture and the person that your readers will see in your videos match. As fun as it gets sometimes to add a bunch of filter’s to our pictures, it will become pretty noticeable quickly. What I am saying is that if I can smooth out a few scars and eye wrinkles real quick then I’m going to! Haha!
Once you have finished editing your image then all you have to do is hit Export at the top middle of your screen and save it to your computer! Done!
Step Five – Circle Frame
The last step is for those that want their image to be a circle. PicMonkey can help do that as well!
I wasn’t able to get this part to work without uploading the image again and editing just the image. Like I said before we started with a blank layout and then added the image to be able to get the Graphics box to pop up. Which gives you more editing options.
For the example I showed above, we didn’t use the Graphics box but I just wanted to show you how to get it to pop up. I’m not sure why it works this way but it does.
So to make your picture into a circle, click on the create new at the top left.
Now from here, you will click to upload an image from your computer and you will upload the picture we just edited for your profile picture.
Frames
Over on the left side, you will click on Frames and then click the shape you want. In this case, we will click the first one that is a circle.
As you can see the background color is transparent. You want it to be transparent so you can place this image anywhere and it will be a circle image instead of your circle image on top of a red rectangle if that makes sense.
It makes the grey and white squares in the background disappear and it just shows the background color as whatever color that’s already on the page you are adding it to.
For example, if your website has a yellow background the grey and white squares pictured above will be yellow. So it will only show your circle image.
Adding Your Picture to Your Sidebar
Now here is the fun part of getting this beautiful profile picture you worked so hard on into your sidebar menu!
Upload Your Picture
Start by uploading your picture to your WordPress site. If you’re not sure how to do that follow these steps.
On the left side click on media and add new.
Then click add new or upload and find your picture on your computer to upload.
Now that it is uploaded onto your WordPress site click on it to expand all of its details. You are going to need your picture‘s URL as you see it below in my example. Copy that URL and paste it in a Word Doc or in your notes app. Somewhere where you can get to it again to paste it with a special code I am going to give you for your sidebar menu.
About Me Information
Next, go to your About Me page and copy your permalink or URL for that page on your blog. Paste it where you put your image URL.
Go back to the left side and now click on Appearance and Widgets. In this section is where your sidebar information will be. If you don’t have a sidebar yet then this is where you can add all the contents to your sidebar. If you do have one then you are familiar with this and it will be super easy!
Sidebar
You can drag any of the widgets on the left side of this screen and add them to your sidebar or your Header or Footer areas. As you see I have several widgets I have added to my sidebar but for this, you will need to add a text widget to your sidebar.
You can title it “About Me” or “Person Behind It All” or whatever you want to put.
Then I want you to click on the Text Tab. You can see there is a Visual Tab and a Text Tab. Click on Text.
Here is where you are going to add the special code with your two URL’s you have copied.
Special Code
The code you need is <a href=”https://www.momblogfromhome.com/about-me/” target=”_blank” rel=”"noopener””><img style=”border: none; max-width: 100%;” src=”https://www.momblogfromhome.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Head-shot-for-blog-mom-blog-from-home.png ” /></a>
You will need to replace the first URL highlighted in pink with your About Me URL that you copied eariler.
Then replace the second URL highlighted in orange with your profile picture URL that you copied earlier as well.
Now take the whole code with the new URLs in it and copy and paste that into the Text Tab side of the Text box in your widget for your sidebar. Then click the Visual Tab and it should show your profile picture that you created!
From here you can adjust it and make it smaller if you would like. This is why I said the size wasn’t too important at the beginning because you have the option to adjust it right here.
You can now add a short introduction under your image telling your readers a little bit about you. Then if they want to learn more they can click on your profile picture that will take them to your About Me page for them to learn more!
Done!
That wasn’t so bad, was it?! I hope I didn’t lose you anywhere!
Now to test it out go to your live view of your blog and check it out! And like I said before you can add more to your sidebar with different widgets like social media buttons and more!
I hope you enjoyed this simple tip on how to add your profile picture to your sidebar and how to link it to your About Me page!
Let me know if you have any questions or need any other help with setting up your blog!
Vanessa
Need More Help?
If you need more help making beautiful images for your blog and Pinterest then check out my Free Pinterest Image Course!
