Blog - Page 2 of 9 - LJ Sedgwick

March 15, 2018 by LJ Sedgwick 4 Comments

6 Awesome (and Easy) Tools To Help You Smash Your To Do List

You’ve probably already got a to-do list the length of your arm. Keeping on top of it is the only way you’ll manage to get your blogging done (unless you hire a content writer).

After all, every time you look at your to-do list it seems to have sprouted 3 or 4 new tasks.

For the BBC, the key principle behind productivity is “writing down everything that you need to remember, and filing it effectively”. Question is – what’s the best way to file your to-dos?

After all, there’s an array of tools at your disposal, so how do you know where to start? Which one will help you smash that to-do list?

With so many to-do list tools available, how do you know which one is right for you? Smash your to-do list with one of these 6 intuitive and powerful tools! — 6 Awesome (and Easy) Tools To Help You Smash Your To-Do List

1. Google Keep

Google Keep is an online ‘pin board’. If you’ve never used to-do list apps before and you want to know if they’re more helpful than paper lists, Keep is an easy place to start.

Simply give a note a title and get typing. Not enough detail? Add check boxes and each note becomes a to-do list. You can colour code notes to make organisation easy. Unfortunately you can only set reminders on notes, not specific check boxes. But if you just need to keep track of tasks to be done, then you’re set.

You can sync across your devices and browsers, and you only need your Google log-in details to get started!

Handy if you don’t want yet another set of log-in details to remember.

2. Evernote

Evernote works like a digital filing cabinet. If you keep records in multiple physical notebooks, Evernote is a good fit!

It’s easy to set up and you can hashtag notes to make them easier to find. Digital notebooks are searchable, unlike paper.

You can clip web pages, save URLs, paste photos into notes, and keep the information you need in one place. You can share notebooks with others to boost teamwork, and set reminders on notes.

The free version lets you install the app on just two devices, but the browser version is easy to use.

I actually use the Premium version, and I’ve written before on how it can help authors. The same principles apply for tech startups.

3. Wunderlist

There are hundreds of to-do list apps and they all basically do the same things.Wunderlist is available across devices, including Windows Phone and smartwatches!

You can set up folders, check off individual tasks (giving a tremendous sense of satisfaction, especially when it pings), share lists with others, and see at a glance what needs to be done that day.

It has a really simple, user-friendly interface that’s incredibly intuitive and isn’t intimidating. It even lets you add a ‘do not disturb’ to your notifications so you can work in peace!

You get plenty of functionality for free, but for extra features Wunderlist is just $4.99 a month.

4. Any.do

With a clean, minimal interface, Any.do does a lot of the same things as Wunderlist. You can log in with your Facebook or Google account, saving you from remembering another password!

You can snooze tasks for later and filter your main view according to time-sensitive tasks. It’s really easy to see what needs to be done immediately.

Lifehacker claim 41% of to-do items are never completed, and Any.do lets you break larger tasks into smaller, specific actions to make projects more manageable.

You can set recurrence on particular tasks, which is brilliant for those regular things that need doing on a weekly or monthly basis.

There’s also a the voice-entry feature for you to dictate your list, great if you’re really busy, or you hate typing on a smartphone.

You get most features for free, but for extra features Any.do is just $3 a month.

5. Kanban boards

Kanban means ‘visual signal’ in Japanese and the technique is very easy to learn.

The basic set-up is to set up a board with 3 columns, named ‘To Do’, ‘Doing’ and ‘Done’. You write each task on a card, and when you complete each task, you move its card from one column to the next. It’s satisfying to visually monitor your progress!

You can tailor workflows to suit your specific needs.

It can be helpful for visually inclined digital marketers who like to see the ‘bigger picture’. Kanban boards are also great for collaborative working, so you can see where your colleagues are up to, too.

You can use sticky notes or index cards on physical boards, or you can try digital alternatives if you need to share boards with your VA. LeanKit provide unlimited boards, flexible layouts and collaboration tools for $12 a month per user. It’s essentially a drag-and-drop system.

6. Trello

Trello is halfway between a Kanban system and a digital pin board. You can drag notes from one list to the next as you complete tasks. Or you can add cards to each list for greater depth when it comes to tasks.

It combines features from to-do list apps, note-taking software and Kanban boards to create one simple browser-based system! You can colour code lists or share boards with other users.

It’s more powerful than the other to-do list options, but it’s intuitive to set up, and there are simple tutorials to help you get the most out of each feature.

This is just the tip of the iceberg for to-do list tools! What do you think? What are some of your favorite apps or tools for smashing your to-do list?

February 15, 2018 by LJ Sedgwick Leave a Comment

Improve Your Email Marketing By Doing The Unexpected

If you Google the phrase ‘improve your email marketing’, you get 11,800,000 results.

That’s a lot of content, which suggests a lot of people are looking for help with their emails. And it’s not surprising. Email use worldwide is predicted to top 3 billion users by 2020. Granted, they won’t all be users of your tech, but that’s a lot of potential subscribers.

But have you ever turned to your own inbox for inspiration?

You should because it’s amazing what you’ll start to notice when you browse the subject lines. Incidentally, ‘how to improve your email open rate’ is another popular related search – and by improving that, you’ll naturally improve your email marketing.

Anyway. Let me give you an example and then we’ll look at why it works. Then we’ll look at ways that you can use it to improve your email marketing for your tech company.

Ryanair and classic movies?

I’ve flown with Ryanair a few times over the last six years or so. Like their other passengers, I got hundreds of emails at the height of their ‘problems’ in 2017.

You know, when it felt weird to be getting emails about cheap flights when they had no pilots.

Normally, I delete the emails without opening them. I’m not the type of person to book a flight unless I actually have a holiday planned – so why read their emails in the meantime?

But this one caught my eye. Or, to be specific, the subject line caught my eye.

Specific to me while referencing a classic movie – genius!

Whoa. Did Ryanair just reference Casablanca?!

Yes yes, I know. In the movie, the line is “We’ll always have Paris”. But Ryanair made the email specific to me by referencing the last place I flew to with them. Stuttgart.

Being a copywriter, I nodded in approval at their use of ‘disruption’ to get my attention. Disruption usually refers to companies who disrupt a tried-and-tested formula and change the way a whole industry works.

Look at Uber, Deliveroo, or any of the other recent tech companies who changed the way we use taxis or deliver food.

Here, Ryanair disrupted their own brand to stand out. Let’s be honest, Ryanair isn’t the type of brand to usually quote classic movies. My own curiosity prompted me to open the email.

The references continue!

Here’s the email itself. The Casablanca reference pops up again, in the “as time goes by” line.

It’s short and to the point. If you want to improve your email marketing, that’s often the way to go. I know some people advise you write long and personal emails to your subscribers. But let’s be honest. People are busy. Why take 1200 words to say what you can say in 200?

Let’s look at what Ryanair did that was so unexpected.

They looked to the past, instead of the present.

First, the subject line referred to an earlier booking I’d made (last year, in fact). It established a relationship with the company and previous buying behaviour.

No breathless exclamation marks here.

The short subject line didn’t include the usual ‘book now!’ or ‘sale still on!’ desperation tactics I’ve come to expect from Ryanair. That provoked a ‘ooh, what do they want?’ response from me.

Nice preview!

They made good use of the email preview to include an extra quote – ‘You must remember this’. So many companies don’t add a preview so the first line of the email appears instead.

Provoking curiosity…

The link between a budget airline and a classic film is unusual. Humans like novelty and are drawn to new and shiny things (we’re basically magpies). That novelty prompted my curiosity – and humans can’t abide unresolved issues. To satisfy my curiosity about why they’d referenced Casablanca, I had to open the email.

Kind of weird to see Casablanca in a Ryanair email. By Trailer screenshot (Casablanca trailer) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Awesome use of pronouns

Brands like Ryanair often use ‘you’ to try and snag your attention. Or they ditch pronouns altogether and use subject lines like ‘half price flights now available!’ The use of the word ‘we’, while part of the quote, also builds a sense that we’re somehow in it together. We’re part of a team.

How can you improve your email marketing using the Ryanair example?

So we’ve looked at why the Ryanair example worked. But how can you use it to improve your email marketing?

Let’s go over those points again. Use this as a checklist if you want to try it out.

Make Good Use of Your Subject Lines

You want your subscriber to click on your email. Your subject line is the only real indication of what’s in the email. So use it to grab attention.

Don’t just tell them there’s a sale on, or you have a new piece of software coming out. Refer to your relationship together – even if that’s just a previous email, an earlier purchase, or something else that ties the subscriber to you.

Use segmentation to help you with this. You don’t want to refer to a previous purchase with brand new subscribers who have never bought from you. Send different emails to different segments based on their interactions with you.

Benefits, not Features

This is a maxim of copywriting for a reason. Ryanair’s usual tactic of ‘half price off all seats’ tells me they have a sale on. While the benefit is implied – I’ll save money – they’re still focusing on the feature. Their ‘We’ll always have Stuttgart’ subject line doesn’t have any features but its reminder of a previous flight demonstrates the benefit of their service. Those benefits include the romance and memories of travel.

For tech companies, it’s easy to default to the features of your software or gadgets. Focus instead on what benefits those features have for your users. Think about time-saving, or simplicity.

Use the Email Preview

Ryanair shoehorned in an extra quote using the email preview. That’s valuable real estate in the inbox. Real estate that, in this case, is totally wasted.

I love CreativeBloq but this preview could be more interesting

So if you’re wondering how to increase your email open rate, experiment with using the preview box. If you’ve got a more leftfield subject line, you could use the preview to be more concrete about the contents of the email.

Or make a game out of using the email preview to showcase classic film and television quotes. Let your subscribers play along. Perhaps you could turn it into a competition.

Be Unexpected

I’m going to stay something contentious here. I actually think it’s okay to go off-brand every once in a while. It’s an easy way to provoke curiosity that can only be satiated by opening the email.

Do it too often and subscribers will get bored. Or they’ll see it as gimmicky. And if your email subject lines have nothing to do with the email, they’ll get annoyed.

But threading something unexpected through your subject line and email is a great way to remind subscribers that there’s a human being at the other end of that email. People buy from people, not faceless brands.

Invite Subscribers into your World

Do you use the word ‘we’ to refer to your company? Try pivoting to use ‘we’ to encompass your company and your subscribers. Make them feel like they’re part of what you do, or that you’re going through something together.

If in doubt, test, test, test

No one gets email marketing right the first time. But in between devising target audience personas, using swipe files, and becoming a slave to open rates, it’s easy to forget your subscribers are people.

So A/B test your subject lines to find the ones that get the best results. Test out different email previews. Link your subject lines and email content to create a smooth experience for your users. Try using a conversational tone instead of a corporate one. Be unexpected.

And you’ll figure out how to improve your email engagement.

Not sure how to be quirky or unexpected in your emails? Check out my Tremendous Time Saver Package to see if a one-off email to your list (by me, ghostwriting for you) could improve your email marketing.

February 1, 2018 by LJ Sedgwick Leave a Comment

5 simple (but effective) ways to find time for your company blog

You’re sitting at your desk, fingers flying over the keyboard as you send your last email of the day. A notification pops up on your to-do list. Your blog post for that week is due. It’s almost 5 pm on Friday – how will you find time to write something?

You move the task to next week’s to-do list. You’ll look at it again on Monday.

Trouble is, this is getting to be a common occurrence. It’s making you hate your company’s blog. But you’re not alone.

Many tech companies feel they need to blog continually. A regular blog habit is a great way to hone your writing skills and nail the voice that resonates with your target customers.

But ‘regular’ doesn’t need to mean a daily posting schedule. You could just blog once a week and you’d still reap some benefits.

So why should you do all of this hard work? What are the benefits of blogging?

The benefits to you are pretty simple. The more blog posts you publish, the better you get at writing. You’ll also hone the voice you need to talk to your customers or users.

It’s also a numbers game – you stand a better chance at getting those elusive social shares, and the more posts you put out there, the more chances you have for your customers to see them. I’m not saying you should put out just any content. But ten well-written, optimised blog posts are better than one.

Don’t forget, customers often need to see your name 7 times (or more) before they think of you when they want to buy. They also need the chance to get to know you in order to trust you. Your blog provides those opportunities.

Many tech companies put off blogging because they're not sure how to find time to write posts. Here are 5 ways to do just that - and you can get started today. — This is what we want to see!

Not only that, but it’s good for your SEO. WordPress developer Robert Ryan ran an experiment in which he stopped blogging for 251 days. In that time, he dropped from the top spot for his chosen keyword to 6th place in the search engine results. Given the top spot in Google gets an average of 36.4% of search traffic, and no.6 only gets 4.1%, that’s a massive drop.

Organic traffic fell by a whopping 42%. His overall site conversions dropped by 28%.

All because he stopped blogging.

OK. So you get why you should blog regularly. But how do you find time?

Here are five simple ways to find time for your startup’s blog. And I know they work because I use all of them!

1) Think beyond long form posts

You’ve no doubt read all of the blog posts that say ‘size matters’. From an SEO point of view, long-form posts perform better than short posts (i.e. those less than 1000 words).

Studies have shown that posts over 1000 words long receive more shares and backlinks. Translated into English; more people seeing your content, and Google pushing your site up the search results because those backlinks prove you’re a trusted publisher.

But you might not have the time to write a 2000 word post every week. Luckily, it’s okay to give your users or customers other types of content that have their own value.

Remember. Your blog can be entertaining or inspirational as much as it can be educational.

So mix those long-form posts in with other types of content, including photo posts taking your customers behind the scenes of your startup. Post tutorials to help them get the best out of your solution. Show them how to do something that doesn’t require your solution…but your solution makes it faster.

You can reuse videos from Facebook Live or Youtube. Embed the videos into posts (as I did in this post on using strategy for your blog). Pay for transcription and put the scripts underneath (this is great for SEO). Host podcasts and the accompanying show notes on your blog.

Don’t worry about repeating yourself. Not everyone will follow you on every platform. And it’s good to have everything in one place.

2) Find time in small snippets

You’re a busy person. So it’s difficult to find an hour or two to write that week’s blog post.

But it’s much easier to find time in snippets of 10-20 minutes.

You might find it;

Between meetings
During your morning coffee
On your commute
Even in the gym (dictation can be your friend on the treadmill)

No matter where you find time, make sure you use it. In one snippet, you can write down bullet points to expand later. In another, you can craft the introduction. Elsewhere, you might locate images for the post. Later that day, you might write several calls-to-action until you find the right one.

However you do it, you’ve managed to compose a blog post across several sessions. Does the reader need to know you did that? No. They just need to read your post. And now they can!

Grab my checklist below to find out how I write blog posts.

[mc4wp_form id=”490″]

3) Stop thinking of your blog as a sales tool

It’s unlikely that you’ll make a sale from a first-time visitor to your blog. Before you close the browser tab and leave this post, let me explain.

Your blog is not your entire sales funnel. It’s often the entry to the funnel instead. The content exists to get eyeballs on your website. Sure, you might have diehard existing users that read everything you post. They’re the ones who’ll share it on social media and bring in new visitors.

(Think social media is dying? Check out these social media marketing stats and think again!)

But that random person who stumbles across you from a Google search? They don’t know who you are. So they might not know they have a problem yet. If they do, they’re not sure how you provide the solution.

Yet.

Draw them in with your blog – so your content can be fun, informative, educational, helpful, or just plain awesome. Teach them, make them laugh, inflame their passions – but make them do something. Then get them to sign up to your email list so you can send them future posts.

Remember that 47% of buyers view between 3 and 5 pieces of content before they speak to a sales rep.

That first post they view just has to get them onto your list. It doesn’t have to make them buy straightaway.

4) Make your blog a priority

Sad thing is, unless you make your blog a priority, you’ll keep finding excuses not to find time. You know why you need to blog. You probably even want to blog.

But your blog needs to be a key factor on your to-do list. Not a holdover item that skips from one week to the next without getting done.

You might schedule blog time on your calendar. Set aside half an hour once a week to draft your posts, the same way you’d block in a meeting. You can always polish them later in the week – but at least you have the draft to start with.

5) Stop writing posts every week

This may sound controversial but the easiest way to find time to write is to write less often. Much of the accepted wisdom around blogging is that you need quality content, rather than lots of content.

Maybe you drop your posting schedule to once a fortnight. Perhaps you write one long-form post a month, but you supplement with other content, such as podcast show notes or Facebook Live videos in the other weeks.

You need to find the schedule that works best for you. One company might find it easy to create a blog post responding to industry changes or future predictions every week. Another company might prefer to take longer, creating thought leader pieces once a month.

Whichever option you go for, make creating content a priority on your to-do list and stick to your schedule.

Alternatively…

If you still don’t feel you can devote the time to your blog, let me handle it for you. I have 4 spots available for my retainer services so click here to secure your spot. I’m standing by!

January 11, 2018 by LJ Sedgwick 2 Comments

How to Boost Colours in Affinity Photo

Digital cameras have come on in leaps and bounds over recent years. But sometimes you still just want to boost colours to give images that POP of life.

There are various ways to do it in Serif’s Affinity Photo. Adjustment layers make it particularly easy.

But I want to get you out of your comfort zone! I’m going to show you how to boost colours in Affinity Photo using the Lab colour mode. You’ll use layers, colour formats, and layer masks to really make your images sing.

So let’s crack on!

Preparing the Image

For this tutorial, I’m using this image. It’s my own photo from my 2017 trip to Venice, looking up at the Bridge of Sighs. Or you can use your own and apply the same principles!

There are many ways to boost colours in Affinity Photo. But in this tutorial, you'll be using Lab Colour to boost colours and make your images POP! — The starting image

So open up your image in Affinity Photo. Go to Document in the top menu bar, scroll down to Colour Format, and across to Lab.

Now you’ve entered a new colour mode. Neither RGB nor CMYK can perfectly replicate the colour spectrum that humans can see. Lab colour was introduced as a way to simulate this.

But you can’t really render it on a screen or print it so it has limited value. Still, for our purposes, it offers a cool way to boost colours.

Moving On To Boost Colours

Now we’re going to actually boost colours. Click on the Adjustment Layer icon (the circle divided into black and white) at the bottom of the layer panel. Choose Curves from the menu.

Under the graph, it will say ‘Master’ on the central dropdown menu. That’s because images in Lab color mode are split into three channels. L, a and b. Hence the name. We want to make changes to a and b. So change the channel to ‘AOpponent’ in the dropdown.

Now you want to click on that central diagonal line and drag it to match the screenshot above. Those boxes dividing the panel into quarters are really useful.

The first anchor you add should be along the bottom axis and one quarter box in from the left. The second is along the top axis, and one quarter box in from the right.

In the Channel dropdown, select channel ‘b’. Repeat this process.

When you’ve finished altering the curves, the image should look something like this.

You can just leave it there if you want. Be warned; if you use this technique on people, their skin tone will end up really unflattering. So we’re going to use a layer mask to reveal part of the original image below. On a portrait, you’d use the layer mask on the skin.

Layer Masks in Affinity Photo

Because Affinity Photo lets you work on adjustment layers, you can apply your layer mask direct to the adjustment layer. So with the adjustment layer selected in the layer panel, simply click on the layer mask icon. It’s the one that looks like a piece of cardboard with a hole in it.

Using a paintbrush set to black, paint over the parts of the adjustment layer that you want to hide. They’ll reveal the colour of the layer below. In this example, I’ve removed some of the excess colour on the brickwork to the left of the image.

When using Layer masks, painting with black hides the layer to reveal what’s below. Painting with white will bring the layer you’re painting on back into view. If you were doing this on a face, you’d bring back the natural skin tone.

To get a soft appearance, use a soft-edged brush. Use the hardness slider in the top menu bar to remove the harsh edges of the brush.

You can add other adjustment layers if you feel they’re necessary. Or you can flatten the image and return to RGB using the Colour Format menu. You’ll need to do that if you want to use the file online since computer screens display in RGB.

And here’s your final piece!

Give it a go! And share your results in the comments below.

December 28, 2017 by LJ Sedgwick 2 Comments

I love Adobe…but I’m happy to recommend Affinity

Adobe pretty much changed the graphic design landscape when they released Photoshop 1.0 way back in 1990. You no longer needed a design degree, a studio and a steady hand to produce beautiful work. Fast forward to 2017, where their suite of powerful tools still provide industry-standard software to home users and professionals alike. Yet if Adobe is so accessible, why do I recommend Affinity products instead?

I first came across the Affinity products in the mid-1990s. Only they weren’t called Affinity then. Instead, you had Serif PagePlus, DrawPlus and PhotoPlus (versions of InDesign, Illustrator and Photoshop respectively). I was only in my very early teens but I was fascinated by graphic design software even then.

Adobe Creative Cloud is still hard to beat for industry-standard creative software, so why do I now recommend Affinity Photo and Designer to fellow creatives? Click here to find out. — I made this mockup of a laptop displaying Affinity Designer using a stock photograph and Affinity Photo.

Teaching myself to use Serif PagePlus made it a whole lot easier to land my first office job in 2006. It only took a matter of weeks to get up to speed on Adobe InDesign. While I first picked up Photoshop 7.0 in 2003, I still had a soft spot for the Serif products.

Serif Has A Real Affinity With Software

Last November, I bought my first hybrid laptop. It’s basically a tablet with a detachable keyboard. While it’s awesome, there’s no way it’ll run Photoshop. So I went looking for Serif PhotoPlus, hoping it would provide a less-demanding alternative so I didn’t need my graphics laptop every time I wanted to edit a photo.

Serif had retired PhotoPlus and replaced it with Affinity. I downloaded the trial and knew they were onto something special. While it didn’t do everything Photoshop could do, it could do the things I’d want to do while ‘on the go’. It could even open my Photoshop .psd files!

Let me show you. I got a new Canon 750D for Christmas so I popped out into the garden to take some test shots. The image below is pointing down into a gooseberry bush.

And now, in true Blue Peter-style, is one I made earlier.

There isn’t a whole heap of image editing going on here (stay tuned for the quick tutorial below). But Affinity PhotoPlus was more than up to the challenge of editing my photo.

Take advantage of its HDR functionality. Work across an infinite number of layers. Batch process your files for greater productivity. Hell, it even comes with a RAW image processor. That certainly makes it easy to recommend Affinity.

Affinity Photo – The Verdict

I have three main reasons to recommend Affinity Photo.

This is a pretty powerful program, all for a single, affordable price.
You get access to continual software updates – no expensive subscription here.
It’s focused on photo editing. You won’t get bogged down with additional tools, such as 3D stuff, like you do in Photoshop.

On the downside, it does have a bit of a learning curve, much like Adobe Photoshop. If you’re experienced with Photoshop, it can take time to learn what the Affinity Photo alternatives are. For example, I wouldn’t think to look in the Filter menu for their equivalent to Adobe’s Distort transformation.

Some of the tutorial videos online only make sense if you have prior experience with image editing software. That said, the release of their Affinity Photo Workbook (aff link) should alleviate problems learning its true capability.

I teach Photoshop within my day job (and I post tutorials on this blog). But I do recommend Affinity Photo to students who just cannot afford Adobe Photoshop.

Affinity Designer – The Verdict

I’ve had a love/hate relationship with Illustrator since CS2. I’m not a natural illustrator so I have less reason to use it.

That said, Affinity Photo impressed me so much that I decided to try out Affinity Designer – their equivalent of Adobe Illustrator. Again, I’m coming to this software with existing experience, but still, this is the first thing I made upon firing up Designer.

I followed this tutorial, changing the colours to suit my branding.

Based on my run-through to create the lighthouse, I can say that Designer is a program of two halves.

On one hand, it’s actually easier to use than Illustrator. Many of its features are so similar that I didn’t need to look them up, but worked in a more intuitive way than the Adobe originals. It doesn’t feel as ‘heavy’ to run, so I didn’t have the continual crashes that make Illustrator such a pain.

On the other hand, it’s deeply infuriating. There’s no obvious way to reset the workspace if you start moving panels around. Functions like the Gradient Tool aren’t immediately clear. There’s no immediately obvious way to save colour swatches.

These are essentially minor niggles. If you’re coming to illustration software ‘cold’, then I’d recommend Affinity Designer as a better place to start than Illustrator. The companion Affinity Designer Workbook (aff link) is also fantastic, leading you through the design process as well as how to use the software.

The two programs also work well together. It’s easy for me to work across them, speeding up my workflow and minimising frustration. Win!

But I promised you a swift tutorial, didn’t I?

Simple Photo Tutorial – Boost Contrast and Crop

Open your image in Affinity Photo.

Duplicate your layer by hitting Ctrl and J (same shortcut as Photoshop).

Click on the blending modes drop-down menu in the Layer panel and choose ‘Soft Light’.

Blending an image with itself is a simple way to boost contrast and increase saturation. Now, that central thorn isn’t exactly in the middle so we’re going to crop the image to improve the composition.

Choose the crop icon from the toolbox (fourth one down from the lefthand icons). In the top menu bar, click on ‘Unconstrained’ to access the ratio drop-down menu. Choose ‘Original Ratio’.

Click on the top lefthand corner handle and drag it diagonally down and to the right. Because we’ve constrained the ratio to match the original proportions, it can’t end up too narrow or too tall.

Once the thorn is in the middle, it’s good to go. Click Apply in the top menu bar. Now we’re going to resave it for use online. Go to Document in the top menu bar and choose Flatten. This will compress the layers.

Now go to the File menu and down to Export.

Choose the JPEG option and input your chosen size. For use on a blog, a quality setting of 80-90 is sufficient. Hit ‘Export’ and you’re done!

That’s Why I Love Adobe but Recommend Affinity Products

They’re both powerful programs but for a super affordable price. No lengthy subscriptions and you can extend their functions by installing additional brushes or other resources.

If you’re not sure, download a trial version of Affinity Photo or Affinity Designer. Download them, put them through their paces, and see if you don’t love them too.

If you want to buy your own copies, Serif is running a 20% discount on all of their Affinity apps until 5 January 2018.

What are you waiting for?