Blog To Great Feed

TWITTER's New Location Sharing Service

2010-03-14T16:09:46-04:00

BLOG TIPS - This week Twitter introduced a new location-sharing feature, which gives you the opportunity to include the location from where you're sending your tweets. Have you signed on? Do you want your readers to know your location?

Biz Stone, Twitter co-founder and CEO said on the company's blog."A recent burst of interest in location sharing applications, games and services has many Twitter users excited about appending geographic data to some of their tweets," He added that "not everyone wants to add their current location to a tweet," fortunately Twitter has turned the feature off by default, meaning you'll have to turn it on to use it.

Consider signing on if you're blogging on local issues or using your blog to promote your indie cafe / shop / etc. It's a good way to reach those nearby and help them find your location.

Your thoughts?

Links Are Great for Traffic, But Avoid These Mistakes

2010-02-25T14:37:01-05:00

BLOG TIPS- We agree that linking with other bloggers is an effective way to gain blog traffic and readership but gain your links properly. Read our list of tips below (and comment to add your advice) to avoid link problems-

1. Avoid unnatural links for your blog. Years ago it was acceptable to link to, get links from any source. This is now longer the case as Google and others weigh the appropriateness of your blog's links. Nowadays, bad or inappropriate link can do more harm and in fact, lower your page ranks. Stick with reliable blogs and sites that are in or related to your blog's niche.

2. Basic reciprocal links aren't effective. Usually, obvious reciprocal from links.php pages or similar reciprocal scripts don't work, so save your time and efforts and don't try. You could end up with some link partners, but the ones you'd get you should avoid anyway!

3. Be Professional and Polite When Requesting from Other Bloggers- Remember that your both busy, be concise and accurate in what you say to prospective link - ers. Don't BS on your #s and don't bother approaching blogs or sites that are not appropriate for your blog !

4. Buy posts and links cautiously- Make sure you're getting what you pay for and know who you're dealing with before paying anything. You need to get some background on the seller and determine how established they are. And we don't recommend buing 1 or 2 month links. Once you're confident in the selling, make the deal of 6 months or a full year. The key, of course, is to be sure the websites and blogs you get on can really give you traffic thru natural looking links.

5. DON'T SPAM (or use Blackhat techniques) !!! - It doesn’t work and again, will work against you. Do it and you'll pay the price by likely being kicked out of Google's index. And those that still use Blackhat techniques are pros at it and somehow stay ahead to the SEO police. Your not, so don't try. Keep your blog clean and respectable to gain links and traffic.

You may already have some link horror stories; let us know what's worked for you thru commenting below.

Would You Like More TWITTER Followers? Here's One Way...

2010-02-23T13:37:38-05:00

BLOG TIP - With Twitter dumping its Suggested User List, now anyone has a shot at picking up followers more equally. And, Tweetmeme has offered you some help in gaining more Twitter followers with its new Follow Me button. Place it on your blog or Website similar to Tweetmeme’s very popular ReTweet button. The Follow Me button says, guess what?, “Follow” instead of “Retweet.” By clicking the Follow button, your readers will get a new window that pops up and lets them sign into their Twitter account to now follow you! Easy, huh?

It, of course comes in different shapes and sizes and shows how many followers you have. It's also tied into analytics services like TwitterCounter, Twitalyzer, and TwitterGrader.

Thanks, TechCrunch for alerting us!

My Blog Guest, New Community to Find Guest Bloggers

2010-02-21T08:25:29-05:00

Blog Tips - As we've mention, blogging communities and forums are plentiful, but as a great way to gain more blog traffic, you need to participate. Some are generic ones where people discuss all things blogging, while others are more focused and targeted such as, Blogher (which unites blogging women) and 20 something bloggers which pulls together bloggers between 20 and 30 years of age.

Blogger Ann Smarty recently created another community and it's specifically for folks looking for guest bloggers and / or guest blogging opportunities. She's named it My Blog Guest and if you're interested in guest blogging and plan to do it often, you should check it out. Gest blogging is a good tool to help gain more traffic to your blog and to monetize a blog by gaining you more readers and establishing yourself as an expert in your blog niche.

Check it out and read more by Ann at her SEOsmarty.com blog.

Help Your Blog Gain More Traffic and New Readers

2010-02-19T09:07:04-05:00

Blog Tips- As blogging continues to remain popular, despite the growth of Twitter and Facebook, and new blogs are created by the thousands each day, you need to use all at your disposal to continue to reach new readers and gain more traffic.

To help you, here are 10 easy and quick tips to assist you in gaining more traffic for your blog-

Tip 1- Blog Comments : You realize that your comments left at other blogs have the ability to generate targeted traffic to your blog and is an effective, legitmate linking plan. Just locate find a blog that's related to your niche and leave worthy, positive comments. You should include a link back to your blog, so that readers who are interested can visit your blog to read more from you. Just don't spam other blogs.

Tip 2- Reciprocal Linking: One of the most effective ways to gain appropriatem targeted traffic is by exchanging links with other bloggers or websites. It doesn't take much effort, a simple email request for a link exchange, then follow up with the blog owner, and the results are worth it. Or, you can buy software and services tod the job, just do a search and you'll find sources.

Tip 3- Blog Directories: Blog directories are like search engines but are viewed by readers searching for blogs. Make sure you submit your blog to the major directories. There are also many blog services where you turn to to "ping" your blog. Pinging informs the service that you've updated your blog with new content. The service then publish your new posts and you'll get some traffic from readers interested in the topic and from search engines.

Tip 4- Writing Articles : One of the best ways of gaining targeted, reliable and long-term traffic for blogs. When you write your own articles and placing them with article directories, you can gain a significant number of visitors at your blog. To get traffic, you have add your resource box at the end of each article you've written.

Tip 5- Submitting Press Releases: Press releases are an effective way of gaining instant traffic at your blog. Keep in mind that press releases only gain you short-term traffic so it's up to you to keep the new readers that find you. As long as you write and submit new press releases often you should see a stead y flow of new blog traffic. PRWeb.com is one of the most established distributors out there. Make sure you set up an account. There are also several automated press release services available for your use.

Tip 6- Maintain a Blog Mailing List: Knowing that it's easier to keep a customer than to get a new one, you have to keep a list, and contact with your existing readers. To be successful on line with a blog send news and content updates to your subscribers. You can ask for suggestions and comments to improve your blog.

Related to this is the importance of having your blog readers subscribe to a ‘blog update’ list which you'll use tell them when you have updated your blog. .

Tip 7- Publishing an Ezine for Your Blog : Compile your best conctent and give your subscribes content exclusive to the ezine, or online magazine. As publisher you can include whatever you'd like, even include "guest authors". This is all attract new readers your blog and drive more traffic!

Tip 8- Pay / Advertise for Traffic - Especially if you're already monetizing your blog through affiliate marketing programs, Google Adsense and sending email blasts to your subscriber list, consider using paid advertising to draw blog traffic. Start with similarly themed blogs and ask about ad buttons of banners.

Tip 9- Issuing Free Reports: Distribute free reports to readers, subscribers, anyone to market your blog! Consider re-capping your ezine and send out a concise report of the data to attrack attention to your blog. Make sure to co-ordinate with your press release activities

Tip 10- Discussion Boards /Forums: Participate in your niche's / theme's community to spread news on you and your blog. It will have a two-fold effect, position you as an authority in your field and it will help promote your blog to people that are already interested in your topic. Just make sure you add something to the conversation that is accurate and new! Remain active in these forums to maintain new traffic flow.

With all these tips, the key is to operate your blog consistently. It is important that you are truly committed to your, and your blog's success, and that you continue to build on each previous step while building traffic thru strategic moves as part of a long-term blog plan !

Affiliate Marketing, Great Revenue Techniques for Your Blog

2010-02-15T09:00:00-05:00

BLOG TIPS - Certainly a popular method for bloggers to make money, affiliate marketer is one of the most effective ways to advertise online and is one of the easiest ways for you to make a profit online. Affiliate
Marketing is a simple agreement between a merchant and a blogger, the affiliate, to allow the use of the blog for the promotion of the merchant’s products. It's accomplished by a simple link to the merchant’s website.

For that, the merchant will pay you a commission on all of the sales generated by your blog / site. Every time a reader clicks on the link on your blog and makes a purchase you'll earn your commission.

Affiliate marketing programs are said to be win-win situations for both the merchant and the affiliate (blogger) because of the pay-for-performance arrangement. Both the merchant and the affiliate get some benefits in the affiliate marketing deal. For the merchant, they get a wider market and more prospective customers for their product or service. The more affiliate sites a merchant has, the higher the traffic their product / service gets which may become actual sales.

The affiliate (you) get benefits too, the first being a chance to earn some revenue. The affiliate can earn money by placing an ad or link to the merchant and their website. If the product or service is one your reader has interest in, they'll more likely click on the ad and make an actual purchase. So make sure you're not swamping your blog with too many affiliate ads and ones that your reader has no interest in.

Once the customer clicks on the ad on the affiliate’s site, he/she is redirected to the merchant’s website and makes the purchase, you earn! The more referrals you send, the more chances of actual sales.

Affiliate programs are usually all free to join, so you don't have an start up or initial costs and there are thousands of products & services that you can choose from that are appropriate for what you blog about.

But the right product and the right affiliate program is not a guarantee. You still need to properly update and maintain your blog and promote it to gain more readers. You can narrow you marketing and ad campaigns to focus on the products your affiliated with. By reaching more more prospects, you'll continue to increase your potential to earn commissions with no risk.

As you just read, affiliate marketing is one of the simplest and most effective business opportunities for you and your blog. For more reading pick up the "Practical Guide to Affiliate Marketing" (available above thru BtG) and check out Affiliate Future. They're a good place to start and have many effective programs. Good luck.

Blogging Isn't All Good, Sometimes It Sucks

2010-02-14T15:32:13-05:00

Blog Tips - We've all read the numerous but great Top Ten lists with tips on how to blog better and most important, more profitably. The lists keep coming and the top bloggers keep blogging and advising others. Rarely do people address the other side of blogging - how boring, difficult and tiring it can be. In fact, blogging often sucks!

If you've been blogging long enough in order to earn some money from it, you've noticed that it can easily be a drain on your life. But like any new business, long hours and little money are the best you can expect at the beginning of your venture. As a good blogger you feel the pull of your blog and the need to consistantly post new content. This is good for your blog and for your future as a pro blogger, but can negatively impact the other areas of your life (you still have a life, right?).

You may also find your spending way too much time coming up with ways to promote your blog. Great, get the word out and promote your blog but use your time wisely and target where you can have the most impact.

Keep your goal to have your blog stay natural. By this I mean not to force your blog too hard. Readers can tell thru your writing and blog design and friends will fall away from you if you're only "about the blog". If you're not careful any success you gain won't be worth the price.

Ben Barden' recently posted on the Top Ten Reasons why Blogging Sucks, check it out @ TopTenBlogTips.com.

Blog Opportunity- MakingMoneyOnLine.com For Sale !!

2010-01-23T17:58:46-05:00

Blog News- Wow!, one of the best and catchiest domains (and blog); MakingMoneyOnLine.com is for sale! Doug Dillard and partner Mark Smith recently made the decision to unload MakingMoneyOnline.com and the entire package of .net .org that they own. It's rare that such a powerful domain/blog becomes available, so check into if you want an established blog that's ready to go. Doug recently said about the decision: “Instead of just letting this beautiful website and domain name just sit here and get stale, we have decided to sell it and let someone else build it to its potential”. Read Famous Bloggers interview with Doug at NewMediaBloggers.com.

If You're Considering Buying MakingMoneyOnLine, this is what you'll get-

A premium, established (12 year old) domain name and the dotnet and dotorg extensions
Great content
Wide range of readers
Newsletter subscribers (# tbd)
Well designed and professional theme
A profitable blog already earning money!

More @ MakingMoneyOnLine.com and FamousBloggers.com

Article Marketing Tips to Increase Your Blog's Traffic

2010-01-17T12:43:01-05:00

BLOG TIPS - One very effective way to increase your blog's web traffic is through the use of article marketing. Hundreds (maybe more) article database websites are available to you. They're filled with articles on any topic that you can think of, so finding content approprite to your blog or website is easy, and conversely, you can place your article for distribution. You should consider leveraging article marketing to help your blog or website build your web traffic and increase your status as an "authority" in your niche.

The top article websites have solid pageranks, so if your article is written properly it can get a good listing and distribution. This way, it will get a higher listing in search engine results because of the site's rank. But if your keyword or niche is too competitive or if many high ranking blogs are out there, and you won't likely rank high enough, so using article websites can help you get an improved listing in search engine results.

Bear in mind that when you write blog content for article marketing don't copy your original article or blog post (or any other author's). Search engines and many of the article websites care able to catch this and you will be penalized. Re-writing articles is a common practice, we don't recommned this, but at the very least add something new and extra while re-edited the original content. Readers knowledgable on you niche will give you greater respect and notice (thru social media, or by re-post your content) if your article adds something to the topic's subject. Submit each article written on your blog or website to article directories in order to build more traffic. Keep this in mind as you write, you want your best work circulated and outh there representing your blog.

One of the most popular, and best, article directories is Ezine Articles. Very user friendly and simple to use; write your articles, pick out several accurate keywords or tags, list your source of information or website link, then submit. Your article will be reviewed and you'll be notified whether it is accepted or rejected. The decision is based on several factors.

With nearly all solid article directory websites they have a high pagerank and considerable influence at search engines. This way, you may be able to have one of your articles receive a prime search engine result spot that your post or article would not have gotten on its own. This way your article is building awareness for you and web traffic for your blog, as readers coming from the search engine reading your article will be informed who the source is (you) and see a link to your site or blog at the end of your article. Since they will likely be interested in the topic (they read the article, right?) they may want to read more from you and see your other work and posts. With every new click from the article marketing site to your blog, you get a new reader on your blog that would have probably never been exposed to your blog. It's now your job to maintain a productive, informative blog or website to turn this new reader into a regular reader!

You can also make use of article marketing with the article directory websites to create / expand you and your blog's brand. By exposing yourself, your blog and your content to a new audience, you have the chance to strengthen your standing in the niche. Once readers see more content from you on a particular topic, and that you have several articles listed at a top article directory, they will began to accept you as a an authority in that niche. This gives you a better reputation and blogger credibility so that readers know who you are and what you know. So stay on topic and write about what you know!

Article directory submissions is certainly one of the best ways to promote yourself and your blog or website. It can helps increase web traffic to your website and improve your status as an expert on a particular topic. By continuing to write more content on your topic, and share with readers outside of your blog or website, you will see an increase in readership and improvement in your work. Give article marketing a try, and let BtG readers know how it worked for you.

If you're doing it already, let us know your tips.

Check out Allegretto Publishing Ltd. And, here's a list of some other top Article Marketing sites.

Bloggers - Help With the Haitian Relief

2010-01-16T09:06:24-05:00

As you know, the citizens of Haiti are currently dealing with devastation and suffering that few of us can imagine. The major earthquake this past Tuesday has reduced large parts of the the country's capitol, Port Au Prince, to rubble and has devastated an already poor infrastructure making the task of delivering aid extremely difficult. The port has been ruined and the airport is overwhelmed, but aid is starting to arrive with the USA and other nations giving support and relief.

Official estimates from are that nearly 3 million people have been affected by this disaster and that between 15,000 to 50,000 people possible are dead, with many more at risk of dying. Now's the time for you to donate and ask your blog's readers to donate to organizations providing aid to Haiti. Use your blog or website to motivate others to give. It will take you only a few minutes to add a donation widget to your blog to remind people.

One of the organizations we regularly support is Doctors Without Borders. A worldwide group that is in the regional and in a good position to provide immeditae, critical medical care to people affected by the disaster. You can easily add one of their donation widgets as we have.

Doctors Without Borders widgets can be found at http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/donate/haiti-share.cfm

10 Great Tips for Marketing to Women on Facebook

2010-01-13T16:07:45-05:00

Blog Tips - With over 56M women using Facebook in the USA, and growing, bloggers and marketers must pay attention to and use of Facebook effectively to get proper traction and to be noticed by this audience. But, if you're new and women aren't already aware of you and your blog/brand, simply being on Facebook doesn't accomplish much.

And even though Facebook has done a wonderful job of helping you through their Pages product, it doesn't run itself and guarantee increased awareness for you. To help you in this effort, Brette Barow (President and Founder of Girls Guide to) has created a list of the 10 tips for marketing to women on Facebook.

See her full post, here

New Life For Your Blog From Old Posts !

2010-01-11T09:25:46-05:00

BLOG TIPS - As your blog ages and you add more & more qualtiy posts / content you might find yourself losing track of past posts and the trail your blog has left behind . Check our your Blog Archive, not just to remember the work you've done, but for opportunities to update past posts (with new posts) or to create new ideas. Use you past posts for new content to continue to inject life in your blog.

I recently visited a blog that I came accross thru a Google search. It turned out to be an old post from 2008. As I read it I wasn't very impressed and could tell the info was dated, but I stayed on the blog and when I clicked to read more current posts on the topic, the difference was quite shocking. The newer posts looked considerably more professional, contained better and current info and you tell that the blogger / writer had grown, yet she hadn't gone to the additional effort to update the blog's archive. I wondered why, since there was a good chance that after reading the old post I might have just clicked off the blog thinking it was of low value, and not known of the improvements.

Here are a few tips and ideas to help you update your archive-

1. Simply put, keep your archive updated ! Very easliy said, but most bloggers don't do it. By update, I mean, once you have been blogging for some time you learn new tactics and pick up valuable blog tips. Go back and use the new info you can on you past posts! Use that SEO info and make your old post, and your blog, more impactful and more professional looking. Don't try to do it all at once, make an update schedule and stick to it! Try adding some keywords relevant to your blog if they were't used originally or, change the title to something more interesting.

2. Use a full site map, and not the default. By adding a sitemap to Google that contains all of your posts, not just the default sitemap (which most bloggers use) which only contains your last 26 posts.E ven if you don't have 26 posts yet set it up now.

3. Promote your related posts. Also an obvious tip that many bloggers miss is a 'Related Posts' list. This should be placed under your blog posts and lists posts from your archive that are on related. This should send blog readers back to your archive (just make sure the older posts are updated and cleaned up !). Check out Link Within for more.

4. Re-promote your older posts by re-sharing and re-tweeting. Your certainly tweeting your new posts on Twitter and sharing them on Facebook, Digg, etc, so why not give your archive a boost going back and send the posts around again. Give it a try, but be selective, and watch the results.

5. Link your older, archived posts to your new posts! After your your blog has 20-30 posts you should begin linking back. Your hopefully attracting new readers each day who haven't been on board when you posted the old stuff! Don't let them miss out, help them find your earlier info

6. Analyze the numbers and your stats. Knowing your stats is very important, not hard to do and you don't have to be an analytical expert. Something as simple as a 'Hit Counter' on your blog that shows you which of your posts in your archive get the most hits. Use the info to learn more about what is working on your blog. When you know your most read posts, you can adapt your writing and posting to cover the hot topics. Feedjit a good place to help.

There surely more things you can do for your blog to keep it current and up to date. Just bear in mind that your archive represents your blog, as old posts stay on forever. So if they're are not what you want read by folks, then YOU need to go back and "clean" them up. It's well worth the extra time spent on your blog!

Let BtG readers know what you do for archive updating, comment below-

Total SEO Efforts Matter

2009-12-07T20:43:55-05:00

BLOG TIPS - Too often webmasters and bloggers depend too heavily on their content and neglect the importance of promoting it, believing that "Content is King". Well, we do believe that, but know that all Kings have workers to help run the kingdom. By now you likely realize that even with a wonderfully written and regularly updated blog, you won't gather many links to your posts if websurfers don't know your blog exists. Competition is fierce and good blog content is plentiful.

One of the keys to getting good page ranks on search engine listings is with correct BALANCE. Good blogs need to strike a balance between links and keyword optimization to gain a better likelihood at improving your blog’s search engine rankings. Why? Well, an appropriate balance is effective as it makes it easier for search engines to track, index and classify your content in search results.

Since you're likely looking for more readers and want your blog at the top of search engine results, it will be worth the effort to follow these tips to build good links more effectively:

1. Make sure that your blog / site has content that contains relevant information and that it is worth linking to. The core of making a blog popular is content that is well-designed, well-written and most importantly, informative and useful to readers.

2. Review your backlink analysis, looking at your competition, other blogs or sites. and see which are already linking to competitor sites but not to yours. You should then request links to your blog from those websites.

3. Comment appropriately to other blogs in your niche, but don't worry if their dofollow or nofollow blogs. Remember, traffic from a nofollow blog may get you more links than a dofollow blog link is ever worth.

4. Work to be added to the blogrolls of like minded, niched related bloggers. If their content is related to yours, be polite and ask them. And, recipricate!

5. Guest writer- offer to write on other blogs and include a link in the bio to your blog. Just make sure you have something of value to the blogger and his/her blog before you ask.

6. Use RSS and Blog Directories, they exist to help out, so submit to as many as much as you can.

7. If you aren't yet, get adept at social networking. Display your blog URL in your bios and profiles. Conduct a search for your blog on google, it's likely that your blog has the first several listings as part of a social networking profile; linkedin, facebook, myspace, twitter, etc. Make sure that a competitor hasn't listed your site name as keyword.

8. Utilize press releases to get the word out on news of your blog and developements on topics your blog covers. Become an expert by being first in your field. Many bloggers overlook their local media, contact your neighborhood paper, radio , tv station -- you'll have a better shot to get coverage with them.

9. Develop a tool or develope information that's extremely useful to others in your niche, or the general public. In this way, other bloggers, aggregators, or the press will want to link your material.

These tips are found in nearly all link building tutorial, but what is not usually discussed is the need for a specific plan, and system, to put these tips into effect. Without a plan, your tips will not be used properly and regularly and be wasted. Keep an eye on the numbers, the stats will tell you what has worked, and what hasn't so that you can refine your promo tools. Google Analytics, for example, is a free and valuable tool that you can use to track the effectiveness of your efforts and campaigns.

Put these tips into action and you will continually build the value, and importance of your blog.

TWITTER's New "Twitter Lists" Tips and Ideas

2009-11-01T10:03:47-05:00

BLOG TIPS - As they continue to improve their product and offerigns, Twitter recently released a beta version of their new, Twitter Lists. As they say, “a great way to organize the people you follow and discover new and interesting accounts.” Great we're not sure yet, but we agree with the list concept. It's still in Beta, so you might not find it yet on your Twitter account, so let BtG tell you...

Facebook has lists that let you organize your friends, Twitter Lists is primed to let you do more than that. It's already a neat tool for business and marketers, Twitter Lists gaves us some new targeting opportunities, and might also evolve with new online social marketing potential as it expands.

Like Facebook, you can categorize people on your Twitter Lists and add them to one or more of your private lists, as determined by you, on lists that you name (and can edit later). Though with Twitter Lists you can create public lists if you decide to. I suggest you start off with private lists, get comfortable then go public later. You can also find out what lists you are on (and in this way find other cool, like minded Twitterers !!! Unlike Facebook, you can add anyone to your lists (provided that person hasn’t protected his / her updates), making for a great way to find and follow people.

So with some basic understanding of what Twitter Lists can do, noew take it further to grow you Blog; Check others' lists and see how they're using Twitter Lists and on what which lists they’ve been added. From other lists you’ll learn a lot about what it can do for you. Try different things, and feel free to make changes to your lists and list members to create the best, most effective lists for you (Blog Experts, Affiliate Advertising, Monetization Blogs, SEO Blogs, Friends, etc). You decide and have the power.

Also add yourself to your own lists. This is helpful when others check out your lists and follow them. Just don't just follow everyone on other's lists. The tempation may be to go to some "blog experts" and automatically follow their entire list and all the members, instead, select people from that list and put them on your own clearly defined list. Keep control of your lists and make them appropriate for your needs and what you're trying to accomplish. If one of your lists is SEO, don't clog it up by copying from others and finding your list is no longer SEO focused, but filled up with misc people because you copied randomly !

If you have Twitter Lists on your Twitter account, get started. If you not part of the Beta test, don't worry, you'll get it soon. Use Twitter as one part of your blog's social networking and marketing efforts, don't spend too much time on it, there are many other ways to grow your blog, keep experimenting with new ways and of course, Blog to Great (ness) !

Adding Photos to Your Blog Posts

2009-10-30T08:47:54-04:00

Blog Tips- You've written another great blog post in your blog's niche. What can you do now to make the post more interesting and better for SEO purposes? Why not add a photo, artwork or video to the post? Using other media in your post will not only improve your the blog's presentation, it helps keep the reader interested and can help you get more traffic.

In addtion to using your own photos (always have your camera handy), one of the best places to get some image help is Google. Enter your keyword, and click search image. Go to the site pointed by google, right click, and save as... Make sure to name the image with something appropriate to your blog and blog's keywords. You can name it with Music_news.jpg or Blog_tips.jpg for example. Don't save as Photo1.jpg and similar generic names. But before actually using the image and posting on your blog, check with the source site to make sure the photo is not copyrighted, and if it is, obtain permission before you use it, and give credit to the photographer and/or artist.

Naming the photo with a keyword is important in order to make it SEO friendly. When others search for images, an appropriate name will make it more likely that they will find yours image and visit you post / blog. It's a great way to get additional visibility to your blog.

Here’s a simple guideline to add an image to your post:

Use jpg, png or gif format.
Don’t use too many images in one post. One or two images will suffice
Don’t use images that are too large. 400 pixels wide is big enough

And, make sure you've created a special folder for BLOG IMAGES to easily find them later for possible re-use.

It's so easy, but not used by many blogs.