Yesterday my DeHaan Services article, "2012 Taste of St. Joseph Ukrainian Catholic Church in Oakville", publicized both a church's open house in Oakville and the annual Nuit Blanche Toronto event.
"Map for St. Joseph Ukrainian Catholic Church in Oakville" image by Mike DeHaan
Normally I only note events in Toronto, such as Nuit Blanche, but this time I was impressed with the reason for this Oakville church to invite its neighbours for their "Taste of" event.
Promoting my Nuit Blanche and St. Joseph's Church Article
As always, my article is also promoted in my Xanga blog ("Beyond my Borders for an Oakville Church").
A Writing Tip on Leading the Way
This might be a good time to explain, or perhaps to re-explain, why I've been adding a map to my articles.
First, almost every online article needs one or more visual elements. Some sites' editors insist on a ratio of 1 picture for every ### words.
Second, it can be a pain to find useful illustrative images, particularly when searching within the proper Creative Commons license. If you hope to make money with your blog, you really want to use "commercial-reuse" images.
Finally and most importantly, some people may need directions to find the location. I like to include a map, and usually mark it up to highlight any important features.
Yes, it is possible to find a location under Google Maps or another online map service, and then imbed or link to that saved location. However, that does not allow you to highlight the map.
Yes, often the official site that I reference for these "events" articles does include its own map. That feature is sometimes hard to find in a large site, so I prefer to make it easy.
In fact, that final point is key to most of my events articles. I try to find several key points that might be buried in the organizer's pages, discuss them, and then link to the official site.
To conclude: today's writing tip is that including a highlighted map can be an effective, appealing and useful visual addition when your article references a specific place. In this case, the location of the St. Joseph Ukrainian Catholic Church in Oakville would be less familiar to my readers than Nuit Blanche in Toronto.
First, almost every online article needs one or more visual elements. Some sites' editors insist on a ratio of 1 picture for every ### words.
Second, it can be a pain to find useful illustrative images, particularly when searching within the proper Creative Commons license. If you hope to make money with your blog, you really want to use "commercial-reuse" images.
Finally and most importantly, some people may need directions to find the location. I like to include a map, and usually mark it up to highlight any important features.
Yes, it is possible to find a location under Google Maps or another online map service, and then imbed or link to that saved location. However, that does not allow you to highlight the map.
Yes, often the official site that I reference for these "events" articles does include its own map. That feature is sometimes hard to find in a large site, so I prefer to make it easy.
In fact, that final point is key to most of my events articles. I try to find several key points that might be buried in the organizer's pages, discuss them, and then link to the official site.
To conclude: today's writing tip is that including a highlighted map can be an effective, appealing and useful visual addition when your article references a specific place. In this case, the location of the St. Joseph Ukrainian Catholic Church in Oakville would be less familiar to my readers than Nuit Blanche in Toronto.
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