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10 Essential Imaging Tools For Successful Bloggers


Blog posts with images get 94% more views, and visuals increase both the time spent on posts and social shares…
So why are so many bloggers resistant to tools for image creation and data visualization?
The main reason is that they don’t know where to start.
Imaging tools can seem overwhelming to bloggers, especially if your main art is content and writing. The good news is that they don’t have to be.
Here are 10 tools you can start using today to make your blog look better while increasing social engagement. To make this list, the apps needed to meet three key criteria. They had to be:
  • Easy to use
  • Free or offer a free trial
  • Useful to bloggers (duh)
From creating shareable, visually engaging blog post headers to making advanced visualizations that pull real-time data into the mix, you can try these tools in order or check them all out today in a flurry of imaging mania!

1. Pablo by Buffer


Buffer’s Pablo app might be the easiest imaging resource on the planet for bloggers. Plus, it actually lives up to Buffer’s claim that anyone can create engaging social media images in “less than 30 seconds”.
Yes, you read that right: seconds not minutes. Pablo is ideal for creating attractive blog header images with the title of your blog post or a quote from the post.
The app lets you add text to an image, style it, and share or download the finished image immediately. There isn’t even a sign-in process (Pablo can link to your Buffer social account, but you can also just open Pablo, add text to an image and download it in just the right size for your blog or specific social accounts).
Pro Tip: When searching through stock images, use keywords related to the type of image you want to find, eg. “city” or “office”, rather than always sticking to keywords about the type of product you’re promoting. You can also upload images for consistency with your brand or blog design.

2. Canva


Canva is simple but amazingly powerful. The Webby-winning image design app lets you create any type of blog image and adjust design elements using a clean, responsive interface. The resulting images look so professional that you’d never know they came from a drag-and-drop web interface.
Once you get some experience using Canva for blog headers and illustrations, you can start using the free app to create other types of content like posters and infographics. You might even discover an inner designer lurking behind your blogger personality.
3. Placeit

Writing a blog post about a new mobile app and want a blog image that will stand out and get more social activity? Cue Placeit, a totally free online design app for iphone mockups and demo videos.
Placeit’s streamlined technology lets you upload images or even record your screen and then place that video on an image. You can add your mockup images to a wide range of tech products, including smart watches and Kindles.

4. MobileTest.me


MobileTest.me is an even simpler way to get mobile images for your blog. It’s designed to let you test websites on smartphones and tablets (by the way, have you tested your blog lately?), but many bloggers find it useful when writing about mobile apps or wanting to illustrate a point about customer experience, blogging or social media, since basically everybody these days uses their mobile devices to connect with brands.


For example, when my client Agile CRM was working on a new set of Getting Started Guides, we needed a main blog post image that demonstrated the usefulness of those guides to customers. After a lot of iterations, we ended up using MobileTest.me to create a mockup of how the new guides would look on a smartphone, and this image helped the post about Getting Started with Marketing Automation get more traction than our previous posts about marketing automation.

5. Twitter Collages

Many bloggers focus on using Click-to-Tweet content in their blog posts – in other words, new content for their readers to share on Twitter — but why not use Twitter’s image features to enhance your blog posts and get more likes and shares on content you’ve already put out to the world?
While Twitter collages may sound like just another feature for use on Twitter itself, they can be a powerful addition to blog posts. Make a collage, then take a screenshot or embed the tweet directly in your blog post.

6. Easel.ly


Infographics can represent visually what it would otherwise take an entire blog post to cover. Easel.ly is a useful site for quickly creating shareable infographics using data or content touchpoints that you’re highlighting in a blog post.
Easel.ly’s infographic editor works directly in your browser. While you can upgrade to a Pro account for more templates, most bloggers find that the basic templates are more than enough. Plus, the constraints can be helpful in getting things done quickly.
Pro Tip: Remember to list your blog name and URL on the infographic in case the graphic ends up getting traction on social and loses the context of the original post.

7. Venngage



Venngage is a top-of-the-line infographic-making app with some of the most attractive templates in the graphic design universe. For design-dummies like me, it’s been an essential resource.
I recommend starting with the free version of Venngage.
Then later, if you’re working on a guest blog post for a bigger brand or starting a blog campaign that needs higher social media marketing results, upgrade to a paid plan that eliminates their branding from the infographics you create.

8. Google Charts



If you’re comfortable using Javascript, Google Charts are a solid choice for blog images based on real-time data.
Bubble charts, scatter charts, mind maps, histograms… the sky’s the limit! Plus, images made with Google Charts are compatible across browsers and include three years’ backward compatibility.

9. Infogr.am



If you’re looking for a way to make your blog charts pop, check out Infogr.am. It’s advanced technology, but they’re built-in templates to make the creation process simple.
The coolest thing about Infogr.am is how you can incorporate real-time data into the visualizations. For example, you can create a chart with survey results and then connect a live data source so that when you embed the chart on your blog, it will always show real-time results.
Want to learn more about visualization? Nathan Yau’s site and blog, FlowingData, is a great place to start.

10. Tableau


Ah, Tableau. Basically Tableau is a way to organize and visualize your data, but it’s actually much more than that.
The great thing for bloggers is that if you learn how to use Tableau, you can get a much clearer view of business data for your site or company while also taking your content governance and analytics to the next level AND creating visually stunning charts, graphs and maps.
Tableau is especially recommended for business bloggers or content marketers who are serious about sharing useful blog posts with their audience, based on real data.
Pro Tip: The most effective bloggers and social media marketers know when to use imaging tools to create shareable content and when it’s more beneficial to just use them for mockups that will help designers. Don’t have an in-house designer? Check out Visually, where you can connect with over 1,000 hand-picked designers to get visual content for social media marketing campaigns.

#wemalhar wemalhar We Malhar
February 02, 2018
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HDD



Let’s start with the good news. When I asked one of my company’s engineers whether requests for data erasure were on the rise, we found out that there has been a massive rise of 466% over the past year in the UK. This included single device erasure in our labs of mobile phones, tablets and laptops as well as businesses requiring managed erasure services onsite using our Live Environment Erasure (LEE) solutions.
So, what’s driving that escalation in demand for data erasure from servers, drives, computers and mobile devices?
The introduction of GDPR in 2018 is one of the biggest drivers for businesses as organisations prepare for requirements such as the right to be forgotten. We have seen a significant rise in requests for secure erasure services as companies mitigate against the risk of holding the wrong information about employees and customers in the run-up to GDPR.
The increased use of mobile devices both in our personal and work lives is probably the largest factor that an increase in erasure is being sought out though – and with good reason. Today a mobile device will typically carry all manner of sensitive data. On a personal level bank account logins, credit card details, addresses, emails as well as photos and music are stored. But work information from email accounts and login details to secure servers will increasingly be stored on the same device. 
Organisations expect employees to work via smartphone, tablet or laptop while out of the office. The majority are aware of the policies required to safely erase data from mobile devices when upgrades are made or devices returned when employees leave the business. But what about devices that the company does not own and personal data that the individual or their employer would not want to fall into the wrong hands?

The Bad News

A recent study shows people too often fail to properly erase personal data in used drives, putting their own and others’ identity and privacy at risk. The global study indicated we are putting our personal information at risk far too easily. My company analysed used drives to see if any traces of data remained after the previous owners sold them. Among the drives we examined, traces of data were found on nearly half. Many of these innocent oversights allowed the new owners critical access into the previous owners’ identity.
Despite user efforts to erase data, it can often be recovered if not done properly. This makes selling personal digital devices a matter of identity protection. The study had an international scope, with a diverse array of countries taking part: the US, Germany, France, Italy, the Asia-Pacific region, Poland and the UK.
For the campaign, we purchased 64 drives from various sources over eBay (private sellers/consumers) and analysed whether the used drives had been successfully wiped clean or still contained any traces of data. The study found that traces of data remained on 30 drives (47 per cent), while the remaining 34 drives had been successfully cleaned (53 per cent).
However, the likelihood of finding access to personal information was not the most concerning finding, but rather how sensitive that information often was. For the careless or uninformed user, selling personal data devices is little more than selling your identity.
The case of one drive epitomised the danger of identifying data traces. The drive had belonged to a company that used a service provider to erase and resell old drives. Despite that, the drive still contained a wealth of highly sensitive information, including user names, home addresses, phone numbers and credit card details. It contained an employee list of around 100 names that included information about work experience, job titles, phone numbers, language abilities, holiday dates and a 1MB offline address book.

The Devil In The Details

Eighteen of the 64 drives examined were found to contain critical or highly critical personal information. Nearly a third (21 drives) contained personal photos, private documents, emails, videos, wedding photos, audio or music. User account information was discovered on eight drives, including log-in data such as first name and last name, contact details, email address, online account names and passwords.
Transactional data was recovered from nearly every seventh drive (nine drives in total). This included company names, salary statements, credit card numbers, bank account info, investment details and tax returns. One drive still contained a record of browser history, while explicit data was located on another.

Risk Extends To The Business World

The personal realm was not the only one affected, as work-related information also finds its way very often onto private devices. As such, business data extracted from the drives was also not in short supply. Six drives were found to contain critical business data such as CAD files, PDFs, JPGs, keys and passwords. We even found full online store setups, configuration files and POS training videos in their scour of these six drives. A further five contained other work-related data: invoices and purchase orders, much of it including sensitive personal information.

Method & Type

The study differentiated between HDD and SSD drives, noting the ever-growing trend toward flash devices (SSD). Though SSD drives were by no means immune to identity risk, they tended to facilitate more successful data wipes. Of the 64 drives purchased in total, 37 were HDD and 27 were SSD drives. Over half of the HDD drives contained traces of data while only a third of the SSD drives did.
The method previous owners used to erase the data on their drives before selling them demonstrated an all-too-common lackadaisical approach. Though erasure methodology could not be determined for every drive, at least eight had no attempt whatsoever directed at deleting its data. The general trend was evident: people are putting their identity and privacy far too easily at risk.
A good method to delete data is low-level formatting, which involves pattern filling drives at the lowest level. This method effectively resets drives back to the factory settings. However, multiple overwrites provide additional security and the best results, especially when data erasure needs to meet specific legal overwrite standards.Professional products distinguish themselves by the following features: independent certifications, using internationally standard algorithms, detailed reporting and traceability of executed deletions.

The Challenges Of Erasing SSDs

SSDs behave very differently from HDDs when saving data to or erasing data from them. These technological differences present their own technical challenges when it comes to securely deleting data from flash storage media. SSDs have several functions that affect the state of the stored data, such as FTL (Flash Translation Layer function), which controls the mapping of files, as well as wear levelling, Trim, Garbage Collection and always-on encryption, all of which influence the recoverability of deleted or discarded data.

Delete Does Not Equal Erase

It is essential that organisations and individuals know what data they have and where it is stored, for businesses this may be a legal requirement, for individuals, failure to do so may leave them exposed to identity theft or fraud. It is essential that any storage device that once had personal information on is erased properly and completely.
In a nutshell; simply deleting data does not erase it. My advice would be to choose a method that suits the specific storage media in question and make sure the process is 100% effective. Good erasure solutions will produce a certificate to verify the results, which is a great way of ensuring peace of mind that no residual data remains on your storage media before reusing, reselling or recycling.



Robin England

Robin England is a Senior Research & Development Engineer at Ontrack. With over 20 years of experience in the data recovery industry, Robin develops the proprietary hardware and software tools that Ontrack engineers use to retrieve lost data from any type of storage media.
January 08, 2018

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