Great Hairstyles For A Profile Picture

By guest contributor Tori Bowman.

Getting your profile picture just right can be a frustrating and time-consuming process. You don't want to look like a model, but you also want it to look a little better than your personal Facebook profile picture. You want it to show your readers who you are, to have a bit of personality, but to be professional enough that you're also comfortable showing it to clients and sponsors. This can be a little tricky.

Here are a few ladies who have got the art of profile picture picking figured out, and a few tips on how you can master the elusive skill as well.

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Friday Links

By Victoria Hudgins. Photography by Christopher Wool.

Welcome to Autumn. Tomorrow begins a new season and a new chance to set goals, ideals, and dreams for our blogs. I love to step away a couple times a year to take note of where I am and plan for where I would like to be. This weekend seems perfect for a couple hours of business planning alongside my first cup of warm cider. Here are a few links to encourage big picture planning for us all: 

• Great book for starting an online business of any kind
• Why you should have a strategic business plan
• Harder, better, faster, stronger blogging
• The joy of market analysis 
• The KISS method
• A simple blog planning printable
• Notes from the SBA 

Free Classes in October

By Jenny Batt. Photography from Alt NYC.

Are you excited that fall officially starts today? Help your blog be at its best this season by taking a few Alt Channel classes.

For the month of October, we are excited to announce two new classes to help you master social media. Both classes are FREE thanks to our fantastic sponsor Bing, and are taught by the amazing Natalie Bowman.

Please Like Me: How to Use Social Media to Grow Your Blog
This class will teach you how to use Facebook and Twitter as tools that can be used to amplify your brand, and increase your readership.

Please Like Me: How to Use the New Social Media
This class will cover Pinterest and Instagram. These are sure to fill up fast so sign up today!

We are also debuting these two classes in October:

How to Pitch to Brands
This class, taught by Jamie Derringer of Design Milk, will help you nab that dream sponsor.

Using Photography to Build Your Blog
This class, taught by the incredible Justin Hackworth, will help you take remarkable pinworthy photos no matter what your niche.

In addition to these amazing additions, there are two Resource Parties available depending on your blog expertise. By having two parties, we can best focus on dreams and aspirations at all experience levels. Don't forget to check out our other tried and true classes in October. Together we are going to make some incredible blogs, are you ready?

Growing Your Blog Through Social Media

By guest contributor Ciera Holzenthal. Photography by Alicia Eggert.

You started a blog and have great content, but no one knows that it exists! How are you making sure your content is found by potential readers? The answer: social media.

Why Social Media

Bloggers are discovering that investing time for online networking can be very beneficial for brand awareness and increasing traffic to their blog. As a blogger, it’s very important to stay connected, since readers want to feel like they know you. Social media is a great opportunity to let readers into your life in a more casual environment than on your blog. It's also great for engaging your readers in real-time conversations. Your blog will always be a home base, but building up social media channels helps drive people back to your blog.

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Sharing Yourself With Your Online Community

Post by guest contributor Disney. Photography of Sunday Suppers for Alt NYC.

How To Present Yourself To Your Readers

Your blog is basically your online journal. Your journal that thousands of people all over the world are going to read! That’s why your readers will often say that they follow “you." While writing in your personal journal can be perfectly candid, the writing you post on your blog should be slightly censored.

Search Yourself

To build a following, people have to like you. Period. But that doesn't mean that you have to be a “life of the party” personality, with the wit of a comedy show host. Every personality and temperament has something to offer, and yours is no exception.

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