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How to Write Precisely (and Pierce Through Your Readers’ Wariness)

Enchanting Marketing

Should writing be brief? Maybe not. Of course, I hate rambling writing as much as you do. I’m impatient. But writing thats too brief becomes soulless; it lacks the power to engage and inspire. In contrast, precise writing is sharp, vivid, and full of zest. Even if your text becomes longer, precision captivates readers. Want to know how? An example of piercingly precise writing John McPhee is a Pulitzer-winning journalist.

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When the AI’s story is better than your own, it’s time to spill the ketchup.

Nick Ursborne

Im working on a whole new project. Pretty much an entirely new business. To help me build everything, Ive been using a Custom GPT, which has a knowledge base of everything I have been doing for the project so far. In other words, it knows as much about the business as I do. For fun, I asked it to make up an origin story for the company. Something fun, and maybe a little tongue-in-cheek.

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Immersive Interiority: How to Collapse Narrative Distance to Get Emotion on the Page

Jane Friedman

Photo by Aidan Roof Todays post is by author and book coach Alex Van Tol. Want to create a journey that resonates on a deep emotional level with your audience? Thats something only your characters can accomplish. Emotion doesnt arise from plot alone; it stems from the people who inhabit your story. To bring the reader right into your characters experience, you need to collapse narrative distance.

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Romantic Poetry: Is this America? — Pollution, a First Impression

Tina Dubinsky

An environmental poem shaped by British Romanticism themes about urbanisation. The post Romantic Poetry: Is this America? Pollution, a First Impression appeared first on Tina Dubinsky Author.

Post 130
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State of AI in Sales & Marketing 2025

AI adoption is reshaping sales and marketing. But is it delivering real results? We surveyed 1,000+ GTM professionals to find out. The data is clear: AI users report 47% higher productivity and an average of 12 hours saved per week. But leaders say mainstream AI tools still fall short on accuracy and business impact. Download the full report today to see how AI is being used — and where go-to-market professionals think there are gaps and opportunities.

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Meta Tags: What They Are & How to Use Them to Boost Your SEO

Backlinko

Meta tags are snippets of HTML code that live in your webpage’s <head> section. Your websites visitors wont see them. But search engines, browsers, and social media platforms can see and use them. You can think of meta tags as a way to tell Google and other search engines about what your page contains and how they should display it in search results.

SEO 98
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Brainstorming With AI: How to Generate Better Ideas, Faster

Grammarly

Brainstorming sits at the heart of creativity. Whether you’re planning a blog post , outlining a presentation, or launching a product, generating and shaping ideas quickly is essential. Now, with AI-powered tools , brainstorming has evolved. What once could take hours in front of a whiteboard or in a team meeting can happen in minutes when you pair the right prompts with the right assistant.

Concept 83

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The B.R.E.W. Framework: How We Decide Which Marketing Ideas to Pursue

Ahrefs

New technologies, channels, strategies, and tactics are constantly emerging. Its impossible for any team to pursue every idea. What do you do then? How do you vet each idea and decide which one to invest resources in?

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Why We Partnered with the Best Editors — and Then Trained Them on AI

Contently

Ask AI anything and it will confidently respond. It’ll plan your workouts, take meeting notes and redesign your living room, but are the results good quality and without mistakes? For low-stakes items, you’re probably willing to find out. But when it comes to career-defining moves, you might be wondering: Can AI alone do the job? Can it capture my brands essence, handle compliance, and create content that audiences connect with?

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How to Create.htaccess Redirects (Most Common Use Cases)

Backlinko

Whenever you move content, change domain names, or simply tweak a pages URL, youll likely use a redirect. This ensures your users (and Google) get to the right page, and it preserves the SEO value from your backlinks. You can use.htaccess redirects specifically to do this. But I get that messing with your sites server files can sound daunting. So the goal of this guide is to make.htaccess redirects as accessible as possible.

SEO 86
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Direct and Indirect (Reported) Speech: Rules and Examples

Grammarly

Writing often includes references to spoken words. Examples of this are dialogue in novels, quotes in articles, and paraphrased discussions in blogs. Written speech can be categorized into two types: direct and reported speech. Both types are crucial for effective communication. Knowing when and how to use each improves your writing and communication skills.

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Marketing Operations in 2025: A New Framework for Success

Speaker: Mike Rizzo, Founder & CEO, MarketingOps.com and Darrell Alfonso, Director of Marketing Strategy and Operations, Indeed.com

Though rarely in the spotlight, marketing operations are the backbone of the efficiency, scalability, and alignment that define top-performing marketing teams. In this exclusive webinar led by industry visionaries Mike Rizzo and Darrell Alfonso, we’re giving marketing operations the recognition they deserve! We will dive into the 7 P Model —a powerful framework designed to assess and optimize your marketing operations function.

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Beyond the Accent: Writing Speech Patterns Authentically

Jane Friedman

Photo by fauxels Todays post is by author Elle Jauffret. When developing memorable characters, few elements bring them to life as vividly as the way they speak. Speech patternswhether accents or impedimentsquickly establish background, personality, and history without exposition. However, as writers, we carry a significant responsibility: to represent diverse voices authentically rather than falling into the trap of stereotype or caricature.

Writing 138
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PPC Keyword Research for Google Ads: A First-Timer’s Guide

Ahrefs

When I asked experts for their #1 PPC tip for beginners (see my introduction to search ads), many said its smart to focus on keywords that are less popular, more specific, and cheaper.

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Why Digital Marketing Is a Recession-Proof Growth Strategy

The Hoth

With a 2025 recession looming, fueled by market instability, trade wars, and general uncertainty, businesses are starting to tighten budgets once again. And just like every other recession, the marketing budget is often the first on the chopping block. Specifically, digital marketing especially SEO and content gets slashed because its a long-term investment that doesnt immediately show ROI when sales slow down.

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The 7 Best PPC Tools for Your Goals, Budget, and Workflow

Backlinko

Running PPC campaigns isnt for the faint of heart. Youre constantly juggling dashboards, tweaking campaigns, and fielding requests from clients who wanted performance reports yesterday. Thats why the best PPC tools dont just offer features. They help you move faster. In this guide, Ive curated this list of the best PPC tools marketers swear by, organized by use case.

Ad Copy 81
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Mastering Remote Onboarding: Proven Strategies for Seamless New Hire Integration

Speaker: Tim Buteyn, President of ThinkingKap Learning Solutions

Join this brand new webinar with Tim Buteyn to learn how you can master the art of remote onboarding! By the end of this session, you'll understand how to: Craft a Tailored Onboarding Checklist 📝 Develop a comprehensive, customized checklist that ensures every new hire has a smooth transition into your company, no matter where they are in the world.

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AIIP Symposium Wrap-Up

AIIP

By Marj Atkinson, AIIP Connections Blog Editor in Chief The AIIP 2025 three-day virtual Symposium April 8-10, long anticipated and much enjoyed, was every bit the success we had hoped for. Attendees experienced a highly qualified gathering of those looking to launch or elevate their independent information businesses, and the mix of seasoned and fledgling Read More » The post AIIP Symposium Wrap-Up appeared first on AIIP Connections Blog.

Blog 83
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Writing Through the Block: Building Devices That Drive Suspense

Jane Friedman

Todays post is by author Janee Butterfield. Lets be honestwriters block is frustrating. It creeps in when you least expect it and can make even the most dedicated writer feel like theyve run out of ideas. For thriller writers, the pressure can feel even heavier. Youre not just trying to writeyoure trying to shock, grip, twist, and terrify. But heres the secret: you dont always need a plot to start writing.

Writing 134
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Share of Search: How to Calculate, Use, And Improve It

Ahrefs

For example, lets say your brand gets 20,000 searches in a month, and your three main competitors get 15,000, 10,000, and 5,000 searches, respectively. The total branded search volume in your category is 50,000.

IT 79
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SEO for Perplexity, Claude, and ChatGPT: What Actually Works?

The Hoth

In the largely Google-dominated world of online search, there are some new kids on the block that are causing quite a stir. Were of course talking about AI-powered search tools like Perplexity , Claude , and ChatGPT. While Google is still king of the castle (they still account for the vast majority of the overall search market), generative AI (GAI) tools are gaining ground at an impressive rate.

SEO 66
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Do's and Don'ts: How to Pitch Your Press Release to Journalists

Speaker: Michelle Garrett, PR Consultant, Author, Speaker

Yes - press releases are still relevant in the world of public relations! 🎯 Ever wondered how to write a compelling press release, or what are current best practices for pitching your news to earn media coverage? In this exclusive webinar with Michelle Garrett, PR Consultant, we’ll cover tips and advice to help you get the most out of each piece of news you pitch!

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6 Proven Steps to Master Ecommerce Keyword Research

Backlinko

Strategic ecommerce keyword research can help you reach the right audience and directly impact your bottom line. Just look at Cosmetifys success. This beauty retailer was struggling with an all-too-common challenge: no traffic on its revenue-generating pages. The team identified and mapped transactional keywords to these money pages. Dorothy Edgar , SEO Manager at Cosmetify, shares more about her strategy: We also created new money pages to fit customer needs and gaps in our current website hier

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One Model to Rule Them All: Our Path to Efficient On-Device Writing Assistance

Grammarly

We’ve all experienced that frustrating moment when using a writing assistant: you’re in a productive writing flow when suddenly your Wi-Fi cuts out. Whether at a coffee shop with spotty internet or on a plane, the assistant goes offlineimpacting your productivity. This is why we’re investing in powerful writing assistance experiences that can run entirely offline, requiring us to shift our models to work on a users device.

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Reimagining Your Competitors as Collaborators

Jane Friedman

Photo by Fbio Varotti on Unsplash Todays post is by Hanna Kjeldbjerg, Vice President at Wise Ink Media. As a writer in the age of capitalism, it can feel like your art, and your calling, become commoditiesand that other books are your competition. But most readers dont buy just one book. So authors with similar books are not your competitiontheyre your colleagues!

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Top 40 Fastest-Growing Cybersecurity Companies

Ahrefs

Using Ahrefs website growth data, weve found the 40 fastest-growing cybersecurity companies of 2025 based on estimated year-over-year (YoY) organic traffic growth.

Website 62
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The GTM Intelligence Era: ZoomInfo 2025 Customer Impact Report

ZoomInfo customers aren’t just selling — they’re winning. Revenue teams using our Go-To-Market Intelligence platform grew pipeline by 32%, increased deal sizes by 40%, and booked 55% more meetings. Download this report to see what 11,000+ customers say about our Go-To-Market Intelligence platform and how it impacts their bottom line. The data speaks for itself!

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Optimizing for Generative Search: Top GSO Tracking Tools

The Hoth

Generative search optimization (GSO) is a new marketing methodology all about improving your visibility on AI tools like: ChatGPT Perplexity Claude Googles AI Overviews Bings Copilot Its an offshoot of traditional SEO (search engine optimization), which focuses on improving rankings on search engines like Google and Bing. Since generative search is relatively new, marketers are in desperate need of GSO tools to track and monitor their optimization efforts.

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What is Keyword Stuffing? How to Avoid Doing SEO Like It’s 2005

Backlinko

Back in the early 2000s, keyword stuffing actually worked. All you had to do was repeat the same phrases, and you could rank pretty well. (Readability be damned.) Im not exaggerating here these sites were literally littered with keywords. Like this one from 2005. Yes, this is a real site I found on The Wayback Machine. And yes, online casinos was used enough times to make your eyes burn.

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Modernizing the Traditional Writing Assignment: Lessons from One Professor’s Approach at the University of Florida

Grammarly

As AI advances, colleges and universities must rethink how they assess student work while maintaining academic integrity. At the University of Florida, Professor and Associate Provost Dr. Brian Harfe observed that traditional writing assignments in his large-enrollment general education course were becoming increasingly vulnerable to AI-generated responses.

Writing 59
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The Hidden Costs of AI Copyediting Tools: An Editor’s Review

Jane Friedman

Todays post is by writer and editor Ariane Peveto. The debate over using AI in the writing process is far from settled, but as the conversation continues to develop, we can all agree that better information helps us make better decisions. With that in mind, I set out to test a variety of AI-powered editing tools for myself. While I wholeheartedly believe humans make the best editors, I know economic realities can make hiring an editor difficult or impossible, and many writers dont have skilled c

Prose 89
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5 Ways You Can Win Faster with Gen AI in Sales

Incorporating generative AI (gen AI) into your sales process can speed up your wins through improved efficiency, personalized customer interactions, and better informed decision- making. Gen AI is a game changer for busy salespeople and can reduce time-consuming tasks, such as customer research, note-taking, and writing emails, and provide insightful data analysis and recommendations.

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Top 50 Fastest-Growing EdTech Companies

Ahrefs

From AI tutors to classroom management platforms, both new startups and established players are racing to capture attention and market share.

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How SEO Resellers Can Guide Clients Through Budget Planning 

The Hoth

If youre an SEO reseller, your clients will come to you seeking answers, not just deliverables. They probably dont know that you outsource your SEO, so theyre going to approach you whenever they have questions or concerns about the process. Rather than viewing these instances as a hindrance, you should consider them golden opportunities for: Establishing trust with your clients Building their confidence in your abilities Helping them achieve their goals (to secure their future business) In parti

SEO 59
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19 Sitemap Examples for Any Type of Website (+ Best Practices)

Backlinko

Your sitemap is exactly what it sounds like: a map of your sites pages. A good sitemap organizes all your most important pages logically, and it can help Google crawl and understand your site. Free template: Want to create your own visual sitemap like the example above? Download our free Canva template here. Below, I’ll go through 19 example sitemaps and explain the key best practices to help you build your own.

Website 75
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AI For Freelancers: Actionable Strategies (with Examples)

CopyBlogger

Theres plenty of talk about the potential of AI, but how do you use it as a freelancer? There are. Continue Reading The post AI For Freelancers: Actionable Strategies (with Examples) appeared first on Copyblogger.

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10 Ways to Leverage Buyer Signals and Drive Revenue

In today’s ultra-competitive markets, it’s no longer enough to wait for buyers to show obvious signs of interest. Instead, sales teams must be proactive, identifying and acting on nuanced buyer behaviors — often before prospects are fully ready to make a purchase. In this eBook from ZoomInfo & Sell Better, learn 10 actionable ways to use these buyer signals to transform your sales strategy and close deals faster.