July, 2015

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5 tips for introverted writers

Men With Pens

Click here to read the full article →Another rocking post from Men With Pens! 5 tips for introverted writers first appeared on Men With Pens Copyright 2006 — 2015, All Rights. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]].

Writer 88
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How web accessibility suddenly became sexy and what it means for you

Contented

Up to now web accessibility has been the poor little Cinderella of technology, dressed in rags, struggling, cleaning up other people's messes and getting not an ounce of thanks or glory. Worthy, honest, dutiful, altruistic—but darn near invisible in the shadows with her broom and spanners. That was until last Thursday , when the princes of Silicon Valley declared their love en masse.

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Authors Beware of Publicity Scams

Huffpost

Every writer is aware that the job doesn't end with just writing a book. There's a heck of a lot more that needs to get done; editing that seems endless with back and forth correspondence with your editor, cover approval, layout approval, and printing.

Writer 52
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3 Project Management and Organisational Apps that I Use in My Blogging

ProBlogger

The last two weeks have been crazy. I’m sure you know the type of weeks I’m talking about. Onn top of my normally full weeks… I impulsively decided to launch a month of daily podcasts (and I crazily decided to do all of the show notes, editing and production myself). We launched our mid year sale on dPS. Our two day ProBlogger event is just 5 weeks away and preparations are getting to that ‘frenzy’ point.

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How to Leverage Behavioral Science Insights for Direct Mail Success

Speaker: Neal Boornazian, President and Nancy Harhut, Co-Founder and Chief Creative Officer - HBT Marketing

Direct mail has consistently remained a powerful tool in the marketer's arsenal, but in an age of digital dominance, its effectiveness hinges on the strategic integration of behavioral science. 💡 When you incorporate powerful behavioral science principles into your direct mail marketing strategies, you can prompt the hardwired decision-making shortcuts your audience relies on — and that automatically unlocks new avenues for engagement, conversion, and brand loyalty.

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Are you writing the wrong words?

Men With Pens

Click here to read the full article →Another rocking post from Men With Pens! Are you writing the wrong words? first appeared on Men With Pens Copyright 2006 — 2015, All Rights. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]].

Writing 82
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If you had to start your business over, what would you change?

Men With Pens

Click here to read the full article →Another rocking post from Men With Pens! If you had to start your business over, what would you change? first appeared on Men With Pens Copyright 2006. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]].

Website 62

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How to sort lists alphabetically: even librarians use the easy way

Contented

You're editing and and you come to a list that needs sorting into alphabetical order. Easy enough until you strike the mad Macs. . How should I order the following list of poets? A. Dorothea Mackellar, Bill Manhire, Rachel McAlpine, or B. Dorothea Mackellar, Rachel McAlpine, Bill Manhire? Two conflicting conventions have claims—now why am I not surprised?

IT 52
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When was the last time you gave your business a trim?

Men With Pens

Click here to read the full article →Another rocking post from Men With Pens! When was the last time you gave your business a trim? first appeared on Men With Pens Copyright 2006 — [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]].

Website 51
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How to Choose What Social Media Space to Focus On

ProBlogger

A brand new week and day 8 of our 31 Days to Build a Better Blog challenge ! Let’s get started. Today it’s all about social media, and the role it plays in your blogging. If you’re not careful, it can suck up all of your time and you’ll be left struggling to find hours in the day to create content for your blog. Also it is easy to just drift along doing whatever whenever and really just not using it effectively – it can go so far as to even harm your blog and brand

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How to Harness Brainstorming to Build Great Content for Your Blog

ProBlogger

Blogs can’t exist without content, and it is often one of the most stressful parts of blogging. Coming up with fresh, interesting, new content repeatedly for weeks, months, and years on end can take its toll if you don’t put strategies in place to help you before you get to burnout point. Today’s challenge in our 31 day challenge is about alleviating some of that constant pressure (that you often don’t think about until it’s time to write) to allow you to just get o

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SME Relationships: Proven Solutions for Seamless Collaboration and Success

Speaker: Tim Buteyn, President of ThinkingKap Learning Solutions

💢 Do you find yourself stuck in never-ending review cycles? Are you wondering if your Subject Matter Expert actually got that last review request? Are you having trouble trying to decipher impractical or conflicting feedback? 💢 If any of these scenarios sounds familiar, you may benefit from a crash course on managing SME relationships!

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How to Develop the Right Plan to Grow Your Blog’s Readership

ProBlogger

We’re getting to the end of our time together, and in these last few days I like to look to the future and see how we can use what we’ve learned over the last few weeks on our blogs. Today’s challenge is a simple one, although it might take you a bit of time, but it shouldn’t be skipped. We’re going to switch from creating content and the day-to-day of building community with our readers, and do things that are a little more long-term and strategic.

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How to Write a Post that Has a Clear Call to Action

ProBlogger

Calls to action are one of those things you know you should include on your blog, but often get shoved to the end of the to-do list. They are important, but you’ll figure it out one day, right? Well today is your day ! You would be surprised how many readers will do what you kindly ask of them, so if you’re looking for your audience to take a specific action, then be prepared to ask.

Post 47
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Update Your Blog’s Archive Pages (including Broken Links)

ProBlogger

We’re going on a link hunt, we’re going to catch a big one! Today’s the day to check everything that might be turning readers away from your blog, but don’t be overwhelmed – it’s not as onerous as it sounds. Over time, you’re bound to have some broken links. The sites you link to shut down, change their link structure, move their URLs… anything can happen.

SEO 47
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31DBBB Day 16 Challenge: Solve a Reader’s Problem

ProBlogger

Today’s challenge in the 31 Days to Build a Better Blog series is another writing challenge, and one that’s close to my heart. In both my blogs I strive to be useful – every day, my goal is to solve at least one reader problem. There are many reasons why helping to solve a pain point for your reader is good for both your blog and your audience, but it boils down to creating a connection with people that keeps them coming back.

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The Resurgence of Direct Mail as a Growth Marketing Strategy

Speaker: Jeff Tarran, COO, Gunderson Direct & Margaret Pepe, Executive Director of Product Management, U.S. Postal Service

Learn the secrets to direct mail success for growth marketers! Industry veterans Jeff Tarran and Margaret Pepe are here to delve into how direct mail has completely evolved in recent years, and has rightfully earned a seat at the table alongside the email and digital marketing plans of SMBs, enterprise companies, and agencies as they look into strategy for 2024 and beyond.

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An Unexpected Piece of Advice that Will Help You Grow Your Blog

ProBlogger

Today’s challenge in our 31 days to build a better blog podcast series is a bit different, and hopefully – a lot of fun. It’s to not blog at all! Today I want you to leave your electronics behind and go to your local mall or shopping centre. Why? Because it will put you out in the real world where real experiences will help give you real content.

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31DBBB Day 12: Develop an Editorial Calendar (and How to Do So!)

ProBlogger

So yesterday your 31DBBB Challenge was to brainstorm 10 posts for your blog (you could come up with more, but 10 was the minimum!) and today we will be building on that – developing an editorial calendar. This is going to serve as the next week of content on your blog. Ultimately these two exercises will get you on the road to setting up a publication schedule you can carry on, specifying what kind of content you’ll publish on what days.

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Ask Yourself: How Do Readers See Your Blog?

ProBlogger

It’s time for day 17 in our 31 Days to Build a Better Blog challenge. Here’s a frightening reality – within just a few seconds of arriving on the blog that you pour hours and hours of time and energy into, a new reader will make snap judgements about what your blog is about and if it is worth their time to spend time on it. First impressions are so important in real-life interactions but online it’s even more so.

Blog 45
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31DBBB Day 24 Challenge: Use a Magazine to Improve Your Blog

ProBlogger

A very easy and enjoyable task for you today : read a magazine! Old media has the potential to help you improve your “new media” blog in any number of ways from marketing ideas to design ideas, to content ideas and more. I give a few areas to look out for as you’re browsing, but for the most part, in that first flick-through, just see what jumps out at you.

Blog 45
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Lets Get Physical: How to Blend Direct Mail Marketing with Your Digital Strategy

Speaker: Akeel Jabber, B2B SaaS Investor and Growth Marketer at Horizen Capital

⭐ Are you ready to boost campaign success? Consider the untapped potential of integrating direct mail marketing seamlessly with digital marketing strategies. Combining the physical, tangible impact of direct mail with the dynamic reach of digital marketing can be a game-changer, significantly increasing your ROI when done right. Direct mail grabs attention, making it great for reaching your target audience 📩 Digital marketing keeps the momentum going, driving action 📲 So.

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The ProBlogger Podcast How-To: Leave Comments on Blogs

ProBlogger

For a lot of you, today’s podcast topic on 31 Days to Build a Better Blog is one you’re already doing – or at least have done before! Leaving comments on other blogs is one of the most commonly-recommended things you can do to drive traffic to your blog and to increase your online visibility. As time goes on, however, it can be hard to keep up with when we’re constantly creating content for our own blogs and spending a lot of time on our social media channels, but it real

Blog 45
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How Improving Another Blog will Help You Improve Yours

ProBlogger

Today I want to challenge you to help another blogger to achieve their goals in some way – and I’ll explain in the podcast how it has a knock-on effect of helping you improve yours. There are many ways you can help another blogger along their path, and I outline quite a few in today’s episode. Some are big and some are small, but perhaps the easiest way to identify one is to work out how you would like to be helped, and offer that to someone else.

Blog 45
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How and Why to Experiment with Opinion Posts on Your Blog

ProBlogger

Today’s challenge in 31 Days to Build a Better Blog should be easy for some of you – but terrify the rest! Opinion posts come easily to those who are happy to share and engage in the feedback that they get. For others, though, it might not come naturally to put yourself out there and perhaps meet some resistance from those who don’t agree.

Post 45
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Be a Better Blogger by Reading other Blogs like This

ProBlogger

It’s day 4 of 31 Days to Build a Better Blog where today’s challenge is to take a little time to do something that I wrote about last year that has the potential to transform your blogging! And what is it, you ask? Today you’re going to be analysing another blog. It’s as simple as that, and it really only takes 10-15 minutes, if that’s all you have to spare.

Blogger 45
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Is Training the Right Solution?

Speaker: Tim Buteyn

Let's set the scene: you’ve identified a critical performance gap in your organization and need to close that gap. A colleague suggests training, but you suspect there’s something going on that training can’t address. How can you determine if training is the right solution before you commit your budget and resources to a new training program? In this webinar, you will learn how to determine if training is the right solution using the Behavior Engineering Model.

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31DBBB Challenge: Join a Forum or a Social Media Group and Start Participating

ProBlogger

One of the most common questions I’m asked by bloggers is “ how do I find readers? “ I do have a pretty standard reply, although it really does depend on several factors: mainly who is their target audience, where are they mostly online, and how can you participate in those places? One of those places could possibly be a forum or social media group (like a Facebook or LinkedIn Group), and you’re missing out on a wealth of untapped readers if you’re not in there bein

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ProBlogger Podcast Challenge: Write an Amazing List Post

ProBlogger

Day two of our 31 day challenge begins with a simple post idea that you can create easily, and is popular with readers – a double bonus for bloggers! The podcast is now live for you to get details of the challenge here (or on iTunes and Stitcher ). Note : If you missed it, day one was about crafting the perfect elevator pitch for your blog. In today’s episode we go over the seven reasons list posts are so important , and some of the different kinds of list posts that can be produced

Post 45
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The ProBlogger Podcast How-To: Conduct a Policy Review

ProBlogger

I know – it sounds so technical. What blogger has a policy review and why would you even need one? Bear with me, I think you’ll find today’s challenge super useful even if you think it doesn’t apply to you. Of course, for some of you it’s a legal requirement in your jurisdiction to have a privacy policy if you’re collecting emails, or a disclosure policy if you’re working with brands.

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ProBlogger Podcast: The Benefits of Your Blog Being Mobile-Friendly

ProBlogger

Today is Day 6 in our 31 Days to Build a Better Blog Challenge. There’s no denying it – the time has come where you’re going to lose traffic if your blog is not optimised for mobile viewing. Whether that dip in traffic is due to Google penalising non-mobile-friendly sites by not featuring their content in mobile search results thanks to their “ Mobile Friendly Update ” (otherwise known as Mobilegeddon ), or because your reader isn’t having a pleasant reading e

Blog 44
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Revitalizing Dry Content: A Lesson in Engagement

Speaker: Tim Buteyn, President of ThinkingKap Learning Solutions

We’ve all been there. You’ve been given a pile of dry content and asked to create a compelling eLearning course. You’re determined to create something more engaging than the same old course that learners quickly click through, but how do you take this “boring” content and create something relevant and engaging? Many instructional designers will say, “Boring in means boring out.

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31DBBB Day 22 Challenge: Pay Special Attention to a Reader

ProBlogger

Today’s podcast episode is all about your audience, and how to make them feel valued. If there’s one way to build a better blog, it’s taking care of the people who take the time to read and engage with you, therefore creating a space that both you and they love. And one way to take care of those people is to not only tell them they’re valued, like we did on day five by emailing them , but by actually showcasing them publicly.

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31DBBB Day 25: Ask a Question

ProBlogger

Today is another writing challenge , but it’s one that need not take much time at all. In fact, it might be the shortest post you’ve ever written! Very simply, ask your readers a question. In the episode, I detail the benefits of writing this kind of post – things like how it can increase blog stickiness, how it can help you gauge where your readers are at, how to tailor your content from what you’ve learned, how it even helps your post rank higher in Google searches.

Blog 44
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31DBBB Day Five Challenge: Email a Blog Reader

ProBlogger

Welcome to day 5 in the 31 Days to Build a Better Blog Challenge. You can find today’s challenge here. There’s nothing like a personal touch in any kind of business, and that includes blogging. When service goes above and beyond, or when a blogger takes the time to notice and acknowledge their readers, it can result in ongoing loyalty and goodwill.

Blog 44
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31DBBB Day 31: Next Steps

ProBlogger

Congratulations! You’ve made it to Day 31. Hopefully you’ve found some of the challenges over this last 31 days to be useful. Thousands have completed the program over the years and I’ve heard so much great feedback, but there’s one thing I’d like to share with you today on the podcast. What’s the key to really getting the most out of 31 Days to Build a Better Blog?

Blog 44
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Brain Fog HQ: Memory Enhancement Techniques for Professional Development

Speaker: Chester Santos – Author, International Keynote Speaker, Executive Coach, Corporate Trainer, Memory Expert, U.S. Memory Champion

In October, scientists discovered that 75% of patients who experienced brain fog had a lower quality of life at work than those who did not. At best, brain fog makes you slower and less efficient. At worst, your performance and cognitive functions are impaired, resulting in memory, management, and task completion problems. In this entertaining and interactive presentation, Chester Santos, "The International Man of Memory," will assist you in developing life-changing skills that will greatly enha