Category: Featured

The Print Magazine Hoax: 10 Overlooked Lessons on Writing Great Content

By Demian Farnworth

Is your content good enough for print?

Fans of the Internet love to mock print magazines.

They love to gloat and preen as the gate to Big Media’s kingdom has been thrown open — and the gatekeepers are torn from their thrones and tossed in the moat (the pockets of their blazers stuffed with rocks).

We watch from a distance as the city burns to the ground. Like there is nothing redeemable about these institutions.

That’s unfortunate. Because they actually have a lot to teach us.

The weakness of the web

There’s no doubt the Internet is a beautiful thing. It allows all of us to have a voice — …read more      

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Why You Need a Social Media Calendar and How to Create One

By Neil Patel

Why You Need a Social Media Calendar and How to Create One

You’ve heard of social media calendars before, but do you know what they are and how to use one?

Chances are you don’t. And that’s okay… I didn’t either when I entered the realm of social media marketing. But once I learned about it and how to use it, it change how I marketed my businesses on the social web.

Here’s why you need a social media calendar and how you can create one:

Click on the image below to see a larger view:

Click here to view an enlarged version of this infographic.

Conclusion

A social media calendar can help you consistently promote high …read more      

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6 Beautiful Ways Artificial Constraints Can Improve Your Creativity and Life

By Demian Farnworth

how to use limitations to boost your creativity

Like accumulating capital, hard work has its own momentum. If you want to master digital media, then produce it often.

Maria Popova, the woman behind Brain Pickings, publishes three substantial blog posts every weekday, typically about substantial books she reads. Each post is an elegant display of her ornate knowledge and polished creativity.

And when I was asked to host a show for our digital marketing podcast network, I immediately jumped on the opportunity. Here was a chance to organize my work, tackle a new challenge, and consistently produce a new type of …read more      

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5 Easily Avoidable Mistakes That Cause Most Podcasts to Fail

By Rainmaker.FM

why-podcasts-fail

Most podcasts fail. It’s unfortunate, but true. That might psyche out some potential showrunners before they even start. But savvy showrunners will recognize an opportunity to learn from the mistakes of others.

Obviously, there are many possible mistakes that can lead to podcasts failing. But there are some common ones that The Showrunner hosts, Jerod Morris and Jon Nastor, have seen over and over.

And what’s encouraging is that many of these mistakes are avoidable — simply by knowing what they are and knowing how to turn them into positives instead of negatives.

In this episode of The …read more      

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How Our Obsession With Greatness Kills the Ability to Do Good Work

By Rainmaker.FM

obsession-kills

The pressure to be great — well, so great that it cripples us — injects us with expectations that are typically unrealistic.

We spin our wheels trying to write that epic post. But we have a tendency to measure ourselves up so inadequately to those we admire — so much so that, in the end, we don’t write anything.

It’s okay to focus on being great, but not at the expense of being good. You can’t reach the summit unless you start at the base of the mountain.

In this 27-minute episode of No Sidebar, host Brian Gardner and …read more      

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