7 Super Social Media Marketing Links
This week on The Lede … What really works on Twitter One thing social media copywriters should never do 9 productive social media hacks A reminder of the power of the original social media If you just can't wait for The Lede every Saturday, and you want even more practical, useable links than the seven we highlight here every week, follow @copyblogger on Twitter . It's painless. Really. // 9 Social Media Hacks You Need to Embrace Now Mr. Baer makes a good case that though social media is inexpensive in ..
Copyblogger (18 hours ago)
Whether You Call it Blogging or Not, Online Content Still Rules
What if most of the business world stopped blogging tomorrow? Would you stop as well? No, if that happened, you'd find yourself sitting on the opportunity of a lifetime. Social networking sites would explode with likes and retweets and pins and +1s of your original content all day long. This is why the annual “blogging is dead” claim is so dumb. Even if it were true, your continued content production would dominate the web in every way. So, instead of worrying about the latest, hottest, trend or a..
Copyblogger (2 days ago)
10 Ways to Ensure No-One Will Read Your Content
So many bloggers put tons of time and effort into getting more traffic – but perhaps that sounds like trying way too hard. Your ideas are so awesome, your personality so strong, that readers will just come to you. I'm going to give you ten straightforward ways to make sure the whole world knows you're not going to pander to your readers. (Oh, and if you would like to have a few more readers – try doing the opposite of everything on this list.) 1. Give Your Post the First Title You Come Up With You..
Daily Blog Tips (2 days ago)
What Zappos Can Teach You About Becoming Irresistible to Customers
What can a well-run shoe store teach you about your own online business? Well, everything. If you've ever bought anything from the mega online shoe store Zappos, or if you've so much as heard them mentioned, the word that comes to mind is probably service . But there's more to the Zappo's secret sauce than free shipping and some nice people on the phone. They embody three important lessons that any blogger, online marketer, or small business owner can learn … and start finding customers that don't just ..
Copyblogger (3 days ago)
10 Content Marketing Goals Worth Pursuing
Ever wonder why content marketing works so well for some businesses … and doesn't seem to do anything at all for others? Curious about why some content that seems great doesn't do anything to build the business? “ Content is king ” has been an online cliché for years now, but it's not true. It's never been true. Content all by itself — even terrific content — is just content. It may be entertaining. It may be educational. It may contain the secret to world peace and fresh, minty ..
Copyblogger (4 days ago)
5 Ways Writers Can Break Out of the Tired Old Social Media Box
It's time to teach that old dog some new tricks. That old dog I'm referring to is social media . Sure, you're already blogging, and on Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, Facebook, and more. Great. But I'm telling you — there's more to social media than meets the eye. The final chapter on social media hasn't been written. When I kicked off my writing business in April, I decided to use social media my way . I approached these overused networks as if I'd never heard of them. I made my own rules. I set different ..
Copyblogger (5 days ago)
Emotional Contagion
I found this video online a few weeks ago, shared by the lovely Jeanne Male . In sharing it she wrote: A wonderful example of emotional contagion. Notice how your attitude shifts during this brief video. And I know it's Monday, and I know watching videos might take a whole few minutes… But if you do happen to have a few minutes to spare, please do watch it, and see what happens… (If you can't see the video in the feed / your e-mail version please do pop over to the site to watch and enjoy.) It got..
Confident Writing (6 days ago)
How to Grow Your Freelance Writing Business by Working Less
Freelance writers make lots of mistakes, especially when they're starting out online. Mistakes are useful . They're fertilizer for entrepreneurial growth. They keep you learning and moving forward. However, if you fail to make the right mistakes — and to learn from them — you may as well just keep your writing as a weekend hobby. You want to make the mistakes that teach you how to build a better writing business or show you things you only learned because you were reaching. What's one of the bigge..
Copyblogger (6 days ago)
7 Useful Marketing Articles for Your Weekend
This week on The Lede … Seth Godin's simple cure for writer's block. Why David Ogilvy called himself a lousy copywriter. A case study in the power of the blog. 10 ways to use Pinterest for your business. If you want more links you can use than the seven we highlight here every week, follow @copyblogger on Twitter . // A Stalker's Guide to Competitive Research If you ever wanted a shot at becoming a private detective (without the hassle of becoming a private detective), this is it. Comprehensive does not..
Copyblogger (8 days ago)
Answers to the 3 Biggest Email Marketing Questions We Get
We're back and we're ready to talk email marketing . I asked two pros to come on and spill their best advice on the three biggest email marketing questions we get here at Copyblogger. DJ Waldow joins Sonia Simone and I to discuss: The best way to build an email list The 2 reasons why people open an email The most important element of an email that sells How to write emails that get opened How to stay out of your reader's spam filters Sonia's secret weapon of email marketing that works This one's fast and usef..
Copyblogger (9 days ago)
The Glee Guide to Attracting a Raving Horde of Social Media Fans
If your memories of high school involve wedgies, broken hearts, and getting stuffed into your locker, you probably love Glee. The musical comedy TV show — Ryan Murphy's smash hit about the nerds, misfits, and social outcasts of McKinley High School's glee club — is equal parts quirky, cheesy, heartbreaking, and surprisingly delightful. Over its first two seasons, the show has also attracted millions of obsessive fans from all over the world. Glee fans, or “Gleeks,” follow the moves of ..
Copyblogger (10 days ago)
4 Simple Steps to a Facebook Timeline that Tells Your Marketing Story
So how about that new Facebook Timeline? Love it? Hate it? Either way it's here to stay (until it isn't). As always, Facebook loves to change things up and people love to kvetch about it. You can always use new Facebook Features to improve your marketing, so how can you use the Facebook Timeline to your advantage? Read on. First, a few facts about the Facebook Timeline. The Timeline only affects personal profiles at the moment. Facebook has not announced when (or even if) they will roll the new Timeline look ..
Copyblogger (11 days ago)
When You’re Stuck, Try Reducing the Frame
Sometimes the big picture can be enjoyable to look at, inspiring to watch. Sometimes looking at things in a big scale: global, universal, internet-sized, can be daunting. Intimidating even. Rather than fretting about how to live up to the demands of the bigger picture you might find it easier to shift perspective and reduce the size of your frame . We're using frames all the time, even if you're not consciously aware of so doing. You use a frame when you're taking a photo of an image, a person, a place, a mom..
Confident Writing (13 days ago)
How to Add a Call to Action to Your Post
You might have written your best post ever — but without a call to action, it’s not going to get you the results you’re hoping for. A “call to action” is a copywriting term. It simply means asking or telling the reader to take a specific action. That might be: Subscribing to your blog or newsletter Buying your ebook Sharing the post on Twitter or Facebook Downloading a free report Trying out a particular technique or idea … or almost anything that will benefit you and/or the reader. Your call to a..
Daily Blog Tips (13 days ago)
Borrowing Plot Structure to Write an Entertaining Blog
One of the reasons that a good work of fiction captures our hearts and minds is that it has found a winning formula — one that, despite various tinkering and experiments, is fairly straightforward in its format. Understanding and borrowing from this format can help you generate good, interesting blog content. Fiction Plot Structure Nearly all fiction, except the occasional experimental types, follows the same basic pattern: 1 – Status Quo This is how things are, the basic explanation of the current stat..
Daily Blog Tips (16 days ago)
The Nature of Dreaming
Dreams are eluding me. Not the night time sort, wild fragments of story-telling from my beautiful sub-conscious mind. No, I mean the daytime sort of dreams, those that come clearly defined and neatly delineated, the things others talk of dreaming about, dreaming of, planning for, working to make happen. I go to that place in my mind, in my heart, where I think the dreams might be, and there is nothing. Silence. A blank screen. I write, to myself, and some others whom I trust , that I feel lost without dreams,..
Confident Writing (17 days ago)
Six Easily-Preventable Mistakes That Bloggers Make with List Posts
List posts are hugely popular in the blogosphere – and for a good reason. They attract readers, and they’re easy to write. Sometimes, there’s a bit of a backlash against list posts. That’s not because they don’t work, but because they’re often poorly executed. Here are six mistakes that are easy to make – and easy to prevent. Mistake #1: Putting the Wrong Number in the Title Have you ever read a list post where the title promised 17 items, but the post only had 16? Okay, it was probably still a good po..
Daily Blog Tips (20 days ago)
37 Things
37 things you might find as you write your way to the finding of your writing voice: Comfort in your own skin Awkwardness Flow Impossible stuckness Pride Embarrassment Fear Unstoppable confidence Dull, cliched, weighted sentences Orchestras of music playing in your words Understanding Confusion. The collapse of all understanding Remembrance Forgetfulness Recognition, from others. Recognition, from yourself Unrecognisable patterns, fragments of meaning The desire to share The need to hide An audience, supporte..
Confident Writing (25 days ago)
One Simple Way to Plan Great Posts, Step by Step
Do you run out of ideas when you're writing a post? Or do you find that you go down a huge tangent part-way through? Planning your posts helps to keep them on track from start to end. A good plan doesn't take long – but it saves you a lot of time in rewriting and editing. Here's how to plan your posts in just four simple steps: Step #1: Choose Your Topic A great post starts with a clear idea. Select one topic to write about. You might find it helps to write a whole list of ideas before choosing your topic. If..
Daily Blog Tips (27 days ago)
The Next Thing
It is so often the next thing that gets in the way. Not the declaration or the affirmation. Not the clearing away and beginning again . Not the liberation that comes with jumping off into the unknown Not the delight in the feedback that follows when you share a piece of your world, a glimpse of your vulnerability, a slice of your humanity, a fragment of your dreams. No, it is the next thing that's the stumbling block: searching for the words, the actions, the evidence to match the grandeur of the leap. Perhap..
Confident Writing (33 days ago)
Begin Again
What if you could find the soul dimension, the zen dimension, the imperfect way, the humble way, the soul way? What if you said that writing too was an art, and not think it has to be visual or musical to count as art? What if words too were beautiful, could be beautiful, you knew, know, have always known that words were beautiful? What if they too could be soft and dripping with honey, healing hearts? What if writing could be like the most soulful of photography, not seeing harshly, but writing with the eyes..
Confident Writing (37 days ago)
The House You Live In
The words you speak become the house you live in ~ Hafiz Language shapes the world you live in. It's just a thought, as part of the frenzy of list making and intention setting and goal declaring, to think about the words you want to use in the year that's coming. This might be choices about what you want to write about. Since what you focus on increases: what would you like to see more of? It might not just be the words in themselves, but also the way that you use them , shape them, mould them, carve them, pl..
Confident Writing (40 days ago)
Take a Deep Breath
Take a deep breath. Yes, it is a fact that the net teems with words: crafted, polished, witty, worthy. Wise, and true. Yes, it is the case that the idea you had for the book that would change the shape of things for ever, has already been written. Yes, it is true that googling of your topic reveals experts and authority, authorship and expertise that you can only dream to fashion. Yes, there are books being kindled every day. Yes, there are poems flowing, freely, through the links of soft exchange. Yes, there..
Confident Writing (46 days ago)
It Is Possible
It is possible that the last chapter is simply the beginning, the entrance, to something else. It is possible that you can dip your pen into the inkwell of poetry, earthflow, wonder , truth, and know there are things that must still be written about writing, and how it changes things. How it changes you. It is possible that you can claim back the space of a blog, ignoring rules, defying conventions, challenging and changing your own, previous, practice. It is possible that you can write without inviting conve..
Confident Writing (54 days ago)
50 Free Vector Social Media Icons
This free social icon pack includes 50 modern icons that can be used and downloaded in your work. The icons come in 2 PNG sizes: 128×128px and 256×256px. I've also included another package that contains the vector PSD source files that you could modify size or to any other logo you wish. Hope you enjoy this! Below is a preview of all the icons in the set: read more
Deziner Folio (67 days ago)
Dezinerfolio on Google+
Folks, I know it has been a long time we blogging and our full time jobs have kept us really packed all day (and nights). At least I've been active on other social networks like Twitter & Facebook. Very soon I'm surely going to make time for Dezinerfolio and keep pushing some interesting design freebies and inspiration. Meanwhile I wanted to share that we're now on Google+ and this is a place I've actively been sharing interesting stuff on (I've been sharing a lot on my personal profile but with t..
Deziner Folio (89 days ago)
Writing Your Way Home
the trick of finding what you didn't lose (existing's tricky: but to live's a gift) the teachable imposture of always arriving at the place you never left… ~ e.e. cummings Looking for the Words to Leave, and Arrive I've been trying to write this post for more than a long time now, but I couldn't quite find the words, or the frame, or the suredness that it was the right thing to do and to write. I'd been thinking a lot about writing voice , and what you need to do when you find it ( use it : yes, of cour..
Confident Writing (135 days ago)
14 Prototyping and Wireframing Tools for Designers
A website wireframe is a basic design draft done before any artwork and used in web design to show the structure of a website, custom user paths, most important user interface elements, their position and relationships between website pages. Wireframes lay out in black and white schematically most important elements in the interface such as header, footer, contact form, navigation. Wireframing is a process that can significantly decrease the amount of time required in design and development by removing p..
Deziner Folio (348 days ago)
Evening Drive
A late evening drive
Deziner Folio (364 days ago)
Free Transparent & Vector Web Icon Set
We're again back with another cool Vector based Transparent Icon set for the Web. This is a bit different from the other ones... The download files includes 3 backgrounds and you can place these on any of your own choices too. Highlights: 100% Vector PSD [shape based] Transparent Icons [suits any light background color/image] Apple Gloss /Pillow emboss style
Deziner Folio (2 years ago)
Steps To Get An SEO Optimized Site
Learn what steps you have to follow in order to build an optimized website for search engines. Drive more traffic to your website using these tips and tricks.
Deziner Folio (2 years ago)
Useful Comment Plugins for Wordpress
Build a more interesting comment system for your blog. Get more comments from visitors by using these great comment plugins for Wordpress.
Deziner Folio (2 years ago)
12 Cool Terminal Commands for OSX
Here are a list of cool OSX Terminal commands we came across and found worth sharing. Just run the commands in your Terminal.app and see what happens... 1. Add An Exposè Button To The Desktop If you have reconfigured the F9 and F10 keys to something different you may want to use exposè. This hack adds a bigish blue button onto the desktop to enable you to use exposè. Clicking on it shows all the windows from one application (F10 default), option clicking it shows all windows (F9 default)...
Deziner Folio (2 years ago)
25 Ultimate Useful Joomla Tutorials
We proudly presenting some useful tutorials about Joomla (Free Open Source CMS), we getting all of these from two famous resources "siteground" and "joomlashack tutorials", hope you will be in prectice all of these helping trainings. This Joomla tutorials collection is dedicated to showing you the basics of the Joomla 1.5 CMS. After reading it, you will be able to create a fully-functional website with Joomla in just a few minutes. Joomla 1.5 is one of the most popular content management systems (CMS). With i..
Deziner Folio (2 years ago)
40 Brilliant Examples of Mascot Designs
Mascot design is a huge key to your brand, and are thought to bring luck. A mascot usually represent a corporate brand or a public identity. Since human picture memory is better that text, a mascot easily helps people remember who you are. I strongly suggest considering a mascot, before you build your business. To get you inspired we have found some wonderful examples below. Please let us know if you know of any others, so we can add them to this list.
Deziner Folio (2 years ago)
