“What are we waiting for?” Harry stood on the curb, hands in pockets, watching his friend curiously. “A bus.” James looked casually nonplussed as he hitched the backpack higher on his shoulder. “A school bus? A Greyhound?” So far, he and James had been standing on the curb for close to a half hour. “What kind of bus?” Harry glanced at a passerby. “A black one.” A black bus. Okay, that explained…nothing. Headquarters hadn’t explained anything either, when the call for the hit had come in. “Can’t we take the car? James, I don’t get
> Read MoreArchives for April 2009
Blog Archives
Enjoy 1,000+ articles geared to your content-marketing, writing, freelancing or small business endeavors. Scroll down for recent posts, select a category, or browse the archives here.
Do You Have a Magic Ring?
Written by
I do. It’s awesome. Thanks for tuning in, I’ll see you all next – Oh. James says I have to tell you how to get a magic ring of your own. He does not seem to grasp that this has two benefits: a) I get a magic ring and you don’t, which is great for me, and b) then I don’t have to write a blog post about it. I have laid down this logic before him and he will not relent, so here is your post. Men. I ask you. My friend Casey taught
> Read MoreDoes Your eBook Design Stand Up or Fall Flat?
Written by
Ebook design has evolved so much beyond just the content that ebooks are now like little portable websites. Unfortunately, there’s very little written about ebook design trends out there – beyond a ton of sites touting ebook design skills or ebooks with great content. When it comes to defining what makes an ebook design look great, there’s nothing. Until now, of course. Today’s post is about ebook design trends, what works and what doesn’t. Keep in mind that this post has nothing to do with the content inside an ebook – we’ve seen plenty an
> Read MoreIncreasing Sales Through Scarcity – Is It a Scam?
Written by
This is the third post in a series on sales and marketing tactics. Read our first post, Afraid of Marketing or Just Turned Off, and then our second, How Urgency Gets You To Buy. And now for today’s post… The law of supply and demand says that when something is hard to get, it’s worth more. That’s great if you have a small stash of Canadian diamonds tucked in your pocket. But how does it all work? What makes us want those Canadian diamonds so badly? They’re just hunks of compressed coal, after all. What
> Read MoreAre You Forgetting to Network With Your Friends?
Written by
“I get by with a little help from my friends.” – The Beatles True story: for a long time, and when I was a child, no less, I thought that line was, “I get high with a little help from my friends.” This was before I actually knew that you could get high, and that it involved consuming illegal substances. I think I had some vague idea that it had to do with kites. ANYway . . . Why haven’t you hit your friends up lately? The other day, a friend of mine asked me
> Read MoreDid You Hate Our Black Background?
Written by
Dark alley. Dangerous. Empty. I couldn’t say they weren’t accurate descriptions. The black brickwork and the cement textured background of our site look did look like a dark alley theme – now that it had been mentioned. We’d worked very hard on our site redesign. The look we’d loved so much – casual coolness, leather jackets and just a little bit of tough grit with a gun theme – wasn’t working for our readers. “I hate the black background.” Yes, we know. “Your site’s hard to read.” We’d heard it countless times. “I don’t like
> Read MoreHow Urgency Gets You to Buy
Written by
This is the second post in a series on sales and marketing tactics. You can find the first post that explores whether you’re Afraid of Marketing or Just Turned Off right here. Limited time offer! One-day sale! Less than 24 hours! Price goes up in 3 hours! Last chance! Only 12 copies left ! Hurry! Ugh. If you’ve been around online for a while, you’re probably pretty tired of that stuff. It might make you feel sick or just come off as a high-pressure sleaze tactic to land sales. You probably feel pressured, pushed and
> Read MoreGetting Zen About Writing
Written by
As a freelance writer, you get to learn about many interesting things in the course of your work. Sometimes you learn about boring things, like why this widget is the coolest widget in the history of widgets. Sometimes you learn totally random things, like the fact that the Northwest Territories evidently almost named themselves ‘Bob’ (I would not make that up). And sometimes you learn very useful things, stuff you really needed to know, like how long you can microwave an egg before it explodes More and more often, I am learning things in the
> Read More13.2 Rockstar WordPress Plugins You May Not Know About
Written by
WordPress is a very versatile platform for all sorts of online needs, and the variety of plugins that extend its capabilities is one feature that makes WordPress a content management system so popular. With 4,245 plugins to choose from, you can definitely customize your CMS, site or blog functionality way beyond the basics. We’re always on the lookout for the best WordPress plugins to enhance the features of sites we work on and to respond better to our clients’ needs. Now it’s time to share some of those useful WordPress plugins that you may not
> Read MoreAre You Afraid of Marketing or Do Sales Just Turn You Off?
Written by
This is the first post in a series on sales and marketing tactics – and yes, we shun the Dark Side, young Skywalker, wielding sabers for the Powers of Good, not Evil. Marketing tactics and strategies always hit a sore spot with many of our readers. Just the word itself provokes many different reactions in people, even when the post topic is fairly benign. Those reactions also reduce the learning potential. Who can learn well when they’re getting upset and having knee-jerk reactions? Well, not very many people, frankly. That’s why it’s worth bringing the
> Read More