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Stop Competing & Start Creating

2/15/2018

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I love Marie Forleo!

She just has good easy-to-hear advice. I subscribe to her YouTube channel and every now and then one of her videos catches my eye. This interview with Renée Mauborgne, author of "Blue Ocean Strategy", is inspirational if you have a few minutes to watch and listen.
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What we found is that in looking, most companies are all focused on competing against one another in existing industries.

The problem is supply exceeds demand, so margins are tight, growth is limited. And so what happens, it becomes what we think of as this bloody red ocean.

But what we saw is that the companies that are successful, like Marie TV, they’re not competing and doing what everyone else is doing. They’re creating new markets. And there is no competition out there, and therefore, they have strong profit and growth. We call those blue oceans because they’re wide open and unexplored.


— Renée Mauborgne
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— Marie Forleo
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Social Networks & Ecommerce Gateways

1/23/2018

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“The
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The State of Blogging

1/11/2018

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“The
The State of Blogging Industry & The Ultimate Beginners Guide on How to Create a Blog
by Megan of Websitebuilder
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We Transfer

9/8/2017

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A Free Online Service to Send a Pile of Files

Have you ever needed to send a pile of files to someone? If you have, chances are that you've sent them one at a time as attachments to emails.

We Transfer is a free online service to send a pile of files. They will host your files 'in the cloud' for 7 days for your recipient to download.

Quick Guide

Use this handy quick guide as a reference.
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Step by Step

Let's walk through how to do that, step-by-step.

Plan Ahead - Prep Your Files

Get your files prepped and ready to go:
  • Make sure the file names are correct.
  • Stash them in a project folder that you can easily find.

Step #1 - Go to We Transfer

  1. Go to www.wetransfer.com online.
  2. They offer a Free version or Plus.
  3. Choose Free.

Tip!
They make money by offering advertising on their home page and it will look differently each time you visit them online.

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Step #2 - Add Your Files

  1. Click the BLUE plus icon to add your files from your computer.
  2. A screen will open up to search your computer for the files that you prepared.
  3. Select ALL of the files to upload at once.

Tip!
You can also select ALL of your files and [click and drag] over the BLUE plus icon to upload them.

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Step #3 - Add Email Addresses

  1. Click to add YOUR RECIPIENT email address.
  2. Click to add YOUR email address.

Tip!
You can also send the files to yourself and you will receive the link to download them by email. Then share the link in an email to your recipient.

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Step #4 - Write a Personal Message

  1. Write a personal message to accompany your files.
  2. Let your recipient know that the files are only available for 7 days to download.
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Easy Peasy.

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Production Management 101

9/8/2017

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How do I work with a graphic designer?

Working with a graphic designer is a lot like working with a contractor to build a house. Most folks may build a house once in a lifetime, or if they're lucky, they may miss the whole experience altogether. It's unreasonable to expect that you would know the industry lingo and how best to work with a contractor.

The same can be true when working with a graphic designer. You may have successfully avoided the experience to date, but now you've found yourself in need of a website, brochure or even a business card.
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Team Effort

All graphic design projects are a team effort. It's a co-creation from the initial concept ideas to completion. You are central to the success of your project. You may save time and money by flipping through my Project Management 101 presentation to familiarize yourself with the lingo and what questions to ask before you get started. Keep in mind that every designer works differently and this is my own personal style.
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Flip Through

Give a second or two for the presentation to load below to 'flip and read' online.
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Writing for the Web: Timeless Rules

7/19/2017

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Website Content

Great Website Content

Your website advertises something. Whether it's a business, a portfolio, or just an idea, all websites aim to persuade visitors to read more or take some kind of action.
David Ogilvy
From the 1950s through the 1980s, no one was better at getting potential customers to take action than the late David Ogilvy, colloquially known as the father of modern advertising and founder of the multi-national ad agency Ogilvy & Mather.In September of 1982, Ogilvy wrote a memo to agency staff titled simply "How to Write."
Within he listed 10 tips that are still shared in writing circles and should be required reading for anyone trying to build a business online. They apply remarkably well when writing for the web today. Here's all 10:

Key Themes:
Clarity, Brevity, Accuracy

Ogilvy's list leaves little to the imagination. His strong belief is that clear, concise copy is what serves clients and consumers best. Scientific research says that he's right.
  1. Read the Roman-Raphaelson book on writing. Read it three times.
  2. Write the way you talk. Naturally.
  3. Use short words, short sentences and short paragraphs.
  4. Never use jargon words like reconceptualize, demassification, attitudinally, judgmentally. They are hallmarks of a pretentious [fool].
  5. Never write more than two pages on any subject.
  6. Check your quotations.
  7. Never send a letter or a memo on the day you write it. Read it aloud the next morning—and then edit it.
  8. If it is something important, get a colleague to improve it.
  9. Before you send your letter or your memo, make sure it is crystal clear what you want the recipient to do.
  10. If you want ACTION, don't write. Go and tell the guy what you want.

Read the full article

Buy the Book

Writing That Works, 3rd Edition:
How to Communicate Effectively in Business

by Kenneth Roman and Joel Raphaelson
Writing That Works will help you say what you want to say, with less difficulty and more confidence. Now in its third edition, this completely updated classic has been expanded to included all new advice on e-mail and the e-writing world, plus a fresh point of view on political correctness.

With dozens of examples, many of them new, and useful tips for…

Writing That Works

About the Author

TIM BEYERS
Tim is a freelance business writer. He writes about the business of innovation, comics and genre entertainment on The Full Bleed.

Tim Beyers
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Take Great Pics With Your iPhone

6/30/2017

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50 iPhone Photography Tips

by Emil Pakarklis

General iPhoneography Tips
1. Getting a better camera won't make you a better photographer.
2. Any iPhone is good enough for creating great photography. I've seen amazing photos taken with iPhone 3G. You really have no excuse.
3. Consistent practice is the best way to improve your iPhoneography. Keep practicing even when you're out of ideas, and you'll eventually create something amazing.
4. Treat your iPhone camera as if it was an expensive DSLR. If you only use your iPhone to take quick snapshots, you'll never get anything else out of it.

Taking Great Photos

5. First learn how to take great photos. Only then it makes sense to master editing.
6. Become an observer of light. On a very fundamental level, photography is all about light, so the better you understand light, the better photographer you will become.
7. Learn to predict how the scene is going to change in the immediate future. Will that person briefly appear in the reflection after a few seconds? Be prepared when that moment comes.
8. The best photos convey a strong emotion or tell a great story.
9. Mystery is the best way to tell a story in your photos. The best stories are already in the mind of the viewer, so if you create mystery, the viewer can fill in the blanks and create a story that's uniquely theirs.
10. Always take a few seconds and pause before taking a shot. Is this really the best angle and the best composition, or should you try something else instead?
11. The easiest way to improve your photography is to work on the angle and composition.
12. Learn the fundamentals of composition, get comfortable using them, and then learn how to break them. You must know the rules before you can break them.
13. Turn on the gridlines until you start thinking about any scene in terms of the grid.
14. Practice composition with simple photos that have a lot of empty space. Large open areas are perfect places to start with iPhone photography.
15. Always ask yourself what the main subject of your photo is, or what is the first thing that the viewer will notice. If there is no subject, is it really worth taking that shot?
16. Your composition should emphasize the main subject or subjects. And no, your subject should not be in the center of the frame.
17. Placing your subject even slightly off the center will greatly enhance most photos.
18. Think about photos in terms of balance. If you put your main subject in one corner of the image, you also want to have something of interest in the opposite corner to keep the composition balanced.
19. Turn on HDR for landscape photography and when sky takes up a large part of your photo.
20. Don't use HDR for photos of movement and when you need to take many photos quickly.
21. Shoot against strong backlight (e.g. sunset sky) to create silhouettes.
22. Learn to quickly adjust focus and exposure - and how to lock it by holding down your finger.
23. Never use digital zoom. Zoom with your feet or crop your photos afterwards.
24. Use volume buttons for a camera-like shooting experience.
25. Use the volume buttons on your headphones for remote shutter release - or to stay discreet when taking photos in public.
26. You should be able to take the iPhone out of your pocket, turn it on, and open camera from the lock screen in two seconds or less. You don't want to miss that perfect shot.
27. There are some great iPhoneography accessories on the market, but you don't really need them to take great photos. Buying cool gear won't make you a better photographer.

Editing And Apps

28. No editing can turn a bad photo into a good one.
29. The easiest way to ruin a good photo is to mindlessly apply strong vintage filters.
30. If you are going to use filters, make sure you adjust their strength. The default filter strength will almost always be too strong and result in terribly overedited photos.
31. Your editing should enhance what is already great about the photo, and perhaps add a certain feel that complements the message of that photo. Everything else is unnecessary.
32. Learn the essential adjustments such as brightness, contrast and saturation first. Only then you should look into more advanced effects and filters.
33. Don't download 50 photo apps. Only get a few and make sure you know how to use them.
34. Snapseed and VSCO Cam are great (and free) apps to start with.
35. Don't add text on your photos. Text is distracting and never looks good.

Photo Management

36. Always have a backup of your entire photo library. And another one.
37. Despite technological advancements, external HDD is still the most practical way to back up a large photo library. Just don't keep it in the same bag as your laptop.
38. iCloud Photo Library is perfect for automatically syncing all your photos across all your devices.
39. Keep your edited photos in a separate photo album for easy access.
40. Don't take multiple identical photos. Avoid the pain of deleting them later. Instead you should change the angle or composition and then shoot again.

Sharing And Social Networks

41. Share your work on social networks to stay motivated and get feedback.
42. Follow other photographers whose work you admire to stay inspired and get new ideas.
43. It's OK to copy someone else's style for the sake of learning. You'll eventually discover your own unique style, so you don't have to worry about copying someone else initially.
44. Don't try to be active on 10 different photo sharing sites. It will drive you crazy. Just pick your favorite and do a good job there. I only post my photos @iPhonePS on Instagram. 
45. Don't use Instagram filters if you want to stand out on Instagram.
46. Always respond to people who took the time to comment on your photos. Simply saying "thanks" can make a huge difference.
47. Don't tag your photos using every single hashtag you know. You don't want to look like a spammer, do you?
48. Don't watermark your photos. Watermarks are ugly, and nobody is going to steal your photos anyway.
49. Only share your best photos so that your feed looks great. Quality always beats quantity.
50. Digital photos are transient. Print your best work to make it timeless.


About the author

Emil Pakarklis
Emil Pakarklis

I'm a self-taught iPhone photographer, photography teacher and the founder of iPhone Photography School. Despite having no formal training or arts background, my passion for taking photos allowed me to quickly improve as a photographer and turn this website into the world's leading iPhone photography publication.

I'm the author of best-selling iPhone Photo Academy and iPhone Editing Academy online courses, and spend much of my time running the business aspects of IPS and looking for ways to serve the audience better. Instagram @iphoneps
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The Really Good Guide to Email Design

6/14/2017

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KIM COURVOISIER - MAY 30, 2017

Emails that look awesome

Want an email that looks awesome and converts like crazy?

We joined forces with the talented crew from Really Good Emails to take the guesswork out of designing an excellent email with this email design guide and checklist that’ll make every email you send more awesome.

In this guide, we’ll cover email design best practices for all the different elements of your email campaigns and have a bonus checklist for you at the end. So let’s get to it.

Subject Line

While not a traditional “design element” your subject line is considered one of the most important factors in getting your email opened so your subscribers can see your sweet design so make it engaging, personal, and relevant. Remember, that overuse of CAPS and unnecessary punctuation, as well as some words, can trigger spam filters so respect your subscribers and don’t go there. Use these words instead.
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Bonus: CoSchedule has an excellent Headline Analyzer that could also be applied to email subject lines.

Is longer better?

When it comes to email subject lines longer isn’t necessarily better. It’s important to keep in mind that your subscribers use a variety of different browsers and email clients as well as mobile devices to consume your emails.

According to data from Return Path, 65 characters seems to be a sweet spot for email subject lines, which is about 15 characters more than the average subject line. When subject lines are 61-70 characters long, they tend to get read. However, most email subject lines are between 41 and 50 characters.
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What about symbols in subject lines?

The saying “a picture is worth a thousand words” may never be more true than when it comes to emoji. And emoji in email subject lines can have a major impact. Not only can they take the place of words, be attention-grabbing, and add a definite charm, they can increase your open rates. A report by Experian noted that fifty-six percent of brands using emoji in their email subject lines had a higher unique open rate. Consider us 👍.
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Things to keep in mind

If an emoji isn’t supported in the email client, the recipient may see a ☐ character instead.

Remember: Gmail has to have some extra special considerations when using emoji. You may notice in Gmail when you use emoji in the subject line the icon will look different in the inbox view and after the email has been opened. This is due to the inbox view using the Android version of the emoji, meanwhile, the opened email view uses Google’s own emoji style. While the emoji basically look the same, it’s still worth testing to make sure the same sentiment is expressed in both versions.

In addition, for Inbox by Gmail, it’s currently not possible to insert emoticons in Inbox messages using the browser versio

Preheader

Your preheader can be visible in the inbox preview and in the body of your email, or just in the preview pane if you want to save email real estate. Preheaders add valuable context to your subject line and can help your open rate. Keep it short (between 40-70 characters) and to the point. Use this space to help your customer know why the email is useful to them. Your subject line and preheader text should work together.
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Personalization

Emails with personalized subject lines are 26% more likely to be opened. Go beyond just using your subscriber’s name in the subject line and use other data you have to fuel super relevant messages.
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Adding company name, last purchase, or other information helps you to personalize the email in the perfect way for each subscriber. But really good personalization involves more than just injecting a first name. Think about how you could completely change the email based on someone’s information.


Stop thinking of emails as one-to-many and think about them as one-to-one—where each email is customized to each subscriber.

Email Layout

Your email layout should help the viewer know what they should check out first, and where they can go from there. They should be able to scan the email quickly using a logical hierarchy with large headlines and images focusing the attention. Use layout to break up space and help create chunks of content.

Inverted Pyramid
We’re big fans of the inverted pyramid model. It’s essentially a framework for structuring the elements of your email campaigns (headers, imagery, buttons, etc) so they work together to draw people in, deliver the key messages of your campaign and get them to click-through.
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By guiding a subscriber’s eye down the page to your CTA, you’ll encourage them to click through to explore more of what you have to offer, resulting in better brand awareness, more web traffic, and ultimately more sales.

Want to learn more?

This is an awesome article on how to design effective newsletters. Take a moment and check out the full version.
READ THE ARTICLE

Email Tracking

Simple and free email tracking for Gmail.
  1. Track the emails you send with Gmail
  2. Know when they're opened
  3. Take action
MailTracker
CHECK IT OUT
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Social Media Image Sizes

6/11/2017

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What size of image should I use?

“The 2017 Social Media Image Sizes Guide” below explains what the best image sizes are for each social network and the image types to use.
Download and print the guide for easy reference.
Download PDF
“Social

make a website hub

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Self Promotion

4/5/2017

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Self Promotion

How to brand without bragging

by Lisa Wirthman
Lisa is a freelance journalist covering women, business, policy and social good


Tip
Creating a personal brand is a great way to share your talents and expertise with both colleagues and customers.

But some people are uncomfortable with self-promotion and the idea that it may seem obnoxious to others.

So what’s the best way to sell yourself without alienating everyone else?

Be Authentic

We all have stereotyped images of success, such as the consummate professional or the charismatic entrepreneur. But your personal brand should represent your own unique qualities – not what you think other people want to see.

It’s easier to sell yourself when you’re being yourself, so be authentic about who you are. Focus on your strengths and stick to your own style of communication, whether it’s writing a weekly blog post for customers or sitting down with a manager to share your successes. Reminding people who need your services about how you can make their jobs easier is a positive message they’ll be happy to hear.

Stick to the Facts

Focus on facts and not interpretation, writes marketing strategist and author Dorie Clark in Harvard Business Review. It’s hard to argue with the facts if you say that you have a decade of experience in your field, a passion for what you do, or a certain number of social media followers, says Clark.

But calling yourself a guru, an expert, or a ninja is another story, she adds. Don’t invite criticism by trying to characterize your skillset. Do stick to the facts by describing what you have done -- and what you can do -- to help others. Providing relevant examples is a great way to drive those points home.

Share the Credit

When sharing your accomplishments, don’t be shy about sharing the credit with those who deserve it as well. A willingness to promote others indicates confidence in your own abilities.

“In my experience, glad-handing self-aggrandizement is rarely an effective technique,” says entrepreneur and author Seth Godin in an interview with the New York Times. “What works instead is a combination of relentlessly giving away credit and generously taking responsibility,” he advises.

Rather than focusing on entitlement, this approach focuses on your engagement with your work, he explains. Or in in other words: “Successfully tooting your own horn is more about the horn than the tooting,” Godin says.


Stay Humble

A great way to make sure your message is well received is to give more than you ask, writes Julie Parker, founder of an online training school for life coaches. Empowering others through your work is a great way to develop a reputation for being both smart and strategic, she says.

Then when it’s time to ask for that dream promotion or close a big sale, you can do so knowing that the value you’ve provided to others gives you the right to ask for more, Parker advises. It’s also important to remember that being humble doesn’t mean hiding your skills – only being sensitive about how you share your accomplishments.

In short, learning how to brand without bragging is a great way to advertise what you can do and to help others succeed by using you as a resource. It's a win-win for all involved -- and a message worth sharing.

Self Promotion
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