As writers, we love what we do. (Right?) We are able to put information, ideas, and opinions in print to help our readers. As a bonus, we get paid for it. It doesn’t matter what our style is; formal, editorial, or whimsical, our words can send a powerful message to readers. And if we want to capture and hold our audience’s attention, we know that a compelling message with strong headlines and a decent flow of ideas are a must. For the longest time I was convinced that my words alone could paint the perfect portrait. Then I realized that perhaps my words alone were not enough. Simply constructing the proper syllables didn’t always capture the targeted audience. However, the right photo will typically catch the eye of most people. Even the best writers have benefited from using photos in magazines. Why not blogs? How to Find the Right Photo There are two options when you are considering the addition – Read the full article
Small businesses have a daunting task as they compete with larger companies that boast more resources and staff. How can a small business compete for a share of the search engine market with so much stacked against them? Here are some tips on creating an SEO strategy for your small business: Learn from the Competition Promodo’s SEO specialist Anna Moseva suggests starting your small business SEO strategy with a thorough analysis of the competition. You’re probably familiar with piecing together keywords on Google in order to figure out what people are searching for and what’s already out there by way of content, but Moseva advises that you take the top 20 results in Google and analyze their Alexa Rank with the SEO Quake plugin for Firefox. Once you know the top sites among your competition, you can analyze the kind of traffic they generate and which keywords and adwords are linked to their sites at SEM Rush. This technique will – Read the full article
You saw the money tree analogy coming—after all, money is usually the end goal of a startup company. This got me to thinking about the many ways a company can try to yield a profit. I found that people are constantly discussing the importance of content on a company website, but what people are not constantly discussing is the idea that this content does not always equal revenue. I will admit that I frequent many company websites simply to read their blog, yet I have no intention of ever buying their product. The point is, you first want to drive traffic to your webpage, but you cannot stop there. There are many things you can do to make sure that when people are visiting your website, they are tempted to buy. Consider a few of the things your startup company can do to make sure you are attracting the right kinds of visitors and keeping them interested: How to Bring – Read the full article
Over the course of the last few weeks, we have been handpicking a bunch of WordPress themes that we hope will help you come up with the best and most efficient design possible for your WordPress site. Recently, we created a list of wedding WordPress themes, which is great not just for wedding suppliers, but also for those who want to keep an online chronicle of all nuptial-related things: photos of the bridal dress, the official wedding video, albums and accounts of the bachelor party and bridal shower, that sort of thing. Today, however, we get a little bit more serious. By that, we mean we’ve created a selection of the top WordPress themes for professionals – whatever the industry, wherever the location, no matter the size. If there’s anything that unifies these simple WordPress themes together, it’s a design philosophy that inspires pros to get things done. Functional, feature-rich, elegant, and versatile, these professional WordPress themes aren’t going to – Read the full article
We’ve probably all seen these captivating Old Spice ads. Male or female there’s a certain je ne sais quoi about Isaiah Mustafa, who appeared in these commercials in 2010 and became part of the fastest-ever growing viral media marketing campaign. Isaiah is depicted as the perfect boyfriend in a series of fantasy situations, all because he chose Old Spice products. The narrative of the original advert (the one which ends with “I’m on a horse”) is quirky and takes place in a single, CGI-assisted shot. Isaiah Mustafa’s graceful, smug patter and charismatic movements make for exciting viewing, and the slick nature of the “storyline” keeps the viewer wanting more – precisely what we want from a viral advertisement. There was a shorter, “stinger” ad released, and one which showed him in a rowing boat removing a fake moustache to reveal another fake moustache below. Finally, Isaiah Mustafa starred in a second long advert. This time, the transitions were far more – Read the full article
Google+ is gaining immense popularity and everyone’s talking about it right now. Forget for a second about its “competition” with Facebook and other social media sites; in and by itself Google Plus is receiving fast and wide acclaim, at a global level, and many even say that soon it is going to act as a channel to get people to patronize your business. A channel, in other words, for Internet marketing and social media marketing. Currently, there are no Google Plus profiles exclusively for businesses, but that doesn’t mean you can’t use the social networking site to help your work gain more visibility. Here are some tips on leveraging Google+ in order to advance your business objectives: If you already have a Google+ profile, you are halfway to generating, well, more business buzz. Not yet a member? Well, first you have to create a Gmail account (if you don’t already have one). Then you have to get an invitation. For – Read the full article
Blogs have increasingly become valuable multimedia hubs where personal bloggers and companies provide information through all types of media in various categories of interest. When bloggers write posts and get them published, they expect readers to find them. The fact, however, is that your blog is one among millions of others – probably even hundreds of millions – existing in the Web universe. Instead of waiting to be discovered, you need to find a way of telling the world that you exist. The best way of doing this is to promote your blog to social media sites. Once your post is published at your ‘hub’, you should let your followers and fans find the post where they hang out. With more than 200 million Twitter users and about 800 million on Facebook, having your post promoted through social media is crucial in giving your blog much needed exposure. There are several major platforms where you can publish and enable people – Read the full article
Blogs are here to stay. (Call them “online magazines” if you’re not used to the portmanteau.) But gone are the days when you just signed up, went for the simplest blog theme or layout, added some cute Dear Diary posts, and suddenly had everyone finding you. These days, you’ve got to stand out. And standing out takes more than signing up for an account in your favorite blogging platform. (Our favorite, of course, is WordPress.) Go for something that will differentiate you – and which will also reflect your identity well. That’s why we came up with this list: to help you find the appropriate look of your WordPress blog, whether it’s a simple company news blog, a photo blog, an online magazine, a video blog, a friendly community for your fans and followers, a social media hub, or a tumblog. If you like this list of online magazine / blog-friendly WordPress themes, share the love by tweeting it, posting – Read the full article
