Via Blue Glass Interactive. Marketing infographics. Permalink | Leave a comment »
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Most Topular Stories
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The content marketing explosion [infographic]
Holy Kaw!9 Feb 2012 | 4:44 am -
6 Powerful Guest Post Tactics that No One’s Talking About
@ProBlogger9 Feb 2012 | 6:05 amThis guest post is by Tom Ewer of Leaving Work Behind. Guest posting is a hot topic amongst startup bloggers. It is one of the most widely-adopted blog promotion strategies in existence, and has been made perhaps even more popular by the success of “serial” guest posters such as Danny Iny of Firepole Marketing. His “blitzkrieg” strategy may come across to some as a triumph of quantity over strategy, but nothing could be further from the truth. He understands the key concepts that we will be exploring in this post, and executes them in a highly effective manner. Whilst… -
How to Recover From a Social Media Hangover
Copyblogger9 Feb 2012 | 3:00 am“Hello. My name is Cori and I’m a social media addict. “Today is day 1 of my commitment to give myself a regular break from technology and the foggy, uncreative haze it can unwittingly lead to.” I was reading a post the other day by blogger Michael Brenner at B2B Marketing Insider, talking about getting your social media game on. Of course, being the skimmer that I am, the first thing that caught my attention and made me go back and read the whole thing was his mention of having a Social Media Hangover. His hangover was induced by sometimes (as we all do) forgetting to… -
Online Marketing News: Say NOPA to SOPA, Google+ Strikes Again, Coca Cola “Gets It”, Twitter Gobbles Up Summify
Online Marketing Blog » Blogging20 Jan 2012 | 4:31 amThe Social Job Seekers The social media job market is hot! This infographic visualizes the 2011 Social Job Seeker Survey that was conducted by Jobvite. It examines who the job seekers are and how they are utilizing social media to find jobs. Some interesting statistics you may not be aware of: 61% of all employed Americans are open to a new job or actively looking for a new one. 4 out of 10 job seekers are “Super Social” and have 150+ contacts on Facebook, Twitter, or Linkedin. 1 in 6 job seekers found their last job through an online social network. This Week in News About Google… -
What Business Bloggers Can Learn from Hobby Bloggers
Business Blogging - How to Build A Better Blog6 Feb 2012 | 6:15 amThis is a guest post by Linda Dessau of ContentMasteryGuide.com While business bloggers have the ultimate goal of attracting prospective clients, hobby bloggers have a whole other set of motives. Here are just three of them, along with some ways you can apply them to your business blog: Free Your Passion Hobby bloggers have the liberty to indulge in deep exploration of their passions, wherever that journey takes them. In an earlier article about what happens when artists call their art a hobby, I noted how that "means freedom from the creative constraints that might be involved once you…
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Holy Kaw!
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The content marketing explosion [infographic]
9 Feb 2012 | 4:44 amVia Blue Glass Interactive. Marketing infographics. Permalink | Leave a comment » -
8 historical figures who ate disgusting things
8 Feb 2012 | 11:26 pmBefore you read this article, you may have thought your dog had the grossest eating habits ever. But Fido's penchant for poo is nothing compared to some of these sickos highlighted in Cracked. For example, Victorian scientist William Buckland: He didn't just stop at the meat of animals, either. While on a visit to St. Paul's Cathedral, a strange mark was found on the floor. A debate broke out as to what the stain could possibly be, at which point Buckland got on his hands and knees, licked the stain and confidently announced it to be bat piss. But the craziest thing Buckland ever did, at… -
5 explanations of why teenagers act the way the do
8 Feb 2012 | 11:22 pmUnderstanding the teenage mind could be a life's work. For those of you who don't have that kind of time, however, Mental Floss gives five things that could explain the mind of the teenager. For example, parents, have you ever wondered if your teenager is somehow getting dumber? Parents of teens often wonder what happened to the bright child they used to have. How can someone go from getting A’s to getting C’s when they seem to be doing the same amount of work? Once again, changes in the brain are to blame. While the merits of IQ tests are debatable, scientists used to think IQ… -
Surviving the loss of a star employee
8 Feb 2012 | 11:16 pmSome groups have stellar members who carry the team. That's all well and good until that member leaves. Then what? This Smartblog video will help you answer that question: Full story at Smartblog on Leadership. Top news for leaders. Permalink | Leave a comment » -
Disneyland circa 1957 [video]
8 Feb 2012 | 11:14 pmThis video was shot in 1957, less than two years after Disneyland had opened. The footage is newly restored and ready to take you to the happiest place on earth as it was in its early days. Full story at Mental Floss. All the top Internet videos in one place. Permalink | Leave a comment »
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@ProBlogger
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6 Powerful Guest Post Tactics that No One’s Talking About
9 Feb 2012 | 6:05 amThis guest post is by Tom Ewer of Leaving Work Behind. Guest posting is a hot topic amongst startup bloggers. It is one of the most widely-adopted blog promotion strategies in existence, and has been made perhaps even more popular by the success of “serial” guest posters such as Danny Iny of Firepole Marketing. His “blitzkrieg” strategy may come across to some as a triumph of quantity over strategy, but nothing could be further from the truth. He understands the key concepts that we will be exploring in this post, and executes them in a highly effective manner. Whilst… -
How to Succinctly Report a Blog Issue to Tech Support
8 Feb 2012 | 6:07 amThis guest post is by Matthew Setter of Malt Blue. How often do you find it happening to you? You discover an issue with your site, or one of your community members emails you to tell you about it, and soon you start to see tweets about it too. Maybe it’s as simple as an error message that detracts from the professional appearance of your site. Perhaps the contact form doesn’t send messages to your contact email address. Or is it that the whole site just displays as a blank page, otherwise known as the white page of death? You’re not a programmer, a software engineer or a seasoned… -
Make Your Blog Load Faster than ProBlogger: Part 2
7 Feb 2012 | 12:05 pmThis guest post is by Devesh of WP Kube. A few months ago, I wrote a guest post here called How to Make Your Blog Load Faster than ProBlogger. Today, I’ll go into some more detailed advice to help you speed up your site even more. If you’re a blogger, you already know about the importance of blog loading speed, and the role it plays in search engine rank and marketing your blog. But if this is new territory for you, here are three quick reasons why you need to speed up your blog: Google includes website loading speed as an important metric in their ranking algorithm. If you want… -
How I Beat my Best Month Ever by Doing Something Good, Better [Case Study]
7 Feb 2012 | 6:04 amMid-December 2010: on my photography site, we launched a new campaign—our first ever 12 Days of Christmas promotion. The result was my biggest month of earnings ever up to that point. The idea was simple: offer discounts on 12 products over the 12 days leading up to Christmas. I used a mix of my own ebooks and products from other photography sites with affiliate commissions. The result was massive. Not only did we see some great revenue generated, it created some lovely buzz on the site. Due to the success of the 2010 campaign, in mid-December 2011 we launched our second 12 Days of… -
Six Steps to Make Sure Your Site Is Ready to Go Viral
6 Feb 2012 | 6:00 amThis guest post is by Nancy Sathre-Vogel of Family on Bikes. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. Surely Google Analytics was confusing my site with another, way more popular site. There was no way my visitor numbers could be so high! And yet they were. One of my posts had taken off and was spreading like wildfire. Those viral post phenomena that happen to others were now happening to me. The first day, 17,000 visitors came to my website. The next day we topped out at 56,000. Readers were coming in droves. It was exciting. It was exhilarating. My site, viral! Wow! And then I took a…
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Copyblogger
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How to Recover From a Social Media Hangover
9 Feb 2012 | 3:00 am“Hello. My name is Cori and I’m a social media addict. “Today is day 1 of my commitment to give myself a regular break from technology and the foggy, uncreative haze it can unwittingly lead to.” I was reading a post the other day by blogger Michael Brenner at B2B Marketing Insider, talking about getting your social media game on. Of course, being the skimmer that I am, the first thing that caught my attention and made me go back and read the whole thing was his mention of having a Social Media Hangover. His hangover was induced by sometimes (as we all do) forgetting to… -
The “New” SEO Secret Weapon
8 Feb 2012 | 3:00 amIf you have a web site, you may have noticed one of two things about the traffic you get from search engines. Your search traffic may have dried up overnight, with once-healthy streams turning into a sad little trickle. Or you may have noticed a nice, steady improvement as you’ve climbed higher in the SERPs (search engine results pages), while other sites that used to outrank you suddenly evaporated. There’s a super-secret new ingredient in SEO. It was always a factor, but it’s become even more important recently, as the Google team relentlessly declares war on what they see… -
8 Quick Tips for Writing Bullet Points People Actually Want to Read
7 Feb 2012 | 3:00 amIt’s a Twitterized world, we’re just living in it. Blog posts, Tweets, quick videos, Google+, the Facebook Timeline, and tens of thousands of images pinned to digital boards are flying past us faster than we can read them. Faster than we can even scan them, depending on the time of day. What does this mean for writers trying to cut through it all? At least two things that I can think of: You’d better know how to write a compelling headline You’d better know how to write bullet points that grab (and keep) your reader We’re not telling you to keep your copy short. -
7 Crucial Tactics for Writing a Wildly Successful Guest Post
6 Feb 2012 | 3:00 amWe all know that guest posts grow blogs. But not many people realize that tactical guest posting grows careers. Most bloggers I see pump out these articles while reciting the mantra “quantity over quality”; there’s no real strategy and there are no real long-term benefits. In this post I am going to show you the seven crucial tactics for writing a radically successful guest post. Done right, these strategies will get you more email subscribers, coveted Google ranking positions, and a big head-start on your content marketing goals. Who am I to teach you about guest blogging? -
7 Smashing Social Media Marketing Links
4 Feb 2012 | 3:00 amThis 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 monetary terms, it can get good and costly when it comes to spending your…
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Online Marketing Blog » Blogging
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Online Marketing News: Say NOPA to SOPA, Google+ Strikes Again, Coca Cola “Gets It”, Twitter Gobbles Up Summify
20 Jan 2012 | 4:31 amThe Social Job Seekers The social media job market is hot! This infographic visualizes the 2011 Social Job Seeker Survey that was conducted by Jobvite. It examines who the job seekers are and how they are utilizing social media to find jobs. Some interesting statistics you may not be aware of: 61% of all employed Americans are open to a new job or actively looking for a new one. 4 out of 10 job seekers are “Super Social” and have 150+ contacts on Facebook, Twitter, or Linkedin. 1 in 6 job seekers found their last job through an online social network. This Week in News About Google… -
Social Media & Blogging Listmania with Curated Resources & Lists
16 Jan 2012 | 3:15 amBeing included on a popular list of credible resources like our own BIGLIST of top Marketing Blogs or one of the many other collections of useful resources posted online can feel pretty satisfying, validating the hard work many are putting in to their business blogs. Great lists get socially shared, linked, and emailed, giving those included quite a bit of valuable exposure. By association, the list publisher also gains value in terms of exposure, links, and a connection with list participants. Curation is essential for sorting through the mass of data published online and with the closer… -
4 B2C Examples of How Companies are Using Twitter to Attract & Engage Customers
3 Jan 2012 | 3:36 amIf you are a B2C company, interaction on a social platform like Twitter can increase engagement and even sales if executed properly. Small businesses like Tender boutique in Birmingham, Michigan have promoted special offers on Twitter and sold out in just a few days. Social interaction via platforms like Twitter allow companies to gain a true understanding of their prospect base and serve as a real-time source of market research. Customer engagement is a key benefit of executing a B2C Twitter marketing strategy. A recent survey by Chadwick Martin Bailey found 67% of Twitter users are more… -
Blogging On A Budget: 3 Tips for Bigger Impact
29 Nov 2011 | 5:00 amBlogging is one of the top sources of online content creation for many companies. Blogs are a great vehicle for interacting and engaging with current and prospective clients. Blogs are also an effective way for prospects to associate stories, anecdotes, and personalities with a company or brand. Taking on a blog can be a large undertaking. There are many things that should be considered including cost, availability of resources, strategy creation, time commitment, and measurement. Simply creating content and expecting instant success is not realistic. If you have recently decided that… -
The Dynamic Duo of Business Blog Marketing: Optimize & Socialize
25 Nov 2011 | 3:59 amBlogs are often rated one of the top content marketing tactics for attracting and engaging customers and eMarketer has reported blogs reach over 50% of the internet audience. But many companies fail to combine two of the most important tools for boosting relevant traffic and reach: Optimization for search engines and for social media. Most marketers and bloggers understand the basics of a good business blog and the notion of search engine optimization but often focus more on keywords than the customers that are actually searching. Adding keywords to blog posts is a common SEO tactic but…
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Business Blogging - How to Build A Better Blog
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What Business Bloggers Can Learn from Hobby Bloggers
6 Feb 2012 | 6:15 amThis is a guest post by Linda Dessau of ContentMasteryGuide.com While business bloggers have the ultimate goal of attracting prospective clients, hobby bloggers have a whole other set of motives. Here are just three of them, along with some ways you can apply them to your business blog: Free Your Passion Hobby bloggers have the liberty to indulge in deep exploration of their passions, wherever that journey takes them. In an earlier article about what happens when artists call their art a hobby, I noted how that "means freedom from the creative constraints that might be involved once you… -
Six Essential SEO Strategies for Bloggers
27 Jan 2012 | 6:20 amBloggers can never get enough advice about SEO. This is a guest post by Chrisian Arno at Lingo24. Six Essential SEO Strategies for Bloggers When a blog forms part of your marketing strategy, you need to be confident your words will reach the right people. With search engines constantly refining their algorithms, not to mention the huge amount of information competing for your readers, this can seem like an impossible task. Here are six strategies that can help you regain your confidence with SEO.Do Your ResearchIf you are someone who dashes off blog posts when inspiration strikes, slow… -
Blogging Without Dates - The pros, the cons and meeting in the middle
6 Jan 2012 | 6:45 amThis is a guest post by Linda Dessau of ContentMasteryGuide.com In his October 2011 post about why you no longer need a blog (in the traditional sense), John Jantsch of Duct Tape Marketing predicts that soon our content will "no longer be consumed in chronological fashion." When Jim Connolly of Internet Marketing Jam explored the question of why people remove dates from their blog posts, in the end, he came to the conclusion that for his blog, the benefits far outweighed any risks. What are the pros of blogging without dates? What benefits did Jim Connolly see? People were spending more… -
Pitching to bloggers - the do’s and don’ts of blogger pitching
22 Dec 2011 | 6:25 amThis is a guest post by Kristy Shaw of Punch Communications. Pitching to bloggers… the do’s and don’ts of blogger pitching Life as a PR has certainly changed over the last few years; with the rise in popularity of blogs it has meant having to adapt the way I pitch to different types of media. Bloggers can be just as influential as many print publications and therefore should always be on PR agencies radars. Pitching to bloggers is a world away from traditional pitches to journalists; there are many more things to take into account. For example, in contrast to traditional media… -
Two Tips for Generating More Leads on Your Business Blog
19 Dec 2011 | 6:55 amRecently I joined the Social Media Biz School as an instructor. In the video below, I share a couple of the business blogging tips to give you a taste of the kind of strategies, tactics, tips and tools you'll be learning in the free 27 minute webinar on demand: How to Generate More Leads with Social Media... [Can't see the video in your blog reader? Click here to watch on YouTube.] You can get instant access to the free webinar here. Your instructors are: Viveka von Rosen (LinkedIn), Lori Gama (Twitter), Andrea Vahl (Facebook), Lou Bortone (Online Video) and me (Blogging). Get…
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Daily Blog Tips
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New Backlink Analysis Tool
8 Feb 2012 | 3:56 amSince Yahoo! closed the Site Explorer service bloggers and webmasters (myself included) were left without any solid alternative. I have been looking for similar tools since then, and an interesting one I found recently is called ahrefs.com. It’s a paid service, but there are many free tools you can use on their website as well. For instance, right on the homepage you can type your domain name and click on “Explore Links” to get an overview of how your website is doing. As you can see from the screenshot above you get a lot of data back. For instance, you can see the total… -
Come Join the Social Media Club
7 Feb 2012 | 4:37 amBack in 2009 I created two clubs, one called “Retweet Club” and the other one called “Facebook Club”, where members would share each other’s content, with the goal of increasing social media traffic to their blogs and websites. The clubs worked as mailing lists (using Google Groups), but eventually the activity died down. The main reason was the following: sharing wasn’t fair. A member could be selfish and only send requests to the club, without ever sharing the content from other members. A couple of weeks ago I started thinking about what could be a… -
How Many Posts Should You Write Each Week?
5 Feb 2012 | 7:01 pmWhen I started blogging, four years ago, many experts advised posting daily – to increase traffic and keep readers hooked. And many popular blogs do post every day (at least on weekdays). Should you post every day, though? Probably not. Why? Because: If you write two posts each week instead of five (or seven), those posts will be much better written. If you only post once or twice a week, you’ll usually find that you get more comments on each post. If you don’t post too frequently, readers may actually read every post, instead of one in five. If you don’t use up all your ideas in the… -
How Much Does A New Customer Cost?
3 Feb 2012 | 8:28 pmFor someone who is about to start up their own business, whether online or not, this is an essential question to ask. When you sell a product or service you need someone to make a purchase so you can make money. The most important principle in business is that there are two different types of people involved in your business; customers and clients. While both of these may appear at first to be the same they are critically different and concentrating on one over the other can be the difference between success and failure. This concept, what I call the $1 Customer, I teach to clients in order… -
10 Ways to Ensure No-One Will Read Your Content
2 Feb 2012 | 8:44 pmSo 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’re in a hurry, right? So your post will do just fine with the…
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The Edublogger
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Picasa Slideshows: Giving Parents a Glimpse of School
7 Feb 2012 | 6:51 amThis is a guest post written by Janet Moeller-Abercrombie. Janet teaches at an international school in Asia. She is the author of Expat Educator and a contributing author of 1 to 1 Schools. You can follow her at @jabbacrombie. A parent once remarked, “You do so many great things at school. I wish I could be a fly on the wall and watch my child in action.” One of the easiest ways to give parents a glimpse of school is to give students a camera, access to Picasaweb, and a blog. Give students a camera. Each week, one or two students are given the classroom job of photographer. The… -
Add SpeakPipe to Your Blog to Get Audio From Students
3 Feb 2012 | 12:13 pmLast week, we got a question at Edublogs from Larry Ferlazzo asking if he was able to add SpeakPipe to his blog. We had never heard of the new service – but it turns out, as Larry shares here, he certainly could! SpeakPipe is still in beta, which is a way for the company behind the service to allow for it to be used, but they are open about the fact that their might be a few bugs or missing features. What this does is place a nifty “Send Voicemail” button on the side of your blog where visitors can make a recording which is then emailed to you. You can access the mp3… -
3 Major Problems With Apple’s Education Announcement
19 Jan 2012 | 6:12 pmYou probably have already heard about the big announcements from Apple today and how they plan on changing the world of education as we know it. While you won’t find a bigger fan of technology in education than me, as I read through all of the different news articles and blog posts about this announcement, something just didn’t sit right. Here’s why… Rant #1 – You Don’t Own Your Content Most of the concerns I have with the announcements made today revolve around the iBooks Author app. This fun-looking application is marketed as a way for educators to make… -
Travelling Toy Bloggers – Coming to a School Near You!
19 Jan 2012 | 2:55 pmNote: This post was written by Sue Wyatt, who lives in Tasmania, Australia, and is the fearless leader of the Student Blogging Challenges. In 2011, I went on a fantastic holiday (vacation) in Canada and U.S.A. for 11 weeks. I drove about 10.000 miles in an automatic car on the wrong side of the road without using a GPS or mobile phone. I visited about 25 different classes arranged by 12 teachers in my PLN. I didn’t write a blog about my experiences though. “What!”, you say, “Yet you are writing here about blogging?” Mr. Davo Devil eating dessert! Instead of me writing the blog, I… -
2012 to be the year of student blogging!
12 Jan 2012 | 1:22 pmWhen Edublogs first launched back in 2005, the average classroom had one computer, and many didn’t have even one. Certainly there were next to no 1-to-1 initiatives or tablets in schools – and mobile computer workstations were just starting to be used. Getting to the point, the face of blogging in education is way different now then it was just a few years ago. On Edublogs, the two most popular types of blogs have traditionally always been: Classroom – Teachers providing updates and resources for students and parents Professional – A place for educators to share ideas…
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Performancing
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Why your Internet Marketing Company Should Offer Conversion Analysis
29 Jan 2012 | 10:37 pmIf your internet marketing company is helping to drive traffic to your website, you may still be losing money. But how is that possible? Getting new visitors to your website is only the half the battle; ultimately, they need to become new — and preferably loyal and repeat — customers to benefit your business and help you grow revenue. The process of getting new visitors to become customers is called conversion, and if your internet marketing company isn’t offering conversion analysis as part of your internet marketing strategy, you need to start shopping around for a new marketing… -
Buy Links for SEO or not
22 Jan 2012 | 11:43 pmLinks, and in particular one-way links, have always been thought to be one of the top metrics that search engine web sites look for when ranking websites. Although the spirit of linking to another website is to show a tacit recommendation for that website, there are many ways in which this metric can be exploited. One way is to simply buy links or pay a search engine optimization company to buy links for you. The temptation of saving the time and effort of having to build relationships and court the opinions of webmasters is quite a strong one, yet many people swear off buying links for their… -
InstaBG Delivers Instagram Backgrounds To Your Twitter Account Automagically
31 Dec 2011 | 12:59 pmWhile I take great pride in managing my Twitter account through user interaction, quick responses to questions and sparse sharing of my own personal posts I don’t care much for updating my background so it remains fresh upon user visits. It’s for that reason that I began using and highly recommend the program InstaBG. The InstaBG platform connects users to their Twitter account and the Instagram photo sharing platform in order to create backgrounds based on user preference. The program couldn’t be easier to use, simply click on the “Sign in with Twitter Account”… -
Newest Free Mac Apps for Better Productivity
24 Dec 2011 | 1:29 amWe all have trouble focusing from time to time. With the massive time waster that is the Internet tempting us with endless pages of Lolcats, YouTube videos, social-networking sites and Netflix, it is practically turning us all into creatures with the attention span of a goldfish. When was the last time you actually got through a task without checking Facebook? Or sending a text? I bet you can’t even remember. It is no surprise that an avalanche of free applications has been released by developers for the Mac that helps to combat the lack of productivity that sometimes occurs in our… -
Have You Selected The Right SEO Keywords?
15 Dec 2011 | 10:19 amThe first step in any successful search engine optimization campaign should be to consider your target market. What products and services do you sell? What sets you apart from your competitors? Why should people shop online with you? These questions help you to build up a picture of those who are likely to buy your products or services online. They also give you an immediate insight into the keywords (search terms) that will be used in order to find your website online. This is a great starting point when considering the keywords that you wish to target. Some would argue that keyword analysis…
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Blogging Tips
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One Simple Process to Take for More SEO Traffic
8 Feb 2012 | 11:51 amSEO can be very difficult if you’re just starting and have little to no experience or authority to start with. Of course, there are tons of tutorials online about SEO and link building, but most of them can be sometimes complicated and long-term that it seems you’re not getting as much results for the efforts you put in. In this article I will be sharing a process I use to increase traffic to my blog from the search engines; using this process alone I have been able to increase SEO traffic to one of the pages on my blog from around 400 to 3,000+ visitors monthly. This technique… -
Building Massive PageRanked Backlinks with BuildMyRank
8 Feb 2012 | 10:37 amWhen it comes to building quality links back to your web sites, it’s important not only to get people linking to your main page, but also your internal links. The internal pages of your blog or web site is where you are going to get all of your longtail keywords ranked, and traffic from the search engines. At the same time you also want to focus on link building for your main page, so what is the best solution? Building PageRanked Links with BuildMyRank Over the past couple of weeks I have been playing around with a content link building service called BuildMyRank. So far it’s… -
Nailing Down Your Niche
7 Feb 2012 | 1:15 pmYou’ve heard it a thousand times; you need a niche. Maybe you’ve tried several with some success but not the success you want. Or maybe you try one and it really doesn’t fit, so you try another, and then another. It seems like it’s a never-ending quest to find what you’re good at and can make money doing. I’ve been there. I’m a writer. I “thought” my niche should be writing. The thing is, I’m not passionate about writing about writing. I love to write, I just don’t want to talk about it all day. I also love Internet Marketing,… -
The Advantages Internet Advertising Brings To The Plate
5 Feb 2012 | 1:59 pmI deal with people now and again that understand they need some kind of Internet advertising to help their company to take off but they’re really not sure what it is and how to go about getting the right kind. First off, the benefits to getting exposure on the Web. Simply put, you get more of it for less. With the right people using a combination of social media, blogs and articles as well as maybe even some videos and other mediums, more people will be able to read about the goods and services that you have for sale for a cheaper price than with print or even television and radio. -
Top 10 WordPress Plugins To Improve a WordPress Blog
5 Feb 2012 | 1:54 pmOne of the best things about WordPress is the ability to customize your blog with plugins. The only issues is that there are thousands of plugins to choose from and just not enough time to go through all of them. Luckily, WordPress plugins are kind of like iPhone and Android apps: no matter what you’re looking to do, there’s an app for that. So you can be sure that whatever type of functionality you’re looking to add to your blog, more than likely there is a plugin for it. There are plugins to help increase traffic, help boost your rankings, help speed up your blog, encourage the…
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BloggingPro
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5 WordPress Plugins I Won’t Build a Blog Without
8 Feb 2012 | 8:37 amWordPress, out of the box, is already a great content management system (CMS) and a great blogging platform. However, just like most Web browsers, the real power of WordPress isn’t unlocked until you start to add some plugins that help you customize and streamline your WordPress experience. But while most WordPress users are well aware of Akismet, various caching plugins and other near-essential tools for blogging, over the years I’ve found a slew of lesser-known plugins that have become indespensible to me and my bloggging. Though the full list could probably go on for quite some… -
How to Create a Catchy Title in 2012
8 Feb 2012 | 5:02 amEveryone knows that readers scroll down a blog until they find a title they like. I do it all the time, and why shouldn’t I? A title is supposed to let me know what the article is about, and I am not interested in spending my time reading a bunch of articles that don’t interest me. Ironically enough, this is the attitude that I as a blog editor try so hard to counteract. As a blog owner, you want every article to be of interest to someone who comes to your blog. You want them to see that catchy title and decide that the article is worthy of their precious time. In other words, the title… -
How To Destroy Your Blog With Bad Social Media Engagement Practices
7 Feb 2012 | 10:28 amBuilding a brand around your website isn’t a simple process, not only do you have to create amazing content that readers want to engage with, you have to work off-site to spread the word about that content in a manner that peaks the interest of readers. Unfortunately many new bloggers and even some seasoned writers fail to properly use social media properly, destroying the work they put into their posts before they have a chance to go viral. In this section we’ll examine some of the ways you can destroy your blog by become over zealous about the use of social media. 1. Destroying… -
Practice Being a Blogger Daily
6 Feb 2012 | 3:12 amBlogs are a dime a dozen. Seriously, take a few minutes to type “blog” in Google’s web search, and you will get an unbelievable number of results. Those are only the ones that have kept the keyword somewhere in their SEO results. There are millions of blogs, some successful and some not-so-successful. Some are based on images and others on writing. You will never be able to get a very good picture of just how many are out there, but the thought is a little overwhelming. The best thing a blogger in today’s over-saturated market can do is carve out a nice, little piece… -
Creating a Shared Content Box Across All of Your WordPress Blogs
3 Feb 2012 | 9:40 pmMore than five years ago, I was bit by the Autoblog bug. I don’t build them anymore, but I still build WordPress blogs in large numbers. One of my pet peeves when I was working with 100+ different blogs was that if I wanted to interlink them, or have the exact same links on the sidebar of each blog, I would have to add these links manually to each and every blog every time I built a new blog. For example, if I have 98 blogs, and I want every one of them to have a link to blog #99 that I just created, I would have to add that link to all 98 blogs manually. That is very time-consuming, so I…
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Leading Blog: A Leadership Blog
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Lead With Purpose
8 Feb 2012 | 11:38 pmWithout a clear sense of purpose, organizations become listless. John Baldoni says in Lead With Purpose that it falls to the leader to make certain that organizational purpose is understood and acted upon. Retired Army colonel, George Reed told Baldoni that the importance of this cannot be underestimated: I don’t think you can hit purpose enough as a senior leader. It is one of those things that can be undercommunicated by an order of magnitude. You cannot oversell, overpronounce “Here’s why we’re here.” The problem is that leaders think that they have communicated it enough, but… -
5 Leadership Lessons: Great Leaders Grow
6 Feb 2012 | 9:52 pmKen Blanchard and Mark Miller have penned another business fable, Great Leaders Grow. People and organizations are not fully alive unless they are growing. They ask, “will you be a leader who is always ready to face the next challenge, or will you be a leader that tries to apply yesterday’s solutions to today’s problems? The latter will ultimately fail,” say the authors. The solution is to GROW: Growth is the leader’s fountain of youth. Growing, for great leaders, is like breathing. It’s not optional. It is not something you do in addition to your real job. It is at the… -
Leading Views: Ideas are Immortal. Inspiration is Perishable.
3 Feb 2012 | 5:05 pmIn ReWork—a go-to book for inspiration—authors Jason Fried and David Hansson explain why you need to get on with it. Just do it. We all have ideas. Ideas are immortal. They last forever. What doesn’t last forever is inspiration. Inspiration is like fresh fruit or milk: It has an expiration date. If you want to do something, you’ve got to do it now. You can’t put it on the shelf and wait two months to get around to it. You can’t just say you’ll do it later. Later, you won’t be pumped up about it anymore. If you’re inspired on a Friday, swear of the weekend and dive into the… -
First Look: Leadership Books for February 2012
1 Feb 2012 | 12:02 amHere's a look at some of the best leadership books to be released in February. Collaborate: The Art of We by Dan Sanker Good Idea. Now What? How to Move Ideas to Execution by Charles T. Lee The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business by Charles Duhigg Your Best Just Got Better: Work Smarter, Think Bigger, Make More by Jason W. Womack Make Up Your Mind: A Decision Making Guide to Thinking Clearly and Choosing Wisely by Hal Mooz For bulk orders call 1-800-423-8273 Build your leadership library with these specials on over 120 titles. All… -
LeadershipNow 140: January 2012 Compilation
31 Jan 2012 | 1:54 pmHere are a selection of tweets from January 2012 that you might have missed: Video: President Abraham Lincoln and Leadership via @jamesstrock Lonely at Work by @wallybock "Relationships grow through communication." 7 Marks of a Great Leader by @RonEdmondson @mjasmus asks "What Do You Need to do More Of?" >Key question Mike Henry Sr: You Can’t Learn Anything with Your Mouth Open We handicap our potential when we think we have to exploit others to get ahead. Succeeding is not a zero-sum game. More @DPForrester: Gotta Have It Now, Right Now @PeteThePlanner: Would you agree that Kindness is the…
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Great Leadership
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How to Survive a Meeting with the CEO
8 Feb 2012 | 12:14 pmMost employees NEVER get to have a meeting with the CEO of their company. So if you do, it’s a one-shot deal that you don’t want to screw up. After all, exposure is a double-edged sword, and many CEOs and senior executives have short attention spans but long memories. This post isn’t written for the seasoned executive or middle manager who has regular interactions with the CEO. These managers have already earned their scars through the school of hard knocks, and are now completely at ease using the executive restroom. Rather, it’s written as a way to provide some mentoring assistance… -
Leadership Development Carnival – Super Bowl Edition and 2012 Schedule
6 Feb 2012 | 6:18 amThe big game may be history, but the February 5th, 2012 Leadership Development Carnival is still in overtime! This month's edition is hosted by the extremely talented team of bloggers over at Talented Apps. Thanks to Mark Bennett for leading the effort. You can find it right here - there's over 20 recent game-winning leadership posts from an all-star cast of Carnival regulars. 2012 Carnival Schedule and Submission Information: I'm hosting the March 4th edition back here at Great Leadership. If you'd like to submit a recent (within 2 weeks of Carnival publish… -
How to Find a Business Mentor Who'll Help You Achieve Your Leadership Goals
3 Feb 2012 | 1:55 pmI often get asked for advice on how to find a mentor. This guest post by Rene D. Petrin provides a nice 8-step approach: Back in December, Dan talked about "10 Big Development Goals for Leaders in 2012." Goal #7 in the blog post stated: “Find a mentor and/or hire a coach.” While a formal mentoring relationship – meaning one that takes place in a monitored program within an organization – is the ideal, sometimes an informal mentoring relationship is what’s available. The question is how do you go about making it happen? Here are eight steps to follow: Step #1: Identify one or two… -
A Performance Management Model
30 Jan 2012 | 9:04 amAs a follow-up to the recent post and comments "Are You Managing or Just Nagging?", here's everything you need to facilitate a robust dialog on performance management, with lots of room for grey areas. A. Simple model: B. Supporting material for each quadrant: 1. Managing: How to Discuss an Employee Performance Problem 2. Nagging: Are You Managing or Just Nagging? 3. Vacation: 10 Reasons to go on a Vacation 4. Avoiding: The Cowardly Manager’s Guide to Dealing with Poor Performers Just made it up over the weekend - what do you think? Make sense? What's missing, what would… -
Leading in a New Direction - 3 Techniques for Thinking up New Business Ideas
26 Jan 2012 | 11:27 amHere's a guest post from entrepreneur Duncan Murtagh,"an Irishman living in Taiwan, who has been to New Hampshire several times": How can we move past the tough times of 2011 to a more profitable 2012? Well we could start by coming up with some new ideas to drive revenue growth. In this article I’ll demonstrate 3 different techniques that 3 very different businesses could use, and may have used, to think up new business ideas. 1. The S.C.A.M.P.E.R. checklist of questions is a powerful tool for looking at your existing product/service lines and coming up with new variations. Probably the…
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Lead on Purpose
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Managing conflict
4 Feb 2012 | 9:59 am“In a environment that is often fearful and ego-driven, she created a space where people could give up their worries and thrive.” The word ‘conflict’ is used in so many ways that I’m conflicted as I try to make sense of it (ok, that was a ‘tongue-in-cheek for my good friend Jim Holland). For purposes of this post, ‘conflict’ is a mental struggle resulting from incompatible or opposing needs, drives, wishes or demands. It’s manifest in both internal and external ways; internal conflicts based on our beliefs and ethics, and external conflicts between individuals, groups or… -
Guest Post: 7 Key Elements To Building A High Performance Team and Organization
28 Jan 2012 | 8:28 amBy John C. Stevens Managers and executives, who are trying to improve the performance of their teams, are actively helping to improve the overall performance of their organization. Wondering what you can do to boost your team’s engagement and output? Keep in mind these key elements of performance management: Image Source: Guillermo Camargo Leadership. In order to get a group performing effectively, you need a leader who thinks and communicates clearly. An effective leader is one who has a clear vision of his or her team’s purpose and can effectively communicate that vision to the members… -
Leadership and integrity
21 Jan 2012 | 9:34 amIntegrity is one of the top attributes of a great leader. It is a concept of consistency of actions, values, methods, measures, principles, expectations and outcomes. It connotes a deep commitment to do the right thing for the right reason, regardless of the circumstances. People who live with integrity are incorruptible and incapable of breaking the trust of those who have confided in them. Every human is born with a conscience and therefore the ability to know right from wrong. Choosing the right, regardless of the consequence, is the hallmark of integrity. In his recent post 10 Mistakes… -
Making tough decisions
14 Jan 2012 | 10:37 amMaking big decision is not easy; in fact it might be one of the most difficult things we ever have to do. The tendency is to postpone decisions as long as we can and put of the pain. At its root the word of decision means to cut off. When you make a decision you go with one thing and leave all the rest behind. Cutting yourself off from other choices is not easy, and that’s at the root of why we tend to put off big decisions. We postpone decisions for various reasons: we don’t want to offend people; we’re not sure who or what to choose; we’re afraid we’ll be wrong… -
Tenacity in 2012
31 Dec 2011 | 11:57 amSuccessful people share several common traits; tenacity is at the top. Merriam-Webster defines tenacious as “persistent in maintaining, adhering to, or seeking something valued or desired.” Think about your favorite athlete, actor, business leader, or other successful person and you’re sure to find tenacity as one of their defining characteristics. Tenacity fuels persistence. Persistence is analogous to running a marathon. To run a successful marathon you have to spend ample time (months or more) preparing. The time you spend, and what you do leading up to the race, will determine how…
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SEO Book.com
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Focus on The Business Model
4 Feb 2012 | 4:43 pmGoogle's Take on Search Plus Your World A few weeks ago Google announced the launch of Search Plus Your World, which deeply integrates social sites (especially Google+) into the Google search experience to make it more personalized. While Google claimed that the socialization was rather broad-based, the lack of inclusion of Facebook & Twitter along with the excessive promotion of Google+ raised eyebrows. While the launch was claimed to be social for personalizing results, the Google+ promotions appeared on queries where they were clearly not the most relevant result even when users are… -
Kill The Bugs!
3 Feb 2012 | 7:47 amYou can learn a lot more about what Google really thinks by reading what their new hires say. They are not yet skilled in the arts of public relations & make major gaffs like this one: Instead of being able to SEO the entire Internet, businesses can now only affect the search results for a tiny percentage of users. That's a good thing because SEO can't scale, and SEO isn't good for users or the Internet at large. If you look at the Google experience from the standpoint of customers, it's pretty good. Users get relevant search results and ads. Advertisers get their content on top of… -
AHREFS Review: An In-Depth Look at a New Link Research Tool
31 Jan 2012 | 5:28 pmAhrefs is the newest entry into the link research tool space. They use their own bot and their own index (which they state is based on information from a trillion website connections). They claim their index is updated every 30 minutes and the fresh data is available to their users within 30 minutes of the actual index refresh. Ahrefs also has a ranking database of roughly 45 million keywords from 9 different countries (US GB FR RU DE ES IT AU BR). The tools within their membership are: Site Explorer SERPs Analysis Reports Labs/Tools Their pricing is very straight-forward and only increases… -
Goldilocks SEO
31 Jan 2012 | 11:56 amSharing is caring! Please share :) Embed code is here. Categories: seo tips -
The Future of SEO Campaigns with Jon Henshaw & Taylor Pratt from Raven
26 Jan 2012 | 10:50 amHere is the audio if you'd prefer to listen :) Play File (mp3 link) Eric: All right, this is Eric over here at SEO Book and today I'm fortunate enough to be joined by Taylor Pratt and Jon Henshaw from Raven SEO Tools, thanks for joining us today guys. Taylor Pratt: Yeah, thanks for having us. Jon Henshaw: Yeah, good to see ya! Eric: All right, so we just have some questions here that I think our readers will appreciate and some of our members have been interested to know about as well. So, without further ado I'll jump right in here. Obviously you guys are essentially the creators of an…
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Free Weekly Search Engine Optimization SEO News
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Can you take the risk? How Google detects paid links
7 Feb 2012 | 6:36 amBacklinks are still Google's most important ranking signal. That's why many businesses buy links to artificially improve the rankings of their websites. This can be very risky because Google doesn't like paid links at all. Google has several ways to detect paid links. -
The tao of SEO: how to find the perfect balance
31 Jan 2012 | 6:36 amIf you want to succeed with an activity, you have to find the perfect balance of the factors that are involved in that activity. It's the same with search engine optimization. If you want to get high rankings on Google or Bing, you have to find the right balance between on-site factors and off-site factors. -
Different keywords require different SEO tactics
24 Jan 2012 | 6:36 amKeywords with little competition require different tactics than keywords with high competition. If you want to get the best possible results for your website, you must use the right tactics with the right keyword. -
How to find good keywords without keyword research tools
17 Jan 2012 | 6:36 amThe keywords that you use for search engine optimization are very important. Choose the right keywords and your website will get many new customers. Choose the wrong keywords and you will lose a lot of time and money. There are several things that you should do before using a keyword suggestion tool. -
New year resolutions: link building is just like getting in shape
10 Jan 2012 | 6:36 amThe backlinks that point to your website are still the most important factor that determine the position of your website on Google. Unfortunately, it's not easy to get good backlinks. Link building can be compared to getting in shape after the holidays.
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@TremendousNews!
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10 Movies That Could Have Ended With 2 Texts.
23 Jan 2012 | 9:30 am1. Free Willy 2. Home Alone 3. Saving Private Ryan 4. Gladiator 5. Dumb and Dumber 6. The Sixth Sense 7. The Lion King 8. Back To The Future 9. Lord Of The Rings 10. Avatar Follow me on twitter here. Tweet -
The 10 Types Of Facebook Friends. Which One Are You?
23 Jun 2011 | 3:20 pmThe world of Facebook is divided in ten. Ten types of personalities. Ten distinct characters. And guess what? You’re one of them. Or maybe not. I can’t do every type. That would take hours to write and you’ll zone out into a coma mid-way and go who’s this fat blogger dude again? Remind me to send a picture of my package to him. In my mind all of you are Anthony Weiner. You’re my Ant Weiners. That? That made me smile. Let’s get to it. The ten types of Facebook friends. 1. The Girl Who Never Gets Your/You’re Right. Ever. Just once you want… -
The 10 Annoying Phrases You Need To Stop Using.
27 Aug 2010 | 10:17 amI'm betting she says 'epic' Ever since English was invented, there’s been a swath of phrases that annoy everyone. Like that? Swath? I read books now. I asked my tiny friends on Facebook for suggestions on some of their most hated phrases. They gave me well over 70. I’m going to trim it down to 10 of the most vile. If you use any of these, stop immediately. 1. Peeps. The term ‘peeps’ was cool when people were ‘getting jiggy with it.’ Or when people were not, in fact, ready for her jelly. But we’ve evolved. And we’re not your peeps. -
10 Signs You’re A Facebook Stalker.
11 Aug 2010 | 7:00 amThis is actually how creepy you are. Right now, you probably think you’re normal. Nice. Decent. Human. Ha! Hilarious. I know you. Beneath your cheery smile is dark nerdy evil. And your satanic lord is Facebook. Once you log on, you can’t resist yourself. You stalk people. Possibly while nude. If you don’t believe me, read the signs below. If you do any of these things, you have a problem. 1. You Know When People Use Facebook. Your friend Sarah logs onto Facebook at around 9:30am. Then again around 5pm. How do you know this? Because you’ve observed and… -
5 Signs You’re About To Be Blocked.
27 Jul 2010 | 9:10 amA common scene in my life. (Except with way fatter chicks) Have you ever been blocked by someone on Facebook or Twitter? Don’t answer. That was rhetorical, dopey. You’ve been blocked. There’s been a point in time where someone evaluated your contribution to their world and said: Pass. Then they ensured they would never ever see you again by removing you completely from their lives. Hilarious. Here’s five signs you’re about to be blocked. 1. Someone Asks You “How Do You Find The Time To Update So Much”? This is a key phrase. How do you find the time.
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TheBloggess.com
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Robot tigers or Robobcats? I’m leaning toward the latter simply because they’d be easier to put in your carry-on luggage.
7 Feb 2012 | 6:25 amVictor: One day I’m going to finish my robot tigers and we will rule the world. me: It’d be easier if you just took over the world with real tigers. Victor: Robot tigers are scarier than real tigers. me: No. Real tigers are scarier because they’re unpredictable. Victor: My robot tigers have a random setting. me: Like a shuffle function on an iPod? Victor: Exactly. me: That is way scarier. Victor: Plus they could beat you at chess. me: Well, not me specifically. I’m pretty damn good at chess. Victor: Not as good as a robot tiger. me: Live tigers are… -
This candle-stick needs an intervention.
4 Feb 2012 | 6:46 pmConversation I had with a shopkeeper at a resale shop today: me: Can you go any lower on the candle-holder in the back room? her: No, it’s in really good shape. me: Yes, but looks like it has erectile dysfunction. her: Oh. Well, it gets hot in here in the summer. But the candelabra is still very nice. me: It looks like it’s very disappointed to see me, and possibly needs to be medicated. her: Um…? me: I think your candlestick holder is clinical depressed. her: What? me: I think I need to have an intervention. With your candle-holder. her: … me: I… -
UPDATED X 2: Lost in translation
1 Feb 2012 | 4:29 pmVictor: What are you doing? me: Making stuff for my store. It helps me break my writer’s block. Victor: Who’s gonna buy a mug that says “I love to go down”? Are you making mugs for hookers again? me: What? I don’t have a mug that says that. Victor: Uh, yeah, you do. It’s right there. me: That’s a guy on a slide. It means “I love slides.” Because I do. Because they’re whimsical. The fuck, Victor? Not everything is about sex. Victor: That’s not a slide. It’s an escalator. That’s the… -
The end. And the beginning
31 Jan 2012 | 12:26 pmI know I said I was going to give away five red ball gowns as part of the #travelingreddress project, but I am a tremendous liar who can’t be trusted. That’s why instead today I’ll be mailing out nine red ball dresses to women around the world. The tenth will be just as beautiful, but will be smaller and hopefully a bit more magical, as it will be going to Alice: Amazing pictures already pouring in from women across the globe in their red dresses. In fact, some have improvised using just a few yards of material to make amazing portraits. Ball gowns are flying across the… -
The traveling red dress revisited
28 Jan 2012 | 7:14 pmIf you’re a long-term reader of this blog you already know all about the traveling red dress and the magic it brings to those who wear it. If you’re new, start here and then come back, because it’s about to get fun. A few weeks ago we picked up the traveling red dress project again as people began offering red dresses to strangers in the hopes that they could pass a little magic into the lives of people who were celebrating a milestone, battling an enemy, or simply in need of a shiny red ball gown to remind them how amazing they were. People around the world started…
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Craftastrophe
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Don’t Fence Me In
9 Feb 2012 | 5:56 amBecause nothing says Love like an old, rusty piece of wire? Hope you’re up on your tetanus shots, honey! {Source} $12. Emergency room visits extra. Not the same, but still fun:TIMES UP! TIMES UP! TIMES UP! CONTEST: Win a Brother P-Touch Label Maker!TIMES UP! Giveaway! Hangman NecklaceGIVEAWAY: Fail Whale: Part Deux! TIMES UP!TIMES UP! GIVEAWAY!GIVEAWAY!: Cozies, Done Craftastrophe Style (NSFW) -
Excuse Me, Your Bookmark Needs a Brazilian
8 Feb 2012 | 5:57 amBookmarks are one of those little things in life that make a statement about what kind of person you are. The deeply pragmatic go with an old receipt; the sentimental with a beloved note. Others have some kind of complicated thing that clips on or has a chain or something. But what does it say about you when you have a completely random collage topped by what looks like a hank of unruly pubic hair? {Source} $5, which you could just save toward a wax job Not the same, but still fun:TIMES UP! TIMES UP! TIMES UP! CONTEST: Win a Brother P-Touch Label Maker!TIMES UP! Giveaway! Hangman… -
Monkey See, Monkey Don’t
7 Feb 2012 | 4:46 pmThe best part of this? You don’t have to buy it. They give you a pattern so you can make your own! As if. He gets that extra-demented look from the inclusion of pop tabs, so you can use up some of the beer pulls that have been littering your living room carpet. {Source} Less than 4 scary dollars Thanks to Schmutzie for this one, too. Not the same, but still fun:TIMES UP! TIMES UP! TIMES UP! CONTEST: Win a Brother P-Touch Label Maker!TIMES UP! Giveaway! Hangman NecklaceGIVEAWAY: Fail Whale: Part Deux! TIMES UP!TIMES UP! GIVEAWAY!GIVEAWAY!: Cozies, Done Craftastrophe Style (NSFW) -
Going Bananas
6 Feb 2012 | 6:10 amThis one comes from an assist by the able Schmutzie, of Schmutzie, Five Star Friday, and the Canadian Blogging Awards (among other things). She sent me the cutest message saying “Would you mind if I occasionally sent you Etsy links to crazy shit? Like this?” Would I MIND? No, I love having people help me excavate the muddy minefields of crazy Etsy stuff. Oh, you want to see what she sent me? Guess what? It has already sold! But it looked like this: Fret not, my friends. The shop has even better items in it, my favorite of which is a – wait for it – statement necklace… -
Your Friends Are For Giving You Nightmares
4 Feb 2012 | 7:27 amLaurieWrites pointed me to these horrifying items. Thanks, Laurie. When we’re sharing a room at BlogHer and I wake up screaming, I’ll remind you about this. Jewelry made from Barbie parts. They should be called the Mayhem Collection. Full story at Toxel.com Not the same, but still fun:TIMES UP! TIMES UP! TIMES UP! CONTEST: Win a Brother P-Touch Label Maker!TIMES UP! Giveaway! Hangman NecklaceGIVEAWAY: Fail Whale: Part Deux! TIMES UP!TIMES UP! GIVEAWAY!GIVEAWAY!: Cozies, Done Craftastrophe Style (NSFW)
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Lolcats 'n' Funny Pictures of Cats - I Can Has Cheezburger?
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CAMOUFLAGED MOBILE MISSLE
9 Feb 2012 | 6:00 amCAMOUFLAGED MOBILE MISSLE DEFENCE SYSTEM READY TO TEST SIR! dese r wepponz ob moose destrukshun! LoL by: StinkyrayPicture by: Unknown -
Classics: Now With Favorite Buttons!
9 Feb 2012 | 5:59 amWe r adding favorite buttons 2 sum classic lolz, so u can favorite dem! Check owt sum other classic lolz dat nao has favorite buttons! View the original here. Photo By: Ore-sama / LOL By: Marcy -
VIDEO: Snowy Owl Invasion
9 Feb 2012 | 5:00 amLove cute and funny animal videos? We have a whole site for them! -
going….
9 Feb 2012 | 3:00 amgoing…. going… ….pfffft gone… wat a wayz 2 go… LoL by: NCcharmerPicture by: Unknown -
Cyoot Kitteh of teh Day: My Special Snuggle Buddy
9 Feb 2012 | 12:00 amClik heer 2 add a funneh capshun! LoL by: UnknownVia: Here Kitty Kitty Kitty
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Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin current issue
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The Evolutionary Armistice: Attachment Bonds Moderate the Function of Ovulatory Cycle Adaptations
25 Jan 2012 | 8:48 amNatural selection modified the attachment-behavioral system to bond adult mating partners in early members of the genus Homo, thus facilitating increased investment, especially paternal investment, in offspring. Previously existing adaptations that fostered intersexual conflict (e.g., ovulatory adaptations) could have threatened attachment bonds; therefore, the attachment-behavioral system might have evolved the ability to mute or refocus such adaptations for the purpose of strengthening the bond. Two studies offer support for this prediction. Women who were strongly attached to their… -
Why Men (and Women) Do and Don't Rebel: Effects of System Justification on Willingness to Protest
25 Jan 2012 | 8:48 amThree studies examined the hypothesis that system justification is negatively associated with collective protest against ingroup disadvantage. Effects of uncertainty salience, ingroup identification, and disruptive versus nondisruptive protest were also investigated. In Study 1, college students who were exposed to an uncertainty salience manipulation and who scored higher on system justification were less likely to protest against the governmental bailout of Wall Street. In Study 2, May Day protesters in Greece who were primed with a system-justifying stereotype exhibited less group-based… -
Social Roles, Basic Need Satisfaction, and Psychological Health: The Central Role of Competence
25 Jan 2012 | 8:48 amThe authors propose that competence need fulfillment within valued role domains (i.e., spouse, parent, worker) will account, in part, for associations between autonomy and relatedness need fulfillment and psychological health. Testing these assertions in cross-sectional and longitudinal surveys of women in two independent community samples, the findings are the first to formally examine whether the satisfaction of competence needs within social roles accounts for associations between other types of need satisfaction and affective outcomes as well as depressive symptomology. Evidence… -
Social Exclusion and Pain Sensitivity: Why Exclusion Sometimes Hurts and Sometimes Numbs
25 Jan 2012 | 8:48 amSome research indicates that social exclusion leads to increased emotional- and physical-pain sensitivity, whereas other work indicates that exclusion causes emotional- and physical-pain numbing. This research sought to examine what causes these opposing outcomes. In Study 1, the paradigm used to instantiate social exclusion was found to moderate the social exclusion-physical pain relation: Future-life exclusion led to a numbing of physical pain whereas Cyberball exclusion led to hypersensitivity. Study 2 examined the underlying mechanism, which was hypothesized to be the severity of the… -
Understanding the Better Than Average Effect: Motives (Still) Matter
25 Jan 2012 | 8:48 amPeople evaluate themselves more positively than they evaluate most other people. Although this better than average (BTA) effect was originally thought to represent a motivated bias, several cognitively oriented theorists have questioned whether this is the case. In support of a motivational model, the author reports five studies showing that the BTA effect is stronger for important attributes than unimportant ones (all five studies) and that once attribute importance is taken into account, the effect occurs when self-evaluations are compared with a single peer (Study 2) and when self is…
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Mind Hacks
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goCognitive 2.0
4 Feb 2012 | 5:30 amWe’ve reported before on the Univeristy of Idaho’s goCognitive project. It’s a enticing collection of videos and demonstrations, including many guest spots by the glitterati of cognitive neuroscience. The site has more free video content in cognitive neuroscience than before – and it is more easily accessible as well. Check it out -
Dressing psychologists as wizards in court
4 Feb 2012 | 1:53 amFrom overlawyered.com we hear that in 1995, New Mexico state senator Duncan Scott introduced a legislative ammendment providing that When a psychologist or psychiatrist testifies during a defendant’s competency hearing, the psychologist or psychiatrist shall wear a cone-shaped hat that is not less than two feet tall. The surface of the hat shall be imprinted with stars and lightning bolts. Additionally, a psychologist or psychiatrist shall be required to don a white beard that is not less than 18 inches in length, and shall punctuate crucial elements of his testimony by stabbing the air… -
A treasure hunt for the mysteries of mind and brain
21 Jan 2012 | 6:22 amI’ve published a couple of free ebooks recently: Explore your blind spot shows you how to reveal the gap we all have in our visual experience of the world, and discusses what it means about consciousness that this gap is kept hidden from us most of the time. Control Your Dreams, co-written with Cathryn Bardsley and illustrated beautifully by Harriet Cameron, tells you how to have lucid dreams, those dreams where you realise you are dreaming and can take control over reality. Both books are written as treasure hunts – travel guides, but for exploring inner space. When you start… -
The peak experiences of Abraham Maslow
19 Jan 2012 | 4:48 pmThe New Atlantis has an in-depth biographical article on psychologist Abraham Maslow – one of the founders of humanistic psychology and famous for his ‘hierarchy of needs’. Maslow is stereotypically associated with a kind of fluffy ‘love yourself’ psychology although the man himself was quite a skeptic of the mumbo jumbo that got associated with his work. The association is not so much because of Maslow’s focus on self-actualization, a goal where we use our psychological potential to its fullest, but because of his association with the ‘human… -
Gimme Shelter
16 Jan 2012 | 5:44 pmThe Rolling Stones launched their career in a social therapeutic club, designed to help troubled youth with communication skills. The club became legendary in rock ‘n roll history but its therapeutic roots have almost been forgotten. Eel Pie Island is a small patch on the River Thames famous for the underground club that earned a place in 60′s history for hosting the cream of jazz bands and rock n’ roll outfits. Less well known, is the story of how the club was created as a therapeutic environment to help troubled youth. Its place in music history has been recounted many…
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Dr. Deb
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February is Eating Disorder Awareness Month
4 Feb 2012 | 5:02 pmCanada, The United Kingdom and The United States use the month of February to bring awareness to Eating Disorders.Generally, eating disorders involve self-critical, negative thoughts and feelings about body weight and food, and eating habits that disrupts normal body function, and daily life activities.What causes eating disorders is not entirely clear, though a combination of psychological, genetic, social and family factors are thought to contribute to the disorder.Types of Eating DisordersAnorexia Nervosa~ Essentially self-starvation, this disorder involves a refusal to maintain a… -
January is Stalking Awareness Month
20 Jan 2012 | 2:38 pmJanuary has been designated Stalking Awareness Month in the United States.Stalking, as defined by Dr. J. R. Meloy, is defined as "the willful, malicious and repeated following and harassing of another person." Stalking can affect anyone no matter gender, race, socio-economic status or geographic location. According to data in the United States, 1 in 12 women and 1 in 45 men will be stalked in their lifetime.Although significant attention has been devoted to adult perpetrators and victims of stalking, there is persuasive evidence that stalking begins at a much younger age. Research suggests… -
January is National Mentoring Month
11 Jan 2012 | 8:45 amThere are few relationships in life that are more influential than those between a mentor and a young person. I know this from both sides of the coin. You see, I have had many a mentor in my life growing up. A person who took a unique interest in me, fostered my growth and guided me onward. And I've also been a mentor to many as well., paying the experience forward.Being involved in mentoring has been so rewarding and meaningful to me. In fact, research shows that mentoring is an extraordinary experience for all involved.January is National Mentoring Month. Be mentor. Change a life. And… -
5 Tips for Kicking Post-Holiday Blues
26 Dec 2011 | 8:26 amAs the holiday season comes to an end, so, too, does the high octane way you've planned, shopped, traveled, and socialized. The holiday momentum of go, go, go, going screeches to a grinding halt. Problem is, all the neurochemistry you needed to help you get through the holidays - stress hormones called cortisol and adrenaline – are leaving you feeling burned out, irritable, and just plain cranky.Maybe your hopes for holidays with family and friends were unmet, and you now have to deal with emotional let-down. Then there's the march of the holiday bills -and thinking about paying the piper… -
Tips for Keeping the "You" in Yuletide
7 Dec 2011 | 6:25 amThe holiday season is not just a time for traditional festivities, merry making, good will and celebrating with loved ones. For some, it's the loneliest time of the year. For others, sadness of missing a loved one or recovering from a life-changing trauma tinges the season. Many fall into despair as self-reflection takes hold, measuring past accomplishment and failures. And then there are those who begin a downward spiral into the depths of depression.Worries about job security, foreclosures, the ailing economy, and everyday living can make us all vulnerable during the holiday crush. Here are…
