Daniel Ford

4 Ways Bloggers Can Keep Their Content Fresh

4 Ways Bloggers Can Keep Their Message From Going Stale

There are three commandments I follow when developing content for my professional and personal blogs: Be honest. Be human. Don’t be boring. Even if you religiously subscribe to those tenets, it still can be a struggle to keep your message from going stale. Here are four ways you can keep your content as fresh as […]

3 Lessons Content Marketers Can Learn From Elton John

There aren’t too many recording artists who have had a better run at the start of their careers than Elton John did in the late 1960s, early 1970s. His first five albums—“Empty Sky,” “Elton John,” “Tumbleweed Connection,” “Madmen Across the Water,” and “Honky Château”—were released in a four-year span and feature some of the most […]

5 Ways to Be a Better Writer in 2013

Images appeared to rule the online roost in 2012. If you needed more evidence, “GIF” was named 2012’s word of the year by the Oxford American Dictionaries—but don’t let that tomfoolery mislead you. Words are the real currency on the Internet and social media networks. In fact, words have always been the backbone of human […]

Who is Worth Reading on the Internet? Start With These 11 Writers

A writer makes a website—a website doesn’t make a writer. The byline on every article, infographic, political musing, and blog is priceless. Behind that name is a blood-and-guts human confident enough to attach his or her name on a thought, insight, or perspective that is going to be devoured and judged—and potentially assaulted—instantly by a […]

3 Things a Good Web Journalist Needs to Do Post-Wheaties

Every morning starts with you spooning your laptop like a lovesick, needy fool. If this is you (and you aren’t a video game junkie or a technophile with a bizarre fetish), you’re a Web journalist. It’s also entirely possible that your laptop isn’t the only piece of technology curled up next to you. Your smart […]

4 Tips on How Businesses Can Be Better Communicators

While humanity has come a long way from the grunts and hand motions that turned into fire and food, how much of our potential for personal and professional interaction have we really tapped into? I asked my Twitter followers and Facebook friends whether they thought people today were better or worse communicators compared to past […]

Is Your Content Too Smart for the Web?

the thinker thinks your content should be thoughtful

There’s no such thing as a stupid questions, only stupid answers. And any answer to this question other than a resounding “no” is probably going to be one of them. Faced with pressure to generate pageviews, content managers have gotten into the habit of being a mile wide and an inch deep in their coverage. […]

F U GRAMMER PO PO

Lois Lane is a horrible speller and she’s considered a world-class journalist. Okay, so she is a comic book character. So what? (Not to mention it’s a bit questionable how good a journalist she was considering she couldn’t figure out that Clark Kent was Superman, but that’s another debate all together). Journalists tend not to […]

How Writers Can Stop Being Scared of Their Own Voices

The biggest roadblock for writers trying to perfect their voice isn’t using the correct grammar, proper spelling, or consistent syntax. It’s fear. One of my college professors once called me out for being too tentative in a story. I was writing a review of the movie “High Noon” and after a decent lead, I just […]

Web Gems: The Art of Being a Web Editor

Guess what? It’s not all about you. Anyone who has ever played on a team knows that. And shortstops know it best. This idea is the fabric of his or her nature. While pitchers, outfielders, and catchers have received the lion’s share of the glory in baseball, they would be nowhere without a good shortstop. […]

5 Ways to Become a Better Writer in 2012

I wrote my face off in 2011. Both professionally and personally, I wrote more words this past year than any other in my life. I can now honestly tell people at parties that I’m a writer and not have it be some part I’m playing in my mind. I’ve worked my entire life to get […]

Born to Write: 3 Lessons from Rock Stars to Writers

It’s rare that I’m surprised by music. I am a product of my father’s musical tastes, so as a teenager, I was baptized by Neil Young’s “Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere”, Jethro Tull’s “Aqualung”, and the Moody Blues’ “Tuesday Afternoon”, rather than new releases by Foo Fighters or the Red Hot Chilli Peppers. Call it […]

Why We Read: An Ode to Content

why we read, picture of a stack of books

My parents were my first audiobook. I’d wildly run up to them with my children’s book of choice, incoherently babbling to get their attention. Apparently, that’s what I thought they sounded like.

This Blog Post is Brought to You by Paper…Mostly

This blog post was written mostly on a blank piece of paper. Yes, actual paper, with ruled lines and everything. I can’t remember the last time I sat down and scribbled away until I figured out what on earth I was writing about.

More Please: Why I Welcome the Technology Overload with Open Arms

I had my MacBook open on my older brother’s couch one lazy afternoon, busy browsing the Internet for nothing remotely important. My iPhone happily chirped that I had a message. I found my phone wedged under some couch cushions, and fired back a response within moments. I picked up my Kindle, downloaded a book, and […]