Insight

The Best Year-End Lessons Don’t Come From Top-10 Lists (An Office Meditation)

Don’t resist. Relax and let it happen. It shouldn’t hurt, though you might feel a tugging sensation. It’s okay to stop—just for a little while—the striving, planning, strategizing, evaluating that make your work so successful, that you hope makes you notable and valuable. It’s fine to step away from the carefully wrought echo chamber of […]

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 […]

5 Lessons From my Biggest Blog Fails of 2011

I failed a lot this year. My gut reaction was to quietly sweep my failures under the rug, whistle, and walk away. But instead, I figured I’d scrape the bottom of the barrel to see if there was any gold. Sue me. I’m an optimist. Instead of a collection of successful case studies, this post […]

Why the Fate of Your Website Will Be Decided in Less Time Than it Takes You to Read This Sentence

Speed kills on the web. The same people who a decade ago would wait patiently through the screeching greeting of a dial-up modem are now frustrated when the homepage of CNN doesn’t refresh as quickly as a wiper blade across a windshield. Consider the following:

A Magazine is Not a Broken iPad (No Matter What Your Baby Says)

Homer Simpson understands children. Well, his children. All right, maybe just Maggie because she rarely speaks. But he knows enough about the relative predictability of kids to have once uttered, “You couldn’t fool your mother on the foolingest day of your life if you had an electrified fooling machine.” Bravo, Homer. This is why you […]

3 Unrealistic Promises Made About Social Media

It’s easy to get overly ambitious when making the case for social media. When the board room is finally ready to listen, we breathlessly explain the social media sea change and how our organization can ride the wave. And in our excitement, we sometimes make the case too well. We make it seem too easy. […]

Should This Blog Post Have Been Written in Cursive?

I recently learned that Indiana, my beloved home state, is no longer requiring schools to teach cursive writing, focusing instead on printing and typing. I remember struggling to perfect my cursive writing in Mr. Biltz’s fifth grade class. But I never came close to the beautiful script of my teacher. If there were an Olympics […]

3 Steps to Delivering Customer Service Happiness

I recently purchased some sandals from Zappos that didn’t work out. It wasn’t anyone’s fault, but they needed to go back. I hate returns, particularly when it comes to an online purchase. “I have to print a label?” “Go to the UPS store?” “Carve out time for this when the whole point of ordering online […]

What’s Your Evil Twin Saying Between the Lines of Your Content?

I don’t want to freak anyone out, but… your evil twin might have co-opted your message. Don’t have an evil twin? I’ll take your word for it, but that leaves me wondering about the contradictory messages in your content. In fact, subtextual messages have been responsible for some of the most fraught, but enlightening, interactions […]

What Being on the Radio Taught Me About Writing

Everything I learned about writing I learned on the radio. All right, that’s not entirely true. But I’ve learned a lot.

Want Infinite Blog Post Ideas?

I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by Facebook. OK, so maybe destroyed is a bit dramatic, but they were at least heavily distracted by it. And so it goes. We in the world of content marketing have a lot of things to click on. There are blog posts to read. There are […]

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 […]

The Future of Marketing: Cling to Your Core and Your Customers

Robin Fisher Roffer is a marketing force to be reckoned with. She’s crafted campaigns for brands people use and rely on every day. CNN using their Gulf War moment to launch into the permanent limelight? Her lightbulb. The evolution of the FX brand? Yep, hers, too. Bloomberg Television’s web expansion? Uh huh. And, oh yeah, […]

How to Make an Editor Happy

Times are tough for freelance writers, so you need every edge to secure work and maintain good relationships with your clients. This is especially important in a custom media environment, where many magazines operate with a small staff. Editors have to know their writers will hit the mark every time. Deadlines are always fast-approaching and […]

Printervention: An Ode to Magazines

printervention, an ode to print magazines

Call in the A&E folks, it’s time for an intervention. You see, I have a little problem with magazines. My coffee table is stacked with them, my dining room table has a few scattered on it, ditto on my nightstands, and for certain, you can find a few in my purse right now. But the […]

Lead and I Will Follow: On Writing Good Leads

You’re making me nervous. You clicked on this link expecting to learn something or to perhaps be entertained. I could boldly hope that you may even retweet or bookmark this article. But a lot of that depends on my lead. Here’s hoping it worked.

Sign of the Times: Content Professionals Weigh in on the NYT Paywall

content professionals react to nyt paywall

The iron curtain of content is coming. Sort of. Ok, so maybe it’s more like a chain-link fence. Regardless of its structural integrity, one thing is certain: the New York Times will finally erect its long-awaited paywall. Here’s how it works:

Rebecca Black and the Art of Being Bad

It’s official: Bad is the new good. For the moment, anyway. While music tastes and styles have always been subjective, there’s no disputing that the buzz that built overnight around “Friday,” fledgling teen “singer” Rebecca Black’s ode to the weekend, is a sign that you don’t necessarily need to be good at what you do […]

Tying It All Together: What a Well-Placed Headline Can Do For A Layout

tying it all together, rugs and headlines

There’s a scene from the Coen Brothers’ 1998 cult classic The Big Lebowski where Jeff Bridges’ character, The Dude, walks into a local bowling alley lamenting the ruination of a living room rug vandalized by intruders. “That rug really tied the room together, did it not?” asks a concerned John Goodman, who plays fellow bowler […]

What the Top 10 Blogs in Content Marketing Are Doing That You Probably Aren’t

what the best content marketing blogs do that you probably don't

If you want to have one of the most-read blogs in all of content marketing, the formula is actually pretty simple. All you have to do? Write 2.4 posts per day with an average word count of 1,278 every day for the next 6.7 years. Think you have the stamina?

How to Avoid Trolls, Landmines, and Time-Sucks in Social Media

The social media landscape can be a Labyrinth for even the most seasoned marketing professionals. Unexpected landmines, spiteful trolls, and productivity black holes are commonly spotted – that is if you’ve got the foresight to see them. And if you don’t? Well, you’re not totally out of luck as long as you have access to […]

That’s Just, Like, Your Opinion, Man

You have written the perfect blog entry on a topic that seems harmless enough: “Five fitness tips for fighting flab.” You publish, and then you wait for the healthy dialogue to begin.

3 Web Design Tools for Non-Web Designers Who Need to Explain Design Ideas

I couldn’t draw you a 6-inch straight line if you gave me a ruler, a pencil, and a 5-inch head start. Seriously, design is not my forte. Just ask anyone who has ever tried to copy off my papers in high school. My doodles are terrible and cast doubt on my ability to perform basic […]

Don’t Worry, Be Content: 10 Rules for Creating Quality Editorial

No rules, just write, right? Not so fast. Though creating quality editorial is an art, there’s absolutely a science behind it, according to Kim Caviness, VP of content at TMG Custom Media (disclosure: the company behind this blog). Here are her 10 rules for quality editorial:

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