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What your blog says about your personality

March 29, 2009

Mattias Östmar of PRfekt, a Swedish media analysis and research company, has set up a new Web site that analyzes blog text based on word choice and usage and intuits the personality of the person who wrote it. Enter your blog’s URL into Typealyzer to find out what the site says about your blogging style [...]

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GOOD’s infographics puts the financial meltdown into perspective

March 4, 2009

I‘m a fan of GOOD, a site that is “a collaboration of individuals, businesses and nonprofits…who have been making a magazine, videos and events for people who give a damn.” One of the things I like about the site is its use of infographics to explain complex ideas. If you’ve ever looked at an issue [...]

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When it comes to WordPress themes, it’s often worth paying a premium

February 17, 2009

When I launched my first blog about 3 years ago, I used a free WordPress theme called “Cutline,” designed by Chris Pearson. At the time, it was among the most-downloaded free themes on WordPress.org. It’s a terrific-looking theme and it was designed with the reader in mind. Cutline uses plenty of white space, which makes [...]

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Rumor mill on blogstreet says Amazon will intro Kindle 2.0 on Monday

February 4, 2009

The word on blogstreet is that Amazon is set to introduce an update of its popular Kindle on Monday. The huge digital merchant sent out invitations to a press event at the Morgan Library in mid-town Manhattan. Amazon won’t say how many of its e-book readers it has sold, but Citigroup analyst Mark Mahaney figures [...]

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The golfer’s guide to creative writing

January 30, 2009

Today’s motto is: “Think less. Write more.” Researchers at St Andrews University in Scotland and the University of Michigan say  thinking too much over a putt hurts a golfer’s performance. The researchers gave 80 novice and advanced golfers putts to practice and asked them to discuss their performance between strokes. The researchers found the golfers [...]

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If you ever doubted the value of SEO, read this

December 17, 2008

UDR, a company that specializes in helping renters find apartments, really knows how to maximize search engine optimization to whack the business bushes. In 2004, UDR’s annual organic search engine traffic was a mere 88,000, says Steve Taraborelli, VP of sales and marketing. UDR expects to close out the year with 1.2 million organic visitors. [...]

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12 applications for writers on my Apple iPhone right now

November 21, 2008

Apple’s iPhone is a remarkable device. There’s no end of things you can do with it, thanks to the wealth of free and inexpensive applications in Apple’s AppStore. Here’s what’s been on my iPhone lately that many writers will find useful: Google Mobile App with voice is a must-have for everyone. The app translates spoken [...]

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Listen to your kids and you might learn something

November 19, 2008

Mark Twain, one of my favorite writers, supposedly said: When I was a boy of fourteen, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be twenty-one, I was astonished by how much he’d learn in seven years.” I wish my daughter Leigh was [...]

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15 things I learned writing for eBay

November 18, 2008

Do you ever sell stuff on eBay? I used to be an eBay fool. I sold everything in my house I no longer wanted. I sold stuff I inherited but couldn’t use. I sold leftover motorcycle parts when I was building my 1977 Honda CB750 cafe racer. I even sold two cars. Over about 5 [...]

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How to make AIDA music to the ears of your readers

November 4, 2008

The next time you’re looking for a way to structure your online marketing copy, think about AIDA. Naw, I don’t mean the musical—which I really liked when I saw it on Broadway. I mean AIDA as in Attention, Interest, Desire and Action. It’s an old-school writing technique I learned way too many years ago, but [...]

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