The New Rules of Marketing & PR by David Meerman Scott The New Rules of Marketing & PR by David Meerman Scott was a fascinating book that I had as required reading for Quinnipiac University’s Social Media Platforms course (ICM522). The Premise First of all, the premise is, like a lot of other books about the […]
Getting inspiration from music Inspiration from music Music is a rather common pairing with writing. Some people cannot write without it. Others are inspired by it. Still others are haunted by it. Lyrics Sometimes, it’s the lyrics. For me, personally, I pay a lot of attention to lyrics. As a result, I have a lot […]
Demystifying Twitter What can Twitter do for you, the independent writer? Let’s look at demystifying Twitter in all its glory. Demystifying Twitter: What’s the Big Deal About 140 280 Characters? Twitter is essentially a microblogging service. You broadcast your thoughts to the ether. Some of those thoughts, to be sure, are more interesting than others. […]
Blurbs, queries, teasers, and elevator pitches Among blurbs, queries, teasers, and elevator pitches – which is which? Blurbs Blurbs are short promotional pieces. They used to just stay on the backs of books, but now they can serve as the copy you read on an Amazon author or book page. They can even be the snippet pulled […]
Getting inspiration from aging Aging happens to all of us, even if we die young. And much like children experience various developmental stages, our aging has some stages, too. However, in order to avoid repeating myself, let’s throw out a caveat here and only look at age forty and up. Forties For most people in […]
Book Review – Likeable Social Media by Dave Kerpen Dave Kerpen has a rather interesting book here. Likeable Social Media This book was required reading, as a part of my Community Management class at Quinnipiac University. And it made for an excellent read. For Kerpen, a lot of social media success comes from listening to, and […]
Facebook versus Forums What hath Facebook wrought? Facebook versus Forums smackdown! Facebook, as anyone not living on a desert island knows, is a juggernaut of massive proportions. It is the 800 pound gorilla of the Internet. And it is rapidly changing our interpersonal interactions, both on and offline. So one of those areas is in the […]
Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook by Gary Vaynerchuk Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook is a bit too cleverly named, but the premise is an interesting one. Essentially, what Gary Vaynerchuk is saying is, little bits of content and engagement which reach your potential customers are the setup for the big finish (which is not really […]
CLUMPS of SEO Huh? CLUMPS is an ugly acronym and I apologize profusely for that. But if you want to build and promote a website and improve your SEO (Search Engine Optimization), you should think in CLUMPS. What are CLUMPS? I will explain. Content C stands for Content, and Content is King. Don’t believe me? Try looking […]
Complex evil characters For complex evil characters to work, you’ve got to give them some screen time, as it were. Because a paragraph or two simply will not cut it. Backstory Since evil characters are a certain type of character, it pays to give them a backstory as deep and rich and meaningful as the […]