Wondering how to build a following on Instagram? I was! It’s my favorite social platform and I’m trying to be more intentional about the content. So I brought on Andrea Zoellner, who offered fantastic advice around IG strategy, taking great photos, and if those walls of hashtags actually work. Let’s get into all of that and more.
In 2018, both Seth Godin and Pat Flynn stated they believe podcasting is the new blogging. It feels a lot like that too. Back around 2004, when blogging really exploded, we saw a number of tools come out to make publishing easier for those who aren’t tech-savvy. Blogger, Live Journal, WordPress, and Moveable Type all set out to do something that hadn’t been done before: allow people who know nothing about website development to set up their own websites.
Now, we’re seeing the same thing with podcasting. But if you can, should you? Here’s why you should start a podcast.
(more…)My favorite podcast of 2018 was Cortex, a show hosted by Myke Hurley and CGP Grey about their working lives. Each year they decide to come up with yearly themes to help them guide their decision making, processes, and hopefully improve their overall lives. I’ve decided that I will also implement a theme for 2019 – and my theme is the year of new content.
Last week, the WordPress Core Team released 4.9.8, which among other things, included the “Try Gutenberg” call to action. Since then, the amount of Gutenberg installs have exploded (63,000+ on day one – about 17% of all installs). Whether you’ve know about the new editor for a while, or just hear about it this week, it’s sure to have an impact on your website and business. Because of that, I’ve put together a free Gutenberg checklist for you.
The first time I learned how to burn a CD was mind-blowing. It was 1999 and YouTube didn’t exist. Most of the web was brochure sites with marquees and hit counters, so there wasn’t a great place for learning how to do
literally anything. Instead, my cousin came over and showed me. He brought a blank CD, opened software on my computer, dragged the songs I wanted into this window and clicked, “Burn.” A few minutes later, BOOM. I had my very own mix CD. What jumped out at me the most was how easy it was when someone was there to show me the way. I felt
accomplished. That experience did 2 things for me. It allowed me to have a very successful mix CD business in high school, and it made me realized I just needed to try things in order to learn them. I felt
empoweredby the fact that someone showed me the way.
I want you to feel empowered too.That’s why I
started on Patreon.
. Because of that, I put out a bunch of free content. My weekly podcast, YouTube videos, blog posts, and eBooks to name a few. I’d love to do a lot more of that. I’d actually love to focus on the full time! I’m lucky enough to work for myself. I support my family with sponsorships, online courses, and freelance work. With your support, I can switch focus away from freelance work, to creating more great content. I want to make better resource for learners and educators, spend more time researching interesting topics, and tell more great stories.
Great question!
Patreonallows people like you to support content creators like me by making monthly pledges, or donations. Usually, there will be multiple pledge levels, and rewards for each level. You can set spending limits and stop at any time. Basically, you get to empower and support content creators directly.
I have a confession. Asking for donations has never come easy for me. But I’m also really passionate about teaching, and Patreon is a great way to get the freedom to do that more. For just $1/month, you can get access to not only incredible content, but more access to me. $12/year is like one month of Netflix! There’s a big
butthough. You should only donate if you find value in what I’m doing. There’s lots of great content out there, and lots of people vying for your hard-earned money. I only want you to donate if you dig what I’m doing. Rest assured, my blog, podcast, and YouTube channel will continue to have quality free content. Donating (and reaching my goals) just means more.
Speaking of…if you do decide to donate, you’re in for a treat! I want you to
feelthe value you’re adding. I think the best way for you to do that through great rewards at all levels.
I wouldn’t be able to do this at all without the incredible support I’ve gotten so far from family and friends, guests, sponsors, and of-course, you!
2018 continues my search for finding a good social media management tool. A while back, I wrote about using Buffer Pro and what its been like for me. I’ve since moved away from the pro version, because there were a few things that I really didn’t like about it. The first was how much manual work was needed for me to repeat posts. The other was a pretty terrible bug that voids URL arguments. That means if I had an affiliate code attached to a link, because Buffer adds their own stuff to the end of a URL for stats, I wouldn’t get credit for links, or purchases. Buffer literally cost me money over Black Friday weekend. Today, my setup is janky at best and I continue evaluating solutions, but here’s what I got.
Here are some of my favorite articles from my Pocket account. I’ll probably do this sporadically based on how much I’m reading/how interesting the Internet is being.
Last week I was afforded the opportunity to go to An Event Apart Boston, a conference I’ve wanted to attend for a few years now. I attribute most of what I know to the fine folks that run with that group, including Zeldman, Dan Cerderholm, Ethan Marcotte, and Luke Wroblewski, all of whom would be speaking. Now that the dust has settled, the photos have been posted, a my notes have been typed up, I’m ready to talk about what I’ve learned.
(more…)
Yesterday I read a very interesting article in the USA Today about the 7 Deadly Sins of Website Creation. The article (actually entitled, ‘What should a small business’ website do?’) talks about just how important a good website is for a small business. After reading it, I couldn’t agree more. A while back the local paper published a story about how the writer was able to set-up a sufficient website for a local business completely free of charge using wordpress.com, and I was pretty appalled at the article. I knew it clearly wasn’t written by a professional web developer, just a hobbyist. In any case, I took this article to my students to see what they thought about it and to get their thoughts on websites in general.
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