How we create

Writing, designing, and illustrating, for creators

Extend the max character length for Twitter usernames

The longest a twitter username can be is 15 characters.  Sure, it’s nice to have a short name, but sometimes you need just a few more characters. For instance, I own the domain christiannotebook.com. I cannot reserve @christiannotebook because that is 17 characters. I work at a company called Tribune Content Agency. When we set …

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Just create the blog.

Thinking about creating a blog, but always put it off? Just make it. You’ll be happy you did. For many years I wanted to have a blog that was about publishing and marketing. I would always put it off thinking I’ll start it at some point when I can focus on it. But then one …

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Why the quickness of social media was the downfall of my blogs

Did you have a blog in the past but let it lay dormant? Where you part of the blogging craze in the middle of last decade, but then you turned to social media? I have to admit in the past few years blogged less, because I knew that google changed their ranking to prefer longer …

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7 Reasons to not start a design agency whose focus is Microsoft Word templates

Thinking of starting a design agency whose sole focus is creating Microsoft Word templates? Yesterday I covered the need for this unique and undervalued service. Today we cover why one should not create an agency with a focus on Microsoft Word templates. 1) Word templates are extremely undervalued Approach a company and say, “we’ll redesign your …

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A business opportunity: designing Word templates for companies

There is a market opportunity for a design agency to be focused solely on making branded Microsoft Word templates for companies. Which is not just sticking the logo at the top of the Word file. Branding in a simple Word document can be done with many of the tools in Microsoft Word. Here’s a few …

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How to translate one word into all the foreign languages

Is there an online resource to translate a word into all foreign languages? You could manually look up a word in Google Translate. But don’t you want an online dictionary that can translate in all languages? Good news. Google Sheets has a function for Google Translate! You can set up a sheet with a function …

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The device for writers who can’t focus

Combine a keyboard with an e-ink screen and you have a new writing tool, the Hemingwrite: The Hemingwrite is a minimalist digital typewriter for distraction free writing composition. It combines the simplicity of a typewriter with modern technology like an electronic paper screen and cloud backups to create the best possible writing experience. It is designed …

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Why have 15 Twitter accounts?

It’s all about giving your readers what they want. Do you enjoy reading a stranger’s tweets about his/her health? I don’t, really. But I do enjoy reading the health tweets by my close friends and family. So strangers don’t have to read my tweets about chocolate cravings, I have separate those tweets into a dedicated …

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Tag a photo with #toppslive and it becomes immediate property of Topps

MLB’s only official baseball card manufacturer, Topps, is running a super-fun photo competition. Thirty fan-submitted photos will be used for the 2015 baseball card set. Imagine the delight baseball fans will get seeing their own photo appear on a baseball card! To enter just your photo on instagram with the hashtag #toppslive and it’s automatically …

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Why Mashable is wrong about user-generated content

Mashable is reports that “Millennials trust user-generated content 50% more than other media.” Sounds reasonable, right? However, in that article Mashable makes a false claim, “User-generated content (UGC) is media created by your peers.” Whoa. Mashable. Hold it there. Be careful with this report. Mashable is blending together the terms “user-generated content” with content made by your …

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Flickr is for quality photos, Instagram is for bad photos

How is it that Flickr is now the place for quality photos? Isn’t that Instagram’s realm? Not quite. Here’s what has happened between the two services in the past few years. With the rise of Instagram in 2011, many photographers left Flickr. Instagram became THE photo app for mobile, while Flickr sat undeveloped since Yahoo …

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Optimizing your site for SEO is one half of the search puzzle

Will all sites ultimately become properly optimized for search engines? Web strategist James Ellis writes: While SEO is a critical element in your digital marketing strategy, there will probably come a day some time soon when everyone is properly optimized for search engines. What happens when there’s a level playing field and tricks don’t push …

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Why do people not comment on blogs? The psychology and historical reasons

Perplexing is that people can read something and not have anything to say. What are the historical and psychology causes? At the dawn of democracy, listening was primarily an active activity. People would debate each other. A statement would be made, the listener would respond. Communication was interpersonal. Peter Kreten states in his first draft …

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For creators, searchers, readers, and curators

All content goes through a life cycle. First content is created. Then people discover the content. People read the content. Finally, people share the content. By sharing the content, it becomes recreated like how a DJ recreates music by making it into a mix. The content is then discovered by other people, consumed, and reshared. …

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2014 will be the year of interdisciplinary

2013 was the year of lists. Will 2014 continue the heavy use of lists? Yes, 2014 will bring more lists. Specifically for the masses, there will be more lists in 2014. However, for the more attuned reader, lists will become less popular. Perhaps instead we will see more interdisciplinary articles. Topics that merge various fields …

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Blogging for quantity and quality

Earlier this year when the one-man-powered thisiscolossal.com announced that he was going full-time with his site, I became convinced that for a blogger to make a living off his site is to publish at least two blog posts per day. Christopher Jobson publishes about two to four posts about fantastic art per day on thisiscolossal.com. …

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