Category:

Blogging

Friday Catapalooza Blogging – 13 April 2018

by Loknath Das April 16, 2018

written by Loknath Das

As you know from Monday’s photo, I was in San Pedro last weekend—and the particular area of San Pedro I was in turned out to be teeming with cats. By coincidence, I also got an email from a reader who wanted more cats, please. So here you go: the cats of San Pedro. Three were sociable and three were not. Can you figure out which is which?

April 16, 2018 0 comment

Blogging

Medium app release notes make fun of Mark Zuckerberg’s testimony

by Loknath Das April 16, 2018

written by Loknath Das

Who me?

It’s been a very long week for Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Dude survived over 10 hoursof Congress grilling him on the Cambridge Analytica scandal that has rocked the world.

But is his skin thick enough to brush off all the jokes derived from his canned statements? I guess we’ll find out.

SEE ALSO: Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook testimony turned into a lesson on how the internet works

Blogging platform Medium is no stranger to writing hilarious app update release notes that users get a kick out of.

In the Medium app’s latest update for iOS, the release notes take a light jab at the entire congressional spectacle that went down.

We get a transcript featuring a “Representative” playing the part of asking dumb questions and “Medium” standing in for Zuck with his generic “we immediately built a fix” and “I will have my team look into it and follow up” response at the ready.

I mean, how could they not include the “follow up” zinger? Zuckerberg said he’d have to follow up on a lot of things.

Full LOLs below:

Oh, and in case you care about the boring, more functional parts of update, yeah, Medium includes that too:

[“Source-mashable”]

April 16, 2018 0 comment

Blogging

To Write or Not To Write? Pros and cons of blogging as an ECR

by Loknath Das March 13, 2018

written by Loknath Das

If you’re reading our blog regularly, we imagine it’s likely that you’ve toyed with the idea of submitting a post yourself. But perhaps you thought you wouldn’t have enough time, or that the commitment to writing would take away from your thesis work. We editors are here to share our experiences with writing as an ECR, and to lay out the pros and cons of writing as a side hustle. We hope to encourage new writers to try out blogging for any platform–if you’re interested in writing with us specifically, you can reach us at [email protected].

“Working with various editors over the years has strengthened both my writing and the way I work.”

I was once taught that the best way to improve your writing is to read good writing. I now believe that another great way to improve your writing is to write regularly. The blogging I’ve done in graduate school has helped me never stop flexing my writing muscles. This has then served me well when I’m tasked with more formal writing situations. And the ability to work with an editor gave me the regular feedback I needed to spot common mistakes I was making and avoid boring cliches; working with various editors over the years has strengthened both my writing and the way I work. Writing is like running a race; if you haven’t been training regularly, it’s going to be really difficult to perform well when the race comes around. Blogging helps me keep my writing skills from ever getting too out of shape, and then whenever I need to crank out an abstract or do some other writing for my graduate studies, I’m ready to run.

—Meredith

“To read and write in different contexts and for different audiences has enriched my research performance.”

While pursuing my PhD, I came upon the opportunity to write a course book in public health. This was an opportunity I simply could not resist and I do not regret this decision, despite having to write in the little time I had to spare when not working on my thesis. To write in a more loose and popular way was a real challenge and the editorial process a new experience compared to the strict scientific way of working. This got me thinking of writing about research instead of not just performing it myself. Here, the scientific blogs like the ones handled by PLOS are a great way to do this and at the same time sharpen the communicative skills so necessary in order to describe my own research outside academia. This also helped me in my a role as a peer reviewer for scientific journals together with any editorial experience from this blog. As argued by others, science blogs are still an effective platform to reach out and communicate science, something that ought to be recognized within academia as well. While many universities have mandatory PhD courses in academic and scientific writing, students are seldom encouraged to write for blogs despite that it is a great way for ECRs to sharpen these skills. Hopefully, writing and communicating science in blogs, newspapers, and magazines some day will be credited as an important aspect of a research career. Until then, we can continue to write about and share our experiences as ECRs coming from different parts of the world but with the scientific endeavor in common.

—Andreas

We’d like to close out with our top five pros and cons of blogging as an ECR. What are yours?

Pros

Blogging about science gets me reading more literature than I might do otherwise.
My creative writing skills never get too out of shape.
I gain experience communicating with an editor in a professional and timely manner.
Blogging helps you network, since it gives you a way to meet and interact with other scientists.
It can foster a future career in scientific writing.

Cons

It does require discipline to make time to write, and this isn’t easy.
It may take time away from research writing and thus hard to explain to your PI, but you should remember that the experience will give you other skills that are important to gain in graduate school.
Science communication still not prioritized by mentors.
Blogging can be time consuming from time to time.
It can put a pressure to deliver new posts.

While making time for blogging and coming up with good ideas is admittedly challenging, we can attest that the skills and experience you gain are totally worth your effort. Working through the cons we’ve listed will help you hone the ‘soft skills’ of time management, working with an editor, peer-reviewing, and more. Again, if you’d like to give blogging a shot, hit us up at [email protected]!

Featured Image: Healtcare.gov user experience, after Andreas Vesalius. The image belongs to the flickr account of Mike Licht and is used under a Creative Commons CC license Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0)

[“Source-blogs.plos”]

March 13, 2018 0 comment

Blogging

What it’s like to be a blogging mum: I’m always on the go, it’s fun

by Loknath Das March 13, 2018

written by Loknath Das

The 32-year-old juggles this busy workload with being the mother of two young boys who are aged six and four.

And she wouldn’t have it any other way.

“I’m always on the go but to be honest I really don’t know what I would do if I was sitting down,” says Jo who lives in Halesowen with her husband Stuart and sons Thomas and Daniel.

She began her food blog – Jo’s Kitchen – in 2009 but her love of cooking and being in kitchen first began when she was a teenager.

“My mother used to do a lot of charity treks. She would come home from work each day and then go out walking. So I would be left to cook the tea and I found that I really enjoyed it.

“Then I met my boyfriend, who is now my husband, when I was 19 and I started cooking for him too. I find it really relaxing. It’s a great way to clear your mind and when you’ve finished you’ve got something you can all sit down together to enjoy,” explains Jo, who works as a GIS and mapping technician at the University of Worcester.

Over the years her love of food and recipes grew leading her to look online for ideas and that’s when the idea of starting a blog began to form.

“I saw that people had these blogs and I thought ‘I can do that’ so I started Jo’s Kitchen and it’s grown from there,” explains Jo.

She showcases a range of her own recipes that are aimed to help families create simple but tasty meals that won’t break the bank.

These include her sausage casserole, an asparagus and cheddar tart and skillet chicken with mushrooms, bacon and spinach.

“I enjoy making and eating simple and easy food that fits into a busy family lifestyle. The idea is that it’s stuff that you can come from home from work and put together very easily and quickly. I try not to make them complicated or the list of ingredients too long,” says Jo.

For those with a sweet tooth there are a variety of desserts and cakes including a double chocolate Malteaser traybake which she says has proven a huge hit.

“Every year’s it’s my most popular post – it has been pinned 2,000 times on Pinterest. People really like that one,” says Jo.

Family life – with husband Stuart and sons

She tells us she enjoys the challenge of making new recipes and says it gives her a great feeling of satisfaction when she successfully creates a new dish.

“It’s fun. I go by taste and will keep throwing things in to see what works and what doesn’t.

As well the recipes she creates for herself, there are sponsored ones that’s she’s been commissioned to do using particular products.

Jo, who in 2010 participated in the Masterchef Invention Test at the BBC Summer Good Food Show, also takes part in campaigns such as the RSPCA’s Freedom Food scheme, National Cherry Day in July and British Pie Week to in March.

She has also done kitchen gadget reviews for everything from a bacon toaster to a blender.

Often she will produce a video to go with the recipes for people to follow as they cook and these are uploaded to her YouTube channel.

Her two sons lend a helping hand with the recipes and feature by her side in some of her videos. “I like making the videos and doing the editing. It does take longer than you think though,” says Jo, who has a degree in archaeology and ancient history from the University of Birmingham.

Last year, Jo decided to launch a second blog – Mummy Needs Wine – which focuses on family, travel and lifestyle.

“The name is because when the children are in bed, I do quite often enjoy a glass of wine. The idea behind the blog is to show what real life is like.

“We are living in this Instagram world where life is always shown as perfect when we all know real life is not always like that. Most days I’m just happy if I’ve kept everybody alive and the house is tidy,” explains Jo.

Despite her hectic lifestyle, she manages to find the time to keep the blogs updated for her followers. “I try to write a new post for both blogs every week but sometimes life gets in the way,” says Jo.

Her tips for juggling everything that needs to be done in a day include having a family calendar to keep on top of where everyone needs to be during the week.

“When the kids bring home letters, take photos so you’ve always got a copy and write down dates on the calendar straight away. Write down any appointments and schedule everything. I also keep a to-do list,” she tell us.

Jo says she loves being busy and even finds time to keep fit doing yoga and bootcamp.

And even when she’s feeling under the weather, she finds it hard to slow down, she reveals to us. “I absolutely hate being ill and not being able to do anything, especially if I can see things that need doing around the house. I have to keep going.

[“Source-shropshirestar”]

March 13, 2018 0 comment

Blogging

In New Ethics Ruling On Blogging, ABA Opines Like It’s 1999

by Loknath Das March 13, 2018

written by Loknath Das

In the classic short story “Rip Van Winkle,” a man fell asleep in 1769 and awoke 20 years later, having slept through the Revolution.

One wonders whether the same is true of the authors of Formal Opinion 480, issued March 6 by the American Bar Association’s Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility.

It tackles the ethics obligations around the “newest format” in online publishing by lawyers, blogs, as well as listservs, online articles, website postings, and “brief online statements or microblogs” such as Twitter.

It has been 20 years since the launch of the first blog by a lawyer, which was either in 1998 or 1999, depending who is credited as first. During those two decades, a revolution has occurred in how lawyers publish. This blog, Above the Law, stands as testament to that. Last month, in just 28 days, it had 1.5 million unique visitors.

Granted, the ABA has a reputation for being a bit behind the curve on technology issues. But in reading this opinion, one has the feeling that someone at the ABA found it in a desk drawer where it had been lost for a decade and decided, “What the heck, let’s publish it.”

Having now decided to weigh in on this untimely topic, what does the ABA tell us? That lawyers who blog should not, on their blogs, reveal client confidences.

Lawyers who communicate about legal topics in public commentary must comply with the Model Rules of Professional Conduct, including the Rules regarding confidentiality of information relating to the representation of a client.

I would hope that most lawyers knew that. If nothing else, we should be aware of the 2010 case of an Illinois lawyer whose law license was suspended due to her blogging about the clients she represented as a public defender, even though she never identified them by name.

But this ABA opinion takes this a step further, saying that a lawyer should never blog about a client without first obtaining the client’s informed consent.

The salient point is that when a lawyer participates in public commentary that includes client information, if the lawyer has not secured the client’s informed consent or the disclosure is not otherwise impliedly authorized to carry out the representation, then the lawyer violates Rule 1.6(a).

This holds true, the opinion says, even when the information is contained in a public record. “Rule 1.6 does not provide an exception for information that is ‘generally known’ or contained in a ‘public record.’”

In saying this, the opinion skirts around a little thing called the First Amendment, saying that lawyers’ speech may be curtailed by professional conduct rules.

Although the First Amendment to the United States Constitution guarantees individuals’ right to free speech, this right is not without bounds. Lawyers’ professional conduct may be constitutionally constrained by various professional regulatory standards as embodied in the Model Rules, or similar state analogs.

That may be true in some circumstances, but it makes no sense to say that a lawyer cannot talk about that which is already on the public record. As the Supreme Court of Virginia said in Hunter v. Virginia State Bar:

The VSB argues that it can prohibit an attorney from repeating truthful information made in a public judicial proceeding even though others can disseminate this information because an attorney repeating it could inhibit clients from freely communicating with their attorneys or because it would undermine public confidence in the legal profession. Such concerns, however, are unsupported by the evidence. To the extent that the information is aired in a public forum, privacy considerations must yield to First Amendment protections. In that respect, a lawyer is no more prohibited than any other citizen from reporting what transpired in the courtroom.

And the opinion barely mentions the Supreme Court’s 1991 opinion in Gentile v. State Bar of Nevada, which recognized that attorney speech about public cases is protected by the First Amendment, but that such speech may be regulated if it poses a substantial likelihood of materially prejudicing a pending case.

The ABA’s opinion closes with this slightly cryptic conclusion:

Lawyers who blog or engage in other public commentary may not reveal information relating to a representation that is protected by Rule 1.6(a), including information contained in a public record, unless disclosure is authorized under the Model Rules.

So a lawyer may not “reveal” information that is contained in a public record. But how can someone reveal something that is already public? To reveal is to make something public that was secret.

There is no question that lawyers’ speech may be curtailed to some extent under the First Amendment. But this opinion goes too far in constraining lawyers’ public discourse about matters in which they are involved.

Over the last 20 years, blogging has brought about a revolution in how lawyers communicate and converse about developments in the law. This opinion reads as if its authors had slept through all that. Perhaps they should take their opinion back to bed and sleep on it for a few more years.

[“Source-abovethelaw”]

March 13, 2018 0 comment

Blogging

Sunlit 2.0 Released as a Micro.blog and WordPress Photo Blogging App

by Loknath Das March 9, 2018

written by Loknath Das

It’s hard to believe that it’s been over 4 years since Sunlit debuted as an iOS photo-sharing app built on top of App.net, the social network that has since been shut down. App.net didn’t make it, but Sunlit is back and has been reimagined as a photo blogging app for Micro.blog and WordPress sites.

Sunlit makes it a breeze to create short photo blog posts that it calls Stories. The app has two tabs: ‘Stories’ and ‘Discover.’ The Stories tab lists any past Stories you’ve created. New Stories are created form the button in the top right-hand corner of the screen. Photos can be added from your Photo Library, Flickr, Dropbox, and Instagram. After selecting the photos you want to use, tapping the Add button takes you to the Story editing screen where the images are grouped by date.

Each Story can have a title, date, location, and description. Rearranging the photos in a Story is a simple matter of dragging them into the order you want, though Sunlit does not support iOS 11’s ability to drag multiple items at once. On compatible iPhones, the photos settle into place with a satisfying tap from the Taptic Engine. Locations can be chosen from previous Swarm check-ins or by searching for nearby locales on a map. You can edit photos and apply filters by tapping on one from the Story view too.

Stories can remain on your iOS device if you prefer, but the real value of Sunlit is publishing them to a Micro.blog or WordPress site. After connecting the app to your Micro.blog or WordPress account, publishing is a one-tap process. After everything is finished uploading, Sunlit provides a URL that you can share with others. To make changes, just edit your Story in Sunlit and tap ‘Publish Changes.’ There’s also an option to ‘unpublish’ posts. The workflow couldn’t be simpler.

The second tab in Sunlit, called ‘Discover,’ is dedicated to exploring the photos posted by others on Micro.blog. The tab displays a grid of photos by Micro.blog users. Tap on one, and it opens against a black background with the photographer’s name, a link to the post, and a button for opening the post in the Micro.blog app.

The primary thing I’d like to see improved in the next version of Sunlit is the iPad experience. The app doesn’t support dragging and dropping multiple photos within Sunlit or dragging photos in from other apps. Also, on the iPad Pro, tapping on a photo in a Story opens a zoomed in version that extends beyond the boundaries of the screen and is shifted to one side. That’s a layout issue that is slated to be fixed in an upcoming update, but for the time being, it makes viewing photos more difficult on an iPad Pro than an iPhone. I’d also like to see Sunlit sync Stories across iOS devices, which it does not do currently.

Those criticisms aside, Sunlit is one of the lowest friction ways I’ve tried to create a photo blog, which I appreciate. I also like that Sunlit wasn’t built into the Micro.blog iOS app as a feature. The separation of the two helps streamline the experience in both apps. Judging from the Discover tab in Sunlit, photography is one of the most popular uses for Micro.blog, so it’s also wonderful to see a dedicated app that will continue to feed that growing part of the community.

[“Source-macstories”]

March 9, 2018 0 comment

Blogging

The secret to blogging success

by Loknath Das March 9, 2018

written by Loknath Das

Image result for The secret to blogging success

Melbourne sister act Jess, 29, and Stef Dadon, 25, have added some much needed colour to the Melbourne fashion scene with their blog How Two Live.

Behind the millennial pink ensembles and statement sunglasses is some serious aesthetic ambition, with the talented pair launching their own shoe line, collaborating with Australian labels.

Tomorrow (Saturday, March 10) Jess and Stef will share their secrets of success as part of the Virgin Australia Melbourne Fashion Festival, Fashion Talk series, but we got in early.

Jess and Stef Dadon showing off their fashion prowess. Image / Instagram: @howtwolive

How did things start for you?

Jess: We started our blog, How Two Live, when Stef was moving to Paris for six months in 2012. After a few months brands started to contact us to promote and style their products and from there our audience really started to grow. Pretty quickly we were working with brands globally, from Maybelline to Michael Kors.

When did you know you were connecting with people?

We have an “anything goes” attitude when it comes to fashion and we’re never bothered by stares or whispers in the street. Quite early on readers started to reach out to us.

Some were school girls but it really was women of all ages, to let us know that they found that attitude really empowering and that it had inspired them to have more confidence, in their fashion choices and even in life.

It was really touching for us and we realised that we were building this community of people who hadn’t previously felt like they belonged.

Always ready for a photo opp. Image / Instagram: @howtwolive

What was the biggest challenge?

Building our own label, TWOOBS, has been a massive challenge. We had previously worked with a lot of brands and designed collaborations for other shoe labels like Windsor Smith and Buffalo Boots, so we thought starting our own would be easy. Turns out it has been anything but…

What moment are you proudest off?

A few months ago our shoe label TWOOBS collaborated with Gorman on a couple of styles, and within three hours they’d sold out online and we got a call from Gorman to say they wanted to do a second run. That was a pretty massive moment for us and made over a year of hard work completely worth it.

Were there any mistakes along the way?

We make mistakes all the time, and we find this is the quickest way to learn.

Jess and Stef Dadon not big on blending in with the crowd / Instagram: @howtwolive

How do you keep your audience interested?

We keep it real. There’s a lot of airbrushing and “look at me” that goes on with social media these days and we often get feedback that our audience finds it refreshing that we’re the opposite of that.

Our Instagram Stories will often feature real talk on the couch while eating burritos, or us getting ready for an event in the back of our car.

What is your dream?

We really want to see more women starting their own businesses. For International Women’s Day tomorrow we’re launching Two Gooders, where budding female entrepreneurs can apply for an early stage grant from us. This will be funded through TWOOBS sales, and we’ll also be mentoring the women who receive grants. We’re passionate about sharing our profits and time to help other women get the confidence and build the resources to realise their own dreams!

What advice do you have for people getting started?

Don’t be afraid of failure, or of being judged. Both will inevitably happen at some point, it’s all part of the adventure! Also work hard -it’s the real secret behind any success.

[“Source-style.nine”]

March 9, 2018 0 comment

Blogging

BLOGGING IN COLLEGE AND WHY EVERY ENGLISH MAJOR SHOULD TRY IT

by Loknath Das March 9, 2018

written by Loknath Das

blogging in college

Blogging in college can be a challenge for any student, especially English majors who are already required to do more than their fair share of reading and writing. I’ll admit it, sometimes the process of maintaining a blog can be overwhelming and tedious, yet blogging is a hobby that I return to for many reasons, especially because of how rewarding and enjoyable it can be.

1. Blogging allows a space to write imperfectly.

Many college students avoid starting a blog because they think that they won’t ever be able to make it exactly the way that they want it, whether it be the design or content itself. However, blogging in college allows students a space to polish these skills by practicing them in an organic situation. The theme or design of the blog doesn’t have to be perfect, and neither does the content.

English majors can especially benefit from the practice of writing in a low-pressure environment that still demands some effort. I personally like to think of blogging as being in between journal/diary writing and professional or published writing.

It doesn’t have to be flawless, but it needs to be something you feel comfortable sharing with the world. No pressure, though! You can always go back and edit something or even delete it altogether.

2. Blogging provides an authentic audience.

Blogging allows you to have a sense of ownership over your writing because it is something that you and you alone publish. The beauty of a blog is that it provides some freedom, allowing writers to create and post whatever they want, whenever they want.

College can provide authentic audiences for your work, depending on how successful your marketing strategies are and how searchable your content is. This really allows one to feel like the writing that they are doing matters since real people are looking for it and reading it.

Many times, blog posts won’t receive a lot of views or shares, but don’t worry, there are people out there reading and enjoying your content, whether or not it seems like it.

3. Blogging allows you to find community.

Blogging can allow you to find like-minded people that you may not have met otherwise. It can allow you to follow people who blog about topics you are deeply interested in or simply curious about.

Your feed will show you the latest blog posts of other people. Scrolling through and liking and commenting thoughtfully on other people’s content may lead to them being interested in your content as well.

Beware of being ingenuine in these actions, though, since it is not hard to tell when someone is interacting with you simply in the hopes of getting further engagement on their site. When you are authentic and interested in others and their content, usually they will do the same for you.

4. Blogging allows you to document your journey.

Blogging in college can allow you to document your journey from orientation to graduation through photos, videos, graphics and most commonly, words. You may feel as though you are already doing this through other social media platforms, but a blog is different because it forces you to take some extra time to truly reflect on an experience, event or topic that is important to you.

The blog can reflect not only how your writing has improved over time, but also you as a person. This is really important because sometimes a person just needs to step back from the hustle and bustle of life and take time to really pay attention to where they are, where they are going, who they are and who they are becoming. Blogging provides a cost-efficient and easy way of doing this.

5. Blogging can help you find career opportunities.

Many internships and career opportunities seek candidates who are skilled in writing, as well as digital media. Some applications will even ask candidates to provide a link to their blog site if they happen to feel comfortable doing so.

Creating a blog can help you further professionalize yourself as well as provide a method of displaying relevant skills, such as writing, editing, designing and marketing, skills that employers are actively seeking when considering applicants.

However, if you wouldn’t feel comfortable having your future boss or coworkers reading the content on your blog, whether it be too personal or inappropriate, then I wouldn’t recommend linking your blog to your application or resume.

While blogging can be something that can help find or obtain an internship or a job, a blog is not something that has to be created solely for that purpose. It is more than okay to write for yourself and yourself only.

When creating a blog, don’t stress too much about the details. You can always go back and readjust the design and content on your site if you realize that you are not as happy with it as you originally were. Remember that it’s okay to focus on one topic or several at once.

Remember that it’s okay to write either formally or informally, since you are the creator of the blog and you have the right to decide what that blog can and should look like. Remember that it’s okay to start over, and remember that it’s okay to choose a different style or brand whenever you feel like.

The most important thing about blogging is making it your own and staying true to your own voice. The miscellaneous details that you may or may not initially have anxiety about will work themselves out as you become more familiar with blogging in general and as your blog becomes more established.

Don’t be afraid to begin, don’t be afraid to continue creating and don’t be afraid to take a break when you need to — your blog will still be there where you left it.

[“Source-studybreaks”]

March 9, 2018 0 comment

Blogging

Want Big-Ticket Clients? Stop Blogging & Start Calling

by Loknath Das February 26, 2018

written by Loknath Das

Want Big-Ticket Clients? Stop Blogging & Start Calling

You’ve heard the statistics before: blogging 16+ times per month generates 4.5xmore leads and 3.5x more traffic.

Bingo! Time to write more blog posts, right?

Wrong.

Not if big-ticket clients are your goal.

Not if landing a client that could skyrocket your revenue is your goal (and it is).

Securing an elusive, high-end client requires reaching decision-makers.

And decision makers aren’t reading “XX SEO Tips.” They hire people to do that.

Here’s why calling is more important than blogging for landing a game-changing client.

Blogging is Great for Leads, but Not Big Ones

Blogging has taken the content marketing and SEO world by storm in the past few years.

It’s a core, essential component of marketing strategy for countless companies.

According to HubSpot’s State of Inbound, “Blog content creation” is the second-highest priority for marketing companies right now. Among the rest include just about anything and everything relating to blogging:

Content distribution
Creating interactive content
Creating long-form content

You get the point: blogging is the high school quarterback. The head cheerleader. The “it” crowd.

Plus, data from HubSpot shows that blogging generates more leads and more traffic to sites than those that don’t.

More indexed pages. More keywords covered. More traffic. Subsequently, more sales.

Seems great, right?

Not so fast…

According to the same report:

“Our respondents believe that having a website and blog is no longer enough to attract the attention of their buyers.”

And they’re right.

Blogging is great for bringing in tons of traffic, but blogging doesn’t convert people. Blogging almost always pulls in top-of-the-funnel visitors.

Few people have read a blog post and then thought to themselves, “Wow, stunning. I’m going to give them all my business!”

Rather, blogging drives traffic that requires a constant back-and-forth to move through your funnel.

With blogging, you’re also going to get a lot of junk.

The vast majority of traffic will never buy anything (see: opportunity pie).

Standard website conversion rates prove this, too.

As a result, most blog-based inbound traffic is low quality. So while it might be fine for your acquisition costs if you are converting people on a monthly subscription tool, it’s not if you’re trying to close $10,000 per month deals.

To add to these woes, you can bet that high-end, decision-making clients aren’t reading your blog posts.

Why? They’re too busy.

C-suite executives spend 50 percent of their time in meetings. That’s hours every day spent in meetings, not to mention the rest of their day conversing with finance, operations, sales, and marketing.

And 21.2 percent of their time is spent solely on reviewing reports, too.

The truth is, C-suite execs aren’t sitting on webinars and reading blog posts about basic topics they’ve already mastered.

Blogging is great for rallying up sardines, but not for landing a great white.

Instead, offline-based tactics are the place to be. Phone calls, direct mail, conferences, and face-to-face interactions.

Here’s why.

Data Shows That Sales Reps Close Big Deals

Offline style tactics are the bread and butter of sales reps. They live and breathe it daily.

Research shows that sales reps spend 41 percent of their working time directly selling.

It’s safe to say they are in the trenches. They know personalization and the art of the sale.

And how do they do it?

On the phone.

According to HubSpot, connecting with a high-end prospect (CEO, CMO, VP, Director) happens on the phone more often than any other channel of communication.

Email is a close competitor. While it does have a high ROI, think about how many emails you get. Is it 80? 100? More?

Reports show that leads that sales teams capture are higher in quality than marketing leads, too.

Sales reps are consistently cited as a top source of information for buyers in the B2B SaaS space.

For business purposes, the majority of people enjoy being contacted via phone calls. And if you narrow that down to just big-ticket executives, phone calls are still a top-three listing next to email and face-to-face interaction.

That’s two offline tactics dominating the sales landscape for big-name clients.

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Sales reps spend nearly half of their time selling. And their leads are marked as significantly stronger than inbound generated leads.

How? By focusing on intensive offline methods like face-to-face, phone calls, conferences, and direct mail.

Want to land a game-changing client? Stop blogging and start calling.

Here’s how.

Go Offline & Let Blogging Supplement Your Strategy

Calling people? That’s a bad joke.

Face-to-face business lunches? That’s a thing still?

Direct mail? Wait, you mean going to the post office to send a letter?

Offline sales tactics seem like a dying breed. But if you trust data, you shouldn’t treat them like one.

Let me prove it to you.

Sixty-five percent of people prefer contacting a business via phone call rather than lead forms. Plus, they convert at 10x the rate of site leads, according to Invoca.

Typical conversion rates? Between 30 and 50 percent. Studies show that they’re more valuable than site clicks, too.

What about face-to-face meetings?

Harvard Business Review found that while travel budgets and in-person meetings have declined, their effectiveness hasn’t.

For closing deals, 89 percent of those surveyed in that report stated that face-to-face meetings are essential.

Survey respondents said that reducing their face-to-face operations with big clients has caused relationships and sales to suffer.

Direct mail? Response rates are 4.4 percent while emails come in at 0.12 percent.

It’s hard to replace the real, offline connections you can build with mass-produced online tactics like blogging.

A good start is using product demos and diverse content to supplement your selling to big clients.

For example, Sales Hacker labels their blog “Thought Leadership” to appeal to high-end clients. Touting their own conferences, they can leverage their sales training platform and blog as jumping off points for face-to-face interaction.

big ticket clients Sales Hacker blog Thought Leadership

SaaStr follows a similar strategy, using team enrolling courses and diverse, high-level content from industry influencers to gain traction for real sales at their annual conference.

big ticket clients SaaStr conference

While it isn’t feasible for everyone to create their own conference, the point is this:

Blogging and content can supplement or aid the sales process, but they shouldn’t be the main driver of landing clients.

They’re great for driving awareness for top-of-the-funnel users. So, let’s keep it there.

To land big clients, roll up your sleeves to qualify with phone calls, nurture with direct mail, and close deals with in-person meetings.

According to Rand Fishkin at Moz, conferences have a high ROI for your sales team and overall employee health.

Use them as opportunities to create new connections and build relationships with target clients.

In a MarketingSherpa case study, one company desperately was looking to land big target accounts, but their sales reps couldn’t land meetings with high-level executives. Typical tactics weren’t working.

So, they took it to direct mail. Mailing packages, envelopes and clever niche gifts, they initiated a dynamic mailing campaign.

The results? A 10 percent conversion rate on meetings with high-level executives. That’s 10 out of 100 agreeing to an in-person meeting, giving you unprecedented chances to drive home sales.

A few percent of the recipients who booked appointments also visited the corresponding landing page for supplemental information. So, while blogging didn’t bring in the big fish, it was helpful in aiding the sales process and putting content to the brand name.

Of the total, 40 percent of recipients scheduled a phone call, too.

Offline tactics prevailed and were aided by related online content.

While blogging is great for inbound leads at scale, it isn’t going to attract the attention of high-level decision-makers.

Instead, flip the script. Go with offline tactics that are proven to reach executives and then back up your brand with online content.

Conclusion

Blogging promises more keywords, indexed pages, traffic and ultimately, leads and sales.

But when conversion rates are so low, it’s an indicator that blogging is too broad. It brings in low-quality traffic (as indicated by such low conversion rates).

Big-ticket clients are in meetings, reviewing reports or meeting with operational teams. They aren’t sitting on Google looking for SEO tips.

Landing game-changing clients often require you to think outside of the box with a bottom-of-the-funnel sales mindset.

Let blogging supplement your sales process, and focus on reaching executives where they live and breathe.

[“Source-searchenginejournal”]

February 26, 2018 0 comment

Blogging

Wilson student blogging about experiences while studying at school in China

by Loknath Das February 26, 2018

written by Loknath Das

If any particularly observant readers noticed that my byline disappeared from Times Higher Education around this time a year ago, I can now reveal why. I spent this past year in Shanghai Jiao Tong University learning Mandarin Chinese, which, apart from helping me learn my 的 from my 地 and my 得, put me back in the very place that I’ve been reporting on for these past few years: university.

Specifically, the year gave me a first-hand peek into Chinese education, often an object of envy and fascination in the West. Every year Chinese universities seem to ascend up the world rankings, while such is the perceived excellence of schooling there that the BBC recently sent a team to film Chinese teachers trying to turn around a Hampshire comprehensive through China-style 7 am starts, copious note-taking and tracksuits for pupils.

But when I mentioned this Western admiration for China’s education system to anyone who had actually been through it, the response was usually one of bafflement. No one that I spoke to remembered their schooling with much fondness; instead, they recalled a tedious diet of rote learning and a heavily propagandised history curriculum.

Chinese friends were also deeply cynical about their university experiences. One described Chinese undergraduates as like “animals released from the zoo” – having passed the ultra-high stakes gao kaoexam, students simply coast through university, their intrinsic interest in learning crushed by the extreme pressure of school. This same friend also knew a contemporary who, having failed the gao kao, had bribed her way into a middle-ranking institution for the equivalent of £2,000.

Another, studying at a prestigious university in Shanghai, had to sit what were called “open book exams” – in other words, students were allowed to take their books into the exam hall, and the test was simply a long exercise in copying them out.

I experienced these rather suspect academic standards up close. In preparation for a multiple choice listening exam, our class was told that if in doubt, choose “C”. And, lo and behold, “C” turned out to be the right answer a suspiciously high number of times.

Having written about international students being treated as “cash cows” in the UK, I couldn’t help but feel that I was experiencing the story first hand. Students learning Chinese were barred from the library on account of there being too many of us. Tuition fees were still low (at about £2,000 a year) but with class sizes of more than 20, it was hard to know exactly where all this money was going.

Our teachers varied hugely in quality: some were excellent, possessing seemingly inexhaustible reserves of friendly patience when faced with our incomprehension. But another found it so difficult to answer our questions that she offered a tearful apology to the whole class. Either way, both belied the stereotype: none of our teachers demanded excessive rote learning, and usually welcomed our questions.

While I was abroad, I interviewed Yong Zhao, a Chinese-born professor at the University of Oregon’s College of Education, who has been arguing for years that the West should stop idolising the Chinese education system. The West oscillates between periods of Sinophilia and Sinophobia, Zhao argues in his book Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Dragon: Why China Has the Best (and Worst) Education System in the World (2014).

He believes that the past decade has been one of excessive Sinophilia, particular in regard to education, and we should look more rationally at what does and doesn’t work in China’s system. Having experienced it for myself, his conclusions seem apt.

[“Source-timeshighereducation”]

February 26, 2018 0 comment