Author Sherri Sand regularly includes scripture references in her devotional blog posts. She asked me whether there is a WordPress plugin that will automatically search her posts for scripture references and display the text of the Bible verses in a pop-up box.
Sure enough, there is! It’s called ESV CrossRef (or just CrossRef, once it’s installed on your site).
Read on to learn how it works and how it looks.
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Have you ever received an email with a super-long link in it—a link so long it was unclickable? I certainly have.
Enter the amazing URL shrinker, a handy tool that shortens lengthy URLs (web addresses) to 25 or so characters.
In this article, we look at the pros and cons of URL shorteners, and review five excellent services:
Thinking about blogging this year?
Websites that include a blog integrated into the site (NOT hosted separately on Blogspot or some other blog hosting service) typically have 434% more indexed pages.
Blog posts are doorways to your business. Publish a blog post once a week this year, and give your customers 52 doors to open.
This article and accompanying infographic explains how to use the “doorway” method to help new customers discover you.
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I’m constantly on the lookout for euphemisms (yoo-fuh-miz-uhms): indirect, vague words and phrases that take the place of words/phrases thought to be too blunt, too harsh, or too politically incorrect.
I snapped this photo of Aspen Meadows Townhomes from my car while zooming south on I-5 (the West Coast’s major Interstate freeway that stretches from Canada to Mexico).
Aspen Meadows. Last time I checked, Aspen was a ski resort in Colorado. And meadows? I don’t think so. Not with the view of six lanes of I-5 30 feet from your front door.
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With the rise of smart phones, listening to podcasts is easier than ever. Take advantage of this convenience and create a podcast to grow your business. Today we’ll look at:
Quiz:
You’ll find the answers to these and other color-related questions in the infographic below. (If you’re too lazy to read the infographic, I’ve provided the answers at the end of the infographic.)
Be sure to check out yesterday’s guest column by Steve Bezella on The Psychology of Color for Marketing.
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By Gary L. Bezella
Guest Columnist
Color changes people. Colors affect our mood, personality, and buying choices. The right color can boost your advertising effectiveness, but the wrong colors can hamper your marketing.
It’s important to understand the psychology of color to ensure heavy traffic from your advertising. But never let the color of your advertising overpower its overall message.
Here are common colors used in marketing and why you should – or shouldn’t – use them.
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“I can’t think of anything to write about.”
When I taught high school English, my students frequently moaned about the lack of interesting things to write about.
My standard response: I’d roll my eyes and challenge them to keep their eyes and ears open and to ask questions about everything they see and hear.
When I was driving near my home, I spotted the perfect story starter. I’ve never had to pull to the side of the road to make way for a seaplane. In fact, I’ve never seen a seaplane being towed down the highway!
This scene has the makings for a good mystery/suspense story or an intriguing blog post.
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The New York Times has updated its Manual of Style and Usage.
Here are several changes they’ve made to online-related terms:
World Wide Web is now known as the web with a lowercase “w.” (Have you noticed that very few advertisements include “www” in front of a web address? Most of us know that the “www” is a given; when referring people to our websites, we just say, “Go to BloggingBistro.com.”
website is lowercase, one word.
Internet, however, is capitalized.
Email no longer uses a hyphen.
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When authors ask me to help them with their online marketing, they usually open with:
“My agent told me I need a Facebook ‘fan’ page, so I had my son create one for me. But I haven’t posted anything to it. I don’t even know how to use it. Help!”
Most writers struggle to balance the demands of writing and marketing our writing. Unsure about how to woo readers, we use the ‘spray and pray’ marketing method: we create a blog and multiple social media accounts, spray out random updates and pray someone pays attention.
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