Call me crazy. I’m always thinking of a solution to problems.
I’m not sure this even qualifies as a problem. Maybe it’s a “First-world problem”, but here it is: How can we create great content without sitting at a computer?
What kind of innovations exist out there to help us multi-task? Can we use voice-to-text, mobile tablets, or specialized headgear to develop content that people will love?
Distance Learning has been a buzzword for awhile. But I’m not talking about an educational method that goes back to 1996, or 1982.
In fact, distance education dates to 1728, when a Boston when a local educator began offering distance correspondence courses (by post or mail). The first correspondence degree was offered by the University of London in 1858.
So the innovators go back aways. They aren’t just the people we read about today, like Daphne Koller, Richard Saul Wurman, or Salman Khan, who are certainly innovators in their own right. But they are standing on the shoulders of people who long ago realized that students didn’t have to be present to learn.
And someday, somebody will stand on theirs. But what kind of learning innovations will they dream up?
Last week I took my daughter to her first Red Sox game. We got there early, explored the ballpark, and enjoyed some Fenway Franks, peanuts and ice cream while we watched the first four innings. We left before the first rain delay of the 2013 season. This game was also a long-term milestone for the team, as it was their first non-sold-out game in ten years.
That’s disruption.
Continue reading Innovative Disruption: The New Normal for Online Media
Marketing a book should happen well before an author is finished writing it. That being said, it’s never too late to start. If you want a way to pump up your marketing, both online and offline, you can’t go wrong with video!
Marketing means bringing the work you have created, your book, to the public. The internet creates an environment where this is much easier to do than even just a few years ago. There are a variety of different online marketing strategies including (but not limited to) blogging, forums, social media, websites, direct emailing and video marketing. It’s the latter that I’ll expand upon here. After all, having videos on your website or blog, makes them 53x more likely to show up on the first page of a Google search, and that is a very likely place people will be searching for you or your book. And it should be noted that all of the other forms of online marketing listed above show much more success when used in conjunction with video.
Now you may be thinking: how can I market my book using video? What kind of video(s) would be informative, engaging, and inspire people to purchase my book?
I’ve come up with a list of 5 must-have videos for marketing your book: Continue reading Best Marketing Videos to Inspire Book Purchasing
Usability is more than just a buzzword. It’s the holy grail of web designers everywhere.
And it’s not just websites. Designers of operating systems, e-commerce sites, content management systems, online training tools, business intelligence systems, and social platforms always strive to make them more useful.
Why? The most basic driver of an interface’s popularity is that people have a productive time using it.
Usability means e-commerce sites that get found and help shoppers complete the sale. It means marketing automation tools that provide useful feedback for making sales and marketing decisions. It means interactive online games with intuitive controls that are easy to figure out.
It also means online presentation hosting platforms that make content easy to publish and share. Continue reading Online Presentation Basics: The Importance Of Being Useful
