Tag: boat
5 Tips for Writers & Creators in 2014 (Infographic)
Valuable Content!
I’m making it my 2014 goal to give my writer and creator friends a lot of valuable content this year to help you get your message out, potently, all year long.
This will be a big year for you. You don’t just have to waste hours on Facebook, playing your phone Apps, or punching out blog posts 47 people read. You can offer related products and services based on your strong suits and build momentum.
If you’d like to gain a bit more recognition or make money on the side, I’ll give you a bunch of ways and ideas for doing that…and no, the point isn’t to somehow get you to buy something from me. I may offer some useful, related things to purchase, but most everything will be free.
More importantly, I’ll help you with the marketing and web optimization side of things, so you don’t have to spend hours researching it for yourself. That’s like having two jobs.
I was reading Preston Yancey’s blog post the other day where he laments, perhaps even sincerely,
I #don’t hashtag because #ithinkitmakesmelooklikeanidiot and I don’t #knowhowtodoit #right.
Maybe he shouldn’t have to worry about all that. It got me thinking that some people are in the boat right with him…and Jesus, Buddha, and baked goods.
If this is you…breathe in deeply and calmly. Slowly sip your coffee and relax. It will be okay.
You might not know all the big changes. For instance, did you know that Google has changed its main algorithm again? It affect searches. . .a lot. It’s had ripples…like layoffs. Some companies died because of it.
Getting noticed is harder than ever, if you care about that.
And unless you have a hefty following already, then, it matters.
(Rest assured, Preston does have a big following or Zondervan wouldn’t hand him two book deals. They aren’t people of faith precisely. They make take some shanks, but they don’t gamble. They are people who have a business to write about faith in a way that will sell, so they can have bread on their tables…in the wilderness, or, and more likely, in the classy subdivisions of city suburb in the Midwest.) You probably aren’t in Preston’s league.
If you want to just write for fun and the few friends that you attract from Facebook when FB feels like allowing your stuff in the news feed now, that’s cool. But maybe you’re hoping that doing something you love, like writing or creating, can also help you pay the internet bill a bit more, or even get you more exciting opportunities. That’s what worked for me. I write for other people more than ever at this point; and it’s fun to get paid for it. Really. It is.
You’ll find more of that sort of help here in 2014 in addition to other more familiar things you read here when I wax of the unseen and lasting things and get to use this space to explore, in both writing and deeper thoughts.
But, this is the announcement that I’m ready to help and share the info I’ve researched and the work I do in the MARCOM world.
To get us kicked off, these are the 5 Best Tips for starting your year off right. These trends are important to consider as you work and create in a noisy world.
Considering writing a blog post about the challenges of changing technology. What might you do or not do about it this year. I’ve made this infographic easy to embed to help you get started, if you want it.
Did that help you? I hope so!
Do you have writer or creator friends, too?
You can share the knowledge. Go ahead and embed this right on your site, if you’d like.
See you soon.xo
(connect with me or sign up for updates in the sidebar)
Doug is Messing About in Boats
I was loving this post by Doug Jackson. There are times when I read very good writing and a joy fills my soul. Today was one of those times, and so I thought I’d share an excerpt and entice you to enjoy the rest of it at the link below.
(the image is of a fishing boat from Palestine in 1st Century from in 1986, and nicknamed “the Jesus Boat”)
Thursday: Messing About in Boats
excerpt:
I thought about my car, a quarter-century old Toyota Corolla of indeterminate color and inelegant pedigree. It isn’t quite as long or wide as the Jesus Boat. Dog hair flecks the threadbare upholstery. A neighbor told me he always knows when I head for work or return home by the choked grumble of my engine. It is small. It is old. Is it also an opportunity for the mighty works of Christ?
And, of course, if this is true of that disreputable beater I drive, it is also true of the disreputable driver. A tiny life, a fool’s motley of patchwork parts, unshrunk scraps that have pulled great gaps where unwashed wisdom met threadbare experience. Throughout my days I have tinkered with the finicky mental mechanism, duct-taped the physical dilapidation, rerouted the spiritual wiring and generally tried to get ‘er to crank over for one more commute. One of these days the thing will flat refuse to run and the cankering rust won’t hold up to bolts or solder. I’ll just shove the whole concern into the high weeds and walk away. ~Doug Jackson, from Israel
Read the rest, I implore you! HERE
In the boat, in the storm…
I saw this shocking photo of a boat being pulled into a whirlpool off the coast of Japan. Like a giant bathtub drain, the water is swirling downward into a crevasse in the ocean, and sucking in life with it. You can see a boat to the left of the whirlpool’s center. It looks a bit like a toy boat. Amazing. Awing. Terrifying. (Click the photo for enlargement).
I’ve been thinking about storms lately, as many have been, and I was drawn in by the visual of Jesus in the storm. It’s the story where he’s sleeping through one, and probably narcolepsy wasn’t a factor. But I must admit, sometimes people who sleep this soundly annoy me.
On a personal level, in my devotional practices, I was struck to sense the invitation of God to not stand in the boat, but to sit, and be still next to him. He does not calm every storm, but if I let him, he can calm me. Either way, standing up in the boat won’t help. The waves look bigger and more deadly from there. Sometimes we have to ride out the storms, and remember to not waste energy futilely by combating them.
Are you in a storm right now?
Please share some of your thoughts, today.