by Diana Urban on January 18, 2012
Many websites have gone dark today in protest of SOPA, the Stop Online Piracy Act, and PIPA, Protect IP. These two dangerous bills in congress could lead to censorship on the internet.
To summarize the legislation as simply as possible, these two bills are meant to stop companies from copying, or “pirating” content or software from others and reselling it. However, the verbiage is so broad that websites like Wikipedia, Reddit, social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter, and even your own personal blog wouldn’t be able to exist as they do today because things like comment boxes, status updates, and wiki edits all provide users the opportunity to upload pirated content. The bill would make it possible for your site to be taken down without due process. It entirely violates the first amendment, and would hinder the growth of our economy.
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by Diana Urban on January 6, 2012
Facebook gives you access to millions of people on a daily basis, and you should give your brand visibility where people go every day. If your blog, website, or business still doesn’t have a Facebook fan page, it’s not too late. You’d be surprised by the amount of companies that still don’t realize Facebook is a valuable resource for reaching their audience.
Here are just some of the reasons why your business should have a Facebook fan page:
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by Diana Urban on January 4, 2012
Over the past year, I’ve been guilty of long lulls between blog post sprints. I blame it mostly on (1) the fact that I was planning my wedding and (2) any extra hours I spent working went toward writing content for my day job. But there were many times when I sat down to write a blog post, and even had a great idea for a post and the title in mind, but my brain was so filled with upcoming dress fittings and menu selections that I couldn’t focus.
Writer’s block happens to all of us at one time or another. But if you make your living online, and depend on your ability to consistently adding fresh content to your blog to generate traffic, you can’t make up excuses. Here are a few ways to beat writer’s block when blogging.
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by Diana Urban on January 3, 2012
Writing blog posts is a great way to get more traffic to your website, especially if you’re using SEO best practices and consistently adding fresh content to your blog. But you also need to make sure that you’re creating a good experience for readers once they’re on your blog. I’ve seen many blogs that are unappealing to read; they have dense paragraphs of text, and it feels like I’m about to read a textbook.
Creating blog posts that are easier to read will create a better user experience for your readers, and make them more likely to share your post on social networks and subscribe to your blog, thus getting you more traffic and a loyal readership in the long run.
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