Fake It Until You Make It: One CEO’s Cautionary Tale About Engagement Pods
By all accounts, Jason Hill was a skillful entrepreneur with a hot new idea on his hands. He’d created an app that reverse-engineered the scheduling process to enable instant networking, allowing entrepreneurs and business owners to easily connect with experts through 1:1 phone calls, fostering valuable relationships and creating endless opportunities. Now, he just needed … Read more
Bad SEO Practices Can Ruin Your Rep
Dishonest. Sneaky. Unethical. Call it whatever you want, but the strategy remains the same. When businesses manipulate SEO practices to deceive consumers, they risk harming their reputations and customer base. Unethical SEO practices extend far beyond Black Hat SEO techniques like keyword stuffing and paid backlinks. They are more duplicitous, often deliberately misdirecting consumers to … Read more
The F-Word Factor: When Should Brands Swear
It’s not your imagination. Brands swear a lot more frequently in their copy these days. It’s not a stretch to suggest that potty-moth copy is making a comeback. It used to be taboo, except for the occasional well-placed damn. Writers would not have thought about ever including the gasp-inducing f-word in their sales copy at … Read more
Ella’s Way: Turning The Page On Kindness And Acceptance
Ella’s Way is more than a children’s book initiative. It’s a heartfelt mission born from the passion and experience of retired nurse Sherry Cerino. Her long career in pediatric and adult medicine exposed Cerino to individuals of all ages with complex needs and disabilities, developing her strong passion for respect and tolerance of differences. She … Read more
AI Content Detectors: Claims VS Reality
Just last year, organizations were dropping their writers like hot potatoes to generate free content using AI tools. Entire marketing departments were getting the old heave-ho in favor of ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, and other generative AI. The love affair was brief. It didn’t take long to realize AI can’t replace skilled human writers. They began … Read more
AI-Generated Content: Friend or Foe in SEO
Social media platforms are filled with AI content creation gurus singing the praises of tools like ChatGPT. They offer step-by-step instructions on how anyone can gain Google’s favor by following their guidance. Technically, some of their techniques work (even if just temporarily). One of the latest brags online is how easy it is to boost … Read more
5 Best Practices for AI Content Creation Tools
AI content creation tools like ChatGPT, Claude, and Google Bard took the spotlight in 2023. Content creators oohed and aahed about the benefits of using them to streamline your content marketing process. Since most entrepreneurs and small business owners value tools that save them time and resources, they quickly began harnessing the power of AI … Read more
How to Do Visual Branding Right
Business owners must do more to help their brands stand the test of time. Gone are the days of developing a useful product and providing excellent customer service as the only components of longevity. Case in point: visual branding. If you’re wondering what the heck visual branding is and why you need to add it … Read more
In-House Vs. Outsourced Content Marketing: Which is Better?
Its ability to build brand awareness, engage audiences, and drive conversions makes content marketing an indispensable tool for modern business. Investing in a high-quality content marketing strategy has sparked the debate over whether businesses should manage their content marketing efforts in-house or turn to outsourced content marketing solutions to meet their needs. In-house content marketing … Read more
I Would Do Anything for a Job—Except That
When I was fresh out of college nearly 30 years ago and eager for my first journalism job, I was fortunate enough to have three newspapers courting me. The first was (and still is) one of the largest newspapers in Florida. My other options were a mid-sized newspaper in the Philadelphia area and a small … Read more