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Here’s our recap of what happened in online marketing today, as reported on Marketing Land and other places across the web.
From Marketing Land:Analytics
Blogs & Blogging
Business Issues
Content Marketing
Conversion Optimization
Copywriting, Design & Usability
Display & Contextual Advertising
Domaining
E-Commerce
Email Marketing
General Internet Marketing
Internet Marketing Industry
MarTech
Mobile/Local Marketing
Social Media
Video
Någon som vet om det finns program/appar med vilka man kan logga:
Jag skulle vilja ha ett sådant program/app för jag tycker att min begränsade surfmängd på det mobila bredbandet går åt snabbare nu än tidigare trots att jag inte tittar på film eller hämtar andra tunga filer.
/Rolf
Den grekiska katolska biskopskonferensen riktar skarp kritik mot premiärminister Alexis Tsipras och hans regering. De senaste sex månaderna sedan partiet Syrizas valseger har inneburit ”en förlorad tid”, säger ordföranden för den grekiska katolska biskopskonferensen, Frangiskos Papamanolis, på måndagen till den italienska presstjänstänsten SIR.
”Vår regering har inte förstått situationen”, menar den emeriterade biskopen av öarna Syros och Santorini. Vi greker har mycket att lära; vi måste arbeta och vara företagsamma, säger Papamanolis. Han uttalar samtidigt hopp om en snabb avslutning av förhandlingarna mellan Grekland och de övriga euro-länderna. När väl enighet har nåtts önskar han sig snabbast möjliga undertecknande av överenskommelsen.
Av Greklands omkring 11 miljoner invånare är, enligt kyrklig statistik, 140 ooo katoliker.
Ordföranden för den grekiska katolska biskopskonferensen anser att Tsipras vann valet på ohållbara vallöften. Nu måste han erkänna att verkligheten är grym. Papamanolis kritiserar emellertid också den förra regeringen. Tsipras ärvde en redan ”fruktansvärd situation”, menar han.
Grekland och de övriga 18 euro-länderna enades i dag, måndag, i Brüssel om en räddningsplan för landet. Enligt planen ska en kredit i storleksordningen 86 miljarder euro ges under de kommande tre åren. I gengäld förpliktar sig Grekland bland annat att genomföra reformer i pensions- och skattesystemet.
Kathpress 2015-07-13
I Signum nr 2/2015 (endast pappersutgåvan) publicerades en artikel om Grekland, av Jonathan Luxmoore: Tro, hopp och Syriza
Conrad och Ingrid är tillbaka med ett nytt avslappnat prat om livet och sånt. Den här veckan tar de upp spöken och Andra sidan – finns sådana saker?
Som lyssnarna märkte redan i förra veckans program är Conrad mycket skeptisk till övernaturliga och gudliga ting, medan Ingrid däremot är lite mera öppen får sådant. Men här visar det sig att Ingrid visserligen hade en mormor som växte upp i ett spökhus, men att Conrad är den som haft utomkroppsliga erfarenheter!
Kommentera gärna programmet här eller på Youtube. Och har du som lyssnare förslag på vad Ingrid och Conrad ska tala om, eller bara har synpunkter på programmet så är du välkommen att kommentera eller mejla till ingrid@d-intl.com.
PS. Musiken som spelas kommer från www.bensound.com, www.free-intro-music.com och freemusicarchive.org.
När Superettan gör omstart efter några veckors uppehåll ligger Jönköping och Östersund på de två allsvenska platserna. Degerfors ligger trea.
15 matcher är spelade. Lika många återstår. Talar tabellen sanning?
- Ja, det tycker jag. Man har de poäng man förtjänar. Det där med tur och otur tror jag mindre på, svarar Jönköpings Södras lagkapten Tommy Thelin.
Den här skylten knåpade våra vänner på Skyltmax ihop. Vill du göra en egen rolig skylt till jobbet eller hemmet? Kolla in deras skyltomat!
Startar upp Win 7 på min laptop och använder Telias USB-sticka mobilt bredband.
Nu har det dykt upp ett program som startar samtidigt som Win7 och hänvisar till DatacardServiceTempTelia mobile broadbandsetup.exe.
När jag letar upp detta program på hårddisken kan jag inte hitta den (alla dolda filer är synliga).
Har sökt på nätet om detta, men det verkar som om ingen har stött på samma sak. Vem vet ?
Väldigt mycket kan sägas om de senaste turerna kring Grekland, och väldigt mycket sägs också. Hur länge det tar innan regeringen tvingas till nyval är omöjligt att säga i dag.
Att den överenskommelse parterna uppger att de träffat är en skandal av enorma mått står däremot klart.
Europeiska unionen består av suveräna stater. De har avhänt sig en del av sitt självbestämmande till EU-kommissionen och förbundit sig att harmonisera sin lagstiftning i enlighet med direktiv från EU:s överstatliga organ. Däremot finns inte på kartan att EU skulle inskränka ett medlemslands självbestämmanderätt på ett vis som kommer i konflikt med landets författning.
Eller det fanns inte på kartan. Inte förrän nu.
Flera av punkterna i uppgörelsen som Greklands premiärminister Alexis Tsipras nu accepterat innebär i praktiken tvångsförvaltning av landet.
Inte nog med att en fond ska inrättas som får kontroll över statliga tillgångar för att sälja ut dem – det är så de första avbetalningarna ska säkras – Greklands regering tvingas be om lov innan man lägger fram propositioner i parlamentet.
Dessutom åläggs man att revidera och, om landets utländska de facto regenter så kräver, riva upp lagar som stiftats under vintern och våren.
Till detta kommer de vanliga kraven som brukar ställas på skuldsatta länder i behov av IMF-stöd: Energisektorn ska privatiseras, pensionssystemet ”reformeras” (läs: försämras) – och regler kring kollektivavtal och fackliga stridsmedel ”moderniseras”. Konkret krävs här att det ska bli lättare att säga upp stora grupper anställda.
Mycket är alltså samma gamla visa, men när man dessutom är inne och fingrar på regeringsmakten, som i en parlamentarisk stat som Grekland är direkt avhängig av en riksdagsmajoritet som avgjorts i övervägande proportionella val, då börjar EU bli en riktigt farlig politisk entitet.
Redan för 20 år sedan stod det klart för den som ville se att ju mer det europeiska samarbetet fördjupades, desto svårare skulle det komma att bli för enskilda medlemsstater att i ett tillspetsat läge hävda sitt oberoende. Grekerna röstade alldeles nyss nej till en krisuppgörelse som var mindre långtgående.
Nu beslagtas statliga tillgångar för utförsäljning som vore det ett företags inventarier som slumpas ut på exekutiv auktion och inte ett självständigt land.
Nu måste landets styrande be om lov för att få fråga parlamentet om godkännande för nya lagar.
Att eurosamarbetet med sin gemensamma valuta skulle kunna öppna upp för vad som i praktiken är en form av – om än, åtminstone militärt, oblodig – ockupation var inte något som hördes ens i den mest högljudda svenska debatten inför EMU-omröstningen.
Vi valde ändå att stå utanför valutasamarbetet, trots att Göran Persson och en enad samling borgerliga potentater lovade att det skulle bli så bra. Det ska vi vara glada för i dag.
Nu gäller det att göra något åt problemet som den europeiska unionen blivit. Hur trevligt det än är med raka rör över gränserna på bilsemestern och att enkelt kunna beställa grejer från Tyskland på postorder – vi kan inte ha en nykolonial situation i Europa. Detta övergrepp måste få ett slut.
Visit the Washington Post homepage, and you’ll now see a lock icon and [https,”] rather than just “ [http,”] at the beginning of the URL:
It’s a thing of beauty: pic.twitter.com/RkJKjKI99l
— Will Van Wazer (@willvanwazer) June 30, 2015
The added “s,” which stands for secure, indicates that a site’s content is delivered through an encrypted connection that makes it more difficult for a third party to track or hijack information transmitted between the site and a visitor. (Here’s a helpful, no-tech-knowledge-required explanation of [HTTPS] from Eric Mill, a technologist for the federal government’s digital services agency 18F.)
The Post’s announcement last month that it is encrypting swaths of its site was celebrated throughout the tech community:
The Washington Post is risking some ad revenue to begin using [HTTPS:] [https:]] That’s worth supporting. pic.twitter.com/j0hU0dLjcI
— Eric Mill (@konklone) June 30, 2015
This, alone, is worth the cost of my subscription. The excellent investigative journalism is a bonus. pic.twitter.com/h4smXKA86e
— Christopher Soghoian (@csoghoian) June 30, 2015
The arguments for moving websites to a secured connection are strong. Not only are visitors’ identity information and browsing habits better protected from eavesdroppers, the content they see is also safer from tampering. Referral data is more complete (referral information for visitors moving from a secured site to a non-secured site is dropped, showing up only as direct traffic. Let’s Encrypt, available this September, offers free services.
If all that isn’t reason enough to make the switch, Google announced last summer that websites using [HTTPS] would start getting a boost in search rankings (though only a small one).
18F’s Mill, who has been vocal about finding easier ways for websites to transition to [HTTPS,] believes that changing web standards will force news organizations to [HTTPS] “one way or another,” as browsers like Chrome and Mozilla “apply deliberate pressure.”
RELATED ARTICLEThe year you get hackedDecember 17, 2014The push for [HTTPS isn’t] just a pet project for a few dedicated cybersecurity advocates. Many email, banking, and social media services encrypt their traffic already. Wikipedia">[https] is now encrypted by default. Netflix is secure. The White House has ordered all publicly accessible federal sites and services to use [HTTPS] by the end of next year, and there are similar requirements across the pond.
Still, only a sliver of news organizations currently use [HTTPS] technology. Some newer outlets launched with it on their entire sites (The Marshall Project, The Intercept, The Information) and others appear to have made significant progress toward being fully [HTTPS (] ProPublica, FiveThirtyEight). At least for now, though, the Post is the only large news organization to offer the security feature. Last fall, The New York Times issued">[https] a challenge for news sites to go fully [HTTPS by] the end of 2015; the Times’ own efforts at conversion are still under way, according to Times spokeswoman Danielle Rhoades-Ha, who said there’s currently no timeline for implementation. (Rajiv Pant, the CTO who coauthored that original blog post, also left the organization in May.)
“We didn’t really have any help or model for this move,” Will Van Wazer, the Washington Post senior platform engineer who lead the Post’s migration to [HTTPS,] told me. “The only other organizations who have moved have been ones that don’t have anywhere close to the archive content that we have, or did it as part of a brand new redesign of their site.”
The Post’s effort began in full in January, he said, and was a substantial amount of labor involving two engineers from the site team, one from the platform team, one from the graphics department, and several other project managers.
Why is becoming fully [HTTPS] so hard? The main challenge for an organization that’s been around for a few years is the time it takes to comb through years and years of archive material to make sure everything loads properly in [HTTPS] — especially if there’s a lot of third-party embedded content (images, video, links, audio) to check.
Van Wazer explained the Post’s methods:
The process for actually moving the code that powers our site over to [HTTPS] was fairly straightforward, as it would be for anyone — it’s basically just a find and replace from “ [”] to “ [https:] Our biggest concern turned out to be third-party content, both from advertisers and from our own newsroom…
So a developer on our App Support team developed a tool to send out an hourly report that took our top 1,000 most popular articles, visited them in an environment that we had set up that redirected everyone to [HTTPS,] and sent back any mixed content warnings, where they appeared, and the URLs they complained about. This was an invaluable tool for us, and basically what we spent the last two months working [on].
The issue with basing the report on the top 1,000 most popular articles is that it is constantly changing day to day and even hour to hour — articles and blog posts are published literally 24/7, and with such a wide swath of the site, someone popular tweeting out a link to an archive story could make it into the report. So we had situations where we would have perfect reports for a few hours or even a few days, and then it would switch to having a large number fail.
Potential loss of advertising revenue was another big concern, as advertisers need to take an extra step to ensure their ads are also secure (ad networks were, for instance, The Boston Globe’s major concern).
“Every third party we use on the site needs to be [HTTPS-compliant,] or it either stops working or the browser will warn about it being insecure,” the Post website’s chief digital architect Greg Franczyk said in the Post’s original announcement.
FiveThirtyEight senior web developer Paul Schreiber argues that the move to [HTTPS] could eventually prove to be a ">[https.html">] good thing for advertisers, though, as their ads are safer from some rogue Internet provider’s tampering.
The technical benefits of reducing page loading time, and pressure from browsers like Mozilla that are phasing">[http] out browser features for sites that aren’t secured, tipped the scales for the Post in favor of going for [HTTPS,] despite concerns about ad revenue.
“It’s clear that [HTTPS] is where everybody in the media industry is going to go eventually, and so that’s where we need to be,” Van Wazer said. “We’ve made some really significant investments in our technology since our acquisition [by Amazon’s Jeff Bezos in 2013], and this is just another sign of that.”
Mike Tigas, the news applications developer for ProPublica who ran an HTTPS session at this year’s SRCCON, said he was pleasantly surprised by how many organizations were interested in deploying [HTTPS,] and many may be far along in the process already even if they haven’t publicly announced it. (NPR, for one, is making some moves toward [HTTPS] this summer.)
ProPublica seriously broached the subject of migrating to [HTTPS] last summer, Tigas said, and like the Post, began efforts in earnest in January. It’s now mostly switched over — all that’s left is for eagle-eyed readers to point out a few stray pages here and there that aren’t [HTTPS-compliant.]
“Organizations know how much work is involved to weed through content,” Tigas said. “We don’t publish in large volume — if it’s taken ProPublica this long to do it…”
“In a perfect world, every website would have [HTTPS,”] said Ivar Vong, director of technology at The Marshall Project. Vong emphasized that because The Marshall Project launched with [HTTPS] and at the moment doesn’t rely on any ad revenue, their deployment was simpler.
In addition to the improved security and better analytics data that come with using [HTTPS,] Vong noted that it can often subvert censorship: someone tracking an [HTTPS website] visitor wouldn’t be able to see the specific page she or he was visiting, and certain censors may only be blocking HTTP versions of sites, such that a secured version of the site is still be accessible.
The developers I spoke to agreed that, for sites that don’t run ads or have little to no archival content to deal with, there’s little reason not to switch to [HTTPS. Websites] may be slow to realize they’re making personal details about their visitors vulnerable to monitoring: Until last fall, the unsecured AIDS.gov had been transmitting location information of the site’s visitors. Even for sites dealing with less sensitive subject matter, there are all sorts of ways in which content can be compromised. It’s all too easy to manipulate websites, and people on public wifi are notoriously vulnerable.
“We have a responsibility to readers to protect their privacy, and to writers to ensure the integrity of their work,” Schreiber said.
Photo of many layers of security by John Kinsella used under a Creative Commons license.
Editor’s note: Public media relies on its users — its listeners, its viewers, its readers — for much of its support. But as the disruption of media continues apace, there are some who are concerned those patterns of support may not carry over as users’ habits shift.
Melody Kramer has spent several weeks here at the Nieman Foundation as a Knight Visiting Nieman Fellow, examining a set of questions around that issue. How can the bedrock concept of public media support — “membership” — be broadened and strengthened? How can people contribute to their local stations through something other than money? And how can public radio and television become more ingrained, more essential, to the communities they serve?
I’m pleased to share her report with you — I hope it’ll be read widely both inside and outside public media. If you’re interested in what she’s launching out of her research, Media Public, sign up here.
Executive summary
Executive summary
The dominant way to pledge support: Financial support
What do members currently receive in exchange for giving?
Different ways to pledge support: Current volunteer efforts
Different ways to pledge support: In the community
Different ways to pledge support: Universities
Different ways to pledge support: Remote contributions
Different ways to pledge support: Code
Different ways to pledge support: Story ideas and sourcing
Finding new potential members: Where to go?
Last summer, public media consultant Mark Fuerst interviewed 40 front-line development professionals at public media stations. Fuerst noted that the people he interviewed expressed concerns about the continued effectiveness of their ability to raise money over time. Two-thirds of the membership directors at radio-only licensees reported that both incoming pledge drive calls and online pledge had declined. Six of the 15 radio-only licensees reported a decline of over 10 percent.1
These trends, coupled with continuing changes in patterns in public radio consumption,2 demand new approaches to thinking about the sustainability of the current membership model. Individuals supplied 34% of funding to member stations in 2013, and the importance of pledge revenue to stations’ bottom lines, as Fuerst notes, is “impossible to overstate.” As modes of listening shift, however, it will become increasingly difficult to cultivate donors using the traditional methods of fundraising.
What, then, is the alternative? How can we encourage people to become invested in the future of public media, both as listeners and as members? In this report, I describe the results of a multi-method effort to detail an alternative membership model for public media stations. This model is based not on the pledge drive (or on cultivating sustaining donors or large donors,3 as many stations seek to do), but on building an infrastructure that allows community members to contribute to their stations in a variety of ways, including non-financial means.4 It takes as its starting point the understanding that building relationships with potential donors leads to their sustained support — in the form of time, money, and advocacy on behalf of the station.
Why do we need a new membership model?
What could a new membership model look like?
There are a number of ways in which community members could contribute to their local stations — thereby building connections with both contributors and potential donors.
At the end of the first year of non-financial membership, these contributors could be asked how they would like to renew their membership: By volunteering additional time, recruiting additional volunteers, and/or donating financially.
What are the challenges to implementation?
How can these challenges be addressed? What are the next steps?
The remainder of the report is organized as follows. First, I detail how public radio stations currently offer membership. Then, I detail the ways in which stations could strengthen their relationship with their communities by asking them for non-financial support — and look at the way several other organizations approach membership, engagement, and sustainability, and what public media can learn from them. Lastly, I detail key takeaways and recommend next steps.
Public broadcasting is part of the fabric of our civic democracy. It helps inform and educate the public, and it does so without being beholden to advertising dollars. If we want public media to continue to be able to play this role, then we need to think about new and invigorating ways of defining membership and redefining the public’s relationship with public media.9
The concepts of membership and loyalty have a long history in the fields of social psychology and organizational behavior. In general, this research shows that people who identify with an organization describe themselves to others in terms of that organization. For example, people who identify with public media are likely to describe themselves as NPR listeners on social networks and on dating websites.10 And when people identify with an organization, they exhibit higher and longer-term levels of loyalty and are more likely to formalize their identification by becoming members through donations.
Though membership11 has always been a core part of public media, public radio12 has been grappling with new questions concerning membership and listener loyalty over the past several years. The traditional form of building membership and leveraging organizational loyalty — the pledge drive — has declined in effectiveness, and new conversations are beginning about how to recruit and retain members who access content off-air.
The existing membership model for public radio is largely based on a single assumption: that people who want to listen to the kind of high-quality programming that public radio provides will eventually find and then listen to public radio — on the radio, in the car, or on a mobile device. But the assumption that public radio provides a particular type of listening experience may no longer be accurate. As Kevin Roose noted last October, 50 percent of all cars sold in 2015 are connected to the Internet, and 100 percent of cars will be connected by 2025. Though many stations have developed mobile apps, and NPR has developed mobile apps and continues to create experiences for connected cars, several for-profit podcasts and podcast networks — like Gimlet, 538, Midroll, BuzzFeed, and Slate13 — now sound virtually indistinguishable from the NPR aesthetic,14 and will grow alongside other podcasts15 as they become easier to access in the car, which remains the primary listening place for audio. (Forty-four percent of all audio listening now takes place there.)
The rise of connected cars will also require new techniques to engage current millennials16 and Generation Y-ers, who are not likely to age into the same listening,17 commuting,18 or donation habits as previous generations. Millennials are more likely than baby boomers to give small amounts of money to a lot of organizations,19 and may be more likely to invest in a one-off Kickstarter campaign that makes them feel like part of a larger community or cohort than to become a reoccurring donor or sustaining member.20) Like their parents, however, they’re more likely to support or invest in an organization if they feel some connection to the organization, its mission, or the benefits of becoming a member.
These trends demand new ways of thinking about public media membership and about the kinds of relationships people have with their public radio stations.21 More active donor relationships, which lead to greater donor loyalty, can be cultivated through building trust with people, increasing the number of two-way interactions with potential donors, and by teaching people the importance of the organization itself.22
These interactions don’t always have to start with acquiring financial donations. In this playbook, I articulate how stations can cultivate other kinds of relationships with the public that will lead to stronger and more loyal advocates for public media.23 A failure in the coming years to push outside the existing envelope of membership will leave audience growth stalled, potential support diverted, and significant amounts of funding on the table.
The dominant way to pledge support: Financial support
There are several different ways the public can currently donate to a member station.24 Most of these are financially-based donations. The WNYC website lists nine different donation methods for the public, including donating money, participating in an employee matching program, donating a vehicle, creating legacy gifts, donating stocks, and purchasing tickets to events.
Some public radio station websites make it difficult for people who would like to give a one-time only gift. “They’re less welcoming to the $25/50 donors,” a veteran public radio membership consultant told me. “There’s been a major shift towards sustainable donors.”
Sustainable donors pledge annual donations to a station. They have changed the dynamics of stations’ annual pledge drives. Fewer people are calling into the pledge drives because sustaining donors have already agreed to be automatically renewed indefinitely. (Upgrading sustainers to higher annual levels and/or additional gifts are also key parts of current sustainer best practices.)
Other key innovations related to financial support include the following:
What do members currently receive in exchange for giving?
Nine interviews were conducted with membership leads between May 8, 2015 and May 29, 2015. Other station information was found on station websites.
Most stations in the top 100 markets give members some of the following benefits for contributing financially:
Donors who contribute at higher levels often receive:
A few stations also offer some unique perks for members:26
Different ways to pledge support: Current volunteer efforts
Many stations run robust volunteer programs, but the ways in which people can contribute are limited. Most often, these volunteers help the station by:
Two stations of the nine interviewed grant membership perks to volunteers, though this information is not mentioned on their membership pages. One station grants membership for a year to qualified volunteers; the other gives a member card, but not membership, to volunteers who contribute 50 hours.
Case Study: Louisville Public MediaLouisville Public Media (LPM) is an independent, community-supported nonprofit corporation that comprises three public radio stations: 89.3 WFPL News, Classical 90.5 WUOL, and 91.9 WFPK. The stations receive no city or state support. Ninety-three percent of their funding comes from the local community, including 42% from membership.
The stations have more than 200,000 weekly listeners and a robust volunteer program. During their pledge drives, more than 500 volunteers come to the station to help. Another 327 volunteers help out year-round and are emailed once or twice a month with ways to help the station. Thirty-four percent of all of LPM’s current volunteers are also financial donors. Of the active year-round volunteers, 60% are active members, 20% are lapsed donors, and 20% have never donated financially — despite actively volunteering.
Membership manager Kelly Wilkinson is participating in Media Public’s pilot program and plans to make the active volunteers who have not donated financially full-fledged members of LPM for the next year.
“They’ll receive a free monthly magazine subscription to the Louisville Magazine and a free lunch anytime they want to come to one of our free lunchtime concerts, and they’ll get all of the perks that we email our members every week,” says Kelly.
After eight months, the volunteers will receive communication asking them how they would like to renew their membership: with a financial contribution or with another set of volunteer hours.
And what could volunteers do? Kelly imagines a lot. “We have a storage room here full of magnetic reel-to-reel tapes that we’d love to convert,” he says.
Kelly also tells me about a Summer Listening Program that Classical 90.5 WUOL runs for young people.
“It’s like a summer reading club,” he says. “There’s a couple of hundred kids who participate. They receive a list of classical songs that they have to listen to, and our program director puts out information about each song, along with emails and videos.”
This year, Kelly is thinking about making the kids who participate in the listening program members as well. The idea to make young people members is similar to something National Park Service has implemented for next year. They have started a program to give all 4th graders in the United States a year-long park pass to the National Parks.
The White House says the idea is to get kids into safe outdoor spaces, and to make it easier for children to be outside instead of in front of screens. I suspect it also has some substantial additional benefits. Many of those fourth graders — not to mention younger and older siblings, parents, cousins, grandparents, friends, etc. — will eventually:
Kelly says he is interested in tracking whether the young listeners who receive a similar benefit from his station will grow up to identify as supporters of public radio. This is an experiment well worth testing in other markets as well.
Different ways to pledge support: In the community
Currently, station volunteers contribute most of their time and efforts to the membership and/or events departments at a station.27 Fewer opportunities exist for people to contribute within the newsroom or in programming.28
WYSO in Yellow Springs, OH is one notable exception. The station has ongoing volunteer opportunities for those with experience in journalism, research, editing, oral histories, and photography. The station also runs a program called Community Voices, which trains local people in recording and editing commentaries for use on their airwaves.
Neenah Ellis, WYSO’s general manager, also tells me about an additional program the station runs for young professionals. Called NextUp, the program brings together young people in the Dayton area to volunteer at events in the area.
“They set up a table and act as a presence for us,” says Ellis. “And it’s great because they’re able to meet each other and think ‘WYSO’s cool and brought us together.'”
Many of the stations I analyzed do not currently offer ways for volunteers to contribute professional skills to their local stations. As a result, stations are missing opportunities to engage people who have little interest in traditional volunteer activities (e.g., clerical work, pledge drives) but who are motivated by opportunities to contribute and develop professional skills,29 meet and network with other professionals in their communities, and contribute to projects they deem meaningful or important.30
There are fears across the system that having volunteers complete tasks will take away work from existing or future employees. The tasks I outline throughout this report are not designed to compete against professional roles at a station, but rather to help strengthen the whole system as well as a station’s ability to focus on more specialized tasks and complete and/or strengthen existing work.
There are many different ways stations could benefit from professional volunteers. Here are example activities that could help both a station and a person contributing non-financially. Contributors could:
If these events are held in person, community members could meet one another, develop new professional skills, learn more about the station and ways to get involved, and help out with projects that would help strengthen the station as a vital local resource.31 In return, volunteers can enhance their own skills, meet people in person, and strengthen their local community.
We can also look outside of public media to see how other organizations engage professionals:
What happens when stations bring community members into the process in these ways?
The Park Slope Food Co-op is the largest food co-op in the country. Members at the Park Slope Food Co-op pay a nominal fee to join and then work 2.75 hours a month to maintain their membership.
“In the orientation34 that you take when you become a member, you learn all sorts of wonderful facts, like the fact that they turn over more produce than any other grocery store in the country,” says member Jeremy Zilar.
Jeremy, who has been a member of the co-op since 2003, is a member of the team redesigning the Co-op’s website. Members of the website redesign team are working hand-in-hand with members of the co-op staff, to make sure their website’s needs are met. In doing so, the website redesign team is also introducing the co-op staff — and co-op members — to new online tools and new ways of thinking about technology.
“I wanted to see if it was possible to make this a very open design process,” says Jeremy. “How do we utilize as many members as we can in this process?”
After putting out a call for help, Jeremy found developers, designers, photographers, user research professionals, filmmakers, and product managers who wanted to help with the co-op’s website. Additional members wanted to provide feedback and support, so the team of developers created a website where everyone could register their input.
“Most corporations that make websites, they do it by having 4-5 people go off in a room and make something that everybody has to live with,” he says. “We didn’t want to do that.”
The Co-op’s redesign is designed just like the organization itself: infused with the spirit of cooperation. And as a result of being included in the process, members are really excited to see the final results.
“By including them in the process, they feel involved,” says Jeremy. “Everyone is contributing, and everyone is invested in the outcome. It really raises the level on all fronts.”
This is very smart. Instead of hiring an outside development team, the co-op relied on members, many of whom had skills to redesign and create a website. In order to make an effective project for the web development team members, the co-op decided to:
The people involved in the project also have benefited and associate their benefits with the food coop itself. They’ve made valuable networking contacts with people who work locally but at other organizations, and contributed to the co-op in a meaningful way that takes advantage of their skillset.
Different ways to pledge support: Universities
Stations that are affiliated with a university rarely, if ever, collaborate with the computer science, library, and design schools that are also affiliated with the university. Often, students in these departments have to participate in a capstone seminar or complete a thesis. They are unaware of ways in which they could help their station or volunteer in ways other than stuffing envelopes or answering calls during pledge drives.
Stations can and should form partnerships with local universities, many of which have startup competitions as well as students who would like to strengthen their own design and coding portfolios before graduation.
Creating meaningful partnerships at university-affiliated stations can introduce students to public media stations and help them obtain skills or portfolio items that they can use to obtain jobs after graduation. Other organizations already do this well with events: orchestras offer free tickets, downtown museums offer free or discounted tickets to students, and other arts groups engage students through events and activities.
Public radio stations have the opportunity to introduce students to more than just events. Here are examples of activities, categorized from high levels of effort to low levels of effort, that stations could do to engage students on university-affiliated campuses:
If students or staff participate in any of these opportunities, stations can sign them up for an e-newsletter, let them know about future events, and reward them with year-long memberships.
Case Study: Carnegie Mellon and NPRIn Spring 2014, graduate students at Carnegie Mellon University taking Ari Lightman’s Measuring Social class worked with two members of NPR’s Social Media Desk to define a ladder of engagement for people who had encountered NPR content online.
The students spent their semester identifying the behavior and demographics of the people who encountered NPR’s content online, then mapped NPR̵
By Phil Sorgen, Corporate Vice President, Worldwide Partner Group, Microsoft
At our Worldwide Partner Conference today we showcased new technology innovations that demonstrate our ambition to reinvent productivity and business processes, build the intelligent cloud and create more personal computing. We also discussed investments the company is making in programs for our hundreds of thousands of global channel partners at the center of business transformation taking place in the industry. These innovations and investments will help Microsoft and our partners achieve our new mission together on a global scale, making a difference in lives and organizations in all corners of the planet.
Project GigJam: reinventing productivity and business processes
As part of the company’s ambition to reinvent productivity and business processes, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella introduced Project GigJam, an unprecedented new way for people to accomplish their business tasks and transform business processes by breaking down the barriers between devices, apps and people. GigJam empowers business workers to summon information from their line of business and SaaS apps, spontaneously divvy up the specific information and actions needed to get work done, keep track of each part, and bring it all to closure immediately. Visit www.gigjam.com to learn more and register for the upcoming preview.
Cortana Analytics Suite: building the intelligent cloud
We also announced the Cortana Analytics Suite, a fully managed and comprehensive set of services to help businesses transform data into intelligent action. The growing adoption of machine learning, big data combined with the power of unlimited storage and compute in the cloud presents a unique opportunity for organizations to anticipate what will happen and to automate business outcomes. Cortana Analytics Suite brings together leading technology infrastructure including machine learning, big data storage and processing with perceptual intelligence such as vision, face and speech analysis, extending predictive and prescriptive capabilities to businesses for a range of industry scenarios. Cortana Analytics Suite integrates with Cortana, Microsoft’s digital personal assistant. Cortana works with the Cortana Analytics Suite to enable businesses to get things done in more helpful, proactive, and natural ways. Availability will be this fall through a simple monthly subscription. For more from one of our customers, Dartmouth-Hitchcock Health Systems, check out the Business Matters blog.
Microsoft HoloLens: enabling more personal computing
The third area of innovation we showcased was around commercial momentum in response to HoloLens – the world’s first fully untethered holographic computing device powered by Windows 10. On-stage at WPC today, Satya showed how one of our partners, Autodesk, will use HoloLens to fundamentally change how design professionals create, communicate, visualize and work. HoloLens is already making an impact across a number of industries, examples include the work we are doing to help architecture and construction industry professionals through Trimble, working on Mars exploration with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and helping Case Western Reserve University and the Cleveland Clinic transform teaching for the future. This is just the beginning of what holographic computing can help customers do more and achieve more.
Creating new partner opportunities across cloud and mobility
We know that many of our partners are investing in transitioning their businesses to the cloud, in part to take advantage of the types of cloud-based innovations as mentioned above. So, we’re making several partner investments to make their transition more seamless.
We are expanding the Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) program to help partners continue to build and grow profitable cloud services businesses using Microsoft Cloud. Beginning today, Microsoft will expand CSP to additional markets, bringing the total number of markets in which CSP is available to 131. Additionally, Azure and CRM Online will join Office 365, Windows Intune and Enterprise Mobility Suite (EMS) as available services in the CSP.
In addition, as a result of the overwhelming interest from partners and positive feedback we’ve received from customers over the past two years, we are delivering on our promise to grow the opportunity for more partners to sell Surface – taking the number of resellers from a few hundred to a few thousand globally in the coming months. Surface is an integral part of our Windows strategy, and the expansion of this program coinciding with the upcoming launch of Windows 10 creates exciting opportunities for partners. We’re also investing in helping partners unlock customer mobility opportunities with new competencies for Windows 10 and Enterprise Mobility Suite (EMS) that will enable them to differentiate their expertise and grow their business.
Today we’ll share that we are introducing a new premium Office 365 enterprise suite called E5 before the end of this year. E5 will encompass the core value of Office 365 productivity and collaboration capabilities, as well as significant new innovations, including newSkype for Business services such as Cloud PBX and Meeting Broadcast; Power BI & analytics features, like Power BI Pro and Delve Organizational Analytics; and new advanced security features, such as eDiscovery, Customer Lockbox, and Advanced Threat Protection. The E5 suite will provide a significant new opportunity for partners to build new service offerings around real-time communication and analytics, and to reach new customers with important new security features.
Microsoft’s partners have always been and will always be a driving force in business transformation, and our collective innovation has never been stronger for our mutual customers. That’s because they’re depending on us. In this mobile-first, cloud-first world, those businesses that embrace technology to reinvent themselves and their industries will thrive, and those who embrace status quo risk extinction. Its Microsoft’s hundreds of thousands of global partners that will bring about this transformation, help our mutual customers through this change and forge the next industrial revolution. So, I’m thrilled to come together this week at the 2015 Worldwide Partner Conference to talk about how we can collectively help businesses through the business transformation needed to be successful.
For more details on these and other investments we’re making in ensuring our partners can meet customer demands in this new world of business, visit our WPC News Center or check out my blog on the MPN site.
E-handelsbolaget Footway började handlas på börsen i dag. Premiären skedde utan någon större dramatik. Det blev snarare än gäspning från aktiemarknaden.
Mycket höga halter av dioxiner läcker från ett nedlagt sågverk vid Slottsbrosundet i Grums, rapporteras av Lidköpingsnytt. Gifterna rinner ut i Vänern såväl som i grundvattnet i Grums.
Sik och andra feta fiskar från Vänern bör inte ätas för ofta och barn och kvinnor i fertil ålder bör inte äta Vänerfisken alls, just för att de bland annat innehåller höga halter dioxin och tungmetaller. Sik från Vänern får till exempel får inte lov att säljas.
Under vintern och våren har markundersökningsföretaget Tyréns gjort en undersökning av ett nedlagdt sågverk i Grums och hittat mycket starka koncentrat av gifter. På sågverket har man använt klorfenoler för impregnering. Klorfenoler bildar dioxin och har efter impregneringen, spillts ut på marken. Värden flera hundra gånger det tillåtna med klorfenol har uppmätts på platsen.
Den enda åtgärd som hittills vidtagits är att varningsskyltar satts upp på platsen.
Sommar, sol och bad - det bästa som finns eller i själva verket rätt jobbigt?
Sommar, sol och bad är det bästa som finns. Eller? Även om sommaren är fantastisk finns det faktiskt en del grejer som är en aning jobbiga, speciellt på stranden. Här är 9 rätt jobbiga saker med att vara på stranden som vi envisas med att glömma varje år!
1. Hur jobbigt det är att ha mens på stranden och framförallt att dölja ett tampongsnöre.
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2. Att dyka iförd bikini. Ofrivillig nipslip varenda gång.
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3. Att råka somna med solglasögon i solen.
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11. Att fiskar, maneter och dylikt envisas med att stryka sig längs dina ben när du badar.
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4. Hur svårt det är att smörja in sig jämnt med solkräm när man inte har tillgång till en spegel.
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5. När man tycker att man har varit extra duktig på att smörja in sig, men glömt att smörja in sig på ett ställe och därför bränt sönder sig på just det stället.
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6. Att sand letar sig in ÖVERALLT.
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7. Att du bränner dina fötter varje gång du ska bada.
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8. Hur svårt det är att hitta en plats om du inte vill ligga på människor.
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9. Folk som envisas med att kasta bollar till varandra över och framförallt PÅ dig.
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Av: Malin Ny Foto: All over press
Överenskommelse om Grekland klar. Foto
Lyssna: Ännu är inte allt klart för lån till Grekland
I helgen och hela natten har ledarna för Euro-länderna pratat med Grekland om landet ska få låna mer pengar för att rädda sin ekonomi. Och tidigt i morse kom ett besked om att ledarna har kommit överens om hur Grekland måste göra för att få låna de här pengarna.
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Det är mycket stora förändringar som måste göras. Bland annat måste folket i Grekland jobba längre, alltså gå i pension senare.
Dessutom måste skatten på alla varor och tjänster, dvs momsen höjas och hela systemet för att få in skatter måste göras om.
Det ska också bli nya lagar och regler för företag, fackliga organisationer och för de som arbetar.
Litar inte på Greklands ledare
Krisen i Grekland har hållit på i flera år.
Andra länder och banker har lånat ut många miljarder till grekerna för att hjälpa till. Men ledarna i Grekland har inte gjort så många förändringar som behövs, säger ledarna för de andra länderna. Därför vill de vara säkra på att det händer något nu. De litar inte på att den grekiska regeringen verkligen kommer att göra tillräckligt om den inte blir tvingad.
Därför kommer en helt ny organisation att sköta om många av de grekiska statens egendomar, till exempel flygplatser och hamnar .
Den organisationen kommer andra länder och banker att kunna vara med och styra.
Greklands riksdag måste ta beslut
Ännu är inte allting klart för att Grekland ska få låna mera pengar.
Det är en mycket stor förändring av hela det grekiska samhället som krävs. Och det räcker inte med att landets premiärminister sagt ja till att göra så här. Den grekiska riksdagen måste också säga ja och dessutom ta beslut om en hel del förändringar redan den här veckan.
Många politiker i den grekiska riksdagen tycker inte alls att det här blir bra. Det kommer att bli alldeles för svårt folket, säger dem.
Så först om några dagar vet vi om Grekland verkligen går med på att göra allt som krävs.
Parlamenten i andra länder
Och det är inte bara den grekiska riksdagen som måste säga ja till överenskommelsen idag.
Flera andra länder, till exempel Finland, måste kalla ihop sina riksdagar. Det är politikerna där som måste bestämma om deras land ska gå med på att låna ut mer pengar till Grekland. Och många politiker runt om i Europa vill inte alls låna ut mer pengar.
Så det är fortfarande väldigt osäkert hur det ska gå för Grekland.
Pratar du inte Siliconvalleyiska? Lugn, nu finns det ett lexikon.
It was 1st December 2008 when I started ShoutMeLoud, and I started blogging because it was something I enjoyed doing. It took me a couple of months to realize that one can make money from a blog. In 2012, ShoutMeLoud started getting mentioned in media all around the globe.
Six and a half years have passed, and whenever I think about this journey, it all feels like a dream.
I meet people who comment that I work so hard. I want to tell them that to me blogging is not work, but it’s something I enjoy and is a part of my daily life.
In this article, I will share a few major changes I have made in the past 6 1/2 years, which have made ShoutMeLoud the blog that you know it to be today.
Major changes that transformed my blog into a brand:Changing niche from tech to blogging:
When ShoutMeLoud was started, it was a tech blog. I’m an engineer by education, and I started blogging to share things I have learned while researching various topics when I was in college. I was not an A student, but I was placed in an MNC (Accenture) due to my social-engineering skills. I was just an average student – a back-bencher, so to speak.
My primary goal in starting a blog was to share my knowledge and my unique original ideas with people. A couple of months after starting ShoutMeLoud, the greatest challenge I faced was in driving traffic. Even with 200+ posts, I was struggling to get traffic, despite the fact that in 2009 there were very few blogs on the internet.
That’s when I started learning about the science behind blogging, including matters such as SEO, readership and many other terms that were new to me. Somehow I was able to work through all of this, and so I started blogging about things that worked for me.
I didn’t even realize when ShoutMeLoud shifted its niche from hardcore technology to blogging and online marketing, and that was a major turning point in the history of ShoutMeLoud!
In those days, there were very few blogs that discussed blogging though there were a few popular ones such as problogger.net by Darren Rowse, and DailyBlogTips by Daniel Scocco.
I often read John Chow, but his blog never fascinated me much, as it was all about making money online. His tag line, “I make money by telling people how I make money”, definitely caught my attention, but at that time I was not focused on internet marketing. I was more passionate about sharing my ideas and what I knew online.
In time, I discovered about AdSense and Affiliate marketing, and that is when things started changing for me.
Takeaway: You may have started a personal blog for the purpose of sharing your thoughts and perspective, but sooner or later, it’s good to find a niche that defines your blog. It’s good to have a blog that talks about one subject rather than many and varied subjects. This shift will happen when you realize how important your blog is, and how your writing can change the life of at least one person. If you haven’t found the right niche for your blog, try to find it as soon as possible! Here are few posts that you should definitely read:
Persona building: Know your audience
In 2013, I learned about something called Persona, which was a completely new concept to me. Along with a well-defined niche, it is also very important to know for whom you are writing a blog. For years, my blog post was written for multiple types of people with multiple interests, rather than for a clearly defined audience like you.
In the later stages of my blogging career, I realized that what is written on a blog should cater to a specific audience. It was not easy for me to change my writing style, and the shift happened gradually, bringing many changes along with it.
Now whenever I write a post, I imagine the post is written for someone who is sitting in an empty chair in front of me, and I’m explaining the topic to him. For example, while writing this post, I imagine that you are here, and this post is written specifically for you. This one small change improved my writing significantly and made my articles more targeted. I talked about this in my previously published post on how to blog like a pro-blogger.
Image Credit: HubSpot
Investing in a blog: money begets money
My first few investments in my blog were in hosting and premium WordPress themes. After that, I stopped investing in my blog. I was making comfortable money, and life was offering me everything I ever dreamed of.
Somewhere toward the end of 2013, I changed my mindset and started treating ShoutMeLoud as a serious blog and as a business. Afterall, it was the only source for my bread & butter.
My ultimate goal with blogging is to create awareness about making a career & business in blogging. While I was doing that, I was investing very little. I changed my mindset and started spending money on my blog in terms of design, content, and marketing.
Takeaway: Many new bloggers who start blogging to make money or to form a career, wait for some time to buy hosting or domain. They give the excuse that “I will invest some money when my blog makes some money”. If you think that way, change your mindset now! If you are serious about your blog, invest money at the outset, and your attitude toward your blog will change.
I remember a conversation with my doctor when she complained that she was always losing her pen. I said to her:
Buy an expensive pen, and you will never lose a pen again
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Money is not everything, but it is an important factor. When you invest money in anything, you get serious about that thing. If you are serious about having a career in blogging, start investing right away in essentials such as hosting, domain name and branding. Believe it or not, you attitude towards your blog will change right away once you have made those investments in it.
With great power, comes great responsibility
I heard this quote for the first time in the movie “Spiderman”. It took me a few months to understand the real meaning of it.
When I was a child, I loved watching the news. I loved how a journalist could turn complicated matters into simpler language that enabled the audience to understand the information. I respect the profession of Journalism because it takes courage to work toward sharing information that is true and correct.
Blogging enables anyone to be a journalist in the sense that you are sharing information to numerous people. You have to understand the power of your writing, as people are going to make crucial decisions regarding purchases or other life matters based on what you have written or writing. You may not be reaching thousands of people right now, but focus on that one person who is reading what is written by you.
I realized this for myself when some of our Shouters sent me emails informing me how ShoutMeLoud is changing their lives. Here are some of these emails:
To be honest, even though I was blogging for passion, I was initially obsessed with ranking, traffic and many other similar issues. After receiving emails such as these, my perception toward blogging changed. Instead of focusing on the ranking, traffic and my ability to make money, I changed ShoutMeLoud’s direction to one that is focused on helping others to make a living from a blog. It was a big turning point in my blogging career, and it would not have happened without these short, sweet emails.
With great power, comes great responsibility
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Takeaway:
It doesn’t matter if your blog gets a million page views a month or only a few. Focus on adding value to the lives of your readers with your content. Even if you improve one life or add value to one person through your content, you are doing a great job. And yes, money is important, and initially it is hard to make money with this approach. But in the long run you will make more money than you have ever imagined possible.
Stopped going to unrelated events:
Networking is very important to success in life, and when you are blogging successfully, you will be invited by several brands to be a part of their launch events. Initially I went for many such events, and I loved the fact that I was going to a 5-star hotel (my first time!), getting free goodies and getting that kind of recognition.
It was good until the time I was running a tech blog called “CallingAllgeeks”. I eventually stopped writing for that blog, but the invitations kept coming. I still went for all the events, and deep down I was feeling restless, as I was taking advantage of being a blogger. I never intended to cover the event, or to give the company anything valuable in return. I liked the fact that I was meeting many bloggers at these events, and making so many connections. But from the brand perspective, I was not offering them anything back.
At some point during 2012, I realized that I was not being ethical. I stopped accepting generous offers to attend tech events, and I stopped being a part of them. It was a tough call, as whenever I saw my blogger friends posting a picture of an event, I felt left out. It was one of those feelings I couldn’t ignore, and a greedy side of me kept pushing me to become a part of these events.
Now, in 2015, when I think about this decision, I feel so content. In the last 2 years, I have attended only a few select events, such as ResellerClub event, WordCamp, WordUP, Mohali Bloggers Meet and a few others. I realized that going to events in which I am genuinely interested is adding value to others and to myself.
Takeaway:
When your blog starts getting traction, you will get numerous invitations to join tech launches and events. You should take those opportunities when you are going to add some value in one way or another. Refrain from going to any place where you don’t belong.
Free guest post for backlink: – Free is not always good!
When I started ShoutMeLoud on 1st December 2008, I started it as an AdSense revenue sharing guest blog. Around 2010, when blogging started getting traction as a platform to influence people’s decision-making processes, many companies started guest blogging.
ShoutMeLoud was already a popular blog for guest bloggers, and many companies and agencies took advantage of this opportunity and guest posted on ShoutMeloud to earn backlinks. I was quite happy, as I was getting free content, and my blog was being updated daily.
In 2012 ShoutMeLoud got penalized by Google Panda algorithm, and I realized that the guest blogging was one of my biggest mistakes. Don’t get me wrong – guest blogging is indeed a beneficial opportunity for your blog and for the blogging community in general. The problem comes from accepting guest posts from irrelevant companies, blogs or from guests who have posted just for backlinks.
It was around the beginning of 2014 when I rewrote ShoutMeLoud’s guest submission guidelines, and changed the conditions for sharing content here. After all, my blog was started with the intention of helping people, and not as a platform for marketers to market their products.
Takeaway:
Do remember that you are responsible for every website mentioned (links) on your blog, as a place on your blog is seen as a vote of trust. If you do not know a person who is asking to do some guest blogging on your blog, I would suggest not accepting such guest post submissions. It’s hard to reject an awesome guest post, but if you care about your readers, this one change will make a positive difference.
Paid or sponsored reviews: Don’t sell your soul!
This is the last but most important turning point in my ShoutMeLoud career. When ShoutMeLoud become a brand back in 2011, I was approached by marketers to advertise their products in the form of ad placements, sponsored or paid reviews. I was not against it, as I was making money from it. To be honest, I actually accepted a few generous offers, and made some money from it. At the same time, AdSense was placed on my blog.
In about mid-2012, one Shouter emailed me to complain about a product he bought after seeing the advertisement on ShoutMeLoud. That ad was from AdSense, and that reader ended up spending about $39 on a bad product. That’s when I realized the importance of ads and sponsored reviews on my blog, and by the end of 2012, I had removed AdSense from my blog. I removed it because I couldn’t control what kinds of ads they were displaying on my blog. I also stopped accepting all sponsored reviews and paid reviews from random companies.
Today I continue to get offers from web hosting companies and SEO companies to promote them on ShoutMeLoud for a handsome remuneration, and I am more than glad to take down their offers.
Takeaway:
I’m not saying AdSense is bad, but the problem with AdSense is that you can’t control what ads are being displayed on your blog. If your situation allows, do not use any contextual ads. You can always use affiliate marketing to recommend products that you believe in, and that will help you to make money. The same concept is true for sponsored reviews. You will continue to get offers for paid ad placements and sponsored reviews, and they are going to be lucrative. Before you accept any such offer, however, do try the product and ask yourself if you would use that product yourself or recommend it to someone you know. If not, then it’s better to turn down such offers.
These are the top 7 things that changed the course of blogging for me, and made ShoutMeLoud the brand you know today. You can choose the points which you find relevant to your situation. Some of these decisions are not easy to make, as a there can be a lot of money involved. But if you plan to have a successful career in blogging, and you want to take your blog to the next level, making these difficult decisions will ultimately give your blog a new direction.
For further reading:
7 Eye-opening Hacks To Excel In Blogging Career – Personal Experience is a post from ShoutMeLoud - Shouters Who Inspires
Trist sätt att börja veckan på, men så klart ännu värre för Iwatas familj. Jag skrev lite mer om Satoru Iwatas bortgång på Spelbloggen. Hans livsgärning förtjänar något mer omfattande dock, för Iwata var en av de stora i spelvärlden.