Displaying All Posts in the Creativity category

Wanna Be a Freelance Writer? Be a Brand Journalist

brand journalism

Companies once reached their audience by saying, “Buy Arco pancake mix. It makes good pancakes.”

And then came television commercials that promoted a lifestyle.

Then there was complex marketing research.

By the time Web 2.0 came along, the marketing intelligentsia on various brands tended to feel that any traditional advertising was a thing of the past and that telling a story was the way to reach people.

That is what brand journalism is all about, and it opens doors for freelance writers. Click Here to Read Article …

3 Tips for Writing Great Intros

how to write a good introduction

This is the best introduction I’ve ever written.

It’s surprising and unique.

It’s concise.

It doesn’t re-invent the wheel.

And because I’m telling you that these are the traits of a great intro paragraphs, it sets up the discussion.

I’m now ready to flesh out ways to write a great intro for a blog post or other web article. Click Here to Read Article …

10 Tools to Make Writing Easier

tools for writers

Content creation is one of the hardest skills someone can master.

As a blogger, this skill is essential to the success of your art.

It takes a while before one can confidently say they’ve mastered the skill of content creation from a blogger’s perspective.

Regardless of whether you’ve mastered this skill, there are some tools that make the process easier.

There are some tools you can’t do without —they’re vital to enhancing your blogging experience. Click Here to Read Article …

3 Things All Great Bloggers Do

successful blogger

There are two things that are concerning for an average blogger: obscurity and balance.

When an aspiring blogger enters the online world, he is a complete stranger in an immense crowd.

Getting a decent number of visitors and readers is already hard, but things get even more difficult when someone actually reads your posts — their underestimating comments may make you feel insignificant and inconspicuous.

If you are a blogger who got disappointed with the hard start, there is one thing you should always remember: everyone starts at the bottom! Click Here to Read Article …

6 Comedy Tips for Business Success

business success

Last fall, after putting off going to my first Toastmaster’s meeting for the umpteenth time, I decided to enroll in an improv comedy class.

I had been watching Whose Line Is It Anyway? and thought to myself, “Why can’t I think off the cuff and engage in witty banter like those guys on the show?”

So, on the first day of class, I girded up my loins and forced myself to actually attend.

I knew I wouldn’t become the next Will Ferrell or Tina Fey, but I figured it would help me to round out my public speaking skills.

What I didn’t anticipate, however, was that it would provide so many valuable lessons that could be applied to a professional environment.

In fact, I would go so far as to say that anyone who wants to become more effective in the workplace could benefit from taking a whirl at improv.

Here are the top six lessons from improv that can help advance your career: Click Here to Read Article …

7 Ways to Beat Writer’s Block

writers block

Whether you’re writing your midterm paper or finishing a deadline on an article for a client, writing can be a difficult job. Writer’s block can be a real problem.

Creativity doesn’t always flow when it should.

Plenty of writers sit down with every good intention, only to find themselves an hour later having accomplished nothing.

Well, nothing aside from trolling around online, playing games or suddenly feeling the need to reorganize their entire office.

Although writing can be a daunting task, these seven tips will help you get your creative juices flowing and get you on track to producing better writing without sweating the deadline. Click Here to Read Article …

5 Secrets to Sparking Your Creativity

Gretchen Rubin, the author of the highly successful book The Happiness Project spent a year trying to figure out what made her happy.

One of her conclusions was that following her passions, instead of curbing her impulses to be creative, brought her much closer to that elusive goal.

In order to do that, she designed several ways to help spark her creativity on a regular basis. They include taking notes and making random lists, poking around the Internet and visiting strange locations that seem to attract her.

You can spark your own creativity by trying out some of her ideas, or maybe some of these five other ways to get your imagination and creativity flowing. Click Here to Read Article …

5 Ways Your Instincts Can Produce Brilliant Work

gut feeling

We all have instincts or intuitions from time to time that give us hints or clues about what to do or what we should do in certain situations. Some people call this trusting your gut feeling.

Whatever you call it, science is now confirming that these guesses are actually a process that your brain uses to help you determine the proper course of action.

The scientific journal Neuron published research that shows that trusting your instincts, or what they call “subliminal thinking,” actually allows people to correctly guess the right answer to a series of difficult questions.

Click Here to Read Article …