Writing And Selling Content

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Online Community Management

The book I read to research this post was Online Community Management For Dummies which is an excellent book which I bought from kindle. This book is about marketing a business online in things like a blog, social networking sites, micro blogs and also on your business website. A vital thing in this is answering your correspondence promptly. Nowadays most companies use facebook, twitter, linkedin & google plus. One thing you will probably come across is what they call trolls who are just intent on upsetting people and will often try to hide their identity. A lot of sites let you ban peoples IP address but often these people can get round it and can change their IP address. If you keep banning them they will hopefully get fed up with having to change their IP address and move on. It may also be worth telling other group members to ignore them as they are just after a reaction. A lot of these trolls seem quite respectable in real life and have a kind of dual existence. If you are promoting a product it's important you learn as much as possible about it and any related sujects. If someone has a query or complaint it's no good answering with I don't know. Also on the social networks you should join any related groups. Often these can be found by typing something like linkedin groups in speach marks and also adding a search term related to your business or product in a search engine like google. Another thing is looking for groups for community managers on these sites so you can correspond with similiar people to yourself. Believe me there is a lot of information in this book and I could easily write a much longer post than this on this book.

Genetics

The book I read to research this post was Genetics for Dummies by Tara Rodden Robinson which is a very good book which I bought from kindle. This book is a good introduction to this subject and while some of it was a bit beyond my grasp it was nonetheless an interesting book. DNA was only discovered in the 1950's but genetics has come a long way since then. Many of the great genetic discoveries were done with living things like fruit flies and plants. Mendel grew plants all his life and cross pollinated them and kept records. In his lifetime he had no idea how important his discoveries were. His book was published after his death. DNA is made up of recessive and dominant genes which combine in such a way that in some characterisics like a mother having twins they can even skip a generation. In the case of a genetic illness a person with a mild illness can combine their genes with someone else also with a mild form and produce a severe form of it in someone. Some animals like rats have very diverse DNA but others like cheetahs have DNA so similiar so can do a skin graft from one animal to another without any problems. If a disease of epidemic proportions wiped out one cheetah all would probably be at great risk. If human DNA was laid end to end it would be 6 feet long and contains 100 trillion cells in its length. A recent development in genetics has been its use in solving crime. Any kind of body fluid can be traced back to its owner but they need a suspect or database in order to find the culprit. Another recent development has been the discovery that certain viruses can make you much more susceptible to illnesses like breast cancer. 

Tumblr

The book I read to research this post was Tumblr For Dummies by Sue Jenkins which is a very good book which I bought from kindle. This book was a little short at around 150 pages but it is quite comprehensive in telling you about Tumblr. Tumblr is technically a micro blogging site where you can also upload music in mp3 format, pictures & also you can reblog and like other people's posts. It's the fastest growing micro blogging site in the world & one thing I do like particularly is you can upload a decent sized blog without fear you will have to shorten it, like twitter for example. Like a lot of these kind of sites you can follow other people and they can follow you. Apparently 46 million users use Tumblr. There are over 1,000 themes you can choose from for your page. You can connect to http://tumblrstats.com to get statistics for your Tumblr site. If you lose your password or have to activate your account Tumblr takes around 5-10 minutes to send out the activation email. I had 2 sites on Tumblr connected to the same account & I used to just copy and paste my blogs from other sites to it. The only reason I stopped using it was that going around lots of sites, copying and pasting took to much time.

Web Hosting

The book I read to research this post was Web Hosting For Dummies by Peter Pollock which is a very good book which I bought from kindle. There are 3 major types of hosting your website or blog. Hosted is when a company like wordpress let you have some kind of site that they look after, and it often entails joining a website. There is often a relatively large amount of rules which you must obey and your options for the site are limited. Web hosted is when you pay a 3rd party to host your website or blog. You have less rules and more options but the nitty gritty of running the site is left for you to sort out. You can usually use open source tools like wordpress & drupal to construct the site. Then there is self hosted where you buy a server and have a dedicated web site on it. This is the most expensive option. Another option is having a virtual server where partitioned space is used for the website and the server is also for other jobs or websites on different partitions. Don't be taken in with the idea that a more expensive web hosting company must be better. Many people find the smaller companies which tend to be cheaper provide better customer service. Most web servers use either Linux or Unix and these are a good choice. Most viruses are designed to infect Windows computers & using an unusual operating system excludes a lot of these viruses. Linux also is open source and free. The main reason some people prefer to use windows is they can attach a Microsoft Access database to their website. Many Linux users use the database MySQL which does a similiar job. 

Saving Money

The book I read to research this post was The Three Most Important Lessons by Martin Lewis which is a very good book which I bought from a car boot sale. Martin is a journalist & broadcaster who specializes in saving money. He has his own tv programme on Channel 5 in the UK & is a frequent guest on other shows. He has a web site at http://moneysavingexpert.com that site is well worth a visit. The ghist of this book is there are 3 lessons which are:

A companies job is to make money from you.

Debt isn't necessarily bad. What matters is the type of debt & whether it's essential or not.

You shouldn't feel you need to be loyal to a particular company but instead should shop around for the best deal.

This book refers you to his website for a lot of the nitty gritty of saving money. Something it does say in the book though is you should haggle for the best deal even with existing debt, which may be difficult to reduce but it can be done. You should use comparison websites to get the best deals on anything you buy. Even with these you can often phone them and haggle for an even better price. You have nothing to lose.

You should never pay the minimum payment on a credit card as the company is then charging you compound interest. Compound interest makes them a very healthy profit. The best thing to do with credit cards is put enough in the bank to cover your debts & pay it off in its entirety every month. This takes discipline but you get the interest from the bank account & it has to be said a lot of credit card companies are wising up to this and charging for the credit card. This is a good example of good debt. Remember if you don't really need something don't buy it as it is just another form of bad debt, even if you get a good deal.

Instagram

The book I read to research this post was 100 Instagram Tips, Tricks & Secrets by Andrew MacCarthy which is a very good book which I bought from kindle. I think now Instagram goes by a different name which is 2 Insta With Love but if you do a search in the app store on your smartphone for Instagram you should find it. Instagram lets you take photos on your smartphone, do simple editing and upload it on to social networking sites like Facebook & Weebly. I think it would also work with this site Wordpress but it might be worth seeking out the Wordpress app for your smartphone as well. As you can imagine this book has lots of advice about using Instagram. For example they recommend taking photos in a 3rd party application specifically for taking photos and importing a copy into Instagram. They also recommend using a photo editing app like Photoshop Express for some of your editing. When you are composing a picture you should divide it in to 3 both across and down and check the composition is balanced out. You should take photos from a slight angle to make them more interesting. A site they recommend if you are uploading pictures on to social networking sites is a statistics site which tells you things like your most popular photos. It's at http://statigr.am/ .It's called statigram. Another site which lets you convert your pictures in to fridge magnets for $14.99 for 9 is at http://stickygram.com.

Saltpeter Remixed - Ruby

I am reviewing the album Saltpeter Remixed by Ruby which is an excellent album. This album came out in 1996 & there was a Saltwater album which came out the previous year. Ruby's only hit single in the UK was  Tiny Meat which reached 22 but the best single on the album is Paraffin.The original Saltpeter album was notable because everything musically on the album was done by computer & Lesley Rankine the singer travelled all the way to Seattle from London to work with the producer she wanted. Apparently she lived in New Orleans & a lady neighbour got murdered and chopped up and dumped in Lesley's garbage so she soon fled from there. Ruby had very little success in America & I think I only came across their music via a friend's brother who was at University & he was visiting and this was one of the album's he brought with him. As you probably now under graduates often seek out unusual music and they often buy a lot of music to listen to. Another interesting feature of this album is it came in a booklet which incorporated a wallet for the cd. It was very stylish. Other albums like Vitalogy by Pearl Jam also did a similiar thing. A final thing the group Ruby came up with their name because the 2 members both had grandmothers called Ruby. Also there is a wikipedia article on Ruby which I looked at and highly recommend but you may find you have to search in google for Saltpeter and Ruby as there are several similiar sounding groups.

Information

The book I read to research this post was Information A Very Short Introduction by Luciano Floridi which is a very good book which I bought from kindle. This book is just an introduction to the topic of information storage and is selective in what it covers. In keeping with this series of books the book has to be around 150 pages. In the coming years the amount of information stored is set to grow exponentially. At the moment people are quite distrustful of information that is stored about but as better methods of storage come into play and people see more benefits that may gradually change. A new idea is the Quantum Computer which will be a computer that will be able to do things we can barely dream about. One problem in developing this is that some of the components are very fragile, but as time goes on that will change. Another idea is having computers that will be hard wired to do certain things. These computers wouldn't need programs to be written for them. Finally something that is in its infancy is online games and this is likely to get more popular. Also virtual goods are likely to become more identified with online games and websites. It's interesting that you used to be able to buy virtual items like avatars on Ebay but they stopped it.

Value Investing

The book I read to research this post was Value Investing For Dummies by Peter J Sander which is an excellent book which I bought from Kindle. This book is aimed at people who know a little bit about investing and are particularly interested in buying shares although the book does look at other types of investment as well. One thing it suggests is typing George  Soros share holdings into google to see what he or another prominent investor is investing in. Companies shares tend to track the true value of the company but they may fluctuate wildly. 2 of the basis for valuing a company are liquidation value which is if a companies assets were sold tomorrow, what would they fetch. Another popular one which may be more accurate is intrinsic value which includes a companies assets, current profits and forecasted profits. Another valid thing is increase or decrease in market share. 2 useful websites are http://finance.yahoo.com & http://google.finance.com. Both these sites are free and pretty good. An interesting bit of advice if you are trying to value a company and are having major problems is move on to another company. Some people find it useful to meet the management prior to making a major investment. If you do this you need to be experienced and know what you are looking for. A final bit of advice is don't be too eager to sell your shares. If you sell them after 12 months you must pay tax on them but if you hang on to them for several years the profit accrues and you don't pay tax until you sell them. It should save you a bit of money. This book is written with the American market in mind so if like me you are English you must adapt the information. A great book nonetheless.

Global Warming

The book I read to research this post was Global Warming A Very Short Introduction by Mark Maslin which is an excellent book which I bought from kindle. This book is around 150 pages but is a good introduction to the subject. 800 million people go to bed hungry every night and as well as the challenge of Global Warming this is interlocked with Global Poverty. The Chinese are bringing a new power station online every 4 days and almost all developing countries are rapidly becoming industrialized. With this industrialization they are using coal and oil technologies which may represent a nightmare scenario of Global Warming going from bad to worse. If there was no carbon dioxide in the atmosphere the Earth's temperature would be at least 35 degrees centigrade less so it does a valuable job.However if there is too much carbon dioxide it threatens to start a pattern of the Earth continually warming up and nobodies how far it's liable to go. There is ocean currents in the Gulf Stream which ensure Europe has relatively mild weather and these currents could change course causing Europe to have more extreme weather. There are huge amounts of carbon dioxide locked up in the oceans but this is readily transferable to the atmosphere. At one time scientists thought the oceans would absorb any excess carbon dioxide and thought that would solve the problem. There are huge amounts of methane frozen on the seabed of deep oceans that can be released as the oceans warm up causing tsunamis & increasing global warming still further. At the moment the countries on the Pacific Rim are quite prepared for tsunamis but if methane is released almost anywhere with an ocean is at risk.

Legend - Bob Marley and the Wailers

I am reviewing the album Legend by Bob Marley & The Wailers which is one of my favourite albums of all time. If you want a good introduction to the music of Marley this is the album to get. I think it's his biggest selling album and even now many years after his premature death most reggae fans regard him as the biggest reggae act on the planet. He emigrated to Britain from Jamaica & his home on that island is a museum and major tourist attraction. There were reggae artists who had hits in the Top 40 in the UK before Bob but they were mostly 1 hit wonders and reggae never became mainstream till Marley started having hits. He was the first reggae artist to consistently have big hits on the UK top 40. As a result of his success his record company was able to invest money into having his records properly produced in a studio. He died of a brain tumour which was inoperable & there was very little they could do for him. Some years after his death they found a recording which was just a vocal recording of Iron Lion Zion & they were able to produce a record to a high standard. It got into the Top 10 & gives us an idea of the kind of thing that may have been achieved if he had continued recording. There have also been recordings later on like the excellent Rainbow Country where modern technology was used to give it a modern sound. My favourite song ever by him was No Woman, No Cry. 

Number Ones - The Beegees

I am reviewing the album Number Ones by The Beegees which is an excellent album. There has been several greatest hits albums by The Beegees over the years. I think this album features all their US number 1 s as if it was only the UK ones there would only be about 6 tracks. In Britain they are the only group to have at least 1 number 1 per decade for 4 decades. I think my favourite track is You Win Again. Rather interestingly that track didn't feature the high pitched vocals many people associate with them & they claimed they were going to make more of their songs like that but I think in their later stuff they went back to the high pitched vocals. One of their members died some years ago. Also I'm not sure which member it was but one of them was married to the singer Lulu at one stage. The Beegees were at their peak when the movie Saturday Night Fever came out which features the most number 1s off 1 album in America. It's also one of the biggest selling albums worldwide ever.

Risk

The book I read to research this post was Risk A Very Short Introduction by John Kadvany et al which is a very good book which I bought from kindle. This book is an introduction to risk management. Apparently if you make a single car journey in the USA you have a 1 in 10 million chance of it ending in a fatal car accident but also you have a 1 in 200 chance of dying in a car crash at some point in your lifetime. The way they work risk of something out is they check the statistics and take the total number of incidents and then take the population as a whole and divide the 2 together. This will then give them something like 1 in 100. The types of risk you decide you must take measures to avoid is called manageable risk although many types of risk like the chance of the earth being struck by a comet you will decide are so remote there is no point in preparing for. This book is only about 150 pages and is part of a series on complex topics, written by experts in their field. I think there is about 300 books in the series although that may include some that haven't been published yet. 

Stem Cells

The book I read to research this post was Stem Cells A Very Short Introduction by Jonathan Slack which is an excellent book which I bought from kindle. I think this book isn't quite as good as Stem Cells For Dummies which I reviewed a while back but it is a good introduction to this subject. The reason Stem Cell research is so controversial is that they tend to use embryoes for the  various procedures although many of these are aborted fetuses. Immuno suppressant drugs have to be used to the implantation of the material. Embryonic material is best because it has the ability to reproduce. One problem with introducing stem cells is if they are introduced particularly into a solid organ they have to be in a solution and many of the cells die. Bone Marrow transplants can be introduced into the blood so have a good survival rate. The spine and injections injected in to it on the other hand sees many cells die. Sometimes a host is used to breed or multiply the cells and other times the cells are just grown and transplanted. Much stem cell research is done on animals like mice or similiar animals to minimize controversy. When Dolly the sheep was cloned it was very controversial due to it being a high level animal with much in common with humans. Many people thought the next step was to clone people. This book is a little short at around 150 pages but is an enjoyable read and is interesting.

Marketing

The book I read to research this post was Marketing For Dummies by Ruth Mortimer et al which is an excellent book which I bought from kindle. This book is a UK edition so a lot of the suggested websites have an english slant. One of the key things in marketing is doing research which includes finding out what your competitors are doing. One excellent way of doing although not mentioned in the book is if you go to Linkedin you can subscribe to updates from a particular company & they give you revealing information. A site mentioned in the book is http://statistics.gov.uk this site gives you stastics on just about everything imaginable, although obviously mostly in Britain.

If you are creative about where you advertise you can make more profit from what you spend. If for example you take a full page colour ad in a national newspaper it will cost approximately £60,000 which is fine for a big company but if you're a small company you may be better off advertising in a trade publication which may target just as many potential buyers but only be a few hundred pounds. Of course if you aren't using one of the big social media sites you are missing out and should have events specifically for your followers on these sites. A good example is Cadbury's noticed that many of their followers would like to see the Wispa bar & Gold Wispa reintroduced. They not only reintroduced them but put film on their social media sites of the head of their Facebook site pressing the button to start the production line when it was restarted. They also reminded people if they want them to manufacturing these bars they must buy them.

Writing For The Web

I read the book Writing For The Web by Linda Felder which is a very good book which I bought from kobo. This is an ebook and I expected it to be quite short but was actually a decent length and quite interesting. It's about composing blogs and websites with content such as photographs, sound clips & of course writing. Of course you should use photographs and sound clips sparingly. The more you practice taking photos, constructing blogs and writing the better you will get at it. Even the author Jack Kerouac who used to write whilst on speed, used no punctuation & would write a whole book at one sitting developed his art over many years. Many authors have a ritual prior to writing, like ie Stephen King takes a vitamin pill. If you are serious about becoming a good writer you should get a good book on grammar & punctuation. I for example have a book called Words Into Type by various authors & I have read it but it's a very complex subject. In my writing I often try to minimize my punctuation to enable my thoughts to flow. Some people write blogs without any punctuation which obviously makes them difficult to read and I bet there aren't many like that.