To participate, just post a comment here by 9 a.m. Eastern on July 19 that answers the questions “What interested you most in The Times this week? Why?”
So what did you read, watch or listen to this week?
We hope you’ll click around NYTimes.com and find your own great articles, features and multimedia, but we know that not everyone who participates has a Times subscription. Because all links to Times content from the student features on our site are free, every week we’ll try to help by posting interesting pieces from a variety of sections.
Or, maybe you discovered articles in the other sections like …
_________
Whatever caught your eye, tell us about it in the comments.
Need more details? The contest rules are all here, and you can read the work of last year’s winners here. A quick overview, though:
• You can choose from anything published in the print paper or on NYTimes.com in 2019, including videos, graphics and photographs. (In your response, please include the URL or headline of the piece you pick.)
• We’ll post this question each Friday from today through Aug. 16, and you’ll have until the next Friday morning to respond with your picks. Then we’ll close that post and open a new one with the same question.
• We’ll choose at least one favorite answer to feature on our site each week. Winners from this week will be announced on July 30.
• Feel free to participate each week, but we allow only one submission per person per week.
• New for 2019: Students in the United States and the United Kingdom must be between 13 to 19 years old to participate. However, if you are submitting from anywhere else in the world, you must be between 16 to 19 years old. Please see The New York Times’s terms of service for more details.
If you spent your childhood playing the likes of Donkey Kong, Mario Kart or Mortal Kombat, a career in game design and development is likely to hold a certain allure. While a passion for games might be your driving force, there are more reasons than one to move into the industry. According to the latest data, similar fields are predicted to experience strong future growth.
Gone are the days when following a passion meant patchy work opportunities. In the game design and development field, the opposite couldn’t be more true. Particularly when completing a Bachelor of Information Technology in Games Design and Development with Murdoch University, available online through Open Universities Australia.
A truly unique degree
As a single degree that breeds cross-functional skills in students, this course is quite the anomaly. By offering a game design and development specialisation within the IT field of study, this course creates graduates armed with multidisciplinary skills across both industries – skills that cover the creative and the technical.
Multidisciplinary skills set budding graduates apart. What’s more, they’re coming to be expected from game and tech companies.
Be creative, technical, or both
You don’t need to decide what type of person you are, be it creative or technical, before enrolling in this degree. With the Bachelor of Information Technology in Games Design and Development, you can explore and develop both sides of your personality.
With an approach that doesn’t bucket students, it’s no wonder this degree is producing some seriously cross-skilled graduates.
A taste of what you could learn
The course is designed to let students explore the industry by covering a range of areas first. Students can then hone-in on the skills that they find come naturally.
Areas of study include software development, programming, virtual reality development, databases and even game artwork.
Careers in the field
Studying games is more than following a passion. It’s a study choice with big opportunity.
Careers in game design and development include:
3D modeller
Level designer
Storyboard artist
Film crew member
VFX or SFX specialist
Careers in the wider IT field include:
Software developer
System analyst
Database administration
Computer system and network management
User support
Cyber security
Business analyst
An ideal choice for online study
As the industry itself is built on digital tools, game design and development is an ideal area to study online.
Online study requires students to collaborate through tech. It’s skills like these that employers need from graduates.
Get in touch
Keen to step behind the screen to follow a career that promises creativity and logic? Fill out the form on this page and we’ll put you in touch with a student advisor. They can talk to you about the Bachelor of Information Technology in Games and Development with Murdoch University, and other options.
If you’d like to explore your options online, our IT courses are a great place to start.
Whether you’re building your startup or pursuing “intrapreneurial” ventures within an established company, the journey of an innovator can be a rollercoaster of thrilling highs – and challenging lows. That’s why success isn’t just about having an entrepreneurial skillset – it’s about having the right mindset to carry you through the inevitable tough times.
You don’t have to take our word for it. Here’s a list of 5 essential ingredients of the entrepreneurial mindset, as explained by some of the most successful innovators of all time. And if you want to hone your mindset and your skillset at the same time, the online MSc in Innovation and Entrepreneurship (MSIE) degree from a top ranked business school is an opportunity to learn from anywhere in the world.
“It’s not about money or connections. It’s the willingness to outwork and outlearn everyone when it comes to your business.” – Mark Cuban
One of the reasons why the path of entrepreneurship can be so inspiring is because of where it often starts: from zero. Whether it’s Bill Gates and Paul Allen starting Microsoft in a garage or Sergey Brin and Larry Page funding Google on their own credit cards, some of the biggest companies in the world started with little more than a dream – and a lot of work.
Mark Cuban is another famous self-made entrepreneur that knows how hard work can pay off. He moved to Dallas as a bartender, with no money and no connections, and got fired after less than a year into his first job as a software salesman. However, he used that experience to learn more about the industry and form his own software company, MicroSolutions, which he sold for $6 million – the first of his many successful exits.
That’s why he touts “the willingness to outwork and outlearn everyone” as the most important ingredient of an entrepreneurial mindset. And speaking of learning…
“My biggest motivation? Just to keep challenging myself. I see life almost like one long University education that I never had — everyday I’m learning something new.” – Richard Branson
Whether seeking inspiration for a new startup or an existing venture’s pivot, an entrepreneur always has to be looking for their next big idea. That’s why many of the most successful entrepreneurs have an omnivorous curiosity and desire to learn about new things. Just ask Richard Branson, who started off selling records and, several ventures later, is now selling trips to outer space!
One reason we’re in a golden age of entrepreneurship is that online learning has made a great education in virtually any subject more accessible than ever. Coursera is the world’s leading online learning platform, with over 35 million learners across over 2,700 different courses. And the MSIE will develop the specific entrepreneurial skills and mindset you need to develop your idea, no matter where your interests lie.
“Leadership is the expectation that you can use your voice for good. That you can make the world a better place.” – Sheryl Sandberg
“Doing well while doing good” has never been more important to your success as an entrepreneur. Today’s consumers want to buy products they feel are genuine, and they want to buy them from companies they perceive as authentic and empathetic. That’s why many entrepreneurs spend nearly as much time talking about their values as their business strategies.
Sheryl Sandberg is one example of how business success and strong values can go hand in hand. While heading up Google’s online sales division, she also played a leading role in guiding the tech giant’s philanthropic initiatives, including the launch of Google.org. She has since become a powerful advocate for women in the business world, writing the 2013 best-seller Lean In and empowering women as a focus for her philanthropic efforts with LeanIn.org.
Every entrepreneur can find ways to use their voice effectively, and the MSIE program includes courses to help students connect their own values to positive business outcomes, including “Marketing through Social Media” and “Social Entrepreneurship and Changemaking.”
“It’s fine to celebrate success but it is more important to heed the lessons of failure.” – Bill Gates
Entrepreneurship is all about a willingness to take risks – and thus a willingness to fail. Successful entrepreneurs wear their failures proudly, like well-earned battle scars that taught them the lessons they needed to launch their next, wildly-profitable product, or make their incredibly creative, company-saving pivot.
Bill Gates knows a thing or two about learning through failure. Microsoft is one of the most successful companies in the world, recently valued at over $1 trillion, but it has also suffered through some of the most notorious product flops in tech history. Remember Windows Vista, Internet Explorer 6, or Zune? After every misstep, Gates and Microsoft learned from their mistakes, applied lessons to new products, and kept growing.
The MSIE curriculum puts you in position to succeed – but it also teaches entrepreneurs how to navigate challenges or even failures. HEC Paris faculty, Laurence Lehmann Ortega and Hélène Musikas, have developed an original approach called Odyssey 3.14 to help reinvent business models that are failing or losing momentum, and this approach is taught as part of the MSIE’s project-based coursework.
“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma – which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of other’s opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition.” – Steve Jobs
Finally, perhaps the most important ingredient of an entrepreneurial mindset is self-confidence. Because the possibility of failure is an inherent part of risk-taking and innovation – see above – a deep-seated belief in your vision is essential to getting through inevitable setbacks and shutting down the insidious voices of doubt (and self-doubt) you’ll encounter along the way.
Steve Jobs, the legendary founder of Apple, was famous for his uncompromising belief in his vision for the company as a maker of high-end, distinctive electronics. He was forced out of the company in 1985 as Apple struggled against the onslaught of low-cost PC clones, only to return in the mid-1990s to lead the company to unprecedented heights with blockbuster signature products like the iMac, iPod, and iPhone.
By staying true to his vision in the face of considerable headwinds, Jobs built Apple into one of the most valuable companies of all time and changed computing history. And every MSIE student has a chance to prove their Jobsian conviction with a degree-concluding startup pitch before a jury of HEC professors and seasoned entrepreneurs!
In today’s fast-paced digital economy, innovation is everything. Whether you’re an entrepreneur building a startup from scratch or an “intrapreneur” innovating within an established company, the ability to develop a new idea from concept to successful execution can open up exciting – and lucrative – career opportunities.
Becoming a successful entrepreneur (or intrapreneur) requires a specific skillset that can be cultivated through the right education. Read on to learn about five of the most essential skills you need. And, if you want to develop them in a self-paced and 100% online setting, the fully online MSc in Innovation and Entrepreneurship (MSIE) degree offered by HEC Paris and Coursera makes a world-class education in these skills more accessible than ever.
1.Creatitivity
Step one to entrepreneurship is having a good idea. Like a great artist, a successful entrepreneur interprets the world through a creative lens, seeing opportunity where others don’t. Many college students had access to the internet in the early 2000s, but it took a certain mindset to see the potential for creating a social network like Facebook that would make it easy for billions of people worldwide to connect with each other (and with ads).
But unlike conventional wisdom that says great artists are “born, not made,” a creative business mindset can be taught. The MSIE includes “Boosting Creativity” as a fundamental course, helping every student boost their own creativity. The course also spotlights the importance of helping consumers tap into their own creative abilities, which itself can turn into massive business opportunities – just ask the founders of Instagram.
2. People skills
The myth of the lone entrepreneur is powerful in the popular consciousness, but it’s also misleading. While we all know Mark Zuckerberg’s name, the truth is that he built Facebook along with a team of cofounders, and the company could not have become what it is today without being able to bring in and integrate new team members and tens of thousands of employees.
LinkedIn analysis shows that “soft” people skillsare the biggest skills gap – and thus the most valuable skills – in today’s workplace. And even though the MSIE is fully online, the program gives students plenty of opportunities to develop people skills through courses like “Team Working,” practical team projects, and mentoring sessions with faculty members and business leaders.
3. Organization
Here’s another mythbuster: founding a startup isn’t a freewheeling escape from the structures of a conventional, established company. If anything, building a company from scratch – and managing it as it grows – makes excellent organizational skills even more essential for an entrepreneur. It’s also crucial for intrapreneurs, who must learn to navigate an existing organization in their quest to nurture innovation from within.
This kind of organizational intelligence is one of the core skills developed in the MSIE program. It’s a big part of courses like “Strategic Management of Innovation” and “Managing the Performance of a Growing Enterprise,” and it’s placed front-and-center in “Organizing for Innovation,” which shows students how organizational structures are established, develop, and change through the life of an innovative venture.
4. Financial Know-How
Money is the lifeblood of any company, but it’s especially important for startups and other innovative businesses that can live or die based on how they balance their revenues, burn rate, and fundraising. The fact is, you can’t always wait until you can afford to hire a CFO. Successful entrepreneurs often need to be able to navigate these challenges themself from the early days of a company.
As the #2 ranked business school in all of Europe, HEC Paris provides its MSIE students with a terrific foundation in these critical financial skills. In particular, the “Entrepreneurial Finance” course gives students the fundamentals of financial modeling and strategy, and “Private Equity and Venture Capital” will help you make the right corporate financing decisions for your business.
5. Passion
As important as financing is, a successful entrepreneurial venture is ultimately fueled by passion. An entrepreneur’s passion sustains them during the inevitable challenges of growing a business, and it provides a foundation for a purposeful mission that inspires their team as well as a loyal base of customers.
Working with passion, as well as harnessing the passion of others, is the focus of courses like “Social Entrepreneurship and Changemaking” and “Marketing Through Social Media.” And every MSIE student’s degree culminates with a final pitch for their business idea before a jury of HEC professors and seasoned entrepreneurs, giving them a chance to practice turning their passion into fundraising success.
Want to build these essential skills and launch the next phase of your entrepreneurial (or intrapreneurial) career? The MSIE in Innovation and Entrepreneurship (MSIE) from HEC Paris is a 100% online degree for professionals in interested in product innovation and business development.
Have you ever heard of a little gem of a website called Creative Market? It’s a market place similar to Etsy where designers and illustrators can sell their mouse made digital work. Creative Market is one of our favorite resources here at Designer Blogs. It’s one of our first go-to places for gorgeous typefaces and textures, but you can also find an endless number of design resources there. If you are a designer, Creative Market is definitely something you need to check out. If you are non-designer, Creative Market is still a must check out. But don’t say I didn’t warn you. It will suck you in a fill you with all sorts of crazy inspiration.
Here’s a little look-see at some of the amazing goods for sale there:
Not a photographer but still want amazing photos to feature something you’ve digitally created? Check out their amazing assortment of mockups to give your products a professional look.
We shared with you in this post the 4 best places to find free photos for your blog. However, if you can’t find what you are looking for there, Creative Market should definitely be your next stop because you’ll find an endless array of gorgeous photography.
Or maybe you are looking for just the right framed photo to add to an empty wall in your home. Hello…Creative Market! Get on it!
The patterns and textures at Creative Market are all designed by independent creators so there are all sorts of unique styles and options to choose from.
This s only a sampling of the serious gorgeous fonts they sell. The best part is that all of their fonts are very affordably priced, so you won’t break the bank trying to establish a diverse font collection.
Licenses
Creative Market now offers two licenses: Standard & Extended, so be sure to purchase the correct license at check-out based on your needs. Learn more about their licenses here.
Seriously, take 5 minutes right now and go check Creative Market out!
Today I want to share with you a fun little trick for automatically resizing your Blogger photos to fill the full width of your post area. Blogger offers several tools for resizing post images easily. I’ll get to my little trick in a second, but first I want to explain how to use the Blogger tools for uploading and resizing your photos for those that don’t already know.
To use the Blogger resizing options, simply create a new post, add a photo, and then click on your uploaded photo to open the sizing and positioning options.
You can set the photo size to small, medium, large, x-large, or to its original size. You can also set the justification to left, center, or right. I recommend centering your photos and using the x-large setting (if you don’t use the trick below) so your photos can be seen in all their glory. The only draw back to using this option is that the x-large size sizes images to 640px, which means if you have a post area that is wider than 640px, the photo will still look a little small. That is where my fancy little trick comes into play, so let’s get to it!
Resizing your blog photos is an important step regardless of whether or not you plan to use this photo sizing trick. This tutorial will still work on photos uploaded in their original size but because uploading original sized photos slows your site WAY DOWN, it is not recommended. The larger the image size, the slower it will load on your site…so trust me, just don’t do it!
Most blogs have a post area width somewhere between 600px-750px, so sizing your photos to 800px wide should work well on most blogs. You’ll want your image to be sized a little larger than your post width with this tutorial because it’s easier to bring an image down in size than it is to bring a small image up in size. Enlarging a small image will cause it to become pixelated and the quality will be low. So to keep things looking good, I recommend sizing your images to around 800px wide with this tutorial.
I use Photoshop to resize my images, but if you don’t have Photoshop, Pixlr is a free service you can use to do this. Here’s how to easily resize a photo using Pixlr:
1) Hop over to Pixlr, scroll down and click “Launch Web App” under the Pixlr Editor option.
2) Click “Open Image from Computer” and find the image you want to use from your computer.
3) Your image will appear and will be ready to be edited. At the bottom of the image you’ll see the current image size. My sample image is currently 4000px wide, which is WAY too large to be uploaded to a blog. So let’s change it to the recommended 800px wide. In the top navigation bar, click “Image” and then “Image size…”
4) Change the image width to 800 pixels. The height of the image will automatically adjust to keep the proper proportions. Click “OK.”
5) Now you just need to save the resized image, so go to “File” and then “Save.” Rename the file (if needed) and then click “OK.” Find the folder on your computer where you’d like to save the image and click “Save.” You’re now ready for the next step.
Now that your image is sized correctly you’ll need to add a little coding to achieve the automatic re-sizing. Don’t worry, you don’t need any coding experience for this.
1) First open up your Blogger dashboard and go to “Theme” and then “Customize.”
2) Click “Advanced” and then scroll down and click on “Add CSS” and copy/paste the following code into the white box:
Note: the above code will only change the images you have set to “Original Size.” If you want ALL of your images to be sized to the full post width regardless of the Blogger re-sizing options you have them set to, add this CSS instead:
Now just add a photo to a post like described in the beginning of this tutorial and make sure the photo is set to “Original Size” and your photo will now nicely fill the full width of your post area once you hit “Publish.” This trick will also apply to all previously posted photos as long as the photos are set to “Original Size.” If not, then you’ll want to use the second code option above.
Oh so big and pretty!
Please leave any questions you may have in the comments and I’ll do my best to answer them. Otherwise, enjoy your lovely automatically resized photos!
Question: What is a blog post called that nobody ever sees? Answer: A huge waste of your time!
Don’t be someone who wastes time creating blog posts nobody ever sees. Creating successful blog posts takes time and requires you to do certain things to get your posts noticed. Blog posts don’t magically become successful without conscientious effort. If you want your impressively crafted posts seen and loved by the world, then keep reading because this post is for you.
In this post, I’ll be sharing 15 essential things to do before and after you publish a post that will give your blog posts the absolute best chance of becoming successful. Our Weekly Post Planner printable (example at bottom of post) from our FREE Ultimate Blog Planner includes these steps so you can make sure each post you create is at the top of its game.
Before You Publish the Post
1. Write an Attention-Grabbing Post Title
Your post title is what is going to sell your content to the world, so it’s essential that it is well thought out and effectively written. Blog post titles should be focused and yet descriptive. Your post title should describe in one short, powerful phrase the overall message of your post. For tips on writing attention grabbing post titles and for 48 post title templates that really work, be sure to check out:
The first thing most readers do when first landing on a post is they quickly scan the post to see if it looks interesting and/or contains the information they need. Putting up a single wall of unorganized text is going to make it very difficult for your readers to find what they need. Sections and headings divide your post into easily readable paragraphs. Adding headings, subheadings, bullets, lists, quotes & images are all things that add interest and organization to your post. Adding headings and subheadings that contain your focus keyword is also an important step in making your post SEO-fabulous.
3. Add Tags & Categories
Adding tags and categories to your posts adds structure to your blog and makes it easier for your readers to find specific content. Categories are like the table of contents or chapters of your blog. They are the broad topics you want to write about. While categories are broad, tags are very specific. If categories serve as the table of contents, tags are like the index or keywords of your site. For more information about tags vs. categories and to learn how to add them to each of your posts, be sure to visit the following post:
Adding alt text to your images is not only important for SEO, but it’s also important for Pinterest. What you add as your alt text, is what Pinterest will automatically pull as the description for the photo when someone pins your image to Pinterest, so make it descriptive and enticing. You can even add a call to action! For detailed instructions on how to add alt text to your images in WordPress or in Blogger, you can visit this post:
Your featured image is like the cover of a book and is the image that will be used to represent your post on social media, recent post suggestion boxes, Bloglovin’, StumbleUpon, etc. Your featured image can either be an image straight from your post or you can create a separate image to upload as your featured image. It’s best to use vertical images with text on them as they draw more attention in feeds.
To add a featured image to a post in WordPress, navigate in your dashboard to Posts > Add New. Then scroll down the screen until you find the Featured Image box on the right sidebar of your screen. Click the Set featured image link. Upload the image you wish you use from your computer or you can select a photo from your media library. Then click the blue Set featured image button and that will set your selected image as your featured image.
6. Deep Link to Old Posts
Adding links to older posts within a new post not only provides your readers with further reading about a given topic but also keeps people on your site longer. I’ve deep linked to older posts several times throughout this post. I’ve done this as a way of offering additional information and tutorials rather than repeating all of the information and tutorials contained in those posts here. Deep linking also helps increase your site’s page views because it encourages readers to visit more pages. This results in them spending more time on your site.
7. Proofread
I’ll be honest here. I hate proofreading! It takes time to read and re-read a post (especially a long one like this one), but it is so essential! If you are anything like me, you can proofread a post ten times, publish and then a few days later still find errors. I’m sure you’ll even find some in this post…ha! One tool that has helped me a ton when writing posts is a tool called Grammarly. Grammarly is a browser extension that will help you find and then fix common grammatical errors. As you are creating your post, it automatically underlines anything you need to take a second look at. It is constantly helping me find and fix errors within my posts that I would have otherwise overlooked. I highly recommend using this tool to help you perfect your posts.
8. SEO Optimize the Post
Search Engine Optimization (aka SEO) is essential if you want your post to be noticed by search engines. Search engines help drive traffic to your website and are a powerful means of growing your site. SEO optimizing your posts is an absolute must do if you want your posts to be successful. In our post How to Unlock Yoast SEO to Grow Your Traffic, we break down exactly how to go about optimizing each of your posts, so be sure to check that out if you haven’t already. I also recommend you check out these posts for additional SEO tips:
Adding a call to action means that you add something at the end of your post that gets your readers to act. It might be something as simple as ending your post with a question that motivates your readers to leave a comment. Or maybe you could offer a related freebie that helps you gain new email subscribers. Another idea would be to leave your readers with some type of challenge and then encourage them to return and share in a comment their experience fulfilling the challenge. When readers act on a post, they will remember that post far longer than a post without a call to action. Creating posts your readers remember means they will be far more likely to return to your site in the future.
After You Publish the Post
10. Promote Your Post on Social Media
Have you ever heard of the 80/20 rule? It’s said that you should spend 20% of your time writing new content and 80% promoting it. After you hit publish it’s important to get your post in front of as many eyes as possible. Social media is the best tool for doing this, so be sure to share your post on all of your social media platforms including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Google +, Stumbleupon, etc.
Don’t be afraid to share your post multiple times on each social platform during the week. If you only post about it once, only a small percentage of your followers will see it, so posting about it a few times in different ways and/or using varying images, will allow it to be seen by more eyes. It can be hard to keep up with social media posting so I recommend checking out these tools that will do it for you automatically:
Pinterest is a HUGE traffic source for most blogs. For Designer Blogs, it’s our #1 traffic source! Using Pinterest is key to getting your post in front of A LOT of eyes. Over the course of few days, pin your post to relevant boards on your Pinterest account. You will also want to share your post on any group boards you might be a part of.
Using a Pinterest scheduling tool like Tailwind, Ahalogy, or BoardBooster will make your life a ton easier as you can use them to schedule your post to several boards over the course of a couple of days rather than having to remember to do it manually. A few months after you publish your post, don’t be afraid to repin your post again to several boards on your account. This will keep it in front of your follower’s eyes and in constant rotation.
12. Link It Within Old Posts
Another way to get your post in front of more eyes is to go through all of your existing posts and link your new post within related posts. You can do this by editing the content to include information and a link to your new post or if you don’t want to spend time editing content, you can simply mention the post at the bottom of a related paragraph similar to the following example:
Like mentioned previously, deep linking to other posts within your site is a great way to give your posts more exposure and increase your page views.
13. Reply to Comments
Be sure to take the time to reply to any comments that may come in. Replying to comments builds a rapport with your readers and helps them feel valued. Answering questions your readers may have will not only be beneficial to the reader asking the question, but to future readers as well.
14. Mention the post in an email to your subscribers
Your email subscribers are some of your biggest fans! They’ve subscribed to you because they love the content you produce. However, rather than bombarding your subscribers with emails every time you publish a new post, consider sending out a weekly roundup of the week’s posts, events or news. Your subscribers have subscribed to you because they are excited to hear and learn more from you, so don’t be afraid to share your posts with your most enthusiastic fans.
15. Study Your Analytics for the Post
Studying your analytics is a great way to learn which posts your readers are loving and which posts aren’t quite working for you. After publishing a post if you find that after a few months it hasn’t performed well, try re-promoting it, changing the title to something more click-worthy, and/or improving the images used within the post. All of these things can help breathe new life into your posts. Learn more about how to read Google Analytics here:
Our Weekly Post Planner, which you can download for free with The Ultimate Blog Planner, is a great tool for making sure you’ve covered each of the items listed above. All you have to do is join our email list and you’ll receive the Weekly Post Planner in addition to 26 other amazing blog planner pages that will help you organize and grow your blog like a boss! Click the button below for the free download.
Today we are starting a three week, three part series on the importance of having a mailing list and why failing to have one is a HUGE mistake. In this series we’ll discuss:
There are endless excuses why people don’t have a mailing list. My excuse was always that I just didn’t have the time (can you relate?). I’m a full-time stay-at-home mom that runs a full-time business on less than part-time hours. Cramming everything this business requires of me into just a few hours a day has always been a struggle. I’ve had to learn how to really prioritize my time and, as a result, building a mailing list has always ended up on the back burner.
Well, five months ago, my hubby and I adopted a beautiful baby girl who has significant medical needs, so it has limited the time I’ve been able to dedicate to Designer Blogs even further. I found it necessary to really step back and evaluate how to make the best use of my decreased work time. Since I have a very capable team of top notch designers I felt the best use of my time would be for me to step completely away from designing and finally focus my attention on email marketing, this blog, and building a better brand.
That shift in focus has made all the difference in the world for Designer Blogs! Five months ago our email list was non-existent, which meant we had zero subscribers. None, zilch, nada! Since focusing on building our email list, we’ve gone from 0 to 10,000+ subscribers in just five months (I’ll teach you how we did this in part 3) and our list continues to grow by several hundred each week! Our sales and traffic have dramatically increased and I’m now banging my head against the wall for not focusing on building our mailing list sooner!
If you want to grow your business or blog, you absolutely MUST make building your email list your top priority. It needs to be an even bigger priority than building your fan base on social media.
Here’s why:
1) Email is less competitive than social media
Think about how many emails you get in an average day. Maybe 50 to 100? Now think about how many social media updates appear in your various feeds each day. Several hundreds to thousands! You have a far higher likelihood of having people see, open, and click on your email newsletter than you do having them see updates you post on social media. It’s a lot easier to ignore a status update than it is to ignore an email in your inbox.
2) Email is far more personal and reliable
People may not be looking at your blog or website every day, but they do check their email numerous times a day. As fabulous as your site probably is, it’s still not as important to people as their inboxes. Having a mailing list helps you connect and build a personal relationship with your readers on an ongoing basis, which in turn, builds trust.
3) You own your email list
You have no ownership over social media, which means they can change their policies and the reach your status updates have at any time (take Facebook for example). Having people on your email list keeps you in control and your exposure to your subscribers completely in your hands.
4) Your mailing list is directly aligned to revenue
You need to consider every person you acquire on your email list a potential customer. Marketing to them over and over again will build their trust and will (hopefully) eventually turn them into paying customers. Whether you realize it or not, your email list serves as a direct reflection of the energy and success of your business or blog.
Hands down, building a targeted email list is THE most important thing you can do to grow a successful blog or business. Don’t put it on the back burner like I did. Put it at the top of your priority list and I promise you’ll start seeing the same amazing results we have.
In part 2, I’ll teach exactly how to get a mailing list set up and opt-ins placed on your site so you can start growing your list fast! In part 3, I’ll teach you how to dramatically increase your mailing list subscribers and target your dream audience.
Speaking of mailing lists, why don’t you take a second to join ours below and you’ll receive our Ultimate Blog Planner Kit absolutely FREE!
We wanna to hear from you! What has been your excuse for not setting up a mailing list? Or, if you already have one set up, what successes have you seen from it? Let us know!
Li, Liu, and Steckelberg (2010) looked at undergraduate education students who completed a Webquest project and gave peer feedback before revising for a final submission (3). They found that, once the quality of the initial submission was controlled for, those who gave better feedback produced better final products than those who gave poor feedback. However, there was no link between the quality of feedback students received and the quality of the final projects. This is an interesting finding teachers can share with their students, to help improve engagement in peer review activities.
One final interesting study is by Cho and Cho (2011), who categorized comments students gave their peers for an undergraduate physics lab report, to determine how the types of comments given and received influenced writing improvement, and how pre-existing writing skill and qualities of initial drafts influence the types of comments given (4). Comments were categorized by evaluation (whether they identified a strength or weakness in the writing) and scope (surface features, micro-meaning, and macro-meaning).
When students commented more on the strength of macro-meaning and the weakness of micro-meaning, their revised drafts improved more. Effects of received comments were limited to a negative impact from strength comments on surface features, reinforcing the results from Li, Liu, and Steckelberg (2010).
Cho and Cho’s most interesting finding is that stronger initial drafts elicited more strength comments and weaker initial drafts more weakness comments. While this is an obvious finding, it gets me thinking about how the assignments being peer reviewed can influence which writing features are focused on. Sample writing can be chosen that would invite comments on both strengths and weaknesses, as well as contain common errors that can be discussed as a class.
In general, students who give feedback do just as well or even better than students who only receive feedback. Depending on the needs of a class, then, a revision workshop like that done by Graner can be used in lieu of peer review activities, and students will still gain the same benefits they would from participating in peer feedback. This avoids problems caused by students coming to class without a first draft, managing many peer review discussions, and varying qualities of feedback given.
It also helps address issues of students being reluctant to give critical comments to their peers, or reluctant to receive critical feedback. One student from the Chanski and Ellis study (2017) shared that “It is easier to cut apart and criticize someone else’s writing than to hear it about your own. By focusing on someone else’s flaws you begin to see similarities between your writing and theirs making it easier for you to accept your own flaws.”
Giving feedback also puts students in a more active role than receiving feedback, allows them to see other ways of approaching a task, and puts them into the role of reader, gaining distance from their writing that allows them to look at it with a more critical eye (2).
Dylan Wiliam asserts that the purpose of feedback is to change the student, not the work, to improve their performance on tasks they have not yet attempted. By being focused on the feedback they give, rather than the feedback they receive, the student becomes responsible for identifying more general guidelines for writing and applying them to their work, rather than simply following instructions for fixing errors specific to their writing. This could help with transfer of skills to other writing tasks.
Creative Market now offers two licenses: Standard & Extended, so be sure to purchase the correct license at check-out based on your needs. Learn more about their licenses 
