#2) keep in mind if there’s a type of theme they enjoy (e.g. space or fish or cats)

[obstinaterixatrix]

mom was saying how she wasn’t good at getting gifts and was like “I don’t even know what to get you :(” and I was like. no mom. I’m the problem here.

[sarahlevys]

One Person's Guide to Coping with AD(H)D in the Workplace

Howdy! This is a non-exhaustive overview of a few things that I have learned to put into practice to cope with my ADD in the workplace.

For some background context, I have ADD but do not currently manage the condition via medications due to some side effects that negatively affect my quality of life. Currently, I hold an executive leadership position at the company I work for, and manage individuals with ADHD. I use ADD to describe myself because that is the name that was given to me when I was diagnosed.

I don't intend to speak as a sole authority on this subject; I've just been asked to provide ideas and thoughts on this by friends. The coping mechanisms in this post are by no means not intended to be the only coping mechanisms that exist.

Your Mind is Different

I've learned to accept the fact that I will easily get side-tracked, distracted, and have days in which I simply cannot focus on things during the time in which I either want to focus, or have been told (by supervisors, bosses, my own internal guilt mechanism, etc.) that I should be focusing on.

All of this is okay! My mind rarely, if ever, works on command when it's time to do something that I'm not intrinsically motivated to do, like work. And sometimes, even when I *want* to do the thing – like a hobby or something I genuinely enjoy – I can't focus. All of that is still okay.

Be gentle to yourself. A coping mechanism that works one day may not work another day – or even later, that same day. It's okay to multi-task, to lose focus, or to get hyper-focused on something you should or shouldn't.

Allow yourself the grace to not always use a planner, a habit tracker, or similar.

Some Things to Try

You'll note a common theme in all of these: these don't always work for me all the time. Trial and error is totally okay!

Focus:

If you find yourself itching to do something else at the same time as something you're working on – e.g., check your text messages – go ahead and do it. Sometimes, if I don't let myself give in to those impulses, they build up in my mind until my focus on what I'm 'supposed' to be focusing on gets shot to all hell.

That said, on those moments where I settle into 'the zone' or 'flow,' I am sometimes I'm able to go ahead and shut off whatever might pull my focus. Roll with it and do whatever's right for you in the moment!

In meetings, depending on the stakes of it, I might play a bit of sudoku or doodle; doing something that's low pressure, even for a few seconds, can often help me feel like I've 'multi-tasked' or 'slipped into something else' long enough to refocus on the meeting at hand.

Taking notes during a meeting, especially by hand, also can feel like multi-tasking, even if I'm not.

Standing up during a task or call often helps me focus. (Sometimes it doesn't!) Either way, even if it's just for a little bit, I still am usually happier for being able to physically fidget or stretch more than I would in a seated position.

Listening to music while I work helps me feel like I'm multi-tasking, even if I'm not – but I know this doesn't work for everyone! And like everything else, some days it works for me, some days it doesn't. I personally prefer music with lyrics, but I know others who don't.

Give Yourself Breaks:

Sometimes, when I'm moving really quickly – e.g., if I'm going through a lot of tasks, going from meeting to meeting, or trying to think and do a lot – I feel myself getting short of breath/tense. Breaks are really helpful to me!

Focusing is hard work! Try to give yourself at least one 10-15 minute break in both halves of your work shift.

Allow yourself the space to also zone out for a few minutes here and there, too.

Sometimes, even just walking around my home is enough to refresh my brain.

You might have success with the Pomodoro Technique: https://pomofocus.io/ This involves trying to work for 25 minutes, then taking a 5 minute break regardless. Repeat this for as long as desired – typically it'll be done 4 times (for 2 hours), followed by a 15 minute break.

Thinking Through Things Before Sending Them Loose:

My biggest struggle! I'm a big blurter, both out loud and via text/typing.

My first plan of attack is to, once I've typed through something, to pause before hitting send. I'm a fast typist with +100WPM, and I have to literally (sometimes out loud!) tell myself to not hit send right away so I can slow down and read through what I'm saying before I do hit that send button.

When communication is handled verbally, I physically try to weigh each word as I speak it, and focus on hearing each word before going onto the next.

I have learned to accept the fact that I will often trail off and lose my train of thought, and I will admit that out loud to whoever I'm speaking to – even if they're a client or someone important – so I can buy myself a little more time to sort things out. Being open about this takes pressure off of me.

Resist the Urge to Speed Through Work:

My other big struggle!

If you feel comfortable, speak to your manager about fail-safes and review processes that currently exist in your work environment. At my job, we've created internal processes that always involve someone else reviewing your work (no matter who is executing the task) so we have built-in failsafes.

If you do take a task quickly, for whatever reason – e.g., if it's something comfortable to you, or you're running out of time – speak to whoever you're doing the work for in order to make sure your work is reviewed, or to buy yourself more time to review your work before you hand it in.

Talk to Your Supervisor:

Ideally, you have the kind of relationship with your supervisor where you can explain that: 1) multi-tasking doesn't always mean that you aren't paying attention, whether you're actually multi-tasking or chasing something that'll give you the feeling of multi-tasking; 2) single-focus is hard. Even if they don't necessarily change anything about your operations processes, having that awareness goes a long way.

You may even consider talking to your other team members about this; I sometimes can come off as impatient or rushing when i don't need to be, and I've also talked about how I often go off-topic or off-track and people know that about me.

If you get a lot of same-day tasks that can pull focus from what you've planned to do today, you may want to talk to your supervisor about requesting a minimum of one day's notice for your work or to request communication when a same-day task is being sent your way.

Create Control For Yourself:

A big part of my instance of ADD is needing to control everything so that I know exactly what's happening at all times and nothing's going to distract me more than i already innately am. I've learned to (somewhat) let go of the control thing, but of course being able to do that means being aware of when it's popping up.

With this in mind, I try to be mindful of when I'm feeling tense or out of control – a bit trigger for me is when a bunch of unexpected meetings or communications crop up, for example – and to pay attention to how I'm feeling and what I can do to solve it, or to roll with the punches.

I've found that taking the time to think about the next day and set up my planner for the following day in the afternoon before signing off, or after work has closed, and then reviewing that again in the morning of, really helps. Of course, I don't always remember to do it. But when I do, it really help!

Organize Your Work & Find Low-Pressure Accountability:

The way that I organize my tasks for each day differs based off of the day or my mood. Sometimes I organize them by priority, sometimes by the amount of time that I think it'll take me to do something, sometimes by client, etc. Be flexible!

At my work, we do a daily check-in with the whole team where we say what we plan to do that day, and I've found that group accountability to be really helpful. That might be something your manager might be interested in providing to you (e.g., a quick message in the morning to let them know what you plan to do).

That said, accountability can sometimes feel like too much pressure if you don't always do everything on your list. Ideally, you can talk with your supervisor or even a trusted co-worker to set up an environment in which it's okay for things to roll over or for priorities to shift depending on how a day is going.

Find a Flexible Way to Organize Yourself:

Paper journals/planners and I don't mix; when I forget to use it, the empty pages give me guilt, and the permanence of pen also makes me anxious since things in my mind are so fluid.

With this in mind, I prefer digital means since I can rearrange and move things around. I personally use an iPad Pro and a Pencil to take notes in digital note-keeping software, but this can be cost-prohibitive. If you struggle with paper methods of organization, consider using note-taking software or even Google Docs to create a plain-text bullet journal so you can move things around.

That's all I've got! Please let me know if you found this guide helpful, and what other coping mechanism or ideas I should add to this (with credit to you!)

[natalias13]

Going Postal

3rd March 2020

As one of my first workshops I am asked to do a side profile portrait collage which is inspired by Raymond Ray Jonson. His work is all mainly produced in black-and-white however with the things that we got given to produce this task I decided to do an interpretation of his work and not an exact copy and I wanted to do it in colour.

 To start of the workshop we first had to get a side profile pictures of ourselves I asked a classmate of mine to take mine, as the picture doesn’t have to be perfect we just took it on each other’s phones. It was just to have a rough outline of the side profile. 

This was then moved on to a Imac and then developed in photoshop. As most of the work had to be done physically there was only minimal detailing that we could do on photoshop I decided to change mine to black-and-white as I prefer my pictures to be plain and with less detail as possible. This gives me almost a plain canvas to work on.

We got provided the essentials of magazines, scissors, cutting mat, scalpels, glue, tape, ink and other accessories in which could help us to create this workshop. I decided to use scissors, pencil, A3 plain paper and glue.

I decided to cut around the outline of my side profile and stick it onto a clean sheet of A3 paper this was painted beforehand so I could get a clean black silhouette of myself. 

For the the second piece I wanted to represent my self and my mind. The bright beautiful colours in the side portrait represent my kind, loving personality. There is images of clocks, vinyls showing my interests in music, words such as home this represents my security, food, geometry, plants, palm trees, maps and more, all of the images relate to me and my current situation and my mind. This work can be very powerful towards the audience it can send them a message or they might just find it visually pleasing.

I liked creating this work as there is no order to it and I can place whatever I want wherever, just as long I keep the silhouette of the profile I didn’t have to have an organised piece. 

I enjoy this project as this means I could express myself and I could find images in the magazines that expressed me. I then also liked the process of laying the images out to create this silhouette and making sure that everything is included whilst still keeping the main aim in the overall image.

I believe that my own interpretation of this task was successful as it included what Ray Johnson does which is collage, it also allows the audience to get involved with the image, by questioning what is going on, making it even more interesting when you think deeper or make theories.

I could develop on this by maybe creating different moods or situations in the silhouette through the same process or inverting it or recreating the exact same piece as the artist did with my own style. This will expand my ideas and possibilities in my project.

Comparison No.1:

This is a comparison of mine and another students work. I found some similarity's and differences, with the similarities consisting of, both are a left side profile this is based on the artist’s style of work, there is also bright colours used, this shows that both of our mids are full of energy, emotion and creativity.

There won't be many similarities as we have different personalties, moods and interests so there will be more differences. The differences that I found in the students work are that they have a detailed silhouette, there's more space between the images, mood is: calm, relaxed, settled, this profile is also space themed, this is shown through the planets in and the neon lights which are galaxy like. 

The differences in my work is that there is a lot of imagery, the mood is chaos, anxiety, fun, excitement, there is also key elements that related to me/that I liked, this is also how the two show difference as one is more open and relatable as the other one is mysterious. The audience may relate more to one than the other however I believe that this depends on the type or what mood they may be in.

Comparison No.2:

This is a comparison between my work and Raymond Johnson's work which is the original artists that produced this style of work. As you may be able to notice there is many visual comparisons, this ranges from similarities such as left side silhouette profiles, both contain a range of imagery, they both show some characteristic e.g. I see my silhouette as a monkey and the other profile reminds me of a film character/or illustration (out of proportion head), I find that both of the images contain geometric shapes, the artists profile is filled more on the inside with geometric shapes as mine is the opposite and more geometric on the outside. 

The differences in the artist profile is that his is based on social life and not mainly about him but others meaning it’s distant, mine is based about me meaning its close and personal, he uses dull colours, this creates a mood and atmosphere of sadness, loneliness, frustration? (maybe?) between the piece and the audience, however my piece is a much more upbeat and positive, allowing the audience to interact more with the work, also the bright and vibrant colours will be memorable with the audience, meaning this will allow them to remember my collage. The similarities allow both of the pieces to connect in some spectrums however the differences make them unique.

I believe that comparing the work has helped me to see the possibilities between the two pieces not only by how they can or are connecting with the audience but what the message or atmosphere they can really create. I will now be applying this to my future comparison work as I can see the potential of a good and bad work piece this can help me grow in development and ideas.

Ray Johnson

Who is Ray Johnson?

Ray Johnson was a seminal pop art figure in the 1950′s, an early conceptualist, and a pioneer of mail art. Born in Detroit, Michigan on October 16th 1927, he grew up in a working class neighbourhood, this means that his family didn't have much but they had just enough to support their children and live in a house and also put food on the table. He attended high school where he applied for advertising art program, in the summer he attended a drawing program at Ox-Bow school, an art institution. He them progressed and went to college, studying things such as painting with the Bauhaus facility, later on he then participated in festivals such as “The ruse of medusa” and visited many lectures with some fellow friends.

His work ?

In early 1949 he moved to New York and became an active participant in the downtown art scene. He started painting geometric abstractions which was heavily influenced by his former professor Josef Albers. He then later destroyed his work by turning it into collage. At first he was making Irregular shapes so called “moticos” his name for small scale collages.

From the early 1960′s Johnson would reuse his “moticos” cutting them up to create tiny compositions that he glued to small blocks of layered cardboard he then experimented with ink and paint, which will then convert into extremely complex collages which showed repetition and various semi geometric forms which related to the eccentric minimalism of fellow artist such as Louise Bourgeois and Eva Hesse. The colleges revealed his profound understanding of Cubism and his intent to exploring it in different forms. He also incorporated meaningful text into his work letters, fragments of words, names of celebrities, literacy figures, and art-world denizens, both historical and current. He pointed his views towards marvellous connections between them and the world of metamorphosing glyphs. Johnstons could turn ordinary life into art “gold”. Johnson would say that he did not make pop art he made “chop art”.

This image is another one of many art pieces that I like that R. Johnson produced.

Over all I believe that Ray Johnson is a good artist he may have come from a low income family but he has worked and experimented in every opportunity he had, he obviously loves what he does as he hasn't stopped producing. He obviously didn't come to what he does now through one simple step it was a range of experiments and tests that lead him to this sort of imagery, the experiments was with that he had around him he tried to corporate it into his art this not only inspired him but allowed him to develop and create. 

Ray Johnson has inspired me to experiment with media, collage and the things around me. I could use the method of collaging and add it to my work but maybe with the relatable imagery and references, as well as media. I could develop this art by using different shapes instead of silhouettes and using black and white instead if colour or create the art just out of words. By doing this it will expand my ideas. 

[sempiternalsandpitturtle]

6 hotel video marketing strategies to try

Video is consistently rated as one of the most effective types of content marketing by consumers and businesses alike. It’s a highly effective medium whether you want to raise product awareness, highlight employee stories or create a brand identity – video content can be utilised for just about any marketing goal.

Using video for hotel marketing

The hospitality industry, in particular, can leverage video marketing to a high degree. Want to show off a stunning new hotel? Video can take would-be guests on a virtual reality tour of the grounds and services. Want to create a brand aesthetic of luxury and comfort? VIdeo is perfect for conveying such qualities. Want to engage a target audience? Video captured by users can be shared on your social platforms to spotlight the customer experience.

Video is a versatile content form, and it has a fundamental place in the media marketing mix of any company in the travel and hospitality sector.

Don’t know where to start with a video strategy for your hotel? Or are you unsure of what new forms of video content to add and where to distribute them?

Worry not, as we’ve got the answers you need to harness the power of video in content marketing.

Video basics for hospitality marketing

Before we get to the examples of top-performing visual content, let’s discuss the nitty gritty of establishing a video marketing strategy for your hospitality business.

It is crucial to plan ahead of time because a lot goes into the video production process. While your marketing creative team might be able to ideate, write and publish a quality blog fairly quickly, video takes script writing, location scouting, equipment, lots of hands and extensive editing. That’s not to say blog writing is easy, but to demonstrate the time and effort required to produce a high-quality video.

Let’s explore some of the things you need to keep in mind when creating your video marketing strategy:

Always have a concrete strategy or underlying goal behind the video or series of video. Such content can accomplish many different things, but be sure to focus your campaign on a small set of objectives and target audience. Every conceptual aspect of your strategy will have an impact on the actual video production. If your motive is to raise brand awareness, messaging and set aesthetics will matter more; if you’re looking to educate consumers, an explainer video with functional instructions or tours is more suitable.

Maintain a video calendar like you would an editorial calendar. This ensures you can keep track of every video project and in which phase of production it is in (e.g., script writing, live filming, post production editing).

If you don’t have in-house video production talent, that means either hiring the expertise or a service provider. Be sure that your choice matches your long-term video goals: If you’re a scaling motel chain, hiring the talent now might make sense; whereas small businesses (like a single bed and breakfast resort on a country estate) may want to work with an external video team.

Be sure to think about distribution well in advance of publishing. Some platforms work better than others, depending on the video type and length. Social media, for instance, is perfect for one- or two-minute videos, or previews of longer videos. If you have an employee interview or full tour, house that on a landing page on your website (as this will matter for search engine optimisation). And be sure to upload everything to YouTube or Vimeo.

Now that we’ve brushed up on the basics of video, let’s examine some of the top video marketing strategies for travel and hospitality companies to try.

1. User-generated content

User-generated content (UGC as it’s sometimes abbreviated) is a highly efficient and effective visual content type. Not only can a hotel business get excellent video of real-life guests walking into their rooms for the first time or using the pool, but they do so without requiring additional labor to get the footage. Video content creation becomes a whole lot easier when you can outsource that task to users armed with a smartphone of their own.

UGC works so well because it’s essentially word-of-mouth marketing in video format. And if there’s one source of recommendations that consumers always trust, it’s family and friends. User content often resonates with audiences because it presents a trusted peer voice so that your viewers might feel like it’s really them gazing from the balcony of the room or enjoying the spa amenities of a resort.

  View this post on Instagram

  Whale, hello there. Look who decided to join our canoe tour this Halloween morning!

@jimmyy3fa #fsmaui

A post shared by Four Seasons Maui (@fsmaui) on Oct 31, 2019 at 4:50pm PDT

Or in the case of this example from Four Seasons Maui, your audience might imagine themselves up close with a whale while canoeing. This gem of user-generated content demonstrates the magic of sharing the real experiences of your customers. Encourage guests to use a hashtag while enjoying their stay, and always remember to ask for consent if you want to use their content.

2. Employee spotlight

Not all video marketing is about product; it’s important to have collateral that conveys your cultural identity as a business. This humanisation is key to a social media presence, and there’s no better source of stories, personas and brand ambassadors than your workforce.

Employee interviews and spotlights make for terrific videos. Viewers get to know the company through employees who personify corporate mission and ideals, while workers also appreciate the recognition and the opportunity. These videos can take different forms, whether you want a one-on-one interview that digs into a personal anecdote or a broader approach that spotlights multiple employees, perhaps by asking them all the same question.

This YouTube video from Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants is an example of doing the employee spotlight right. Each employee has a personality quirk or interest that viewers can relate to, and also displays the diversity of employee backgrounds and identities. Questions like “What’s your superpower?” and “How does work allow you to be you?” can really bring out powerful, evocative stories that build your brand awareness and customer trust.

3. Brand marketing

Hotels are just as much destinations as they are lodging providers. Amenities are typically a big part of the package, and any visual content you create should really play up those themes. Brand-forward videos that tie the hotel into the identity and attractions of its location are a sure bet to convey your messaging.

Hotels want to make their brand name synonymous with travel, comfort, leisure, excitement and delight. This applies whether they’re located in a capital city, major metro area, island chain or country/wilderness estate. Success in doing so depends on a video that can bring the sights, sounds and stories of the destination to life.

This “Dare to Discover” video ad from The W in Amman, Jordan ticks all those boxes. The artistic effort plays on the cultural tradition and history of the country, while also showing the viewer what nightlife and fun can be had.

4. Virtual reality tour

Just about every traveller has a horror story of a room that was too good to be true. Whether duped by pictures or a description, cautious customers will want to be sure the room is everything you say it to be.

Videos can help you tackle that concern by filming tours of the grounds and rooms. A short video can document the styles of suites, the pool, the gym, the dining hall, the reception area and all other elements of the facility that guests should know about.

Best Western took this video approach a step further when it launched 360, virtual reality-assisted YouTube videos for nearly 2,000 properties. Working with Google to capture 1.7 million photos of its locations, Best Western allows customers to tour the exact hotel that they are considering. Controls in the YouTube video allow viewers to pan up, down and around to get the full picture before making a choice.

5. Event recap

Hotels often host charity events, networking meets, business conventions, trade conferences and other organisational/social functions. Neglecting to show that side of operations in content can lead to a serious gap in video marketing strategy.

Sometimes, these events just aren’t all that sexy. An annual gathering of regional optometrists doesn’t exactly scream quality content, so you’ll need to pick and choose your moments to capture. That means planning in advance to have the filming talent on-hand, as well as an editing crew to turn around on a tight schedule: You don’t want to lose relevance, and thus social shares or impressions.

  View this post on Instagram

  Keeping your Sunday extra fabulous with some stunning highlights one from incredible event, @prideluxofficial. @brideluxofficial @splentoapp #pridelux #prideluxxshangrilalondon #sundaygood #keepitfabulous #shangrilalondon #shangrilalondontheshard #weekendmood #sunnylondon #viewsfordays #wedding #weddinginspo

A post shared by Shangri-La Hotel, London (@shangrilalondon) on Sep 15, 2019 at 7:18am PDT

This Instagram video from Shangri-La Hotel, London is a perfect encapsulation of effective event recap. The professional visuals immerse the viewer in theme, while the soundtrack and an event soundbyte also support the video.

6. Behind the scenes

Video is great for giving customers a glimpse behind the curtain. It can help build a brand identity of thought leadership, innovation, transparency or excellence.

View this post on Instagram

We’re transforming the way you connect. That’s why we’ve designed our studios to give you an innovative space to meet.

A post shared by Sheraton Hotels & Resorts (@sheratonhotels) on Dec 10, 2019 at 8:30am PST

View this post on Instagram

We created our community table with you in mind. Whether it’s working during the day, or a cocktail before dinner – we have stylish, intuitive spaces for you to connect and unwind.

A post shared by Sheraton Hotels & Resorts (@sheratonhotels) on Dec 2, 2019 at 6:08pm PST

View this post on Instagram

Every detail was designed to be perfect for our guests. “Watch how we’re transforming to make it easier for you to connect, focus, and explore.”

A post shared by Sheraton Hotels & Resorts (@sheratonhotels) on Nov 15, 2019 at 5:22pm PST

Sheraton Hotels pulls this off with a series of social videos that quickly explore how the business is designing spaces for business productivity and personal comfort. The visuals show the spaces in action being utilised in different ways, while also containing some explanation from multidisciplinary experts in the business. Explaining how designers found the optimal height for a community table can really illustrate a datapoint in an educative and engaging way.

Remember the basics of video production

There’s a lot of room to get creative with hotel video marketing. However, no strategy can succeed without following the best practices of video production. Talent hiring, resourcing and messaging – as well as distribution – should all factor into the decision-making.

Have a favorite example of hotel video content? Share it in the comments below!

from http://bit.ly/388dn8r

[blogdanielwilson-blog]

Increase hotel direct bookings with unique offerings

In a world dominated by big brands and businesses, where standardisation is the path to efficiency, customers consistently look for something out of the norm. This is clearly the case in the travel industry; it’s one of the major reasons Airbnb has been so successful.

Travellers can get bogged down by same-same marketing, and middle-of-the-road hotel experiences. They want something unique, authentic, and personalised.

To get more direct bookings, your offering has to reflect these desires. So how do you make your property stand out from the competition and convince guests to avoid booking via OTAs?

Understand the audience you want to target The first step to being able to offer a unique selling point to travellers is to know who you want to target and who will be visiting your website.

For example, Marriott expects the majority of guests to be millennials, so the company’s direct bookings marketing campaign emphasises the experiential joys of staying at a Marriott.

Doing the research into your most common demographic will be worth it, as you can start shaping your offerings to perfectly suit your guests.

Provide interesting incentives for travellers to book direct While using the word ‘bribe’ might be too strong, there are certain offers you can make that travellers will find hard to refuse.

For instance, about half would be most likely to book direct if a hotel offered a room upgrade as an incentive. Second in line is free room service, at almost a quarter.

Often an add-on like this won’t break the bank at your business but can be a powerful motivator for travellers to book direct and save’. In fact if you do upgrade a guest, you can then resell the original standard room – effectively selling this room twice.

Use authenticity to your hotel’s advantage Independent hotels often have a much closer affinity to the local area than big brands, so use this to attract guests via your website. Maybe your hotel is lucky enough to be near a theme park, popular nature reserve, or maybe your building itself is heritage listed.

Focus on what makes your hotel special and make this clear when travellers visit your web pages. You could even create special promotions around these unique features to further entice people to book direct.

Use exciting content to engage travellers When travellers are browsing your site they want as much information about your hotel as possible, and they want to be wowed. If they get both of these things, it’s very likely they’ll be happy to book directly with your hotel.

Think about using video content to showcase your hotel. It doesn’t have to be Hollywood quality, simply a short and sweet production showing off the best aspects of your property and its staff. Or you could go even further and use virtual reality to give potential guests a ‘try before you buy’ experience with a 3D virtual tour of your hotel. VR is becoming very popular and also more cost effective, so it’s worth a thought.

The importance of visual storytelling is vital, as is knowing what visuals to use. Images create emotions within individuals and opens up their imagination. Guest rooms are the most-viewed images on hotel websites. This means you should be leading with images of your rooms on your website to get travellers interested and excited.

Give guests a different, more original promotion to consider While percentage-off stay deals or common room package promotions are fine, they don’t differentiate your hotel from its competitors.

Instead, think about what guests might really want. For example, people are excited about their trip and just want to enjoy the experience. If they have to plan out all their days and work out a number of details, this excitement can fade away to a certain extent; to be replaced by frustration or impatience.

Make it easier for guests by offering an itinerary package – a ready-made bundle of activities around the area. You could have a few immersive experiences for specific guest types. This might include a family bundle package that offers tickets to local attractions with vouchers for a meal at your restaurant. On another day it might provide tickets to a children’s play centre while the parents enjoy relaxing massages.

Make hotel direct bookings sweeter with extras

Extras are an inextricable element of your hotel’s direct booking strategy. It’s a win-win situation: they enhance your guests’ experience while increasing your profit.

In recent years Tnooz released fascinating statistics around extras that will help you improve your up-sell and cross-sell strategies across the board.

Overall, 15% of guests will purchase extras at the time of booking.

Guests who book 1-7 days in advance of their trip are 3x more likely to purchase extras when they book.

Guests who book 7-21 days in advance are actually 5x more likely to purchase extras when they book.

Travel parties of 1-2 people are most likely to purchase extras that are available at your hotel, such as a bottle of wine or in-room breakfast.

Travel parties of more than 3 people are most likely to purchase outside extras, such as tours, activities and dining reservations. Partner with local businesses in order to earn commission for these bookings!

These facts and figures make it clear that extras are not just a passing trend — they’re a set of complementary products that you should always try to tweak and improve at your hotel.

Here’s a few ideas to consider when it comes to selling extras at the time of booking:

Shuttle services Many travellers like to use public transportation or simply walk from place to place once they have arrived in their destination.

This means that they will not be renting a car, and may prefer the convenience of a shuttle from the airport directly to your hotel property.

By offering shuttle services as an extra at your hotel, you can allow them to conveniently book everything they need at once.

Products and gifts Products and gifts are a popular extra amongst guests, specifically those who are celebrating a special occasion on their trip.

Champagne bottles, fresh, local fruit and local wine are marketable extras that you can up-sell to your guests at the time of booking.

Tours and activities More and more, travellers are looking for one-stop shopping when it comes to planning their holidays. By offering room packages that include local tours or activities, you will appeal to these time-savvy travellers.

In addition to earning the extra revenue on the booking package, you’ll probably be able to earn a commission from the tour company that you partner with in your area. This is a wonderful way to boost the local travel industry while generating additional business for yourself.

And of course, your guest wins with the perfect hotel stay and tour or activity experience.

Use an online booking engine that allows your guests to purchase these products and services at the time of their reservation.

Direct bookings at your hotel can be won simply with better images

If a traveller has any suspicion about the quality or authenticity of your hotel, it’s very unlikely they’ll book with you.

A lack of published reviews and a lack of photos are two of the biggest red flags for guests when browsing hotels. To someone viewing a hotel on the Internet, the absence of reviews or images may indicate to them that the hotel is hiding something – perhaps evidence of poor quality service, dirty interiors, or misleading location information.

TripAdvisor published findings stating that when compared to hotels without photos, hotels with at least one photo saw a 138% increase in travel engagement. On top of that, hotels with at least one photo are 225% more likely to receive a booking enquiry. If just one photo can make this much difference, think of the statistics if your hotel develops a strategic plan for your property photography.

During the browsing stage people generally fixate on the hotel name, images, price, and location. This means you have a chance to wow them with photos before they read any reviews.

Here are the best ways to approach your hotel imagery:

Capture a pleasing vista The majority of images that extracted positive emotions from consumers were bedrooms with window views, a pleasant vista, and natural light. The photos helped create an instant reaction between the consumer and the hotel. Positive feelings were also exhibited when customers saw something interesting outside of the hotel like a beach, city, or landmark.

Display unique and attractive features If your hotel has any unique features put them front and centre in your photography to delight the eyes of online shoppers. This way the potential guest will be immediately drawn to your hotel.

Don’t meddle with perspective, balance, and distortion By far the most popular images were those that also looked authentic. Photos that looked skewed or altered drew suspicion from shoppers because they create unrealistic representations of the property. Hotels should instead keep it simple and try not to show too much in a single shot.

Keep images clean and crisp Neatness and precision were the qualities that garnered the best responses to hotel room images, along with light and space. Negative opinions focused on messiness and clutter, clashing colours, odd angles, or missing features such as bathroom or wardrobe.

With eye-catching imagery and unrelenting dedication to quality, it’s clear you can use imagery as a powerful boost to your bookings.

Direct hotel reservation barriers and how to remove them

Direct bookings are always at the top of a hotelier’s mind. The higher percentage of bookings that come direct through a hotel’s website the better.

Investigating the barriers that stop customers booking direct and creating strategies that remove them is a never-ending but necessary battle.

Common problem areas include:

The cost of technology support

Reliance on online travel agents (OTAs)

Cost of acquisition (e.g web design and user experience)

Lack of hotel resources

All of these are reasons why hotels are either not pursuing, or not being allowed to pursue direct booking campaigns and foster return business.

However, there are methods hotels can use to improve their chances of direct bookings.

Here are seven reasons direct bookings are important and some strategies for hotels to make the most of them.

1. Anticipate the booking and communicate pre-stay

If a customer does in fact make a direct booking it’s important to reinforce that decision. The first step is by raising the anticipation of the guest for their trip. People like to be excited by the prospect of a holiday; often the period before departure is the most enjoyable feeling of the whole process. A common way of achieving this is to create a consistent and enthusiastic stream of pre-stay communication with your guest, usually via email. This may be as simple as telling them you can’t wait to see them in two weeks, or you might provide them with information about cool things to do while they’re staying at your property.

2. The traveller’s active choice

It’s been found that there is a direct correlation between guest satisfaction and direct bookings. Direct bookers are often happier because they’ve made an active choice to stay at your property. This may not always be the case for OTA bookers. This can result in a lack of personal connection and relationships, resulting in poorer reviews. When you get a direct booking you know they’re definitely from your target market and coming in with positive attitudes about your hotel.

3. Reroute your commission savings into the guest experience

Commission paid to OTAs are probably the biggest reason hotels look for more direct bookings because they eat into the potential profits of the business. Money saved on direct bookings can be better spent on guest experience and hotel upgrades. Commissions can be reduced by maintaining price parity to save on conversions and keep pricing transparent to debunk the belief OTAs always offer a better deal. Use some innovation in how you approach your direct booking strategy to entice as many travellers as possible to your website.

4. Build relationships with travellers

Building relationships with travellers is a big bullet hotels can fire in the direct booking battle. Using research and creating customer profiles to find common ground and appeal to your target’s interests is vital if you want to encourage direct bookings and build guest loyalty. Be imaginative in the way you engage travellers and always be positive.

5. Think about direct bookings and future innovation

New technology is sure to be a boon for any purpose you want. Decide what is best for you in progressing your relationship with customers. Services such as live chat or messenger apps might be serious considerations. Anything that enhances your social media or simplifies your booking process is a must.

6. Receive ancillary revenue from your bookings

Offering additional services or products to give the customer a ‘shopping cart’ experience is a good tactic even if the guest isn’t interested in purchasing any extras. It gives the sense of professionalism and credibility, and puts your hotel on a competitive level with OTAs who often offer some kind of package deal. Making sure you think of your hotel as more than rooms and beds is always a positive step towards enriching the experience of your guests.

7. Boost your hotel’s brand loyalty

The best way to ensure an increase of direct bookings is to boost brand loyalty and create new return customers out of every new traveller who enters your hotel. Increasing hotel brand loyalty is an obvious and natural way to boost direct bookings and has numerous added benefits such as:

The ability to know the guest preference

This enables your hotel to deliver a better experience by offering more appropriate products and services to meet the guest’s needs.

A diversified portfolio of hotel booking sources

This makes for a more stable and healthy business mix overall so that a hotel does not become dependent on only one or two primary markets.

Loyalty members are a comfort blanket

A larger member base means your hotel will better resist low seasons and harsh economic periods.

Get in touch with the professional mobile app development company and get best concierge app for boosting the profit of your business.

[izastar]

Mental Health Month

Hello there bright beautiful stars! I hope you’re having a very good day and remember to take good care of yourself. If not, take a deep breath for 4, hold it for 4 and exhale for 4. Unclench your fists and jaw, drop your shoulders, and lay back!

It’s the month for Mental Health and my stars do I have a master list for you. I am currently a second, onto my third year, college student.  Before college my self care was pretty much everyday because of the low intensity of high school. Now.. I admit I do some pretty down spiraling things and have had my share of breakdowns. BUT NOW I’m not saying it’s gone, I still have my days. I just wanted to share a couple of things that have given me a more healthy way of dealing with the stress, homesickness, sadness, etc. I am a very passionate person on advocating for self-care, mental health and well-being. So here’s a couple of things that have definitely lifted my spirits and how many little things can make a difference.  

Apps: As a generation based on technology, figured it could be useful!

Aloe Bud

Aloe Bud is an all-in-one, self-care pocket companion. It gently brings awareness to self-care activities, using encouraging push notifications, rather than guilt or shame. Helpful reminders from yourself, to yourself; saved within Aloe Bud so you can keep doing you. I kid you not, I am so busy and forget that I never to remember to eat on time but this app helps me track that along with taking my birth control on time too!

Eternal Sunshine

Daily inspiration, meditation exercise and inspiration podcast. This app is the cutest, most wonderful app I have current. The quotes I post from time to time are from this app. Every quote, mantra, affirmation is beautiful. It brightens up my day every day. ALSO! Some of these quotes, and stuff have actually inspired some of my work and I hope it can too for you poets, writers, artists, etc.

Flo

This is for my lovely stars that have to deal with periods!! This is a period tracker and ovulation calendar. It’s has pregnancy and post pregnancy mode where you can track your baby’s development and learn the essentials of being a parent with special visuals and articles!! They also have daily insights, timely reminders and a community. I just love this because I never track her & I actually like to read the articles they have and the insights they do based on my symptoms etc.

Oak

Oak helps you decompress by transforming meditation practices from experiments into habits. They support you from your first session to your 500th, with mindful, loving-kindness, and sleep meditations as well as unguided sessions and breathing exercises. Individualize your meditations by duration, and customize with silence or calming background sounds. Oak tracks your progress and encourages you to continue building a healthy meditation practice. They include meditation, breathing, sleep, meditation timer, and progress tracking. Truth be told I have a hard time sleeping so I use this app for breathing exercise before going to bed and it helps a tremendous amount.

Simple Habit 

Another meditation app!! Simple Habit is the best meditation app for busy people. Meditate for just 5 minutes/day to reduce stress, improve focus, sleep better, relax faster, breathe easier, and more. I use this app for when I really don’t have anything BUT 5 mins and I actually really enjoy the meditation.

#SelfCare

This app is just where you can interact with things within the room, e.g. plants, the cat, clothes on the floor, anything in the room. If for those who are staying home for the day, your space, our shelter. It’s really cute I saw. I love the colors and the art and the activities.

Books: They can always be useful, whether for coloring, writing in a journal, or reading!

Creative Haven Spring Scenes Coloring Book 

An effective and fun-filled way to relax and reduce stress. This version specifically is beautiful. I love Spring and I love flower and anything and everything nature and green so this is a LOVELY purchase! 

The have other themes too;  Summer Scenes, Celtic Mandalas, Sea Life, etc.

How to Be a Wildflower: A Field Guide

A fresh perspective, an outdoor exploration, a new adventure about to begin—How to Be a Wildflower is the book to celebrate these and other wide-open occasions. Encouraging self-discovery through encounters with nature, beloved artist Katie Daisy brings her beautiful paintings and lettering to this collection of things to do and make, quotes, meditations, natural history, and more. OKAY SO I JUST BOUGHT THIS BUT IT’S SO CUTE :(

Milk and Honey by Rupi Kaur

Milk and Honey is a collection of poetry and prose about survival. About the experience of violence, abuse, love, loss, and femininity. Okay listen I’m sure many are tired of these books but I truly love this book. I love the collection of poems. I love how some make you cry, some give you hope and other inspire you. For me seeing how others grow, glow, sometimes fall, but come up is beautiful.

The Sun and Her Flowers by Rupi Kaur

This is Rupi Kaur’s second collection of poetry book. This one is vibrant, transcendent journey about growth and healing. Again I know most are tired of these or feel as if they are overrated but I just love the little pictures/doodles and how some are long and short yet so meaningful.

The Wildflower's Workbook: A Journal for Self-Discovery in Nature

Brimming with gorgeous artwork from New York Times bestselling author and artist Katie Daisy, this fresh-as-a-daisy guided journal features thoughtful prompts to encourage engagement with the natural world. From bird-spotting advice to camping checklists, each exercise is executed in the artist's lovely signature style. AGAIN this is so pretty and I just bought it but I KNOW I’m gonna love it so much.

Hobbies To Pick Up: Here mare some that I picked up or am in the process, it’s fun to learn something new and you never know how good you could be at something!

Baking/Cooking

I’m not the best baker but I always feel so warm and fuzzy when other people bake for me. Don’t you love that happiness you give to others? Doesn’t that make you happy? This might be a little hard to start off with if you’re scared of burning something down or ruining food. But don’t fret my little stars, failure is only a part of success and who knows even a funny story to tell!!

Creative writing

Short stories, prompts, even just a sentence or two could really make a difference! I do a lot of creative writing, give yourself even ten minutes just to write whatever you’d like, it’s a nice feeling

Drawing/doodling/sketching

Listen I’m not one who strays from stick figures but every ONCE in a while I like to sketch something that I just can’t find online for my stories or prompts, etc. Practice makes perfect and give yourself patience.

Dancing 

Who says people with 2 left feet can’t dance?? I don’t have 2 left feet and not to toot my horn but I have good rhythm.. but STILL don’t let comments like those discourage you. Dancing can be something fun.

Exercising/hiking/biking  

Believe it or not exercising can be a hobby and it can be fun! Spice it up and sign up for a class! Enjoy the great outdoors! Nature to me is the best stress relief!

Gardening

I currently own 18 plants in my dorm room... it’s a LITTLE bad. I breath so much better with them in my room and they are so cute to look at and take care of! Start off with something small like succulents or bamboo!

Journaling

I promise it will make you feel better if you’re someone who likes to do things like this. You can make so many lists like for gratitude, places you want to travel, people who are currently crushing on etc!!! You can make it as you go and this is something you can truly personalize for you!

Painting

Watercolor is the prettiest thing I have ever seen in my life. Of course you can use other types of paint and paint on what whatever you liked like some pants you want to spice up or a canvas or even your wall!     

Poetry

It doesn’t have to an acrostic poem or one that rhymes, just whatever comes to you! you’ll be surprised at how good you could be!

Photography 

Even if it’s just with your iPhone camera on portrait mode along with VSCO, trust me you might find it interesting messing with filters and how you can make it look more sunny or more spooky to fit what you’d like!

Pick up an instrument 

I brought a UKULELE! It’s fun and cute and it makes me very happy! I also own a violin but that’s a little harder.. but it’s lovely. Learning to play a new instrument takes patience but in the end it’s worth it when you’re able to produce a sound so beautiful and lovely.

Reading 

Even if it’s a fic from ao3 or wattpad, reading something is better than nothing! I read a lot and have many books and series I need to finish. If you’d like a recommendation don’t hesitate to reach out!

Singing

You ever had a song come on shuffle and you just HAVE to sing? Doesn’t it feel good? Why not make it a regular thing? My shower is my STAGE!

Video games

I love animal crossing it’s so cute and it’s my life. I also have nintendogs & a bunch of Legend of Zelda, Pokemon, & Mario games. It’s a nice break away from reality and some of the plots are cute!

Volunteering  

Giving back is the best type of stress relief and it makes me so happy to see I can help others. Make it a hobby/habit of yours, maybe you’ll find something you’re really passionate about. I try to volunteering once a week and even if I’m exhausted it still makes me feel better doing something so small yet meaningful.

Daily Reminders: just daily activities good for your mental health and well-being

Eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner

Of course with snacks included!

Drink water, juice, lemonade, a venti strawberry acai from starbucks

anything drink that’s your favorite!

Sleep at a reasonable time

Listen as a college student.. I don’t follow this but I TRY to the best of my ability and that’s what matters!

Skin care routine!

Listen a face mask feels so good, yes it may burn here and there but your skin looks soft and cute and is thanking you for giving the time in your day to do something nice.

Some of my favorites are Shea Moisture Raw Butter Hydrating Mud Mask, ANY of the Freeman Mask, Laneige Water Sleeping Mask, Fresh Lotus Youth Preserve Rescue Mask

Thoughts to Remember: just things I think you should know and remember and at my worst days and bad breakdowns I tell myself

Remember that: things out of your control are NOT your fault. 

I know we are so quick to place blame on ourselves and get so upset when what we planned out doesn’t follow the script. But listen to me when I say this, if it is out of your control it is NOT your fault and you had NO part in that. 

The aim of life is not perfection, but happiness 

Try not to dwell on the bad for long, instead use that time to do something else that makes you happy

The little things matter

Even if you skipped all your classes or decided to cancel plans and not leave your bed, I’m happy that you woke up

Try not to be so harsh on yourself 

It’s hard I know it is. When someone goes bad in my day I spend time blaming myself and telling myself I deserve it but truth be told it was totally out of my control.

Uncertainty is an aspect of life we must accept

It’s okay not to know. This gives us an opportunity to dream & write our own stories

You are important!

Your hard work and effort does NOT go unnoticed and I am so proud of you.

Your feelings are valid

In any situation, context, etc. YOUR FEELINGS ARE VALID. Don’t be harsh on yourself and say you’re overreacting, or you’re being dramatic. Be genuine in how you feel because you’re feelings are valid.

Your mental health is important

Don’t let others comments tell you otherwise, if you need to remove yourself from a situation for your mental health, DO IT!

I hope this post helps you on your journey of either self-discovery, healing, adventure, etc. I hope you all remember to take care of yourselves and how much you matter. Life gets hard, and I understand that not everyone has the same background and culture growing up but I do hope regardless of that you are able to take care of your mental health and your overall well-being.

If you need anything from me, I’m always open for a chat. If that makes you nervous then you can also send me an ask!

with lots of love and stars,

stargirl

[forsaleloading520]

Single Post Elementor

With Elementor you can control the layout & design of the Single Post Template – on any theme you are working with. Create a Single Post Template in Elementor To accomplish this go to Templates Theme Builder Single Add New. Then select “Single” from the dropdown. Here you’ll see the Theme Parts block with the headers, footers, sections, and pages templates. Open Single block and click the “Add New” button in the top left corner. 2 Step — Create the Single page template. You can see a popup window that asks you to select the template type ( the type would be set to Single by default) and you’ll need to enter the template’s name (e.g.

Description

Ultimate Post Kit addons for Elementor is the one stop solution for businesses that have blogs, bloggers and marketers. Ultimate Post Kit addons have all the widget necessary to show your blog post in a more visitor friendly way. It is designed and programmed keeping in mind the user experience and all SEO standards.

Ultimate Post Kit for Elementor included post related all widgets. That helps you to easily manage your website content simply drag and drop, seriously no programming knowledge is required. It is created to drive more traffic to your website.

Ultimate Post Kit addons for Elementor has been developed with the world’s best practice code standard and meets proper validation using the latest CSS, HTML5, and PHP technology to bring you a professional addon for Elementor Page Builder Plugin that is WordPress 5.7.x ready

It’s also multilingual, RTL, translation ready (more pre-made translation coming very soon).

Widget Demos:

FREE WIDGETS FOR LIFETIME:

Alex Grid – The Alex Grid widget is a tailor-made elementor addon for publishing blog and post related websites. It has a modern layout style by introducing content block with galssmorphism effect above post images. See the demo.

Alex Carousel – The Alex Carousel widget is a twin of Alex Grid, made for publishing blogs with a carousel style. This elementor addon gives you enough customization options to make a wide variety of layout. See the demo.

Alice Grid – The Alice Grid makes the most compact blog post that uses the minimum page but delivers maximum info. This elementor addon is best for mobile devices where minimalism required most attention. See the demo

Alice Carousel – The Alice Carousel widget is paired with the Alice Grid widget, boost a minimal post layout in a fancy carousel style. Use it to make a stack of blogs and post related topics inside your webpage. See the demo

Alter Grid – The Alter Grid widget let you make the best use of classical blog style that shows every details arranged neatly on the layout. You can easily create stunning blog homepage utilizing the layout style of this elementor addon. Best for news portals, gaming sites, lifestyle blogs. See the demo

Alter Carousel – The Alter Carousel widget has the same basic functions of the Alter Grid widget but instead, a carousel style. It is build for publishing post related sites without the need of extra works. Just use Alter Carousel and build you blog page. See the demo

Elite Grid – The Elite Grid widget lets you design beautiful blog posts with high end graphics and unique title style with excerpt. While displaying posts with detailed information, this elementor addon keeps its focus on the author, gives you enough space to highlight the author. See the demo

Elite Carousel – The Elite Carousel widget is an identical carousel version of the Elite Grid widget. Has almost the same performance, best as a slider. This elementor addon supports any kinds of blog posts. See the demo

Hazel Grid – The Hazel Grid widget is one of the most prominent post tool by the Ultimate Post Kit plugin. It presents a simple style, omitting excessive detailing and rather boost its appearance through high quality graphics. It’s fun to use this elementor addon for post related blog sites. See the demo

Hazel Carousel – The Hazel Carousel widget is an identical twin of the Hazel Grid in terms of general appearance and settings, instead, having a carousel type layout. This tool helps you keep the readers focused on the post image as much as possible, reducing total content delivery into a modernized glassmorphism effect. See the demo

Maple Grid – The Maple Grid widget has a unique post layout that maximizes the delivery of blog information. It shows every detail of a post including tags, categories, and post type. Design news covers, lifestyle blogs, showdowns, inaugurations, and more. See the demo

Maple Carousel – The Maple Carousel widget is no different in content deliver style from the Maple Grid widget except for a carousel style. This dynamic elementor addon can boost your blogging experience, publishing all kinds of post related info. See the demo

Ramble Grid – The Ramble Grid is a different type of widget. It offers a layout resembling a blank canvas with a minimum amount of detail until you hover and discover everything it contains. While users can enjoy enough white area, all info related to the post will reveal upon hover. See the demo

Ramble Carousel – The Ramble Carousel widget is the carousel version of the Ramble Grid widget. It offers such a post layout that boosts user experience by arranging posts in a calm manner and delivers them when necessary. See the demo

Harold List – The Harold List widget is made for presenting blog posts in a list manner, maximizing navigational efficiency while keeping the readers informed about the next content. This is a secondary use type elementor addon which adds a new experience to the viewers. See the demo

Harold List Carousel – Harold list carousel for your next elementor page builder to show it more dynamically with title, date excerpt, thumbnail style modifier.

Paradox Slider – The Paradox Slider is the only slider widget developed by the Ultimate Post Kit that is dedicated to bloggers. This awesome slider widget has a responsive structure that is suitable for viewing blog info on any kind of devices. See the demo

News Ticker – The News Ticker widget is designed by the Ultimate Post Kit plugin as a miniature post presentation on your blogging site. The layout is identical to that seen often on a news channel. See the demo.

Post Accordion – Using Accordion widget, you can create a stunning layout to display your blog posts with the all-known accordion effect. Unlike the old ones where only text or image has the effect, it creates the effect for the whole post block. See the demo.

Post Category – The Category widget is a blog based widget that shows total posts on a website by categories. On it, numerical values such as the number of posts belonging to a certain category are displayed. See the demo.

Tag Cloud – A commercial blogging website often has a huge volume of tags behind the posts. The Tag Cloud widget helps you display the large number of post tags in a uniquely stylish format. Can bring out the charm of your blog page. See the demo.

Timeline – The timeline widget is a specialty for bloggers that uses a dynamic flow cart to display posts, pages, or events in a timely manner. It is developed by the Ultimate Post Kit plugin to boost the user experience of your blogging site.

Featured List – The Feature list widget is a specialty for bloggers that uses featured post list in his website homepage so much easily. It is developed by the Ultimate Post Kit plugin to boost the user experience of your blogging site.

Author – The Author widget is a unique development from the Ultimate Post Kit plugin. Unlike most of the blog sites, you can create an attractive author section and perfectly illustrate your blog authors in an amazing way. See the demo.

Post Tiny List (Coming Soon)

Post Tabs (Coming Soon)

PRO VERSION:

Coming soon with huge features + single and archive page building capabilities…

Installation

Elementor Single Post With Sidebar

This section describes how to install the plugin and get it working.

Elementor Related Posts

e.g.

Upload ultimate-post-kit folder to the /wp-content/plugins/ directory

Activate the plugin through the ‘Plugins’ menu in WordPress

Start use it by go to elementor editor.

FAQ

Free Single Post Template Elementor

What page builder is support Ultimate Post Kit plugin

Nowadays Elementor Page Builder is a powerful page builder for WordPress as like as Visual Composer. So it supports only the Elementor Page Builder. But we have plan more in the future.

Is Ultimate Post Kit compatible my theme

Single Post Elementor Brackets

Normally our plugin is compatible with most of theme and cross browser that we have tested. If happen very few change to your site looking, no problem our strong support team is dedicated for fixing your minor problem.

How should I get updates and support

When we release a update version, then automatically you will get a notification on WordPress plugin manager, so you can update from there. Thereafter you want to update manually just knock us, we will send you update version via mail. You will get our ultimate post kit related all knowledge base from our bdthemes website.

Reviews

This addon has some cool addons which a blog owner can get benefit from. I personally don't want to install a heavy add-on plugin for doing only these tasks. And this add-on exactly helped me to achieve my goal without installing a huge plugin. But I need more post addons.

[mydigisalon]

5 Must-Have Apps for Beauty Salon Owners to Build Their Online Presence

Marketing for salons is a 24×7 process. It is not as easy as it looks, and sometimes there is isn’t time to keep on top of every social media platform. Every platform is different, videos work best on Facebook, Instagram demands good pictures, and Tumblr is more of a blogging space, Infographics are in on Pinterest, the list is so long that we can probably finish this article by mentioning them.

While working full time, it gets difficult to work on all the social media channels, and we generally end up posting similar content everywhere. Customers are attracted to new and different content on social media. You have a window of just 2 or 3 seconds to grab their attention.

All this sounds like a lot of work, well it is, not going to lie. Online Salon marketing is not an easy job. However, with the increase in technology and the ongoing advancements, a ton of amazing websites and apps are available, which can help you build and manage your online presence. From planning, designing to the execution of campaigns, these apps for beauty salon owners will make your marketing much more easy.

1. Later: Plan out an impressive Instagram feed

Your salon accounts on the social media platform are an important part of digital presence. However, one platform that stands out when it comes to pictures and brand presence is Instagram. Later is an app that can help you schedule and post pictures on Instagram anywhere. Usually, you have to be on your phone constantly to update Instagram pictures or post captions.

However, Later lets you access multiple Instagram accounts from Desktop, iOS, and Android. You can schedule, edit, post, comment, edit profile, and do a lot more. But the feature that stands out the most is that Later lets you visually plan your feed in advance. With gorgeous themes and pictures that look good together, you can move around your photographs and plan ahead of time. Your page will have a beautiful themed and fantastic looking feed.

Why it’s important for your marketing:

Later saves time, as simple as that. It will save you tons of time that you might have wasted on just posting content on Instagram. Apart from taking time out to post daily, you might even forget to post sometimes but later solves this problem. You promote your salon by planning a month in advance with this app for salon owners.

The second reason is that you can build your brand image with the help of visual themes. You can look at all your pictures together and arrange them until they fit well together. This might seem like a small deal. However, these details help create a beautiful, harmonic, and cohesive Instagram feed for your brand. If your Instagram feed is visually appealing, it will help you to gain more followers.

2. My Digi Salon: Marketing Suite for your Salon

Online presence is not just about social media. Website, online booking features, affiliates, analytics everything comes under it. My Digi salon app is one of perfect apps for beauty salon owners.

All the features you need to market your salon. There are tons of things that you can do with it. Some of the features available are mentioned below:

My Customers:

No need to go for social listening apps or run around to get reviews on different platforms. This feature allows you to manage your customers and their feedback easily from a single platform via My Digi Salon.

My Staff:

Managing staff is monotonous. Tracking their hours, in-time, and out-time daily is necessary. Save time and work on a strategy to improve your business instead of tracking the attendance of your staff. It doesn’t matter if you have one employee or dozens, you can manage then with one a single app.

My Bookings:

Keeping track of bookings is one thing you can not sabotage. Imagine if you book the same time for 3 customers in a slot where you can only accommodate 2. However, My Digi Salon app can help you here. This beauty salon marketing app works as a salon booking app and helps you to check your scheduled bookings. You can plan your day or upcoming weeks accordingly.

Personalized Website:

Website is one thing a lot of salons do not focus on. They get worried about the hassle and cost involved. However, with My Digi salon, you get a FREE personalized website. This website can feature all your services, manage your needs and meet your salon marketing requirements.

Marketing Suite:

Social media is a strong presence that can make or break your brand. To acquire new customers and reach your targeted audiences, social media creatives play a vital role. You can choose amazing images from the My Digi salon inventory or get ideas to make your digital platforms better.

Digital Album:

You might have an album of all your work, e.g. client photographs that are unedited and taking a lot of space on your device. You can use our platform to save your pictures in My Digi salon’s digital album. It allows you to edit and use these saved pictures as and when required.

Why it’s important for your marketing:

My Digi Salon app is one of the best apps for beauty salon owners for all their marketing needs. As mentioned above, it is loaded with great features. Salon owners who are having issues in marketing their salon digitally, My Digi salon is a marketing suite. With pre-defined salon inventory for social media, it is effortless to post on multiple social media channels. Free Website is another plus along with customer feedbacks, appointment bookings, and staff management. All in all, you get a complete salon marketing app.

3. Quik Video Editor: Promote your salon with fast and professional videos

Short videos perform really well on social media, especially on Facebook. But editing them is a headache. Quik is a video editing app for Android and iPhone, which a user-friendly UI. Stitching short clips together, adding music, text, effects, etc. everything can be done on Quik from your phone. Once you are done, you can easily share them on Instagram or Facebook, Easy peasy.

Why it’s important for your marketing:

Social media algorithms are designed such that videos get more preference. They are gradually taking over social media. Instagram Stories, IGTV all need videos for engagement. While Instagram still does better with pics; however, on Facebook videos get better reach and engagement. Create fun behind the scenes and interesting videos to promote your salon. Make sure they are short and fun; people will be more interested in your business. These types of apps for beauty salon owners help in attracting new customers.

4. Canva: Create branded graphics for social media

One of the best apps for creating graphics and other salon marketing ideas is Canva. Canva is a mobile and desktop app that is used to create creating graphics of all sorts. From social media posts, website banners, flyers, presentations, videos, you can do anything you want. They have tons of templates that you can use new fonts, elements, colors, etc. You can customize everything according to your brand. You can even upload your own images and videos to use in any given templates or blank pages. Canva is your oyster for creativity.

Why it’s important for your marketing:

Graphics are important when it comes to digital presence. But we should be careful that we are not overdoing it. And while posting on social media, we should make sure that all the creatives are branded and follow a theme. Instagram feed full of mismatched creatives will not get you more followers. However, sometimes, images without text are not possible. E.g., if you want to run an offer 60% off. You want to add it in the image and make it look good at the same time instead of blandly writing it in the caption. What do you do? Open Canva, Choose a template, upload the image you want to use along with the salon logo, and download. That’s it. Make sure that you have a theme for branding, a color and font palette matching your brand style.

5. Interact: Make fun quizzes to engage your clients

People love interactions but hate surveys. With Interact, you can create your quizzes that your clients will enjoy and, at the same time, will help to promote your services. E.g., if you do nail art or extensions, you can ask, “What’s your ideal nail shape?”. Or if you do hair coloring, you could make a quiz called “Find your zodiac hair color that matches your personality with this quiz”.

Why it’s important for your marketing:

If you have ever felt lost on what to post on social media or if the engagement on your page is close to nill, then switch to quizzes. They are fun and a great way to initiate interaction with customers. There are just a few points that you should keep in mind before you incorporate these into your social media plan. They should be easy, entertaining, and engaging. You should include your services instead of directly selling them. E.g., if your quiz tells people about the perfect eyelash extension according to their face, then add a button to buy them from your salon. Customers are more likely to click on the Call to Action button when they are already engaged with your business.

To Conclude

Salon management is a full-time job because you have to manage all the things in real-time. Squeezing in time for thinking about salon promotion ideas is tough task amidst all these problems. However, for more significant impact, digital marketing is important.

Instead of following the long process of manually managing everything, you should invest in beauty salon marketing apps. They will help you in strategizing, and thus you can spend more time focusing on your salon’s revenue. Digital presence can help you acquire new customers and improve your brand image. Try some of the apps we have mentioned above for promoting your salon online. From apps, websites, reviews, appointments online, and more, there are so many things that you can manage effortlessly with technology. Why waste resources on things that can be done with just a click? If you do not believe us, then talk to your fellow salon managers who are thriving on social media. You’ll find that digital presence is what gives them an edge over their competition. Use the above-mentioned apps for beauty salon owners and trust us; it will be a lot easier to maintain a consistent online presence across all platforms.

Are you using any other app that helps you in your salon marketing? Let us know in the comments section!

Originally published link here: https://www.mydigisalon.com/blog/apps-for-beauty-salon-owners/

[kidslovetoys]

Rotate toys for creativity and focus

Have you ever felt overwhelmed by toy clutter in your home? Ever felt exasperated that your child never seems to play with any of their toys? It doesn’t have to be like this! Simply by learning how to rotate toys effectively, you can reduce clutter and increase your child’s creativity and focus. Read on to find out how: 

Contents:

What is toy rotation?

What are the benefits of toy rotation?

How do you decide which toys to rotate?

What about bigger toys?

How often should you do it?

Where do you put the toys you are taking away?

What if I have only got one of a certain type of toy?

How many toys do you rotate at a time?

Should I discuss toy rotation with my child

Summary

What is toy rotation?

Toy rotation is a simple solution to a common problem. Most children today have too many toys, and feel overwhelmed by choice. In toy rotation, instead of having all the toys in the house out at once, you divide them into smaller, more manageable groups and switch them around on a regular basis.

What are the benefits of toy rotation?

Apart from the obvious boon of greatly reducing clutter at home, there are a number of benefits of toy rotation for children. When you have all the toys available and accessible at all times, everything gets jumbled up and makes a big mess. There’s a time and a place for messy-play but it’s not an effective strategy for the kind of sustained, independent play that we want our children to engage in and be absorbed by.

Just like us grown-ups, children can find mess chaotic and unsettling, and have trouble focusing on their play in a hectic environment. They bounce around from one thing to another, bamboozled by choice and unable to stay with one toy for very long. They don’t get to practise doing an activity for any length of time as their attention is diverted to whatever has just caught their eye. And even with the best storage for toys at home, getting children to tidy them up at the end of the day becomes a gargantuan task they don’t want any part of. 

By rotating a smaller, more thoughtfully-edited selection of toys, children get the chance to focus and play on a deeper level. Other benefits of toy rotating can also include a developed sense of patience and perseverance, heightened creativity as they learn to repurpose toys in different ways, and even an enthusiasm for tidying up since it is no longer such a big job. 

Another happy side-effect of toy rotating for toddlers especially, is that you are usually able to declutter your play-space, as you edit and categorise more purposefully.

How do you decide which toys to rotate?

Toy rotating is not a science and in fact any kind of toy rotation usually has a positive effect.  If you have some cars out one day and put out a different set of cars the next, the second set (if they haven’t been seen for a while) will be played with as if they were new. 

But things get even more interesting when instead of a second set of cars you can provide  a different vehicle like a helicopter or a submarine. When thinking about how to categorise toys, a good tip is to think of the different types of toys almost like food groups, and try to ensure that something from each group is available. Here’s a table showing how you might do it (but remember, this needn’t be complicated and if you don’t always manage to get something from each group in, it’s really not the end of the world.)

Toy type

Week 1

Week 2

Week 3

Week 4

Construction

Wooden blocks

Duplo

Train set

Marble run

Puzzles & Games

Matching

Sorting

Memory

Spot the difference

Loose parts

Toy loose parts (e.g. Grapat)

Natural materials 

Manmade materials

Oversized pieces

Vehicles 

Cars

Boats

Diggers & tractors

Helicopter/aeroplane

Play figures

Family Jungle animals

Woodland animals

Sea animals

Soft toys

Teddy bear

Fairy

Mouse

Dog

Mark-making

Crayons

Chalks

Paints

Stamps

  What about the bigger toys, like a play kitchen or a farm?

If a toy is sufficiently open-ended that it can form the basis for all kinds of play,  there’s not really any need to rotate it. A three-year-old girl will probably enjoy having a doll’s house or farm to play with, some figures and a few blocks to extend the scene. The scene will change with her imagination and the scenarios she decides to work with (a play kitchen can be a cafe one day, a home-kitchen the next), so there’s probably not much need to rotate it out.  This theory applies to almost any small-world setting (doll’s houses, farms, zoos, city maps) and toys that support role-play like baby buggies, play theatres or tea sets. We wouldn't rush to rotate these types of toys, as they change with your child’s play.

How often should you do it?

You can rotate daily or weekly or even fortnightly. The only rule is that you leave the toys out for long enough that your child has the opportunity to explore their play possibilities fully, but not so long that boredom sets in. A week is usually a good length of time. But some toys merit longer stints than others. For example, a small-world scene like a farm or a city floormat, may provide days of fun, but threading materials could become boring by the afternoon. Observe your child at play and use your judgement to inform your decisions.

Where do you put the toys you are taking away?

This might sound like an odd question, but it’s actually quite important that your child doesn’t have easy access to the toys that are taking a break. We are all for child-friendly, easy-to-use toy storage, but if the toys on rotation are too visible and accessible, you might find they are distracted by them, and will want to get them out or pull them down if you turn your back for five minutes. 

Our advice is out of sight, out of mind. Try to find a place that is well away from the toys they are playing with and don’t let them know where it is. A bedroom wardrobe or another cupboard away from view is ideal. If space is tight, simply making sure they are out of reach is a good start. 

What if my child is really enjoying playing with a certain toy but it’s been out for a while and it’s time to rotate? If they ask to keep something specifically, we’re inclined to let them. This isn’t a rigid set of rules! And hopefully it means they’re inspired to do something with it. But use your judgement - are they really playing and exploring new possibilities with it, or repeating the same thing over and over? If that’s the case and their explorations seem to have run out of steam, maybe suggest a time limit and agree when a new toy can come out instead.

What if I have only got one of a certain type of toy?

The trick is to come at it, or the activity it represents, from a different angle every time. If for example, you only have one small train track set and your child really enjoys connecting the pieces and building the track, you could think about other ways to provide them with connecting opportunities, whether that’s threading beads or junk modelling with toilet rolls and sticky tape. 

If it’s a toy with a number of pieces, as with a set of wooden blocks or a box of cars for example, you can edit the toy in different ways. Provide only the blue blocks one week and the red ones next week. Put out the race cars but not the emergency vehicles.  It will require a little more thought at the start but will reap greater rewards as your child becomes more focussed and engaged in their play.

Another option is to bring in toys from your local toy library or swap in toys with a friend who has something you don’t. Moving away from a sense of ownership to a more fluid relationship with toys and how they play with them, is very much in the spirit of rotation. 

How many toys do you rotate at a time?

Only you can know how many toys is appropriate for your child and the space you have available. Recent figures suggest that in the UK the  typical child owns around 240 toys, but parents think they play with about 12 'favourites' (around 5% of their toys) on a daily basis.  So the 5% could be a good place to start, but you may have siblings and other children to consider. However many you decide on,  try to rotate all the toys at the same time. A good example is  a 2 x 2 bookcase (the kind you find at Ikea), holding four baskets of toys. It is more effective to replace all four baskets at the same time. If you keep all your child’s toys in these baskets, you can easily swap new for old. If you are rotating four baskets at a time, try to offer four sets of toys that work well together, such as blocks, nested boxes, figures and vehicles. Four baskets of figures won't offer any variety and boredom will soon set in. But pair toys with complementary ones and the play possibilities multiply exponentially. A manageable amount like this also helps to make tidying up fun for children. You can sing a tidying song or race to the finish together and make the whole thing fun. 

What about Christmas toys or other toys with a very obvious theme like Halloween or Easter? Toy rotation is a great way to explore the calendar’s many celebrations and the changing seasons. Try creating a Christmas toy-rotation with festive mice, baubles for loose parts and crafts for making paperchains and snowmen. A summer-holidays rotation could include a box of sand, some safari animals and a bucket and spade for outside play. If you have the space and time to prepare them, keep these rotation ‘takeovers’ somewhere out of the way so they’re ready to go when you need them. 

Should I discuss toy rotation with my child or is it best to do it while they’re asleep or at nursery?

Talking to your child about rotation will depend on their age and how easy they find the idea of toys being taken away and replaced. It’s good to give them agency and choice, but be aware that entering into lengthy negotiations about which toys they can have when, may undermine the process. Talk to them if you need to and explain the idea, but avoid getting into a big debate about it. Ideally, you should start rotating as early as possible and that way they are comfortable with the idea from an early age. And don’t forget, toy rotation is most often a delightful and exciting experience for children as they get ‘new’ toys to play with! 

Summary

Rotating your child’s toys is a win-win process that clears mental and physical space for your child,  helping them to develop focus and play more independently, while also helping you reduce clutter in your home. It’s not a science and there are no strict rules, you just need to try to make sure all the toy groups are represented (and if sometimes they’re not, it’s not the end of the world!) Here are some toy-rotation take-aways to help you:

Start rotating early so your child becomes familiar with the process

Identify the main toy groups and try to have something from each group in each rotation

Don’t worry about rotating big toys or toys with an imaginative or small-world angle. These toys rotate themselves as they change with your child’s play.

Keep the toys that are taking a break out of reach and if possible out of sight. Fewer distractions means greater focus.

There are no rules about how many toys to rotate, but a less-is-more approach gives you greater scope for expanding later on.

There are no rules about frequency, but try to keep to a regular rotation and to make sure they have time to really explore their toys fully. Once a week is a good place to start, but don't let it become a chore. It's OK to leave it a couple of weeks if you're busy.

Trust the process and relax in the knowledge that you are giving your child the chance to play more deeply with their toys.

from One Hundred Toys - The Blog https://ift.tt/38FvP9H

[howto9jaa]

How To Write An Essay 8 Tips And 4 Steps For The Best (+ Videos)

New Post has been published on https://howto9ja.com/how-to-write-an-essay-in-english-tips-and-steps

How To Write An Essay 8 Tips And 4 Steps For The Best (+ Videos)

Original Post: Click here to read the Original Post

How To Write An Essay: Good day, I hope you are cool? Writing essays is something every student has come across in one way or the other, and each time they face this challenge, making it better than the last is always a goal.

I guess the last time you wrote an essay you did very well huh? Well, we are going to show you how to step this essay and take it to the next level.

Every other “How To Write An Essay” tutorial you’ve read is cool, but this article here is the coolest you’ll ever read, now lets write this essay

What Is An Essay

Wikipedia definition of an essay: Wikipedia says that An essay is, generally, a piece of writing that gives the author’s own argument — but the definition is vague, overlapping with those of a paper, an article, a pamphlet, and a short story. Essays have traditionally been sub-classified as

formal and informal. Formal essays are characterized by “serious purpose, dignity, logical organization, length,” whereas the informal essay is characterized by “the personal

element (self-revelation, individual tastes, and experiences, confidential manner), humor, graceful style, rambling structure, unconventionality or novelty of theme,” etc.

We’ll divide this article into two. 1. Tips To Write An Essay Perfectly 2. Steps To Write An Essay

Tips To Write An Essay Perfectly

Below are tips to prepare for that killer essay in English. For the records, this is more of a formal essay than an informal essay. The steps and tips here are the type you use when you write an essay to your teacher, professor, a newspaper agency or for publication.

1. Study Other Essays

Every time you read an article or read a book in one way or the other you learn a thing or two. Studying people’s essays most especially the best of the best is a major boost to your essay escapade.

When I say ‘Read Essays’ I mean read every essay you can lay your hands on, essays by your peers, friends, and don’t forget reading an essay or more in your field of study

While reading this essays, try to take a point or two from this people, read the opinion they have, how they present their points how to dissect problems and how they try to convince you doing this will mold you in one way or the other.

2. Have A Plan

Yeah! ‘He who fails to plan plans to fail” it’s as simple as that. If you plan to write an essay on “A” browse each and everything about “A”, understand what A is, how you can do this is by drafting a brief summary of what someone can learn or get from the essay assuming it is ready.

Your aim here is to sell the article to the person, now this summary will look like it is for someone, but it is actually for you. When you have a summary of the post ready, knowing what to write wouldn’t be hard, cause you could draft out what the reader will expect from the essay.

Let’s say this is my summary

On this article, you’ll learn how to write an essay, how to present the essay, how to attract your audience and so many tips to know before writing an essay…..

I have gotten my essay ready already, now on the body of the essay, I’ll take each point in that summary and build an article around it. Do you get? This

summary could come in at the introduction of the essay, if you use it there, you’ve built this kind of anticipation and the person will want to see more.

3. Communicate Using Your Vocabularies 

Your words can make and mar you, you know they are individuals who hate reading the long text now this is where vocabulary comes in. You could summarize a collection of words into one word if you practice proper economy of words.

It may seem to you like “Big Words” that’s not true, economize your words by using good words, don’t make it look so brief though but still try to pick proper synonyms to a group of text.

For instance

“He is sometimes a social person and sometimes very reserved, he enjoys staying on his own and this has made him to pick offense easily whenever someone tries to get in his personal space”

Let’s shorten this

“He is an Ambivert and a loner this has made him aggressive whenever someone pries”

We just converted that four-line statement into two. I don’t need to overemphasize this point right?

I have this dictionary on my phone which suggests new words for me daily, with this tip I’ve learned a lot of new words, glancing through your dictionary occasionally will help in the long run.

Synonyms!! O yeah, you need this, if you keep using one word often and you notice it seems like an anthem, I think it’s time you get a synonym. I get my synonyms from Google

E.g “Serious synonym” and google will feed your eyes with synonyms for the word “Serious”

There’s power in prefixes and suffixes. Knowing a good number will help you a lot take for instance ‘ante’

ante means “before, earlier, in front of” you see it used in words like “antecedent, antedate, Antemeridian, anterior”

4. Reference Time

O yeah! During your essay, it is very great if you show reference to many sources or people when you do this your reader will be convinced you know what you doing.

After seeing two or three references, your reader will know that you did your research well. Nothing beats a reference to a very old and hidden fact, what I mean here is telling your reader about a fact that isn’t random something deep and not common

In a section where you reference someone, you could give a very brief context of who this person is, you should say a thing or two of the person views and how they lived I INSIST ON THIS, I ALSO INSIST THAT YOU MAKE THIS SHORT and CONCISE.

Oo! Did I mention this? When you quote someone it is cool for you to counter that quote, take for instance this article

“A famous quote goes,

“don’t judge a book by its cover”

I am here to tell you this, go ahead and judge by its cover, it is the duty of the person(who is the book here) to present a good picture of himself (cover) because “the first impression last longer”

Now, assuming I way to counter that topic further I have given my reader a reason to keep reading, he’ll want to know what you have to say. When you counter famous quotes, your explanation should

(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push();

be very very logical and smart. When you do this, you make your reader know that you don’t follow the bandwagon, that you have reviewed the famous quotes and come to the conclusion it is false, you now prove this by stating your point.

5. Punctuations! Syntax! Manner Of Approach

Your sentences sell you. I did mention a part about VOCABULARIES, well now note, when you use vocabularies don’t make it difficult for your reader and still don’t make it long.

I fancy that you replace words-stuffing with concise vocabularies. You can communicate your message across by using proper syntaxes, this will do you much help in passing your message without sounding like an ‘English professor wannabe’ or like someone trying to stuff words

An essay is normally formal and in a professional manner, so you should live up to expectations, this doesn’t mean you should bore your reader to death. When you go through your essay, do you feel confident in the words you read? If yes great, if No, edit a little.

When you write an essay, you can compel your readers with Active voice rather than passive voice. Passive voice sentences often use more words, can be confusing, and can lead to a mixture of prepositional phrases.

E.g Passive Voice: “The entire house was painted by Tom” Active Voice: ‘Tom painted the entire house’

One is straight to the point, the other isn’t. These tips go a long way as you learn how to write an essay.

6. Stay Real

I feel like I shouldn’t explain this topic, but well all I am saying here is, Be real when you write your essay, your teacher or anybody will easily spot when you are fake so staying real is everything.

7. Every Paragraph Needs A Topic

O yeah! You READ me right. Your topic tells a lot about your essay, topics also plays a role in the paragraphs, you know the topic of this section has said it all. The cool role about “Adding a topic to every paragraph” is this, as you write different paragraphs with different topics, your teacher or reader gets the

The idea behind your essay, he flows with the essay and gets the point your driving in. The topic should look like a summary but not a summary (winks) a catchy topic needs to come before every paragraph.

8. Know Your Reader

Is it your teacher, is he a professor, was she a doctor, what is his rank in society, what award has she gotten and for what. All these are things to have in mind before you write an essay, knowing your reader will do you a lot because

you’ll know what he/she is expecting and you wouldn’t fail. When you write an essay to meet your reader’s expect you may get the impulse of wanting to please them, this isn’t bad, but if you make this your main point, he will definitely realize the fake game and fail you.

  Steps To Write An Essay

Now I’ll tell you the steps to write this killer essay.

1. Title

Trust me, your title is everything, you should make a research before you choose your title, the title of this essay will make your reader want to go further into reading it. Super cool Titles always have a verb and a sentimental word.

Take for instance

True Reasons Why Nigeria Needs A Young Leader Now

Unknown Dangers Of Single-Sex School

Effective Reasons To Start Drinking

Lil Wayne Is Hip-hop Only Saviour

Nothing beats a topic that will appeal to someone’s believes. When you pick a topic make sure you build the article around that topic, let the topic be catchy yes! And let the article be worth it.

2. Introduction

This is a short and concise paragraph, I can call this a low budget TOPIC, you’ve captured the reader’s attention with your dope a*ss topic, now let’s get him on his feet and make them more anxious a little

E.g

The young Nigerians know a lot than the elders this century and stand a chance to face the test of time

Single-Sex School is a menace to society and should be stopped before it destroys our core beliefs and morales

Those who drink have more chance against deadly diseases than you, your doctor lied to you.

2pac and Biggie’s reign was built on over hype and gang wars than word wars.

Okay! Don’t fall for any topic you’ve seen there 😉😉, I may be right I may be wrong all I am doing here is passing a point out.

3. Here Comes The Body

This is the real deal, your introduction and Topic was the hype surrounding this section, it is like an artist hyping his album assuring you that it will be the best ever.

If you have a catchy Intro and Topic then give your reader a dumb body, you have failed. Scan through all the ideas and points you’ve gathered and make catchy topics for them, this topic shouldn’t run away from the main topic but should rather in a way support it.

Every point should be explained in details.

4. Conclusion

Every part of your essay connects but your conclusion, topic and introduction share a special bond. Your introduction and topic were giving the reader a reason to read further, your conclusion should remind the reader of those reasons.

This should be short, your conclusion is the direct opposite of your body, your body entailed a detailed explanation of key points, your conclusion should show how these key points connect.

I hope I was able to help? Make sure you give this essay yours. I hope you’ve learned how to write an essay?

Okay, you definitely have learned how to write an essay, now learn how to write an outstanding application letter.

If I missed anything, please call my attention to it.

Learn How To Write An Essay With This Pictures And Videos

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Checkout This Videos To

Hope I helped? Please drop your comments and reviews.

[projecteve1]

New Post has been published on Project Eve

New Post has been published on https://projecteve.com/start-a-blog/

How to Start a Blog in 2017 (Step-by-Step Guide with Images)

Are you looking for a free, easy, step-by-step guide on how to start a blog?

My free guide will show you how to create a blog that is both beautiful and functional, all in an easy step-by-step tutorial (with pictures).

My name is Meridith Dennes and I created my first blog in 2011 with absolutely zero computer experience. It took me forever to figure it out (Let’s just say I googled and youtubed until I nearly lost my mind.) Since then, I have launched several of my own blogs, and helped hundreds of others do the same.

I know that starting a blog can seem overwhelming and intimidating. I created my free guide to help beginners who only have basic computer skills.

Following these instructions will likely take less than 20 minutes.

Why You Should Start a Blog?

Blogging has quickly become one of the most popular ways of communicating and spreading information and news. There are literally millions of blogs online (don’t worry, you can make yours stand out and get noticed!).

Do you want to make money while working from home? I make a full-time income blogging and many others do the same. Making money blogging is hard work, but the barrier to entry is low, making it very low risk.

Do you want to get more exposure for your existing business? A blog gives anyone–from individuals to large companies–the ability to reach a large number of people at very little cost.

Need More Intel, we've got you covered:

Why You Should Have a Blog – 10 Great Reasons

6 Reasons to Start Blogging for Your Business

Business Blogging for the Nervous and Unconfident

Starting a Blog – What Do I Blog About?

Blog about something you enjoy. If you don’t care about your topic, writing about it will be a snooze-fest. Also, why would readers be interested in reading a blog if you aren’t? About 4 years ago,  I decided to launch a blog about personal finance.

Can you now see how you would benefit from a starting a blog? Let’s get you up and running!

Follow these 6 steps to Start a Blog:

Step 1: Choose a Blogging Platform (WordPress)

When starting your blog, there are several platforms to choose from (tumblr, blogger, wix etc..).

However, the only one that really stands out from the pack is WordPress.

It’s FREE, very user friendly, and perfect for people who’ve never built a blog before.

So keep it simple. Just decide to use WordPress and find a hosting company (more on that later) that supports it. WordPress is the web’s most popular CMS (content management system). It powers roughly 20% of the websites that are active today, and a huge number of those are blogs. It lets you customize your layout, create content, and expand your blog’s functionality over time. And you can achieve all this without touching a single line of code.

We also love WordPress because: It helps you to get started quickly.

So WordPress, along with a cheap shared hosting account, is the perfect combination. Many of the world’s most successful blogs were created in exactly this way, and still run on WordPress today.

  Why People Use & Recommend WordPress?

It’s FREE (you only need a web host & domain name)

There are 5,000+ free & paid WordPress themes available to make your design look top-quality.

They have super helpful support forum.

It offers 45,000+ free plugins to help your blog run more smoothly and efficiently.

91% of all blogs are running on WordPress, including this one— projecteve.com and WordPress is also used by 62% of the top 100 company blogs.

More Intel:

5 Things You Should Know About WordPress

5 Things to Consider Before Choosing a Blog Hosting Platform

Why you SHOULDN’T create a blog on a free platform

It’s true, you can create your blog free. But it’ll be very limited in functionality, it’ll look boring, and the address will look somewhat childish (e.g., YourBlog.WordPress.com), which diminishes your credibility.

There are also some serious flaws in free options that you need to know about:

No Control – Your blog is being hosted on another website (e.g., wordpress.com, tumblr.com, blogspot.com). If you violate their terms of service (even by accident), they can shut down your blog any time (it has happened before).

No Customization – You can’t use all the free plugins or themes. Heck, you can’t even use custom themes to really make your blog stand out.

You’re not allowed to advertise on most free blogging platforms, making it much harder to ever make money from blogging.

Other Limitations – Free space of only 3GB. For posts, images, and perhaps videos—that’s just not enough.

In short, don’t create a free blog, especially if you’re serious about starting a blog. Later migrating to a better option from a free blogging platform can be very time consuming and tricky.

More intel:

Top 10 Website Mistakes Entrepreneurs Make

Instead, create a self-hosted WordPress blog where you don’t have any limitations. Plus, you’ll be able to use your own (professional) domain name.

This leads me to the next step: finding a domain name.

Step 2: Choose Your Domain Name

Domain: The domain is basically the URL of your website. Examples: google.com (Google.com is the domain), Facebook.com (Facebook.com is the domain). See? Simple!

Your domain name is important because:

It’s your “first impression” to website visitors.

It affects your rankings in search engines.

It defines your brand.

With that in mind, you should put some thought into your domain name, but not too much. A good blog name should be descriptive so that potential readers can instantly tell what your blog is about just from the name. Just remember to choose something related to your brand (i.e. visitstratton.com), keep it concise and easy to type.

More intel:

10 Tips For Choosing Your Domain Name

5 Domain Name Tools to Suggest Domain Name for your Website

4. Sign Up With a Web Host and Install WordPress

There are Good & Bad Hosting Companies.

Choosing your host is one of the most important aspect of creating your blog. Bad web hosts cause most of the issues people have related to their blog. For example, unhelpful customer service and hidden fees are quite common…Many cheap hosts also overuse servers to cut their costs—and that leads to your site potentially not working just because many people are visiting some other site. Only some cheaper hosts control the resources well, so that your website always works right.

I highly recommend using www.Bluehost.com as your host.

They have one-click WordPress installation, which makes it easy for you to get started.They’ve been officially recommended by WordPress since 2005.

So just to recap, sign up with a web host (I recommend Bluehost). Choose the hosting plan (you can pick the cheapest one). Log in and write a blogpost. Altogether, this takes about 5-10 minutes if you follow the instructions (and you have chosen your domain name). So, you can start writing your first post in just a few minutes.

Go to www.Bluehost.com and click on the “Get started now” button. Use this link to get a FREE domain, too.

Here’s a simple step-by-step guide for creating a blog on Bluehost (or any other web host)

Sign up with a web hosting (I recommend Bluehost).

Choose the hosting plan (you can pick the cheapest one).

Pick a domain name for your blog.

Complete hosting registration.

Install WordPress.

Log in and write a blog post.

1. Sign up with a web hosting (I recommend Bluehost)

Go to www.Bluehost.com and click on the “Get started now” button. Use this link to get a FREE domain, too.

Currently Bluehost is offering a 50% to all projecteve.com visitors, so make sure you take advantage of it.

2. Choose the hosting plan (you can pick the cheapest one).

Now it’s time to choose your hosting package.

There are three options: Basic (recommended), Plus, and Prime.

The Basic option is perfect for beginners. The other two aren’t really needed unless you’re getting millions of visitors from day one. Best of all, Basic is the cheapest option so you save some cash, too.

Bluehost Packages

3. Choose the domain name you want (they’ll give it to you for FREE).

Next, you’ll need to choose a domain name.

It doesn’t have to end with .com, so you can also use different endings (such as: .net, .org, or even .co.uk) if your first choice isn’t available.

If you already have a domain name (i.e., you bought it from somewhere else), use the second form on the right (“I have a domain name”).

Bluehost Domain

4. Complete your registration

There are three parts to this page. The first is account information.

Just enter your contact information as you would normally.

Bluehost Registration

The next part gives you some service options.

First you need to choose the account plan. Within the Basic option, you can choose to sign up for 12, 24, or 36 months. I’d start off with 12 months.

Next you’ll have some add-on options to choose from. I recommend you don’t go too crazy with these.

Fill in your billing information, confirm that you’ve read the fine print and then click Submit.

Complete purchase

Skip the upgrades

Continue on to complete your purchase. You’ll be asked if you want to add any upgrades. I just skip them.

Check your email for login info

After completing your purchase, check your email. You’ll find a welcome email from Bluehost with your control panel (cpanel) login info. Keep this information for future reference.

5. Install WordPress with One-Click Installation

Have you set up your hosting with Bluehost yet? Okay, good.

Now you need to install WordPress. Luckily, with the Bluehost’s one-click WordPress install, it shouldn’t take more than a couple of minutes.

Here is the step-by-step guide to install WordPress on Bluehost:

1) Login into Bluehost

Go back to Bluehost and click the login button in the top right corner of your screen. (Alternatively, you can use the link to your cpanel contained in the welcome email you received above.)

Select the “hosting login” (not webmail login) tab if it’s not selected already. Use your Google account to login or enter your cpanel login info from the welcome email.

C-Panel login

2) Once you’re logged in, you’ll be redirected to your Control Panel. From there, choose “Install WordPress”.

One-click install

Start the WordPress install

Next you’ll get a window that looks something like this. Click the Continue Installation button (it may say “Start”) to begin the WordPress installation process.

Choose where to install WordPress

On the next screen, choose the domain you want to install WordPress on. If the domain you chose during signup doesn’t automatically appear, simply click “Domain” and you can select it from the list.

Mojo Install

3) This leads you to the next page where you can choose your blog destination URL. I recommend using your root domain (www.YourNewDomain.com, not www.YourNewDomain.com/blog/), so just leave the field on the right empty.

Select domain for installation

Leave the directory field blank unless you have a good reason to create a subfolder, which is unlikely if you are just starting. Click Next.

You will also be given the option to add plugins. I would deselect them. You can always add them later.

I recommend you click the green Next button to move on.

6. Log into your new blog

After WordPress has been installed, you should see the indication that WordPress was installed successfully. Take note of the information to access your new WordPress site. This information will also be sent to you via email.

At this point, you will have received two welcome emails. The first is the login info for your Bluehost hosting account. The second is the login info for your WordPress account. Keep both, although from this point forward, you’ll be using your WordPress login information much more frequently.

At this stage, you should now have a blank WordPress site installed, along with your admin access username and password written down somewhere.

Start by typing in your new web address (www.YourNewBlog.com) to see what your WordPress blog looks like. Here’s what you’ll probably see:

Start a Blog

Select a blog design and layout

After WordPress is installed, the first thing your blog needs is a face (design and layout). The design of your blog can be easily changed with the Themes. The default theme that comes with your WordPress blog installed is Twenty Sixteen—while it's a good starter theme, you could select a theme that is more unique to your blog and compatible with your niche. Choose a theme that looks great, but also works for your unique content needs. Your readers will first notice the overall appearance of the blog, before even taking a look at the content.

More intel:

4 Easy Guidelines for Selecting a WordPress Theme

Where can you find a simple Word Press theme?

Things to consider before purchasing a WordPress theme

Action steps

Here's a quick checklist for choosing your theme by searching within the blog dashboard:

Read the description Most themes come with a short description of features and functionality. By reading it, you should have a rough idea if the theme matches your needs and how customizable it is.

Preview the theme Preview the theme to get an idea of the overall look and layout.

Check the ratings Popular themes will have star ratings that are visible in the preview and under theme details. They should give you a clear idea how good the theme is.

Check for responsiveness Aim for a responsive design that will work on desktop browsers and mobile devices. This is recommended by Google.

If you find a theme that takes your breath away, cool down. Once you install a theme you like, don't be surprised if it doesn't look quite right. Your theme is just a skeleton of your blog. To make it appealing, you’ll have to fill in content (text, photos, videos, etc.).

Congratulations – you now know how to make a blog using WordPress. You’ve installed WordPress and set up your blog, all on your own! As you can see, it was really easy and straightforward.

Now that your blog is set up, sign up for my FREE blogging course for tips on how to get started writing your first blog, finding readers, earning money, and personalizing your blog.

If you can’t get your blog online, get in touch with me here. I’ll help you out.

Disclosure: Because I’ve used Bluehost and found their hosting great, all links to Bluehost are referral links. I’ll earn a commission if you make a purchase and you’ll get a discounted price. This is how I keep projecteve.com up and running.

[sarakaybct-blog]

Ways To Come Up With New Game Ideas

I knew I wanted to create an app game, but I also knew that I wouldn’t be able to complete a fully functioning game in the time we were given. However, Ricardo did mention that we must provide screenshots of the app (home page and game play) to present in the Open Studio; through the form of a poster or a GIF (if including sound) 

So, I did some research on how to come up with new game ideas because my mind was going blank for a while and no matter how hard I was thinking nothing was coming to me. Being creative and coming up new game ideas is a skill that I must learn, not a naturally born talent. I read that “anyone can become a master at generating awesome game ideas if they apply and practice the right methods.” This website compiled a list designed specifically with game developers in mind. Each of these 9 methods will help me get those creative juices flowing again and make it easy for me to come up with an awesome app game idea. all while keeping in mind the - the integration of one or more of the studio projects we’ve done; play, sound, speculative design. 

Here are the steps that I took to come up with my game idea:  

·         Play a lot of games  “Games can transport us into a different world, entertain, and challenge us in new exciting ways.”  Playing games is the best way to get your ideas flowing and to find inspiration for your upcoming game. I found that it was very important to go on the app store, download, and play as many games as possible - trying out the different styles, not just the ones I favoured. I started off with the classics; Candy Crush, Angry Birds, Fruit Ninja, and then I moved towards the top current games in different categories (action, arcade, board, family, sports, trivia, etc.)  The website told me to take notes of any features, themes, colour schemes, characters, effects or game play mechanics that stand out to me and pay attention to all the little details that make the game fun and unique.   Note: Game mechanics are constructs of rules or methods designed for interaction with the game state, thus providing game-play. All games use mechanics; however, theories and styles differ as to their ultimate importance to the game.

 ·         Be observant of the world 

As Steve Jobs once said, “Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn’t do it, they just saw something. It seemed obvious to them after a while.”  Notes to self:  - Be observant to of your surroundings and pay attention to all the little details (your environment, people and the things that we often overlook) -----> Use this as inspiration.   - You never know what might spark an idea for a new theme, background or interesting game-play concept. - Come up with ways to apply them into your game.  - Ask yourself, “Could this be used in a game?” If so, ‘How?’ Write it all down. 

·         Seek input  As the wise saying goes, ‘When in doubt, ask.’  It’s always a good to get feedback from others on your game ideas.  So, I went around my home and asked my family what they thought of my possible game concepts that I’ve been bouncing around in my head. The main one being a game that raises awareness of the effects of water pollution on marine life. This is the idea that went off into my head after going to see the art gallery, that takes into consideration all the projects we’ve done this semester. They were wondering why I chose to do this out of all things, this is what I had to say:  1) Uses PLAY - My card game was based off a fishing game so I wanted to stick to the same theme; marine life/fish - because it’s just easier to develop a concept that you’ve already touched down on (well that’s what I personally think). 2) Uses SOUND - I’ll be creating the background music and the sound effects for the app game using Audacity (the program we used for the second studio assignment). I know that all app games need sound so I thought this would be the most straight-forward way to combine play and sound in one project. 3) Worldwide environmental issue: For our third project, we researched everything we could on e-waste to create a speculative design for 2050 through the form of short film. Instead, I am choosing to research Water Pollution – to raise awareness on the effects it has on marine life. I wanted to find out what type of games people like to play and how I could convey this: The effects of water pollution on marine life, through an app game. My family gave me ideas on how to “play” this idea and then they asked me these questions: - Why should we care about this issue? - Who are you trying to raise awareness to? - Who is your target audience?   - What do you want the audience to experience and take away from this game? To be totally honest, I hadn’t thought of this but I know with further research I’ll be able to get the answers. How to play ideas: - Make it an arcade game; where you must keep trying to beat your high score.  - You play a sea creature; turtle, fish, whale, jellyfish, etc. - The longer you swim (stay alive) the more points you get. - Tap screen game or swipe left and right game -Dodge the pollution that comes your way. - If you hit into it, you lose and you must start again. These game mechanic ideas were very helpful because it allowed me to build an image of the result or prototype in my head. Kind of excited to see this come to life.  I know that I want to focus on this game idea out of all the ideas I came up with.

·         Use an Idea Log  Everything begins with an idea. So, it was important for me to keep track of them. I used the notepad app on my phone to record any ideas that popped into your head. I found that using a game idea log made it easier for me to come up with new ideas. And before I knew it, l had an entire list of app games.  (sound ideas below) By the end of this, I could make up my mind on what I wanted to work on.

·         Mind map it  Mind mapping a potential game idea: Effects of water pollution on Marine Life Game (still need to come up with an actual name). This method was very useful and it allowed to get as many concepts of the game on paper.

·         Research  I want to come up with a new game idea, but first I need to know what’s already working. Therefore, research is a requirement. Researching things like precedents on your ideas, which games are topping the charts, in which categories, and why, so that I don’t end up wasting my time on a concept that no one is ever going to play. Researching your genre and the theme you’re going to explore is very important. In this case, I need to research as much as possible on water pollution, endangered marine life, the effects of water pollution on marine life, arcade app games, what makes a good app game.

·         Focus on a genre 

At first I was having a hard time coming up with game ideas, but then I decided to focus on a specific game category and genre; arcade. I found that focusing on a specific thing, made it easier for me to generate ideas. I personally enjoy the arcade genre of games where you must beat your high score, because it gets me hooked. When I was brainstorming game ideas of this genre, I looked at other comparable games in that category - For example: Astro. The game-play is like the ideas that was given to be my family. The astronaut flies in upward direction through a tapping motion on the screen. Your score increases with each tap and you die if you hit into the asteroids.

 ·         Pick a theme to explore 

“Sometimes you need to go even further and when you’re thinking up game ideas and pick a specific theme to explore as well. Selecting a specific genre and theme will help you better pinpoint the type of game you want to create. A few minor details can make a huge difference in the overall shape of your game. For example, a simple shooter style game with a space theme is now much more interesting. Adding that one extra touch can ignite your imagination. As you think more about the concept, you’ll be able to come up with more elements to add and soon you’ll have a great game idea in the works.”

·         Start off with a character 

“Starting off with a character in mind is another method that’s worth trying if you’re stuck in the middle of a creativity block. When you select the main character first, it can make the process of coming up with a game idea much easier.”

Coming up with a main character for this app game was easy and straight-forward; sea creature(s) But which one? I know that once I have a set character (e.g. sea turtle) I need to think up different possible scenarios that could work all while considering how my character would interact and respond.

What’s Next? By following these simple methods, I am now able to discuss my final idea and write up a brief in my upcoming blog.

Resources  https://www.buildbox.com/19-ways-to-come-up-with-game-ideas/