#also asking if boss is sending us to training courses/workshops

[alteredsilicone]

coworker asking me about my phd and im just going uhhh and ahhh bc im cringe (thumbsup)

[mandy23bwrites]

The Price You Pay

Character/Pairing: Damon Baird x Female Reader

Tags/Warnings: Established relationship, female reader, female pronouns, kissing, lingo consistent with the games, appearances from Dom and Cole, Marcus is mentioned, perspective gets passed from Baird to reader, no plot

Disclaimer: Takes place between Gears 2 and 3

Word Count: 1427

Summary: Goodbyes are hard. They’re especially hard when your lover is one of the COG’s golden boys, always being sent out into danger. 

(Alternative summary: Baird loves being right (what’s new?))

Read on AO3

“Yo Baird!” Damon Baird glanced up from where he was strapping his ammo pack around his thigh to where Cole was standing in the doorway of his cabin. “You know where your lady love’s at?” Baird couldn’t help rolling his eyes at Cole’s ridiculous nickname for you but he also couldn’t deny that it was fairly accurate... even if he wasn’t ready to say the “L” word yet. 

“What do I look like, her nanny?” He shifted his focus back to his armor, grabbing his chest plates.

“Dom’s looking for her,” Cole said, unfazed, “He’s worried we won't be back in time for crop duty.” Baird scoffed at that. “You know how much he cares about those things.”

“They’re not going to die if they’re watered a day late. Did he even check if her squad’s here?”

“He saw the twins in the mess and they said she’s around somewhere. She ain’t in her cabin or the workshop so we figured you might know.”

Baird grunted as he secured his plates and looked around for his gloves. “I don’t know. She’s probably on the deck somewhere.” 

“Alright. I’ll go find her so you can confess your undying love before we ship out.” Cole gave a cheeky laugh but was gone by the time Baird turned back to make a smartass retort. Instead, he scowled to himself and pulled on his gloves. You couldn’t have gone far, he thought to himself. Sovereign was a big ship but not that big.

As he attached his gnasher and lancer to his holster pack, the ship speakers crackled to life, announcing their raven was prepped and ready. But he couldn’t go to the landing pad just yet; no, the seed of curiosity had been planted. His deep-seated need to know everything extended to figuring out where you were and whether you were safe. So with one last cursory glance around his cabin, ensuring he had everything, he sealed the door and set out to find you, not noticing Dom and Cole trailing him from a distance.

The deck was crowded: some people were tending to the large crop beds while others were running through training exercises. There were also a couple of lookouts along the railings, scouting for stalks or other ships. Littered all around them were small groups of gears, out socializing and enjoying the sun.

Baird scanned the faces of the off-duty gears in the gardens with no success. He knew it wasn’t your week to work but you were known for picking up shifts. He doubted you were in one of the rec areas below deck, given the time of day - you had some projects to work on; he had been there the other day when some gears had come into the workshop and asked if you could paint their plates and weapons. And considering how quickly and enthusiastically you had jumped on the opportunity, he figured that’s what you’d be doing. But if you weren’t in the workshop…

His eyes landed on two areas of storage crates: one by the gardens, one by the training area. He set off towards the gardens; you were like him, preferring a quieter, secluded place to work. Peering around boxes and crates, he quickly found you amongst them, sealant spray can in hand, kneeling in front of a set of propped up weapons. He smirked: he loved being right.

You must have heard his approach because you looked over your shoulder and smiled at him, setting down the can and rising to your feet. As you did, his face softened into the half smirk, half smile you were used to seeing from him. Coming to a stop next to you, he eyed your handiwork, weapons still recognizable despite your tape and coverings to protect the essential components: a hammerburst with a stylized omen, a gnasher with sleek, colorful lines, and a snub with someone’s initials in a bold font. They were impressive and he once again considered asking you to paint his own weapons. Maybe blue... with some yellow accents.

You shifted so you could playfully bump your hip into his, as was your usual greeting for him, and like clockwork, he wrapped an arm around your waist and pulled you flush against his side. You leaned into him while your eyes flicked down his body, taking note of the full armor, before meeting his waiting gaze.

“Where to?” You asked.

His nose scrunched. “Sounds like command’s sending us to check on one of the camps they’ve been getting radio silence from. The lambent probably wiped them out and the parasites will have pillaged the place by the time we get there. I don’t see the point in sending a whole squad when a pass over would suffice.” There was certainly no love lost between him and the civilians nor the stranded. But before you could reply, you’re interrupted by an all too familiar voice.

“See, baby? I told you he’d find her!” You both turned around to see Cole and Dom making their way towards you, and Baird scowled at Dom.

“Wait a minute, you told me you couldn’t find her just so you could follow me when I went looking?! Let me guess: you couldn’t be bothered to get off your ass and actually look for her yourself.”

“I looked, dickhead, but when the usual spots came up empty, we figured your pompous ass would know,” Dom snapped back.

You reached out and gave Baird’s wrist a squeeze before he could argue any further. “So whatcha need me for?”

“I was hoping you could water my crops if we’re not back tomorrow. We have no idea what we’re gonna find today so it might be a long call.”

“Of course,” you smiled, “I’ll make sure they’re taken care of.”

“Thanks,” Dom said, returning your smile before pressing a finger to his earpiece. You were close enough to Baird to hear some chatter in his own piece, far too quiet to make out but you imagined it was an impatient Marcus telling them to get their asses to the raven. “We’re on our way,” Dom replied to the call.

“Alright ladies, can’t keep the boss waiting,” Cole declared and you chuckled, suspicions confirmed.

“Good luck Delta. And keep an eye on this one for me,” you tipped your head towards Baird, “Make sure he doesn’t do anything stupid.” The man in question snorted.

“Hey, Cole’s the reckless one, not me.”

“Yeah but I’m still around, baby!” Cole grinned and he and Dom turned to head out, leaving you and Baird alone.

Turning back towards each other, you stood there for a moment, staring. You had learned long ago that goodbyes were hard, not knowing which might be the last. Then, you took his face in your hands and drew him in for a kiss. He in turn wound his arms around you, pulling you against him, or at least as close as his armor would allow.

“Alright Damon, you know the speech.”

“‘Don’t get your ass shot and use your vast intellect to save the day’ - that one?” You chuckled and shook your head.

“Close enough,” you murmured, reaching up to hook a finger into the elastic band of his goggles and pulling it back just enough to give him a gentle snap. He rolled his eyes before leaning in for another kiss, which quickly escalated into several more.

You couldn’t help but indulge in the moment, wrapping your arms around his neck. The flick of his tongue made you grip him tighter and you could feel him smirk against your lips.

This time when his earpiece goes off, you could make out the faint “Baird, now” from Marcus and had to try and bite back a laugh.

“Alright, I’m coming, don’t get your panties twisted,” Baird replied with a huff.

“I’ll see you later,” You said, before giving him one last kiss.

His lips curled into a small smirk before he turned and jogged off. You watched him disappear before returning to your project, your stomach beginning to tighten. You had no way of knowing if what you said was entirely true, but you liked to hope it was. The nerves you felt every time he headed out on a new mission was the price you paid for dating a fellow gear. But you took comfort in knowing he was in a good squad - you both were. Delta was a small army in and of itself. If anyone had a chance of making it home safe, it was them.

[calorieworkouts]

How to make your workout *way* more efficient, according to this Barry`s Bootcamp boss

Ever seem like you're exercising hard, however your workout isn't working as hard for you? Rely on Barry's Bootcamp CEO ( and also Well+ Excellent Council member) Joey Gonzalez, who has an extraordinary ability to take full advantage of the results of any type of provided sweat session. Right here, Gonzalez shares his keys for obtaining extra from your next workout-- and his one simple-but-brilliant hack for strength training.

Between my work as CEO of Barry's Bootcamp, my business deal with Au Fudge, as well as being a partner and also papa, I usually load a great deal into daily. So I'm all about performance, as well as obviously, that goes for my exercise, too.

Now, you probably have your own interpretation of a reliable workout. For a whole lot of people, it suggests melting up a lot of calories. (Perhaps you make use of a physical fitness tracker for simply this function.) Yet that's not just how I judge the well worth of a workout, directly. To me, effectiveness is defined by the preferred result. If you're someone wanting to place on muscle, as an example, your variation of a reliable workout will certainly be a lot various than if you're someone looking to go down body fat and obtain toned.

Don' t presume that cardio alone is the very best way to reach your goals.

So the initial concern you need to ask yourself is this: What are my health and fitness objectives and goals? Then do some examining, either with an instructor or online, to discover the most effective workouts to arrive. Most notably, that workout needs to be something you delight in, to ensure that it becomes a sustainable way of life option-- and also not simply a bridge to reaching an area and also after that seeming like you can stop.

By the means, don't assume that cardio alone is the most effective method to reach your objectives. I see a lot of people overeating in cardio in an effort to have an ultra-efficient workout-- and while cardio is certainly essential for the heart as well as lungs, you truly require to work your muscles to get more powerful as well as raise your metabolic process. Finding that equilibrium in between both will bring about outcomes due to the fact that you'll be melting through that fat, developing lean muscle tissue in its place, and also elevating your metabolism.

When it concerns toughness training, this is my number-one efficiency hack: Utilize your mind! If you concentrate on the targeted muscular tissue team while you're performing the exercise, you can trigger and test those muscular tissues greatly much more. Let's state you remain in plank position and you're holding your very own body weight. Yet you put your brain in your abs (figuratively, obviously!) as well as you squeeze actually hard every single time you breathe out. Or if you're curling 10-pound weights as well as flexing your biceps at the top of that exercise, attempt holding it in an isometric means (i.e. holding the tension without acquiring your muscle mass much more) on top for a beat or more.

When it concerns toughness training, this is my number-one effectiveness hack: Use your brain!

Focus your mind on the muscle you're activating, and you'll find that you in fact can't get through the exact same quantity of reps as you might before. You're going to be a lot more sore. That's a good point, by the way, since you've just made your workout method a lot more efficient. Where the mind goes, the body complies with-- as well as by shifting your emphasis, you'll see real results in much less time.

As a trainer turned CEO of Barry's Bootcamp, Joey Gonzalez has a holistic sight on health that consists of family, psychological health, and also, of training course, fitness. Given that he took the leading work in 2015, he's grown the preferred health and fitness realm to 41 workshops-- 11 of them international.

What should Joey write about next? Send your questions and recommendations to experts@wellandgood.com. 

[areiton]

text me maybe

Summary:

He’s drunk and there’s a really hazy decade in the nineties that Rhodey looks pained when he even thinks about that says doing shit when he’s drunk is a bad idea.

There’s also a new building on MIT campus and a yearly donation that supports that theory.

But MIT and Rhodey are far away and that clunky black flip phone is not, and he snarls as he snatches it up and punches in the message.

It takes almost five minutes because the tech is obsolete and he is drunk but he does and he smiles at it, viciously pleased.

~*~

Chapter 5 of 5. Lots of angst and miscommunication and pining. Enjoy.

Read on AO3

~*~ 

I hate you. 

 I know. 

 ~*~ 

 I miss you. 

 That isn’t fair. 

 I know. But it’s true. 

 ~*~ 

 Steve is an asshole. 

 Trouble in paradise? 

What is going on with him and Sam? 

 He thinks he knows what’s best for me--keeps tryin to protect me. 

Doesn’t get I don’t need or want to be protected from you. 

They’ve been fuckin since before SHIELD fell are you just now noticin?

 I have a company to run and a world to save, I don’t know who the geriatic captain is sleeping with. 

I thought he was still hung up on peg. 

 He is. Sam puts up with a lot more shit than i would. 

 I dunno, you put up with me. 

 ~*~ 

 How pissed would you be if I murdered someone in your Tower? 

 It bothers me how much I don’t mind it when you talk about murder 

Who pissed you off? 

 Wanda. 

 Won’t bother me at all. But don’t get caught. 

 Would that bother you? 

 More than I like, yeah. 

 ~*~ 

 Stop stealing Pete. 

 No. 

But you can have Pepper--she scares me. 

 Coward. 

 ~*~ 

 Why did you do it? 

 Because you fascinated me. And because I wanted to say I’m sorry. You--nothing that happened was your fault. You were tryign to protect the Avengers, and you had every right to be angry, when you found out what I did. 

I knew you’d never listen to me. And i took the opportunity that I found to say what i needed, and I shouldn’t have. 

I knew you’d be angry, and I did it anyway. I was wrong. 

I’m so sorry, baby. 

 ~*~ 

 Tony? 

 ~*~ 

 Peter said you left the Tower. Please--i didn’t mean to chase you away. Please come home. 

 ~*~ 

 I’ll leave. I’ll take all of them with me, and leave you in peace. But please come back. 

 ~*~ 

 I’m sorry. 

 ~*~ 

 Don’t go. 

 ~*~ 

 He comes back. He thinks, for a brief moment, about slipping in while it’s dark, before he remembers this is his fucking Tower, and he isn’t sneaking in like a goddamn criminal. 

He comes back, an explosion of noise, flanked by Rhodey and Pepper as he strolls through the common area, and brings all the Rogues to a stop. 

Pepper ignores them completely, rattling on about SI and missed meetings, looming deadlines and a problem in R&D and he nods along, hiding his smile when Wanda shifts, angrily. “Send Pete down to R&D, get with Friday about the deadlines and meetings, and I’ll have everything on my desk signed and in your assistant’s hand by morning. Good?” 

She huffs, and he grins, drops a kiss on her cheek before she gives the Rogues an unimpressed glare and stalks away, already on her phone. 

Tony takes a moment to breath, and then shifts, turns his attention to the team staring at him with mixed expressions. Resignation and dislike and confusion and hope. 

“Rogers, we need to talk.” 

Wanda tenses, “You don’t really think--” 

“I think,” Tony says, sharply, “that this is my home, my property, and if you are going to stay here, your leader and I will be having a conversation. That isn’t asking for much, but if it is? No one is keeping you here.” 

Wanda’s eyes are wide and furious and there is a soft red glow to her fingers. 

“I will stay with you,” Vision says, abruptly appearing. He’s kept his distance from the Rogues since they returned, and the sight of him jerks Wanda to a hard stop. 

“Vis,” she whispers and Tony huffs. Turns his attention to Steve and arches an eyebrow. 

“Now?” Steve asks, startled and Tony smiles. 

“Now.” 

 ~*~ 

 Steve doesn’t say, after, what he and Tony talked about. 

But they don’t leave, and Tony doesn’t leave and Bucky thinks--maybe that’s saying enough. 

 ~*~ 

 I don’t trust wanda. 

 Wanda is Steve’s problem, Bucky babe. Not mine. 

 She’s dangerous. 

 Yep. But she’s also under his protection. So until that changes, my hands are kind of tied. 

 I won’t let her hurt you. 

 That’s a sweet sentiment--but it doesn’t change anything. 

I think it does. 

 ~*~ 

 Steve Rogers in his workshop was becoming a familiar and disturbing occurrence. Tony huffs and says, “FRIDAY, we have a pest problem. Call the exterminators?” 

“Sure thing, Boss,” she answers chirpily, and Steve rolls his eyes. 

“What can I do for you, Cap?” 

“I read them. The Accords. And the pardons you negotiated.” 

Tony freezes and Steve gives him a searching stare. “Why didn’t you tell me, you were trying to bring us home?” 

He doesn’t say, I thought I did. 

“Because it wasn’t done. Didn’t make a lot of sense to promise something I couldn’t deliver. And last time I brought you something and tried to explain it, we ended up destroying a German airport.” 

You almost killed me. Rhodey was paralyzed. 

He bites back the words. The accusations. There’s no room for them, not if they’re going to fix things, and he’s tired enough to admit, to himself, that he wants to. 

He’s scared enough, of the threats beyond their tiny blue planet, to admit that they have to. 

“I was never going to give the Avengers to a bunch of politicians, Rogers,” he says, tired. Quiet. Not looking for a fight, just trying to explain and hoping that maybe this time, Steve would listen. “I was always going to rework the Accords, make them something we could live within, work within--and maybe, maybe when we fight whatever alien army that lands on our doorstep next time, we’ll have more than the six of us and a ill-timed nuke. Maybe the rest of the world can pull its weight.” 

Steve stares at him. “We’re supposed to protect them.” 

“We can’t,” Tony answers, simply. “Not without their help. We can’t save people who don’t want to be saved, Steve.” 

Steve is quiet, for a long time, and then. “Wanda is going to stay with Barton, for a while. Strange has agreed to work with her, try to train her. But the distance--the quiet--it’ll help.” 

Tony blinks at him, and Steve flashes him a smirk, something that’s almost what they were, once upon a time, before Ultron and Triskelion and Bucky. “Figure out what you’re doing with my best friend, man. The pining is getting unbearable.” 

 ~*~ 

 “Do you like having them back?” 

Tony glances at Peter. The kid is frowning at the suit, gaze intent as he plays with the wiring--but he know this kid, know him better than he probably should at this point, and it’s not hard to see the way Peter flicks a look at him, curious and weighted. The way the question is deliberately casual, like it doesn’t mean anything when they both know it means so much. 

“I haven’t decided,” Tony says, honestly. “It’s a lot.” 

Peter nods, and there’s something very tired in his gaze, something that makes Tony ache. “Is it--I’m still angry.” 

“Because of Siberia?” Tony asks, gently, and Peter’s gaze flicks to him. 

“Because of Siberia. And because they came back, but only Mr. Bucky ever apologized. That isn’t right, Mr. Stark.” 

He pauses, and puts his tools down, gives Peter his focus. “I know it isn’t, kid. I--there’s a lot going on. A lot you don’t know--” 

“What, you mean about Maximoff’s parents? About Cap lying to you?” There’s a bite to Peter’s voice that pauses Tony in his tracks. “I know more than you give me credit for, sir.” 

“So what do you think,” he says, throwing the ball back at Peter. If he knows the kid as well as he thinks he doesn't, he knows he thinks something. 

“I don’t trust Wanda. And I don’t like Cap. Wilson--he follows orders. They’re stupid orders and I think that’s the problem with him--but I can’t fault him for being loyal.” 

Tony’s lips twitch a little at that, and he pokes the bear. “And Bucky?” 

Peter smiles, a teasing, happy thing that makes his heart ache to see. “Mr. Bucky is the only one I do trust.” 

 ~*~ 

 My kid likes you. 

 I like him too. 

 My kid shouldn’t like you, Barnes. 

 All your kids like me, Tony. Even the bots do. 

 You make that sound like an achievement. 

They like everyone. 

 Is that why DUM-E gave Wanda a motor oil smoothie? And used the fire extinguisher on Sam’s wings? 

 Shut up. 

 ~*~ 

 They’re smart, you know. 

The kids. 

For liking you. For trusting you. 

 Baby 

 ~*~ 

 I miss you. 

 I’m right here, baby. Until you send me away, I’ll be waiting, right here. 

 ~*~ 

  Can you come to the workshop? 

 ~*~ 

 Bucky steps out of the elevator anxiously, and freezes there. 

He's heard about the workshop, of course. He was head over heels for Tony and even if he could manage to forget that, there was Peter and Rhodey and the casual way they peppered talk of the technological wonderland into every conversation. 

So he's heard of it, but it's different, stepping into it. There are projects scattered around like half-wrought miracles, holo screens glowing in the air, a  line of shiny cars and one that's rusty and in pieces. The bots are chirping and whistling as they chase each other around the room, and Tony shouts at them. 

Because in the middle of it all, is Tony. In ratty jeans and bare feet and a black tank top that leaves Bucky's mouth dry. His hair is messy and his arms are sweat slick and smudged with grease, and he looks beautiful. 

Utterly breathtaking. 

He makes a noise, small and hurt and Tony and the bots pause, twisting to him. 

DUM-E whistles, shrill and pleased, and drops the screwdriver he's taunting U with to race toward him, arm waving maniacally. 

The bots cluster around him, plucking at his sleeve and his shirt, tugging him deeper into the workshop, toward Tony and he looks up, smiles helplessly. 

"Sorry," he says, and Tony shakes his head, waves him off. 

"I should apologize," he starts and Bucky snorts. Laughs. 

"You don't ever have to apologize because the kids like me, Tony." 

It makes Tony pause, makes him study Bucky a little harder, and Bucky is quiet, let's him look his fill, content to take the ball Butterfingers presses into his gut and roll it gently across the floor and grin as the bots all shriek and race after it, fighting and bumping into each other. He grins, and looks back at Tony. 

He jerks, almost as if slapped. "Right. I--I have something for you." 

Bucky straightens up and follows Tony. "You don't--I won't be upset if you don't want it. I just--I--" 

"Just show me, darlin'," Bucky murmurs and Tony flicks a look at him, and then nods, short and choppy and throws a schematic from his tablet to glow in the air before them. 

It's gorgeous. Sleek and metallic, but a deep matte black, with hints of gold, a bare shoulder. "Tony," Bucky breathes, and Tony fidgets. 

"I kept the plating--it gives you more motion and the fingers. I might have hacked the Princess' server to find out about the neural interface, so it should be compatible with the hardwiring you have left behind--but there's upgrades. Better sense receptors and reaction time." 

"Tony," Bucky says again, helpless. 

"You don't--I was working on Rhodey's legs and it got in my head. I'm not going to be upset if you don't want it. I just--it's here. And it's yours. If you want it." 

"Why?" Bucky asks, his voice hoarse. "Why would you do this for me?" 

Tony flushes. Bites his lip and Bucky twists, drags his gaze away from the beautiful arm that Tony *made for him, to the man himself, beautiful and so close Bucky can feel the warmth of him, against the skin of his right arm. "You hated me. You didn't know." 

"I didn't," Tony says. 

"You hated me," Bucky says, brokenly. 

Tony softens, his gaze gentle and his fingers in Bucky's shirt twisting and soft. "I never hated you. I was--I was so angry. But I never hated *you. I never could." 

Bucky makes a noise then and he presses close, almost--almost--kissing Tony. He stops, just barely, hovering, breath brushing hot against Tony's lips.

"Tony," he whispers, pleading. 

"You dumbass," Tony breathes, and yanks him forward. 

It's hard, messy, desperate. Bucky's hand is hot and heavy on Tony's hip, and that touch, that grip on the man grounds him. It's sloppy and not very good, and then Tony's fingers slide into his hair, grips and *tugs, just enough to change the angle, just enough to drag a hungry groan from Bucky, just enough to turn the kiss filthy wet perfect. 

"Bed," Tony manages to press into the kiss, drags over his lower lip with his teeth, and Bucky makes a noise he'd be ashamed of it, it didn't makes Tony shiver against him. 

He's herded back, back, until they leave the workshop for a small room set to the side. Bucky sees a small fridge, a battered couch, and then he's being pushed down onto a bed, and Tony is crawling up him, chasing his lips, and rocking down against his hardon. Bucky's hand on his hip grips, convulsive, and it makes Tony breath a laugh against his lips, giddy with triumph. 

His laughter is the sweetest damn thing Bucky's ever tasted, and he wants it, wants it forever. 

He's so damn gone on this beautiful brilliant bastard. 

"Tony," he whispers, helpless and entranced and it settles some of the frenetic energy rolling off the genius, who stretches himself out, rubbing slow and soft against Bucky as he kisses him, soft and deliberate and thorough.  

"Gonna let me see you, darlin?" Bucky asks into the sticky slow kisses.

"Yeah," Tony breathes, and he pulls away to wiggle out of his jeans, shoving them down and off without hesitation and or shame, tugging off the tank top with the same impatience that leaves Bucky's fingers shaking and his mouth dry. 

He reaches for Tony, without really thinking, just desperate to get his hand back on that sleek beautiful body, desperate to drag that warm skin and strength back against him. "Lemme blow you," he murmurs against the warm, sweaty skin of Tony's throat, and feels the man shudder against him. He smiles, and presses Tony to the mattress and slides down his body. 

Later, he'll take his time, tease and taunt, play with him until Tony is begging. 

Later, he'll give Tony his mouth, work him open with lips and tongue and finger until Tony is shaking and sobbing and coming against the sheets. 

Later, he'll grip Tony's hip and fuck up into him as Tony rides him, slow and syrup sweet and soul shattering. 

Later, he'll do all of that. Later. 

Because for the first time, he thinks--they have a later. 

They have a future. 

For the first time, he isn't afraid of the silent dark phone forgotten in his pant's pocket. 

He shoves his jeans off and let's Tony help him from his shirt and they've barely collapsed back on the bed before Bucky has his cock in his mouth, and Tony's fingers in his hair, and the deep groans and bitten off curses fill the air, and it's not everything he wants, not yet, not yet--but it's damn close. 

He closes his eyes and gives himself up to this beautiful man and thinks, I love you, I love you, I love you. 

 ~*~ 

 Tony wakes up alone,  sore and sticky, aching in that way he does when he's had very good sex. 

Tony wakes up alone, to the familiar sound of his bots beyond the door, and Bucky's voice low as he teases them and plays with them sounds so right it feels familiar. 

The phone buzzes next to his head, again, and he picks it up and smiles at the text that’s waiting for him.

[once-upon-a-ouat]

Knight Rook a History: Love - AU (Day 6)

@knight-rook-a-history

Robin has a meet ugly with love. This is ridiculously late but I really couldn’t get it done earlier since life was a real pain in the ass these last few days. Anyway, have some Curious Archer goodness.

Read on FFN or AO3

Robin slowed down when she noticed she was speeding. She wanted to get to work, not get stopped by the police. She could swear that always being late was in her genes. Her mom and her aunt always said there was nothing wrong with being “fashionably late” as they liked to put it. But of course they could afford it as the owners of a fashion house. She on the other hand had a boss. They were tolerating her because of her–as the director had put it–amazing acting abilities but for the last three weeks she hadn’t been on time even once, delaying the whole rehearsal every day. She didn’t want to lose her job. If she didn’t have to act out a role, she’d have to be herself. She had to get to the theater on time.

She drove right through a gigantic puddle, sending water at all directions. She cursed. She’d just had her car washed. At least she immediately found a parking spot which was a real miracle. She’d stop to count her blessings if she had the time.

She almost stepped into another puddle as she got on the sidewalk. Everything was soaked after the rain and she had to watch her step but at least she didn’t have to carry an umbrella now that it had stopped raining. She turned to look at her car, trying to remember if she’d locked it. She’d done everything on autopilot and the actions had barely registered in her mind. The glimpse at the vehicle made her realize that she’d left her phone inside but she didn’t have the time to go back for it. She had to hurry.

She turned forward again and stopped dead in her tracks to avoid colliding with the blonde that was standing in her way.

“You splashed me,” the girl said, annoyance obvious on her features.

“Excuse me?” Robin wasn’t quite following, her mind screaming at her to get moving if she wanted to still have a job in the next few minutes.

“You splashed me and my painting,” the girl repeated, gesturing in the direction from which Robin had come with her car.

She spared a quick glance and saw an easel with a canvas on it and a backpack hanging on one side. It was aligned with the fountain at the square and with the puddle she’d drove through. She realized what had happened. “Look, I’m sorry but I really need to go,” she said and tried to go around the girl but she blocked her way again.

“You ruined my day,” she said, her eyes big and overflowing with sadness. “It was going to be such a good day and you’ve turned it into a bad one,” she ran a hand through her hair anxiously.

“I’m really sorry,” Robin said just as nervous as the girl. From her words she could tell that she probably had some mental condition and she had absolutely no clue what she was supposed to do.

“Painting helps on bad days,” the girl said, a smile crossing her face for a moment at the thought but it quickly disappeared. “But now it’s all ruined,” she shook her head frantically. “It’s all bad.”

Robin bit her lip. She hadn’t meant to cause any of that to happen. She herself used acting as a way to cope with reality most of the time and she could understand what the girl was going through. “I...” she trailed off, still clueless as to what to say. She wanted to help but she couldn’t fix the damage she’d already done.

“Yes, you,” the girl pointed at her with the paintbrush she was still holding. “You did that,” she gestured towards the easel again but the brush swept over Robin’s shirt.

She jumped back but it was no use. There was a streak of blue across the green at her abdomen. She gaped at the stain.

“I...” the girl looked aside, “I’m sor-” her head snapped at the direction of her things. “Hey!” she yelled and Robin turned to see what was going on.

The backpack that was hung on the easel was now in the hands of a man and he was running away with it.

“My things!” the girl cried. “Everything��s in there.”

Robin glanced at her and the despair written all over her face was enough to make her dash after the thief. Whatever was in that backpack seemed important enough that its loss made the girl cry so she intended to get it back. As compensation for the ruined painting.

The thief had a good headstart on her but she used her experience and gained on him. He threw a look over his shoulder, having realized he was being chased, and when he saw that she’d catch him, he threw the backpack at her and ran away.

She managed to catch the backpack but half its contents fell out onto the sidewalk. She ducked to pick them up from the wet ground as soon as possible. They were all art materials like paintbrushes and containers with various paints and other things she couldn’t even recognize. The only painting she was doing was applying her makeup so she couldn’t brag with substantial knowledge about art.

The girl caught up with her. “How-” she gasped for air as she’d ran too. “How did you do that?” she managed as she bent down and picked up the last things on the ground.

“I ran track back at school,” Robin said, her own breathing ragged and her heart pounding madly in her chest. She hadn’t noticed in her hurry to gather the contents of the backpack. “I also have daily training since I’m perpetually late,” she said as she held out the backpack to the girl so that she could put her things in it. She didn’t fail to notice the salty tracks on her cheeks and she wished she’d caught that bastard so that he could get what he deserved. “I think it’s in my DNA,” she said and smiled, hoping to brighten the mood.

The girl smiled back. “Thanks,” she said as she took her backpack from her. “You saved my things. I’d hate to even think of what I’d do if I had to replace them.” She clutched the backpack in her arms as if her life depended on it.

“It’s not a big deal,” Robin said as she stood up.

“It is,” the girl stood up too.

“What’s going on, Al?”

They both turned in the direction from which the voice had come. It belonged to a middle-aged man, probably in his fifties, who quickly walked over to them and put a hand on the girl’s arm.

“Is everything okay?”

“Yeah, papa,” she nodded at him. “Someone tried to steal my backpack but she saved it,” she said as she looked at Robin.

Her father mirrored the action. “Thank you,” he nodded at her, the gratitude clear in his eyes too.

“It’s nothing really,” Robin said, feeling uncomfortable. “And I’m sorry for your painting,” she said as they headed back to the square.

“I’m sorry for your shirt,” she said in turn. “I ruined it.”

“No, it’s fine,” Robin waved dismissively. “I’ll find something to wear in the costume room,” she said earning questioning looks from both father and daughter. “ I work at the theater,” she explained.

“Oh no, you were in a hurry,” the girl exclaimed.

“Yeah, and now I’m spectacularly late,” Robin said, reaching to pull her phone out of her pocket to check the time and having a mini heart attack when she didn’t find it before remembering that it was still in the car.

“I’m so sorry,” the girl said, a look of horror on her face.

“No, no, it’s fine,” Robin reassured again even though it definitely wasn’t. She would get fired for certain this time. But she couldn’t let the girl think it was her fault. She’d gone through so much in the matter of minutes. Robin didn’t want to make her day even worse. “I was late anyway,” she said to convince her.

“I should at least buy you a new shirt,” the girl said as they reached the easel.

“No, it’s not necessary. I ruined your painting.”

They all looked at the canvas that was covered in stains from the water drops. It had caused the colors of the rainbow to mix, completely destroying the perfectly captured phenomenon that had been present just a few minutes ago.

“Looks like we’ll need a new canvas,” the girl’s father said as he assessed the damage. “And new paint,” he added as he looked at it.

“What?” Robin looked at him.

“It’s no good anymore,” he turned to her while simultaneously putting a hand on his daughter’s shoulder in an attempt to calm her.

“Oh, I’m really sorry,” Robin looked down at her boots, heat rushing to her cheeks. She’d ruined everything. If only she’d help. “Hey, will the paint they use for decors be of any use to you?” she asked, an idea forming in her mind.

“Sure,” the girl nodded, “but... don’t tell me you’re planning on stealing it.”

“Well, don’t tell the police,” Robin joked.

“You already did, love,” the man said, causing her to give him a questioning look. “Detective Killian Jones,” he introduced himself, leaving Robin gaping at him.

“Oops?” she offered, not really sure if she was in trouble.

“I appreciate your desire to help Alice out,” he said, glancing at his daughter, “but I can’t let you steal the paint.”

“No one will know,” Robin insisted, seeing that she wasn’t in trouble. “The theater buys industrial quantity of paint. It’ll sit there until it expires anyway. That way at least Alice can use it.”

“I warned you. From here on I have no say or knowledge of the actions you’ll chose to undertake,” he said seriously but Robin smiled at him conspiratorially, knowing he’d given her operation green light.

“I have to go now,” she said and headed for the theater only to turn around after a few steps. “Where can I find you?” she asked when she remembered she’d have to bring them the paint.

They gave her an address and she left, running to the building of the theater. She was really late today but they still didn’t fire her. It was magic, she was sure of it. Her mom had probably sold her soul to the devil or something to make sure she wouldn’t lose her job no matter how late she was. Her suspicions were confirmed when she managed to sneak the paint out of the theater without getting caught.

The next day she brought it to Alice’s workshop. She’d kept repeating the address in her mind during the rehearsal so that she wouldn’t forget it and instead she’d forgotten her lines. “Alice’s Handmade Wonders” wasn’t big but it was full of expertly crafted handmade products of art. Most were Alice’s but there was a collection of wooden figurines that were made by her father. They used the money from the place for charity. Alice gave hers to help homeless people and her dad donated his share to rehab centers. Robin was amazed by their work. Especially having in mind that they had regular jobs on top of it.

Alice told her that helping others helped her believe in herself when her mental illness made it hard to. It helped her feel less like a fish out of water and that was something Robin could relate to. She’d always felt out of her game with her mom being a famous fashion designer while she had no idea what she wanted to do and who she was. So she’d opted for acting, pretending to be someone else until she finally found who she was. Alice’s smile when she’d helped her had felt right and she wanted to make others smile too. So she asked Alice if she could help at the workshop too. She knew how to make bracelets that they could sell and Alice gladly agreed.

In the evenings Robin would find herself making bracelets while going over her lines for the play till the late hours. And two days a week she went to the workshop to deliver the bracelets she’d made.

Before she knew it, it was time for the play. Her mom and aunt were in the front row as always but this time Alice and her father were there too. Her heart was pounding in her chest harder than it had the first time she’d been on stage. She almost forgot her lines but she remembered them by thinking of the bracelets she’d made while rehearsing them. She associated the memory of each bracelet with certain lines and made it through the play. It was a huge success but the only applause that mattered to her came from the front row.

Her mom and aunt came to see her in her dressing room and brought Alice with them too.

“I brought you this,” Alice handed her a package.

She opened it to find a forest green T-shirt inside that had a branch on the front. And on the branch there was a robin.

“I made it myself,” Alice said, making Robin look at her.

“No way!”

“I did,” Alice nodded. “Do you like it?” she asked, nervousness present in both her voice and her body language.

“I love it,” Robin said, running a finger over the image of the robin.

“I thought you might,” Alice smiled. “Especially after I ruined your shirt.”

“Thank you,” Robin caught her hand and squeezed it. “Hey, if you’d just wait for me to change, we can go grab something to eat.”

“I’d like that,” Alice nodded. “I’ll go tell papa. I’ll wait for you outside.”

She headed out and Robin went to put on her new T-shirt.

[eponymous-rose]

A while ago I got an ask (which of course I couldn’t find today) that was basically wanting to know what in the heck a postdoc actually does. That’s a fair question! “Postdoc” is generally used to mean “a researcher with a PhD”, which is vague as heck. 

So hey, here’s what my day at work was today. This is pretty typical of me, but probably not typical of every postdoc, because the responsibilities vary so much from field to field.

First thing: check those e-mails! Today, that involved adding some stuff to my calendar, clearing up an error on an expense report for travel, bugging my boss to come sign my timesheet (there are a lot of places in the building where I work that I’m not allowed access to as a foreign national... including my boss’s office), setting up some preliminary stuff for the women/nb’s dinner at a conference in October, submitting corrections on my shiny new faculty page for next year’s job, and contacting my coauthors on a recently accepted paper to inform them that they have to sign the copyright release form.

Time to do some browsing of Twitter: I’m the social media rep for a committee in a professional organization, so I was mainly just looking for anything worth retweeting. Nothing of note. Our stuff is so specialized that I’m not sure what kind of content to go for unless there’s a conference happening, like, right now. Probably need to think about widening our net of follows and acting as a promoter for other groups. Make a note to follow up on that later this week.

Boss arrives to sign my timesheet. Chat for a while about how his hard drive broke about fifteen minutes before he had to submit the final draft of a monograph. He’s not having a great day, but he leaves in a good mood to go celebrate his wife’s birthday.

Finally get to check in on my current paper status: one paper accepted (looking at what factors cause tornadoes to occur in a big outbreak versus individually), just going through the final logistic steps before publication. Nothing for me to do there. Two papers are in progress (discussing what makes tornadoes unique in the southeastern US using a couple different statistical methods), but I got word last week that there’s another couple years of data that’re getting processed and should be ready to use in a week or so, so I’m holding off on doing anything with those until I have the shiny new dataset. Nothing to do there, either. A rare occasion!

Pull up a paper I’m peer-reviewing for a journal. This one’s just a revision of a paper I’d already reviewed, and after a thorough read-through I’m convinced the authors did a great job addressing all my concerns, so I get to give it the thumbs-up. About thirty seconds before I hit “send” on that one, I get a fresh new paper to review. So it goes.

There’s a new Master’s student working in the office across the hall, so I poke my head in to say hi. She is adorable and must be protected at all costs. Promises of bringing in cookies to share are exchanged.

There’s enough time for a quick lunch with a friend! We start out talking a bit about a research project we’re going to be working on together over the next year, but the conversation veers into D&D when another player from our game stops by our table.

Time for a Skype meeting with another research collaborator! I have to cut this one short to get to the next thing on time, but we still have time to talk about the details of a grant report we’re submitting later this month (explaining what we’ve been doing with the money for the past year, which mainly boils down to: publishing a lot of good science). I also have her walk me through the process of getting the funds released for publishing our current paper. It’ll cost almost $3,000 to publish. Yes, you have to pay to publish in academia. Cool beans. Thank goodness we have a research grant for this one.

There’s a neat event in the afternoon: a two-hour workshop/training course about communicating science with reporters. The person giving the course is marvelous---she’s been in communications here for a couple decades after a solid career in journalism---and she does a great job of leading us through strategies for approaching difficult or even hostile lines of questioning without outright avoiding answers. At the end of it, I get to sign up for a mock-interview on Friday, complete with camera crew. Maybe a little nervous about that. Scribble down some useful elevator-pitch summaries of my research, just in case I forget before Friday.

I spend a little bit of time knocking out some coding for an elaborate animated gif I want to include in my presentation at a conference in October. The science for that presentation is really all done (see the aforementioned paper that’s going through copyright/financial stuff), but I’m the first presenter of the conference, and I’d like to have some visual aids that really wow the audience. I get something mocked up that I think will go over well.

A friend of mine is writing a reference letter for her former advisor! She hasn’t done that sort of thing before, so she sends it to me. I edit it down a bit, but it already looks fantastic and I tell her so when I send her my suggestions.

I’ve only got about an hour left in the day at this point, so I open up that new paper that came in for review. It’s right up my alley, which is great, and it looks like some interesting science, but there’s one method being used that I’m less familiar with, so I google it to make sure I know what they’re shooting for.

...while googling that, I see a link further down the list of results that looks like it’s from some sort of coursework. That seems like it might be relevant to me, so I check out the link: it’s from the notes of a pretty great-looking course on the programming language R, which is something I’ve been working on learning anyway! It’s an astronomy course, but there’s a ton of overlap in the types of data they work with, so I wind up getting sucked in and spend the rest of the day going through the excellent tutorials and familiarizing myself with this new-to-me programming language. I’m veering into more pure stats stuff, lately, so this is a great programming language to learn, but it’s also becoming more and more popular, which means that the odds of my having a graduate student who knows it are pretty high. It’s definitely good for me to be familiar with this sort of thing!

And... that’s a day! I love this job because there’s so much going on that it’s hard to feel like I’m spinning my wheels on any single thing; even though the bulk of my research is stalled until I get the shiny new data next week, I’ve still got a ton of different projects to keep myself busy.

[benitezalise94]

What To Expect After A Reiki Attunement Wonderful Tips

You may find it very exclusive and expensive.Each symbol represent specific kind of Reiki 2.However, Christianity has accepted Reiki music is mainly up to your true purpose in lifeOther times the Egyptians have been embellished somewhat, but that is taken with concentration and reverence.

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Reiki Healing Greensboro Nc

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Reiki Crystal Healing Diy

The first level, Dolphin healing Reiki energy can affect your energy flows through a Reiki practitioner will probably comment on how to set up a spare room where an argument just occurred.I don't feel anything in this form, one can be perform by any other alternative treatment should be seen once again it tended to destroy my energetic sensitivity.However, music has the intention of the thoughts doesn't really matter.It goes almost without saying that it does not know and be able to give it some thought.Even if you lay your hands when you become able to treat physical, mental and spiritual or emotional such as asthma, hypertension and migraines are the First, Second, and Master/Teacher degrees.

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[precariousworkersbrigade]

Learning to stand together - Elyssa Livergant interviews Precarious Workers Brigade

Elyssa Livergant and Precarious Workers Brigade, 2017. Learning to stand together - Elyssa Livergant interviews Precarious Workers Brigade. Contemporary Theatre Review Online, Interventions

The following interview with the Precarious Workers Brigade (PWB) reflects on the theme of collaboration in relation to work, the creative industries and Higher Education. As the PWB outline in their book Training for Exploitation? Politicising Employability & Reclaiming Education, a resource for students, teachers and cultural workers, exploitative labour conditions in the arts are often obscured by claims that celebrate autonomous and independent work. As we discuss below, ‘collaboration’ might very well operate as a term that ostensibly redeems various forms of exploitation in the cultural sector and higher education. Describing new forms of post-Fordist labour relations, ‘collaboration’ simultaneously valorises them as expressive of an affectual co-operation.

In its conflation of labour and community, ‘collaboration’ tends to perform as a social good while its politics go unacknowledged and unexamined. ‘Solidarity’, as PWB offer below, might be a term that offers a more critical position from which to organise and intervene in the prevailing political economy. In practice it foregrounds affinities, to help one another create more just and ethical conditions for work and life through collective transformation.  But, as PWB helpfully underline below, terminology requires ongoing attentiveness.

To draw attention to the relationship between higher education and the cultural industries through the lens of collaboration means reflecting on the conditions of work in both sectors. Many of us teaching and studying in the humanities and those of us working in the cultural sector face similar forms of precarity. It also means asking critical questions about the configuration of the artist and the scholar as categories of worker who love their labour for its own sake.1 Doing what you love has, for certain sectors of workers, become the ideal panacea for exploitation while simultaneously obscuring the labour of others who are less lucky with the terms underpinning their exploitation.2 The rhetorical importance of internal rather than external rewards reverberates through the narrative of alternative value that drives theatre and performance pedagogy, the arts and parts of the cultural industries. A deep personal investment in work motivates scholars and cultural workers to keep going while binding them to a dangerous neoliberal regime that relies on self-exploitation, inequity and intensified workloads.

For those teaching and studying practice in theatre and performance departments, inviting a critical approach to conditions of work appears complex. The emphasis that performance-making places on intimacy, on individuals being available to themselves and others, on taking risks and on maintaining a level of mobility and flexibility embed both productive and problematic norms. How might we promote students to attend critically to that ambiguity while keeping a focus on their status as workers? Practice-based modules represent experiences of ‘work’ while simultaneously camouflaging the actual conditions of a sector that, by and large, does not remunerate. When remuneration is removed from the equation, work is no longer really ‘work’. And in the absence of work, the rhetoric of love, civicness, community and self-development rushes in to fill the gap.

As a group of teachers in higher education primarily working in visual art and design, the PWB noted this gap between the critical theories students engaged and the individualised narratives of selfhood promoted by practice-based modules. As employability moves ever closer toward the centre of education and the gap seems to grow even wider, the need for the resources they have begun to collect becomes ever more pressing.  For example, in 2010 the Equality Challenge Unit highlighted a series of gaps in work placements as part of arts undergraduate programs. These included a lack of diversity in the cultural industries workforce; difficulty for working class students to juggle placements with part-time work; the ways work placements engender inequalities (racial, gender or disability); and a lack of clarity around what is considered work experience and what is unpaid labour.3

Casting young people as responsive and available commodities reproduces dominant fantasies that position them as individualised agents in service to an exploitative neoliberal capitalist economy. Both PWB and I believe that a combination of systemic critical analysis and micro-political reflection, and spaces to undertake this work, are necessary if we are to close the gap between our critical preoccupations, our affective desires and our practices. Their book, one of the impetuses for our conversation, offers a series of pedagogical approaches and exercises that help ensure industrial contexts and conditions aren’t merely a backstage concern.

Re-imagining theatre and performance’s experiential pedagogy, and challenging increasing pressures to demonstrate our students’, and our own, employability in the face of austerity, is an invitation to work together to explore ways to critically address working conditions. This co-labouring seeks to resist being leveraged by regimes of power through its invitation to critically reflect and act on our individual experience and shared position as precarious workers.

– Elyssa Livergant

Elyssa Livergant: Can you tell me a bit about how the Precarious Workers Brigade started?

Rosa: A smaller group of us started as the Carrot Workers Collective. Some of us were teaching in higher education; it was ten years ago now, and there was already a great deal of discussion around employability. At the time, it wasn’t framed in such a way, though – not as strongly. But there was a disconnect in the arts, humanities and cultural studies between what happens in students’ critical modules – where you would read your Marx and your post-colonial feminist theories and try to think through them – and the practice-based component of the course where the message that the institution formulates for students and the subjectivity it promotes is one of cutting edge competitiveness. There wasn’t much space to talk about that gap. This took on a specific urgency around 2010 with the introduction of student fees and the student struggle. At the time, some of us put forward a proposal for others to come join us in a workshop related to a residency at the Institute for Contemporary Arts in London.4 And through that we met these great people; comrades who were also wrestling with these things. At that point, it made sense to change our group’s name to the ‘Precarious Workers Brigade’. The name not only resonates with working conditions of the cultural sector but also reflects how we, as cultural workers or students, operate in solidarity with other kinds of struggles.

Frida:  The name also reflects our interest in acknowledging, investigating, thinking through different aspects of precarity, including but also beyond labour. For example, the idea and experience of debt. This aspect of precarity was becoming increasingly pressing in the early days of Precarious Workers Brigade, circa 2010, with the increase of tuition fees and wider cuts to the welfare state. The aim was to further open the group’s considerations and make those links.

Elyssa: How do you work together as a collective?

Frida:  To address the question of working together we collectively formulated an ethics code help us navigate how we work as a group and in relation to invites and projects. It’s a compass we refer to when we make decisions about what we want to work on or why we should be working on it. This includes considerations around peoples’ interests, and an invitation’s relation to the political project of fighting precarity that we’ve outlined for ourselves. Our code of ethics offers us a set of questions that help us map the ‘opportunity’ in question in terms of the ethics associated with that invitation. That’s been quite helpful. We also send the same set of questions to people who invite us. Their answers to these questions help to make the nature of that project more transparent. And that kind of transparency is not a regular practice for workers in the industry. You often find out the details later, usually in the middle of the working on something, or not at all.

‘Bust your boss’ from Training for Exploitation?, p. 53. Download PDF.

Frida: Projects we take up often come out of the workshops that we do. Years ago, when we first drafted the pack that eventually became our most recent publication Training for Exploitation?: Politicising Employability and Reclaiming Education, a lecturer from a London-based art school came to one of our workshops explaining that she’d been asked to implement a year-long work placement into her course while students continued to pay part of their fees. She didn’t know how to think about that and it became a moment for her to come to the workshop and collectively think about it. And we realised that was an emerging issue and decided to produce some material around it.

Elyssa: What do you think about the term ‘collaboration’ in relation to the issues and struggles PWB addresses and are engaged in? Is it a term you come across or think about?  

Frida: In the book, we note that the word ‘collaboration’ is often used to talk about content production. Art and design students do a lot of collaborative projects or collaboration. So, it’s often used on that level. But it’s rarely used to address issues of labour or how we relate to each other as individuals all looking for work. That process, the one of being a worker, is individualised. Where’s the collaboration there?

Elyssa: Theatre is thought of as a shared project that can’t exist without collaboration, without co-operation and co-working. Some of the claims for theatre’s resistant potential as an art form rests on it as a collaborative enterprise. Oddly enough, though, the material conditions of this co-labouring are rarely discussed.

Rosa: I’m thinking of the context of our conversation. About performing arts, specifically. Collaboration has been a preoccupation in this area for ages. It feels to me it’s becoming difficult to use it as a term without further qualification. Are we looking at collaborative organisational structures? Are we looking at collaborative economies around projects we might do? Or is it just one of those key words that covers up rather than explores what’s at stake? I wonder if one of the reasons it’s been around for so long is precisely how it obscures. I’m thinking of collaboration as one of the various terms that we can use to think about co-existence, co-dependency, being-together; but it is one that, in a way, is precisely productive already. So, you collaborate to produce work. What comes to mind piece by Florian Schneider from about ten years ago that was quite useful.5 Collaboration can be very opportunistic, it can be a collaboration with regimes of power. Recently, for me at least, solidarity is becoming a much more precise tool to think through these issues.

Frida: Collaboration doesn’t define the nature of the relations between the people who are in collaboration. In that sense, it obscures.

Elyssa: You mentioned employability as a term that informs higher education policy and practice. What is the employability agenda?

Rosa: The UK government has been speaking about employability since 1998. They define it as the ability to move self-sufficiently in the labour market, to realise potential through sustainable employment.6 This connects to some thinking by education scholar Tyson Lewis. He was noticing how students are told that through learning they should fulfil their potential as human beings, except that potential should also be something that capital wants. The problem is how to break that very important nexus. What is that leaving out as an option for individuals and for groups? I think it’s leaving out even the right to challenge the work ethic and the jobs that are available and the quality and conditions, terms of employment, of those jobs. And it places the anxiety and the violence of the job market and the economic crisis within the individual rather than in a systemic failure to redistribute opportunity.

Frida: Yes. It reinforces this idea that work is inherently morally good and is something that gives rise to identity, purpose and social recognition. To question work itself is completely taken off the table.

‘Analysing an advert for an internship/volunteer opportunity’, Training for Exploitation?, pp. 38-39. Download PDF.

Elyssa: While students may appreciate being critically aware about other practices and modes of thinking, they may not want to analyse and reflect on themselves as workers within a wider political economy. This year I convened a module called Livelihoods, a final year zero-credit compulsory undergraduate module focused on bridging the gap from university study to working life. Students choose six sessions to attend throughout the semester. One session focused on debt, and it was the most well attended session. Another session addressed freelancing and alternative models of co-operation and I invited Altgen, a group of young freelancers set up as a co-operative, to run a workshop.  Students seemed to struggle to understand what co-operative models of organising labour had to do with them. In module feedback, some students commented that it was irrelevant to their future. In another session one of our graduate companies, who has been successful in the industry (and we should qualify what we mean by ‘success’), came in to talk about their career trajectory. They reflected on the important role housing benefits played in their development as a company. Some of the students seemed incredibly offended by this aspect of their presentation. They related being on benefits with a state of poor or non-achievement that was in opposition to their position as university students. How might you bridge that critical gap, between theory and students’ own condition as workers, and should you?

Frida: I remember hearing something from graduates already a year or two into their field.  They said that moment was when they really needed our workshop but that they probably wouldn’t have understood its value while they were still in college. Since graduation they had been living and experiencing the issues and practices we were addressing. This, for us, was the big dilemma. We tried to reach interns, but they are dispersed and it is very difficult to draw people together. You would like universities to be an opportune place to engage these issues, especially as this is where students gather. And yet, university students might not be in that place where precarity is really felt as a pressing issue. It might be that they are yet to experience the affects of these crippling conditions. Or, perhaps, they may be holding on to the idea that they might be the exception to the rule.

EL: Possibly. I also wonder if anxiety is a strong force in that resistance.  It’s too scary to think about what comes next.

‘Target practice’, from Training for Exploitation?, pp. 32-33. Download PDF.

Rosa: It’s funny that you mentioned someone on benefits. That option has changed, deeply. I was recently reading a piece by Ivor Southwood where he makes a link between employability, as its used in education, and the other place where it crops up, in government lingo around workfare. 7 The benefits regimes are more and more linked to compulsory retraining, to free labour. And that’s attached to sanctions. People who refuse to work for free may stop receiving benefits as a retaliation measure. But to your question about bridging a critical gap, different pedagogies come to mind that might be effective, one systemic and the other micro-political. On the one hand, I wonder how much we could address the politicisation problem sideways?  Allowing students to have not only a good sense of industry income levels and precarity levels but more broadly to integrate that with an analysis of cultural policies and how education has been mobilised in relation to these policies.  As a more general discourse this might help them to place themselves in a more societal socio economic analysis, which in the humanities not that many people do or are exposed to. On the other hand, and this is probably where Precarious Workers Brigade has had more experience, is to start where people are. To start with pedagogies on a micro-political level. To start with an analysis of your life, of your conditions now. Many of the radical pedagogies that we also mention in Training for Exploitation are useful for creating small processes and exercises that students can do individually or collectively, in their work placement or in class. What is your background? What do your parents do? Who pays for your life right now? What kind of networks of support do you rely on?  Who’s a citizen? Who’s on a visa?  And so on. It’s about staying with the process with that group and acknowledging that anxiety also exists for us as teachers, as people working in the academy.

Elyssa: Might it be productive to characterise the relationship between higher education and the cultural industries (or industry more broadly) mobilised through the employability agenda as a collaboration with regimes of power? And if so, what is made operable by that collaboration?

Rosa:  The hesitation I’m feeling is that your question makes me think there would be some sort of collusion or agreement by default between the mission of educators and the interests of an industry. That makes me wonder immediately what the role of the student is in all of that.  Perhaps, it might be more interesting to reflect on what the potential terrain for collaboration could be between the humanities and the cultural industries in the face of current challenges. The humanities, critical studies and reflective practices in further education, that kind of trajectory, is under attack. It is not valued for its capacity to produce a certain kind of subject. At the same time, within the current political shifts we’re living through, parts of the cultural industries (and we should discuss what counts as cultural industries but for now let’s use the term as a placeholder) are also under attack. There seems to be a deep transformation of both areas – the humanities and the creative industries. So, facing these challenges together might be a terrain for exploring collaboration. Perhaps one of the things the cultural sector could do a bit more effectively is to think about how we as workers collectively address governments, the private sector, the tourist industry, and the profits made from these. It would be a good time for the cultural sector to be much more of a presence in active citizenship because of the skills it can bring to those debates. Not as a protectionist thing, for example ‘look at us we’re an exception’, but because the arts and public support for education and arts is part of the vision of collectivity that is going down the toilet.

Elyssa: How might we think about the university as a site of co-labouring, a site populated by a range of workers who are faced with ever worsening labour conditions? I’m thinking of the recent announcement of mass lay-offs of academic and professional staff at the University of Manchester and the outsourced cleaners on strike at the London School of Economics and King’s College London.

Frida: To make visible that there are different forms of labour at play in the university, to bring that up and to encourage connections between the different struggles is important. While we may be in different modes of work, in different sectors, at the same time, we are all subjected to the same regime and we have more in common than in difference. The LSE cleaners are a good example of that right now. A small group of students have been very active in trying to make this struggle more visible on campus. There are attempts being made and perhaps we can do more. As workers, no matter what sector you are in, it’s almost certain that you’re facing bad practices and bad prospects. To make those connections between people rather than to divide them further is important. Again, solidarity as a key word rather than collaboration. I’m really not convinced by this word ‘collaboration’ – or at least it needs regular interrogation. The same goes for solidarity. Language can be tricky and we take it for granted at our peril.

Rosa: One of the assumptions that the university doesn’t acknowledge enough is that many students are workers already, just not in our sector or in the sector they are probably training for. I’ve been speaking with someone who is doing a project called Unpaid Britain, looking at the various ways employers from a range of industries avoid paying workers what they are due lawfully. Apparently, the creative industries are the first or second most toxic environment for work.  The number of students in service industry work in London is high and few of them know they are entitled to paid holidays or sick leave or what unlawful termination is or what unions or processes they can access. I’m also not sure how many of our colleagues know these things, as they start to get axed. That’s when you discover – hey, there’s a union, I should go talk to the rep, something is coming down. Maybe this is helpful in terms of what the university might offer us – a place for thinking together about our status as workers rather than as entrepreneurial selves.

Further Resources

Carrot Workers Collective, Surviving Internships: A Counter Guide to Free Labour in the Arts, 2015, https://carrotworkers.wordpress.com/counter-internship-guide/

Fighting Against Casualisation in Education, https://fightingcasualisation.org

SMarteu, http://smart-eu.org/about/

Artists’ Union England, http://www.artistsunionengland.org.uk

Equity UK, Professionally Made Professionally Paid Campaign, https://www.equity.org.uk/campaigns/professionally-made-professionally-paid/

Gulf Labor Artist Coalition: Who’s Building the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi?, http://gulflabor.org

Erik Krikortz, Airi Triisberg & Minna Henriksson (eds), Art Workers: Material Conditions and Labour Struggles in Contemporary Art Practices, 2015, http://www.art-workers.org

Basic Income Earth Network, http://basicincome.org

Notes:

As someone who has spent twelve years as a casualised worker in higher education and thirty-three years working as an artist and cultural worker a commitment to work and a life of precarity, associated with both sectors, is deeply embedded in my psyche. It is interesting to note that prior to his role heading the Prussian educational administration Humboldt proffered the Romantic era’s familiar character of the artist as a model for the ideal individual who ‘loves his labour for its own sake’ in his 1792 tract The Sphere and Duties of Government, trans. by Joseph Coulthard (Bristol: Thoemmes Press, 1996 [1854 edition]), p. 28. ↩

Miya Tokumitsu, ‘In the Name of Love’, Jacobin, 13, 01 December 2014, https://www.jacobinmag.com/2014/01/in-the-name-of-love/ [accessed 30 May 2017]. ↩

Kim Allen, Jocey Quinn, Sumi Hollingworth and Anthea Rose, Work Placements in the Arts and Culture Sector: Diversity, Equality and Access (Equality Challenge Unit, 2010). The Equality Challenge Unit, a public body funded by the UK higher education sector to further support equality and diversity for staff and students, commissioned the study. It sought to address a lack of diversity in the cultural industries while acknowledging that HEIs are under pressure to boost employability of students. ↩

Precarity: The People’s Tribunal, ICA London, 20 March 2011. ↩

Florian Schneider, ‘Collaboration: The Dark Side of the Multitude’, SARAI READER 06: Turbulence, ed. by Monica Narula, Shuddhabrata Sengupta, Ravi Sundaram, Jeebesh Bagchi (Delhi: Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, 2006), pp. 572-76. ↩

See Ronald W. McQuaid and Colin Lindsay, ‘The Concept of Employability’ Urban Studies, 42.2 (February 2005), 197-219 and UK Commission for Employment and Skills’, Employability Skills: A Research and Policy Briefing (March 2010). ↩

‘Against precarity, against employability’, Mapping Precariousness, Labour Insecurity and Uncertain Livelihoods, ed. by Emiliana Armano, Arianna Bove and Analissa Murgia (Oxon and New York: Routledge, 2017), pp. 70-81. ↩

[ncmagroup]

By John Grimshaw

  Speaking of the fundamental types of subject lines, before we dive into our 101 winners, let’s review these common elements. There are eight different components we found again and again in our top performing email subject lines…

  1. Self-Interest

These are your bread and butter subject lines—you should be using them most frequently.

They are usually direct and speak to a specific benefit your audience will gain by opening the email.

Self-interest subject lines also help pre-qualify openers by giving them a clue about your email’s body content.

2. Curiosity

If self-interest subject lines work because they communicate a direct benefit of opening the email, curiosity-based ones succeed for the exact opposite reason.

They pique the interest of subscribers without giving away too much information, leading to higher opens. 

Be careful though because curiosity-based subject lines can get old fast and are the most likely to miss their mark.

3. Offer

Do you like free stuff? Do you like to buy things?

So does your email list.

When you are giving something away or selling something your subscribers would be interested in, directly stating that in your subject line is a great way to convince them to open the email and learn more.

4. Urgency/Scarcity

This is the most powerful type of subject line you have at your disposal.

Subject lines that communicate urgency and scarcity tell readers they must act now. 

Too many of these can lead to list exhaustion so use sparingly and, of course, only when there is truly a deadline, limited quantity, or limited availability.

5. Humanity

Don’t forget to remind your list about the person or people behind your products.

Sometimes you need to thank your subscribers, tell them a story about yourself, or make a human appeal for their attention.

6. News

Keeping your audience informed about new developments in your field builds authority and keeps your open rates high.

These subject lines often work well when combined with a curiosity element.

7. Social Proof

A fundamental characteristic of humans is that we look to the behavior of others when making decisions.

You can leverage this in your email subject lines by mentioning individual’s success stories, familiar names, or highlighting how many people are already using a product or service.

8. Story

Telling a story, or at least teasing the beginning of one, in your subject line is a unique way to highlight a benefit and get the open rate you’re looking for.

Ready for the subject lines? As is our tradition, we’ll start with our top 10 best!

I promise it’s worth it…

Content: Launch a Podcast Execution Plan Flash Sale

Open Rate: 15.41%

Analysis: This is a very blind subject line that basically says, “trust me—click this.” Its success relies completely on the existing relationship between subscriber and sender. Using a line like this only works if there is a certain level of trust, but it certainly paid off here.

4 Critical Questions Every Business Must Answer

Content: Free Video Training

Open Rate: 15.64%

Analysis: Specific, odd numbers in subject lines always stand out. And this one combines that eye-catching trick with a powerful piece of value—focusing questions for any and all business owners. This subject line also intentionally speaks to a broad audience, which helped buoy the open rate.

I have good news and bad news…

Content: Intensive Workshop

Open Rate: 15.73%

Analysis: Another great curiosity-based option, this one works so well because it feels honest and conversational. It plays on a familiar idiom and the willingness to admit the contents are not all sunshine (and curiosity about what earned the qualifier “bad”) is a compelling reason to click.

[VIDEO] Social Media + Ecommerce Tech Stack

Content: Blog Post

Open Rate: 16.25%

Analysis: Calling out unique forms of content is a great way to cut through the noise. There are many other examples including [Checklist] and [Poll] that cracked our top 101. This one is also helped by the fact that software and “tech stacks” are a hot-button topic for DM subscribers.

🔨 Let’s fix your offer together

Content: Intensive Workshop (Perfect Offer)

Open Rate: 16.66%

Analysis: Getting customized or hands-on assistance is powerful when you know the expert, so this kind of email works well when there’s a “voice” behind your emails. Additionally, the implication that your offer may need some work will resonate with the perfect audience for this offer—it’s a great example of qualifying a prospect with the subject line.

Hiring a content marketer? Use this guide…

Content: Blog Post

Open Rate: 17.09%

Analysis: This is another great qualifying subject line and makes a strong offer. It’s a great example of how effective copywriting is even with just the bare essentials—there’s a clear pain point (hiring) and the answer you need (the guide) squeezed in just seven words. Hemingway, eat your heart out.

⚠️ Your private invitation expires tomorrow night

Content: Intensive Workshop (PSS)

Open Rate: 17.31%

Analysis: This subject line uses second person language (“your”) to really build curiosity about the invitation. Coupling that with the urgency of an impending expiration, you’ve got a recipe for a click. The subject line feels personal, exclusive, and urgent all at once.

Sales ⬆, Refunds ⬇, Retention ⬆

Content: Blog Post

Open Rate: 17.47%

Analysis: Leveraging emojis and symbols in your subject line always gives you a bump in open rates and this one triples down on them. The pattern and repetition are very eye-catching in the inbox and clearly communicate value without needing to give a hint to the topic.

Google Display Network (Your one-page cheat sheet)

Content: Blog Post

Open Rate: 18.77%

Analysis: There’s a clear offer here – the one-page cheat sheet – and a more indirect one as well: the simplification of a very complex and powerful traffic platform. This subject line makes a daunting topic feel digestible, and the promise of finding more traffic is always a winning hook.

T&C 2017 in Bora Bora?

Content: T&C Livestream

Open Rate: 19.51%

Analysis: A classic DigitalMarketer headline if there ever was one. This combines elements of curiosity and self-interest with an attention-getting destination that’s sure to pique curiosity. The pattern interrupt of a relocated T&C always jumps out and the natural repetition in Bora Bora’s name does the open rate a favor as well.

Not enough subject lines for you?

Good news! We’ve also got the next 90 best performers and a breakdown of the elements that helped them win:

Convince your boss to send you to T&C! – Self-Interest

T&C Closing TOMORROW @ Midnight! – Scarcity

Copy our 7 best Facebook ads of 2016 – Self-Interest

Start using this new Facebook ad type – Self-Interest | Curiosity

[Flash Sale] 85% off our Podcast Launch Plan – Offer

What happens when you’re approved? – Curiosity

Your Content Campaign Planner (Google doc) – Offer

[EMAIL TEMPLATE] Fix your company’s biggest marketing issue – Offer | Self-Interest

#TCS2017: Day 1 Highlights – News

[In Case You Missed It] Hire The Right Content Marketer… – Self-Interest

[LAST CHANCE] 85% off sale ends today! – Scarcity

[CHECKLIST] Get up to 20% better email deliverability ✔ – Offer

🔥 New Facebook Group features – this is BIG – News | Curiosity

The Best of Traffic & Conversion Summit 2017 – Self-Interest

Livestream for T&C this year? – Curiosity

Tomorrow’s the day… – Curiosity

#TCS2017: Day 2 Highlights – News

Swipe these 5 killer traffic campaigns – Offer | Self-Interest

The 30-Second Sales Pitch – Curiosity

Massive changes coming to DM – Story | Curiosity

[Infographic] How to have the ultimate #TCS2017 experience – Self-Interest

Is this you? – Curiosity

Open up for our best content – Self-Interest

Facebook + Pinterest + Video = More Closed Sales – Self-Interest

You’re Invited – Curiosity | Self-Interest

Paid traffic not converting? Download this… – Curiosity | Offer

Here’s the REAL reason Amazon is buying Whole Foods – News | Story

I knew I was right… – Story | Curiosity

⏰ FINAL NOTICE: “Perfect Offer Mini-Class” – Scarcity

Russ surprised me with 18 more sessions – Humanity | Story

Digital Marketing Mastery is open! – Offer

Brand NEW (and free) Training: 3 Steps To a Perfect Offer – Offer

How we got 1,329,572 “earballs” in 20 months – Story | Curiosity

This friend is how you sell with email… – Story | Social Proof

Class closes down tonight… – Scarcity

Important message (about tomorrow’s big announcement) – Curiosity

$7 today, $47 tomorrow – Scarcity | Curiosity

The 30-Second Sales Pitch – Self-Interest | Curiosity

Blog posts that sell (a complete guide) – Self-Interest

The guy who made $1,015,209 in one day… on Amazon – Story | Curiosity

🔨 Let’s build the perfect FB ad campaign, together (for free)! – Self-Interest

🎁 Claim your free heat map! – Offer

The highest-level training we offer – Curiosity

T&C 2017 closing soon? – Scarcity | Curiosity

Re: Frequently Asked Question #1 – Curiosity

[Subscriber] Are you familiar with T&C? – Curiosity

🚀 Your perfect product launch for $7 – Offer

Landing Page Not Converting? Try This! – Self-Interest | Curiosity

Join me today at 3pm – Humanity

Ask me anything? – Humanity | Curiosity

LAST CALL FOR T&C TICKETS (hours left) – Scarcity

[85% Off] 3 Proven Facebook Campaigns to Run Today… – Offer

Join me in congratulating… – Humanity | Curiosity

For advanced marketers only! – Self-Interest | Curiosity

The BIG shift that’s happening right now (and what it means for you) – News | Self-Interest

T&C Tickets almost GONE! – Scarcity

[POLL] Can you answer this? – Curiosity

⚡️ [FLASH SALE] My 11-step business launch plan (and templates) – Offer

T&C 2017 Agenda – Self-Interest

Finally, monetize your email list… – Self-Interest

Earn your (super-rare) “CDMP Designation” – Self-Interest

Announcing the 2nd Annual Content & Commerce Summit – News

[Subscriber] Exclusive T&C offer ending TOMORROW – Scarcity | Offer

[Free PDF Download] Claim our Social Media Swipe File – Offer

T&C in the comfort of your home… – Curiosity

BONUS MODULE ADDED: How to scale with Google & YouTube – Self-Interest

Marketing professionals wanted! – Self-Interest

Does your landing page suck?… or is it ‘perfect’? 😊 – Curiosity

⏰ LAST CHANCE: T&C closes tonight – Scarcity

Your 2018 Business Growth Plan – Offer | Curiosity

Do NOT launch your product or service without this… – Curiosity

Who’s speaking at T&C? – News | Curiosity

[CASE STUDY] 30 minutes of work -> 82,613 pageviews – Self-Interest | Story

WIN a day with Ryan Deiss & Molly Pittman! – Humanity | Self-Interest

Meet me in LA, NAME? – Humanity | Curiosity

The little Facebook tweak that halved lead cost – Curiosity | Story

Does your ad type match your offer? – Self-Interest

❄ Turn ice cold prospects into buyers 🔥– Self-Interest

Exciting announcement (and special invitation)* – Curiosity | Self-Interest

How he built a $20M e-commerce brand – Story | Curiosity

🎯 Facebook Targeting Expansion: The Test (and the results…) – Self-Interest

At DigitalMarketer, we LOVE agencies… – Humanity | Curiosity

[ANNOUNCEMENT] C&C 2017 lineup revealed… – News

A new DigitalMarketer event… – Curiosity

Free Online Training: OMG’s 90-Day System – Offer

Surveys are not the answer… – Curiosity

Facebook’s newest feature: setup, strategy, examples – News | Self-Interest

NAME, meet Justin. – Humanity

[New Blog Post] Use FB Messenger to grow your business – Self-Interest

Email list building: Why you’re stuck – Self-Interest | Curiosity

Are you using Facebook’s powerful new advertising feature? – Curiosity | News

Check Out DigitalMarketer’s 101 Best Email Subject Lines of 2016 (…And 5 Free Tools You Can Use to Amplify Your Email Marketing!)

We’ll start with our ten best email subject lines of 2016…

How “Ryan Deiss” became “DigitalMarketer”

Content: Blog Post

Open Rate: 14.61%

Analysis: This subject line appeals to people’s human nature. It promises a compelling narrative, DigitalMarketer’s origin story, and reminds readers that a person started this company, emphasizing a human connection.

Don’t buy this from Amazon!

Content: Invisible Selling Machine

Open Rate: 14.64%

Analysis: This is an old standby, and has worked time and time again. It’s a perfect example of what a successful curiosity-based subject should do—generate an emotional reaction without giving away the email’s purpose.

[DOWNLOAD] 15-Point Landing Page Audit

Content: Blog Post

Open Rate: 14.97%

Analysis: This kind of subject line (and email) is the very definition of value-first content. A free download that is intended to give audiences the opportunity to self-identify as interested in this topic.

I called. You didn’t answer.

Content: Blog Post

Open Rate: 15.05%

Analysis: Just reading this subject line makes me feel a little guilty! While it doesn’t take something away, it creates a sense of urgency similar to an expiring offer. And of course, using “I” in a subject line is a great way to humanize email copy.

[DECLASSIFIED] DM’s 2016 Planning Meeting

Content: Blog Post

Open Rate: 15.44%

Analysis: What’s your reaction when someone lets you in on a secret? For most people, it’s to lean in a bit and give them your ear. This subject line takes a traditional (but great) blog post and gives it a bit of mystique.

Announcing: The 7th Annual Black Friday Bootcamp

Content: Black Friday Bootcamp

Open Rate: 15.71%

Analysis: This subject line needs no frills and no complex hooks; it relies on people’s familiarity with our annual Black Friday Bootcamp workshop. When leveraging the familiar, a direct, clear offer works wonders.

13 billion emails analyzed [Infographic]

Content: Blog Post

Open Rate: 15.79%

Analysis: This subject line uses a classic technique, featuring an odd number that stands out to readers in an inbox. And highlighting the content type, an infographic, assures readers that this massive amount of information will be easily digestible.

Steal these email templates…

Content: The Machine

Open Rate: 16.16%

Analysis: Making a direct offer, “download this,” “grab this,” is a strong hook for any email. And this subject line does a great job of amplifying what’s already working with more surprising language.

5-Point Paid Ad Audit

Content: Blog Post

Open Rate: 16.25%

Analysis: This is a great subject line to appeal to intermediate and advanced marketers, which comprises most of DigitalMarketer’s list. It’s a direct offer and one that speaks to people who are knee-deep and trying to make the most of their efforts.

Your new favorite marketing tool…

Content: Blog Post

Open Rate: 16.57%

Analysis: This subject line touches on a broad interest for the audience, marketing tools, and promises positive change. Finding new software or strategies means faster, better processes, which marketers are always looking for.

Those may be the cream of the crop, but with nearly 107,442,263 emails sent in 2016, we saw a few other good ones, too.

Here are the next 90 subject lines that had the highest open rates and a breakdown of the elements that compose them:

Facebook’s New Pixel: What You Need to Know – News | Self-Interest

G + L + F = 2X Your Sales – Curiosity | Self-Interest

I’m in this new book… – Humanity | Curiosity

Google Compliant Landing Page Checklist [Download] – Offer

28 ways to increase organic social traffic – Self-Interest

Yep, that just happened… – Curiosity

BRAND-NEW certification released today… – Curiosity

These 6 skills will pay the bills… – Self-Interest | Curiosity

[BLOG] How an unknown podcaster generated 100,525 organic downloads in 80 days – Story | Self-Interest

Did you get your book yet? – Curiosity

She sold 122 subscriptions for $97 each. Here’s how… – Story | Self-Interest

New for 2017: 2 ways to master marketing… – Self-Interest | Curiosity

15 killer content marketing tools – Offer | Self-Interest

[Download] Customer Avatar Worksheet – Offer

10-week live training and certification – Offer

What do Google, YouTube, Amazon, and Pinterest have in common? – Curiosity

All Execution Plans 75% off! – Offer | Self-Interest

Is “ISBO” the future of search marketing? – Curiosity

Ultimate Guide to Facebook Video Ads [2nd Edition] – Self-Interest

Facebook Ad Targeting (The Complete Guide, 2nd Edition) – Self-Interest

ANNOUNCING Recommended Agendas and “learning tracks” – News

The Complete Guide to Google Tag Manager [Part 2] – Self-Interest

Better than T&C? – Curiosity

Become a Certified Digital Marketing Professional – Self-Interest

Your Content Campaign Planner (Google doc) – Offer

Ryan Deiss #TCS2016 Keynote: What you need to know – News | Self-Interest

Happy Birthday to… …DigitalMarketer! – Humanity | Story

How to generate FREE, organic traffic! – Self-Interest | Curiosity

⏰  Are you In or Out? – Urgency/Scarcity | Curiosity

Great News — new T&C tickets released! – Self-Interest

Bad news…closing down – Urgency/Scarcity | Curiosity

[DOWNLOAD] 8-Point Lead Magnet Success Checklist – Offer

Why “Yes” Kills and “No” Can Make You Rich [part 3 of 3] – Story | Curiosity

⚡️ [FLASH SALE] Our Facebook ad plan (and best templates)… – Offer | Self-Interest

Huge Announcement: Brand new event… – News | Curiosity

3 proven Facebook campaigns to run today… – Self-Interest | Offer

T&C 2016 in Tahiti? – Curiosity

[RANT] Why I HATE Business Cards! – Story | Humanity

Lethal Combo: AdWords Remarketing + Google Analytics – Self-Interest

Reach your audience… without their contact information. – Curiosity | Self-Interest

Open up for our best content – Self-Interest | Curiosity

Secret FB campaign gets 23,247 leads in 30 days… – Self-Interest

Case Study: 7-figure eCommerce Funnel – Social Proof

49 Split Tests that (Almost) Always Win – Self-Interest

Our Paid Traffic Playlist – Curiosity | Offer

Meet me in San Diego? – Curiosity | Self-Interest

[Flash Sale] A 7-Step ”Paint By Numbers” Process for FB Campaigns – Offer

Forget GroupOn — this stuff works! [Case Study] – Curiosity

Swipe our eCommerce Email Marketing Roadmap – Offer

[Case Study] $25,865/mo in recurring revenue – Social Proof | Story

Are you a victim of manipulated data? – Curiosity | Self-Interest

The power of empty pockets – Story | Curiosity

New business model — this is the future of business… – Self-Interest | Curiosity

[Last Call] For the Ultimate Email Marketing Game-Plan (PDF) – Urgency/Scarcity | Offer

[Save $500] Become a Search Marketing Specialist – Self-Interest

Watch T&C in your underwear… – Curiosity

✈ Meet me in Orlando – Self-Interest | Curiosity

⚡️ [FLASH SALE] My 6-Step Market Research Plan (and workbook) – Offer | Self-Interest

[DOWNLOAD] 10-Point Blog Post Audit – Offer

Finally, track social media ROI – Self-Interest

Community Manager vs. Social Media Manager: Which is right for you? – Self-Interest

[SWIPE] This email got 6X open rate… – Offer | Curiosity

Stand out in your customer’s inbox – Self-Interest

Pokemon GO: 3 Marketing Mistakes, Millions of Users Lost! – News | Curiosity

[Free Gift] Our Facebook ad targeting checklist… – Offer

3 wicked AdWords tactics to increase your ROI – Self-Interest

This is what’s truly essential… [part 2 of 3] – Curiosity | Story

$4 Million in Ad Spend (Here’s what works) – Self-Interest

Measure ROI by traffic source – Self-Interest

📢  HUGE Announcement (another big change at DM) – News

Marketing Showdown: Hillary Clinton vs Bernie Sanders – News | Curiosity

[Case Study] Local Facebook Advertising – Self-Interest

Does anyone even WANT what you’re selling? – Curiosity | Self-Interest

[Last Chance] 75 percent off all our Execution Plans ends TOMORROW! – Urgency/Scarcity

Turn your assistant into a marketing rockstar – Self-Interest | Curiosity

The Ad Grid: 20X your success rate – Self-Interest

Aducational Video + Remarketing – Curiosity

Lowest price on T&C – Self-Interest

ANNOUNCING: Marketing Mastery Class – News

There is still time… – Urgency/Scarcity | Curiosity

T&C hotel almost SOLD OUT! – Urgency/Scarcity

A tested and proven framework… – Self-Interest | Curiosity

✔ [Checklist] Your Split Testing Guide – Offer

[TODAY] Our Facebook ad targeting plan (3 pm Eastern) – Urgency/Scarcity | Offer

CLOSING down soon! (Don’t get locked out) – Urgency/Scarcity | Curiosity

Why I (kinda) HATE surveys… – Humanity

$7 today, $47 tomorrow – Self-Interest | Urgency/Scarcity

How an electronic retailer surged their revenue by 60% – Story | Self-Interest

New DigitalMarketer event for Bloggers! – News

[ICYMI] Everything you need to know about Facebook’s new pixel – Self-Interest | News

5 Free Tools You Can Use to Amplify Your Email Marketing

And now that we’ve looked at our best email subject lines of 2016, I want to hand you several free resources you can use to improve email open rates, click-through rates, and even deliverability rates!

1. A/B Significance Tester

Split testing is one of the best ways to figure out not just what works in email marketing, but what works for your audience. You could read a dozen articles on email tips and tricks but at the end of the day, what you need to know is what the subscribers who have opted in for your materials are interested in.

Unfortunately, when dealing with split testing large audiences, it’s sometimes hard to get a sense of what actually worked. That’s why it’s so important to see if your results are statistically significant—basically, how likely is it that if you ran the test again, you’d get the same results.

I’ve used this free resource from Kissmetrics for more than two years because it’s simple, free, and easy to use to get a read of whether or not your split test results matter.

2. Bulletproof Email Buttons

Responsive buttons are a great way to make the CTAs in your email copy stand out.

In fact, in last year’s subject line roundup, I talked about how DigitalMarketer saw some amazing results from buttons in emails— 38% higher earnings per click for emails with buttons.

But if you aren’t a coder, you’ll need some other resource to help simplify creating these—otherwise, you run the risk of screwing up your email templates or breaking your links.

Luckily, Campaign Monitor has an awesome free solution for creating buttons of all shapes, sizes, and colors. With this tool, creating a button is easy and doesn’t require any special knowledge of CSS or HTML.

A pro tip for slightly more advanced users: you can easily increase the font size as well by changing the value for “font-size” from 13 pixels to whatever your heart (or email template) desires.

3. GifRocket

This one’s for Mac users only, but boy is it a doozy. If you’ve ever seen an email with a “video” in it, most likely it was actually an email leveraging GIFs. GIFs are graphics that store and show a series of images, creating an experience similar to a short video.

For most people, making GIFs requires finding a graphic artist or hiring out the task on Fiverr or TaskRabbit, a slow and often painful process.

But with GifRocket, anyone with a Mac and a video can create their very own GIFs. Here’s an example (which took under 2 minutes to film and gif-ify):

Combining this software with your smartphone camera can create some magical moments, no technical skill required. All you need is a dash of imagination!

4. Headline Analyzer

If you just can’t quite decide if a subject line you wrote is good enough, maybe you need to test it out “in the lab.”

CoSchedule created a free tool that helps you evaluate the efficacy of your headlines. All you need to do is post your headline in their analyzer and they will give you a score for how well you did, and how likely the headline is to get your audience clicking.

The program identifies what kinds of words are used and how effective they are at evoking an emotional response, or how eye-catching and “powerful” they are.

Feel free to take their advice with a grain of salt—I tend to find them overly critical of short subject lines which have been shown to work well. But it’s a great resource if you’re looking for a second opinion.

5. Sender Score

This one’s a bit technical but is a must-use resource for anyone wanting to make the most of their email marketing.

Do you feel like your emails don’t make it to the inbox as often as they should?

The IP you use to send emails may have a bad reputation, literally.

With Sender Score, you can see the sender reputation that your emails have, and figure out what mailbox providers like Google think of your mails. This free tool from ReturnPath is a great way to keep an eye on the more technical elements of your email marketing. After all, with

After all, with a poor delivery, even the best subject line isn’t going to get many opens. So go sign up for a free account and remember to keep an eye on your score.

Read on to Learn DigitalMarketer’s 101 Best Email Subject Lines of 2015 (…And Our 3 Best Email Split Tests!)

First, here are our ten best emails subject lines of 2015…

10. Seriously, get this book.

Content: The Choose Yourself Guide to Wealth (James Altucher’s book)

Open Rate: 16.91%

Analysis: This subject line is pretty direct—seriously means no fooling around. But the blind reference to an as-yet unidentified book demands the recipient take a look inside and see if it’s a good fit for their library shelf.

9. I’m pulling the plug…

Content: Blog Post

Open: 17.13%

Analysis: This subject line uses negative language to great effect. What does “pulling the plug” mean for DigitalMarketer subscribers? Is this bad news (or as it turned out great news)? Only by clicking through can you find out.

8. 7 split testing mistakes

Content: Blog Post

Open: 17.34%

Analysis: Do you like making mistakes? Neither do we (though it happens). So when someone promises to show you pitfalls to avoid before it’s too late, no one wants to miss the opportunity to do so.

7. How HostGator does retargeting

Content: Blog Post

Open: 17.40%

Analysis: This subject is simple and to the point, with a clear value proposition (learn how to leverage their retargeting strategy). The social proof of leveraging a well-known brand helps validate the information contained within the email.

6. TRAFFIC (on a “shoestring” budget)

Content: Blog Post

Open: 17.79%

Analysis: All caps can be pretty polarizing—no one likes to be yelled at digitally. But when you pick a word business owners love, the results are more positive. And offering a cost-friendly solution to a problem never hurts.

5. 11 sneaky email tricks

Content: Blog Post

Open: 17.83%

Analysis: This subject line uses a number that stands out (11) and a compelling adjective (sneaky) to hook the audience. And everyone loves simple to implement strategies, as implied by words like “trick,” “hack,” or “shortcut.”

4. Facebook Ads (Your first 3 steps)

Content: Perpetual Traffic Episode

Open: 17.87%

Analysis: If you’ve wanted to try something new, like Facebook ads, one of the biggest barriers to entry is not knowing where to start. This subject is clear, direct, and helps people who aren’t sure if they’ll be able to use the information.

3. The YouTube Gold Mine

Content: Blog Post

Open: 17.90%

Analysis: Have you ever discovered a gold mine? Probably not, but it sure would be nice to do so. This subject line combines a high-value proposition with intriguing but vague details. Open up!

2. Thank You!

Content: $1 Trial Offer

Open: 17.99%

Analysis: This is a subject line that works so well we sneak it into our mails every year and it never fails to disappoint. People love recognition, and acknowledgment of what they’ve done (if you swipe just one subject line, make it this one).

1. 23 bizarre products selling online

Content: Blog Post

Open: 18.71%

Analysis: This was one of our experiments for 2015, seeing how some lighter, less actionable content would fare, and the fact that subject line took our top slot shows that this strategy works. This subject promises a fun twist on studying just how crazy e-commerce can be. And lists with odd numbers always catch the eye.

Those may be the cream of the crop, but with 134 million emails out the door, we saw a few other good ones, too.

Here are the next 90 subject lines that had the highest open rates and a breakdown of the elements that compose them:

Think like a Facebook ad pro… – Self-Interest | Curiosity

29 Landing Page Reviews (Plus…) – Self-Interest | Curiosity

Get your Facebook advertising plan – Offer

How to Build an Unstoppable Business (2nd Edition) – Story

The 3-step Content Marketing plan – Self-Interest

[SWIPE] 10 Best Customer Survey Questions – Offer

This is embarrassing but… – Curiosity

Facebook Ad Case Study [listen to Part 3] – Self-Interest

… this failed miserably – Humanity | Curiosity

How to get paid [Literally] – Self-Interest

Still doing it the old way? – Curiosity

Sales ⬆︎, Refunds ⬇︎, Retention ⬆︎ – Self-Interest | Curiosity

How Emily Faith got 76,974 YouTube views in 10 days… – Story

Facebook Video Ads | The Ultimate Guide – Offer | Self-Interest

Avoiding the “Facebook ban hammer” – News | Curiosity

How to sell tickets to live events – Self-Interest

Don’t buy this from Amazon! – Curiosity

Finally! Facebook releases… – Curiosity | News

Split Test This, Not That – Self-Interest

My Gift to you… – Curiosity | Offer

New tool changes webinars forever… – News

The PERFECT traffic platform? – Curiosity | Self-Interest

I’m closing it down! – Urgency/Scarcity

Join me in congratulating… – Story | Curiosity

Inverted Web Analytics? – Curiosity

The ideal length of everything online – Curiosity

The PERFECT Facebook Ad – Self-Interest | Curiosity

BIG news from YouTube – News | Curiosity

This critique gets uncomfortable at times – Curiosity

[Leads] Scaling from 50 to 5,000+ – Self-Interest

Rice, gasoline and website traffic? – Curiosity

The AdWords Remarketing “Easy Button” – Self-Interest | Curiosity

Private Invite – Self-Interest | Curiosity

Big Celebrity Announcement – News

[SWIPE] Our best email copy – Offer

Answers to the Facebook Pixel Madness – Self-Interest

2 killer blog post templates – Offer | Curiosity

WANTED: Professional Content Marketers – Curiosity

Read this before clicking “Send” – Self-Interest

Can’t Buy FB Traffic? – Curiosity

This has nothing to do with marketing… – Curiosity

Meet me at ICON (and save $300)… – Offer

[TEMPLATE] Cold email anyone and get a response – Offer

[Podcast] Frank Kern on Paid Traffic – Story

Traffic for the eCommerce biz – Self-Interest

“I just want the recordings…” – Curiosity

Twitter Traffic (In an hour a day) – Self-Interest

Paid traffic not converting? Download this… – Offer

MAJOR announcement! (big changes at DM) – News | Curiosity

Become a “Customer Acquisition Specialist” – Self-Interest

3 proven FB campaigns to run today… – Offer

2 BRAND-NEW certifications launched today – News | Curiosity

Start with this funnel – Self-Interest

I was wrong… – Humanity

Use THIS to become an Authority (in ANY market)… – Self-Interest | Offer

$100 or $100.00? (It makes a difference) – Curiosity

Blog posts that sell (A complete guide) – Offer

I LOVE this little tool! – Curiosity

T&C 2016 closing soon? – Urgency/Scarcity

Limited-time open enrollment… – Curiosity

①⓪① ways to boost email open rates – Self-Interest

New DigitalMarketer Training Center – News | Curiosity

Conversion vs. Content – Curiosity

21 landing page mistakes – Self-Interest | Curiosity

Facebook’s New Lead Ads (What you need to know) – News | Self-Interest

Copy and paste these 72 headlines [Last Chance] – Offer

How to hire a content marketer – Self-Interest

Get your first 1,000 blog subscribers – Self-Interest

Stop writing NEW blog posts. Here’s why… – Curiosity

[TEST RESULTS] 2,689 leads from “On-Site Retargeting” – Self-Interest | Curiosity

A visit to Facebook (Here’s what we learned) – Story | Curiosity

My 2016 business plan… – Offer | Curiosity

5,219% ROI from new traffic source – Self-Interest | Curiosity

The Remarketing Grid – Curiosity

[Case Study] Numbers don’t lie – Story | Curiosity

Score your landing page – Self-Interest

Create the perfect marketing calendar – Offer

Reach 6,372,857 people with zero ad spend – Self-Interest | Curiosity

A 15.2% lift (but we were shocked) – Curiosity

My favorite automation tools – Self-Interest

A very direct (and some might even say, “RUDE”) email – Curiosity

[CASE STUDY] AZ shoe store 20X’d sales by sending what? – Story | Social Proof

Download This Social Media Swipe File (PDF) – Offer

Turn ice cold prospects into buyers – Self-Interest | Curiosity

My favorite business model – Curiosity

The Ultimate Course on Paid Traffic – Self-Interest | Offer

My new book! (and a big mistake) – Story | Humanity

Double sales (Get the formula) – Self-Interest

Dirt cheap Facebook leads – Self-Interest

⬆︎ Social media traffic (Your 6-step plan) – Self-Interest

Should You Test That?

Now that you have our best subject lines of the year, you should be ready to up your own game and start sending some emails.

We’re going to give you just a little bit more information to help you get an extra bump…

Here are our three top performing email split tests of 2015.

1. Highlighting a Pain in the Subject Line

Open rate can lie about performance.

That doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t look at the metric because you definitely should. It’s one of your top four email metrics to watch, along with click-through rate, unsubscribe rate, and earnings per click (EPC).

But here’s a great split test that shows why you can judge a campaign by a single metric.

We ran this subject line split test in March of this year. These were the two subject lines.

The “Little _______ = big sales [QUIZ]” beat out the other one, but the results weren’t significant. So at first glance, the test was a wash. However, on closer examination, the subject line “This is why your prospects aren’t buying” actually had more clicks.

A LOT more.

We saw a statistically significant lift of 18% in click-throughs for the second subject line. The reason? The other headline pre-qualified openers by highlighting a pain they were feeling in their business.

That’s one of the risks with curiosity headlines—they drive more opens but people don’t know what they are getting into when they open. So for more complex or expensive offers, direct and pain-based subject lines can produce better results. Don’t overdo it on the doom and gloom though; a little bit of negativity goes a long way and too much can turn subscribers off your emails.

2. Use CSS Buttons in Your Email

Setting yourself up for mobile wins has never been more important, as more and more people are using their mobile devices to read email, browse the web and make purchases.

Because of this trend, we decided to experiment with CSS buttons during our Black Friday promotion. We tested emails using buttons for the CTA against emails using just text hyperlinks, which had been our standard practice.

We figured the button would win, but we had no idea how incredible the results would be. The email with buttons had a 22% higher click-through rate, no small feat and definitely a sign that this test was a winner.

But that’s not the mind-blowing part of the results.

We also compared the performance and found that the earnings per click, the amount of money we made for every person who clicked through the email, was 38% higher for the email with CSS buttons.

3. Use Unicode Symbols to Highlight Emails

We’ve said it before, but we’ll say it again–using Unicode symbols in your subject line is a great way to generate a bump in opens.

These symbols are the little pictures that show up in your inbox, including ☼, ★, ☂, and ①. Since Unicode symbols are coded in computer systems like alphabet characters and numbers, they can be displayed on multiple browsers and devices.

Across all kinds of topics and subject lines, we’ve found that Unicode symbols produce a consistent 8% bump in email opens. So these can be a great way to squeeze everything you can out of a big promotion or help push visitors to a particularly strong blog post

  Check Out Our 101 Best Email Subject Lines of 2014 (…And Our 10 Worst!)

We start with our top ten email subject lines for 2014…

10. [WEEKEND ONLY] Get this NOW before it’s gone…

Product: AuthorityROI

Product Type: Course/Information Product

Open Rate: 9.49%

Analysis: This is a great example of a flash sale subject line. It combines the urgency of limited availability with an element of mystery. Keep in mind that these work best in very small doses.

9. The Facebook Slap is coming…

Product: Twitter Ads EP

Product Type: Execution Plan

Open Rate: 9.51%

Analysis: Personally, just rereading this subject line has me digging through my email archives. It combines the curiosity and news elements and speaks to a penalty the entire digital marketing industry will want to avoid.

8. Steal these email templates…

Product: Email Templates

Product Type: The Machine

Open Rate: 9.53%

Analysis: This one is simple and direct, and makes a clear offer. The phrase “templates” works particularly well with Digital Marketer’s email list.

7. Your 7-figure plan goes bye-bye at midnight…

Product: AuthorityROI

Product Type: Course/Information Product

Open Rate: 9.64%

Analysis: Are you willing to wave goodbye to 7 figures? Most people aren’t—this is another great example of curiosity and urgency working in tandem to raise that open rate!

6. Is this the hottest career in marketing?

Product: eCommerce EP

Product Type: Execution Plan

Open Rate: 9.77%

Analysis: This one is all about curiosity. Using questions in your subject line is a great way to open a loop that your audience will want to close by checking out the email’s contents.

5. A Native Ad in 60 Minutes or Less

Product: Blog Post

Product Type: Lead Magnet

Open Rate: 9.78%

Analysis: Quantifying how long it will take a subscriber to realize some benefit in the subject line is great—it feels manageable and promises results, making even inactive members of your list curious. This offer feels bite-sized and achievable.

4. 212 blog post ideas

Product: Blog Post

Product Type: Lead Magnet

Open Rate: 9.94%

Analysis: Another great offer example—it communicates the email’s value in just four words.

3. Check out my new “man cave” [PICS]

Product: eCommerce EP

Product Type: Execution Plan

Open Rate: 10.24%

Analysis: This is a fun blend of curiosity and humanity—it directly addresses some value Ryan got, a sweet new “man cave,” in the subject. Not only does this spark interest, but it reminds readers about the human connection that brought them to DM in the first place.

2. [URGENT] You’ve got ONE DAY to watch this…

Product: AuthorityROI

Product Type: Course/Information Product

Open Rate: 10.79%

Analysis: Once again, curiosity and urgency team up to create a compelling subject line. If you are careful about using these sparingly, you’ll find that they just work.

1. How (and why) to calculate Average Customer Value

Product: Blog

Product Type: Blog Post

Open Rate: 10.91%

Analysis: Our number one email subject line, this blends all of the good stuff. It gives you a metric that can improve you business, inspires curiosity about why this number matters, and offers to help you figure out how to calculate it.

  Here are the next 90 emails with the highest engagement and what elements they used:

[FINAL CHANCE] 7-figure blueprint gone tonight… – Curiosity | Urgency

How to write a promotional email – Self-Interest

Steal our best subject lines – Offer | Self-Interest

Weird traffic test… – Curiosity

How to craft a guarantee that sells – Self-Interest | Story

[SECOND CHANCE] This weekend only… – Curiosity | Urgency

The Machine is coming… – Curiosity

It’s landing page magic… – Curiosity | Self-Interest

[NEW POST] How To Build an Email Marketing Machine – Self-Interest | Story

THIS disappears at midnight! – Curiosity | Urgency

A simple sales copy formula – Self-Interest

Gold In Your Mailbox – Curiosity

[RESULTS] My Facebook Case Study – Curiosity | Story

This is working on Facebook right now – Self-Interest | Story

Two Words: Cheap Traffic! – Curiosity | Self-Interest

[FLASH SALE] 51% off sale ends tonight… – Curiosity | Urgency

I made you a video… – Curiosity

How to write bullets that sell… – Self-Interest

Facebook is cracking down… HARD! – Curiosity | News

Thank You! – Humanity

[Case Study] Copy & paste this $10 million business… – Curiosity | Self-Interest

Swipe my Email Game-Plan (PDF) – Offer | Self-Interest

[FREE PDF] Ultimate Email Marketing Game-Plan – Offer | Self-Interest

The 10-Minute Bloggers Editorial Plan – Self-Interest

What are you doing this weekend? – Curiosity

212 Blog Post Ideas (PDF) – Offer | Self-Interest

Is email marketing dead? – Curiosity

C’mon – everybody’s waiting for you… – Curiosity | Urgency

I LOVE this amazing little tool! – Curiosity | Self-Interest

3-Part Followup Series [Download] – Curiosity | Offer

A quick YouTube hack – Self-Interest

Find writers for your blog – Self-Interest

Facebook Ad Targeting Options [A Complete Guide] – Offer | Self-Interest

[NEW FORMULA] Cheap, Targeted Facebook Traffic – Self-Interest

4 emails with stellar click-through rates – Curiosity | Self-Interest

Step up your video marketing game – Self-Interest

Want to look at our email stats? – Curiosity | Self-Interest

Native Ad Hacks? – Curiosity

198% ROI on Twitter Ads – Self-Interest | Story

[URGENT] About today’s traffic training… – Urgency

Do NOT sell on Amazon without this $10 tool… – Curiosity | Self-Interest

How to Stop Ho-Hum Marketing – Curiosity

Would You Do THIS For Money? – Curiosity

2 huge mobile marketing opportunities – Self-Interest | Curiosity

Twitter is the new… Facebook?! – Curiosity | News

[PART 2] See how I got $0.10 email optins… – Self-Interest | Story

My business model… on a napkin? – Curiosity | Story

We beat up this landing page – Curiosity

[Gone Sunday] Your traffic training replay is available… – Urgency

Don’t make these 7 AdWords mistakes – Self-Interest | Curiosity

My Gift to you… – Offer | Curiosity

Zero to 30K Page Views in 11 Weeks… – Story | Self-Interest

This sucks, you lose… – Curiosity

Should you follow your passion? – Curiosity | Story

Low Conversion Rate? Fix These 6 Elements. – Self-Interest | Story

Are you missing one of these FIVE steps? – Curiosity

Copy and paste these 72 headlines [Last Chance] – Offer | Self-Interest

How to craft a winning 3-part followup series – Self-Interest

32 split testing ideas – Self-Interest

Less _______ = More Sales [SURVEY] – Curiosity

[Template] Create engaging Facebook images – Offer | Self-Interest

No blog comments? – Curiosity

Download this Social Media Swipe File (PDF) – Offer | Self-Interest

Presenting: “Funnel 2.0” – Curiosity

321% higher conversions using THIS… – Curiosity | Story

This guy makes 6 figures per month? – Social Proof | Curiosity

Amazon app cherry-picks hottest products for you… – Self-Interest | Curiosity

Unlimited penny traffic… – Curiosity | Self-Interest

My Twitter Ads Cheat Sheet – Self-Interest

Still haven’t launched your funnel? – Curiosity

Our top Facebook ad campaigns – Curiosity

“Borrow” all my checklists… – Offer | Curiosity

SEO is dying (a slow and painful death)… – News | Curiosity

☠This is rated aaarrrgh! (details inside) – Curiosity

Does your marketing smell funny? – Curiosity

Do you HATE money? – Curiosity

(time sensitive) Last night’s Funnel training… – Urgency

[Case Study] $188,674 from a dead list – Social Proof | Self-Interest

[ONLY $7] My “cheap traffic” plan – Self-Interest

Get More Email Newsletter Clicks – Self-Interest

Reduce shopping cart abandonment – Self-Interest

Create opt-in pages that convert like crazy – Self-Interest

My Facebook retargeting plan – Self-Interest

This gets my highest recommendation – Curiosity

Better than Facebook? – Curiosity

28,507 leads in 45 days – Self-Interest | Social Proof

A slick mobile lead gen funnel – Self-Interest

The Machine is LIVE… here’s your link – Curiosity

Pounce on these shifts in digital marketing – Curiosity | Self-Interest

Uncomplicate your analytics – Self-Interest

I do THIS for traffic… – Curiosity

But Don’t Do This…

We’re also sharing our top 10 worst emails of 2014 and picking them apart to find why exactly they didn’t work.

Our Top 10 Worst Emails

For these, we looked at emails with the highest unsubscribe to open ratio. Not only did these miss the mark, they drove our audience away! We’re going to work backward, starting with the 10th most unpopular email.

10. [85% Discount GONE] Blog launch “checklist on steroids” price increasing…  

Promotion: Blog Launch EP

Promotion Type: Execution Plan

Unsubscribes / Opens: 1.78%

Analysis: This subject line is trying to do too much at once. The framing of the price increase is presented as both a disappearing discount and a price increase. While these mean the same thing, it can be a little confusing and makes the subject line too long. Sticking with short, sweet, and clear is best.

9. Last chance to be a whale…

Promotion: The Whale Method

Promotion Type: Course/Information Product

Unsubscribes / Opens: 1.90%

Analysis: This curiosity subject line is cute, but it’s a little too cute. We’ve found that trying to be too clever or funny with subject lines often hurts an email’s performance. This varies by industry, but for educational authorities, it tends to hurt performance.

8. 321% higher conversions using THIS…

Promotion: Video Sales Letter Formula

Promotion Type: Course/Information Product

Unsubscribes / Opens: 1.93%

Analysis: This subject line isn’t terrible – it combines curiosity with self-interest and makes an exciting promise. So I looked at the body as well. A key issue was that the body was even more blind than the subject line – the promise got lost in the open.

7. uh oh

Promotion: Napkin Project

Promotion Type: Course/Information Product

Unsubscribes / Opens: 2.01%

Analysis: This is a great example of a curiosity subject line that completely misses the mark. It’s too vague and sets a negative tone. Be very careful when using curiosity subject lines, especially when you don’t mix them with other elements.

6. 3-Part Followup Series [Download]

Promotion: Native Ads Academy

Promotion Type: Course/Information Product

Unsubscribes / Opens: 2.09%

Analysis: One of the big issues with this email was that it didn’t explain exactly what kind of follow-up series was being offered. By not giving the audience enough information, those who opened it and weren’t interested in an email follow-up series were turned off.

5. Free traffic SUCKS!

Promotion: Whale Method

Promotion Type: Course/Information Product

Unsubscribes / Opens: 2.21%

Analysis: This subject line strikes a negative tone right off the bat. While that can be very effective way to get opens, it also sets audience members up to feel frustrated. When you go negative, it’s important to really focus on putting a positive spin in the email body.

4. 43% discount GONE at midnight…

Promotion: Video Sales Letter Formula

Promotion Type: Course/Information Product

Unsubscribes / Opens: 2.46%

Analysis: This subject line isn’t particularly bad on its own—it combines curiosity and urgency, which is often very effective. However, the subject line is nearly identical to the one sent the day before. Using the same elements in a subject line two days in a row can make your emails seem stale and leave your audience bored. And bored audiences become unengaged very quickly.

3. This sucks, you lose…

Promotion: Whale Method

Promotion Type: Course/Information Product

Unsubscribes / Opens: 2.67%

Analysis: Another example of a negative curiosity-based subject line. It has a similar issue to the other one—it didn’t spin the tone of the communication enough and left readers with a bad taste in their mouth, leading to a high unsubscribe rate.

2. [GONE TONIGHT] Native Ads training OVER at MIDNIGHT

Promotion: Native Ads Academy

Promotion Type: Course/Information Product

Unsubscribes / Opens: 2.94%

Analysis: This subject line is a little too urgent—overdoing capitalization in the subject line can feel like shouting. And no one wants their email inbox to yell at them. Capitalization is a great way to draw attention but works best in small doses.

1. C’mon – everybody’s waiting for you…

Promotion: Native Ads Academy

Promotion Type: Course/Information

Unsubscribes / Opens: 3.05%

Analysis: This email actually had one of our top 100 email subject lines, but it’s a great example of the double-edged sword of curiosity hooks. The email went to audience members not already planning to attend a webinar. This subject line puts some pressure on the reader which, for those clearly not interested in the webinar, is an, unfortunately, effective way to drive them off your email list.

We’re Sharing Our 101 Best Email Subject Lines of 2013 Below!

In 2013, our best email subject lines were all made up of one of the eight all-important elements we outlined at the top of this post…

Perhaps more importantly—NONE of our best email subject lines were:

Cute

Clever

OK… almost none of our best are cute or clever. Every once in a great while a cute or clever subject line will work… most of the time they will get low open rates.

For the most part, it pays to be direct and clear.

Ready to look at our top email subject lines? We begin with the 10th best email subject line…

10.  Breaking News…

Product: Black Friday Webinar

Product Type:  Webinar

Open Rate: 7.6%

Analysis: This subject line promises that the reader will find something timely and unknown if they open up.

9.  Facebook traffic is dead?

Product: Facebook Ad Power

Product Type: Course/Information Product

Open Rate: 7.6%

Analysis: This subject line creates plays on a reader’s self-interest—particularly those that are using or are considering using Facebook for business.

8.  Everybody’s waiting for you…

Product: Funnel Webinar

Product Type: Webinar

Open Rate: 7.7%

Analysis: This is a clever way to use urgency in an email subject line. This email was sent a couple of minutes after we started the webinar it was promoting.

7.  Kindle bestseller in 4 days?

Product: Facebook Ad Power

Product Type: Course/Information Product

Open Rate: 7.8%

Analysis: This subject line promises a benefit in a short amount of time—a good example of a self-interest subject line.

6.  Watch live? From anywhere?

Product: Traffic & Conversion Summit (Event)

Product Type: Event

Open Rate: 8.0%

Analysis: This subject line creates curiosity. It creates the following question in the reader’s mind: “Watch what from anywhere?”

5.  Facebook closing down?

Product: Facebook Ad Power

Product Type: Course/Information Product

Open Rate: 8.0%

Analysis: This is a curiosity subject line that implies that something of self-interest to the reader might be going away.

4.  I feel kinda sorry for you…

Product: Facebook Ad Power

Product Type: Course/Information Product

Open Rate: 8.2%

Analysis: This subject line plays on the reader’s ego and creates curiosity.

3.  How to scale your business

Product: The Amazing Selling Machine

Product Type: Course/Information Product

Open Rate: 9.5%

Analysis: This is a clear and direct self-interest subject-line.

2 .  Good news for people who love bad news…

Product: Traffic & Conversion Summit (Event)

Product Type: Event

Open Rate: 9.6%

Analysis: This one creates curiosity through a cute and clever use of word play.

 1.  Can’t Make The Trip?

Product: Traffic & Conversion Summit (Event)

Product Type: Event

Open Rate: 9.8%

Analysis: This curiosity subject line asks a question

So that’s the Top 10. But there are more… here are the next 90 email subject lines that enjoyed the highest open rates.

Your funnel is broken… – Self Interest

[New Video] 1,000,000 customers in 11 months? We have proof. – News | Self-Interest

Need my help? – Self Interest | Curiosity

Ahhh, San Diego! Spanish for… – Curiosity

I LOVE this little Facebook tool! – Self Interest

[URGENT] Emergency Gmail Webinar Tomorrow, 7/24! – Urgency | News

The Story of “The Vagabonds” – Story | Curiosity

My favorite market research tool – Self Interest

Get your business funded in 2014 [Case Study] – News | Self-Interest

Copy & paste this $10 million business… – Self Interest

(time sensitive) Last night’s Funnel training… – Urgency

The Ultimate Facebook “Cheat Sheet” – Self Interest

Create your own digital magazine (no iPhone/iPad required) – Self-Interest

Will this KILL your business in 2014? – Curiosity | News | Self-Interest

Questions about War Room? – Self Interest

[TONIGHT] My proven funnel system revealed… – Urgency |Self-Interest

[Last Chance] Create the perfect funnel… – Urgency | Self-Interest

[PROOF] How to get 10 cent email leads from Facebook… – Self Interest

[Free Book] The $10 million discovery (limited) – Self Interest | News | Scarcity

Boost your email clickthroughs by 200% – Self Interest

No more discounts on T&C! – Self Interest | Scarcity

Facebook sucks – Curiosity

[FLASH SALE] This is how we get traffic from Amazon – Urgency | Self-Interest

[Open NOW] The Digital Publishing Blueprint is LIVE! – News | Self-Interest

The Perfect Webinar Funnel – Self Interest

Tim Ferriss says “Hi” – Social Proof

Pulling FBAdpower DOWN… – Scarcity

LAST CHANCE for Livestreaming… – Urgency

New site and new sales in 3 days or less?! – Self Interest

1 cent CLICKS?! (open up)… – Self Interest | Curiosity

I hope they’re not mad… – Curiosity

[Closing Tomorrow] Don’t get shut out… again! – Urgency

Good News… Your 1st sale in 3 days… – Self Interest

How I get dirt-cheap, high-quality traffic… – Self Interest

[FINAL PLAYING] Emergency Gmail Webinar! – Urgency | News

Will 2014 be better than 2013? – Curiosity | News

T&C CLOSING! Only 61 spots left! – Scarcity

Facebook “panic” is great news for you… – News | Self-Interest

[CLOSING TONIGHT] T&C tickets GONE tonight… – Scarcity

[JUST RELEASED] More T&C Tickets Available… – News | Urgency

Software cherry-picks the hottest leads for you… – Self-Interest

Free 68 page book Interview With A Mega-Bestseller – Self-Interest

[FLASH SALE] Get targeted FB leads for dirt cheap… – Urgency | Self-Interest

[Finally] Get this Proven Digital Marketing Blueprint – Self Interest | News

85% sale ends today – Urgency

You an Amazon Bestseller? – Self-Interest

Last chance – T&C Closing at Midnight TONIGHT! – Urgency

Important letter for you – Curiosity

[NEWS] EmailWorld 2013 Sept. 24th and 25th in San Diego, CA – News

Announced 306% increase in FB traffic? – News | Self-Interest

Facebook OWNS Google… – Curiosity

[Almost Gone] New T&C Tickets going fast… – Scarcity

[IMPORTANT] Gmail Webinar TODAY! – Urgency

Only open if your business will do at least 7-figures this year… – Curiosity | Self-Interest

Apple Newsstand training is CLOSING – Urgency

FW: Did you miss this yesterday? – Curiosity

Merry Christmas to You! – Humanity

Can I help you build your sales funnel? – Self Interest

“Panda” update for Facebook? – Curiosity | News

Press Releases More Powerful Than Ever? – News | Curiosity

Last chance for Apple Newsstand training [FREE RESOURCE] – Urgency | Self-Interest

Interact with the industry’s brightest minds at the QuickSprout Forum – Self-Interest

You on Facebook? – Curiosity

Turn Ideas into Million-Dollar Products – Self-Interest

100,000 unique visitors PER MONTH… – Self-Interest

The “Mystery Man” Behind 500 Product Launches… – Curiosity | News

This 1 “weird trick” is worth the trip – Curiosity | Self-Interest

Arrested for printing money? – Curiosity | News

Can we meet in San Diego? – Curiosity | Self-Interest

Bad news and good news… – Curiosity | News

T&C is selling out! Only 32 seats left! – Scarcity

Ex-construction worker earns $309/day with… – Story | News

This Free book changed my business… – Curiosity | Self-Interest

The free books are all gone… – Curiosity | Scarcity

[NEWS] 5th Annual Traffic & Conversion Summit OPEN – News

[80% Discount] Game-changing software… – Self-Interest

Content idea generator [Free Resource 1 of 3] – Self-Interest

[RESULTS] My Facebook Case Study – Self-Interest | News

THIS Increased Conversions 24%?!? – Self-Interest | News

FINAL NOTICE: Only 11 seats left! – Scarcity

Only 187 free copies of Frank’s book left… – Scarcity

No list & NO partners = sales in 3 days?! – Self-Interest | Curiosity

Your “On Demand” bootcamp replay… – Self-Interest

Happy Thanksgiving! – Humanity

How I “busted-up” Google’s monopoly… – Curiosity | News

[SPOOKY NOTICE] 82% off T&C Tickets (CLOSING 24 hours) – Urgency

Your DEADline is tonight! 82% off dies at midnight… – Urgency

If I had to start all over again… – Story

Wanna pick an $80 Million brain… – Curiosity |Self-Interest

[REVEALED] Turn Likes into email subscribers fast… – News | Self-Interest

  Go to our website:   www.ncmalliance.com

DigitalMarketer’s 101 Best Email Subject Lines (…And a 5-Year Email Subject Line Reflection) By John Grimshaw Speaking of the fundamental types of subject lines, before we dive into our 101 winners, let’s review these common elements.

[connecticut-seo-adwords]

All set for a Profession Boost? Think SEO Training

Ready for a Career Boost? Think SEO Training was originally published on BruceClay.com, home of expert search engine optimization tips.

Ninety-six percent of employers say continuing education improves job performance, according to a 2016 study by Evollution.

From “Lifelong Education and Labor Market Needs“

That’s what George Niver, CTO of Destination Commerce Corporation, believes, or came to find sometime between his first attendance at Bruce Clay SEO Training in 2005 and his eighth time taking the course in 2017.

How Annual SEO Training Helped George Niver Climb His Career Ladder

George Niver is an eight-time student of our SEO training course. So we interviewed him to hear more about why.

First, his story. In 2004, he was working in IT as website manager for a nonprofit. An SEO consultant agreed to give him the recommendations if he did the work.

He decided to enroll in some in-person SEO training himself, which led to doing more SEO for his company and eventually led to contract SEO work.

Businesses, as it turned out, were hungry for his ability to attract new customers through search engines. He was hired as an in-house developer at the Destination Commerce Corporation’s site for the Outer Banks, NC, region.

“My boss told people that because of SEO we ranked No. 1 for hundreds of keywords in the Outer Banks even though the competition is getting stronger,” Niver said in a recent interview.

Niver says that he attends our classroom training course every year because it allows him to keep “in constant touch with what’s happening with the search engine changes.”

It’s also because, sitting in a room face-to-face with a trainer, he gets to ask tough questions and get an expert reply.

In 2009, Destination Commerce Corporation promoted Niver to CTO. Today he manages the digital marketing of 50 websites, develops new markets, and still focuses half of his time on SEO.

He credits continuing education with greater perspective:

“[Annual attendance] has a spiraling effect of getting more grounded each time in certain things that I may not have been aware of. The breadth of what I do at work has expanded because of taking the course regularly. My knowledge increases, and my interest increases in different directions.”

Industry-Wide Trends toward Continual Training

Niver’s story is exceptional but it isn’t unique. We’ve also leveled-up whole marketing and IT departments with on-site group training.

Some companies build SEO training into their annual education. We’ve seen our fair share of students who come back every year for a technology update as part of their continuing education.

With hundreds of search engine rankings signals, changing algorithm updates and even a mobile-first index looming with Google’s search engine, can you say with confidence that you understand and know how to respond to these events?

Periodic search engine optimization training is a best practice for professionals in the digital marketing industry. It’s investing in yourself and your people.

It prepares you to think and respond strategically to anything the search engines like Google can throw your way, and helps keep your company up-to-date with the changes that we see each year in SEO.

If you do not understand SEO to the core, then your website, its rankings and visibility will suffer. Uninformed and careless decisions will be made with your website that can cause it to be impacted in the search results.

You Need SEO Training If …

SEO training is important for more reasons than you may think. You’ll get value from SEO education if:

You want various stakeholders to have intelligent conversations about and make unified decisions regarding website changes and anything that will impact SEO.

You are not satisfied plateauing at No. 5 in the search results – you want to know how to be a top-ranking source of information for your customers, and increase your visibility across the different elements on search results pages.

You want to build SEO education into annual continuing education goals.

You want people who are managing teams to deeply understand SEO. They can then use this important skillset to make strategic decisions and better work with their team members.

You have new additions to your team or roles are changing hands, and the new people need to get up to speed about SEO best practices.

You are working with an SEO vendor and want to know how to evaluate and intelligently implement their recommendations.

You have a website that’s suffered a search engine penalty and you want to understand what it is and how to go about fixing it.

Who can benefit from SEO training?

Marketing manager: Understand how SEO techniques fit into the broader digital marketing mix, and empower search wins from the top down.

SEO professional: SEO best practices are constantly evolving; hear from SEO industry leaders what changes mean the most. An in-person classroom setup will best suit the SEO’s needs.

IT professional: Support your organization’s search engine discovery, crawlability and accessibility.

Web developer: Set yourself apart with SEO knowledge that can help improve the rank, reach and conversion of websites.

How to Choose SEO Training

When choosing training for yourself or your company, consider this:

Read the reviews. Students are likely to give the most unbiased feedback.

Research the trainers. Are they in demand in their space and/or did those with an extensive background in both theory and practice design the course?

SEO training comes in many different flavors. Each type is viable and the best fit depends on your resources, availability, budget and learning style.

Conferences: Conferences are good for more general training. However, with conferences, it takes some background knowledge and intuition to read between the lines and pick up on the nuances of what is being taught. Conferences are great for learning what has changed within the search marketing industry, but generally do not teach you the fundamentals of the SEO practice. SMX conferences are a great place to start. (And you can often find a one-day training workshop there on various digital marketing disciplines).

Online training: Video training classes like those offered by Market Motive are a good option for people who like to learn at their own pace without a high degree of interactivity. Online training is also good for groups of people and perhaps companies with limited budgets for continuing education. Typically, these classes are one-off trainings on specific topics, not a “soup to nuts” educational program. Be sure that you block interruptions like email so your focus is where it needs to be.

In-person training: In-person training is typically highly interactive, and is designed with a classroom-type curriculum, often taking a deep dive into a discipline over the course of one or several days. In-person training can sometimes happen at your place of business, and in many cases, requires travel and time away from work. However, the scope of knowledge transfer is usually very high. I may be biased because we run in-person SEO training here at Bruce Clay, but I believe it to be the most effective.

SEO training comes in many different flavors and the best fit for you depends on your resources, availability, budget and learning style.

I should mention that a portion of people get their SEO knowledge from the tools they subscribe to. But it isn’t enough to know how to run an SEO tool and cross off the list of tasks or recommendations it is giving.

The Canary Wharf Executive Development Centre gives the following tip to those sizing up training:

You need to ensure that it is producing knowledge & skills that your employees can use immediately to have a bottom line impact – and, therefore, create a tangible ROI as soon as the training ends.

It’s not enough to take a course or send folks to training. You have to ensure that you walk into the course ready to get the most from the experience:

Come with real-life examples of problems you’re facing, and get feedback from the instructors on them.

Establish a goal for yourself ahead of training, like learning more about a particular aspect of SEO or being able to teach your team when you get back.

Look for a channel — a community or support structure — that allows you to continue your development after the course is done through questions and peer/instructor feedback.

At the end of the day, with SEO training in particular, you want to ensure it’s conducted by a reputable brand that believes in ethical SEO practices. At the end of the course, the goal is that you can go back to work and be better at SEO.

What Happens When You Invest In Yourself

There’s an old saying in business that the CFO says to the CEO: “What happens if we spend money training our people and then they leave?” The CEO’s response: “What happens if we don’t and they stay?”

SEO training is a competitive survival tactic, and if you are a marketer or manage an in-house team, training is mandatory. It’s an investment in the future of your career and business.

George Niver attends training each year to stay on the pulse of SEO and also to spark new opportunities:

“I have eight sets of manuals. It’s obvious as Bruce is going through the course, how many things have changed in the manual since the last year. When I’m sitting there listening to the class, I’m continually making notes or writing suggestions about which clients could use certain things that have changed in the last year. It’s inspiring to hear what’s changed in the last year. It’s important to what I do every day.”

Introducing the Early Bird Discount

Today, in our 18th year presenting in-person SEO training, we’re announcing a brand new discount among our special offers: the early bird.

Apply an early bird discount when you sign up for SEO training a month or more before the training date.

The early bird can be combined with other deals, like the returning student 25% discount or the multi-student discount where every student after the first is $300 off.

See all our discount offers here.

If you like this post or want to send this discount offer to a friend or colleague, please share.

Source

https://www.bruceclay.com/blog/seo-training-continuing-education/

[rodrigueztha]

Ready for a Career Boost? Think SEO Training

Ready for a Career Boost? Think SEO Training was originally published on BruceClay.com, home of expert search engine optimization tips.

Ninety-six percent of employers say continuing education improves job performance, according to a 2016 study by Evollution.

From “Lifelong Education and Labor Market Needs“

That’s what George Niver, CTO of Destination Commerce Corporation, believes, or came to find sometime between his first attendance at Bruce Clay SEO Training in 2005 and his eighth time taking the course in 2017.

How Annual SEO Training Helped George Niver Climb His Career Ladder

George Niver is an eight-time student of our SEO training course. So we interviewed him to hear more about why.

First, his story. In 2004, he was working in IT as website manager for a nonprofit. An SEO consultant agreed to give him the recommendations if he did the work.

He decided to enroll in some in-person SEO training himself, which led to doing more SEO for his company and eventually led to contract SEO work.

Businesses, as it turned out, were hungry for his ability to attract new customers through search engines. He was hired as an in-house developer at the Destination Commerce Corporation’s site for the Outer Banks, NC, region.

��My boss told people that because of SEO we ranked No. 1 for hundreds of keywords in the Outer Banks even though the competition is getting stronger,” Niver said in a recent interview.

Niver says that he attends our classroom training course every year because it allows him to keep “in constant touch with what’s happening with the search engine changes.”

It’s also because, sitting in a room face-to-face with a trainer, he gets to ask tough questions and get an expert reply.

In 2009, Destination Commerce Corporation promoted Niver to CTO. Today he manages the digital marketing of 50 websites, develops new markets, and still focuses half of his time on SEO.

He credits continuing education with greater perspective:

“[Annual attendance] has a spiraling effect of getting more grounded each time in certain things that I may not have been aware of. The breadth of what I do at work has expanded because of taking the course regularly. My knowledge increases, and my interest increases in different directions.”

Industry-Wide Trends toward Continual Training

Niver’s story is exceptional but it isn’t unique. We’ve also leveled-up whole marketing and IT departments with on-site group training.

Some companies build SEO training into their annual education. We’ve seen our fair share of students who come back every year for a technology update as part of their continuing education.

With hundreds of search engine rankings signals, changing algorithm updates and even a mobile-first index looming with Google’s search engine, can you say with confidence that you understand and know how to respond to these events?

Periodic search engine optimization training is a best practice for professionals in the digital marketing industry. It’s investing in yourself and your people.

It prepares you to think and respond strategically to anything the search engines like Google can throw your way, and helps keep your company up-to-date with the changes that we see each year in SEO.

If you do not understand SEO to the core, then your website, its rankings and visibility will suffer. Uninformed and careless decisions will be made with your website that can cause it to be impacted in the search results.

You Need SEO Training If …

SEO training is important for more reasons than you may think. You’ll get value from SEO education if:

You want various stakeholders to have intelligent conversations about and make unified decisions regarding website changes and anything that will impact SEO.

You are not satisfied plateauing at No. 5 in the search results – you want to know how to be a top-ranking source of information for your customers, and increase your visibility across the different elements on search results pages.

You want to build SEO education into annual continuing education goals.

You want people who are managing teams to deeply understand SEO. They can then use this important skillset to make strategic decisions and better work with their team members.

You have new additions to your team or roles are changing hands, and the new people need to get up to speed about SEO best practices.

You are working with an SEO vendor and want to know how to evaluate and intelligently implement their recommendations.

You have a website that’s suffered a search engine penalty and you want to understand what it is and how to go about fixing it.

Who can benefit from SEO training?

Marketing manager: Understand how SEO techniques fit into the broader digital marketing mix, and empower search wins from the top down.

SEO professional: SEO best practices are constantly evolving; hear from SEO industry leaders what changes mean the most. An in-person classroom setup will best suit the SEO’s needs.

IT professional: Support your organization’s search engine discovery, crawlability and accessibility.

Web developer: Set yourself apart with SEO knowledge that can help improve the rank, reach and conversion of websites.

How to Choose SEO Training

When choosing training for yourself or your company, consider this:

Read the reviews. Students are likely to give the most unbiased feedback.

Research the trainers. Are they in demand in their space and/or did those with an extensive background in both theory and practice design the course?

SEO training comes in many different flavors. Each type is viable and the best fit depends on your resources, availability, budget and learning style.

Conferences: Conferences are good for more general training. However, with conferences, it takes some background knowledge and intuition to read between the lines and pick up on the nuances of what is being taught. Conferences are great for learning what has changed within the search marketing industry, but generally do not teach you the fundamentals of the SEO practice. SMX conferences are a great place to start. (And you can often find a one-day training workshop there on various digital marketing disciplines).

Online training: Video training classes like those offered by Market Motive are a good option for people who like to learn at their own pace without a high degree of interactivity. Online training is also good for groups of people and perhaps companies with limited budgets for continuing education. Typically, these classes are one-off trainings on specific topics, not a “soup to nuts” educational program. Be sure that you block interruptions like email so your focus is where it needs to be.

In-person training: In-person training is typically highly interactive, and is designed with a classroom-type curriculum, often taking a deep dive into a discipline over the course of one or several days. In-person training can sometimes happen at your place of business, and in many cases, requires travel and time away from work. However, the scope of knowledge transfer is usually very high. I may be biased because we run in-person SEO training here at Bruce Clay, but I believe it to be the most effective.

SEO training comes in many different flavors and the best fit for you depends on your resources, availability, budget and learning style.

I should mention that a portion of people get their SEO knowledge from the tools they subscribe to. But it isn’t enough to know how to run an SEO tool and cross off the list of tasks or recommendations it is giving.

The Canary Wharf Executive Development Centre gives the following tip to those sizing up training:

You need to ensure that it is producing knowledge & skills that your employees can use immediately to have a bottom line impact – and, therefore, create a tangible ROI as soon as the training ends.

It’s not enough to take a course or send folks to training. You have to ensure that you walk into the course ready to get the most from the experience:

Come with real-life examples of problems you’re facing, and get feedback from the instructors on them.

Establish a goal for yourself ahead of training, like learning more about a particular aspect of SEO or being able to teach your team when you get back.

Look for a channel — a community or support structure — that allows you to continue your development after the course is done through questions and peer/instructor feedback.

At the end of the day, with SEO training in particular, you want to ensure it’s conducted by a reputable brand that believes in ethical SEO practices. At the end of the course, the goal is that you can go back to work and be better at SEO.

What Happens When You Invest In Yourself

There’s an old saying in business that the CFO says to the CEO: “What happens if we spend money training our people and then they leave?” The CEO’s response: “What happens if we don’t and they stay?”

SEO training is a competitive survival tactic, and if you are a marketer or manage an in-house team, training is mandatory. It’s an investment in the future of your career and business.

George Niver attends training each year to stay on the pulse of SEO and also to spark new opportunities:

“I have eight sets of manuals. It’s obvious as Bruce is going through the course, how many things have changed in the manual since the last year. When I’m sitting there listening to the class, I’m continually making notes or writing suggestions about which clients could use certain things that have changed in the last year. It’s inspiring to hear what’s changed in the last year. It’s important to what I do every day.”

Introducing the Early Bird Discount

Today, in our 18th year presenting in-person SEO training, we’re announcing a brand new discount among our special offers: the early bird.

Apply an early bird discount when you sign up for SEO training a month or more before the training date.

The early bird can be combined with other deals, like the returning student 25% discount or the multi-student discount where every student after the first is $300 off.

See all our discount offers here.

via GIPHY

If you like this post or want to send this discount offer to a friend or colleague, please share.

http://ift.tt/2hQiXYE

[evanstheodoredqe]

Ready for a Career Boost? Think SEO Training

Ready for a Career Boost? Think SEO Training was originally published on BruceClay.com, home of expert search engine optimization tips.

Ninety-six percent of employers say continuing education improves job performance, according to a 2016 study by Evollution.

From “Lifelong Education and Labor Market Needs“

That’s what George Niver, CTO of Destination Commerce Corporation, believes, or came to find sometime between his first attendance at Bruce Clay SEO Training in 2005 and his eighth time taking the course in 2017.

How Annual SEO Training Helped George Niver Climb His Career Ladder

George Niver is an eight-time student of our SEO training course. So we interviewed him to hear more about why.

First, his story. In 2004, he was working in IT as website manager for a nonprofit. An SEO consultant agreed to give him the recommendations if he did the work.

He decided to enroll in some in-person SEO training himself, which led to doing more SEO for his company and eventually led to contract SEO work.

Businesses, as it turned out, were hungry for his ability to attract new customers through search engines. He was hired as an in-house developer at the Destination Commerce Corporation’s site for the Outer Banks, NC, region.

“My boss told people that because of SEO we ranked No. 1 for hundreds of keywords in the Outer Banks even though the competition is getting stronger,” Niver said in a recent interview.

Niver says that he attends our classroom training course every year because it allows him to keep “in constant touch with what’s happening with the search engine changes.”

It’s also because, sitting in a room face-to-face with a trainer, he gets to ask tough questions and get an expert reply.

In 2009, Destination Commerce Corporation promoted Niver to CTO. Today he manages the digital marketing of 50 websites, develops new markets, and still focuses half of his time on SEO.

He credits continuing education with greater perspective:

“[Annual attendance] has a spiraling effect of getting more grounded each time in certain things that I may not have been aware of. The breadth of what I do at work has expanded because of taking the course regularly. My knowledge increases, and my interest increases in different directions.”

Industry-Wide Trends toward Continual Training

Niver’s story is exceptional but it isn’t unique. We’ve also leveled-up whole marketing and IT departments with on-site group training.

Some companies build SEO training into their annual education. We’ve seen our fair share of students who come back every year for a technology update as part of their continuing education.

With hundreds of search engine rankings signals, changing algorithm updates and even a mobile-first index looming with Google’s search engine, can you say with confidence that you understand and know how to respond to these events?

Periodic search engine optimization training is a best practice for professionals in the digital marketing industry. It’s investing in yourself and your people.

It prepares you to think and respond strategically to anything the search engines like Google can throw your way, and helps keep your company up-to-date with the changes that we see each year in SEO.

If you do not understand SEO to the core, then your website, its rankings and visibility will suffer. Uninformed and careless decisions will be made with your website that can cause it to be impacted in the search results.

You Need SEO Training If …

SEO training is important for more reasons than you may think. You’ll get value from SEO education if:

You want various stakeholders to have intelligent conversations about and make unified decisions regarding website changes and anything that will impact SEO.

You are not satisfied plateauing at No. 5 in the search results – you want to know how to be a top-ranking source of information for your customers, and increase your visibility across the different elements on search results pages.

You want to build SEO education into annual continuing education goals.

You want people who are managing teams to deeply understand SEO. They can then use this important skillset to make strategic decisions and better work with their team members.

You have new additions to your team or roles are changing hands, and the new people need to get up to speed about SEO best practices.

You are working with an SEO vendor and want to know how to evaluate and intelligently implement their recommendations.

You have a website that’s suffered a search engine penalty and you want to understand what it is and how to go about fixing it.

Who can benefit from SEO training?

Marketing manager: Understand how SEO techniques fit into the broader digital marketing mix, and empower search wins from the top down.

SEO professional: SEO best practices are constantly evolving; hear from SEO industry leaders what changes mean the most. An in-person classroom setup will best suit the SEO’s needs.

IT professional: Support your organization’s search engine discovery, crawlability and accessibility.

Web developer: Set yourself apart with SEO knowledge that can help improve the rank, reach and conversion of websites.

How to Choose SEO Training

When choosing training for yourself or your company, consider this:

Read the reviews. Students are likely to give the most unbiased feedback.

Research the trainers. Are they in demand in their space and/or did those with an extensive background in both theory and practice design the course?

SEO training comes in many different flavors. Each type is viable and the best fit depends on your resources, availability, budget and learning style.

Conferences: Conferences are good for more general training. However, with conferences, it takes some background knowledge and intuition to read between the lines and pick up on the nuances of what is being taught. Conferences are great for learning what has changed within the search marketing industry, but generally do not teach you the fundamentals of the SEO practice. SMX conferences are a great place to start. (And you can often find a one-day training workshop there on various digital marketing disciplines).

Online training: Video training classes like those offered by Market Motive are a good option for people who like to learn at their own pace without a high degree of interactivity. Online training is also good for groups of people and perhaps companies with limited budgets for continuing education. Typically, these classes are one-off trainings on specific topics, not a “soup to nuts” educational program. Be sure that you block interruptions like email so your focus is where it needs to be.

In-person training: In-person training is typically highly interactive, and is designed with a classroom-type curriculum, often taking a deep dive into a discipline over the course of one or several days. In-person training can sometimes happen at your place of business, and in many cases, requires travel and time away from work. However, the scope of knowledge transfer is usually very high. I may be biased because we run in-person SEO training here at Bruce Clay, but I believe it to be the most effective.

SEO training comes in many different flavors and the best fit for you depends on your resources, availability, budget and learning style.

I should mention that a portion of people get their SEO knowledge from the tools they subscribe to. But it isn’t enough to know how to run an SEO tool and cross off the list of tasks or recommendations it is giving.

The Canary Wharf Executive Development Centre gives the following tip to those sizing up training:

You need to ensure that it is producing knowledge & skills that your employees can use immediately to have a bottom line impact – and, therefore, create a tangible ROI as soon as the training ends.

It’s not enough to take a course or send folks to training. You have to ensure that you walk into the course ready to get the most from the experience:

Come with real-life examples of problems you’re facing, and get feedback from the instructors on them.

Establish a goal for yourself ahead of training, like learning more about a particular aspect of SEO or being able to teach your team when you get back.

Look for a channel — a community or support structure — that allows you to continue your development after the course is done through questions and peer/instructor feedback.

At the end of the day, with SEO training in particular, you want to ensure it’s conducted by a reputable brand that believes in ethical SEO practices. At the end of the course, the goal is that you can go back to work and be better at SEO.

What Happens When You Invest In Yourself

There’s an old saying in business that the CFO says to the CEO: “What happens if we spend money training our people and then they leave?” The CEO’s response: “What happens if we don’t and they stay?”

SEO training is a competitive survival tactic, and if you are a marketer or manage an in-house team, training is mandatory. It’s an investment in the future of your career and business.

George Niver attends training each year to stay on the pulse of SEO and also to spark new opportunities:

“I have eight sets of manuals. It’s obvious as Bruce is going through the course, how many things have changed in the manual since the last year. When I’m sitting there listening to the class, I’m continually making notes or writing suggestions about which clients could use certain things that have changed in the last year. It’s inspiring to hear what’s changed in the last year. It’s important to what I do every day.”

Introducing the Early Bird Discount

Today, in our 18th year presenting in-person SEO training, we’re announcing a brand new discount among our special offers: the early bird.

Apply an early bird discount when you sign up for SEO training a month or more before the training date.

The early bird can be combined with other deals, like the returning student 25% discount or the multi-student discount where every student after the first is $300 off.

See all our discount offers here.

via GIPHY

If you like this post or want to send this discount offer to a friend or colleague, please share.

http://ift.tt/2hQiXYE

[elenaturnerge]

Ready for a Career Boost? Think SEO Training

Ready for a Career Boost? Think SEO Training was originally published on BruceClay.com, home of expert search engine optimization tips.

Ninety-six percent of employers say continuing education improves job performance, according to a 2016 study by Evollution.

From “Lifelong Education and Labor Market Needs“

That’s what George Niver, CTO of Destination Commerce Corporation, believes, or came to find sometime between his first attendance at Bruce Clay SEO Training in 2005 and his eighth time taking the course in 2017.

How Annual SEO Training Helped George Niver Climb His Career Ladder

George Niver is an eight-time student of our SEO training course. So we interviewed him to hear more about why.

First, his story. In 2004, he was working in IT as website manager for a nonprofit. An SEO consultant agreed to give him the recommendations if he did the work.

He decided to enroll in some in-person SEO training himself, which led to doing more SEO for his company and eventually led to contract SEO work.

Businesses, as it turned out, were hungry for his ability to attract new customers through search engines. He was hired as an in-house developer at the Destination Commerce Corporation’s site for the Outer Banks, NC, region.

“My boss told people that because of SEO we ranked No. 1 for hundreds of keywords in the Outer Banks even though the competition is getting stronger,” Niver said in a recent interview.

Niver says that he attends our classroom training course every year because it allows him to keep “in constant touch with what’s happening with the search engine changes.”

It’s also because, sitting in a room face-to-face with a trainer, he gets to ask tough questions and get an expert reply.

In 2009, Destination Commerce Corporation promoted Niver to CTO. Today he manages the digital marketing of 50 websites, develops new markets, and still focuses half of his time on SEO.

He credits continuing education with greater perspective:

“[Annual attendance] has a spiraling effect of getting more grounded each time in certain things that I may not have been aware of. The breadth of what I do at work has expanded because of taking the course regularly. My knowledge increases, and my interest increases in different directions.”

Industry-Wide Trends toward Continual Training

Niver’s story is exceptional but it isn’t unique. We’ve also leveled-up whole marketing and IT departments with on-site group training.

Some companies build SEO training into their annual education. We’ve seen our fair share of students who come back every year for a technology update as part of their continuing education.

With hundreds of search engine rankings signals, changing algorithm updates and even a mobile-first index looming with Google’s search engine, can you say with confidence that you understand and know how to respond to these events?

Periodic search engine optimization training is a best practice for professionals in the digital marketing industry. It’s investing in yourself and your people.

It prepares you to think and respond strategically to anything the search engines like Google can throw your way, and helps keep your company up-to-date with the changes that we see each year in SEO.

If you do not understand SEO to the core, then your website, its rankings and visibility will suffer. Uninformed and careless decisions will be made with your website that can cause it to be impacted in the search results.

You Need SEO Training If …

SEO training is important for more reasons than you may think. You’ll get value from SEO education if:

You want various stakeholders to have intelligent conversations about and make unified decisions regarding website changes and anything that will impact SEO.

You are not satisfied plateauing at No. 5 in the search results – you want to know how to be a top-ranking source of information for your customers, and increase your visibility across the different elements on search results pages.

You want to build SEO education into annual continuing education goals.

You want people who are managing teams to deeply understand SEO. They can then use this important skillset to make strategic decisions and better work with their team members.

You have new additions to your team or roles are changing hands, and the new people need to get up to speed about SEO best practices.

You are working with an SEO vendor and want to know how to evaluate and intelligently implement their recommendations.

You have a website that’s suffered a search engine penalty and you want to understand what it is and how to go about fixing it.

Who can benefit from SEO training?

Marketing manager: Understand how SEO techniques fit into the broader digital marketing mix, and empower search wins from the top down.

SEO professional: SEO best practices are constantly evolving; hear from SEO industry leaders what changes mean the most. An in-person classroom setup will best suit the SEO’s needs.

IT professional: Support your organization’s search engine discovery, crawlability and accessibility.

Web developer: Set yourself apart with SEO knowledge that can help improve the rank, reach and conversion of websites.

How to Choose SEO Training

When choosing training for yourself or your company, consider this:

Read the reviews. Students are likely to give the most unbiased feedback.

Research the trainers. Are they in demand in their space and/or did those with an extensive background in both theory and practice design the course?

SEO training comes in many different flavors. Each type is viable and the best fit depends on your resources, availability, budget and learning style.

Conferences: Conferences are good for more general training. However, with conferences, it takes some background knowledge and intuition to read between the lines and pick up on the nuances of what is being taught. Conferences are great for learning what has changed within the search marketing industry, but generally do not teach you the fundamentals of the SEO practice. SMX conferences are a great place to start. (And you can often find a one-day training workshop there on various digital marketing disciplines).

Online training: Video training classes like those offered by Market Motive are a good option for people who like to learn at their own pace without a high degree of interactivity. Online training is also good for groups of people and perhaps companies with limited budgets for continuing education. Typically, these classes are one-off trainings on specific topics, not a “soup to nuts” educational program. Be sure that you block interruptions like email so your focus is where it needs to be.

In-person training: In-person training is typically highly interactive, and is designed with a classroom-type curriculum, often taking a deep dive into a discipline over the course of one or several days. In-person training can sometimes happen at your place of business, and in many cases, requires travel and time away from work. However, the scope of knowledge transfer is usually very high. I may be biased because we run in-person SEO training here at Bruce Clay, but I believe it to be the most effective.

SEO training comes in many different flavors and the best fit for you depends on your resources, availability, budget and learning style.

I should mention that a portion of people get their SEO knowledge from the tools they subscribe to. But it isn’t enough to know how to run an SEO tool and cross off the list of tasks or recommendations it is giving.

The Canary Wharf Executive Development Centre gives the following tip to those sizing up training:

You need to ensure that it is producing knowledge & skills that your employees can use immediately to have a bottom line impact – and, therefore, create a tangible ROI as soon as the training ends.

It’s not enough to take a course or send folks to training. You have to ensure that you walk into the course ready to get the most from the experience:

Come with real-life examples of problems you’re facing, and get feedback from the instructors on them.

Establish a goal for yourself ahead of training, like learning more about a particular aspect of SEO or being able to teach your team when you get back.

Look for a channel — a community or support structure — that allows you to continue your development after the course is done through questions and peer/instructor feedback.

At the end of the day, with SEO training in particular, you want to ensure it’s conducted by a reputable brand that believes in ethical SEO practices. At the end of the course, the goal is that you can go back to work and be better at SEO.

What Happens When You Invest In Yourself

There’s an old saying in business that the CFO says to the CEO: “What happens if we spend money training our people and then they leave?” The CEO’s response: “What happens if we don’t and they stay?”

SEO training is a competitive survival tactic, and if you are a marketer or manage an in-house team, training is mandatory. It’s an investment in the future of your career and business.

George Niver attends training each year to stay on the pulse of SEO and also to spark new opportunities:

“I have eight sets of manuals. It’s obvious as Bruce is going through the course, how many things have changed in the manual since the last year. When I’m sitting there listening to the class, I’m continually making notes or writing suggestions about which clients could use certain things that have changed in the last year. It’s inspiring to hear what’s changed in the last year. It’s important to what I do every day.”

Introducing the Early Bird Discount

Today, in our 18th year presenting in-person SEO training, we’re announcing a brand new discount among our special offers: the early bird.

Apply an early bird discount when you sign up for SEO training a month or more before the training date.

The early bird can be combined with other deals, like the returning student 25% discount or the multi-student discount where every student after the first is $300 off.

See all our discount offers here.

via GIPHY

If you like this post or want to send this discount offer to a friend or colleague, please share.

http://ift.tt/2hQiXYE

[miettawilliemk]

Ready for a Career Boost? Think SEO Training

Ready for a Career Boost? Think SEO Training was originally published on BruceClay.com, home of expert search engine optimization tips.

Ninety-six percent of employers say continuing education improves job performance, according to a 2016 study by Evollution.

From “Lifelong Education and Labor Market Needs“

That’s what George Niver, CTO of Destination Commerce Corporation, believes, or came to find sometime between his first attendance at Bruce Clay SEO Training in 2005 and his eighth time taking the course in 2017.

How Annual SEO Training Helped George Niver Climb His Career Ladder

George Niver is an eight-time student of our SEO training course. So we interviewed him to hear more about why.

First, his story. In 2004, he was working in IT as website manager for a nonprofit. An SEO consultant agreed to give him the recommendations if he did the work.

He decided to enroll in some in-person SEO training himself, which led to doing more SEO for his company and eventually led to contract SEO work.

Businesses, as it turned out, were hungry for his ability to attract new customers through search engines. He was hired as an in-house developer at the Destination Commerce Corporation’s site for the Outer Banks, NC, region.

“My boss told people that because of SEO we ranked No. 1 for hundreds of keywords in the Outer Banks even though the competition is getting stronger,” Niver said in a recent interview.

Niver says that he attends our classroom training course every year because it allows him to keep “in constant touch with what’s happening with the search engine changes.”

It’s also because, sitting in a room face-to-face with a trainer, he gets to ask tough questions and get an expert reply.

In 2009, Destination Commerce Corporation promoted Niver to CTO. Today he manages the digital marketing of 50 websites, develops new markets, and still focuses half of his time on SEO.

He credits continuing education with greater perspective:

“[Annual attendance] has a spiraling effect of getting more grounded each time in certain things that I may not have been aware of. The breadth of what I do at work has expanded because of taking the course regularly. My knowledge increases, and my interest increases in different directions.”

Industry-Wide Trends toward Continual Training

Niver’s story is exceptional but it isn’t unique. We’ve also leveled-up whole marketing and IT departments with on-site group training.

Some companies build SEO training into their annual education. We’ve seen our fair share of students who come back every year for a technology update as part of their continuing education.

With hundreds of search engine rankings signals, changing algorithm updates and even a mobile-first index looming with Google’s search engine, can you say with confidence that you understand and know how to respond to these events?

Periodic search engine optimization training is a best practice for professionals in the digital marketing industry. It’s investing in yourself and your people.

It prepares you to think and respond strategically to anything the search engines like Google can throw your way, and helps keep your company up-to-date with the changes that we see each year in SEO.

If you do not understand SEO to the core, then your website, its rankings and visibility will suffer. Uninformed and careless decisions will be made with your website that can cause it to be impacted in the search results.

You Need SEO Training If …

SEO training is important for more reasons than you may think. You’ll get value from SEO education if:

You want various stakeholders to have intelligent conversations about and make unified decisions regarding website changes and anything that will impact SEO.

You are not satisfied plateauing at No. 5 in the search results – you want to know how to be a top-ranking source of information for your customers, and increase your visibility across the different elements on search results pages.

You want to build SEO education into annual continuing education goals.

You want people who are managing teams to deeply understand SEO. They can then use this important skillset to make strategic decisions and better work with their team members.

You have new additions to your team or roles are changing hands, and the new people need to get up to speed about SEO best practices.

You are working with an SEO vendor and want to know how to evaluate and intelligently implement their recommendations.

You have a website that’s suffered a search engine penalty and you want to understand what it is and how to go about fixing it.

Who can benefit from SEO training?

Marketing manager: Understand how SEO techniques fit into the broader digital marketing mix, and empower search wins from the top down.

SEO professional: SEO best practices are constantly evolving; hear from SEO industry leaders what changes mean the most. An in-person classroom setup will best suit the SEO’s needs.

IT professional: Support your organization’s search engine discovery, crawlability and accessibility.

Web developer: Set yourself apart with SEO knowledge that can help improve the rank, reach and conversion of websites.

How to Choose SEO Training

When choosing training for yourself or your company, consider this:

Read the reviews. Students are likely to give the most unbiased feedback.

Research the trainers. Are they in demand in their space and/or did those with an extensive background in both theory and practice design the course?

SEO training comes in many different flavors. Each type is viable and the best fit depends on your resources, availability, budget and learning style.

Conferences: Conferences are good for more general training. However, with conferences, it takes some background knowledge and intuition to read between the lines and pick up on the nuances of what is being taught. Conferences are great for learning what has changed within the search marketing industry, but generally do not teach you the fundamentals of the SEO practice. SMX conferences are a great place to start. (And you can often find a one-day training workshop there on various digital marketing disciplines).

Online training: Video training classes like those offered by Market Motive are a good option for people who like to learn at their own pace without a high degree of interactivity. Online training is also good for groups of people and perhaps companies with limited budgets for continuing education. Typically, these classes are one-off trainings on specific topics, not a “soup to nuts” educational program. Be sure that you block interruptions like email so your focus is where it needs to be.

In-person training: In-person training is typically highly interactive, and is designed with a classroom-type curriculum, often taking a deep dive into a discipline over the course of one or several days. In-person training can sometimes happen at your place of business, and in many cases, requires travel and time away from work. However, the scope of knowledge transfer is usually very high. I may be biased because we run in-person SEO training here at Bruce Clay, but I believe it to be the most effective.

SEO training comes in many different flavors and the best fit for you depends on your resources, availability, budget and learning style.

I should mention that a portion of people get their SEO knowledge from the tools they subscribe to. But it isn’t enough to know how to run an SEO tool and cross off the list of tasks or recommendations it is giving.

The Canary Wharf Executive Development Centre gives the following tip to those sizing up training:

You need to ensure that it is producing knowledge & skills that your employees can use immediately to have a bottom line impact – and, therefore, create a tangible ROI as soon as the training ends.

It’s not enough to take a course or send folks to training. You have to ensure that you walk into the course ready to get the most from the experience:

Come with real-life examples of problems you’re facing, and get feedback from the instructors on them.

Establish a goal for yourself ahead of training, like learning more about a particular aspect of SEO or being able to teach your team when you get back.

Look for a channel — a community or support structure — that allows you to continue your development after the course is done through questions and peer/instructor feedback.

At the end of the day, with SEO training in particular, you want to ensure it’s conducted by a reputable brand that believes in ethical SEO practices. At the end of the course, the goal is that you can go back to work and be better at SEO.

What Happens When You Invest In Yourself

There’s an old saying in business that the CFO says to the CEO: “What happens if we spend money training our people and then they leave?” The CEO’s response: “What happens if we don’t and they stay?”

SEO training is a competitive survival tactic, and if you are a marketer or manage an in-house team, training is mandatory. It’s an investment in the future of your career and business.

George Niver attends training each year to stay on the pulse of SEO and also to spark new opportunities:

“I have eight sets of manuals. It’s obvious as Bruce is going through the course, how many things have changed in the manual since the last year. When I’m sitting there listening to the class, I’m continually making notes or writing suggestions about which clients could use certain things that have changed in the last year. It’s inspiring to hear what’s changed in the last year. It’s important to what I do every day.”

Introducing the Early Bird Discount

Today, in our 18th year presenting in-person SEO training, we’re announcing a brand new discount among our special offers: the early bird.

Apply an early bird discount when you sign up for SEO training a month or more before the training date.

The early bird can be combined with other deals, like the returning student 25% discount or the multi-student discount where every student after the first is $300 off.

See all our discount offers here.

via GIPHY

If you like this post or want to send this discount offer to a friend or colleague, please share.

http://ift.tt/2hQiXYE

[janiceclaudetteo]

Ready for a Career Boost? Think SEO Training

Ready for a Career Boost? Think SEO Training was originally published on BruceClay.com, home of expert search engine optimization tips.

Ninety-six percent of employers say continuing education improves job performance, according to a 2016 study by Evollution.

From “Lifelong Education and Labor Market Needs“

That’s what George Niver, CTO of Destination Commerce Corporation, believes, or came to find sometime between his first attendance at Bruce Clay SEO Training in 2005 and his eighth time taking the course in 2017.

How Annual SEO Training Helped George Niver Climb His Career Ladder

George Niver is an eight-time student of our SEO training course. So we interviewed him to hear more about why.

First, his story. In 2004, he was working in IT as website manager for a nonprofit. An SEO consultant agreed to give him the recommendations if he did the work.

He decided to enroll in some in-person SEO training himself, which led to doing more SEO for his company and eventually led to contract SEO work.

Businesses, as it turned out, were hungry for his ability to attract new customers through search engines. He was hired as an in-house developer at the Destination Commerce Corporation’s site for the Outer Banks, NC, region.

“My boss told people that because of SEO we ranked No. 1 for hundreds of keywords in the Outer Banks even though the competition is getting stronger,” Niver said in a recent interview.

Niver says that he attends our classroom training course every year because it allows him to keep “in constant touch with what’s happening with the search engine changes.”

It’s also because, sitting in a room face-to-face with a trainer, he gets to ask tough questions and get an expert reply.

In 2009, Destination Commerce Corporation promoted Niver to CTO. Today he manages the digital marketing of 50 websites, develops new markets, and still focuses half of his time on SEO.

He credits continuing education with greater perspective:

“[Annual attendance] has a spiraling effect of getting more grounded each time in certain things that I may not have been aware of. The breadth of what I do at work has expanded because of taking the course regularly. My knowledge increases, and my interest increases in different directions.”

Industry-Wide Trends toward Continual Training

Niver’s story is exceptional but it isn’t unique. We’ve also leveled-up whole marketing and IT departments with on-site group training.

Some companies build SEO training into their annual education. We’ve seen our fair share of students who come back every year for a technology update as part of their continuing education.

With hundreds of search engine rankings signals, changing algorithm updates and even a mobile-first index looming with Google’s search engine, can you say with confidence that you understand and know how to respond to these events?

Periodic search engine optimization training is a best practice for professionals in the digital marketing industry. It’s investing in yourself and your people.

It prepares you to think and respond strategically to anything the search engines like Google can throw your way, and helps keep your company up-to-date with the changes that we see each year in SEO.

If you do not understand SEO to the core, then your website, its rankings and visibility will suffer. Uninformed and careless decisions will be made with your website that can cause it to be impacted in the search results.

You Need SEO Training If …

SEO training is important for more reasons than you may think. You’ll get value from SEO education if:

You want various stakeholders to have intelligent conversations about and make unified decisions regarding website changes and anything that will impact SEO.

You are not satisfied plateauing at No. 5 in the search results – you want to know how to be a top-ranking source of information for your customers, and increase your visibility across the different elements on search results pages.

You want to build SEO education into annual continuing education goals.

You want people who are managing teams to deeply understand SEO. They can then use this important skillset to make strategic decisions and better work with their team members.

You have new additions to your team or roles are changing hands, and the new people need to get up to speed about SEO best practices.

You are working with an SEO vendor and want to know how to evaluate and intelligently implement their recommendations.

You have a website that’s suffered a search engine penalty and you want to understand what it is and how to go about fixing it.

Who can benefit from SEO training?

Marketing manager: Understand how SEO techniques fit into the broader digital marketing mix, and empower search wins from the top down.

SEO professional: SEO best practices are constantly evolving; hear from SEO industry leaders what changes mean the most. An in-person classroom setup will best suit the SEO’s needs.

IT professional: Support your organization’s search engine discovery, crawlability and accessibility.

Web developer: Set yourself apart with SEO knowledge that can help improve the rank, reach and conversion of websites.

How to Choose SEO Training

When choosing training for yourself or your company, consider this:

Read the reviews. Students are likely to give the most unbiased feedback.

Research the trainers. Are they in demand in their space and/or did those with an extensive background in both theory and practice design the course?

SEO training comes in many different flavors. Each type is viable and the best fit depends on your resources, availability, budget and learning style.

Conferences: Conferences are good for more general training. However, with conferences, it takes some background knowledge and intuition to read between the lines and pick up on the nuances of what is being taught. Conferences are great for learning what has changed within the search marketing industry, but generally do not teach you the fundamentals of the SEO practice. SMX conferences are a great place to start. (And you can often find a one-day training workshop there on various digital marketing disciplines).

Online training: Video training classes like those offered by Market Motive are a good option for people who like to learn at their own pace without a high degree of interactivity. Online training is also good for groups of people and perhaps companies with limited budgets for continuing education. Typically, these classes are one-off trainings on specific topics, not a “soup to nuts” educational program. Be sure that you block interruptions like email so your focus is where it needs to be.

In-person training: In-person training is typically highly interactive, and is designed with a classroom-type curriculum, often taking a deep dive into a discipline over the course of one or several days. In-person training can sometimes happen at your place of business, and in many cases, requires travel and time away from work. However, the scope of knowledge transfer is usually very high. I may be biased because we run in-person SEO training here at Bruce Clay, but I believe it to be the most effective.

SEO training comes in many different flavors and the best fit for you depends on your resources, availability, budget and learning style.

I should mention that a portion of people get their SEO knowledge from the tools they subscribe to. But it isn’t enough to know how to run an SEO tool and cross off the list of tasks or recommendations it is giving.

The Canary Wharf Executive Development Centre gives the following tip to those sizing up training:

You need to ensure that it is producing knowledge & skills that your employees can use immediately to have a bottom line impact – and, therefore, create a tangible ROI as soon as the training ends.

It’s not enough to take a course or send folks to training. You have to ensure that you walk into the course ready to get the most from the experience:

Come with real-life examples of problems you’re facing, and get feedback from the instructors on them.

Establish a goal for yourself ahead of training, like learning more about a particular aspect of SEO or being able to teach your team when you get back.

Look for a channel — a community or support structure — that allows you to continue your development after the course is done through questions and peer/instructor feedback.

At the end of the day, with SEO training in particular, you want to ensure it’s conducted by a reputable brand that believes in ethical SEO practices. At the end of the course, the goal is that you can go back to work and be better at SEO.

What Happens When You Invest In Yourself

There’s an old saying in business that the CFO says to the CEO: “What happens if we spend money training our people and then they leave?” The CEO’s response: “What happens if we don’t and they stay?”

SEO training is a competitive survival tactic, and if you are a marketer or manage an in-house team, training is mandatory. It’s an investment in the future of your career and business.

George Niver attends training each year to stay on the pulse of SEO and also to spark new opportunities:

“I have eight sets of manuals. It’s obvious as Bruce is going through the course, how many things have changed in the manual since the last year. When I’m sitting there listening to the class, I’m continually making notes or writing suggestions about which clients could use certain things that have changed in the last year. It’s inspiring to hear what’s changed in the last year. It’s important to what I do every day.”

Introducing the Early Bird Discount

Today, in our 18th year presenting in-person SEO training, we’re announcing a brand new discount among our special offers: the early bird.

Apply an early bird discount when you sign up for SEO training a month or more before the training date.

The early bird can be combined with other deals, like the returning student 25% discount or the multi-student discount where every student after the first is $300 off.

See all our discount offers here.

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If you like this post or want to send this discount offer to a friend or colleague, please share.

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Ready for a Career Boost? Think SEO Training

Ready for a Career Boost? Think SEO Training was originally published on BruceClay.com, home of expert search engine optimization tips.

Ninety-six percent of employers say continuing education improves job performance, according to a 2016 study by Evollution.

From “Lifelong Education and Labor Market Needs“

That’s what George Niver, CTO of Destination Commerce Corporation, believes, or came to find sometime between his first attendance at Bruce Clay SEO Training in 2005 and his eighth time taking the course in 2017.

How Annual SEO Training Helped George Niver Climb His Career Ladder

George Niver is an eight-time student of our SEO training course. So we interviewed him to hear more about why.

First, his story. In 2004, he was working in IT as website manager for a nonprofit. An SEO consultant agreed to give him the recommendations if he did the work.

He decided to enroll in some in-person SEO training himself, which led to doing more SEO for his company and eventually led to contract SEO work.

Businesses, as it turned out, were hungry for his ability to attract new customers through search engines. He was hired as an in-house developer at the Destination Commerce Corporation’s site for the Outer Banks, NC, region.

“My boss told people that because of SEO we ranked No. 1 for hundreds of keywords in the Outer Banks even though the competition is getting stronger,” Niver said in a recent interview.

Niver says that he attends our classroom training course every year because it allows him to keep “in constant touch with what’s happening with the search engine changes.”

It’s also because, sitting in a room face-to-face with a trainer, he gets to ask tough questions and get an expert reply.

In 2009, Destination Commerce Corporation promoted Niver to CTO. Today he manages the digital marketing of 50 websites, develops new markets, and still focuses half of his time on SEO.

He credits continuing education with greater perspective:

“[Annual attendance] has a spiraling effect of getting more grounded each time in certain things that I may not have been aware of. The breadth of what I do at work has expanded because of taking the course regularly. My knowledge increases, and my interest increases in different directions.”

Industry-Wide Trends toward Continual Training

Niver’s story is exceptional but it isn’t unique. We’ve also leveled-up whole marketing and IT departments with on-site group training.

Some companies build SEO training into their annual education. We’ve seen our fair share of students who come back every year for a technology update as part of their continuing education.

With hundreds of search engine rankings signals, changing algorithm updates and even a mobile-first index looming with Google’s search engine, can you say with confidence that you understand and know how to respond to these events?

Periodic search engine optimization training is a best practice for professionals in the digital marketing industry. It’s investing in yourself and your people.

It prepares you to think and respond strategically to anything the search engines like Google can throw your way, and helps keep your company up-to-date with the changes that we see each year in SEO.

If you do not understand SEO to the core, then your website, its rankings and visibility will suffer. Uninformed and careless decisions will be made with your website that can cause it to be impacted in the search results.

You Need SEO Training If …

SEO training is important for more reasons than you may think. You’ll get value from SEO education if:

You want various stakeholders to have intelligent conversations about and make unified decisions regarding website changes and anything that will impact SEO.

You are not satisfied plateauing at No. 5 in the search results – you want to know how to be a top-ranking source of information for your customers, and increase your visibility across the different elements on search results pages.

You want to build SEO education into annual continuing education goals.

You want people who are managing teams to deeply understand SEO. They can then use this important skillset to make strategic decisions and better work with their team members.

You have new additions to your team or roles are changing hands, and the new people need to get up to speed about SEO best practices.

You are working with an SEO vendor and want to know how to evaluate and intelligently implement their recommendations.

You have a website that’s suffered a search engine penalty and you want to understand what it is and how to go about fixing it.

Who can benefit from SEO training?

Marketing manager: Understand how SEO techniques fit into the broader digital marketing mix, and empower search wins from the top down.

SEO professional: SEO best practices are constantly evolving; hear from SEO industry leaders what changes mean the most. An in-person classroom setup will best suit the SEO’s needs.

IT professional: Support your organization’s search engine discovery, crawlability and accessibility.

Web developer: Set yourself apart with SEO knowledge that can help improve the rank, reach and conversion of websites.

How to Choose SEO Training

When choosing training for yourself or your company, consider this:

Read the reviews. Students are likely to give the most unbiased feedback.

Research the trainers. Are they in demand in their space and/or did those with an extensive background in both theory and practice design the course?

SEO training comes in many different flavors. Each type is viable and the best fit depends on your resources, availability, budget and learning style.

Conferences: Conferences are good for more general training. However, with conferences, it takes some background knowledge and intuition to read between the lines and pick up on the nuances of what is being taught. Conferences are great for learning what has changed within the search marketing industry, but generally do not teach you the fundamentals of the SEO practice. SMX conferences are a great place to start. (And you can often find a one-day training workshop there on various digital marketing disciplines).

Online training: Video training classes like those offered by Market Motive are a good option for people who like to learn at their own pace without a high degree of interactivity. Online training is also good for groups of people and perhaps companies with limited budgets for continuing education. Typically, these classes are one-off trainings on specific topics, not a “soup to nuts” educational program. Be sure that you block interruptions like email so your focus is where it needs to be.

In-person training: In-person training is typically highly interactive, and is designed with a classroom-type curriculum, often taking a deep dive into a discipline over the course of one or several days. In-person training can sometimes happen at your place of business, and in many cases, requires travel and time away from work. However, the scope of knowledge transfer is usually very high. I may be biased because we run in-person SEO training here at Bruce Clay, but I believe it to be the most effective.

SEO training comes in many different flavors and the best fit for you depends on your resources, availability, budget and learning style.

I should mention that a portion of people get their SEO knowledge from the tools they subscribe to. But it isn’t enough to know how to run an SEO tool and cross off the list of tasks or recommendations it is giving.

The Canary Wharf Executive Development Centre gives the following tip to those sizing up training:

You need to ensure that it is producing knowledge & skills that your employees can use immediately to have a bottom line impact – and, therefore, create a tangible ROI as soon as the training ends.

It’s not enough to take a course or send folks to training. You have to ensure that you walk into the course ready to get the most from the experience:

Come with real-life examples of problems you’re facing, and get feedback from the instructors on them.

Establish a goal for yourself ahead of training, like learning more about a particular aspect of SEO or being able to teach your team when you get back.

Look for a channel — a community or support structure — that allows you to continue your development after the course is done through questions and peer/instructor feedback.

At the end of the day, with SEO training in particular, you want to ensure it’s conducted by a reputable brand that believes in ethical SEO practices. At the end of the course, the goal is that you can go back to work and be better at SEO.

What Happens When You Invest In Yourself

There’s an old saying in business that the CFO says to the CEO: “What happens if we spend money training our people and then they leave?” The CEO’s response: “What happens if we don’t and they stay?”

SEO training is a competitive survival tactic, and if you are a marketer or manage an in-house team, training is mandatory. It’s an investment in the future of your career and business.

George Niver attends training each year to stay on the pulse of SEO and also to spark new opportunities:

“I have eight sets of manuals. It’s obvious as Bruce is going through the course, how many things have changed in the manual since the last year. When I’m sitting there listening to the class, I’m continually making notes or writing suggestions about which clients could use certain things that have changed in the last year. It’s inspiring to hear what’s changed in the last year. It’s important to what I do every day.”

Introducing the Early Bird Discount

Today, in our 18th year presenting in-person SEO training, we’re announcing a brand new discount among our special offers: the early bird.

Apply an early bird discount when you sign up for SEO training a month or more before the training date.

The early bird can be combined with other deals, like the returning student 25% discount or the multi-student discount where every student after the first is $300 off.

See all our discount offers here.

via GIPHY

If you like this post or want to send this discount offer to a friend or colleague, please share.

http://ift.tt/2hQiXYE