#sprinkling the word One into this show like it's product placement

[givehimthemedicine]

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Blake Shelton has 28 career No. 1 songs on the Billboard Country Airplay chart, and another seven that have reached the Top 10. It'd be easy just to stick with the singles in making a list of his best songs, but who likes easy?

Find plenty of deep cuts on this list of Shelton's 50 best songs, including his spiritual songs. Those are sprinkled all over the playlist — The Voice coach is a rare singer who can sing about drinking and heartache with as much conviction as his relationship with God. Fans will find a new one called "Bible Verses" on his Body Language album. It does well on this staff and reader partnership.

Songs with ex-wife Miranda Lambert and fiancee Gwen Stefani make the list as well, but the Top 10 Blake Shelton songs are all solo efforts ... with one exception. Is it strange that his most convincing bedroom ballad was a collaboration with a different "Gwen"? Cover songs by George Jones and Conway Twitty, collaborations with RaeLynn and Trace Adkins, and a co-write with Earl Thomas Conley all make this list of Shelton's top songs. Which is your No. 1?

Top Blake Songs: His Greatest Hits + Best Deep Cuts

Taste of Country staff opinion, and the commercial success of tracks from Shelton's 12 studio albums were certainly considered in making this list of the top songs. More than anything, we sought fan input, via sales and direct input. What's your favorite Blake Shelton song, and does it agree with our No. 1?

Below are the The Voice coach's 50 best songs. Lyrical integrity and production were also considered in this ranking. Really it's hard to argue against any of the Top 5, but we understand if there's a debate about placement. Heck, we encourage it!

Warner Music Nashville

No. 50: "She's Got a Way With Words"

Songwriters Andy Albert, Marc Beeson and Wyatt Earp wrote a clever country lyric, but the problem is, it felt too personal from Blake Shelton in 2016. This is the song that stopped Shelton's impressive streak of No. 1 singles. Sonically, very few songs from this era stand apart from one another.

No. 49: "Gonna"

" isn't a bad song — a strong case could be made that it's better than some of the singles ranked ahead of it on this list of the top 50 Blake Shelton songs, actually — the love story from 2014 just isn't memorable in any way. Think about it: At best you said, "I remember that song" but more likely thought, "which one is that?"

No. 48: "The Wave"

" is a unique metaphor for how a good love can wash away all of your troubles. Blake Shelton's song from Texoma Shore is another fan favorite. The mid-tempo track displays his voice nicely.

No. 47: "When the Wine Wears Off"

," an album track from Texoma Shore that could have been a single. The song's structure and flow is very similar to so many hits from this era of Blake Shelton.

No. 46: "Anyone Else"

When asked which deep cut they like most, Blake Shelton fans chose "

," an album cut from Bringing Back the Sunshine. This ballad shows a bitterness that's rare across the singer's discography, and certainly this list of 50 songs. It's packaged in a fairly unoffensive arrangement, but his lyrics really sting.

No. 45: "Over"

Blake Shelton gives a great vocal performance of a fairly ordinary song during "

," his fourth straight No. 1 single from the Red River Blue album.

No. 44: "I'll Just Hold On"

Shelton relied on a sitar to make this song stand out. It only worked to get him a Top 10 hit. The remainder of "

" is arranged more conventionally, making the outsider instrument something of a gimmick.

No. 43: "All Over Me"

" will always hold a special place for Shelton, as he co-wrote it with an idol, Earl Thomas Conley. The piano-led ballad finds the singer doing something truly unique: Showcasing a timid falsetto during the chorus of this poignant, pure country single. Lyrically it's difficult to keep up with, but sonically it's bold, like so many of his early hits.

No. 42: "Every Time I Hear That Song"

In retrospect, very few songs from Shelton's post-divorce album stack up against his earliest and most recent singles and deep cuts. "

" relies on a vocal hook, but the performance lacks urgency. Still, it hit No. 1 easily.

No. 41: "Sure Be Cool If You Did"

Shelton's Based on a True Story ... album started with "

," but every single that followed is far better and more engaging. This love ballad doesn't hurt for warmth, but the arrangement is milquetoast at best.

Rick Diamond, Getty Images

No. 40: "Drink on It"

Real life couple Jessi Alexander and Jon Randall joined Rodney Clawson for this track from Shelton's Red River Blue album. While still a No. 1 hit, "

" gets a little lost among other more dynamic performances and arrangements on this list of his 50 best songs.

No. 39: "I'll Name the Dogs"

" cast Blake Shelton as a husband in waiting, something his fans and the world in general were hoping for in his real life. The No. 1 hit from 2017 went Platinum on the strength of a pop-rock chorus and a charming lyrical hook.

No. 38: "Happy Anywhere"

" — the second of two straight single collaborations with Gwen Stefani — hit No. 1 and is a total earworm. It's hard to criticize the feel-good jam, but we'll say "Nobody But You" is a superior duet for the country couple.

No. 37: "Neon Light"

In a vacuum, "Neon Light" — a No. 1 hit, released in 2014 — is a funky, country and hip fusion that works. Across Blake Shelton's full catalog of hits and album cuts, however, it tries to do too many things that this singer does better elsewhere. For that reason, this track rates a bit low on this list of Shelton's best songs.

No. 36: "Granddaddy's Gun"

Aaron Lewis' version of this same song was more convincing, but Blake Shelton's "

" wasn't trying to act tough. The more sensitive singer's rendition was more sensitive and polished. The two men were targeting different country audiences.

No. 35: "A Guy With a Girl"

Blake Shelton celebrates his woman during "

" a No. 1 hit from If I'm Honest. The song is a sweet gesture, made atop a radio-ready arrangement.

No. 34: "Nobody But You"

The first of two straight, Gwen Stefani duets to country radio finds the couple trading lines as they tell a love story that can only be described as genuine. The No. 1 hit reached a very pleasing one million downloads quickly. "

" should not be confused with another song on this list. It's a progressive, pop-friendly ballad that truly simmers.

No. 33: "When Somebody Knows You That Well"

Of all of Blake Shelton's official singles, "

" faired the worst. It barely cracked the Top 40, possibly due to an outdated, string heavy arrangement. But it's not a bad little song. Harley Allen co-wrote this ballad and Shelton does OK in finding the right perspective. 'A' for effort, big fella.

No. 32: "Doin' What She Likes"

This charming No. 1 hit is best remembered for a music video in which a bumbling Blake Shelton burns the house down trying to cook a romantic dinner for Miranda Lambert, who makes a vocal cameo early. Sans video, "

" is a warm love song that's fit for a squeeze.

No. 31: "Just South of Heaven"

Another fan favorite from deep in Shelton's catalog, "

" finds the singer relying on a familiar mood over a welcome acoustic guitar and fiddle combination.

No. 30: "Came Here to Forget"

If you expected Blake Shelton's post-divorce album to include some heartache, you were right. "

is a dark country lyric atop an R&B-infused guitar line. His twang keeps it country, but the song is among his most progressive No. 1 hits. Often when he stretches the genre, it's done with a wink — not this time.

No. 29: "Sangria"

Few songs on this list of Blake Shelton's best smolder like "

." The love song rides a warm melody that covers for a barely-there hook. This 2015 hit was one in a string of No. 1 hits for Shelton, most of which went Gold or Platinum.

No. 28: "Jesus Got a Tight Grip"

When Blake Shelton does sit down to write, what comes out is often spiritual. Deep love songs and reflections on a higher power make up his short songwriting catalog. Jessi Alexander helped him with "

," a plucky country-rocker from 2019.

No. 27 Draggin' the River

" tells a dark story of two lovers escaping together, and in that way, it's very Miranda. Shelton's polished vocals and a sweetened production make this track from the All About Tonight EP very Blake, however. While not a single, it was a fan favorite back when they were a couple. We still dig it.

No. 26: "Minimum Wage"

Blake Shelton's blue-collar love song is no "Friends in Low Places" but the spirit of this song still hits today. There's not a lot of love-conquers-all messaging across his catalog, at least not as much as that of storytellers like

" is a mainstream effort that did its job of introducing a new album, but it's hard to put it high on this list of Shelton's 50 best at this point.

No. 25: "Footloose"

Blake Shelton didn't deviate much from Kenny Loggins' original version. The country "

" wasn't a radio hit, but it went Gold and introduced the country singer to an all-genre audience that was just beginning to learn of him via The Voice.

No. 24: "Some Beach"

One could make a case for "

" as Shelton's most important song, as it saved a career that was spiraling after a trio of Top 40 country airplay hits. This is the first time fans got to witness his sense of humor and sarcasm — remember, there was no Twitter in 2004. A pre

Rory Feek co-wrote "Some Beach," showing how wide the singer reached for great songs early in his career.

No. 23: "Bible Verses"

" is the faith song on Blake Shelton's 2021 album Body Language, and it's truly a highlight on the project. The singer approaches the topic with genuine humility that feels as honest as any love or drinking song he has recorded. A great play on a phrase pushes the song higher up on this Top 50 list.

No. 22: "Hillbilly Bone" with Trace Adkins

Blake Shelton proved he's a dynamic duet partner with this partnership with Trace

" is among his most well-known songs, even if it's not a Top 10 song on our list. Amid a catalog of songs with sexy, delicate women, this rocker with tough guy Adkins stands up and demands you pay attention. Even the haters have to smile!

No. 21: "Nobody But Me"

Did you even know that Shelton has a hit song called "Nobody But You" and "

"? The former is his most recent hit with Gwen Stefani, but the 2005 love ballad is the one that deserves a celebration. A jazzy piano carries the country singer atop this pleading love song. It's both memorable and effective.

No. 20: "Savior's Shadow"

Jessi Alexander returns to this list of the best Blake Shelton songs to offer a gentle message about faith and peace. "

" is Shelton's only Hot Christian Songs hit, reaching No. 14 in 2016. He's rarely, if ever, performs the song live.

No. 19: "The More I Drink"

," a Top 10 hit for Blake Shelton in 2007. The singer's early rompers are unmistakably genuine. In his later years, a certain polish would change the raw messaging, but that doesn't exist in this Brent Rowan production.

No. 18: "Playboys of the Southwestern World"

This is a song about best friends. "

" is a critic's pick for this list because we can recall him playing it live. The song is largely shelved now, but it still cooks. As a storyteller, few artists do better than Shelton, as some of the highest ranked songs on this list will prove. Playboys (No. 24 in 2003) is a different kind of story.

No. 17: "Lonely Tonight"

Give Shelton credit: At a time when few solo females could break in country music, he was doing what he could to celebrate talent.

is just one example of the hitmaker looking past stars who would have furthered his career to support Nashville's best. This dark ballad about a one night stand is a provocative conversation that just burned in 2014, a time where Blake Shelton was king. During "

No. 16: "Turnin' Me On"

Blake Shelton hasn't written very many of the songs found on this list of his 50 best. "

" is a rare case where he set out to write a song that became a hit, albeit a minor one. The simmering love song only reached the Top 10 after its 2018 release, but charts aren't everything. Years later it really stands apart from the rest of the songs he released to radio. You can feel his passion as he sings a song that he clearly had girlfriend Gwen Stefani in mind for.

No. 15: "I Lived It"

This Top 5 hit for Blake Shelton seemed to come and go, but we wish it would have stuck around as a catalog cut for the singer. "

" is among his best late model songs as it treads into new, nostalgic territory for a singer who is so often singing of love and love lost.

No. 14: "The Baby"

Blake Shelton cemented himself as one of country music's most promising young storytellers with three of his first four singles, including "

." The heartbreaking mother-son story is a gut punch for older country music fans. Melodically, the chorus gives it wings. This song from The Dreamer would become his second No. 1 hit.

No. 13: "All About Tonight"

" for Blake Shelton, and it's a song that will forever hold a place in his live show. It's kind of the theme song for any country concert, isn't it? In truth, Shelton hasn't released too many all-out jams like this one in the last decade, so it stands out a decade later.

No. 12: "Boys 'Round Here" With Pistol Annies and RaeLynn

Every once in awhile Blake Shelton drops a song that reminds you he doesn't take himself too seriously. It's critical to his artistry and an integral part of his longevity. "

" was his early 2010s version of that song. It's a sort of hip-hop-inspired redneck stomp with callback lyrics and his then-wife's supergroup supporting him. The song is just so much fun to bop along with, even a decade later.

No. 11: "God Gave Me You"

Blake Shelton took Dave Barnes' "

God Gave Me You

" and turned it into a Grammy-nominated, chart-topping country song. But that's just part of the story. The emotive love ballad is also what gave the singer the kick in the pants he needed to propose marriage to then-girlfriend Miranda Lambert. This is a tremendous vocal performance and certainly worthy of a high placement on the singer's best songs list.

No. 10: "My Eyes"

Blake Shelton and

Gwen Sebastian

kept a brother-sister kind of relationship after her time on The Voice. She even joined his band. That changed with "

," a true bed burner that beckons, "Come a little closer, come a little closer / Come a little closer, love the way you look tonight / My eyes are the only thing I don't wanna take off of you."

"My Eyes" was the last of a trio of great male/female collaborations that truly put new female artists on a pedestal. RaeLynn and Pistol Annies joined him for "Boys 'Round Here," Ashley Monroe jumped in for "Lonely Tonight" and Sebastian for "My Eyes." This was a time when women struggled mightily at country radio, but the singer did what he could to help introduce new talent.

Warner Music Nashville

No. 9: "Home"

You see a real change in Blake Shelton's commercial success beginning with his cover of "

" in 2008. One could argue this is his most important radio release, and his vocals stand up to anything else he's put out. Prior to his version of the Michel Bublé song, Top 20 was where he lived. After that, he rattled off a string of No. 1 hits as long as anyone ever: Nineteen of Shelton's next 20 singles hit No. 1.

Warner Music Nashville

No. 8: "Goodbye Time"

There is more than one famous cover among Blake Shelton's 50 best songs. "

" was a

Conway Twitty

hit in 1988, and the younger singer did it justice with a piano-led arrangement that showcased him as a premier vocalist. This song also exemplifies why he was hit-and-miss at radio in the mid 2000s. It followed the chart-topping "Some Beach," which followed a Top 40 song called "When Somebody Knows You That Well." It's good to go back and forth between good times and heartache, but with Shelton, the pendulum swung too far every time. It was hard to figure out who he was for most of a decade.

No. 7: "Ol' Red"

" is not Blake Shelton's best song, but it's his signature song. He can't play a live show without telling this story of a prisoner, a dog and a warden who gets fooled. Early in his career, Shelton wasn't shy about covering other artists, including Conway Twitty and (in this case) George Jones. His tie to the past has loosened in recent years, which is a bummer because songs like this are far more interesting than anything on the radio today.

Warner Music Nashville

No. 6: "Honey Bee"

There's not an easier song in Blake Shelton's catalog to enjoy than "

," his slightly saccharine, but still grinning love song from 2011. The track went triple-Platinum and is perhaps his most recognizable song worldwide today.

No. 5: "Who Are You When I'm Not Looking"

Joe Nichols

cut this song several years before Shelton would make it his best love song. Both versions are exemplary. It starts with the songwriting. Lyrically, "

" is more sensitive and poetic than anything else on this list. Each line is phrased as a question, and each question is one any woman can relate to. The magic is in this hitmaker's personal delivery. His range isn't needed for a subtle romancer that the greats would be proud of. Few country women will resist a warm smile when this No. 1 hit begins.

Warner Music Nashville

No. 4: "God's Country"

God's Country

" rejuvenated Blake Shelton's career. The country-rock song paints a vivid picture but it works so well because everyone who touched the song went for it 100 percent. The chart-topping hit is arguably his best of the last half-decade and an easy pick for Top 10 on this list of his greatest songs.

No. 3: "She Wouldn't Be Gone"

There's no song in Blake Shelton's catalog that paints a breathtaking picture with the same ease of "

She Wouldn't Be Gone

," his No. 1 song from 2008. He begins with, "Red roadside wild flower if I'd only picked you / Took you home set you on the counter" before his second metered stanza that goes, "Yellow sunset slowly dipping down in the rear view / Oh, how she'd love to sit and watch you / I could have done that a whole lot more."

The chorus of this song is where the tension lies, however. Shelton has told great stories before and delivered strong vocal performances plenty of times, but few songs find him so recklessly emotional as this ballad. It's almost unnerving to listen to.

No. 2: "Mine Would Be You"

" is a Top 5 Blake Shelton song because of the twist at the end that just crushes your heart. It's a love song, until suddenly it isn't. Jessi Alexander and company wrote it, but it's the singer's energy that makes the song special. As with "She Wouldn't Be Gone," there's a sense of panic so rare on the radio today. Shelton seems like such a cool character most of the time, but moments like this remind us of his gifts.

No. 1: "Austin"

Fans have, and will continue to, make a case for "

" as Blake Shelton's best song. It's certainly an all-time great debut single — one that would work in any era of country music. Early in his career, the Oklahoma native relied on veteran songwriters and producers like Bobby Braddock to shape his sound. These days everything comes with a little more polish, which is fine and probably even necessary.

You can't compare 20-year-old tracks like "Austin" with modern songs like "I'll Name the Dogs." Lyrically, his newest material lacks depth when held up against the rich tapestry of these early hits. So many songs from Shelton's first two albums make the Top 10 or even Top 20 of this list for this reason. "Austin" at No. 1? It's tempting to select another for the sake of being bold, but doing so would just be dishonest.

[onlinemoneyculture]

How To Make Money With YouTube

YouTube has transformed video publication into a lucrative business and a powerful tool for promoting your business or service internationally. It has grown in popularity as the cost of high-quality video recording has decreased. 

Nowadays, all you need is a quality standalone camera or a nice smartphone to capture footage that rivals high-budget productions. It's all about originality and a compelling viewpoint for eliciting an emotional response from your potential audience.

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The Establishment

Before you start seeing yourself as the next Danny Boyle, it's a good idea to consider the type of video you want to create. Are you wanting to earn money directly from your video, or are you looking to utilize it to promote engagement? Occasionally, it is common to do so for both of these reasons. The sort of material you publish on YouTube is determined by what and why you record and share. 

In terms of direct or indirect revenue generated by your video, it's obvious that the number of views and shares your video may generate is the metric of success. So, what causes virality? We can never truly anticipate what will happen, but we can make some educated predictions based on historical tendencies. Even if your video does not become a global sensation, you may still earn money from your camera and a little more money for your trouble.

The Distribution

Depending on the purpose of the video, you can generate interest by delivering information authoritatively in order to keep the audience informed or inquisitive, and by including other clips that connect to your subject as necessary. If you choose the lighthearted informal approach, it is critical that your video be both engaging and humorous while still being relevant to your line of business. 

To increase your watching statistics, use useful tutorials or 'how-to's delivered with a tongue-in-cheek tone. Humour is always an excellent perspective to take. There are several free video editing programs that may help you produce attractive visuals for your clip. Text sliders and integrated music are also easier to design and add than you would believe. A well-produced videoed viewpoint works effectively for direct sales or marketing. 

The road forward is short, acute, and swift. Bear in mind that internet viewers have a relatively limited attention span. You have the first eight seconds to captivate the viewer's attention. Begin with a bang and keep interested by removing any superfluous material.

Sell! Sell! Sell!

If you sell a product or service, it's worthwhile to collect client testimonials for inclusion on your website. It surpasses text testimonials in that anybody can create a fake one in a couple of seconds. This will not only improve your YouTube presence, but it will also provide material for your other endeavor - a video advertisement!

If you're launching a new product or service, you may create an instructional video to accompany it, therefore promoting both your business and your new device. Publishers and authors do this frequently. Provide valuable information on the issue to which your product relates. Inform your visitors on topics they don't know and then present your goods without being too pushy.

The $1 shaving club clip is still the gold standard for all trade-related YouTube videos. Michael Dubin achieved over 5 million views and massive volume sales of $1.00 shaving sticks for a total cost of $3,000 plus several unemployed staff employees. 

It demonstrates the power of imagination in spreading a message virally. He amassed a sizable watching audience, but achieving a 3% global sales conversion rate is nothing short of brilliance. Take a look at the Dollar Shave Club smash.

Create a humorous video ad displaying your business culture or a typical client experience as an excellent starting point. To convert one viewer into ten or twenty, showing footage of your bustling work environment, processing orders, or showcasing the advantages of your business would require entertainment or shock.

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An excellent video is only effective if it elicits a single viewer's response or engagement. However, in order to go viral, the video must be humorous, provocative, or extremely instructive. What you want is for your audience to share your video on social media. That is the actual definition of a viral assault, which is disseminated by people who are infected. We'd suggest that traffic generated by controversy be left to experienced marketers or those looking for nothing more than a large number of visitors. It may have unfavorable consequences.

For people new to YouTube, it's generally best to just be yourself. Make certain to highlight your unique selling proposition. As alluring as it may be to hire a gorgeous blonde as your spokeswoman, this strategy almost always works against you; instead, get some genuine individuals in front of the camera and demonstrate to your consumers that you can be trusted. 

Successful films often include make-up artists, business trainers, eccentric shops, and amusing web ventures. On YouTube, music has also gained commercial exposure, and we are not talking about a major musician or record company. Dub FX was a dub performer making a few pounds on the streets of Camden and other comparable European cities. On YouTube, footage of his performance garnered millions of views, and let's just say he received his baptism at Glastonbury.

Click To Purchase

New media technology is not idle, particularly when it comes to generating direct sales through media engagement. Some people began the concept with product placement while watching a YouTube clip. Now, you may click on a highlighted object in a video to purchase the item using the click-through link. 

The setup is far less expensive than it was when the technology was in Beta a few years ago. For a monthly fee, you may have the software running in your £20 YouTube video. A smart method to set up a YouTube shop, in a nutshell, is to have a scrolling catalog with voice commentary and some intriguing content to keep the user engaged. 

Your material should pique the viewer's interest and maintain it. If it's fashion, discuss trends, suggestions, and styles, sprinkle in an occasional celebrity photo, and then exhibit your products. The same is true of services. You may include scrolling text that is clickable as you introduce your unique service. Order now, reserve your spot, and other call-to-action words can generate direct income for you.

AdSense And Ranking

YouTube is an excellent source of vitamins for your Google health. Your web presence may do wonders for surfer engagement and commerce thanks to search engines and web ranking. After uploading your video, don't forget to give it a title, description, and tags. 

After you've optimized your keywords and set phrases with accompanying descriptions, you're well on your way to receiving a spike in traffic from Google. If you use appropriate connections and spread the news via social media or your website, your video should get a few hundred views. Your video should begin to show on Google as a result of your key phrases. Click-throughs to websites receive a sizable portion of their traffic from video searches typically associated with YouTube. 

Page ranking on YouTube with the assistance of your video is therefore very important. Conduct research on how AdSense works to ensure that money generated from this source is reasonable and constant. YouTube will deposit payments into your Google AdSense account, and after you've completely registered in the program, you'll also be able to turn on Google advertisements to the side of or above your videos. 

This may earn additional revenue through pay per click and affiliate commissions, and all you have to do is maintain new video material and enjoy the earnings. Apart from direct payment, there are additional options to grow your YouTube reputation and generate additional money sources. 

If you're selling a few items on eBay or want to increase traffic to your revenue-generating blog, including a link to your site makes sense. You may approach other firms in your sector and offer to recommend their goods in your videos in exchange for a 5-10% commission over and above what YouTube pays you, or you can just get into an affiliate arrangement. By avoiding middlemen affiliate firms, you may keep 100% of your commission.

The Program for Partners

The Partner Program is when your films truly begin to earn you money. Once you become a partner, you may expect to earn between $2.50 and $5 (£1.56 and £3.13) for every 1,000 views of your video. While this may not sound like much at the moment, if you manage to produce the next viral phenomenon with millions of views, you can expect to earn a dot-com fortune for your efforts. Consider monetizing your video by selling scrolling text. 

A specific number of viewers suffices as proof of existence for a platform in which a linked business would be interested. Product placement and endorsements as part of the content are an effective way for paying advertising, large or small, to promote their business.

favorite open-source resources.

Currency of the Fans

Make your uploads one-of-a-kind and positively distinctive, and you're likely to amass a devoted following of admirers. Video marketing is not a get-rich-quick scheme, and it may be unexpected to some extent; patience and deliberate preparation should assist. 

It may be a lot of fun to create the films, and once they begin generating money for you, they are likely to continue earning money month after month. Feed your audience by introducing them to videos from others who have a link to yours. Once you've accumulated a library of 15 or more videos, you should be able to generate a reasonable amount of views for each video. Once all of your videos reach a minimum of 1,000 views, you can be confident that YouTube will contact you to ask whether you'd want to apply to become a Partner.

Uploading videos to YouTube is an extremely public act. As a result, you must be explicit about authorization and the restrictions of publishing a video. Take precautions and ensure that you have authorization where necessary to avoid discovering that your hard work was for naught. 

Situational footage in which you act as a witness with your video may be excluded in some instances, therefore it's a good idea to understand the limitations. Ascertain that your video does not violate the copyright of another party. Take a few moments to go over YouTube's terms of service. They are also there to safeguard your own good work from infringement by others; you'd need to know when your copyright interests have been violated as well. 

Consult YouTube's copyright guidelines and suggestions. Making money on YouTube offers more opportunities than we are accustomed to. It's entirely up to you to create engaging content and manage revenue once watching statistics begin to climb. It's an open field; let's begin filming.

Mother of three, daughter, sister, wife, public relations consultant, and entrepreneur

On most days, like many women, I appear to have to balance all of my duties. On other days, there are only three or four. This was the impetus for me to create Home For Business. I understand what it takes to be a working mother and how to run an internet business from home while juggling all of the 'pulls' of daily family life and work.

I've always been entrepreneurial, and in my 30s founded my first corporate communications firm, EMA Productions, working with large multinational customers such as Texaco and Rank & Boots. While it was difficult and time-consuming, it was immediately successful. Without family interruptions and with the backing of a wonderful team and office, I could focus only on obtaining contracts and satisfying customer demands.

There are hundreds of legitimate possibilities available to individuals, but many are unaware of where to begin.

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[parsleybabe]

Home Made Simple S01E02 - Product Placement Overload

The episode starts out with the same host and same chef but two different renovators. Imma call them Wood Guy and Deco Guy.

The family consists of a mom, a dad and their two daughters – one is a toddler and one is still a baby and completely disappears from the entire episode right after being introduced. They’ve just moved into a home and the goal is to renovate the living room and patio so the family can throw a party to introduce themselves to the neighborhood

So, here are my personal highlights of this episode:

There’s actually very little gender bias in this one. It starts out with Chef Guy talking about how they’re going to make party comfort food like a mom would make it, but without the love handles. That’s not even that cringey, I guess. I just didn’t like it how he connected comfort food with mom and love handles. Could be me being a bit oversensitive here, though. I did find it interesting however, that, in this episode, they didn’t explain why the mom was gonna participate in the cooking while the dad was helping with the tools. I mean, contrary to the previous episode where the mom doing the hard work was presented as a surprise. Just saying.

But, let’s stick to the title of my review and move on to product placement #1:  Fairly early on, the family dog is introduced (he completely disappears from the entire episode after this one scene btw, much like the baby before). And isn’t dog hair just THE WORST? It really, really is a huuuuge problem and it’s seriously “going to ruin the wall treatment”, Deco Guy explains. So he introduces Swiffer Sweeper Vac with the words, “I live by these things” and “it’s absolutely amazing”. They even give instructions to the mom who tries it out, “Push forward… push forward... it swivels… good job!” and then she is left alone in the room sweeping the floor as if she’s never done that in her life before.

What’s super funny though is that, later on in the episode, when they’re actually cleaning the same floor after all the renovations are done, they DON’T use the swiffer but another brand sweeper and it’s super obvious too because the swiffer one is neon green and the one they later use is grey and dark blue. That really cracked me up.

Anyway, let’s move on to Wood Guy who is working with the dad on wooden benches with storage space inside for the patio. Except… they don’t really show how to build them. They just talk about how that’s what they’re gonna do and then the dad gets to use a power saw once. Suddenly, they have a bunch of finished wooden boxes (I assume they built them, but it’s not shown or explained) and they line up some wooden bars on top of one for the lid (but we don’t get to see them screwing them on or explain how the lid works at all). Instead we see them paint the finished box benches. Because that’s important, I guess. Btw, we actually see one of the benches open very briefly in the background during the end credits, and you can see some metal lid mechanism, but that’s never explained on the show. And, honestly, why would we need to know how to do that, right? If we wanna build storage benches, we should focus on the essentials like painting them.

Meanwhile, Chef Guy explains to the mom how to make meatloaf. Honestly, it’s just your everyday bog standard meatloaf recipe, (just baked in cupcake forms and later mashed potatoes spread on top). But the meatloaf recipe alone is a huuuuge revelation to the mom, apparently, and she can’t stop praising it. The funniest thing about this scene, though, is how they use whipping cream for the mash. And while the info bar on screen suggests that you could replace it with nonfat buttermilk if you’re worried about calories, Chef Guy who is so massively opposed to love handles uses whipping cream. Consistency is key. 

Anyway, back to topic and on to product placement #2: On the patio, Wood Guy discovers the BBQ grill and desperately needs to show the dad how to clean it. He whips out some Mr Clean Magic Erasers and starts putting them to work. Which is not only a lackluster presentation, but also doesn’t show the actual “magic” of the product (the thing can remove stains from walls and grime from plastic furniture ffs, and there’s tons of products better suited to clean a fucking grill - honestly, I’ve tried the erasers on a grill, that’s the one thing they suck at). But hey, who cares. And of course Host Lady comes in and chimes, “This is amazing!”

Also, fun little side note, I found it super endearing how they got a BBQ on the patio and clean it and display it, but for throwing their patio party they don’t use it at all. Instead they serve meatloaf. Smart.

I briefly find some true respect for Deco Guy, because he takes the mom garden shopping and drops some actual gardening knowledge. I mean, nothing new, and none of it is actually used on the show, but at least he seems to know what he’s talking about. I guess some viewers who aren’t familiar with gardening at all could benefit from that.  I’m genuinely impressed.

Back home, Deco Guy wants to repaint the already existing patio table. It’s a super rustic, solid metal table that looks great as it is, but he wants to add color, so. Host Lady almost loses it when she hears that he picked bright yellow for the new color. I’m not kidding, she actually goes “Whoaaaaaaa! YAAAAAAAYYYYY!!!” and jumps up and down and claps her hands. I don’t even know, I guess she hasn’t seen any yellow in a really really long time?

Anyway, before painting the table they have to clean it. And, of course, they don’t use the magic erasers for that, even though THAT would have been the perfect moment to introduce the real selling point of the genius little fuckers  (in all honesty, I’m a huge fan of those things), but no, they use cloth, water and soap.

And then they paint it and make the solid metal table look like cheap plastic. But let’s not focus on what is a clearly a matter of taste. The true highlight of this scene is how Deco Guy gets spray paint on his pants and is devastated. I immediately lose all hard-earned respect for the guy, because… The guy’s supposed to be a professional renovator and should know not to wear his favorite jeans when doing paint work. I mean, come on.

The sprinkle on top, though, is when Host Lady asks how to get the stains out, he replies, “that’s a different show”. And I’m munching on my popcorn, because… I mean, they didn’t mind introducing a dog hair sweeper and they’re making meatloaf and all that on a renovating show, but talking about getting paint stains out doesn’t fit the format. This is getting more and more interesting by the minute.

Moving on to the living room: Deco Guy introduces the idea to put wallpaper on one of the walls and everybody is just purely floored by the idea, because nobody has ever thought of putting wallpaper anywhere apparently. The mom, who is actually a clothing designer says she’s always loved wallpapers but never thought of getting any. She literally goes “It’s very different” and I don’t even have words.

Not gonna talk much about how Chef Guy then teaches the mom to toast ready bought cinnamon bread and spread ricotta on it. After all, that’s just the subtle introduction to the true message of the scene: product placement #3, where Chef Guy casually asks the mom if she’s nervous about meeting the neighbors, while nonchalantly putting a Cascade dishwashing tab into the machine with the container on full display in two separate locations inside and on the counter and the camera following his hand. Veeeeery subtle. They don’t even mention the name this time, I’m impressed.

Host Lady is on a roll throughout the whole episode, by the way. Not only does she get overexcited about everything around all the adults, she actually turns it up a notch around the toddler. She speaks in this weird baby voice. Later, when the parents are discussing the emotional value of family photos, she just snatches the kid and hugs her as tight as she can. At this point I genuinely wonder if they’re related, because if any stranger had grabbed me like that as a kid, I would have hidden in the farthest corner of my bedroom and not come out again until highschool. If they’re not related, that family has one heck of a tough kid.

Time for final results. The living room is decorated and it looks alright. They didn’t really add much, but mostly changed the furniture placement. The walls have new paint and wallpaper, and there’s some family pictures thrown into the mix. The biggest change, imo, is that they hung three huge white plastic gazelle heads onto the wall. And I know this is a matter of personal taste, but they look really weird, reminiscent of hunted animals on the edge of extinction (which feels wrong), but plastic (which looks cheap on top), and they are white on a yellow-white wallpaper, so they don’t even contrast anything really. They just look super wrong to me. But, anyway, like I said, matter of personal taste. However, while I genuinely thought that we weren’t hit with the gender bias in this episode, Host Lady dishes one out last minute by pointing at the gazelle heads and telling the dad, “This is for you. This is the manly touch!” Ahh, no wonder I didn’t get it.

Finally, they move on to the patio and the best and sole improvement of the whole episode is that there is now an awning spreading over part of the patio. It’s perfect because it matches the request that the family had in the beginning (which was less direct sun), but they never showed how it was made or bought or installed on the episode at all. It’s just there when the family comes to see the end result. But, I mean, why would you show that, right?

[fyhnferguson58-blog]

Usually do not Look Any Further With regard to Organic Gardening Advice

If an individual knew the one sure-fire way to generate a beautiful garden, you might probably be with the backyard store at the moment. But alas, planning a backyard that will works together with all the aspects that make it aesthetically pleasing is easier claimed than done. Start your planning by considering which will plants will grow with little maintenance. Then, consentrate on contrasting foliage colors and plant shapes. Choose large-leafed bushes and set these people off with an tequila with spear-shaped leaves, for example. Write out the plans on paper ahead of time so you can change things until finally they feel right. That is are just some of the helpful information contained within this specific guide to effective garden. Want more tips? Continue reading! A great gardening word of advice is always to do all your own gardening function minus often the watering early within the morning hours. Sometimes working in the garden can take many hours and it also behooves one in order to not do this at often the best time of the day time. This will assist avoid heat related sickness like temperature stroke. Picking bulbs. Many bulbs happen to be sold during their foul period of time. Buy them such as early as possible ahead of they start to generate sources. Most spring blooming lights will begin for you to raise roots by way of early on fall, and by growing them early, you will guarantee that they own time to establish on their own. Lamps will deteriorate if kept out of the particular ground too long. Don't acquire any light bulb that can be soft or mushy, as well as appears to be impaired. Wait for a right moment in the event that you plan on splitting up a plant. Leave possibly two years to grow in addition to divide it with the end of the growing season when it looks with it has the greatest. If your plant shows signs of diseases or has areas together with fewer leaves and plants than others, it truly is too late. When you do gardening, make certain you have a good pair of garden gloves. Gardening is definitely hard on your hands. Thorns and sharp branches can certainly hurt your hands in case they are definitely not protected by gloves. In some cases anyone cannot see what can be inside a bush when an individual stick your odds in presently there to prune. Within the couple of gardening gloves will make sure that your hands can not be hurt. Intended for a natural way in order to control aphids, populate your own personal garden together with ladybugs. Ladybugs are organic potential predators involving aphids in addition to scaly bugs. They are quite to help look at, and they are beneficial to outside the house. They do not take in flowers, in order to safely make use of them on your garden. This is a new fine substitute for using commercial not eco-friendly pesticides. If deciding to seed a new garden, it can be important to survey the areas readily available for planting plus figure out which will get the best area. Regardless of whether you grow your fruits and vegetables in your lawn, about your outdoor in containers, or on the apartment terrace, your flowers should become in a new spot which in turn is exposed to sun rays. For you to yield the very best harvest, just about all crops will need to be situated within a good place which is an open location that is bright. To preserve money about seeds, only use a small piece of the box. Throughout most cases, only some sort of pinch of seeds will be necessary, and seed products can easily easily be stored with regard to the right after year. An individual can in addition test busting seed bouts using your friends and neighbors and friends. This can be a great way to garden on a budget. Within areas which can be very dried up, you should seed drought resistant plants. These kinds of intense plants will pull through, together with thrive, on hardly any drinking water, and in hot conditions. Many types have plants as lovely as virtually any excessive upkeep types regarding plants. You may also get low-water edible flowers for your own garden. Water the natural and organic garden with hurricane drinking water runoffs and obtained rainwater. Rainwater is more pure and better for flowers when compared with home tap normal water, because it is just not incorporate chemicals such as chlorine or fluoride. Using rainwater also helps in reducing your overall liquid consumption. Rainwater can even turn out to be stored in barrels or perhaps cisterns for use during dry periods. Employ a ground cover, some as mulch or hay. Be sure if you are getting your ground handle, the fact that it is also organic, as any chemicals contained throughout the mulch or existe can be absorbed because of your plants. Organic ground styles will secure the sources of your plants and even help prevent water evaporation. It is important for you to employ a strong and top quality sunscreen when farming out-of-doors. That is quite easy to get burnt on the back associated with your throat, tops involving your arms or upon your feet while a person are garden. Sun mass will help to protect against sunburn and will decrease your own chance of obtaining skin cancer through sun exposure. Have cannabis light of your current tools available to you as you garden to enhance efficiency. Keep the tools inside a big pail, or perhaps store them around tough pockets in your slacks. Have gloves, shears, a good trowel and anything more you require handy for speedy make use of. When watering your garden, take into account a soaker hose as a substitute of employing a hose or perhaps sprinkling can. If you turn the soaker hoses tension onto low, you can get away from your water upon regarding hrs which may allow a part associated with your garden to get slowly but surely irrigated. This could provide you with the perfect time to do other things. When generating a compost heap, make use of dried plant resources plus green plants throughout equivalent parts. Green signifies vegetable cuttings including turf, build and weeds. Dried out flower material comprises destroyed papers, cardboard, sawdust, and hay. Your compost heap should never contain meat, ashes or charcoal. The accurate depth to get planting seed products in storage units is multiple the seed's size. Nonetheless, is important in order to know the some vegetables should not be covered, because they need complete subjection for you to sun. Some examples are petunias and ageratum. Should you be not sure if the seeds need to have sunlight, anyone can find out on the web or through the seeds' package. As you can certainly see, garden planning in addition to design takes a little bit of bit of advance work. When you understand more about features such as your area's climate and typically the type of garden soil inside your yard, plant selection and placement becomes substantially less complicated. Sketch your intentions of paper, then bring these people to our lives and crate a backyard you will treasure all year all around.

[xwillstudy-blog]

In the movie world, it is common for companies to be present in a movie because they helped sponsor said movie. The placement of these products and company logos can be both important to the plot of the story, or they can be irrelevant, obvious, annoying, and ultimately a mockery of the company and product in itself. Cinemasins has honored this annoying movie and tv trope as a sin called Product Placement, and in this, I will explain why this cliche deserves to be a movie and tv sin.

Let’s begin with the less obvious product placements. In Shrek, there is a scene where Shrek, Fiona, and Donkey arrive in Far Far Away and scattered around the scene, there are little product placements sprinkled here and there. Starting from the left, there is a Starbucks sign, moving toward the center, the Hollywood sign has been morphed to better the movie, and finally, on the far right, as the video proclaims, there is a Burger “Prince” nestled comfortably in the corner of the screen. Each of these little details is supposed to incite a chuckle from the viewer that notices them. The movie itself is about making fun of fairytale cliches by going against them with pop culture. The addition of these product placements helps the movie serve that purpose while also not being too direct and annoying.

Moving forward, another less obvious product placement is seen in Blank Panther in the “parade of black villainous SUVs” pulling up. Unlike later in the movie when there is a rather obvious product placement for a new car - the one that Shuri is driving in her holographic machine, the black vans are not directly trying to catch the audience’s attention about the specific car. It is more to show “the bad guy has arrived.”

An example of an obvious car product placement in a movie is Daddy’s Home the Ford Flex introduction scene. Throughout the movie, the car is used as an important prop, showing how uncool and geeky the main character is as a father. However, this is nowhere more apparent than in the very first introduction of the character’s personality. He goes from talking about how he loves being a stepdad straight into how he “loves his Ford Flex.” It could be seen as humorous to the audience because he is so direct. It could be interpreted like he is actively trying to break the 4th wall with the product placement, but it was ineffective and mostly annoying. A scene where he is simply smiling while driving in said car would have been just as effective.

Horror movies are also subject to the Product Placement sin as seen by the ever loved “Paranormal Activity.” In Paranormal Activity, there is a scene where Micah stand directly in front of the camera to adjust the lighting and such, and he does so for a pretty drawn out time. It is understandable that this is apart of a movie because the movie is shot like a home video, and it is meant to be him relaxing in regular clothes, but why choose CoinNet as the random shirt he was wearing. Movie directors are intentional in their every shot, so this use of product placement was ineffective. As Cinemasins said, “It lasts entirely too long, and is also entirely ineffective since I don’t know what they do, nor do I care.” In a car sponsorship, it is obvious that the movie is trying to sell the car as either fast, comfortable, or sexy; the purpose of the specific car is clear. The CoinNet did not provide a purpose and therefore, it was mostly just annoying filler.

Action movies are known for including products in their movies. Most times the products used actually serve a purpose, introducing something or someone, creating tension, being comedic relief, or aiding the protagonist in his or her fight against the main bad guy or girl. Three examples of direct and plot related product placement are Ready Player One’s Pizza Hut and Drone scene, The Losers’ Dunkin Donuts Copter crash, and the Emoji Movie’s everything.  

In Ready Player One, as the main character is explaining this world he now lives in, filled with high-tech devices and lazy people who wish not to face reality, there is a scene where a Pizza Hut box is being delivered to a person by a drone. It is ironic because it parallels to our world now. It is also not subtle in the slightest. Unlike other aforementioned placements, this one is not overly exerted and it does relate to what the story is talking about - a future where technology makes life better. The Dunkin Donuts Copter scene in The Losers, in contrast, does not use the product placement to further the plot. Pooch and Aisha are arguing about Pooch’s skills and in the middle of the verbal disagreement, a huge Dunkin Donuts billboard comes out of nowhere and they nearly crash. Of course, the billboard scene is supposed to be irony because it almost proves that Pooch can’t drive anything, but the humor of Aisha calling out “Donut. Donut. Donut!” is funny. The billboard could have been anything else - a phone, a baby, a whale, and it would have had the same effect.

Pointless isn’t the word I would use to describe most product placements. They are usually funny, if nothing else. Sometimes they serve to offer assistance to the plot of the story. Most times, they are there because the movie had to give credit to companies that helped sponsor the movie. One movie, though, takes away all my hope for product placement. This movie is The Emoji Movie. Off the back, one has to realize there will be pointless attempts at humor in the movie because the characters are emojis. But the blatant product placement in the movie is so glaringly obvious that it is almost impossible to highlight specific scene. You could talk about the Candy Crush scene where the main characters actually have to explain the rule of the game and then play it to move on with the movie. One could mention the scene where Alex is going through his home screen and the audience gets to see all the apps he has stored on his phone - subtle but not really. The worst, though, has to be Just Dance scene where Christina Aguilera welcomes the main characters, explains the rule of the game in an overly hyper voice, and then the character precedes to dance around, smiling widely as if the game is just that exciting and fun. With as many of the apps that were mentioned, it is almost impossible for the audience to ignore the reason for the movie. The Product Placement scene is supposed to be for fun, to highlight in a humorful way the audience caught the wink from the movie about a certain company or product. The Emoji Movie didn’t do that. It is a beautiful example of how movies overuse, violate, and destroy the purity of a simple nod towards a product. Usually, if a movie were to replace the used product with something different, the content would still be the same, maybe with a little bit of the meaning changing. The movie would still be the movie with the small revision. The Emoji Movie is unable to do this. When the majority of one’s plot focuses on the product placement, where is the enjoyment for the story.  

Overall, Product Placement or Direct Sponsorship are can shape a movie for the better. Most car product placement do this because they add to the illusion of whatever the movie is trying to sell about the character owning the car. Specific clothing brands do the same, but these are usually a lot more subtle. Food and drinks brands are the most common in movies because they can go unnoticed or they can add to the plot, depending on the way the movie’s director decides to include them. Popular electronics like Beats and iPhones are the norm in movies today, but they can be overused and sell this idea that all Americans have the privilege and the movie to buy and maintain these sorts of luxury items. In the end, there is absolutely nothing wrong with product placement...when used correctly. A product, company, or brand should be seen or mentioned slightly to allow the audience to know what it does and why it is important to the plot. The item’s use in the movie should be hint enough to the audience without the movie trying to directly sell it. All movies should keep in mind one thing when deciding on sponsorship deals; Never be another The Emoji Movie.

Viewer Discretion is Advised For Each of the following videos if you decide to watch the Cinemasins on them:

Friends - Pottery Barn

Shrek - Starbucks, Hollywood, Burger Prince

Black Panther - “Villainous Black SUV”

Daddy’s Home - Ford Flex

Ready Player One - Pizza Hut

The Losers - Dunkin Donuts

Paranormal Activity - CoinNet T-Shirt

The Emoji Movie - EVERYTHING

[chicagoindiecritics]

New from Every Movie Has a Lesson by Don Shanahan: REWIND REVIEW: Toy Story 4

(Image courtesy of Walt Disney and Pixar via Walt Disney Media File)

For an occasional new segment, Every Movie Has a Lesson will cover upcoming home media releases combining an “overdue” or “rewind” film review, complete with life lessons, and an unboxed look at special features.

TOY STORY 4

After reopening the franchise and scoring at the summer box office Toy Story 4 arrives on October 8th. Pixar releases are always top-notch in the goodies department and this new 3-disc set offers plenty of treats. Completists, you’re going to want this disc, at least until some writer gets the idea to dust off these toys for an equally unnecessary fifth installment.

LATE HOMEWORK EXCUSE:  

I should rename this section from “Late Homework Excuse” to “Inciting a School Riot” for my participation with the June release of Toy Story 4. I saw the film early for press, covered a fun family event at Navy Pier, and was very unimpressed by the final product. My review was one of the initial wave of four that broke the Rotten Tomatoes perfect 100% Tomatometer score for the movie. The trolling comments and death threats followed and I wrote about that experience. I didn’t want to be that guy, but I just couldn’t call this sequel worthwhile trying to follow the near-perfection of Toy Story 3. I spelled out my stance to my peers as well with podcast appearances on “Kicking the Seat” and “You’ll Probably Agree.”

ANTICIPATORY SET AND PRIOR KNOWLEDGE:

A few years have passed since our core corps of toys were passed on to hazel-green-eyed Bonnie from the college-bound Andy. The toddler is now an anxious little girl entering kindergarten after starting to show favor at home towards other playtime favorites than our stalwart cowboy Woody (Tom Hanks). Even on the dust bunny closet sidelines, the vocal sheriff and leader still sees Bonnie’s happiness as his chief duty. He sneaks into Bonnie’s backpack for orientation day to be a familiar face and watches her having no luck in making friends or feeling positive.

Scavenging and sneaking some scraps and art supplies to Bonnie, Woody watches her create a makeshift little character out of a spork, pipe cleaner, stick-on shaky eyes, and other craft materials. With connection and accomplishment, Bonnie names him Forky and the sprinkle of loveable alchemy that makes Forky a toy to her brings him to life. The little junker (Tony Hale) becomes Bonnie’s favorite comfort but sentiently believes he’s still trash, a transition of character growth that will come from Woody’s teaching and leadership since the days of Buzz Lightyear (Tim Allen).

LESSON #1: INTERPRET YOUR INNER VOICE — The first of many possible takeaway chestnuts for the target demographic showing up in droves for this movie is a message on conscience. Various characters in the movie, between pull-strings and heartstrings, duel with literal and figurative forms of their inner voice and how best to follow it or not. Good, bad, and questionable choices are made across the board for younger audiences to see as cautionary examples. This lesson counts as mildly beneficial in the worthwhile department.

All this built-up confidence and protection for Bonnie falls into peril when Forky gets lost on a family road trip to end the summer. Woody goes after him while Buzz (Tim Allen), Jessie (Joan Cusack) and the others hold down the family RV and stall Bonnie’s parents. Woody and Forky become sidetracked by the reemergence of his old flame Bo Peep (Annie Potts) who has found a thriving new life as a “lost” toy living independently on her own. Their reunion and pursuit intersects with the forgotten toys of an antique store led by Gabby Gabby (Christina Hendricks), an unwanted pull-string doll with a broken voice box and a gang of extremely creepy slick-haired suits at her disposal, who have taken Forky captive.

MY TAKE:

It could be the first movie, fourth movie, or the 17th of something really extensive, a beneficial purpose needs to be present beyond the business end of selling tickets and what not. For each movie or chapter at hand, one has to consider if there is a worthwhile story to tell, one that can justify this new effort being a true necessity. The key word there is worthwhile. To more specifically judge a sequel in that regard, one has to look where it came from and where it is going. Toy Story 4 indeed attempts to advance characters and chooses trajectories, but then look backward and forward and ask about value and placement. Despite the immense talent shining from the recording studio and the animation workshop, the traits and choices of Toy Story 4 lack being worthwhile.

LESSON #2: THE SYNONYMS OF “WORTHWHILE” — Dissect this important adjective further with its synonyms that offer a range of its possible connotations as a description. This review will feature five from worthwhile’s Thesaurus.com entry: advantageous, beneficial, constructive, justifiable, and valuable. All five can be applied to this film.

Advantageous and valuable, in the lucrative sense, are easy because the braintrust of Pixar has been tempted for the better part of a decade to re-open Toy Story after many initially ruled it out following the excellence of Toy Story 3. Audience interest and earning potential has not faded where this was bound to happen at some point. Now it’s here and it’s about earning justifiable inclusion and existence.

LESSON #3: BEING LOST VERSUS BEING FREE — In unison with Lesson #1, Disney has always had a tendency to over-highlight their chosen morals and themes. The “lost” fear here in Toy Story 4 is the first of two teachable concepts and plot ingredients that are beaten to death, even by Mouse House standards. Much fluster and bluster is expressed for avoiding becoming lost, helping the lost, and/or getting over something lost. All the while, and very true to the human condition paralleled through these cherished toys, there is a potential sunny freedom possible in being unbound that seeps in clouding motivations and futures. Still, it’s an overplayed point.

Circle back to purpose. The first Toy Story was groundbreaking and its stellar sequel strengthened and expanded its world-building beautifully. The keenly nostalgic third film wisely and perfectly brought everyone and everything further to a mature, impactful, and fitting conclusion. Continuing a journey that had an ending for a questionable transition such as this, Toy Story 4 does not match or exceed where it came from, not when repetitiveness and disconnection reign.

Eight creators, ranging from departed Pixar chief John Lasseter to the clever Celeste and Jesse Forever writing team of Rashida Jones and Will McCormack, are credited with this hodgepodge story ineffectively narrowed by the credited screenwriters of Pixar vet Andrew Stanton and new voice first-timer Stephany Folsom. This feels like eight or more ideas that all distract and tangle each other up to failing points. Because of stature and importance, it is difficult to positively describe the result as constructive. Unnecessary is a very tempting label, one that is probably too strong, but it is very close.

Both within the Toy Story franchise and beyond in other family films, we’ve seen the self-urgent dalliances and pitfalls of a manic need-to-get-back-home adventure endless times now. As the fourth film following what was serene closure, this counts as unjustified and even misguided. Cutely twitchy as he is, Forky is no better than a mini MacGuffin to force action and the mad cap spins become excessive by the time the movie culminates in a rehash Finding Dory’s vehicular takeover action finale. Likewise in the opposite direction, the Gabby Gabby tangent comprising the movie’s meaty middle is long-winded and ineffectual, even with a redemptive ending we can see coming.

The curveballs and new guest characters, ranging from a motorcycle stuntman action figure (Keanu Reeves) and carnival prize pair of stuffed animals (Keegan Michael Key and Jordan Peele) and a few others, are certainly cute thanks to their casting personalities, but paper thin as merely and predominantly additions of comic relief. Even with a semi-exciting pre-credits rescue sequence revealing Bo Peep’s fate between the events of Toy Story 2 and Toy Story 3, the swelling and positive female empowerment of the returning shepherdess that was an afterthought before this movie takes away from the established core on the sidelines like Buzz, Jessie, and more who carry more lasting care. For example, had this been applied to Jessie or if the entire movie was more Toy Story 2.5 instead of a final one unwinding the catharsis of Toy Story 3, this all might have played better for justification and continuance.

Let’s not kid ourselves. Of course, all the talent in the world is here. The movie looks and sounds like a billion bucks. That said, story and purpose matter more than prowess at this point. Throughout this entire series, this has always been about the over-dramatic Woody correcting a personal flaw first and anything else second. His nobility to always be there is incredibly honorable. All arcs lead to him and Toy Story 4 is truly a unique and daring transition point for that character. However, it is elevated, again, at the expense of his partner Buzz and the rest of the toys who once hand-in-hand bonded with shared fates. Tom Hanks can carry that moment, but the punch, the famed “Pixar Punch” this writer and website has long touted and celebrated, misses in a way that may perplex younger children and raise an eyebrow in the escorting adults asking why this matters.

LESSON #4: KNOWING TIMELINESS — The progression of Woody is what brings the second simplistic and prescriptive nugget over-hammered by Toy Story 4. Implored loudly in some moments and reflecting softly in others, the lament of knowing it’s time, knowing your time, or being ready for either state is overflowing in every direction towards Woody. It’s a high hurdle for the plastic protector and apparently one for the filmmakers themselves too who didn’t know when or how to leave this all be.

2 STARS

EXTRA CREDIT:

In an improvement over the Disney’s recent Marvel Cinematic Universe disc releases, the folks at Pixar double the batch.  The Blu-ray/DVD/Digital package you will find on the store shelves comes with a third disc entirely dedicated to more bonus features.  The additions, while nothing overly long for deep Peter Jackson-level examination, are handsome enough to be a keeper.

The first bonus selections come on the main disc housing the feature film.  The main piece is the full-length audio commentary. Director Josh Cooley is joined by producer Mark Neilsen.  With typical Pixar pluck, 100% of the discussion is showering positives with very little critique. They open with the biggest question all of us had when hearing about this fourth adventure: WHY.  The short and curt answer is “we had more story to tell.” Much of that assumed position of decision-making authority comes from Neilsen, spoken like a producer with his bankroll on the line. Often, Cooley is serving softballs and tossing bouquets like a director trying to impress the guy sitting next to him that signs his checks,

After the prerequisite promotional trailers (one for Pixar’s Onward and, of course, Frozen 2), the other special features on the main disc are a pair of easy featurettes.  “Bo Rebooted” proudly highlights the creative women (yes, women, there’s not a man in the picture) behind the development and performance of the reintroduced Bo Peep character.  Actress Annie Potts and the various animators speak on her redesign, agency, and new womanly independence. It’s an outstanding addition here. The second one is easy nostalgia entitled “Toy Stories.” Cast members and creators alike wax poetically about their favorite toys and shared life experiences with them.  It’s touching, but still quite short.

Over on bonus disc, the top carnival prize is the collection of “deleted scenes.”  I put that usual term in quotes because they are presented here in unfinished storyboard animatic form.  Introduced each time by Josh Cooley, most are fairly small shavings or shifts from existing scenes. The boldest one is the alternate ending to the movie entitled “She’s the One.”  It’s an enormous departure from the final cut and maybe even one some (including this writer) find to be better. That is MUST SEE!

Behind that, the usual pieces and parts are here between a repeat of the trailers, a posedown reel for app/game marketing, few included promos from other countries, and some animated set flyovers that would make for a nice screensaver if we all still used those.  The Toy Story series has always had a “Toy Box” roll call of little genesis vignettes for each of the new characters with the voice actors and creators.  The likes of Forky (Tony Hale), Duke Caboom (Keanu Reeves), and Gabby Gabby (Christina Hendricks) get the most time out of the 13-minute collection.  Keanu’s is absolutely aces. You would gladly watch 13 minutes on each character if you could, but something is better than nothing.  

The cherry on top there is an all-too-short little retrospective of the bond between Woody and Buzz.  Three-and-a-half minutes is not enough time to encapsulate their journey. Oddly, Tom Hanks and Tim Allen never share interview time for this feature.  The editing compiles parts from their packaged testimonial sessions. The impact and interest would have been far greater to put the two stars together and see the human chemistry match the animated stuff (unless, gasp, they don’t have any), especially if this is their last collaboration.

The most interesting bonus feature on this disc from a technical standpoint is the “Anatomy of a Scene: Playground” that runs nine-and-a-half minutes.  Devoid of talking head stars, supervisors and animation specialists walk viewers through the climactic scene where Woody reunites with Bo Beep for the first time and their ensuing escape.  The reactions and insights of the artists are excellent. They really go into the savvy technical details (and easter eggs) that go into this one scene, let alone the many that comprise the entire film.

The last and most unique bonus feature is a hammy segment called “Let’s Ride with Ally Maki.”  The voice of policewoman Giggle McDimples, the prolific actress engages in a scripted pinball tour behind-the-scenes of what it takes to get from the microphone to the screen.  This quick piece highlights the mountain of repetitive data collection and work from the dialogue room (script supervisor, director, head of story, actors, and recording engineers), editing room, and creative offices.  Both informative and humorous, this feature is a nice take on the length and volume of the recording arm of the animated process.

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5 SEO Formulas That'll Kickstart Your Rankings

So, you want to kickstart your rankings?

Well, it’s hard to blame you. Few things in the marketing world are as enticing as the prospect of generating traffic, leads, and sales passively.

Who doesn’t want to sit back, do nothing, and make money?

That’s right: no one.

And the lucrativeness that SEO promises is no secret.

93% of all online experiences start with a search engine, 75% of users never scroll to the second page of results, and 70% to 80% of users completely ignore paid search advertisements.

This means that if you get your website ranking organically on search engines, you’ll leverage all of that percentage potential.

Unfortunately, you’re not the only one trying to do it. Since SEO offers so much promise, everyone with a website is trying to get their cut of SERP potential.

That means that you’re going to have to compete with a lot of other websites to get to the top.

In fact, 27.88% of marketing dollars go toward SEO. That’s a higher percentage than social media, PPC, and link building combined.

But don’t get discouraged.

Even though everyone is trying to climb to the top of the rankings, it doesn’t mean that you should give up.

It just means you should spend more time, money, and energy than everyone else.

Then, you’ll win.

To do so, you need to know the SEO formulas that will rocket your website to the top of the search results.

Here are five formulas that will do the trick.

Formula #1: Use competitive analysis

One great way to optimize your SEO efforts is to analyze the successful competition.

What are they doing? How are they doing it?

How much are they spending?

And how can you mimic their efforts?

These are all valid questions to ask when trying to determine what your competitors are doing right, what they’re doing wrong, and how you can copy their successful tactics.

As with most marketing practices, it’s best to have an understanding of what other people are doing to win rather than trying to build a strategy from scratch.

After all, why use a strategy that you’re not sure works when you could use one that is tried and tested by a competitor?

But how do you go about analyzing the competition?

Well, you’re going to need a few tools. The first one is BuzzSumo.

BuzzSumo has a free trial you can use every day if you like. It won’t give you as many results as the paid version, but it’s still worth your time.

If you type a competitor’s URL into the domain text box, BuzzSumo will show you which pieces of content on their website are getting shared the most.

And shares are good for SEO since it increases your social signals for that page.

You can then click on the content and read through it to get an understanding of how they generated all of those shares.

Here’s what that process might look like.

Enter the URL. I’m going to use Quick Sprout as an example.

Then, click “Go.”

Now, you’ll see all of the results from most-shared content at the top to least-shared content at the bottom.

If you have the paid version, you will see more results, and you can view the backlinks leading to each piece of content and the specific shares as well.

Either way, this information is extremely valuable.

Click through a few of their blog posts, read them, and try to get an understanding of what they’re doing right.

Consider the following:

Keyword placement

Length

Number of images

That will help you get an idea of how they’re driving SEO traffic to the post and generating social media shares.

You can also use Moz’s Open Site Explorer to do something similar.

Type in the URL of the competitor that you want to analyze.

Click “Search.”

Then, you’ll receive a massive amount of free information.

On the dashboard, you can see everything from domain authority and page authority to inbound links and root domains.

On the left side, you can navigate through different menu options to explore the website’s top pages, anchor text, and the specific linking domains.

This is a great tool for analyzing your competition and getting an idea about why certain pages are ranking well and why others aren’t.

By simply looking at your successful competition, you’ll be better prepared to rank your own website.

Don’t neglect the power of copying other successful strategies.

Formula #2: Get active on social media

What does social media have to do with SEO?

That’s a great question.

After all, SEO happens on the entirety of the web, whereas social media is on a single platform.

But claiming that social media doesn’t influence SEO represents a fundamental misunderstanding of how search engines determine who to rank high and who to rank low.

Think about it this way.

Search engines try to take into account as much information as possible about your website.

They use it to determine the quality of your website and thus where they should place you when someone searches regarding a topic within your niche.

One of the factors that search engines consider is social media. In particular, they consider the following questions:

How active are your social media accounts?

How up-to-date are your social media accounts?

How many shares does your website content get on social media?

On top of all that SEO attention, keep in mind that social media also offers 2.7 billion social media users. That’s a lot of selling potential.

In other words, social media sharing and marketing are well worth your time.

It’s not just worth it for the sake of reaching a larger audience on the social media platform itself, but also because all that attention will benefit your SEO strategy.

When it comes to which social media platforms to focus your efforts on, it’s ultimately up to you.

But here is the usership on each platform.

In particular, keep these tips in mind.

If you sell a highly visual product, Instagram is a great place to focus your energy.

If you want to connect with your audience on a deeper level, then YouTube is perfect.

If you want to share your website’s content and get it shared, Facebook is the winner.

In the end, the social media platform you choose will depend on exactly what you want to do. Beyond increasing your SEO.

Simply being active on social media will help accomplish that.

To prove it, here are six different companies that saw a major benefit to their SEO from social shares of their content.

To help you choose a platform, consider these differences.

But how do you share content on social media that users are likely to share again and again and again?

Well, here’s one great tactic.

It revolves around tagging other people.

When you share stuff on social media, you want to increase your audience size and encourage people to engage with your content.

To do that, you can tag some of your friends who you think might be interested in the content.

Aaron Orendorff does this regularly on Facebook.

This doesn’t just show the post to people you tagged. It also ensures that Facebook will show your post to all of the friends of those you’ve tagged.

You can easily increase your audience size by several thousand with a few relevant tags.

However you do it, use social media to build your SEO. The search engines are watching. Start performing.

Formula #3: Optimize on-page elements

One of the best ways to kickstart your website’s SEO is by optimizing the on-page elements.

In fact, if you don’t make sure that you have optimized all of the on-page elements, it’s going to be difficult to get very far with all of your other efforts.

For that reason, this should be one of your top priorities.

But what on-page elements matter most, and how can you optimize them?

Well, the lowest-hanging fruit is correct keyword placement.

To research the keywords that you should target with each page on your website, go to Keyword Tool.

Then, at the top of the tool, you can choose the search engine you want to focus on. Most of you will probably want to look at Google, but not necessarily.

Next, type in your niche product or industry that gives a basic idea of the keywords you want to target. Try “content marketing,” for instance.

Click the red search icon on the right.

What you’re going to see on the next page is awesome. Keyword Tool will show you a list of the keywords that people have searched for the most that include the words you typed in.

If you purchase the paid version, you’ll even be able to see the exact amount of searches for each keyword and the competition for each.

But how do you use this list of valuable information?

Simply choose a few of the keywords that you think you could create a blog post from.

In the example above, you might choose “content marketing strategy,” or “content marketing definition.”

Once you choose a topic, write a blog post with those keywords in the title and within the content itself.

You can also include LSI keywords. To find these, simply type the keyword you’re targeting into Google.

Scroll to the bottom of the page and you’ll see the related searches.

If you sprinkle these related keywords — also known as LSI keywords — throughout your content as well, it will give your page a better chance of ranking for the right topic.

You’ll also need to make sure that you include your primary keywords in the title tag of your page.

You’ll want to add a meta description as well.

That will help Google quickly and easily recognize what your page is about and place it in the right category.

Another way to quickly optimize your on-page SEO is to increase the word count of your blog posts.

Generally, longer posts perform better.

Sometimes, writing long content can feel like a drag. But it doesn’t have to be.

Just do plenty of research and put together a thorough outline before you start writing. Then it won’t be difficult to know what you’re going to discuss in the upcoming paragraphs.

Finally, to optimize your on-page SEO, you’ll want to include some internal links in each blog post.

Two or three links on each post that lead to other pages of your website should suffice. Just make sure that they’re in-text citations (rather than image attributions) since those count for more on Google.

All of those elements, from keyword optimization to word count, will prep your site for ranking like you want it to.

Formula #4: Generate backlinks

Backlinks are a great way to generate traffic to your website and increase your rankings at the same time.

Backlinks are simply links that point from someone else’s website to your website.

And they basically tell Google that the referring website trusts you, which, if that website has a high domain authority, is good for your rankings.

But how can you generate these valuable nuggets?

One tactic is to create an infographic and ask other blogs to share that infographic.

Choose a topic within your niche that you think will interest your audience. Ideally, choose something that is either driven by data or best practices.

Then, create your infographic for that piece of content. You can do it on your own by using the free infographic maker, Venngage.

Once you have a good-looking infographic, send an email to similar blogs that you think might be willing to share it with their audience.

You can use the email below as your template.

Hey, [name]!

My name is [name], and I’m the content marketer over at [website]. I’m a big fan of the content you put out, and I wanted to run something by you.

I just created an infographic for my own blog about [topic], and I thought it might also be relevant to your audience. I’ve attached the infographic for you to check out.

If you like it, I’d love for you to share it with your audience.

Otherwise, no worries 🙂

Let me know what you think of it!

[name]

The people who agree to share it will publish it on their blog and give you a free backlink. Voilá!

Another way that you can quickly and easily generate backlinks is by writing testimonials for other websites. When you do, just be sure to include a nice link back to your website.

Finally, you can repost your content on Medium and LinkedIn with a link to your website.

Be sure to monitor mentions of your brand with Ahrefs and ask for unlinked mentions to add a link to your site.

You can use this strategy as you guest blog for other websites, too.

All of these strategies are effective in their own right. You just need to decide which ones you have time for and which ones you don’t.

Formula #5: Target Google snippets

Have you ever typed a question into Google and received a result that looks something like this?

Well, as it turns out, these are called snippets, and there’s a science behind getting them.

The best part about them is that they push you to the number one result (also known as the coveted “position zero”) even if you’re not winning in the rankings otherwise.

It’s an easy way to push your result to the top of the page.

Here’s the best way to target them.

Think of a question in your industry that people are regularly typing into Google. Try something basic like, “What is digital marketing?” or “How to rank on Google?”

Then, in your content, have that exact phrase as a subtitle and answer the question as obviously as you can in the paragraphs directly after.

You’re trying to make it easy for Google to read your content robotically. That means that you need to organize it logically.

The other thing you can do is create checklist-type content like you see in the image above.

Numbered lists are notoriously good at snagging Google snippets because they are easy for the robots to read and understand.

The more that search engines can understand your content, the better chance that you’ll rank when people search, and the better chance that you’ll get your very own snippet.

Conclusion

You came here because you want to kickstart your rankings.

You’re either sick of having a website that never shows up on Google, or you’re wondering what it would take to start generating passive traffic.

After all, that’s what all website owners want, right?

They want to generate passive traffic to their website with very little effort.

Well, I can’t promise it will be easy, but I do promise you can do it if you put your mind to it.

And the way to do it is with these five formulas: use competitive analysis, get active on social media, leverage on-page elements, generate backlinks, and target Google snippets.

SEO is simply a matter of knowing the right strategies, putting in the work, and being patient.

If you do those things, you’ll climb to the top faster than most other websites.

What formula do you use to optimize your website for search engines?

This content was originally published here.

[duaneodavila]

Is Kim Kardashian West’s New Fast Fashion Lawsuit A Distraction From Copycat Allegations?

Kim Kardashian West at the 2019 amfAR Gala in New York. Photo: Michael Loccisano/Wire Image

Kim Kardashian West has had it. Officially. On Wednesday, KKW filed legal action against a fast retailer, accusing the brand of unlawfully using her likeness to shill their products. But Kardashian's lawsuit landed just days after accusations grew on social media that she may have secretly collaborated with a different fast fashion retailer to hawk knock-offs of a rare, archived couture look she recently wore at an award show. Was Kardashian's lawsuit merely a distraction from her copycat criticisms? 

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Let's begin with the what, as in what happened: At the annual Hollywood Beauty Awards, Kardashian stepped out with friend and nominee, hairstylist Chris Appleton, wearing a vintage Thierry Mugler gown from the couturier's Spring/Summer 1998 collection. It's the third recent sighting of vintage Mugler on a red carpet, after Rita Ora wore a design in November 2018 at the Evening Standard Theatre Awards and, perhaps most memorably, Cardi B stepping out at the 2019 Grammy Awards in a pink-and-black satin creation from the Fall 1995 Couture collection.

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​At 9 p.m. EST the following night, Fashion Nova shared stills of a replica to their nearly 15 million Instagram followers with the caption: "Don't Worry, We Got You Covered," followed by the eyeball emojis, and instructing their customers to search "Winning Beauty Cut Out Gown." That gown, now sold out, ​was retailing for $49.99.

Diet Prada was first to share an Instagram story from model Yodit Yemane, featuring behind-the-scenes images from the Fashion Nova shoot for the dress. When zoomed in, the names of the image files show the date of Feb. 14, four days before Kardashian wore the Mugler. "Kim, you'll never fess up to your sneaky lil collaborations, but we got all the receipts," Diet Prada wrote on its Instagram.

​That's when Kardashian decided she could "no longer stay silent." In a seven-part tweet storm on Feb. 19 at 9 a.m. EST, Kardashian (without calling out Fashion Nova by name) blasted ​the fast fashion retailer and denied any relationship with the site: "As always, don't believe everything you read and see online. I don't have any relationships with these sites. I'm not leaking my looks to anyone, and I don't support what these companies are doing." Shortly thereafter, Fashion Nova gave a statement to TMZ, denying any sort of secret collaboration and asserting their capability at turning over designs "within hours." 

"Kim Kardashian West is one of the top fashion icons in the world that our customers draw inspiration from," they stated. "However, we have not worked with Kim Kardashian West directly on any of her projects but have been driven by her influential style."

That's when the plot thickened. On Wednesday evening, The Fashion Law broke the news that Kardashian is suing UK-based retailer Missguided — not Fashion Nova — for engaging in willful trademark infringement, unfair competition and breach of right of publicity law, which prevents unauthorized commercial use of an individual's name, likeness or other recognizable aspects of one's persona.

The timing is puzzling, to say the least, that Kardashian would choose to go after Missguided as opposed to, or not in addition to, Fashion Nova; the fast fashion lawsuit grants her a headline that makes it appear she's taking legal action surrounding the Mugler dress copycat, when really it's something entirely different. Of course, it's worth noting a crucial legal difference here: In the case of Missguided, they used Kardashian's name and likeness, whereas Fashion Nova never so much as mentioned her, only timed the post so perfectly that the correlation was obvious.

It turns out, perhaps unsurprisingly, it's complicated — much like a smaller, but similar case we reported on in January, in which Fashion Nova was accused of ripping off an independent designer.

There's not much Mugler can do, assuming it would want to do anything at all, due to the fact that there is no specific part of intellectual property law that protects designers from knockoffs. It is one of the issues that the CFDA was lobbying about for years with the introduction of the now-defunct Design Piracy Prohibition Act (first introduced in 2006).

According to Jenny Odegard, founder and senior attorney at Odegard Law, designers and/or fashion houses can protect their work two ways: through copyrights and/or patents. Since this is not a pattern or a print (think: the Louis Vuitton logo), in this instance, copyright is out. 

As for patent: "In the case of the Mugler dress, it's really unlikely that the company would apply for or pursue a patent for a single item, even if there were a good argument to be made for the novel-ness of the straps," Odegard explains, noting that even if the label had done so when the dress was originally made, that patent would expire after 20 years, and thus this creation would have just missed its protection window.

Odegard does mention one possible outcome that could lead to retribution for Mugler (again, assuming Mugler wants that and isn't themselves involved in some kind of deal between Kardashian and Fashion Nova): breach of contract — but that would depend on there being a contract to begin with.

"Either [through] Kim's contract with the designers (if she has one), or if someone from Kim's camp is leaking, then it might be a violation of their non-disclosure agreement. If Fashion Nova is shown to have induced the breach (by paying the person who leaked, for example), then they could be held liable and its possible they could be forced to pull the dress from production." She adds: "Generally, with the pace of these things, the dress would still go through, and they would fight in court for a while, and then maybe get some of the profits back, which is why it's pretty unusual to sue."

But this is, after all, quite an unusual series of events. That Kardashian did not seek legal action against Fashion Nova, or call the brand out by name in her tweets, does seem a bit suspect considering the timing of the legal action she is taking. Still, there's a world in which all three parties — Kardashian, Mugler and Fashion Nova — are profiting not just from the dress, but the exposure granted through this news cycle. How? It would likely be put together via agents and managers, but, according to Odegard, with strict confidentiality terms.

The possible issue here: "If either [Fashion Nova or Mugler] did commission Kim to do this, it's a possible truth in advertising violation," Odegard explains, adding the caveat that the law may not be up-to-date enough to speak to something this specific. "The endorsement guidelines refer to telling viewers that you like a product, but they don't say what happens if you just wear and identify the source of a product. This situation [could potentially be] somewhere between an endorsement and a product placement, with a sprinkling of a secret 'Kim for Fashion Nova' line in the mix, but without a specific call to action for consumers." In other words, much like the series of events itself, it's all quite murky.

Oprah Winfrey once asked Lindsay Lohan in a 2014 docu-series: "So what is the truth?" When it comes to Kim Kardashian West and fast fashion, we're wondering the same thing.

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Is Kim Kardashian West’s New Fast Fashion Lawsuit A Distraction From Copycat Allegations? republished via Above the Law

[ekspertgoogle913-blog]

How To Get More Results Out Of Your Online Reputation Management

Search Engine Optimization Do's And also Do n'ts For The Average Person

If you run a blog or other web site that profits https://effektivmarketing.no/sokemotoroptimalisering mostly from website gos to, you can use seo to enhance site visitors and also your income! Review this article for pointers on exactly how to make your URL obtain seen by great deals of individuals that routinely use internet search engine to discover website.

Many people still make the mistake of assuming that all they need to do in SEO is to pack as lots of keywords as feasible onto their homepage. Not so. While it is necessary that your homepage consist of some key phrases, it's additionally vital to make sure you have keywords sprinkled throughout your website, given that all pages that connect to a homepage eventually matter in the direction of its search position.

Search engines work extremely quickly, however they do not such as to dig deep down into your directory site. Make certain that you are not hiding files in your directory.: You might have a web page situated at MyBusiness.net/ shop/products/listings/ videos/014.

Stay clear of utilizing key words that are of no relevance to your web site or product. When you do, internet crawler robots may error your website as spam and also blacklist your site from the search results page. On the other hand, be sure to consist of all relevant key words on your web page as this is the web page you ought to desire your customers to see first.

The incorporation of a site-map web page is important to any type of search optimization project. It allows you to include even more inner links, which can help enhance your position in search engine result. It makes it much easier for online search engine to find the most important (and pertinent) pages on your site. Make sure to maintain it tiny without any greater than 50 links on one site-map. As a plus, it makes it less complicated for the visitors you already need to browse your site.

In order to optimize incoming links to raise your internet search engine rankings, attempt to have web links to different components of your internet site, not simply your homepage. Online search engine spiders read links to various components of https://effektivmarketing.no/seo your site, as suggesting that your site teems with valuable and pertinent material as well as consequently, ranks it greater.

Utilize your keywords carefully. Consist of a keyword phrase in the main title of your page to make it a simple as well as effective way to locate you. Enhancing your ability to be quickly identified is essential, so do not forget that placement is vital to your search phrases. A blog or page title with a keyword phrase in it is highly likely to stand out.

It should do without stating that one of the tricks to seo is to advertise your website. Make excellent use all the social networking tools at your disposal and do not fail to remember to establish an e-newsletter and also RSS feeds to give your visitors brand-new factors to keep returning for even more.

To get the very best SEO ranking, it's vital to write high quality copy. Superb copywriting goes to the core of search engine optimization. It typically generates more visitors as well as attracts much more incoming linking. Plus, the online search engine, specifically Google, have ways of determining how well a tale is created and exactly how helpful it is, both of which are evaluated in online search engine position.

When you have limited the scope of your organisation venture, you need to think about more refinement up until you recognize precisely what search phrases you are trying to hit with your service. Thoroughly take a look at each keyword phrase to see to it you are making your website according to the marketplace you want.

It can also be practical to do keyword searches for the product or solution you provide. If your competitors is showing higher on the search results page, you can take steps to figure out why.

Seo

There is no sense in maximizing your website for "hooded sweatshirts" if your target market calls them "hoodies." You just need to recognize what words people are actually utilizing, not what you believe they use. One very useful tool in your pursuit is Google Insights, which will show you, in extraordinary detail, patterns of Google searches, either worldwide or by country, extending back to 2004. Get a solid manage on the words individuals ACTUALLY utilize to locate what they're looking https://effektivmarketing.no/sokemotoromarkedsforing for as well as you can believe in the key phrases that you pick for SEO.

Discover search engine optimization or employ a business that specializes in it. The job you put into your website will be wasted if the site can't be found during an internet search. An excellent SEO strategy will have you placing higher in the results of the major internet search engine for keyword searches that connect to your business.

Prior to starting a search engine optimization project, web site proprietors need to have the analytical devices they require to track internet site web traffic currently in place. Website traffic is the yardstick webmasters utilize to determine the success of SEO initiatives. Their logical procedures require to be in position before beginning SEO to ensure that they have a baseline for comparison.

Outstanding copywriting is at the core of search engine optimization. And also, the search engines, particularly Google, have methods of determining how well a tale is written as well as exactly how valuable it is, both of which are weighed in search engine ranking.

One way to make your site a lot more visible as well as online search engine spider-friendly is to decrease the amount of markup on your website. While numerous SEO novices might assume shade, and also typeface tags are more vital with web content, these and also various other format and HTML codes avoid crawlers from successfully as well as swiftly sorting via all the details in the coding of your page. This might eventually endanger the significance rating of your site.

If you want much more website traffic on your web site, using seo is the way to go. This makes your blog site or site extra available as well as visible to individuals who may such as to review it. Remember the suggestions in this short article to make certain that you get more website visitors that utilize search engines.

[douglasrdenton-blog]

A Countdown of Our Top Blog Posts of 2018 (Which Was Your Favorite?)

2018 was a big (HUGE) year for EHD. The staff doubled in size (SAY WHAT?!?), we wrapped up the labor of love that was the Portland Project (stay tuned for more reveals in 2019), the mountain fixer is ALMOST DONE (and by almost done, we mean there are walls and floors and bathrooms and a kitchen…furnishings are still TBD-head to this post for the most recent update), we launched two super awesome new sections of the site-all the cool kids are hanging out in the Rooms and Shop page, are you?-so yeah, pretty epic. And just wait for next year. We're predicting that 2019 is going to be full of so.many.amazing.things, and we cannot wait. Hopefully, sitting here in 365 days, we'll all look back and say OMG WHAT A FUN YEAR, THAT WAS THE BEST YEAR EVER, but before we get there, we have to wrap up this year, and what better way to do that/get all nostalgic than to look back at the top posts we published these past 12 months.

These are the stories you readers devoured (and commented on) the most. It's a grab bag of topics, from beauty to politics to house tours to trends…and a sprinkling of controversy.

#11: My Style Evolution, Where It's Going, and A Big Return to OG EHD

We originally only planned on doing the top 10 posts of 2018, but how could this post, which set the tone for what's to come here at EHD, not make it in when it was just a 100 page views away from claiming its seat at the popular table? We write our own rules around here, and no one said a “Top Posts of the Year” roundup couldn't include ELEVEN stories. This post was honestly months in the making. With two heavy renovation projects, the whole “style. play. every day.” aspect of this site (and me) kind of fell to the side, and I'm sure the team could see me twitching from withdrawals. In this post, I take a deeeeep dive into my old homes, my style and what's next for me. It's a good one, so if you missed it the first time around, don't make that mistake a second time.

#10: 7 Things I Learned After Instagramming a Photo of Obama & Losing 4K Followers

I really hemmed and hawed about whether to hit “publish” on this one, but some of the team campaigned hard for it because we knew it would cause chatter (and boy did it ever create chatter-it currently has just about 900 comments…you guys had A LOT to say here, as I knew you would). Writing about what was going on in my head before, during and after I randomly and really without too much thought posted a doctored photo of Barak Obama on Instagram one weekend night, only to have a major exodus of followers. If you've ever wanted to read my thoughts about feminism, where I stand on posting personal views on politics and, well, basically, what I learned from this whole thing, head here.

#9: A Romantic Glam Bedroom Makeover with Opalhouse by Target

It's so fun to do inventory at the end of the year of the posts that hit the most with the readers, because it's one of those moments where we get reminded of the posts we published AND LOVED. We post roughly 260 posts every year, so it's easy to be like “Oh yeaaahhh” when you see something make the list. This is one of those posts. Not to say that we forgot about this post at all (it actually had a sister post-I was tasked to showcase Target's new Opalhouse line this spring and because I couldn't pick just one way to use the product in a room, I did two rooms, duh), but I sort of forgot just how sweet and great this room was. That headboard almost broke the internet (and was almost instantly sold out on Target.com for weeks and weeks). You can't see it in this photo, but the Art Deco-y blush velvet swivel chair we used in the corner of this room was also just SO good. All around, just one of those rooms you can't stop staring at (so for good reason it made our Top 10).

#8: My Kitchen Design a Year Later: Lots to Love & Some Regrets

Another post that sparked controversy in the EHD reader universe, except this time, I didn't really anticipate it like I did in the Obama post. This post ran on Arlyn's first day as Editorial Director, so since I was busy onboarding her, I kind of got to ignore the fact (for a few hours, anyway) that everyone was VERY, VERY upset in the comments that I would even think to change anything in my kitchen that I wasn't happy with a year in. Words thrown around by you guys: “frivolous,” “ridiculous,” “wasteful.” What I thought would be a fun idea to dissect what I did in the initial reno and what, in retrospect (and after living with things), I think could work better in terms of style/design and functionality, well…you didn't necessarily agree.

#7: House Tour: Mel's New Place Makes Us Want to Declutter Immediately

EHD veteran Melanie Burstin's house tour was a year (give or take) in the making. Back in early 2017, she revealed her previous apartment in Silver Lake she shared with her boyfriend at the time, but since has moved into a smaller place for herself that she repurposed many of her pieces into. I personally think it was fun to see the same furnishings used in different floor plans (so did you guys). Mel had been making guest appearances on the blog this year since going off on her own with her Etsy shopping series, but it was really nice to hear from her and see her enviably minimalistic design eye at work again.

#6: The Living Room Rules You Need to Know

I don't want to say too much about this post beyond the fact that it was super helpful both for us to have all in one place and, clearly, based on traffic numbers, for you all, too. We walk you through all the “design rules” you need to know about to get a living room that feels “just right” and pulled together, from furniture placement to rugs to lighting (like, did you know sconces should be placed 5 to 6 feet on the wall from the floor?). Consider it our 10 Commandments for arranging your living room (well…22 commandments, but 10 felt more poetic for that tagline). Yes, all rules are made to be broken, but we all need to know the rules first to know how to break them.

#5: “I Design, You Decide”: Mountain Fixer Style

Our very first “I Design, You Decide” vote! While I miiiight regret ever coming up with this “genius marketing” idea for the mountain fixer (not because I didn't want your input, but because it was OUTRAGEOUSLY TIRESOME to design two fully pulled together schemes for every room of the house that both Brian and I loved equally…yeah, what was I thinking?), it's fun to look back at a time before I knew how much time/money/energy this whole series would take. BUT GUESS WHAT? The house is nearly done with the renovation phase, and like I said in this post, I do plan on continuing the polling process, but just at a smaller scale (sofa selection, instead of an entire living room plan, for instance). In this first post, I introduced the two styles we were considering (Refined Scandinavian Chalet-what I really wanted-and Brian's dream, Rustic Scandinavian Cabin. You guys picked…well, click over to find out (or get a refresher) and stay tuned for 2019 for all the reveals we're going to be rolling out once I get it all furnished and styled out (though I'm in no rush and plan to take my time here).

#4: House Tour: A Warm Scandi-Inspired Home

Before we got to Mel's home reveal in August, we tested the waters of showcasing other designers' work/homes with Samantha Gluck's beautiful house. Taking our #4 spot proves you guys were both into her work (which isn't surprising…she's an EHD veterans-she worked on the Cup of Jo and Oh Joy studio makeovers) and seeing house tours. Plus, the reading nook in her playroom also took a top placing in our Best of Instagram post from last week, so overall…lots of favorites here with Sam's home. We promise there are more to come in the new year, and we'll keep curating them as long as you guys keep reading them.

#3: Hair Update: The Team EHD Reveals

Honestly, we had NO IDEA this post would somehow skyrocket to top 3 for the year (with only a few weeks really to get all those page views). We made a heavy push to the intro of this post as well as the reveals on Instagram and you guys devoured it, but once our friends at Cup of Jo also shared the post, as well, that catapulted this to the winner's podium FAST. And while the comment section on this one was a bit action-packed (a lot of you professed that you were disappointed in some of the reveals, that they weren't drastic enough, that no one dared to shave their heads/go bleach blonde/whatever is worthy of being a worthy “transformation”), it was still so much fun for us to experience-and write about-a different kind of “makeover.”

#2: 2018 Design Trends for the Bathroom

Last week, we broke down all the individual trends we uncovered and contemplated this year in this post[LINK], but we purposefully left out our larger trend predictions (like this bathroom one)because we knew they had been our most popular posts of the entire year and didn't want to show our hand too early. Black fixtures, built-in ledges, monochrome everything, “wet rooms” where a freestanding tub and shower coexist in one space…all ideas that were fun to think about, some we actually incorporated into our designs for the mountain fixer and Portland project this year. Which were your favorite? Which made you go “yuck/hard pass”?

And FINALLY….OUR TOP POST OF THE YEAR IS…

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(sorry if that was annoying, just trying to virtually pause for dramatic effect)…

#1: 2018 Design Trends: Kitchen

THIS ONE! We kind of gave it away in our #2 spot when talking about the sister post to this one (bathroom trends for 2018), but obviously, you guys were hungry for new, fresh, exciting ideas for the kitchen. We absolutely plan to do this one again in the new year, even though kitchen design doesn't turn over super fast, but there's always someone out there doing something fun and innovative that makes us go “OMG WE HAVE TO WRITE ABOUT THAT.” These first 12 design concepts we uncovered at the beginning of last year still feel pretty solid all these months later (though maybe things like terrazzo are still pretty niche), and we can't wait to see how many continue to play out in the mainstream and what else pops up to ogle and wax poetic on.

THAT'S IT! Thank you again SO MUCH for coming here every day (this year as well as the last eight) and reading what we have to say. Come back later this week to see what we've cooked up for 2019, a reader survey (pretty please tell us about yourselves and what you want to see more/less of this year) and lots of fun new content.

Happy New Year everyone. xx

The post A Countdown of Our Top Blog Posts of 2018 (Which Was Your Favorite?) appeared first on Emily Henderson.

[gossipnetwork-blog]

Veronica Lodge of 'Riverdale' Was Supposed to Be Just Another Brunette Bad Girl—Now She's Something Greater

New Post has been published on http://gossip.network/veronica-lodge-of-riverdale-was-supposed-to-be-just-another-brunette-bad-girl-now-shes-something-greater/

Veronica Lodge of 'Riverdale' Was Supposed to Be Just Another Brunette Bad Girl—Now She's Something Greater

Much has been made of the many changes Riverdale made to the original Archie comics mythology. In 2017 Archie isn’t a blithe doofus who lucked into the affections of not one, but two gorgeous women—now he’s a varsity football player with washboard abs and a budding songwriting career. Meanwhile, Miss Grundy is a sexy librarian of a music teacher, Josie and the Pussycats are a woke neo-soul group, Jughead is a brooding, budding-writer cutie with a way less lame hat, and, of course, Riverdale is the epicenter of a Twin Peaks–style murder mystery that seems to involve every citizen in the whole damn town. (I also don’t remember the comics featuring so much way-obvious Cover Girl product placement, but that’s a topic for another essay.)

While most of these changes are welcome in that they diversify the formerly white-bread town, humanize formerly two-dimensional characters—and hell, just make them hotter—there was one change that gave me very conflicted feels: the decision to de-villainize Veronica Lodge.

Years of exposure to formulaic TV means that even if you never touched an Archie comic, you still knew exactly what to expect the moment Veronica first stepped onscreen. She was the mysterious new girl in town, a raven-haired siren with a dark past, sophisticated enough to casually drop Capote quotes in the middle of Pop’s Chok’Lit Shoppe, beautiful enough to captivate Archie at the precise moment when sweet, pining Betty Cooper is trying to stammer out the old “What are we?” speech.

I’m not ashamed to admit that I had a near-Pavlovian reaction to Veronica’s appearance. When a girl like that steps out of a limo and into a suburban burger joint, you know it’s about to get real. Clearly, she was there to sprinkle some much-needed spice on bland old Riverdale, be Betty Cooper’s archnemesis, seduce Archie with her HBIC charisma, and entertain us with endless scheming and catfighting. Veronica Lodge had arrived—and I wanted her to get her bitch on in the baddest way.

Only, this Veronica is a lot more complicated than that.

This Veronica sweeps into town in a swirl of rumors about her not-so-well-kept secret: Her father, Hiram Lodge, was arrested in a high-profile fraud case that turned Veronica from—in her own words—“a shallow, toxic rich bitch who ruins everything in her path” into a laughingstock. Now she’s thoroughly “humbled” and determined to shed her bad-girl rep in Riverdale.

Dear reader, if you could have seen my face the moment Veronica announces her bad-girl-gone-good intentions, it would have looked exactly like this GIF.

How could this shady queen we had only just met be on the path of good? Why could there not be a Riverdale prequel set in 2015, in which we savor the sight of Veronica Lodge running her private New York prep school with an iron fist? This girl wears a sheath dress, stilettos, and pearls to high school—you know she can serve Georgina Sparks realness when she needs to. But if Veronica Lodge’s good-girl aspirations were almost a deal breaker, it’s only because of my lifelong love for a very specific archetype: the bad-girl brunette (we’ll call her BGB for short).

What is a BGB? She’s self-assured, headstrong, maybe a bit domineering (think Jackie on That 70s Show). Sometimes she’s troubled and weird (Allison Reynolds in The Breakfast Club), sometimes she’s rich, sophisticated, and wise beyond her years, making her a one-liner dispenser par excellence (Buffy’s Cordelia Chase). At her worst, she’s a scheming, unapologetically selfish alpha-bitch (Courtney Shayne in Jawbreaker or Dynasty’s Alexis Carrington). She’s often—and this is key—unapologetically sexy. Even more terrifying, she’s fully aware of her power over men (think Twin Peaks’ seductive schoolgirl Audrey Horne).

In short, the BGB knows what she wants and is not afraid to demand it. In a pop-culture landscape often lacking in complex depictions of women, it can be totally, vicariously thrilling to see a female character own her power and sexuality. And, OK, I’ll lay it out on the table: I’m a moody brunette weirdo myself and not ashamed to admit I get my life watching BGBs own the room. I’ve always found these characters easy to root for, even (or especially) when they’re a little bit evil.

Of course, not everyone feels that way about BGBs. For every person like me who eagerly breaks out the popcorn every time a ball-busting brunette steps onscreen, just as many people hiss. That’s because BGBs are often asked to play another, less glorious role—that of the rival to a perky blond lead.

Examples of the blond-versus-brunette trope abound in every form of pop culture, from TV and movies to teen lit. Think Beverly Hills, 90210’s drama-queen Brenda competing with poor little rich girl Kelly over Dylan’s affections. Cordelia Chase’s mean-girl wisecracks at Buffy Summers, who’s literally trying to save the world. Vivienne Kensington scheming to humiliate Elle Woods in Legally Blonde (like Reese Witherspoon in a Playboy Bunny costume is ever not winning). Haughty rich girl Lila Fowler stealing boys from Cali-queen twins Elizabeth and Jessica Wakefield in “Sweet Valley High.”

But the fact that the BGB’s selfishness and scheming makes them hated by some has always struck me as hypocritical. After all, the last 20 years of television have been defined by men exhibiting antisocial behavior that puts almost any raven-haired temptress to shame. Think Tony Soprano, a neurotic teddy bear with a body count to rival Jason Voorhees. Don Draper, who slept with and/or lied to 98 percent of the women in Manhattan. Or Walter White, who cut a ruthless path of destruction as he built an international drug empire. Next to these genuinely disturbed dudes, even the bitchiest, most backbiting BGB looks downright quaint. If we cut female characters the same slack we did men, these women—powerful, sexual, funny, and yes, sometimes even selfish or sadistic—would be celebrated antiheroes, not villainesses you love to hate.

PHOTO: Maarten de Boer

But back to the whole blond-versus-brunette thing. It’s as tired and misogynist as tropes get, which is why I’m glad Riverdale lives to upend it at every chance. Yes, Betty and Veronica circa 2017 have their ups and downs and petty jealousies over Seven Minutes in Heaven. And Veronica does want and (spoiler alert) eventually gets Archie. But beyond an early misstep, Veronica also takes pains to be respectful of Betty at every point, even swearing allegiance to her over Archie because, as V puts it, she feels like they “were meant to be best friends, like, it’s my destiny.” Betty eventually gets over Archie, starts dating Jughead (who’s hotter in my book anyway), and the four sip milkshakes in Pop’s like best buds. It’s all so heartwarming. Meanwhile, because Veronica and Betty aren’t wasting energy competing against each other for a dude’s attention, they can join forces to avenge actual injustices—from solving the murder that’s at the heart of season one to getting revenge on a bunch of sexist jocks who are slut-shaming girls at school.

So if Riverdale deprived me of a bitchy brunette antagonist, it gave me something much cooler and even kind of revolutionary. It dares to imagine a world beyond female competition, where women consciously decide to value each other, and to stomp all over the false good-girl, bad-girl dichotomy that holds us all down.

Season one ended with a new mystery and a slightly resparked rivalry, when Veronica notices Archie suddenly pining for Betty now that she’s with Jughead (ugh, dudes). But I’m pretty sure they’ll get over it and get on with the business of being badass, crime-fighting, injustice-exposing best friends. These girls prove that blond or brunette, heroine or villainess, girl next door or new girl in town, when women get along, they get shit done.

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[maritzaerwin]

28 Key Skills Employers Look For In Candidates

Building a winning resume ain’t that easy. A huge part of this writing hassle is determining just what skills employers look for in your niche. After all, you know that you need to adapt your resume to every job you are applying to. But you are no mind-reader and cannot guess what this particular recruiter wants from the job applicant.

Or could you? : )

We may be no clairvoyants here at Freesumes. But we do know a thing or two about writing compelling resumes. Plus, we also love data. That’s why we prepared this big list of good skills to put on your resume (based on various industry research, not some crystal ball gazing!). Shall we dive in?

What Skills Do Employers Look For?

The short answer is that most employers look for a wholesome combination of soft and hard skills, relevant to the position. Approximately, 65%-75% of the total “score” will go towards your hard skills — the domain-specific abilities and knowledge you have. The remaining ~30% is allocated for your soft skills a.k.a. your people-skills or the abilities to effectively interact in all sorts of interpersonal relationships.

So if you want to beef up your resume skills section, that’s the equation you should be looking for.

Top 24 Skills to Put on your Resume

When it comes to hard skills, the original job posting serves as the best reference for what the employer needs.

We said that before, but it’s worth repeating it once again: mine that job description for keywords! Yes, just take and re-incorporate (word-by-word) some of the most prominent ones into your resume. In most cases, all those desired skills and qualifications will be listed in the Candidate Requirements section.

Here’s an example:

Source

Ok, but you are probably looking for some shortcut method, eh?

Yes, customizing your resume per each job posting can be time-consuming. Plus, you also need to optimize your LinkedIn profile with relevant keywords. (Heck, we even wrote an entire guide about that, now part of our Ultimate Job Search bundle!).

So here are some universally good skills to put on a resume, as per Udemy’s latest report on workplace learning trends:

Growth mindset

Creativity

Focus mastery

Innovation

Communication and interpersonal skills

Storytelling

Cultural awareness

Critical thinking

Leadership

Emotional intelligence.

LinkedIn data for 2020 also shows a bit of an overall with Udemy findings and also indicates that most companies need people with the following professional skills:

Persuasion

Collaboration

Adaptability

Plus, they also provide a list of top-10 hard skills for 2020. Spoiler: a lot of them are tech-related.

Blockchain

Cloud computing

Analytical reasoning and other analytics skills

Artificial Intelligence (AI)

UX design

Business analysis

Affiliate marketing

Sales

Scientific computing

Video production

OK, so that was a bit of an intro. Now let’s further drill into some more specific groups of soft and hard skills for your resume!

Company Awareness

No matter what business sector you choose to work in, all recruiters will appreciate your company’s awareness. This basically means doing some homework about the company history, their major milestones, and any industry awards won or innovative steps taken in their field.

It can also help to have an understanding of the company’s direct competition in their marketplace, and a bit of background knowledge about the products and services on offer. Demonstrating commercial awareness will impress the recruiting officer, too.

In essence, you should line up several quick info-nuggets about the company and weave them into your cover letter. Doing so can help you warm up the recruiter towards you.

You can do several things to get those “ice-breakers” for your letter:

Check the company’s social media accounts and read their feeds and regular updates.

Browse their blog  (if they have one) or sign up for the newsletter.

Review media and press-release pages on the company website.

Check their About Us or Mission page as these explain the vision and ethos behind the business.

Beyond your cover letter, you can also “boast” this knowledge during the interview to further demonstrate your strong interest and cultural alignment with the organization. Most employers value that a lot!

4 More Skills Groups to Put On Your Resume

Teamwork Skills

Just about every role you apply for will involve some level of teamwork, whether that is actually working within a large dedicated team, or with just one other person in a small business set-up. That’s why demonstrating that you have good teamwork skills within your resume is vital.

Just what teamwork skills should you put on your resume? Here’s a quick list:

Conflict management

Flexibility

High emotional intelligence

Maturity

Cultural awareness

Inclusivity

Mediation

Facilitation

Negotiation

Problem-solving

Team building

Mentorship

Peer coaching

Community building

Team-oriented

Positive attitude

Sharing credit

Tactful

Supporting

Project planning

Project management

Task management

Time management

Note: There’s no need to use every one of these skills. Just sprinkle in the 2-3 most relevant ones.

The best way to highlight your teamwork skills on your resume is to speak about them in the context of your previous jobs, hobbies, sports, or study. If you are new to the workforce, this could include group projects at college, working alongside others in an office or retail setting, or being a player in your local sports team.

Your teamwork skills can be listed on your resume in a dedicated Skills section or you could list them within your ‘About Me’ section where you are trying to get over your personality. Ultimately, this would depend on the resume template you choose to use.

Good Communication and Interpersonal Skills

Giving your communication skills a prominent placement on your resume is another must-do.

Sharp interpersonal skills will be especially important to emphasize if you are applying for either of the following roles:

Any customer-facing roles (such as customer service representative or jobs in hospitality).

Jobs that involve talking to business clients and loads of B2B networking (e.g. sales or executive roles).

Positions that involve a lot of internal collaborations with other departments within the company (e.g. marketing or administrative assistant jobs).

Previously, we published an entire post explaining what are interpersonal skills and which ones to list on your resume. So check it out for more pointers.

And here’s a quick tip on how to showcase these in your resume. The best way to show that you are a good communicator is by referring to a role (or duty) where you provided excellent customer service on a day to day basis or presented a project that involved contributions from other team members or information gathered from other departments.

It is important that you state your skills include not only verbal face-to-face communication but also personal presentation skills, telephone skills, as well as written and electronic combinations including social media.

Good Organizational Skills

Confirming that you have excellent time-management skills in this way will demonstrate that you are self-motivated and will make you more appealing to a prospective employer.

However, just saying that you have good organizational skills can sound a bit vague when written on a resume. So it’s better if you either be specific or refer to some examples from your day-to-day work. If you are applying for a role that involves a lot of spinning platters and tight deadlines, as well as high attention to details and superior planning skills, you can spruce up your resume with the following organizational skills:

Collaboration

Delegation

Planning

Physical organization

Managing appointments/schedules

Situational Assessment

Task analysis

Task assessment

Workflow management

Budgeting

Forecasting

Development planning

Strategic planning

Plus, be sure to list all the project management tools and software you are familiar with — Asana, Notion, Trello, JIRA, etc. — as well as any specific PM techniques.

Strong organizational skills are much favored by recruiters looking to fill in positions in creative and fast-paced industries, such as media, publishing, marketing, etc. Plus, the tech industry!

Data Literacy

As much of our lives now happen in the digital realm, we are seeing increased growth in all sorts of business data. In fact, big data has gotten so huge that only select-few companies can effectively operationalize all of it.

But the main point is this: the investment in big data analytics is rising year-over-year and most businesses are switching towards analytics-based decision-making. For the regular workers change is coming too. Most are now tasked to interpret and analyze large volumes of incoming data, rather than rely on their “gut feeling” or expertise.

In a nutshell, that’s what data literacy is:

Your ability to map the right data to the appropriate purpose

Capability to understand (and create) data visualizations

Employing critical thinking towards the information gained via data analysis.

So if you want to future-proof your career, you should definitely invest time and effort into your data literacy rate and overall analytical capabilities!

Last Tip: Don’t Forget About Transferable Skills

Obviously, every recruiter will be first assessing your soft and hard skills, relevant to the position. But, most will also pay attention to your transferable skills — the knowledge you can take from job to job.

So if you feel like you lack the desired qualifications for the role, place a greater emphasis on your adjunct skill set. For example, you want to change careers and apply for an IT job. As a former designer, you already have some basic coding knowledge (HTML/CSS), project management skills and a ton of eagerness to learn more. To draw the attention away from your small coding experience, speak more to your product design expertise and deep understanding of user experience — the two integral factors of great software products!

So now you have it, a big list of skills to put on your resume and add to your LinkedIn profile. And if you want to improve your resume a tad bit further, pack it into a more professional resume template with a prominent Skills section!

This post has been originally published on March 17, 2017 and has been extensively revised and updated on June 1, 2020.

The post 28 Key Skills Employers Look For In Candidates appeared first on Freesumes.com.

28 Key Skills Employers Look For In Candidates published first on https://skillsireweb.tumblr.com/

[swimbay1-blog]

What Is a Push Release and How Can It Improve Your Search engine optimization?

A push launch is an announcement that you thrust out to the media. For this post, I am only going to talk about net primarily based distribution providers. There are other publishing means, but my focus is on assisting you to comprehend how this methodology can boost your search engine rankings and get targeted backlinks to your web site, site or landing page. Anatomy of a Push Launch Advertising Campaign A push release marketing and advertising strategy can be a extremely successful white hat Search engine marketing approach. I have assisted my clientele to get placement on website page 1 of Google, Yahoo and Bing for the client's focused search phrases with just 1 optimized release. Individuals results are both dramatic and temporary, so I recommend this marketing and advertising approach as a piece of an overall material technique. Adding a regular monthly or quarterly announcement to your editorial calendar will experience outstanding optimization benefits. What transpires when you publish a press release by way of a top quality distribution services is this: Your content material is extremely rapidly pushed out to thousands of media shops. Several of these, in change, republish your push release. Websites that use feeds to provide in new content get your information item and publish it on their website. Very good topics can get picked up by keywords and hashtags, and are then released on social bookmarking internet sites, Facebook business pages and Twitter. So, in the days adhering to your distribution you will generally discover that your write-up is revealed by multiple resources. As you will see in the recommendations below, there are also several techniques to improve the duplication of your content. How to Compose, Enhance and Publish a Press Launch for Search engine marketing 1. Decide on your announcement subject matter. What's your news? For case in point, due to the fantastic Search engine marketing final results I am getting with push releases, I am likely to publish an announcement about a monthly support for businesses looking for articles marketing and lookup motor optimization aid. Your topic could be a modify of workers, a new spot, a new provider, a new site, a enterprise partnership, product final results, and many others. two. Perform your search term study and craft your title all around these keywords. This is the most crucial action. You want your title to contain qualified key phrases for the search engines to decide up, even though also becoming extremely catchy and reader pleasant. Your key word analysis gives you the possibility to assess related key phrase strings side by side and pick the very best one particular. I use the Google AdWords Keyword Device to determine the most specific search term phrases for my subject matter. In my scenario, I would study the phrase "push launch" and decide on a great phrase that has low competition and a substantial quantity of global regular monthly queries - but not also high. (We're talking countless numbers, not hundreds of thousands. You want keywords and phrases that support you stand out. It is significantly easier to uncover a sailboat in a lake than in an ocean.) 3. Write your content as a news article. Begin with a synopsis of your subject, then the meat of the report, and last but not least a organization bio. It really is critical to bear in mind that a press release is a kind of journalism. Incorporate the who, what, when, the place, and why of your announcement. I generally include as significantly of the intriguing content as I can right up front. I also use extremely limited paragraphs to make the push release effortless to scan, and I sprinkle in rates. Prices are your prospect to get a tiny more flowery. For example, it is acceptable for a CEO to say "This new software is a extremely exciting addition to our companies, and we're anticipating great benefits." But the regular content need to be newsy and non-marketing. four. Decide on a quality web-dependent distribution support. You have many options for companies that will distribute your press releases, and I have tried out several of them. I do not recommend free of charge services, as they not often have the created-in Seo tools and usually have bothersome limits made to get you to update. So you may possibly as nicely decide a good paid out services to begin with. The one particular I usually use is a portion of the price of the large stop companies and I have gotten great Seo benefits. Right here is what you are searching for in a excellent distribution service: Reside backlinks can be included into the material. You are allowed to incorporate a brand, photo, and/or online video. You can add your search phrases. You do not have to sacrifice your daily life savings to publish your launch. You can discover a list of press release distribution companies, which includes each free and paid solutions, in the Assets segment of my website. In my encounter, you do not need to have to devote a whole lot of cash to get fantastic Search engine optimisation benefits. Even so, a company that is pushing out a major announcement would definitely want to employ 1 of the highest good quality providers, this sort of as PRWeb. 5. Upload your content material and add hyperlinks, pictures and search phrases. Url sensibly. You do not want your press release seeking like a ransom note. A number of tasteful backlinks back to your weblog, web site or landing web page are acceptable. six. Proofread cautiously! Glitches and typos are expensive to public image. Notice: If you have copied your content from a Microsoft Term file, be sure to verify for any odd characters and make positive the quotation marks look right. Be certain to see a preview of how the release will show up dwell, if the distribution service has that functionality. 7. Publish your push release. Mid-early morning on a Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday is an optimum time to publish your announcement. Distribution must occur in a fairly quick time, and you must get an e mail affirmation with a link to the push release. eight. Continue with your content material advertising and marketing. When you publish your release, you want to do a lot more than just sit back again and wait around for targeted traffic. Feel about how you can get more mileage through social media and other approaches. For example: Publish your website link on Twitter and Facebook. Submit it to your preferred social bookmarking websites, such as Digg and StumbleUpon. Pose a query on 1 of your LinkedIn groups with your press launch url as the reply. Spot a url to the release on your company site Press webpage and optimize the page for that material.

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What Is a Push Launch and How Can It Boost Your Search engine optimisation?

A push launch is an announcement that you push out to the media. For this post, I am only heading to discuss internet based distribution companies. There are other publishing implies, but my focus is on aiding you to recognize how this methodology can boost your look for engine rankings and get qualified one way links to your website, blog or landing website page. Anatomy of a Press Launch Advertising Campaign A press launch marketing strategy can be a extremely successful white hat Seo approach. I have assisted my customers to get placement on web page one of Google, Yahoo and Bing for the client's targeted search phrases with just one optimized launch. Those benefits are the two dramatic and temporary, so I advise this advertising approach as a piece of an overall content technique. Adding a monthly or quarterly announcement to your editorial calendar will experience superb optimization rewards. What occurs when you publish a press launch by means of a quality distribution service is this: Your material is quite swiftly pushed out to thousands of media retailers. Several of these, in change, republish your press release. Web sites that use feeds to carry in clean articles seize your information product and publish it on their website. Excellent subjects can get picked up by keywords and phrases and hashtags, and are then revealed on social bookmarking websites, Fb organization pages and Twitter. So, in the days subsequent your distribution you will usually discover that your write-up is revealed by several sources. As you'll see in the instructions underneath, there are also numerous approaches to increase the duplication of your material. How to Create, Enhance and Publish a Push Release for Search engine marketing 1. Choose your announcement subject. What's your information? For example, thanks to the fantastic Search engine optimisation results I am obtaining with press releases, I am heading to publish an announcement about a month to month support for firms seeking material marketing and advertising and research engine optimization support. Your subject matter could be a adjust of personnel, a new area, a new services, a new internet site, a business partnership, item final results, and so forth. two. Complete your key phrase investigation and craft your title close to individuals keywords and phrases. This is the most crucial stage. You want your title to have qualified keywords and phrases for the research engines to decide up, while also becoming very catchy and reader friendly. Your search term analysis provides you the prospect to compare similar keyword strings side by aspect and decide on the very best one. I use the Google AdWords Search term Device to identify the most targeted keyword phrases for my subject matter. In my situation, I would investigation the phrase "press release" and pick a excellent phrase that has lower opposition and a large quantity of international regular monthly queries - but not way too higher. (We're talking 1000's, not millions. You want keywords and phrases that assist you stand out. It is significantly easier to locate a sailboat in a lake than in an ocean.) three. Write your articles as a information post. Start off with a synopsis of your subject, then the meat of the post, and ultimately a company bio. It truly is crucial to keep in mind that a press release is a form of journalism. Consist of the who, what, when, exactly where, and why of your announcement. I usually cover as much of the fascinating articles as I can correct up entrance. I also use quite quick paragraphs to make the press release straightforward to scan, and I sprinkle in prices. Estimates are your prospect to get a small more flowery. For illustration, it is acceptable for a CEO to say "This new plan is a really exciting addition to our providers, and we are expecting fantastic outcomes." But the normal articles should be newsy and non-promotional. 4. Pick a good quality web-based distribution services. You have several alternatives for services that will distribute your push releases, and I have tried out numerous of them. I do not advise free companies, as they rarely have the constructed-in Search engine optimization equipment and frequently have irritating limits developed to get you to improve. So you might as properly select a good compensated service to get started with. The a single I normally use is a fraction of the price of the high stop providers and I've gotten excellent Search engine optimisation results. Below is what you are seeking for in a excellent distribution service: Live links can be integrated into the content material. You are permitted to contain a symbol, image, and/or video clip. You can include your keywords. You do not have to sacrifice your daily life cost savings to publish your launch. You can uncover a checklist of push launch distribution solutions, including the two cost-free and compensated services, in the Resources area of my website. In my experience, you do not need to have to devote a great deal of cash to get fantastic Search engine marketing final results. Nevertheless, a company that is pushing out a significant announcement would definitely want to use one particular of the greatest top quality services, these kinds of as PRWeb. five. Upload your content and include links, pictures and key phrases. Website link sensibly. You do not want your press release seeking like a ransom notice. A handful of tasteful back links back to your weblog, site or landing website page are suitable. six. Proofread meticulously! press release distribution and typos are costly to public graphic. Note: If you have copied your content material from a Microsoft Word file, be positive to check out for any odd figures and make certain the quotation marks appear appropriate. Be sure to see a preview of how the release will show up live, if the distribution services has that functionality. seven. Publish your push release. Mid-early morning on a Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday is an ideal time to publish your announcement. Distribution ought to occur in a pretty short time, and you must get an e mail confirmation with a website link to the press release. 8. Proceed with your content material marketing and advertising. When you publish your release, you want to do much more than just sit again and hold out for site visitors. Think about how you can get a lot more mileage by means of social media and other techniques. For example: Put up your link on Twitter and Facebook. Publish it to your favorite social bookmarking web sites, this kind of as Digg and StumbleUpon. Pose a question on a single of your LinkedIn teams with your press launch hyperlink as the response. Area a url to the launch on your organization internet site Press page and optimize the webpage for that content material.

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How to Write a Compelling CTA for Social Media

Want your fans, followers, and readers to do something?

Like, sign up for a free trial? Download a guide? Drive more traffic to a landing page? Call you?

A solid call-to-action (CTA) can do wonders to help with all that.

Read on for some tips and tricks to help your readers do the thing you want them to, and promptly.

Bonus: Download a free guide that reveals how to increase social media engagement with better audience research, sharper customer targeting, and Hootsuite’s easy-to-use social media software.

What is a CTA?

It’s a prompt to get your reader to do something.

Usually in the form of a button, clickable image, or link on a web page.

After stating your marketing case, it’s the visual item that allows the reader to take action. Moving them to the ‘next step’ in your sales funnel.

They most often appear at the end of a blog post, bottom of a web page, sprinkled throughout a site, or included in social media messages.

You see them all the time. So then…

Why learn to write effective CTAs?

To get more business.

Digitally speaking, more business means more clicks, more buys, more engagement.

CTAs are trackable. You can switch up a few words, colors, or placements to see how results vary.

And they will.

Switch your CTA color from black to orange and see what happens.

Because results are measurable, making small changes to CTAs will give you insights about your audience, and how they behave.

Also, when requesting your readers do something—share, reply, retweet, contact me, etc.—it gives your content purpose.

Now that you know the what and why of a CTA, let’s look at a bunch of hows.

13 tips for writing effective CTAs for social media

Poor converting CTAs are frustrating. You use them to promote your products and services, which you’ve spent a long time developing, right?

But don’t panic.

They’re easy to fix.

You just need some good advice, like below.

Then, it’s up to you to apply some digital-elbow-grease. Here ya go…

1. Just sell

Don’t be wimpy about asking for the order.

You don’t need to go all Anthony Robbins on your CTAs. Sure, gorilla marketing doesn’t fit you. But hey, you’re in business to sell.

Get past your inner “I-don’t-want-come-off-as-salesy” and ask viewers to take an intended and specific action.

They’re expecting it. Give them what they want.

2. Compel readers to take action

Because just sharing is not the purpose of your post, page, or email.

You want them to take action.

Like, buy, call, or click, right?

For example… Download my full-throttle guide. Click to join the revolt. Contact me to learn how you can go “ching-ching” for your business. Reserve your spot for our seminar. 401+ power words to consider.

3. Urgency matters, too

A rewrite from one of the items above…

Reserve your spot today for our seminar—before it fills up.

Limiting time usually entices users to respond more to CTAs.

‘Call us today’ works better than ‘Call us’. It implies urgency and immediacy.

Here’s one example, from Alex Beadon.

You know, for my business, I’m often booked out months in advance. The further out I’m booked, the more business I get.

People want to be part of the action.

4. Customize CTAs by platform

Because each one works a bit differently.

For Facebook Pages, business ads come by the dozen. With clickable and trackable CTA buttons.

Instagram also added their own CTA buttons at the end of their sponsored posts.

Twitter did a study on CTAs that work best for their platform. Then ranked them, and provided a pro tip for each.

5. Make the benefit obvious

By writing from the reader’s perspective.

Because readers only care what’s in it for them. Why should it be any other way?

Too often, copy in general states what you or your businesses does. No one cares. People only care about what they can get from you.

Same with CTAs.

For your CTAs, ask yourself, does this pass the “so what” test?

No? Then you’re probably not stating a clear and obvious benefit.

Hard to say “so what” to this one, don’t you think? Good use of a question, too. To make the reader lean in with interest.

6. Use images, to enhance the words

Because we humans process visuals (and numbers) nearly 60,000 times faster than we process words.

Or so they say.

Snarky-ness aside, it’s obvious that images command attention. Use them to do the same for your CTAs. So if you’re selling a product, show the product.

Makes sense, right?

7. Stick with your voice and vibe

Because everything you do is part of your brand.

Your website, your emails, your posts, your comments—all part of your company DNA.

Including your CTAs.

Stay consistent with your digital speak, to keep the right conversations going, with the right audience.

Bonus tip: Consider four adjectives that describe your brand tone. For my business, it’s ‘bold‘, ‘confident‘, ‘casual‘, ‘savvy‘. I keep these close to the cuff for everything I write. Can you tell?

8. Ditch the jargon

Because jargon is digital Vaseline.

It makes eyeballs slip and slide right off the page, on to someone else’s.

Don’t waste precious nanoseconds with terms that are easy to gloss over.

9. Do the heavy lifting for the reader

Because they surely won’t.

We the people have attention spans shorter than goldfish. About eight seconds.

How will you best use those precious moments to grab people’s attention?

For say, a caption above a form…

‘Complete this form’ or, ‘Sign up today’?

“What seems easiest for the reader?” A question worth asking.

There’s no one-size-fits-all approach here. But, make it easy for your reader to think, “I got this.”

10. Be and stay trustworthy

…by considering the reader’s entire journey.

Clicking a CTA often leads users to a landing page.

Create the glue between the two. Make it clear for any next step in their journey.

You’re working hard to be a trusted brand. Don’t blow it by sending users to irrelevant, misleading landing pages.

11. Be a voice, not a whisper

Too many CTAs fit in, versus stand out.

What a waste.

All that copy, images, and other media begging for attention.

And then, a feeble CTA, buried in it all?

C’mon, don’t be that person.

Okay, maybe a little loud on that one. But you get the idea.

Give your CTAs some visual weight—whether a button, link, image, or pop-up. Make sure it’s not crowded by all the other components of your ad.

Bonus: Download a free guide that reveals how to increase social media engagement with better audience research, sharper customer targeting, and Hootsuite’s easy-to-use social media software.

Get the free guide right now!

12. Mix it up

…by testing different CTAs.

CTAs are measurable. You can count the clicks. And should.

So you can tweak and see what works best for various CTAs.

If your content is getting more than 1,000 impressions, then give A/B testing a try. Change colors, change text, move the CTA around on the page and measure what works best. Keep refining and polishing.

Unbounce did. They changed a CTA from “start your free 30-day trial period” to “start my free 30-day trial period.” A simple adjustment to a single word resulted in 90 percent more clicks.

Impressive, no?

13. Make it personal

Using ‘you’ (and ‘yours’) makes readers feel like you care.

And more like a conversation, not a sales pitch.

More instances of ‘you’ than words like ‘we’, ‘our’, and ‘us’ helps readers focus on your message. Or ‘my,’ as in the Unbounce example above.

There’s other power words, too, that help people take your intended action: 64 of them right here.

5 CTAs in action

How about a few kick-butt examples before you leave? Inspiration for using your new CTA superpowers.

1. Salesforce

There’s that word again in the CTA, ‘my’. You can bet Salesforce has done loads of testing with their pages to learn what works best. And, they have two primary CTAs followed by a secondary one, ‘WATCH DEMO’, for users not quite ready yet.

2. Evernote

“Feel organized without the effort”: a message easy to understand. Immediately. Followed up by a short description and a strong and simple CTA. All this makes it easy for readers to ‘get it’ and how their life will improve.

3. Dropbox

Dropbox gets right to it. Just text and color. With a sign up form right there. There’s no doubt this is what Dropbox wants their site visitors to do first. And if they don’t want to, they can scroll down the page to see all their secondary CTAs. Persistence often pays.

4. Netflix

Netflix makes it easy for users to feel safe in trying out their service, in seconds. “Try it, you’ll like it.” And if not, no problem. Cancel as fast as you signed up. It doesn’t get much simpler than this, all with a few lines of text, and a big, bold CTA.

5. Prezi

Another minimalist design. With so much white space, the text and CTAs stand out. Another example of a simple message, this time, letting the user know they don’t have to be a designer to design a great looking presentation. Their primary CTA is to get people to see how Prezi works. Clicking on this CTA educates them. Then, they’ll see the ‘Try it for free CTA’, which shows them pricing information. A carefully crafted funnel.

What next?

Jump in and create, alter or redesign your CTA buttons, images and links.

Keep this post nearby to get more users to take more actions for your social posts and pages. As a rule of thumb, know that a good CTA answers two questions for the reader, “What’s next?” and “Why should I?”

Want more tips for creating compelling social media content? Sure you do.

No matter what action you’re hoping to drive with your social media posts Hootsuite can help. Easily schedule and share your social CTAs across networks. Try it free today.

Get Started

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