Why you should exercise prudence when sharing posts from influencers online

Influencers use social media platforms to communicate with their millions of followers. Yet some influencers wittingly or unwittingly spread unverified information online. Because social media platforms are being used by some to share misinformation, misapprehension, and off the cuff remarks, I believe netizens should exercise prudence when sharing posts from influencers.

A Newsweek article stated that influencers are playing a dangerous role when it comes to spreading Coronavirus misinformation. Recently, dancer-influencer DJ Loonyo drew flak from critics online because of his incoherent statement on COVID-19 mass testing and why people should limit wearing face masks. Critics said he should have done his research first before going live on Facebook to give his take on the topic to avoid being tagged as an influencer who spreads misinformation.

Still on the issue of COVID-19 mass testing, Kapamilya actress and influencer Angel Locsin earned the ire of critics because she seemingly misapprehended the meaning of “mass” in mass testing. The government later on clarified that it should be called “expanded targeted testing” not “mass testing” to avoid confusion.

Another Kapamilya actress-influencer, Kim Chiu, became a laughing stock because of her “Law of Classroom” off the cuff remark in trying to defend her embattled ABS-CBN network. Her analogy went off like a misguided missile. Concerned netizens said she should have memorized a script first instead of going live on social media unprepared. She later immortalized her blunder through her “Bawal Lumabas” song she collaborated with music arranger DJ Squammy and singer-songwriter Adrian Crisanto.

If you have been following influencers online, it is prudent for you to think before you share their social media posts. Unverified information may go unnoticed, hence you risk your reputation by sharing misinformation, misapprehended facts, and incoherent off the cuff remarks. By exercising prudence, you will help in the proliferation of truthful information.

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How to craft an irresistible offer for your sales page

Writing an emotionally appealing sales page for your product or service is harder than it looks. You need to sprinkle copy spices onto your sales page to make it sell like hotcakes.

But if you are a seasoned copywriter, you only need to focus first on one of the most important ingredients of “cooking” a sales page.

When I started writing copy that sells, I wasted so much time concentrating on the tech side that I forgot to work on the first crucial element of what makes a sales page convert.

But worry no more because I’ll help you save time by sharing with you what you should zero in on first to make your sales page emotionally appealing and get the results you wanted.

Here it is.

The first step you need to take is to craft your irresistible offer for your target niche market. Your irresistible offer must whet the appetite of your potential customer to heed your call-to-action.

Your irresistible offer must include your main offer and bonuses. Indicate their corresponding monetary value when you created them and their discounted price. Briefly explain the benefits your potential customers would get so they could make an informed decision whether or not to add your product to their cart and complete the checkout process.

To give you an actual example of an emotionally appealing and high-converting sales page, visit https://arieschan.com/course.

Leave your reply in the comments, or book an appointment with me using my scheduling tool – https://arieschan.com/appointment – to help you craft your irresistible offer for your sales page.

How I come up with blog post ideas

The screen is still blank. The clock is ticking fast. Fifteen, 30 minutes, and counting. It’s still a blank screen. You’ve been trying your best. But nothing really comes out. Now you want to give up. You say it’s writer’s block. It’ll happen again next time.

Now this. What if you have a simple system in place that works every time you need to write? Yes, it’s possible. I’ve been using it for quite a while and it never fails me. You might want to give it a try. This is how it works.

You need to have a simple system for capturing blog post ideas. In my case, I use Evernote where I save working headlines for future blog posts. So the next time I need to write something, I already have a list of possible topics I could work on. This saves me time from thinking about what topic to write about when prompted with a blank screen.

The goal is to skip the blank screen, run through your list of topics you’ve captured beforehand, choose what fancies you, and you can start writing immediately.

Since I write blog posts, I optimize my headlines for intent when users search for info online. My secret weapon for doing this is by using the app Question Samurai. Question Samurai gives me an idea of what keywords users are looking for when googling, and finding YouTube videos. You can purchase Question Samurai once you avail of Vidnami—an app for creating videos.

By having this simple system in place for capturing blog post ideas, I can write fast. Topics to write about are readily available since I have captured them beforehand using Evernote. There’s no longer a need for spending long hours staring at a blank screen wondering what topic to write about. And with Question Samurai, I could optimize my headlines for search engines and YouTube.

You can try Vidnami for free. It’s the first step to getting the most out of Question Samurai.

Do you have a different method for coming up with blog post ideas? Leave your reply in the comments.

Are you a writer? Tighten your writing with Text Distill

“Who first edits an article?” the editor-in-chief asked Grade 12 students during their career orientation.

“The writer of the article,” answered one of the students.

Yes, it’s true, the first editor of an article is the writer herself.

She does info-gathering, conducts research, fact-checks, writes, edits, before submitting her work to an editor.

An editor-in-chief or chief fault-finder does the final editing especially in large publications, say a daily newspaper or monthly magazine.

But for a writer who self-edits, she’s the first and last editor of her work.

Self-editing your article can be a daunting task, but there are tools available online that can help you edit your own work.

As a writer and editor myself, I have tried a dozen apps for tightening my writing.

One of the platforms I highly recommend is Text Distill—smart tools for text mining.

It’s super easy to use. Just copy and paste the article you’re working on or any block of text on the first box. Then choose what you want to do with the text. Results appear in the second box.

Text Distill allows you to change the text to:

Upper case
Lower case
Camel case

Also, as a digital entrepreneur, I find these features of Text Distill beneficial:

Extracting @mentions
Extracting #hashtags
Extracting emails

And for editing articles, the following features of Text Distill are handy for:

Finding highfalutin words
Analyzing text sentiment
Finding impact phrases
Analyzing writing style
Finding clichés

If you deal with a lot of text, bookmark https://www.textdistill.com/ on your favorite internet browser and follow its Facebook page for updates on new features as indicated in the Text Distill website.

Share this blog post to your friends who may benefit from Text Distill.

On remote work arrangement

It was when I reached four years of working at a publishing company that I negotiated for a remote work arrangement. It was the book The 4-Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss (@tferriss) that greatly influenced how I view work. By applying the principles in his book, I was granted a remote work arrangement by my former employer.

The cubicle isn’t the only place where productivity happens. I’ve tried working in coffee shops, coworking spaces, in my home office, and I could say that productivity isn’t location-dependent. What matters is how you keep your creative juices flowing.

For those who dream of working remotely, I have some tips for you.

Protect your daily routine as if your life depended on it. Working from home or working remotely will expose you to different distractions on a daily basis. It sounds draconian, but you need to stick to your daily schedule by using a reliable app. In my case, I use Nozbe for managing my to-do list.
Put the Pomodoro Technique into practice. This technique works best for me when I use my wristwatch with a countdown timer set at 25 minutes which is the equivalent of one pomodoro cycle. When the timer sets off the alarm, I take a 5-minute break or I continue working on the task until I complete 4 pomodoro cycles then take a 30-minute break.
Set aside time for deep work. Cal Newport defines deep work as “the ability to focus without distraction on a cognitively demanding task.” Writing involves deep work. So does brainstorming. As well as accounting, among others. Ideally, schedule a day of the week when you’re going to do deep work (e.g. every Wednesday from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.). For me I have adapted a much more flexible approach to deep work. Like the classic Pavlovian stimulus-response strategy, I associate deep work with a thing or place such as coffee shops for writing, coffee for solo brainstorming, etc.
Eat on time and make time for exercise. It’s easy to neglect your health when you’re all deep work at the expense of eating on time and doing exercise. Of course, meal-time should be a basic part of your daily routine. It’s a habit that should not be listed in your productivity app, because without nutrition, there’s no energy to manage at all. And how can you exercise without energy? And how can you boost your energy without exercise? You already know the answers.
Wage war against perfectionism. How many times do you proofread your email before hitting the send button? How many times do you rehearse before pitching your idea to your employer? How many times do you analyze your report before submitting them to your immediate superior? If you’re that type of person who’s got used to overdoing tasks than necessary then you might be a perfectionist.
Get obsessed with systems and processes. Your daily routine involves systems and processes. You can achieve the goals you’ve set for yourself by following certain systems or processes of doing tasks. Let’s take the goal of writing a book as an example. By saying that you’ll publish your book by the end of the year seems like an overwhelming goal to accomplish. By having a book writing system or process in order, the goal of writing a book by the end of the year becomes more manageable. Breaking down topics to write based on your outline lets you focus on one task at a time. Do this on schedule and you’ll find writing a book a lot easier than just stating your need to publish a book at the end of the year without a dependable writing strategy.

If you have the proper tools and techniques, systems, and processes of doing tasks you have on your plate, working remotely becomes more enjoyable by avoiding distractions as many as you can. There’s a risk to everything either your work remotely or spend your work hours in a cubicle. But what’s important is to follow your intuition. If you think you’ll be more productive working in a cubicle then so be it. If you think you can accomplish your tasks by working remotely then by all means do it. The corporate world has been quick to adapt when it comes to remote work. It’s just up to you to prove that you’ll be at your most productive state if granted to work remotely.

Leave your reply in the comments.

Skills + portfolio = personal brand

I’m working on a website for a client.

But after resolving a plugin issue, I decided to take a break for a while.

And share with you why I do stuff like this ‘reserved only for geeks’.

By looking at my profile pic right off the bat you’d consider me a geek.

The eyeglasses.

The eye bags.

Indeed, my friend was right, “There’s sexiness in nerdiness.”

“I coined the word nerdiness,” she added.

Merriam-Webster?

Going back.

I do geeky stuff to boost my personal brand.

It’s a combination of blogging, social media, and guerrilla marketing.

It’s when I attended #iBlog10 in 2014 that I started focusing on personal branding.

I kept in mind an advice from one of the speakers.

Filipino broadcast journalist, Howie Severino (@Howieseverino), shared during the event, “Learn how to write, shoot, edit video, code, create apps, and manage databases.”

It’s applicable to everyone who wants to develop marketable skills.

For millennials, learn to understand how the Internet of Things (IoT) works.

And make it work to your advantage.

Because a college degree may not be enough to land your dream job.

Unless you’re a Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, or Mark Zuckerberg then you may skip K to 12, drop out of college, and MYMP.

Skills + Portfolio = Personal Brand

Having a strong personal brand requires you to work on building up your portfolio first by acquiring marketable skills.

Leave your reply in the comments.

Your online presence matters

Have you tried googling your name?

I’m talking about searching for info about you on the internet using the search engine Google.

What shows up in search results when someone googles your name can make or break your reputation.

If you haven’t already, do yourself a favor.

Open your web browser, type your name on the address bar, and tap enter.

There are three things that can happen when you do this.

First, no info about you shows up. (I’ll explain why this is bad for you.)

Second, positive info about you shows up. (Nothing to worry, but there’s room for improvement.)

Third, negative info about you shows up. (You have a lot of work to do.)

What someone finds out about you online gives an idea of what reputation you have.

The first instance means you don’t have an online presence. This is bad for you because you are not making the most out of a powerful tool in reputation building—the internet.

You’re talented. Who isn’t?

But no matter how good you are, if we’re oblivious of your presence, how would we know what you do best?

But it’s not just visibility. It has to be positive. It has to be good.

Having a Facebook account makes you visible online. But when you put in your profile, “Works at The Krusty Krab” or “Works at Eh Di Sa Puso Mo.” What does it tell about your reputation?

But when someone checks your FB timeline and finds there a link to the latest thought-provoking article you’ve written on your blog, perhaps a photo of the painting you can’t wait the world to see, or a video of the things that you’re passionate about then it speaks a lot about you as a person.

Your online presence matters.

Destroying your reputation is as easy as posting your nude pic on your favorite social media platform. The internet never forgets. What you post online might stay there forever even after you tap the delete button.

Building your reputation is a lot easier by sharing online what skills you have to offer to make the world a better place.

As long as what you do online promotes the well-being of others then you’ll never go wrong.

Leave your reply in the comments.

iblog11: The Pareto’s Law in the context of blogging and the missing formula

Blogging entails content creation and marketing. You write blog posts so you could share your message to your target audience. And to reach your audience requires you to market your content to them. Most bloggers’ dilemma is whether to focus more effort on creating or marketing content.

Focusing more effort on content creation over marketing may result in poor traffic, while focusing more on content marketing may result in lack of content for your blog.

This dilemma was discussed in detail during the #iblog11 held last December 5, 2015 at the University of the Philippines in Diliman, Quezon City.

The speaker, Roel Jan Manarang (@roelmanarang), proposed that 80% must be dedicated to a blogger’s content marketing, while 20% must be devoted to content creation. The idea was based on the observation of an Italian economist named Vilfredo Pareto that 20% of the peapods in his garden contained 80% of the peas, hence he developed the principle named after him—the Pareto’s Law.

On the other hand, Sonnie Santos (@AskSonnie) raised a question: “Is it really 80-20?” He contended that content creation and marketing efforts must be 50-50. “Because when we say 80-20, it might backfire later on because the content might suffer,” he proffered. Logically, a content created haphazardly and marketed many times might not bring the desired result.

As I was listening during the Q&A where the Pareto Principle was brought up, I observed a pattern. There seemed to be a missing formula.

When we talk about Pareto’s Law or the 80-20 Principle, we could NOT discount the importance of the Parkinson’s Law.

According to Wikipedia, the Parkinson’s Law was articulated by Cyril Norcote Parkinson. The adage states that work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.

Meaning to say, a blogger must shorten her work time to be able to focus on the important so she could better assess where she should put more of her effort. “This is,” according to Roel, “to avoid doing the wrong things.”

Hence, Pareto’s Law and Parkinson’s Law must bind each other in marriage.

Takeaways

Parkinson’s Law – shorten work time to be able to focus on the important

Pareto’s Law (80-20 Principle) – focus on the important to be able to shorten work time

To sum it up, keep in mind this lesson from Tim Ferriss (@tferriss) as you do your content creation and marketing efforts today:

Identify the few critical tasks which contribute most to your income and schedule these to be completed with very short and clear deadlines.

Leave your reply in the comments.