There’s a severe psychological struggle that’s been created by the web and particularly amplified by social media. The mental rewards we receive for sharing what we’re reading have become stronger than the act of actually reading. Basically this: Â
Is your day composed of reading 10% of 100 articles or 100% of 10 articles? Here are some tools you can use to keep yourself from constantly bouncing away from really good content.Â
Stay Focused: One of the primary reasons our attention gets pulled away from our online reading is constant stream of notifications, dings, and emails coming from social media sites like Facebook. StayFocused let's you actually block or limit yourself from spending too much time on these types of sites. For example I use StayFocused to ensure I don't use Facebook more than 10 minutes per day. Every time I visit the site or click on a link that I found coming from my feed, the counter starts. When time runs off, the site is blocked for a 24 hour period. It's a pretty drastic step I took to condition myself to stop wasting time going through the vicious loop social sites can create.
Buffer Browser Extension: Rather than posting a link to Twitter or Facebook immediately, Buffer lets you neatly schedule links in advance and it also spaces everything out so you're not sending a barrage of tweets in a short period of time. You might be wondering, "How does a social media sharing tool make me more likely to read content?" Well there's a psychological factor at play here: The removal of a sense of urgency. Buffer is just one example of a tool that does this but scheduling is the core of this tactic. Instead of leaving the article your'e reading to think of a clever tweet RIGHT NOW, you can schedule it from the page you're already on, and change it later. Small change of process, but hugely helpful in keeping you from straying further down the rabbit hole of the internet.Â
Pocket Browser Extension: Again, there are many tools that do the same thing as this app, but in my opinion, this is one of the best save-it-for-later tools out there. When we see links on Facebook or Twitter we don't necessarily know if they're long or short. If you happen to come across a great article in the middle of the workday, you may not have time to read it. Therefore you close the tab and it's gone forever. With something like Pocket, you have the opportunity to save it for later and read it in a distraction free environment. Not only that, this is yet another psychological hack where you're using a tool that forces you to think about whether or not a piece of content is worth your time. Ultimately this tool helps you reduce time filtering and spend more reading.Â
One-Tab: Browser tabs are like babies. They're cute and offer endless joy, but they also constantly take your attention and make you scramble to the next thing. If you're like me, your browser probably has no less than 10 tabs open at a time. (Not only do I have 10 tabs open, but I have 3 browsers open at a time with 10 tabs each). For work, this can be a useful way to quickly access all my apps and websites, but when I'm reading this is completely awful. If you come across an article you truly want to read, I suggest compiling all your tabs using something like One Tab. It will store all your previously opened tabs, and then when you're ready to get back to business it will restore all of them.
Noisli: "HEY BRO HOW WAS YOUR MEETING?" - That's just one of the many loud conference call discussions you might be listening to if you work in a public area like a coworking space. Personally I find it difficult to read when I'm hearing dialogue, but I also have trouble when listening to music with lyrics. Ultimately my brain gets distracted when more than one set of works are going in or out of my processing center. So a great solution I've found is Noisli. It lets you put on your Apple Beats By Dre to tune out the annoying loud talkers in your vicinity and listen to tranquil sounds that don't suck you in too much.Â
What tools or tactics do you use to help yourself be a less fickle online reader?Â
By Len Kendall - CoFounder of CentUp.org
Check out the entire Creators+Tech series to read more articles like this.
Embedding videos or images into a blog post is pretty standard procedure these days. It's a great way to make your content more engaging, but don't forget to explore the limits of media you can pull into your site. While everyone else is sharing YouTube videos, here are a few examples of unique formats to keep your eye on.Â
Interactive: Patatap
Patatap is a mesmerizing project that turns your keyboard into a sound board. Every letter from A to Z creates a unique sound and respective on-screen graphic (click on the box above and start hitting letters). While it's not even close to professional DJ's set up, it's pretty darn impressive for something that runs completely in a web browser. I personally spent 5 minutes playing with this tool, there's no reason I wouldn't do the same had I found it embedded on a blog I was reading. For music and/or design writers, this is a prime example of an embed that would catch your reader's attention.
Narration: Soundcloud
If you're like me, you have a problem reading a full article without skipping around. Lately I've actually turned to listening to articles instead of reading them since it helps me sit through the entire piece. The above Soundcloud file was embedded on this article I wrote for The Next Web. It's a really nice touch that gives your readers an alternative format to consume your content. While not everyone has time to record an audio version of every post, you certainly should consider it for your most popular and timeless pieces.Â
Social: Tweets
Awesome stuff cooking at @getCentUp this month. If you're a blogger sign up post haste. http://t.co/2tNqERO04R pic.twitter.com/Hqt1E8ZCFw
— Len Kendall (@LenKendall)
April 4, 2014
Tweets are a unique beast. Some news publications today write entire articles just analyzing a series of tweets from an expert in a given field. For your own writing, embedded tweets can be used in a couple of ways. First, if you have an important announcement, you can embed your own tweet in a blog post to encourage more people to easily share it on Twitter. Alternatively, you can use tweets from other people to serve as quotes. Prior to embeddable tweets people simple included "quotes from experts in their text like this." Now, you can attribute a statement far more easily.
Maps: Google Maps
Location Location Location. While map tools are commonly used by most modern web users today, you can use embedded files in unique ways to save your readers time. Let's say for example you're an art critic looking to share your tip 10 favorite galleries in the city. One option would be to make a simple list with links and addresses. A far more engaging alternative would be to use a custom map that marks those 10 locations off on a map you've created.Â
What interesting embeddable media have you encountered lately? Please share your suggestions in the comments section of this post.
By Len Kendall - CoFounder of CentUp.org
Check out the entire Creators+Tech series to read more articles like this.
Being able to crisply condense your thoughts is far more useful beyond the walls of Twitter. In our current age of low attention spans and infinite distractions, being able to quickly convey information and captivate attention is a necessary skill for any creator.Â
Whether you're blogging, writing a script for a video, or pitching a potential partner via email, brevity is something you need to master.Â
The following are just a few tactics to keep in mind when trying to shave down the length of your writing:
Cut. Cut. Cut. Never use the first sentence you wrote.
99% of the time, the first sentence you write is longer than it needs to be. Find ways to remove unnecessary details. Look for symbols that can replace words. The medium you're using might dictate the structure of your sentences, but always look for ways to turn multiple words into one.Â
Use dense descriptors
Having a good vocabulary isn't about using words like "adumbrate" or "garrulous," it's about being able to find words that can replace many others. Keyword density helps your save your reader time while downloading information into their brains via their eyes. (That's a nerdy way to explain what's happening).Â
In the example below, there were far more details that could have been mentioned in the short story, but by only including certain words, the rest of the story is revealed. Saying "bike" explains why the gentleman was sweaty. "Questionably sober" reveals an image of a person with an altered state of mind. Whether from movies or real-life experiences, a reader can paint their own picture based on a just a mention of some specific items.
Nudge people to search for context
Depending on what you're writing about, tap into the power of google search to help tell the rest of the story for you. If there's an extremely popular news story making waves, you can be somewhat vague with your writing. Sure, you don't necessarily want to drive people away from your site to go search for something, but creating a miniature treasure hunt with your words can also intrigue people enough to keep them from leaving you altogether from disinterest.Â
In the example below, it's obvious that "Microsoft" is the subject of the sentence. A simple search for them will reveal the news story presented in the screenshot.
Evoke Common Situations
Metaphor is an obvious way to turn a lot of words into a few, but take that even further and think about your audience. If you're writing something for business professionals who are over the age of 25, they likely can related to the scenario below.
By using two common nouns (Tetris and Calendar) not only does this sentence accomplish its goal of explaining that the narrator has a busy schedule, but it does so in a much less boring way that may help the reader relate and even smile at the all-too-common situation.
Homework: Read Microstyle by Christopher Johnson. The book is far more comprehensive look at many of the above principles.
By Len Kendall - CoFounder of CentUp.org
By the way, like this post? Check out the entire Creators+Tech series and subscribe to our email to get the next post delivered to your inbox.Â
The “buy 1 give 1" model has become a popular trend for young companies (and especially among the wallets of the Millennial generation). TOMS Shoes and Warby Parker are two of the most famous examples, but they are tied to physical products. What if your want to spend your money with online tools/services that also build social good into their model?
GoodSearch — Everyday activities like searching the web, playing online games, shopping, dining out and more are turned into charitable donations.
It kind of stinks when you feel guilted into making donations to charity. It’s so much better when it gets wrapped up into activities you’re already doing and purchases you’re already making. There are billions of internet searches happening each day. Might as well apply that inquisitive spirit for good.
SwipeGood — Tons of online services let you “round up” your purchases to give to charity, but Swipegood lets you do it for ALL your purchases.
Not only does SwipeGood round up all of your debit or credit card purchases to the nearest dollar, but it also allows you to donate the difference to the charity of your choice, not the one being supported by the merchant. Obviously there are tons of great causes that exist, but you probably want to support your own favorite right? Even Ashton Kutcher thinks they’re cool.
Greatest Good — A platform where smart people can buy the time of other smart people. Instead of paying the expert for her time, the money goes to the consultant’s favorite charity.
The motivation behind Greatest Good is to solve what it calls the “inefficiency of the volunteerism economy,” where the financial value of an individual’s time is often worth much less in the volunteering world than in their professional world. That said, people want to do more than write a check. Greatest Good enables these professionals to provide advice and consulting around their specific areas of expertise to the businesses and individuals that seek it.
Samasource — Instead of using something like Amazon’s Mechanical Turk, Samasource delivers digital services through a unique Microwork model that uses the untapped potential of the world’s poor.
Unlike other “microworker” systems, Samasource is a non-profit and therefore its mission of alleviating poverty outshines a need to generate profits. For startups and young businesses that don’t have the money or technical talent to automated tedious processes, this is a fantastic network for finding efficiencies and supporting those in need.
At CentUp, we're proud to build social good into our system. The above items are just a handful of examples, but hopefully this list sets you on the path to finding socially conscious companies to be patrons of. They can help both you, as well as communities around the world. What tools do you use to boost your efficiency or visibility online?
By Len Kendall - CoFounder of CentUp.org
By the way, like this post? Check out the entire Creators+Tech series and subscribe to our email to get the next post delivered to your inbox.Â
Will Your Project Go Viral? A Transparent Case Study
In a perfect world, everything we put out on the web would be a huge hit. In reality, that isn't the case. There are tons of blog posts offering tips on "how to improve your chances of going viral" or "what not to do," but Instead of going that route, here's a real world case study. Vague advice is ok, actual examples are better.
Context: The CentUp team produced two different web experiments in the last couple of months. One went viral, the other didn't.
Project 1 (Viral Sensation): Headlines Against Humanity
Project 2 (Not a Hit): Valentines.gov
Observations and Insights from these two projects
1) Manage expectations. We set the bar insanely high with Headlines Against Humanity. In hopes of creating an ongoing series of web stunts, we didn't think the first one was going to be so successful. The fact that it was has now distorted what we want to achieve each time we do something new. Valentines Dot Gov only got 7,000 hits. Not bad for a day, but pretty mediocre compared to the 70,000 we earned from our first project. As we look to our third act, our expectations have been properly realigned. As you think about your own upcoming launches, assume the first will do poorly and do not let that dissuade you from producing more in the future. Expect that your first release fails and that it will help you improve your next iteration more quickly. Our first project didn't teach us a ton because we "won" that battle. People do most of their critical analysis when they lose.
2) Real Time Marketing isn't your friend. In terms of timing, we constrained ourselves way too much. First of all, Valentine's Day is only one day. The project wasn't timeless, and therefore we had to rush to get press while also competing against other people trying to promote their own V-Day shenanigans. With Headlines, we didn't suffer from either of these issues because it would have been funny at any time. Secondly, because we decided on a Valentine's theme, we had to launch this product on a Friday. For those of you that haven't worked in public relations, FRIDAY IS A TERRIBLE DAY TO LAUNCH ANYTHING. The news cycle is dead, and people are already thinking about the weekend (including reporters). There's been a huge surge in interest from marketers in real-time marketing. It certainly can work for a cheap hit, but if you're trying to promote your work in a lasting way, you need to tap into cultural memes that go beyond a day or two.
3) Cerebral humor doesn't get shared often. The reason that so many Buzzfeed links get passed along frequently is because they're really dumb. I don't mean that in a disparaging way (after all, I used them to propose to my wife), but rather in the sense that they don't take much deep thought to understand. They've mastered the repeatable methodology of making something "viral" by sticking with humor that is funny within seconds. With VdotGov, we went for the long punchline. First you had to realize that we parodied a famous national website (Healthcare.gov) then you had to go through the quiz to get more humorous copywriting. Every single second longer it takes for someone to grasp an idea online decreases its share-ability exponentially. This is why you don't see a lot of viral videos featuring Bill Maher.
4) Polarizing topics are a big gamble. We covered two very polarizing topics: First, Healthcare.gov which obviously has been a sticking point between the ongoing battle between Democrats and Republicans. Despite your Facebook feed being seemingly full of political bickering, most people don't feel comfortable talking politics online. Secondly, Valentine's Day itself is a very love/hate (pun intended) holiday. People like to read about polarizing topics, but they often don't always feel like sharing them because it may reflect poorly amongst friends, family, and coworkers. If you want to make a powerful statement with your writing, art, video, song, etc. you absolutely should, but realize that your audience may not feel compelled to evangelize it.
5) Charitable giving isn't as appealing of a carrot as it used to be. Perhaps this is just the jaded marketer in me talking, but I believe that large brands have killed the pleasure and obligation of individual giving for a lot of Americans. Thousands of companies have run a "click here and we'll donate blah" campaign in the last few years and my theory is that in the long run this has alleviated people from feeling personal responsibility towards philanthropy. In other words, the thinking among citizens is "BIG BRAND X is donating a million dollars to Y CHARITY, so I don't have to." We included a call to action at the end of our game yesterday that encourage a donation to Love146 (which by the way you SHOULD consider donating to) but that wasn't really a draw for anyone nor did it get much mention in social media conversations about our project. Individual donation IS going up every year due to how easy it is (via the web), but I do suspect the behavior isn't keeping up pace with its potential. Before you use charitable matching as a tactic, really think about whether that's a carrot stick worth waving. (Side note, we purposely built social impact into CentUp so you don't have to think about it. Good design = A feature might draw you in, but quickly becomes invisible and "normal" to you)
6) PR is an amplifier, not a driver. With Headlines Against Humanity we pitched 2 news outlets. It ended up getting written up by 10 significant sites including Boing Boing, NextDraft, and Adweek. With VdotGov, we pitched about 20, and it got written up by none of them. The only major press hit we got was Creativity-Online (not bad obviously) which picked it up somewhere on its own. Mashable ended up reaching out, but it was too late in the day to run with it. The big lesson here is that we got cocky from our last successful project and assumed we could leverage the PR we got from the first project (Headlines), to get coverage for the second. This was not the case. We had a clever idea, but it wasn't unique enough to get the PR amplification we wanted.
7) Viral loops can be created or destroyed with tiny UX changes. I've had conversations with a charities about how adding literally 1 step to a checkout process had cost them 5% of their annual donations (it was about $1,000,000). With Headlines we had an ultra simple viral loop: Come to the home page, make a choice, get a funny result, share it with your friends. Repeat. Now with VdotGov we made a critical error and didn't realize it until later in the day: The end of our quiz game didn't ask people to share it with others. The final call to action was to either donate to a charity, or sign up with CentUp. Both of these calls to action are big hurdles that the majority of users will not jump over. Sharing and liking is a low investment activity that people will generally take if you show them something that entertains or informs them. Around 2pm we added this option into the game, but it definitely needed to happen sooner. Whenever you build a digital tool that's meant to be shared, always think about the last step and how the user can trigger another visitor as easily as possible. If every visitor you bring in doesn't then attract another visitor (or more), your project will not go viral.
8) If you're going to parody, use something that is instantly recognizable and clear. Although almost everyone knows about Healthcare.gov, not that many people know what the new website looks like. A few months back when Healthcare.gov was in the news, the images being displayed on TV did not resemble the site that exists today. Although we were accurately modeling VdotGov after the current iteration of Healthcare.gov, many of our visitors didn't know that. To them it was just an overwhelming site that didn't clearly indicate that it was a joke. Headlines Against Humanity was a parody that worked much more effectively because A) people who knew the game IMMEDIATELY got the parody and 2) If they weren't aware of the game, the headlines on the page were still funny and didn't overly rely on the theme of the website.
9) Don't get trapped by your own echo chamber. A few weeks back we sent an email about another idea we had for a gimmicky website. About half of the responders shot it down so we opted not to pursue it. With VdotGov, we really didn't test the idea before we started building. We just instantly thought it was funny and ran with it. But what we think is funny isn't necessarily what everyone else will think is funny. I learned this lesson several times when taking classes at Second City, but for some reason chose to ignore it during this project. I shouldn't have.
10) Have fun anyways. At the end of the day, we're building a collection of web stunts. Some will hit, some won't. The important thing that keeps us on track is that we're building a body of work that ultimately drives people towards behaviors that meet our specific business goals. Much like any artist, not all paintings are going to end up hanging in the Louvre, but to achieve such an honor one must be prolific and continue to improve upon past experience. It's easy to get into a routine of cranking out the same things day after day. While this is critical to any creator, taking time for one-off projects can help keep you or your team sharp. Expect not everything you create will be a huge hit, but build it as if it will be.
By Len Kendall - CoFounder of CentUp.org
By the way, like this post? Check out the entire Creators+Tech series and subscribe to our email to get the next post delivered to your inbox.Â
Here's the reality we face today: When people are seeking out content on the web, they're looking for "what's new." It doesn't matter that there's a virtually infinite amount of timeless reading available (99.9% of which they have never seen), we've been conditioned to seek freshness. Twitter and Facebook have pushed us all towards wanting to be the "first" to share something, and because of that our attention skews towards new.
At CentUp we value "old news" a lot, but also realize that many writers seek timely content to weave into their latest posts to keep new readers coming. If that's the route you want to go, here are a few tools that may help you stay "on trend."Â
Rad URLS
Facebook and Twitter are critical vehicles for helping any single piece of content trend online. RadURLS is a simple aggregator that looks at the most shared links on both networks and updates the list every 15 minutes. Is this feed going to show you the best content online? Probably not. Will it show you what's the most relevant at the moment? Indeed it will.
Next Draft
There are a million daily newsletters that recap the latest stories circulating the internet. None of them are as consistently entertaining and well curated than Dave Pell's Next Draft. If you don't have time to scan a handful of sites to get a sense of what's trending, Next Draft will deliver 10-15 articles each day that quickly help you get caught up.
Digg
This isn't your grandfather's Digg (assuming your grandfather is around 35 years old). The completely reconstructed Digg.com has become a wonderfully curated front page for the internet. There's no specific vertical that Digg covers, rather it tries to uncover stories that are likely to trend, before they trend. Although it caters to the tech-set, Digg is a great daily stop to quickly find out what the internet is talking about.Â
Reddit (Subreddits)
The "front page of the internet" can feel overwhelming and creepy, but it's an often overlooked resource for writers seeking inspiration. The magic is not in the aggregation of popular links, but in the extreme specificity of their sections called subreddits. Want to see the latest about Audio? Greyhounds? Orlando? All of these topics have specific communities within network.
By Len Kendall - CoFounder of CentUp.org
By the way, like this post? Check out the entire Creators+Tech series and subscribe to our email to get the next post delivered to your inbox.Â
People frequently ask me what digital tools I use for business and personal endeavors. Here’s a brief list of the ones that have captured my attention over the last six months. It's a varied collection that should help you learn, create, and promote efficiently.Â
Quibb: I tend to enjoy social networks when they’re new. Typically there’s nothing remarkably different about them, it’s just that before they scale-up, the quality of participants is higher. This was true of Twitter a few years ago, and it’s once again the case with Quibb. The big appeal to me (for now) is that Quibb’s founder Sandi has pledged to sustain a more curatorial approach and try to keep out the folks who spam, troll, and anything else that eventually degrades the quality of a community. The reason I like Twitter over Facebook is that it’s exponentially more simple and focuses on the news feed. Quibb is to Reddit, what Twitter is to Facebook. Clean threaded conversations from smart positive people. Quibb is still invite only, so use the link at the beginning of this paragraph (it’s my personal invitation).
StayFocused: You know what really bugs me? Spending time on Facebook. In theory it’s a great way to stay connected with friends and family, in reality it’s a waste of f***ing time. So in order to combat all the notifications and hooks that Facebook has built to draw me in (I can’t delete my account because I use it for work) I installed a browser extention for Chrome that literally limits how much time I use Facebook. There’s a little clock that I can set up and as soon as I burn through 20 minutes, Facebook simply won’t load. It’s smart too because even if I have other tabs open, it only counts down when the Facebook tab is being viewed. You can use the extension for any site that messes with your productivity. At least for me, it’s made a dramatic difference for my daily habits.
ScreenFlow: Everything that you might hate about iMovie, ScreenFlow is not. It’s intuitive, it’s simple, and it works fast. I got tired of messing around with cutting short movies and screencasts on other products so I ponied up the $99 and bought this app. This is not something that will satisfy the folks who use more comprehensive programs like Final Cut, but if you’re a casual video maker who just puts together simple tutorials or videos to share with friends and customers, this is a great option.
Umano: I love spending my free time reading, but most of the reading I want to do is on a digital screen. My eyes are already in bad shape (-7.5 nearsightedness) so I’ve tried to transition away from staring at screens and instead try to consume news via audio. Umano has filled a need I’ve had for a very long time: the app has professional HUMAN voice talent narrate some of the most popular articles on the web from a variety of categories. Now instead of reading long-form content on a small phone screen, I listen to it in the car, on planes, and before I go to bed. The app has a free version and a premium one which allows for offline listening. If you sign up with the code 6559V you’ll get a premium account,
RelateIQ: If you don’t know or care about what a CRM is, then skip this. If on the other hand you’re someone who frequently needs to email people and follow-up to grow your business, pay close attention. I’ve tried a lot of different sales management tools before to track my outreach and the overarching reaction to them has been: 1) this is way too bloated, 2) this makes ME do a lot of work when I really want the machine to do the work, 3) this is way too expensive for what I need. RelateIQ has been very hands on in terms of training and my absolutely favorite part is that it requires you to do literally nothing to collect all your email correspondence. Just sync up your email addresses one time, and moving forward Relate will pull it all in. No forwarding/blind-copying or any other nonsense.
TinyLetter: The team at Mailchimp is amazing and I love so much about their branding and culture. That said, there core product is great for business but way to excessive for most personal email lists. TinyLetter is a spinoff product that is ultra lean…and free. I don’t quite understand how Mailchimp rationalizes offering this product, but I’m sure it’s a great marketing tool for their overall brand. I’ve been using TL for my small-batch emails (link at the bottom of this post) and for anyone who feels overwhelmed by other newsletter tools, this is just an awesome place to start. No fancy templates and list management…just words on a page.
By Len Kendall - CoFounder of CentUp.org
By the way, like this post? Check out the entire Creators+Tech series and subscribe to our email to get the next post delivered to your inbox.Â
You’re a permanent freelancer or an early stage entrepreneur and you don’t have an office to go to. Your options are usually one of these three things:
Work at homeÂ
Work at a coffee shop
Work at a coworking space
In my own progression as an entrepreneur, I’ve gone through the above stages in that order and here’s my insight into how you should evaluate your own space:
Working at home
The big perceived incentive for working at home for most people is the savings. Spending money to rent a desk or buying coffee/food is cash that could otherwise be used on your business.
It’s a valid assumption, but it’s important to think about how much value you could be getting by not using your home as a workspace.
For starters, tools like Airbnb have made it much easier to monetize an extra bedroom. You might spend $300 to $500 for a coworking space like Grind, Office Nomads, or The Icehouse but you could also rent out your bedroom three to four times a month to make a lot more to offset that cost and make a profit as well.
In Chicago for example, there’s a big demand for renting rooms versus hotels. If you can use your extra room to make $500 to $1,000 versus using it as a home office (even with tax incentives), the decision is a no brainer.
Working at home also has some significant intangible costs. Your mental state when you’re at “home” versus when you’re at “work” should be different.
When you overlap the two you often suffer from either not putting in enough effort while you’re working, or putting in too much work time when you’re supposed to be at home. Some people can manage this dissonance, most can’t.
Lastly, if you’re running a business that requires occasional meetings, you’re stuck doing them in public places or at the location of your client. That works, but it potentially hurts perceptions around your business and the amount of money your customers think they should be paying you.
Working out of a coffee shop
Despite the romantic image of independent writers and freelancers being painted by many, the majority of individuals in coffee shops have full-time jobs. They’re just working on their side project when they have time off.
This isn’t speculation, I’ve actually spoken with hundreds of random people in coffee houses to confirm this.
From a cost perspective, the advantages of working out of a coffee shop seem huge for a full-time entrepreneur. You can still rent out your extra room (if you have one) and make money that way, plus you’re not battling the work/life conundrum mentioned above.
There are a lot of issues that I’ve encountered by working at coffee shops, but none of them compare to a very simple yet massive problem: phone calls. As antiquated as they are, phone/skype calls are still very much a huge part of business.
Perhaps you’re pitching a new client or onboarding a new customer. If you think a coffee shop is a good place to have such a conversation think again.
No, not everyone has to talk to people for their line of work, but if you do, this tiny element presents a huge problem.
Also, let’s not discount the dirty looks from your barista after you spend six hours in a coffee shop after buying a tall plain cup.
Coworking spaces
There’s a reason we’ve seen a huge influx in coworking spaces the past few years. The economy is changing and with more people displaced from typical 9-to-5 roles, there’s been a boom in entrepreneurship.
Despite the economy improving and people returning to the labor force, a lot of workers are sticking with a more independent lifestyle. Given the rise of automation and productivity increases, the long-term future of “work” points towards independent labor supporting many entities and drawing incomes from several places.
After going through many of the disadvantages of working at home or out of a “free” location like coffee shops, coworking became the best choice for us.
Ultimately, any high growth company will graduate to its own office, but for small startups like ours as well as freelancers, coworking is a great in-between that helps legitimatize the business, makes it easier to generate some cash, and helps easily separate the psychological roadblocks that come with working at home.
Today we cowork in two locations: Grind LaSalle and ICNC. Tomorrow, who knows? Maybe the Sears Tower. (No, not Willis)
A lot of people (myself included) have an immediate startling gut reaction to the idea of paying for a monthly desk, but I strongly recommend every entrepreneur goes through the mental exercise of seeing what’s best for them.
Weigh the costs/benefits of your work space and your work output. If you factor in productivity and potential, your cost savings by working in a “free” environment might not be as good as you assumed. This is just the opinion of one entrepreneur, but my opinion is don’t work at home.
What environments do you work best in?
By Len Kendall - CoFounder of CentUp.org
By the way, like this post? Check out the entire Creators+Tech series and subscribe to our email to get the next post delivered to your inbox.Â
You're knee deep in a project and you can see the light at the end of the tunnel. You're excited to share your work with the world, but you're also approaching the dreaded part of the journey…the promotion. Adam DeVarney an artist friend of mine eloquently describes this…
"Creation is life and death at the same time. It's putting yourself on the bleeding edge and risking failure and rejection on a daily basis. It is your most vulnerable and yet most confident self. Promoting it is sticking a feather in your hat like Yankee Doodle and flogging it to death through town."
People like Shephard Fairey, Steven King, and Ira Glass have entire teams helping them spread their work for them, but for most of us, we're our own sales person. While promoting our work is one of the least fun (read: painful) aspects of the creative process, it is a necessary one. It's what keeps the cycle going and lets you move on to your next post, song, podcast, or video. If you create something in a forrest and no one is there to hear it or see it, then sometimes you have to set up a laser light show and attract people come to the forrest.
Art by Adam Devarney
The following are a few considerations for you to maximize your time while making AND promoting.
Schedule times when you're going to "sell"
"I'll do it when I'm done" is a dangerous strategy. There are times when your fans (and potential fans) are most likely to want to engage with your work. If you stay up half the night and then decide to share your blog post or podcast (for example) at 2am, you're pushing your recent work into the web at a time when people aren't around. If you know that people are reading the most at 8am and 8pm, focus on getting your work posted around those times. Work on customer service and engagement (answering emails and such) a little bit everyday. Set up some variable windows where you know you can drop what you're doing to handle and have it not be massively disruptive to your other projects. If you blocks of 3 different half hour windows each day, and only pick one, you can always give yourself the flexibly you need to get to create AND promote.Â
Save yourself time by creating a "hit list"
A lot of creators (myself included) have a tendency of using the shot gun approach. Basically just try to tell everyone about your stuff as soon as possible. This is both inefficient and ineffective. I worked in PR for three years before starting CentUp and I can tell that creating a target list for outreach is absolutely crucial for ensuring you don't waste countless hours pitching deaf ears. Â
1) Start with a list of people you know that you think might be interested in hearing about your latest efforts.
2) Cut the people that are least influential (sorry to be heartless, but you need to get the maximum impact for the time you spend).
3) Search the web for other contacts that are similar (in interest and influence) to the people remaining on your initial list.
4) Make sure you have a specific contact point for every single person you want to reach out to. We use a combination of RelateIQ (a CRM tool), Mailchimp (email marketing), and good ol' Excel.
Build up evangelists before it's time to promote. Don't go dead silent
If you look at things like Kickstarter, "coming soon" landing pages, and even basic social channels being run by producers of stuff/content, they're all trying to accomplish the same thing: keep their audience engaged in between/before the time when sale is taking place.Â
A lot of creatives have a habit of locking themselves in a cave until the latest piece is done. That includes shutting out fans/readers/listeners who may be tweeting about you or sending you questions via email. Don't just communicate with your fans when you need them, keep them engaged while you're working (again refer to the first section about carefully scheduling time to do this).
People like the idea of being "first" to know something. That's why a lot of us sharing content in social media. Your evangelists want to be the first to share your great output, so make sure you're keeping them close while you work.
The Shampoo Effect
Consistently promoting your work (versus doing it in spurts) will help you grow a bigger audience that over time will help sell your creations for you. Be diligent about it and over time you'll spend less and less effort on having to sell yourself and create a bigger (better) problem of not having enough time to supply all of the demand people have for your work.
 By Len Kendall - CoFounder of CentUp.org
By the way, like this post? Check out the entire Creators+Tech series and subscribe to our email to get the next post delivered to your inbox.Â
You Won't Believe How Valuable Side-Projects Can Be
Headlines Against Humanity was a side project my team created in less than 24 hours. It went viral shortly after, but let’s back up.
Running a startup can be a grind. Unless you’ve figured out a way to make lots of money while drinking beer and playing lawn darts, then your days and weeks can be taxing.
Side-projects can be a quick mental vacation from that tediousness, but how can you divert your resources to something that is non-essential to your primary business?
Gmail and Adsense came from Google’s “20% time” (the program is sadly no longer around). Blogger was created in Evan William’s down-time while at Pyra Labs, while Elon Musk put together actionable plans for a 700 mph train, bringing more visibility to Tesla and SpaceX.
The point is, side projects can be both fun and somehow beneficial to a business – especially when you’re talking about a startup.
How did we do it?
One of our co-founders Tyler Travitz approached the group with the idea to build a simple game that poked fun at the recent rise of click-baity headlines you see on sites like Viralnova and Upworthy. We all had noticed the uptick in these headlines being shared in our Facebook feeds, as well as more news outlets covering this copywriting trend.
The game basically asked visitors to guess which ridiculous headline were real, and which were fake. The best part? Most of them were real.
Everyone on the team knew there was a great deal of potential in this exercise, but how could we make sure that it A) was visible and B) drove our business goals?
There’s never a guarantee that something will go viral, but there are ways to stack the deck so the chances increase. In the case of HaH, we knew journalists would want to cover the project because they’re keenly aware of the rise of page view journalism.
The next step was wrapping it in a package that was immediately recognizable. Cards Against Humanity ended up being a perfect fit. Not only has it been one of the top selling games on Amazon the last two years, but it also has a simple Helvetica aesthetic that’s easy to replicate (Hooray! Less time to produce).
Lastly, we employed the very same tactic that click-seeking sites use themselves. We let game players tweet out the absolutely ridiculous REAL headlines they were discovering on our site.
You won’t believe what happened next
Was building this game fun? Did it pay off for the business? Hell yes.
The CentUp team spent approximately 20 hours on researching headlines, designing the game, and developing the site. We spent less than an hour pitching/seeding the site; it basically took off organically.
The output was far greater than we expected. We saw a 450 percent increase in traffic to our site and a 150 percent increase in customer sign-ups over a three-day period.
Also it’s hard to ignore all the wonderful SEO juice we squeezed which will help us in the long run. Perhaps most importantly, our game was able to make a subtle point that resonated with our mission to improve how talented creators are compensated
Startup founders love talking about growth hacking and optimization. That’s all well and good for the day-to-day, but if you’re not investing a bit of time on left-field side projects you’re doing yourself, your customers, and even your investors a disservice.
Sometimes these things fail; sometimes they have a huge pay-off. Having a diversified portfolio of side projects gives your business wider visibility and keeps your staff continually energized.
The “high” of doing something new is something that almost all founders thrive on. It’s a big reason they decided to start a company in the first place. The key is to direct that urge towards small, frequent, fun, and relevant side projects.
You’ll never believe how amazing THIS practice can be…
By Len Kendall - CoFounder of CentUp.org
By the way, like this post? Check out the entire Creators+Tech series and subscribe to our email to get the next post delivered to your inbox.Â
Producing excellent content is the primary method of getting loyal fans, but it's not the only one. Part of the reason that Gary Vaynerchuck, Lady Gaga, and even Justin Bieber have such a strong fan base is because they're really good at engaging with them.
That means responding to their questions, publicly thanking them, and just generally making them feel acknowledged among the millions of others who are part of the same community of supporters.
While you may not have millions of readers/listeners/viewers yet, you should be just as active when it comes to making your fans feel special. This doesn't mean you have to spend tons of time or money creating gifts for people, it really just comes down to spotlighting someone amongst their peers.
Before we launched CentUp, we ran a crowdfunding campaign to raise a bit of money and boost awareness of our upcoming launch. People who donated money to us were critical components of getting our story shared. We didn't just want to send them a "thank you" email and have them feel good, we wanted them to feel SO good that they continued to share our project with other people. We created unique appreciation videos and then methodically let the subjects of said videos know about it. Below are a few silly examples:
Sure…these are really stupid. But you know what they're not?
1) They're not expensive to make. If you own a smartphone these simple videos cost essentially nothing.
2) They're not time-sucks. These were all made in less than 30 minutes of planning, filming, and editing.
3) They're not a bad way to keep your mind sharp and creativity flaring. Doing the same thing day-in-day out is exhausting.Â
100% of the people who we made these videos for shared them with their own Twitter and/or Facebook followers. So for an extra 30 minutes of time, not only did we thank our fans, but we also gave them a reason to promote us, AGAIN.
Every kind of content creator will have different ways to share their love, but here are some examples of things you can apply to your own community.
Exclusive Content: Without having to redesign the look or functionality of your site, you can provide your most active fans with a more private look into your mind. Create an email newsletter that is invite only. Bring in those who pledge the most to your content and take time each week to make that exclusive membership worth your readers time. Depending on your content, those exclusive items could be videos, white papers, podcasts, and so on.
Public Musical Thankings: Are you a musician? (And even if you're not) YouTube + You + An instrument + A short little ditty about one of your fans will make your supporters go crazy. Not only does it spotlight an individual fan, but it shows the rest of your audience that their dedication might result in a super sincere, personal, and wonderfully embarrassing show of appreciation.
Free Advertising: Depending on your niche, your audience might be extremely valuable to one of your fans. Let's say you're a podcaster. You could consider give one of your top subscribers a 10 second, “shameless plug” during your podcast. Have fun with it. Maybe even have the “advertiser” poke fun at them (with their permission of course).
By the way, thanks for reading. If you've made it this far, tweet me something funny. I'll tweet you back. It'll be a thing.
By Len Kendall - CoFounder of CentUp.org
By the way, like this post? Check out the entire Creators+Tech series and subscribe to our email to get the next post delivered to your inbox.Â
Last night I finished reading a brand new book called Hooked by Nir Eyal. This post is broken out into three parts: A VERY high level overview of the book, a light dive into how you can use the principals as a blogger, and lastly an exercise where I apply this type of thinking to us at CentUp.
The gist: "Hooked is a guide to building products people can’t put down. Written for product managers, designers, marketers, startup founders, and people eager to learn more about the things that control our behaviors. The "Hook Model," a four steps process companies can use to build customer habits. Through consecutive hook cycles, successful products reach their ultimate goal of bringing users back repeatedly -- without depending on costly advertising or aggressive messaging."
Why should you care? Because your blog (or really any kind of content you produce) is a product. We've talked about this before on Creators + Tech. And as a product, you should always be thinking about a few things:
How do encourage people to return without annoying the shitake mushrooms out of them?
How can I reduce time tweeting, facebooking, redditing, etc. to drive readers to my site?
What will encourage my fans to bring in other new readers?
The Hook Model
Nir's simple for step cycle is meant to serve as a framework for all types of products, but let's look at it from the standpoint of your blog.
1. Trigger:Â What actually gets your readers to your blog? An RSS feed? An email subscription? A tweet from you they see in their feed? If your readership is low despite you having great content, it's probably because there aren't enough triggers driving people to your site! That doesn't mean you need to spam the internet with more triggers, it means you need to think about using mechanisms that get people coming back after their first visit, until they finally remember to do it on their own because it's a habit.
Examples:
Add an email subscription form that is easy to see and offers readers something beyond what a typical blog visitor might get (things like exclusive content or offering a discount on a product you sell)
Leave comments on blogs written by your readers/customers.
Specifically ask readers to add your site to their news reader app like Digg or Feedly.
2. Action: When people are triggered to come to your site, are they getting rewarded with something of quality? Ultimately this comes down to good content, and that's too broad of a topic to cover here. This post is really more focused on the other three components of The Hook Model.
3. Variable Reward: Ever heard of Sensory Adaptation? Basically if a person is exposed to any kind of stimulus over and over, they will eventually get used to it and not notice it anymore. This applies to displeasure and pleasure. The Hook specifically calls out the importance of offering variable rewards for your product. In the case of say, a shoe company, that might be throwing in a free pair of cool laces with one order, or a 5% discount pop-up when an old customer visits the site again. When it comes to a blog, you have to be creative in terms of how your content rewards readers in variable ways. Writing a fantastic post is the expectation, but how do you exceed those expectations?Â
Examples:Â
Record some of your long-form posts as audio files. (SoundCloud makes this super easy)
Offer a unique gift or experience to the first X number of commenters.
Tell people ahead of time what you're going to write about next. It's a rare tactic, but gives people a clear incentive to come back if they're excited about an upcoming post.
4. Investment: The last component (before the cycle begins again) is the investment phase. This is where your customer inputs something of their own. In the case of a web product that might be a credit card, time spent creating a virtual asset, or sharing a piece of personal data. Whatever that investment is, it's not about getting your readers to share it and then leave forever. It's about intriguing your audience enough to start leaving a piece of themselves in your ecosystem and coming back later to build on it. Sites like Pinterest and Instagram do this effectively because every single new piece of content added creates a stronger bond to the visual collecting a user is building. When it comes to a blog, an investment is usually less tangible, but equally as important.
Examples:
Using a commenting system like Disqus or Livefyre that notify commenters when a new post has been added to the discussion.
Make email subscribers feel like they're part of a bigger community. Buffer's blog is a great example of this.Â
Ask readers to contribute their expertise/opinions for an upcoming curated post.
Practicing what we preach...
It would be ridiculous for us to share this overview with you and not try to apply this model ourselves to CentUp. So how did we think about Hooked in terms of our own product?
1. Trigger: We are relying on two core tactics. First, people seeing the button across hundreds of sites. Second, our fans/customers seeing posts in social media or our weekly emails.
Challenge: Honestly right now there aren't enough triggers reminding people to use CentUp. In terms of the button, we know that there's a bit of fatigue when it comes to social sharing tools. While there are over 100 sites now sporting the CentUp button, people have become blind to anything on web pages outside the content. In terms of our social posts, we don't want to annoy our community so we can only send so many updates.
Opportunity:Â Obviously we need more sites sporting CentUp (if you're a blogger, that's a subtle hint for you to apply) but we also need to give our publishers more incentives to call out CentUp on their site. Regardless of the donation platform, if a writer/podcaster/musician isn't routinely asking for donations, they won't get any. Additionally, CentUp has a huge pool of content to share. There's plenty of room to post curated content across our social feeds more frequently without annoying our community.
2. Action: When people come to CentUp.org, they're greeted with some of the latest content that's receiving love from our community.Â
Challenge: With sites like Twitter, Facebook, and Reddit, people are used to literally endless streams of content to consume. Obviously quantity isn't better than quality, but people have grown accustomed to choice. Lots of it. Our biggest challenge is providing a content stream that meets the expectations of content hungry readers.
Opportunity: CentUp needs to cement itself as a daily destination for finding unique content. We have specific plans for achieving those goals and will share more in mid-Q1 2014! (Sorry, we're all for transparency but this is something we need to keep close to the chest for now)
3. Variable Reward: When someone clicks the CentUp button, they are generally getting one specific think: a feeling of doing some good. They helped a talented creator, and also supported a charity. Great!Â
Challenge: While this is enough of a reward for a segment of our audience, it's not necessarily going to be enough for "the masses." The reality is that most successful social tools rely on pandering to vanity, or offering tangible rewards. This isn't meant to make anyone sound superficial, it's simply human psychology. To use myself as an example, I much prefer donating to Kickstarter campaigns where I get a physical product versus a campaign that simply helps a project come to life (even if it's really excellent).Â
Opportunity: As we move into 2014, we're going to work closely with our publishing partners to creatively give back to their top CentUp donors with tangible and intangible rewards. We will also (as a company) begin offering more random rewards to our most active users.
4. Investment: WIth CentUp, our donors are making a very literal investment of giving cents or dollars to content creators they think are worthy.
Challenge: Donations certainly build value for publishers and it's easy to understand why they would develop a habit for stopping by CentUp each day. For donors though, there's not a lot of long-term equity being built into individual donations.
Opportunity: Donors need to feel special for their aggregate efforts. We'll look to amp this up in 2014 by spending more time spotlighting donors and providing them with data that ranks them against other generous CentUp community members.
</Exercise>
The concepts discussed above are all about forming habits in the minds of your readers customers. Sure, these kinds of methods have been used to get people addicted to silly things like Candy Crush saga, but hopefully you can use such tactics for things a bit more valuable. After all, if you're producing great writing, or a useful product, then you should have no shame in getting people hooked.
Check out Hooked. Through December 31st, the Kindle edition is free!Â
By Len Kendall - CoFounder of CentUp.org
By the way, like this post? Check out the entire Creators+Tech series and subscribe to our email to get the next post delivered to your inbox.Â
CentUp is working on an experiment with Zemanta similar to the "Tech Circle" project. An exclusive group of 10-15 writers will be part of this endeavor and will each link to one another via a simple widget at the bottom of every post they write. Included will be a CentUp button so that every writer can easily accept donations from readers. Those selected to participate will receive promotion and a healthy spike in traffic.
Why should you apply?Â
This project will likely boost your recurring readership.Â
You'll make a little extra cash.
You'll raise money for charity by participating.
How?
Email team(at)centup(dot)org with the subject: Writers Circle
Include a link to your site, and your favorite piece of recent content
Share your monthly traffic (needs to be over 1000 uniques a month)
As a creator and an entrepreneur, getting on the phone isn’t my favorite activity.
It’s a painfully un-scaleable form of communication.
It doesn’t give you much time to think through your answers to a question.
3) Now more than ever, people are reluctant to even accept a phone call conversation.
But based on my observations from the last 12 months (and 7 years in marketing before that), getting on the phone is an exponentially more effective sales channel than email. There are a few elements that factor into why this is the case:
Psychology
Saying no to an email is really easy. An email is just an inanimate object that happens to have been created by a human (hopefully). When an email pitch is deleted there’s no awkwardness between both parties. There’s no obligation for the rejector to have to explain why they’re saying no. The relationship just ceases to exist until another follow-up email shows up. Humans show far more empathy for other humans. When your voice is on the end of the line, you may not get a yes, but you’re definitely going to at least get more feedback on why what you’re selling isn’t right for the prospect.
Context
Sometimes it’s VERY hard to communicate subtleties when you’re sharing information via a written message. (See what I just did there?) When you talk to someone over the phone/skype you’re able to put emphasis on the most important parts of your pitch and course correct when someone you’re speaking to misunderstands something. If someone misreads something in an email, they probably will just delete it and move on. Without being able to rapidly add context to your discussion, you’re decreasing the odds that someone will consider you as a partner or vendor.
Action Required
If you’re pitching ME with a long email and I actually want to respond to you (whether it’s a yes or a no), the longer your email is, the longer my response is probably going to have to be too. I’m a busy guy, you’re busy too. Neither of us has time to sit around cranking out thousand-word emails. Even though a phone call can feel inefficient, when it comes to back and forth discussion with someone you don’t know well, it’s much faster. For people in business roles, email already takes up such a large portion of the day. By encouraging a prospective partner/customer to give you a response via voice, you’re increasing the odds that they actually put forth the effort in giving you one.
So?
As I said, I hate getting on the phone with people, but I force myself to do it. Personally I’ve evolved my own pitching style over time and while my business isn’t like yours, I highly recommend you reexamine your own (pardon the business jargon) sales funnel to understand what leads to higher conversion among your higher priority prospects.
In the past I used to try and spell out as much as possible in an email to help address any and all questions a person might have. Now I keep them short and try to jump on a call much sooner in the relationship cycle. Much like in web design, when it comes to email more is not better. The greater amount of messaging you put in an email, the greater the number of reasons you give someone to say no. Share a few strong points that cater to the person you’re reaching out to, and leave the rest of the discussion for when you’re talking to them the old school way.
By Len Kendall - CoFounder of CentUp.org
By the way, like this post? Check out the entire Creators+Tech series and subscribe to our email to get the next post delivered to your inbox.Â
Imagine finishing a creative project without owning every step along the way. It's often hard because when we put something out there, whether it be an article, a podcast, or a painting, we feel that in order to claim ourselves as the author, we need to have touched every aspect of the final work. But the reality is the most prolific creators have a team helping them with projects. Banksy and Shepard Fairey do it. Ira Glass and Adam Carolla do it. And you should do it too.
What's that? Can't afford to have a team helping you? Well luckily for you, the internet can fill in. The following are some web services that you can consider using the next time you want to streamline a project. If you want to help rationalize this practice, calculate how much you might earn per hour and then spend half of that on some of these tools the next time you take on a new endeavor. If it gets done in half the time, then it's worth repeating.
Fiverr - "Hey I'll pay you five bucks to do X for me." That's essentially the premise behind this incredibly simple services marketplace. Let's say you're redesigning your blog and want to include a unique illustration of yourself. You COULD go into Photoshop and spend an hour editing an image to get it just right, or you could have someone like Sandro do it for you. (I actually tried this and it's awesome).
Some people are just very good at one particular thing that you perhaps might not be. Spend your time on your strengths, and let someone else handle the stuff that kills your day.
Crowdspring - There are a lot of artists who don't create anything related to visual content. That's where Crowdspring shines. Let's say you're an author and you just poured your heart and soul into writing, editing, and re-editing your book? One route you could take is hiring a designer to create your book cover, but not everyone knows exactly what they want. CS lets you set a price for how much you're willing to pay for a cover (or any other graphic design) and then interested artists can offer their vision. The one you like best i the one you pay for. It's important to note, the quality of your results will be reflected in the amount you're willing to pay. Hopefully if you find a designer that meets your needs, it will lead to a long-lasting relationship.
Stocksy - Most stock photography collection are PAINFUL. Can anyone say, "Women Laughing Alone with Salad?" Shooting your own photos is ideal, but that's not always realistic so people turn to stock photo galleries. I've lost countless numbers of hours searching for photos that didn't look terribly cheesy AND didn't cost a small fortune. Stocky has emerged as my number one choice for finding images for content when I don't feel like producing my own. The content is heavily curated to help you waste less time searching and the site does a really solid job of promoting the contributors.
Quora - One of the largest question and answer platforms on the web. Unlike search engine results which shows you sites with keywords you're searching for, Quora uses human curation to reveal the best answers to the most common questions.
Let's say for example you're working on a video and you need some royally free music? You could certainly search Google for "royalty free music," but you won't necessarily get the best results, they simply will be the most visited or linked to. With Quora, you can find where specific lists of responses to your needs and the community ranks them in terms of quality. For example, this listing reveals a solid list of music sites to explore. While the "tech set" has been leveraging Quora for years, this community has gone under-the-radar for many creatives. If you're asking a question, it's likely that 100 other people have asked it too. So save yourself time and find the answer quickly.
What tools and communities do you use to save you time?
By Len Kendall - CoFounder of CentUp.org
By the way, like this post? Check out the entire Creators+Tech series and subscribe to our email to get the next post delivered to your inbox.Â
In between rampant eating, shopping, and watching National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation for the 100th time, winter is a great opportunity to catch-up on reading. The following are three must-reads (new and old) that should add value to any creator's bookshelf.Â
Instead of offering one-size-fits-all advice, Paul provides an infinitely flexible template for adventure. There is a better, more satisfying path out there, if you’re willing to take risks and explore new territory. This book provides practical ideas and questions to help you conquer fear, overcome inertia, embrace vulnerability, validate your plans and most importantly, launch the shit out of them."
Our take: Paul has been writing a very personal email newsletter for quite some time and he is very engaged with his readers. Much of his writing has gone into this book and it's something you could easy knock out in an afternoon. There are so many books written for creative professionals and the thing that often irks us is when (frequently) authors don't have body of work that gives them credibility. A simple google search of Paul will show you he is quite prolific, and he practices what he preaches.
Medici Effect - Frans Johansson
Summary: "Why do so many world-changing insights come from people with little or no related experience? Charles Darwin was a geologist when he proposed the theory of evolution. And it was an astronomer who finally explained what happened to the dinosaurs.
Frans Johansson’s The Medici Effect shows how breakthrough ideas most often occur when we bring concepts from one field into a new, unfamiliar territory, and offers examples how we can turn the ideas we discover into path-breaking innovations."
Our take: Some people say, "Genius Steals" but to refine that idea even further it's all about connecting intersections. Creativity almost always is a result of connecting two (or more) disparate ideas in a way that no one else has. This book is one of the best collections of case studies on how people have combined ideas, art, and culture to bring their own unique contributions to the world. In many ways this book inspired the core essence of CentUp's fusion of causes and content.
Sketchnote Handbook - Mike Rohde
Summary: "This gorgeous, fully illustrated handbook tells the story of sketchnotes--why and how you can use them to capture your thinking visually, remember key information more clearly, and share what you've captured with others. Author Mike Rohde shows you how to incorporate sketchnoting techniques into your note-taking process--regardless of your artistic abilities--to help you better process the information that you are hearing and seeing through drawing, and to actually have fun taking notes."
Our take: A huge component of any creative professional's life is conveying their ideas to clients, fans, and partners before they actually go and create the final product. The concept of "sketchnoting" has been around for a few years but Mike has really packaged the practice nicely in this book. Whether you're creating a powerpoint, drawing an idea on a napkin, or building a website this guide is something worth keeping close to your workspace.Â
What other books should we add to the list? Leave a comment below.
By Len Kendall - CoFounder of CentUp.org
By the way, like this post? Check out the entire Creators+Tech series and subscribe to our email to get the next post delivered to your inbox.Â
When you create something and share it online, do you care about controlling where and how that experience takes place?
Increasingly, writers and other kinds of creators are turning to third-party platforms to host their content instead of maintaining their own sites. Authors are finding readers at places like Medium, Svbtle, Quibb, and other community blogs. Visual artists are posting images to Behance, Dribbble, and deviantART. I'm one of them, but lately I've been wavering over where I want to put my creativity down on "digital paper."
The platforms mentioned above have built remarkable communities of course, but to you (the producer of content) they do present an important decision. On one hand these platforms can bring a massive audience to an unknown creator. And they're also much easier to maintain from a technical perspective. On the flip side, whoever is packaging your material for you can flip a switch at any time and change the context of your work.
A few factors to consider when choosing to house your creative endeavors on a platform you don't own:
You can only implement technology that the platform lets you. While it may be constantly evolving, from a technical perspective you don’t have full control over how you share media or which technical integrations you use.
How you make money (and how much) is largely determined by rules you have no part in making. While those rules treat everyone (all contributors) equally, not everyone is an equal in terms of the talent or audience size they bring to the table.
If a platform disappears tomorrow, or does something that you don’t like, you and your fans aren’t easy to migrate away. It’s not your platform, you’re just using it. This happened to me on Posterous. More on that below.
Now obviously many platforms provides a great service to content creators by offering free hosting for content, that’s huge. But they do it a cost. Typically that cost is using your audience to advertise to. Maybe it's today, maybe it's in the future.
Social networks and blog collectives serve a very important purpose, but they should not be seen as a canvas an artist feels required to paint on. Centralizing content in one place makes it easy for audiences to discover you, but it also presents your offering in a highly competitive place. Kind of like you're the new shop in the mall, competing for attention against the smell from Cinnabon and the cart selling bedazzled phone cases.
A short and awful anecdote
For most of my "blogging life," I had always hosted my own site. But one day Posterous showed up and offered insanely simple posting (via email) and a powerful community. In many ways it was a precursor to Medium and Svbtle. It was so unique that it actually spurred a friend and I to start a project called "the3six5," a public diary that let a different person write an entry every single day for an entire year.
That project ran for 1000 days in a row and we accumulated 365,000 words from people all over the world. And then Posterous was shut down. While the data was saved, the Internet shrine we had built was essentially bulldozed. The trust we had put in a third party platform burned us pretty badly.
The options are endless
In the last few years writers have definitely started migrating away from their own domains, but will simpler content management systems and an increased competency in web development swing things the other way?
Where do you prefer to write? Where do platforms like Tumblr and Squarespace fit?
By Len Kendall - CoFounder of CentUp.org
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