Danny Brown's Blog, page 26

Are We Choosing to Offer Too Much Choice at Times?

What attracts you more – an image in a magazine or a 400-word text advertisement?Do you prefer short blog posts or longer ones?

Do you watch short movies on YouTube, or longer?

Do you prefer a one-sheet menu or a multi-page one at a restaurant?

At a bar, is your preference for 100 bottles of liquor to choose from or a more specific collection?

We spend a lot of our lives making decisions on decisions. We look at multiple choices and then wonder if we picked the right one after all. Doubt cree...

One to One Blog Consulting? I’m Your Huckleberry

For the last 8 years or so, I’ve helped a lot of friends and family dive into the wonderful world of blogging, both for personal and professional use.

Many have been put off blogging up until then, thinking it was either something we did in solitary, or something that they had little time (and even less inclination) to do so.

Once they jumped in, though, and set realistic goals based on what they wanted from blogging – from a place just to put down thoughts and encourage others to chime in, t...

Why I’ll Only Use Postmatic for WordPress Blog Comments

It takes a lot for me to be completely won over by a new product out of the gate, never mind make me a staunch supporter of it from that very same gate.

Usually, I’ll find a bunch of things I don’t like, and use that as an excuse to look for another solution, or one that does the stuff the one I’m looking at doesn’t.

Now and again, though, the actions of the developers or creators of a product make you forget what’s missing, and instead make you focus on the very cool stuff that’s included in...

Does Your Tagline Tell Your Story?

Mention tagline to someone, and invariably they’ll connect it to a business tagline and how that business benefits you, the end user.

And that makes sense. After all, a tagline is one of the first chances your business gets to make an impression on a prospective customer or employee. Get a great tagline, and it can jump you way ahead of the competition in just a few words.

Think of the very best taglines, and how their simplicity stays with you long after your first touch-point with them.

...

Our Only Failing or Weakness Is In Allowing Others to Foster It

None of us like to admit we’re weak. None of us like to present the potential of fear to our opponents, always waiting in the wings for us to slip up.

And yet… Our opponents are just as fearful. Just as cautious. Just as secretive and unwilling to admit to weaknesses too. Sometimes they hide it better; sometimes not.

But why fear weakness? Is it really weakness anyway? Look at it from another angle – our admitted weakness allows us to set up strong pillars around us that provide the strength...

How to Build a Loyal Blog Community With the Power of Give

One of the conversations that often arises when talking about blogs is community, andhow to both grow and reward loyalty.

Making sure your blog community knows you appreciate them helps in several ways – there’s two way respect between blogger and reader/subscriber/commenter, as well as opportunities for advocacyand blog growth through referral.

One way to do this is to offer exclusive content to blog or newsletter subscribers – a free ebook or white paper, for example.

Of course, that approa...

There Are 24 Usable Hours in Every Day – How Are You Using Them?

This is a guest post by Jaclyn Aurore, a New Adult fiction author who – in the name of full transparency – also just happens to be my wife.

Well, it’s been a little while since my last personal blog post. Not bad by my standards…

I bared my soul on that post, and I was hesitant to write again. What could I possibly say?

But then it occurred to me.

Time Management

I am a wife, mother, dog-lover, author, analyst, publisher, editor, and now beauty consultant. I am also learning to drive, taking...

Can You Tell Your Story Without Using Words?

Over the weekend, I took my daughter Salem to the local library, where we played games, made little toys, and read books together.

My wife was at an event all weekend with her publisher company, and my son was playing at the weekly sports curriculum at our local community centre.

Given my daughter loves her books at home, the library was an obvious choice for us to hang out while Ewan did his sports thing (the fact it’s in the same community centre didn’t hurt).

As we were browsing through th...

Why Social Media Speakers Need to Do Better By Their Audience

One of the things you can always guarantee whenever a social media conference comes around is all the tweetable soundbites that ensue.

From mind-blowing statistics to feel-good messages, there’s never any shortage of social updates or blog posts that share the best of the best from these conferences.

And, sometimes, you do actually get some great insights from these types of conference, and they deliver on the often-exuberant price for tickets.

And then there are the quotes and statistics tha...

It Makes You Appreciate the Little Things More

This past weekend, I completely switched off from social, turned my phone off, and focused solely on my family.

On Friday and Sunday, my wife and I gave our complete attention to our kids. On Saturday, we went to my wife’s aunt and uncle’s for Easter dinner, and a chance to bring together the various parts of my wife’s family around the same table.

This year, there were some new faces at the table as cousins brought their partners. There were also a couple of absent faces, as life and other c...