Writing
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What 30 days of blogging can do for your career
30 days of blogging, beginning now. I’m a big believer of blogging, and I recommend custom content for every one of my friends when they ask what tools best benefit their small businesses. What 30 days can do If we’ve learned anything from Morgan Spurlock, it’s how much things can change in just 30 days. The Super Size Me movie caused McDonald’s and other fast food restaurants to change their marketing as a result of the negative publicity Spurlock’s health crisis conveyed! As an entrepreneur and an enthusiast of pursuing your artistic dreams, I’ve decided to engage in a test to see just how much difference…
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If content is king, I’m queen
Content IS king, and I feel like its queen Just a quick update here. I’ve been so busy lately taking clients and working with companies that I’ve sincerely been too busy to blog for myself. As I recommend all indie writers do, I am working my way up to higher-traffic websites. I’ve been invited to contribute to Lifehack.org so I plan to add some of my advice to that website in the coming weeks. With the all that I do and the way everything in marketing seems to fall on the support of content (original blog posts, videos and infographics that drive traffic from search engine results…
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An open letter to Stomp and Stammer’s Jeff Clark – The Ria Wars
By Ellen Eldridge More and more people are wondering what members of the media think about expressing their personal opinions in print—and, well, anything they want from the mildly offensive to the outrageously inflammatory. Facebook posts arguing the right to post whatever the author wants and as often as the author wants exist in surplus in my newsfeed—and I keep scrolling because I agree. To each his own and I’d rather just stay out of it. I’ve been quite content to keep the bulk of my political and religious feelings to my close friends and family—the writer and journalist I want to be centers on building people…
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The problem with perfectionism
I’m proud of people who claim to be perfectionists, and I know well I’m one of them. But the problem with perfectionism is procrastination–leave a comment if you think I’m wrong. These great ideas flood my brain and my hands quickly type or write them onto lists. I have more blog calendars than I care to count. My perfectionism hinders my thoughts and confines them to Word documents and pieces of scrap paper because I just know that if I sit on the idea until I have the time (cue uncontrollable laughter), then I will create triumphant blogs and share thoughts that readers won’t be able to stop…
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Feeding The Future or Feeding the Floor?
For the last eight years, the African American Student Alliance has collaborated with several Kennesaw State University student organizations to raise funds for the “Feed the Future” initiative which provides food and other resources for students who are experiencing financial difficulty. The event will be held in tandem with the Giving Feast Fundraiser Luncheon on Thursday, November 21, 2013 at 12:30PM in the University Rooms. The luncheon will be catered by KSU Catering and served by supervised, student volunteers. During this years event music will be rendered by the KSU Gospel Choir, as has been for the last eight years. Additionally, the KSU Brass Quartet, the KSU…
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The cost of a free vacation – traveling with toddlers
Price versus cost: a lesson in economics When I first heard about the regional conference for the Society of Professional Journalists, of which I act as president for the Kennesaw State University chapter, I felt excited and inspired to be one of the first chapter presidents to put for the extra effort to get as many members as possible (and as of this moment Kennesaw SPJ has the highest number of enrolled members ever), then to head to New Orleans to practice interviewing skills on zombies. Then the reality of the fact that I couldn’t go because I am a nontraditional student with a husband and two babies…
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How to tell a good poem from a bad poem
You know bad poetry Poetry often makes even poets cringe because everyone has seen and heard bad poetry so often that the form itself becomes taboo, and people are prejudiced against it. What ultimately makes a poem bad is the failure of the writer to convey that deep and moving experience to his reader that led him to write the poem. “Poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings: it takes its origin from emotion recollected in tranquility.” – William Wordsworth (who better to quote about the worth of words!) A poet’s profession is to paint a picture with words, wasting none. A novelist tells a story and…
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Dumpster Kitties – a coffee table book idea, and a reality
What is a ‘dumpster kitty’? When my husband and I moved into our new apartment at the end of August, we noticed quite a few stray cats. Our upstairs neighbors are feeding them (and I caught myself adding food to the dish one day). Well, after about two months I’ve come to realize these cats are a family. The one pictured above had a litter of kittens (and by litter I have seen two). I assumed the father was the black and white kitten my husband named “Sylvester,” (and the upstairs neighbor kids call “Frisky”), but this kitty may be a surrogate mom. (You know how kitty daddies just hit…
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THE 5 things artists must make time for
I skipped a blog Friday because I celebrated my 35th birthday by interviewing for a job, working, spending the afternoon with my kids at the park and spending my evening on the couch with my husband. Admittedly, all my “downtime” involved responding to texts, emails and thinking about how I would meet my deadlines, but I took some of the day off because I know what happens to freelancers and the artistic energy when we don’t take time to reboot. So, though Friday’s blog is generally dedicated to my thoughts on parenting, I’m publishing these five things that every artist needs to make the time for. Without these five…
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I’m pretty sure Breaking Bad’s Bryan Cranston is a nudist
As I celebrate my son’s tenth month on this planet, I simultaneously await the season six finale of Breaking Bad along with many many other fans. The show earned Cranston, whom I believe to be a nudist–but I’ll get to that–three Emmys. I’m sure other blogs exist questioning the merit of the plot line, and I’m sure that I fit alongside several other parents who quietly tuck their children into bed and sneak away to watch Breaking Bad. Why did we start watching Breaking Bad? I cannot really remember why my husband and I chose to watch the show, but I remember the episode after episode angst and…
