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Showing posts from June, 2020

How to Write a Memo: Tips for Format, Content, and Style (Includes Template)

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Although many businesses rely on email and instant messaging to communicate these days, the original pillar of internal business communication was the memo—and despite the rapid spread of technology in offices, it’s still relevant and useful today. Knowing basic memo etiquette, including how it’s formatted and when it should be used instead of email, will help you become a more efficient communicator within your organization. What Is a Memo? A memo, or “memorandum,” is used by organizations for internal communications regarding business and procedures. Typically, they’re used to convey important changes that affect a large portion of the company, or to announce upcoming events to staff members. Memos were most popular in the days before email, when important messages would be printed, distributed throughout the office, signed or initialed by employees. Today, emails are primarily used to convey important information to the masses—however, they’re also used to convey a lot of oth

Coursera Review: Are Their Certificates Worth It?

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Once upon a time, when you wanted to learn a new skill or get ahead at work, you needed to go to a brick-and-mortar school and enroll in courses. Now, you can easily enroll in any number of online courses with both paid and free options.  The mushrooming of many online learning platforms has contributed to widespread access to careerdevelopment resources. Some of the most popular platforms include Coursera, edX, Udemy, Skillshare, and Lynda.  Today, we’ll be taking a closer look at whether or not Coursera courses and certificates are worth your time and money. What Is Coursera? Founded in 2012 by former Stanford professors Daphne Koller and Andrew Ng, Coursera is currently the largest online learning platform, with 450 employees as of January 2020 and 47 million users as of December 2019. The site boasts of a wide array of open online courses, degrees, and specializations.  Coursera forms strong partnerships with top universities, post-secondary educational institutions, and gov

10 Best Keyword Research Tools for SEO

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Finding the right content ideas for your site takes a lot of thought and planning, but just writing great content often isn’t enough. You also need to do keyword research to make sure you’re using the right terms so people can actually find your content! Luckily, there are some outstanding keyword research tools that can make your job easier by providing content ideas, important keyword metrics, competitor analysis, and more so you can spend less time digging for data and more time helping your prospective customers. The Best Keyword Research Tools Below are 10 of the best keyword research tools that will help you find new content ideas and provide the information you need to evaluate keyword ideas. 1. Ubersuggest Ubersuggest is the first keyword research list on this tool that offers free features. While it was originally built to scrap Google Suggest terms, it has since been taken over by marketing expert Neil Patel and now specializes in generating new keyword ideas. All

How to Do Keyword Research for SEO: Tips and Tools for Beginners

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From marketing campaigns to blog posts, understanding what your audience and potential customers are looking for is crucial if you want to build a successful business. Luckily, keyword research can point you in the right direction and show you exactly what your audience wants. And it’s not just helpful for writing a blog post or running a website—if you’ve written a book or sell any products online, you’ll likely need to do some Amazon keyword research to help shoppers find your product more easily. Anyone (or any business) with an online presence who seeks to grow their platform should have at least a basic understanding of keyword research and SEO, and we’ve got you covered with the most important elements in this post. What Is Keyword Research? In SEO (Search Engine Optimization), keyword research refers to the process of finding and analyzing the actual terms that people enter into search engines in order to find the information they want. For example, if your dog needs a

How to Start a Story: 6 Creative Ways to Get Up and Writing

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Starting a story is often the most daunting part of the writing process. Staring at a blank page, knowing that the first line plays a crucial role in whether your audience will keep reading or not can certainly add pressure. Whether you are writing a short story or a novel, getting started is half the battle, so don’t let fear stop you in your tracks! Instead, use some proven techniques to jumpstart your writing. How to Start a Story Understand that you don’t always have to start at the beginning—you can actually start by writing any part of your story. Some writers even start by writing the ending!  But if you already know what you want your story to be and just need a little push getting started, these options for starting a story might help trigger the right words: 1. Dialogue Nothing draws readers in like introducing them to your characters in the middle of an ongoing conversation. If you want to use dialogue to open up your story, you can choose to start with a heated conv

25 Best Mystery Books That Will Keep You Guessing

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Do you remember the last mystery novel you read—when you just could’t wait to find out what happened next? The best mystery writers will keep you dangling on a string to ensure you don’t ever put the book down.  Mysteries are a great way to spend your time, since you aren’t just doing mindless reading, but instead your brain will be busy trying to fit pieces of the puzzle together to find the answers before the protagonist does!  Best Mystery Books  Here are some mystery novels you may want to check out, in no particular order:  1. Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn (2012) This New York Times bestseller investigates the disappearance of Amy Dunne on her fifth wedding anniversary. The primary suspect is her doting husband, but things are much more complicated than they seem. 2. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson (2005) Mikael Blomkvist is a journalist who, along with hacker Lisbeth Salander, tries to find the person accused of killing a relative of one of Sweden’s

28 Must-Read Modern Classics

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Masterfully-crafted prose, timeless themes, and unforgettable characters are the reasons why classic literary works endure for generations. They awaken the imagination and allow us to experience different places, time periods, triumphs, and struggles through the lens of a whole host of characters.  But the most excellent books are not limited to the old classics of Dante or Homer. Time and again, a book rises to the bestseller list and is considered at par with the classics of the past century. These are aptly termed modern classics.  What Is a Modern Classic Book?  A modern classic book is typically written after World War I, and possibly after World War II. This is because these two events marked the emergence of new ideas and ways of thinking, such as ideologies about gender, race, and class.  What makes a book a classic? A classic usually possesses high quality of artistic expression, and it usually serves as a representation of the time period it writes about, even though its