You neglect and belittle the desert.
The desert is not remote in southern tropics
The desert is not only around the corner,
The desert is squeezed in the tube-train next to you,
The desert is in the heart of your brother.
—T S Eliot (Choruses from The Rock)
Art – René Magritte
What is the world made of?
“The real secret of magic is that the world is made of words, and that if you know the words that the world is made of, you can make of it whatever you wish.” – Terence McKenna
Pearlovski in the city
In still-November.
On days like this, the world feels shaped by the perpetual kindness of light.
“Love is like a tree, it grows of its own accord, it puts down deep roots into our whole being.”
– Victor Hugo
Art – Paul Ranson
Which poem reminds you of your childhood? Either because you read it as a child or because when you read it, it resonates with your inner child.
A Bird, came down the Walk
by EMILY DICKINSON
A Bird, came down the Walk –
He did not know I saw –
He bit an Angle Worm in halves
And ate the fellow, raw,
And then, he drank a Dew
From a convenient Grass –
And then hopped sidewise to the Wall
To let a Beetle pass –
He glanced with rapid eyes,
That hurried all abroad –
They looked like frightened Beads, I thought,
He stirred his Velvet Head. –
Like one in danger, Cautious,
I offered him a Crumb,
And he unrolled his feathers,
And rowed him softer Home –
Than Oars divide the Ocean,
Too silver for a seam,
Or Butterflies, off Banks of Noon,
Leap, plashless as they swim.
Answer featured at Quora.com.
Art – Charles van Sandwyk.
“We are a country in which words matter, and words can change minds.” – Ken Burns
Here are my 5 copywriting rules. Written in isolation in between blog posts, poetry, product descriptions and SEO auditing.
1. Write the way you talk to your best friend, but in a consistent way. “Copy is a direct conversation with the consumer.” – Shirley Polykoff
2. Start with the truest sentence that you know. (That is Hemingway, not me.)
If written well, all stories are true. Be authentic and play with your imagination, which will arrange words in different shapes to fill the truest contours of the shortest sentences that you can write. Each line should play off of each other.
3. Strive for balance in your writing. If you feel that your story lacks poise, shape it with the right words. Play with it, and when finished, read it aloud. Your ear will pick up the irregularities you cannot see on paper. I always read and record my poems before publishing. That’s how I spot unpolished lines.
3. Simplicity. First line, second line. The goal of your first line of copy is to get people to read the second line. The goal of your second line is to get them to write the third, etc. Everything you write must be copy. Even if you are writing an ordinary email or a request for an offer.
4. Your copy is about the reader, not about you. It’s OK to write in the first person. That’s how people talk. Nevertheless, in the eyes of the reader, “You” is more powerful than “I”. Who’s “I” and why should I care? I, the reader, care about myself and not about you, the writer.
5. Fill your copy with real-life examples of yourself and your work. Let people know you’re real. Take screenshots of tweets, blog posts, and articles published. They will boost any email, blog post, or landing page.
“A great story is true. Not necessarily because it’s factual, but because it’s consistent and authentic. Consumers are too good at sniffing out inconsistencies for a marketer to get away with a story that’s just slapped on.” – from Seth
No matter what you sell or do, do it right and well. Even if you don’t sell gold, leave an impression and a mark. Get the job done. If possible, leave a trail of delight that will later lead them back to you. And whatever you do, ask a simple question: Can I get away with it? Can I get away with my story, presentation, or performance? We are all non/artists until we promise ourselves to put our passions into practise and become entrepreneurs.
“Art is what you can get away with.”– Andy Warhol
Excerpt from Get Away with Entrepreneurship written in 2016.
Iulia Halatz
Duy Huynh
“As much as we complain about other people, there is nothing worse for mental health than a social desert.”
– Charles Montgomery
Art – Isabel Bishop
“You find peace not by rearranging the circumstances of your life, but by realizing who you are at the deepest level.”
– Eckhart Tolle
Andrei Mylnikov
Facebook used to be an essential digital marketing tool, we all know, including the wave of small entrepreneurs promoting solely on their pages having in mind the (newly obsolete) remark, “you don’t exist outside FB”.
Lately, as I am working remotely, I have been completing the digital marketing plans for one of my customers…
Well, I have never been into FB marketing as I believe that it is good solely for brand awareness, nevertheless I went with the flow as I intended to make the most of it for my customer.
Previously, I have started two blogs, of course after completing the SEO audit and SEO content strategy for my customer’s website.
Then I started the page… I compelled and pestered my friends and friends of friends to like&follow the page, then I promoted the page for more Likes as everybody knows that a page with few Likes does not sit well in the eyes of possible customers.
I boosted posts, following the content posting strategy for both the blogs and the website and whatnot.
I have kept the shelves of the blogs shiny and sparkling with new stories and new pics…
Nevertheless, I couldn’t help but notice how very few of the page’s fans turned into customers. As if I didn’t know it, that buying publicity on FB is like buying stardust, it is just visual, pertaining to the symmetry of the page…
The other day there came the last straw, as I read in the news about a group promoting small businesses from Romania, I joined it with the identity of the FB page.
Then, within few hours, a lot of posts from the page disappeared without any message or warning, including the cover photo and “Our Story”, which I cannot repost. The page was reported for spam under the circumstances that this was the ONLY FB group I have joined so far. Unbelievable!!!
A lot of blood, sweat and tears that I put into this project have gone to blazes…
I am posting this, too, with a view to our futile attempts to sell more through Facebook:
https://www.inc.com/christine-lagorio-chafkin/small-businesses-ditch-facebook-marketing-advertising.html?icid=hmsub2
First and foremost the FB policy is wrong as it allows so may fake profiles in its network and on the other hand, it destroys the work of so many at the report/request of so few. I have written to them in the hope to have info of what I did wrong. No reply. The answer is that more and more small businesses will ditch Fb marketing.
As Twitter and Google have banned political advertising, maybe some politicians would trust the overpowering networking juice of FB…
I am illustrating with this photo in the idea that a surreal ride by a goat-drawn chariot is what I got lately.
February is the month of shiny love stories.
“Stories … are genuinely symbiotic organisms that we live with, that allow human beings to advance.” – Neil Gaiman.
We write for you stories that allow Love to advance.
We’d love to hear from you. It is fascinating to see what some long tail (stardusted) keywords can create.
Art by Michael Cheval.
My next project is a jewelry website.
Firstly I have started with a blog where I use the frame story, the story-within-a-story technique.
Next, the SEO audit in order to start handcrafting the pillar page for the website…
It is fascinating, as a “brother”-of-words, to see what some long tail (stardusted) keywords can create.
For the central piece story, I have been inspired by the magnetic beauty of Eustacia Vye from The Return of the Native (Thomas Hardy), who wanted, above all, to be loved.
We keywordly handcraft your inventory of light and spread it all over to Be Loved.
Illustration for The return of the Native by Thomas Hardy
