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Custom Publishing Insight

What Makes a Magazine Cover Great?

August 26, 2010 Insight

great magazine covers

You know it when you see it. It might catch your eye and prompt you to flip the pages. It might capture a famous person or an iconic moment and ask all the right questions. And sometimes … it might even make your jaw drop. Could it be the typography, the image, the colors, the [...]

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Born to Multitask

August 24, 2010 Insight

born to multitask

Hi, I’m Becca. I’m a Gen-Y, Type-A, multitasking machine. I’m part of a generation that is expected to crank out quality work with frightening efficiency. We shave off the fat between idea inception and execution. We brainstorm in our sleep. We tweet. We write. We design. We produce. We respond to hundreds and hundreds of [...]

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Getting Tested: Is Your Email at Risk?

August 23, 2010 Insight

Every day, people from all over the world participate in risky behavior. We all know the dangers, we’re aware of what can happen, but we still don’t put an emphasis on getting tested before we engage in what is a daily activity for many. Of course, I’m talking about sending emails.

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Free Beer

August 17, 2010 Insight

People will try anything to get attention. From publicity stunts, to false advertising, to straight-up lying, no stone is left unturned in the world of “how can I get people to pay attention to me?” I know from experience.

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Stretching a Brand: How Far is Too Far?

August 13, 2010 Insight

It’s a simple concept: First, create the brand. Second, create the product. Third, associate the products with the brand. But when is it taken too far? When does a product make its brand lose meaning, instead of gaining? These are just some of the questions that came to mind when I came across this article. [...]

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Building Community, One Blog at a Time

July 26, 2010 Insight

building community

A reader made my day today. Well, she’s more than a reader. She’s a blogger, and she just began blogging for a magazine website that I manage for a client. She reminded me of the impact our publications and websites can have on our audience—she even reminded me that I have an audience. Honestly, I [...]

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How Do You Have Time For That?

July 8, 2010 Insight

kitchen timer thumbnail

I have been wanting to write this post for a while. But I haven’t had time. I figured I’d do it eventually. But project deliverables got in the way. So did happy hours. And so did sleep. Don’t get me wrong: I kept writing it on my to-do lists. I definitely wrote it down more [...]

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The Dark Side I Sense in You

July 2, 2010 Insight

I was amazed to learn recently that Facebook sends more people to news sites than Google does. Sixty-eight percent of your Facebook fans are likely to recommend your product, and fans will spend nearly $72 more than non-fans. All these facts come courtesy of an interesting American Marketing Association webcast, “What the Big Brands Do [...]

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Who Are You and What Do You Do? Customer Engagement Part 1

July 1, 2010 Insight

my name is nametag

In our business, we get called lots of names: custom publishers, social media specialists, SEO gurus, email marketers, magazine designers, and maybe a few more that probably shouldn’t be published here. And depending on who you ask and what we’ve done for them, you’ll probably get a different perspective on what we do. But none [...]

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Content is Everywhere

June 22, 2010 Insight

cvs content is everywhere

Writer’s block—it hits at the worst of times. Like right before I sat down to write this. A phrase used by one of my coworkers snapped me out of it: “But content is everywhere.” It can be as simple as taking your camera out while walking around the neighborhood and discovering a new local hangout. [...]

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Creativity: The Cure-All

June 18, 2010 Insight

It could have just been another task on a lengthy to-do list: Figure out how to maximize space in the office building of a company that, well, attaches sentimental value to inanimate objects (read: we hold on to a lot of our work). Being a custom media company – one that produces magazines, marketing collateral, [...]

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Strangers in Your Pocket

June 17, 2010 Insight

Think of the last networking event you went to. Chances are, you brought a few business cards with you and probably handed a couple of them out. You likely received a bunch, too. And there were more than a few people handing them out indiscriminately like pamphlets on the street. Chances are you accepted the [...]

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Help! Facebook Turned My Friends Into Marketers

June 14, 2010 Insight

facebook requests thumbnail

Before you absolutely destroy me in the comments, I’d like to confess: I’ve probably “suggested you become a fan” of something on Facebook*. And there’s a good chance you denied it. And I probably sent it to you again (thinking you must have missed it). I know you didn’t miss it. I know it wasn’t [...]

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I Don’t Know

June 8, 2010 Insight

lightbulb thumb

“I can’t know everything.” A co-worker at a previous job once said this to me. He wasn’t being flippant. He was explaining to me that it’s OK if we don’t know everything. It’s OK to admit you don’t know the answer to a question and that you may need to conduct research on the topic. [...]

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They Already Have That

June 2, 2010 Insight

they already have transportation

Every day, this phrase murders innocent ideas before they had a chance to grow up. It suffocates its victims with a blanket of negativity. It is the leading killer of creativity. And it needs to be put behind bars, never to see the light of day – or the whiteboard in your conference room – [...]

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What American Idol Can Teach Us About Social Media

May 26, 2010 Insight

Let’s be honest, I’m going to lose some friends for writing this. And I’m not just talking about Facebook friends. I’m talking about real, couch-moving, bail-paying, wedding-attending friends. Well, I’m not planning on moving, getting arrested, or getting married anytime soon, so here is my confession:

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