14 Inspiring Email Subject Line Hacks from the SXSW Catalog inShare36 The process of naming SXSW panels is part of the process of getting them accepted. The fine folks at SXSW seem to prefer interesting, surprising panel titles. An unexpected title might just help get votes. So, each year, I do a study of the SXSW panel names, looking for inspiration and common themes that I can use in my own email subject lines. Things That Don’t Fit Together: Non-Sequiturs Our brains are wired to discard the familiar faster than a bear can spell Constantinople. Lists of Three There is something memorable, readable, and easy-to-count about lists of three. Shock and Awe Boring subject lines make me want to poke needles into my eyes! Rhymes and Alliteration Sensual subject lines supplement the bottom line. Create a Common Enemy You may find your reader united behind you by identifying a common enemy – like the delete key. Insult Someone Don’t be a wimp. Lead With a Number Four session titles that use numbers. Make Up Words Pop Culture References Metaphors and Similes
Easy Soap Making Recipes | Lotion Recipes | Salt Scrub Recipes Nothing’s more fun than sharing and swapping a good recipe. Here are a few of our favorites for making everything from skin nurturing soaps and scrubs, to solid perfume and more. Share your recipes by using the “comment box” at the bottom of this page. Gardener’s Soap Recipe 8 oz. Melt base and scent. Honey Bee CP Soap Olive Oil 32 oz. At trace, add fragrance and 1 Tablespoon of honey. Easy Shea Butter CP Soap Coconut Oil 16 oz. Easy Lip Balm Recipe – using Lanolin 1 oz. Skin Firming Gel – using CroThix CroThix has a secondary use as a skin firming agent. This makes (4) four ounce containers of gel-crème. Water 13 oz. Heat the water and Glycerin to 170 degrees and set aside. Lotion bars! Easy Lotion Bars 4 ounces Mango or Shea Butter 4 ounces Beeswax, Yellow or White 5 ounces Liquid Oil (Jojoba or Grapeseed are both excellent) 2 teaspoons of Essential Oil or Fragrance Oil Melt the beeswax in a separate container and the butter/oil in another container. Cookie Cutter Soaps by T.J. 1. 2 tsp.
The 20 Best Marketing Infographics of 2012 Compelling imagery and visual design ruled marketing in 2012. Never before have pictures and images been so important for igniting engagement in your social media, email, and content marketing campaigns/strategies. With that, the popularity of infographics (information graphics) has also taken the marketing world by storm, and it’s easy to [literally] see why. Infographics are chock full of interesting stats, actionable items and a plethora of knowledge all wrapped up in a pretty package that’s ridiculously easy to share – A marketers dream! Let’s take a look at 20 of the best marketing infographics of 2012: Psst…Want to make an infographic of your own? Social Media:“Like Us!” How Much Time, Money Do Small Businesses Spend on Social Media? The Power of Pinterest; Internet Marketing Inc. How LinkedIn Works; InfographicLabs The ROI of Social Media – Is Social Media Marketing Effective? Blogging:12 Things to Do After You’ve Written a Blog Post; DivvyHQ The Anatomy of Content Marketing; Content+
Design Daily: Are Minimalist Brands the Future? - Design When these "minimalist brands" started popping up on the A2591 blog a few weeks ago, they seemed like a fun design exercise. The designers simply reduced familiar packaging to its bare essentials, taking colors and graphics away in a dramatic, three-step reveal. Some of the brands look especially sharp when reduced to a bare-bones execution; others are reduced to an almost unrecognizable state without their cascading milk falls or sides of sliced fruit. These seem like products stocked in some fantasyland grocery store patronized exclusively by anal-retentive designers, but as I started to look at some recent rebranding stories, I'd argue that the minimal trend is actually infiltrating the market faster than we think. Remember the outcry over the new Pepsi branding? Method, the eco- and design-minded soap and cleanser company, has always taken the most minimal route when it comes to branding. What do you think: Will we see more of this more-is-less packaging in our slimmed-down future?
Paper Punched Easter Eggs Tutorial by Nikki In Stitches Some of the best projects are also the most simple, and it doesn’t get much more “back to basics” than these paper punched Easter eggs. Simple and classic, they take just a few minutes to make and will last for many springs to come! Materials: 5/8″ paper punch Decorative paper Styrofoam egg Straight pins Glue Directions: Scroll through the pictures below. ~Nikki Find more from Nikki on her blog Nikki, In Stitches Tagged as: craft projects, craft tutorials, Easter, Easter Projects, How To, nikki in stitches, Paper Punched Easter Eggs Build a Killer Website: 19 Dos and Don'ts | Inc.com - Aurora I’m continually surprised by how many people call my design company with very firm ideas about what they want on their business website and yet, they haven’t thought through some of the most basic questions first. For this reason, our first question is always “Why do you need a site?,” not “What do you want on it?” At bottom your website is a marketing tool. Here’s my quick-hit list of the top dos and don’ts before you get started: Do: Set smart goals. Don’t: Do it yourself.
New opportunities in native advertising Native advertising is increasingly entering into the conversations of today's digital marketers. It is defined as an advertising unit designed to integrate seamlessly with a user's consumption experience. It is taking shape in the form of Sponsored Stories on Facebook, promoted content on Buzzfeed, and Paid Discovery on StumbleUpon, to name a few. Marketers are scrambling to better understand how to take advantage of this "new" form of advertising, yet they neglect to relate these platforms to their predecessors. Native advertising isn't new. The brand that started the native advertising movement was Jell-O in the early 1900s. The First Jell-O Cookbook Jell-O created 15 million recipe books highlighting celebrities' favorite gelatin concoctions, issued for free by salesmen across the country. The consumer was placed at the center of the brand experience, and Jell-O reaped the benefits. Jell-O proved that creating a non-interruptive brand experience could guide sales.
a pretty autumn wreath Today I have a tutorial of sorts to share. It is not a full tutorial because 1. I learned to make the flowers from an already pretty amazing tutorial and 2. I left my camera in Ryan’s truck and was too impatient to wait to put it together until he came home so I don’t have photos of the actual attaching to the wreath phase of the project. Sometimes you just have to go with it when the crafting bug gets you. This wreath is a combination of a regular grape vine wreath you can purchase at the craft store, lots of coffee filter flowers and a few acorn and berry sprigs. Okay, so on with the tutorial. I wanted fall-ish colors for my flowers, so I used yellow, pink, red and orange paint. Mix your paint with water, stir well, scrunch in a stack of coffee filters and let them soak up the paint. I dried some flat on paper towels, but then ran out of room and made a clothes line to dry the rest. Okay, now on to the flower making part. Open up the filters and cut the outer ring open.
35 Impressive CSS Menu and Navigation Collection That You Can Use - tripwire magazine - Aurora When creating a website, one of the things that you must take into consideration is to get the menu and navigation right. In order for you to have a nice-looking menu in CSS, there is a need for some coding and surely here, some user interface design tutorials can help. Designing and coding from scratch however can be expensive and time-consuming and to address this, you have the option to use some of the CSS menu and navigation scripts created by professional web designers. All you have to do then is to customize them to reflect the design concept that you want. In this article, I am sharing with you more than 55 premium CSS menu and navigation bars that you can use to create beautiful web design projects. I believe you can find some of the best and easy to use CSS menu and navigation scripts here so check them out. If you have anything in mind, or if you anything to add, please do not hesitate to write a comment. Advertisement CSS3 Mega Drop Down Menu – MORE INFO / DEMO
Do You Make These 10 Mistakes When You Blog? Assuming you want to increase your blog traffic, there are certain mistakes you must avoid to be successful. If you commit these mistakes, your traffic will never gain momentum. Worse, it may plateau or begin to decrease. Photo courtesy of ©iStockphoto.com/VisualField How do I know? Mistake #1: You don’t post enough. There are other mistakes, too; I doubt this list is exhaustive. Question: What other traffic-killers have you witnessed as a blogger?