13 Free Design Tools for Visual Marketers on a Budget They say you shouldn't judge a book by its cover, but let's be honest ... a pretty cover doesn’t hurt when it comes to your marketing. That’s why -- whether you're creating lead generation content, social media content, calls-to-action, or infographics -- your marketing materials should always be as visually appealing as possible. Problem is, actually creating all these beautiful visuals isn't exactly every marketer's forte. Oh, another problem? But there's good news -- there are plenty of free and easy-to-use tools out there that can make you look like a master designer. Free Color Tools Even though it may seem like we have an unhealthy obsession with orange, we promise we’re equal opportunity color enthusiasts at HubSpot. 1) Adobe Color CC 2) Design-Seeds Warning: You could get lost browsing this site for hours since there are lots of food, puppy, and kitten pictures. 3) Image Color Picker 4) Paletton Paletton is similar to the aforementioned color tools. 5) COLOURLovers 6) Oto255 15) Skitch
11 Plot Pitfalls - And How to Rescue Your Story From Them We’ve all been there: basking in the glow of a finished manuscript, only to read it over and realize something is wrong with the plot. Finding ourselves unable to identify the problem only makes matters worse. But take heart! Here are some common plot gaffes and sensible ways to revise without starting over. 1. 2. 5. “Why does she do that? 7. 8. Only subplots that are so vital that you could not remove them without destroying your novel get to stick around. Something about these scenes tricked you the first time. 10. See where you might make the stakes higher, the characters more emotional, the setting more a part of the overall plot. 11. Not sure if your story structure is strong enough to woo an agent? Become a WD VIP and Save 10%: Get a 1-year pass to WritersMarket.com, a 1-year subscription to Writer’s Digest magazine and 10% off all WritersDigestShop.com orders! You might also like:
Copywriting Tips for Smart Copywriters - Pro Copy Tips Imagination Creates Reality You’ve noticed my writing is loaded with imagine. I used imagine 34 times in Gorilla Mindset. What is the power of imagination? Donald Trump lives Gorilla Mindset. Donald Trump imagined himself as President. He began campaigning against Coughin’ Hillary before he even won the primary. He hasn’t been elected President yet, and already Mexico’s former President is asking to negotiate with him. Trump imagined himself as President, and now everyone else imagines him as President. Your imagination is your reality. I don’t have time to hold hands. I’m going to be going more esoteric. Years ago I saw a guy on YouTube and thought, “He’s cool. I imagined myself living off of a laptop. I never wrote a book. I imagined myself becoming the hottest journalist breaking the biggest stories. I imagined myself changing the culture through the power of my mind. How do you imagine me? You imagine me as I imagine myself. My imagination manifests itself as will, which imposes itself on reality.
Criando patterns de mudancas climaticas 17 June 2010Last updated at 19:03 By Victoria Gill Science reporter, BBC News CO2 could have caused Ice Ages in the Northern Hemisphere to intensify A "global pattern" of change in the Earth's climate began 2.7 million years ago, say scientists. Researchers found that, at this point, temperature patterns in the tropics slipped into step with patterns of Ice Ages in the Northern Hemisphere. They report in the journal Science that atmospheric CO2 could be the "missing link" to explain this global pattern. The findings, they say, reveal a "feedback process" that could have been magnified by greenhouse gases. This loop of feedback could have intensified both the Ice Ages in the Northern Hemisphere, and temperature fluctuations in the tropics. Professor Timothy Herbert from Brown University in Rhode Island, US, led the research. Continue reading the main story “Start Quote This reveals a feedback process that has magnified climate change” End QuoteDr Carrie Lear Cardiff University Ancient greenhouse
» The Many Reasons We Rely Upon Our Clutter Post written by Leo Babauta. Clutter isn’t an easy problem to solve, no matter how many times I might tell you to toss it out, tell you that you don’t need it. A book isn’t just an object with words on it. A jewelry box isn’t just a container. Clothes aren’t just protection from the elements. Each of these inanimate objects means so much more to us. We put our emotions into them. They are our crutches. What are we to do when we discover these crutches? The Roles of Clutter These aren’t all true for every person, but I’ve found they’re very common: 1. New habit: Learn to combat fears with information. 2. New habit: Learn that you don’t need external objects to be attractive or good enough. 3. New habit: Learn to live in the present. 4. New habit: Realize that things aren’t love, and that the love is only in people. 5. New habit: Squash every bit of hope in yourself. 6. New habit: Deal with the problems. 7. New habit: Take one piece, and deal with that. 8. Clutterfree Book & Course
Neil Gaiman | Cool Stuff | Essays | Essays By Neil | Where do you get your ideas? The question authors fear most ... Neil tackles it here. Every profession has its pitfalls. Doctors, for example, are always being asked for free medical advice, lawyers are asked for legal information, morticians are told how interesting a profession that must be and then people change the subject fast. And writers are asked where we get our ideas from. In the beginning, I used to tell people the not very funny answers, the flip ones: 'From the Idea-of-the-Month Club,' I'd say, or 'From a little ideas shop in Bognor Regis,' 'From a dusty old book full of ideas in my basement,' or even 'From Pete Atkins.' Then I got tired of the not very funny answers, and these days I tell people the truth: 'I make them up,' I tell them. People don't like this answer. And of course I'm not. Every published writer has had it - the people who come up to you and tell you that they've Got An Idea. I'm reasonably gracious with these people. The Ideas aren't the hard bit. And eventually one of them asked it.
No Commercial Ideas | Most Interesting and Creative Ideas Mainual. Notebook For Conceptual Ideas An interesting idea of sharing ideas. That’s what comes first to mind when you visit Mainual. We can find many blogs telling us about design ideas and even examples of these ideas. Continue reading … Mainual. Real Birds Tweet On Twitter What does the word “tweet” means? Voldemars Dudums tried to found out that creating the first live Twitter stream made by real birds. And it’s true that sometimes the content on Twitter is not content at all. Hungry Birds on Twitter: @hungry_birds Hungry Birds project: Street Surfing Homer Henard and Nic Lamb scoring mega slabs somewhere up north. My Desk Is 8-Bit I recently found myself wondering what a video game might look like in the form of a stop motion animation. Alex Varanese Shrevatar Combined hero for fans of Shrek and Avatar.
Signs of progress in meditation If you’re here because you’re having odd experiences in meditation, like swirling lights or your body feeling odd, I’d suggest the post I wrote on “Odd experiences in meditation.” When you’re new to meditation you often need some reassurance that you’re on the right path. Often it’s hard to tell whether you are making progress or not. I emphasized earlier that one of the things that will help you to stick with your meditation practice is the ability to notice and appreciate small changes. Other people noticing that you are changing. One of the main signs of progress in meditation, though, is being more relaxed about making progress. Also, not all changes are noticeable in the short term. Lego Mindstorms The Lego Mindstorms series of kits contain software and hardware to create customizable, programmable robots. They include an intelligent brick computer that controls the system, a set of modular sensors and motors, and LEGO parts from the Technics line to create the mechanical systems. The original Mindstorms Robotics Invention System kit contained two motors, two touch sensors, and one light sensor. Mindstorms is named after the book Mindstorms: Children, Computers, and Powerful Ideas by Seymour Papert.[5] The latest system, called the Lego Mindstorms EV3, was released on September 1, 2013. Robotics Invention System[edit] RCX[edit] First-generation RCX programmable brick. The first generation of Lego Mindstorms was built around a brick known as the RCX (Robotic Command eXplorers). Version 1.0 RCX bricks feature a power adapter jack to allow continuous operation instead of the limited operation time when using batteries. Programming languages[edit] Lego-supplied languages: Lego camera[edit]
A Brief Rant on the Future of Interaction Design So, here's a Vision Of The Future that's popular right now. It's a lot of this sort of thing. As it happens, designing Future Interfaces For The Future used to be my line of work. My problem is the opposite, really — this vision, from an interaction perspective, is not visionary. This matters, because visions matter. This little rant isn't going to lay out any grand vision or anything. Before we think about how we should interact with our Tools Of The Future, let's consider what a tool is in the first place. I like this definition: A tool addresses human needs by amplifying human capabilities. That is, a tool converts what we can do into what we want to do. In this rant, I'm not going to talk about human needs. And I'm not going to talk about technology. I'm going to talk about that neglected third factor, human capabilities. Take another look at what our Future People are using to interact with their Future Technology: Do you see what everyone is interacting with? That's right! So then.
How to get story ideas for writing fiction By Cliff Daigle Updated December 16, 2014. By far the most common question asked of professional writers is where they get their ideas. We all like to think that brilliant, fully-formed story ideas just pop into the heads of our favourite authors. We imagine that if we could somehow learn their secret technique then we too could crank out bestsellers as effortlessly as they seem to. The truth is that you have more great ideas than you could ever write. Where to Start? Every how-to book on writing will tell you that you need to start with a solid premise, or story idea. Beginning writers believe that creating a work of fiction starts with a single event - a sudden burst of inspiration that pops a fully-formed story idea into their minds. The Secret to Endless Ideas The secret to generating ideas is the same "secret" that solves every writing problem: writing itself. continue reading below our video Play Video But if you don't yet have that great story idea, what do you write about?
Creativity - Pro Copy Tips After more than two decades of technological evolution, creativity isn’t what it used to be. I don’t mean that the pool of creative advertising talent is shrinking. I mean the way creative people go about creating is different. It’s more than exchanging typewriters for computers or art tables for graphic design programs; it’s a complete shift in the creative process. It started when IBM introduced the first affordable desktop personal computer. As desktop units became more accepted in the workplace, other computer manufacturers began churning out armies of clones, with prices always falling and quality always rising. After years of fearing new technology (remember all those “technology gone wrong” and “evil computers take over the world” movies?) Trouble was, most people didn’t understand them or feel comfortable with them, since they were built by technophiles for left-brained people. Then in 1984, everything changed. Read more Are you a slacker? Are you creative or not? Read more Ready?
The Secret to Good Writing: It's About Objects, Not Ideas It's all too easy for students to float away on abstract words. Here's how to get them back on solid ground. Liudmila P. Sundikova/Shutterstock In her article "The Writing Revolution," Peg Tyre shows the teachers at New Dorp High School beginning to ask the question too few writing teachers ask: What skills do these students lack? It's a crucial question for those who want to reform the teaching of writing, because once you ask what skills are missing, you can make a list and start a counter-attack. As a college writing instructor, I have seen many students show up in a freshman comp class believing they can't write, and their opinion is valid. Tyre points out how small some of the important skills are, and how conscious instruction in them can make a difference. "What is a concrete noun?" Like the teachers at New Dorp, I believe in conscious skill instruction and over the years have made my own list of missing skills. I'm going to explain one way to do it. "What is a concrete noun?"