May 17, 2014 Hi there! This week, Buffer added feeds to premium accounts, Pinterest told us they will be testing promoted pins in the US, Twitter beg

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May 17, 2014

Hi there! This week, Buffer added feeds to premium accounts, Pinterest told us they will be testing promoted pins in the US, Twitter began rolling out muting so you can stop seeing tweets & retweets from specified users and the passive-aggressive rebel in me enjoyed these. Now on to the tips!

1. How to link to a highlighted snippet on a website for easy reference

Have you ever said to someone, "Go to such-and-such page and scroll about 5/8 of the way down and you'll see the part I'm talking about..."? Well, what if you could link to the exact spot you're referring to? Like last week I told you I updated one of my posts but maybe I could direct you to the update itself so you don't have to hunt. Enter TL;DR (too long; didn't read). It's a bookmarklet or Google Chrome extension that allows you to highlight a snippet of text, grab a shortened URL and share it. When someone clicks the link, they get taken to the webpage and the snippet you highlighted (it might take a brief second). Watch a quick explainer video here (scroll down to see the video). Or you can see it in action in that updated post from last week.

2. How to not buy a domain with a sordid past

Choosing a domain name can be tricky. I shared my tips already but recently, Matt Cutts suggested another. Before you register a domain, do a site: search to make sure it hasn't been punished & removed by Google (just type "site:desireddomain.com" without quotes into your browser). Also, google the domain, google the domain without the extension (.com, .net, etc.) and go to the Internet Archive to look at previous versions. If you see anything that looks sketchy or spammy, choose another domain. Otherwise, you might be digging yourself out of an SEO hole.

3. What is it about wanting to know how other writers write?

Sure, I've got my own writing tips, but I always hope someone else will reveal a secret trick that maybe, just maybe, doesn't involve having to actually sit down and, well, write. :) First we had the infographic about how famous creatives manage their time, but there's also a cool series on Copyblogger called The Writer Files that gives you a peek into the writing process of various writers. (And if you figure out how I can write without writing, I'll be your best friend forever.)

4. Rethink your lead magnet

A lot of people offer a freebie to entice people to subscribe to their email newsletter. These freebies are appropriately called lead magnets (lead = email address, magnets attract, and you wanna attract those email addresses). Free ebooks are popular lead magnets, but my suggestion is to switch to something less overwhelming. (When was the last time you actually read a whole free ebook?) Why not pull out the top ten tips of that ebook and offer that instead? People go crazy for top ten tips. And if you don't have a lead magnet but want one, don't feel like you've gotta write an ebook first. Make it simple. For you and for them.

5. Crossed off my to-do list this week...

A dear friend of mine passed away on Monday and suddenly blogging seemed a whole lot less important, so it was slow-going this week. Although, I had a conversation with MaryEllen (Imperfect Homemaker) in which she told me the useletter keeps going to her spam folder no matter how many times she says it's not spam. Is the checkmark in the subject line the culprit? If I were a better blogger, I would scientifically test this, but I've had a rocky relationship with science ever since high school chemistry, so I'm just wingin' it. We'll see if any numbers in my Mad Mimi Dashboard change by taking it out.

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Have a wonderful weekend,

Amy

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