News
Why I named my digital PR firm Gerris Corp
All y'all want to know what a Gerris is? Well, it's short for Gerris lacustris or the common pond skater or common water strider.
Our Sculling Caper
September 8, 2002, Washington, DC – It is true that Mark had talked to Paul about being okayed to be allowed to take out Sculls onto the river; it is true that Mark and I rowed in college at GWU. When Mark and I arrived to rent racing sculls from the Thompson Boat Center (from where Mark and I rowed during college), I hadn’t rowed any shells in ten-years, and I had never rowed in a single scull in my life.
Reclaim your LinkedIn connections as contact emails via Download your data
In this article, I will reconnect you with your LinkedIn Contacts—Connections— in a format you can use: first name, last name, company, position, and—most importantly—email address. It's still easy but not completely intuitive. Don't let LinkedIn hold your LinkedIn Connections hostage, extract all that value from all your commitment to your LinkedIn business connections.
Returning to Dungeons & Dragons after 33 years away
My Dungeon Master (DM) is awesome. After the game—during which I was played as an NPC (Non Player Character) because I couldn't make the game—he wrote me the most amazing recap and also updated my character from level 3 to level 4 and sent me my updated character sheet in a gorgeously-rendered PDF (inline, attached below). Enjoy! Real names have been erased to protect real people.
It’s not what Dove meant, it’s what people see
Dove has historically actively pursued women’s diversity in race, color, size, shape. This is a controversy of context in a world that is not only allowed but empowered to excerpt, crop, edit, and define meaning.
WAMU 88.5 FM is Dropping Writers Almanac, Science Friday, & The Best of Car Talk Beginning October 2nd
The end of an era at 88.5FM. WAMU is dropping Writers Almanac, Science Friday, and The Best of Car Talk beginning October 2nd in Washington, DC, pointing us, instead, to their podcasts.
Get Fit, Get Fierce with Kettlebell Swings: Just 12 Minutes a Day to Lose Weight, Prevent Sitting Disease, Hone Your Body and Tone Your Booty! by Don Fitch
As someone who works alone, swinging a kettlebell for 90 seconds every hour is exactly what I need to break up a techie, sedentary, life. Starting with just 12-minutes every day. Really, easier said than done.
Outside-In Marketing: Using Big Data to Guide Your Content Marketing by James Mathewson and Mike Moran
James Mathewson and Mike Moran are giving away $100,000 of consulting for only $12.
Eat and Run: My Unlikely Journey to Ultramarathon Greatness by Scott Jurek
His level is so stratospheric that it was a vicarious experience.
Running & Being: The Total Experience by George Sheehan
So inspiring... To get me back onto the road
How to fix Hulu on Roku
When I booted up my trusty Hulu this AM on my trusty Roku Player, I got an all-text blue-and-green mess that erased all of my preferences, my lists, my shows, and everything. I was upset but I then figured it out. I hope this helps.
Backfill your corporate history onto your blog for Google
You won’t confuse your visitors or piss off Google Search if you start posting historical newsletters, news items, press releases, product launches, and blog posts — as long as you’re honest.
Publish then revise for Google search
The sooner you chum the waters, the quicker you’ll attract all the sharks! The sharks don’t need beautifully-plated Kobe steak, they just need your blood and guts. In the time it takes to attract a gam, herd, frenzy, school or shiver of sharks in enough quantity to matter, you will surely have plenty of time to turn your first draft blog posts and your sturdy framework of site content into a high-quality meal.
My memories of 9/11 16-years later
The entire world came together to love and support us after the terrorist attack on September 11th, 2001--sixteen-years ago today.
Reddit is rolling out new user profile and moderation features
Reddit just offered me the ability to have a lovely twitter-like new profile page with profile image and header photo. This started rolling out 5-months ago.
Stop flying blind with SEMRush
My two-year-old WordPress blog, rnnr.us, has become my personal laboratory wherein I can do live tests on the something I have always loved doing: dancing with Google by way of search engine optimization (SEO).
My love affair with bulky VXi BlueParrott trucker headsets
Everyone I know hates my headsets from VXi Corporation -- but I love them so much that I keep on buying bigger and bulkier trucker headsets every year: first the BlueParrott B250-XT+ then a B350-XT refurb, and finally, after the B350 was a dud, a brand new B450-XT, which I am hoping to love because I just can't quit my well-loved original B250-XT+ you see in the article.
All the webmaster SEO tools on SEMRush
SEMRush delivers Google Analytics, Google Webmasters, Buffer, HootSuite, Moz, and SpyFu in one powerful and useful SEO and SEM dashboard.
How NOT to pitch an influencer
Influencers did not fall off a turnip truck. If they don’t see the value in the pitch, they won’t post; if they fancy that you’re just asking them to post because you want to vampire bat on their Google juice, then you’re likely to be in a whole lot of #fail and possibly a whole lot of pain. The white-hat link-farm organic SEO pwn effect is only secondary if you are, the entire way along, a total Mensch and have amazing assets, viral-quality video, a great pitch, an accurate target, and a gentle, kind, and generous follow-through.
Influencer Marketing: Persistence is Fertile
If you assume someone isn’t interested in getting to know you better just because they don’t hear you the first or second time, then you’re doomed. The Internet is the busiest, loudest, most distracting place ever created. It’s global, impersonal, and mostly anonymous.
Why are you so afraid of engaging online influencers?
Tips for how your agency or firm should do outreach the right way
Detailed analysis of the perfect blogger pitch
Over the last ten years that Gerris Corp has been pitching bloggers on behalf of clients, we have learned a thing or two about how best to reach bloggers, how to engage them, how to get them to carry our client’s message to their readership. Whether we’re doing an outreach to the bloggers of mainstream media and celebrity blogs or to someone who has just set up a blog for the first time, it all begins with the message model.
Mizuno Running Mezamashii Long Tail Blogger Outreach Case Study
A Blogger Outreach Case Study: How I Activated Hundreds of Bloggers for Mizuno Running A step-by-step walk through of a campaign that Sally Falkow and I did for Mizuno Running.
Influencer outreach is more PR than social media
Discover and engage your allies with long-tail blogger outreach
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