My parents (like most people who came of age in the 1960s) were pretty huge fans of the musical movement now known as the “British Blues Invasion.”

The vast bulk of my formative years were spent in a household where the sounds of Delta Blues-infused Rock and Roll swirled around the sonic atmosphere like so much incense wafting lavender-scented smoke from the end of a smoldering stick.

I can remember many a night when my Dad would invite me into his office, put on an old Beatles or Rolling Stones record and then launch into some really good stories. Stories about seeing both bands live: their personalities, their individual stage presence, and the respective “larger than life” liveliness that belonged to each band member. It was “Rock and Roll History 101” at my father’s knee, ad infinitum… and I couldn’t get enough of it.Continue Reading

The clarion call of the content marketing age has been sounded, and it is ringing out for producers, copywriters, designers, editors, content strategists, and public relations pros alike — all the talented individuals that quite literally “make” the internet. Marketers of the world want and need them yesterday, with a flexible attitude and (preferably) an immediate availability.

In a study conducted by Content Marketing Institute and MarketingProfs, 1,217 marketers were asked how they would allocate content marketing dollars in 2014. Forty-eight percent of all respondents said they would increase their budgets, 32 percent said they would stay the course, and 10 percent said they would be increasing budgets significantly. In other words, 90 percent of marketers recognize the need to produce a lot of exceptional content right now. And this need is all for a very good reason: because content marketing is an extremely effective tactic for engaging consumers. Continue Reading