Education

Will Video Marketing Ever Rule the World:Is the text dead?

By Dr.Amrita Basu(MBBS,MS) on December 9, 2018 175

Video Content Rising: Are text contents day numbered?

Video marketing is gaining popularity, does it mean the death of the Blog?

“This article was written as part of the SEMrush Big Blogging Contest”.

I am a bookworm, and I love reading. But I can’t ignore the onslaught of video across all social media. What I couldn’t understand was how could three minutes read, with super useful content like on the SEMrush or Moz blog compare with a video on the topic? But I could be weird.I decided to dive into research mode, to see whether video content was more useful, got more reader engagement and eventually helped my reader and me!

Seeing the hoopla around video, you would think the answer to this is a no-brainer. Wait up I have some news.

Let’s Dive in!

Video marketing: Is it rising?

Where does video work?

What is the downside of Video?

The other side of the Video marketing story

Video marketing or text?The point of it.

My Verdict on Video marketing versus text.

Video marketing: Is it rising?

According to Hubspot by 2019, 80% of internet traffic will be video.

But why is Video content rising?

Video content gives a boost to a blogs SEO. It increases user engagement and landing page videos will help you convert traffic by 80%( Unbounce).
Videos in emails increase click-through rates.
80% users can recall a video they say in the last 30 days (Lumen5)
96% of buyers find videos helpful while making purchasing decisions. (Animoto).

Twitter says Videos with tweets get the most Retweets. Video traffic will be 82 percent of all IP traffic (both business and consumer) by 2022 (Source) and according to eMarketer, 78.4 percent of digital videos are accessed by mobile

This is all great right?

Could be. But before diving head first ask yourself these questions,

Do these data reflect your audience?
Have you seen your videos getting more traffic than your Blog post?
What about the blog posts with video content? Are they helping you earn more consistent revenue?

This is where you need to get your stats in hand, before buying expensive video equipment and just pumping out videos. If there is one question you must ask, is about return on investment.

Is it all worth it?

Where does video work?

It helps us reach a new audience, who can’t read due to any reason.
A video is better to connect, for some people or at least that’s what brands think. Many high profile brands turned to full-time video content and reduced their editorial workforce.
If not text heavy, just listening to videos, while doing housework can help you learn.
It’s easier to understand how to use a sewing machine, tech stuff or crocheting seeing a video than text.
Maths, science, languages, teaching anything, needs a visual element. Online teaching needs video.
User-generated videos are great as a brand advertisement.

Make videos online or using software, one thing you can’t do is ignore the video. There was never a better time than now, to start your own digital media network.

What is the downside of Video?

Is the downside real or all in your head?

1)For small bloggers and biz owners who can’t afford dedicated hosting for video, there is a problem. You will be putting YouTube embed link. This one is hence tricky. The reader may decide to click-through to YouTube or look at the video on your blog. Having an external link on the home page can be tricky from an SEO point of view as well as engagement.

It’s a critical balance. If you are not making videos, you are missing a leg up. If you are making videos and putting YouTube links on the Home page, you are diverting traffic from your website.

Here in lies the tricky part. Should you embed the YouTube video, pay for hosting or should you skip the video bandwagon? No, that would be a mistake. If you follow what Google does, you will see there are video carousal features on the first page of search results, many times above the text links.

2)You have paid to host your videos, but you are not optimizing your blog. Mobile users are rising. But data is not free. Some people may not be comfortable watching random slowly loading videos on the phone and eating up mobile data. This is a real problem as increasingly people are using mobile for consuming content. Are your videos mobile ready?

3)Making money from your Video is not a cakewalk. If Ryan is the top grossing YouTube in 2018 with the majority of earning from ads, this tells you a few things. Ryan’s target audience is kids who may not be skipping advertisements, unlike adult video watchers who most likely skip ads. So if you want to reach that level of income as a YouTuber, your target audience needs to be the same.

But what if one day, Youtube decides to cap your video limit, behave like Facebook, just like they changed the criteria for monetization? Nowadays you need at least 1000 subscribers on Youtube and at least 4000 hours of annual viewing time on Youtube before your channel’s monetization is possible. You are working hard, but making a cardinal mistake. You are putting your content and monetization at the mercy of a third party, who can change rules any time. You are in a binder! Is this going to work or am I just a pessimist?

Blog or Vlog which way should you be going? Should you avoid FOMO and ditch videos? Or stop writing and make videos?

The other side of the Video marketing story

Power of written word is this. It’s a blogging contest, about video content.
I can still name more authors, than filmmakers or YouTubers.But that’s just me!
Even for a good movie, you need a written script for it to work. If you sign up for Amazon studios, they will want a written script. That’s non-negotiable. Until your writing is spellbinding, it will not draw in the viewer. The written word has survived thousands of years. Sumerian and the Hieroglyphics were all text, dating back to more than 3000 BC. That says something about the power of text!

Don’t let your writers and editors go. You need them to make a good video and some of us still understand better when we read.

Video marketing or text?The point of marketing!

As Seth Godin says,”

True marketing makes things better and helps serve those who need it!

Video or text whatever it is, things need to help. Everyone doesn’t have unlimited data.No one wants to watch the full video. With text, the quick skim helps us determine whether we want to dive deep. Difficult to do with a video, until you provide time-stamped content. Even then it’s just not the same.

It is essential to make video a part of your arsenal, but not the only arrow. The ultimate aim for all things online is to reach the people you want to serve. Write your blog posts. Repurpose them into podcasts and attractive, useful videos. Make your website audiovisual with multimedia content. Let the choice be available for the audience you hope to help. Whatever content you make, don’t waste your audience’s time. They remember. If you don’t, believe me, you must read why HubSpot thinks pivot to video is misguided .

My Verdict on Video marketing versus text

[bctt tweet=”Video content may be rising, but the text is here to stay!” username=”misra_amrita”]

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Will Video Marketing Ever Rule the World

Starting a Successful Blog in India

By Dr.Amrita Basu(MBBS,MS) on November 25, 2018 15

Blogging: How to start? Don’t worry. I have you covered. If you are starting a Blog in India, I have one of my books to help you too. But if you are just curious about blogging, I will tell you all about it.

Blogging on WordPress or somewhere else?

Nowadays people are microblogging on Instagram, Facebook and everywhere else. My favorite is WordPress .I still use my personal wordpress.com blog to share ideas and posts.

If it comes to open source software for blogging, nothing comes close to WordPress.

When it comes to functionality, WordPress wins. When I bought, my domain and hosting I chose WordPress as my Content Management system. It has a wonderful creative community, endless free plugins, the options with this is limitless. With all social media microblog, you don’t really own your content and anyone can use it.

(Affiliate Disclosure: There are affiliate links in the blog post. This means I will get a small commission if you visit and buy after clicking on a link at no extra cost to you. This also helps to sustain the website. Thank you for your help)

Blogging on Google?

One of the first blogs I opened was on Blogspot. Even though I love everything Google, I found no attraction for Blogspot and abandoned it soon. But I rather like Google’s Blog Compass app for Indian Bloggers. Unfortunately, Google shut it down and it’s no longer functional.

Professional blogger: Is that even a Career?

This one is a tricky one. Like any other careers, blogging has grey, white and black areas. Whether you try the fifty shades of grey in Blogging or stick to vanilla, will depend on you. The important thing to remember is, an authority Blog gets its authority from what you know and share. If that’s authentic and helpful, making a career out of blogging is not impossible.

But when it comes to trends today let me tell you a secret.

Just like Orkut went away, Facebook lost its shine and now Google plus retired, one-day, Blogging as you know it may wear different feathers. What’s interesting is writing, and words, have been around for years and they are not going anywhere. Your blog package will bring multiple opportunities and what you do with them, will decide whether you can have a career around your blog.

Any professional knowledge, training, skill, can be used as an authority content for your Blog. Google focusses on useful content and you my friend, have information to share. Just remember to give disclaimers and disclosures properly.

Free Blog or a Paid Blog?

A free WordPress Blog or your own domain and hosting?I like having my own domain and hosting, but I will try to give you a balanced overview.

Free Blog Pros

Free Blog forever
Start within 5 minutes
Customize it.
You can use as many themes and change set up when you like.
You have nothing to lose.

Free Blog Cons

No domain customization possible.
Monetization is not allowed in a white hat world.
Use of plugins is not possible
It doesn’t look professional
Until it’s your own hosting you don’t own your content and a glitch could destroy it forever.
Paid Hosting and Domain Pros

It’s your own digital home. Decorate it, one post at a time. Go slow, DIY or get it branded by professional web designers, it’s your call. But remember, good web designers, doesn’t come cheap. There are lots of shady moonlighting, who will cause more harm than good. If in doubt, check blogs like Blogaid.net and amylynnandrews.com for detailed tech stuff which will help you learn.

Domain and hosting separate or not?

This is tricky. I have read both sides of the debate. I feel, having two eggs, in two different baskets, makes sense. While renewing hosting for multiple years gets more and more expensive, the free domain you got with the hosting will have a lot more Domain Authority power. The domain name gets authority and rank with each passing year. If you want to change hosting and want the domain name, it will be expensive.

But if you buy a domain from a separate vendor, this problem of changing hosting will have less effect.

What goes into your blog?

What will you do for your Blog health? Blog health? What am I talking about? That’s what you are thinking right? Don’t worry I am not going crazy and Blog health is a real thing.

Just like you need to take care of what goes inside your body and what comes out for a healthy you, so does the blog.

The hosting: I am thankful to Hostgator. I have used it for the last four years, it gets expensive to renew with each passing year. But the support helped me learn a lot about the backend of my blog. They also did a completely headache free migration to https. But even then, I strongly insist that you do your own research, before choosing a hosting plan. What works for me, may or may not work for you.
The plugins
The themes
Your content
Guest posts
Affiliate links
Advertisements
Sponsorsed Products

Get the Ultimate list of Blogging resources I use.

Do you understand what I am talking about?

What you put inside your blog shows. Your blog is what you write and use in your blog. Themes and plugins are great for sprucing up the blog. But everything needs research. I hear stories of blogs crashing or worse of being hacked when unsafe themes or plugins are used.

Two things you must do, before downloading and using any theme or blog.

Check the source of theme or plugin.
Check reviews and ratings. Please read the reviews.
See if an active forum or support desk available. Most don’t have free versions. But an active forum is good too.

All plugins and themes have backlinks to owners, so when you do use them the source is important. Also, they are potential entry points for hackers if not updated and checked regularly.

Never let anyone enter into your blog until you know that person well. Take a backup regularly. At least once a month. You may need more frequent backups depending on frequency.

Learn about Blog backend stuff, from reliable sources.

Don’t allow random guest posts. Even sponsored posts need to be checked, for plagiarism and content quality. It’s your Brand name on the line here.

The Next part involves what goes out?

Why do you Blog is important here, if it’s a personal Blog full of your thoughts and insights and musings then skip this part? But if it’s also a resource for like-minded people and aimed to help someone somewhere I have news for you.

Make a game plan or an editorial calendar, a blueprint a list whatever works for you.

If needed, write it down on a chart paper and stick it to the wall in front of wherever you write.

Listen to an Audio chapter here.

If you already have a Blog, this is what you can do next :

Update list of categories you write about. Then see which are the blog posts, which brought in maximum traffic over the last six months. Download as a csv and dig deep. If you see a pattern Write on a topic similar and do in-depth research case study, interviews, product comparison to make that topic your thing. But all this works only if you enjoy writing.

Next, optimize your old content. Make thin content updated and complete Edit, put in relevant images do an SEO audit of your Blog and images and check for alt tags and Descriptions. Google images are also great for getting some traffic onto your blog.

9 Simple Steps to Improve Skills in Academic Writing

By Saqib on October 4, 2018 10

A good academic paper speaks well of the writer. Most students rely on their previously gained knowledge of academic writing from lower level education as a basis for their writing technique, but little did they know that academic writing requires improvement. There are various steps to academic writing, and each should be perfected in order to develop good writing skills for academic purposes.

What is Academic Writing?

Academic writing as defined by yourdictionary.com is any writing done to fulfill the requirement for a college or university. It also includes publications read by a teacher or a researcher or a publication to be presented at a conference or an academic setting. Academic writing should be backed up by evidence as it possesses a clear, focused, concise and well-structured content.

Characteristics of an Academic Writing

Planning and Focus: An academic writing requires substantial planning in other to fully understand the topic to be written. This includes research on the topic, the establishment of outline and drawing of a conclusion.
Aim: The aim of an academic paper should be to educate the third party, rather than supporting an idea. An academic paper focuses on educating its reader.
Outline and Structure: The outline helps to formulate your thoughts, as a good structure helps to establish related points.
Language: A comprehensive formal language is used, as it involves academia.

9 Simple Steps to Improve Skills in Academic Writing

Structure of an Academic Writing

The Introduction: This is important for grabbing the reader’s attention.
The Body: This is the main part of the topic sectioned into different paragraphs linked together.
The Conclusion: Here, the topic is re-emphasized, and the summary of the main points is given.

How to Write a Professional Academic Paper

Below are 9 practical steps to improve your skills in any academic writing;

Develop a good writing mindset: Every good writer requires an inspiration which will always compel him/her to write. A writer who is forcefully compelled to produce academic writing always performs woefully. In order to improve one’s writing skills, one needs to develop an affection towards writing, by researching on how to love writing papers, as well as finding the best writing companion, teacher, and role model.
Take online writing classes: Online classes help students to learn good writing skills while partaking in their usual daily academic activity. They provide professional tutoring and advice to students who wish to improve their writing skills. These include the acquisition of books on writing purposes.
Consult online writing templates: Online templates provide some formats and techniques which will save a writer’s time and energy as well as a professional paper which will show how to perfect writing looks like. By identifying and applying the rules in the template, the writing skills of students can be improved to obtain better grades.
Identify a conducive writing environment: A conducive environment should be a well ventilated, distraction-free area, where all your writing tools are located. It saves you the stress of moving around and provides optimum concentration during writing.
Budget your time: Every student who wishes to possess exceptional writing skill need a certain amount of time to compose their thoughts and papers. This helps them to avoid last minute rush as well as acquire enough time for researching, writing and proofreading their document in advance of its due date.
Read and write as often as possible: The more a student writes, the more he is able to correct previously made errors, and with time, his writing skills will be more perfect. Same goes for reading, as reading helps you to understand the style and how to structure your writing.
Write as you would speak: An academic paper should sound natural to the hearing as it looks appealing to the eyes. It should contain easy to comprehend languages in order to gain the interest of your readers. Most especially, a good academic paper is written as if you are speaking through the paper as it makes the writing more engaging while it feels like a conversation.
Research/Focus on the topic: One of the most important writing skills is the ability to gather information from various sources, and streamline all of them to focus on a particular topic. Students actually find this aspect uneasy, but proper mastering of writing skills will help to improve any student in this aspect, as it is a prerequisite for a good academic paper.
Edit and proofread papers online: No man is an island of knowledge, to avoid errors in the course of your academic writing, editing and proofreading from professionals are pertinent. This can be achieved via online editing and proofreading sources such as Hemingway App, Readability score and so on. These online sources analyze and correct spellings, awkward structures as well as long sentences, to produce a clear and concise paper.

In Conclusion:
Academic writing which involves writing for academic purposes and in an academic setting requires various skills in order to produce a good academic paper. These skills have been highlighted within this article, and by the application of these skills, students will be able to produce a good and error-free academic paper. For a good professionally written paper, hire the best academic writers, with features including high-quality custom writing, plagiarism-free papers, and reasonable prices,contact academic writing services online.

Sunday Readings with Healthwealthbridge(2)

By Dr.Amrita Basu(MBBS,MS) on July 29, 2018 7

No one told you life was going to be this way.

It may seem like it hasn’t been your month, day or even your year, but believe me when I say this, Friends rerun is still binge-worthy. These lines from friends are iconic and nostalgic. They remind me of the time when I studied all day before my premeds so that I could catch half an hour of friends on Television. I am still a fan of Phoebe and can’t for the life of me understand why Ross is so confused!

Some of the links in the following parts are affiliate links. Read my full disclosure here.

One more series I am having fun watching is Suits on amazon prime video makes watching back to back episodes a lot of fun.

When I started writing for the Ultimate Blogging Challenge this month daily blogging with the current schedule was not going to be easy.B ut then I was happy to just go with the flow. I missed a total of four days posting till date and I plan to make up before the month is over.

Now coming to my Sunday reading list.

I am revising the Famous five series with my daughter.T he Famous five has some of the most delicious food descriptions I have ever read.
I am also still reading Business Sutra by Devdutt Pattanaik. Yes, it’s taking some time.
I am reading a Bengali detective series as relief reading between Business Sutra.

I often have 5 different type of reading on my daily mind diet

1)The newspaper

2)My favorite blog updates

3)A Bengali detective book. I have a running stock which I update every year at the book fair

4)Medical topics from books

5)The current nonfiction which is fertilizing my mind.

Now this kind of variety may or may not suit you. But I believe reading a book like good food needs a variety of components. You can’t just stuff yourself with protein just because they are good for you. Right? You need fruits, veggies, carbs and everything in right proportion to keep your body working. For your mind to grasp difficult concepts, solve complex problems, develop a world view and make sense of life in general, you must read .

If you are a writer blogger, vlogger using digital media in any form you can’t afford to cultivate a reading habit.The only time I write less is when I read less. Reading keeps your mind fresh hydrated with new thoughts.

This week what my brain learned:

You can take a horse to the water, but you can’t make them drink.
You never call a thief a thief. It just doesn’t work, except in movies.
The middle class prefers to bury their head in the sand rather than face problems head-on. It’s complicated.
Life, death everything in between is a myth and Devdutt Pattanaik agrees with me on this. Now if only this made sense.
You can always forgive, but you can rarely forget .forgetting does put you at risk of repeating weird mistakes.
You cannot wish away problems and you cannot run away.
Your best intentions will be misunderstood, just deal with it.
YouTube is my favorite place to go recipe hunting.

It’s finally raining and I am enjoying the pakodas as I write this, but will probably publish it later. The Super Blogger Challenge results are almost ready and we are excited to get it rolling . Just pray the internet God’s and rain God’s help!

Designevo Free LOGO Design :Quick Tutorial

By Dr.Amrita Basu(MBBS,MS) on July 25, 2018 13

Are you starting a small business, blog, launching your own brand? Did you choose your brand colors? Did you make a mood board? What about your logo? In all the craziness of starting your own biz, these shop-front issues often take a back seat. But they still need to be done.

If you are short of cash, time and inspiration things like a simple logo can make you lose sleep. The logo must be something like Nike, like what Google has, what Tripadvisor has, what Apple has. Right? Oh yes, that would be fantastic. But you may just want to take a breather, from taking on a huge logo project right away. The problem is when you are starting out, you really don’t know what your message is. Yes, that happens a lot and you still want a logo right?

Logo helps to send your brand message across to new readers. Should small business, blogs, startups not worry about this? There’s a middle path. That’s where the service I will review today on my Blog, will help you.

Making a log needs a creative eye and a lot of skills. It’s a science and art at the same time. I am no expert. But I love playing around with different colors, fonts, and ideas. There are many free and paid services but today I am reviewing Designevo.com

They have a good free logo option and a high-resolution paid option too. If you are like me and not sure how you want your brand logo to look like, this is a dream come true. While design sites like Canva are great(I am a Canva girl forever), this site for logos has three things to make it stand out.

1)Dedicated logo designs. You don’t have to scratch your head.

2)With multiple categories of business, just search by keywords and you will get ideas to get started quickly.No more overwhelm.

3)The preview option which will show, how your logo will look like, on your website, promo materials, books etc.

How can you make a logo with Designevo?

Whats on offer at Design Evo Online Logo maker

5000 and more free templates
Numerous icons and fonts to choose from.
Free vector files
Cloud-based saving.
Fully customizable. Start from scratch or edit a template. The sky is the limit.
Easy to use.No tech skills needed.
They have numerous categories for all types of business.
You can preview how it will look on your website and products, with one click.
Multiple formats available.
With the paid plans multiple edits and downloads possible.
With the paid plan at 39.99 Dollars USD, you also get the copyright to your logo.

They have a special offer going on with the Paid plan of 19.99 Dollars USD and 39.99 USD

What didn’t I like about Designevo Free plan?

Transparent background option is not available in the free plan. But since they are exclusively making logos here, that’s understandable.

Logo made with DesignEvo example:

Important information:

You will need to share the logo made with Designevo on a social platform and embed a badge to give credit to the software in case of the free plan.

Final Thoughts:

If you are not sure about what you want your brand message is, try making free logos on Designevo.

If you are sure about what you want as your brand message, get a logo paid with Designevo Paid plan and get unlimited edit options. You learn and save money too!

Get my Book Starting a Successful Blog: Secrets to take your Blog from Kickstart to Awesome now!

Have Faith in Education:Secrets No One Told You

By Dr.Amrita Basu(MBBS,MS) on June 26, 2018 1

“Our fate lives within us. You only have to be brave enough to see it.” – Brave

The good thing is your fate lives within you. The bad thing is fate lives within you.

Good health or not: Your choice.

Educated and financially independent or not: Your choice, if you are an adult and able to read my post.

God gives all of us plenty of magical powers called faith in the universe and belief in one’s own self.

To continue having faith is your choice. Believing is your choice.

If you believe education is useless, it will be useless for you.

If you believe education is useful but choose never to study …you know the answer.

God helps those who help themselves. While religion as a part of the education system, may be controversial in a country like India, we still need to believe in the Universe.

Choose wisely. Do your best.

Have faith and believe in your abilities. When you do this you will realize three things.

1)Your life is part of a whole.

2)What you do with your life has potential to change those of others.

3)[bctt tweet=”Social fate is interlinked with individual fate. #Writebravely” username=”misra_amrita”]

Faith in education is needed. Faith in your ability to make a change is needed. You need to believe your fate is in your hand. This belief will only come with education. This belief needs faith in the Universe, higher power, God whatever intangible forces you believe in. This article has an interesting explanation for this very idea.

Why is sensible reproducible education needed?

Real event: The problem

Recently while taking informed consent from a young mother, about a surgical procedure her son would undertake, I was pleasantly surprised. She said she would be writing it herself. Even now the majority of the rural population is aangutha chaap. Though they can sign, they are unable to write.

My surprise turned to horror at the state of her spellings. She had passed class ten and not able to spell in Bengali her mother tongue. This brought a sad realization. While the government is doing their best, every educated citizen needs to spread a message.

Population control means the mother gives birth to healthier children and able to take care of them better.A mother of ten is malnourished and so are her children.

A malnutritioned child has a low aptitude for learning in an already challenging educational setup. It’s impossible to feed and educate if you are not financially stable. However well intentioned our Government is, there just isn’t enough resource to feed so many mouths. Nor is it easy to educate them meaningfully. Uneducated and questionably literate population in large numbers can only be employed as unskilled workers. This is not a good formula for a healthy socio-economic growth.

Poor understanding of health, wellness, and economic issues make substance abuse, smoking, alcoholism and school drop-outs natural.

The question here is if these people can’t read, how will they know their fate is in their hands?

Real event: A ray of hope

A daily cleaning lady I know wanted to marry off her daughter when she turned sixteen. The local councilor intervened and the groom demanded dowry. The result was two years later this year, her daughter is the first in their family to be college educated. The youngest son is a class five dropout.The middle son is struggling and the eldest daughter is now set for college.

Her results are mediocre but the point is, she has broken a glass ceiling. She wants to study more. Imagine if she was the only child? Life would be easier.

Takeaway:

Fate is in your hand. But the unfortunate many who don’t know this yet will need our help. Human resources which can make us unbeatable is the biggest stone around our neck if it’s unhealthy and uneducated.

Are you ready to help spread the light of education? Do you know our country’s fate is in each of our hands?

Comment below to let me know how we can help, maybe the Universe will hear.

My other posts on this topic #Writebravely

Is Education Fun?

Distance education: Learn from the past.

Write Tribe

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