Beyond the Rhetoric

And so, here we are at another Wednesday and the tradition continues with a hump day speedlink. I’ve gathered together quite the varied selection of blog posts from around the web and put them together in this weekly digest form. Enjoy!

We start with Jennie Yuen who shares ten tips from dermatologist Dr. Howard Murad. He reminds you of the basics, like high SPF sunscreen, but he also has some more unconventional advice like telling us to eat more eggs and to discover botanicals to reduce cellulite. Whether you’re staying at an all-inclusive resort or you’re simply spending a day at a local beach, be sure to good care of your body.

Next up, we travel all the way to Japan to visit with Melody Fury. She’s showing off some of the best late night restaurants in the Shinjuku district of Tokyo. From yakiniku to yakitori, ramen to oden, Shinjuku has plenty of culinary delights even in the middle of the night and into the morning hours.

What about those of us who earn our living on the Internet? Alan Medina describes his three favorite Chrome extensions for search engine optimization. These handy tools let you see the number of indexed pages, consider social factors, determine PageRank, and even overlay the SERPs with information about page authority and domain authority.

Continuing on the subject of the online world, Melissa Cameron has three WordPress plugins to promote your Facebook page. The Facebook Like Box is probably one of the simplest, yet it may also be one of the most effective. Both Beyond the Rhetoric and my freelance writing business have Facebook pages, so be sure to check those out and give them a like too!

Last but not least, we have The Network Hub. Even though it may be known as one of the most prominent coworking spaces in Vancouver, “the Hub” also supports local non-profits. For instance, it sponsored the SFU Intercollegiate Marketing Competition, which is designed to facilitate the growth of undergraduate business students. They are the future!

There’s more to running a freelance writing business than just writing. You have to deal with customer service, marketing, accounting, and all the other things that come along with running a business. You might also consider expanding your skill set to offer greater value to your clients.

Yes, some strategists will tell you to focus on your strengths if you want the most profitable business possible, but it conversely true that many clients may prefer freelancers who bring more than just top-notch skill to the table.

Photography Skills

As you may already know, a good portion of my freelance writing business has to do with product reviews. And a good part of reviewing products is taking good pictures of them.

While I don’t claim to be a professional photographer, per se, I have grown and learned a lot. My trusty Olympus micro four-thirds camera has served me well thus far and the quality of the pictures accompanying my reviews has noticeably improved. Some good photo editing skills are oftentimes quite desirable too.

Interviewing Skills

When you are writing feature articles on any number of topics, being able to interview top experts in that field is a useful skill. The direct and indirect quotes add value to the piece, offering perspective and personality. Whether you’re interviewing in person, on the phone, or even via e-mail, asking the right questions in the right manner can go a very long way in getting the results you desire.

Social Media Skills

More than ever, the Internet is a social environment and social media plays an increasingly large role. It is an added bonus to your clients if you already have a large following on Twitter or Facebook and you choose to promote the articles you write through these channels. Clients shouldn’t expect this to be included in your rates, but it gives them a nice perk.

On the flip side, you can also offer to consult them or assist your client in their own social media efforts. Help them understand what does and does not work. Explain to them how hashtags can help or what tools they can use to monitor their brand.

Web Design Skills

Most of my writing is for the Internet. This includes blog posts, press releases and web copy. Naturally, the way that a site looks and is laid out can be just as important as the actual words themselves. Investing in a good freelance writer is much the same as investing in a good web designer or coder.

In this way, it can a huge benefit to your clients if you are able to assist with their web design and coding efforts too. Even having a fundamental understanding of PHP, HTML, WordPress, and other standards will allow you to work more easily within the structure of your clients’ websites.

Graphic Design Skills

If more of your writing is for print–like copywriting for pamphlets and handouts–then having great graphic design and layout skills can be very desirable. If you know how to set up a newsletter and you can write the content that goes in it, you instantly become a more valuable commodity than the provider who can only do one or the other.

“I Can Do That”

It would be unethical for you to say that you a professional with XYZ skills when you know nothing about XYZ. When you do have those skills though, even if they’re not quite at the high-end professional level, they become a great selling point that can differentiate your services from those of your competitors.

Being great at your main skill is still very important and you should spend some time polishing it up so you can be the best, but remember that versatility still counts. As you business grows, you may even consider outsourcing to further expand the services that you can offer to your clients.

Green. Eco-friendly. Carbon neutral. Sustainable. Fair trade. Organic. Locally sourced.

Yes, many of these have turned into marketing buzzwords in recent years as we have become more conscious of the impact we have on the environment, on the planet, and on one another. And these concerns were addressed with EPIC Vancouver this past weekend, highlighting the many ways that we can live a little greener and a little more sustainable.

Many of the vendors from last year’s EPIC Expo returned, like Steam Whistle Brewing and U.S.E.D. fashion bags, but there were several new products and eco-friendly innovations on display too. The Canterbury Coffee booth, for instance, was using pasta stir sticks for their coffee samples.

What about greener transportation? The Tesla Roadster and the Nissan Leaf certainly aren’t the only game in town. What you see here is the Chico, a fully-electric light utility vehicle. It uses twin parallel 48v AC motors for an output of 46kW at 4000rpm. Prices start from $37,999.

You may remember Go Clean Waterless from their appearance on Dragons Den. The waterless car wash system can’t handle caked-on dirt and grime, but it should be adequate for most conventional purposes. Available through Canadian Tire, one $15 bottle is enough to wash about ten cars.

I’ve seen other stone cooking pots before, but this kitchenware from Rosetta is the first I’ve seen made of Soapstone. It’s meant to stay hot (or cold) longer than conventional cookware, possibly making it great for Korean bibimbap. The smaller 800mL sauce pan was selling for $130, with prices going all the way up to $270 for a 5L sauce pan.

Most of the world’s soccer balls are manufactured in Pakistan, but the labor practices may not exactly be ideal. Social Conscience is trying to change that with its Fair Trade Certified soccer balls. Made to FIFA standards, these balls are professionally hand-stitched with fair wages for employees, fair work conditions, premiums for social programs, and no child labour. They’ve also partnered up with OA Projects for a buy one, give one program. With every ball sold (around $30-$40), one ball is given to youth soccer camps in Uganda.

When they say you should “go green” for all aspects of your sustainable lifestyle, they mean it. Lunapads is one such example, offering washable pads for women that replace the disposable variety. Given the recent resurgence in washable cloth diapers for babies, Lunapads makes a lot of sense.

Marketed as the “future of laundry,” SmartKlean replaces conventional laundry detergent altogether. The plastic ball contains ceramic pellets with special properties. They raise the pH, remove chlorine, and radiate negative ions “to weaken the surface tension in the water so that dirt can be removed easily without the use of detergent.” Because of the chemical-free nature, SmartKlean also promises to preserve the color of fabrics better too. One $40 ball is good for about 700 loads in a high-efficiency front-loading washing machine.

Ever since selling my car last year (a major eco and economical decision!), I’ve thought about buying an electric bike. While I don’t foresee anyone using it in the Giro di Burnaby, the $2,000 Epik Bike could be great for commuting around town. The electric motor is there to assist your pedaling, offering the boost you desire for uphill sections for example. It’s powered by Dr. Battery’s pedElec battery packs, offering 1000+ recharge cycles.

While expos like EPIC can be a little ironic — how eco-friendly is it to have so many individually-packaged samples? — it does a great job of increasing awareness around the types of “green” products that are out there. What are you doing to be more sustainable?

“A mother is a person who seeing there are only four pieces of pie for five people, promptly announces she never did care for pie.”

Today is a special day, even if we ignore the rampant commercialism that comes along with the greeting cards, flowers, chocolates, and overpriced “special” brunch menus. Today is the day that we celebrate and honor all the mothers of the world.

The quote above comes by way of mother and author Tenneva Jordan. She reminds us of a simple fact when it comes to a mother’s love: a great mom will always put her children ahead of herself. Growing up, many of us may have resented our moms for scolding or disciplining us, but as we get older, we really start to recognize the sacrifices that she had to make, giving us the opportunities that she did.

“All mothers are working mothers.”

This anonymous quote hits on a very important point. While gender roles are certainly shifting and there are more moms who are out in the workforce (including moms who work from home), that doesn’t mean that we should think any less of the mothers who stay at home to raise their children. This is easily one of the most important jobs of all and it can oftentimes go under-recognized.

“A mother is not a person to lean on, but a person to make leaning unnecessary.”

And finally, we have this quote from social activist Dorothy Canfield Fisher, named by Eleanor Roosevelt as one of the ten most influential women in the United States. We may lean on our mothers for just about everything during our early years, but the greatest lesson any mother can teach her children is how to be self-sufficient and self-reliant.

She prepares you for the world. The least you can do is take her out for lunch.

The Avengers (2012)

So, this was it. Each of those individual Marvel superhero movies was supposed to culminate into this blockbuster of epic proportions. After watching Iron Man, Thor, Hulk, and Captain America, here we are. Did it live up to expectations?

To be honest, I didn’t think that The Avengers was quite the jaw-dropping experience that it was billed to be, but it wasn’t an utter disappointment either. The central villain here is Loki, so the mythology around this narrative focuses a little more on the world of Thor and Asgard. There is some initial build-up to reintroduce all the characters, but there’s plenty of action to go around.

Perhaps the greatest thing is, quite like the two Iron Man movies, The Avengers doesn’t take itself too seriously. You get some disbelief-suspending action–like a sea-bound aircraft carrier that actually flies itself–and some well-timed moments of comic relief. While I didn’t really like Mark Ruffalo as Bruce Banner, there were two great moments toward the end of the film where the Incredible Hulk had the whole theatre in stitches.

The decidedly epic stature of The Avengers is supposed to outshine any of the individual characters, but I still prefer the two Iron Man solo efforts over this ensemble creation. That said, if you’re a fan of superheroes and comic books, you’d be doing yourself a disservice if you missed this film. They’re already working on a sequel, you know.

Now, where’s my shawarma?

Being Elmo: A Puppeteer’s Journey (2011)

There’s so much more to that red ball of fur than the rampant commercialism of Tickle Me Elmo would lead you to believe. Yes, Sesame Street is a commercial property, but it has charmed and educated generations of children about counting, the alphabet, and what it means to be a decent human being.

While it may be true that watching Being Elmo can take away from some of that magic, thanks to seeing plenty of behind the scenes stuff with adult hands shoved up the back ends of muppets, it really offers so much insight into the craft. It shows you how Elmo was almost a throwaway character for a veteran muppet handler until newbie-at-the-time Kevin Clash had the random chance to give Elmo another shot.

Frank Oz and Jim Henson really created something special and Being Elmo gives you a much better understanding of just how special it really is.

Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (2011)

After watching so many other Pirates of the Caribbean movies, I’ve lost interest. The plot devices that carry through the films have all started to blur together, making for a mess of characters, objects, and relationships. And none of that matters.

People watch these films for some funny tidbits from Johnny Depp and some fanciful swashbuckling on the high seas. And yes, you do get that with On Stranger Tides, but it lacks depth or any sense of satisfaction. Great, they’re at another bar. Great, they’re stealing from one another again. Great, they found a portal to another dimension. Okay, maybe that last one is a little new, but it’s still not really enough to redeem this otherwise mediocre attempt at another cash grab.

Tower Heist (2011)

What do you get when you take the usual Ben Stiller neuroses, add in an unconvincing streetwise Eddie Murphy thief, and dash in some underutilized Gabourey Sidibe for good measure? Tower Heist, apparently.

The idea is that Ben Stiller’s character is the building manager for one of the most exclusive residential towers in New York. He entrusts the pension fund for his employees to one of the savvy residents, who has apparently swindled their money away in some scheme. Ben freaks out, gets himself fired, and dreams up a scheme to rob this savvy (but apparently crooked) resident to give the wealth back to his former employees.

There are far too many moments where you’re left wonder why they did that or why they didn’t do that. The premise is strange, the execution is lacking, and the comedy just doesn’t work. Ben and Eddie can do better and they have done better. Skip the heist.