Website Content Strategy: Process and Deliverables

When I talk about web content strategy around the water cooler at work, everyone stares at me as if I’m speaking in tongues. While it has informally existed since the Web went public, content strategy is still considered an emerging practice. Few online businesses commit enough time and resources to content strategy, and that’s unfortunate because a content strategy can help a company grow by effectively communicating and engaging customers and prospects.

The goal of this post is to show you step-by-step how you can create and build a content strategy for your company or your clients. But first, let’s be clear about what content strategy is.

“…a repeatable system that defines the entire editorial content development process for a website development project, from very early tasks such as analyzing and classifying readers to the very last tasks, such as planning for the ongoing content maintenance after the project launches.”

Pulling generously from the authors and books mentioned above, I have mapped out my own content strategy process from start to finish. I’m not advocating that my process is 100 percent perfect for every campaign, but it is a good launching point for you to use and adapt to your own clients and websites.

What is Content Strategy?

Content Strategy is a dynamic plan for producing and publishing innovative information that helps to build authority, expertise, and solid relationships with your ideal customer. C’est la vie. Content strategy is about asking yourself as a marketer how you can build customer loyalty, community, and how you can help yourself become a recognized thought leader in your field.

Research is arguably the most important step to any content strategy worth its salt – making sure all the proper research is completed will help exponentially in aligning your future content. Research will help dial in your efforts, and may even inspire your content creators.

The first step of beginning to understand anything is to research and read about its origins, strengths, and weaknesses. When it comes to a good documented website content strategy, you really can’t go too far without taking a good hard look in the mirror. As marketers, it’s epically important to thoroughly investigate our current state of mind. How have we done things in the past? What’s worked? What’s failed miserably?

Third, turn your gaze upon the product, or service at hand. Ask yourself who uses it – who benefits from its existence? Why do they enjoy the product? How can you help more people to see that they too – shown the right content – can benefit from it as well?

In the research stage, it’s very important to first set some goals before you start typing, filming, recording, or rolling out some combination of content. Every piece of content you create should adhere to these goals – business and content marketing goals. You may be interested in doing one or more of the following:

What do these goals have in common? They have absolutely nothing to do with metrics that DO NOT matter to your business – likes and retweets, for example. These goals are equally geared towards increasing quality marketing metrics to assess content effectiveness, or increasing revenue via a successful content marketing campaign. They’re all measurable! Along with your goal setting initiative, strategize how you will monitor and keep tabs on your incoming results. These analytics will help you to refine and tailor your strategy down the line by tweaking and/or removing aspects of your strategy to help generate the results you really want.

Creation

Now that you’ve found your groove and you’ve established some goals and the perfect target audience, it’s time to begin picking through your bag of tricks to see what types of content are going to work best for your qualified market. Ask yourself what kinds of content they’ve responded favorably to? (This is where the research stage come in handy).

Maybe you’ve found that videos and blog posts are the perfect content form for a buyer persona that primarily uses a home computer or tablet – meanwhile your ideal mobile users engage with zesty and powerful social media content like photography and info-graphics.

Remember, the role of content is always to boost traffic back to your website. Content is the bread and butter of any professional content marketing plan, and therefore, it rarely a simple open and shut ordeal – you’ll need to encompass a couple different types of content to keep your efforts looking fresh. They’ll also need to be capable of building authority and trust. In short, content near the top of the sales funnel needs to wow your audience; this content is responsible for educating and engaging prospects, encouraging them to dig deeper. Towards the bottom of the sales funnel, your content needs to answer very specific questions that your sales qualified leads may have, and should alleviate any hesitations they could have in dealing with your company.

Delivery

Consistency. Consistency. Consistency. Without some editorial or content backbone helping you to release and deliver your content and nurture your prospects interest, you run the risk of losing them to information and content creators that are more diligent and reliable in their approach. Part and parcel to consistency is a feeling of resourcefulness – when you fail to consistently release content, your readers will simply look elsewhere to get their fix.

An editorial calendar is key to making sure you’re on top of your release dates, and your creation schedule as well. It’s an incredible resource to have in your corner because it helps to streamline and normalize a prescribed workflow. As a sound content strategy, editorial calendars help your published work to engage and interest your readers – and keep them interested until they are in a position to make a purchase.

This delivery and distribution of content should also be a big part of your initial research wherein you lay out a framework for connecting your content to targeted prospects and readers.

Governance

Recall when we discussed your goals for a great content strategy? This is your chance to interpret and gauge how well your content strategy is faring on the web – and specifically – how well your targeted audience is responding to your content. Key to this process is matching your metrics to your goals, and one of the largest problems that many marketers have these days is messing up this puzzle. Social shares and likes are not important enough to waste your time with – they just aren’t worthy of being measured in this metric.

What Does It Take to Build a Working Website Content Strategy? 7 Elements You Must Not Skip

1. Know Your Content Strategy Basics & Goals (Build a Foundation)

You shouldn’t do content marketing without a few goals in mind right off the bat. What do you hope to achieve with content? These objectives should drive your entire content marketing strategy.

These broader goals can be considered in terms of KPIs (key performance indicators). KPIs can be tracked and measured, and indicate growth toward your goals. Here are some common KPIs in content marketing:

When you push “publish” on those blogs and articles, what will differentiate them from the millions of other content pieces already out there? What will differentiate them from content published within your industry, by your competitors?

More than likely, there are already TONS of blogs out there similar to yours. They cover the same topics and the same questions. What will set yours apart is how you help your audience differently thanks to your unique perspective in your industry:

Once you add up all these elements and think about them in terms of how they position you to help the customer as no one else can, your CDF should come into focus.

Note that your topic area should be a broad subject with many, many facets. For example, the topic area of “selling running shoes” has tons of related sub-topics: Training, hydration, running events, warm-up exercises, and more.

(YOU may be an expert on running shoes, but your audience wants to hear about tons of other topics related to running. What your audience wants is always more important. We’ll talk more about discovering and paying close attention to your audience’s needs in the next section.)

Lastly, if the sub-topic you want to write about doesn’t fit into one of the major topic areas you defined in your content strategy, you shouldn’t write about it. It simply won’t be relevant to your brand, to your audience, or to what you sell.

Make sense? As you can see, the point of defining topic areas is to ensure your blog always stays relevant to your readers, who are coming to you for specific information. Stay inside your wheelhouse for the most cohesive, consistent blog presence your audience will come to rely on.

My FREE, 60-minute masterclass is a great resource on all things content strategy. It includes guidance on finding your CDF, outlining your topic areas for content marketing, and more. Sign up right here.

2. Research, Identify, and Get to Know Your Audience

Successful content marketing hinges around knowing and understanding who you’re writing to. Without that knowledge, you’ll miss the mark, and your content will bring crickets rather than customers.

My favorite method for audience intel is conversations – informal, off-the-cuff, casual exchanges. You can have these everywhere, at any time, as long as you stay engaged with your industry and community:

In fact, you probably are having valuable conversations every single day that can help you learn more about your audience – you just need to listen actively and take notes on what you learn.

Speaking of notes 📝: Don’t let those conversations pass without taking physical notes on them in a place you can reference later. I recommend keeping a Google Doc with this information (or a note in Evernote, or in your phone’s native notes app – wherever you can access that info easily).

After you gather audience intel (and, by the way, this is a continuous process – never stop doing audience research, because your audience is not a static entity) – it’s time to take that information and turn it into a tool that will help with content creation.

“Persona” is just a fancy word for a tool you’ll use to better imagine your ideal audience member. Usually, a persona consists of an information sheet packed with details about this imaginary person.

Actually, a persona is a lot like a character card, like the ones you see in card games and video games. These include a picture of the character, their name, and some details about them that help you get to know them. For example, some versions of the game Clue come with character cards giving you greater depth and details about each suspect:

The Essential Website Content Strategy Assets + Corresponding Tools You Need to Succeed

1. Content Calendar

A content calendar will not only track your posting schedule, but also your content creation workflow. At a glance, it should tell you what phase of creation a piece is in, who’s working on what, which pieces are finished and scheduled for publication, and more.

2. Calls-to-Action (CTAs)

Great content without a CTA somewhere in it is a missed opportunity. That’s because readers WANT to take action after reading incredible content. You’ve wowed them, informed them, entertained them, guided them… or all four of those things. They’re excited! They’re fans!

Without a CTA, providing a way to act, they’ll be left in the dust with all that positive energy and nowhere to put it. It’ll fizzle, and they’ll click away from the page. That means you’ll lose.

3. Web Pages

Put together a well-designed, well-written web page PLUS a great CTA and you have a formula for conversion – the point when a person who was merely browsing turns into a bonafide fan of your business, or even a customer.

4. Lead Magnets and Ebooks

A lead magnet is a desirable piece of content that contains a bit more depth than your average blog post. It’s usually longer, for one, may contain custom illustrations, and includes information not found elsewhere on your website.

Lead magnets can be long or short. As long as they’re valuable pieces of content, length doesn’t matter. (Ebooks can be lead magnets, for instance. So can short tip sheets and cheat sheets.)

5. Emails and the Email List

As long as you use the list-building tactics and tools described above, building a list of email subscribers is pretty straightforward. And, once you build that list, suddenly you have a direct line to your audience, like they’re all on speed-dial.

One of the easiest ways to use email as a tool for your website content strategy is to send a message to your subscribers whenever you update your blog. It doesn’t have to be fancy or complicated, either. Just a friendly message + a link to your new content with a short summary is enough.

Source:

https://contentmarketinginstitute.com/2011/06/the-content-strategy-process/
https://www.riverbedmarketing.com/what-makes-for-a-strong-website-content-strategy/
https://contenthacker.com/website-content-strategy/

Tim Grice

“As link manipulation is being slowly killed by Google, there is a genuine need to reach out to real people, those who can influence in your industry. Publishers with a genuine audience are the type Google want, so reach out and engage with these ‘real’ publishers. Email and telephone will always have their place, but social is great way to connect with these publishers.”

The founder and CEO of Yoast shared some valuable insights on how to select the perfect focus keyword for your blog post or website page. He begins by reminding us that, “Your keyword strategy should have given you some idea what you want to write about. For blog posts, you will usually aim for a long tail keyword (containing multiple words).” After that you can use a tool, such as the WP SEO plugin, to gain a list of suggestions. You also want to test the search volume of your chosen focus keyword to make sure it’s high. You can do this through AdWords or Google Trends. Finally, you want to make sure that your keyword fits your audience.

Barry Schwartz

“The best advice, don’t follow the changes. Just focus on writing the best content for your clients and their businesses. Write expert content that is hard to replicate. Don’t become experts in the Google algorithms, become experts in the content that you have to write about. So if you are writing about plumbing, make sure you know it better than most or don’t write it. Google wants the most authoritative content to rank the best and the best way to do that is to become an authority based on being an authority in your niche.”

Owner of myblogguest.com and respected SEO consultant Ann Smarty has this nifty reminder – you want people to do something while on your site. But, how can you achieve this? Ann stresses the importance of call-to-action and how why every element of your CTA matters, which includes: “The color of your buttons and supporting elements, the language you use to describe the action, the place on the page where you locate them, the additional elements that encourage people to act. All these elements should be consistent and support each other getting your visitors one step closer to their objective.”

SEO Executive / SEO Associate

The SEO Executive is an entry level SEO professional. Once an SEO Intern has learned the basics of SEO, they may be considered an SEO Executive. The main job of an SEO Executive is basic website optimization, which includes meta titles, meta description, alt text for images, data entry and may also include some basic HTML coding. A good SEO Executive should also be proficient in different CMS (content management systems) platforms, Adobe Photoshop (or the equivalent software) as well as a basic understanding of HTML code (CSS, Javascript and PHP are also helpful but not required). Basic website design and website development skills are also essential to the work related to an SEO Executive.

SEO Strategist

The SEO Strategist is responsible for developing the overall SEO strategy for a business or organization. An understanding of marketing strategy as well as the long term and short term goals of the organization are essential to the role of the SEO Strategist. By implementing marketing strategy, an SEO Strategist helps the organization target the right audience with the right objective in mind. Having a strong understanding of the business or organization’s values and mission is also very crucial. With this understanding, an SEO Strategist can efficiently research keywords that are related and relevant to the industry, business or organization. Staying up to date with keyword search trends and search engine algorithm changes are important to every SEO strategist. A good SEO Strategist will know the organization in and out.

Factores seo.. Usabilidad, estructura web, SEO onpage, offpage y analítica web

Muchos de vosotros os preguntáis que es lo que tenéis que valorar de una consultoría para determinar si una empresa o consultor SEO va a hacer bien su trabajo o no. Ya que nosotros solo hacemos SEO para proyectos internos voy a intentar analizar esto desde el punto de vista del cliente y no desde el punto de vista del especialista SEO.

Bien, para mi lo más importante es que os haga un buen trabajo Estructural y Usabilidad, SEO Onpage, SEO Offpage y una analítica posterior para elaborar reportes periódicos que aportarán feedback para ir ajustando la estrategia SEO.

No sabría decír cual es más importante, sencillamente el SEO es la suma de todo, si tienes mucha competencia tienes que hacerlo todo perfecto, si tienes poca pues probablemente no sea necesario optimizar todos los campos, pero lo que sí os puedo asegurara es que sí se hace todo bien se consiguen muy buenos resultados.

Análisis de la estructura, diseño y usabilidad de la web

Muchos Especialistas en SEO obvian la estructura y usabilidad de la web, pero para mi estos factores son los más importantes para conseguir los mejores resultados, que a fin de cuenta de eso se trata, por tanto voy a enumerar algunos aspectos …

• Todos los contenidos deben ser bien visibles
• Evitar que el visitante tenga que hacer excesivo schroll
• La home debe indicar claramente cuales son tus productos y servicios, además estos productos o servicios deben tener una página individualizada donde se explica el detalle de cada uno
• Las páginas de productos o servicios además deben relacionarse con productos o servicios similares, esto incrementará el tiempo de permanencia y beneficiará el posicionamiento
• Destacar en la home cuales son tus productos estrella, los que no tiene la competencia o los que son más económicos que la competencia
• Todas las páginas deben estar a dos clicks como mucho de la Home
• La usabilidad es importante, he visto muchas páginas que son muy bonitas pero difícil navegar por ellas, donde el menú estaba escondido, donde no había breadcrumb
• Un diseño moderno y adaptado a dispositivos móviles siempre da un mejor impacto al visitante, por tanto incrementa el tiempo de permanencia y beneficia el seo

EDU/Gov Links

Article submission is an Off-Page SEO practice that refers to the submission of written articles on a third party website. The articles are written on a particular topic related to the business and published in renowned article submission directories.

AKLINK SEO provides Search Engine Optimization services which is a strategic procedure used by professionals to improve the rankings of a web-page at different search engines like Google, Yahoo, and Bing.

Being one of the best SEO companies working in California, we enjoy a certified record of improving and maintaining the ranks of a website. The Digital Marketing and E-Commerce services provided are according to Google guidelines.

Generally, people click the links that appear on the first page of Google. Considering this fact we conduct comprehensive and careful keyword research to rank high on Google and gather maximum click-through rate.

Resources:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnrampton/2015/04/13/25-tips-from-seo-professionals/
https://www.archmorebusinessweb.com/what-does-an-seo-professional-do/
https://www.seoprofesional.com/
https://aklinkseo.com/

Does it matter where you go to university or college?

It certainly seems like it matters where you go to university. There is great competition for top universities around the world. Many even pay a lot more to get into one of the best universities; presumably there is some reward for the cost at the end. Is a first or 2/1 from Oxford really better than first from Thames Valley University or any ex polytechnic? Since there are external examiners who check standards presumably all university graduates are marked on a similar level regardless of institution. This leaves simply the prestige of graduating from such universities. It may not make a difference in your qualifications but it is more likely to get you noticed.

Yes because…

There are Universities that, justified or not, have a certain amount of grandeur about them. At the very moment of mentioning them they have an impressive nature about them. This is not only with Oxford and Cambridge, but also those Red Brick Universities in Britain’s oldest towns. If nothing else, these Universities would certainly make a person feel proud of themselves for attending such a university and being able to tell people about it.

It is however likely that employers from red brick universities will prefer red-brick university alumni for employees because they can relate to them(being alumni themselves). [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_brick_university#The_civic_university_movement]]

I agree, it does matter what college or university a student goes to. At each college or university there are a lot of different things. Each and every college and university is different. Some colleges and universities are known well for what kinds of facilities that they have. Other colleges and universities may have a really well built gym. While other colleges and universities have really low income gyms. These gyms have really old and out of date equipment. Or, the colleges or universities do not have a gym at all. On the other hand, some colleges and universities have a really good recreation area. I have seen colleges with bars, pool tables, and a lot of places to eat as well. Also, I have been to colleges that have a small cafeteria. The recreation area is a place for students to go to relax after doing all their homework.

No because…

Any one with a first and upper second degree should be proud of their qualification because they have a greater chance of getting jobs or getting graduate degrees than people with a lower class degree(irrespective of the university they graduated from).

In reality, universities throughout the country tend to have the same standard of teaching, and whether you go to Oxford or London Metropolitan, the lectures will be just as good. Certain universities are just more elitist and harder to get in to than others. However, employers will assume that someone who went to Oxford is smarter and therefore a better asset to their company than a person who went to London Met, which is a shame because they should give each person equal opportunities.

I believe that it should not matter which college or university that a student goes too. This is because what employers look for when employers want to hire someone is if the person is qualified enough to do the job. I mean there are a lot of highly qualified people out there who are working. Some people have more skills than other people. What the employer wants to do is find the bottom line. This means that if the employer wants someone with a college degree than the employer will get the person with the college degree. So, this means that it does not really matter what college or university a student chooses to go to. What matters is if the student gets a degree from any university or college. This is because employers want the best person working for them. This is because that person should have certain skills from college that the employers need.

The Impact of a College Education

The college will be an exciting, life-changing experience – no matter where you go. Not only will you get an education, make new friends, gain independence, and embrace new experiences, but you’ll also be increasing your future earning potential.

Elka Torpey, the economist with the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), says data consistently show that employees with higher education levels typically earn more and have lower unemployment rates than employees with less education.

“According to the BLS Current Population Survey, workers with a bachelor’s degree had median weekly earnings of 800,305 in 2020, compared with $781 for workers with a high school diploma,” she said. “The unemployment rate for bachelor’s-level workers was 5.5 percent, compared with 9.0 percent for those whose highest level of education was a high school diploma. So in terms of dollars, education makes sense.”

Resource:

https://debatewise.org/3182-does-it-matter-where-you-go-to-university-or-college/
https://www.jraeducationalconsulting.com/blog/does-it-matter-which-college-you-attend
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/college-admissions_b_1420434

The 10 Planning Skills Every Child Should Learn

After you complete an assessment of your child’s executive functioning skills, note that planning skills may look different depending on your child’s age, their skill level, and their experience with independent planning. These skills describe progression, including beginner, intermediate, and advanced executive functioning tasks. Focus on identifying where your child needs support right now, and then gradually expanding to more difficult executive functioning goals.

How to identify an end goal

Start by encouraging your child to identify the end goal of simple tasks. Ask them about the end goal of putting away belongings (“so the room is clean”) or of daily living tasks like going to the car wash (“so the car gets clean”). Ensuring a learner can identify the end goal of a task is a prerequisite skill for learning to plan the intermediate steps.

How to identify the main idea vs. minor details

Some teens and adults with unique learning needs get hung up in the details of planning and miss the ‘big picture’ or the main idea. Before beginning to work on executive skills like planning, you may need to focus on boosting the communication skill of articulating the central concept vs. minor details. Use familiar movies, video games, and books to talk about main ideas; then move on to the main idea vs. small details on scheduled daily activities.

How to use a checklist

Hundreds of different sources cite the value of using checklists. From the United States military to Fortune 500 business success, humans from all walks of life find value in creating a list of tasks and visually marking them off when completed. It seems like a simple concept, yet many individuals with unique learning needs struggle to create checklists independently and use them functionally. Start by practicing how to use a checklist with the steps of familiar tasks. Then graduate to using a list of steps with new responsibilities. Then, once your child can independently check off steps, move to the next one, start working on creating checklists.

How to order simple activities

As part of using checklists above, you may need first to teach your learner how to order the steps of simple activities. It’s challenging to teach planning skills if your learner struggles to know which actions go in what order. Have your child write out the steps or use visual cue cards to order the steps of everyday activities (i.e., getting a car wash, preparing a favorite meal, ordering in the drive-through). Have your learner focus on explaining and understanding the cause-effect relationship when sequencing steps. It can go a long way to help learners understand planning skills if they can also articulate why steps should go in a specific order.

How to use a calendar/planner

Once a child can demonstrate the order of a task, and use a checklist to complete steps in order, start to introduce the concepts of time and pre-planning tasks. For many teens and adults, it can be helpful to start with a daily calendar first, focusing on mapping out the steps for one day rather than overwhelming them with multiple days or weeks of tasks.

As a reminder, we’ve developed hundreds of different calendar/planner systems because there’s no one-size-fits-all solution. Observe for several days and get a sense of how your learner uses a calendar most effectively as a tool to stay on track. Does it make sense for it to be on a mobile device? Paper and pencil? It’s it helpful to sync with your own calendar to share updates, changes, and reminders? Choose a calendar or planner tool that’s most likely to help your learner succeed, not necessarily the one that you prefer.

How to set reminders

As your learner masters the order of steps and using a calendar or planner tool, start teaching the value of reminders as a planning tool. Teach your teen or young adult to be more planful by setting smartphone reminders or using a well-placed note. Encourage them to try several different options and provide support and praise when they indicate a reminder was helpful. If your learner misses a critical task or deadline, instead of a reprimand, use it as an opportunity to teach reminders.

How to use visual maps, drawings, and diagrams

Now that your learner has more experience with planning concrete, well-defined tasks, it’s a good time to start working on planning tasks without clear steps. One strategy shown to help enhance executive functioning is creating visuals, including mind maps, drawings, and diagrams. These visuals can help create order from undefined or less structured activities. They can also be helpful when needing to prioritize tasks or plan what to do next.

Fun Ways to Promote a Child’s Planning Ability

While it may seem daunting at first, there are many fun ways to set up the planning stage of a task with your child. The suggestions outlined below are just a few of the fun ways you can teach or reinforce planning skills with your child at home.

Help your child learn to take responsibility for future events in a fun and engaging way by having a family calendar in the home. Allow the child to personalize the calendar with doodles, stickers and writing down their events themselves. If they are too young to write themselves, sit down and write the events out with them. These events could include extra-curricular playdates, sleepovers, deadlines, birthdays, etc.

Have various checklists around the house for the child to help assist them in activities or routines they may struggle with (i.e., morning routine, doing laundry, etc.). Graphic organizers are another wonderful tool to help promote children’s plans. It provides a creative way for the child to identify the steps needed to achieve the desired outcome or reach a goal. Graphic organizers can help the child navigate tasks required both in the classroom and at home more easily. With Halloween around the corner, you can even create a checklist with your child to help them prepare for carving pumpkins or creating a step-by-step Halloween craft (or even their costume!).

Baking or cooking with your child is a fun way to improve planning skills. The recipe ingredients and instructions act as a natural “checklist” or “graphic organizer” that helps you achieve the end goal. To simplify this for younger kids, create a checklist that includes the steps necessary to be successful in cooking and baking (i.e., turn the oven on, gather ingredients, mix ingredients, place on pan, put in over, set timer, etc.). Visual checklists that use pictures instead of words for younger children can also be incredibly useful!

Board and card games that require some strategy can be an excellent way of promoting planning skills in your child. With these, they have to identify the steps that will help them achieve their goal of winning. If the planning ability does not come naturally to them at first, turn the experience into a teaching opportunity. Educate them on identifying the steps necessary to win. Then, continue to play the game regularly. Over time, with repeated experiences, the child should be able to identify what steps they should take on their own. For younger children, the board game “Trouble” or the card game “Uno” are great games to play to promote planning skills. For older children, board games like “Monopoly” or “Life” would be great resources as well.

Have your child plan an event with your assistance. Your child will learn how to take on future responsibilities and the steps required to keep those around them entertained. Maybe the child can plan a family outing. Have the child decide what activities the family will do together and how the family will get from “point A” to “point B”. Your child could also plan a sleepover with their friends and decide what activities the friend group will do and how they will get set up.

There are many ways to improve your child’s planning skills. Get creative and work with your child to make these strategies as fun as possible by involving their interests! For example, if your child loves cars, work together to create a planning chart/checklist that has a Hot Wheels theme. If your child loves animals, help them plan a family outing to a petting zoo. You can use your child’s interests as positive reinforcement or a reward when they achieve a goal through planning. You can also incorporate your child’s interests into the activities listed above to help develop their planning skills to keep them interested and engaged.

Source:

https://lifeskillsadvocate.com/blog/10-planning-skills-every-child-should-learn/
https://www.foothillsacademy.org/community/articles/5-fun-ways-to-help-develop-your-childs-planning-skills
https://www.katrexa.com/post/how-to-improve-your-planning-skills-student-edition

You can create email & text campaigns, create customizable widgets or create printable PDFs with Feedier to collect some feedback. And your users will be able to get rewarded with coupons, downloadable files, custom messages and even money transfer via PayPal.

15 useful UI/UX tools for designers in 2022

From doing early whiteboard exercises to working on the finished product, each stage of the design and product development process is now helped by a whole range of tools. The usability and accessibility of these tools have never been higher, and it’s making product development easier and more powerful for everyone.

1. Maze : Remote testing for agile teams
2. Sketch : The digital design platform
3. Adobe XD : The UI/UX design solution for websites, apps, and more
4. Balsamiq : The rapid, effective, and fun wireframing software
5. Figma : The collaborative interface design tool
6. InVision : Digital product design, workflow, and collaboration
7. Marvel : The design platform for digital products
8. Axure : Ux prototypes, specifications, and diagrams in one tool
9. Framer : The prototyping tool for teams
10. UXPin : UI design and prototyping tool
11. FlowMapp : The UX tool for web design
12. Origami Studio : Design, animate, and protoype
13. Proto.io : Prototyping for all
14. Wireframe.cc : An app fine-tuned for wireframing
15. Webflow : A visual way to build the web

Name	Features	Price	Available on
Maze	• Run in-depth tests with or without prototypes • Test and validate ideas, concepts, copy • Remote, rapid user testing and research	Free for individual projects, with paid plans from $25 per user/month	Browsers
Sketch	• Create prototypes • Visual design for web-based products • Collaboration tools	Starting plan of $9 per user/month	macOS
Adobe XD	• Create product prototypes, mobile apps and websites • Create workflows, element creation, animated transitions, dynamic elements	Free for single documents, then starting plan of $9.99/month	Windows, macOS
Balsamiq	• Wireframing tool • Create mockups which focus on functionality and user flow	Starting plan of $9/month	Browsers, Windows, macOS
Figma	• Cloud-based design • Design and build prototypes • Create wireframes, mind maps, mood boards • Collaboration tools	Free for three projects, then starting plan $12 per user/month	Browsers, Windows, macOS
InVision	• Outline user journeys • Create wireframes and prototypes • Create design handoff features • Collaboration tools • Standalone design and UX tool	Free for three documents, then $7.95 per user/month	Windows, macOS
Marvel	• Create wireframes and prototypes • User testing for prototypes	Free for single user and project, then €9/month	Browsers, iOS, Android
Axure	• Create wireframes and lo-fi prototypes • Add dynamic panels, animations and graphic interactions	Starting plan of $25 per user/month	Windows, macOS
Framer	• Create high-fidelity prototypes and work on screen design • Requires basic level of CSS and HTML coding • Create wireframes • Visual design • Basic user testing	Free for three projects, then $19 per user/month	Browsers, macOS (paid only)
UXPin	• Create high-fidelity prototypes • Import designs from other tools • Simple, drag-and-drop functionality	Starting plan of $19 per user/month	Browsers, Windows, macOS
FlowMapp	• Plan UI and UX of apps, digital products and websites • User research functionality • Content planning tool • Sitemapping tool • Collaboration tools • User persona feature	Free plan available, then $15 per month	Browsers
Origami Studio	• High-fidelity prototyping tool • Patch editor and library of existing patches	Free	macOS, iOS, Android
Proto.io	• Create high-fidelity prototypes • Collaboration tools	Starting plan of $24/month	Browsers
Wireframe.cc	• Low-fidelity tool focused on minimalism • Create wireframes easily • Ideal for beginners	Free for unlimited public wireframes, then $16 per/user month	Browsers
Webflow	• Website designer, builder and content management system • Design-to-code generator	Free for one website, then $12 per month or $19 for multiple users	Browsers

What are UX tools?

UX tools will help you with various tasks at various stages in the product development process, from research and user testing, to wireframing and prototyping, and even managing design activities. They’ll also help you structure information architecture, product experience, and user flow.

Since Lean User Experience (UX) Design is user-centered and relies on a collaborative approach and rapid experimentation and prototyping to get user feedback, it’s a great way of structuring and combining your UX tools into a holistic approach towards a better user experience.

THINK phase: user research tools

Knowing your audience is the first phase in UX design and helps you develop experiences that reflect the voice and fit the needs of your users. To learn about your audience, you’ll need user research tools and a few other UX resources.

1. Interview tools

User Interviews

What it is: User Interviews is a user research platform that helps UX and product teams recruit audiences for remote or in-person studies. The platform helps user-centric companies find participants for interviewing and testing so they can create better products for their users.

What it helps you do: find and interview the right users for your UX research. The platform handles everything from recruiting, screening, scheduling, and compensating for any type of research project, with automated features that help you save time and effort.

Dovetail

What it is: Dovetail is cloud research software for notetaking, data repository, research analysis, and synthesis. They pride themselves on featuring a rich text collaborative editor, inline tagging, images and files, insights, and sentiment analysis.

What it helps you do: once you have your interview data, use Dovetail to collate and store user research notes, transcripts, images, videos, audio recordings, and more in a single repository. Then, scour through the data to discover patterns and easily tag, filter, and search for highlights.

2. Survey tools

Hotjar Feedback

Improve UX with product experience insights from Hotjar

Google Forms

What it helps you do: create a form to see if potential participants meet the criteria for your research study. Add targeted questions, such as name, role, observation, and time. When responses come in, you can send them automatically to a spreadsheet and easily filter key user journeys, pain points, and other important results.

3. Persona creation tools

Google Analytics

What it helps you do: tools like GA are a great source for understanding user behavior within your product. After your qualitative research, use quantitative data collected from GA to create user (or buyer) personas.

User persona research can reveal users’ concerns and help you create a content strategy to address them. It can also show you the types of users who are interested in your services (age, location, medium they use, social network preferences).

Look at user data from GA to identify key patterns that drive conversions to understand your core audience. Collect data from primary dimensions like demographics and interests, and secondary dimensions like age and gender. You can also use GA for cohort analysis, which is all about breaking users down into groups (cohorts) and studying each group’s behavior.

UXPressia

What it helps you do: once you have your defined buyer personas, use UXPressia to create a visual overview of how customers interact with and experience your website, app, or product across multiple touchpoints.

4. In-house testing tools

FitNesse Tool

What it helps you do: identify all possible issues or bugs through Alpha testing before releasing a product to the public. Once you enter input, FitNesse interprets the data and automatically creates tests, which are then executed by the system. This way, you can access fast user feedback—reducing failures and risks and increasing your product quality through customer validation.

Bugwolf

What it helps you do: get a detailed picture of how real users feel about your product, website, or app through Beta testing. This type of testing takes place in a real-time environment with the feedback of real users. Beta testing can help you:

Bugwolf works with various types of user tests, including performance, usability, content, SEO, security, black-box, cross-browser, software, load, and more. After testing, you’ll get an overview of all bug reports, prioritized by severity, complete with video and audio commentary.

MAKE phase: design tools

User interface (UI) design tools deal with the visual part of UX design—they help designers brainstorm, schedule, and turn ideas into something real. During this phase, designers and developers try to build features to solve a problem or improve the website, app, or product.

1. Flowcharting tools

Lucidchart

Start by making low-fidelity mockups. If elements of your user journey match existing UI design components of your product, drag-and-drop screenshots of your product to your design instead of replicating the components from scratch. Since Lucidchart is cloud-based, you can easily share your design sketches with Project Managers or other stakeholders early on in the process.

You can connect Lucidchart to apps like Salesforce, Microsoft Office, Jira, Confluence, and GitHub to import stored data and create live diagrams that update in real time. Lucidchart works across all devices, supports Windows, Mac, and Linux operating systems, and works offline, which means it can run faster.

OmniGraffle

Use OmniGraffle’s diagramming and flowchart capabilities to start mapping user journeys through your product. The interface is laid out just how Mac and iPad users expect, which is something web applications can’t deliver. Being native means OmniGraffle also works offline.

2. Wireframing tools

Balsamiq

Balsamiq uses a non-pixel-perfect visual aesthetic to encourage brainstorming and is optimized for communicating design concepts and generating ideas in the early stages of the software process. It intentionally has "just enough" prototyping capabilities, but not more.

Marvel

What it helps you do: Marvel shines as a rapid wireframing tool. Use it in the early stages of the design process, when you’re forming your concept into something tangible and want to translate it to your team, clients, or stakeholders. Create wireframes within minutes on any device.

You can create screens directly in Marvel or add images from Sketch or Photoshop and sync designs from your cloud storage. There’s also a Sketch plugin, which is great if you use it for app design work and want to take advantage of some of Marvel’s features, like the range of gestures and image layering.

3. Prototyping tools

Figma

Figma’s multi-user real-time collaboration features let you view and work on your project as a team (we’re big fans of Figma, ourselves!). Much like Google Docs, you’ll see who’s working and what they’re doing, and you can leave comments. Everything is synced, so if one team member changes something, it affects the whole project without publishing changes.

UX Analytics and Event Tracking Tools

UX analytics and event tracking tools allow marketers, product teams, sales teams, and user researchers to capture the actions of their websites’ users. You can collect the data to make evaluations, so it helps you understand your customer’s actions and enhance your marketing strategy and user experience.

15. Woopra – End-to-end Customer Journey Analytics

Woopra offers real-time data-driven customer analytics, which enables sales, marketing, and product teams to effortlessly analyze the different segments and funnels on your website. The platform is designed to help startups and enterprises optimize the customer life-cycle by delivering live, granular behavioral data for individual website visitors and customers.

Who Uses Woopra?

Woopra Pricing Information

Woopra gives three subscription plans: Core is /month, which can be a very good offer for start-ups. It is free up to 500K action and 90 Day data retention. Pro ($999/month), and Enterprise (custom priced).

16. Clicky – Web Analytics in Real-Time

Clicky analytically reports various ‘on-site’ actions, such as page views and downloads. It allows you to track whether users proceed to the next step and on what steps they quit. Furthermore, it also demonstrates analytical information on activities on social media. Many analytics tools update once a day, Clicky is one of the exceptions. This tool shows real-time statistics.

Who Uses Clicky?

Clicky Pricing Information

Clicky has both paid and free plans, all new accounts automatically get a free 21 day trial of premium service, with access to all features and the ability to track up to 3 web sites and 1,000,000 daily page views.

17. Hotjar – The Fast and Visual Way to Understand Your Customer

Hotjar is a powerful tool that reveals the online behavior and voice of your users. By combining both Analysis and Feedback tools, Hotjar gives you the ‘big picture’ of how to improve your site’s user experience and performance/conversion rates.

Who Uses Hotjar?

Hotjar Pricing Information

Hotjar offers 3 different kinds of pricing plans: personal, business, and agency. It is free up to 2,000 page views per day for personal accounts and prices start from $89/month for businesses. Hotjar Pricing.

18. UXtweak – the only UX research platform you need

The tool allows you to replay tasks and visitors for you to see what they experience and what the pain points are. With the tool, you can sit back and enjoy while your UX test is being conducted with real users.

Who uses UXtweak?

UXtweak Pricing Information

UXtweak has a free basic plan that you can use for small projects. The Professional Plan costs 140€/month and the Agency and Enterprise plans are offered with custom prices.

Sources:

https://maze.co/collections/ux-ui-design/tools/
https://www.hotjar.com/ux-design/tools/
https://userguiding.com/blog/ux-tools/
UX Tools

So, start with the tool itself. Chances are, the tool you use has extensive tutorials to guide you every step of the way. This means you’ll save money because you won’t have to take extra courses on how to use a tool.

UX Tools

User experience designers use UX tools—often purpose-built software—at different stages of their work. For example, designers test their assumptions using prototyping software (e.g., Balsamiq) and do usability testing with other software (e.g., Loop11). To stay competitive, brands make UX tools extremely easy to learn.

Throughout the stages of the UX design process designers use tools to help create digital or physical representations of their ideas. “UX tool” may refer to any technology you use this way – be it to apply design principles in prototyping or simply record ideas. At the lower levels, UX tools are basic aids such as the markers, Post-its and whiteboards teams use during brainstorming sessions. Similarly, you use physical UX tools when you do paper prototyping.

At the higher levels, UX tools are the software you use to advance your and your team’s ideas – ranging from free to premium options. You can divide these between software that helps in copywriting (e.g., Grammarly), team collaboration (e.g., Dropbox) and various other types of tools:

What are the best UX research tools?

1. Optimal Workshop for card sorting, tree testing and first-click testing

Main features at a glance:

How much does it cost?

2. Lookback for user interviews and usability tests

The collaborative dashboard allows you to sync all your research, tag your teammates, and create highlight reels of all the most useful insights. You can set up virtual observation rooms, record users’ screens as they navigate your app or website, and transcribe your user interviews.

Main features at a glance:

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3. Typeform for surveys

Surveys are a UX research staple, offering a quick, easy and inexpensive way to gather user insights. When sending out surveys for UX research, you’ll usually ask questions about the respondents’ attitudes and preferences in relation to the product or service you’re designing.

Typeform is one of the most popular survey tools among UX designers. With Typeform, you can design your own surveys from scratch or choose from a range of templates. After you’ve distributed your survey, you can see responses and completion rates and generate shareable reports.

Main features at a glance:

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4. Maze for user surveys, concept validation, and wireframe & prototype testing

Main features at a glance:

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Professional Diploma in UX Design

5. UserZoom for surveys, card sorting, click testing, and usability tests

UserZoom is a remote UX research platform for various studies and tests at different stages of the product design process. As such, UserZoom is a handy tool for both informing your design decisions and testing them out.

Similar to Optimal Workshop and Maze, UserZoom is a complete UX research toolbox used for card sorting, usability testing, surveys, click testing, tree testing, and user interviews. The platform also includes a fully-integrated participant recruitment engine with over 120 million users worldwide.

Main features at a glance:

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6. dscout for remote user interviews and diary studies

Main features at a glance:

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7. Hotjar for analytics and heatmaps

You can use Hotjar to send out surveys, capture and watch screen recordings of people interacting with your website, create heatmaps, and gather real-time user feedback. Hotjar is all about stepping into your users’ shoes and improving the user experience accordingly!

Main features at a glance:

How much does it cost?

8. Reframer for analysing qualitative research

Reframer is part of the Optimal Workshop suite of UX research tools (number 1 on our list), but we think it’s worth a special mention. As UX designer Carrie Nusbaum notes in her own review of Reframer :

“There are many tools that support the act of actual user testing, and many that facilitate design. Relatively few tools, however, specifically support some important steps that take place in between, namely: data organisation, research synthesis, and presentation of findings.”

Webflow

Webflow gives you the power to design without knowing HTML or CSS. With drag and drop functionality and an intuitive interface, Webflow gives you the creative freedom to build whatever you imagine. Using Webflow for building a prototype gives you an actual website, and generates accurate HTML and CSS code or JavaScript when implementing micro-interactions. This saves time. Instead of taking what’s been drafted in a prototype and building a design from it, you already have what you need to give to a developer. You can also use a template if you don’t want to start from scratch.

Sources:

https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/topics/ux-tools
https://www.uxdesigninstitute.com/blog/best-ux-research-tools/
https://webflow.com/blog/ui-ux-design-tools
UX Tools

Userlytics is a user testing platform that helps you conduct research at scale by testing digital assets like websites, applications, mobile apps, prototypes, etc. You can collect both qualitative and quantitative data and set up advanced metrics and graphical reports.

A Comprehensive List of the Top 10 UX Research Tools

Building your UX research tool stack is an essential step in establishing an effective research practice. In this chapter, we are rounding up some essential tools that will help you conduct UX research and move the needle in your organization.

UX researchers have access to many different solutions to conduct user research and manage different stages of their workflow. For instance, there are tools for conducting usability testing, surveys, interviews, or more specialized tests, such as card sorting or tree testing.

Other common tools make it easier to document research, take notes, and transcribe interviews. Finally, UX researchers can use specific tools to recruit participants, capture remote or in-person sessions, and generate real-time reports to share with the rest of the team.

Research Tools

UsabilityTools

See the website from the user’s perspective or ask them directly how to improve your service. The platform combines qualitative and quantitative approach. UsabilityTools is integrated with a research panel with access to over 10 million people worldwide. For more details read our review of UsabilityTools.

Woopra

Track, analyze, and take action on live customer data. Woopra helps you to identify the soft spots in your conversion funnel so that you can improve them later on. The information you get allows you to measure marketing initiatives and evaluate the ROI of each.

MouseStats

Watch your website visitors – see all mouse movements, scrolls, key-strokes and clicks as a movie. Thanks to interactive heatmaps you can find out which areas on the page attract more attention and which make users confused. Data on web form visitors help you to understand which fields cause dropouts.

Usabilla

Understand what people think and feel while browsing your site. Usabilla focuses on collecting visual user feedback allowing visitors to answer questions by placing points and notes on top of the design. You will be able to select and compare clicks, and analyze comments within their visual context.

Verify

Collect and analyze user feedback on screens or mockups. You can gather feedback, see what people remember about your design or how they feel about it. Great for testing out the ideas before you implement them.

Naview

Polldaddy

Create surveys and polls in minutes. PollDaddy provides polling widgets for blogs, websites and social networks. Advanced filters allow you to analyze your data more quickly. You can collect responses via your website, e-mail or social media.

TryMyUI

Hear what users are thinking as they use your site. You get a narrated video of each user navigating your website while trying to perform tasks you want. The service allows you to see your website through the eyes of your user. All tests are self-moderated.

Loop11

Improve usability of your website through scenario based tests. This automated service lets you to evaluate web usability with hundreds of users. You can also benchmark against your competitors and see how your website compares.

Attensee

Choose the best design variations of landing pages or marketing materials. Combine tests with classic surveys to understand which design variation does the best use of users’ attention. Best for pre-launch landing page optimization. For more details, read our reviwew of Attensee.

Silverback

Silverback allows Mac users to record screen activity (such as mouse clicks) and hence facilitate guerilla usability testing without having to go through any complex configurations. This is because it makes use of hardware that is already present in your Mac.

UserTesting

Design Tools

Wireframing is an important technique to reduce the cost and risk involved in developing complex interactive systems. It involves building a small scale version of a system in order to acquire essential feedback required to build it.

UXPin

Balsamiq

Mockingbird

Justinmind

Pidoco

MockFlow

Proto.io

Gliffy

Wireframe.cc

Lorem Ipsum Generator

Zoom, GotoMeeting and other video conferencing tools

David Sloan, UX research lead at accessibility consultancy The Paciello Group, often conducts user research with people with disabilities. As there isn’t time or budget for face-to-face usability testing, he has found great value in web conferencing tools like Zoom or Skype for remote evaluation.

“Zoom’s ability to record system audio as well as the participant’s own speech and their screen makes it ideal for remote testing with screen reader users,” he explains. “By setting up a multi-participant call you can also have observers watch and listen and take notes. The fidelity of the recorded audio supports high-quality transcription of the screen reader output and moderator/participant dialogue, which can be used for analysis purposes. For assistive technology users, minimizing demands for additional software to be installed before a remote evaluation is particularly important, and the Zoom interface is pretty accessible.”

Sloan points out that one limitation of web conferencing software is their inability to out-of-the-box broadcast or record a screen as seen when magnification or a high contrast color scheme has been applied. However, in his experience of carrying out research with screen reader users, these tools are ideal, especially for quick, targeted evaluations as a way to inject accessible user experience into an agile development process.

Bekah Rice, senior UX designer/developer and accessibility expert at user experience strategy firm truematter, agrees that video conferencing tools are great to capture tests and share them with observers. In her experience, GoToMeeting is one of the more practical ones.

For Ben Grace, lead UX designer at WordPress-centric digital agency 10up, team collaboration software Miro has become an indispensable tool to plan and prep for research, keep the team organized as they execute, and a great way to socialize their findings.

“Our team has found that having a single place for our work that is visible to the team is very useful, and common in shared physical spaces,” he explains. “However, at 10up, we’re a fully remote team, and Miro has really enhanced how we work. Remote collaboration is always challenging, but we’re able to quickly access and keep our insights in a single space for the full team to view.”

The goal of this workshop is to kickstart the UX design team at 10up on a project and gain internal alignment on activities and deliverables. UX designers use this to outline and estimate activities and deliverables.

Choose a tool that works for you and focus on the users

There are a ton of UX research tools out there, and you’ll need to decide which ones are most suited to your projects and way of working. As user and product research leader Gregg Bernstein points out, the best tools are those already in use by your organization.

“People are creatures of habit — your colleagues included,” he explains. “To make research visible and accessible, keep as much of the research process within their current technological ecosystem. Whether your org uses Slack and Google Drive, or Basecamp and Zoom, there you go: that’s your research toolbox. After six months to a year like this, you’ll know what’s working just fine and what’s ripe for better tooling.”

Lindsey Wallace, senior experience researcher at Adobe, meanwhile, advises to check your ego at the door and remember your participants are the experts: “When running research, I always want my participants to feel like nothing they can say is a ‘wrong answer’ because I’m there to learn about their experiences. This requires patience and the ability to create an environment of trust and safety. User research is a judgement free zone!”

“Ultimately, no tool is a substitute for the expertise of a trained researcher who approaches their work and participants with deep curiosity and leverages literature and other resources in their field to contextualize their insights.”

Sources:

https://maze.co/guides/ux-research/ux-research-tools/
https://usabilitygeek.com/user-experience-ux-tools/
https://xd.adobe.com/ideas/process/user-research/best-ux-research-tools/

Freelance Writing: 13 Tips to Get You Started

Does the work from anywhere lifestyle enchant you? Is writing one of your strong suits and favorite things to do? If the answer to these questions is a yes, then you absolutely should see the world of freelance content writing for yourself. As a freelance content writer, you can work literally from anywhere, and at any time. Freelancing is the new all-comfortable mode of work. And freelance content writers enjoy what they do because they have control over their hours and choice of work. They are not bound by a long-term contract of employment with an organization.

A freelance writer is an individual who works on a self-employed basis. They have the freedom to do work of their choice; and they can work with one or multiple organizations at a time. Let’s take a look at some of the best freelance beginner tips.

2. Research the Industry

Some people have the advantage of a degree or certificate that introduced them to the ins and outs of freelance writing. I came out of university with a Theatre Degree. But thanks to the Internet, there is a flurry of information already available online and websites ready to help you get started. I spent an entire winter just researching what it meant to be a freelance writer, what kind of outlets existed for my writing, and what the process was for getting published. I met with the only freelance writer I knew to learn how she got started. As it turns out, the path she took (ie. writing for newspapers) had no appeal to me, but at least I learned this was an option.

Learning about the infamous “query letter” was my first big “aha!” moment when I was researching how to enter the freelance market. Most publications, especially those that pay for material, don’t want to receive a complete, unsolicited article. Instead, they want you to pitch your idea in the form of a query letter.

Editors are busy and likely won’t read a full article, but they can make time to browse through a well-written query. If an editor likes your idea, this also gives him or her some space to suggest possible angles and fulfill the current needs of the magazine. See this piece on How to Write a Query Letter for the specifics. Keep track of your queries so that you know where and when you submitted them.

Make sure you’re writing good freelance content.

It’s not just about turning in the freelance assignment and meeting a deadline. Make sure you’re creating good content for freelance clients every time by meeting your deadline, turning in the correct word count, following the outline your editor provided and checking for spelling and grammar mistakes. If you feel unsure of the direction your article is taking during the writing process, check in with the editor. I always appreciated it when a freelance writer did this for me when I was a an assigning editor on staff at Weight Watchers, Prevention magazine or Muscle and Fitness magazine. Perhaps a source you interviewed revealed a new angle, or you found research that says the basis of your article is unfounded. Freelance writing for beginners and advanced writers is about making sure you’re on the right path with the article you’re going to turn in so the editor knows what to expect.

This is one of those freelance writing for beginners tips that could be interpreted two ways. One way is to make sure you’re asking clients for feedback on how to improve your articles and make their lives easier. The other is to listen to what people are talking about when you need to come up with article ideas. What problems do friends and family bring to you to help them solve? Recall the conversations you’ve had with your friends about their issues and problems— maybe it’s babysitting, being a caretaker, health issues…this list can go on forever. Jot down snippets of those conversations in a notepad on your phone and visit them at a later time to see if they have any weight or could become article pitches. This freelance writing tip is just one of my fun ways to come up with freelance ideas.

Set up Google alerts on keywords and topics you want to write about.

Find a specific topic that interests you and follow experts and brands in that field on social media and in news stories when you. I frequently write about sleep, so I like to see which brands are coming out with new products, learn about the latest research and see which outlets are publishing content in this niche in my Google alerts. I also sign up to receive alerts on freelance writing tips, side hustle and freelance topics! Part of freelance writing for beginners is knowing what other writers are producing as well. This is a great way to stay on top of trends and learn a freelance niche as well as additional freelance writing tips.

Make sure you have a designated area you’ll start freelance writing for beginners in, use good lighting and have a door you can close so you won’t be disturbed by family members and roommates. While I first started freelance writing at a kitchen table in my tiny studio apartment, now I have a designated home office space with a desk, a large monitor, two laptops, a standing desk and a comfortable chair. Get work from home tips on how to be more productive as a beginner freelancer here.

Benefits of being a freelance writer

Many aspiring writers are daunted by going freelance, it can feel scary to be completely in charge of where your money comes from, and as with any self-employed work, imposter syndrome can creep in! However, this drawback can also be turned into a huge advantage. You can take on as much work as you choose, starting small at first and building up more work as you become more confident. If you are prepared to work hard, the rewards can be substantial.

• Work any place, any time – One of the biggest perks of being a freelancer is being able to work when and where you choose. No need to set an alarm clock. You can fit your work around your lifestyle. Sunny day outside? Instead of being stuck inside an uninspiring office, you have the option to take your laptop to the park or even the beach. You can even work from the comfort of your own bed, should there be a day when you feel like lounging. It also fits perfectly around family life and is a great option for stay-at-home moms. There is freedom and flexibility in freelancing!
• Work variety – Are you the kind of person who would find it boring doing the same work day in, day out? With freelance writing, you can be assigned all kinds of different topics, and you can choose to write about things that interest you, whether it is an academic topic or maybe health and wellbeing, parenting and family life, creative hobbies, etc. Being a freelance writer often means researching topics that you might not be familiar with at first, which can broaden your horizons.
• It all depends on you – You are in complete control of your personal finance and how much or how little work you want to take on. You are your own boss – you can choose whether or not to take on a writing assignment – if the topic does not interest you or is not something you would feel confident writing about, then there will be plenty of other opportunities that suit you better. Your clients will know that time is money, and so if there is a tight deadline, you are perfectly entitled to ask for them to pay you more. The more work that you put in, the greater the reward will be.
• Avoid the stress of office politics – Being your own boss also means that you get to choose who you work with. There is nobody above you, such as a boss or supervisor, that you have to impress, and no competition from other work colleagues. You can avoid all of the drama and stress that can come from working in the office environment, making work much more enjoyable and relaxed.

Conclusion

Having read all the advice that this article offers, you will have a clearer picture of freelancing and if it is for you. The few drawbacks are outweighed by many benefits, the main one being that you are completely in charge of your destiny. Freelance writing is an ever-growing industry where opportunities are many for those who are dedicated. The sheer variety of work on offer means that you will never feel bogged down in a mundane working life.

1. If you enjoy working independently and the flexibility that setting your own hours will bring, then you will love freelancing. In fact, you will likely never want to work for anyone else but yourself again.
2. Remember to log everything, as this will enable you to work more efficiently going forward. Track your time, keep records of your income and outgoings, focus on one task at a time, and be prepared to be flexible if something is not working in your favor. Although freelancing offers ultimate working freedom, it is also important to be methodical and organized.
3. Perhaps the most important question of all is what do you want to achieve? Is it most important to you to write about topics that you are passionate about or to generate as much income as you can? Either way, there are plenty of opportunities to improve your writing and to find freelance writing gigs that will work best for you.
4. You do not have to have contacts in the freelance writing world in order to find work for yourself. Cold pitching can be a very successful method if you do a little research and find companies that are likely to require your services. You should also make the most of technology, including social media. Making a career in freelance writing is possible for anyone who is willing to make it a reality.

And if you want to make freelancing even easier, Indy has all of the productivity tools you need to elevate your freelance business, including Proposals, Contracts, Forms, Chats, File Storage, Invoices, and a Time Tracker to give you greater levels of efficiency with just one website. Sign up to Indy today for free!

Resources:

https://www.peppercontent.io/blog/freelance-content-writer-beginner-tips/
https://www.meghanjoyward.com/blog/15-tips-freelance-writing
https://www.dianakelly.com/freelance-writing-tips-for-beginners
https://weareindy.com/blog/8-tips-for-new-freelance-writers

Sometimes, though, established freelancers may get busy, or they may drop clients due to personal matters, busy schedules, or a change in the work that they do. Because of this, it may be best to have contracts with several writers so that you have a backup option available.

Convey much with few words

I find inspiration in ad copy that takes little space to reflect a strong message. Sure, you’ll need to write much more than a couple of sentences for your content marketing, but simplicity has merit. How well you write always sets the stage for what’s to come.

I was impressed with this line from Dove, “You’re more beautiful than you think.” It’s part of Dove Real Beauty Sketches, a six-minute YouTube video with 11 million views since 2013. The content looks at the gap between how we perceive ourselves and how others see us.

In 2019, Spotify gained notice with its Spotify Everywhere meme-themed campaign. For example, on one billboard, the left side read: “Me: It’s Okay; the breakup was mutual.” On the right side, it read: “Also Me: Sad Indie” (complete with the app’s music search imagery). The simple, creatively delivered message went deep into a full range of emotions familiar to countless people.

The COVID-19 pandemic led to numerous ad campaigns that underscore the value of brevity. Nike handled it this way: “If you ever dreamed of playing for millions around the world, now is your chance. Play inside, play for the world.”

Freelance Writing Niches

Remember that certain niches pay more money for content writers than others. For example, writing SEO articles, medical newsletters, or articles for the legal industry, provided you have the necessary qualifications and expertise.

Writing daily is a helpful way to approach things. This allows the writer to write something every day, even if it’s just a few sentences, and then edit and rewrite it. It helps the writer develop his/her content writing skill.

If you don’t have any experience as a writer, don’t worry. No one knows everything about writing when they start out. Most experienced writers will tell you that they’re still learning something new every day.

Even if you’ve been writing for a while, it’s fun to see your earnings grow. It’s not easy to get money and work. So when you’re successful, you’ve to appreciate it. That’s part of the business of being a writer.

Time Management and Tracking

For example, you could use a headline that’s identical to the headline of a direct response ad. Or you could use a call to action that would appear in a direct response ad. Or you could create a list that’s in the style of a direct response ad.

If you’re looking for a really good first revision solution, I recommend taking a look at Instatext. With the ability to correct an entire text with one click and choose the tone and region, it’s a really cool tool. One of the benefits is that it helps keep tone and style consistent.

At a later stage of editing, I use Grammarly Premium to make fine corrections (although I find that it’s often too tedious to make all the suggested changes – I reserve that for particularly valuable content).

Content Writing Tips

Articles

Blog posts should accurately reflect the brand’s identity, usually in a friendly, relaxed way. This strategy applies to complex topics, too, with the content writer being able to successfully turn them into engaging pieces that convert into leads.

• Check use of keywords.Use keywords effectively in the text, H1 header, meta title, meta description, and subheadings.
• Make sure the title is perfectly optimized. You want the title to be enticing and offer the reader information that they need, while also meeting search engine requirements.
• Check the optimization of the meta description.Explain the benefits of your article and make it unique. You can check the correctness and effectiveness of your titles and meta descriptions with the help of On Page SEO Checker or Site Audit.
• Make sure the introduction is magnetic. Get people “hooked” in the introduction by addressing their feelings, as well as adopting other effective methods.
• Make sure the copy is easily read.Readable copy will have a good H2, H3, and H4 structure, skimmable headlines that inform without reading, clear and informative paragraphs, bullet points, and numbered lists.
• Check the links to relevant on-site and off-site resources. Link to reliable external content to build trust around your copy, and to internal content that guides users through their customer journey.

If you work with a writer, then our SEO Copywriting Guide will explain to you how to evaluate the work of a writer. Alternatively, if you do your own writing, it is recommended to use SEO Writing Assistant, which analyzes your target keywords and suggests how to make your copy more readable and SEO-friendly in real time.

Product Content

Website Сontent

Email Newsletters

Email newsletters are important for retargeting customers and maintaining engagement with your company’s base. They can provide a diverse range of information including company and industry news, product information, or sales incentives. In the past year, 55% of marketers have reported that they owe their most lucrative ROI measurements to email marketing.

As we learned from the Top Content Marketing Trends research, marketers who want to keep pace with the modern world are looking to customization and personalization. Emails that are highly segmented tend to have higher performance levels for metrics such as open rate and clickthrough rate than emails that aren’t personalized.

• Hook the reader with the title. Your subject line should be catchy. It’s great if you can add humor, but make sure the headline is clear. The user must understand what the email is about.
• Write about the potential benefit to users – not about your business. Opt for language like “you can get” over “we offer”, and think about how the user will benefit if they take the action you are asking them to. For example, if you sell multicookers, then the user benefit is not purchasing the product, but having more free time for other tasks.
• Be clear about what you are proposing. This applies to both text and visual design. The CTA button should be the brightest and most attractive element on the page, and the text should state the main idea from the first or second paragraph. Remember that you don’t have much time to get the reader’s attention, so try to be brief.

Press Releases

Ebooks

At least 37% of businesses create ebooks on a regular basis. There are many goals that you may want to achieve by writing an ebook, such as establishing yourself as an industry expert, moving potential customers down the sales funnel, educating readers on your brand or product.

The desired goal defines which sections you should include in your ebook; for example, a section with tables and figures is more applicable to a research paper than to a company playbook or other format.

Outsourcing Content

Creating quality content is difficult to do regardless of size, and it can become an even bigger challenge when you’re working on scaling. To up your content development game, you can use either in-house resources or outsource the content.

Outsourcing Cons

The biggest actual negative of outsourcing is that it will use up some of your marketing budget. Since it may take some time to see results from your content marketing, and you’ll often need a consistent content effort to get said results, some brands may worry about spend.

• You don’t have an existing relationship with the writer. You might be worried about the freelancer’s ability or consistency, and whether they’ll follow through on the task at hand. To prevent a disappearing act, make sure that you’re either getting a contract signed, or using a content writing service with a large pool of experienced writers.
• Freelancers may not understand or be able to capture your brand voice as well as an in-house team member. Freelancers often have multiple clients, so it’s easy to understand why brands worry that the writer won’t be able to capture their voice. If you’re hiring someone with industry experience and you share information like your brand’s USP and style guide, you’d be surprised how well writers can adapt to your brand.
• Freelancers may not be willing to work with your team. If you have open channels of communication that work for your team and the writer, this shouldn’t be an issue. You can use Slack, Google Hangouts, email, or other project management tools for this. Just make sure you’re asking your contractor to get in touch if they have any questions, and account for the potential need for revisions along the way.
• Writers won’t be interested enough or able to write about my specific industry. Brands with technical or highly niche topics might worry that freelance writers can’t help, whether because of a lack of access to information, or because of an unwillingness to find it. Think topics like “how to set up invoice factoring with international clients,” or advanced, technical programming articles with huge blocks of code. There are, however, freelancers in every specialty and niche, as well as content platforms that can help you find the right one.

Working with a reputable writer or content agency can often relieve you of these fears. This will allow you to focus on other mission-critical tasks, while the time-consuming content is left to the experts.

Outsourcing Pros

According to B2B Content Marketing study, 84% of marketers in B2B companies outsource their content creation activities. This may suggest that fewer businesses are opting to have in-house writers.
There are an enormous number of benefits that can come from outsourcing content, especially when you work with a strong, experienced writer with knowledge of SEO and content strategy.

• You can focus your time on high-level strategy instead of writing. When you aren’t stuck spending time researching and creating blog posts, you can focus on the high-level strategy that needs your attention the most.
• It’s often more cost-effective to outsource than to hire staff members. This is particularly true if you want to hire an expert writer with experience in your field. Aside from the flat rate and salary differences, you also won’t have to spend money on taxes, benefits, and training like you would with an employee.
• You can scale up or down as you see fit. If you need two blog posts this month, five the next, and zero after that, that’s okay. Some freelancers may want to set up retainers, but many are happy to work on an as-needed basis. You pay for what you need, when you need it; you don’t need to worry about justifying someone’s salary. You can also hire as many writers as you need, when you need them.
• You can choose the payment methods that work for your company. While many freelancers and agencies have a preferred pay structure, you can search for what works for you, whether it’s paying based on word count, hours worked, or a flat rate fee.
• Freelancers bring diverse experience and perspectives. Hiring a third-party writer or agency can offer expertise and insight into new strategies. They may also have a great way of looking at your content, business, or audience that you hadn’t thought of yet. Sometimes getting an outsider’s perspective can be invaluable.

Keep in mind that freelance writing is extremely competitive. Many strong writers are vying for good jobs with great clients who know what they want, so content marketplaces always have a vast pool of writers. Many have writers specializing in different niches, too, providing you with multiple options.

Sources:

https://contentmarketinginstitute.com/articles/writing-examples-tools-tips/
https://brilliantio.com/how-to-start-content-writing/
https://www.semrush.com/blog/content-writing-how-to-write-and-order-different-types-of-content/

But currently, staying in Delhi. Regarding my education qualification, I did my graduation in B. Com from ccs University and I completed my 10 and 12 from CBSE board. And currently, I pursuing MBA from Galgotia University My short term goal is to get a job in a reputed company and my long-term goal is to achieve a good position where I can build my career as well as an organisation too and also become a good person in life. My hobby is doing meditation and completing work effectively and efficiently. My strength is I am self-motivated and follow the rules strictly. That’s all about me. Thank you.

How To Introduce Yourself Professionally – Follow These 3 Easy Steps

How is it possible that one of the most basic aspects of business communication is also one of the most awkward ones? We’re talking about how to introduce yourself in a professional context –at a meeting, before a presentation, or meeting new clients. We are all able to say Hi, my name is Paola, and I am the Marketing Director at Talaera, but who are you beyond that? First impressions matter, and how you communicate in the workplace will help you have a better relationship with clients, leads, and coworkers. In this episode, you’ll learn an effective way to introduce yourself professionally in 3 easy steps. You can find the transcript at the bottom.

Introductions are extremely important for your professional life. They are like your new business card. The first interaction you have with someone will impact how others perceive you, and also the relationship you’ll later have with them.

The very first tip is to have it prepared . Don’t improvise. Have it ready for any professional situation. You can’t hesitate when you introduce yourself. So follow the steps below, write it down, practice, and make sure it’s ready and fresh for when you need it. Drop your scripted introduction in the comments and we’ll tell you how you did!

A 3-step framework for professional introductions

When it comes to introductions, every case is different, and you need to understand the room. When networking, for example, introductions tend to be shorter, but in a negotiation, you usually spend more time introducing yourself and bonding with the other party. But, in general, a professional introduction should include these three parts or steps: (1) who you are , (2) what you do , and (3) what others need to know . Once you have those three, wrap it up. Don’t go on and on until the end of time. Let’s look at each step individually. I’ll explain them in-depth and provide some examples.

#1 Who you are

#2 What you do

The second step might sound simple, but it’s actually the most important part. Usually, people say their name and their job title. But what else is there to say about you? What is it exactly that you do? The tricky part is to find the right length of your elevator pitch. You need to provide some key points your audience can hang on to without having to write an essay.

So, yes, you should still mention your job title, your company, perhaps even your department, but also add what you really do –in plain English. It should be short, so skip the details. A sentence is enough. What’s important is that people immediately understand what you do and want to work with you.

When explaining what you do, don’t focus on tasks, focus on results . Talk about how you help people and be specific. If you can craft an introduction that’s focused on the results that the other person is looking for, you have it. You win. Think about the problems they may have and offer a solution. And most importantly, adjust this message according to your audience.

#3 What others need to know

The last bit of a professional introduction consists of adding other nice facts that are relevant to the people and the context. Here, you can show your contribution (what you bring to the table), and you can set the expectations for the meeting or presentation going on.

Now, it’s your turn. Prepare your own introduction and remember to include all the steps we just mentioned. Number #1 – Your name . Number #2 – What you do (which includes your job title and how you help people), and Number #3 – A detail that the others need to know (what you bring to the table in that specific situation). And once you’ve included them, end there. As the Alice in Wonderland quote goes. “Begin at the beginning, and go on till you come to the end: then stop.”

If you still need help to communicate effectively with other cultures, get in touch with Talaera . This article works as supporting material for our podcast episode on how to communicate better with US Americans. You can read the transcript below. Make sure you check out all our other Talaera Talks episodes and subscribe to get new episode alerts.

Example of a Student Introduction (for IELTS)

If you take the IELTS, your self-introduction may sound a little different, since the Speaking Test is structured like a conversation. Watch the video below and listen to how this top-scoring candidate from Spain introduces himself:

To the question ‘What are you studying, and do you enjoy it?’ Xavier offers not only specific details about the subject he is studying, but also his opinions about the experience:

I’m studying law and I do enjoy it, most aspects of it. But in this final year there is a lot of hard work and a lot of reading, and I cannot say that I enjoy all of this reading. But what I really enjoy is working on case studies. What I mean is discussing cases. I like to exchange ideas with people.

I want to have a career in law, but I have to decide which area to specialize in first, and then maybe study for another four or five years. I hope to specialize in environmental law, which is the law that businesses have to abide by to ensure that their practices do not affect the environment.

Other Phrases for Introducing Yourself

• I’m based in London, but I live in New York . This phrase is used when you want to make it clear that your current living situation is temporary, or you do a lot of traveling because of your job.
• I live in New York, but I’m originally from Lisbon . English speakers like to use this phrase when mentioning their native country or city. It’s more common than phrases like I was born in / I grew up in.
• I’m a colleague of Jane’s . When introducing yourself in a group or at an event (like a party or a conference), it’s helpful to explain your connection to other people in the group or event. Similar phrases include: I work together with Jane / I’m Jane’s brother / Jane and I both study Chemistry at Toronto University.
• I’m the father of two young girls . You can use this phrase if you want to say something about your family (it’s also a simple way for parents to explain why they don’t have much “free” time). Similar phrases include: I’m the daughter of two psychologists / I’m one of eight children / I’m the son of Queen Elizabeth.

References:

https://blog.talaera.com/introduce-yourself-professionally
https://soenglish.me/introduce-yourself/
https://www.indiabix.com/hr-interview/tell-me-about-yourself/
https://www.flowrite.com/blog/how-to-introduce-yourself-in-an-email

Scholars of psychology have to understand the various perspectives that the scholars before them had concerning the human nature and how people develop the different personalities. Therefore, it is important to read widely and examine the various literature and compare their content to understand the schools of thought that exist and their application to the practice of psychotherapy. Hence, the paper will critically examine the work of Victor Frankl titled “Man’s Search for Meaning” and the book by Sigmund Freud titled “The Future of an Illusion.” The paper will also analyze Jean Jacques Rousseau’s “Discourse on the Origin of Inequality.”  The three works all talk about human nature and the role of faith in its development. While Frankl and Rousseau agree that the nature of humans is good, Freud sharply opposes. Also, while Frankl and Rousseau recognize the importance of faith and religion in the psychological health of humans, Freud, on the other hand, says that religion is illusory and wishful thinking that has negative consequences.

“Man’s Search for Meaning” was authored from Victor Frankl’s personal experience in a Nazi concentration camp. The work details the struggles of the writer in the camp and how he coped (Frankl 2). The work contains the mental picture of a typical prisoner in the dire conditions that they were subjected to and discussed it from his logotherapy psychological perspective. For example, in the section of the book in which the author talks of how they walked in a cold place for miles while hardly strong enough to walk he says, “I understood how a man who has nothing left in this world still may know bliss…” (Frankl 48). By doing that he informs the author of his actual feelings as he went through the problems and applied his theory to it. Therefore, unlike Rousseau and Freud, the author gives himself as evidence of how his theory works.  Freud, on the other hand, offers a critic of religion in the lives of humans. In his critic, he uses the beliefs and psychoanalysis as the main tools of passing his point. Therefore, the critic lacks strong evidence to support the argument of the author apart from the backing of the psychoanalytic approach. Rousseau’s “Discourse on the Origin of Inequality” on the other hand critics the ideas of the authors that discussed the topic of human nature before him such as Hobbes. He also lacks personal experience like Victor Frankl. Therefore, Frankl is more convincing in his work because of the use of evidence from his life and the application of the theory that he communicated to the people to survive in the concentration camp and also outside after he was freed. The writing of the method of logotherapy and its application from the perspective of a person who had experienced it makes the work of the theorist more authentic than the Freud’s critic of religion and Rousseau’s discussion of human nature.

The three authors also give different perspectives of the psychology behind people’s actions. Frankl argues based on his logotherapy perspective. According to the view, the nature of people is driven by the purpose of their lives. Therefore, people behave like they do because they seek to have a purpose in their lives. The purpose may be founded on themselves or the people that look up to them. For example, in some part of the text, the author is inspired to fight for his survival by the thought of his wife. The author says “…But my mind clung to my wife’s image…” (Frankl 48). In the part of the text, the author found a purpose for his life in his wife. He struggled to survive in the harsh conditions because of reasons such as his wife. The author says that their meaning drives people’s behaviors and that despite the situation that a person may be, life never stops having to mean. The author thought that there is always someone looking down upon people even if the situation is very hard. The idea that his wife is looking down at him or imagining his wife gave his life meaning.

Rousseau, in his work says that two forces drive people. One of them is self-preservation, and the other is ‘pity.’ The view of Rousseau can be compared to that of Hobbes who also said that self-preservation is the primary motive of the actions of people (Rousseau 35). However, Rousseau asserts that pity is a significant part of what drives people’s behaviors. According to Rousseau, if self-preservation were the only principle that drove people as Hobbes had suggested earlier, people would be monsters. The author describes pity as “an innate repugnance to see his fellow suffer” (Rousseau 36). The nature of people as characterized by the two principles of compassion and self-preservation is corrupted by the society to create the people that exist in the communities. Unlike Frankl, Rousseau discussed the issue of human nature in two situations. One of the situations is one in which the person lives without the interaction and corruption of the society. The author describes humans that have not been corrupted by the societies in his work. The perspective that Rousseau in talking about the topic of human nature is different from both Frankl and Freud because unlike the two, Rousseau talks about the nature of people away from societies while the other two authors speak about the nature of humans within the context of the society.

In “The Future of an Illusion” on the other hand, Freud centers his discussion on religion. Therefore, his discussion on motivation is limited to what leads people to believe in god and their faiths. The author says that people are motivated to believe in religion by their wishful thinking that it will bring them immortality of their souls and a prolongation of their earthly existence by life after death (Freud 38). Therefore, according to the writing of Freud, human behaviors are driven by their self-centeredness. The negative ideology of humans is contrary to the belief of Rousseau and Frankl. Freud directly opposed the thoughts of Rousseau and Frankl.

The views of the authors also differ concerning the innate nature of people. According to Frankl, two kinds of people exist. The text of Frankl says that there are both decent and indecent people. The author wrote that there were both decent and indecent prisoners. Therefore, the author believes that depending on the actions and behavior of people, there are those that are good and those that are evil. The view is different from both Rousseau and Freud as it shows a more liberal line of thought as compared to the other writers who say that people are naturally good and evil respectively. According to Frankl, decent and indecent people were the only important races. For instance, in the concentration camp, he says that there are indecent as well as decent prisoners (Frankl 102). He also says that there were both decent and indecent Nazi guards. Therefore, from his experience, the author does not generalize the nature of people as either good or bad. Instead, he says that both types of people exist in all societies.

Contrary to the liberal thinking of Frankl, Rousseau thought that people are naturally good and that they are only corrupted by the societies in which they live and civilization. The author terms the human being in the absence of the society and civilization as being in “the state of nature.” According to Rousseau, timid, lacking foresight and peaceful (Rousseau). The author argues that the capacity to understand that God gave humans is what hinders the natural state and brings civilization, hence making people exist in an unnatural state. The author says that it is the existence of people within the contexts of societies that make them evil and brutish. By saying that the understanding that God gave people hinders their natural goodness, the author blames God for the unnatural state of humans that is characterized by brutishness, solitariness, and selfishness (Rousseau).

Freud views people as being naturally evil. The perception of Freud concerning the natural state of humans sharply differs from both Frankl and Rousseau’s. According to Freud, human nature is naturally anti-social, destructive and rebellious. The destructiveness of people results to disasters when people interact in their societies because “masses are lazy and unintelligent” (Freud 7). The view of the author differs from both Rousseau and Frankl in that unlike both, Freud first claims that people are not intelligent. The author also claims that there is no goodness in people. Freud also thinks that civilization result to the positive attributes of people. Freud thought that civilization prevented people from showing their destructive nature because of the existence of laws and leaders to guide them. The thought of Freud about civilization differs from that of Rousseau. Rousseau blames civilization for the evils that exist while Freud thanks civilization for the order. Freud also thought that religion is an emphasis on the attainment of the drives such as sex, wealth and other selfish gains through believing in the benefits that come from believing (Freud 17).

In conclusion, Frankl, Freud, and Rousseau wrote in different contexts about the nature of humans. Also, the writers took different perspectives concerning the topic. The issue of the nature of people is crucial because it allows psychologists to understand what drives people to behave the way they act. Frankl talks from the voice of a person who has gone through the worst and recovered through believing in that there was purpose in his life. Freud, on the other hand, critiqued religion and described as part of the wishful ideas of people and their evil nature. Rousseau thought that people were naturally good but corrupted by their societies. Therefore, the views of the authors differ a lot from each other. Frankl presents a more open-minded and convincing argument based on the fact that he speaks from experience and illustrates the working of his theory.  Freud and Rousseau critique their predecessors but offer insufficient empirical evidence to support their claims.