A new study by FunctionFox suggests that small creative companies – design, advertising, public relations, web and marketing communications – are looking forward to a better year in 2013. 94% of small creative businesses surveyed expect to hire new employees or maintain their current staffing levels through the New Year, with the same percentage also anticipating stable or increased revenues. January 25, 2013

Dig in and target the right market. Although ebooks now outsell print, there's still a huge and ready market . . . here's the latest publishing update:
* E-books send a shiver down the spine of the publishing industry
* In Digital World, Advertising Age Redesigns Print Publication
* What Hollywood Can Teach You About Great Presentations
* The truth about newspapers in the 21st century
* Weighing the custom publishing proposition
* Newspapers still have power, it seems
* Why print media is still green
* Ebooks Now Outsell Print Books
and more ... January 24, 2013

Managing and growing your online, web design, social media plan, and making it go needs all the tricks you can muster. This media update includes:
* 7 goals of successful community management strategy
* 5 questions every social media policy must answer
* The 10 Keys to Optimizing Facebook Engagement
* 7 Secrets to Getting More from LinkedIn
* Tips for managing multi-author blogs
* 20 Tricks to Make Facebook Better
.... and more from the continuing world of social media and networking January 23, 2013

I very seldom actually pan a web site. I'm always looking for the silver lining -- or at least something good about the site. But this one just defies anything good. 171 scripts executed in a single web page ??? 283 http calls on a single web page? You've got to see this... January 22, 2013

Over the last decade, blogging has been steadily increasing in popularity. In fact, Nielsen/McKinsey has gone from tracking 36 million blogs, just five years ago, to tracking over 181 million blogs by the end of 2011. Many of these bloggers may be looking for a way to compile or get more out of the posts they have written, which makes turning them into a book or eBook an ideal option. January 21, 2013

Leveraging a goldmine of untethered, unorganized information will drive organizations’ success in 2013 and beyond. Despite the power of increasingly advanced databases, the overwhelming majority of valuable business information remains adrift in the form of unstructured knowledge – any information that is not captured or easily searchable. Ricoh makes educated predictions . . . January 17, 2013

This Social Media update explores tips and tricks for utilizing social media to market brands and content. For designers and online marketers, this media update includes:
* The best day of the week for brands to tweet and update Facebook
* US social media ad spend to reach $9.2 billion in 2016
* Optimizing Facebook engagement: The timing of posts
* Young People Not Quite Ready for Twitter Primetime
* The Art Of Getting More Retweets
* Humanize your social media
.... and more from the continuing world of social media and networking January 16, 2013

Boudoir photography has come a long way since the 1970s -- through a period of hush-hush, and today quite out of the closet. Now, it's a very popular genre, and Christa Meola has brought it into ultra focus in her new book The Art of Boudoir Photography: How to Create Stunning Photographs of Women January 15, 2013

January is almost over, so we're looking forward to February marketing. Interesting they're saying that DATA is the new currency . . . here's the latest marketing update :
* Don’t Ignore Direct Mail in Today’s Social Media Marketplace
* Press releases with visuals boost views by nearly tenfold
* Email marketing: Deliverability trends and benchmarks
* The power of content in building a brand
* The human touch of direct-mail marketing
* What's the matter with this picture?
* Data: The new creative
... and more January 15, 2013

When it comes to posing people you'll often hit a creative block that will be hard to shake. Every photographer hits it from time to time. Or, the subject(s) will want to tell YOU how they want to be posed. To be fully prepaired you should get a copy of "Photographing Women: 1,000 Poses" January 14, 2013