Southern Malawi was hit by Cyclone Freddy. My home city, Blantyre, was hit badly. Many parts of the city experienced flash floods and mud slides. Soche, Manja, Ndirande, Chilomoni, Machinjiri. Other parts of southern Malawi are suffering. Mulanje, Thuchila, Phalombe, the lower Shire, Zomba. The equivalent of 6 months of rain fell within a few… Continue reading Please help #Malawi
Category: General
My robotic future
I chatted* Facebook support to get an issue at the day job fixed. The Facebook support person decides to call me. I answer the phone and don’t understand a single word. Another call. The same experience. Having spoken to a lot of support hotlines, I know the company wants my consent to record the call.… Continue reading My robotic future
Less is more: Creating display ads in different sizes
The challenge:For 6Sense display and Google Display networks, I encounter ad sizes which are incredibly small (for mobile use). Display ad sizes vary immensely. There are very wide banners. Skinny and tall skyscraper ads. Squares. Oblongs. For use on desktop and mobile. At work, I pick a mix of sizes for desktop and mobile. Unfortunately,… Continue reading Less is more: Creating display ads in different sizes
Writing is a superpower
Find ways to improve your writing skills. English Composition class is every day. Writing is a superpower: SEO = WritingEmails = WritingTwitter = WritingFundraising = WritingLanding Pages = Writing Write every day. Consistency is key. — MATT GRAY (@matt_gray_) July 24, 2022
The CMS of the day
WordPress dominates the CMS market. A statistic floated by this week, citing over 60% market share. WordPress continues to dominate the content management systems (CMS) market and is currently used by 64.2% of websites that have a CMS, according to data from W3Techs. https://t.co/wBWoIbgQKi#WordPress #cms #websitedevelopment #seo #digitalmarketing pic.twitter.com/lyTpxRfo40 — SearchEngineJournal® (@sejournal) July 15, 2022… Continue reading The CMS of the day
Memory Corrosion
Besides demand generation, being invested in brand activities to be “top of mind” when clients move into the buying phase is super important. Here’s a recent piece that I bookmarked on LinkedIn. “95% of B2B buyers are not in-market for your products right now.” This LinkedIn Marketing article describes a concept called memory corrosion. “When… Continue reading Memory Corrosion
Marketing reading list 2022
Saw this reading list yesterday. For future reference. Any recommendations?
Chiperoni weather
When temperatures drop in Blantyre, tweets show up in my timeline. Kuzizira. Rainy drizzle weather. It’s chiperoni time in June and July. I am far away from Blantyre in sunny and warm Basel. Enjoying a very warm and sunny European summer. Trying to get into the habit of writing on my own blog instead of… Continue reading Chiperoni weather
The boring flower snapshot: New contributions
Tulips flowering away. Beautiful purple and white flowers standing out. Added to my Flickr album “The Boring Flower Snapshot“.
Coffee from Chipunga, near Mzuzu
I finished drinking my souvenir of Malawi coffee last week. I like the strong, rich flavour of Malawi coffee. It’s strong, it’s chocolatey, it’s earthy. Each time I wonder how I could help to promote Malawi coffee and its unique taste in Europe. Rather than importing green beans, could we import roasted beans? Rather than… Continue reading Coffee from Chipunga, near Mzuzu
Discovering, Crawling, Queuing, Rendering, Indexing and maybe later Ranking
I watched this video on SEO Rendering. I found a transcript.
Georgia O’Keeffe
I went to see the current Beyeler show on Georgia O’Keeffe.
Italian films
I watched and re-watched several Italian or Swiss-Italian films recently Vecchi Pazzi Pane e Tulipani Agata e la Tempesta
Why do I use LinkedIn – and other questions
I’ve been asked to talk about LinkedIn. This isn’t the first time. Most of the talks, I’ve given were about how to use LinkedIn “technically”. Given that LinkedIn has been available for over 15 years and there are many excellent online courses and webinars on how to use LinkedIn features, I suggested a session on… Continue reading Why do I use LinkedIn – and other questions
Tulipani
Last autumn I planted some tulip bulbs in my small garden. My Flickr stream is currently full of snapshots. My own tulip mania. A selection:
Orange
Orange photos
True blue
Photos containing the colour blue:
Red
Here’s a selection of Flickr photos that contain #red:
Beyeler by Renzo Piano
Photos of the Beyeler Museum in Riehen, Basel-Stadt.
Favourite podcasts
The Hidden Brain by NPR:https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510308/hidden-brain?t=1594925472583 I listened to this one all about debt:https://www.npr.org/2020/06/15/877401074/buy-borrow-steal-how-debt-became-the-sugar-rush-solution-to-our-economic-woes This episode all about scarcity was particularly impressive: https://www.npr.org/2019/08/05/748207152/you-2-0-tunnel-vision Ted Radio Hour by NPR:https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510298/ted-radio-hour About loneliness: https://www.npr.org/2020/07/01/886292087/listen-again-meditations-on-loneliness How I built this by NPR:https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510313/how-i-built-this How Ben and Jerry Ice Cream was founded: https://www.npr.org/2020/03/20/818918341/ben-jerrys-ben-cohen-and-jerry-greenfield The Story behind Recaptcha: https://www.npr.org/2020/05/22/860884062/recaptcha-and-duolingo-luis-von-ahn ARD Radio Tatort (crime fiction… Continue reading Favourite podcasts
Social Objects and how they help me to connect
In a recent offline conversation, I dropped a comment: That’s my common social object with so-and-so. Me in an informal conversation I realized how much this old blog post from the beginnings of blogging has influenced me. My observation: If I find a common social object, it helps me re-connect. If I find a common… Continue reading Social Objects and how they help me to connect
Keyword research in 2020: a brief answer
I received this question recently: If I create content for our company (articles for magazines, social media posts, etc), do I need to try to use KEYWORDS within the text as much as possible? And if yes, is there an online tool / website to check how well I did my job before I publish… Continue reading Keyword research in 2020: a brief answer
Useful Schema generator for FAQs
I heard about this useful Schema generator for FAQ pages
When you have over 20 thousand photos on Flickr…
I’ve been on Flickr for over a decade. And I have over 20 thousand photos. Imagine. I didn’t think this is possible. Memories. Snapshots. Visual notes. The primary beneficiary is… me. I love browsing thru my photos. I love seeing old snapshots emerge in the Flickr stats or in old links or chats. I realize… Continue reading When you have over 20 thousand photos on Flickr…
Cyclists, beware of tram tracks. Dangerous spot on Elisabethenstrasse in Basel
I witnessed a motorbike crash this morning while cycling to work. I was cycling up Elisabethenstrasse when I heard a loud crash. A motorbiker had crashed on the other side of the street. At a place where the tram tracks and street don’t leave much space for cyclists and motorbikes. At exactly the same spot… Continue reading Cyclists, beware of tram tracks. Dangerous spot on Elisabethenstrasse in Basel