beat back bland.

Most freelancers learn pretty early on that good branding wins gigs. First impressions count, particularly when you’re a lone writer for hire and constantly on the lookout for fresh opportunities. But success as a freelancer isn’t just about the adrenaline rush of winning new work. It’s also about nurturing existing client relationships. In fact, for many freelancers (this one included), that slow burn of building up a long and productive association with a client is a lot more rewarding, finan

Learn how to land your dream job with all the unnecessary doubt, indecision, and effort removed from the process using the 80/20 rule. Imagine landing your dream job with all the unnecessary doubt, indecision, and effort removed from the process. Imagine making it happen in just one-fifth of the time it might normally take. Nope, we’re not suggesting a miracle cognition drug, cybernetic brain implants, or an aggressive juice cleanse. Instead, we want to draw your attention to a simple idea kn

Early in my career, my boss signed me up for a radio interview on live air. I knew this was bad news—just the thought made my stomach churn—but there wasn’t any way to get out of it. I spent weeks preparing for that 15-minute interview. I lost sleep over it. I was terrified the world would discover how little I knew about my job. The façade I’d cultivated for years would crumble. I’d get fired! I just knew it.

According to a recent PayScale survey of over 160,000 employees, only about 30% of people who choose not to ask for a raise experience a salary increase. By contrast, of those who do ask for a raise, just over 70% are successful. The bottom line is, to earn more money, you’ll probably have to ask for it!

Most employees appreciate the importance of balancing their professional obligations against the time they need to enjoy life outside the office. But work-life balance is more than just a buzzword. According to the American Institute of Stress, nearly 80% of US professionals report feeling stressed by their work. Studies on family conflict show that added work pressure exerts a significant negative influence on happiness at home, and poor work-life balance correlates to chronic health condition

You can take every security precaution in the book, but if your home isn’t equipped with a solid, reliable lock, your house and its contents will always be vulnerable. While a deadbolt works wonders, what if you lose your key? And how do you keep your house secure while maintaining the convenience of opening your door to people you trust?

These upgrades are quick, easy, and won’t break the bank If you’re planning to sell your home, having a few smart features could sweeten the deal and make it that much easier to sell. Here’s our list of the five best smart upgrades to look into if you’re selling your home. When you’re selling your home, one of the strongest selling points you can show to potential buyers is comfort. You’d be hard pressed to find someone who doesn’t want to be comfortable in their own home! With a list of am

If you’re interested in home comforts and cool gadgetry, it’s likely you’re well acquainted with some of the amazing new smart technologies which can make the inside of your home more comfortable, more fun and more secure. But what about outside? With Summer upon us, it’s a good time to take a look at some of the best smart outdoor upgrades to make those long Summer evenings even more delightful. For those of us who are into music and the whole home theater experience, good quality indoor spe

Living a life of nerdish excellence at home is a wondrous thing. But let’s be honest. It’s also easy. Modern home life encases us in a warm, gooey cocoon of lightning-fast WiFi, abundant power outlets, and overly obliging smart speakers. Maintaining that same level of techno-poise is a lot harder when you’re traveling. Far from the predictable comfort of your favorite comfy armchair and snack-filled fridge, all those miraculous technologies you relied on to make life easier mightn’t be quite so

Once upon a time, fitness for the average home athlete involved a fair bit of guesswork. Sure, you could use a stopwatch to measure your speed — or a pedometer to measure your steps — but you’d probably need professional athletic expertise and equipment to access more meaningful metrics on your health and athletic performance.

In the U.S., it’s estimated that roughly 5.5 million houses will change hands in 2018. Sooner or later, most homeowners are going to find themselves looking for ways to maximize the value of their home. One of the best ways to achieve this is through investing in green home improvements. In fact, recent studies suggest that homes with green technology upgrades consistently outsell homes on the market not equipped with green technology.

Americans spend about $40 billion annually to keep their homes warm in winter and cool in summer. That’s a lot, and it’s way more—at least 20 to 30 percent—than it needs to be. A big part of our massive national climate bill boils down to one thing: our roofs aren’t cutting it. Here are a few ways you can improve the energy efficiency of your home by replacing your roof with some slick, (and possibly PACE financing-eligible) green upgrades. By the way, if you're curious to see if your roof replacement is eligible for Ygrene PACE financing, click below to find out within just 5 minutes!

Going out for a night on the town is cool. Is it just me though, or can it also be kind of hard work? I mean, it’s all well and dandy to put your fancy shoes on and head out into the big city, but without a plan of attack you could well end up sitting in Taco Bell at 9 pm with nothing more to show for your efforts than a tray of bean burritos and a heart filled with disappointment. Who needs that?

Looking for ways to lower the costs of heating and cooling your home? Since up to 30% of a home’s heating energy is lost through its windows, window replacement is one of the most cost-effective solutions you can consider. Energy-efficient windows are specifically designed to do two things. First, they create an impermeable barrier between the air outside and the heated or cooled air inside your home. Second, they reduce the transmission of heat and cold through the glass. As you’ll see, there’s a lot of technology that goes into making that happen.

When crowdfunding first burst into the social media scene back in the early naughtiest, early adopters soon recognized its radical potential for leveling the fundraising playing field. Crowdfunding platforms for nonprofits allow organizations to spread their fundraising message far and wide using social media and email promotion. The results can be spectacular!

Digital fundraising isn't easy! In our social-media-driven world, your fundraising campaign can easily get lost in a jungle of competing distractions. Long gone are the days when unimaginative, cookie-cutter campaigns got results.

Communication is at the heart of who we are as humans. The technologies we’ve developed to communicate more effectively have been instrumental in increasing both our lifespans and the quality of life we experience. This is especially true when it comes to healthcare and its reliance on global healthcare communications. Today, global healthcare is a coordinated effort across disparate teams. It’s a complex and knowledge-intensive process, whose goal is not just to produce favorable patient outcomes, but also to further public health goals for society at large.

Debtor finance is no longer seen by businesses merely as a simple stopgap measure for quickly getting on top of unplanned cash flow demands. Increasingly, it’s being acknowledged as an effective means to sustainably foster business growth while minimising the effects of market volatility.

Interested in looking at finance options for your company but don’t know where to begin? Choosing the right business finance provider for your company is not a straightforward process. Different providers offer different kinds of finance, each with their own unique advantages and disadvantages.

In our interconnected world where instantaneous global communication is taken for granted, it’s easier than ever to do business anywhere in the world. However, while the opportunities are plentiful, the process of buying and selling internationally is not without its risks and complications. There are many variables at play, with volatile exchange rates, cash flow problems and economic uncertainties all posing their own unique challenges.

Every day, viewers watch more than 1,000,000,000,000 hours of YouTube content. That’s one billion hours spent watching everything from cats being cute to how to get that perfect smoky eye shadow look. If that wasn’t a staggering enough number of zeroes, YouTube is only one social media channel among a vast videographic zoo of options, each offering their own unique spin on sharing content down the barrel of a video camera. So where did it all begin? How are trends in video social media evolving

Whether you love them, hate them (or regard them with complete indifference), holiday celebrations are an undeniable reality of many company cultures. Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas — when the silly season hits, work life can seem like a relentless parade of tinsel, paper plates and sensibly casual slacks. Which begs the question, why do we do it? Do these celebrations serve a deeper purpose? Or are they best simply gotten rid of when the company budget gets tight? Most importantly, if we d

Everyone is different. This is hardly a controversial or revolutionary observation. Unless you happen to live on some island somewhere conveniently populated with genetic clones of yourself, sooner or later you’re going to stumble across someone with different opinions. However, somehow the simple fact of difference seems to cause a lot of disturbance in this mixed up world of ours. Different opinions and perspectives are disruptive. They’re destabilizing.

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It was in the deep primordial past of 2017 that the Delta crypto app first burst onto the scene and into the hearts and minds of investors needing a better crypto portfolio tracker. Delta is designed to provide an intuitive and low-maintenance platform for tracking cryptocurrencies. Building on a solid suite of tracking tools, Delta also seeks to provide a complete solution for making portfolio decisions. To make that happen, it provides a dynamic picture of the market as a whole, with the latest coin prices, market charts and even a highly configurable alert system so you can stay ahead of the curve with investment opportunities.

If you’re anything like me, the thought of projecting your consciousness into a robot will send a happy shiver of “what if” down your spine. Ever since I discovered Doctor Who and the joys of science-fiction, robots have been a “thing” for me. I’m going to just admit it: I really want to spend a day in a robot’s big, clunky metallic shoes. Hell it wouldn’t even need to be one of the large, scary ones. A cute one with a little aerial sticking out the top of its head would be just fine.