What I think you shouldn’t have missed last week…

Our weekly roundup has been MIA for quite a while now. But we’re back with 5 great articles I stumbled across last week. I’ll make it short and sweet and as always invite you to add to the list!

A great way to learn is to find out what you should never ever do, no matter who does it and thinks it’s cool. Darren Rowse of Problogger came up with a top of the worlds’ 10 worst strategies to promote your blog.

When you send an invitation to a party, people expect to show up and join the fun. Not to first submit a form and then get a second approval to attend the party. Karen Swim perfectly explained how this situation applies to social media in general and Twitter in particular.

There are some words or phrases that we hear on a daily (or should I say hourly?) basis. We’re so used to them, that we sometime believe just hearing them is enough to know what they mean. Open source is one of those phrases. Before starting to use it and other related terms, read this list of definitions published by Seth Godin.

Readers’ attention is hard to get and even harder to mentain. We are in a rush, a little bored and sometimes lazy. So grab words, as explained by Alex Cristache of Blogsessive, are always a great way to make sure we read a piece you’ve wrote.

Bloggers are a growing force when it comes to PR and Marketing. That is why a lot of companies and agencies what them to cover their stories. But bad pitches are common, so here’s another article on how to pitch bloggers from the VallyPRBlog.

Hope you like this week’s articles! Till next week, feel free to share your own findings

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In Ca La Somara, while enjoying every last second of Joanna and Emma’s writing retreat, I’ve also learned some extremely important lessons. Some from the people I’ve shared the experience with, some from people who we’ve share the agriturismo with, some from reconnecting with myself, each of them meant to help me live a better life, be happier, smile more and generally remember what’s really worthwhile. I keep thinking of everything that’s happened, trying to pick the best of it and share it with you, hoping it will bring you the calm, happiness and freedom it has brought me. So here are a few ideas

People are indeed unique, but…

We are not defined by class, religion, nationality, interests, education, or job alone. None of these aspects is more important than the others and what makes us unique is their specific mix. Plus our dreams, favorite songs, favorite food, friends, family, pets, our take on having fun and any other apparently insignificant detail you can think of. Continue reading

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Friends and family ask me about Sardinia. How was it, what did I learn? Any fun moments to share? When I hear the question, a big smile lights up my face. And I can’t stop smiling while I tell my stories again and again. It was wonderful, amazing, intense, too short, filled with laughter and sharing and emotions, it was sunny and windy, it was private and it was shared, it was better than anything I’ve even imagined when I first mentioning I’d go there!

But I somehow feel they can’t fully understand it. Such an experience needs to be embraced (Joanna and Emma, did you think of who I think you did when you saw this word? ), seen, heard, taken in with every breath. I’ve enjoyed each moment of it so much, that I actually cried when I found myself alone in the cab, going to the Olbia airport. I haven’t done that after a trip since high-school! Incidentally, it was another trip to Italy.

Joanna Young is everything you imagine her to be when reading her blog, tweets and comments. And much more. Same goes for Emma Bird. These lovely ladies are, in a word, amazing. But a word is never enough to describe someone, is it? Nor are twenty, or a hundred. Ca La Somara is the perfect place for such a retreat. Peaceful, but never really silent. Bright and sunny, but with a cool, constant breeze. Sardinia is alive and the skyline is indeed dramatic. Beaches are hard to find, the more beautiful they are, the harder to find they become. The food is amazing, the massages are just right, the restaurants are welcoming and again, great food. The read wine is exquisite and I should know, I’ve drunk during this week more than I normally do in a year.

We had donkeys, dogs and cats. We had incredible people to share everything with. We had confident, absorbing, surprising, deep words scribbled on paper, be it real or virtual. We had screenplays and novels and poems and songs. We made some wonderful friends along the way. We also ran into the usual sad, angry and judgemental few. But we ignored them! We experienced the famous transportation strikes but talked our way into a refund and went to the competition. We laughed so hard and for so long, one would have said we’re making stacks to last us a year.

In the next few days, I’ll try to show you as best I can what this Sardinian Writing Retreat was about. I’ll share what I’ve learned about myself and the world, I’ll share the dreams and fears I’ve taken there with me, and the new dreams and hopes I’ve come back with. There will be photos, the occasional inside jokes and lots, lots of happiness! Make sure you tune in!

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I will be in Sardinia, enjoying Joana Young‘s and Emma Bird‘s company and meeting interesting new people. The place is perfect to get inspired, relaxed and in the right mood to learn. It’s easy to find out how excited I am about this Writing Retreat: just ask my family, my friends and my colleagues, they all know of every little detail in my trip plan.

I got the plane tickets, arranged for rides to and from Bucharest’s Otopeni Airport, I’ve let my clients know I’ll be emailing them from Sardinia. I’m ready for my share of confident and absorbing writing.

Where will you be in May? Will you join us this time? Will you be coming next time? I’m making it my mission to tell you everything about the retreat. I know I’ll love it and that my experience will be contagious! Keep an eye on this blog for details!

I’m planning to cover the trip there, details on the region, my efforts to write better, the progress on my vampire novel (which I’ve already completely restarted 3 times already), profiles of the wonderful people I’ll share the retreat with, writing tips and tricks and more. If there is something in particular you’d like me to know, if you’d like to get a postcard from Sardinia, just let me know. I’ll do my best to get your questions asnwered!

Photo credit Wikipedia

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If you follow me on Twitter, you know I’ve not completely disappeared. But if we only connect through this blog, well, I might have led you to believe I’ve deserted and am hiding away . So I thought it was high time for a quick update on what yours truly has been doing lately.

• Working, of course. Both with my existing clients on some amazingly cool projects and with new ones I’ll tell you more in a short bit. It’s been fun and challenging, but is also took a lot of my time, including weekends The situation won’t change, but I’m learning to better adapt to it.
• Reading and listening to music – these have been my favorite ways of relaxing. I’ve finished the first three books of the Twilight series (the fourth will only be published in Romania this autumn, so I’m getting it from Amazon). As for music, I finally reconnected with my old habit of listening to music while working. I draw a lot of inspiration from it.
• Looking into buying a house. Actually, rent it first, then buy it, as this is not the best moment ever to get a loan. So, thank God for smart companies, they’ve invented this Rent-2-Buy program, where you pay rent for a couple of years and after that, when you buy the house, all your rent is deducted from the price. So it appears I’ll soon have my own little house, with a little garden, a terrace and a huge kitchen
• Writing! I can’t really explain when exactly I’m doing this, but I’ve started writing a novel. It’s been a while since I last considered writing fiction again! But it’s a great opportunity to use my English vocabulary for something more than business writing. I can tell you it will be a vampire story. Simply because after dozens of books, movies and TV series, I still fee I haven’t been told the story I always wanted to hear. So I’m writing it

I’ve missed being here, reading blogs and connecting with you all! But I bet my break from my online home is over! See you around

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