Here are my most recent illustrations and photoillustrations for Men’s Health:
Illustrations for Men’s Health Magazine: Fall 2016
As many of you know, I am a freelance designer and illustrator at Men’s Health magazine. I’ve recently been doing a lot more editorial illustrations and photoillustrations, which is fun as that’s the field I have the most formal training in. Here are some of my favorite recent illustrations I’ve done, accompanied with links to the articles:
Above: Why You Probably Don’t Need to Put Premium Gas in Your Car
Above: The Top 5 Bedtime Mistakes That Are Making You Fat
Above: STUDY: 1 In 3 Obese Men Won’t Make It To Their 70th Birthdays
Above: What Happens When You Answer All Your Emails in One Day
Facebook Instant Articles Developer
Getting approved for Facebook Instant Articles is more complicated than you might expect. I can help. If you are seeking a developer to help you get your Facebook Instant articles feed approved, send me an email.
Last week, my magazine Culture Creature was approved for Facebook Instant Articles. I spent weeks learning Facebook’s preferred HTML implementation for Instant articles (including bugs and workarounds) before I was approved. It was worth it – my articles are now up and running successfully, and generating income through Audience Network.
Recent Illustrations for Men’s Health
Recent illustrations for Men’s Health magazine by Dan Redding:
Article: How Accurate Are Fitness Trackers?
Article: Medical Errors May Be the Third Leading Cause Of Death
Article: How Working Out Keeps Your Brain Literally 10 Years Younger
Observations on Running a Digital Magazine
I have been running the culture/entertainment website Culture Creature for roughly six weeks. It has been an absolute blast. Three weeks after launching it, I hit a traffic milestone of 1.5k visitors in a day thanks to my Snapcase interview. This week, I doubled that number when I got a member of heavy metal band GWAR to review the horror movie The Witch. Here, I intend to write a brain dump of observations about running this type of website with the ultimate goal of monetization. Thank you for reading!
1. Facebook is (Not) the Internet
The first thing I noticed while seeking traffic for Culture Creature is that it’s easy to feel like Facebook is the Internet. People like to interact with content within the closed environment of Facebook; it’s hard to get them to leave. That’s why an image/headline combination that someone will ‘like’ on its own merit as a status update (i.e. one that doesn’t bury the lead so that you have to visit the article to get the idea) can be so successful within Facebook. This led to the style of ‘You’ll never believe this…’ or ‘Number 28 Will Shock You…’ style of headlines that force you to click outside of the social media platform.
Facebook is the Internet for millions of users, and you could spend an entire career perfecting a Facebook content strategy. However, when I found some success by posting on the Reddit Hip Hop Heads forum (I posted my 100s interview and my list of Beastie Boys facts), I was reminded that Facebook is (thankfully) just a big part of the Internet. In other words, it has been a helpful relief for me to aid my Facebook strategy with other traffic outlets and sources.
That said, I will be appreciative if you like Culture Creature on Facebook!
2. Advertising Requires a LOT of Traffic to Be Lucrative
After monitoring traffic/income with just a few ads on my site, I have discovered why the Internet is cluttered with a billion ads: it’s really hard to make any money from advertising (I am using Google Adsense but haven’t seen any meaningful income yet). There are many ad networks and strategies, but I think all of them require a ton of traffic.
3. Digital Advertising is in Turmoil
Most popular websites are clogged with overbearing ads because A) it’s hard to monetize a website and B) greed. Internet users have responded by using ad blockers, which have crippled the income of some websites. There’s an incredibly insightful piece on ad-blockers at Smashing Magazine (my old publisher and friends). Basically, it’s time to rethink monetization from square one.
4. Pop Ups Don’t Do Shit
Those pop-up ads that appear two seconds after loading a webpage? They don’t do shit. Internet users are so used to them that they swat them away like a mosquito without even a glance.
5. Many News Websites Prefer Quantity Over Quality
Item number 2 on this list partially explains why some culture and news websites are not in the business of creating engaging new content – but rather, they are in the business of endlessly regurgitating the Internet’s news stories ad nauseum. They are in the business of quantity, not quality. It is an echo chamber where you see one story at publication 1, then you see it parroted by related publications over a 24 hour period. This is because their goal is to churn out dozens of URLs per day to gain page impressions and sell advertising. It has been a challenge for me to figure out whether I want to engage in that echo chamber, how much, and when, etc. Work in progress.
6. Be Nice
Running a media site is a community-building thing. Conducting an interview is an intimate act. So it’s important to be kind and generous. As Zach Galifianakis said, “Take the high road, there’s very little traffic on there.”
Brain dump complete. Thanks for reading! Visit CultureCreature.com and follow on Facebook.
Culture Creature: a New Music Magazine by Dan Redding
For the last few months, a great deal of my branding, writing and web design efforts have been poured into my new music magazine, Culture Creature. Please visit CultureCreature.com and like Culture Creature on Facebook!
How (Not) to Acquire Your Trademarked Twitter Handle in 2016
I’m working on a new business that I plan to launch in 2016 (gosh, that feels good to say!). Long story short: Twitter has changed its standards for reassigning trademarked or inactive Twitter handles, and it’s harder than ever to acquire a name that’s already in use.
First, I applied for a trademark of the name of my new business – let’s say it’s ‘Music Widget.’ Now, the ‘@musicwidget’ (again, not the real name) Twitter handle is in use by an individual who hadn’t written a Tweet since 2014. The first thing I did was ask nicely if I could use the name. About a week later, I got a reply: no, sorry.
Once the trademark application cleared, I was still unsatisfied: I now had the legal right to use the name, and the current owner of the Twitter account wasn’t even actively using it. So, I went to Twitter and reported a trademark issue. Twitter provides two options here, one for ‘impersonation,’ and one for infringement, i.e. “Someone is using my organization’s trademark-protected materials.” I chose the latter claim – I was not claiming that anyone was pretending to represent my brand, merely that my trademarked name was being used by an unauthorized party.
About a day later, I received the following form email rejection of my request:
We’ve researched the reported account and determined that it is not in violation of Twitter’s Trademark Policy. The account is not being used in a way that is misleading or confusing with regard to its brand, location or business affiliation.
Twitter does not have a username reservation policy. Users are free to select any name for their account, provided they do not violate Twitter’s Terms of Service or Rules.
In other words, it seems like the only way that Twitter will take action on a trademarked name is if someone is “Using a company or business name, logo, or other trademark-protected materials in a manner that may mislead or confuse others with regard to its brand or business affiliation.”
So, if you’re starting a new business, don’t get your hopes up about that Twitter account that’s being squatted on – even if it’s trademarked and inactive (Twitter used to reassign inactive handles). Your only option may be to ask nicely, or, failing that, negotiate a monetary price for the account. Otherwise, you may have to come up with a clever new Twitter handle or go back to the brand name drawing board and choose something unique. Good luck!
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