Twitter rants and various online ugliness aside, social media has actually grown up a bit over the past 15 years. In general, users are warier of their interactions on platforms like Facebook or Instagram — and marketers have taken note.

In fact, if you felt retailers you saw on social media were only looking to jam products down your throat, that’s not marketing in 2020. Of marketers surveyed in a recent study, the clear no. 1 goal for brands in the social media realm — a commanding 69 percent — was to build brand awareness. In case you’re curious, driving sales was a lowly fifth place on the list.

So how do products build that awareness and engage with the audience they seek? The training in The 2020 Social Media Marketing Bootcamp Certification Bundle lays out the plan for any company looking to make the most of a social media presence, drive brand success and make you an in-demand social media manager.

Since no two social media platforms are truly alike, this seven-course, 34-plus hour collection aims to help marketers create strategies customized to work on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and more.

The fundamentals are explained in the Digital Marketing Foundations 101 course, a nuts-and-bolts walkthrough that hammers home the most critical decision for any social media manager: crafting a clear digital strategy. This course digs into email marketing, building a website, SEO, digital advertising, measurement, analytics, and all the latest trends in the digital marketing game.

While that course lays out the basics, Social Media Foundations 101 and Social Media Strategy advance your learning into practical steps for bringing that digital marketing plan to life. Read the rest

Virus quarantines and shuttered restaurants sent millions of Americans back to their homes, only to rediscover the joys of firing up an oven and cooking something special for themselves. 

Whether by desire, necessity, or both, many of us have certainly been spending more time in the kitchen these last few months. And we haven’t just been hungry for the food itself. Americans have also been hungry for new ways to make it. Case in point, the Allrecipes Alexa skill saw recipe requests surge by 67 percent during March and April, while new users skyrocketed by 80 percent.

Pizza is an eternal crowd-pleaser, but plenty of chefs get intimidated at the thought of making crust and sauce from scratch. Thankfully, professional chef Tim Cunningham is on the case — and his 1-hour crash course Pizza Making: Bake the Best Sourdough Pizza at Home! seeks to prove that anyone with basic kitchen skills is more than capable of baking up a delicious pie.

The Australian-born Cunningham is a veteran of rustic Italian and Mediterranean cuisine -- and over this step-by-step instruction, students learn the fundamentals for making a world-class pizza that doesn’t require expensive equipment or ingredients. 

Over these seven lectures, Cunningham starts by explaining how to make your own sourdough starter from yeast and bacteria so your handmade crust will always be absolutely stellar. From there, he walks students through the creation of a Napoli sauce for pizza bases. 

Then armed with your crust and sauce, you’re already more than halfway to a homemade pizza that will put anything you have delivered from Grubhub to shame. Read the rest

Now that the world is starting to re-emerge from its self-imposed COVID-19 quarantine, we’re all going to have to start making some adjustments to both short-term and long-term changes. 

And the questions… Should customers be hounded out of a store if they aren’t wearing a face mask? Are crocheted face masks safe or not? And will face masks be required everywhere, even the Happiest Place on Earth?

It’s still too early to know the answers to many of these face mask-related questions, but there’s one we already know the answer to. Who wants to wear a boring plain white N95 mask anyway?

Answer: No one. 

Therefore, you can start assembling your too-cool-for-the-room face wear wardrobe now with a two-pack of these two-ply statement face masks.  Each one is made from a premium, washable poly span stretchy fabric that covers your nose and mouth comfortably while containing and blocking any airborne pathogens.

And thankfully, they’ve created these short, direct commentaries for the wide variety of personality types out there. 

In two words, an entire conversation path is established. In an instant, you express your clean-as-a-whistle health status, all while inquiring about everyone else’s state.

This period of social distancing is hard on those who thrive in other people’s personal space. For them, this simple four-letter declaration says everything their empty arms cannot these days.

Look, make your statement out in the world, but there’s no reason to tip your hand, right? Hello is about as tacitly friendly, yet socially ambiguous a greeting as possible. Read the rest

Maybe you had a piano teacher as a kid that drove you off the instrument forever. Or maybe you always wished for some serious training, but never found the time.

Whether you have dreams of tossing off a Beethoven or Chopin piece at the drop of a hat or you have visions of being the next Ray Charles, The Ultimate Piano Bundle: From Beginner to Advanced course bundle was created to turn an interested, invested novice into a functioning, then studied master of the keys in record time.

This collection includes 10 courses with a massive 140-plus hours of training dedicated to helping you not only learn to play the piano but understand the instrument, read music, compose and generally become a real, honest-to-goodness musician.

Nobody was to get buried in scholastics before they ever touch the keys, so this training kicks off with the Ultimate Piano Course: Go from a Beginner/Average to an Advanced Pianist. Starting from the beginning, the class can make you a proficient player through over 30 hours of training. The course explains the hows and whys of music theory, walks students through the entire keypad, including chord progressions, and generally immerses first-timers in a world of music.

The next step is the Intermediate/Advanced Piano Course: Enhance Your Musical/Piano Skills as your basic skills are tested with an expanded variety of lessons to push your abilities even further. 

But since playing is only a piece of the piano experience, the collection includes courses in learning to tackle the music pages themselves. Read the rest

When you see that curved arrow on the side of a cardboard box, you instantly know that box came from Amazon. The unfurled rainbow feathers of a peacock immediately scream NBC. And a partially eaten piece of fruit in the profile is a world-recognized symbol of tech titan Apple.

Icons are powerful symbols, condensing volumes of connection and meaning into a compact, simple image that conveys all that history and significance. For a web designer, those tiny icons are important navigation and information signifiers that form a critical unwritten shorthand with site visitors. 

Rather than trying to create those icons yourself, designers can get a serious leg-up in their creation by having all those icons created for you. With an Iconscout subscription, all that aid is available in a simple download.

Curators of their own design research marketplace, Iconscout is home to more than 2 million high-quality, royalty-free icons, each lovingly created by one of more than 300 top designers for use in virtually any type of web project you could envision.

With that many available options (and literally thousands more added to the Iconscout library every single day), your project can find just the graphic look to mesh with your creation, whether your icons should represent tech, education, entertainment, and sports or relationships, business, science or food and drink, to name just a few. Each is available in a broad range of sizes and styles contoured to find the look and feel of any design project.

If you’d like to modify an icon to include something different, such as your brand’s colors, for example, no problem. Read the rest

Call it retro. Call it a throwback. Even call it kitsch. But the 80s are still a singular time in pop culture history.  From Ghostbusters and Back to the Future to your neighborhood arcade and the Atari 2600, artifacts of that seminal decade still resonate, evoking audible excitement and sighs of pleasant yesteryear remembrance.

But out of that neon-saturated, spandex-infused, go-go-decade, there may be no more symbolically fitting encapsulation of the entire era than the device that revolutionized music back in the day: the Sony Walkman and the dawn of personal audio players.

Even if you weren’t around to see that revolution firsthand in 1980, getting your hands on the Replitronics Hotline 16000 Power Bank will convince everybody that you were — even though it serves a very 2020 function.

It’s designed to look exactly like an early 80s vintage personal cassette player, right down to the old-school buttons and that plastic cover window that lets you watch your tape spin round and round. 

But beyond being a cool conversation piece, the Replitronics Hotline 16000 is a modern-day beast, offering enough juice to power up to three devices back to full strength all at once. 

With a mighty 16,000 mAh battery inside, this unit can feed power via USB 3.0, USB-C, and even wireless Qi charging all at the same time. Just plug in your iPhone and the Hotline will get you from dead to fully powered in just over an hour or in just under three if you’re charging wirelessly. Read the rest

With millions out of work, the global economy in a sharp recession, and legitimate fears for the future abound, you might think this is absolutely the worst time to strike out on your own and be your own boss as a work-for-hire freelancer.

But according to numbers compiled by financial services company Payoneer, the current state of the freelance market might not be as dire as you think. While some freelancers have reported a downturn in demand, almost 40 percent said they’ve seen no change or even an increase in business over the past three months. A resounding 75 percent said their rates were still unchanged by the pandemic; and the average 2020 freelance hourly rate remained higher than it was just two years ago.

If you can get past the fear, the opportunity is still there for those looking to make it on their own. 

And the training in the Kickstart Your Freelance Career Course Bundle can help you chart your path toward independence and prosperity working remotely as a skilled freelancer.

Over these eight courses, students earn a thorough understanding of what it takes to carve out a profitable living working for yourself as well as step-by-step guides and tips on launching a fulfilling freelance career.

The Freelance Kickstart: Start a Successful Business You Love and Sales and Marketing for Freelancers courses cut right to the heart of the matter by laying out how to achieve the twin pillars of a successful freelance lifestyle: handling assignments and clients like a true business, and forging the right mindset to succeed in that often competitive space. Read the rest

For years, dirty countertops, appliances, or bathroom fixtures were just kind of gross. But unkempt corners of your kitchen and bathroom aren’t just a sign of laziness anymore. Now, they’re a potential breeding ground for infectious disease. 

You can’t just limp through cleaning these days. You’ve gotta get rigorous about it, which means it’s no longer acceptable to bring a knife to a gunfight. The Drill Brush Cleaning Supply Kit not only ups the ante on your household cleaning regimen, but it handles the task by repurposing one of your toolkit favorites, your trusty power drill.

This set included four different brush heads, each designed with unique shapes and bristle stiffnesses to attach to your cordless drill for specific cleaning jobs. 

Snap on the 5-inch medium stiffness brush for getting stubborn dirt off your kitchen countertops or bathroom flat surfaces. Or switch out to the 5-inch soft brush to apply a lighter touch for items like carpet, upholstery, glass, leather, wheels, and more.

However, if you need to go big, this kit comes prepared. The 4-inch stiff brush really digs in, attacking dirt and other built-up filth on areas like tile walls and floors or even linoleum. Finally, the 4-inch scrub pad stands ready to step in when you need to clean stainless steel, porcelain, or composites like fiberglass or carbon fiber. The brushes are all even color-coded to help avoid the threat of any cross-contamination.

You’ll also get a backer attachment to connect your scrub pads as well as a 4-ounce bottle of Drill-Tergent, a non-toxic clean solution that obliterates 99 percent of germs on all of your household surfaces. Read the rest

Hunting around for an outlet or a power battery when you’re trying to charge your phone or tablet is always an annoyance. But when you’re out in the world hiking or camping or traveling, finding an outlet might be more than a minor inconvenience...it might be downright impossible.

Running low on battery power isn’t an option anybody looks forward to these days, especially if you’re out and about and may need that phone in the event of any emergency. 

Thankfully, the RAVPower 24W 3-Port Solar Charger takes advantage of the fact that the world’s most powerful battery is almost always right there overhead: the Sun.

Actually, the RAVPower is really more than a traditional charger. Unlike bulky brick-style chargers, the RAVPower is its own solar panel, half the weight of other chargers. Just unfold it from its tiny, compact carrier and aim it at the Sun as its high-efficiency solar cells start juicing up.

Converting nearly a quarter of available solar power into free energy, the RAVPower is a fast, effective, lightweight charger for use in almost any condition. In fact, you can even throw the RAVPower over the back of your pack, plug in your phone, and watch your device power up while you keep moving.

It charges up to two USB-powered devices simultaneously and can take a smartphone’s battery from zero to fully charged in the space of about 3 to 4 hours. The RAVPower uses iSmart technology to automatically adjust to your connected devices, serving up the optimal charging current evenly to everything you have plugged in in the shortest possible charging time. Read the rest

“Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever” – Mahatma Gandhi

Of all the skills you feel like you should probably know, yet likely don’t, coding might be one of the most intimidating. From the varied programming languages to the range of platforms to the sheer discomfort of trying to decipher all that seemingly incomprehensible text, doing your own coding can feel like a learning curve that goes straight up.

But like anything else, how you learn a skill can make all the difference in the world. Learnable is an e-learning platform that strives to help students retain the most information possible in the shortest possible time.  

With its highly curated curriculum, Learnable offers courses in all of the most important programming languages and functions, depending on your learning goals. From core disciplines like Java, PHP, and SQL to more specialized training in C#, C++, Python, Swift, and more, you’ll always find a carefully designed program ready to build your knowledge.

Whether you want to dig in from your desktop browser or via iOS or Android, you’ll find interactive lessons aimed at demystifying programming and pointing the way toward coding mastery.

As you work your way through each skill, you’ll earn progress points, level up, and earn badges as you go. In fact, learning to build apps, websites and other important projects with Learnable doesn’t feel like learning as much as it often feels like playing a game. But rather than beating a friend or notching a high score, a win here means a bankable skill recognized worldwide as a vital 21st-century talent. Read the rest

Even though it feels like Amazon is a singular retail juggernaut crushing everybody else, you might be surprised to learn that half of Amazon’s $280 billion in revenue last year came from third-party sellers.

According to numbers compiled by JungleScout, 86 percent of Amazon’s Fulfilled by Amazon (FBA) sellers were profitable last year, more than doubling the profitability rate for all small businesses in general in 2019. On top of that, two-thirds of FBA sellers said they were profitable in their first year.

And that was before our new pandemic-tinged economy shifted even more toward online retail outlets. If you want to start a business and make sure you’re among those happy etailers, then training like that found in The Complete 2020 Fulfillment By Amazon Mastery Bundle can help make sure you end up in that profit-rich group.

The bundle includes four courses, all dedicated to helping you get a thriving, revenue-generating business off the ground utilizing all the resources of Amazon’s FBA program.

It all starts with The Complete Amazon FBA Masterclass, a practical training session that promises to help you get your own FBA business up and running in a matter of hours. The beginner-friendly training covers all the basics for working in the FBA system, from choosing the right products to setting up your supply chain to branding and marketing. You’ll also get access to all the secret hacks FBA vets use to drive traffic to your storefront and goose sales.

In case settling on the product you want to sell is a problem, the Amazon FBA and eBay: 33 Hot Product Sourcing Strategies course can help. Read the rest

Amidst all the deadly serious concern and fallout from our global battle against COVID-19, you’ve likely been forced to confront more than a few moments that you never expected to face.

And you likely never felt sillier during this scary time than when you were racing all over town hoping desperately that some store had finally received a toilet paper shipment. Hoarders cleared off store shelves in early March, leaving 70 percent of stores without stock and causing a shortage that still isn’t completely under control.

Americans use 3 million tons of TP every year. And between the supply issue and the startling fact that we require 54 million trees to fall to feed our bathroom need...well, it’s no surprise the bidet option has seen renewed popularity the past several weeks.

Of course, replacing your entire bathroom throne is no small — or inexpensive — task. However, the Aim to Wash bidet attachment is a perfect middle-ground for those tired of TP hunts and looking for a better way.

The Aim to Wash easily attaches to your existing toilet set in about 10 minutes and doesn’t require any power to operate. Once you’re connected, the unit sports an adjustable nozzle head that angles into a position to apply a cleansing wash that puts “the wipe” to shame.

The attachment has easy to use dial knobs to adjust your cleaning to just the right level — and the nozzle even has its own self-cleaning regimen to keep the whole thing sterling clean before and after each use. Read the rest

“It’s better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it.” - “Lonesome Dove,” Larry McMurtry

If the past few months have taught us anything, it’s that we need to be prepared now more than ever. Emergency situations can happen quickly and there’s no telling when you may need provisions to handle any manner of spur-of-the-moment event.

And as with most emergencies, it’s always tough to know exactly when they’ll happen or exactly what you may need to get through it. 

That’s why The GoBox 3-Day Emergency Kit is such a smart, practical way of staying prepared for any eventuality.

The sturdy box is about the size of a hardcover book -- and the whole box can fit unobtrusively on a bookshelf in your home or office for safe-keeping. But in the event of an emergency, it’s jam-packed full of useful items that could help you or someone else get through anything from a medical emergency to a power outage to a lockdown.

For poor air quality, you’ve got a KN95 respirator mask. If anyone’s hurt, you’ve got a first-aid kit with dressings and medications. If it’s cold, you’ve got a Mylar emergency space blanket. If it’s wet, you’ve got a rain poncho. If it’s dark, you’ve got an LED flashlight and a glow stick. And if your emergency looks like it might not end anytime soon, you’ve got a deck of playing cards to help pass the time.

The kit also comes with essential provisions, including a 3-day supply of water and food rations, all with a shelf life of up to five years. Read the rest

Just as in almost any industry that seeks high-demand, well-trained workers, certification often becomes key. For project managers, that means anyone who’s serious about serving in that role with a respected company knows they’re going to need the seal of approval in one of the field’s most recognized methodologies before they stand much of a chance of getting on a payroll.

 Since the 1960s, the project management field has been dominated by its preeminent professional organization, the Project Management Institute (PMI). By the 1980s, they’d written the book on project management — literally — with the Project Management Book of Knowledge (PMBOK) and began certifying those who proved they understood that methodology.

As a benchmark among peers, the training in the Project Management Certifications Tests and Courses Bundle can help any new PM prospect earn the knowledge to get certified as a PMI-recognized and endorsed pro, ready to take on a business’ most critical initiatives.

It all starts with the Certified Associate in Project Management (CAPM) Certification course, leading first-time students through 14 hours of training over the basics of project management, including all the terminology, the structure, and the step-by-step procedures they’ll need to know. Using the PMBOK as the core text, practitioners tackle 5 mock tests with 750 different questions to discover if they’re ready to move forward.

 But Project Management Professional (PMP) Certification status is what students truly covet. So this next course builds off those teachings, covering everything a PMP has to understand if they want to ace the all-important PMP test. Read the rest

Popping a new battery in a smoke detector or adding salt to your water softener are easy fixes. But if you run into trouble or a necessary repair in a cramped, tight place, sometimes with no obvious fix or easy access, it can be a pretty frustrating exercise.

Since flying blind is the absolute worst, having a solid, dependable borescope camera to see inside hard-to-reach places and spot problems you couldn’t see otherwise can be vitally important. 

Right now, you can add that piece to your toolkit with a versatile inspection camera like the Sinji Flexible Borescope Camera for Android and iOS. 

Whether you want to see under floorboards, assess what’s blocking a drain, or just poke around in the smallest nooks and crannies, this cam with nearly 6.5 feet of reach can do the job.

Once you download the Sinji app to your phone, tablet, or laptop and sync up, you're all ready to go. The 2-meter cable can snake its way into the darkest of places, but equipped with six powerful adjustable LED lights, you’ll get a crystal clear, HD quality view on your device screen of exactly what you’re up against.

With its WiFi compatibility, you can also snap pictures or capture video, then save the footage right to your device. The 8mm camera lens gives you a full look with a 70 degree viewing angle at the end of the MicroUSB to USB cable. And considering many of those pipes and drains are probably pretty nasty, wet places, the Sinji camera is IP67 waterproof certified. Read the rest

Firing up the engines each morning and attacking the day with gusto and purpose can feel like a mighty tall order sometimes. We’ve all been there. But on those sluggish, why-don’t-I-just-stay-here-in-bed-all-day kinda days, it might just take a rational, calming, reassuring nudge to make it happen. 

No matter what it takes to keep you motivated and on point, Quotely has your back. 

Holder of a solid 4.9 out of 5-star rating in the Apple App Store, Quotely Daily Motivational Quotes is all about cultivating good thoughts and sending them your way to brighten and broaden your universe, one life-affirming quotation at a time.

With a subscription to Quotely, you decide when and how often you’d like to see inspiration reminders delivered as well as the look and feel you like. Assembled from a database of literally thousands of quotes, Quotely then serves up words of comfort, motivation, and self-determination right when you need them the most. 

You can set up Quotely to serve up a pick-me-up each morning as your daily mantra to help sharpen your resolve and focus on what’s ahead. 

When you’re not receiving quote notifications, you can also browse their 10,000-strong library of inspiring sayings from nearly 20 different categories, including everything from life lessons and sayings to depression beating quotes to philosophy from mankind’s greatest minds to stellar film lines.

You can also use Quotely to find motivational books, customize your presentation, share great quotes with others, or to your social media pages and more.

A lifetime subscription to Quotely usually comes with a $280 price tag, but with this offer, you can keep yourself feeling positive, focused, and ready to achieve your dreams each and every day forever for only $29.99 Read the rest

You may not realize it, but one of the fastest-growing employee benefits over the past several years is one that’s keeping thousands of workers feeling happier and healthier. Back in 2013, only 13 percent of employers were willing to provide or subsidize standing desks for their workers, but by 2019, that number had exploded to 60 percent.

Part of that increase is directly tied to research that’s shown a standing desk that encourages workers to spend less time sitting can help attack a variety of health problems, including back, knee, shoulder and elbow pain, poor circulation, muscle fatigue, headaches, and even sexual performance issues.

With endorsements like those, it may be worth picking up an item like the RiseUp Electrical Height Adjustable Standing Desk. 

This desk from Uncaged Ergonomics is all about finding each user’s sweet spot. From a standard sitting height, three-stage lifting columns can elevate this steel and wood product frame almost 4 feet with the push of a button. With that much range, it only takes a little work to determine exactly what elevation is the proper height for each person to optimize their sitting and standing postures.

Once you’ve found the spot that sings for you, the memory keypad can lock it in, one of four positions the desk can memorize and serve up for immediate adjustment.

The dual powerful motors raise and lower the desk quickly and smoothly, all while holding up to 250 pounds on your desktop, more than enough to hoist a computer monitor, phone, and other assorted desk bric-a-brac with no problem. Read the rest