We all know that starting your own business isn’t always wine and roses. There will be tough times, some of which may seem to last forever. The better prepared you are to manage your own business, the easier it will be to weather the bad times and the quicker you can get into the good.

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I averted my eyes from a billboard while driving on the highway today. I won’t pretend like I did it for the sake of keeping my eyes on the road; I did it out of principle. I’m still not sure what it was advertising, though if the previous twenty I had already seen were any indication, it was likely a brief but nevertheless compelling argument for why my current insurance provider was inadequate.

Hm. I never realized.

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Last week I was riding the 7 train uptown from Grand Central a few hours after the morning rush. There were no strap-hangers, but most of the seats were occupied. I couldn’t help but observe my fellow riders, the majority of whom were engaged with the small screen before them. A car full of necks craned downward might be a chiropractor’s nightmare, yet it’s a revealing snapshot of our digital age.

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The problem is timeless and universal: you think you know what someone else wants, deliver that whatever-it-is, and then find yourself mystified by the fact that the recipient isn’t thrilled by your offering. It happens with birthday presents, it happens on dates, and it happens when branding your business. Birthday presents and dates are one thing, but if there’s one place you really need to hit the target, it’s branding. How can you make sure you’re not missing the mark?

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Q: What do landing the perfect job, finding your ideal mate, and winning friends all have in common?

A: They all require you to know how to market yourself.

Yes, it’s the reason people sweat interviews (and first dates), spend hours drafting cover letters, and even pay others to assemble their résumés — we don’t always know the best way to sell ourselves. Marketing yourself is an essential skill to get where you want to go, but the process is often easier said than done.

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Advertising, like language, is no modern phenomenon. Today, we’re so overburdened with ads that advertising has garnered a negative connotation. “Ugh, how can we get ads off of Facebook?” or “Why can’t they skip the ads before the movie starts?” are common 21^st century woes.

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One of the most internationally ubiquitous weapons, the Russian AK-47, has undergone a little makeover. The assault rifle was developed in the 1940s in the Soviet Union by Mikhail Kalashnikov, who died almost exactly one year ago. Prior to his death, the weapons engineer wrote of his “spiritual pain” in wondering if the AK-47 has done more harm than good. Although Kalashnikov’s intentions to invent a weapon of defense may have been noble, it’s impossible to determine if the weapon has wrought more destruction than it has ever defended, given the AK-47’s uncontrolled global distribution.

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Everywhere you look, advice on SEO marketing and increasing site traffic are all “blah blah blah” about the all-powerful content. How to improve your content. How to create engaging content. How what you thought was good content at one time is now no longer acceptable because of reasons. (And, on a related note, how to spiff up existing content.)

At the frontline of content creation stands blogging. Blogs started out as the business equivalent of a “Dear Readers,” but let’s be honest: most blog posts these days have almost nothing to do with actual writing anymore. They’re all about cross-marketing and the multimedia experience, or how many images to include and at what resolution and which designer can hook you up with a really swell infographic.

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That’s it, folks. Germany took the Cup. Sorry to spoil it for anyone who didn’t follow the 2014 FIFA World Cup and somehow missed every news outlet on the Interwebs.

So now what? We all pack up and go home, right? That’s certainly what most of the estimated 3.7 million World Cup tourists who invaded Brazil for four weeks are doing, and they’re likely happy about it. Custo Brazil has led to, I’m sure, more than one tourist’s rainy day fund getting completely drained.

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So you’ve decided your company or client needs outside help with content creation: what now?  Knowing you need help and bringing in the Pros (see what we did there?) are excellent steps, but do you know what defines high-quality outsourced content?  Here are a few important qualities to look for when seeking outsourced content creation and professional writing for your company or one of your web design clients.  Content with these qualities will keep your clients happy and customers clicking.

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