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Your office can be anywhere you choose to set up your laptop. Traditional employees may remain stuck in whatever city their employer chooses, but you have something invaluable: complete geographic freedom. Moving opens doors to lower living costs, fresh creative inspiration, and access to markets that might remain out of reach from your current spot. Whether you're seeking financial relief from rising local expenses, craving a change of scenery to spark new ideas, or hoping to position yourself closer to ideal clients, your next ZIP code could become your smartest business move. Writing, makeup artistry, photography, event coordination, and tour guide work represent just a few freelance careers that allow travel, and all can flourish from virtually any home base. Why Location Flexibility Is a Built-In Advantage for Independent WorkersYou operate without the constraints that keep traditional employees anchored to specific metropolitan areas. Your client base exists online, your meetings happen through video calls, and your deliverables travel through digital channels. You can choose your location based on what serves your business and personal goals best, rather than accepting whatever housing market or cost structure happens to surround someone else's headquarters. Location becomes a business decision when you work for yourself. You can position yourself in markets with lower overhead costs, giving you more room to invest in professional development, better equipment, or simply building a stronger financial safety net. Alternatively, you might choose locations that offer networking opportunities, industry events, or access to potential clients who prefer working with local talent. Many professionals have discovered that freelancing provides the perfect answer for those seeking location independence after extensive travel experiences. Modern technology supports your flexibility through cloud-based project management tools, high-speed internet access in remote areas, and mobile banking systems that keep your finances accessible regardless of your physical location. Signs It May Be Time To Rethink Your BaseRising living expenses can quietly eat into your freelance income without you realizing the full impact. Housing costs that consume an increasing percentage of your earnings leave you with less capital for business growth, professional development, or building emergency reserves. High local costs can also pressure you to accept lower-paying projects or work longer hours to maintain your current lifestyle. Creating a step-by-step strategy becomes essential when considering whether a career-inspired move makes sense and helps guide you through planning to relocate as a freelancer. Professional isolation signals another major reason to consider relocation. If your current area lacks networking opportunities, industry meetups, or collaborative spaces, you might find yourself cut off from the professional community that could fuel your career growth. Limited local opportunity can also mean fewer chances for in-person client meetings or face-to-face collaborations that sometimes lead to bigger projects. How a New Location Can Support Business GrowthCutting your living costs gives you breathing room that keeps getting better over time. Pay less for rent, gas, and groceries, and suddenly you have money to spend on courses, better marketing, or a decent emergency fund. Having more financial wiggle room takes pressure off and helps you think more clearly about where you want your business to go. Some places just make freelancing easier. You need reliable internet, but you also want spots where you can work alongside other people when you're tired of your kitchen table. Business-friendly local policies help too. Certain areas put you closer to the kinds of clients you want to work with, especially if your field has geographic clusters. Moving somewhere new can shake up how you think about work and life. Different surroundings often lead to different routines, and you start noticing things that might spark ideas for your business. Maybe you discover a gap in the local market or find inspiration from how people do things differently. Learning to navigate a new place builds your confidence and problem-solving muscles, which carry over into your work. Where To Go: Regions That Support Freelance-Friendly LifestylesStaying in the U.S. keeps things simple with familiar banking and legal systems while cutting your costs significantly. Nashville, Austin, and Columbus stand out as some of the best cities for freelancers because they combine low state taxes with affordable housing. Mid-sized cities hit the sweet spot where you pay less but still get good restaurants, cultural events, and chances to meet other professionals. Going international opens up way more possibilities, especially if you rarely need face-to-face client meetings. Countries with digital nomad programs have built infrastructure just for remote workers, making visas easier to get and creating communities where you can meet other expats doing similar work. Europe offers some great combinations of affordability, culture, and solid internet. If you aren’t sure where to travel, Andalusia and Sicily are worth considering if you want lower costs without giving up access to major European markets. They also offer seasonal timing and regional highlights that could give independent workers the perfect mix of affordability, infrastructure, and inspiration. Just make sure to check local business customs and internet speeds before making any big commitments. Practical Tools and Planning Tips for a Smooth TransitionTreat your move like any other major business decision. Make a real budget that includes moving costs, temporary housing, and the time you'll need to get settled into new routines. Do your homework on internet speeds, local taxes, and how close you'll be to things you need. Logistics matter more when you're moving to a new location for work, covering everything from transporting belongings and updating legal information to potentially shipping a car as part of your professional transition. Set up new banking relationships and figure out visa requirements and tax obligations well ahead of time for international moves. You'll need cloud storage to keep your files accessible from anywhere, backup internet options when your main connection fails, and banking apps that work no matter where you are. Buy equipment that travels well and still looks professional on video calls. Tell your existing clients about your move upfront, including how you'll handle time zone differences and keep your usual response times. Building new networks takes effort. Look up professional groups, co-working spaces, and industry events before you arrive. Facebook groups and online communities can give you the inside scoop on local business culture and where to meet people in your field. Final ThoughtsMost freelancers never use their biggest advantage: the ability to live anywhere. Your location affects your monthly bills, daily inspiration, and business growth potential. Instead of accepting whatever your current ZIP code costs and limits, you can pick places that actually support your goals and lifestyle. If rising costs are eating your profits, limited opportunities are holding you back, or your environment is killing your creativity, moving might give your business the reset it needs and pay off for years to come. View the full article

A good document lifecycle management system will make sure your team is working from the latest version of a file, help you track approvals, and reduce duplicate work and endless email chains. Here's what each stage of the lifecycle looks like and how to implement it at your org. The post What is Document Lifecycle Management & Key Stages appeared first on The Digital Project Manager. View the full article

Did you know you can customize Google to filter out garbage? Take these steps for better search results, including adding my work at Lifehacker as a preferred source. In a press conference totally divorced from reality as scientists and doctors understand it, President The President announced yesterday that the FDA would be warning providers and patients away from acetaminophen (such as Tylenol) in pregnancy. There were some other unsubstantiated claims about vaccines and autism mixed in, so let me break down what’s actually known and understood here. What is acetaminophen? Acetaminophen is an over-the-counter medication used to relieve pain and fevers. The flagship products of the Tylenol company are acetaminophen pills and syrups, but Tylenol sells other products as well, including medicines with a mixture of active ingredients. (Always check the Drug Facts label when you take medications to know what you’re getting.) I’ll often use the word Tylenol, since it’s more commonly known, but acetaminophen is also available in other products, like Excedrin and NyQuil.. Outside the U.S., acetaminophen is often known as paracetamol: Same drug, different generic name, though The President seems to have stuck with the brand name Tylenol during the press conference. The Tylenol company now has a pop-up on its website pointing customers to this response, which correctly points out there is no credible link between Tylenol and autism. What the science actually says about acetaminophen and autism The short answer: There is no credible link between autism and the use of acetaminophen in pregnancy. But HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. sorta-kinda spoke correctly when, during the press conference, he said there were some studies that “suggest a potential” connection between acetaminophen and autism. For example, a review published this year (not a study itself, but an analysis of prior studies) found that some studies do in fact show a link between acetaminophen use in pregnancy and autism, although the evidence is mixed. A press release about the review noted, “While the study does not show that acetaminophen directly causes neurodevelopmental disorders [emphasis mine], the research team’s findings strengthen the evidence for a connection and raise concerns about current clinical practices.” That said, it seems most medical experts aren’t convinced that this review, or the studies that claimed to find a link, are strong enough to change clinical practice. (More in the next section on what medical experts are saying about these claims.) So why doesn’t this count as strong evidence? An association (two things tend to occur together) is not the same as causality (this thing definitively causes that thing). People who take acetaminophen during pregnancy tend to be different than those who don’t—for example, if somebody takes Tylenol during pregnancy because they are sick, it may be the sickness rather than the Tylenol that is the risk factor. Or the people who take Tylenol may be different from people who don’t in some other way. A large study published last year took this into account. The researchers looked at 2.5 million children in Sweden, and their initial analysis found an increase in risk of autism in children whose mothers had taken acetaminophen. But then they looked at whether this relationship held up between pairs of siblings, where one was exposed to acetaminophen in utero and the other was not. And the relationship disappeared. In other words, if acetaminophen increased autism risk, you’d expect the sibling exposed to the drug in utero to have a higher likelihood of autism than their sibling who wasn’t. But that wasn’t the case. Instead, it seems some families have a higher likelihood than others of having children with autism, and taking acetaminophen doesn’t increase the risk within that family. What medical experts say about acetaminophen in pregnancyAcetaminophen (including Tylenol) is generally considered the safest pain reliever for use in pregnancy. Other common alternatives, like ibuprofen, have known risks and are not recommended if you are able to take acetaminophen instead. Medical experts also agree that it’s dangerous to leave pain and fever untreated during pregnancy. Several medical organizations issued statements in response to the president’s press conference, all of which are worth reading in full, but here are some key quotes from each: The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists said in a statement: “Suggestions that acetaminophen use in pregnancy causes autism are not only highly concerning to clinicians but also irresponsible when considering the harmful and confusing message they send to pregnant patients, including those who may need to rely on this beneficial medicine during pregnancy.” The statement goes on to discuss the strength of the evidence, saying that “not a single reputable study has successfully concluded that the use of acetaminophen in any trimester of pregnancy causes neurodevelopmental disorders in children.” The Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine said in their statement: “In response to today’s White House press conference announcement, the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine (SMFM) reiterates its recommendation advising both physicians and patients that acetaminophen is an appropriate medication to treat pain and fever during pregnancy. Despite assertions to the contrary, a thorough review of existing research suggesting a potential link between acetaminophen use during pregnancy and an increased risk of autism and attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in children has not established a causal relationship.” The American Academy of Pediatrics said in their statement: “Today’s White House event on autism was filled with dangerous claims and misleading information that sends a confusing message to parents and expecting parents and does a disservice to autistic individuals. … Families who have questions about their child’s medications, autism care plans or other health care should consult with their pediatrician or health care provider.” The Autism Science Foundation said in their statement: “Any association between acetaminophen and autism is based on limited, conflicting, and inconsistent science and is premature… Today’s announcement distracts from the urgent scientific work needed to understand the true causes of autism and to develop better supports and interventions for autistic people and their families.” The European Medicines Agency, which plays a similar role in Europe as the FDA does in the U.S., issued a statement that there is no new evidence that would require reevaluating the status or labeling for acetaminophen, which they call paracetamol. “Paracetamol remains an important option to treat pain or fever in pregnant women. Our advice is based on a rigorous assessment of the available scientific data and we have found no evidence that taking paracetamol during pregnancy causes autism in children.” There is no evidence that vaccines cause autism, either The press conference also repeated long-debunked myths about vaccines and autism. There’s no credible link here, either to vaccines in general, to specific vaccine ingredients like mercury, or to combined vaccines like the MMR (measles-mumps-rubella vaccine). And I shouldn’t have to tell any parent this, but babies are not in fact “pumped” with a “vat” of “80 different vaccines” at “one visit,” as The President claimed. Babies see the pediatrician every few months during their first year of life, getting a few shots each time, many of which are combination vaccines (not just the MMR). Many of these vaccines need to be given in multiple doses—it’s not a one-and-done shot for each one. So it’s not true that separating the MMR into its components has “no downside.” Splitting the shots means kids are getting more needle sticks and delaying the date at which they’ll get their last dose of each and be fully protected. (The CDC’s vaccine advisory panel, which was gutted of its longtime experts and filled with controversial replacements handpicked by the HHS secretary, who has long been an anti-vaccine activist himself, has already voted to remove the combined MMR-chickenpox vaccine as a standard option for young children.) The President also repeated the myth that there’s no reason for babies to get hepatitis B shots at birth. Hepatitis B can be sexually transmitted, sure, but it’s not only sexually transmitted. Babies can get it at birth from a parent who doesn’t know they have it; they can also get it during childhood from various non-sexual, non-drug exposures. Hepatitis B is a more severe disease the younger you get it, and it’s one of the vaccines babies’ immune systems can process even in those early days (not all vaccines will work that early) so the risk-benefit calculation is an easy one: this vaccine, like others, offers children real protection. View the full article

Remember the letter-writer whose building was being plagued by human waste outside it? Here’s the update. The pooping has stopped! It was actually just a small group of six people who were causing the biggest problems. There were mental health issues at play as well. Our boss had several conversations with the police and created a plan that involved him monitoring the security cameras at night and calling the police non-emergency number any nights that group was sleeping under our awning. The police would send the homeless outreach team to give resources and ask the individuals to move on. If they didn’t move on, they were given no trespassing orders. There is a public park with a small covered area near our building, so the group was welcome to stay there instead, just not under our building’s canopy. We’re also within a few blocks of a shelter and resource center- although they don’t have open public restrooms at night. It took a couple of weeks before the cycle was broken, but now it’s been a month without any poop. We also had a power washer come out and clean things once. And our boss has cleaned things since then. After I talked with my manager about how much the poop was bothering me, it seemed to spur faster action. Working from home until it was cleaned up really helped give me some physical and mental distance from the issue. I also changed our home setup so all shoes stay at the back door. The post update: there’s human waste outside my building appeared first on Ask a Manager. View the full article

Discover the best project tracker template options to organize tasks, track progress, and keep your team’s projects on schedule. The post Top 7 Project Tracker Templates to Manage and Track Workflows in 2025 appeared first on project-management.com. View the full article

Plus 13 ways to screw up a merger. By Marc Rosenberg CPA Firm Mergers: Your Complete Guide Go PRO for members-only access to more Marc Rosenberg. View the full article

Plus 13 ways to screw up a merger. By Marc Rosenberg CPA Firm Mergers: Your Complete Guide Go PRO for members-only access to more Marc Rosenberg. View the full article

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Did you know you can customize Google to filter out garbage? Take these steps for better search results, including adding my work at Lifehacker as a preferred source. When I first reviewed Fitbod (which you can read here), I approached it with the skepticism of someone whose idea of strength training was lifting my water bottle during long runs. Well, that's an exaggeration, but there's some truth in my inability to squeeze proper strength training into my schedule. The big promise of Fitbod is that your strength program is AI-powered to be perfect for you personally. For me, that means a strength program that works around my limited free time and already fatigued muscles. Like many endurance athletes, I usually fall into the trap of "not having time" for anything but running. My weekly routine has easy runs, tempo runs, long runs, and maybe some yoga if I'm feeling fancy. And when minor injuries started creeping in—IT band tightness here, some knee discomfort there—I just take a few days off and get back to pounding the pavement. The truth is, I can be pretty afraid of strength training. Not just afraid of looking foolish in the gym (though that's part of it), but genuinely convinced that building muscle would slow me down. Wouldn't all that extra weight just make running harder? Fast forward a few months, and I'm writing this after completing a deadlift set that would have terrified past-me. Here's how Fitbod transformed my relationship with strength training and, unsurprisingly, made me a better distance runner. How Fitbod works with a running-focused scheduleWhat drew me to Fitbod initially was its promise of efficient, customized workouts. As someone juggling 30+ mile weeks with a full-time job, I didn't have hours to spend in the gym figuring out what exercises to do or how many sets and reps were optimal. Fitbod's interface impressed me from day one. After inputting my goals (I selected "gain muscle"), available equipment, and time constraints, it generated 30-45 minute workouts that felt manageable alongside my running schedule. Fitbod's customization options. Credit: Meredith Dietz Another major factor to understand about Fitbod's programming is its "non-linear" approach. A ton of beginner strength programs go by linear progression. This means you add small, consistent increments of weight to a given lift each workout or week, keeping the exercises, sets, and reps the same. Fitbod doesn’t go by this linear "add 5 pounds every session" approach of traditional programs. The whole AI-powered promise here is that Fitbod pushes you to increase weights when it deems you ready, not according to an arbitrary schedule. So, during my peak mileage weeks, either Fitbod automatically adjusted to lighter loads and fewer sets, or I could easily adjust this manually. Then, in recovery weeks, Fitbod's program knew to ramp up the intensity. This intelligent programming meant I wasn't trying to PR my squat the day before a 22-mile long run. What I like about Fitbod's approachAfter a few weeks of testing, I can report that Fitbod really doesn't just throw random exercises at you. And if you say you're a runner, then tts selections make sense for runners—lots of single-leg work, core stability, and posterior chain strengthening. That posterior chain strengthening that Fitbod prioritized (deadlifts, hip thrusts, rows) is so, so important to complement all the forward-focused motion of running. The app's algorithm seemed to understand that I needed functional strength, not just bigger muscles. On its website, Fitbod explains its algorithm and how the app generates workouts, but simply put, it starts by analyzing multiple factors: previous workout data, muscle recovery status, available time, and your feedback on individual exercises. As you keep using the app, it analyzes your logged data, calculates muscle recovery, measures training volume for progressive overload, adjusts for your specific goals (hypertrophy vs. strength), applies intelligent variation to prevent plateaus, and generates your next customized workout. This process repeats with every session, allegedly making your program increasingly personalized over time. Going into this, most important for me were two factors: Schedule flexibility and education. For the latter, the built-in video demonstrations and form cues are solid as can be. They helped me feel confident with movements I'd always avoided. (Shamefully, this includes deadlifts. I'm terrified of injuring myself during marathon season!) For schedule flexibility: Some days I only had 20 minutes, other days I could spare 45. Fitbod easily adapts without making me feel like I was shortchanging my workout. Of course, integrating Fitbod into marathon training required some strategic planning. I timed strength sessions on easy run days or rest days, never the day before hard running workouts or long runs. Personally, I found Fitbod's workout intensity aligned perfectly with this approach. Plus, Fitbod is a highly visual app, and that can give it a serious edge over pen-and-paper tracking. Like with Strava or Nike Run Club, the app's visual progress tracking turned strength training into a game I actually wanted to win. Hey, I'm a simple man. The bottom lineIf you're reading this as someone who lives and breathes cardio, but has been strength-training-curious, here's my advice: start small, be consistent, and trust the process. Fitbod makes this leap less intimidating by handling all the programming complexity while you focus on just showing up and doing the work. As a runner, I always view my body through the lens of performance—how fast, how far, how efficient. I think strength training introduces a different kind of body awareness focused on power, stability, and resilience. Still: The proof needs to be in the pudding. That's the saying, right? I'll report back with my upcoming marathon time to see if Fitbod's strength program ends up having a tangible impact on my time. View the full article

Who is observing? By Martin Bissett Passport to Partnership Go PRO for members-only access to more Martin Bissett. View the full article

Who is observing? By Martin Bissett Passport to Partnership Go PRO for members-only access to more Martin Bissett. View the full article

New data on over 3,000 Google Business Profiles finds proximity drives visibility, but review volume and keyword relevance are most influential near the top. The post Review Signals Gain Influence In Top Google Local Rankings appeared first on Search Engine Journal. View the full article

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. Did you know you can customize Google to filter out garbage? Take these steps for better search results, including adding my work at Lifehacker as a preferred source. TCL makes good non-OLED TVs (arguably some of the best when compared to the cost), as is the case with last year's QM7 that I got my hands on, which is still a bargain in 2025. There are plenty of differences between QLEDs and OLEDs, but unless you're planning on dropping thousands of dollars, a QLED will do just fine. TCL 75-Inch Class QM6K Series $749.99 at Amazon $999.99 Save $250.00 Get Deal Get Deal $749.99 at Amazon $999.99 Save $250.00 SEE -2 MORE Consider TCL's new QM6K QLED, going for $749.99 (originally $999.99) for the 75-inch model. This is the lowest price this TV has been, according to price-tracking tools. I've had mine for a couple of months and have been surprised by its value for the price. If you're looking for different sizes, the 55-inch is $497.99 (originally $599.99), and the 85-inch is currently $999.99 (originally $1,499.99) TCL's QM lineup offers a good value regardless of which size you pick. The QM6K is much better than last year's rendition, now with local dimming zones (500 of them, according to CNET's review) and a mini LED panel, improving contrast dramatically. The color accuracy is also surprisingly accurate out of the box for HDR content, which is great for people who don't like to mess with settings. With the QM6K you get 144Hz native refresh rate, HDR formats like HDR ULTRA with Dolby Vision IQ, HDR10+, HDR10, & HLG, Dolby Atmos Audio, an anti-glare screen, 4 HDMI Inputs (one of which is an eARC), and the Google TV Smart OS (my favorite OS) with Chromecast built in, meaning you can cast your phone to it. You also get Apple AirPlay 2 and Alexa built in, according to ZDNet's review. If you're a gamer, there's a lot to like in the QM6K, according to IGN's review. The Game Bar feature lets you adjust settings on the fly. There's also a VRR accelerator that doubles the refresh rate to a perceived 288Hz. It also has AMD FreeSync Premium Pro, so you can experience smooth gameplay on a PC or console. Truly a lot to offer for a budget QLED TV. Our Best Editor-Vetted Tech Deals Right Now Apple AirPods Pro 2 Noise Cancelling Wireless Earbuds — $199.00 (List Price $249.00) Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge 256GB Unlocked AI Phone (Titanium JetBlack) — $699.99 (List Price $1,099.99) Apple iPad 11" 128GB A16 WiFi Tablet (Blue, 2025) — $299.00 (List Price $349.00) Roku Streaming Stick Plus — $29.00 (List Price $39.99) Deals are selected by our commerce team View the full article

Did you know you can customize Google to filter out garbage? Take these steps for better search results, including adding Lifehacker as a preferred source for tech news. In the years since the launch of ChatGPT, AI tools have developed a bad reputation in the academic world for how easy they make it for students to cheat, passing off the work of a large language model as their own. Even if an LLM can produce writing for you that doesn't come off as unnatural and riddled with hallucinations, you'll be shortchanging yourself, because you won't actually absorb any of the material. But that's not to say these tools serve no purpose in the academic world. If used correctly, they can actually help you study more efficiently. Here are five ways you can use AI in your schoolwork without cheating—or cheating yourself. Use ChatGPT to discuss conceptsOne study technique I've previously recommended is simply having a conversation with another person who doesn’t know anything about the topic you’re studying, to identify areas where your own understanding is lacking. It's a great option because it helps you make connections between concepts as you're working out how to explain them to someone else, and it boosts your confidence in the subject matter when you are able to present it as the expert. But you might not always have someone around to serve as the uninformed rube in your roleplaying, which is when ChatGPT can help you out. When I was in grad school, I asked ChatGPT to allow me to "teach" it about a topic I was studying—community-based health interventions—and we “discussed” different levels of community engagement. ChatGPT actually had interesting questions that helped me think of creative solutions I could investigate in the course of my work. As the American Psychological Association notes, going back and forth with the language model like this not only helps you think critically and creatively, it also helps you practice managing technology in our changing world—a win-win. Use AI to summarize articlesIf you have to read a ton of articles or reports, try getting an AI tool to summarize them for you. This is great when you need to compare similarities or differences between pieces of research or get top-line bullet points to help you round out a paper. I fed ChatGPT an old article and asked for a summary and the language model took about 30 seconds to condense 61 pages into one key paragraph, highlighting the study design, the study goals, its findings, and its recommendations. This gave me a good idea of whether it was worth further study. If you've only got a few documents to read, it's still best to do it yourself, but this trick that can come in handy if you've got a large number of them you're looking to sort through quickly. Just make sure you double-check the summary against the source document before you take anything in it as gospel. My favorite tool for doing this is Google's NotebookLM. Despite my broader hesitancy about AI, I use this free software frequently because I find it's more like a personal assistant than a source of knowledge. It is similar to ChatGPT and other language models in that you can ask it questions via text-entry box, but dissimilar in that it only pulls answers from resources you've provided it. You upload PDFs, links, YouTube videos, and whatever else you want to serve as source material, then NotebookLM helps you sort through that material. When you're using ChatGPT, it pulls answers from the entire internet, and can make serious mistakes as a result. With NotebookLM, anything it generates includes a citation you can click that reveals the exact spot it pulled the info from in your cache of resources. Instead of doing the work for you, this tool just helps you make sense of and organize all your materials. Use ChatGPT to streamline your notesIf your notes are difficult to read or sort through, ChatGPT can help. In grad school, I assigned each of my classes a Google Doc and took notes in it all semester, but inevitably, each document eventually got disorganized, chaotic, and nearly impossible to navigate. As a test, I put my entire semester’s worth of notes for Research Methods into ChatGPT and asked it to pull out the most important information. Not only did it extract the nine steps of research planning and implementation and the principals of the Belmont Report (which were major parts of the midterm), but it reminded me how much of my grade was determined by each test, a fact I had apparently jotted down somewhere in that mess of words. It particularly emphasized things I had written down multiple times, creating a perfect study guide. Use AI to create flashcards and quiz yourselfFlashcards and practice quizzes are excellent ways to study because they force you to use active recall to pull information from your memory. Making these materials yourself is smart, because even by sorting through your notes and writing down your practice questions, you're studying. But I'll be the first to admit that when I'm in charge of making my own quiz, I tend to go a little easy on myself. (When I'm both the student and the teacher, I somehow always get an A+. Funny how that works.) It's better to outsource the creation of these materials to an unbiased third party, and here's another area where AI can be helpful. You can ask ChatGPT to make flashcards and quizzes, but its interface isn't really designed for that, so what it will spit back is an outline of what your flashcards should include based on the notes or resources you upload. From there, you can make the cards yourself, and get to studying (I recommend drilling flashcards using the Leitner system, which is better for helping you retain information over the long-term). You can also ask ChatGPT to quiz you, but you have to be specific with your instructions: Ask ChatGPT to quiz you one question at a time, and to not move on to a new question until you've answered the previous one correctly. But again, here's where I recommend NotebookLM. It has built-in flashcard and quiz features that are much more interactive and easy to use. You can click a button to generate a multiple-choice quiz or flashcard deck based on the materials you uploaded. The quizzes and cards it creates are clickable, like a quiz you would take in an online class, and are based only on what you upload. Use AI to outline essays and suggest sourcesYou definitely don't want ChatGPT or similar language models to "write" your whole essay—more than cheating yourself out of the learning experience, consider the fact that your teacher may run your assignment through a tool like ZeroGPT to get a report on how much of it was likely written by AI, which probably won't do wonders for your grade. Instead, you can use AI tools to help you plan and organize your essays. I've already assembled a list of the best AI essay-helping tools, but here's the gist: You can ask ChatGPT to help you brainstorm a topic or create an essay outline. You can also ask for suggestions for sources you can then research and add into your work that you wouldn't have considered otherwise. Two notes of caution: ChatGPT is sometimes known to make up citations, inventing a convincing article title and attributing it to a well-known source. This is why you don't want to rely on it to fully do the work for you, whether writing or research—just use it to source suggestions that you can hunt down and evaluate on your own. It won't take long to realize a source you've been given just doesn't exist. Likewise, when ChatGPT gives you a link to a source, it adds a little code at the end of the URL that says "/?utm_source=chatgpt.com." Even if you're being as ethical as possible and clicking every link to read the material fully and consider its merits, it's a very bad look to have a bibliography full of links that make it clear you used ChatGPT for your research—a reader might even assume you had the AI write everything for you. So before turning in work, I recommend searching your documents for mentions of "chatgpt," and deleting that sneaky bit of code from any URL where you find it. Snip out everything from the question mark onward and link will still work, but won't make you look like you're doing something untoward. View the full article

A reader writes: I have a coworker who is making me do her work, I asked my boss for help but I feel like he’s being really laissez faire about the whole thing. What should I do? How should I set boundaries with her, healthily? I work for a small research lab, and I’m rather new (hired four months ago). I have a coworker, Amanda, who doesn’t do her job. Examples include: missing a meeting because she was napping, coming into work only to use the printer/computer to plan a surprise party for her husband, spending “all day” replying to two emails, and most egregiously having her friend take a data analysis assessment for her when she was hired. She apparently has a history of not pulling her weight and was almost fired the same month that I was hired. About a month ago, Amanda requested my assistance for a presentation because she said she had too much on her plate to do the data analysis. I love data analysis so I agreed and helped her out. She asked me some questions about how I did the analysis and how I created the tables and charts, and I was happy to show her! This one request turned into me doing all of the data pulls, cleaning, analysis, and creating slides and speaker notes for each of her eight next presentations (taking two to four hours per presentation). Each time, I showed her how I did everything and explained the data to her so she could present it. However, she kept saying she doesn’t know how, and that she’s “heavily relying” on me to help her out. Our boss, Charles, noticed that I was doing the bulk of Amanda’s work and told her to give me credit. She did for one presentation, but did not for the rest. Charles wanted me to figure out how to share the workload with her because she had more presentations coming up and he didn’t want me to be doing everything for her. Since she said Amanda didn’t know how, I wrote out instructions for her. I wrote out each step of the analysis — from data export to execution of the slides and sent it in a group chat with her and Charles. She still refused to do the work, and I ended up doing it for the rest of the presentations. Each of those presentations led into one “big” project that she is going to be presenting at the end of this week. She was supposed to just take the data from the other smaller presentations and summarize it into one big presentation. She complained, saying that since I had done the original analyses she couldn’t do it. (Side note: she compared it to when her husband picks out a recipe and buys the ingredients and asks if she can make it. She said that she’s unable to do that because she wasn’t the one that planned it. The metaphor doesn’t make sense to me; it just sounds like weaponized incompetence.) But I ended up doing all of the work again, creating a deck of 45 slides in total. Doing Amanda’s work has eaten into the time I should be spending on my own projects, so I finally reached out to our boss for help. He asked me what has been happening and how much work I have actually been doing for her. (Apparently she told him that she couldn’t do her other work because she was spending “all her time” on the big presentation that I made. But she told me that she couldn’t help me with the presentation because she was spending her time on the other things. Basically: she was doing nothing.) I told Charles all I want is clarity of my role in helping Amanda — since at first it was just supposed to be running the analyses, but it really turned into doing everything. He said it might be simpler to just tell her that I won’t do anything else for her — but I don’t want to come across as not a “team player.” I feel like I’m perceived as the problem because I’m the new person. But it’s taking my all not to blow up on her. To be honest, I feel resentful for having to do her work and not receiving credit. I also feel resentful because she is being paid significantly more than me, but I feel like I am doing everything for her (save for the presentation itself). How do I go about confronting her? I can’t exactly avoid her (my desk is right next to hers), and we will have to collaborate on projects in the future because our team is so small. Is there a way to set boundaries with her healthily? Wait, what? Your boss gave you the solution that will fix this: tell Amanda you won’t do anything else for her and then stop. You said you don’t want to do that because as don’t want to be perceived as “not a team player” — but if anything, you’re not being a team player right now because you’re directly ignoring what your boss told you to do, undermining his ability to effectively assess Amanda’s work (inadvertently, yes, but that’s the outcome), and eating into the time you’re supposed to be spending on your own projects. I am very curious why your boss telling you that it’s okay to stop helping Amanda hasn’t convinced you that it really is! Did you have a previous job where you were unfairly penalized for not helping coworkers or that instilled weird ideas about teamwork in you? Do you have a broader pattern of being nervous about asserting boundaries with people and not caving to unreasonable requests? I don’t know what’s behind it, but I want to flag that something in your thinking about this is disordered and worth exploring more. I would be really frustrated if I were your boss and I asked you to stop doing someone else’s job, I thought we’d agreed, and then you continued doing it anyway. At that point, you’d be a problem too! Definitely not as big of a problem as Amanda but … a problem. Because I’d have to worry that I couldn’t trust you to carry out reasonable plans we’d agreed to, even on something that had bothered you enough to bring it to me in the first place, and I’d worry you might have people-pleasing tendencies that would get in the way of your job’s priorities. You’d also be preventing me from seeing what was actually going on with Amanda. So the next move here is to listen to your boss and tell Amanda that you can’t help her anymore. All you need to say is, “I’m sorry, I can’t help you any further — I have my hands full with my own projects.” Or if you’re more comfortable citing Charles: “Charles told me that I can’t keep helping you and need to focus on my own work.” If she complains that she doesn’t know how to do her work herself, you can say, “You should talk to Charles about what to do, because he told me that I can’t keep helping.” You might need to keep repeating that, but she can’t make you do her work, and your boss sounds like he has your back. So as much as necessary: “Sorry, I can’t help” and “You should talk to Charles.” That’s it. The post my coworker is making me do all her work appeared first on Ask a Manager. View the full article

Google is rolling out AI features in the Chrome address bar that make AI Mode more accessible to users. View the full article

One client conflict led to better boundaries, processes, and growth. The Disruptors With Liz Farr Go PRO for members-only access to more Liz Farr. View the full article

One client conflict led to better boundaries, processes, and growth. The Disruptors With Liz Farr Go PRO for members-only access to more Liz Farr. View the full article

A production manager plays a central role in overseeing how goods and services move from planning to completion. This position bridges the gap between strategy and execution by ensuring resources, schedules and workflows align to meet production goals. Successful production managers coordinate across departments, work closely with teams on the ground and communicate with leadership to keep operations on track. Their work is not limited to the shop floor, but extends to planning, budgeting and reporting, making them vital to any organization’s performance. The production manager job description often highlights a wide range of responsibilities that require both technical knowledge and leadership skills. These managers must balance cost control with quality, maintain safety standards while optimizing efficiency and motivate staff while driving results. They also need to adapt quickly to changes in demand, supply chain disruptions or shifting organizational priorities. The production manager role demands strong problem-solving, clear communication and the ability to manage people and processes under pressure, which is why it’s considered one of the most challenging yet rewarding positions in operations management. What Is a Production Manager? A production manager is responsible for coordinating the daily operations of manufacturing or service delivery to ensure efficiency, quality and timeliness. This role covers everything from scheduling production runs and managing resources to monitoring performance and ensuring compliance with standards. A production manager must oversee teams, resolve workflow issues and implement processes that balance cost with output while maintaining safety and quality benchmarks. Beyond daily oversight, a production manager also works on long-term planning and continuous improvement. They analyze performance data, develop strategies to increase productivity and introduce new methods or technologies to enhance output. Collaboration is a big part of their role, as they work with suppliers, engineers, finance teams and senior leadership to align production goals with overall business objectives. The success of a production manager is measured by their ability to consistently deliver results while adapting to changing demands and challenges. Project management software helps production managers do their job more effectively by centralizing planning, scheduling and tracking into one platform. Instead of relying on disconnected spreadsheets or manual updates, production managers can use software tools to monitor timelines, allocate resources, track budgets and generate reports in real time. This visibility reduces inefficiencies, prevents delays and ensures all stakeholders stay aligned on priorities and progress. ProjectManager is an ideal solution for any production manager who wants to streamline operations and improve outcomes. Our Gantt charts allow managers to link task dependencies, filter for the critical path and set baselines to measure variance as production progresses. With these powerful scheduling and tracking tools, production managers gain the insights they need to keep projects on schedule and within budget while maintaining full visibility across teams and workflows. Get started with ProjectManager today for free. /wp-content/uploads/2024/03/Manufacturing-gantt-chart-light-mode-costs-exposed-cta-e1712005286389.jpgLearn more What Does a Production Manager Do? A production manager oversees the entire production process, ensuring that operations run smoothly, resources are used efficiently and output meets quality and delivery standards. This individual acts as the link between strategic planning and day-to-day execution, coordinating teams, schedules and resources to achieve organizational goals. By balancing cost control, quality assurance and timely delivery, a production manager plays a crucial role in driving operational success and business growth. This broad role can be broken down into specific responsibilities that define how production managers deliver consistent results. Production Manager Responsibilities A production manager job description typically includes a wide range of responsibilities that cover both operational tasks and strategic planning. These responsibilities ensure that production goals are met, resources are used effectively and teams stay aligned. Here are some of the most common duties of a production manager: Plan and organize production schedules to meet deadlines Manage budgets and monitor production costs Ensure quality standards are maintained throughout the process Oversee staff and assign responsibilities to team members Identify and manage production risks or bottlenecks Collaborate with procurement to ensure materials are available Monitor equipment and schedule routine maintenance Implement health and safety regulations on the production floor Track progress with reports and communicate with senior management Drive continuous improvement initiatives across operations /wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Production-Schedule-Template-Excel-image.png Get your free Production Schedule Template Use this free Production Schedule Template to manage your projects better. Get the Template Production Manager Skills To succeed in this role, a production manager needs a balance of technical knowledge, leadership ability and problem-solving expertise. These skills help them coordinate teams, manage processes and adapt to changing production demands. The following are key skills every production manager should have: Strong leadership and team management Excellent communication and interpersonal abilities Problem-solving and analytical thinking Time management and organizational skills Knowledge of manufacturing processes and industry standards Budgeting and cost-control expertise Familiarity with health and safety regulations Technical proficiency with production tools and software Ability to manage multiple projects simultaneously Strategic thinking and adaptability under pressure Production Manager Job Description Example A production manager job description should outline the scope of the role, key responsibilities and the skills required to succeed. It also highlights the education and experience employers typically look for when hiring. Below is a structured example of what a production manager job description might include. Role Description Oversee the daily production process to ensure efficiency and quality Coordinate schedules, resources and teams to meet production targets Act as the link between management, staff and stakeholders Balance cost control with quality standards and timely delivery Production Manager Responsibilities Plan and organize production schedules Monitor budgets, costs and resource allocation Implement and maintain quality assurance standards Supervise staff and assign roles across production teams Manage risks and resolve production bottlenecks Collaborate with procurement and logistics teams Ensure equipment is maintained and operational Enforce health and safety regulations Prepare progress reports for senior leadership Lead continuous improvement initiatives Desired Production Manager Skills Strong leadership and communication abilities Problem-solving and analytical thinking Time management and organizational skills Knowledge of industry standards and processes Budgeting and cost-control expertise Technical proficiency with production software and tools Ability to adapt to changing production demands Strategic and critical thinking Team motivation and conflict resolution Attention to detail and process orientation Production Manager Education & Qualifications Bachelor’s degree in business, engineering, manufacturing or related field Advanced certifications in production or operations management preferred Knowledge of lean manufacturing, Six Sigma or similar methodologies Proficiency with project management or ERP software Preferred Experience 3–5 years of management experience in a production environment Proven track record of meeting production goals and quality standards Experience leading cross-functional teams Background in managing budgets and resources Exposure to process improvement initiatives /wp-content/uploads/2025/09/banner-ad-manufacturing-ebook.jpg Production Manager Salary Here’s an overview of current salary data for production managers across several reputable sources. These figures provide valuable insights for both job seekers and hiring managers. According to Glassdoor, the average salary for a production manager in the US is $99,268 per year. Salary.com reports that the average pay for a production manager is $111,415 annually. On PayScale, the average salary for a production manager in manufacturing is $82,893 per year. The Bureau of Labor Statistics lists production manager pay within the industrial production manager category, which averages around $121,440 per year. ProjectManager Is an Ideal Tool for a Production Manager ProjectManager is an ideal tool for a production manager because it gives them the flexibility to plan, organize and execute work through multiple project views. While Gantt charts are powerful for scheduling, production managers often need faster ways to see task details and progress. With our software, they can switch to a task list to focus on assignments, a kanban board to manage workflows, a sheet view for spreadsheet-style tracking or a calendar view to plan by dates. These views keep projects organized while allowing production managers to choose the perspective that best fits the task at hand. Watch the brief video below to see how our software can support production managers. Streamline Resource Management A production manager must balance labor, materials and equipment across multiple shifts and deadlines. ProjectManager makes this easier with workload charts that visualize team availability, timesheets that track actual hours worked and allocation tools that prevent bottlenecks. Resources can be assigned and adjusted in real time, ensuring production stays on schedule without overburdening staff. Cost tracking is also built in, letting managers compare planned versus actual expenses and keep budgets under control. By combining scheduling with cost and workload data, production managers gain clear visibility into how resources are used across projects. /wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Team-Light-2554x1372-1.png Enhance Tracking and Reporting Tracking production performance is critical for hitting deadlines and delivering quality. ProjectManager’s real-time dashboards automatically update key metrics like task progress, costs and workload without manual input. Production managers can generate customizable reports for stakeholders on demand, showing status, variances and upcoming risks. Because all data is centralized, managers no longer need to chase spreadsheets or rely on outdated numbers. This level of visibility ensures that issues are identified quickly and decisions are made with accurate information, keeping production efficient and accountable from start to finish. /wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Team-summary-better-data-light-mode-home-screen-dashboard.png Related Production Management Content Becoming a production manager is a big task. Below are some articles that will help those looking for or hoping to become one with a greater understanding of the position. Making a Production Plan (Example Included) 15 Top Methods of Production Production Scheduling Basics: Creating a Production Schedule 20 Production and Manufacturing KPIs & Metrics Production Forecasting Basics for Manufacturing Businesses Production Operations Management: Goals & Challenges 10 Best Production Tracking Software How to Make a Production Flow Chart for Manufacturing ProjectManager is online project and portfolio management software that connects teams whether they’re in the office or out in the field. They can share files, comment at the task level and stay updated with email and in-app notifications. Get started with ProjectManager today for free. The post Production Manager Job Description: Role, Responsibilities & Skills appeared first on ProjectManager. View the full article

Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today...View the full article

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Did you know you can customize Google to filter out garbage? Take these steps for better search results, including adding Lifehacker as a preferred source for tech news. Diversifying your studying techniques is a great way to stay more engaged as you learn new information, but know this: The classic methods are classic for a reason. Take flashcards, for instance. You've certainly used them in the past, but you may not have been using them in a way that maximized their benefits. Behold the Leitner system, which provides more structure to the tried-and-true practice of studying with flashcards and might be the jumpstart your studying needs. This memory-enhancing method is best suited for when you have a substantial amount of time to learn your material, so avoid it for cramming. Instead, get going with it as soon as a semester or new chapter starts. What is the Leitner system for studying?This system was devised by science writer Sebastian Leitner in 1972, which is why he gets the honor of having it named for him. (It’s from his book How to Learn to Learn, but while old copies retail for about $4, they're only available in German, so just trust me on this one.) For the first few decades of its use, it relied solely on on physical tools: flashcards and boxes. (You’ll also need a pen or pencil to make the flashcards.) Writing out your flashcards by hand is generally a good idea, as handwriting something helps stick it into your memory, but these days, you have other, more modern options for your Leitner sessions. We'll get to those, too. At its core, this is a version of spaced repetition, an evidence-based technique that helps learners absorb numerous pieces of information and store them in their memory. The system is best used when you have ample time but have to learn a lot of concepts, phrases, or ideas—so use it for an entire course or a really hefty chapter instead of a section or topic that only includes a few new things to learn. Now let's get into what it is and how to execute it. How to use the Leitner systemLet's assume for a moment you're doing this the old-school way—relying on index cards and a pen. The first thing you’re going to do is make your flashcards. Don’t worry about the other steps involving the boxes just yet. Make the flashcards as you normally would by including vocabulary words, new concepts, phrases, important dates, and anything else you need to know. It helps to first use a reading comprehension technique to go through the chapter or subject at hand, so try the SQ3R method, which has you identify questions you have about the material before you start reading, then has you write down the answers to those questions as you find them, plus anything else you learn. You base those questions on subheadings, graphs, tables, summaries, and other key parts of the chapter, but you can later base your flashcards on those same pieces of information, plus the answers you find. Be thorough and include concepts and words you already feel confident you know, even if that seems silly. It’s all part of the Leitner method and will come in handy. Once you have a comprehensive flashcard deck, it’s time to use the method. You’ll need five boxes (or envelopes or even labeled binder clips, as long as it’s something that can hold big stacks of cards). You should label them on a timeline, ideally by how long you have to grasp the information. If you have a big midterm in two months, for instance, label Box 1 “daily,” Box 2 “every other day,” Box 3 “weekly,” Box 4 “biweekly,” and Box 5 “monthly.” Now, do a round of flashcards. Every card you get right, move to Box 2. Every card you get wrong, keep in Box 1. You see where this is going, but I'll spell it out: Box 1 is a daily review, so you do those flashcards every day, but if you start this activity on a Monday and your Box 2 is designated for every-other-day study, you won’t return to that one until Wednesday. If you answer cards from Box 2 correctly, they’ll go to Box 3, which in this example is your “weekly” box. If you answer any cards in Box 2 incorrectly, you move those back to Box 1, where you’ll study them every day until you get them right. In short, when you answer a card right, it moves forward into a box that will have you reviewing it less frequently. When you answer a card wrong, it moves backward into a box that will have you reviewing it more frequently. Eventually, you’ll have cards all the way down in Box 5. Those will be the cards containing information you have effectively stored in your memory and really grasp, so you don’t need to go over them as often. Cards in the lower-numbered boxes contain information you’re not retaining as well and should go over more. Modifications and things to keep in mind about the Leitner systemHow you use the system will depend on how much time you have to study, as well as how much you have to learn. For instance, if you have just a few concepts you want to drill or you have only two weeks until a big test, you might use three boxes to designated daily, every-other-day, and weekly study. You also have some wiggle room when it comes to incorrect answers. The most faithful adherence to the method would have you moving any incorrect cards all the way back to Box 1 no matter what box it had previously made its way to, for instance, but you can make a judgement call on whether getting it wrong one time means you need to study it every day or whether you think it should only be demoted one box. Personally, I don't see the harm in demoting it all the way to Box 1; if you got it wrong due to a momentary brain fart, it'll make its way back up to the higher numbers easily enough in time; if you got it wrong because the information truly slipped out of your memory, it deserves to get some daily attention until you know it well enough to advance it. You also need to be strategic when you’re studying on a day that involves multiple boxes. If you start on a Monday and use a daily, every-other-day, and weekly setup for your first three boxes, for instance, Friday is going to be pretty big for you. Start with whatever the highest box of the day is, then move backward. By doing this, you’ll get to study any you got wrong and moved backward twice, but won’t have to study any you got right and moved forward twice. Plus, it’ll be a little confidence boost to start on the harder ones and get some right, moving them to a box you won’t have to look at for a while. The goal here is to really hammer the cards that contain information that isn’t sticking for you without bogging yourself down studying things you already know. As more cards move into the higher-numbered boxes, add information from new chapters so your deck is a comprehensive overview of everything you’ll need to know for a cumulative test or, ideally, long-term in the real-world application of the information. Apps can make this easierYes, the classic approach to this involves handwriting cards and physically moving them around in boxes or envelopes and while that can be beneficial in its own way, the process is also laborious, time-consuming, and a little hard to manage. Where will you store all those flashcards? Are you going to bring them around to study on the go? The answer is probably no, which means you may find yourself skipping some days if it's not feasible to haul around a stack of cards—and that defeats the purpose of the system entirely. That's where apps come in. Always be wary when using your phone to study, since it only takes a few taps of your finger to get distracted by non-educational messages and apps, but honestly, flashcard apps make all of this a lot easier if you can exercise the self-restraint necessary to use them. Flashcards in any form are useful, as they force you to engage in active recall and pull the answers from your memory, so any flashcard app you download is better than nothing. Be advised, though, that not all of them follow the Leitner method. For Leitner-specific flashcard drills, I recommend Brainscape (my personal favorite), Cram, and Flashcard Lab. You can read my full reviews of them through those links, but generally, Brainscape is a sleek and well-produced app that comes with a ton of pre-made decks and simple options for making your own, Cram is much more basic but easy to use, and Flashcard Lab creates flashcards out of your own spreadsheets so the production part is almost too easy. All of them let you indicate whether you got a flashcard answer right or wrong, then move it around in your schedule so you see it more or less frequently. Outsourcing the creation and sorting of the cards to tech leaves more time for studying and streamlines the whole process, making you more likely to stick to your Leitner practice. View the full article

The best market intelligence you’ll ever get is hidden in organic queries, but only if you turn those signals into personas teams actually use. The post Making SEO Personas Actionable Across Teams appeared first on Search Engine Journal. View the full article

Owl Labs, the first company to build AI-powered, 360-degree video conferencing solutions for hybrid organizations, today released its ninth annual State of Hybrid Work Report. Owl Labs surveyed 2,000 full-time knowledge workers in the United States to unpack the latest trends and perspectives around remote, hybrid, and in-office work. The report finds that as in-office attendance quietly rises, schedule flexibility, AI and IT have become increasingly important to workers who are trying to reclaim their time while balancing growing in-office pressures. View the full article

Did you know you can customize Google to filter out garbage? Take these steps for better search results, including adding my work at Lifehacker as a preferred source. Are you ready for The Rapture and the days of turmoil to follow? Because, if some corners of the Evangelical Christian community online are correct, it's happening today (or maybe tomorrow) just in time for Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish feast of The Presidentets. Whether true believers will meet Jesus up in the air this week remains to be seen, so I'm keeping an open mind, but I wanted to lay out what to expect, should the Rapture occur. According to the New King James translation of 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17, "The Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the The Presidentet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air." Dramatic, but it's not the end of the world (as they say). While both living and dead believers in Christ will be gone, the unrighteous will be left behind on earth to deal with the aftermath. Nicolas Cage starred in a 2014 documentary about it. Why do people think the Rapture is happening this week?The basis for this wave of Rapture-mania seems to be an interview with Joshua Mhlakela, a South African man, on CENTTWINZ TV's YouTube channel and podcast a few months ago. Mr. Joshua said he knows Jesus personally, and had a dream in 2018 where The Lord said to him, "There will be no World Cup 2026." Later, Jesus appeared bodily in front of him, and said, "On the 23 and 24th of September, 2025, I will come to take My church." Seven years of tribulation will follow (hence the World Cup cancellation), After this, according to Mr. Joshua, Jesus will return to Earth, presumably to deal with us heathens. Mr. Joshua's prediction gained popularity among some evangelical Christians, and believers began spreading the date on social media, particularly under the TikTok tags #RaptureTok and #rapture2025, where folks offered their thoughts on the matter, provided dubious evidence to back up the date, attempted to convert non-believers in fast food restaurants, and gave practical tips on how to prepare for floating up to heaven to hang out with the pretty angels. Or so it seems. How many Christians are really preparing for the Rapture this week? While Mr. Joshua's interview has no doubt influenced some people, the nature of social media makes it difficult to determine how many people are preparing for The Rapture and how many are taking the piss. I've spent all day morning watching Rapture-themed videos, and some folks seem sincere, but a lot of people are taking satirical shots at an easy target, and there are a ton of people who illustrate Poe's Law, because I really can't tell. Ultimately I don't think that many people genuinely think the Rapture is going to happen. More people seem to be pointing and laughing than actually preparing, so everyone is somewhat wrong. Established Evangelical churches tend to dismiss claims of specific dates of The Rapture when they appear in the larger culture, and more importantly for Christians, there's a Biblical problem with the prediction. If you think you know the day of the Rapture, you're wrongIf we're going by what The Bible says (and why not, right?), either Mr. Joshua and everyone on TikTok who is predicting the date of The Rapture is wrong or the Bible itself is wrong. According to the Apostle Mark, when asked when the End Times would begin, Jesus said, "About that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father." He didn't carve out an exception for people on TikTok. Mark's fellow Apostle Matthew concurred, writing, "Watch therefore, for you do not know what hour your Lord is coming" in Matthew 24:42. "If the master of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched and not allowed his house to be broken into. Therefore you also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect," Matthew continues. So if you expect the Rapture, it's not going to happen; it's a self-defeating prophecy. And even if you're not willing to accept the Bible as the word of God Herself, the Rapture seems unlikely based on past predictions. So many Raptures, so little timeDr. Joshua and the denizens of RaptureTok aren't the first to predict the end times, and while I can't say for certain, they probably won't be the last. Hippolytus of Rome predicted the end of the world in 500 AD. German monk Michael Stifel predicted October 19, 1533 would be the last day. Baptist preacher William Miller predicted the Rapture would take place on October 22, 1844, leaving between 50,000 and 100,000 Millerites extremely disillusioned on October 23. Of more recent end-time predictors, none have been as influential as Harold Camping. Harold Camping: King of the Biblical apocalypseHarold Camping, an engineer and broadcaster, is probably the most high-profile modern predictor of the end of the world. He founded Family Radio in 1958 and built it into a Christian media empire broadcasting to more than 150 U.S. markets across the nation. Then, in the early 1990s, Camping became convinced the Rapture would soon be upon us. Using his own brand of Biblical numerology, Camping calculated the Last Day and published it in his 1992 book, 1994?. The date: September 6, 1994. When the world stubbornly refused to explode in the mid 1990s, Camping recalculated. The true date, he said, was May 21, 2011. “Camping was 100% sure,” says Dr. Charles Sarno, a sociology professor at Dominican University of California and lecturer at Berkeley. “He said, ‘The Bible guarantees it,’ and what better warranty could one want?” In the months leading up to May 21, Camping launched an enormous publicity push: billboards, endless radio broadcasts, even RVs shrink-wrapped with doomsday warnings. It worked. “On May 20, the most popular Google search in English was 'May 21st,' ABC News and other major networks reported on it, the BBC covered it; so he got nearly global traction," Sarno says. May 21 came and went, leaving Camping fielding calls from confused listeners on his radio show asking why he'd gotten it wrong. Camping eventually moved the apocalypse again to October 21, 2011, but that one didn’t pan out either, and soon after, he suffered a debilitating stroke and faded from public view, leaving his underlings squabbling for control of the remains of his media empire. Why do people believe in the end of the world?We won't know for sure until later in the week, but whether you use math, history, or the Bible as your guide, you probably don’t need to cancel your weekend plans. Still, the world really is coming to an end—your world, anyway—and it will probably end with you in a hospital bed instead of flying up to Heaven to meet Jesus. If I could swallow it, maybe I'd believe in the Rapture, too. End-of-world predictions offer certainty, drama, the joy of having secret knowledge, and the possibility of heaven without dying, so I don't begrudge TikTok's Doomsday-stans. I feel pity for them, though, because time is going to pass, and life, inconveniently, is going to keep grinding along, leaving them to try and explain why they're still down here with the rest of us mugs. Unless they're right. In which case, don't email me; I'll be up in clouds. View the full article

Reddit marketing is delicate work. Show up with a sales pitch — or just a little too much enthusiasm for your product — and they’ll shut you down quickly. Without mercy. But that hostility is really standards in disguise. Redditors care about their communities. They care about real conversations and keeping the place worth coming back to. Meet those standards, and the mood turns. They’ll start to trust you. Sometimes, they’ll even ask where they can buy your stuff. That’s when you know you’ve earned the hard-to-win, harder-to-fake Reddit trust. A kind of credibility so strong it travels far beyond Reddit. (More on that later.) This guide shows you how. Just three hours a week of Reddit marketing, and you’ll go from an awkward outsider to a trusted regular — even if you’ve never posted before. Useful resource: Track your Reddit growth in one place. See what’s working, where it’s working, and what’s worth doing more of. Grab the tracker here. Reddit Is No Longer Optional for Marketers Reddit used to be just another “forum.” But it has now become the gravity pulling the internet into its orbit. Dramatic? Maybe. But the proof is everywhere. Reddit Powers Search and AI Reddit’s partnerships with Google and OpenAI have turned it from an internet hangout to an internet heavyweight. Google is pulling Reddit threads directly into search results. And Reddit conversations are now feeding into ChatGPT’s answers. Run a quick Google search, such as “best protein powder brands.” You’ll usually see Reddit featured more than once on page one. Same story with large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT and Perplexity. Their answers often cite Reddit as one of the sources. And this isn’t just anecdotal. A Detailed.com study shows Reddit dominates product-related search terms in Google’s new “Discussions and forums” feature. Semrush research backs this up, saying Reddit is the most-cited domain in AI answers. In short: Reddit now sits at the heart of your customers’ decision-making. From the first flicker of curiosity to the final purchase, chances are good they’ll hit Reddit along the way. Reddit Influences Buyer Trust People trust Reddit more than your polished marketing. The open grievances and the unfiltered praise make Reddit feel real in a way your ad copy never can. Be honest: How often do you tack “reddit” onto a Google search? I do it all the time. And Semrush data proves I’m not alone. That’s Reddit becoming the internet’s social proof engine. As Rob Gaige, Reddit’s Global Head of Insights, says: “91% of people who discover a product on another platform are passing through Reddit to validate the claims they’re finding elsewhere.” In other words, buyers don’t just take your word for it. They take Reddit’s. Reddit Gives You an Edge Competitors Can’t Easily Copy There’s no copy-paste trick when it comes to Reddit marketing. Like you, your competitors have to put in the time to learn the culture and earn their keep. That’s why the earlier you start, the stronger your position becomes. Every month you engage, you’re stacking credibility that shortcuts can’t match. Yes, some try to game the system. And that might work briefly. But eventually, Reddit’s algorithms, volunteer moderators, and the community’s BS detector flush them out. (And with spam on the rise, the rules are only getting stricter.) The Reddit Marketing System to Build Karma & Cred Forget Reddit SEO “hacks,” like slipping links past moderators. That’s short-sighted thinking. Here’s the thing: Reddit’s power isn’t clicks. It’s credibility and influence. Earn it inside Reddit, AND it reverberates into search results and AI answers. You don’t earn that trust with Reddit marketing tricks. You earn it by contributing and becoming part of the community. Here’s how. (Shoutout to Ken Savage of Launch Club AI, a Reddit marketing agency, for sharing his insights from the trenches.) Step 1: Build a Profile That Says “Redditor,” Not “Marketer” The best way to optimize your Reddit profile? Do nothing. A shiny, over-engineered profile from a Reddit newborn is a dead giveaway: You’re here to take, not give. Sure, change your avatar if you like. But, resist the urge to polish. Instead, keep it plain: Leave the bio blank Don’t link to your site or socials Forget the “curated” look Let your engagement history do the talking Take ItsWahl, a plumber’s profile. You don’t see business links or calls-to-action. But scroll through his comments and post history, and you instantly know what he does. That’s the beauty of Reddit. Reputation builds itself. The profile follows. Username tip: Just pick something forgettable. Maybe it’s an old gaming handle, a random word combination, or your pet’s name plus some numbers. The more unremarkable, the better. Step 2: Get Fluent in Reddit Before You Speak In your first week (or two) of Reddit marketing, don’t post. Just watch. Study the culture and pay attention to tone and the little quirks of how people interact. Why? Because that look-at-me energy that Instagram and LinkedIn reward is exactly what gets you mocked or banned on Reddit. How The Reddit Community Operates Your best starting point is Reddiquette. It’s the platform’s general code of conduct, which includes: Remembering the human behind the screen Using proper grammar and spelling Assuming good intent until proven otherwise Formatting posts and comments clearly But here’s the twist: Reddit isn’t one community. It’s thousands of communities, called subreddits (subs), with their own rules and expectations. What gets you praise in one can get you flagged in another. For example, in r/Entrepreneur, you need 10 comment karma (Reddit points from helpful comments), and self-promotion is banned. But in r/Pen_Swap, buying, selling, and trading is the whole point. Think of it as two layers: global expectations and local rules. Break either, and the community will remind you. Sometimes, not too gently. So, before you comment or post, always check the subreddit’s rules. They’re pinned at the top or listed in the sidebar. The Reddit Moderators (aka Mods) and Their Power Moderators are the gatekeepers of subreddits. They control how the community runs within Reddit’s sitewide rules. You can see who moderates any subreddit by checking the sidebar and clicking “Moderators.” And yes, they have powers. They can: Remove posts or comments Issue warnings Ban users Your mileage with mods will vary. Most are fair and invested in building solid communities. Others, less so. As one Redditor put it, “picky and easily angered.” What most people miss about moderators is this: Many of them run communities with tens of thousands, sometimes millions, of members. Managing these subreddits takes an enormous amount of unpaid time and effort. It’s really in your interest to make their jobs easier by: Reading and following the rules Contributing genuine value Respecting their authority Do that, and you’ll stay on their good side. Ignore it, and you’ll learn just how much power they really have. Reddit Language Reddit speak is conversational and BS-free. Humor, sarcasm, and the occasional bit of self-deprecation are all part of the mix. It’s also full of shorthand and in-jokes that longtime users expect you to know. You don’t need to memorize them all, but it’s worth knowing the basics if you want your Reddit marketing to have legs. Here are a few common ones. OP: Original poster ELI5: Explain like I’m 5 TL;DR: Too long didn’t read TIL: Today I learned OC: Original content NSFW: Not safe for work IIRC: If I recall correctly FTFY: Fixed that for you AMA: Ask me anything Most of these you’ll pick up through context. But it’s worth bookmarking the full list for reference. Karma & Voting Karma is Reddit’s point system. (Or, as Reddit’s “welcome” guide calls it: fake internet points.) You’ll see your karma score in your profile sidebar, split into post karma and comment karma. Here’s why these “fake” points matter: Karma is the closest thing Reddit has to a reputation score. It affects where you can post and how you’re perceived. You earn it through upvotes. If people find your post or comment useful, they tap the arrow pointing up. But there’s a flip side to this democracy. The down arrow — the downvote — takes karma away. It’s the community’s way of saying “this doesn’t add value.” The most-upvoted posts and comments rise to the top. Which means more people see them and more people engage. (And the cycle reinforces itself.) Those top comments also tend to spread beyond Reddit through shares or even showing up in search results. Side note: Karma isn’t a clean one-upvote, one-point system. Reddit muddies the math to stop spam. Your goal is to earn more upvotes than downvotes and stay out of the red. Step 3: Choose Subreddits Strategically The subreddits you join will decide how quickly (or how slowly) you earn Karma. Aim for a mix of niche communities tied to your expertise, plus a sprinkling of subreddits on topics you genuinely enjoy. The rookie mistake is jumping straight into the biggest subs, hoping for easy upvotes. But big subs move very fast. Their rules are stricter, and mods are hyper-vigilant. Take r/AskReddit, for example, which has over 57 million members. To stand out in your Reddit marketing, you need perfect timing, luck, and genuinely compelling content. Otherwise, your post just disappears. So, it’s better to start with smaller subreddits. They move at a manageable pace and are often more forgiving while you learn the ropes. Side note: You can join as many subs as you want. Once you’ve built experience and have more time to contribute, you can always branch out to bigger subs. How to Find Subreddits My go-to method to find new communities is the Reddit search bar. From the front page, type in your niche. In the results, click “Communities,” and check two numbers: Total members and currently online. That ratio tells you how active a subreddit is. For example, when I type “SEO” I see r/SEO with 421k members and 64 online, while r/seogrowth has 31k members with 16 online. Even though r/SEO is bigger, I’d definitely consider also joining r/seogrowth as it’s more “alive.” When you’re starting out, join 10–15 subreddits. That’s enough range to test where you get traction. Over time, you’ll naturally narrow to 3–5 subs where you’re most active and recognized. Getting the Lay of the Land For your first 1–2 weeks, resist the urge to post. Just observe and absorb (aka lurking). See which questions people ask repeatedly. Go hang out in the comment sections. That’s where you’ll get a real feel for the community’s personality. You’ll pick up on how people joke, offer support, or tear bad ideas apart. And above all: Read the rules. They’re listed in the sidebar of every subreddit, and they can vary wildly. For example, r/nutrition has a long list of guidelines to keep discussions science-based, while r/machinedpens has only three rules. This is also the perfect time to gauge buyer sentiment about your brand or products. I’ve used Reddit this way for years. And it’s helped me improve product page conversions, get better returns on Meta ads, and even given sales teams a clearer picture of buyer objections. Take a hair supplement brand I worked with. Their Meta ads had gone flat. So, I spent hours in subreddits like r/haircare, r/hair, and r/hairloss scanning threads for brand sentiment and figuring out the deeper psychology behind purchase decisions. Those insights fueled a creative refresh with new campaign angles, helping turn their Meta campaigns around. Step 4: Join Conversations Without Being Annoying (The E.A.R.S. Reddit Marketing Framework) Three hours a week of Reddit marketing is enough to make steady progress. Here’s how to spend it using the E.A.R.S framework: Explore: 5-10 minutes/day discovering threads Add insight: 10–20 minutes/day reading, upvoting, and commenting Respond: One 30-minute session/week writing and publishing Share: 5-10 minutes/day amplifying your posts and comments And no, your weekends aren’t part of the deal. Side note: Three hours is a benchmark. In practice, it’s between 2-4 hours a week. Some weeks you’ll breeze through, others will take more. The good news is that the longer you do this, the quicker and easier it gets. Explore: Find the Right Threads (5–10 Minutes/Day) “Explore” is your foundation for quality and time control. Your goal is to find 4-7 threads worth engaging in every day. Get disciplined. This shouldn’t take more than 10 minutes. Pro tip: Set a timer. Without one, it’s easy to slip into “just five more minutes” and somehow end up deep in r/oddlysatisfying watching hedgehogs take baths. (We’ve all been there.) Here’s what to do: Open a few of the subreddits you joined in the previous step. Then, filter the threads by “Rising.” This shows new posts starting to gain traction. Get in early, and your comment is more likely to get noticed while the thread is still developing. Next, cross-check with “Hot” to show the top posts. As you scan both “Rising” and “Hot,” focus on threads where you can genuinely add value. That means: Answering a question with your knowledge Filling in missing context Clearing up a common misconception Sharing a story from experience Offering practical help to a “how-to” question Top tip: Adjust your picks by subreddit size and activity. In large subs (over 1M members or 100+ posts/day), look for posts with 50+ upvotes and 15+ comments. In smaller subs, 5+ upvotes and a handful of comments are enough. Add Insight: Write Comments That Get Upvotes (15–20 Minutes/Day) “Add Insight” is the engine of your Reddit SEO strategy. It’s your daily commenting session to build trust and visibility. (And get those karma points climbing.) Your goal is to leave 4-7 high-value comments a day. That’s it. To leave comments, you have two options: You can reply directly to the main post by clicking “Join the conversation.” Or you can reply within a thread by clicking “Reply” under someone else’s comment. The catch is: What you say is only half the battle. How you format your comment decides whether people will give it the time of day. (Because even the smartest insight dies as a wall of text.) So, formatting matters. If you want eyes (and upvotes): Break paragraphs early and often (but don’t go full broetry — that one sentence per line LinkedIn thing) Use spacing to guide the eye Bold key ideas when the subreddit allows it Like this: You can do all this using Reddit’s built-in comment editor. Click the “Aa” icon in the comment box, and it will expand to show formatting options similar to Google Docs. Now, comment with a purpose. You want upvotes, and Reddit doesn’t give those willy-nilly. You get them by making the conversation better. There are a few ways to do that. The Explainer Comment This is perfect when answering direct questions like “How do I…?” or “What’s the best way to…?” Just give a direct answer with a bit of reasoning and extra info to support your answer. The Gap Filler Comment Use this when replies are missing something important. Acknowledge what’s already been said, then add the missing piece. The Shared Experience Comment When the question overlaps with something you’ve been through, comment by sharing what you tried, what happened, and the key lesson. The Source Comment This is great for when a thread is full of assumptions, but you’ve got credible info. Share the source and summarize in everyday language. And if you’re the source, by all means join in the conversation. The Case Study/Lived Experience Comment Best for when you have real-world results to share: yours or someone else’s. Great for “does this actually work” questions. Simply outline the situation, what you did, and the outcome. The Checklist Comment Sometimes, a checklist is all you need to be helpful. This can be a step-by-step guide, tips, or just a few boxes to tick. The Brand Comment If your brand comes up in a thread, that’s a perfect opportunity to be visible in conversations about your brand. Identify yourself and answer plainly. Keep it useful, not salesy. Show that you’re listening and willing to help. Further reading: Branded GEO: How to Control What AI Says About Your Brand Respond: Keep Threads Going (5–10 Minutes Daily) “Respond” is what separates real contributors from drive-by posters. It’s the follow-through in your Reddit marketing process: Circling back to reply to people engaging with you. Do this, and you: Build relationships by showing you’re not just using Reddit as a bulletin board Boost visibility, since every new reply bumps the thread back up the feed Now, you might be thinking: “So…do I need to sit on Reddit all day?” Nope. Two short check-ins are enough. One in the morning and one in the evening if you’ve got time. That’s it. Everything else is extra. To make it easier, you can follow your own comments. Click the three dots under your reply and choose “Follow comment” to get notified. So, what does good follow-through actually look like? Like any good conversation, it’s about keeping the energy alive. Here are a few ways to do that. Follow-Up Questions Great for when you need more detail to give a sharper, non-cookie-cutter answer. For example, you can ask, “What’s your timeline? That changes the advice.” Bonus Resources Drop in a tool, guide, or reference that helps right away. This adds instant utility without forcing people to leave Reddit. (Bonus: People often reply to tell you how they used it, and you usually get upvotes in return.) Preface with something like “Here’s a free digital marketing template you can use.” Connecting Commenters This works great when multiple people share similar problems. Tag them with u/ and put in the username after the slash You can say “u/username above had the same issue. Worth comparing notes.” Acknowledge + Build Highlight a good point from someone else, then add your own idea. It builds goodwill while boosting your credibility. Say something like: “Great point, I hadn’t considered that angle. For anyone reading, here’s why it matters:“ Think Before You Reply Not every reply deserves your energy. Here’s a quick response matrix to help you decide what’s worth engaging and what to ignore. If the reply… Action Example Response Adds useful detail or perspective Thank + expand “Good point, thanks. I’d also add [extra detail]” Corrects your point respectfully Acknowledge + clarify “Fair call. You’re right in general. I was thinking of [specific angle/context]” Comes with mild sarcasm Likely ignore No need to reply. Better to save your energy than get pulled into a spiral Is hostile or trolling Ignore, downvote, report (No response) Share: Publish a Strategic Post (30 Minutes to 1 Hour/Week) At some point, you’ll want to go beyond commenting and start your own threads. There’s no magic karma number that unlocks this. Each subreddit sets its own bar. Some require account age or karma, others don’t care at all. The real question isn’t “Can I post?,” but “Should I?” That depends on softer factors: How well you know the community How much you understand its culture How much you’ve already contributed in comments For context, I’ve posted with less than 50 karma when I had a genuine question. That’s different from posting to build visibility or reputation, where the bar is much higher. Ken Savage recommends getting a karma score of 500 before posting anything that mentions your brand: “I’ve never been removed for anything above 500 karma. You can usually get that in two to four weeks of 20 minutes per day, five days a week, commenting. The core principle is to be authentic and provide detailed, thorough answers to people’s questions, as if you were getting paid for it.” Once you’re ready, focus on posts with weight. That means content that has a real shot at earning upvotes and visibility. These topics often come from: Your top-performing comments Recurring questions people ask you Threads where the same issues keep surfacing Once you’ve got a promising topic, package it in a format Reddit loves. Here are some of the best. Case Studies Great for credibility-building. Walk readers through a real experience: yours, your customers’, or someone else’s. Set up the problem or situation, explain step by step what you did, and share the outcome. Close with a clear takeaway. Lessons Learned & Common Mistakes This format works when your goal is to teach. These posts show where you went wrong and how you fixed it: the “what I wish I knew” or “what I learned” stories. To make this work, frame the mistake or lesson clearly, share the story behind it, and then give a practical fix. Keep it simple. One mistake per point makes it more relatable and easier to apply. For example, if you’re a financial advisor, your topic could be “the budgeting mistakes I see most in new families and quick fixes that help.” Discussion Prompt Discussion prompts flip the spotlight back to the community and get people talking. (Exactly what you want to happen in your Reddit marketing playbook.) They work best when you give people a chance to share their stories. Keep the question short and specific, and follow up in the comments to keep the thread going. Some examples include: Teachers: What’s one low-cost classroom supply you can’t live without? What’s the best cleaning hack you’ve found for fur all over the house? What’s the most surprising product you’ve found through ecommerce AI search? Checklists & Step-by-Step Tips Checklists help people self-diagnose and improve. They work best when Redditors in the community are often worried they’re “doing it wrong” and want a quick way to check. For example, if you’re in the beauty niche, you can post a topic on “a 4-step test to see if your skincare routine is helping or hurting.” Then, break the process into 3–7 simple checks and explain why each one matters. Here’s a Redditor who nails this format. Myth-Busting Myth-busting posts are always welcome on Reddit, especially in spaces where misinformation spreads fast. Lead with the myth people believe and then refute it with proof or experience. For example, a good topic in personal finance could be “the 3 biggest myths about credit scores and what actually improves them.” Behind-the-Scenes These posts pull back the curtain and show how things work. They get a lot of upvotes because people love insider knowledge, especially when it reveals details they wouldn’t otherwise see. Set the context, share the surprising or little-known details, and close with why it matters. If you’re launching a new product, for example, you could show how it’s made and the trade-offs you wrestled with. Free Resource Offer something the community can actually use. Spreadsheets, calculators, templates, swipe files, SEO checklists, mini-guides, code snippets. Basically, the stuff people would normally charge for, but you’re cool enough to give away. A few things to keep in mind: Experiment with timing to find the best time to post. Generally, early weekday mornings and early evenings outperform weekends, but test for your specific communities. Stick around after you post. Reply to comments and amplify good responses to help the thread grow. Repurpose smartly. If a post lands, adapt it for 2–3 related subreddits. Tweak the angle and tone for each community. Plus, space them a few days apart to avoid looking spammy. Also, always check the subreddit rules. Some subs ban cross-posting or set timing restrictions. Reddit Best Practices: How to Talk About Your Brand Without Getting Banned Big caveat up front: Don’t even think about promoting your brand until you’ve built karma and credibility. Jumping in too early is the fastest way to get downvoted. Once you’ve established trust, here are three ways to bring your brand into the conversation. The Profile Discovery Method This method keeps your brand mentions off your comments and lets your profile do the “selling.” Your comments are focused on helping, and you let curious readers click through if they want to know more. Pro tip: Once you’ve built some credibility, you can add a short professional bio or link your site/socials in the designated profile fields. Established Redditors do this on their profile. The Expertise Sharing Method This approach uses your role or business as context for why your perspective matters. It signals credibility without sounding like a sales pitch. Important: Don’t force it. If your comment works just as well without the brand mention, cut it. If not, Redditors might call that self-serving. No bueno for your karma. The Direct Mention Method (Use Sparingly) This Reddit marketing method involves naming your brand or product in comments. It’s a risky approach. So, make sure it adds to the conversation. The key is balance: Don’t make it an ad, and don’t act like your product is the only solution. Ways You Can Lose Karma (& Trust) Now, let’s talk about the fastest ways to torpedo your reputation and send your karma into free fall. In short, things not to do. Posting Like You’re on LinkedIn Polished “thought leadership” and humblebrags are vomit-inducing on Reddit. What’s modus operandi on LinkedIn reads as braggy here. Keep it casual, conversational, and other-focused. Always. Karma Farming Yes, you can farm karma with memes and throwaway comments. But that’s empty calories. It might get you numbers, but it won’t get you credibility. And if you’re not building relationships and contributing to the community, you’re missing the whole point. Link-Dumping for Quick Clicks Dropping bare links or thinly disguised self-promo is Reddit’s oldest sin. If your post exists just to drive clicks, expect downvotes. Side note: Even if you play by the rules, downvotes happen. Bots filter posts. Mods nuke comments for reasons you’ll never know. That’s just Reddit being Reddit. Let it go and move on. You’ve only got three hours a week to spend here. Stop Marketing, Start Belonging This Reddit marketing strategy isn’t about farming karma. Sure, you’ll earn enough to look legit and stop tripping newbie filters. But the real win is this: You’ll start thinking like a Redditor. And you’ll shed the marketing reflexes that get you downvoted and booted off threads. With that, you become a trusted Reddit local. And that’s when the ripple effect kicks in. You get seen more on Google. And through LLM seeding — where AI models pull from sources they trust — you also influence AI answers. Bottom line: Play Reddit right and you etch your brand in a positive light into the internet’s DNA. The post Reddit Marketing in 3 Hours/Week: From 0 Karma to Real Cred appeared first on Backlinko. View the full article

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