Assumptions and Design Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Assumptions and Design - Essay Example The researcher’s basic beliefs or assumptions guide him/her about research methods, including the researcher’s ontological beliefs (beliefs about the nature of reality), epistemological beliefs (beliefs about what is possible to know), and axiological beliefs (beliefs about what is ethical and the role of values in research). Armour Peterson article employs qualitative design to study post homicide experience of family members of homicide victims (Armour, 2002). Qualitative research design, such as the one employed by Armour, is designed to riposte to questions regarding the intricate nature of occurrences with the aim of explaining, describing, and understanding the phenomena being researched (Creswell, 2003). The author beliefs that the relatives of homicide victims are an ignored lot and their post homicide experiences are molded by the social ambiance and the superiority of the government’s schema for justice. The choice of qualitative method is further supported by the author’s belief that attention to the needs of this population is limited, and hence the need for a qualitative method to generate knowledge and explain various aspects. Since only very few empirical researches exist about post homicide experiences of the family members of the homicide victims, the researcher had to record words and phrases and then look for meaning, concepts or theories. In addition, the post homicide experiences of each family vary greatl y; the researcher had to adopt a qualitative design since full and rich data is scarce and is not obtainable through quantitative studies. Data is best obtained through taking comprehensive notes, recording conversations and writing detailed observations. Mixed methods would combine both quantitative and qualitative approaches. In applying mixed methods, the philosophical assumption would be that findings about post homicide experiences could be generalized across all the families of the homicide victims. To

Human Resource Definition Essay Example for Free

Human Resource Definition Essay 1. Contingent workers- Someone who is not an employee, but a temporary or part-time worker for a specific period of time and type of work. Employee engagement- The extent to which individuals feel linked to organizational success and how the organization performs positively. Human capital- The collective value of the capabilities, knowledge, skills, life experiences, and motivation of an organizational workforce. Human resource management- Designing management systems to ensure that human talent is used effectively and efficiently to accomplish organizational goals Organizational culture- The shared values and beliefs in an organization. Productivity- Measure of the quantity and quality of work done, considering the cost of the resources used Sustainability-Being able to continue to operate, survive, and adjust to significant changes. - - Essay Questions: Answer the following essay questions based on the book and class discussions. 2. Ethical behavior in an organization is likely to occur when an ethics program includes these four elements: The four elements necessary to quantify an organizations ethics are 1) written code of ethics and standards 2) ethics training to executives, managers, and employees 3) availability for advice on ethical situations (i.e. advice lines or offices) and 4) systems for confidential reporting 3. What challenges face HR managers with regard to workforce availability and quality? What are potential solutions? Future supply of and demand for employees and the nature of workforce issues, including the retention of employees. These factors are used when recruiting applicants for job openings. The selection process is concerned with choosing qualified individuals to fill those jobs. 4. What are the three major roles of HR management? Which is/are the most affected by technology and outsourcing? Which roles are growing in importance? 1) administrative, 2) operational and employee advocate, and 3) strategic. 5. Identify the key competencies needed by all HR professionals, and the additional competencies needed by senior HR leaders. HR professionals need competencies in strategic knowledge and impacts; capabilities in legal, administrative, and operational areas; and technology knowledge abilities. Senior HR leaders need these areas plus others to be effective. - HR Headline: Read the following and then in teams, answer the following questions: HR Headline: The Challenges and Crises Facing HR Management Recent economic downturns, industry crises, bank failures, closing of plants and stores, changes in global operations, and other factors have significantly affected organizations, managers, and Human Resource (HR) management professionals. Some jobs are in high demand while others are being eliminated. According to surveys, some of the biggest problems include the following: 1) Adjusting benefits programs due to increasing costs; 2) Attracting and retaining key employees; 3) Planning for replacement of â€Å"baby boomers† when they retire; 4) Using talent management to train and develop capabilities of employees for future job needs; 5) Dealing with the expanded personal and organizational use of HR technology through blogs, wikis, twitters, text messaging, and other aspects; and 6) Complying with revised and changing federal, state, and local legal requirements affecting discrimination, treatment errors, unionization, and others. Questions for Discussion: 1. What do you think will be the most important change in the economy that will influence HR management operations? Explain. Their media tend to be a big part of it since that how things are function more. There are so many way to communicate and get things done faster and is more time saving. Also attracts different type of people with different types of skills. 2. How do you think technology changes will change the way HR professionals do recruiting and selection of employees? What are the pros and cons of any changes? It helps people have easier way to apply for jobs or to show their talents. Help HR find people with the skills that they are looking for. But it also disqualifies many people for the reason they are in the internet/ profiles. 3. The number of jobs in HR is predicted to increase between now and 2018. Explain why you think that is? They are going to need more people to be able to hire other that are right for the jobs rather than outsourcing. Since many people are baby boomer, there are going retired soon so that means many companies are going to need new heiress there need HR to be able to cover all the new people that are coming. HR Headline: The Challenges and Crises Facing HR Management Recent economic downturns, industry crises, bank failures, closing of plants and stores, changes in global operations, and other factors have significantly affected organizations, managers, and Human Resource (HR) management professionals. Some jobs are in high demand while others are being eliminated. According to surveys, some of the biggest problems include the following: 1) Adjusting benefits programs due to increasing costs; 2) Attracting and retaining key employees; 3) Planning for replacement of â€Å"baby boomers† when they retire; 4) Using talent management to train and develop capabilities of employees for future job needs; 5) Dealing with the expanded personal and organizational use of HR technology through blogs, wikis, twitters, text messaging, and other aspects; and 6) Complying with revised and changing federal, state, and local legal requirements affecting discrimination, treatment errors, unionization, and others. Questions for Discussion: 4. What do you think will be the most important change in the economy that will influence HR management operations? Explain. Their media tend to be a big part of it since that how things are function more. There are so many way to communicate and get things done faster and is more time saving. Also attracts different type of people with different types of skills. 5. How do you think technology changes will change the way HR professionals do recruiting and selection of employees? What are the pros and cons of any changes? It helps people have easier way to apply for jobs or to show their talents. Help HR find people with the skills that they are looking for. But it also disqualifies many people for the reason they are in the internet/ profiles. 6. The number of jobs in HR is predicted to increase between now and 2018. Explain why you think that is? They are going to need more people to be able to hire other that are right for the jobs rather than outsourcing. Since many people are baby boomer, there are going retired soon so that means many companies are going to need new heiress there need HR to be able to cover all the new people that are coming. - - Chapter Video—Fruit Guys: After the video, answer the following questions. 6. What do you think will be the most important challenges for HR at Fruit Guys in the next five years? SUMMARYIZED THE VIDEO: It was showing how people in business think in the way of rewarding people in different positions. People that are in a higher position that are being rewarded for their performance in money show there performance actually got worse compare to the people in lower positions that are getting paid less. The study show that the people that have cram time to do a project are more productive and they show more passion on their job. Also people tend to do thing for free in there space time and are more productive since they are not pressured or force to do something they tend to be more productive. 7. Based on the CEO and other manager in the video, it appears that HR at Fruit Guys is expected to be involved in all three roles of HR. Describe an example of HR activities at Fruit Guys required for each of these roles shown in Figure 1-9 in the text.

Research Issues in Parapsychology Essay -- survival-after-bodily-death

"I shall not commit the fashionable stupidity of regarding everything I cannot explain as a fraud." -C.G. Jung (Society for Psychical Research) "Parapsychology is a belief in search of data rather than data in search of an explanation." -C.E.M. Hansel (Alcock ix) For years, ghosts and poltergeists have been a part of our popular lexicon. From stories told around the campfire, to motion pictures like The Haunting, to books like the Scary Story series, everyone has heard a good ghost story or two. Many people claim to have actually been party to a few supernatural experiences themselves. But for as long as we have told these frightful stories, science has been attempting to explain them beyond the typical bump in the dark. This investigation into the paranormal eventually evolved into the field of parapsychology. Current research in parapsychology has three focuses: psychokinesis (PK), extrasensory perception (ESP), and survival-after-bodily-death experiences. Psychokenisis is direct mental interaction with objects animate or inanimate. Extrasensory perception is a general term for obtaining information about events beyond the reach of the normal senses ("Parapsychology FAQ"). Survival-after-bodily-death is the investigation into events and phenomena dealing with life after death. In this paper, I intend to look at parapsychology and the study of survival-after-bodily-death. This area of parapsychology is perhaps the most recognizable, yet also the least investigated. I intend to look at the rise of this field of inquiry as a science, the arguments for it and against it, and why survival-after-bodily-death is not as prominent a field as it once was. History Parapsychology's roots can be traced back to the... ...botree.com/ [Accessed 20 April 1999]. Parapsychological Association (1999, Dec.). Parapsychology FAQ. [Online]. Available: http://www.parapsych.org [Accessed 20 April 1999]. Price, Harry. Confessions of a Ghost-Hunter. Putnam & Company: London, 1936. "Online Research in Parapsychology." Encyclopà ¦dia Britannica. [Online] Available: http://search.eb.com/bol/topic?eu=70964&sctn=1 [Accessed 26 April 1999]. Rhine, Louisa E. The Invisible Picture. McFarland & Company: Jefferson, 1981. Society for Psychical Research. [Online]. Available: http://129.215.50.44/spr.html [Accessed 20 April 1999]. Tyrrell, G. N. M. Apparitions. Gerald Duckworth & Co. Ltd.: London, 1953 Weiner, Debra H. and Radin, Dean I., eds. Research in Parapsychology 1985. The Scarecrow Press, Inc.: Metuchen, 1986. Wilson, Colin. Mysteries. New York: G.E. Putnam's Sons, 1978.

Managed Care CBA

In order to better understand the workings of managed care, it is important to understand its history as well as future trends. Please read the required background materials, and then answer the following questions in a 2 page paper: 1. What is managed care? 2. How and when did managed care begin? 3. How will consumer-driven health care impact healthcare delivery? The following resources will help you complete this assignment: Scandlen, G. (2005). Consumer-driven health care: Just a tweak or a revolution? Health Affairs, 24(6), 1554. Tufts Health Care Institute: Brief History of Managed Care http://www.tmci.org/downloads/BriefHist.pdf What is managed care? Managed care is a system of delivering healthcare in such a way that the costs of the service, quality and the utilization of the service is provided and handled by one healthcare organization, and under one roof.   Such an organization is known as the ‘Health Maintenance organization’ or the ‘HMO’.   The patients are provided health plans or health packages that cover their health needs.   According to the condition the patient suffers from, he/she could subscribe to a particular health plan. Managed care has continuously evolved as a system of deliverance of healthcare in the US.   The impact of such a system has not been understood clearly.   Such a system may consume a lot of resources or may be not organized in a proper manner.   Many patients may get under-treated or over-treated for their condition.   The system does not focus on the preventive aspects of medical care.   The physician would be providing his/her services in association with a healthcare team, consisting of professionals belonging to other fields. The patient work may be performed by the professionals belonging to other fields (G. Farfield. 1997).   United Health Group is one of the largest Managed care organizations in the US and was founded in the year 1977.   It provided health packages for its customers in the year 1979.   It began to get listed in the US Stock Markets since the year 1984.   The company began to acquire smaller companies and grow gradually.   The company is constantly adopting it policy to suit the changing needs of its customers in a very competitive market (United Health Group. 2006). How and when did managed care begin? Managed care began in the US in the 19th Century, and was aimed at meeting the healthcare needs of the masses.   At first, selected group of people organized healthcare packages with the physicians.   These included workers, laborers, rural dwellers, railroad workers, etc.   Their employers wanted to meet their healthcare needs and hence organized healthcare plans with local physicians and hospitals.   Societies were also involved in organizing such programs in cities. A nominal amount was paid by the employer to provide healthcare services to the employers for a certain period of time.   Dr. Shahid was one of the first physicians to initiate a healthcare plan for the farmers (in 1929). Dr. Ross and Dr. Loos provided medical care to the employees of LA Water and Power Department for a nominal amount (in 1929).   In some plans, the employers paid a part of the amount and the employees paid another part.   Henry Kaiser provided medical care services in return for a prepaid amount during the World War II time.   He began offering such services to the public, once the war ended. Slowly, the prepaid health service packages began to develop in managed care, and such organizations were known as ‘HMO’s’.   They offered comprehensive medical care services.   The members could select a customized healthcare package according to their healthcare needs.   The AMA initially objected to the development of the HMO’s.   It felt that soon medical care would become a business, and companies would be involved. The Supreme Court’s Decision in 1947 ensured that the AMA would not interfere in the development of the HMO’s.   During the 1960’s and the 1970’s, the politicians began to show greater amount of interest in Managed care.   President Nixon brought out a plan in 1971, to develop HMO’s.   The loans offered to HMO’s for development was increased.   During the 1980’s and the 1990’s, the HMO’s began to grow.   Now people utilize Managed Care to supplement Medical Insurance.   More than 600 HMO’s are present in the US and about 25 % of the population has a managed care package (TMCI. 1998). How will consumer-driven health care impact healthcare delivery? Consumer-driven healthcare may not just provide a mere modification to the present healthcare system.   The manner in which it could be impacted includes: – Providing more health information to the consumers so that an informed decision can be made and they can exercise greater control over their bodies. Cost-effective services. Provision of high-quality services. Providing tax-free benefits to the consumers. Encouragement of medical tourism. Removal of anticompetitive measures that exist in the healthcare delivery market. Use of modern technology and equipment (Greg Scandlen. 2005) References: G. Farfield, D. J. Hunter, D. Mechanic, Et al â€Å"Managed care: origins, principles, and evolution.† BMJ 314 (1997): 1823. http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/314/7097/1823 Greg Scandlen. â€Å"Consumer-Driven Health Care: Just A Tweak Or A Revolution?† Health Affairs 24.6 (2005): 1554-1558. Tufts Health Care Institute â€Å"Brief History of Managed Care.† TMCI (1998). http://www.tmci.org/downloads/BriefHist.pdf United Health Group â€Å"Principles of Ethics & Integrity Your Guide to Business Conduct.† United Health Group. 2006. United Health Group. 15 Apr. 2007 http://www.unitedhealthgroup.com/global/PrinciplesofEthicsandIntegrity.pdf            

Thus I Refute Beelzy

Group Assessment and Self-Assessment During this project I learned a lot about my group members but even more about myself. I discovered that I am not very detailed oriented and that I really need to work on my communication skills. A lot of the time I assumed that we were all on the same page when we weren’t. If I had to redo this I would have made sure that we started selling our cards earlier and would have worked on getting bigger business on our cards so that more people would want to buy them.Marise: Maurice did a lot for the group. She was the most responsible out of all of us and the most realistic. Though she was quiet she silently took charge. She helped keep the boys focused when they started to go astray. Andrew: Andrew really took leadership during this project. Though he may have slacked at times, all in all he did a lot. He and Max were the two who came up with our idea. He brought a lot of ideas to the table however he didn’t really like listening to oth er people’s ideas. Max: Max worked really hard on this.Though he may have been quiet he organized a lot of the stuff and he also came up with our idea with Andrew. I can’t really say much about Max because he was really quiet but he contributed a lot. He also put a lot of time and effort into the cards. Trenton: Trenton worked really hard on this and was really dedicated. However he was really close-minded and wasn’t very open to new ideas. I feel as though if Trenton would have been more willing to venture we could have done a lot more with the cards. But he really took charge and accomplished a lot. He also has excellent communication skills.

Dangerous Rock Music essays

Dangerous Rock Music essays Rock music and the word dangerous have been known to be used in the same sentence together; is it dangerous because of the lyrics or is it just dangerous to our hearing? Rock music has been around since the fifties, so has the last 40 years created dangerous people causing violence and mayhem or is violence just in our nature? Parents have been trying to fight against the devil music (Rock music) that was corrupting the youth since the fifties and are still trying to rid the world of it. Yet, it is ok to play tackle football, hockey, boxing and be on the wrestling team because those are considered a sport. Parents can only see music associated with pain, sex and violence. There is no proof from either side that music contributes to violence, parents are using just casual observation. Just because of a few committed acts of anger, people point fingers and use music as a sense of reason for horrible active violence. The truth is that rock music is just not dangerous and if we we re to pinpoint where the violence in our society begun, it would be in the quality of our parenting. Parents cannot take away The freedom of speech amendment that are forefathers created for us. Without it the government would censer and take away our rights. Our forefathers could not imagine that one day there would be music so disgusting, violent, loud, sexual, and contain foul language. People of today believe rock music manipulates the mind of young innocent people. The Freedom of Speech amendment is overused and needs to be rewritten by the government. It is not the peoples fault for listening to violent rock music: it is the artists who created the music, peer pressure from friends and family, music television (MTV), fashion, fame and society. Under the guise of free speech merchandisers are aggressively doing violence to our kids. They in turn, are doing violence to each other (527 Cultural Vandals)....

Content Calendar Template Backed By Data - CoSchedule

Content Calendar Template Backed By Data More consistency. Better frequency. Clearer organization. Those are the exact things an overwhelming majority of you told us youd like help with for your blog posting schedule. I can see how those things are at the top of your list  because problems in those areas prevent you from building  the audience you need to convert into customers. And it sounds like a content calendar template is the perfect solution to help you get out of your funk and focus on launching  your blog and business forward. Well. Here ya go. The Real Problem This Content Calendar Template Will Help You Solve To answer your question of how often to blog,  it'd be all too easy for me to just say, "Hey there, just do a blog schedule of one post per week," and call this post complete. But. I'm a nerd. And I don't believe that every blog is created equal, nor does it have the same audience. So there is no one clear way to answer that question other than to use your own data to help you find the perfect frequency and consistency  that will help you grow. And to do that, we're going to use maths. Yes. Maths. Now, I know you're a creative person and if you're anything like me, you probably loathed any class that had anything to do with numbers when you were back in school. So I'm going to walk you through how often to blog by helping you fill out your content calendar template that will translate your raw data into some super cool insights. When you're done reading this post, you'll know: How often you should blog to reach your goals. How to change your blog schedule to publish super consistently and regularly. How to improve the content you're already creating to reach your goals. How to save time by reworking your older content into your upcoming blog schedule. How to be a data-driven marketer who can  prove that your content calendar is driving real business growth. This is the exact process we've used at to grow traffic to new blog posts by 299%. The idea is simple: Replicate the success from your  best-performing content to improve every new post you  publish. And you can do it, too. Get out your calculators because it's about to rain numbers up in here. (See, I can't even make a good math joke.) Are you having trouble #blogging frequently and consistently? Get your #ContentCalendar template...The Data-Driven Method To Find The Best Blog Schedule Frequency For Your Content Calendar You're about to go through a  few steps with your data. To keep you from becoming overwhelmed, just know that the final outcome of this process will be the exact number of blog posts you need to publish to reach your goals. When you follow these steps, you'll  solve the frequency problem which leads directly into solving the consistency problem. 1. Determine the broad  goal behind  your content calendar. Brainstorm the reasons why you're blogging.  It sounds silly because it might feel  obvious, but the practice will help  you hone in on the right ways to measure your success. For example, let's say you use inbound marketing through your blog  to sell a product. That's terrific! While that's your big picture goal,  think about how your blog can actually contribute to that goal through traffic, email subscribers, and trial conversions. For the sake of this post- and to give you an example to follow through this process- let's say you choose to measure your success through increasing traffic. Judging from  the data you gave us in the Better Marketer Survey, that's  why you blog- to introduce your business to lots of people online. So: I am blogging to increase traffic. Answer This: I am blogging to __________ {#1 reason}. 2. Know how you'll specifically measure your goal. Now it's time to understand the exact metric you'll measure and find the tool that will give you that data. A  robust and free tool to start with is Google Analytics.  The tool will help you track  general traffic metrics and also helps you track your conversion steps for goals like email subscriptions and trial signups. In the case for the example you're following, you can use Google Analytics to measure increasing traffic with the metric of page views. So:  For my broad goal to increase traffic, I'm going to measure success with this specific metric: page views. Answer This:  For my broad goal to  __________ {#1 reason}, I'm going to measure success with this specific metric: __________ {metric}. 3.  Figure out the baseline performance of an average month for that metric. Look at the past several months to find the average amount you receive for that metric. You'll use this data to help you understand how  the changes you'll make in frequency and consistency are helping you reach your goal. For example, if you're measuring page views, take a look at  your past three month's individual contribution to that metric. Then average the three numbers to gauge an average month's performance over the past quarter. So: I'm going to look at how many average page views I got per month over the last three months. Answer This:  I'm going to look at how many average __________ {metric}  I got per __________ {time frame} over the last  __________ {# sample size of time frame}. Now all you have to do is gather the data for your metric and find the average. Use this equation to get started:  __________ {sum of all metric  in the sample} / __________ {# of months  in the sample} =  __________ {average month  contribution}. You just did some math. Very nice. 4. Find  an average blog post's contribution toward that metric. You need a baseline  number from an average blog post. That means that you'll need to review the same metric from several blog posts, giving them all the same opportunity to be successful. In other words, you need to find out  the amount each post in a sample contributed to your  metric within a certain period of time. Back to the example you're following- you need to look at a nice sample size of blog posts (10 at least), and review  how many page views each post delivered in the first 30 days after being published. The 30-day period means each post got an equal opportunity (more or less) to contribute to the metric. So: I'm going to look at how many page views 10 blog posts received in the first 30 days after they were published. Answer This:  I'm going to look at  how many __________ {metric} __________ {# sample size} blog posts received in __________ {# days}. Now it's time to gather the data. Grab your content calendar template and enter in all of the URLs of the blog posts you'll include in your sample, then grab the data for your  baseline time period for each of those URLs. Find the average metric number for  all of the blog posts in the sample by using this equation: __________ {sum of metric from all posts in the sample} / __________ {# of posts in the sample} =  __________ {average post contribution}. 5. Set the  aspirational goal for your content calendar through the SMART process. This is where it gets really fun. :) Now you can actually set  real goals based on data so you know they will be realistically achievable while also helping you shoot for growth. If you set goals before this point, you have no data-driven way to understand how each post you publish will contribute to your larger picture. It would be a guess- which will make your content calendar feel a whole lot more stressful. Anyway, SMART goals, as it were, stands for: Specific: Clearly define your goal through the process you've been working through right now. Measurable: Know how you'll measure your goal. This means knowing the tool you'll use, the exact metric, and the number. Aspirational: Know the baseline of how you're performing today, and shoot for 10x growth. You'll learn a lot more about this in a second. Realistic: You need to be able to do this with  the  resources available to you. Time-sensitive: Give yourself a time period in which you'll measure success. How To Set Aspirational Goals For Your #ContentCalendar Based On Your Own DataThe good news is that you've done nearly all of this  already by  walking through this process right now. It's the aspirational side of things that makes a great goal and  pushes you into continued growth. A good goal is at least 10x growth month over month to keep you focused on projects that will help you truly grow. That means, you'll want at least a 10% month-over-month increase with  your metric. Back to your example: Let's say  you get 10,000 page views a month. 10% more than that is 11,000, so that's your aspirational goal for next month. Do this: __________ {average month contribution} Ãâ€"  1.__________ {% aspirational growth} = __________ {new month contribution goal}. 6. Figure out how many blog posts it'll take to  crush your aspirational  goal. By this point, you know your aspirational goal for your content calendar for next month. Luckily for you, you also know how much each blog post contributes to that metric. So now you can simply add up how many blog posts you need to publish next month to reach your goal. Following your example, let's say an average blog post of yours gets 2,500 page views. To exceed  your monthly aspirational goal of 11,000 page views, you'd need to publish five  blog posts next month (and you can realistically predict you'll get 12,500 page views). Just follow this equation: __________ {new month contribution goal} /  __________ {average post contribution} =  __________ {# of posts needed to reach your goal}. Note: This formula completely leaves out long-tail metrics from blog posts you've published in the past. It is, however, a useful  guide  to help you understand how much more frequently you could blog to reach your goals. Use your best judgment to understand how much more you'll need to publish and remember: SMART goals have to be realistically achievable. You'll learn how to plan your calendar for long-term growth in a second, I promise. 7. Build up your tolerance as you blog consistently. Now, this process will always suggest that you need to publish more content- increase your publishing frequency- to reach your aspirational goal. Like doing anything new, there is a learning curve that  suggests adding more new things to your plate takes a bit longer initially than after you master the craft. You know those marathon runners? They don't start out by running 26.2 miles on their first day. They train themselves by running  shorter distances to build up the tolerance to make it all the way through the marathon. They're strict on their running schedules and commit to success. The secret to #blogging success? Commitment.You need to have a similar commitment  with your content calendar if you're going to experience 299% more success than you are today. And that also means you need to schedule time for yourself to build up your publishing endurance. Back to that example: Let's say you normally publish four new blog posts that each earn 2,500 page views a month- one every week that bring in a monthly total of 10,000 page views. To reach your aspirational goal of 11,000 page views, you'd like to publish five  posts next month.  That means you'll publish one extra post next  month  to exceed your aspirational goal of 11,000 monthly page views by actually hitting 12,500. See how that works? Plan  content in your calendar so that you can build up the tolerance to publish much more content: After you  successfully publish your extra content, reflect on the process by asking yourself three simple questions: What went well? What went wrong? What could I improve next time? Constant iteration and improvement will help you build up your publishing endurance to help you increase your blogging frequency while also sharing content regularly and consistently. Replicate The Success From Your Top 10% Content To Reach Your Aspirational Goal But what if you don't want to publish more content, but rather, get more results from every blog post you plan to publish? It's totally possible. You've probably had a post or two hit it out of the park. So wouldn't it be great if every post you wrote from this point forward had the same success? It's a question we asked ourselves at and figured out the process to help us strategically choose content to create that we know you'll dig to help us reach our goals faster and make the effort of writing a blog post pay off that much more. And, it's a process you can do with your content, too. How? You ask. Well,  allow me to show you step by step. 1.  Make a list of every post you published in the last nine months. Whip out your content calendar template and create a list of  every one of your blog posts' URLs from  at least the past nine months. You can go longer if you want- the point is to get a large  sample. 2. Ask yourself four questions to  grade your gut. Critically think about what makes a successful blog post on your site. For this exercise, I scrutinized content and came up with four categories I felt made our content successful.  You can start with these questions for your blog, too; or if you feel there is something else unique about your blog that makes your content successful in a different way, swap  out a question. Keyword: Successful posts target a keyword and are optimized to rank well for that keyword to continue bringing in long-term traffic from an audience who often  doesn't already know you. By optimizing your content from the get-go, you continue getting traffic and building your audience well into the future without additional promotion. Question to ask yourself: Was the keyword well-chosen (for search volume and difficulty) and optimized throughout the post to help me get long-term traffic? Topic:  Next, successful blog posts connect the keyword people use to find your content into the angle or unique value proposition for a problem they'd like to resolve. This shows your audience- even newcomers- that you're deeply in tune with their challenges and you're dedicated to helping them  overcome their hurdles. Question to ask yourself: Was this a topic my readers would be deeply interested in learning more about? Research: Successful content backs up its claims with thorough research that proves why your advice is credible and worth following. Your credibility will  build a following of readers who keep coming back. Question to ask yourself: Was this post deeply researched to share unique and better information than any other source on the Internet? Comprehensiveness: Call it complete, in-depth, or actionable.  Comprehensiveness has nothing to do with word count, but rather, when you decide to tackle a topic that you give it everything you've got to go deep into the detail instead of just publishing catchy blog titles with content that barely scratches the surface of the promise you make in your value proposition. Question to ask yourself: Did the post turn the research into actionable, exhaustive how-to advice  and  end only  when the entire story was complete? Is your content reaching your goals, really? Strategically plan a better #ContentCalendar.At this point, you're basing all of your thoughts on gut instinct: Was this post  successful or not? There's no data involved whatsoever yet. You're just aiming to translate your gut into a grade. Kinda like a teacher grading your homework. For each of the questions, rank every post in your list on  a 1 to 3 scale for each of the four categories  of successful content: keyword, topic, research, comprehensiveness. 1 means the post is  a stinker in that category whereas a 3 means it's totally awesome. Go ahead and use your content calendar template to grade your content in each of the four categories you feel make your content successful. When you're done, add up each blog post's  grade with the highest score a single post can receive being a 12 and the lowest possible being a 4. 3.  Review every post's performance toward your aspirational goal. Now it's time to find the contribution  each blog post delivers to your aspirational goal. In your content calendar template, track the metric for the first 30 days after a blog post publishes. Additionally,  grab the data from the following two months to give you a complete quarter's worth of data. From here,  you can measure the return on investment for every blog post  after its first month's worth of performance to help you predict how your blog posts will contribute to your goals a full two months after they publish. This is where you'll learn more about that part I noted for residual long-term metrics and can add it into play as you improve your content calendar. 4. Compare your posts' actual performance to your gut. Go into your content calendar template and sort  your blog posts according to the grades you ranked them (12 being the highest and should be at the top of your sorted  list). Go ahead and highlight your top five blog posts with red  (#1), orange  (#2), yellow  (#3), green  (#4), and blue  (#5). Now sort  all of your posts again according to the first 30 days they contribute to your metrics with the highest contributing post at the top of your list. You can see from your color coding how your gut actually translates into your most successful content. If your gut translated correctly, your top  five posts should still be  red, orange, yellow, green, and blue. So... Were you right? Were you wrong? Either way, there are lots of lessons you can learn from this process with the two biggest ones being: If your gut translated into real data correctly: You've got it! Stick with your gut and plan more content on your calendar that reflects what you already feel will be successful. If data disproved your gut: Review the top five posts according to their contribution to your metric. What makes those posts really stand out versus what you thought was awesome? Do you see where you're going with this? 5. Plan to create new  content like your top 10% truly knowing what will make a difference and what won't. No more guessing. No more getting close but not quite right. Dissect the top five posts according to their contribution to your  aspirational goal and replicate the success from your top-performing content. Here are a few questions you can ask yourself as you review that content: Where did the referral traffic come from? Was it from the keyword like you thought? What was it that made this topic super popular with my audience? Was it the value proposition or promise? Was this post well researched? Did the post back up the claims it promised in the headline? Was this post complete? Was the bounce rate low? Did it provide actionable content? Who was the author? Did they attract  a following to this post? What type of blog post was it? Was it a list post, step-by-step guide, infographic, etc.? What was the tone of the post? Was it authentic, humorous, or super straightforward? Did the post have additional media in it? Were there images, videos, or bonus content that influenced its success? You get the picture. Figure out all the  reasons why your audience loved those posts and repeat those elements  in the new posts you plan on your content calendar. This process will help you get more out of every blog post you publish so you don't have to publish more content, but rather, improve the quality of the content you publish. Publishing more may not be the answer. Here's a data-driven way to translate your gut into better...Who Said Everything On Your Content Calendar Has To Be Brand New? Well, you've just gone through a lot. You know: How frequently you need to blog every month to hit your aspirational goal. How to build up your endurance to publish consistently and regularly. How to  optimize  each new blog post to contribute even more to your aspirational goal. But here's the thing: You just found  your best-performing blog posts  that you can optimize even further and republish to get even more out of them. This simple republishing process will help you: Fill up your blog schedule while saving a ton of time you would have spent creating new content. Become friends with search engines like Google that  reward content marketers who update their older content. Optimize your best content to contribute even more to your aspirational goal. Yeah, sold you, right? Finally: Something easy to fill up your content calendar. :) 1. Find a top-performing, older blog post. Lucky you! You already found your top-performing blog posts according to your aspirational goal. The only other qualifier for republishing  is to make sure  that the post you choose is at least six month old. The older, the better, since you don't want to accidentally share something that's somewhat new with your audience who may have already seen it. 2. Refresh the old blog post with 5 pieces of new insight. Adding  more relevant content into your older blog post adds tons of value for your readers- even if they saw the original piece in the past. And according to Brian Dean's research on the top 200 ranking factors Google uses in its search algorithm,  Google also likes to see  you refreshing your content. To top it off, when  you add more actionable advice to your content  and  increase  the length of your blog post, you have a higher likelihood of ranking well in search engines. Recommended Reading:  6 Simple Tips For Using Online Research In Your Content Marketing Add new data: There came a point when you had to publish the post originally. There were probably other sources of data that you didn't include in your initial content because you didn't find them  at the time or they didn't even exist because they're so new. That type of research can help keep your advice relevant- or could even help you make a couple new points that you didn't think about before. Replace outdated information: When you continue researching your blog post, you might find new information that disputes your original suggestions. For example, in a post we republished called "25 Growth Hacks That Will Amplify Your Content Marketing", I found out that one of the growth hacks from the original post  wasn't valid anymore because the website we referenced went out of business. I replaced that outdated information with a new growth hack that was similar  but much more timely than the original idea. 5 Ways To Revive And Republish Old Blog Posts  With Your #ContentCalendarAdd more awesome advice: With time comes more experience. Think about how authors re-release their books several years after their original version with new edits and insights they've learned after getting published. Use the same process to add additional advice that builds on your original thought process to add more value. A way we do this at is by analyzing all of the how-to information in an older blog post before we republish. If we give advice on, say, "make an infographic to get more social shares", we'll  back up the claim with new data that proves infographics still get more social shares than any other type of visual content. Then we'll also give the step-by-step guidance on how to create that infographic (or link to a new blog post with lots more detail). See what I did there? You can apply the same process to your blog post before you republish it by analyzing areas you can flesh out with further step-by-step, actionable guidance. Optimize the post for keywords: Yeah, you probably targeted a keyword in your blog post originally. But the keyword game is changing a little bit, and it turns out you can target multiple related keywords in one blog post to get traffic from several different search terms. While I've taken a stab at keyword optimization, I'll let Rand from Moz teach you how to do this because he's wicked smart: Essentially, based on your original keyword, find synonyms or related keywords that will help you rank for a category-type of search. Recommended Reading:  An SEO Driven Approach To Content Marketing: The Complete Guide Optimize for email subscriber conversions: A lot of you are  building your email list to keep your readers coming back for more of your awesome content. That's a terrific idea, so you'll love hearing that adding content upgrades into your blog posts can help you increase the number of email subscribers you receive from any blog post- including the ones you're optimizing and republishing. Let me explain a bit about content upgrades: Since we started including bonus content like infographics, templates, worksheets, guides, and checklists in every blog post we publish here at , we've been able to increase our email subscribers by 552% in one year. Seriously. And you can experience similar  success: Review your top-trafficked blog posts and choose a couple you could easily translate your step-by-step advice into a worksheet, template, checklist, tear sheet, infographic, or tool of some kind. Formats could include Word Templates, Google Sheets Templates, PDFs, images- the sky is the limit. Next, simply open up an Evernote note, pick out the big takeaways from your content, and write the content upgrade. The goal is to help your readers turn your advice into a game plan to experience the success you promise in your blog post. Include areas to write and brainstorm, checkboxes to mark tasks as complete, fill-in-the-blank sections, tables, and other tools to help your readers  literally work through your advice to end with the desired outcome you promised. Either work with your in-house designer to  turn your note into something awesome or  find a freelancer  to design it for you from  a site like Behance  or  Dribbble. Add the content upgrade into your WordPress media library like you would with a normal  blog post image, then grab the URL of the file name. Use a tool like LeadPages' LeadBoxes to embed a signup form right inline in your blog post to trade your content upgrade for  your reader's email address. Here's  how Neil Patel does this exact content upgrade process using LeadPages' LeadBoxes: Neil Patel uses LeadBoxes from LeadPages to add content upgrades into his content to turn traffic into email subscribers. You can do it, too. And it's especially handy for turning your high-trafficked posts into subscriber-generating machines. 3. Republish the blog post as if it were brand new. You can keep the republishing process simple to work through these projects faster than you would when you'd write a brand new post.  This is how to republish a blog post in WordPress: Add a new WordPress  post onto your content calendar on the day you'd like your old blog post to re-launch. Copy your old blog post in its entirety and paste it into your new post. The reason you'd do this is that the old post is still live on your blog and is still generating traffic- you won't want to confuse your readers with edits you're making on the fly, especially if you plan to republish the post later in your editorial schedule. Work through the post adding in all of the advice you just learned: Add new data, replace old  info, add new advice, optimize with more keywords, and add in your content upgrade. When you're done and ready to republish it, change the URL of the new post to match the one that is currently live on your blog. So, if your URL of the live post is http://awesome.com/cool-post, enter your slug for the new post as http://awesome.com/cool-post. WordPress is smart and will auto-magically  change your URL to http://awesome.com/cool-post-2. Don't freak out, because that's exactly what you want to happen. That means WordPress recognizes your original  post and is confirming that it will republish your new content over the old stuff on the specific date and time you have your new post scheduled for. Just leave the new post in draft mode, and when that day and time rolls around, your new content will show up on that old URL. Now, if you'd like to get a little picky about your blog and have that republished  post show up on your home page, you could always go into the original post and change it  to a time in the recent past (like say 30 minutes ago). Just be weary about accidentally  changing the date on your already-published post to republish in the future- it's no good unless you're Michael J. Fox. :) Now You Have A  Data-Driven  Content Calendar Template Listen, I know this sounds like a lot, so hear me out: Why this process is worth every second you spend doing it  even though you're probably  scared of what you read. You're thinking right now: This guy's crazy. I don't have time for this! To which I'm thinking: How will you be able to  improve without knowing  how what you've done- and what you plan to do- has impacted your goal? And my bro Abraham Lincoln is backing me up: Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe. If you really want to throw efficiency in the mix, consider this: Productivity is only as good as the content you produce and how it  reaches your goal. Using your time to create effective content is far better than being efficient with your time. Using your time to create effective content is far better than being efficient with your time. Heck, Todd Henry sums it up best in his book,  The Accidental Creative: How To Be Brilliant At A Moment's Notice: We must learn to spend our time effectively rather than obsessing about efficiency. Do this, and I guarantee your content calendar will deliver the results you're looking for. #RantOver I wouldn't give you any advice I wouldn't follow myself.  This process is exactly how we plan our content calendar at , and it's  helped us keep our content calendar on track and reach our aspirational goals to grow super fast. Good luck with your content calendar!