1. Why journalists ditch the thesaurus when it comes to “said” (for new journalism students who don’t) An unusual and simple start to this quarter’s round-up… but it’s important because the use of the word ‘said’ comes up day after day. Take the advice, bookmark this article.
2. How to… ghostwrite Ghostwriting is an essential part of most content marketers’ armoury. But doing it well isn’t something that just anyone can do. Here’s what we’ve learnt from 20 years of practicing.
3. 7 things you should know before hiring a content marketing agency We’re big fans of this kind of piece. So we wondered what another content marketer would advise. And we can’t argue with any of the points here.
4. How Quartz achieved a 90 percent renewal rate for branded content We remain huge fans of Quartz. And, among a sea of other publishers all making money from branded content, Quartz stands out as an innovator with high standards.
5. Content metrics for content marketing and journalism Which metrics are important to doing journalism and content marketing well? They’re not all the same. But comparing both side to side is useful.
6. How to curate content: The secret sauce to getting noticed, becoming an influencer, and having fun online We’re fans of curation and fans of comprehensive guides. This checks both boxes.
7. Content-as-a-service is the next evolution for marketing The first of a two-fer about the future of marketing. But is the as-a-service approach just a good story angle?
8. Is marketing-as-a-service the future of marketing? And the second of two pieces with very similar headlines takes a surprisingly broad look at marketing, especially for ‘lean, agile start-ups’.
9. 6 essential types of content for creativepreneurs Yeah, we don’t like ‘creativepreneurs’ either. But stick with this, especially points 4-6.
10. Hacking your buyer personas: The only 3 questions you need to ask One way to get the best from those you’re working for is to identify points of pain. Often that means asking about their customers’ points of pain. And the ‘one thing that keeps you up at night’ approach really works.
11. How could the Internet of Things change the game for content marketers? Finally, this looks like a terrible, clickbait-y headline. But think about the different ways we’re going to develop stories and learn. IoT and analysis of its data will affect most things – even content marketing.

Why 11 links? It’s the day of the month when this writer was born. We’ll have more in the way of content marketing round-ups before the end of the year.
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