Content Strategy for the Web by Kristina Halvorson and Melissa Rach

About the authors:

Kristina Halvorson is the CEO and founder of Brain Traffic, a well known content strategy company that assists other businesses with fixing up and generating content for their websites.

Melissa Rach is the co-founder of Dialog Studios and previous VP of content strategy at Brain Traffic. 

It's no surprise that two well-established content strategists such as Halvorson and Rach would come up with such a well-structured and useful guide to deal with content in all of its stages.

Content Strategy for the Web:
The book is structured as a 12-chapter guide to deal with all things content-related.  The text operates with the understanding that there may not be any defined strategy in place and takes readers through the motions of defining roles, assigning responsibilities, auditing existing data, building core strategy structures, and implementing well-thought-out solutions.

The text provides a number of useful diagrams and case studies to demonstrate real world applications of its sometimes complex principles to further the reader's understanding of how these strategies work.  The guide to defining tone in chapter 8 is accompanied by a case study from MailChimp. The study is very helpful in demonstrating how tone can be defined through terminology and antonyms, showing readers that MailChimp employees understand that they can be "fun but not childish" when developing content.  I found this principal to be very useful, sometimes it's easier to know what your tone should be by having a thorough understanding of what it shouldn't be.

The dialogue is quite accessible to industry professionals, but may not be as simple of a read for anyone who doesn't consider themselves a "tech person".  A base understanding of SEO best practices, scripting, and other tech-related tools and terms will be an asset to anyone hoping to glean as much information from the book as possible.  That said, if you are up-to-date on the necessary lingo, you are sure to come away with some helpful ideas from reading this.

One small drawback is that the book presents a lot of positions and titles, duties, and responsibilities for creating and implementing a content strategy.  For any sole proprietors or small groups this can sometimes seem a little daunting.  If you, as a marketing professional or business owner, don't have any support staff to speak of, most, if not all, of these tasks will fall to you.  That being said, if you aren't intimidated by a bit of hard work, the book does an excellent job of walking you through the steps you need to take to get to a place of better content.

Overall, I would highly recommend this book to anyone who deals with content on a regular basis.  It has a lot to offer and even if you don't need or want to implement every suggestion along the way, there is bound to be something you can learn from this book.  I will certainly be keeping it on hand going forward.

Apple Raspberry Truffles

Harvest season is upon us fellow food lovers.  There's no better time of year to indulge in the bounty of local produce.  Today we're going to substitute a more traditional truffle filling for one that, at the very least, will get some dietary fibre into you and contains a serving of fruit.

This is an advanced recipe, so strap on your aprons you intermediate cooks because it's time to graduate.

Apples are just coming into season as we head into Autumn and what better way to get your apple a day then wrapped in rich dark chocolate?  I won't sugar coat this confection, it is time consuming and not for those looking for a quick sugar fix. If you have the time and dedication it's worth the reward.

Harvest Time Truffles:

3lbs of apples (whatever you can get in quantity)
Juice of 1 lemon
1 pint Raspberries
2 packages Raspberry gelatin
6 oz Dark chocolate
1/4 cup Cocoa powder
1/4 cup Icing sugar
3 cups Water
2 cups Corn Syrup

Peel and core the apples and place them in a large heavy bottomed pot.  Wash the raspberries, then puree and strain off any seeds. Place the raspberry puree into the pot of apples with the water and lemon juice.  Bring the entire contents to a boil and reduce to a simmer until the apples are mushy.  Using whatever works best for you (I use an immersion blender for this) mash the apples until there are no discernible lumps.

Add the gelatin and corn syrup to the pot and continue simmering.

The cooking time is the most difficult element of this dish.  The mixture will need to reduce on the stove until it is about 1/4 of its volume.  The desire here is to turn the heat up and speed up your cooking time, but avoid this temptation.  Due to the high sugar levels in this dish it can and will burn easily.  The trick here is to heat the mixture just enough to continue evaporating the liquid without burning.  My stove is very sub-par so I let my mixture cook (with minimal supervision) for approximately 12 hours.  Stirring occasionally to prevent clumps and burning.

Your filling is ready when it is thick enough to hold shape.  Test small amounts in the freezer if you are unsure.

Once properly reduced, allow the mixture to cool then roll into balls and place in the freezer.  While your filling chills, place 6oz dark chocolate in a double boiler until melted.  Mix together in a bowl the cocoa powder and icing sugar.  Dip the chilled filling into the chocolate then roll in cocoa powder until dry enough to handle. 

Store in an air tight container in the fridge or freezer for 1-2 weeks.

Eat and enjoy!