Ebooks’ Big Christmas, No War Stories, Top Paying Freelance Gigs

The Strategist picks the day’s most relevant and interesting stories about the world of content from around the web. Here’s what you should be reading today:

Content During the 2012 Holiday Season 

Paid Content’s Robert Andrews reports on what hit it big this Christmas among consumers.

Ebook sales were up (86 percent at Hachette UK) and overall, according to a Pew surve, the number of Americans who are reading ebooks increased from 16 to 23 percent from 2011 to 2012.

An examination of tweets reveals that the iOS devices were seven times more popular than the Kindle Fire, and Temple Run, a free game on the App store, was ranked number one on the charts.

No Mention of War in Top Stories of 2012

According to the New York Times, in 2012, the year’s top stories made no mention of the war in Afghanistan or the countless other wars being fought by American around the globe.

Lists by AP and Yahoo didn’t include war stories, and, as reported by Pew, “weekly polling on the public’s interest in news stories showed such a low level of interest that the overseas conflicts didn’t make the organization’s list of the year’s top 15 stories.”

The top stories were about domestic issues, such as President Obama’s gay marriage endorsement and the state of the economy.

Top Paying Gigs for Freelancers

SFGate reports on the jobs that pay the most money for freelancers.

Writing makes the cut, as does translation. A freelance translator certified by the American Translators Association has the potential to make $72,000 per year.

Freelancers just starting out in social media positions earn an average of $15 an hour, while the pros can make $250 per hour, and proven expertise in SEO can lead to a position that pays $1,000 per hour.

Forming a Loyal Community Base

ClickZ’s Laney Whitcanack writes about how businesses can build loyal consumer bases.

She says that marketers should distribute relevant newsletters and put out “news related to the brand promise” as well as develop thought-provoking surveys that let consumers “share information about themselves and what they care about.”

Personalized communication, in the form of social media most likely, is very important. It can come as a retweet or a direct message, for instance.

Digital Trends in 2013

AdWeek reports on what digital trends might be in store in the coming year.

The FTC may begin regulating a universal Do Not Track system, and Amazon might bring together its streaming video service, app store, tablet, advertising platform, and cloud computing platform all in one place.

Pinterest may become the next Instagram and be bought for big bucks by Facebook, while Marissa Mayer could transform Yahoo into a tech company. Of course, more brands will become publishers and create content.

Facebook Trademarks “Poke”

Todd Wasserman of Mashable writes that Facebook is filing to trademark Poke, the app that lets its users send out photo, video, and text messages that self-destruct in 10 seconds. 

On Dec. 22 the social media site released the app, while is similar to Snapchat. “Poke” was previously trademarked in 2006, but there was a lapse in it in July of 2011.

Important Content Marketing Strategies in the New Year

Joe Pulizzi of Business2Community and Content Marketing Institute says that in 2013, marketers need to focus on creating catchy headlines, even if it takes 20 tries to do so.

The plan for the “channel” must be defined as well: This means posting content on a blog, distributing it, and writing another one. Content marketers need to practice public speaking because this is a great way to spread company messages.