Game Commission names new land manager

Ryan Gildea of Long Pond, Monroe County, recently accepted the position of Pennsylvania Game Commission Land Management Group Supervisor for Monroe, Carbon, and Luzerne counties.Gildea is a 2012 graduate of the 29th class of wildlife conservation officers from the Game Commission’s Ross Leffler School of Conservation and previously served as the district wildlife conservation officer in southern Monroe County.He is responsible for the development, management, and [...]

Source Business - poconorecord.com http://ift.tt/2xJQk6g

Program aims to put NEPA vets to work

Two years after 9/11, Christopher Reichard answered the call to arms.He was 19 and knew college was not for him. The Marine Corps offered opportunities to grow personally and professionally while serving his nation at war.“I knew that I wouldn’t do well in college at that time in my life and thought the military could help mature me a bit while I got to travel and see the world,” Reichard said.After serving most of his four years in Iraq, Reichard [...]

Source Business - poconorecord.com http://ift.tt/2x9wXAj

How to Vet a New Marketing Channel in 3 Days or Less

I get this question a lot.

“What marketing channel should I focus on?”

There are many make or break decisions in business. This is one of them.

The thing is, I can’t give you a cut and dry answer.

The nature of your business matters. So does the audience that you wish to target.

What I will do instead is give you a method for figuring this out for yourself.

If you’re starting a new business, this decision is critical. Focusing on the wrong marketing channel can set you back months and maybe even years.

If you’re expanding into a new market, selecting the wrong channel can also have massive ramifications.

You’d be putting your existing operations at risk for a new channel that may not pan out.

Just take a look at all the challenges that marketers have to overcome.

You can imagine that each channel comes with a unique set of difficulties.

This speaks to the importance of vetting your marketing plan before you set it in motion.

There’s just too much at stake.

In this article, I’ll show you how you can evaluate your options and narrow down on the best choice quickly.

You don’t need more than three days to get this done.

But first, I have a bit of wisdom to share.

Resist the urge to diversify

You know that voice in your head that says you need to be everywhere at once?

That fear of missing out if you don’t at least try everything?

It’s a diversion. Resist it.

It is imperative that you focus on one marketing channel.

At least in the beginning.

It’s going to shortchange your success if you spread yourself thin.

Here’s why.

• You’ll have less impact. If you’re focusing on several channels, it means you’re not doing everything you can to excel in any one of them.
• It will cost you more. Testing and thriving with a multichannel approach costs way more than you may be willing to spend. If you want an organic and cost-effective approach, stick to one channel.
• You’ll never actually know where your strength lies. Jumping from channel to channel means you won’t truly know the impact of one particular strategy on your business.
• You’ll remain at the heels of your competitors. That’s not where you want to be, is it? You want to be ahead, and the way to do that is to establish dominance in your market.

Now, don’t misunderstand me.

I’m not saying that you should go all in on one channel and forget the rest.

But multichannel marketing is complex. Only 30% of marketers are confident that they can deliver on such a strategy.

That’s not a lot.

So what I’m advocating for is starting from a position of dominance.

Put your energy into one strategy until it succeeds. Then, piggyback on that success to achieve wins in other areas.

Does that make sense?

The steps in this article will be geared towards helping you place a bullseye on the ONE channel that will serve you best.

Now that we got that out of the way, let’s begin.

Step #1: Know your options

The first thing you want to do is brainstorm all your possible options.

This isn’t something that you have to materialize out of thin air.

There are dozens of ways that you can connect with your target audience and spread your message.

Better yet, each channel has several subsets that you can zone in on.

Here’s a good representation:

Many of these overlap. Some have even morphed into each other.

It can get confusing, quickly.

For example, some people consider SEO to be one marketing channel.

But I can’t imagine a world where SEO and content marketing aren’t intertwined. You can’t do one without the other.

The same thing goes for social media and paid advertising.

They’re different channels. But there’s a convergence.

Let’s imagine you decide to focus on Facebook as your primary social media platform. It would be unwise to not experiment with Facebook Ads.

Considering that Facebook has developed one of the greatest Ad products out there, you’d be underutilizing the full power of the platform.

Marketers agree. Almost 57% plan to increase their social media ad spend.

I say all this to make a simple point.

While you may zone in on one channel, you’ll see lots of overlap that you shouldn’t ignore.

Go where your audience takes you.

Let’s look at some of your options.

Content marketing

This is about creating and promoting material that is relevant to your target audience.

Content marketing is central.

90% of businesses market using this channel.

It means that no matter what strategy you use, content will be a part of it.

You can narrow your content down to blogging, guest blogging, podcasts, webinars, email, etc.

Social media marketing

You can use social media as your platform to get noticed, build authority, and grow a community.

You can also use it to drive traffic to your main site.

Or you can do both. It’s effective either way.

Paid advertising

Much of marketing is organic and will take time to generate results.

Paid advertising is one way to accelerate that.

The downside is, you have to pay to play.

Facebook ads, other social media ads, print ads, PPC, and direct response fall into this category.

Public relations  

PR is about building relationships and capitalizing on the optics of your business.

It can be both online and offline. Press releases, conferences, events, interviews, and sponsorships are a few examples.

As you can see, you have no shortage of options when it comes to marketing.

I’ve given an overview of the main ones, but know that you are not limited to these alone.

Step #2: Choose the channels that are aligned with your business goals

You now have an idea of what’s available to you.

It’s time to make a list of all the channels that will serve your business.

Start with your business goals.

Some marketing channels are better suited to achieve a particular goal than others.

Goal setting is a flexible thing. You can make changes as your business evolves.

This means that the marketing channel you use right now may not be viable when your business progresses.

Consider what stage your business is in and what your goal is for the next 90 days.

According to Jay Abraham, there are only three ways to grow a business:

• Increase your number of customers
• Increase the amount that a customer spends on a purchase
• Increase the frequency that a customer buys from you

Your business goals should serve one of these three phases of business.

If you’re still at the first stage, your goals might be brand awareness, lead generation, and customer acquisition.

If you already have a list of buyers, your goal might be to increase sales.

What if you already have a reliable stream of sales?

There’s no such thing as too many sales, but your goal at this point might be to maximize profits and retain customers.

Here’s what most businesses are prioritizing:

These may or may not apply to you. Just focus on what your business needs at the moment.

This way, you don’t make goals that aren’t yet attainable.

By extension, it ensures that you don’t waste time and resources on a marketing channel that won’t serve your business well.

How do you select a channel that’s right for your business goals?

Before you even start testing, do some elimination.

I’ll give you a few examples, and you’ll have to use your judgment.

Let’s say that your goal is brand awareness.

PR, social media, content marketing, and even paid advertising can be used for this purpose.

The easy solution?

Eliminate the channels that would be less efficient.

For instance, paid advertising won’t be the most useful for brand awareness.

But for sales or lead generation? It can crush it! (If you know what you’re doing, that is).

Take a look at some of the business goals that apply to the content marketing channel. It will give you an idea of what to aim for.

It’s also important to take into consideration what feels the most organic for your business.

If you’re selling something like hoverboards or bicycles, would blog posts serve you the best?

Likely not.

These products are lifestyle-based. You’d be better off using a visual channel that will allow you to provide an experience to potential customers.

Immediately, social media comes to mind.

Then you begin to narrow it down to Instagram or Youtube.

This is a logical process that won’t take you more than an hour to figure out.

You don’t have to find that one channel yet. Just eliminate what won’t work and rank your remaining options.

Step #3: Narrow down the list by going where your audience is

You’ve got a few options.

It’s time to prioritize.

This one is easy. Find your potential customers.

A marketing channel can serve your goal, but there are many platforms you can focus on.

If your customers are not hanging out there, you’ll be wasting your time.

Note:

The point of this article is not to find you a slam dunk marketing channel right away.

That would take testing and experimentation.

The goal here is to help you validate your chosen channel. This way, you know it’s viable before you start testing it.

Here’s my best advice for finding out where the attention is.

• SEO is a great place to start.
• Competitive research is a must.
• You can’t go wrong with social media.

Let’s look at each of these.

SEO

Online is where most of the magic happens.

And a majority of online interactions begin with a search engine (mostly Google).

So the first step is to evaluate the SEO landscape by searching for keywords in your industry.

You’ll find out what your audience is searching for and how often.

This is not just essential for finding out what’s happening online. Let’s say that there aren’t that many monthly searches for your keywords.

You may want to focus on an offline channel.

Or you may decide that this is a gap that you can take advantage of.

You won’t know until you do some basic keyword research.

A simple tool like the Google Keyword Planner will work.

Type in your keyword and get search volume data.

Competitive research

If you want to know where your customers hang out, find your competitors.

First, identify who those competitors are.

A simple google search will do the trick. The biggest players are those who rank on the first page of search.

Once you’ve got a solid list, use a tool like SimilarWeb for your research.

Enter your competitor’s website and press enter.

You’ll find a range of data. Pay attention to “Traffic sources.”

For Quick Sprout, the highest traffic source is search.

Naturally, my primary marketing channel would be SEO and blogging.

Direct is a close second, but it’s a bit trickier to figure out.

It represents the people who type in your URL directly into their search bar. It doesn’t tell you where these people first came into contact with your business.

The next step is to check out the individual breakdown of each traffic source.

You can see where referrals are coming from.

Since SEO is my dominant traffic source, I’ll pay particular attention to my top organic keywords.

You can also see which social media platform is the most popular. Mine is Facebook.

Social media

I like to take social media research a bit further.

The tool to use is BuzzSumo.

Type in your competitor’s domain. You can also search for a keyword.

You’ll see all the top performing content on the site and which social platform generated the most shares.

Using SimilarWeb, we saw that Facebook was Quick Sprout’s top platform.

BuzzSumo tells the same story.

If you want to take this a bit further, you can go to these individual platforms and do some sleuthing.

Check out the groups with the most members, listen in on the conversations, and a get a feel for where your audience is focusing their attention.

When you go through this process, you may find that you have 2 or 3 reliable options.

Which do you select?

I have three criteria.

Cheap. Fast. Easy.

You want to pick a channel that won’t cost you too much, if anything, to get started.

You also want a channel that doesn’t have a steep learning curve. Otherwise, you may spend too much time and money trying to figure it out.

Lastly, pick the channel that will allow you to make the most headway, quickly.

You must pick one, so use these criteria as the final litmus test.

Conclusion

Selecting a new marketing channel is a tall order.

It’s important that you take some time to validate a potential channel before you focus on it.

Marketing requires time that can easily be wasted on ineffective strategies.

It also requires cash.

It means that you’d want to see a solid return on both your time and money investment.

The surest way to secure an attractive ROI is to vet potential marketing channels first.

You can then test and double down on what’s working.

Most people don’t go through this process of validation and testing.

So as long as you keep experimenting and tweaking your strategy based on your results, you’ll have a significant advantage over competitors.

What is your most effective marketing channel?

Source Quick Sprout http://ift.tt/2xIw1WB

Stroudsburg merchants focus on revitalizing Main Street

STROUDSBURG — The economic atmosphere of Main Street affects the borough, the county seat, which in turn affects the county.How to get more tourists, visitors and local residents to patronize Main Street businesses more frequently throughout the year is a question that has been around for as long as Main Street itself has. It's a question that becomes more relevant for merchants in times like these, with America still feeling the effects of the recession.A number of [...]

Source Business - poconorecord.com http://ift.tt/2xIqJdH

Armageddon on a Shoestring: Prepare for Disasters Without Destroying Your Budget

Just before and right after every disaster, you see news coverage of crowded stores, depleted shelves, and interviews with people who don’t have enough (water, batteries, whatever).

Don’t be those people. September is National Preparedness Month, and its theme – “Disasters don’t plan ahead. You can.” – is also the theme of this post. Even if you’re on a tight budget, or living paycheck to paycheck, you should be prepared to live at least three days without basic services.

Should things go south, got any idea how you’d eat, drink, and stay warm until things got back to normal?

Two other things you might not consider until it’s too late:

• Where would you and your family would go to the bathroom if the power and/or water cut out?
• Do you have a manual can opener?

Sound funny? It’s deadly serious. If you don’t have a plan for the potty, your back yard is going to get real foul real fast. (Assuming, that is, that you even have a back yard.) And imagine the frustration of not being able to open up those cans of soup for your hungry household. (Assuming, that is, that you have a way to heat them up.)

The good news: You probably already have a lot of the stuff that Ready.gov suggests you need. The better news is that you can get the rest of it very cheaply, or even for free. And the time to do this is now, before the next power failure, ice storm, blizzard, hurricane, earthquake, or windstorm reshapes your life.

What’s for dinner?

The “food” section of Ready.gov suggests the best foods to have on hand: protein- and calorie-rich items with long shelf lives: soups, stews, canned beans, quick-cooking oatmeal, peanut butter, dehydrated foods (e.g., instant mashed potatoes), dried fruit, canned fish or meat, protein or granola bars, and crackers.

To that list I would add almond or other nut butters (not everyone likes peanut butter), some gelatin or instant pudding (a dessert can really brighten the day), Nutella (it’s just fun to eat), interesting foods from the supermarket’s health-food section (hummus, refried beans, even vegetarian taco filling), good-quality bouillon cubes, and hardtack — aka “pilot bread.”

(Never heard of pilot bread? This amusing video explains it all.)

You might already have a lot of the foods you need. Now you just have to keep it that way, i.e., never let your pantry get too bare. When something your household really loves goes on sale, get a few extra. Use a dark marker to write the sell-by date on the front (not the top!) of each food product and make sure they get rotated and replaced regularly.

• Pro tip: A site called CouponMom.com does a state-by-state match of coupons, many of them downloadable, to sales in supermarkets, drugstores, and even dollar stores; fairly often you’ll pay nothing at all for food, toiletries, and first-aid supplies.

Should you buy disposable plates and bowls? Residents of hurricane country probably should, since they’re likely to lose water and power regularly. As for others, that’s up to you. If you’re without running water, you certainly shouldn’t use up precious stored water to wash dishes.

• Pro tip: Watch clearance sales after major holidays and get up to 90% off paper plates, bowls, and cups. Don’t necessarily throw them out after eating; sometimes the higher-quality stuff can be used more than once.

Water, water everywhere?

Ready.gov suggests stashing one gallon per person per day for at least three days. Got pets? Don’t forget some extra agua for them.

Rather than spending money on bottled water, fill empty milk jugs or two-liter soft drink bottles until you have enough. Every few months, use the water in these containers for tasks like watering the garden or doing hand laundry, then refill them with fresh water for storage.

A word to those who filter their water: that sink-mounted or whole-house filtration system won’t do you much good if the power is out or the municipal water supply system is damaged. In that case, have a filtration pitcher and at least one extra cartridge in your emergency kit. (I regularly see these pitchers at thrift shops.)

Or take a simpler route: Sprinkle a little powdered drink mix (Wyler’s, for example) into each glass of water to disguise the yucky taste. These packets cost about a dime each at Walgreens and dollar stores.

Incidentally, most of us already have a decent amount of water stored – in the water heater. This video from WikiHow shows how to turn off the power and the water supply valve before tapping this standing supply in an emergency.

Canned juices are nice, but not essential. If you live in a hot climate, consider storing some powdered Gatorade drink mix. Or take the frugal route and mix your own, from ingredients like sugar, salt, and a drink mix like Kool-Aid (or the Aldi version, which is tons cheaper). Do an online search for “electrolyte drink powder recipe.”

Sometimes a hot drink is soothing – or even potentially life-saving – in a winter storm emergency. (Hypothermia victims are cold all the way to their innards.) Thus teabags, instant coffee, or cocoa mix are all great things to have on hand.

• Pro tip: Whenever you boil water, make enough extra to put into a thermos-type jug.

For hot water you’ll need a safe heat source – and again, you may already have one in the form of a wood stove, camp stove, barbecue grill, hibachi, or burn barrel. While modern gas stoves may not function normally in a power outage (click-click-click-click), you might be able to use the range the old-fashioned way: lighting the burners with a match.

Any pan you use for heating water or food is likely to get sooty over a fire. Consider looking for an extra pot or two at thrift stores and/or yard sales. (I’ve found three pans that way, including a cast-iron skillet, in the “free” boxes at yard sales; maybe you’ll be that lucky, too.)

Note: It is essential to cook outdoors with grills and open flames, not indoors, due to the risk of carbon monoxide poisoning. Generators pose the same risk. The Orlando Sentinel recently reported that five people died and more than a dozen were injured due to CO poisoning after Hurricane Irma.

Thus if you’re planning to create your own post-emergency power, get a CO detector and follow other best practices suggested by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission.

A roof over your head

Organizations like FEMA and the American Red Cross may show up after major disasters like earthquakes and hurricanes. But they can’t always help everyone, and some people prefer to shelter in place. Besides, some problems (windstorms, ice storms) don’t necessarily make your home unsafe – just inconvenient.

The questions, then, are how you’ll stay warm or cool. In cool or cold weather, dress everyone in layers: long underwear top and bottom, plus wool socks, extra shirts, fleece layers or sweaters, and knitted caps. The quilts or comforter from your bed might stand in for a sleeping bag.

• Pro tip: Plan to have everyone sleep in the same small room for shared heat.

If you don’t have enough warm items for everyone, time to hit the thrift stores and yard sales. For other tips, search online for “staying warm during power failure.”

Keeping cool post-hurricane or during power outages is a real challenge. Some fairly obvious tactics are staying hydrated, wearing light clothing, and avoiding direct sun. Pull the curtains or shades and close off warmer rooms (e.g., the ones with south- and west-facing windows) to keep things from heating up. Sleep in the basement, if you have one (and if you have enough flashlight batteries).

Lighting is an enormous issue with regard both to safety and morale. While plenty of people stock up on candles, the danger of fire is very real. If you must use them, put them in jars set well out of the reach of children, pets, and anyone who might bump into a table.

Flashlights are safer. My partner and I have five headlamps (he bought them in a blister pack at Costco) plus some hand-held torches. If you don’t want to store batteries, look for flashlights that recharge by being cranked or that can recharge via your vehicle’s cigarette lighter.

• Pro tip: When someone asks what you want for your birthday or Christmas, ask for one of these light sources.

Where’s the bathroom?

As the children’s book says, everybody poops. The question is where you’ll do that.

I grew up in a rural area and we filled buckets and the tub with water when bad weather was predicted, then used that water to flush the toilets when the power went out. That’s still a good idea.

• Pro tip: Before filling the tub, thoroughly duct-tape the stopper in place. Otherwise the water may slowly, inexorably seep out.

You may already have a giant bucket (or more than one) left over from a painting job or a bulk buy of laundry soap. If you don’t, get one: It will make a passable toilet. (Check Freecycle and the “free” section of Craigslist.)

Since not everyone is physically capable of squatting over a bucket, look online for toilet seat that snaps onto most five-gallon pails. If you’re flush, so to speak, then splurge on a prefab portable toilet.

• Pro tip: Line the bucket with at least one layer of garbage bag, and throw in some clumping cat litter.

You’ll want hand sanitizer for afterwards, and some baby wipes (which I call “shower in a pouch”) to keep the rest of you clean. And speaking of babies: If you’ve got one and you routinely run out of diapers, break yourself of that habit pronto. You don’t want to be down to a couple of didies when trouble starts.

The same is true of pet food and supplies, and prescription medication. Do not run out of these things.

A few more final tips:

• When severe weather is predicted, boil some or all of the eggs you have. Should the power go out, you’ll have an easy-to-eat protein. Should the power not go out, just about everybody loves deviled eggs.
• Buy supplies with gift cards you get by cashing in points from rewards credit cards, or rewards programs like MyPoints and Swagbucks, to get gift cards to places like Walmart, Target, and Amazon.
• Keep candy or some other treat on hand; it’s a great morale-booster when times are tough. (Pro tip: Shop the post-holiday clearance sales for chocolates and fun-size candy bars.)
• Check out the dollar store. Paper products, hand sanitizer, and some interesting foods can be found there.
• Keep small bills on hand. It’s possible that stores won’t be able to process credit or debit cards right away. (For helpful tips, see ‘Why You Need a Cash Cache.’)
• Make sure you have matches – even if you aren’t using candles you might need to light a camp stove or hibachi. You can probably get free matches from bars and restaurants (although it’s not as easy as it once was).
• Stocking up all at once? Ask the supermarket manager for a discount on buying cases of canned goods, especially the store brand.

Remember how challenging it can be to build and maintain a cash emergency fund? Think of emergency preparedness the same way: It can take some doing, but it’s as essential as financial preparedness.

Get started right now, by taking pen and paper throughout your home to look at what you already have. Then make a list of what you still need, and make creative, frugal plans to get those items. Don’t wait until after an emergency happens to start looking for your flashlight. Or your can opener.

Related Articles:

• The Homeowners Guide to Flood Insurance
• Make Your Home More Disaster-Resistant
• Hurricane Harvey: How to Donate Safely and Avoid Charity Scams
• How to Prepare for a Potential Economic Recession

Veteran personal finance writer Donna Freedman is the author of “Your Playbook for Tough Times: Living Large on Small Change, for the Short Term or the Long Haul” and “Your Playbook for Tough Times, Vol. 2: Needs AND Wants Edition.”

The post Armageddon on a Shoestring: Prepare for Disasters Without Destroying Your Budget appeared first on The Simple Dollar.

Source The Simple Dollar http://ift.tt/2xqkryr

From Math to History, These 8 YouTube Channels Are for Learners of All Ages

You’ve heard this before, but it bears repeating: School is a lot different than it used to be.

I’m not talking about walking to school uphill, both ways, through six feet of snow without shoes; I’m talking about which subjects are taught, and more importantly, how they’re taught.

I used to hear jokes about the “new math” and thought those people were crazy. Then my own children hit the higher elementary school years, and I felt their pain. And my son’s algebra? It’s been a couple of decades since I had to use letters as numbers, so I wasn’t much help to him.

Luckily, there’s YouTube. YouTube has a lot of educational channels that cover a wide variety of topics. When my kids and I are scratching our heads about homework, I can search these educational YouTube channels for the answers we need.

It’s Okay to Be Smart

The name of this educational YouTube channel perfectly fits the casually curious nature of its videos. It’s Okay to Be Smart has live-action videos that are combined with slick animations to create a TV-worthy channel.

Host Joe Hanson, who has a Ph.D. in biology, explores a wide variety of topics. Some of this topics are common, like why beavers are so smart, but his infectious enthusiasm gives them a unique spin. Other topics are out of left field, like Why Salt & Pepper? which looks at the history of these common table spices and why they’re paired together.

Most of the videos are around five minutes long, and they are terribly entertaining.

CGP Grey

CGP Grey hosts an educational YouTube channels that’s slightly different from the others. He covers a lot of different subjects, like geography, history and politics, but he doesn’t just stick to the facts. Frequently, Grey offers up one of the world’s problems, along with his opinion on how to fix that problem.

For instance, in his video The Trouble with the Electoral College, he makes it pretty clear that he thinks the popular vote should be the only vote that counts in the United States.

Several of his videos, which last between five and 10 minutes, are presented in a tongue-in-cheek way that gives them a fresh angle. One example is How to Become the British Monarch.

TED-Ed

No doubt, you’ve heard of TED Talks, those videos where someone shares their mind-blowing ideas while wearing a high-tech headset. Well, the TED organization also has an educational YouTube channel called TED-Ed.

Just like TED Talks, TED-Ed uses a combination of technology, entertainment and design to tackle important subjects in an impactful way. TED-Ed videos talk about culturally significant subjects, like how drugs affect the brain. But some videos are more trivial, like how the bendy straw was invented.

TED-Ed videos, which use TV cartoon-like animation, run anywhere from two to five minutes. Most of their videos are targeted at young people.

OpenLearn

OpenLearn is the video branch of Open University, which offers free courses in all kinds of subjects. You can study the arts or forensic science or project management or… well, just about anything!

OpenLearn taps academic experts and guest contributors for their videos. They use a combination of interviews and animation to explore each topic.

Most videos are only a few minutes long. Some of them look at global issues, like death around the world; others look at more specific parts of the world, like the history of the European Union (EU).

If you decide to take free courses from Open University, you’ll earn digital badges for each course or skill you complete.

Mental Floss

Mental Floss videos are addictive! Talk about an internet rabbit hole.

The Mental Floss YouTube channel is an extension of their website. Their educational videos list fact after fact about any given subject, as demonstrated by the numbers in the video thumbnails.

For instance, if you watch 39 Facts About the Middle Ages, you’ll walk away knowing 39 fascinating tidbits about a time in history when beaver tails were a delicacy.

Mental Floss videos run the gamut and include more academic topics, like why there are silent letters in the English language, to more trivial matters, like 31 weird discontinued products.

These videos are addictive due to Mental Floss’s formula of fast-paced speaking and obscure facts, plus a backdrop full of pop culture collectibles. It’s all topped off with host John Green’s high energy, making you want to watch one episode right after another.

Numberphile

Have you ever wanted to know what a mile of Pi looks like? If you answered yes, then Numberphile is the channel for you.

In some videos, Numberphile’s creator Brady Haran teaches simple math. Most of his videos, however, look at numbers on a large scale in a way that makes math more, well, interesting. He combines filmed footage with animation and expert guest hosts.

All of Numberphile’s videos have something to do with math, but they cover big ideas as well as more relatable ones. For instance, you can learn about a math concept called the Kolakoski Sequence, but you can also see the scientific way to cut a cake.

If you really want to get your nerd on, watch their playlist of calculator unboxings.

Khan Academy

Khan Academy is one of the most well-known educational YouTube channels. Years ago, Sal Khan made videos to help tutor his cousin. Now, Khan Academy has hundreds of videos that were created by a team of more than 150 people.

The Khan Academy YouTube channel has well-organized playlists so you can easily watch a series of videos on one subject. The playlist for trigonometry has 39 videos alone. However, each video is about five minutes long, so you can take breaks and digest what you’re learning.

While Khan Academy teaches science, math, language arts, social studies and other subjects that most school students need, there are videos for other skills, like how to write an argumentative essay for the SAT.

This channel is serious about learning. Unlike Mental Floss, you won’t find any trivial videos here. But you will find videos that dig deep into whatever academic subject you need help with.

School of Life

The School of Life is a unique educational YouTube channel because it doesn’t focus on academics at all. Instead, School of Life wants to teach people how to navigate their lives the best way they can. And their videos teach skills that you can use in every aspect of your life.

This global organization applies psychology, philosophy and culture to everyday life. Some of their videos focus on personal skills, like how to be a good listener. Other videos, however, tackle tough life lessons, like whether to stay in or leave a relationship.

Because the School of Life’s contributors love studying all aspects of what it means to be human, you’ll also find the occasional video on history or social studies, like why Socrates hated democracy.

School of Life won’t replace good parenting or therapists, but it comes close!

YouTube has an educational channel to fit everyone’s needs. Whether you need help with your math homework, or you’re becoming your best self, you’ll find lots of videos that have what you need.

Nancy Basile has almost 20 years experience as a freelance writer for the web. She focuses on finding ways to squeeze more entertainment into your day for less. Catch her on Twitter @realmediamedusa.

This was originally published on The Penny Hoarder, one of the largest personal finance websites. We help millions of readers worldwide earn and save money by sharing unique job opportunities, personal stories, freebies and more. In 2016, Inc. 500 ranked The Penny Hoarder as the No. 1 fastest-growing private media company in the U.S.

source The Penny Hoarder http://ift.tt/2y6qMfG