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Copyblogger

• Are You Too Lazy to Write Less? 7 June, 2010, 8:12 am
  How long should an article or a blog post be? How about a sales letter? The answer is, of course: “As long as necessary. And no longer.” Obvious, right? Most writers know that brevity is crucial. In writing, like many things in life, “less is more.” But in writing and in Texas BBQ, we tend to over-indulge. We don’t need the extra words any more than we need those surplus calories, delicious though they are. Why does brevity matter? In your content marketing, you might want to inform or you might want to entertain. If your audience is mentally screaming “Get to the point!” you’ve done neither. And no one will share your work if they don’t understand it, or if it bores them into a coma. For sales copy, brevity is even more important. Yes, long copy sells. But “long” means you cover all of the important facts your prospect needs to know. It does not mean you indulge your desire to natter. If you have ever silently waited, cash in hand, while a windbag salesperson droned on, you will recognize the issue here. It actually takes more work to write a short post. You may find you spend twice as much time editing as you do writing. But you owe it to your readers to cut the fat from your content. Bottom line: If you want your words to have impact, get to the point — then get out of the way! About the Author: Chris Garrett is a professional blogger and co-author of ProBlogger: Secrets for Blogging Your Way to a Six-Figure Income. He is a man of few words, and many of those words can be found on his blog, chrisg.com.
• How to Build a Successful Business With a Small Audience 4 June, 2010, 8:00 am
  More subscribers. More traffic. More followers. It’s easy to get caught up in the race for more. More is better, right? We all want our businesses and blogs to grow. But not all growth is ideal or even beneficial. Sometimes blind growth can be harmful. More contacts and more eyeballs doesn’t always mean better eyeballs. Would you rather have 1,000 people’s eyes completely glued to everything you do, or 100,000 with an attention span rivaling a fruit fly on amphetamines? More traffic isn’t always better either. New traffic is great, but if 99% leave without subscribing or taking some kind of desired action, does it really matter? Wouldn’t you rather have a few new followers join you every day as lifelong customers, than a few thousand who window-shop and quickly move on? How big is “big enough?” Have you thought about this? Incredible size easily leads to overwhelm of too many good ideas. I’m sure there are quite a few “big people” out there who wish their businesses were smaller and simpler. It’s not that growth is bad Growth is natural. If your product or service is first-rate, if your content is terrific, if you spend lots of time building quality relationships, and if you learn to effectively promote yourself, you’re going to grow. But we could always do more. We hit one milestone number and immediately we start wishing for the next. We have this idea that in order to be successful we need to be as big as possible. So is that really true? I don’t think so. Charlie Gilkey has a blog of just over 3,000 subscribers. And with this relatively “small” following, he has had no problem carving out a niche for himself helping creative entrepreneurs launch and develop their products. He regularly partners with peers who have five times or more the size of audience he has. Adam Baker runs another profitable, agile business with a few thousand subscribers. He’s managed to stay lean enough to travel the world with his family while he runs his business. Yusuf Clack has built a successful business by targeting a small niche and speaking to them in a way that no one else has. He doesn’t have a huge online following. But he has a passionate one. These are just a few of the many people out there who are doing quite well with a relatively small but highly engaged audience. How exactly do you make this work? Instead of playing for numbers, you play for depth. Think knock-out punches instead of a torrent of annoying fly-swatting jabs. Okay, maybe that’s a bad analogy, you don’t make friends by hitting them in the face. How about if I just tell you a few ways to deepen your reach? Do less, better. It’s much easier to make an impression when you focus on doing a few key things incredibly well. Become known for helping people by doing something amazing. Create high-value products and services. If your product price range is under $20, you’ll have to move a ton of inventory. But if you focus on valuable, higher-priced products (like awesome consulting or private training) you won’t need as many clients. Make more intimate connections. You can create a deeper connection with someone in a five-minute phone call than you can in five months of twitter conversation. The more you can connect on the phone and in person, the better, and the more likely you’ll create relationships that go beyond the surface level. Build a referral based business. When your focus is on people (not just numbers), more people will want to refer you to their friends and peers. This means you need to offer excellent customer service and you need to always exceed expectations. Also, if you have a service or product that complements someone else’s, it will be a natural fit for them to refer their people to you. Make yourself accessible. So many people create unnecessary distance between themselves and the people they help. They have filters, gate keepers, and barriers to communication. One benefit of staying small is it’s much easier to engage with your audience. Show that you’re someone who really cares and wants to help. The more you do that, the greater depth of connections you will build. The more you focus on depth, the more you realize that breadth is only relevant to a point. If you become obsessed with growth for its own sake, it can be hard to keep perspective. Sometimes being small is just fine. Sometimes, in fact, it’s fantastic. About the Author: Jonathan Mead is a martial artist and self development writer. He just released a guide called The Dojo that helps you get amazing things done before most people finish breakfast.
• Johnny’s Copyblogger Wrap-Up: Week of June 7, 2010 12 June, 2010, 1:51 pm
  The following is a transcript of the Copyblogger editorial meeting in Austin, Texas, on June 8, 2010. BRIAN CLARK: I’ve had it up to here with Johnny Marr. Having him write the Weekly Wrapup was a big mistake. Always with the scones; constantly with the scones. He ordered five dozen of them to eat with his tea and then still ate my danish. Then he started throwing the stale scones out the window, to knock pigeons off the ledge. SONIA SIMONE: I’m tired of the Smiths references. Jon told a joke the other day and Marr said, “That joke isn’t funny anymore. It’s too close to home and it’s too near the bone.” Then he read one of my posts and commented, “Bigmouth strikes again.” Let’s face it: Time for a new Johnny. JON MORROW: We could get Johnny Thunders. Or Johnny Cash. Or Johnny Bravo. SS: Dead. Dead. Cartoon. JM: Johnny Carson. Johnny Rotten. Johnny Knoxville. Johnny Depp. The Johnny from that weird book about a study about a film about a house. SS: Dead, British, insane, charges $16 million to show up. Don’t know the last one. BC: [Sigh] I’ll just call Truant. Maybe I can keep him in line with those photos I have of him. You know the ones I mean – with the walruses. SS: Okay, next item on the agenda: Adding a “chicken farming” module to Teaching Sells. All in favor? So, to hail the triumphant return of Johnny B. Truant … here’s what happened this week on Copyblogger: Monday: Are You Too Lazy to Write Less? Chris Garrett wrote this short post about the value of brevity in promotional or sales copy. How long should something be? Long enough to get your point across… and that’s it. So if you were writing a teaser about this post, you might say that the post was about why brevity sells, and then stop writing. Read the full post here. P.S: In person, Chris kind of sounds like Ringo Starr, so this post is even more fun if you hear it in Ringo’s voice. Tuesday: How to Use Stories to Change the World Cheers go to Maggie Lemere and Zoë West for their project to share the stories of the people of Burma (who can’t efficiently share their own stories). On the other hand, jeers go to Maggie Lemere and Zoë West for writing a post that I can’t joke about while writing about it for the Wrap-Up. I could possibly go the Ralphie May route and say something stupid and then say how I understand, that a lot of people died in that joke. But instead I’ll say that I’m pretty happy to be able to make my stupid jokes freely and to not worry too terribly much about being shot for no reason. Then I’ll say that you should read this post, and that if you have any more thoughts about spreading the stories of the voiceless, you should really hop in on the comments and share them. Read the full post here. Wednesday: How to Rescue Your Readers from Purchase Paralysis There must be some seriously scared people around here recently. I mean, I got fired for missing the second of a 2-part fear post, and now this one by James Chartrand about frightening your customers. Or I guess helping them out of their fear — although I prefer to jump out at them wearing goblin masks and wielding a a bloody machete, which is basically the same concept. Whether you’re a firefighter trying to get someone out of a burning building or a marketer trying to get someone over their hesitation to buy, the concepts are the same. You have to acknowledge their fear and help them to move anyway. Then you have to dangle several stories above a raging inferno from the arm of Kurt Russell while he says, “You go, we go!” in a heroic fashion*. You want your customers to move out of paralysis and buy? Then set a building on fire. You heard it here first. * “You go, we go!” is distinct and different from Yu-Gi-Oh!” Read the full post here. Thursday: Play Connect-the-Dots to Win at Online Marketing In this post, Sonia Simone cleverly tries to act as if she doesn’t spend hours each day doing connect-the-dot pictures by talking about it in the past sense. But the thing she says about connecting the dots in order to create a REAL pony? Yeah, she’s literally hoping that’s going to happen. She’ll deny it, but it’s true. In an online marketing context, connecting the dots is all about taking free stuff and putting it together to form a cogent marketing or business strategy without spending any (or much) money. You can get a great education from free stuff tossed out by smart content marketers, but you’ve gotta know how to go from one to the other as if you were turning dots into a picture of SpongeBob Squarepants, so read on. (Incidentally, this post made me think of Pee-Wee Herman singing “Connect the dots, la-la-la-la-la,” and now it’s stuck in your head, too. You’re welcome.) Read the full post here. Friday: What All Content Creators Need to Learn From Roger Ebert Just to show how totally out of the loop I am, I had no idea that Roger Ebert had a bout with cancer until I read this post by Mark Dykeman. And when I read the line about how he can’t talk, eat, or drink, I thought, “Wow, that would really suck.” But then you get an analysis like this one and you kind of walk away getting the impression that while it almost certainly DOES suck sometimes, losing a lot of his jaw doesn’t really keep a dude like Ebert down. Which leads to the lessons for the rest of us. You know, most of us being able to talk, eat, and drink, but still not pulling off what Ebert does, or even giving it nearly the effort that he has. If you’re creative in any way (or trying to be) or if you develop any kind of content (or are trying to do so), you should really read this to see what you can learn from a survivor. Read the full post here. About the Author: Johnny B. Truant has a dumb blog at JohnnyBTruant.com and is one of the guys behind Question the Rules. You should also really check out his Jam Sessions with Charlie Gilkey, because they’re filled with tasty informational nuggets that will make your business better.
• How to Use Stories to Change the World 8 June, 2010, 8:14 am
  If you have a blog, you tell stories. You may have dealt with the frustration of not having very many people see your stories, of not having enough subscribers or readers. Nevertheless, you keep on documenting your story in your blog posts, your Facebook status updates, your Twitter feed. You tell your stories and hope people will hear you. You’re lucky. The majority of people in Burma — a country that is brutally ruled by a military dictatorship — have no electricity, let alone access to the Internet. Which means it’s difficult to widely share stories about what they experience there. Right now, there are thousands of blogs detailing the difficulties of life as a single parent, but there aren’t many blogs describing what it’s like to live your entire life in a refugee camp or to survive a disaster like Cyclone Nargis, which killed more than 138,000 people in Burma. Those who manage to blog can suffer dire consequences for daring to do so. A 30-year-old blogger from Burma was sentenced to 20 years in prison for posting political satire. Weaving narratives about our lives is one of the things that makes us human The stories we tell are undeniably powerful. Stories allow us to connect with one another, to know each other as individuals rather than statistics. Yet those who are living through human rights crises have their stories written from a distance, in news blurbs and legal briefs. These stories rarely become as compelling as the ones you tell on your own blog, simply because they often lack the intimacy of a much fuller first-person narrative. Until now. Putting the human back into human rights My strategy to survive was to appease the soldiers and to make friends with them. I thought, if only we could make friends with these soldiers, then we would survive. But porters can die at any time. For example, if a soldier got angry and just shot me with his gun, nothing would happen to him. I would just die, like a chicken or a rat. To Tanintharyi Division, they send 500 porters every year. Of the 500, only 72 porters make it back to the prison. If you survive, you survive. I was a porter for nearly six months.~ Lai Pa, 34-year-old man from Burma Perhaps you’ve read about the severe crackdown on monks protesting in the Saffron Revolution, or the destruction wrought by Cyclone Nargis. Although Burma is a hotbed of human rights abuses and repression, it is also home to 50 million individuals and exponentially more stories. This fall, Voice of Witness will release Nowhere to Be Home: Narratives from Survivors of Burma’s Military Regime. The book will delve into the diverse lives of people who have lived under Burma’s military junta, the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC). Voice of Witness is a nonprofit book series that empowers the men and women who have lived through human rights crises by letting them tell their stories in their own words. In Nowhere to Be Home, dozens of stories are told publically for the first time. Lai Pa was studying to become a preacher when he was imprisoned and forced to work as a porter for the military. Tang Mai, an LGBT rights activist talks about his strained relationship with his father, a famous ethnic Kachin rebel leader. Ye Myint Win was a former army general who fought against those very same rebels; his story is told alongside Tang Mai’s. You can read the short descriptions we’ve put here for you, but as you can see, they only scratch the surface as an introduction to the narrators. (All of those names, as you can imagine, have been changed to protect these people.) The book brings to light the voices of refugees, former political prisoners, migrant workers, farmers, artists, students, and activists. These vivid portraits do something that human rights reports don’t: they allow you to experience Burma through entire life stories of its people in their own words. Calling all bloggers: how can we share these stories? Bloggers are storytellers, and your stories give you power. We’re asking you to share some of what you’ve learned from your own experiences of telling your story publically, to help us imagine ways this book can extend beyond the reach of print. Tell us. How can we use the Internet to amplify the narratives in this book? How can we make their words echo as far and as wide as any post here on Copyblogger? We want to hear your thoughts about sharing stories, about how storytelling can change the world, and about how you would use social media to share these incredible stories collected from Burma. Please let us know in the comments! About the Authors: Maggie Lemere and Zoë West are the editors of Nowhere to Be Home: Narratives from Survivors of Burma’s Military Regime, the latest in the Voice of Witness book series. Voice of Witness was founded by author Dave Eggers and physician/human rights scholar Lola Vollen, and is the nonprofit division of McSweeney’s Books. If you’re inspired by the storytelling work done by the nonprofit book series Voice of Witness, you can make a donation here to support their work.
• Johnny’s Copyblogger Wrap-Up: Week of May 31, 2010 5 June, 2010, 9:05 am
  Last week, Brian threatened to replace me as the writer of the Copyblogger Weekly Wrap-Up. All because I left for vacation without writing up the second post from last Friday, and chose instead to lay on the beach ogling bikini girls. The ensuing confrontation on Monday was quite heated. “Yeah, I ditched … what are you going to do about it?” “I MADE you and I can BREAK you,” Brian responded, frothing angrily. “It’s JOHNNY’S wrap-up,” I yelled back. “That name has mindshare, baby. You can’t fire me now because then there will be no JOHNNY. Check and mate!” Unfortunately, he outfoxed me and I will retire after writing this intro. I hope you enjoy the remainder of this Wrap-Up, which has been written by the former guitarist for The Smiths, Johnny Marr. Here’s what happened this week on Copyblogger: Tuesday: How to Dominate Your Niche Without Apology This rollicking post was written by one Nathan Hangen, who explains why apology is bollocks when you’re trying to do your internet bloggery thing. Why stop in advance of trying to make a point to tell your readers, “Right-o, this is just my own opinion, and I’m not trying to convince you that it’s totally on the mark – you can just take it as being my own thoughts on the matter.” That’s rubbish, and much too British for most of you. If you want to dominate your niche, you say what you have to say as if it’s fact, and you don’t pussy-foot about it. Consider that Morrissey wanted us to play “Lifeguard Sleeping, Girl Drowning” and that several of us said, “Steven, honestly … what’s with you saying, ‘Hooray’ repeatedly while the girl is going under?” Do you think he knuckled under and said, “It’s my opinion that this lifeguard is lazy and might do such a thing?” No. He said, “Shut up and play, Johnny … I have a hair appointment.” Read the full post here. Wednesday: 8 Reasons Rich People Hate Their Lives I have to say that I didn’t initially agree with the title of this post. Smiths money has me richer than the queen, and I played in Modest Mouse and they paid okay too, and I don’t hate my life nearly as much as I hated playing “Vicar in a Tutu,” which, when you think about it, very few rich people are required to do. Yet, some bird named Sonia wrote a whole report on the topic, and I see where she’s going with it. There are successful people like me who love their lives, and people like Morrissey who seem miserable with everything including success. So what makes the difference? You should read her report to find out. (Honestly, Morrissey was a downer even in the best of times, and I’m pretty sure his lawn cuts itself because it’s so emo. So I’d wager that one of the 8 reasons rich people hate their lives is “because they’re Morrissey” — that depressive wank.) Read the full post here. Wednesday part 2: Scribe: New Versions & Better Features I can’t wait to get my proper new website and use Scribe on it. Then when people use Google to find out “who wrote the greatest Smiths song ever,” they’ll know it was me, not that miserable fop Morrissey. In fact, let me ring up my web designer this instant. “Hullo? See here chap, is my website live yet?” “You’ve said that before … that joke isn’t funny anymore. I bloody well need an answer!” “Look here – when you say it’s gonna happen now, well when exactly do you mean?” { click } Bloody web designers. Read the full post here. Thursday: 10 Surefire Ways to Land More Customers This post by David Brim explains how to treat your customers as if they were fish, even if they aren’t fish. If you want them to bite on your offers, you have to “bait the hook properly.” If you want better odds of landing customers, you should “go where the fish are.” If you want to get more business out of existing clients, you “roll them in beer batter and deep fry them.” And if you’re working an upsell, you “serve them with chips and a pint.” So if you want to land more customers, read this post. You could even do it while eating those fish and chips. Just don’t go crazy with the vinegar on the chips, because then you’ll stink and your customers will just say, “Bugger off; You Reek-A!!” Read the full post here. Friday: How to Build a Successful Business with a Small Audience It’s a shame that Truant got sacked because I understand he has some sort of fixation with gnomes, and this post about “small audiences” was cheekily topped with a photo of lawn gnomes. (Lawn gnomes are diminutive, hence a brilliant play on the synonym “small.” Get it? Jolly good fun!) The post itself by Jonathan Mead (who I understand is not diminutive) is about creating a profitable business without having scads of subscribers and readers. Essentially (and Jonathan explains how this is done) you do this by making that small audience very loyal. Which makes sense, really, because though The Smiths weren’t as massively successful as say, the Rolling Stones, our fans would hop into wood chippers on our command. Even the ones who weren’t suicidal already, and I’d guess that was at least 25 percent of them. Read the full post here. About the Author: Johnny Marr is the critically-acclaimed former guitarist for The Smiths, most recently a member of Modest Mouse, and the composer of How Soon is Now?, the greatest Smiths song ever written.
• 10 Surefire Ways to Land More Customers 3 June, 2010, 5:45 am
  So many people all around the world have great ideas, products and services. And yet some businesses do well, and some fail. What separates the businesses that starve from the businesses who feast? For the answer, we turn to another way people have been setting their feast table for hundreds of years: fishing. Landing a fish, just like landing a customer, requires strategy and know-how if you’re going to come home successful. Here are my top 10 ways to land the catch of the day. 1. Know what you’re after In fishing, you always use the best bait possible for the particular type of fish you’re after. So many times clients come to me and say, “I don’t have a target market”. They’re always wrong. At a minimum, you should understand: The problems your customers have Their buying habits Their potential objections to your product Where they go to find information What influences them (their heroes and idols, TV shows they watch, websites they enjoy, magazines they read, etc.) What their core demographics and psychographics are Even if your product “appeals to everyone,” typically 20% of your audience will generate 80% of your revenue. Your job is to figure out who those 20% are, so you can find the kind of bait that appeals most to those customers. Bait that works for trout won’t necessarily let you land a great white shark. 2. Know where to fish for your customers Determining the right fishing location can be the difference between a successful fishing trip and going hungry. Knowing the places where your customers hang out online gives you a much greater chance for marketing success. Figure out which sites your customers frequent and you’ll have a much better chance of reeling one in. Try seeking out: Blogs they read Forums they participate in Social networking sites and other membership groups Entertainment or other non-work related sites You don’t want to use a top water lure if the fish you want are feeding on the bottom. 3. Be aware of your competition All fishermen guard their secrets closely, but newcomers can still pick up plenty of tricks by watching what their competition does. I’m not saying it’s smart to copy your competitor exactly. “Me-too” marketing doesn’t work. But learn from them and get a feeling for the overall marketplace you’re in. Incorporate those insights into your own marketing and content strategy. By analyzing your competitors you can also figure out how you can position your brand to stand out from the crowd. 4. Use good bait When you’re hoping to catch a fish standing side by side with a row of other fishermen, you have to make sure your bait is the most appealing fish food dangling the water. Otherwise, that fish is liable to go for one of your neighbor’s hooks instead. Consumers have lots of options and offers dangling in front of them in any marketplace. You’ve got to have some pretty juicy bait to stand out from that crowd. So what makes good customer bait? Magnetic headlines Compelling images Content that’s valuable in its own right An attractive niche that makes your customer feel “this is for people like me” Easy-to-swallow landing pages 5. Setting the hook Just because a fish bites doesn’t mean you can reel it in. Many a marketer has a woeful tale about the big one that got away. Once a customer is interested and bites by clicking through to your sales page, you have to set the hook by making an offer that’s so great it’s practically unfair. 6. Forget catch and release Remember, it’s a lot easier and more profitable to re-sell an existing customer than acquire a new one. So if you land a big fish, keep it! Don’t throw it back for someone else to catch. Re-marketing, high-quality affiliate offers, and up-sells are great for keeping the customers that you currently have, instead of letting them drift back into the stream for some other savvy marketer to reel in. 7. Test the waters Fishermen often track different variables, like what time of day they went fishing or what bait they used. They measure their results over time to figure out the smartest way to get certain fish. Similarly, in marketing it’s always wise to test various aspects of your marketing campaign. Measure your results to see what works best, and track your results over time. Try different images, headlines, or layouts to see which one maximizes time spent on your site, lowers bounce rate, and produces the best ROI. 8. Don’t get discouraged Some days the fish just aren’t biting. Sometimes you are not going to be as successful as you’d like, but it’s a process. Continue to educate yourself about business and marketing, keep analyzing your competitors, keep talking to your customers and refining your message. Keep going and don’t get discouraged. Tomorrow’s the day you’ll get the big one. 9. Partner up to get a bigger catch Fishing with a buddy helps you to both cover more water and come home with a bigger catch than usual. If you’re hoping to land more customers than you’ve ever reeled in on your own, find a partner. By knowing your own skill set, you’ll be able to effectively select partners that complement your skills. This strategy can also help you get bigger customers than you could have handled on your own. 10. Enjoy the trip It’s definitely a lot more fun to catch the big one than to see it get away, but no matter what happens, remember to enjoy yourself. Entrepreneurship is a lot like fishing. Even when it’s not going as well as we’d like, it’s still a privilege to be able to spend our days doing it. About the Author: David Brim is the founder and CEO of Brand Advance, an interactive agency that provides marketing consulting, web design, and marketing staffing to emerging companies. David is also the founder of GroupTable.com, collaborative software to increase group productivity. David blogs at Filled to the Brim, and can be found on twitter @davidbrim.
• How to Have a Great Life and a Great Business 8 June, 2010, 10:50 am
  Check out this free 31-page PDF report called How to Have a Great Life and a Great Business (Especially if You’re Not the “Business” Type). It not only ties together the themes we’ve touched on so far in the Lateral Action Entrepreneur series, but also delivers practical ideas on starting a business that leads to more than just money. Here’s what you’ll discover: Why I quit my cushy law firm job and turned to online publishing. How I failed miserably. How I then succeeded miserably. How I learned my lesson the hard way. The allure of the global microbrand. The rise of the “feeder” business. Why small is beautiful (and powerful). The 37signals approach to market research. Real-life examples of “smartly small” entrepreneurs. Plus, you’ll get an examination of the 6 critical components of smart entrepreneurship: Create (Don’t Compete) Lead (Don’t Manage) Communicate (Don’t be Shy) Automate (Don’t Duplicate) Accelerate (Don’t Stand Still) Succeed (Don’t Stress) The report is available here. You’ll also get full optimized transcripts of our recent seminars with Steven Pressfield and Jason Fried. About the Author: Brian Clark is founder of Copyblogger and co-founder of Lateral Action. Get more from Brian on Twitter.
• Play Connect-the-Dots to Win at Online Marketing 10 June, 2010, 10:18 am
  Remember those puzzles you used to do when you were six or seven? That mass of dots and numbers on a page just looked like a mess. But when you went through and connected dot 1 to dot 2, moving on through dots 100 and 101, you wound up with a picture of a pony. You might think you’ve outgrown connect-the-dots. But actually, it’s one of the most important strategies for online entrepreneurs and small businesses looking to build profits with online marketing. Learn to connect the dots in a smart and strategic way, and you could very well paint yourself a real pony. It’s not quite as easy as it was when you were six, but it’s still well within your grasp. Connect the dots from the best free content Content marketing is a massive trend that’s only getting stronger. And in the best content marketing, smart marketers will give you free material you can use right away to start creating great results. If your goal is to market your business, don’t overlook the value you can get from free information. Some terrific businesses have been built by acting on the advice found in free content. Benefiting from free content is all about connecting the dots. Take the great lead generation strategy from one source, connect it with the solid headline and conversion tactics from another, and wrap it up with some good social media sharing you learn on a third. It’s a bit like playing connect-the-dots without numbers. Challenging, but if you put the work in, it works. The real trick, though, isn’t finding great free stuff. It’s sifting out all the junk. The most important dot The most important dot to connect is this: Be sure you’re studying someone who’s worth your time. And there are very few marketing teachers out there who have changed more lives than Jeff Walker. Jeff’s the creator of a program called Product Launch Formula, which helped Brian connect his own dots, way back in 2005. Brian knew a lot about copywriting and marketing from his previous ventures, but it was PLF that showed him how to string everything together — to create not just great content, but also a great business powered by content. You owe it to yourself to watch Jeff’s free instructional videos. Jeff’s a teacher at heart, and he loves to give out quality information you can use to start improving your own marketing, even if you never spend a penny with him. You’ll do particularly well if you combine Jeff’s approach with what you learn here on Copyblogger. Click here to watch Jeff’s tutorial video, which he just posted today. About the Author: Sonia Simone is Senior Editor of Copyblogger and co-founder of Inside the Third Tribe.
• What All Content Creators Need to Learn From Roger Ebert 11 June, 2010, 6:18 am
  Roger Ebert’s name is synonymous with movie reviews. Many of us remember him bantering with Gene Siskel on the TV shows Sneak Previews and At the Movies. But he doesn’t banter much anymore. He lost his ability to speak due to complications of thyroid cancer in 2006. Ebert may have lost the lower part of his jaw, but he hasn’t lost his voice. He continues to receive new acclaim and appreciation for the quality and feeling of his writing in books, newspaper reviews, and criticism. It shows a deep sense of character. But it also shows a few other valuable traits we as content creators would be wise to develop in ourselves. Keep a sense of humor I’m sure Ebert must have some bad days. He can’t speak, eat, or drink. But it never affects the quality of his writing. His words continue to sparkle and shine with life. He receives continual praise for the power of his insights and the humor sprinkled within his work. Ebert’s recent criticism of Glenn Beck show that his wit and sensibility are still strong. He doesn’t go for the laugh-out-loud moment, but he uses sharp observation and quiet humor to pull the reader in, as he does in The London Perambulator. Lesson: There is little in life that’s more valuable (to you and to your readers) than a sense of humor. Focus on what you can do well Ebert was a Pulitzer Prize-winning writer before becoming a famous film critic. Some people think his writing is even better since he lost the ability to speak. His ability to analyze and reflect on movies (or virtually any topic) is strong. He writes in a way that reaches both the average person and his peers. Ebert is rarely in front of cameras any more (his recent appearance on Oprah is a memorable exception), but he remains a prolific writer. He uses notepad and pen to communicate in person and the keyboard for larger audiences, and he communicates constantly. Profiled recently in Esquire magazine, Ebert offered up a journal entry to explain the power of writing: When I am writing my problems become invisible and I am the same person I always was. All is well. I am as I should be. Lesson: Be thankful for what you can do well. Do it as long and as vigorously as you can. Be honest Ebert has plenty to complain about. For that matter, so would a couple of other smart guys like, say, Jon Morrow or Stephen Hawking. None of them is wasting his time whining, though. They’ve had their fair share of happiness and fulfillment. They all enjoy what they do and they are damned good at it. They don’t look for pity. They are sincere when they say that they are doing what they love to do. The Esquire article features a small picture of a Post It note written by Ebert: There is no need to pity me. Look how happy I am. This has led to an exploring of writing. In his post Putting a Better Face on Things, Ebert gives a frank and insightful look into his feelings about reconstructive surgery and prosthetics. Ebert’s journal has produced close to half a million words of honesty that are touching thousands, if not millions, of readers. Lesson: Use your life experiences to fuel your work and offer others education and inspiration. Be forthright and frank whenever you talk about yourself. Let your passion save and sustain you Ebert makes this point loud and clear in the Esquire article: Writing is what saves him. His journaling has led to a gripping and moving exploration of the art of writing. Writing provides him with continued purpose in trying circumstances. How many people is he inspiring with this new phase of work? Millions? Can you do the same? It’s worth thinking about, isn’t it? Lesson: Your passion can carry you through hardships. If even a fraction of that passion spills into your content, the potential to build your audience and develop true fans is huge. Don’t phone it in. Bare your soul. Engage. And follow the examples set by the greats like Ebert. They know how it’s done. About the Author: Mark Dykeman is the founder and main brain of Thoughtwrestling, a blog devoted to developing ideas and bringing them to life. He is the author of the award-winning blog Broadcasting Brain. His work has appeared in numerous blogs, including Mashable.com, Dumb Little Man, Pick The Brain, Copyblogger, and more.
• The Writer Runs This Show 2 July, 2010, 6:46 am
  We have the technology. We have the business skills. We have virtual ink by the barrel. The writer runs this show. We’re the ones who command the attention. We’re the ones who create the engagement. We’re the ones who influence what people think and do. The writer runs this show. We won’t toil in obscurity waiting for a green-light. We won’t submit to “creativity” by committee. We won’t accept meager pay while others cash in our copyright. The writer runs this show. If you won’t read until your eyes blur. If you won’t write more to write well. If you won’t invest the blood, sweat, and tears . . . Then you’ll have to work with real writers. And pay those writers exceptionally well. If they have the time, that is. Because the writer runs this show. About the Author: Brian Clark is founder of Copyblogger and co-founder of Thesis, Scribe, Premise, Third Tribe, Lateral Action and Teaching Sells.