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Beyond Motivation: Getting to What Really Drives You

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What drives you to write? To earn some green-backs and keep the wolves from the door? To earn praise? Create a community? Or maybe you’re convinced your story will help someone else? Or that you can help other people find important information? Are you compelled to write because you’ll settle for nothing less than changing the world ? You know how to get to Carnegie Hall, right? Motivation, man, motivation. Okay, so I mangled the old joke, but the point remains — you won’t get far unless you’re motivated. Just any old motivation won’t do either – it has to be the right motivation and you have to be honest about what it is. If you’re writing to build a business, but your real motivation is attention and validation from peers , you’re going to go off the rails. Dan Pink, author of the terrific new book Drive , says that real, self-directed motivation is based on three things — autonomy, mastery, and purpose. When we’re motivated, we achieve all of these things. So why do we think it’s so normal to be unmotivated? Lack of motivation isn’t normal Notice when you’re not motivated. Don’t get used to it and teach yourself that it’s normal. It isn’t. When your motivation starts to slip, you need to address it immediately. It’s telling you something is wrong with the way you’re thinking about your work. Maybe you don’t feel like you have autonomy any more. Or that you’re not growing as a writer. Or that your work no longer has purpose. Let it slide and your declining motivation will strip your confidence until you forget why you ever wanted to write in the first place. How do you fix motivation that’s starting to slip? If you’re unmotivated, start by looking back to Pink’s three factors: 1. Give yourself more autonomy When you’re able to have a say over what you write, how you write it, and when you write it, your work becomes a task you can tackle with creativity and a greater sense of ease. That may mean you need to make room to work on your own projects , rather than spending all of your time on other people’s deadlines. Or it may just mean that you need to be more conscious of what kind of clients you’re working to attract. 2. Increase your sense of mastery If you’re able to increase your skills and capability as a result of your writing, then you’re really onto a winner. You get something done and you get better in the process. Work on your craft. Get passionate about the fine points of whatever kind of writing you do. Push yourself to get better every day. 3. Expand your sense of purpose If your work means something to you, it feels right, like you’re making a real contribution. Know that what you do is important. Know how it benefits your clients. Work on projects that support your values, rather than conflicting with them. But . . . motivation isn’t everything It’s nice to read about drive and passion. That message is everywhere. And while it might end up making you feel lovely inside, it doesn’t offer you any insight as to why passion and motivation aren’t enough . See, what Dan Pink didn’t mention is that while congruent motivation and the ability to course-correct are essential parts of success, no amount of motivation can be enough without a supporting belief. As Bruce Lee once said, water adapts to any container. In other words, your life shapes itself and adapts to the barriers you’ve set. It doesn’t matter if you pour 20,000 gallons or a glass of water into an empty swimming pool, the water is constrained by the dimensions of the pool. How big is your swimming pool? You could have all the motivation in the world to build your business, but if you have a belief that says you “can’t” or that you’re “not good enough,” then guess what? You’ve just built a wall that stops that motivation in its tracks, or at the very least turns it into one hell of a struggle. Your beliefs about your writing and your ability to build a meaningful business act like the circuit-breaker in your home, shutting down the power when there’s a perceived risk. But here’s the thing — you don’t need protecting. Those beliefs that limit you and keep you “safe” in your comfort zone aren’t necessary. If you were a house, you’d be one that can grow and move. You’d be a house that can add, remove, and re-order rooms as it needs to. You’d be a house that can rewire itself on the fly. You’d be a house that can repair itself and strengthen itself. You’d be a sentient house with arms and legs and hair and . . . okay, the house metaphor’s gone too far. Here’s what it boils down to: You’re more than a match for any challenge Your capability is bigger than any problem your business can throw at you. You are designed to take on meaningful challenges and learn what’s necessary to succeed. You’re great at stuff. Really, you are. But you won’t be able to do any of it until you reset the boundaries of your beliefs so that they allow your motivation to flow where it needs. Build a pool with no boundaries and what you’ve got is an ocean for your motivation to swim in. About the Author: As a leading confidence coach with clients around the world, Steve Errey has a reputation for talking sense and getting results. Get more from him at The Confidence Guy .

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Landing Page Makeover Clinic #25: LeTrip.org

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This is another addition to our ongoing series of tutorials and case studies on landing pages that work. Jill Mitchell wants to increase awareness and sales of her one-of-a-kind French vintage objects that she sells on Etsy and Ebay. She also wants more visiblity and sales for her buying tours of Provence. She doesn’t actively market her site, although she does enjoy a responsive newsletter following. She doesn’t have a handle on her site metrics — traffic, blog readership, click-through rate from blog to Etsy/Ebay. Jill is flying blind. Let’s see how we can get these sales sailing. The Goal: Sell French tours and vintage gifts. The Problem: Not making enough sales. The Current Landing Page (homepage): http://www.letrip.org Value: $39 — average gift sale The Maven’s 10-Point Critique Click image for larger view #1 — Make sure all your main links work. I usually save the tech tweaks and tuning for the #7-#10 slots and frontload the marketing suggestions, but in this case, I have to start here. When I was putting this makeover together, I got an error message when I clicked the blog link. You need to keep an eye on any issues like this and fix them pronto. When I did manage to get to your blog and clicked “Home,” thinking I’m going back to the main homepage, I don’t. I don’t go anywhere. You’ll want to clarify what HOME means on your blog. Add a “Go to Main Page” so your visitors don’t feel trapped. Trapped people lose the mood to buy. Make your main logo clickable to www.letrip.org #2 — Be upfront, be clear as to the purpose of your site and what visitors can expect to find there. If you want to sell your tours and vintage gifts, you need to be obvious. Say it (and show it) clearly and up front. I had to spend more than a few minutes reading your homepage and clicking around to figure out that you offer specialty buying tours of Provence with the emphasis on vintage and antiques. So let’s start there. You need to get the main idea: “LeTrip — Unique Buying Tours of Vintage Provence” or some variation into your headline. Your tagline can be a little more fun but still clear: “Let an American take you vintage shopping in Provence.” You might also want to work in “Always a Guest, Never A Tourist” and any other descriptors that make sense for you and will be attractive and intriguing to your visitors. #3 — Push your value proposition forward. Way forward. I’m sure the competition for French tourism is intense, even in a recession. So you need to be clear (oops, she said it again) about what makes your tours so gosh darn magnifique as compared to other niche tours of Provence. What can you say about your tours that no one else can? I noticed that your main site talks about wine tours, so you may want to broaden your approach to “Passionate Buying Tours of Provence: Great Wine — Vintage Gifts — Antiques” or whatever works best to capture what is special and unique about Le Trip. #4 — Get your gift store info and links on the homepage. Why segregate your gift businesses strictly to the blog, when you should be promoting them in all the spaces and places your visitors are looking? I’d add an easy-to-see separate button to your current navigation bar with “Unique Vintage Gifts from Provence” and send folks to a separate page where you can highlight your gift items and direct them to your Etsy and Ebay stores. #5 — Organize your navigation for visitor expectations. Make it easy for them to find what they need. Why are your visitors there? They love Provence, want to visit Provence, wish they could see Provence. (And if they can’t, they’d like to purchase a little piece of Provence.) Your navigation needs to reflect the information-seeking needs of your visitors, so I would make the following change: Home — LeTrip Difference — LeTrip Tours — Upcoming Events — Brava! Meet Jill — Read Jill’s Blog — Contact Jill Add a search box and a sitemap, too. #6 — Put your key messaging into the strongest part of your homepage. Sidebars are for sweeteners. Your best homepage real estate is being used for a long, sweetly worded ramble about Provence. Move that content to Le Trip Difference and start promoting your upcoming tours — the ones that pay you cash Euros — there instead! Give your visitors a tasty intro that will draw them deeper into the site for the rest of the information and reservation details. Save your sidebars for secondary sweeteners. Add a rotation of testimonials here, or feature a “gift idea of the month.” #7 — Organize your site for selling and telling. Use your blog to illuminate Jill’s personal style and take. Following info links about tours, I’m sometimes directed to your blog and sometimes not — what’s up with that? I was confused and confounded. I have to imagine your average visitor would be, too. So I’m strongly suggesting that you do a complete revamp of your internal site structure to make sure you keep visitors moving along a consistent, intuitive track on your main site . A leads to B leads to C. (This, after fixing any link issues that might still remain, could be the most important recommendation of the entire Makeover.) Use your blog to express your thoughts, your personality, your take on all things Provence. Your blog is where your clients and prospects get to know more about the person behind LeTrip. The more they know you, the better they’ll feel about taking a tour with you or buying from your stores. #8 — Add those essential credibility boosters! Strengthen your About Jill page with more facts. How long have you been in business? How many tours/people have you given since opening your doors? Are you a member of any travel/tourism associations? Your prospects want to know who they’re doing business with. Also, provide a physical address in France. A P.O. Box is fine, but if you’re promoting your ex-pat lifestyle and business, I’d like to know you’re actually in Provence and not Passaic, New Jersey. #9 — Lay the basic SEO groundwork to boost organic search engine rankings You mentioned in your notes to me that you don’t understand SEO or how it works. There’s a ton of good info out there, but for now here’s what you need to do: Identify the words, terms, and phrases people might use to find your kind of services and products, and make sure you’re using that language in all your content. Make sure each one of your site pages has its own ‘meta’ title that front-loads the keyphrases before your company name. A homepage title might read like this: Vintage Buying Tours of Provence, France :: LeTrip.org . Your other pages would follow the same syntax. Make sure your blog uses best practices for SEO, as well. Check out Copyblogger’s own Scribe SEO for great assistance in this area, as well as our free resources on SEO Copywriting . Don’t stop there, of course. Good SEO makes all the difference, and these few points will give you a good start. #10 — Use social media to connect and grow your tour and gift businesses. You have a tremendous opportunity to widen your prospect universe with social media. So add Facebook and Twitter to your marketing mix. Add the buttons, ask folks to connect with you, and start connecting with others who love Provence and all things vintage. My thanks to Jill Mitchell for her patience and support of Heifer International. Look for my next makeover in approximately 3 to 4 weeks. Want your own Copywriting Maven landing page makeover? Got a landing page that’s more poop than pop? Need to get better results from your online marketing? If you’re interested in a private page makeover, site audit, or other services, please email Roberta directly .) About the Author: Roberta Rosenberg is The Copywriting Maven at MGP Direct, Inc . Find her @CopywriterMaven on Twitter.

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Copywriting 3.0: How to Bounce the Fat Kid off the See-Saw

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Today’s copywriter is more than a mere “wordsmith.” If that’s how you think of yourself, you’ll be stuck in Junior Copywriter ad agency purgatory for eternity. Think back to recess in third grade, when you kept getting stuck on the see-saw with the fat kid at the other end. All the cool kids were playing kickball. And there you were, waiting for the inevitable bounce . By investing your time in understanding five key areas, you’ll be able to exponentially improve your ability to create effective content. And that, my friends, is what it takes to bounce the fat kid off the see-saw and start playing a much cooler game. You don’t have to be the 500-pound gorilla — you just have to think like one. 1. Real-time search With Twitter and Facebook having made deals with Google and Bing to make content available for search, copywriters working in the online space cannot ignore the importance of real-time search. Every social media portal and social bookmarking site is now a place for content to be found online. If you can’t sit down and have a coherent client conversation that includes real-time search, the fat kid is going to send you flying. Copywriting 3.0 Tip: Take the time to understand real-time search. Learn the sites indexed, the type of content indexed from each site, and where people go to find real-time search results. Check out real-time search engines like OneRiot , read how Google is incorporating real-time search , and think about how this can affect the way people phrase online conversations. 2. Article marketing and repurposing content Article marketing is no longer about just building backlinks. Instead, it’s about breadcrumbs. The more you leave around the web, the more likely you are to have people follow those breadcrumbs to where you’d like them to go. If you’re not in tune with the latest in article marketing and how to repurpose online content for maximum visibility, you’re missing a key conversation that you should be having with your clients. It’s no longer about just having a blog — it’s about where those posts go after they’ve been launched on your blog. Facebook, Twitter, Posterous, eZines — there’s a world out there just waiting for your content. Check out the new eZine WordPress plugin as well as the cool features of Posterous . Copywriting 3.0 Tip: Read up on anchor text, SEO keyword research , and make sure that any online destination for which you write understands how an SEO strategy affects the success of their online goals. Fat kids don’t like breadcrumbs — they like donuts. Help your clients stay light and nimble by introducing the breadcumb strategy. Which leads us to our next point. . . . 3. SEO-savvy copywriting When’s the last time you sat down with an SEO firm to chat about how you can make their job easier? I work with multiple firms and pick their brains on a regular basis. If you’re writing online content willy-nilly and with no regard to an SEO strategy, why on earth are you writing? Granted, some sites are purpose-driven and others have built-in audiences. But by and large, you’re going to be working with clients who want new prospective business to land on their sites. If you don’t understand the latest in how search engines read words or the basics of keyword frequency, keyword ratio to content length (to avoid keyword stuffing or even under use), and placement on the page, the writer who took the time to learn is going to make you look old school. B-O-U-N-C-E. Copywriting 3.0 Tip: Check out Copyblogger’s SEO Copywriting Made Simple guide. Connect with a local SEO firm. Pop over to SEOMoz and read their Beginner’s Checklist to Learning SEO . And of course, you should be using Scribe ( I recently reviewed it here ). 4. Blogging: Where SEO and social media collide Search engines lurv “dynamic content.” In lay terms, that’s a consistent stream of fresh content instead of a collection of static pages that never change. It shows the search engines that a website is consistently updating and is therefore more “relevant.” That’s why everyone’s got a blog these days. It’s also where SEO and social media collide. A blog is the ideal place to help a client execute a keyword strategy, increase traffic, and be seen as an authority in the space they want to dominate. Show your clients you understand how blogging fits into a sound SEO strategy, and is a facet of not only their social media strategy but an overall marketing plan. Copywriting 3.0 Tip : Read up on blog marketing strategies , don’t discount the importance of linkbait-style headlines , and understand what a good blog does and where bad ones fail. Creating online content is about more than tweeting a blog post or putting a link on a Facebook fan page. It’s understanding how the words you use and where you use them affect your business goals. 5. What mobile means With 42.4 million iPhones on the market (as of January 2010), you can’t argue that mobile content isn’t relevant. The fat kid on the see-saw has been content with churning out old-school SEO copy. And that’s all fine and dandy. But he doesn’t know diddly about mobile content. Screens are smaller, attention spans are shorter. If you can’t write something that can be read at a stoplight (not that this blogger reads and drives . . . oh, no . . .), you need to rethink your skill set. With DVRs and online news distribution, we don’t watch commercials or read ads. So where are businesses supposed to go? They go mobile. Smart businesses are developing mobile versions of their corporate websites. You need to know how to write for them as well as the ad networks that operate in the mobile arena. Copywriting 3.0 Tip: You may be writing ads, but you’re not going to bounce the fat kid without reading up on AdSense Mobile and iAds . You also need to start surfing more on a mobile device. See what annoys you about content not formatted for mobile, and who does a great job. Check out Whole Foods Market on your smart phone. Bang-up job, I say. Straight on. The bottom line is this: copywriting has gone high-tech. If you’re not up to speed with the changing landscape, you’ll keep getting stuck on the see-saw with the fat kid instead of in the killer game of kickball with the cool kids. Do your homework, stay on the pulse of how social media and SEO are changing the way businesses communicate. And never forget: you’re never too old to learn something new. About the author: Erika Napoletano is an online strategist based in Denver, Colorado. As the Head Redhead at Redhead Writing , she serves up sound yet snark-laden advice on social media, SEO copywriting, and business strategies.

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How to Master Social Media Marketing

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When I talk with “normal” businesspeople (you know, the kind who have actual physical addresses, not just IP ones), they always ask me the same thing. “I can see the appeal of that Twitter stuff for my teenage daughter — but how is it supposed to help my business?” Of course, you know the answer to this question. You’re a social media power user. Maybe even a ninja. You’re using social media to: Find new prospects Turn them on to your great content Entice them into subscribing to your blog or email list Convert them into paying customers, then . . . Continue to nurture your customer relationships, creating the raving fans that will make all your business dreams come true. Easy, right? But if you could still stand to learn a few things on those topics, you may want to take a look at the Social Media Success Summit . What’s the Social Media Success Summit? The Summit is a virtual conference designed to cut through the clutter around social media marketing. It gives entrepreneurs the key strategies and next steps to use social media effectively. Not to make friends. Not to “join the conversation.” But to grow their businesses. The conference consists of live sessions (running between May 4 and May 25), which include time for live questions and answers. Those are wrapped up with full transcripts, recordings, and often additional material so you can keep mining the conference for business ideas for months to come. (The Summit actually makes everything available for you to listen to and download for a full year.) The Summit’s 24 speakers this year include Gary Vaynerchuk, Guy Kawasaki, Muhammad Saleem, Steve Rubel, Jason Falls, Mari Smith, Chris Garrett, Ann Handley, and many more. Just a few of their sessions include: Specifically how and what to measure with social media ROI The three most critical upcoming social media trends How to use social news sites like Digg and StumbleUpon to get traffic and killer SEO How to bring raving customers repeatedly to a local business (your own or your clients’) How to create buzz with social media contests How to create a YouTube marketing strategy How to bring mobile marketing into your mix What you do after you’ve created that Facebook fan page There’s also a Twitter power panel featuring some bright guys you may never have heard of — Brian Clark, Chris Brogan, Darren Rowse, and BlogWorld founder Rick Calvert. Darren and Brian are also cooking up a bonus panel on where social media is going — what’s going to be hot (and what’s not). And Brian’s doing a third panel on how we at Copyblogger use social media to build our growing unstoppable empire array of businesses. Today’s the last day to save $300 Today (that’s Thursday, April 15, 2010) is the last day for early birds to save more than half of the full conference fee. If you’re running any kind of online business (or if you’re serious about starting one), the Summit should easily be worth your time and investment even at the full rate. But since you can get all of the goodies (including some sweet instant-access bonus sessions) for less than half, why not? To get the discount, you need to sign up today. Click here to get all the details and register for the conference . And since Brian is involved as a presenter, we’re also a marketing partner for the Summit. As you know if you’ve been hanging out here regularly, we don’t promote anything we don’t think is first rate. Last year’s Social Media Success Summit was exceptionally valuable, and we’re confident this year will be even better.

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Johnny’s Copyblogger Wrap-Up: Week of April 5, 2010

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If you’re like me, you may have missed a lot of this week’s Copyblogger content because you ate so much Easter chocolate last weekend that you: passed out in the center aisle at Wal-Mart were declared dead by Mort, the acting manager were incorrectly tagged at the morgue due to budget cuts were shipped off to a medical school as an indigent cadaver and then woke up in front of visiting pre-med students who were just about to remove and dissect your kidney. So this week’s review couldn’t possibly be more timely. You know, if you’re like me. Anyway, here’s what happened this week on Copyblogger: Monday: Landing Page Makeover Clinic #24: NannySoft.com With the newest installment in the Landing Page Makeover series , Roberta Rosenberg has proven without question that landing page copy and layout actually matter. If it were just a question of the product being sold, NannySoft (which promises to monitor your kids’ activities on the internet) should have a slam dunk. My five-year old, for instance, won’t stop funding Nicaraguan rebels online. Software like this pays for itself based on misappropriated gun money alone. Think about it. Check out what The Maven has to say about how NannySoft can increase its landing page conversion. The fate of many puppet governments may hinge upon their success. Read the full post here . Tuesday: 5 Things Depeche Mode Can Teach You About Effective Online Marketing I think it’s kind of dangerous that this article was written on a dare from someone who was really interested in an oboe-playing guy in a dress. What kind of precedent does that set? It suffices to say that new wave electronica can indeed teach you about internet marketing. The next time you’re in your room dying your hair black and reveling in your depressed self-loathing and your mom comes to your door and is like, “Hey! Turn off that Depeche Mode noise!”, you can be like, “But Ma, I’m learning about marketing!” Bonus: Find out what being someone’s own Personal Jesus has to do with Priscilla Presley’s book Elvis and Me. Read the full post here . Wednesday: 11 Smart Tips for Brilliant Writing I was so pleased with this post that when I was done reading it, I stood up and cheered, then high-fived the people around me, and then Tweeted my appreciation to Dean Rieck. But then this bus full of nuns cut me off and made me drop back into the slow lane, so I had to switch over to rancorously texting my friends about that instead. Dean wrote, “To sound smart, you must stop trying to sound smart.” So to make you sound your best, he has 11 tips for writing brilliant copy without looking like you’re trying too hard. At this juncture, kindly peruse the entirety of the erudite exposé forthwith by impacting the toggle on your input device in the general proximity of these characters . Thursday: Six Questions to Ask for Powerful Testimonials Last week we ran The Secret Life of Testimonials , all about why your testimonials should contain some of your clients’ doubts and problems instead of being all airy fairy. A modest dose of uncomfortableness will make your testimonials more real and believable. In this post, which is the sequel to that one, Sean D’Souza goes on to say that really, you want your testimonials to tell a story. A rags-to-riches story, maybe. A gripping story that makes them want to act. But if you don’t guide your clients in writing that story, you end up with a limp story that seems good in theory but that never actually goes anywhere, like The English Patient. To generate the kind of testimonials that will make new prospects take notice, all you need to do is to ask the people giving them six little questions. Read the full post here . Friday: Are You Burning Your Most Important Writing Client? I made a mistake a while back. I asked my buddy Charlie Gilkey to pester me about some new copy I need to write for my website. Up until now, I’ve kept telling him I’m too busy writing guest posts to write my own stuff, but then this post by Sean Platt ran and there’s virtually no chance that Charlie will leave me alone now. It’s the adage about the cobbler whose kids go shoeless: If you’re a writer, you need to avoid burnout and make sure you have enough words and cobbler left for both yourself and Shoeless Joe Jackson. Or something. Anyway, Sean has tips to keep Charlie from bothering you about your own writing. Check them out. Read the full post here . About the Author: Johnny B. Truant writes at JohnnyBTruant.com and is one of the creators of Question the Rules : The nonconformist’s punk rock, DIY, nuts-and-bolts guide to creating the business and life you really want, starting with what you already have, an awesome new course which will launch later this month.

copyblogger Johnny’s Copyblogger Wrap Up: Week of April 5, 2010

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Johnny’s Copyblogger Wrap-Up: Week of April 5, 2010