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7 Ways the iPad Can Bring Back Your Writing Mojo

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The iPad is here. And it’s here to stay. There is a sea change going on within the mobile computing industry. And despite the cool, slick look of these devices, it’s not the hardware that makes them useful. It’s the applications (apps). Apps are little engines of innovation driving the current (and future) trends in computing, publishing, print, and media. There are apps for everything you can imagine. In fact, the latest count shows there are more than 250,000. But did you know that there are even apps that can help you get your mojo back if you need some writing inspiration? Before you read on, note that there are some great non-mobile device tips here on Copyblogger for getting inspired to write . Ready to get your mojo back? Great, let’s hit the apps. 1. Web Roulette To find some writing inspiration, take a spin on Web Roulette. This app has a number of categories (humor, blogs, technology, bizarre, comics, entertainment, art/photos, opinion, Wikipedia), which pull up random sites as you “spin” the wheel. When you sit down with this app, it’s best to have a little bit of time and a way to capture your ideas as you explore. The blogs category is an obvious place to start, but consider sources like opinions and art/photos . Web Roulette gets you out of your usual reading ruts. You can check out Web Roulette here . 2. 23,000 Great Quotes HD The only way to keep your health is to eat what you don’t want, drink what you don’t like, and do what you’d rather not. ~ Mark Twain Ever read some really good quotes to give you some writing inspiration ? It works. You probably won’t be tempted to read all 23,000 in one sitting (unless you’re on deadline, of course), but you can spend a few minutes reading others’ words of wisdom with this app and see how quickly your mojo starts to creep back. This app is more than just a bunch of quotes thrown on a page. It is organized into more than 20 categories, with quotes from 7,000 authors, and you don’t need an internet connection to enjoy it. Check out 23,000 Great Quotes here . 3. Popplet Sometimes a good brainstorming session is really all you need to do to get a little inspiration flowing. With the iPad, you have a ton of options, but one of the best options is a good app for some non-restrictive idea generation. Popplet is a brainstorming app that is both serious and fun. Go find a place away from distractions. Then use Popplet to visually organize your thoughts and ideas. Typical uses are for task lists, brainstorming, concept planning, and free-form idea generation. It is full of great features but the point here is to explore and spend some time using your iPad to think outside of the box for inspiration. You can check out Popplet here . 4. iThoughts HD Mindmapping is a powerful way to visually organize your thoughts, ideas, and information. It is also a great way to overcome a mojo slump and get some inspiration back. Mindmapping is different from brainstorming. With a brainstorming session you typically write ideas and thoughts without worrying about structure or form. With mindmapping, you get a little more organized and structured. Mindmaps start with a seed concept and then branch out from there. They can be used for all sorts of things from task lists to idea generation. This particular iPad app is one of the better mindmapping tools. It supports a wide range of features including varying shapes, colors, relationships, text styles, and the ability to use an external monitor. To get the most out of mindmapping, though, don’t worry too much about the structure of the sample mindmaps. Just feel free to create your own structure. After all, it’s your mind. Check out iThoughtsHD here . 5. MovieVault Sometimes getting your mojo back means you need to take a break from the tools and simply escape into someone else’s world. Your iPad can help here too. MovieVault is an iPad app that connects you to an entire library of classic movies. For the single price of the app ($4.99) you get to watch as many classic movies as you want to. I reviewed MovieVault a few weeks ago and was amazed at the fact that I could stream these movies so quickly and easily (even over a 3G connection). But how does this help you get inspired to write? Believe it or not, escaping with a great story helps you think of your own stories. It puts you in story mode. It lets your brain take a break from your current loss of mojo and it gets your creative mind going again. It’s like adding spark to a spark plug. You can check out MovieVault here . 6. Let’s Create Pottery HD From the title, you might be imagining your iPad spinning around with a lump of clay. Not quite. But this app is pretty darn close without the mess. Truly an engaging experience, you can clear your mind and experience something unique. Getting back your inspiration can sometimes happen when you are willing to let go of whatever it is you are stuck on and take a different path for awhile. As it turns out, your iPad can take you down that other path. Let’s Create Pottery makes use of the iPad’s touch and motion sensors as it gives you a virtual lump of spinning clay in hi-res graphics and lets you create a pottery piece just as if you were sitting at a real wheel. Then you get to glaze, save it, and share it with others if you choose. Now I don’t know about you, but anytime you can use your hands and mind to create, it has this additive effect on your mojo. Check out Let’s Create Pottery HD here . 7. Zinio Did you know that there are hundreds of traditional print magazines that have gone digital? And your iPad can be a great way to experience them. Grab the free Zinio app and gain access to an entire newsstand of digital content from mainstream to independent print and media publications. The Zinio app is free but most of the magazines you will have to pay for before downloading. There are a few samples, however, so you see what you are getting before you buy any. Don’t just read magazines in your topic — take the opportunity to explore some new subjects, new areas of interest, and new approaches you haven’t seen before. Mojo loves novelty! Check out Zinio here . There you have it, seven effective ways to get your writing mojo back using the iPad. It’s great that you can do all this on one single device. But remember, as Jon Morrow points out in his getting inspired to write article, sometimes it’s smart to put everything down, including your iPad, and get out in the fresh air. About the Author: Shane uses his Tablet Computer Geeks blog to deliver the latest and best iPad information , including accessory reviews, app reviews, and industry updates. Follow him on twitter at tc_geeks .

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7 Ways the iPad Can Bring Back Your Writing Mojo

Introducing GuestBlogging.com (Check out the Free Videos)

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So, you’ve heard my take on why guest blogging is important . Over the years, you’ve probably seen other popular bloggers talking about it too. But maybe you can’t help thinking … how does it help you build a popular blog of your own ? If you’ve been wondering, head over to GuestBlogging.com , because over the next 10 days, I’m going to show you. We’ll talk about: How to get your first 1000 blog subscribers, even if none of the leaders in your niche know who you are yet How to stop getting ignored by popular bloggers and get the links you deserve How to build a following on twitter to help you promote your blog posts How to get your blog a first page ranking on Google, without knowing all of the technical details of SEO Didn’t know guest blogging could help you do all of that? I didn’t either, when I first started. Over the years though, I’ve gotten to see some pretty powerful examples, and so I decided to make some videos for you and share them with you on Guestblogging.com . Here’s how it’ll work: Every few days, I’ll release a new video that walks you through real-world examples and strategies for how you can use guest blogging to build a popular blog. Right now, only the first video is available, but opt in, and I’ll e-mail you as I post new ones. As of right now, there’s nothing for sale. The videos are 100% content, no sales or marketing messages at all. When we’re done with them, I will tell you about a new training program I’m creating specifically for bloggers who are serious about increasing their traffic. But that’s at least a week or so away. For now, enjoy the free videos, and learn about all of the cool ways guest blogging can help you. Click here to get started. See you there! About the Author: Jon Morrow is the Associate Editor of Copyblogger and the Founder of GuestBlogging.com . Get more from him on twitter .

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Introducing GuestBlogging.com (Check out the Free Videos)

Creative Content Recycling: Are You Wasting Your Garbage?

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You see it done all the time, and it’s just so wasteful. People take a bunch of perfectly good trash, and they just toss it in the garbage can. Unbelievable. The thing is, any time you create something, you’re going to end up with a lot of odds and ends, scraps that end up on the metaphorical cutting room floor. What if you could sell your product . . . but then find a way to repurpose and sell the by-products of your product too? Welcome to waste management 2.0 For our new Question the Rules course, Lee interviewed Jason Fried, founder of the software company 37signals. (That’s the company that makes a bunch of amazing products including Basecamp and Highrise.) We were fascinated by something Jason had to say — a topic that he and partner David Heinemeier Hansson devoted a section to in their great new book Rework : Sell Your By-Products. For instance, here’s an excerpt about Henry Ford: Ford learned of a process for turning wood scraps from the production of Model Ts into charcoal briquets. He built a charcoal plant and Ford Charcoal was created (later renamed Kingsford Charcoal.) Ford could have just tossed all of that extra stuff that was thrown off while his factories were creating their product. After all, it was garbage, and the production of the Model T was all that mattered. But he didn’t, and created a revolutionary new product — one that became a substantial profit center. Creative recycling for creative types If your first thought is that the by-product concept doesn’t apply to creative work, just look at the movie industry. Every time they make a film, they shoot a lot more footage than ends up in the actual flick. Most of the footage used to end up on the cutting room floor, or maybe in the outtakes that they’d run over the credits of Smokey and the Bandit. But today? The by-products of filmmaking are everywhere. Cut scenes and alternative endings help sell DVDs, or end up on YouTube as a way to promote a theatrical release. Adding this formerly wasted material even allows the movie studios to create an easy upsell. They create two tiers of pricing for a DVD: Customers can get the basic version. They can buy just the movie. Or, for just a few dollars more, customers can get their hands on a more in-depth version, chock full of by-products — which is the stuff that used to be called “trash.” The “waste not, want not” attitude is a choice you can make about any business. And once you decide to start looking at the “waste” you’re producing, you’ll find useful by-products everywhere. Where to look for by-products in your own business If you’re doing creative work like writing or graphic design, how about recycling rejected client pitches? Can you take the effort you put into your cool custom web design and turn it into a more generic template that you can sell over and over? Can you take the interviews you do on a writing project and post the raw versions on your blog? Keep looking and you’ll start finding useful waste everywhere. Even your vacations can end up having useful by-products. Think about it: You go someplace cool, interesting, or beautiful. You eat some great meals and talk to interesting people. You take photos or shoot video of the things you see, and the people you meet. You do this because you’re into it. Because it’s part of what you do on vacation. But once you’re in the recycling mindset, it’s easy to think of a dozen ways to use that stuff — the “leftover media” from your experiences. You could write travel articles, sell video clips, create “microstock” photo services, publish an e-book guide, or post a YouTube video that pulls customers back into your business. You could write posts on Yelp! Or Foursquare. Maybe that sounds ridiculous. But smart, creative entrepreneur Chris Guillebeau does something very similar. He takes remnants and artifacts of what he loves to do (travel) and uses them to strengthen his business. Take an inventory of your own creative residue, and you may find you’re sitting on a little gold mine. As Jason Fried points out, the book Rework is actually a by-product of running the business of 37signals. And that bit of “runoff” made the New York Times bestseller list. Not bad for yesterday’s trash. About the Author: This article is a by-product of the interview Lee did with Rework author Jason Fried as part of Lee & Johnny’s brand-new Question The Rules course. Did we mention it was going to be 75% off until Saturday? Click here to check it out . (Editor’s note: We were so excited about Johnny’s new course, and proud of the great work done by one of our own regular writers, that we snagged an affiliate link for it. We’ve taken a sneak peek at the course and we think it’s a great resource for entrepreneurs who want to play a sharper, smarter game. Sonia will share more of her thoughts on Questioning the Rules tomorrow.)

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Creative Content Recycling: Are You Wasting Your Garbage?

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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