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Announcing the Prose Theme for WordPress

BlogPostman — Tue, 12 Oct 2010 19:30:59 +0000

You may have seen recently that we merged StudioPress, creator of the powerful Genesis theme framework , into Copyblogger Media. Why did we do it? I can sum it up for you in a single phrase: because we’re control freaks . With Genesis, we saw an opportunity to create WordPress themes that were tailored exactly to our customers’ needs and desires. We could incorporate the features that are most important for content-rich sites, the expert SEO you insist on, and the security to keep your sites as safe as possible. Brian and I worked closely with Genesis founder (and our new partner) Brian Gardner on a new collaboration. A WordPress theme designed for those of you — bloggers, copywriters, consultants, and content marketers — who in one way or another produce great content to make a living or part-time income. I’d like to introduce you to Prose . An elegant minimalist design The first thing we knew was that we wanted the design to support your content, not fight with it. Some themes make great use of animated widgets, or are designed to highlight striking imagery. Or they’re great for e-commerce, or building a corporate brand. And Genesis has terrific themes that do all of those. Prose is something different. It’s all about words. Your words. It’s simple and elegant, so it doesn’t distract. But it has enough design sophistication that it never looks amateurish or “fly by night.” Like the perfect little black dress, it doesn’t call attention to itself … it just makes you look amazing. Point and click design controls But just because you may not be first and foremost a designer, that doesn’t mean you want to commit yourself to a single rigid design mold. Writers are creative people, after all. And we knew you’d insist on being able to change some key elements yourself, without “breaking” the overall clean, designed look of the theme. That’s why we built in point-and-click design controls into Prose. They let you control site colors, typefaces, font sizes, and other critical elements of your site design. Instantly. Do your readers want a larger font size? That’s just a few clicks away, starting right from your WordPress dashboard. Want to try a different column layout for your site, or to change the look of your subheads? Takes less than a minute. And if you don’t like it, it’s a few clicks to change it back again. You can change how your links are styled, how tall you want your header to be, and dozens of other key design elements. And you don’t have to know any CSS, HTML, PHP, or any other letters. If you can point and click, you can customize your site design. Search optimized and powered by Genesis You might have seen that Genesis isn’t just a WordPress theme, it’s actually what’s called a theme framework. So my first question when I saw that was, What’s a theme framework? The first thing you need to know is that when it comes to web design, form and function need to be separated . In other words, how your web page works (like the code that Google looks at to find your content and how to rank it, or the security that keeps evildoers from hacking your blog) should be separated from how your web page looks . Why? Well, in the first place, Google is a big fan of clean code. The Google “bots” are sophisticated, but they’re only so smart. Clunky, junked-up code can confuse them — and if Google gets confused, they won’t give your site the ranking you deserve. In the second place, the web evolves. Those “back end” elements always need to be up-to-date. Security evolves, SEO evolves, WordPress evolves, and your page function needs to grow with those things so that everything works the way it should. But the last thing you want is for your carefully designed web page to suddenly look completely different because you updated your WordPress theme. That’s the beauty of a framework. When you click the button to update Genesis, it automatically takes care of all of those security and SEO issues for you. But it doesn’t touch the design of the page, because that’s handled by “child themes.” OK, so what’s a child theme? The theme framework is all about how the site works . A child theme (like Prose and 27 others from StudioPress ) is in charge of how the site looks . The colors. The layout. The typefaces. The child theme controls the “look and feel” of your site. And the exact same content will have a very different feel depending on how that content gets presented. The nice thing about child themes is that with the Genesis framework, you can change them in just minutes. That means you can take a funky site with a handmade flavor, like the Genesis Bee Crafty theme, and in about two minutes you can give that exact same content a sleek professional gloss by switching to the Enterprise theme. And you’ll never touch the important “behind the scenes” code that makes your site work exactly the way you want it to. The biggest security hazard for most blogs Unfortunately, bad guys are everywhere, and blogs get hacked every day. The most common culprit? Bloggers who haven’t updated their theme or their WordPress installation because they’re worried it will mess up the look and usability of their sites. Outdated software is a major security hazard. In fact, Brian Gardner told me that one of the reasons he developed the Genesis framework in the first place was to make updating his own sites one-click-easy. When it’s easy for you to update WordPress and your theme framework, and you don’t worry about anything breaking, you won’t put it off. And that keeps your blog (and your readers) safer. Get Prose + Genesis today Pick up Prose with Genesis today and you’ll get: Prose’s point-and-click design controls to create the exact look you want A great-looking theme that puts the focus on your content All the SEO and security benefits of the Genesis Framework Unlimited updates and support The ability to use Prose on as many sites as you like (no developer surcharge) Find out more about the best WordPress theme for writers and content marketers here. About the Author : Sonia Simone is Senior Editor of Copyblogger and CMO of Copyblogger Media. Follow her on twitter .

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Announcing the Prose Theme for WordPress

8 Bad Habits that Crush Your Creativity And Stifle Your Success

BlogPostman — Wed, 29 Sep 2010 20:00:00 +0000

“The brain is a wonderful organ. It starts the moment you get up and doesn’t stop until you get into the office.” ~ Robert Frost It’s a myth that only highly intelligent people are creative. In fact, research shows that once you get beyond an I.Q. of about 120, which is just a little above average, intelligence and creativity are not at all related. That means that even if you’re no smarter than most people, you still have the potential to wield amazing creative powers. So why are so few people highly creative? Because there are bad habits people learn as they grow up which crush the creative pathways in the brain. And like all bad habits, they can be broken if you are willing to work at it. Here are eight of the very worst bad habits that could be holding you back every day: 1. Creating and evaluating at the same time You can’t drive a car in first gear and reverse at the same time. Likewise, you shouldn’t try to use different types of thinking simultaneously. You’ll strip your mental gears. Creating means generating new ideas, visualizing, looking ahead, considering the possibilities. Evaluating means analyzing and judging, picking apart ideas and sorting them into piles of good and bad, useful and useless. Most people evaluate too soon and too often, and therefore create less. In order to create more and better ideas, you must separate creation from evaluation, coming up with lots of ideas first, then judging their worth later. 2. The Expert Syndrome This a big problem in any field where there are lots of gurus who tell you their secrets of success. It’s wise to listen, but unwise to follow without question. Some of the most successful people in the world did what others told them would never work. They knew something about their own idea that even the gurus didn’t know. Every path to success is different. 3. Fear of failure Most people remember baseball legend Babe Ruth as one of the great hitters of all time, with a career record of 714 home runs. However, he was also a master of the strike out. That’s because he always swung for home runs, not singles or doubles. Ruth either succeeded big or failed spectacularly. No one wants to make mistakes or fail. But if you try too hard to avoid failure, you’ll also avoid success. It has been said that to increase your success rate, you should aim to make more mistakes. In other words, take more chances and you’ll succeed more often. Those few really great ideas you come up with will more than compensate for all the dumb mistakes you make. 4. Fear of ambiguity Most people like things to make sense. Unfortunately, life is not neat and tidy. There are some things you’ll never understand and some problems you’ll never solve. I once had a client who sold a product by direct mail. His order form broke every rule in the book. But it worked better than any other order form he had ever tried. Why? I don’t know. What I do know is that most great creative ideas emerge from a swirl of chaos. You must develop a part of yourself that is comfortable with mess and confusion. You should become comfortable with things that work even when you don’t understand why. 5. Lack of confidence A certain level of uncertainly accompanies every creative act. A small measure of self-doubt is healthy. However, you must have confidence in your abilities in order to create and carry out effective solutions to problems. Much of this comes from experience, but confidence also comes from familiarity with how creativity works. When you understand that ideas often seem crazy at first, that failure is just a learning experience, and that nothing is impossible, you are on your way to becoming more confident and more creative. Instead of dividing the world into the possible and impossible, divide it into what you’ve tried and what you haven’t tried. There are a million pathways to success. 6. Discouragement from other people Even if you have a wide-open mind and the ability to see what’s possible, most people around you will not. They will tell you in various and often subtle ways to conform, be sensible, and not rock the boat. Ignore them. The path to every victory is paved with predictions of failure . And once you have a big win under your belt, all the naysayers will shut their noise and see you for what you are — a creative force to be reckoned with. 7. Being overwhelmed by information It’s called “analysis paralysis,” the condition of spending so much time thinking about a problem and cramming your brain with so much information that you lose the ability to act. It’s been said that information is to the brain what food is to the body. True enough. But just as you can overeat, you can also overthink. Every successful person I’ve ever met has the ability to know when to stop collecting information and start taking action . Many subscribe to the “ready – fire – aim” philosophy of business success, knowing that acting on a good plan today is better than waiting for a perfect plan tomorrow. 8. Being trapped by false limits Ask a writer for a great idea, and you’ll get a solution that involves words. Ask a designer for a great idea, and you’ll get a solution that involves visuals. Ask a blogger for a great idea, and you’ll get a solution that involves a blog. We’re all a product of our experience. But the limitations we have are self-imposed. They are false limits. Only when you force yourself to look past what you know and feel comfortable with can you come up with the breakthrough ideas you’re looking for. Be open to anything. Step outside your comfort zone. Consider how those in unrelated areas do what they do. What seems impossible today may seem surprisingly doable tomorrow. If you recognize some of these problems in yourself, don’t fret. In fact, rejoice! Knowing what’s holding you back is the first step toward breaking down the barriers of creativity. How about you? What mental habit has been hardest on your creativity? Let us know in the comments how you’ve handled it. About the Author: Dean Rieck is one of America’s most creative advertising copywriters. He shares his writing and freelancing experience at Pro Copy Tips .

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8 Bad Habits that Crush Your Creativity And Stifle Your Success

Ran Aroussi

BlogPostman — Tue, 28 Sep 2010 18:15:38 +0000

Feature Product Review:There are literally hundreds of online marketers who promise to rescue you from your online struggle, but don’t deliver on any of their words. However, there are few like Ran Aroussi, who not only promise, but also do, what they say. Ran Aroussi is one of the biggest Clickbank affiliates – yes, that’s

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Ran Aroussi

The Responsible Blogger’s Guide to Dealing with Big Brother

BlogPostman — Thu, 23 Sep 2010 20:00:00 +0000

“What should I be doing better with my blog?” That’s one helluva question, isn’t it? As someone who blogs to support a thriving business, I think about that question every day. There are a lot of answers, many of which involve sexy topics like traffic, subscribers, and getting one zillion followers on Twitter. But when’s the last time you sat down and answered the question above with: “I should be paying more attention to blogging ethics.” Not so sexy. But as bloggers, we have to face facts about the world we live in. It feels like an anonymous platform where we can do and say whatever we want. But 2010 has a lot in common with 1984, and Big Brother comes in some forms that George Orwell never dreamed of. You need to be aware of one very important fact that many seem to forget: You can’t unGoogle anything When you launch your words into the blogosphere and social media universe, you’re laying a digital footprint in concrete. That concrete is the Internet Elephant, and it never forgets. Old versions of your site are cached. Facebook privacy blunders have ugly real-world consequences. And the Library of Congress is even planning on archiving our tweets. It feels like you can’t be held accountable for your rash words, but you can. Here are some tips on blogging ethics that will help keep your reputation clean. Especially if you’re going to make blogging a part of your business, you need to protect your interests. Your comments policy The bottom line is, it’s your blog and you have ultimate control over what gets posted in your comments section and what doesn’t make the cut. Please realize that whatever policy you decide on, not everyone is going to agree with you. I personally have a “post all comments” policy, except in instances of spam or blatant self-promoting garbage that adds nothing to the conversation. I also hold all comments that include links from first-time commenters for moderation (legitimate commenters are then white-listed). Some blogs allow trash talk, some don’t. Some allow profanity, some don’t. Every blogger needs to figure out what to do with the trolls . It’s your blog and your call. It’s always smart to make your comments policy clear. My developer is working right now on coding my site so my comments policy shows up in a cool style below each post. If you become known for deleting comments just because the reader isn’t a fawning yes-man, your credibility and authority will suffer. On the other hand, letting the trolls run free or allowing spam to trash up your comments won’t do your reputation any favors either. Proper accreditation If you use photos in your blog posts, use legitimate sources for images . (Assuming, of course, you’re not using your own images or photos.) Photos purchased from stock photo houses usually don’t require photo credit, although a few do. On the other hand, images you get under a Creative Commons license do have various requirements, usually at minimum a credit to the image owner. This should go without saying, but I’ll say it anyway: Don’t steal other people’s images or words and put them on your blog. That content doesn’t belong to you. It’s unethical and scummy. When you love a blog post so much that you want to send it to your readers, it is not okay to copy the post and paste it into your own blog or newsletter (even with accreditation) unless you get permission from the blogger. A better way to show your adoration is to select a handful of quotes (I prefer to stick with no more than 50-100 words) from the post and then provide a link back to the original post, with credit to the author. Understanding libel Ohhhhh — legalese! (The recovering attorney in Brian Clark will love this one.) Some bloggers make a hobby of calling people out for what they consider to be inappropriate practices, stupid decisions, or the like. Other bloggers are just plain malicious. If you’re going to go down this road, get your ducks in a row first. Read up on what constitutes libel . You owe it to yourself. What you might consider “free speech” could get you into trouble, as the line between opinion and malicious intent can be a very fine one. Make sure you have a liability insurance policy in place (this is a must). If you’re a member of The Author’s Guild, they offer Media Liability Insurance . You can also contact your insurance agent for a general business policy, but make sure it also covers libel and slander. You are not invisible Some people imagine that the internet lets them don a Cloak of Invisibility that bestows permission to do whatever the hell they want. It’s simply not true. You are responsible for your words on the web (and in life) no matter where you leave them or how anonymous you think you’re being. I don’t accept anonymous comments on my blog (including commenters who give fake email addresses) and here’s why: it shows me you’re not willing to be held accountable for your words. If you’re running a blog, there are some pretty cool tools you can use to verify identity or lend at least some level of “real world” status to a commenter you might hold in question. Email address verification tools: Did you know you can check any email address to see if it’s valid? Yep. And it’s free and easy. I use this one on a regular basis, but a simple web search for “verify email address” can point you towards others. IP address verification: Most comment systems (Disqus, InstenseDebate, and WordPress’s built-in system) display the IP address of every commenter to the moderator. I use WhoIs to verify IP addresses (I had to do this just last week for an unfortunate situation). If you continuously receive spam comments or inappropriate comments from a particular commenter, you can block an entire IP address from your blog. If you need help with this, just ping your comments system or hit up the WordPress Codex for tips on combating spam and unwanted comments. Disqus and IntenseDebate have built-in blacklist features. The best thing I can do here is to put just a bit of healthy fear into you. You’re not invincible, you’re not invisible, and you have a responsibility to both yourself and your audience. While you might have been looking for a more entertaining post on ethics (given my propensity for, ahem, colorful language), putting your thoughts out there on the web is serious stuff. As I said, nothing can be unGoogled. It’s not like a late-night TP-ing of your least favorite junior high school science teacher’s house. Drive-bys don’t work online. Strong ethical guidelines can keep your brand and keep your blog shop clean. If there are other best practices I’ve missed, lob them into the comments section below. While we don’t want to go all George Orwell, you have to remember that 1984 still applies in 2010 … and beyond (and it’s not such a bad thing). About the Author: Erika Napoletano is the Head Redhead at RedheadWriting LLC, a Denver-based online strategies consultancy. Her blog, RedheadWriting , is a bastion for “unpopular thoughts and blunt advice — delivered” and consistently strives to say what others won’t (but should) about marketing, social media, business integrity, and life in general.

The Foolproof Cure for Weak Content: 4 Ways to Get Some Perspective

BlogPostman — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 13:10:28 +0000

When I was fifteen, I wrote a novel. I thought it was pretty good, and daydreamt about literary stardom. Fast forward ten years. I recently found my old notebooks and read that novel over again. And … let’s just say it wasn’t as good as I remembered, and leave it at that. It’s amazing what a difference perspective makes. Usually, you’re not going to be revisiting work from a decade ago. You’re going to be busy trying to get that new website copy done, or that sales page written, or that ebook finished. Problem is, when you’re writing, you’re working at a zoomed-in level. You’re so deeply into the words that you can’t get a grasp on the whole piece. You’re emotionally attached to your work, and even if it doesn’t seem perfect, you simply can’t see any way to change or improve it. Here’s how to zoom back out and get the big picture. 1. Let it rest Ever since I started writing as a teen, I’ve heard this piece of advice. Put your first draft aside for a few days (or at least 24 hours ). Leave it alone. Yes, it’s hard; you’re itching to get your piece finished . You’ll need to plan ahead: give yourself a few days in the middle of a project to take a break. Your unconscious mind will carry on mulling over that project while you’re away from it. When you pick it up again, you’ll come to it afresh. You’ll have new insights. You’ll see different possibilities. Mistakes will jump off the page at you. How long should you put your work aside for? I’d say, the longer the piece, the longer you let it rest. For a blog post, leaving it for a day is probably enough. For a novel, give it at least a couple of weeks — preferably a month. 2. Read as a reader When you pick up your piece again after a break, try to get into the mindset of a reader. Imagine it’s the first time you’ve read this. It helps to make a clear physical break between your writing mode and reading mode. Depending on your project and how you like to work, that might mean: Printing out the whole thing and reading it in a coffee shop Turning it from a word document into a PDF so that you can’t keep changing the text as you read Creating a “real book” version of your manuscript on Lulu Reading through the whole thing in one session While you’re reading, watch out for: Anything vague. Have you assumed knowledge which your real readers might not have? Anything extraneous. It might be interesting to you, but if you can cut it out without losing any meaning from the piece, it should go. In fiction, I ask myself “Is this part of the story?” Anything redundant. When you’re working on a project over a long period of time, you’ll often end up with two similar sections, or very similar phrase or word choices close together. Next to impossible to spot when you’re writing, glaringly obvious to readers. 3. Ask for feedback However great your imagination, you can never truly put yourself in the position of a first-time reader. You know your writing and your topic too well. There’s an easy solution, however: Find some actual readers Ideally, pick people in your target audience. You could try: A writing circle — either a group that meets in real life, or an online one Regular commenters on your blog Participants in a forum or membership site which you belong to (I’m sending out my ebook draft to some fellow Third Tribers this coming weekend) Unless she happens to be a writer too, or typical of your readership, your mom is not the best person to ask for feedback. Ditto for your spouse. They’re likely to be kind rather than constructively critical. When you ask for feedback, be clear about what you want If this is a first draft, you’re not primarily concerned with typos or the occasional clunky sentence. You want to know if whole sections should be cut, or whether your angle works, or if your call to action is clear. I always give my guinea-pig readers a free copy of the finished piece, if appropriate. It’s also nice to offer to reciprocate if they ever want feedback on a writing project. 4. Proofread Once you’re past the revisions stage and into the final version, you’ll need to proofread. Although you can get away with the occasional typo, spelling mistake or grammatical slip in most blog posts, you’ll want to avoid any embarrassing mistakes in your shiny new ebook or your slick sales page. I find that I’m great at finding typos in other people’s work … and awful at spotting them in my own. Usually, I find a long suffering friend to proof-read for me, but if I’m proofreading my own material, this is what helps: Proofread on paper For some reason, it’s easier to spot mistakes on paper than on the screen. Perhaps it’s because we’re more prone to skimming on the screen, or because our eyes glide over any mistakes which the spellchecker hasn’t picked up. Regardless of why , it works. Print out your piece, and go through it slowly with a red pen in hand. Proofread backwards When we read, we rarely take in every word. Uur brain fills in what it expects to see — even if that’s not quite what’s there. (Ever mis-read a headline? Or a billboard?) Reading your work backwards deals with this. You’re forced to look at every single word. It’s a slow and tortuous process, but if you have a piece of work which absolutely must be error-free, it’s the best way to do it. How about you? Do you find it hard to get perspective on your writing? What methods work for you? And have you ever written something which you thought was perfect … until you looked at it again a few months later? Let us know about it in the comments. About the Author: Ali Hale writes about productivity with perspective alongside Thursday Bram on their newly-launched blog Constructively Productive: you can grab the RSS feed here .

The 7 Secrets of Running a Wildly Popular Blog

Tue, 20 Jul 2010 13:47:53 +0000

Did you ever wonder why some blogs attracts tons of readers and others don’t? Of course you’ve wondered. We all have. Because if you’re reading this blog, you almost certainly have a blog of your own. You think it’s great, and you want lots of other people to think it’s great too. So what’s the answer? Why do some blogs become more popular than others? There are lots of reasons why people flock to certain blogs, but I think one of the most important is that popular blogs are written by popular people — the sort of people who attract others. And becoming a popular person isn’t just a matter of fate or genes. It’s something you can work on. I’m not saying content isn’t important when you’re creating a popular blog. Content for the best blogs is almost always top-notch, interesting, and informative — and that takes work. But a blog isn’t just about work or great content. Think about the most popular person you know in your personal life. What is it about them that attracts other people? Brains? Skill? Knowledge? These things could be part of it, but don’t you also know popular people who aren’t the smartest, the most skilled, or the best-educated? When giving the commencement speech to the Vassar class of 1983, Meryl Streep said this: Real Life is actually a lot more like high school. The common denominator prevails. Excellence is not always recognized or rewarded. What we watch on our screens, whom we elect, are determined to a large extent by public polls. Looks count. A lot. And unlike the best of the college experience, when ideas and solutions somehow seem attainable if you just get up early, stay up late, try hard enough, and find the right source or method, things on the outside sometimes seem vast and impossible … In other words, success isn’t necessarily about competence. It’s often about likeability. People like to spend time with people they like. The same applies to blogs. Success often depends on likeability. How you come across. Your vibe. Your attitude and personality. And if I were to break this down into specific tips, I’d say there are 7 secrets for making your blog (and you) more popular. 1. Have a conversation People don’t like to be lectured or talked down to. They just like to talk. And a blog is really a form of conversation between you and your readers. Even if people don’t always directly communicate with you or leave comments, the tone of your posts should be more or less conversational. Don’t write like you’re delivering a sermon. Write like you’re chatting with a friend. Keep it easy and informal. 2. Lighten up You don’t have to tell jokes, but it’s smart to keep things light-hearted. Consider the Men with Pens blog. James always has a lot of fun when writing a post, and her sense of humor makes the information more readable and entertaining. Your readers are probably having a tough day. Their desk is groaning under the weight of all their projects. The economy is crappy and their life is full of responsibility. If they read your blog and come away feeling just a little happier, they’ll keep coming back. 3. Be yourself After all, people are not coming to your blog just to acquire knowledge. They’re dropping by to visit you . Which means you have to be there. That means revealing a little about yourself, sharing the occasional personal photo, posting videos where you talk to your readers, letting people know what’s going on with you. For example, in a recent Pro Copy Tips post, I mentioned that I visited Las Vegas for my sister’s wedding. I show a photo of me standing in front of the famous welcome sign on a sweltering afternoon. I mention playing the slots and losing a little money. (Only a buck. I’m not much of a gambler.) And all this served as an introduction to thoughts about how writers take risks, so it remained informative and focused on the reader. 4. Be nice Yes, your mom was right. You have to be nice. Don’t be a diva. Answer your emails. Respond to comments. Be polite even when a reader makes the occasional stupid remark or a troll flames you for no good reason. The people who are rude to you are having a bad day, or a bad life, and they want to share their frustration and anger with you. But it’s their problem, not yours. They want to provoke you. Don’t let them. If anyone gets out of control on your blog, don’t bicker about it. Just delete the comment and move on. 5. Get over yourself When you think about it, blogs are really kind of egotistical . You have to think pretty highly of yourself to assume other people want to hear what you have to say day after day. There’s nothing wrong with a healthy ego, but your blog really isn’t about you. It’s about your readers. It may seem counterintuitive, but the more you cater to your readers needs, the more popular and profitable your blog can become. The more you give, the more you get. The world is full of self-centered and stingy bloggers. Don’t be one of them. (I realize this might seem to contradict #3. There’s a delicate balance there. You want to share enough of yourself to make a connection, but still keep your focus on your audience.) 6. Help people Isn’t this the whole point of a blog, especially one that’s wildly popular? Why do you visit Copyblogger or Lifehacker or Chris Brogan , or any of the other top blogs? Because they offer you lots of stuff without necessarily expecting something in return. The people who run these blogs are constantly thinking about how they can help you. Again, think about the people in your personal life. You probably know that one person who is always willing to help, no matter what you need. Why do you keep going back to that person? Because you know they’ll say “yes” when most others will say no. Helpful people are popular people. 7. Stop trying so hard Yes, you need to work at your blog. You should write good posts. You should offer solid information. You might even put in long hours. But don’t push too hard. Relax. Enjoy it. Make it part of your life. If you’re desperate for success, that desperation will show. It’s like dating: there’s a fine line between wooing someone and stalking them. I mean, have you ever had someone get a crush on you and start trailing you like a puppy? It’s annoying. And a little creepy. No matter how much you want success, just remember that it comes fast for some and slower for others. There’s a moderately popular blog I used to enjoy. Then the people who run it announced a product. From that day forward, every post was about their product. Every link pointed to a sales page. The blog was no longer a conversation. It was a relentless sales pitch. I don’t visit any more. Meryl Streep was right. Life is like high school. And success has a lot to do with being popular. So … be popular. About the Author: Dean Rieck is one of America’s top direct marketing copywriters. He shares his writing and freelancing know-how at the wildly popular Pro Copy Tips .

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The 7 Secrets of Running a Wildly Popular Blog

How to Find Thousands More Prospects for Your Business

Wed, 14 Jul 2010 14:46:09 +0000

Ever wonder why conversion rates are so low? A “good” sales page will usually convert between 1 and 5 percent of its readers. Those numbers vary wildly depending on about a zillion factors, but that’s the middle of the bell curve. So that means between 95 and 99 percent of people reject what you’ve got to offer. Seems a little depressing when you look at it that way, right? So are those 95–99 percent just a write-off, a necessary cost of doing business? Do you have to do the work and/or spend the money to get nearly prospects to make 1 sale? Not necessarily. Note: No actual statistics were harmed, or even used, in the writing of this post. In other words, these numbers are theoretical. Use them to illustrate the principle, and for back-of-the-envelope planning. The real numbers always come from your own business and your own individual situation. The desperate buyers strategy According to sales strategist Chet Holmes, at any given time, about 3 percent of your market is in active buying mode. So if you sell furniture, about 3 percent of adults in your town are looking for some piece of furniture right now. If you sell fancy cages for naked mole rats, about 3 percent of naked mole rat owners are in the market for a new cage. Traditional internet marketing is all about finding this 3 percent. The smartest Adwords, SEO, and affiliate marketers are all trying to selectively find that 3 percent and weed out the other 97. You can call this the Desperate Buyers Only strategy, which is the title of a very solid program by Alexis Dawes on writing and selling ebooks. The trouble is that the desperate 3 percent are expensive, because everyone wants them. What are called the “converting keywords” (the keywords that are proven to attract the 3 percent who are ready to buy today) are expensive to buy with pay-per-click. Those same keywords are usually highly competitive for SEO , and getting more so every day. You’re competing with thousands of hungry internet marketers for that 3%. It can be done, but you have to be at the top of your game. But there are more buyers out there, if you know how to treat them. The conquer-the-universe strategy Holmes’s research goes on to say that about 7 percent of any given market is receptive to the idea of buying, even if they aren’t actively looking. Given the right offer, they could be talked into it. We could call these our Not-So-Desperate buyers . If you can pull them in, you’ve more than tripled the size of your potential buying pool, going from 3 percent to 10 percent. Another 30-ish percent will buy one of these days, but it’s not on their radar right now. Call them the Not Yets . About 30 percent are mildly turned off on the idea of buying your product. Holmes calls them the Soft No . And about 30 percent are highly turned off. They hate something about your company, or they never pay for information, or their spouse has threatened them with grievous bodily harm if they spend any more money on what you sell. They’re the Absolutely Nevers . What happens if you start creating marketing communication that entices the Not-So-Desperate, the Not Yets, the Soft Nos, and even a few Absolutely Nevers? You can scoop up all of those potential buyers and keep them close until they’re ready for you. You can develop enough trust and rapport to warm up the Not-So-Desperates, and even light a bit of a fire to get them moving today. You can make yourself the natural choice when the Not Yets are ready. You can answer objections and reverse the risk for the Soft Nos, which often turns them into Yeses. And you can even get a handful of Absolutely Nevers to act as your unpaid salespeople. While Absolutely Nevers might never buy themselves, if you’ve set up your marketing correctly, a surprising number of them will pass the word along to someone else who will buy. The product may not be right for them, but they know someone who can use the content . The key is the content net What kind of marketing attracts all the potential buyers, rather than the ones who are hot to buy right now? It has to be marketing that doesn’t look like marketing. Advertising that’s too valuable to throw away. Communication that delivers a real and compelling benefit, with the sales message presented only after you’ve earned the right to sell. Or what we like to call cookie content . And what kind of marketing keeps them around and engaged until they’re ready to buy from you? It has to be marketing that’s delivered over time. Advertising that arrives on a predictable, regular schedule. Communication that’s repeated enough times to develop trust and rapport. And the two best tools for that at the moment are probably a blog combined with an email autoresponder . A content net weaves a nice, friendly web of communication around all the categories of buyers, and keeps them interested. It’s a terrific tool for your Desperate 3%, because it educates them about why you’re the unquestionably perfect choice. But it also takes the other 97% and nurtures them, training them to become your ideal customer. About the Author : Sonia Simone is Senior Editor of Copyblogger and the founder of Remarkable Communication .

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How to Find Thousands More Prospects for Your Business

We’re Taking the Summer Off…

Mon, 05 Jul 2010 13:41:17 +0000

Well, not the whole summer. But we are giving ourselves a break. We spend a lot of time teaching people how to build smart, sustainable businesses with content. The kind of businesses that give us enough free time to have some decent work-life balance. After all, working your own schedule, to suit your own life, is one of the biggest benefits of running a business, right? Then it occurred to us — hm, maybe we should take some of our own advice. Many folks in the U.S. are taking today off for the Independence Day holiday, and we’re going to join them. And tomorrow we start our official summer schedule. We’ll post three terrific articles a week: Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. Then from Thursday through Sunday, enjoy a long summer weekend. Go for a bike ride, have lunch with friends, go to the zoo with your kids, maybe throw in a picnic or two. Yes, continue to work on and grow your business . But balance that out with all the other great stuff in your life. In other words, have a terrific summer — we only get so many of them. (Special note for our readers in Australia, where it is currently winter. Um, sorry. Maybe go for some relaxing sleigh rides on the beach?) Already pining for your Copyblogger fix? Feed your addiction by subscribing to the free Internet Marketing for Smart People newsletter. It’s all the cutting-edge marketing advice you’ve been craving, delivered hot and fresh to your email in-box. Even if you live in Australia. About the Author : Sonia Simone is Senior Editor of Copyblogger and the founder of Remarkable Communication .

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We’re Taking the Summer Off…

Charles Bukowski and the Secret to Immortal Writing

BlogPostman — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 14:29:35 +0000

Henry Charles Bukowski, Jr. was arguably the greatest American fiction writer of the last half of the 20th century. Fortunately for his book sales, most think of him as the archetypal drunk, misanthropic male pig. Don’t let the hype fool you, though. Bukowski possessed the secret to something nearly every blogger wants: what makes truly immortal writing. As I’ve only spent a few minutes with his now 16-year-old corpse lying in San Pedro (see photo above), I can’t speak to his personal life. But the words, the lines, the books, they are evidence of a generous, staggeringly imperfect, stoic genius and lover of life. Sure, a stack of tangled contradictions, who isn’t? Before (and after) his relatively minor fame hit, Bukowski spent decades mailing his poems and stories to small press magazines, mimeographed booklet makers and the like. Thousands of pages, hundreds of thousands of words. Usually these would go out as originals, no carbon copies. He once estimated that he’d lost hundreds of poems this way, the publisher usually wouldn’t return the rejected work, and it was gone forever. It forced him to move on, to work deliberately, to punch through again and again and again without sentiment. The poetry business, in my opinion, is largely an inbred, favor-driven, audience-less racket. Most folks don’t think about poetry until Terry Gross drags some poor, expressive soul into her studio for a literary interview. And when he or she begins to talk, most folks switch the channel. Bukowski eventually acquired a raving audience despite this reality. An audience that continues to grow exponentially 16 years after his death. An audience that begs, borrows and steals to get his stuff. An audience that he famously never chased down. An audience that he, in fact, largely pushed away . How did he do it? How did he go on to sell endless books of poetry and finally lay down in the dirt making an almost six-figure literary income? Several reasons of course, but try this one on for size … The secret is in the line. ~ Charles Bukowski Yeah, I know. Don’t dismiss that. Read it again. The secret is in the line. ~ Charles Bukowski No 10 point PR plan. No elaborate structure. No budget. No reader polls. No blog. The secret is in the line. ~ Charles Bukowski Sure, Twitter wasn’t around in 1980. And he eventually had John Martin at Black Sparrow Press backing him. But Bukowski himself attributed so much weight to the single line that it eclipsed all else in his philosophy of writing. If the single line was magnificent, the rest would take care of itself. In a 60,000 word novel, the working focus was on the single line . In the dirty stories sold to skin mags for money, the working focus was on the single line . In a small poem that maybe 50 people would read, the working focus was on the single line . Not easy. Not fast. But this must certainly be the path to immortal (and powerfully influential) writing. If you can stomach it. If not, there’s always a place for you in the pedestrian lane . About the Author: Robert Bruce is an American writer. And day job man. And beer drinker. And Presbyterian. All from the rain and fog of Portland, Ore. Get him on Twitter .

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Charles Bukowski and the Secret to Immortal Writing

Four Steps to Finding Your Ideal Writing Voice

BlogPostman — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 14:05:10 +0000

Voice is one of the most important elements of a successful blog . Period. Without voice, new arrivals to your blog won’t read beyond the first paragraph. Give your readers a strong voice, though, and they won’t be able to keep their hot little fingers off that RSS button. But what is voice, exactly? And how can you make it come through in your blog? You probably think of people you know as having a deep voice, or a squeaky voice, or a soft voice. Obviously no one can literally hear you on your blog, but they can “hear” you through the words you use and the way you use them. Chances are, your 8th grade English teachers didn’t teach you about voice. I don’t blame them. It’s messy, abstract, and darned difficult, and I should know. I’ve taught nearly 800 young teenagers the magic of voice over the past nine years. And now I’m going to teach you. 1. Get into the flow Each day, my students do a three-minute writing warm-up. The only goal is fluency — to produce as much writing as they can in three minutes. Some of the best writing they ever produce comes from these three-minute bursts. By removing the pressure of quality and focusing purely on quantity , the students are free to flow. What comes out is natural, quirky, and authentic. What comes out has voice. Try it: Set a timer and go. Don’t let the pencil come off the paper (or your fingers come off the keyboard). Just produce. Don’t edit . Don’t censor. Simply flow. 2. Write like you talk I encourage my students to read their writing aloud and ask themselves or a peer, “Does this sound like me?” If the answer is no, I challenge them to simply talk about the subject in their compositions for a moment, while I jot down some of the words and phrases they use in their ramblings. When they insert some of these snippets into their writing — BAM — voice happens. Try it: Record yourself talking through an idea for a blog post — then transcribe what you’ve written . You’ll find some super-rich voice nuggets. 3. Forget conventions (at least at first) Many of my students have been taught by previous teachers to stifle their voices by writing “standard” English. (Whatever that means.) Yes, writing must communicate a message , and to that end the conventions of standard English are important. But in many instances, those rules actually hinder our ability to create a realistic voice. I frequently remind my students that the rules of our language evolved over time with the specific purpose of creating clarity. If breaking a rule will enhance the clarity of their writing, then they should break it — and so should you. That may mean you choose a fragment over a complete sentence, end a sentence with a preposition, or add a comma when the rule book says it isn’t needed. These deliberate choices allow your voice to shine through. Try it: The next time you write a first draft, throw a few conventions out the window. Pretend they don’t exist. When you reread your draft, make your editing decisions based on what best communicates your message. 4. Write what you know This is a biggie. For years, I have asked my students to write an essay about who they would put on the face of a new coin. The best papers, almost always, are written about their moms. Isn’t that sweet? Other students write about Martin Luther King, Jr. or Michael Jordan, or Anne Frank. Sometimes those essays are great, but many times they just sound like a regurgitation of historical facts. (Even worse, sometimes those facts are wrong: “Dr. King helped free the slaves by refusing to get off the bus with his sister, Rosa.”) Bloggers fall into the same trap of picking topics that sound smart or seem popular, even if those topics aren’t really near and dear to their hearts. The result: no voice. Try it: Make this quote from Dolly Parton your new blogging mantra: “Figure who you are; then do it on purpose.” Strive for authenticity instead of popularity . Don’t try to sound like anyone or anything except who you already are. It sure works for Dolly. What tricks do you have for finding your voice? Share your best methods in the comments. I promise not to assign grades! About the Author: Joy Tanksley is a middle school English teacher, the wife of a philosopher, and a leader of workshops for women who want to smash limiting belief systems and lead more abundant lives. She blogs about living a joy-filled life at Being Joy .

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Four Steps to Finding Your Ideal Writing Voice