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Why Getting Attention Won’t Make You Rich

BlogPostman — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 19:00:00 +0000

Be remarkable. Be the purple cow. Get yourself noticed. Just be your own beautiful and unique snowflake self, and your allotment of raving fans will come find you and buy everything you make. Ever heard that advice? It’s a social media truism that as long as you’re authentic , you can’t go wrong. Fame, fortune, and the latest Apple products will all be yours. Let’s face it — authenticity can be a great way to draw a crowd. Especially if you have an over-the-top personality. And because we live in the age of attention scarcity, many people think that getting attention is the hard part. If only I could get noticed. If only I could get someone to read my stuff. But attention isn’t actually the rarest commodity in the 21st century. Trust is. It’s true that the first letter in every sales formula is “A” All marketing has to start with attention. If you can’t attract attention in the first place, nothing else you do has a chance to work. This is why headlines matter more than anything else you do. And that’s been the case as long as selling has existed. If you’ve ever been to a Renaissance Faire, think about the way the food vendors let you know what they’ve got to offer. When the pretty girl in the tight bodice shouts Hot Turkey Legs! and Cold Beer Here! , those are headlines. They attract your attention and let you know the most important details of the offer. But you need to remember that the work of the headline is not only to attract attention. The true job of the headline is to get the first line of your copy (whether it’s a blog post, email message, sales letter, video, or podcast) read, watched, or listened to. In other words, if you gaze happily at the pretty girl but you never approach her for a beer, the headline (and the bodice) have failed. Copywriting formulas have more than one letter (If the whole idea of copywriting formulas is new to you, you can find 15 of them here .) Conversion is the copywriting term for all the stuff that happens between that initial “A” and the sale. You craft an offer that people will actually want to buy . You build trust. You answer questions and counter objections. You describe appealing benefits to spark interest and fan it into desire. You make it easy for the prospect to see herself as a customer. You increase desire with appealing bonuses. You deliver a clear, compelling call to action . You build in urgency elements to get the prospect to act today. You state your call to action again. Being a jerk is bad for business Lots of us will reward a jerk with attention. But not many will reward a jerk with business . Jerks can’t be depended on. They play head games. They don’t respect their audience. They amuse themselves at the expense of other people. Prospects are already fearful enough . If your prospects don’t trust you, they’re not likely to spend any money with you. You don’t have to be a wimp You’ll notice that some very successful businesspeople have strong, tough personas. They may well make themselves unlikeable to most of the population. That’s ok – they’re filtering out the customers who aren’t right for their business. The message they send to their right customers, though, is always that they can be trusted. That they’ll tell the truth, even when it’s not pretty. That they’re consistent, whether you like them or not. The dad from Sh*t My Dad Says would make a good marketer. Let’s face it, if you bought a car from that guy, you know that you’d have a completely accurate picture of what was good and bad about the car. He may be offensive at times, but he’s trustworthy. (At least, the real dad and not the one who will be played by William Shatner.) The dad from “Family Guy” would make a lousy marketer. He’s capricious, he goes for the cheap laugh every time, and he has no integrity. There are no customers gullible enough to buy a car from that guy. You may find him hilarious, but no sane person would find him trustworthy. It takes more than being remarkable Hey, I’m a big fan of remarkable. I built a blog and a lovely business around it. But “remarkable” doesn’t mean “remarkably annoying,” “remarkably mean,” or “ remarkably useless .” You have my permission to swear on your blog , to fearlessly embrace controversy , or just to make yourself a likeable jackass . But never, ever do it at the expense of the trust of your readers. There is no effective copywriting formula that leads directly from getting Attention to creating a Scandal to making a Sale. That’s just a formula for making an A-S-S of yourself. About the Author : Sonia Simone is CMO of Copyblogger Media and founder of Remarkable Communication . Follow her on twitter . Flickr Creative Commons image by Alaskan Dude

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Why Getting Attention Won’t Make You Rich

Scribe 3.0: SEO Made Simple

Thu, 30 Sep 2010 19:00:00 +0000

Some people think search engine optimization is a dark and mysterious art. But for online writers and content producers, it’s really as simple as 1, 2, 3: First, you need the right keywords, so you understand the language your readers, customers, or clients are using when they search. Second, you need compelling content that people love and search engines know is relevant to those searchers. Third, you need incoming links so search engines treat your site as a trusted and relevant source. I’m proud to announce that version 3.0 of Scribe now goes beyond on-page content optimization. We’ve added upfront keyword research (in addition to our keyword suggestion tool), plus three great link-building features that help you cover all your search optimization bases. Scribe 3.0 makes these three SEO fundamentals easier and more efficient than ever: First, the Scribe keyword research tool tunes you into the right language before you write. Once your content is created, the Scribe keyword suggestion service shows you keyword phrases you might have missed. Second, Scribe analyzes your natural, reader-focused content, and tells you how to gently tweak it to spoon feed search engines based on 15 SEO best practices. Third, Scribe’s link building tools help you build back links from other sites, crosslink the content within your own site, and identify influential social media users who want to share your stuff. With Scribe on your side, you’ll: Discover the correct profitable keywords Stay automatically up to speed on SEO best practices Optimize your content better and faster Avoid content that reads like it was written by a robot Build quality links with less hassle and confusion But most of all, you’ll achieve higher search rankings and increase the targeted traffic to your site! As part of your subscription you get Scribe Web, plus integrated versions of Scribe for WordPress, Joomla, and Drupal. We’ll even throw in free educational seminars to help you get more out of Scribe. Check it out . Scribe Web: Scribe Web allows content creators of any type to optimize any web content for search engines, regardless of platform or content management system. It’s especially popular among professional writers who create search optimized content for clients, and that’s why Scribe Web allows you to generate detailed content optimization reports so your clients can easily understand the work you’ve done. Scribe for WordPress: Scribe for WordPress allows online publishers and bloggers to optimize their content for search engines directly from inside the WordPress interface, by tapping into the Scribe software service on our servers. This means you’re constantly getting new-and-improved, state-of-the-art keyword research, content optimization, and link building tools. Scribe requires the ability to enter a custom title tag and a meta description via your WordPress interface. Most popular themes and plug-ins, both free and paid, enable these two functions so you can use Scribe directly from WordPress. Themes that work with Scribe for WordPress: Genesis Thesis Headway Hybrid Frugal WooThemes SEO Plug-Ins that work with Scribe for WordPress: All In One SEO Pack (free and pro version) FV All In One HeadSpace2 wpSEO Platinum SEO Pack SEO Ultimate Scribe for Joomla and Drupal: Scribe also helps you win the search engine game with the Joomla and Drupal content management systems. The keyword research and link-building features have been built in by our respective Joomla and Drupal ninjas, and are in beta testing as we speak. We expect the new and improved Joomla and Drupal plug-ins for Scribe to be live and kicking by next week. New design, new videos, new offer: Because these new Scribe features are kind of a big deal, we’ve done a complete makeover in their honor. We’ve got a completely new site design, new copy, a new video tour, and new demo videos. There’s also a special offer that makes Scribe an even better deal (if you look hard enough). Hint: Look at the “test drive” page. Check out Scribe 3.0 for yourself . About the Author : Brian Clark is founder of Copyblogger and CEO of Copyblogger Media. Get more from Brian on Twitter .

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Scribe 3.0: SEO Made Simple

Discover Your Strengths and Supercharge Your Business

BlogPostman — Tue, 21 Sep 2010 19:18:00 +0000

Have you ever been kept awake until 2 in the morning having an imaginary conversation with one of your blog readers who thinks you’re great and left a long comment telling you so? Or spent hours obsessively trying to figure out how to do better work, spurred by a fan letter from a customer about the terrific job you did? Or is it maybe more likely that your late-night solo conversations and obsessive problem-solving go to the trolls , the complainers, and the folks who just plain can’t stand you? Don’t worry. If you give an undue amount of attention to negative comments and feedback, to the extent of almost ignoring the good stuff altogether, it doesn’t mean you’re neurotic. It means you’re exactly like the rest of us. Chip Heath and Dan Heath in their marvelous book Switch make this observation: Imagine a world in which you experienced a rush of gratitude every single time you flipped a light switch and the room lit up. Imagine a world in which after a husband forgot his wife’s birthday, she gave him a big kiss and said, “For thirteen of the last fourteen years you remembered my birthday! That’s wonderful!” This is not our world. But in times of change, it needs to be. Play to your strengths I’ve long been fascinated by the advice to those who tell us to focus on our strengths, not our weaknesses, in order to create breakthrough success. It’s so appealing. You mean I don’t have to learn to cold call, balance my checkbook, or know how my RSS feed works? Sign me up. But it seems like it might be contradicted by another idea that’s gained a lot of attention recently: there’s not really any such thing as talent. Researchers like Carol Dweck and brilliant nonfiction writers like Malcolm Gladwell tell us that what we call “talent” is really the result of a heck of a lot of hard work. What are strengths, anyway? Until recently, I never realized this was a trick question. I thought that your strengths were things you were good at, and your weaknesses were things you sucked at. But Marcus Buckingham, who’s made a career out of writing about strengths, put it this way: A strength is “an activity that makes you feel strong.” It is an activity where the doing of it invigorates you. Before you do it, you find yourself instinctively looking forward to it. While you are doing it you don’t struggle to concentrate, but instead you become so immersed that time speeds up and you lose yourself in the present moment. And after you are finished doing it, you feel authentic, connected to the best parts of who you really are. Your strengths are the activities that give you the juice to put your 10,000 hours in. They’re the work you love enough to become the best in the world at. I’ll give you an example I recently heard Yo-Yo Ma giving an interview about how he got started as a cellist. As it happens, Yo-Yo’s parents are both musicians, and had high musical expectations for their little son. So when Yo-Yo was three, they gave the boy a violin. And Yo-Yo hated it. Wouldn’t practice. Wouldn’t focus. Didn’t have any zest for it. His frustrated parents finally gave up in disgust. And then little Yo-Yo saw and heard something amazing, something that surprised and delighted him. Something that he knew was exactly what he wanted to play. It was a double bass — the violin’s really, really big brother. Now that was more like it. He and his parents split the size difference, and Ma began to study first the viola and then settled (at four years old) on the cello. By seven he was a recognized prodigy, performing for Eisenhower and JFK, and by eight he played on national television, conducted by Leonard Bernstein. To have become so skilled between the ages of four and seven, he must have put in untold hours of practice. But they were hours spent on something he adored. One thing that interests me about Ma is that he isn’t just a brilliant cellist. He isn’t just world-famous and in-demand and a name brand. He also seems to be a remarkably happy and kind human being. He loves working with children. He’s been married a long time to the same person. He radiates kindness and a certain goofy charm. He’s got a great sense of humor, referring to himself at times as an “itinerant musician.” And he’s known for boundless energy. If I’m going to be a nationally-famous virtuoso, that’s the kind I want to be. Build your business like Yo-Yo When you see someone busting her tail to build a business, writing tons of great content, reaching out to potential customers, speaking and podcasting and doing everything we’re supposed to do to build a terrific content-based marketing program , it’s easy to ask: How does anyone find the time to do all that? The truth is, it’s not a time management problem — it’s an energy management one. When you focus on your strengths, you do the work that gives you energy. You do the work that drives you, that makes you giggle, that keeps you up late because you’re just having too much fun to stop. When you’re starting out, you do everything. You build the blog site and write all the content and do the bookkeeping and answer the support emails. Some of those things build you up and some wear you down. Pay attention to which is which. As soon as you can (it could be today), find partners who are energized by the tasks that exhaust and deplete you. If you can’t find the right partner, outsource the aspects of your business that make you want to crawl back into bed. And put your time and attention on what the Heath brothers call the “bright spots” – on what’s really working today. Put your time on the work that gives you juice. Do more of what’s working well. Do more of what energizes and strengthens you. Do more of what your readers and customers adore. Do more of what you can do better than anyone on earth. I know it sounds too simple to be real. But it’s how every genuinely great business — of any size — is built. About the Author : Sonia Simone is Senior Editor of Copyblogger, CMO of Copyblogger Media, and founder of Remarkable Communication . Share your bright spots with her on twitter .

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Discover Your Strengths and Supercharge Your Business

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 .

What All Content Creators Need to Learn From Roger Ebert

BlogPostman — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 13:18:09 +0000

Roger Ebert’s name is synonymous with movie reviews. Many of us remember him bantering with Gene Siskel on the TV shows Sneak Previews and At the Movies . But he doesn’t banter much anymore. He lost his ability to speak due to complications of thyroid cancer in 2006. Ebert may have lost the lower part of his jaw, but he hasn’t lost his voice. He continues to receive new acclaim and appreciation for the quality and feeling of his writing in books, newspaper reviews, and criticism. It shows a deep sense of character. But it also shows a few other valuable traits we as content creators would be wise to develop in ourselves. Keep a sense of humor I’m sure Ebert must have some bad days. He can’t speak, eat, or drink. But it never affects the quality of his writing. His words continue to sparkle and shine with life. He receives continual praise for the power of his insights and the humor sprinkled within his work. Ebert’s recent criticism of Glenn Beck show that his wit and sensibility are still strong. He doesn’t go for the laugh-out-loud moment, but he uses sharp observation and quiet humor to pull the reader in, as he does in The London Perambulator . Lesson: There is little in life that’s more valuable (to you and to your readers) than a sense of humor. Focus on what you can do well Ebert was a Pulitzer Prize-winning writer before becoming a famous film critic. Some people think his writing is even better since he lost the ability to speak. His ability to analyze and reflect on movies (or virtually any topic) is strong. He writes in a way that reaches both the average person and his peers. Ebert is rarely in front of cameras any more (his recent appearance on Oprah is a memorable exception), but he remains a prolific writer. He uses notepad and pen to communicate in person and the keyboard for larger audiences, and he communicates constantly. Profiled recently in Esquire magazine , Ebert offered up a journal entry to explain the power of writing: When I am writing my problems become invisible and I am the same person I always was. All is well. I am as I should be. Lesson: Be thankful for what you can do well. Do it as long and as vigorously as you can. Be honest Ebert has plenty to complain about. For that matter, so would a couple of other smart guys like, say, Jon Morrow or Stephen Hawking. None of them is wasting his time whining, though. They’ve had their fair share of happiness and fulfillment. They all enjoy what they do and they are damned good at it. They don’t look for pity. They are sincere when they say that they are doing what they love to do. The Esquire article features a small picture of a Post It note written by Ebert: There is no need to pity me. Look how happy I am. This has led to an exploring of writing. In his post Putting a Better Face on Things , Ebert gives a frank and insightful look into his feelings about reconstructive surgery and prosthetics. Ebert’s journal has produced close to half a million words of honesty that are touching thousands, if not millions, of readers. Lesson: Use your life experiences to fuel your work and offer others education and inspiration. Be forthright and frank whenever you talk about yourself. Let your passion save and sustain you Ebert makes this point loud and clear in the Esquire article: Writing is what saves him. His journaling has led to a gripping and moving exploration of the art of writing. Writing provides him with continued purpose in trying circumstances. How many people is he inspiring with this new phase of work? Millions? Can you do the same? It’s worth thinking about, isn’t it? Lesson: Your passion can carry you through hardships. If even a fraction of that passion spills into your content, the potential to build your audience and develop true fans is huge. Don’t phone it in. Bare your soul. Engage. And follow the examples set by the greats like Ebert. They know how it’s done. About the Author: Mark Dykeman is the founder and main brain of Thoughtwrestling , a blog devoted to developing ideas and bringing them to life. He is the author of the award-winning blog Broadcasting Brain . His work has appeared in numerous blogs, including Mashable.com, Dumb Little Man, Pick The Brain, Copyblogger, and more.

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What All Content Creators Need to Learn From Roger Ebert

Are You Too Lazy to Write Less?

Mon, 07 Jun 2010 15:12:54 +0000

How long should an article or a blog post be? How about a sales letter? The answer is, of course: “As long as necessary. And no longer. ” Obvious, right? Most writers know that brevity is crucial. In writing, like many things in life, “less is more.” But in writing and in Texas BBQ, we tend to over-indulge. We don’t need the extra words any more than we need those surplus calories, delicious though they are. Why does brevity matter? In your content marketing , you might want to inform or you might want to entertain. If your audience is mentally screaming “Get to the point!” you’ve done neither. And no one will share your work if they don’t understand it, or if it bores them into a coma. For sales copy, brevity is even more important. Yes, long copy sells . But “long” means you cover all of the important facts your prospect needs to know. It does not mean you indulge your desire to natter. If you have ever silently waited, cash in hand, while a windbag salesperson droned on, you will recognize the issue here. It actually takes more work to write a short post. You may find you spend twice as much time editing as you do writing. But you owe it to your readers to cut the fat from your content. Bottom line: If you want your words to have impact, get to the point — then get out of the way! About the Author: Chris Garrett is a professional blogger and co-author of ProBlogger: Secrets for Blogging Your Way to a Six-Figure Income . He is a man of few words, and many of those words can be found on his blog, chrisg.com .

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Are You Too Lazy to Write Less?

How to Build a Successful Business With a Small Audience

BlogPostman — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 15:00:06 +0000

More subscribers. More traffic. More followers. It’s easy to get caught up in the race for more. More is better, right? We all want our businesses and blogs to grow. But not all growth is ideal or even beneficial. Sometimes blind growth can be harmful. More contacts and more eyeballs doesn’t always mean better eyeballs . Would you rather have 1,000 people’s eyes completely glued to everything you do, or 100,000 with an attention span rivaling a fruit fly on amphetamines? More traffic isn’t always better either. New traffic is great, but if 99% leave without subscribing or taking some kind of desired action, does it really matter? Wouldn’t you rather have a few new followers join you every day as lifelong customers, than a few thousand who window-shop and quickly move on? How big is “big enough?” Have you thought about this? Incredible size easily leads to overwhelm of too many good ideas . I’m sure there are quite a few “big people” out there who wish their businesses were smaller and simpler. It’s not that growth is bad Growth is natural. If your product or service is first-rate, if your content is terrific, if you spend lots of time building quality relationships, and if you learn to effectively promote yourself, you’re going to grow. But we could always do more. We hit one milestone number and immediately we start wishing for the next. We have this idea that in order to be successful we need to be as big as possible. So is that really true? I don’t think so. Charlie Gilkey has a blog of just over 3,000 subscribers. And with this relatively “small” following, he has had no problem carving out a niche for himself helping creative entrepreneurs launch and develop their products. He regularly partners with peers who have five times or more the size of audience he has. Adam Baker runs another profitable, agile business with a few thousand subscribers. He’s managed to stay lean enough to travel the world with his family while he runs his business. Yusuf Clack has built a successful business by targeting a small niche and speaking to them in a way that no one else has. He doesn’t have a huge online following. But he has a passionate one. These are just a few of the many people out there who are doing quite well with a relatively small but highly engaged audience. How exactly do you make this work? Instead of playing for numbers, you play for depth. Think knock-out punches instead of a torrent of annoying fly-swatting jabs. Okay, maybe that’s a bad analogy, you don’t make friends by hitting them in the face. How about if I just tell you a few ways to deepen your reach? Do less, better. It’s much easier to make an impression when you focus on doing a few key things incredibly well. Become known for helping people by doing something amazing. Create high-value products and services. If your product price range is under $20, you’ll have to move a ton of inventory. But if you focus on valuable, higher-priced products (like awesome consulting or private training) you won’t need as many clients. Make more intimate connections. You can create a deeper connection with someone in a five-minute phone call than you can in five months of twitter conversation. The more you can connect on the phone and in person, the better, and the more likely you’ll create relationships that go beyond the surface level. Build a referral based business. When your focus is on people (not just numbers), more people will want to refer you to their friends and peers. This means you need to offer excellent customer service and you need to always exceed expectations. Also, if you have a service or product that complements someone else’s, it will be a natural fit for them to refer their people to you. Make yourself accessible. So many people create unnecessary distance between themselves and the people they help. They have filters, gate keepers, and barriers to communication. One benefit of staying small is it’s much easier to engage with your audience. Show that you’re someone who really cares and wants to help. The more you do that, the greater depth of connections you will build. The more you focus on depth, the more you realize that breadth is only relevant to a point. If you become obsessed with growth for its own sake, it can be hard to keep perspective. Sometimes being small is just fine. Sometimes, in fact, it’s fantastic. About the Author : Jonathan Mead is a martial artist and self development writer. He just released a guide called The Dojo that helps you get amazing things done before most people finish breakfast.

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How to Build a Successful Business With a Small Audience

7 Quick-Start Techniques for Fighting the Fear to Write

BlogPostman — Fri, 28 May 2010 16:01:57 +0000

Congratulations, you have a hot writing assignment! Maybe it’s a proposal that could make your company’s fortune. Maybe it’s your first professional writing gig. It could even be a guest post for Copyblogger. The stakes are high . . . and you know it. In fact, it’s all you can think about . . . the F.E.A.R. trying to sabotage your aspirations for success. Your fingers are shaking too hard to type anything , and your stomach has sunk down to the bottom of an ocean so deep that all the fish have weird lights on their heads. Well that’s not helping any, now is it? Instead, let’s get those pixels flowing with these 7 not-too-scary steps. 1. Write down your goal What does success look like? Get imaginative , specific and visceral . Imagine yourself being awarded with the Employee of the Month trophy while your boss announces: Without Catherine’s vital work on the proposal, we would never have won this contract. Now we will be giving bonuses to all our staff and hiring three new ones, and we couldn’t have done it without you. Thanks, Catherine. Everyone is clapping and there’s cake. This goal serves two purposes: It encourages you to get writing. It gives you a way to measure whether your writing is effective . If it increases the chance of the successful proposal/trophy/cake then it’s effective. If it does not , then you need to make changes. An objective yardstick is critical when your emotions are getting the better of you. 2. Plan your content Grab your favorite brainstorming tool. Could be mind-mapping software, a bunch of index cards, parchment and quill pen . . . whatever suits you. Start with the high-level ideas. If you’re writing a sales page, you need to describe the benefits , so that’s an entry. The call to action is another. What content do you need to provide to support the high-level ideas? In the last example, each specific benefit would have a separate entry. Go down as many levels as you need to until every entry makes only one point . Evaluate the entries. Does each one move you toward your goal? Can some be removed? What order makes the most sense? Shuffle and remove entries until you have a working plan of what to write. Notice you now have a nice, clear idea of what the finished document should look like. Awesome. It’s time to take a deep breath and start on the actual writing. 3. Ten minutes of gibberish If you’re looking at the blank screen with mounting horror ( Have I forgotten the English language entirely? ), open a new document and pound out anything . A history of cheese The lyrics of your favorite song A stream-of-consciousness piece that starts with “Daffodil Philomena carousel elf-wine fodder marmalade” A cake recipe An imaginary shopping list Endless lines of All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy Don’t force it to make sense! Just let it flow out with no judgment or expectations. When there’s no pressure to get anything Right, for many people the mental vapor-lock vanishes. They can go back and start writing the important stuff. 4. Divide your ideas into sections Remember back in school when we were taught, “One idea per paragraph”? Still a good idea, although you may need more than a paragraph. But each section of your document should convey one idea, and only one. Introduce each section with a good subhead to make the document more readable and keep your ideas organized. You can go back and adjust your content plan to include extra ideas, but give each idea its own section and subhead. 5. Explain it to the potted plant If you’re trying to make a point and you’re . . . umm . . . you know, how do I say it . . . it’s on the tip of my tongue . . . stuck on how to explain it? Talk it out with another person. It doesn’t actually need to be a real person. It can be to the potted plant on the windowsill. You’ll start out stumbling and inarticulate, but quickly the thoughts will come together and you’ll have it all sorted in your head. Or you may realize that this was one of those ideas that seemed good at first blush but doesn’t really make any sense. That’s fine too. Delete it and move on. 6. Editing, your deadly new friend After you’ve written what you need to write, the dreaded post-writing stage kicks in. This is where you edit your work to make it the best it can possibly be. Revising, polishing, reordering and spell-checking are all wonderful tools. They help you make your point more clearly and concisely. BUT. Perfectionism, the copywriter’s curse , loves editing. If you’re not careful, deadlines will fly by while you make infinitesimal improvements. Never try to write and edit at the same time. Write first, edit later. Focus on removing words when editing. This doesn’t mean you can’t tell a relevant story or insert an interesting adjective, but every word must contribute to that goal you set out in Step 1. Set an upper limit on revisions. For truly critical documents, you might go as high as ten revisions. But pick a number and stick to it , no matter how much you think, “Oh but I just have this one tweak . . .” 7. Still overwhelmed? Today I’m releasing a new resource called Awesome Fear-Wrangling: Manage your Website Fears, Grow an Awesome Website . If you want some industrial-strength help, come check it out! (There’s a special bonus today too. It’s my birthday. There’s cake.) What are your techniques to get you writing when you’re facing a bunch of fear? Tell us in the comments! About the Author: Catherine is wicked passionate about helping people to start and grow an awesome website. When she’s not adding five-minute missions to BeAwesomeOnline.com , she can invariably be found on Twitter .

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7 Quick-Start Techniques for Fighting the Fear to Write

Three Training Tips to Become a Better Blogger

BlogPostman — Thu, 20 May 2010 13:22:17 +0000

I don’t go to the gym. I could. There’s a gym right here in my town. I’d like to be stronger, faster, and more badass. But I don’t go to the gym, and the reason has nothing to do with my not wanting to get all of the benefits of a good workout. It has to do with the fact that when I want results, I want them now. I want to go to the gym just one time and walk out with muscles I didn’t have when I went in. Now, everyone knows you don’t achieve your physical peak in just one gym session. Yet I keep noticing bloggers out there who seem to believe that they can achieve writing prowess in just one blog post. That’s just as silly as me expecting to be able to do 50 pull-ups on my first trip to the gym. Your brain is like a muscle Your brain is not actually a muscle, so don’t put any bets down on your trivia skills at the local bar. But your brain acts like a muscle. The more you use it, the stronger it gets. This is how you learn a language, for example. The first time you learn that “Bonjour” means “Hello” in French, you have to think about it pretty hard whenever someone asks you the question. But if you move to Quebec and hang out with me awhile, you’ll find yourself soon saying “bonjour” automatically when you walk into stores. Your brain doesn’t have to think about it anymore. It’s walked down that neural pathway often enough that saying “bonjour” becomes an automatic response. When you write a blog post, your first posts might take a lot of effort. You’re going to work hard to remember how to craft a good story , or pause to wonder whether you just made a common grammatical error , or remind yourself to break things up and use bullet points so people can read more easily. After a few years of blogging, you don’t think about that stuff anymore. It happens naturally. That part of your brain becomes so strong that it doesn’t feel like work. How to make your blogging muscles stronger If you want to be stronger, faster, or in better physical shape, you go to the gym often. Maybe every day. If you want to be a stronger blogger, a faster writer, or in better shape to whip up posts that people want to read, write a blog post every day. Even if you only post once a week on your blog, put in the time to write every day. Otherwise, you’ll never make your blogging muscles any stronger. If you only lifted weights once a week, how long do you think it would take you to turn yourself into an Ironman? The more frequently you write, the faster you’ll improve, and the stronger you’ll get. Here are a few tips to get stronger in even less time. Switch it up. Trainers and fitness magazines say to work different muscles on different days, because muscles need to rest. The same goes for blogging. Try writing about a different topic every other day, or testing new approaches three times a week. You don’t have to post those topics — you just have to write them. You’ll still be working your writing muscles, but you won’t exhaust yourself writing the same type of content every day. Make every repetition count. A lot of people go to the gym and sort of sleepwalk through their routine. They’re doing each motion, but they’re not working that hard. They don’t notice when they could move up a weight bracket to get more results. When you blog, don’t just toss off a post in 20 minutes without thinking about it. Make every single post count. You’ll write faster when you’re stronger, but right now, slow down and make sure the post you’re working on is the best it can be. Increase your difficulty. Speaking of moving up a weight bracket, don’t stick to posts about simple topics. If you feel like you’ve exhausted your current knowledge about your favorite topic, go out and do some research on more complex areas of that topic. Work to make your writing even better and more compelling. Push yourself. Don’t stick around lifting 5-pound weights when you could be lifting 50s. You’re never going to get stronger if you stay in your comfort zone. Above all else, put in the work. Plenty of people think they can run a marathon. They sign up, they undertrain, and when the big day rolls around, they can’t do even a fraction of the run. The blogging equivalent of that is when a blogger pitches a big blog for a guest post, but can’t deliver anything like the caliber of writing that blog demands. So put in the training. You’ll get stronger, faster, and better — and before you know it, you’ll be at the front of the pack with the big shots. About the Author: If you’re looking for more training advice on your blogging, head on over to Men with Pens , where James Chartrand gives you a writing gym packed with equipment to work those muscles.

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Three Training Tips to Become a Better Blogger

10 New Ideas for Getting Inspired to Write

BlogPostman — Thu, 13 May 2010 13:45:48 +0000

Years ago, I had a golden retriever named Louie who loved pillaging trash cans. I tried yelling at him whenever he stuck his nose in the can. I tried different models of trash cans with hard-to-open lids. I tried putting the trash can inside a cabinet. But it didn’t matter. Louie was a trash can fiend, and he wouldn’t be denied. It got to be such a problem that I eventually called a dog trainer friend for advice. She told me to put mousetraps in the trash cans. After she reassured me that her method wasn’t going to harm Louie, I put a mousetrap in every trash can in the house. Then I forgot about it. I was working in my office when I heard a SNAP in the other room, followed by the sounds of scampering toenails. Seconds later, Louie came slinking into my office, his tail between his legs, and a betrayed look on his face. He never touched a trash can again. The point of the story? A few weeks ago, I gave you 10 of my best tips for getting inspired to write . They’re good ideas, ones that have worked for me in the past, and I think they’ll help you. But sometimes 10 isn’t enough. Sometimes, you have an unruly muse who, like my golden retriever, refuses to be good, and you have no other choice but to call a knowledgeable friend and ask for more ideas. Fortunately, I have another 10 ideas ready and waiting. One of these might just be the mousetrap that finally gets your muse to behave. 1. Browse concept photos Ever browsed through a stock photography site like iStockphoto, looking for the perfect picture, but you just couldn’t find anything that . . . you know . . . grabbed you? Well, try doing the opposite. Look at concept photos before you write the post, and then let the photo inspire you. On iStock, you can type “concept” or “[your subject] concept” into the search box, and it’ll give you a selection of photos that represent different ideas. This is exactly how I came up with the idea for my The Courage to Be Wrong post. 2. Write a letter to your internal editor I got this one from one of my college professors, and it sounds really weird, but here’s the idea. As writers, we all have a voice inside our head telling us our work sucks. Normally, it’s just a nuisance, but sometimes the voice is so loud that it overpowers your creative flow, making it impossible for you to write. In those cases, here’s what to do: instead of trying to ignore it, confront it. Write a letter to your internal editor and tell him (or her) how irritated you are, how he’s ruining your career, and to shut the hell up. Really let him have it. Oftentimes, it’ll shock the little bastard into silence, and you can get back to work. 3. Use a pattern interrupt I once met a painter who said that, whenever he is feeling bored with his art, he pulls out a peacock feather, sticks it in his pants like a tail, and goes back to work. It’s so strange, so wrong , that it always gives him a fresh perspective on the painting. Before you go looking for feathers though, let me tell you the secret: it’s a principle from neurolinguistic programming called a pattern interrupt. Whenever a thought process isn’t working for you, one of the best ways to get unstuck is to do something really strange. Throw water in your face, scream at the top of your lungs, dance around naked. People might think you’re crazy, but hey, you’re a writer. You’re supposed to be crazy. 4. Take a hit of caffeine I know, it’s bad for you. Over the long run, it also robs you of more energy than it gives you. But if you’re propping your eyes open with toothpicks, and you have to get a post done or else, I’m the last person to condemn you for needing a little pick me up. All of my best posts here at Copyblogger were conceived under the influence of Mountain Dew, and I’m convinced it’s eloquence in a bottle. If you need it, I say drink it. Caffeine may be bad, but it’s far, far better than your best ideas dying inside of you because you couldn’t stay awake in your chair. Just my opinion. 5. Get off your butt Whenever you’re feeling stuck, the worst thing you can do is sit at the computer and try to grind it out. You’re far, far better off getting up and walking around. Movement creates a sense of energy, and it can help you get your creative wheels turning when you just can’t figure out how you want to approach a post. Personally, I find pacing in circles to be the most helpful because it requires no conscious thought, and I can concentrate on the problem at hand. Taking a walk can also work, especially if it’s a path you know well. 6. Unlock your unconscious mind The longer I write, the more I realize it’s largely an unconscious process. You could be taking a shower, washing the dishes, sleeping — regardless of what it is, your mind is ticking away in the background, figuring out what to say and how to say it. Sometimes though, our minds are so cluttered that we can’t hear our intuition, and when that happens, writing is a struggle. The only way I know to solve it is to sit still and meditate, deliberately quieting your mind and doing your best to listen instead of think. Many times, a fully developed idea will just pop into your head, and you’ll know exactly what to write and why. 7. Browse the archives The next time you’re struggling for post ideas, try browsing through your blog archives for a few minutes, rereading old posts. If you’re anything like me, you’ll always have a different perspective now than you did then, and the old posts will bug you because they are a little outdated. You’ll see points you should have made, metaphors you should’ve used, nuances you should have noticed. All of which make great fodder for follow-up posts. 8. Lecture an idiot Sometimes, the best way to get inspired is to write a good, old-fashioned rant. In your mind, conjure an image of someone who said, did, or believes something idiotic, and then start writing what you would like to say to them. Sure, it’ll be angry and condescending. Sure, you’ll probably go a little too far. Sure, you’ll need to edit it before publishing it to the world. But who cares? Writing great prose has a lot less to do with mechanics than it does with figuring out how to get your blood boiling and then having the courage to put your passion into words. If writing a rant helps you do that, go for it. 9. Let other artists charge you up Creativity is contagious. Whenever you feel like your batteries are drained, find another artist doing their thing and just watch them for a while. If they’re good, something about it will charge you up, and you’ll want to get to work. Personally, I like to watch reruns of Fox’s So You Think You Can Dance . The show has nothing to do with writing, but the dedication of the dancers, the beauty of the choreography, and the emotion of the moment are so inspiring that I can’t help wanting to emulate it in my work. For you, it may be something else. Whatever it is, find it, and set aside the time to let it inspire you. 10. Look within Let’s get down to the real answer, shall we? If you’re really serious about writing, if you want to make a career out of it, if you want to be so good that people talk about and remember you, then the secret to inspiration isn’t getting inspired. It’s being inspired. It’s about loving what you do. It’s about loving who you are. It’s about loving your life . I’ve never heard of anyone who worked a boring job, came home to a boring family, watched three hours of boring television, and then proceeded to write something of spellbinding greatness. It just doesn’t happen. Here’s why: your writing is an extension of who you are . If your life is a soul-sucking heap of mediocrity, then your writing will be a soul-sucking heap of mediocrity. Similarly, if your life is an adventure that brings you such joy you want to weep, then that joy will seep into your words, and anyone who reads them will begin to smile. The difference between a legendary writer and a merely good one isn’t mechanics. It’s intensity. Train yourself to find that intensity, and you’ll never lack for inspiration again. About the Author: Jon Morrow is Associate Editor of Copyblogger. Get more from Jon on twitter .

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10 New Ideas for Getting Inspired to Write