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Copyblogger Weekly Wrap: Week of September 27, 2010

BlogPostman — Sat, 02 Oct 2010 20:00:00 +0000

Those who stalk me (and you know who you are) know that I’ve been talking a lot lately about “ Storyselling ,” which is a way to sell stuff using stories. But nothing is infallible, so I wanted to publicly announce some flaws I’ve found with it: Don’t use Storyselling with the police. Tell them about Uncle Phil’s hairpiece and they’ll still put you in jail for running over a Photomat booth with a city bus. (Don’t ask how I know this.) Don’t tell your story after being pushed off a building by the person you were trying to convince not to push you. Tell it before. After is too late. It’s amazing how many people get this one wrong. Don’t watch The Story of O with your grandmother, unless you enjoy uncontrolled squirming. Now, with that out of the way, let me tell you the story of what happened this week on Copyblogger: Monday: 50 Can’t-Fail Techniques for Finding Great Blog Topics I could give you an elaborate summary of this one, but really, the title says it all: it’s a collection of 50 can’t-fail techniques for finding great blog topics. Instead, I’ll spend this summary talking about Hollywood gossip. So… do you guys think Lady Gaga is a dude? Read the full post here . Tuesday: Want People To Read Your Sales Page? Make It Scannable To prove how true this post is, I scanned it only briefly to write this summary, and did so while driving a race car off a cliff. A lot of people are like me, so if your sales page is full of dense text that requires people to read every word, you’re going to turn us off. Also, after scanning this post, I’m pretty sure it was about waffles. Read the full post here . Wednesday: 8 Bad Habits that Crush Your Creativity And Stifle Your Success I totally get this one. Most people have the potential to be creative, but they do these 8 things that stifle creativity and make them boring. Don’t want to be boring? Then stop doing these 8 things, and also get a multicolored hat with a feather. Read the full post here . Thursday: Scribe 3.0: SEO Made Simple Hey, everyone, Scribe just got even better! I like Scribe. It’s cool for people like me who hate SEO because they think it gets in the way of your writing style, but then you get Scribe and it goes all ninja and suddenly you’re ranking well and life is grand. NOTE: Scribe does not include a pair of those little ninja slippers, exploding powder, or those shiny little stars you throw at people. Yet. Read the full post here . Friday: Why Getting Attention Won’t Make You Rich I was in a pink full-body suit, climbing the Sears Tower to drop lemons on pedestrians when I read this post — and just in time. Attention may be the first step to building a lucrative business, but it’s not the only one. In this post, Sonia Simone outlines what else you need to do in order to convert attention to currency. For me? I’m selling “I got hit with a lemon by a pink guy and all I got was this lousy t-shirt” t-shirts. Read the full post here. This week’s cool links: Signs That Blogging is Not Only Alive, But More Critical Than Ever : Think that blogging is dead? Um, no. That would be a stupid thing to think. Digg Founder “Burned Out,” May Leave by End of 2010 : Kevin Rose has had it, and reading this, I think I’d be expecting a “postal” reaction out of him. Can we get Pete Rose in there instead? Trouble Choosing a Niche? Start a Personal Blog : If you’re not sure what to blog about, Darren Rowse suggests starting a personal blog as a testing ground. (Note to self: It’s possible to have a business blog that isn’t all about yourself? Strange, but possibly true.) 14 Incredibly successful ways to stand out from the crowd : Like monster * posts? This one about finding a way to stand out in an otherwise crowded space will suit you well. * Does not contain Cookie Monster. ‘Cluetrain Manifesto’ Comes True In Age of Twitter, Facebook : The book The Cluetrain Manifesto , written in 2000, is totally being proven true a decade later. (Also, it describes a train on which you can play the game “Clue.” My money is on Professor Plum in the parlor with the candlestick.) About the Author: Johnny B. Truant wants you to know that his new course Storyselling 101 is half price this weekend and says “You should totally get it now.”

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Copyblogger Weekly Wrap: Week of September 27, 2010

50 Can’t-Fail Techniques for Finding Great Blog Topics

BlogPostman — Mon, 27 Sep 2010 19:55:00 +0000

It’s one thing to know you need to create lots of great content . It’s another to actually know what you’re going to write about this week. Are you out of ideas for blog posts? Small wonder, if the only place you’re looking is inside your own head. We all need inspiration … and you’re not going to find it banging your head against the desk and hoping an idea falls out. You need fresh inspiration if you’re going to come up with new ideas. To help get your inspirational motor running, here are 50 techniques for generating great blog post topics. Two words: Google alerts . Set an alert with a few industry key words, and ask it to deliver at least 20 stories a day. Read the headlines and throw interesting links into a file for future use. When you get several related stories, you’ve got an instant roundup piece. Skim national newspapers and magazine stories. How does national news such as the recession affect your readers? Talk about national trends, and your audience will come to rely on you to tailor big news to address their concerns. Ask yourself, “What’s missing?” or “What will happen next?” Answer the questions those national rags didn’t address. What’s the next domino that will likely fall as a result of this piece of news? Point it out, and your readers will feel you (and they) are ahead of the curve. Read small publications. If you have an expertise blog, check the experts’ columns in local papers or business weeklies. Few people outside your community will have read these, and their topics are often easily recycled. Read trade publications. Trade pubs cover every imaginable industry and they’re a great source of trend ideas, from Ad Age to TWICE (This Week in Electronics). They’ll also track new companies and products you might mention (see #39). Read your competitors. I subscribe to several competing blogs on my iGoogle desktop, for real-time headline scanning. If you write on a similar topic, you can give the other blog link love. Riff on a popular post. Grab yourself some high-powered linkage by posting your reaction to a big-time blogger’s thoughts. Try a new medium. Burned out on the blogosphere? Look at YouTube videos, listen to podcasts, or watch good ol’ fashioned TV shows or radio broadcasts. Think about pain. What are the biggest problems your readers face? Focus on topics that would provide balm to their wounds. Talk to a friend. That’s right — use your lifeline, just like on the reality TV shows. Jawing about a problem usually helps ideas bubble up. Tackle a controversy. Weigh in on your industry’s hot topic. This can be especially effective if you have a contrarian viewpoint . Join a blogger’s group. Knowing your group will ask what you’re posting should help concentrate the mind. Hearing what they’re blogging on will no doubt suggest subjects for you to cover, too. Scan industry conference schedules. The list of session topics offers a quick guide to your audience’s hot-button issues. Get a critique. Find a mentor. Have them look over your blog and point out what’s missing. Mine your hobbies. People love posts that offer an unusual perspective on your topic. For instance, I once did a post called 7 Things I Learned About Business From Playing Bejeweled Blitz . Do an interview. Do you have a favorite thinker in your space? Get in touch. You’ll be surprised how many authors and thought leaders are game for a quick Q&A. Review your greatest hits. Read your most popular past blogs. Look for ways to take a slightly different angle and further illuminate the same topic. Write a sequel. If something has happened recently that puts a new light on a past blog post, update your readers. Write a new entry and link it back to the old one. Have a debate.

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50 Can’t-Fail Techniques for Finding Great Blog Topics

Copyblogger Weekly Wrap: Week of September 19, 2010

Sat, 25 Sep 2010 20:00:00 +0000

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Copyblogger Weekly Wrap: Week of September 19, 2010

7 Ways the iPad Can Bring Back Your Writing Mojo

BlogPostman — Wed, 22 Sep 2010 21:28:00 +0000

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

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7 Ways the iPad Can Bring Back Your Writing Mojo

A Four-Step Guide to Generating Sales Leads from Your Blog

BlogPostman — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 18:50:54 +0000

Dean: Did you know you can use your blog to make money offline? Blogger: Offline? What is this “offline” you speak of? Dean: It’s the opposite of “online.” Blogger: (confused silence) Dean: You know. Offline. Not on the internet. The real world. Blogger: (shaking phone) Not only does this stupid phone drop my calls, now it’s translating them into crazy moon language. Okay, I jest. But to listen to some bloggers, you would think a blog’s only purpose is to make money online, by selling ebooks , membership sites , or advertising. The truth is, blogs have grown into a more powerful tool than anyone ever imagined. They’re ideal for making money online, of course. But they can also be used to generate profits for nearly any kind of business, including those that provide real services in the offline world. This often means generating sales leads for a service or consulting business. This is how I use my copywriting business blog, which accounts for most of the new clients who call me these days. Okay, sounds great. People read your blog and then call to hire you, right? Well, not quite. Are you selling a product or a service? First, it’s important to understand that selling a service is not like selling a product. When you sell a product, the process is usually pretty straightforward. Basically, you introduce the product, spell out some benefits, make an offer, and people make a buying decision. Selling a service can be a little more involved. Prospects first inquire about the service, usually comparing you with other providers. If the service is expensive, like my copywriting and marketing consulting, people are even more careful about their decision. I’ve had clients take years to finally made the decision to hire me. And it’s common for people to start a phone call by saying, “I’ve been reading your blog for quite a while now. Do you have moment to talk about a copywriting project?” This shouldn’t surprise you. The more expensive the service, the more important it is, and the more commitment it requires from the customer, the more careful that customer is going to be. Think about it. If you need your bathroom painted, you might spend an afternoon looking for a decent painter. If you need to build an extension onto your house, you might spend weeks or even months finding the perfect contractor for the job. So if you provide a service, such as freelance writing, graphic design, web consulting, wedding photography, event planning, translation, or whatever, you can use your blog to attract prospects and begin the process of selling them on your services. Here’s how. Create your sales funnel Professional sales people often talk about filling their “sales funnel” or “sales pipeline.” What they mean is that in order to make a sale sometime in the future, they want people to inquire today. They always want to have lots of people who are in various stages of readiness to buy. To keep things simple, I like to think of the sales funnel as having just 4 simple steps. 1. Generate inquiries This means getting people to contact you. Typically this is done by offering something of value in exchange for contact information. For my business, I offer a free newsletter . If people go to my main website, I also offer a free white paper . In both cases, they have to give me some contact information before they get the freebie. I also provide a contact form and phone number for “hot” leads who are ready to talk business. I get many inquiries every week. Most can’t afford my services. But a few are high quality and good candidates for future business. 2. Follow up After you’ve delivered the freebie or provided whatever information you have promised, it’s time to schedule your follow-up, usually either by email or phone. Because you are responding to someone’s inquiry, it’s not a cold call. You have a valid reason for making contact and have an opportunity to gauge how serious the person is. Are they just gathering information? Do they need your services immediately? Or are they somewhere in between? The most serious are your sales leads. Everyone else is a prospect. You will want to spend more time on sales leads than prospects. 3. Nurture leads This is the step most people are tempted to skip. Like every other person selling a service, you want to make a sale right away. But while a few people will hire you immediately, most will not. Their interest needs to be nurtured until they’re ready to buy. You should store all contact information in a database, which could be a simple customer relationship management system like Highrise or a desktop-based program such as ACT! . Find ways to regularly communicate with your leads. Over time, they will become more familiar with you and more comfortable with the idea of hiring you. People always prefer the familiar over the unknown. There are many ways to nurture leads. You can send news or information they might be interested in, make additional offers for low-cost or introductory services, connect with them socially, and even seek their advice from time to time. 4. Close sales This step is self-explanatory. A potential customer needs your service. You provide a quote or estimate, answer questions, overcome objections, and eventually close the sale. This is your end game, the goal of your efforts. And if you’ve set up a good lead generation system and kept your sales funnel consistently full, it will actually be the easiest step in the process. Easy ways to generate inquiries from your blog The hardest part about generating sales leads is getting people to contact you in the first place. If you’re just starting out and no one knows who you are, this may seem impossible. As a blogger, you may know a variety of ways to promote your blog. Obviously, the more blog traffic you get, the easier it will be to generate leads. But you don’t need a ton of traffic to make it work. According to Alexa , my business blog is ranked at around 100,000 or so. That’s not bad, but it’s nowhere near superstar blogs such as Copyblogger. However, I get enough of the right kind of people reading it to generate a steady stream of inquiries for my services. So don’t worry about becoming a top-ranked blog. To successfully sell your services, you just need regular inquiries from the right kind of people. The more specialized you are, and the more targeted your blog posts, the more likely this will happen. Of course, bringing people to your blog is one thing. Generating inquiries is another. Here are some simple things you can do to make those inquiries happen. Contact Form — If you have a blog, you almost certainly have a contact form. However, the standard contact form is not enough. You should modify your form to match the service you sell. Take a look at the highly specialized form I use . E-Newsletter — This is an easy way to stay in touch with many people and provide great value while you’re at it. Since I specialize in copywriting for direct mail and direct marketing, my newsletter features articles and information on the subject. I have several thousand subscribers and about half of my new clients say they became pre-sold on my abilities by subscribing. Free White Paper — While a newsletter requires an ongoing commitment, a white paper is a one-time effort. Write it, post a contact/request form, and send a link to the PDF when requests come in. You could also automate the process with an auto responder, but I like to fulfill these requests personally so I can watch for hot leads from companies I want to work with. My white paper on improving direct mail response generates many requests every week. Information Kit — If you’ve built a blog or site around your services, you should provide plenty of information online. However, you can offer pricing, forms, a client list, and other information in the form of a downloadable PDF. Remember, when someone requests information, it gives you the opportunity to capture contact information. Webinars — These days it’s fairly simple to put together a webinar using services such as GoToWebinar . You can also create non-interactive presentations with software like PowerPoint or OpenOffice. The idea is to provide something of value that enables you to collect contact information. Videos — Using software and hardware built into many computers, you can create simple, informative videos. They don’t have to be fancy. Just look into the camera and talk. Or edit together simple footage demonstrating your work or how you solved a problem. Video can also be a helpful tool to encourage people to sign up for your newsletter, webinar, or other information. Pay Per Click — If you write and promote a good blog, you’re probably getting a fair amount of natural traffic. But pay-per-click ads can give you a boost for people looking for your particular services. Your results will vary depending on the level of competition and amount you’re willing to spend, but it’s worth a test. Just remember: Your blog is a means to an end . If you use your blog to attract the right kind of traffic, and follow the advice above to generate sales leads, you should see a dramatic increase in your business. About the Author: Dean Rieck is one of America’s most in-demand direct marketing copywriters who shares his writing and freelancing know-how at Pro Copy Tips .

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A Four-Step Guide to Generating Sales Leads from Your Blog

The Glass Ceiling, the Inner Circle, and the Key to Building a Popular Blog

Wed, 28 Jul 2010 18:46:33 +0000

“What am I doing wrong?” I whispered to the computer screen. A part of me wanted nothing more than to go to bed and forget about blogging forever. And yet, there I was, hunched over the computer, as I dug through my traffic stats for the millionth time. Somewhere inside was the answer to why I wasn’t getting more traffic, and I was going to find it. Some people would have said I was asking for too much. The blog was already doing decently well, averaging about 100 visitors a day after only two months. I got at least a few glowing comments on every post I wrote. Several people had sent e-mails, complementing me on my writing. But the problem was the blog wasn’t growing. I was putting out better content than anyone else in my niche. I tried every traffic strategy you can name. I was working on it so hard that my day job was suffering. And yet the traffic stayed the same. It was like I’d run up against some invisible barrier, and nothing would push me past it. I was beginning to think I’d be doomed to 100 visitors per day forever, and that certainly wasn’t enough to quit my job over. I sighed and pushed back from the computer. “I’ll figure it out tomorrow,” I said, heading off to bed. And the next morning I woke up with a peculiar idea that explained everything. The glass ceiling What if I told you the blogosphere has a sort of “glass ceiling?” The idea goes something like this: Anyone can start a blog. If you work hard, you can even grow it to a few hundred visitors a day or so. But at some point, the growth stalls out. You reach a plateau. It’ll be like you’ve run into a glass ceiling — an invisible but bulletproof barrier. You’ll see bloggers on the other side, and they don’t seem to be doing anything different than you are. But for some reason, they were able to break through, and you weren’t. It took me two years and three failed blogs to figure this out. And the answer is nothing close to what I expected. The inner circle The good news about the glass ceiling is there is a door. The bad news is it’s guarded. You see, every niche has an “inner circle.” A group of people who command a lot of attention. Everyone reads their blogs (or books). Their opinions are widely respected. And they often coordinate their marketing to help each other grow. In the blogging niche, it’s people like Brian Clark, Darren Rowse, Chris Brogan, and Sonia Simone — who, of course, all came together to form Third Tribe . In real estate investing, it’s gurus like Bill Bronchick, Ron Legrand, and Robert Kiyosaki. It doesn’t matter what niche or topic you point to; you’ll find an inner circle. And if you want serious traffic — and by serious, I mean thousands of visitors per day – the fastest way to do that is to convince members of the inner circle in your niche to promote you. They’re not going to come find you The odds are you’re not going to publish a post some day that makes all of the insiders in your niche want to know you. If you want their help, you have to proactively build relationships. The bloggers who bypass the glass ceiling don’t just do it by publishing more or better content than everyone else. They also do it by working behind the scenes to build friendly relationships with people who can help them. The question is, how? That’s the last piece of the puzzle. And it’s one that I stumbled across totally by accident. The key to building a popular blog Late one night, I was working on my blog and just so happened to get an IM from Brian Clark. I’d been hanging around in the Teaching Sells forums for a few months, not only soaking up the content, but answering questions from other members. Little did I know it, but I’d caught Brian’s attention, and he reached out to me. “I really like what you’ve been posting in the TS forums. How would you like to do a guest post for Copyblogger?” I was stunned. Copyblogger was quickly becoming one of the most successful blogs in the world, and I didn’t think I was anywhere close to being ready to write at that level. But I wasn’t going to miss the opportunity, either, so I agreed. A week later, my first post went up, and it was the highest traffic day in the history of my new blog. It wasn’t thousands of visitors, no. I still had a lot to learn about writing a really strong post. But it was an eye-opener. Brian’s help didn’t stop there. He gave me invaluable advice on how to grow my blog, and he started connecting me with power users who could help promote my posts on Digg and StumbleUpon. Within a few weeks, I was up to an average of 2,000 visitors per day, and I had hit the front page of Digg, bringing me 20,000 visitors within a few hours . I was euphoric, and there was no question Brian’s generosity with his connections and advice were the key ingredient to making it happen. So I started to wonder. “What if I did more of this?” I started to guest post wherever I could, and before long, I was getting so much traffic that my server started to crash, and I had to switch hosting companies. Performancing even nominated my blog for the Best Business/Money Blog in the world. I felt like a genius, like I’d discovered the cure for cancer or something. But then I started to look around. I wasn’t the only one guest blogging. People like Leo Babauta , Chris Garrett , Sonia Simone , and Dave Navarro were doing it too. And they were reaping incredible benefits. That’s when it occurred to me: the best way to build a relationship with anyone is to give them something of value. It’s the whole principle of reciprocity . It goes back not just to the work of Robert Cialdini, but to the good old Golden Rule. And what do popular bloggers need more than anything else? Great content. Why guest blogging is such a powerful strategy It’s hard to fathom when you’re a beginner, but running a huge blog is a lot of work. You have to come up with something brilliant to post every day, or you risk losing the attention of your audience. No vacations, no holidays, no calling in sick. You have a huge crowd of people waiting to hear what you are going to say next, and it had better be good. Many popular bloggers publish guest posts just because it gives them a day off. Someone else can take over the show, and they can take a moment to relax and regroup. It’s not laziness; it’s a creative necessity. And it’s also a big opportunity for you. Not only does guest posting give you a chance to connect with a huge audience, but it also makes you a sort of understudy. The blogger begins to care about you and how you’re progressing, and they’ll go out of their way to help you grow. The result? Lots and lots of traffic. Look into the history of almost any popular blogger, and you’ll find they guest posted for other popular blogs. In fact, go through the list of 30 bloggers to watch in 2010 , and over half of them have written for Copyblogger alone. It’s not a coincidence. It’s the way the blogosphere works. Everyone talks about building a relationship with your audience — and that’s critical. But few talk about building those relationships behind the scenes. Not sucking up or trying to exploit anyone, but making yourself useful and valuable. Becoming a contributor to their success is one of the best ways to build your own success. That makes guest blogging a smart strategy. Stay tuned and I’ll give you some quick tips for exactly how to do it. About the Author: Jon Morrow is the Associate Editor of Copyblogger. Get more from him on twitter .

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The Glass Ceiling, the Inner Circle, and the Key to Building a Popular Blog

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 Insider Guide to Creating An Audience of Raving Fans

Mon, 19 Jul 2010 13:52:44 +0000

There’s a scene in the animated series Futurama that cracks me up every time I think about it. The show’s characters are at the horse track of the future, but there’s controversy when a race ends very, very closely — so closely that the race officials need a powerful electron microscope to judge the “photo finish.” The track loudspeaker eventually announces, “And the winner is … Number Three, in a quantum finish!” And Professor Farnsworth, who had bet on the other horse, tears up his tickets in a rage and yells, “No fair! You changed the outcome by measuring it!” Didn’t get the joke? Don’t worry, neither did most of the viewers. I’m quite sure that the writers laughed out loud when writing that scene. They were a bunch of nerds, and thought that applying the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle to horse racing was the height of hilarity. But 99% of the viewers probably didn’t find it the height of hilarity. I’d guess that 75% didn’t even know that the line was a joke. So why did the writers include the gag? Because the remaining 1% who did get it became fans for life. How to lay eggs (like a platypus … they don’t do much, you know) I call hidden gems like this “Easter eggs” — a video game term referring to hidden areas, rooms, or events that developers add to games to amuse themselves. Animated humor shows like Futurama , The Simpsons , and many others are absolutely stuffed with Easter eggs, and they’re an important part of building the massive cult followings these shows enjoy. When I recognized Farnsworth’s line for what it was, I felt like I was part of an exclusive club. In fact, I felt like that joke had been placed there for me and me alone . I could immediately imagine hanging out with those writers. That Easter egg made me feel like we were buddies, that we had so much in common. I became hooked on Futurama . I never missed an episode. I told all of my friends to watch it. I bought all of the DVDs. Then, when I realized how effective those obscure little jokes had been on me, I started including them in my own writing. If something amused me, I didn’t worry about the people who wouldn’t get it, unless not understanding it would ruin the reading experience. So I let those oddball references fly … and I credit them with a lot of my recent growth. Here are two examples of Easter eggs I’ve placed recently here on Copyblogger: In a recent Copyblogger wrap-up , I made passing reference to “ruling the tri-state area,” “setting fire to the sun,” and “big laundry.” All three were lines said by Heinz Doofenschmirtz, the ridiculous villain of the children’s animated series Phineas and Ferb. In an earlier wrap-up , while recapping a story about how overcoming purchase paralysis is like saving people from a burning building, I mentioned hanging from the arm of Kurt Russell while he says, “You go, we go!” in a heroic fashion. That’s a line and scene from the firefighter movie Backdraft . Luckily, Brian is in that small group of people who finds most of my Easter eggs, and he lets me continue to hide them. And when I wanted to be replaced by Johnny Marr , his comment was, “It doesn’t matter if anyone else gets it. I think it’s hilarious.” I thought it was hilarious too. A small group of people who read it thought it was hilarious, and proceeded to swap Smiths and Johnny Marr references in the comments. If you’re thinking, “I don’t want only 1-5% of people who read my writing to appreciate it!” I have a clarification to add: As long as your post works without the Easter egg, people will still read you and like you even if they don’t get your hidden gags. This is an important point, so I’ll make it one more time. The post has to stand alone. It has to work even if they don’t get the Easter egg. That Johnny Marr post on Copyblogger? While a small group got the gag and joined in on it, a much larger group read the wrap-up the way they would read any post, and clicked through my teasers to read the full posts. The post did what it was supposed to do, whether or not you know (or care) who Johnny Marr is. If you place your Easter eggs well, you’ll get a cloud of people who read your stuff the way they would read anything else they were interested in. But at the center of that cloud will be your core fans . Your insiders. Your “club of you.” I love my club. The people who truly “get” me with all my oddities and foibles are like old friends. I bond with them. They bond with me. We interact in my comments and on Twitter. But they also want to read more of what I write, wherever and whenever I write it. They spread the word, tell their friends, become ambassadors and raving fans … and often buy everything I sell (as well as taking advantage of my free offers, for that matter, like my current free blog setup promotion .) The smaller the group who takes something from your writing, the more exclusive those people feel. You don’t have to settle for a small audience, but there’s a lot of value in having a nucleus of core fans surrounded by what I might call an “interested horde.” You can build both the nucleus and the horde at the same time. Here’s how. Six rules for hiding Easter eggs 1. Don’t confine yourself to humor I’m an animation geek and have always liked humor in most forms, so the Easter eggs I hide tend to be jokes or references that are meant to make the reader chuckle. But anything obscure will work. If you’re an alternative music fan, you might observe how Darren Rowse looks a little like Moby . If you’re a Starbucks barista, you might mention that tech skills need constant adjustment and sharpening — just like a burr grinder that processes a lot of low-quality beans. 2. The post has to work even if they don’t get the reference I know we already said this. It’s important. The Farnsworth line in Futurama wouldn’t have worked if the rest of the episode had revolved around the intricacies of why quantum uncertainty had foiled Farnsworth’s horse bet. It worked because it was a throw-away line. You either caught it or you didn’t. Either way, the action marched on. 3. Don’t be a pretentious jerk A few Easter eggs are fun. A diet of Easter eggs will give your readers heartburn. If you stuff your writing full of references and jokes that are so obscure that nobody will get them, you’ll just come off as pretentious. (An example of someone who doesn’t listen to this rule: former comedian Dennis Miller. Yeah, he used to be funny.) 4. Don’t over-explain If you have to explain it, it’s not an Easter egg, it’s just a joke that fell flat. You’ll have to walk a fine line to balance clarity with inside jokiness. Sometimes you’ll need to add a few clues, but don’t overdo it. 5. Make it natural I’ve failed here if all of a sudden, we see a rash of blog posts into which writers have used a crowbar to insert obscure references and inside jokes. Don’t think of them as something you add; think of them as something you allow to remain. It should feel natural. Write what comes to you — and then stop yourself from editing all of the gems out. 6. Amuse yourself first I use Easter eggs because I love finding them myself. It’s a game. If something doesn’t make you chuckle or smile or think when you write it, don’t include it. Some things are meant to be edited out because they simply don’t work. Let those go; no one likes a bad Easter egg. The name of the game is connection, and like so many other pieces of advice in the blogosphere, much of this boils down to finding your right people . Using Easter eggs is kind of like when a punk fan wears a shirt with a certain band’s logo on it. Other punk fans will see it and will say, “I know what that logo is!” And if those two people strike up a conversation, there’s likely to be instant rapport. Think of your Easter eggs as a way of creating specialized rapport. Great content builds a wider audience. But leave in a couple of Easter eggs, to build your “club of you,” too. About the Author: Johnny B. Truant is setting up self-hosted WordPress blogs for free until July 23rd . Learn more about Johnny at his blog, JohnnyBTruant.com .

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I Write Like… Browser Based Writing Analyis Software

BlogPostman — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 22:54:14 +0000

Ever wonder what your writing sounds like to those who read it? I hadn’t thought about it much but Coding Memories apparently has. Their site – I Write Like – is a browser based writing analysis program that compares writing samples with a database of famous authors works. I Write Like To give their tool a try, I took my post from yesterday and entered it into the I Write Like app. To my surprise, I Write Like determined my writing to be like that of science fiction writer Isaac Asimov. Funny… Often when I’m writing, it feels like I am trying to take notes in Russian – a language I don’t speak! I Write Like Isaac Asimov Still quite a compliment considering Asimov according to Wikipedia “was one of the most prolific writers of all time, having written or edited more than 500 books and an estimated 9,000 letters and postcards.” Granted, yesterday’s blog post required a little more heavy lifting than a conversational piece so I found another one to test out to see who’s voice I was more likely to sound like on a regular basis. Surprised again… I Write Like said the piece was similar to something Dan Brown would write. I Write Like Dan Brown I am sure if I kept digging I would find less remarkable writing but for now I am going to take I Write Like at their word.

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I Write Like… Browser Based Writing Analyis Software

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