Devour The Web

This week’s show is focused on expanding your knowledge through “aimless” surfing and by exploring places like Google and your social networks outside your daily norm. The value of what you can learn by surfing the web for fun, not just work, and digging into your extended social network is that you can greatly […]

London, Expanding Your Web Horizons, and Web Tools Talk is a post from: Blogging tips for bloggers who want more than a following!

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As bloggers, we put a lot of effort into telling our readers how to do things.

We believe that if we can just give them enough informative content that they’ll subscribe to our blog and never leave. We try to become the best teacher we possibly can, instilling wisdom down into short, usable posts that our readers can put into action right away.

But what if that’s not what they really want?

What if they don’t want a teacher to tell them what to do?

What if all they’re looking for is a warm and understanding person who understands what they’re going through and is willing to love them, no matter what?

Someone like (you guessed it) Mr. Rogers.

Do you care how they feel?

Being a kid can be tough.

Everyone is always telling you to be quiet. No one wants to listen to what you think. Your parents make you go to bed, just when all of the fun is starting.

But not Mr. Rogers.

Fred Rogers made you feel like it was just you and him hanging out. He respected what you thought. He loved you, not because he had to (like your parents), but because he genuinely believed you were special.

This is a quick reminder that the Scribe introductory offer, where you get our most advanced plan for the Starter price, ends tomorrow, Friday, February 26, 2010, at 6:00 pm Central.

But I also wanted to share a video with you. It was created for current Scribe customers to let them know what’s coming next month, but I’m going to hook you up too.

It’s a preview of the Scribe web-based application. So while you can use Scribe right in your WordPress interface, you will also be able to use this web-based version to analyze any content before posting it online on any platform. Or analyze and optimize older content for any platform. Total freedom.

This is especially useful for professional web writers who create content for clients. The Scribe web version even generates an SEO analysis report that you can deliver to your clients along with the content.

This video preview was made by Sean Jackson (one of the technology ninjas behind Scribe) for our current customers. So trust me, it’s not a sales pitch. But it’s very useful for getting an idea how the Scribe web-based application works.

I’m learning to belly dance.

Okay, that’s totally overstating it. I’m wiggling to music in what is labeled a belly dancing class.

I’ve found that I enjoy the constant movement, manipulating my limbs and taking any excuse I can to be silly. But more fun than the belly dancing is the instructor.

She loves this stuff. Her eyes light up when she enters the room, her voice changes pitch, and she hops around throwing out euphemisms that make even the bravest people blush. She’s a complete fruit loop. And she’s loved for it. It’s her schtick.

Or, in marketing terms, it’s her personal brand.

Oh no, not another post about personal branding

We’ve been hearing about personal brands ad nauseum for the past year. Even if you’re not sure why you need one, you’re certain that you do. It’s like a 401k. Or a spouse.

The trouble is, most personal brands make everybody else want to jab forks straight into their eyes. They’re based on egos, false promises, and personalities so obnoxious that you’d never be friends with this person in real life.

My last post here, How to do 500 Times Better than AdSense, got a lot of buzz and a lot of Tweets and generated my first real dose of reader hate.

That’s cool; if you’re not stirring the pot a little bit, chances are you’re not making an impact.

Despite some blowback, I enjoyed reading all of the ensuing discussion in the comments. Good pros and cons were made, several exceptions and clarifications and caveats were given. But what fascinated me in particular — and what inspired this post — was that the responses all fell neatly into three basic categories:

1. A lot of respondents said essentially, “Right on, Johnny! AdSense makes me mad as hell, and I’m not going to take it anymore!”
2. A smaller but notable number of readers had built profitable businesses using AdSense (or else were romantically involved with Google’s Sergey Brin) and responded angrily that I was not being fair, or that I was an idiot, or both.
3. A few people responded in one of the two ways above, but then also chided me for not supplying the formula I had promised — namely, how to do 500 times better than AdSense.

If you’re like the majority of writers out there, you’re a self-doubting bundle of neuroses, determined to believe that your writing will never be good enough.

That’s the life of the tortured, misunderstood writer, right?

What’s that? You think you’re pretty good at writing and actually like some of your own work?

Don’t worry, it’s just a blip. With these 5 tips you’ll soon be joining the rest of the writing community in feeling crappy about your ability and so-called “talent.”

1. Make sure that it’s never finished

You don’t really think that piece of writing is done, do you? Come on, there’s always room to finesse something and you know full well that in a couple of days you’ll think of something new to add.

It might take a year to get it finished, but hey, it’s always good to get it absolutely perfect before showing it to the world. Best to keep it on the “unfinished” pile for now.

The life of a freelance writer is pretty sweet.

It’s interesting, challenging work. You meet great people. You have a lot of freedom to organize your work life the way you want it. The pay can be excellent, and you get to make a living doing something you love.

But there are aspects of the profession that aren’t much fun.

As a freelance copywriter, you need to get professional about how you deal with the parts of freelancing that aren’t unicorns and rainbows. Today, I’m going to talk about how to handle one of the more irritating hassles in the life of a writer: Requests for rewrites.

Rewrites are inevitable in any writer’s life. No matter how brilliant you are, no matter how strongly you wield your pen, eventually someone somewhere is going to absolutely hate that first draft you sent in.

And they’re going to ask that you rewrite it.

Rewrites are not revisions

First, let me clarify one distinction.

Just a quick note to let you know we’ve extended the Scribe introductory offer – where you get the Advanced Plan for the Starter price – until this coming Friday, February 26. So you still have time to take Scribe on a free test drive and take advantage of a great deal.

• Take the Scribe tour
• Frequently Asked Questions
• Take Scribe on a Free Test Drive

If you have no idea what I’m talking about, check out Introducing Scribe: SEO Copywriting Made Simple.

If you’d like to know why we’re extending the offer, keep reading.

So, we had an unexpected hiccup last week. While we did extensive beta testing, a problem with a third-party data provider led to end-of-day outages after we added in a whole bunch of enthusiastic Scribers to the mix.

The good news is that we corrected that issue last week, and we’re actually happier with the revised solution than we were with the original (even if the original had worked like it was supposed to).

Today I had Anissa Wardell on to talk about bringing some sanity into social marketing.  If you’re stressed about what you should be focusing on in your social marketing campaign and, more importantly, what you should leave out of it, you should like this week’s show.

Links from the show…
Check out Amplify.com – very good use […]

How’s Your Social Marketing Plan Working? is a post from: Blogging tips for bloggers who want more than a following!

Does your blog get traffic? Make Money? Want it to? Click Here!

This is part two of a three-part series on how to profitably translate advice from old-school marketing guru Dan Kennedy to a new online environment.

Last week we looked at the first 5 steps in Dan Kennedy’s Ultimate Marketing Plan, and how you can translate those old-school ideas into an online marketing strategy.

This week we’ve got five more for you.

6. Get Free Advertising

In the book, Kennedy focuses on methods for getting free advertising through traditional media. However, times have changed. These days, it’s social media that can best butter your bread.

If you’re comfortable navigating online, you have a clear advantage here. Other than the expense of time, the majority of social media tools are entirely free. There have never been more easy to implement and widely available instruments to help you smartly promote your business.

If you’re a regular reader of Copyblogger, you already know this goes hand-in-hand with the content marketing gospel flowing from the pulpit, day in and day out.

If you deliver value on a consistent basis, eventually others will help you with the hard work of promotion. They’ll spread your influence and draw prospects to your business like metal to a magnet.