Why Content Marketing is a Long Game (and How to Play It)

The Copyblogger Media team returned from Austin last week, where (almost) all of us gathered for a company-wide meeting amidst the madness of SXSWi.

We flew in for three days — from all corners of the US and Canada — to talk company values, where we’ve been, and where we’re going.

Our company works entirely remotely, so before this meeting, I hadn’t met most of my co-workers. During the course of those three days, I built relationships with our support team, I played poker (badly) with our developers, and I bonded with my editorial staff over eighties music and movies.

Our management team thinks long term. They know that the long-game value of getting all of us together to bond, plan, laugh, and dream far exceeds the cost of plane tickets, hotel rooms, catered meals, and private viewings of the late, great Patrick Swayze’s Road House (ask Tony Clark).

And, whether you know it or not, you’re playing a long game with content.

Let’s take a look at just a few ways to improve your online strategy.

We know that the long-form sales letter still works in some contexts.

Copywriters use them when they should because they work. But instead of writing a 4,000-word sales page, smart content marketers are using what’s been called a “sideways sales letter.”

Instead of gambling everything on a one-page, one-shot conversion possibility, we spread our message out over a period of months and years. We use lots of different kinds of blog posts, and publish content in chunks of around a thousand words.

You’re building relationships with this method, and you’re selling, you’re just doing it by playing the long game. You’re selling over the course of years, not minutes or hours.

All the articles you publish serve different functions on your blog, but your end goal is always in sight. It may take you two years to turn a prospect in a customer, and that’s okay. In the meantime, your readership is going to shift and change, and people are going to enter your content stream at different places.

If you structure your content plan well, your prospects will keep moving on the virtual conveyor belt toward your end goal — which is making the sale.

And all the while, you’re building a potentially very valuable asset (your content-rich website) … an asset that you own.

Let’s go through a couple of article examples from Copyblogger, and talk about why we publish different kinds of posts to our site (and how we keep our eye on the long game every day).

Some posts — like Brian Clark’s legendary “Don’t Read This or the Kitty Gets It” — from our Copywriting 101 series — explain a basic foundation of the topic.

You can think of these pieces as FAQ posts — they answer the questions your clients and prospects ask you on a regular basis.

Sonia Simone’s 10-Step Content Marketing Checklist is another Copyblogger cornerstone piece. In that post, Sonia says,

The cornerstone of your platform comes from what interests and engages your audience. If you’re just starting out, you can start with what interests and engages you, then observe and adapt from there.

If your site is brand-new, start with about 10 posts that really encapsulate your fundamental beliefs and values about your topic. Think about what you would want every single reader of your site to know about.

Foundation articles are important to your long game, because new readers will often find your website from them.

Current readers will love them, too, because it never hurts to get a fresh look at the basics of your topic. Foundation content is a website owner’s bread and butter, because they consistently attract links and social sharing, 24/7, 365.

This kind of content takes a step back from teaching the basics, and takes a 30,000-foot view of your topic. Robert Bruce’s content marketing fables, like his recent “The Great Chef and the Failing Restaurant” is an example of this kind of content.

Posts that make people think will help you build solid relationships with your audience members.

They prove you know your subject deeply, that you think about things at a level that most people don’t — and that you want to help your readers understand your topic on that level, too.

These articles are memorable and can be highly accessible (and shareable), too.

Brian Clark recently wrote a post about Site Sensor, our new website monitoring tool. It wasn’t a typical post for Copyblogger, meaning it wasn’t only straight-up useful content.

Brian had a goal in writing this post — he wanted to explain a problem, give some insight into how he himself had experienced the problem in the past, and then give you a great solution (one of our new products) to that problem.

This post doesn’t push a “hard sell” angle — it’s not a sales letter — but it has more of a direct sales slant than some of our other content.

It’s absolutely fine to strategically place articles like this … when it makes sense for your audience — you’re in business, after all, right?

The key is to make sure there’s real value present for readers, even if they don’t want to buy your product or service. Check out the introduction to Brian’s post for clues on how to do this.

You’ve probably heard that Google Reader is going away. That announcement was major news in our industry, and a perfect opportunity for Copyblogger’s editorial team.

In last week’s post on Google Reader alternatives, Jerod Morris explained what Google Reader’s demise means for content providers.

Posts like this focus on trends, current events, or news in your industry. Trend pieces might not be evergreen pieces, like foundational posts, but they’re still really important.

?Posts on current events support your content long game because they frame you as the go-to expert in your field — as the guy (or gal) your reader goes to when they need news and information in your industry. They allow prospects to get to know, like and trust you as a valued content provider.

For more on this type of writing, listen to Robert Bruce’s Newsjacking interview with David Meerman Scott.

In our everyday lives as busy content marketers, it’s easy to lose track of what our end goal actually is.

Your best move is to consistently create interesting, highly sharable content that your readers can’t wait to read. And using these kinds of posts can help you do just that.

What other kinds of posts do you use for your blog, and how do they fit into your long-term content marketing strategy? Let me know in the comments …

About the Author: Beth Hayden is a Senior Staff Writer for Copyblogger Media. Get more from Beth on Twitter and Pinterest.

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Ask the know-it-all of Marketing content

If you have a blog, you'll know what I mean, part of the most interesting material, stimulant in your website often comes from reader questions in the comments.

It is sometimes the questions themselves. And sometimes it's the response generated, its community and within their own thinking. (Why blogs are one of the earliest and most powerful social networking ways.)

Get great value of our reader questions, so I thought that respond in detail to some comments recent posts from Copyblogger for a column "Ask the marketer content" here at Copyblogger.

If you find this useful, we can begin to include it as a regular feature on the blog. So be sure and let us know.

Enough introduction, let's get to the questions:

On 19 March, Vicky asked:

In our content planning and forecasting, we have wondered if there is a "magic formula" for the number of messages that should be written in different categories? We saw an article 70% - 20% - 10%, but again no evidence specific to that it is a good strategy to go with when strategic content. Do I wonder if you have suggestions for content of cornerstone % vs content hmmm vs newsjacking? We understand that there is no magic number, but there are recipes for success!

Sonia Simone: You always want to take into account that each combination of item, the audience and the marketer is unique. The same theme, type of product and audience so a "formula" that works great for a business fall flat with another... even given.

Cornerstone content , the type of useful content that solves problems of reader and establishes the bases essential to the topic, It should be in place from the start. For that is its cornerstone, everything else is based on fundamental knowledge.

You'll want to look back on the time and ensure that it remains relevant and valuable. And the majority of sites should be stored regularly publish content of cornerstone. (If the piece begins with the words how, it is probably cornerstone content.)

Remember: content of cornerstone is not Wikipedia! It should still be interesting and attractive. "Useful" is not the same as "Bored". For many content vendors, this will form the major part of its content.

What we call "Hmmm content" is where you will exit the picture even more. You can get your readers to think about their own identities in the context of its theme, as we did with my original post on the idea of a third tribe. You can use an analogy which is a new Member of the audience, as this post on Firefly and creativity made. Or it could do something completely out of left field.

"Hmmm" content shake things a bit. They may discover new intersections, new audiences and new directions for you.

Newsjacking is something that you will do as the occasion rises. It can not be predicted, you can only be ready when the opportunity arises. When their outposts of social networks are buzzing about a topic in particular, you have a chance to jump and get into the conversation, as I did with my post if Facebook is still viable for content sellers.

True Newsjacking is both art and science. Don't forget to read (and actually absorb) David Meerman Scott Newsjacking book if you want to make the best use of the technique.

A final thought on newsjacking should not be necessary to say, that is: not newsjack tragedies. If someone dies, do not insert yourself into the story.

On March 27, said Darin L. Hammond,

I am sure that it is difficult to know a hearing for me, when the majority of my clients and readers are never found. Any idea or secrets to know the unseen?

Sonia Simone: Really understand their audience is key for any type of marketing. If you don't know what is bothering them, what is scare and what they love, cannot create content that speaks to those problems, fears and desires.

Your blog comments should always be your first stop, which is where you will get a direct reaction to what they say and how to say it. But if the traffic is not high enough to give him a lot of comments, however, there are plenty of other places to make a public recognition.

The social web is the best tool for market research ever invented... as you can grow a little patience. You will want to venture outside their own circle of friends and acquaintances. Join Google groups + communities, forums and other places online where people congregate.

Remember that you're listening to:

And if you touch you find a reader or client that is close, or if you're traveling to another city, do anything that you can sit in a coffee (or beer) with a member of the public. There is something in the face-to-face interaction that shows all kinds of subtle and interesting points that can be hard to get in line.

Rob Schneider said:

I get where you're coming all according to a point, but I think that the secret to long term success is authenticity. I always say (or think can, anyway, that is all that really counts) when a writer is trying to sound authoritative when it is not or is not imitating the style of another writer. Ultimately, best writing advice I've ever got was the Charles Bukowski poem, so you want to be a writer. Here are the first lines:

If it is not full of you
Despite everything
do not do

Sonia Simone: First thing first: I think authenticity is important, especially now. Time passes more people online, better they tend to remain in the tracking of clones and frauds. And good business - makes sense, only the element of your business that nobody can steal... is you.

But there is one thing that seems even more things: utility.

We all have our favorites online train wreck - that individual being so transparent is a little concerned going to break into pieces. And if you have to sell is a hilarious and sharply written, memory which can work very well.

But 99% of us do not want to be so magnificently mad as Jenny Larson. Or twisted with success as Louis C.K. or Ricky Gervais. That means we need something more than that may be your own. It also needs to be useful.

So, Yes, be authentic in the sense that you are not a weak copy of someone notable. It will never work.

But to be truly useful. Give me someone who can solve a trivial but annoying problem on a person's "true" brilliant but fragile any day.

Interested in seeing more Q & A posts like this? You have a question online marketing or contained of yours to consider for a future column you want to?

Let us know in the comments. We always love to hear what is on your mind.

About the author: Sonia Simone is co-founder and CMO of Copyblogger media. Get more from Sonia on Twitter and Google +.

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Doing its job of Marketing Online: sharpen its focus on this one thing

You devour online marketing lessons. You feast on articles, reports, books, and ebooks.

Maybe you spend some of your precious time attending webinars and conferences, and you can't help but join the conversation on blogs and social networks.

Good for you.

There's a ton of information to take in, the landscape changes daily, and if you're going to have success marketing your product, service, or idea online, you need to master a good many practices, techniques, and tools.

The more these ingredients get heaped onto our plates, the more the meal calls for a bowl and spoon. It's digital soup, my friend.

Clarity is hard to achieve. So, pencils out. It's pop quiz time...

What should you focus on to make your online marketing more effective?

ContentSocial networkingSearchAnalyticsAll of the aboveNone of the above

Answer: (6). I told you this was a tough one.

If you answered "5? it wouldn't be fair to give you an"F." You studied the choices and decided it's not all that effective to focus on just one ingredient in this recipe complex.

They're absolutely interdependent, you're right about that.

But you'd be wrong to focus on each of these items as tactics alone.

As marketers, we fall into this trap time and again. Right now, in offices everywhere, marketers' pulses are racing with questions such as:

How will we produce video content?What's our Facebook strategy?Should we revisit our keywords?What's producing the peaks and valleys in our website traffic?

These are good questions. I applaud you for asking them and agree whole heartedly that they deserve thoughtful answers.

But you need to push these questions to the back burner until you answer one far more important question...

The customer - I chose the singular for a reason. The most effective online marketers have one thing - the word You - written boldly on a sticky note and forever attached to their frontal lobes.

"You" is a person your marketing strategy must focus on a word your copywriter must use, the living, breathing person your designs need to appeal to and your social media specialist must connect with.

"You" has five senses. Can your marketing team state in no uncertain terms what he or she wants to see, hear, smell, touch, and taste?

"You" opts in or out. "You" follows your company or a competitor. "You" either does or doesn't find your pages and posts via search. "You" affects your numbers, but is far more complex than a zero or a one.

A week or so ago, I'm on the phone with a new client and his marketing team. They want my honest opinion about their home page, so I give it a quick once over and say, "It's all so self-serving." The word 'we' is the subject of practically every sentence.

Someone on the other end of the line doesn't like it. "What's wrong with we?," he protests.

If I was in the same room, I might have kissed him for writing such a great line for me. Though it's the bane of copywriters the world over, in one form or another, clients have been asking this question since the beginning of time.

I go on to explain the website visitor isn't there for we. He's not interested in your company. He's dealing with a challenge. That issue got a-Googling him, and lucky for you, it drove him to you.

If you feed him a steady stream of "we, we, we," and start singing your own praises, I'll bounce right back to the search engine and find someone who s going to help him solve his problem.

That's what's wrong with we.

Now for a clinic in you.

The most effective marketers focus on the customer. While it may be the oldest lesson in marketing communications, all you have to do is read corporate websites to be worst how often it's forgotten.

Develop detailed customer people -You can't push your customer of hot buttons until you know what they are. Conduct research by interviewing and surveying customers, observing social media behaviors, mining data, and asking the sales and support team for insights gained from their interactions. Armed with the answers to what makes your customers tick, document fictional bios or people to represent different types of customers.Find the pleasure and the pain -The act of buying boïls down to a person striving to avoid pain or increase pleasure. Yes, even in business. Understand what hurts and what makes the prospect's heart race.Do Recognize the hurdles -What might derail the sale? Potential hindrances often include price, terms, competitive offerings, approval protocols, risk, time frames, and lack of urgency. Take a proactive approach to addressing common deal breakers.Re-orient your language -As soon as you find your communications creeping back in the direction of what you do, what you make and how you do business, stop. Retreat. Turn features into benefits. Turn around first-and/or third-person voiced propositions into a "you" statement or question.Make your prospect feel important -Demonstrate appreciation and give encouragement.Arouse an eager want -These are Dale Carnegie's words. As are these: "The only way on earth to influence other people is to talk about what they want and show them how to get it."Smile - In copy? Why not? Use friendly, upbeat, and friendly words and spread the love.Personalize - Apply what you know to make your message as customized and personal as possible.Talk in terms of the other person's interests -completo Carnegie There again, delivering a copywriting 101 course.

And, in Dale's legendary guidebook, he writes,

You can make more friends in two months by becoming interested in other people than you can in two years trying to get other people interested in you.

This is a hard habit to break, but you must break it.

The "you" path tends to take unexpected turns. That is to say, if you create a map and follow it forever more, you're bound to get lost.

The goal is to connect with and meet the needs of your audience-people-and people change. Brian Clark reminds you of this in the Copyblogger ebook The Business Case for Agile Content Marketing.

So, when you understand the need to be agile with your online marketing endeavors, it follows you'll then stay perpetually tuned-in to the mindset of your target audience.

As Pamela Wilson explains in How to Create an Agile Content Marketing strategy (and Stay Sane Doing It), you need to determine which content your audience responds to and adjust accordingly.

You're not going to dig into any deeply useful source about content that doesn't get into search, social about that doesn't get into content, and every other conceivable combination.

These strategies are awesome. In this age dominated by all things digital, online marketing (done right) is more powerful than ever.

But the landscape evolves faster than ever. In the field of marketing, the lines will continue to blur. The tools and tactics we rely on will continue to change.

The need to focus on the customer will not.

About the Author: Barry Feldman is a content creator and strategist, copywriter and creative director marketing. He writes for several leading online marketing websites and recently published "The Plan to Grow Your Business with Effective Online Marketing." If you'd like a piece of his mind, visit Feldman Creative.

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Rock Stars, Goonies, and your Content Marketing Empire

As Beth mentioned yesterday, the Copyblogger team is back from a get-together in Austin during SXSWi.

As you might imagine with this crew, we had a lot of fascinating conversations. One thing that struck me again and again was that even though we have a lot of employees you might call “rock stars,” none of them would in 10,000 years describe themselves that way.

They don’t focus on their impressive lists of accomplishments. They don’t make a point of letting you know how many Twitter followers they have or how many Google+ circles they’re in.

They’re more interested in the ways they haven’t always fit in. They know that a large part of their talent and their gold comes from a passionate dorkiness that defies the “rock star” or “ninja” label.

My artist friend Jamie calls the ninja types (in any endeavor) “lead singers.” They may be talented. They’re certainly confident. They excel at getting the attention and the credit. But they’re not always the real stars.

Our folks are more like The Goonies. As Demian said at one point, we’re “misfits looking for meaningful work.”

Goonies have as much talent as lead singers do, but they tend to have more passion for the work than passion for recognition. They’d rather do something epic than get epic amounts of attention. And they tend to credit and respect others, because they know what it feels like to be ignored and disrespected.

So while there are plenty of rock stars and ninjas out there, some of whom I love, give me my passionate Goonies any day. And for those of you out there who are more Goonie than ninja … more power to you. The way I see it, you’re unstoppable.

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About the Author: Sonia Simone is co-founder and CMO of Copyblogger Media. Get more from Sonia on Twitter and Google+.

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How to Write Interesting Content for a “Boring” Topic

If you’re lamenting how “boring” the niche you’re writing in is, take heart … I’m here to tell that you can make it interesting to the right audience.

The secret to making so-called boring source material work is almost shocking in its simplicity.

It’s not necessarily about conducting market research, writing style, creating expensive infographics, or the having the right connections.

All of that is very useful in creating compelling content — I’d even say it’s all required — but the essence of “interestingness” stems from one basic content commandment: Always ask the right questions.

Don’t buy it?

Malcolm Gladwell can get over two million people to watch a video about spaghetti sauce by asking one interesting question: Why do brands sell so many styles of spaghetti sauce when they used to sell only one?

Let’s take a look at why this approach works …

As an experiment, let’s pick a boring topic and see what we can come up with.

How about coffee cups? Boring enough for you? Take a few moments and dig for the right questions that may reveal some interesting article topics …

Who invented the first coffee cup and how did they get their inspiration?What makes people think they need to drink coffee from a coffee cup and water from a glass?When do coffee cup sales rise and what does that tell us about the American public?Where are coffee cups made, and why not somewhere else?Why are we drawn to novelty coffee cups with phrases like “World’s Greatest Dad” on them?How does a coffee cup get all the way from China to the US and still sell for a profit?

See what I did there?

I didn’t put a great deal of thought into these, I just asked the traditional “who,” “what,” “when,” “where,” “why,” and “how” questions, and spent a little bit of time pondering what would make them interesting to me.

Apply the “who,” “what,” “when,” “where,” “why,” and “how” series of questions to your own niche topic, and see what you can come up with.

Now let’s start mining Q&A sites like Quora to find out what else people want to know about coffee cups.

A quick search turns up no direct search results, so we can turn our attention to coffee mugs. We discover that people want to know …

How they can cook or bake edible mugsWhether reusable cups or thermoses are better for the environmentWhere they can find mugs shaped like a stormtrooper’s headWhat the best reusable coffee mug on the market isWhat some iconic coffee mugs from TV, movies, and films are

Then we can turn our attention to Yahoo! Answers to find more questions people care about, like:

How fast can you accelerate without spilling your coffee mug?What’s something cool to write on my coffee mug?How can you fix a chip in a coffee mug?How can you repair a stainless steel coffee mug?

These may seem like incredibly mundane lists to you, but keep in mind, real people are asking these questions … in public. If they’re spending their time looking for answers, why not spend yours providing them with them on your own site?

Blogging 101, right?

I’ve found all of this while limiting myself to the terms “coffee cups” and “coffee mugs.”

I haven’t even addressed the much more broad subject of coffee itself, which I would certainly want to do if I had a client in the coffee mug industry.

I also recommend searching forums, social networks, and other internet “hangouts” to see what kinds of questions people are asking about your subject. This, of course, is where you’d do well to learn the basics of content marketing research.

I hope you’re beginning to see the potential for limitless content ideas here.

Okay, so we’ve shared an interesting hypothetical example, but nobody’s actually made a viral post about coffee, have they?

Except, they have.

Let’s take a look at a post that went viral as a result of asking the right questions about coffee.

This Cracked.com article called 4 Reasons Why Fair Trade Coffee Is a Scam answers the simple question: “Is fair trade coffee really fair?”

The result? More than 240,000 views and 6,200 likes on Facebook, as well as 547 links recorded by OpenSiteExplorer.

About coffee.

And then there’s BuzzFeed’s recent article: 18 Microwave Snacks You Can Cook In A Mug.

(I swear I chose coffee cups as a subject before I knew about this article.)

It counts more than 250,000 views, 42,000 Facebook likes, 1,000 tweets, and 980 email shares. Undoubtedly it all started with a simple and interesting question about coffee mugs: Is it possible to cook food in a coffee mug?

Now let’s take a step away from the subject of coffee and turn to a different source: one of the most read blogs on the Internet — The Huffington Post.

Their most popular post of all time was emailed more than 18,000 times, shared on Facebook more than 65,000 times, tweeted over 3,000 times, and liked on Facebook over 253,000 times.

Surely it was the breaking news that Osama Bin Laden had been killed, or something similarly earth-shattering.

Except it wasn’t. It was called Why You’re Not Married.

That’s it — an opinionated post built to answer a question that a lot of people care about.

No breaking news. No science to back it up (though data-driven content is always preferred). Just the right question, and a compelling answer.

The news that Osama Bin Laden had been killed?

It received half of the Facebook likes, a third of the Facebook shares, and one eighteenth of the emails that the marriage article did.

Having trouble coming up with questions that interest you? Here’s a few tools and techniques to help you out:

Use a random word generator to help cure your tunnel vision.List questions as soon as they come to mind. Don’t filter them at all.You’re not doing it right unless some of the questions you come up with are completely absurd. (A bit of absurdity can work for viral content anyway.)The best time to brainstorm is when you’re having trouble focusing. This is backed up by scientific research.Still more scientific research suggests that creativity is enhanced when you think about contradictions and embrace paradoxes.

A successful content campaign can start with a simple brainstorming session, and an appetite for asking interesting questions. If a question is interesting to you, it’s probably interesting to somebody else.

Have questions of your own? Let’s hear them in the comments, and don’t forget to pass this along if you found it helpful.

About the Author: Pratik Dholakiya is Director of SEO and VP of Marketing at E2M Solutions, a full service internet marketing company. He's written for many industry leading platforms like Search Engine Journal, SEOmoz, Search Engine People, and ProBlogger. He also writes on the E2M Solutions blog. Follow him on Twitter @DholakiyaPratik.

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7 Ways to Write Damn Bad Copy

It’s obvious that creativity is an essential part of being a remarkable writer.

But when a results-oriented writer says “creative” and an image-oriented writer says “creative” you have to understand that they are talking about two completely different things.

The results-oriented writer emphasizes problem solving with clear, concise, and compelling copy (for example: How do I demonstrate that our product will solve our target customer’s problem?).

The image-oriented writer puts an emphasis on artistic, clever, or humorous copy (for example: How can I demonstrate how entertaining and crafty I am?).

A few weeks ago, I wrote about a few ways to write good copy that sells. Now, I’d like to take a few minutes to show you at least seven kinds of copy you need to avoid (with a little help from legendary copywriter John Caples).

Copywriters (and those who hire them) beware …

This is the type of copy that you see from someone who loves words. Long words in particular.

Words like jentacular (pertaining to breakfast), slubberdegullion (a filthy slobbering person), and recumbentitbus (a knockdown blow).

This is the person whose grandmother squeezed her cheeks and said, “You are our little wordsmith.” Whose English Literature cronies would stroke their soul patches and say, “I think you’re on to something. Not sure what, but you’re on to it.”

Let’s imagine she works for Black & Decker. She is asked to write sales copy for a cordless drill. It might look like this:

Wanted: a hollow place in a solid mass of hard, fibrous substance
Carpenters, with one little boring unit made from the 22nd element of the periodic table you can create a precise aperture in any piece of wood. And, behold, with the ergonomic grip zone constraining is done with amenity and gratification. Visit any one of our facilities if you are predisposed to acquiring a unit.

The only problem is this is a painful piece to read. Nobody knows what you are talking about. It is a guessing game — and your audience doesn’t have the patience to guess.

Next in line is the type of copy that sounds like it was written by a college student. One moved by sunsets. Charmed by foreign films. In love with candles, incense, and long bubble baths.

He is a copywriter with a single and solitary goal: to make you “feel” the copy. If you don’t feel the copy, then he’s failed.

Rebirth that dying relationship
He stands in the door way — a tear hangs like a sapphire from his eyelash, ready to plunge into the depths of his lonely and loveless heart. You are drinking from the cup of the dark night, confused by the decaying shadow of his love, dazed by the breath of a broken promise. When he lowers the veil on your heart, you will fling yourself into the depths of hunger and death.

Know what he’s trying to sell? Me neither.

That might work for a Nicholas Sparks novel, but never in advertising. Shoot for the straight and the simple.

This is your garden variety snake-oil salesman. The product that promises to …

… eliminate $45,000 in debt in less than 45 days …

… the DVD that swears you can look like a Russian body builder with nothing more than a chair and four minutes a day …

… the stock that — once it soars right after Groundhog Day — will make Google’s stock price look like a steal.

It’s the world of yellow highlight markers, images of jaw-dropping tax returns and promises of endless freedom to indulge in every whim.

But it’s also a world of broken dreams where you might make a mint in the short term but over time your reputation will sour.

This type of advertising betrays confidence. It does harm. It stings, and leaves a bad taste in our mouths. Sonia calls this the troll under the bridge — and it’s a sure fire way to kill conversions.

It appears when we are young and suckered into the milk-can con job at the traveling carnival. Or the Sea-Monkey hoax where you are lead to believe you will spawn little people in an aquarium — but what you end up with is just cheap fish food.

You feel stupid for falling for such tricks. You vow never to fall again. You grow a thick skin to advertising. And every honest salesman and every sincere sales page that crosses your path is viewed as a fraud.

There is a limit to credibility. A limit to what people will believe. If you cross that invisible line in your sales copy, people will shut you down.

Better to make a promise that you know your audience will believe without having to stretch their judgment. Better yet, tell the ugly truth . And then what you say after that will be easier to swallow.

The problem with humorous copy is that humor is fickle. It’s a minefield. For every person who laughs at a blonde joke, you have one person who hates you for it.

Some people like deadpan humor. Others like dark humor. Some like slapstick. Still others like sarcasm. Many like bathroom humor while others want the highbrow sort.

Unless you are absolutely certain that a majority of your paying customers like dark humor, then don’t use it.

What you find funny is likely insulting to others — and that will damage the effectiveness of your copy. That’s not a risk you should be willing to take.

Of course, there are the rare exceptions like the eBay wet suit ad or the used car on Craigslist.

They went the absurd, clever, humorous route, and it paid off.

Your chances, however, are much better if you stick to clear, concise, and compelling copy. Or at the very least, avoid humor until you’re certain you are actually funny.

Short copy — so brief that the entire advertisement could fit on the back of a business card — is bliss for those who use it.

Think cologne producers or financial institutions. Sometimes an entire page in a magazine is devoted to the name of the product, plus an alluring slogan: “Seduction is essential” or “Your money is your money.”

Nobody knows what those slogans mean. Not even the marketing director. But it’s that mystery we love.

Unfortunately, mysterious copy does not pay the bills.

It goes against the grain of tested advertising methods that have proven longer copy will virtually always outsell short copy.

A few years ago this lesson was drilled home to me during a short email exchange with John Carlton.

I had the opportunity to get a few minutes of John’s time to review a short ad I’d written.

It was an email promoting a conference. It was less than 200 words. It was a disaster — and John let me know.

He scolded me for being lazy and missing a glorious opportunity to sell the product. It was at that point that I understood what is meant when someone says, “It’s not a question of how long the copy is — but how interesting.”

Clever is what you get when you have a writer who thinks he is smart — smarter than the average reader — and he’s out to prove how smart he is.

So he writes the clever ad.

Clever is also what you get when you don’t have a marketing clue. Let’s say you’re an architect selling the benefits of your firm, and you write this headline:

We will make sure that your house is not square.

You meant “not cool” but, hey, look at you — you said it in a clever way! Word play! Everyone in your firm thinks you are a genius!

Unfortunately, everyone else will think you are a moron for trying to sell them a house that will one day flop over.

Few people actually read clever advertisements. They are confused by the headline, and the few who do read recognize what you are trying (and failing) to do.

If your job rides upon effective advertising, then make sure it accomplishes these four things:

Promises to solve a meaningful problem. Paints a picture of what your life will be like if that problem is solved. Proves that you will deliver on your promise. Pushes the prospect to subscribe, download, donate, share or buy.

Effective content marketing builds upon the self-interest of your customer.

And when you give them the kind of content that they don’t want to delete—you won’t need clever advertising.

Once a popular and effective approach — used by some of the best copywriters in the land — the advertorial is now overused, if not flat out abused.

What exactly is an advertorial? Nothing more than an advertisement dressed up to look like a piece of news.

Here’s what I see at the bottom of an article on my local news website:

In a box clearly marked “Advertisement” there is a handful of ads that are supposed to be “news”: “Weird Illinois Loophole” or “New Policy in Illinois.”

But what looks like an editorial news piece is clearly an ad:

??

In the lead you have loaded language like “scammed” and “overpaying” to hit those hot buttons—so even if you miss the word ADVERTISEMENT close readers should sense this is not really meant to inform them, but persuade.

I find this approach misleading — almost sleazy — and not unlike the outlandish approach [see: Example #1 above], and I can’t recommend it.

But here’s the thing — these ads have been running for a very long time. That tells me two things:

They are getting great click-throughsThey are making money

The question becomes: is there a better way to be profitable? I think there is. It’s called content marketing.

There’s one thing that all of the examples above share — a complete lack of concern for the audience they intend to reach. In each example the spotlight is put on the writer:

Look at me, I am a poet. I am funny. Clever. Mysterious!

Good copywriters, good advertising copy, and good content marketing, however, put the focus on the audience, the prospective customer. If you truly take care of your audience, they will eventually take care of you.

About the Author: Demian Farnworth is Chief Copywriter for Copyblogger Media. Follow him on Twitter or Google+.

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Why Content Marketing is a Long Game (and How to Play It)

The Copyblogger Media team returned from Austin last week, where (almost) all of us gathered for a company-wide meeting amidst the madness of SXSWi.

We flew in for three days — from all corners of the US and Canada — to talk company values, where we’ve been, and where we’re going.

Our company works entirely remotely, so before this meeting, I hadn’t met most of my co-workers. During the course of those three days, I built relationships with our support team, I played poker (badly) with our developers, and I bonded with my editorial staff over eighties music and movies.

Our management team thinks long term. They know that the long-game value of getting all of us together to bond, plan, laugh, and dream far exceeds the cost of plane tickets, hotel rooms, catered meals, and private viewings of the late, great Patrick Swayze’s Road House (ask Tony Clark).

And, whether you know it or not, you’re playing a long game with content.

Let’s take a look at just a few ways to improve your online strategy.

We know that the long-form sales letter still works in some contexts.

Copywriters use them when they should because they work. But instead of writing a 4,000-word sales page, smart content marketers are using what’s been called a “sideways sales letter.”

Instead of gambling everything on a one-page, one-shot conversion possibility, we spread our message out over a period of months and years. We use lots of different kinds of blog posts, and publish content in chunks of around a thousand words.

You’re building relationships with this method, and you’re selling, you’re just doing it by playing the long game. You’re selling over the course of years, not minutes or hours.

All the articles you publish serve different functions on your blog, but your end goal is always in sight. It may take you two years to turn a prospect in a customer, and that’s okay. In the meantime, your readership is going to shift and change, and people are going to enter your content stream at different places.

If you structure your content plan well, your prospects will keep moving on the virtual conveyor belt toward your end goal — which is making the sale.

And all the while, you’re building a potentially very valuable asset (your content-rich website) … an asset that you own.

Let’s go through a couple of article examples from Copyblogger, and talk about why we publish different kinds of posts to our site (and how we keep our eye on the long game every day).

Some posts — like Brian Clark’s legendary “Don’t Read This or the Kitty Gets It” — from our Copywriting 101 series — explain a basic foundation of the topic.

You can think of these pieces as FAQ posts — they answer the questions your clients and prospects ask you on a regular basis.

Sonia Simone’s 10-Step Content Marketing Checklist is another Copyblogger cornerstone piece. In that post, Sonia says,

The cornerstone of your platform comes from what interests and engages your audience. If you’re just starting out, you can start with what interests and engages you, then observe and adapt from there.

If your site is brand-new, start with about 10 posts that really encapsulate your fundamental beliefs and values about your topic. Think about what you would want every single reader of your site to know about.

Foundation articles are important to your long game, because new readers will often find your website from them.

Current readers will love them, too, because it never hurts to get a fresh look at the basics of your topic. Foundation content is a website owner’s bread and butter, because they consistently attract links and social sharing, 24/7, 365.

This kind of content takes a step back from teaching the basics, and takes a 30,000-foot view of your topic. Robert Bruce’s content marketing fables, like his recent “The Great Chef and the Failing Restaurant” is an example of this kind of content.

Posts that make people think will help you build solid relationships with your audience members.

They prove you know your subject deeply, that you think about things at a level that most people don’t — and that you want to help your readers understand your topic on that level, too.

These articles are memorable and can be highly accessible (and shareable), too.

Brian Clark recently wrote a post about Site Sensor, our new website monitoring tool. It wasn’t a typical post for Copyblogger, meaning it wasn’t only straight-up useful content.

Brian had a goal in writing this post — he wanted to explain a problem, give some insight into how he himself had experienced the problem in the past, and then give you a great solution (one of our new products) to that problem.

This post doesn’t push a “hard sell” angle — it’s not a sales letter — but it has more of a direct sales slant than some of our other content.

It’s absolutely fine to strategically place articles like this … when it makes sense for your audience — you’re in business, after all, right?

The key is to make sure there’s real value present for readers, even if they don’t want to buy your product or service. Check out the introduction to Brian’s post for clues on how to do this.

You’ve probably heard that Google Reader is going away. That announcement was major news in our industry, and a perfect opportunity for Copyblogger’s editorial team.

In last week’s post on Google Reader alternatives, Jerod Morris explained what Google Reader’s demise means for content providers.

Posts like this focus on trends, current events, or news in your industry. Trend pieces might not be evergreen pieces, like foundational posts, but they’re still really important.

?Posts on current events support your content long game because they frame you as the go-to expert in your field — as the guy (or gal) your reader goes to when they need news and information in your industry. They allow prospects to get to know, like and trust you as a valued content provider.

For more on this type of writing, listen to Robert Bruce’s Newsjacking interview with David Meerman Scott.

In our everyday lives as busy content marketers, it’s easy to lose track of what our end goal actually is.

Your best move is to consistently create interesting, highly sharable content that your readers can’t wait to read. And using these kinds of posts can help you do just that.

What other kinds of posts do you use for your blog, and how do they fit into your long-term content marketing strategy? Let me know in the comments …

About the Author: Beth Hayden is a Senior Staff Writer for Copyblogger Media. Get more from Beth on Twitter and Pinterest.

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There’s Still Time to Join Us at SOBCon this May and Save $100

This May 3-5 in Chicago, the SOBCon conference will once again be bringing people together to connect and improve their businesses. I’m a big fan of this intimate conference for bringing together great people, lots of heart, and a smart business focus.

Take a look at this post to learn more about why I’m a SOBCon fan and why I’ll be speaking there this year.

And lucky you, you can still save $100 off the conference fee just by entering the code sob100 when you register here: Registration for SOBCon 2013.

Attendance is limited to 150 people, which gives plenty of time for conversation and connection. So if you do join us, make sure you let me know — I’m looking forward to seeing you there!

About the Author: Sonia Simone is co-founder and CMO of Copyblogger Media. Get more from Sonia on Twitter and Google+.

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Why You Should Fire Yourself

What would you do if you discovered that the secret to your success online lay in firing yourself? Would you do it?

That’s the question Alex, a freelance copywriter, had to face.

Alex started his copywriting business three years ago, after the local newspaper he worked for as a staff writer was shut down.

From the get-go he scrambled to pick up writing jobs, tapping his network, searching freelance websites, and sending query after query.

Opportunities soon began to open up for him, and he took every single one.

Let’s take a look at the specifics of his story …

Alex wrote magazine pieces, blog posts, ad copy, web content, press releases, menus, brochures, instruction manuals. You name it, he wrote it.

His clients were businesses and solopreneurs of all types and sizes. Little start-ups, a big bank, neighborhood shops, a medical clinic, a solar power plant on the other side of the world.

With his take-any-client-with-a-pulse approach, he managed to keep the work flowing for the next three years.

In fact, many times it flowed too heavily, and he would log long hours, day in and day out.

The concept of a weekend soon became a distant memory.

Alex eventually got worn out and fell out of love with writing. At that point a mutual acquaintance suggested that he give me a ring.

A few weeks later Alex squeezed in a call with me while on the road. He said he wanted to start enjoying his work again, which probably required working less and somehow making more money.

After he gave me the rundown of his business, I told him he could easily have what he wanted, but he needed to step back for a few days to develop a business plan, decide on some goals and objectives, and map out a few specific strategies.

He told me he didn’t have the time for that.

He was running his feet off trying to keep up with everything on his plate.

“Alex,” I said, “if you sincerely want to work less and make more money you should consider firing yourself.”

I heard a long pause on the other end of the line, before, “Uh … what exactly do you mean by that?”

I told him …

There are two essential ways a small business owner works — in their business or on their business.

Working in the business means doing all the day-to-day stuff, such as servicing clients.

Working on the business means stepping away from the daily grind to do some planning and strategic thinking.

Most small business owners get caught up in working in their business all the time, and never working on their business.

It’s a trap, because without planning and strategic decision-making, the business can suffer, and so can the owner. In his case, Alex had hit a revenue ceiling and an emotional low at the same time.

For many, the trap is hard to get out of because, if they’re on their own, it’s up to them to do all the servicing. They feel they can’t stop, but if they don’t stop, nothing will ever improve.

I told Alex I saw so many ways for him to improve.

He barely had any clients in the same industryHe was doing every kind of writing under the moon

Both of those things had made him woefully inefficient. If he specialized in some industries, and if he concentrated on his higher-value services, like content development, instead of getting bogged down in things like product descriptions, he could easily make more money in less time.

But figuring out what industries to target and how to transition out of low-paying work would require some high-level creative thinking.

And you can’t just do that when you’re caught in the daily grind, worrying about all the work you have to do for your clients.

You have to totally get away from the day-to-day stuff — in every way, including emotionally. You can’t have any worries about the business.

You have to think about it objectively. After all, the right way forward might mean dropping a client you really like.

You’re not going to do that if you’re in the headspace of the guy involved with the client.

“So,” I said to Alex, “fire yourself as the copywriter and hire yourself as CEO.”

He wanted to know who was going to do all the work. “Nobody,” I said. “But you, the copywriter, don’t have to worry about that. You’re out of a job. Let the CEO worry about that.”

Another pause. “I’m pretty sure the CEO would be worried.”

I agree. But give him a chance to figure out solutions. He won’t, however, just think about how to get the business through the next week.

As CEO, he’s going to do some long-term planning. And he might make some hard decisions. One of them might be what to do with the copywriter he’d just let go.

But I imagine he’ll think you’re doing a pretty good job. So he’ll probably hire you back, with perhaps the insistence you get some work-life balance going.

Alex said the idea had some appeal to him, but he was seriously worried about finding the time and the emotional distance.

I suggested he do what he could to make the time, even if it meant turning down a little work. It might be hard, but the CEO in him would understand.

Alex would eventually follow my advice. He booked himself a weekend getaway at a cottage, took a business planning kit with him, and worked all weekend as CEO.

One of the decisions he made was to focus on the healthcare industry. Both his parents were medical professionals and he had a personal interest in health, enjoyed the work, and felt it was a growing industry.

He also made a hard decision to stop taking certain types of work, as well as any work below a certain pay rate.

Oh, and he decided to hire himself back as the copywriter.

Alex would stick to his CEO’s decisions, though he often had to fight the fear that turning down work was a bad thing.

His persistence would pay off, though. Two years later he became an established, high-paid writer in the healthcare industry.

For the most part, he stopped working crazy hours and he was much happier.

If you’re not finding the success you seek, try temporarily firing yourself as your business’s service provider, and hiring yourself as its CEO.

Make sure to think completely objectively about your business, and be prepared to make hard decisions. Push yourself to think creatively and strategically.

You’ll probably find being CEO fun and rewarding. You get to be the big shot, for a little while at least, before you head back to the grindstone.

A good rule of thumb is to fire yourself for a day or two every quarter.

Going on a retreat, like Alex did, is a good idea. And you don’t have to do all the planning alone. Consulting a business-minded friend or working with a professional can be well worth it.

Author’s note: this post is based on a business owner I’ve coached. I’ve changed his name and any telling details.

About the Author: Donald Cowper is the Small Business Writer at FreshBooks, the #1 Cloud Accounting Specialist for Small Business Owners. He's a successful entrepreneur, an experienced coach, and the coauthor of two bestselling business books. Check out The Cowper Files for more great small business stories and tips.

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La clave para crear contenido que resuena con su audiencia

A tuning fork vibrates at a particular tone when he hit it against a hard surface. A pure tone that musicians can use to tune their instruments (such as violins and guitars).

A job that has as a marketer content is to think of the reader like a tuning fork. Need to publish great content to create resonance with the reader - to get that person to issue a particular tone that gets them to know, like and trust you.

But creating messages that resonate with your readers is part of what we do often overlooked. One of those things is touchy-feely that nobody talks about. But it is very important, and it can be difficult to make.

Contents resonates with readers makes them nodding and saying: 'yes!' If your prospect is agree with you, that builds loyalty and passion for you and your material and creates a perfect environment for purchase when you are ready to make an offer.

Let's take a look at some tips on resonance and how to build harmony with their readers.

Seth Godin is a master at creating that feeling "in tune" with their readers. Your messages makes his readers almost vibrating with harmony, hit a chord. As readers, we believe what Seth is correct, and that give us the desire to read more and buy your products.

When Seth writes a post about the first thing we do when we sit down at the computer, its readers are inclined in - are really interested in your perspective on this important issue.

When he says that we should start something new to first thing in the morning (instead of checking our email by what we can read more about what happened yesterday) we know that it has is right. We can feel it in our database.

Godin entries daily, and many of its articles create great harmony with their readers. Create a long-term relationship with your audience by accumulating all the 'yes' reactions during the year.

When Godin announces that he has written a new book, readers are already prepared. He created harmony with them through the creation of blogs always bright.

Seth fans buy their books and share their ideas, because they like what he has to say. They want to continue their positive, engaging experience with him. They want more nods, more ideas, more than I remember. So they buy the book - and that purchase decision is very easy.

Do not assume that a post has to be on a positive issue to create harmony.

You don't need to talk about unicorns and Rainbow in each piece that you write. Sometimes you people giving a piece of difficult-to-hear (but critically important) advice with you. Or blowing an assumption common to smithereens.

Trying to be:

Specific - each article should be simple and direct, no matter what length is. You should be able to summarize in one concise sentence what is the piece. If it can not be summarized in a phrase, you can edit the post as you can.They useful - stuff are memorable, and it resonates with your audience. A few months ago I saw a post on FoodBeast about how to use cups of tomato sauce in a more efficient way, and it literally made me hit my forehead and say, ' Yes! "Do you do not think that?" I've been a big fan of FoodBeast since then.Brave man , don't be afraid to say things, no one is saying. If you're out front from the rest of the herd, you might be talking about something that everyone is afraid to talk. Have courage, friends. Taking big risks in order to reach a large agreement of your audience.Emotional , good content get us worked up. It causes excitement, if that feeling is wonder, surprise, happiness, sadness or anger. Don't be afraid to make your writing personal and emotional, and you'll be on your way to the creation of harmony with their readers.

Television programs, radio programs and films featuring characters and stories that resonate with the audience to create harmony.

I love the themes of the film Good Will Hunting, National Public Radio This American Life and the Firefly television show. After living them, I feel not only illuminated inside, but I want to recommend them to other people, and do it often. I agree with posts that writers are putting out into the world, and it makes me love your material.

Maria Popova, Chris Brogan and Neil Patel are writers who are masters at creating resonance and harmony with their readers. Check out his work and see how many times you find yourself nodding along agreement with them.

If you are aware of it or not, their favorite bloggers are creating harmony with you ever write a great. It is one of the main reasons that you love them.

They are listening to their needs and desires, and are agile.

To succeed with the commercialization of content, we have to remember the fretboard and use that visual image to reach our readers, so that they resonate with our message.

What is your favorite example of a piece of writing that really resonates with you? Let us know in the comments...

About the author: Beth Hayden is a Senior Editor for Copyblogger media. Get more from Beth on Twitter and Pinterest.

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Here is how to write David Meerman Scott

As publishers of online content, you and I inevitably run into the challenge of making the leap from the blank page, into the hearts and minds of our audience.

Content marketing — at its core — is finding the successful integration of great content and time-tested marketing strategies. International bestselling author and marketing strategist, David Meerman Scott, has made it his mission to help you find that sweet spot.

Mr. Scott is the author of eight books published in over 30 languages, the former marketing VP of two publicly traded companies, as well as Asia marketing director of Knight-Ridder.

With his extensive experience at that junction of the new media frontier and the old guard of publishing and PR, he’s found highly effective avenues to helping content creators and businesses connect with their audiences in extraordinary ways.

Let’s explore the file of David Meerman Scott, writer …

Copyblogger’s Brian Clark was featured in Mr. Scott’s instant industry classic The New Rules of Marketing & PR (currently in its third edition), a textbook for the digital frontier on leveraging modern marketing to build your business.

Last year David brought us Newsjacking, an ingenious way for online marketers to leverage PR using nothing more than your blog and a Twitter account.

And today he shares his observations on the writing life, strategies for creating epic content, connecting with your audience, using your blog as an idea generator, and the nature of perfection.

Who are you and what do you do?

I’m David Meerman Scott.

Meerman is my middle name which I’ve used professionally since the first time I Googled myself in the 1990s and found that David Scott (Commander of Apollo 15), David Scott (Congressman from Georgia), and David Scott (Ironman Triathlon champion) were too difficult to compete with for SEO.

I’ve written eight books, delivered talks at events in 36 countries on six continents, and serve on the advisory boards of a bunch of very cool companies.

What is your area of expertise as a writer or online publisher?

My first job was on a bond trading desk in the 1980s where I learned how to use real-time online content from media companies like Dow Jones and Reuters.

In the 1990s I was Asia Marketing Director for Knight-Ridder’s online media business and later VP of marketing at NewsEdge where I learned how to create content.

By the 2000s I realized that I had 20 years experience at the intersection of online media and marketing when most people had zero, so I left the corporate world to write and speak about that intersection.

Where can we find your writing?

davidmeermanscott.com

With thanks to my publisher John Wiley & Sons, my book World Wide Rave is now completely free as a PDF (with no registration required) and on Kindle, iPad, Nook, and Kobo ebook readers:

davidmeermanscott.com/free-stuff/free-ebooks/

How much time, per day, do you spend reading or doing research?

All day, every day. My best ideas come at odd times, like waiting in line to board a plane.

Before you begin to write, do you have any pre-game rituals or practices?

When I’m not traveling, I wake up at 3:00am, check email and social feeds for a few minutes, then exercise for 90 minutes. After breakfast and a shower I go to my little hideout office in town and do long-form writing for about 3 hours. I eat lunch around 10:30, and after lunch is meetings, phone calls, interviews, and short form content like blog posts. I’m in bed by 8:30.

What’s your best advice for overcoming procrastination?

Don’t think of a book as 60,000 words. Instead think of a book as 120 blog posts of 500 words each.

What time of day is most productive for your writing or content production?

Mornings.

Do you generally adhere to a rigid or flexible writing system?

I use what I call a “writing ladder” but I’ve never thought of it as a system till now. Maybe it is!

If a tweet resonates (it gets a bunch of RTs and @ replies) then I consider it good blog post fodder. If a blog post resonates, I’ll explore it with a riff in a speech and maybe another blog post or two. If a series of posts on the same topic resonates, that’s my next book.

Marketing Lessons from the Grateful Dead (which I wrote with HubSpot CEO Brian Halligan), Real-Time Marketing & PR, and Newsjacking were all developed this way.

How many hours a day do you spend actually writing (excluding email, social media etc.)?

Including my blog as writing, probably 3 hours a day average.

Do you write every day?

Yes. But the length of time varies significantly.

Define creativity.

Seeing patterns that others don’t and effectively communicating them.

Who are your favorite authors, online or off?

In no particular order and with apologies to many people I’ll forget: Ann Handley, C.C. Chapman, Seth Godin, Bob Lefsetz, Brian Halligan, Dharmesh Shah, Brian Clark, Laura Hillenbrand, Tom Wolfe, Michael Collins, Nathaniel Philbrick.

Can you share a best-loved quote?

Here I am at the turn of the millennium and I’m still the last man to have walked on the moon. It says more about what we have not done than about what we have done.
~ Gene Cernan, Commander of Apollo 17

Do you prefer a particular type of music (or silence) when you write?

Silence.

How would you personally like to grow creatively as a writer?

My first book, Eyeball Wars, was a thriller. I’d like to take another shot at fiction.

Do you believe in “writer’s block”? If so, how do you avoid it?

No writing is perfect. Just write.

Who or what is your “Muse” at the moment (i.e. specific creative inspirations)?

Musicians like Phil Lesh, Charlie Musselwhite, B.B. King, and Keith Richards, who are still working the stage and making people happy half a century on.

Would you consider yourself someone who likes to “take risks?”

Absolutely.

What makes a writer great?

The ability to connect with an audience.

What hardware or typewriter model are you presently using?

Apple 15-inch MacBook Pro 2.6GHz with Retina display (which I love), Apple 27-inch Thunderbolt Display, Apple mouse, and, to complete the package, an ergonomic keyboard made by Microsoft(!).

What software are you using for writing and general workflow?

Microsoft Word, TypePad for my blog, and WordPress for my site.

Do you have any tricks for staying focused?

Fear that someone else will write about the pattern I’m seeing before I write about it.

Have you run into any serious challenges or obstacles to getting words onto the page?

No. Only minor ones.

How do you stay organized (methods, systems, or “mad science”)?

After nearly 1,000 posts over almost a decade, I use my blog as a catalog of my ideas. It may seem strange, but I search my own blog several times a day.

How do you relax at the end of a hard day?

Put away the MacBook Pro and iPhone and read something printed on paper.

Who (or what) has been your greatest teacher?

My liberal arts education.

What’s your biggest aggravation or pet peeve at the moment (writing related or otherwise)?

People who say, “I’ve always wanted to write a book,” but don’t.

Choose one author, living or dead, that you would like to have dinner with.

Brian Clark, so we can talk both writing and music. It will happen. I hope it is soon.

Do you have a motto, credo or general slogan that you live by?

You are responsible for your own success.

What do you see as your greatest success in life?

When my ideas spark people to be more successful.

If you could take a vacation anywhere in the world tomorrow, where would you go (cost or responsibilities are no object)?

Does the Moon count?

What would you like to do more of in the coming year?

Surfing and scuba diving.

Can you offer any advice to writers and content producers that you might offer yourself, if you could go back in time and “do it all over?”

You can’t convince a publisher to accept your work. But if you show publishers that you already have readers of your work, they’ll come knocking at your door.

Please tell our readers where they can connect with you online.

Google David Meerman Scott and connect with me any way you like — except the telephone.

Is there anything else you’d like our readers to know?

If you’ve read this far, I want to thank you very much for your interest.

I really appreciate it. You are why I write.

Building an audience that builds your brand or business requires some fearlessness.

But fearless exploration of the unknown, whether it be outer space, or the blank page, is the most rewarding part about this whole mysterious process.

Be prepared.

Innovative ideas arrive when you least expect them.

You might be jacked into the Matrix, or wandering aimlessly in the world, completely free of technology.

And writing 1000 words that gets your audience thinking, talking, and sharing, that is the part that requires some old-school “ass-in-chair” time.

Thank you, Mr. Scott.

Stay tuned for more inspiring Q&As from writers we admire.

If you’ve already subscribed to Copyblogger via email or RSS, the next installment will be delivered to you just like the rest of our daily content.

If not, go ahead and subscribe right now so you don’t miss a thing.

Now sharpen your pencil and get back to work!

About the Author: Kelton Reid is Director of Marketing for Copyblogger Media's StudioPress division, and an independent screenwriter, and novelist. Get more from Kelton on Twitter and Google+.

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