If It Doesn’t Sell …
Posted on 05. May, 2012 by Brian Clark in Blog, content marketing, conversion, Copywriting, Featured, selling, Small Business Internet Marketing, Small Business Marketing
Advertising legend David Ogilvy hated the word “creative” in the context of the work his firm did for clients. In Confessions of an Advertising Man he wrote, “I tell new recruits that I will not allow them to use the word creative to describe the functions they are to perform in the agency.”
The job of advertising, Ogilvy rightly maintained, was to sell the product or service. If it didn’t do that, the advertisement was a failure, no matter how “creative” any of its other attributes.
Madison Avenue has continually failed to heed Ogilvy’s advice. Will you?
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About the Author: Brian Clark is founder of Copyblogger, CEO of Copyblogger Media, and Editor-in-Chief of Entreproducer. Get more from Brian on Google+.
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5 Lessons in Creativity from the Return of Ze Frank
Posted on 12. Apr, 2012 by Robert Bruce in Blog, content marketing, Featured, Small Business Internet Marketing, Small Business Marketing
It’s one of the most frequent questions we get from online publishers: How do I find ideas for all this content that’s going to fuel my business?
We all face the blank page screen every day. It’s not easy.
Ze Frank is an artist who illustrates — and overcomes — this creative struggle well. If you’re not familiar with him, his stuff can seem quite … unique.
He’s one of the best-known and most talented video artists/bloggers/content creators on the web. His “The Show” (running daily for one year only) started back in 2006. Through consistency, brilliant ideas, and a genius for tapping into the evolving interests of his audience, it quickly became the stuff of digital legend.
Ze’s back with a new show called “A Show”.
Though your content strategy probably differs radically from his, the opening episode is indeed an instructive and beautiful invocation for those of us working every day to make something great.
Below are 5 quick lessons in creativity I picked up from the start of Ze Frank’s brand new run. Watch his first episode below …
1. Everyone hates starting
If you’re starting something, anything, and you feel uneasy about it, you’re in good company.
Ze confesses his fear and reluctance about starting again very plainly:
I don’t want to start. But I will. This is an invocation for anyone who hasn’t begun, who’s stuck in a terrible place between zero and one.
- Ze Frank
He truly doesn’t want to. But he truly wants to. Sound familiar?
Some of the best advice on starting I’ve read is to simply commit to a minimum viable amount of time. For instance, working on something for a mere 33 minutes can change your day, and therefore, your career.
Start something.
2. Perfection is the enemy of everything
We all want it. None of us will ever get it.
Even though nobody in the history of the world has ever achieved perfection in their craft, we still believe the lie that it’s possible for us.
Even if it were possible to achieve, it would not be preferable …
Perfectionism may look good in his shiny shoes, but he’s a little bit of an asshole and no one invites him to their pool parties.
- Ze Frank
Accept it: perfection is not an option.
Faithfully learning, working, and submitting to the laws of your craft is an option. And, if you stay at it, it can eventually give you a living.
Forget perfection.
3. You don’t need VC, you need an audience
Ze doesn’t have viewers, he has Sports Racers (Google it).
From the early days of “The Show”, his devotion to his audience was clear. They weren’t a passive mass … they were part of the show itself.
He’s stated his respect for them — and for his current work — again:
Let me not think of my work only as a stepping stone to something else. And if it is, let me become fascinated with the shape of the stone.
– Ze Frank
Ze had some fairly radical (see: potentially expensive) ideas he wanted to run with in this new show. Whatever his early thoughts or conversations were on matters of budget, in the end, he turned to his faithful fans with a Kickstarter campaign.
The result was stunning.
In serving his audience, and adapting to their desires and needs, they showed up and gave him everything he needed (and more) to continue his work.
Build an audience.
4. Kill the distractions
Yeah, yeah, you hear this every day. We’re busy. We’re wired. We’re always on.
But do you know the true cost of your distractions?
Let me not hit up my Facebook like it’s a crack pipe … keep the browser closed.
- Ze Frank
Can you see there — off in the distance — what you might accomplish by keeping your browser closed?
Just a thought.
Browsers kill businesses.
5. Doing is the thing
Here’s a tweet from Ze, just a few days before the premier of his new show …
camera is on. pit in stomach activated.
— zefrank (@zefrank) April 6, 2012
If you’re human, and you care about your work, you know exactly what he’s talking about.
It’s the cost of actually doing something. The more important that something is, the bigger the pit-in-stomach.
Most of us are talented talkers. Few among us are faithful doers.
With apologies, allow me to quote a famous utterance … “Just do it.” It’s famous because it’s essential to creation.
Turn on the camera. Then do it again.
You?
What are you working on these days? What are you afraid of working on these days?
Let me remember that my courage is a wild dog. It won’t just come when I call it. I have to chase it down and hold on as tight as I can.
- Ze Frank
The work you’re avoiding might just be the work you’re meant to do.
Will you do it? The comments below make for a nice microphone …
About the Author: Robert Bruce is Copyblogger Media’s Copywriter and Resident Recluse.
Image courtesy of Ze Frank
Case Study: How to Breathe New Life into Your Tired Old Blog
Posted on 03. Apr, 2012 by Susan Daffron in Blog, Featured, Small Business Internet Marketing, Small Business Marketing
Remember how fun it was when you first started your blog?
Writing great posts was effortless, and connecting with your audience was a pleasure.
In a classic scene in the movie Drop Dead Fred, Phoebe Cates and her imaginary friend Fred build a colossal mud pie on the dining room table.
They revel in the messy joy of creation and the fact that it’s going to infuriate her mother (aka the “Mega Beast”).
Starting a blog is like making that massive mud pie. It’s a major undertaking, yes, but an exciting one. Everything is fun and interesting. Your creativity is soaring and you predict your blog will astound and awe the online world.
Unfortunately, we creative people get bored easily and sometimes that new-blog luster wears off. Time passes, and you get sick of writing about that topic you used to love.
You move on, and now you want to write about something totally different. So what do you do about your old blog?
Well, you have three options:
- Take down the old blog and start over with something new
- Sell the old blog to someone who will give it the love and attention you once did
- Reposition and revive the old blog
If you’ve put years of work into a blog, you may want to give option three some serious consideration. You can leverage that existing content and your site quality to build something new and amazing.
Your content legacy
If you’ve been online for a long time, you have a content legacy attached to your name.
Google knows what you’ve been up to. The content you have posted to your blog is part of your online history.
Completely erasing your content legacy and starting over is daunting. When faced with this problem, people often can’t decide what to do, so they do nothing at all and let the blog languish.
That was my approach for quite a while. People who do a Google search on my name probably think I have some sort of multiple personality disorder.
I used to write a lot of articles about how to use computers. Until I couldn’t stand it anymore.
My most popular computer-related site, Computor Companion, was a multi-author site I started as an archive for a print magazine that I published starting in 1999.
Although we stopped printing the magazine in 2001, we continued to publish online issues of the magazine through 2009. Needless to say, after publishing for 10 years, the site was large. With hundreds of articles and millions of visitors, Computor Companion was a content Mega Beast.
In fact, even after completely ignoring the site for more than two years, I still get feedback on the articles almost daily and remain in contact with many of the authors.
I never could let Computor Companion go. So many memories and online friendships are associated with it, I couldn’t part with the site.
Up until recently, I couldn’t figure out what to do with it either. After the Google Panda update, the traffic started falling off because Google noticed that the site hadn’t been updated in a while.
Clearly, I needed to do something.
Tear it apart and build it back up
In Drop Dead Fred, during the last moments of that mud pie scene, Fred breaks open a Jack in the Box toy and plops Jack’s head on top of the messy creation.
He says, “You see, when something’s not working right, the best thing is to tear it apart to make it better.”
If you want to reposition an existing blog, that’s what you have to do too. You tear it apart and build it back up.
That’s exactly what I did to relaunch Computor Companion.
Find a new angle
Determining a workable way to reposition your blog is arguably the hardest step. You can salvage most of the content if you don’t opt to go in a completely different direction. (If you absolutely can’t stand the topic at all, refer to Option 1 above and just start a new blog.)
The idea of repositioning Computor Companion had been on my mind for months before I finally arrived at a new slant that would work. I kept dwelling on the old tagline, which was “How to use computers effectively.” But the idea of doing technical writing or editing was unappealing at best. (Read: not going to happen.)
To arrive at the new direction, I looked at the readers’ problems differently. Most of my clients and many Computor Companion readers have used the information for business purposes. Then the new tagline hit me: Smart Ideas and Advice to Grow Your Business with Technology.
I could write (and edit) articles about small business. Almost everyone uses computers in business, so the existing articles could still work within the new framework. But the software focus could be deemphasized in future content.
To find a new angle for your blog, ask yourself: What problems — other than my central topic — does my content solve for readers?
Set new goals
Coming up with a new idea is great, but implementation can be challenging. If you’re going to go to all the work of revamping a blog, you should think about why you want to do it.
Think about your goals for the site and whether all the work will be worth it. In our case, our goals were to:
- Expand our content marketing into a different area
- Make money from advertising initially and products in the future
- Capture leads from people interested in small business issues
Our goals affected how we redesigned and rebranded the site. Think about what you want your blog to do for your business before you embark on any changes.
Update the design
Obviously, a site that hadn’t been updated since 2009 needed some design attention. I didn’t want to completely throw away the old design, so the site will keep a similar color scheme.
Redesigning the site was relatively simple. For a blog, you can easily replace the theme to totally change the look. It’s amazing what a few color changes and a new header can do.
In our case, I created a new logo that is reminiscent of the old site/magazine. We also added more white space and I rewrote all the static pages (About, Home, etc.) to reflect the new direction. I came up with an idea for an autoresponder and we added sign-up forms to capture email addresses.
Reorganize the content
Our next trick was to recategorize all the existing content, so it would make sense going forward. In the prior incarnation, the site focused on how to use software, so that’s how the articles were organized.
Now, with a small business focus, the articles are categorized into subject areas like Getting Clients, Developing Your Business, and Productivity. We deleted a few articles entirely and imported a few articles from another old site we were shutting down. At this point, some of the categories don’t have many articles, but there’s a lot of room for growth.
The key to setting up categories is to think about how you want people to find the content. We had the technical expertise to dig into the databases and reassign categories. If you don’t have a resident geek, you may need to resign yourself to some rather tedious work reorganizing your content.
Launch!
Once we had the new site design in place and the autoresponder set up, we launched. When you launch a blog, it’s easy to get mired down in perfectionism, but the problem is worse when you’re retrofitting an existing site.
You’ll undoubtedly have to compromise on a few issues. In our case, some articles aren’t perfectly categorized and there are a couple of articles we probably should have deleted, but didn’t because of the author.
At this point, Computor Companion isn’t perfect, but it’s far better than it was. We have a new platform for great content that I can enjoy writing and editing going forward.
The best part is that I have a site that’s no longer dragging me down. The prospect of adding new articles doesn’t scare or depress me.
As Fred would say, “I’m not afraid of the Mega Beast!”
How about you?
Ever take a blog or a website all the way to the ground and build it back up again? Ever think about doing it with your current site?
Let us know in the comments.
About the Author: Susan Daffron, aka The Book Consultant owns a book and software publishing company. In addition to relaunching ComputorCompanion.com and teaching aspiring authors about book publishing, she is putting on the Self-Publishers Online Conference May 8-10. Use the special “friend of Copyblogger” code CB12 when you register to get a discount.
A Fool-Proof Formula for Easily Creating Compelling Content
Posted on 27. Mar, 2012 by Danny Iny in Blog, content marketing, Featured, productivity, Small Business Internet Marketing, Small Business Marketing
There’s a secret to writing a lot of compelling content.
Every successful, prolific content writer knows this secret, and most other people … well, they don’t. And that’s what contributes to the mystique around the magical wordsmithing powers that some writers seem to have.
Well, no more.
Today I’m going to share that secret with you. The secret to prolifically creating excellent content isn’t inspiration or brilliance — it’s found in structure, planning, and research.
Doesn’t sound very sexy, does it?
Well, look at it this way … it’s structure, planning, and research that allowed me to write more than 40 posts, more than 80 guest posts, two books, and a lot of other content, all in a single year (2011). It’s the process that earned me the nickname “The Freddy Krueger of Blogging”.
Does that sound a little more attractive? Okay then, let’s dive right in…
Start with the audience and the angle
It all starts by understanding the people you’re writing for.
I’m not talking about some vague description like “moms aged 25-45″ or anything like that — I mean getting down to something very specific: “representative readers of Site X,” where Site X is the blog or website you want to write for. You need to do this step whether you’re creating content for someone else’s site or for your own.
You need to figure out what they want to read by seeing what they’ve responded well to in the past. No guesswork, no conjecture — it’s all right there for you to see.
Here’s what you do …
First, go through the site’s list of most popular posts. If there are more than 10 of them, then open them all up, and make a list of the top 10 (based on comments, shares, or whatever else the blog tracks). And if the site doesn’t list the most popular posts, just go through the last 30 or so that they’ve published, and pull out the 10 most successful ones.
Second, now that you’ve got that list of 10, start looking for patterns. Specifically, look for topics that are shared by several of the posts. You’ll probably find that over half of those posts are about the same 1-3 topics. No reinventing of the wheel needed — those are the topics that the audience likes best, so pick one and write about it!
Third, think about one insight that you can offer about one of those hot subjects. Just one. That’s your angle.
Now let’s move on to your headline …
Use proven headline formulas (don’t reinvent the wheel!)
You already know that a really good headline is the most important part of your post.
So how do you write a really good (or even a great) one?
Some people will point to Sean D’Souza’s three questions:
- Is it question-based, rather than answer-based?
- Is it problem-based, rather than solution-based?
- Does it evoke curiosity?
Others will use templates, like Jon Morrow’s Headline Hacks.
These are great resources, and I use them both, but the very best way I’ve found to create a winning headline quickly, easily, and without a lot of margin for error is by copying what works on the site I’m writing for (again, whether that’s someone else’s site, or my own).
You accomplish this by going back to the list you just created of the site’s 10 most popular posts.
Once again, you should be looking for patterns, and once again, you’ll probably find that at least half of them follow the same couple of patterns.
For example, right here at Copyblogger, about half of the most popular posts follow one of the following two patterns:
- [NUMBER] of [SOMETHING] about [SOMETHING]:
- What [SOMETHING] can teach you about [SOMETHING]:
- There are even several posts that follow BOTH patterns, like:
These are the patterns that work well on Copyblogger, and they’re fairly common patterns that will work well on a variety of sites, but the real key is to do this kind of analysis on the site that you’re targeting (even if it’s your own).
Now that you’ve got the headline, it’s time to write the opening section and hook the reader!
Hooking your reader
After the headline, the hook is the most important part of the post, and it’s the part of the post that needs your best writing.
The good news is that it’s usually short (on Copyblogger, it’s about 4-6 sentences long), and creating it is fairly straightforward.
You create a hook by describing the symptoms of the problem that you’re going to solve.
Don’t talk about the actual problem, or the subject of your post — just describe in vivid detail the current, frustrating experience of your intended reader. Then, at the very end, you hint that you have a solution, by saying something like “It doesn’t have to be this way …”, or “Here’s how you can fix it”, or “Here’s why some people don’t have this problem.”
Here’s the hook that I wrote for “21 Ways to Create Compelling Content When You Don’t Have a Clue” — do you see what I did here?
Sometimes you’re just out of ideas.
It’s not a matter of talent — you’ve written some awesome stuff in the past. But now, you go back to the well for a fresh idea, and it’s coming up dry.
This happens to the best of us — even geniuses who consistently produce epic content have off days.
Yet they continue to write.
They may grumble about how hard it is to get going and create something solid, but they still do. Again, and again, and again.
Are you noticing the pattern?
These hooks describe the most frustrating symptoms that the reader is experiencing, using language that is as vivid as possible, and then they pivot to state that you have a solution to the problem.
It’s that simple, and it works like a charm every time, for me and for my students.
After the hook, comes the rest of the post — but don’t start writing yet! Instead, just outline …
The 4 sections of an awesome blog post
Once you’ve got your hook, you’ve got to write the body of the post, starting with an outline.
Once again, this doesn’t have to be left to chance — most successful content follows the same pattern of information delivery:
- The Problem — Where you explain the problem that causes the symptoms you’ve described in the hook.
- The Underlying Cause of the Problem — A little more detail about why this problem keeps on happening.
- The Solution — Your brilliant insight into how the problem can be solved.
- Implementing the Solution — How the reader can turn ideas into actions, and what they should do next in order to apply what you’re teaching them.
This is the exact content formula that I teach in the Write Like Freddy Training Program, and it’s how I wrote more than 80 guest posts last year.
Don’t worry about writing the whole section — just write the sub-heads, and plug in a really brief (one or two sentence) “reminder” about what information is going to go in each section.
Looks pretty simple, right? Actually, it is.
That’s the beauty of it — writing quality, compelling content doesn’t have to be complicated or frustrating — just so long as you take the time to organize yourself, and follow the process.
After that, writing itself is almost a paint-by-numbers game …
Find a system, and work that system
The key to becoming a better writer is to do a lot of writing.
The key to doing a lot of writing (and ending up with high-quality content and not just sad “creative writing” journal entries) — fast — is to take as much guesswork as possible out of the process.
Once you have the outline for your content created, run through and “fill in the blanks” with a few intelligent paragraphs for each section. You’ll be able to do that easily, because you already know exactly what needs to go there.
It takes more time to decide what to have for lunch (some days!) than to flesh out the body of your post.
Following a system helps you stop wasting time wondering how to get started and what to do next — and allows you to spend your time and energy actually writing. This is the opposite of staring at a blank screen waiting for inspiration to strike, which is the death knell of creativity and productivity.
You’ve got to find a system that works well for you
Whether it’s my Write Like Freddy system, or another — the important thing is that you need a systematic approach that works well, works fast, and works every time — for you.
What about you? What system do you use to create lots of compelling content?
Please leave a comment below and let us know…
About the Author: Danny Iny (@DannyIny) skyrocketed his industry-leading marketing blog to success by writing more than 80 guest posts on major blogs in less than a year (earning him the nickname “The Freddy Krueger of Blogging”). Now he teaches others how to do the same in his Write Like Freddy blog writing training program.
10 Terrific Creative Writing Blogs
Posted on 03. Jan, 2012 by Sonia Simone in Blog, Featured, Small Business Internet Marketing, Small Business Marketing
If you know Copyblogger, you know that we believe in writers.
Which is why we always look forward to the results from the “Ten Best Blogs for Writers” each year — a contest currently being produced by the blog Write to Done.
If you want to become a better writer yourself, it’s smart to study writers with strong voices, to learn about the craft of writing, and to spend time with others who share your obsession.
You can do all of that and more by checking out this year’s winners.
Congratulations to all the winners, but we’d like to give a special shout-out to our own Copyblogger guest writer Jeff Goins.
Jeff Goins Writer
Jeff writes about the process of becoming a professional writer, including what it takes to get published and how to succeed at the creative life without losing your marbles.
The Write Practice
Joe Bunting and Liz Bureman focus on one of my own favorite success factors — deliberate practice. Any writer will get a lot out of this creativity-boosting site.
Jane Friedman
Media professor and speaker Jane Friedman focuses on how technology affects us as writers, marketers, and people.
The Creative Penn
Once again, Joanna Penn makes the Top Ten list with her popular blog on writing, publishing, and book promotion.
The Bookshelf Muse
Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi offer a warm and friendly take on the craft of writing, social networking for writers, and more.
Romance University
A fascinating site run by a writing team to help romance writers “establish and advance their careers, introducing readers to a variety of authors, and delving into the ever-inscrutable male mind.” Worth a look for any writer, not just those in genre fiction.
Courage to Create
Ollin Morales makes the list again with his passionate, creative blog about his own journey as a novelist.
terribleminds
Novelist and screenwriter Chuck Wendig offers advice, information, and attitude in equal measure.
The Artist’s Road
Patrick Ross’s career has taken him from journalism and communications consulting back to the creative life. He describes his blog as “an ongoing conversation among the blog’s author and its readers regarding the challenges and rewards of pursuing an art-committed life.”
WordPlay
WordPlay’s tagline is “helping writers become authors,” which shows that fiction writer K.M. Weiland doesn’t just know creative writing, she also understands how to put a benefit in the headline. She offers lots of advice for fiction writers to improve their craft and create publishable work, as well as reading guides and other material for readers.
Congratulations to all of the finalists and winners! (You can find the finalists on the Write to Done site.) Thanks for consistently putting your passion into words.
By the way, we couldn’t help but notice that there’s not a single blog on this list that’s primarily dedicated to copywriting. We love our creative writing colleagues, but we also love the brilliant copywriters and content marketers out there. So look for our own list of a few favorite copywriting and content marketing blogs coming later this week.
I’d love to get your input … what’s your “vote” for a terrific copywriting or content marketing blog that should make our list? Let us know about it in the comments.
About the Author: Sonia Simone is co-founder and CMO of Copyblogger Media. Share your favorite writing resources with her on twitter.
Introducing The Lede: A Copywriting and Online Marketing Sheet
Posted on 29. Oct, 2011 by Robert Bruce in Blog, Blog Psychology, content marketing, conversion, Copywriting, Email Marketing, Entrepreneurship, Headlines, Keyword Research, Landing Pages, List Building, Metrics, persuasion, productivity, selling, Small Business Internet Marketing, Small Business Marketing, social media marketing, Traditional Media, Traffic
Welcome to The Lede.
Every week I’ll be digging up and linking to stories, news, and opinion relevant to online marketing and copywriting.
Email, social media, innovation, SEO, productivity, mobile, conversion, publishing, and everything in between.
No commentary, just a fast, single page of headlines that you can grab, scan, and squeeze for all they may (or may not) be worth.
All right then, on with it …
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“The easiest thing in the world for a reader to do is stop reading”
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Steve Jobs’ “Seven Rules of Success” Applied to Email Marketing
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Twitter looking for full-time Copywriter
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How the Kindle Transforms the Marketplace
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How to Write a Popular Blog Post
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The Ultimate Measure of Marketing Success
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The Strange Art of Achieving More by Doing Less
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Better Marketing Through Social Media Optimization
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5 Advanced Keyword Research Tips
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Copywriting as Online Reputation Management
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Great Content Needs to Transcend Platforms
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“‘Social sharing buttons’ are one of the least
effective tactics you can use to build your list …”
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Finding the Value of Email Marketing Through Metrics
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Building a Landing Page Using “The Backward” Tactic
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Is Rational or Emotional Copy Better for the Bottom Line?
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The Art of the Simple Content Strategy
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Marketing Advice for #occupywallstreet
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An Email Marketing Cheat Sheet
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Mobile Marketing Industry Sets Privacy Guidelines
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An SEO Copywriting Cheat Sheet
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How to Diagnose and Heal a Sick Landing Page
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Even Hollywood Needs Good Landing Pages
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It’s About What They Do, Not What They Say
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An SEO Copywriter Walks into a Bar …
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Is the New Facebook Design Killing Your Traffic?
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What Movies and Comic Books Can
Teach You About Writing Powerful Scenes
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What SEOs Must Learn From Adwords Pros
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65 Ways to Get Traffic to Your Blog
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Why Social Media Research is so Valuable
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About the Author: Robert Bruce is Copyblogger Media’s copywriter and resident recluse.
Comments
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Further Reading
The Picasso Guide to Becoming a Social Media Legend
Posted on 20. Oct, 2011 by Pamela Wilson in Blog, content marketing, Featured, Small Business Internet Marketing, Small Business Marketing, social media marketing
During his career he was loved, hated, admired, dissed, fought over … but never ignored.
His name? Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y …
Picasso.
Anybody with a name like that was bound to lead a big, bold, messy life, and Picasso did exactly that.
I have to confess that I’ve had a creative crush on him ever since I first encountered his work in my college art history class.
But it wasn’t until I stood in front of piece after piece of his art that I learned the most important lesson Picasso ever taught me, and how it applies to getting business done online.
I’ll get to that.
First, let’s talk about a few simpler marketing lessons I’ve gleaned from the life of this amazing, torrential painter …
Change your game, because the game is always changing
If you know anything about Picasso, you might have heard of his “periods.”
There’s the Blue Period. The Rose Period. The Cubist and Surrealist periods.
He was always searching, never satisfied.
He’d start out creating works in one style. Those paintings would find a market and they’d sell. Then he’d drop that style and start experimenting with a new one.
The way we do business online is perpetually changing, and we’re all in the process of mastering new ways of working.
Experimenting with unfamiliar mediums like audio and video might send you straight into unknown territory.
Jumping into that new social media network may seem pointless and difficult.
That feeling of mastery you had about what you were doing?
Gone.
You’ll have to go through a learner’s phase all over again, and it won’t be fun.
But hang on, because the underlying standards don’t ever change, and on the other side of that phase might be the best work you’ve ever done.
How will you know unless you try? Do you even have a choice whether or not to change anymore?
Get a posse
Picasso and the painter Georges Braque had a famous friendship.
The two of them developed the cubist style together, through a series of paintings and collages that built off of the other’s ideas.
Braque would paint a scene. Picasso would paint the same scene, but it would be his own take on it.
Back and forth they’d go, with each painting pushing the envelope just a little more.
One of the best things you can do for yourself professionally — especially if you work by yourself, or run a small business — is to join a Mastermind group.
Mastermind groups are business brainstorming groups that meet on a regular basis. They help you take your business ideas and push them further, to the point of viability, working with models you can use to grow your business.
If you can’t find a local or virtual Mastermind group, try creating an informal one.
The important thing is that each member is committed to seeing both themselves and everyone else in the group prosper.
Picasso knew this. His artistic friendships with Braque, Matisse, and Miró helped their collective art careers flourish.
Was it their talent or their friendship and support that made the difference?
Draw inspiration from the world around you
Picasso’s works were influenced by suicide, war, poverty, love, sex, nature, and cinema.
I think it’s safe to say he had a lust for life, and his work reflects it.
You get the impression he woke up every day and said, “bring it on!”
He absorbed everything happening around him, and his messy, complicated life made its way through his hands, into his brushes, and onto his canvasses.
When you’re running your business it’s easy to get caught up in the dreary details.
Don’t forget to take time to be inspired by the world around you.
Sometimes the best business ideas come from places and situations that are far removed from your desk.
Let them inspire you and help you come up with creative solutions.
Bring life to your work.
Work. Work. Work. Work. Work. And work some more.
Now for the most important lesson Pablo taught me.
Over the years, I’ve stood in front of a lot of Picassos: paintings, drawings, etchings, sculptures, ceramics and prints.
The man was prolific. He was a one-man art factory.
And you know what? Not all of it is great.
Most of it is amazing. But some pieces look like experiments that didn’t quite pan out.
That’s what’s fascinating: when you see enough of his work, you can see that sometimes he had bad days.
But he kept going, year after year, until he’d produced 50,000 unique pieces of art over his lifetime.
Let that sink in for a minute.
50,000 pieces means he created approximately 632 pieces every year of his career.
And among the 50,000 or so pieces he produced, there are some timeless gems that will still resonate 500 years from now.
What Pablo taught me is that not every piece has to be a masterpiece.
That the process is just as important as the end result.
That I need to keep my eyes open to everything around me, absorb it and let it flow right into everything I do in my business online.
What do you get from his story? Let’s talk about it in the comments.
About the Author: Pamela Wilson teaches small businesses to grow using great design and marketing at Big Brand System. Brainstorm ideas, solve problems and achieve goals with other small business owners in Pamela’s Leap Year mastermind group.
Comments
- It is very inspiring. As mentioned above, it is very important … by Henry Louis
- I really love this sentence: “What Pablo taught me is that … by Min
- Wow.. never knew Picasso had a very long name to start with. I … by Aaron Eden
- Love the alphabet analogy! And I agree: it’s fascinating how … by Pamela Wilson
- HI Pamela What an inspiring post. I love the phrase work, … by Nicole Hammett
- Plus 5 more…
Further Reading
The Art of Finding Ideas
Posted on 18. Oct, 2011 by Robert Bruce in Blog, Blog Psychology, Collaboration, content marketing, Copywriting, editing, Email Marketing, Entrepreneurship, Featured, Headlines, Landing Pages, persuasion, productivity, selling, Small Business Internet Marketing, Small Business Marketing, social media marketing
Every writer who has ever lived has lusted after ideas.
Where are they, how do I get them, and how do I keep them coming?
If you’ve been writing long enough, you know that — like Solomon — there is nothing new under the sun.
Try as you might to sweat them out of your head or pull them gently from the stars above, there are no new ideas.
So, relax.
But the page is not going to write itself, is it? Where then do we turn for ideas that work, ideas that move, ideas that persuade?
In short, we steal them.
The moment you free yourself from The Cult of Originality, you realize that “original” ideas do not come from within.
They are given to us, from without.
A writer should not look inside, but outside, at external sources, stories, events, and emotions.
If you’re offended that I’d suggest you “steal” ideas, please get over it. You’re already a thief, you just don’t know it yet.
Here are two of the most significant idea repositories on earth …
1. The modern media is a torrent of ideas
In this information age, you have absolutely no reason to “draw a blank”.
Ever.
What took our writing ancestors days and weeks to research and learn, takes us mere moments.
In fact, the only problem we have now is one of finding trusted curators. We need to develop self-discipline and discernment in seeking out correct information from reliable sources.
There is no drought of ideas.
You have more computing power in your pocket than it took to send men to the moon. What are you doing with it?
Indeed.
Are you wasting it or harnessing it? You don’t need to go to the moon, the crossroads will do just fine for our purposes.
Research. Read. Steal.
Product manuals, literature, interviews, talk radio, magazines, newspapers, television, Twitter, Google Trends, movies, Wikipedia, and on and on and on …
It’s all there, right in your pocket.
And it’s actually more than you’ll ever need.
So use it. Don’t let it use you.
2. People will give you exactly what you’re looking for
Ideas are walking around everywhere out there.
Eugene Schwartz once told a story about a copywriting job he had.
He met with the client and asked him to start talking about the product. They ended up sitting together for four hours — the client talking, and Schwartz simply listening and taking notes.
Later that night, while he was waiting for his wife to get ready for a night out on Manhattan, Schwartz wrote the ad.
The entire ad.
He said about 70% of the finished copy was composed of his client’s own words.
The headline itself was a phrase the client had hit on, word for word.
He waited two weeks, mailed the ad to the client, and they both made a lot of money.
You might think this was some kind of dirty trick on Schwartz’ part, but you’d be wrong.
Schwartz knew how to write a powerful direct response ad. The client didn’t.
Schwartz was smart enough to know that the client knew (in this case) his own product better than he ever could, and simply translated that knowledge and passion onto paper.
The ideas were sitting in the client’s head and Schwartz knew exactly what to do with them.
It goes further …
For better or worse, a writer is working all the time.
Phone calls with friends, the plumber, your spouse, your child, your boss, your client, your neighbor — they are all constantly giving you ideas.
They are all constantly telling you what they — and the entire world — truly want.
It is all grist for the mill.
All you need to do is … listen.
Steal this post
Eugene Schwartz summed this up for me perfectly:
You don’t have to have great ideas if you can hear great ideas.
I stole this post from him, and he stole it from many others.
Listen more. Talk less.
Read less. Read better.
Steal.
The Art of Finding Ideas is then … to go out and find ideas.
Originality? That’ll come from using your own voice, and your voice develops from only one thing — writing more. And more. And more.
Where have you been getting your ideas?
About the Author: Robert Bruce is Copyblogger Media’s copywriter and resident recluse.
Comments
- Hi Robert You asked “So where have you been getting your … by Dane Pymble
- [...] Finding Ideas: I have struggled with this at times, but … by The Reading List – Week 1 (reboot)
- What a wonderful post Robert. Thanks for the reminder that … by Belinda Weaver
- I don’t ever have a problem finding idea’s, but sometimes I do … by Justin Germino
- I just blogged about this here (including a video on how I … by Nate Moller
- Plus 5 more…
Further Reading
The Art of Finding Ideas
Posted on 18. Oct, 2011 by Robert Bruce in Blog, Blog Psychology, Collaboration, content marketing, Copywriting, editing, Email Marketing, Entrepreneurship, Headlines, Landing Pages, persuasion, productivity, selling, Small Business Internet Marketing, Small Business Marketing, social media marketing
Every writer who has ever lived has lusted after ideas.
Where are they, how do I get them, and how do I keep them coming?
If you’ve been writing long enough, you know that — like Solomon — there is nothing new under the sun.
Try as you might to sweat them out of your head or pull them gently from the stars above, there are no new ideas.
So, relax.
But that page is not going to write itself, is it? Where then do we turn for ideas that work, ideas that move, ideas that persuade?
In short, we steal them.
The moment you free yourself from The Cult of Originality, you realize that “original” ideas do not come from within.
They are given to us, from without.
A writer should not look inside, but outside, at external sources, stories, events, and emotions.
If you’re offended that I’d suggest you “steal” ideas, please get over it. You’re already a thief, you just don’t know it yet.
Here are two of the most significant idea repositories on earth …
1. The modern media is a torrent of ideas
In this information age, you have absolutely no reason to “draw a blank”.
Ever.
What took our writing ancestors days and weeks to research and learn, takes us mere moments.
In fact, the only problem we have now is one of finding trusted curators. We need to develop self-discipline and discernment in seeking out correct information from reliable sources.
There is no drought of ideas.
You have more computing power in your pocket than it took to send men to the moon. What are you doing with it?
Indeed.
Are you wasting it or harnessing it? You don’t need to go to moon, the crossroads will do just fine for our purposes.
Research. Read. Steal.
Product manuals, literature, interviews, talk radio, magazines, newspapers, televsion, Twitter, Google Trends, movies, Wikipedia, and on and on and on …
It’s all there, right in your pocket.
And it’s actually more than you’ll ever need.
So use it. Don’t let it use you.
2. People will give you exactly what you’re looking for
Ideas are walking around everywhere out there.
Eugene Schwartz once told a story about a copywriting job he had.
He met with the client and asked him to start talking about the product. They ended up sitting together for four hours — the client talking, and Schwartz simply listening and taking notes.
Later that night, while he was waiting for his wife to get ready for a night out on Manhattan, Schwartz wrote the ad.
The entire ad.
He said about 70% of the finished copy was comprised of his client’s own words.
The headline itself was a phrase the client had hit on, word for word.
He waited two weeks, mailed the ad to the client, and they both made a lot of money.
You might think this was some kind of dirty trick on Schwartz’ part, but you’d be wrong.
Schwartz knew how to write a powerful direct response ad. The client didn’t.
Schwartz was smart enough to know that the client knew (in this case) his own product better than he ever could, and simply translated that knowledge and passion onto paper.
The ideas were sitting in the client’s head and Schwartz knew exactly what to do with them.
It goes further …
For better or worse, a writer is working all the time.
Phone calls with friends, the plumber, your spouse, your child, your boss, your client, your neighbor — they are all constantly giving you ideas.
They are all constantly telling you what they — and the entire world — truly want.
It is all grist for the mill.
All you need to do is … listen.
Steal this post
Eugene Schwartz summed this up for me perfectly:
You don’t have to have great ideas if you can hear great ideas.
I stole this post from him, and he stole it from many others.
Listen more. Talk less.
Read less. Read better.
Steal.
The Art of Finding Ideas is then … to go out and find ideas.
Originality? That’ll come from using your own voice, and your voice develops from only one thing — writing more. And more. And more.
Where have you been getting your ideas?
About the Author: Robert Bruce is Copyblogger Media’s copywriter and resident recluse.
Comments
- “the only problem we have now is one of finding trusted … by Nick Stamoulis
- What you’ve written is so true and what I “heard” in your … by Pam Britton
Further Reading
How to Write a High-Quality eBook in 30 Days
Posted on 17. Oct, 2011 by Ali Luke in Blog, Featured, Paid Content, productivity, Small Business Internet Marketing, Small Business Marketing
What if, 30 days from now, you had a finished, well-crafted eBook sitting on your hard drive, ready to distribute and sell?
That might sound next-to-impossible to you, but it’s not.
Every November, over 200,000 people worldwide take part in NaNoWriMo — “(inter)National Novel Writing Month”.
NaNoWriMo participants aim to write 50,000 words during the month, and tens of thousands of them manage to do it.
If those writers can do that, you can write a 20,000 word ebook in a month.
And I am absolutely not talking about some scrappy, thrown-together document. You’ll have more than enough time to properly plan, organize, and edit your eBook as well.
Think I’m pulling your leg?
Here’s how to do it:
Pick your topic (Days 1–2)
Maybe you’ve got an idea in mind already: a book you’d really love to write.
Go ahead and write that idea down, and then store it in a safe place.
Leave it there for the next 30 days.
Yep, seriously. You’d probably have a great time writing it … but chances are, it’s not what your audience is looking for, so it’s not going to sell.
A great ebook idea needs to be:
- Specific. Don’t try to write the definitive guide to your topic: it’s overwhelming for your readers, and it doesn’t leave you much room for your next eBook.
- Useful. If you do consulting or coaching, what problems come up again and again? Do your blog readers always ask for posts dealing with a particular issue?
Ask your audience what they want, and give them a few possibilities to choose from.
You’ve only got two days here, so you won’t have time for a full-blown survey — but you can tweet out a question, or put up a thread on your Facebook page.
Be prepared to be surprised!
Once you’ve got a solid idea, you can …
Create an outline (Days 3–4)
Your outline is your roadmap.
It lays out the territory ahead, and lets you spot any tricky patches before you’re half-way through the first draft.
There’s no one “right” way to outline, but one or more of these might work well for you:
#1: Draw a mindmap. Put your topic or ebook title in the centre and start adding ideas to it as they occur to you. Use lines or arrows to create connections. At this stage, put everything down, however big or small — you can tidy the entire thing up later.
#2: Work backwards. Start at the end: what do you want your reader to be able to accomplish once they’ve finished your ebook? Then take a step back — what will they need to know before they can do that? And what about before that?
#3: Write a list. If you’re already extremely familiar with your topic, you’ve probably got an outline in your head. Start writing a list: what chapters or major sections will your ebook need? Once you’ve got the big pieces in place, write a list of 3–5 key points for each chapter/section.
#4: Examine other eBooks and books. Look through several chapter lists to see what topics appear in almost every book. Is there anything that you’re missing from your outline?
At this stage, it’s worth considering whether each chapter (or each section) could have a consistent structure.
This will make the writing process much easier and faster: you’ll have fewer decisions to make.
For instance, your chapters could follow a simple pattern like this:
- Quotation at the start
- An example mid-way through
- Practical exercise at the end
Once you have a clear outline and, if possible, a structure in place, it’s time to …
Start writing (Days 5–25)
This is where the bulk of your time will be spent: 20 of your 30 days.
If you’re aiming for a 20,000 word ebook (around 80-100 pages, assuming you’re including a few images) then that breaks down to writing 1,000 words a day.
Yep, that’s a sizeable commitment –- but, the trade-off is, you’re going to get your ebook done within a month, instead of having it drag on for a year or more.
Here’s a few tips to speed up your writing and get to 1000 words a day:
- Work on your ebook at the right time of day. If you’re focused and motivated in the mornings, write in the morning. If you’re at your best at 10pm, do your writing then.
- Turn off distractions when you’re writing. You might want to switch off your internet connection entirely, or use a program that blocks it for a certain period of time.
- Use a timer. Set a timer for 30 minutes, then write until the time is up. Having the minutes ticking away is a real help when you need to stay on-task.
- Don’t stop writing. If you need to check a quick fact, look up a link or add a screenshot, mark the place with yellow highlighter or something else highly visible — and come back to it later.
- Don’t edit while you write. Maybe you just can’t get the first paragraph right: it doesn’t matter. Leave it and move on. You can come back to it at the editing stage (and you may find that it works fine after all).
Aim to write every day for these 20 days — even if you only manage a couple of hundred words on some days.
The more you make writing a habit, the easier it becomes.
But you’re not done yet. You still need to …
Redraft your eBook (Days 26–28)
Ideally, you’d put your eBook aside for a while before revising it — but you’ve only got a few days left.
So, to see your eBook with fresh eyes, print it out — or transfer it onto your e-reader.
Read through the whole thing in one go, and make a note of:
- Any material that you’ve covered in more than one place
- Any missing information that you left out during the writing
- Chapters that would flow better in a different order
At this stage, don’t agonize over every word.
Obviously, fix any glaring typos or mistakes that you spot, but avoid getting too bogged down.
Spend these three days focusing on cuts, re-ordering and additions.
This might mean cutting out unnecessary tangents, juggling sections or paragraphs around, and adding in any hyperlinks and quotes that you didn’t have time to look up earlier.
At this point, your ebook might look finished.
But there are two days left, and you’ve still got time to …
Make final changes (Days 29–30)
These two final days can turn your eBook into a professionally finished piece.
Print out the ebook again, or view it as a PDF.
Read through slowly, checking every sentence and word.
Particularly, look out for:
- Clumsy or confusing sentences
- Misspellings (especially commonly confused words like “its” and “it’s”)
- Missing words — surprisingly common, and often hard to spot when you’re reading at a normal pace
And now …
Hurrah! You’re the proud author of a finished eBook!
Well, you will be that proud author 
Which means it’s time to get out your calendar and write “EBOOK” onto every page of every day for the next month.
Yes, writing an ebook takes time, effort and energy. Yes, the next month looks incredibly busy already: but every month looks incredibly busy, right?
If you write a small, free eBook, you’ll have a great piece of promotional content.
Or, if you write an eBook to sell, you’ll be able to make money for months, even years, from just one month of work.
Right now is the best time to write.
One of the quickest and simplest ways to give yourself a motivational boost is to make a public commitment to your goal — so, write a comment below and tell us to look out for your finished ebook next month!
About the Author: Ali Luke is speaking at BlogWorld LA on “How to Write Ebooks That Practically Sell Themselves”. She’s the author of the Blogger’s Guide series of ebooks, including The Blogger’s Guide to Irresistible Ebooks.
Comments
- Welcome back, Rose! And good luck making some money from ebooks … by Ali Luke
- Ah, I get where you’re coming from, Nicole. Maybe you could try … by Ali Luke
- i’m joining this year’s nanowrimo. it’s going to be my first. … by geraldine
- I bookmarked this post a few weeks ago while I tested out a few … by Rose
- I have been thinking on this response from Ali and from Tom. … by Nicole Rushin
- Plus 5 more…
Further Reading
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