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Practical Tips to Move You Toward Your Content Marketing Goals

Practical Tips to Move You Toward Your Content Marketing Goals

This week is all about good, old-fashioned pragmatism. It’s about the specific tactics you can use to start getting the results you’re looking for — sooner rather than later.

On Monday, Stefanie Flaxman gave us some suggestions on timing when you want to approach that busy influencer with your killer idea or humble request.

On Tuesday, Jerod Morris let us know about the launch of Sites, a new podcast that helps you build the website you need to reach your goals.

And on Wednesday, I outlined specific steps you can take to gain momentum when no one knows who you are (yet). Your “1,000 True Fans” aren’t going to show up overnight, but there is a path you can take to get to them.
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7 Ways to Find Readers and Subscribers When No One Knows You Yet

"You don't have to just wait for your audience to stumble across you." – Sonia Simone

The early days of a new blog, podcast, or video channel are actually a sort of magical time.

It’s quiet. No one has shown up yet. You can say or do nearly anything. You have the opportunity to experiment and play without fear.

And, let’s face it … we all want to get past it as quickly as humanly possible.
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The Balance of Creativity and Productivity

The Balance of Creativity and Productivity

If you read Copyblogger for any length of time, you’ll notice a theme that comes up again and again — the balance of creative “arty stuff” with pragmatic productivity.

Creativity makes our content worth reading. Strategic implementation gets us where we want to go. Each depends on the other.

On Monday, Stefanie Flaxman talked about cultivating a Pomeranian state of mind to expand your creativity. (Read the post to find out why you actually do want to do this.)

And on Tuesday, she outlined a plan to use that Pomeranian creativity to actually make something that other people want to read, watch, or listen to.

Finally, on Wednesday, our editorial team sent me their favorite writing books — a healthy mix of the arty, the crafty, and the strategic.
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Your Summer Reading List from the Copyblogger Editorial Team

Editorial Roundtable

I don’t believe in a “writing gene.”

Writing comes more easily to some folks, for sure. But those aren’t always the people who end up writing really well.

Writing is a skill that requires plenty of practice. But practice is always more effective when you’re working on the right things.

That’s when it’s time to seek out some good advice.

This week, we asked Copyblogger’s editorial team to share some of their favorite writing books. There’s a mix here — some books are about the art of writing, some about craft, and some about strategy.

Any of them will help you put your words together in more powerful ways.
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Improve Your Writing and Last Chance for Rainmaker Platform

Improve Your Writing and Last Chance for Rainmaker Platform

Updated 6/16/17: The Rainmaker Platform is now off the market as a standalone service. Click here to learn about our new complete solutions for digital marketing that works.

Brian wrote on Monday about the big news for this week: This is your last chance to pick up the Rainmaker Platform as a standalone service. We’re transitioning to a bundled hybrid of technology with client services … and that will come with a significantly higher price tag.

If you’ve been thinking about Rainmaker, this would be a great time to jump in. To get the advantageous pricing we have today, you’ll need to start your free trial before Friday, June 16, 2017 (that’s tomorrow) at 5:00 p.m. Pacific Time.
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How to Add Color and Richness to Your Writing … Without Making Us Want to Barf

"Don't tell me it's 'awesome,' 'epic,' or 'amazing.' Show me why." – Sonia Simone

Your job as a writer is to make your subjects clear and interesting.

Assuming you aren’t working on the next Waiting for Godot, you’ll work to make sure your meaning is clear and easy to grasp.

And assuming you aren’t editing Wikipedia, you’ll work to make it lively and fresh.

But sometimes, well-meaning attempts to give your writing life end up producing writing that’s silly, trivial, cluttered, or condescending.

Lively writing is wonderful. Paragraph after paragraph of neon-rainbow unicorn vomit (with glitter) is less wonderful.
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