Editing Archives - Copyblogger

Written by Stefanie Flaxman | July 12, 2017 | 41 Comments

Stop Making These 12 Word Choice Errors Once and for All

Bill is at a wine bar on Saturday night, enjoying a glass of Pinot Noir.

After striking up a playful conversation with Lisa (who prefers Syrah), he asks for her telephone number. Lisa agrees to Bill’s request, and he creates a new “contact” in his cell phone.

“No,” Lisa stops Bill. “You’ll have to memorize it. I don’t want you to write it down.”

Bill accepts the challenge and confidently repeats the 10-digit number a few times aloud. Lisa proceeds to talk about her cat Nibbles for an hour and then leaves the bar after she realizes how late in the evening it has become.

By the next day, Bill has forgotten Lisa’s phone number. He remembers how much Nibbles loves playing with yarn because he used to have a cat that loved yarn … and although he wants to send Lisa a text message, her digits weren’t meaningful to him.

The same thing happens when you memorize the definitions of two similar words instead of learning how to use them.
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Written by Sonia Simone | June 15, 2017 | 1 Comment

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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Written by Stefanie Flaxman | June 13, 2017 | 12 Comments

Does Your Blog Need Editing and Proofreading?

You might think that I’d recommend a thorough editing and proofreading process for every blog.

But that’s not the case.

Since I don’t know enough about your blog to answer the question I pose in the headline of this article for you, I want to provide tools that will help you evaluate your own publication.

Is your content successful with your current level of editing and proofreading, or would you benefit from more substantial revisions?

I’m a loyal follower of the Socratic method, so we’re going to explore the colossal question, “Does your blog need editing and proofreading?” by asking more questions. 😉

Answer the three questions below to uncover how you can reach your content goals faster.
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Written by Sonia Simone | April 6, 2017 | 6 Comments

Try These Useful Suggestions to Build Your Audience

On Monday, our good and wise friend Andy Crestodina showed the difference between optimizing for search engines and optimizing for social shares. He also gives us a nice piece of advice about how you can get really crafty and do both.

Proofreading might not seem exciting, until the day you publish a post with the headline Making that Shit into the Next Phase of Your Career. Don’t let that happen; read Stefanie’s Tuesday post.

On Wednesday, Brian Clark reminded us that search and social get all the attention, but it’s email that pays the bills. He explains why email is the most important content distribution platform you have … and reveals that my favorite analogy for how to treat your audience has always given him the jitters. (Do you agree with him? Let us know in the blog comments! …)
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Written by Stefanie Flaxman | April 4, 2017 | 18 Comments

3 Proofreading Pointers, So Your Writing Isn’t Shared for the Wrong Reason

Whenever someone questions the importance of proofreading, my go-to response is:

“Pubic relations is quite different from public relations.”

We all sometimes make a typo that omits or changes a letter in a word. A typo like that is difficult to spot when the mistake is still an actual word (or words). Just last week, I wrote “head lice” instead of “headline.” Again, two completely different things.

But I have an effective proofreading process that helps me find and correct errors before they are published. (Except, of course, when the error is a joke.)

Do you want to know techniques I use on my own writing as well as every article we publish on Copyblogger?
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Written by Sonia Simone | January 5, 2017 | 6 Comments

The Power of a Fresh Start

You never know what a fresh calendar year can inspire someone to do. They might start a new business, lose a zillion pounds, organize the sock drawer.

Or, if it’s Copyblogger’s founder Brian Clark, they just might come back to the blog with a vengeance … and a commitment to write a bunch of new content for us.

In case you missed it, Brian did that last one this week. He hit the blog on Monday morning with a post about why so much content out there is so … uninspiring. And he talks about what we can do to break through and start creating something worth reading again.

This month, we’re getting back to basics on Copyblogger — but “basic” doesn’t mean we’ll get less sophisticated. It means we’ll talk about how you can execute on the most important things in a deeper way.

Because shiny objects are fun … but creating real success is even more fun.
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