This week on The Lede …

• 13 Ways to Make Idea Generation a Daily Habit
• 10 Signs You’re About to Hire the Right Copywriter
• RSS: Your Social Media Monitoring Secret Weapon
• Convert More Visitors from Your Guest Post with These 10 Landing Page Hacks
• The Jedi Master Approach to Content Marketing that Converts
• Twitter v. Facebook: A Short Case Study in Building Trust
• Stephen King’s 20 Tips for Becoming a Frighteningly Good Writer

If you want to grab more useful links (than the seven we highlight here every week), follow @copyblogger on Twitter.

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13 Ways to Make Idea Generation a Daily Habit
You ever hear that story about Thomas Edison’s idea naps? He’d sit on the couch with his head in his hand, propped up on his elbow, holding a few ball-bearings. He’d allow himself to drift off to sleep — in order to let his subconscious mind go to work on his ideas — and when he drifted too far into a deep sleep, the bearings would fall to the floor and wake him. Legend says he repeated this throughout the day. Consider it number 14, and get on over to Ms. Jones article for 13 more …

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10 Signs You’re About to Hire the Right Copywriter
Are you paying too much for a copywriter (probably not)? Too little (probably)? Is the writer you’re looking at a hack with a briefcase full of “social media” buzzwords, or a pro that knows what really matters (e.g., the right offer is more important than perfect copy)? If you’ve had some of these questions in the past, read through the list Mr. Robisch has compiled. It’ll take you a long way down the road to finding a good copywriter who knows what she’s doing.

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RSS: Your Social Media Monitoring Secret Weapon
Who says RSS is dead? Well, a lot of folks actually, but The Lede would be a lot more difficult to run without our old, never-quite-made-it-to-primetime friend. You might still be using an RSS reader to catch the latest blog posts in your industry, but you may have missed this cool little implementation that Ms. Seiter brings up — social network monitoring. Instead of running ragged between all your accounts, bring all those tweets, updates, pins and answers right into one place. Feels like 2006 all over again, feels good …

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Convert More Visitors from Your Guest Post with These 10 Landing Page Hacks
Getting that guest writing gig on an influential site that’s relevant to your goals is a win. But what are you doing with the traffic that’s hitting your site as a result? If it doesn’t convert, you’re no better off than if you’d never written that guest post at all. Mr. Patel gives you 10 specific ways to turn a piece of that traffic into customers, subscribers and/or regular readers.

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The Jedi Master Approach to Content Marketing that Converts
Human beings tell stories all day long. We tell them to ourselves and we tell them to each other. Humans also need to hear stories, it’s how we’ve been wired. And, whether you’re doing the telling or not, the world is hearing a story about your product, service, or idea. In this article, Mr. Clark takes us back a few decades — and a few thousand years — in order to find a storytelling template that works.

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Twitter v. Facebook, A Short Case Study in Building Trust
You can have all the users in the world. You can get all the press that the media has ink for. You can build one of the most recognizable brands ever made, but if you don’t have trust, you ain’t got nothing. And if you do have it, you won’t need all that other crap to build a profitable business anyway.

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Stephen King’s 20 Tips for Becoming a Frighteningly Good Writer
Mr. Morrow dissects and analyzes one of the best books on the craft of writing that’s ever been … uh … written. If you’ve dismissed Stephen King as an American horror hack: 1) you’re wrong, and 2) you’re missing an opportunity to learn from a master. So knock it off, read this post, and then go get On Writing.

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Did you miss anything on Copyblogger this week?

• A Simple Plan for Writing One Powerful Piece of Online Content per Week
• 3 Components of a Content Marketing Editorial Calendar that Works
• Should You Be Worried about Google’s Latest “Penguin” Update?
• How to Build Your Email Marketing List with a WordPress Website
• The Harpoon or the Net: What’s the Right Copy Approach for Your Prospects?

About the Author: Robert Bruce is Copyblogger Media's Copywriter and Resident Recluse. Get more from Robert on Twitter and Google+.

Once you decide to learn more about the craft of copywriting, you quickly find out there are two schools of thought.

One school hammers the reader with red headlines, yellow highlighting, and aggressive copy that grips the reader like a terrier shaking a squirrel.

The other school develops a compelling personal voice, nurtures a relationship with the reader, and uses soft-sell techniques to nudge the reader down the path to purchase.

So which one is right?

Well … they both are.

How to harpoon a customer

It’s easy to make fun of traditional sales pages, but they’ve been widely used because for a lot of years, they worked like crazy. And there are still versions that work well today. Like infomercials and Cosmo headlines, they may look dopey, but they’ve convinced millions of people to take action and spend money.

Traditional sales pages are ugly because they’re designed to hold and keep attention. Attractive design is completely secondary.

Readers for these pages typically arrive from an ad or, somewhat less commonly these days, an affiliate referral. The prospect tends to make up his mind in a split second about whether or not he’s in the right place. He then spends another three or four seconds deciding if this offer is going to meet his needs.

Red headlines, yellow highlighting, irritating pop-ups and pop-overs, and the other tricks of the trade are all ways to grab a stranger and focus his attention on what you have to offer.

Sure, long sales pages can be cheesy, but if you only have one shot at the prospect, they can work very well. A well-written traditional sales page acts like a harpoon. When a likely prospect swims along, if the writer’s aim is good and she gets enough power behind that harpoon, she can make the sale.

Is a harpoon always the right tool?

Harpoons work great when you need to strike quickly. But they have a few problems.

First, the “ugly” version that used to be widely used gives an impression of shoddiness and a lack of ethics.

That impression isn’t always accurate — long sales pages have been used for great stuff as well as junk. But unless you’ve already established credibility with your audience, the prospect can’t tell the difference. If the reader doesn’t urgently need what you’re selling, she’ll hit the back button as fast as she can.

Second, it’s really hard to write a good “harpoon” sales page that can convert a prospect in one shot.

The difference between effective sales letters and miserable failures can be surprisingly subtle. If you aren’t already Clayton Makepeace, you may find that although your letters look like his (to your untrained eye), they don’t work like his.

Third, cheap traffic is getting hard to come by.

With competitive pay-per-click keywords going for a few dollars instead of a few cents, these single-shot long sales pages are becoming less and less effective. The masters can still pull it off, and do … but you have to be a master.

If you’re still inspired to learn this strange and fascinating form, study the crusty old guys who developed the original techniques. Gary Bencivenga, Joe Sugarman, Clayton Makepeace, and Dan Kennedy all have resources out there that can start you on your apprenticeship.

You could also use a net

There’s an alternative approach you might want to consider.

Instead of hurling your single-pointed communication as forcefully as you can, consider encouraging your prospect to wrap himself in a friendly, supportive net.

In other words, rather than trying to harpoon customers with single-shot sales letters, snare them in a net of useful, relevant content.

Strong content will keep luring your prospect back for regular bites. Each bite builds a little more trust. Each bite builds your reputation as a friendly authority.

Whether it’s a freeform stream like a blog or the organized sequence of an email autoresponder, a well-crafted content net not only snags your prospect for this sale, it keeps him fat and happy for the next one.

And you’ve probably noticed that it’s very handy for things like SEO and social sharing as well. The more connected we are with communication technology, the better the net works.

How to use a net without getting tangled up

Great single-shot copywriting is usually the result of many years of work and study.

Creating a net of great content over time, on the other hand, is a lot easier to master. You don’t have to get every word perfect. You don’t need an arsenal of sales tricks.

It’s mostly a matter of figuring out what your customer wants and needs, then getting out of your own way. And the copywriting techniques you do use can be “pretty good” instead of “The next incarnation of Gary Halbert.”

As you’ve probably guessed by now, the content net is the copywriting method we favor here at Copyblogger. You’ll still benefit from a well-crafted landing page (not an ugly one, please, we’re in 2012 now). But frankly, the fish are a lot easier to catch when you’ve been keeping them happy in your content net.

If you’re interested in finding out more specifics on how to do that, I put together a free, 20-part course called Internet Marketing for Smart People that can give you a solid head start.

It talks about the delicate balance between audience relationship, selling, and traditional copywriting. Go snag it now, and start weaving a net of your own.

Editor’s Note: This is a Copyblogger Classic post, originally published in June, 2008. We’ll be republishing classic content from the archives from time to time, updated — as this post has been — to be sure the advice is as relevant as ever.

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

Many online publishers run into the same vexing problem when they start email marketing:

You know that email subscribers drive traffic and make up the long-term, profitable audience for your brand or business. But only a handful of your site’s visitors are choosing to sign-up.

Maybe you’ve just started building your list, or maybe you’ve had that opt-in form on your page for months.

No matter how many unique daily visitors you get — or how amazing your service or product is — if they aren’t finding your valued subscriber content, all the likes, tweets, pins, and pluses in the world aren’t going to build that loyal following you need to grow.

Getting your readers and prospects to opt-in to your email list grows harder every day for a very simple reason …

Your prospects have a very limited focus

During most everyday tasks, psychologists now say that our minds wander 30-70% of the time.

Have you ever surfed the internet, only to find an hour later you had no idea what you set out to look for in the first place?

With mobile devices putting us all on an “on all day” multi-tasking collision course, it’s no wonder the visitors to your site are blind to your email opt-in form … if you even have one, that is.

Thankfully the special-ops team over at StudioPress has done much of the hard work for us with a handful of premium WordPress themes designed specifically to boost your email opt-ins. Here’s why …

They know that attention is selective. And when you give someone specific instructions to focus on one thing, they will unconsciously filter out all other stimuli.

Most of the world’s 2.1 billion internet users check their email daily, and most of us can’t pass up valuable information or content, especially when it’s offered for free.

Email is still your prospect’s preferred form of permission-based marketing. And that is great for your bottom line because:

• Email marketing is still the most cost-effective way of promotion
• By consistently offering valuable content, you build loyal followers
• More followers drive repeat traffic through referrals and word-of-mouth
• You can track data easily and watch your response rates as they climb or fall
• Higher engagement means higher conversion rates that boost your bottom line

That’s why, when readers and prospects scan your page, you need to laser-focus their attention visually and verbally to the critical information you have to offer.

By offering them something they really need or want — in exchange for that email opt-in — you’re hard-wiring your brand or business for loyal repeat visitors and customers.

To help you get started, take a look these four specially designed WordPress themes from StudioPress.com that make email opt-ins a primary focus for your brand or business:

1. Minimize distractions

If you’re serious about focusing your audience’s attention, then clean lines and minimal distractions are the key.

Your compelling content becomes the center-piece of this brilliant theme with its mobile responsive design that also grabs the attention of smart-phone and tablet users.

With a clear call-to-action, valuable content, and email opt-in, you’ll be growing your audience in no time.

Click here for the sharp relief of Focus Theme

2. Grab their attention and keep it

By drawing the eye of your readers with bright colors and great fonts, you can get them to pay closer attention to the value of your services and subscriber content.

The Streamline theme offers a stunning, minimalist design that offers not one, but two email opt-in forms and intuitively gets out of your way to highlight your best stuff.

By showing your prospects what matters most, you’ll find it’s easy to build those loyal followers, and connect with them on a continual basis.

Click here to zoom-in with Streamline Theme

3. Build your email list quickly

If you want to put the emphasis on building your email list front and center, there is no better way to do it than by filtering out the noise altogether and making your call-to-action crystal clear.

The Generate theme lives up to its namesake, by making your email opt-in the focal point of your site and pulling in the attention of your audience with great lines and bold content.

Designed to make your site both simple and sophisticated, Generate explicitly asks your readers to join your community in exchange for the valuable information or services you offer.

Click here to accelerate opt-ins with Generate Theme

4. Opt-in with simplicity and style

The easier you make it for your readers, clients and prospects to become subscribers to your relevant, valuable content, the hungrier they’ll be for more.

The Decor theme offers sophisticated lines and a spacious openness that enhances the laser-focused email sign-up, making it a snap to grow your audience.

This mobile responsive theme effortlessly showcases your products and services on any device while offering a bold frame that enchants the eye.

Click here to wow them with Decor Theme

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With search-optimized code and functions, 47 turn-key designs, and unlimited support, updates, and websites you can build, Mashable calls Genesis the “best of the best” among premium WordPress themes.

Serious online publishers trust Genesis to provide a solid foundation for their sites. (And by “serious,” I mean people planning to get somewhere with this whole Internet thing.)

Whether you’re a novice or an advanced developer, Genesis provides you with the rock-solid infrastructure to take WordPress places you never thought it could go.

Click here to check out Genesis and all the turn-key designs today.

About the Author: Kelton Reid is an independent screenwriter and novelist, as well as a copywriter for Copyblogger Media. Get more from him on Twitter @keltonreid.

You probably know about Google’s “Panda” update last year, which created a major shift in which sites ranked well on Google’s search results pages and which didn’t.

Now there’s the latest update called “Penguin” (what is it with the cute animal names?) that has the internet buzzing again.

Just like with previous updates, some sites have been smacked so hard they’re seeing stars. Others are actually doing better.

As you can guess, you’ll hear a lot more noise from those who were bitten by the Penguin than you will from those who were rewarded.

So how about your site? Is this something you should be worried about, or need to re-optimize your content for?

Today we’re going to talk about why you should not fear the Penguin. And if it did bite you in the backside, we’ll talk about the strategies you can move to so future updates are much less likely to give you headaches.

Penguin isn’t as new as you might think

For the most part, Penguin is simply automating work that the Google search quality team was already doing manually.

Were you doing something tricky to cloak your keywords, or participating in dodgy link exchanges? Before, Google had a quiet army of employees out scouring the web to look for spammy practices like this.

Many SEO researchers actually thought this work was automated already, because the Google team was so diligent. (They only looked like a robot army …)

Now Google’s algorithms have at least partly caught up with their manual work. Which means they’re just getting a little better at catching what was already “against the rules.”

What is “overoptimization”?

One of the specific targets of Penguin is what’s called “overoptimization.”

That means search optimization that’s a little too perfect. When 99% of the links to you are using your preferred keyword term as anchor text, for example.

The penalty also applies to what’s called keyword stuffing.

One important function of our Scribe content optimizer is to let you know if you’ve used your keyword phrase too many times in your content. That’s because “stuffing” your keyword too many times into your content is actually probably more harmful than slightly underusing your term.

(One of our goals with Scribe is to get you to that Goldilocks “Just Right” level … using your term often enough so the search engine can figure it out, without overdoing it.)

It’s still fine to include keywords that are related to your term. So if your keyword is contract attorney, you might squash in dozens of references in to contract law, contract lawyer, negotiate contracts, etc.

There’s a very simple test to see if you’ve overdone this:

Read your content out loud and see if it will make sense to a human reader.

If it’s useful and “sounds right” to a person, it’s unlikely to trigger any red flags with the search engines, today or tomorrow. That’s the key to good SEO copywriting, and it always will be.

Write for humans first.

Why you should love the Penguin

Updates like Panda and Penguin exist to weed out the bad actors who are using scripts and other practices to make poor-quality content rank better than it should.

That means they’re getting rid of the content that ranks purely because it was optimized by a clever SEO — but that isn’t actually useful to human readers.

And what does that make room for?

It makes room for your content. Written to be useful and shareable for real people in the real world, not robots or scripts.

Attracting natural links from real web sites.

Serving a real purpose for readers by educating them, informing them, and keeping their attention with good writing.

Search engine updates will tend to clear out the clutter and allow your content to find the audience it deserves.

(Why am I so confident about your content? Because you read Copyblogger. If you wanted to write thin, spammy, second-rate content, you’d be reading someone else.)

Your best defense against Google or Bing/Yahoo updates is to write excellent content, then promote it naturally and without too many automated shortcuts.

If you write well, in a way that both people and Google love, you will rank well. And no Google update has ever altered that.

How are you holding up in the Update Wars?

How about your sites? Have Panda and Penguin been kind, or cruel? We would love to know, so let us know in the comments. And be sure to include your website in the box so we can check it out.

Image from the glorious Aardman Animation film The Wrong Trousers

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

I’ve been in the publishing industry for more than a dozen years now, and along the way I’ve noticed a couple of things about editorial calendars.

First, they are utterly critical for any content marketing program to be successful.

Second, most businesses don’t use them.

New social media platforms are sexy. New marketing ideas are sexy. Calendars, for most of us … not so sexy.

Let’s be honest … even though content marketing has been around in various forms for hundreds of years, most marketers are short-term campaign driven types — similar to what you might see on Mad Men — who throw some social media tools on top of it all.

But that’s not content marketing. Content marketing is not a short-term campaign … it’s a long-term strategy to attract, convert, and retain customers.

You can’t have a long-term strategy without some tools to manage it all. And one of the most effective tools you can use is the editorial calendar.

So let’s take a look at how this works …

The 3 basic components of an editorial calendar that works

Traditional marketing departments used to gear up around the latest product push. But more and more marketing resources are starting to look like publishing operations, similar to what you’d see out of Inc. magazine or Entrepreneur.

This change is exactly the reason we are covering this topic in-depth at Content Marketing World this year.

Because it is longer-term, and because content marketing often involves multiple content producers, customers, and outside influencers. It can be tricky to keep track of all the stories you are telling and developing, and all of the formats (online or offline) you’re developing them for.

Note: Though I’ve use the terms spreadsheet and document below, there are many online tools that can work as your customized editorial calendar. Most of us start with simple tools such as Google Drive (formerly Google Docs) combined with a WordPress tool like the Editorial Calendar plugin. As your business progresses, you may move up to paid software-as-a-service offerings like KaPost, Central Desktop, Contently, Compendium, Zerys, and Skyword (just to name a few).

1. Understanding what an editorial calendar is and is not

The editorial calendar is much more than just a calendar with content assigned to dates.

A good editorial calendar maps content production to our buyer personas (who we want to sell to), the engagement cycle (delivering appropriate content based on where the prospect is in the buying process), and the channels that we use.

Beyond dates and headlines, your editorial calendar should make room for:

• A prioritized list of what you are publishing based on the content strategy you’ve developed. This may contain existing content, content that will be redesigned or repackaged, content that will come from partners, or content yet to be developed. It’s your inventory.
• Assigned content producer(s) and/or editors responsible for the content. Here you name the people responsible for producing the content. If you have multiple editors, you identify them as well.
• The channel(s) for the content. A listing of formats and channels targeted for the content. For example, you may have an blog post that is part of an eBook series that you are publishing on Slideshare. You may want to identify if you will also deliver pieces through multiple distribution outlets like your email autoresponder, or social sites like Twitter or Google+.
• Meta data. These are “tags” you assign to keep track of what you’re working on and what role it plays for you. The number of these you want to include is really up to you. You’ll probably want to include tags for important aspects of the content such as “target persona” or “engagement cycle” so that you can make sure you’re balancing your editorial to your overall goals. You may also want to include columns (or tags) for things like content type (for example white paper, video, email) or even SEO keywords.
• Dates for both creation and publishing. These include the dates that the content is due to the editor, along with target dates for publishing. These should be mapped to your story map. As you become more sophisticated, you may want to include the refresh date (a triggered date to update the content when needed).

(If you work for a larger organization, you may want to add workflow steps including legal, fact checking, proofreading, or other elements that will affect your content creation and management process.)

As you begin to assemble the elements you want to have in your editorial calendar, remember that the calendar is a management tool.

Include only the elements you need to facilitate your process. For example, if you write one blog post a week and two email messages a month to support your small business, there’s no reason you need to overcomplicate your editorial calendar. Keep it as simple as you can.

2. Organizing the calendar

Set your calendar document up in the way that works best for you.

For the sake of simplicity, let’s assume that you’ll have one spreadsheet for the year — and that each tab will be a month. Across the columns you might have:

• Content headline
• Content type
• The buyer persona you’re writing this piece for
• Person who will write/create the content
• Date due
• Person who will edit the content
• Channels — where does this get published?
• Those “meta data” tags
• Publish date
• Status (perhaps indicated by green, yellow, or red)
• Any notes
• Metrics (e.g., comments posted, pageviews, downloads, etc.)
• Call to Action (the primary action or behavior you’ve asked for)

Finally, as separate documents — or even tabs within your editorial calendar — you may want to include “brainstorming” elements (e.g., ideas that are under consideration or new stories that come up during the process). The editorial calendar can be a great tool for capturing creativity as well.

In the end, your editorial calendar will most likely become the most frequently used tool in your process. And whether it’s a combination of documents, a single spreadsheet, an online production tool, or just a monthly email that you send to your team — the key is that it works for you. In the end, whatever helps to smooth out your process and keep you on track is the best editorial calendar format.

3. Developing the editorial style guide

Obviously, when we talk about a “calendar,” the first thing we think of is a guide for planning what content gets created when.

But your “calendar” has another important function. You’ll want to develop an editorial style guide as a tool for your content creators, editors, and producers. (Yes, even if those people are all you.)

This style guide can also develop into a social conversation style guide (in other words, a social media policy), which will provide guidelines for how people should respond and converse.

As more people start “telling the story” of your brand, you need to be sure that they have the right tools and training to properly communicate your brand’s voice. You also need to police them to make sure they are keeping to that voice.

And even if you’re flying solo right now, keeping your editorial voice consistent will help your content feel more professional and trustworthy. And it makes it much easier if you ever do want to bring other writers in.

Like the continuing story, it’s easy to let tone, quality, and style slip bit by bit — until the story is way off track. This is where your editorial style guide will come into play.

Here are some key things to include:

• The overall tone and voice of your content marketing. Who are you and what do you convey in your content?
• The average (or minimum/maximum) length of pieces developed.
• Branding guidelines. How to refer to the company, product lines, individuals, etc.

For grammar, style, and word usage, you can also choose to conform to guides such as the Associated Press Style Guide. In addition, many content marketing strategists — especially those focused on the web — are using the Yahoo Style Guide.

How about you?

How strategic are you about your content creation? Do you use a content calendar? An editorial guide? Do you try to follow a long-term plan, or do you mostly wing it?

Let us know about your experiences in the comments …

PS.

Note from Sonia: If you’re ready to tackle your content creation in a deeper, more strategic way, Brian Clark and I both recommend the Content Marketing World conference, the largest gathering of content marketing professionals in the world. The conference is held in Columbus, Ohio in September, and Brian and I will both be speaking this year. You can save $200 on the conference registration if you sign up before the Early Bird period ends on May 31. Brian and I would love to see you there!

About the Author: Joe Pulizzi is founder of the Content Marketing Institute, which produces the largest content marketing event in the world, called Content Marketing World. For more on managing the content marketing process, check out Joe’s new book, Managing Content Marketing. Find Joe on Twitter @juntajoe.

Good morning, you epic article writer, you.

That’s right, I’m talking to you. You wield your WordPress editor as a valuable tool. You use it to attract new prospects, to build trust with them — word-by-word — so you can get down to business.

And you do it in your slippers. Because shoes are optional in our world, right?

Your shoes might be fuzzy, but your words need to be consistently remarkable.

Consistently good content creation is the backbone of online business.

But how can you make that happen? Well, one option is to drink lots of coffee and stay up late the night before you publish your post, stifling yawns and squinting to see your screen.

But the better option is to spread the writing and editing process over a few leisurely days, and write your post in stages without ever getting out of your slippers. Sound good?

Quality over quantity

If you believe Jon Morrow (and who doesn’t?), you know that writing one epic post per week is a better long-term strategy than writing mediocre content every day.

That’s what you’re aiming for in your start here: one weekly post that will attract attention, establish your authority, and encourage people to share your information.

And keep in mind, Brian Clark built Copyblogger.com by writing two posts per week in the beginning.

It all starts on morning one.

Morning 1: Start with a mind mapping tool

Slippers on? Favorite beverage at your side? It’s time to begin.

Start by thinking about your topic, and what angle you’ll approach it from. Fire up a mind mapping program — or a piece of paper and your favorite pen — and get ready to start writing.

Your headline is the most important group of words in your post, so spend plenty of time crafting one that will get your post the attention you’re looking for. Put that at the center of your mind map.

Your subheads can branch out from there. Subheads form the backbone of your content: get these right, and everything else will flow.

Your subheads should be informative enough that someone scanning your post will understand the gist of it.

They should be intriguing enough that your scanner is left wanting to dig deeper and learn more.

And that’s enough for day one.

The first step is the most difficult, and you’re off to a good start. Move on to the rest of your day, and prepare for tomorrow — it’s going to be a heavy one.

Morning 2: Time to fill in the details

You might need an extra helping of your favorite beverage for today’s task. You’re going to be fleshing out the details of the outline you created yesterday, and writing the rest of your post.

Still, keep those slippers on. You need to be comfortable so you can get the job done.

The first thing to tackle today is to look over the headline and subheads you wrote yesterday. Do they still make sense? Are they still intriguing? Are you looking forward to filling in what’s missing?

If not, take some time to tweak. Reinforce the basic structure of your post so you’ve got something to hang the rest of your words on.

Once you’re satisfied, it’s time to fill in the details. Ready? Set? Go!

I know what you’re saying right now. “It’s not a race.” Actually at this stage, it is.

The fastest way to get the rest of your post written is to write it as fast as you can. Write your first paragraph. Write the rest of your introduction. Fill in the details under your subheads. Wrap it up at the end, and include some kind of call to action.

As. Fast. As. You. Can.

Why so fast?

Because at this stage, you shouldn’t be sweating every word. You need to register your thoughts, not edit. Editing is for tomorrow.

Finally, before you wrap up working on your post for the day, look for an image. There are lots of resources for finding good images: spend some time finding one that will complement your words and draw attention to your concepts.

Then, walk away. Focus on something else, get a good night’s sleep, and plan to take a last look at your post with fresh eyes in the morning.

Morning 3: Edit, massage and tweak

On day three, you’ll wake up refreshed, slip on your slippers, and pour one more cup of that favorite beverage. Sidle up to your keyboard, and fire up that draft post one more time.

Do a read-through to see how it looks today. Better yet, read it out loud in a monotone voice to be sure it still makes sense and sounds good, even with no inflection.

Edit, re-write and move copy around as needed. Keep reading and tweaking until it’s just right.

Next, spend some time formatting your post for readability. Add bulleted lists where you can. Add excerpts using block quotes. Break up long paragraphs into smaller chunks to make them easier to read on screen.

Before you queue it up for publishing, go down this checklist and make sure you can answer “yes” to everything:

• Does the headline stop them in their tracks?
• Is the image intriguing on its own?
• Do the subheads tell your story all by themselves?
• Have you asked an engaging question at the end to encourage comments and conversation?
• Did you add a call to action for a product, service, or your email list?

Morning 4: Publication and Promotion day

Back in your slippers on morning four, you can enjoy the fruits of your labors. But your work isn’t over, so don’t relax just yet.

Publication day is promotion day. This post you spent three days crafting deserves attention, and it’s your job to ensure it gets it. How can you do that? Try:

• Making yourself available to respond to comments, answer questions and converse with your readers
• Promoting your post across the social media channels you use
• Sharing it on sites like Digg, Reddit and StumbleUpon

Did you write an especially epic post? If so, add this one task:

• Email other blog owners and tell them about it. Ask them to share it with their followers.

It’s not easy to write epic posts week after week, but dividing the work up over several days will make it manageable.

Building time into your schedule to get away from your post will make you a better editor.

And doing it all in your slippers will make you feel like the king of your world.

What’s your writing schedule?

This is one way to write epic posts, but there are many others.

Do you have a favorite technique?

Let’s talk about it in the comments.

About the Author: Pamela Wilson believes your WordPress website should be easy to create, write for, and maintain. To find out how to do it right, sign up for her free easy website course here.

This week on The Lede …

• 6 Reasons Why You Should Quit Blogging
• The Secret Code for Cracking ‘Tough’ Books and Reading Above Your Level
• The True Cost of Building and Managing a WordPress Website
• The Bootstrapper’s Bible
• Why the iPad Works for Writing
• The “5 A” Framework for Content Marketing Success
• A 5-Step Technique for Producing Ideas

If you want to grab even more useful links every week, follow @copyblogger on Twitter.

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6 Reasons Why You Should Quit Blogging
Mr. Tynski thinks you should quit. Everybody’s doing it. Problem is, they’re doing it for the wrong reasons. Horribly, sadly wrong. Where did you ever get the idea that content production was easy? That overnight success was the norm? That a billion dollar IPO was something you should shoot for? Aw, just go ahead and quit. I’m sure there’s something new and shiny for you just around the corner …

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The Secret Code for Cracking ‘Tough’ Books and Reading Above Your Level
Read less. Read better. A dirty little secret of human wisdom (and western publishing) is that, for any given subject you’d like to master, there are only a handful of books that need to be read. Everything else is filler or pale imitation. The catch is, you’ve got to pick the right books. It’s not necessarily difficult to determine what they are, what’s difficult is getting down to business with them. Mr. Holiday lays out a useful plan for doing just that — extracting the valuable lessons from “tough” reads.

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The True Cost of Building and Managing a WordPress Website
Think you’re getting a deal from that cheap web host? Think again. The cost of hosting and maintaining a WordPress website is a bit more complex than “getting the cheapest price I can find”. From our newly unboxed Synthesis Managed WordPress Hosting blog, Mr. Morris analyzes these costs — the ones you know about, and the ones you might have missed — and explains what they mean for you, your site, and your business.

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The Bootstrapper’s Bible
Mr. Godin wrote this impressive little manifesto in 2004 stating, “There’s never been a better time to start a business with no money.” Seven years later, that statement may be even more true. Mr. Clark has said that, in many ways, building Copyblogger would be much easier today, with the rise of the sharing economy, etc. So take the tools in this free PDF and run them into 2012 and beyond.

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Why the iPad Works for Writing
Call me crazy, but if I wasn’t producing Internet Marketing for Smart People Radio, I’d run my entire working life from an iPad. No desktop, no laptop, just that gorgeous, single-tasking little solid-state tablet. Granted, not everyone can do this, but 90% of my work is done in a text editor and through email. Anyway, here’s a few good reasons why the iPad makes for a great writing environment. And, if you developers out there would make an all-in-one serious podcasting app for iOS, you got your first customer right here baby.

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The “5 A” Framework for Content Marketing Success
Frameworks are cool. They drop in place, and allow you to get to work on the things that matter, keeping you on course as you go along. Frameworks that build businesses are even cooler. The reason why should be obvious. Mr. Clark drops a content framework into place for you here, one that he’s been working out since the 1990s. No reason to spend a decade or more sweating to figure it out for yourself, he’s got you covered.

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A 5-Step Technique for Producing Ideas
Speaking of frameworks, how do you grab your ideas? Do you stare at a wall, or out the window, waiting, praying for a good one to come along? What if there were a systematic process for “producing” ideas? Turns out, there is. You can thank me later.

Did you miss anything on Copyblogger this week?

• The Truth About Making Money While You Sleep
• WordPress Hosting That Means Business
• How to be a World-Changing Writer
• What Does it Take to Write a Billion-Dollar Marketing Story?
• 3 Simple Ways to Turn Your Website Archive into Profitable Books and eBooks
• Seth Godin on When You Should Start Marketing Your Product, Service, or Idea

About the Author: Robert Bruce is Copyblogger Media's Copywriter and Resident Recluse. Get more from Robert on Twitter and Google+.

What is marketing?

Is it a process of gathering as much money as you can, throwing it to the “creative” winds, and hoping something will come back?

Is it a practice of interrupting as many people as possible with a message they don’t care about, and never asked to receive?

Is it a performance you frantically stage around your product, service, or idea, in the final moments before launching it into the world?

Or is it something else entirely? And if it is, how and when do we employ it?

Seth Godin has been asking, answering, and living out these questions for decades. In the process, he’s written thirteen best-selling books, built dozens of companies, and crafted one of the most influential blogs on the planet.

He’s on the show today, delivering a fast and elemental definition of marketing, and what it means to engage an audience in the post-industrial era. Don’t miss this …

In this episode we discuss:

• Seth’s definition of marketing
• When you should start marketing your product, service, or idea
• Why running a ton of ads just doesn’t work anymore
• The most important element of good marketing
• The most dangerous element of bad marketing
• How the Internet builds trust, and why you must get it
• A stunning example of breaking out of the old marketing system

Hit the flash player below to listen now:

Other listening options:

• Click here to download the mp3 | 21.3 MB | 18:33
• Click here to subscribe via iTunes
• Click here for the RSS feed (non iTunes)
• Click here for the show archive

The Show Notes:

• Internet Marketing for Smart People Course (free)
• When Should We Add Marketing?
• SethGodin.com
• We left the building with Girl Talk …

About the Author: Robert Bruce is Copyblogger Media's Copywriter and Resident Recluse. Get more from Robert on Twitter and Google+.

Attention Bloggers: I’ve seen the future, and you’re missing it.

Oh sure, we bloggers think we’re the most up-to-date, leading-edge, tech-savvy people on the planet.

But one of the biggest changes in the long history of content creation is taking place right under your feet, and I’m afraid it may be passing you by.

Yep, the ground is shifting, fortunes are being made, and some of the people who could best profit from this tectonic shift — content producers — are mostly sitting on the sidelines.

Okay, what am I talking about? The revolution in book publishing …

Maybe you’ve heard some of the success stories of the authors who’ve been selling a ton of paranormal romances, thrillers or other genre novels on Amazon’s Kindle platform, but that’s not what I’m talking about.

You may have also heard about big-time authors like Barry Eisler, Steven King, Seth Godin and others leading the way in self-publishing. That’s not it either.

What I’m talking about is something bloggers are already expert in: niche publishing.

Bloggers vs. authors

Let’s back up for a minute. Have you ever thought about the similarities between self-publishing and blogging? Probably not, why would you?

But as a blogger who writes about indie book publishing, I think about this stuff all the time. And here’s what I see at this amazing moment in publishing:

Self-publishers and bloggers each have only half the equation for success in the new world of book publishing.

Take authors for example. Most are really good at things like producing long content (long as in 80,000 words), staying with a project for months or years without losing focus, and planning a complex project using freelance contractors.

The problem is, many authors are notorious loners, are often non-technical, they can go years without any contact with their readers, and their mindset may be completely rooted in the 19th century. Not only that, the typical author has no idea of what marketing actually means in the real world.

That might make a blogger feel pretty good about herself.

It’s true that bloggers stay in constant touch with their readers, know how to publish on a schedule, get constant feedback from readers, love to experiment via agile content, and are highly networked with other bloggers in their niche.

But niche market bloggers have obstacles to overcome, too.

They can fall into the trap of thinking 500 words at a time, with disjointed subjects littering their archives. After blogging for a while, they may lose sight of any overarching theme they started with.

Not only that, many bloggers treat their blogs as a “hobby”, or they’re focused on Adsense, affiliate sales and special promotions. Bloggers like to chase the “shiny new object,” fall into the social media time-sink very easily, and all too often rely exclusively on metrics as the measure of their success.

Why book publishing makes sense for bloggers

Here’s what you’ve been missing: you don’t have to be Amanda Hocking or Joe Konrath or John Locke (all of whom have sold a ton of ebook fiction) to get major, potentially life-changing results from book publishing.

This is the dirty little secret behind self-publishing that we’ve been hiding from the big publishers for years:

If you’re a writer with ready access to a niche audience, you’re probably much better off financially publishing your own book.

If you blog on a niche topic and know how to reach the people in that field, why give 85% of your profits to a big publisher in New York?

(If you’re Chris Brogan or Tim Ferriss writing for a mass consumer or mass business market, you might be better off with that big publisher. But if that’s not you, read on.)

The blogger’s unfair advantage

Okay, so you know how to meet deadlines, you publish on a schedule and you’re in touch with your readers. You’re already miles ahead of most self-published authors.

Is it really worth going through the trouble of learning how to publish books? Here are some outcomes that might stimulate you.

• Authority — There’s a reason all those guests you see on TV are introduced as “author of …” There’s nothing that will supercharge the authority you have in your niche the way a book will, especially one with lots of testimonials from people your readers know and respect.
• Passive income — It’s better than ads in your sidebars, better than pay-per-click, and once your book is for sale in either print or ebook versions, the whole process is completely automatic.
• Status — Having a book to your name will spread your profile far beyond the circles you can reach with your blog.
• More opportunities — You are likely to get more offers for speaking gigs, joint ventures and co-authoring opportunities once you’re a published author.
• Stand out from the crowd — Is there another blogger in your niche who is also a published author? No? What’s stopping you?
• Back of the room sales — Another underutilized way to make money from your blog is by selling your book at live appearances, workshops or other events.

But how do you make the leap from blogger to author? It can seem overwhelming when you compare the pile of posts in your archive to a neat and cohesive manuscript ready to publish.

Don’t despair; I’ve got three methods you can use, so read on to see which one appeals to you …

1. The site archive method

Lots of bloggers ignore their archives, which is a shame.

We’re so concerned with the next post that we forget all the value we’ve built up over the months or years we’ve been blogging.

In this method you explore your archives for themes that keep reappearing, or for posts you wrote to answer the most common and compelling questions people keep coming up with in your niche. Your “pillar” or “evergreen” or “foundation” posts are going to come into play here.

Gather the posts you find that meet your criteria into sections, each one for a separate subject. These will eventually become the chapters in your book.

This is the method I used last year when I published A Self-Publisher’s Companion. Then I wrote an introduction for the book, added an up-to-date resource section and the book was done. How cool is that?

2. The series method

This is the opposite of the Archive method, because it means you’ll be writing the book as a series of blog posts or, more likely, as several series.

You’ll outline the book first. This doesn’t have to be difficult, just pick the subjects you want to cover and then divide them into chapters.

For example, your book might have 12 chapters, and each chapter could be about 5,000 words.

Create a blog post that looks at each aspect of your chapter. You’re now looking at a series of five 1,000-word articles. And don’t forget, blog post series are a great way to keep readers involved and coming back for more, so you’ll win both ways, as a blogger and an author.

Just keep writing those series of blog posts, and pretty soon your manuscript will be finished and ready to go.

3. The big edit method

In this method you’ll treat all posts as potential first draft material.

Although this takes the greatest amount of work, it has the potential to produce the best book from the copy you’ve already written.

Look through the content you already have, selecting the parts that work within the scheme of your book. You’ll be doing a ton of cutting-and-pasting as you assemble the bits you want to use.

Undoubtedly, you’ll need to write new material to create an effective manuscript that flows well from one subject to another. To use this method, you’ll probably also need to hire an editor to help shape and smooth out the manuscript.

The truth is, in the book world, hiring an editor is always a good idea.

Your book editor can be a powerful ally when it comes to creating a book people really want to buy.

What’s next?

Now, you’ve got a real book manuscript.

When I did this last year it took about 40 blog posts and a new introduction to create a 222-page trade paperback that sells for $14.95 (print) or $4.99 (ebook).

What’s the profit look like from those books? On sales at Amazon.com — after all discounts and manufacturing costs — my profit is $8.00 per paperback and $3.75 per ebook.

Getting interested? Want to know how to get started turning your archives into books? Here are some tips:

• The fastest way to get a book up for sale without the complications of formatting for print production is with an ebook.
• These are ePub and Mobi ebooks, not PDF ebooks like the ones you give away on your blog.
• You can convert your own files to ebooks with free software like Calibre or with a tool like Scrivener, used by many ebook authors. Apple’s Pages outputs to ePub, and more tools like this are coming online constantly.
• Smashwords will convert your book for free if you follow their formatting guidelines.
• BookBaby offers great deals on ebook conversion and distribution to all major retailers at very low fees.
• Become part of the book scene by getting familiar with some of the big reader communities that are growing like crazy online. Goodreads, Shelfari, Wattpad, and Scribd are all new communities with millions of members that most bloggers have never even heard of.
• Use your blogging schedule to plan out the article series that will become your book manuscript. For instance, you might want to have a special focus on your blog for the month, encouraging lots of discussion and interaction while you’re creating that specific part of your book.
• Leverage your blogging network when it comes time to launch and promote your book. After all, you establish these connections to help market your blog. When your book comes out, it’s a great opportunity to “tour” the other blogs in your niche, exposing you to tons of new readers.

The time is now

Well, there you have it.

No group of people is better situated than bloggers RIGHT NOW to take advantage of the historic movement to digital books and the exploding popularity of self-publishing.

Will you join the revolution?

About the Author: Joel Friedlander (@JFBookman) is an award-winning book designer, a blogger, and the author of A Self-Publisher’s Companion: Expert Advice for Authors Who Want to Publish. He’s been launching the careers of self-publishers since 1994 and writes TheBookDesigner.com, a popular blog on book design, book marketing and the future of the book. Joel's also just about to launch a new online training course, The Self-Publishing Roadmap.

In 1984, two artists used a simple process to create a story that captivated an audience for years and generated billions of dollars in revenue.

That same process is being used today by a master copywriter to attract hundreds of thousands of paying subscribers.

With companies creating millions of web pages of content marketing, finding an untold story or a new angle can feel like an impossible task. Especially when you want to avoid creating a story so unique nobody understands it … or wants to pay for it.

So how do you create a story that cuts through the noise and strikes at the heart of your ideal client?

Let me tell you about a simple, 4-step process to get that done right now …

Why a fresh angle is so hard to come by

One of the easiest places to start in writing your business story is what you do and who you do it for.

You’re probably already familiar with a number of businesses whose story is based on this premise, for example:

• Social media marketing for real estate agents
• Sales training for technology companies
• Direct response copywriting techniques for bloggers
• Education design as the foundation of an online business

That’s still a strong place to start, and if you find a logical combination that hasn’t been done before, it won’t take much to stand out from the crowd.

But what if your combination of ideas has been done before?

What if it’s been done not only many times over, but by bigger, better known names? How do you create the additional edge that stops people comparing you to the many other business offering that you have?

The dark side of unique

You may be tempted to rack your brains and find something you can do or offer that nobody else has ever done before.

Sometimes this can work to attract attention and customers.

Or it might just attract attention … and no customers.

Even huge corporations with a gazillion dollar marketing budget have had their fair share of unique flops. Just Google the McDLT burger …

So, what can you do instead? What really works?

Creating a billion-dollar story

In 1984 two cartoonists decided it would be pretty cool to have a best-selling comic strip.

Not just one they would love to write, but one their audience would love to buy.

So they started by thinking what their target market (teenagers) were really into at the time.

After extensively brainstorming a list of teen topics, they circled the top three things which were:

1. Ninjas
2. Mutants
3. Turtles

They matched this combination to their love of comic strips and their skills as cartoonists to give birth to a craze that would go on to generate billions of dollars of revenue in licensing.

I love this story, not just because I grew up watching the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (and have watched several episodes out of nostalgia while writing this), but because it’s a simple way to create a fresh angle that marries what you want to deliver and what your customer wants to have.

I learned about this story from Mike Palmer’s talk at last year’s AWAI Copywriting Bootcamp. He’s the head copywriter at Stansberry & Associates Investment Research. Since being there, he has attracted more than 400,000 paying subscribers and his most successful promotion achieved a gross revenue of $5.2 million.

And it’s this type of process he uses as a starting point for creating fresh stories that catch the interest of of readers.

The beauty of it is that you’re not limited to using it to define your brand or business. You can experiment with it for blog posts, eBooks, products, or new services.

So let’s work through an example of how this might work in a topic with lots of competition: Marketing advice and services for small business owners.

Step 1: Revisit what you do and who you do it for

You can’t write a strong story if you don’t know who you’re telling it to.

If you already have a customer profile, dig it out and set it in front of you. Build a clear picture in your mind of who you want to reach and remind yourself what you can offer them.

Remember, our example topic is marketing advice and services for small business owners.This is a pretty broad area with lots of competitors who are already operating and established. Using the following steps, you can still carve out a story no-one else is talking about.

Step 2: What are your customers happy to pay for?

Your story is only going to work for your business if it aligns with your customer’s demand. In the above example, a few things your customers are probably happy to pay for might include:

• Sales
• Leads
• Email / mail subscribers (assuming those turn into leads)
• Exposure of their business to their target market

So far this follows a pretty logical order for creating a story, and most people offering marketing for small businesses are talking about getting people more sales, more subscribers, leads, and exposure.

But you can start telling an ever-fresher story by considering …

Step 3: What other conversations are they having?

Entering the conversation your customer is already having is a well known marketing strategy for getting your reader’s attention.

But it doesn’t have to be a conversation about something they want. In fact, it’s often something they’re sick and tired of.

So, in the example above, small businesses may be getting sick and tired of companies promising sales and leads without proof or credibility.

Or perhaps you’ve noticed more business owners want to be known for the personality behind the service, not just what they do.

And with content marketing methods rapidly evolving, you may have seen examples of questions, confusion, and interest surrounding videos, webinars, and infographics.

Eventually, you might come up with a list of interests that looks like this:

• Increasing skepticism — more demand for proof
• Interest in well known business personalities / personal branding
• Increasing interest / confusion over new methods of content marketing

By this stage you might already see opportunities for telling a new story, or creating a new product that catches their attention and still gives them what they want.

Step 4: Add in a dose of “you”

Your business story naturally focuses on your customer, and then on the product you offer, but you can add an extra layer of interest by including elements like:

• Your personal interests
• Your professional background
• The reason you started your business
• Your skills

So let’s look at a couple of different ways we could combine the elements from these 4 stages:

A marketer with a personal obsession for facts, figures, and analytics notices a growing popularity for articles containing case studies and results. He decides to start a campaign of testing one marketing initiative a week, sharing the results, and explaining how to interpret the analytics. He starts promoting his “see-through marketing” explaining that it’s a reaction to business owners struggling to make sense of knowing what marketing actually works. If his story is a hit, he can then start to launch training programs and products that build on this interest and demand from his customers.

Or, take the marketer who has been in every musical since nursery school and feels at home on the stage. She notices more people want to use videos and webinars, but don’t know how to present themselves, smile, to hold their posture etc. She shares her stage experience and trains entrepreneurs to stand out in the “Broadway of online business,” helping them attract subscribers and build trust with confident, charismatic presentations.

The same four steps, but two completely different market positions. And as you can see, these four steps can be combined and interpreted in countless ways.

If you play around with the four steps, you can build a story that combines your strengths, personality, customer demand, and current trends to tell a story nobody is talking about in your industry.

And it’s one way to stop your business being seen as a commodity by your customers.

Instead of being just “another” copywriter, marketer, or web designer, you’re the copywriter, marketer or web designer who … [insert your story here].

What’s your story?

What do you think?

Do you look for a story to connect with when you’re hiring someone? What are the stories of businesses you admire? What elements stand out to you?

Let us know in the comments below!

About the Author: Amy Harrison is a copywriter for entrepreneurs over at Harrisonamy.com. Check out her recent free report on how to write sales copy when personality is part of your business.