[Copyblogger] Twitter Writing Contest 2.0: Win a MacBook Air for a Clever Haiku

Twitter Writing Contest 2.0: Win a MacBook Air for a Clever Haiku Twitter Writing Contest 2.0: Win a MacBook Air for a Clever Haiku Back in May, I launched the first ever @copyblogger Twitter Writing Contest. People seemed to have a lot of fun participating and reading the hundreds of submitted entries, so I've been looking forward to doing another one. If you missed the first one, the Los Angeles Times did a nice write-up of the event. In a nutshell, contestants had to tell a story in exactly 140 characters, which is the maximum allowed for any tweet on Twitter. This time we're doing something a bit different. Write a Killer Haiku for the Win As you might have gleened from the headline, this time we're going to write Twitter haiku. There's already a healthy group of people who tweet clever little haiku poems on Twitter due to the constrained size, so it seems a natural for Twitter Writing Contest 2.0. If your memory is a little rusty on what haiku is, here's a refresher: Haiku is a form of Japanese poetry. It consists of 17 syllables broken up into three phrases of 5, 7, and 5 syllables respectively. Here are two quick examples found on Twitter Search with the tag #haiku: Been up way too long / Need about a week’s more sleep / Might not be enough ~ @MFlanders The furnace is fixed / breath invisible again / how much is the bill? ~ @badboc Got it? Obviously, the more clever, comedic, or compelling your haiku, the better your chances of winning. Like this one found on t-shirts: Haikus are easy / But sometimes they don’t make sense / Refrigerator Now on to the good stuff. First Prize? A MacBook Air We had some really great prizes last time, but we're kicking it up a notch. Here are the prizes for first, second, third places. First Prize – A MacBook Air, the world's thinnest laptop, courtesy of DIY Themes and the Thesis Theme for WordPress. Second Prize – Free access to Product Launch Formula 2.0, the highly regarded online training program (tuition $1,997), courtesy of Jeff Walker. (If you purchase PLF 2.0 when it opens–and likely sells out–this Thursday, you will receive a full refund as winner). Third Prize – Free access to the new-and-improved Teaching Sells online training program (re-launching in January 2009 for $997), courtesy of Teaching Sells. These are the Rules: Rules, rules, rules… you can't avoid them. And to be eligible to win, these are the ones you've got to follow: 1. You must have a Twitter account. Open one for free to participate. 2. Please tweet your submission (one per account) in English with the following format: Phrase one (5 syllables) / phrase two (7 syllables) / phrase three (5 syllables) 3. After you've tweeted, you must cut and paste the poem itself into the comments of this post, along with the direct URL to the tweet (to get the tweet URL, you click on the tweet time stamp, i.e. "3:32 PM Nov 12th" or "about 12 hours ago"). Make sure the email address you use for the comment is valid so we can contact you as a winner (email addresses are never used for any other purpose). 4. I know it's unnecessary with this crowd, but… original submissions only! It's quite easy to search Twitter or Google to see if your inspiration amounts to plagiarism. Don't do it please. 5. Submissions will be accepted in the comments of this post until Midnight Eastern Standard Time, Sunday, November 16, 2008. I'll be answering questions and giving any necessary updates on Twitter, so make sure to follow @copyblogger. I'm looking forward to seeing what you all come up with! About the Author: Brian Clark is the founding editor of Copyblogger, and co-founder of DIY Themes and Lateral Action. Get more from Brian on Twitter. • Email to a friend • Related • View comments • Track comments • •

---

Click here to safely unsubscribe now from "Copyblogger" or change subscription settings

---

---

Your requested content delivery powered by FeedBlitz, LLC, 9 Thoreau Way, Sudbury, MA 01776, USA. +1.978.776.9498

 

2009 Brandweek Directory Now Available

	19,000 Key Personnel • 7,000 Leading Brands The Marketing Database—The 2009 Brandweek Directory CLICK HERE TO ORDER YOUR COPY!
	The premier resource for brand marketers and those who do business with them, the 2009 BRANDWEEK Directory is now available. With 7,000 individual brand listings and data for more than 19,000 key personnel at the corporate and brand levels, the 2009 edition is more comprehensive than ever. The listings are organized by Brand Name and include Marketer, Personnel, Lead Agency and Media Expenditure data–meaning that you’ll find all the facts you need on any one brand all in a single, easy-to-use resource. LISTINGS INCLUDE: • Marketer address, telephone, fax, URL • Annual media expenditure • Parent company and headquarters • Agency of record and roster ad agencies • Categorized in 47 industry categories • Top 2,000 SuperBrands ranked by industry category
	With the online version, you can search and retrieve information in seconds and export data to build your own contact database or for mail merge. Cross-referenced in print to make your job easier, the 2009 BRANDWEEK Directory puts everything you need to know about the brand marketing world right on your desk. And since the 2009 BRANDWEEK Directory has just been updated, you know you’re accessing the most current database available.

To take your email address off of the list for future messages from Brandweek Directories,
please follow this link: http://nielsendirectories.com/portal/unsubscribe/?O1m3HMhZpJ7Uz59XsyOWeRxy%2FVxrDGlUA
Brandweek Directories
Nielsen Business Media
770 Broadway New York, NY 10003

[Copyblogger] 3 Tips to Make Writing Less of a Struggle

3 Tips to Make Writing Less of a Struggle 3 Tips to Make Writing Less of a Struggle Let’s say you want to blow up a lab. What do you do? You take two explosive chemicals and mix them together, right? But what if you took Na + Cl and mixed them together somehow. What would you get? You’d get salt. What’s worse is that the lab would not be “blown up.” And you’d be a failure. The more labs you tried to blow with Na + Cl, the more you’d fail. And the more you fail, the more you’re going to fail. And this slides us right into why most of us struggle to write. You see we don’t struggle to write an email. We don’t write, re-write, re-think and then write something boring. Our emails are crisp. They have flow. And ebb. They often have a storyline. Drama creeps in inevitably. And the email keeps the attention of the reader. So if we examine the issue closer, it’s not that you can’t write. It’s that when put in the spot to write something like an article or a sales letter… That’s when you freeze. The words get clumsy. And droopy. And inevitably, the fear of “past failures” kicks in. Heck, even I find it hard to write under those conditions. Because writing is mostly a factor of enthusiasm. Or pathos. Or fear. Or anger. It’s driven by emotion. Yes, you can sit down and write clinically, but the words become kinda yucky. But when you’re having a conversation like this—one on one—then you’re no longer writing. I’m not writing. You’re not reading. We’re “talking” to each other. The words flow. And ebb. They grab hold of a storyline. The drama sits precociously waiting its turn. And it keeps your attention as a reader. So then what causes great writing? Ooh, I hate to boil down ability to any three things, but here goes anyway: Point 1: Failure freezes the brain You can’t write with failure in mind. If you sit down to write with past experiences of writing “failure,” you will inevitably fail time and time again. Your brain works on pattern recognition, and it sure as heck knows when to give up. So when you sit down and write, past instances of failure pound your brain. Then you freeze. Then you go and find yourself some chocolate to soothe your frazzled neurons. But will you ever learn to write that way? Of course not, because the failure stems from a lack of direction; a lack of structure Point 2: Structure forces the brain into pattern recognition Structure? Yes structure. Without structure, it’s impossible to identify elements. You see writers don’t just write. Their brain cells scurry around pulling instances of writing structure. It seems like the person is simply writing, but in fact their brains are operating pretty much like a computer. It’s using data that’s been written to your brain over the years. And it’s pulling out that data and memories at high speed and turning it into structure. Structure may sound boring. It’s not. The most creative things in the world would not be around if it weren’t for structure. The Taj Mahal, the Pyramids, a snowflake, Windows Vista—they’re all built on structure (okay, so Windows Vista has flaky structure, but that just underlines the point of this article). The basis is structure. The rest is embellishment. Which takes us to the third part: A mentor. Point 3: Mentors speed up the process A mentor is not critical. I can indeed give you a recipe. And you could follow the steps. And with a little bit of luck, you’d not only cook a great ‘chook’ curry (that’s chicken curry) but also experience immense success. And if you got praise for that chook curry, you’d do it again. And again, thereby building up a success mechanism in your brain. And yes, you may still be absolutely hopeless at baking muffins, your chicken curry is a sheer delight. Of course, if you have a mentor you’ll be making chicken curries with far fewer mistakes. A mentor helps. A mentor sees mistakes you’ve missed. A mentor is a catalyst—but hey, catalysts are just meant to speed up the process. The process, when properly explained will work regardless of the presence of the mentor. But if you’re in a hurry (and most of us are) then someone looking over our shoulders is kinda nice. And should we get stuck, it prevents us from going scurrying back to Failure. Which takes us back to our struggle. The struggle starts in your brain. You have no fear when writing an email. You know the structure of how to put together a few hundred words. You’ve probably even had a mentor in the form of a book, a course, or a school teacher that taught you how to write. And so you write. Without fear or failure. It’s this structure that drives consistent results time after time. And that’s the core of writing. To be able to get consistent results on demand. Kaboom! About the Author: Sean D’Souza offers a free report on 'Why Headlines Fail' when you subscribe to his Psychotactics Newsletter. Check out his blog, too. • Email to a friend • Related • View comments • Track comments • •

---

Click here to safely unsubscribe now from "Copyblogger" or change subscription settings

---

---

Your requested content delivery powered by FeedBlitz, LLC, 9 Thoreau Way, Sudbury, MA 01776, USA. +1.978.776.9498

 

[Copyblogger] 10 Killer Resources for Social Media Entrepreneurs

10 Killer Resources for Social Media Entrepreneurs 10 Killer Resources for Social Media Entrepreneurs Naomi of IttyBiz is in the middle of a great series about how her blog has made $176,000 so far this year through six different types of income streams. Start with the post at the bottom of the page and move to the top… good stuff. Awesome article by Leo Babauta laying out how he built Zen Habits into one of the biggest blogs in the world. Display your number of Twitter followers on your blog using Twitter Counter, just like you do with your Feedburner stats. And don't forget to follow me on Twitter. Speaking of Twitter, Darren Rowse of Problogger has just launched a new blog—TwiTip, which is, you guessed it, a collection of Twitter tips. Loving that he built the blog with Thesis, and oh yeah… don't forget to follow me on Twitter. Texas Tech looks like the real deal this year in college football, and Jeff Sexton uses the team as the basis of a two-part tutorial on website optimization. Check out Part One and Part Two for great tips. Seth Godin, failure. SEO stud Michael Gray launches Viral Conversations, a blogger review service, also powered by Thesis. Hmmm… I'm seeing a bit of a trend here. Chuck Westerbrook is building a tribe of bloggers who help one another out. Check it out (I won't even mention the theme he's using). Giovanna (a/k/a Mrs. Aaron Wall) put together a really useful pay-per-click flowchart that helps you make the most of Google AdWords, etc. Jeff Walker is re-opening the doors to Product Launch Formula 2.0. It's one the best online training courses around (I’ve gone through the training twice, paid for it twice, and made an enormous return on investment… and that’s just so far ), so don't miss out this time. • Email to a friend • Related • View comments • Track comments • •

---

Click here to safely unsubscribe now from "Copyblogger" or change subscription settings

---

---

Your requested content delivery powered by FeedBlitz, LLC, 9 Thoreau Way, Sudbury, MA 01776, USA. +1.978.776.9498

 

[Copyblogger] Why Should Anyone Read Your Blog?

Why Should Anyone Read Your Blog? Why Should Anyone Read Your Blog? Technorati indexes 133 million blogs. According to their statistics, about 900,000 blog posts get made every 24 hours. Every topic, every theme, and every subject has been exhaustively covered by hundreds of blogs. So why should anyone read yours? Getting noticed might seem impossible. But there are blogs that rise up out of that vast sea of sameness. Blogs started by people just like you. You don’t necessarily need great writing talent, although it’s worth developing the talent you have. You don’t need to be able to break the latest tech news or celebrity gossip. And you don’t need to already be famous. You do need to find something interesting that only you can say, then say it clearly and repeatedly. Here are some ideas for lifting your content out of the limitless ocean of blog mediocrity. Don’t write in a tired space Think twice before you start a blog whose sole focus is on affiliate marketing, your adoration of Apple products, David Allen’s Getting Things Done, or, yes, blogging itself. It’s not that there’s too much competition. Competition is a great thing. The problem is how rarely anyone approaches these subjects with a truly fresh eye. It’s not impossible to create exciting new sites on these topics. Ittybiz did it with making money online, and Zen Habits with an appealing personal voice and an easygoing, non-techie approach to GTD. If you have a genuinely new angle or voice to contribute, go for it. Otherwise, ask yourself if anyone really needs another Shoemoney clone. Don’t write in a space no one cares about On the other hand, if you start a blog on naked mole rats, it had better be for passion rather than profit. The audience that wants more information about insect-like collectivist rodents is going to be pretty limited. If you’re launching a blog (or trying to refine your topic to get more readers), start with some basic keyword research. Look for a subject that gets a healthy amount of traffic every day for combined relevant keyword phrases. One way to find a great niche is to carve out a small corner of a popular topic. It will be hard to get attention for “weight loss,” but you could create a great following for yourself with “gourmet low-carb.” Share a unique voice There are a million snarky mommy blogs. There’s one Dooce. The more vulnerable you’re willing to get, the harder you are to imitate. And the more likely you are to find the true fans that lead to blogging success. Dooce’s mix of serious and silly, profane and profound, has found a lot of would-be imitators. But Heather Armstrong stays at the top of the game because, well, no one else can be Heather Armstrong. If you want to know how to strengthen your own unique voice, re-read this classic Copyblogger post on becoming a better writer. . . . or be genuinely useful Even though the world is virtually drowning in information, that information is getting harder and harder to actually use. Who’s trustworthy? What are the first steps? Which resources actually work? When’s the best time to start? What’s overrated, hard to use, or annoying? Look around for a set of useful questions you can reliably answer. Keep an eye on forums, blog comments, Twitter and your own email box for problems that seem to come up again and again. Keep looking for ways to help. It’s absolutely fine if you compile rather than create. It’s not your job to invent something out of nothing. It’s your job to take the nearly infinite sea of information and distill it to something useful. . . . or have real authority If you actually make 7 figures on the Web, you are allowed to start a “making money online” blog. If not, well, don’t. . . . or focus on your community It doesn’t matter how many blogs there are on your subject, or how big some of them are. If you focus obsessively on offering great solutions that benefit your readers, you’re going to be able to grab a nice slice of the attention pie. Chris Brogan is the master of this. There are thousands of blogs about social media, but no one pours more attention and care into his community than Chris does. His dedication is both remarkable and infectious, and it pays off not just with great readership numbers, but with an engaged readership that talks Chris up and recommends his blog to others. The key to creating a memorable web presence It’s not what you uniquely do. It’s what you uniquely communicate. There will always be bloggers who are smarter, more perceptive, better connected, or more entertaining than you are. But if you can communicate what you have to offer in an exceptional way, you’ll find a warm, responsive audience and all the amazing gifts that can bring. Let us know in the comments: why should we read your blog? About the Author: Sonia Simone is an Associate Editor of Copyblogger and the founder of Remarkable Communication. • Email to a friend • Related • View comments • Track comments • •

---

Click here to safely unsubscribe now from "Copyblogger" or change subscription settings

---

---

Your requested content delivery powered by FeedBlitz, LLC, 9 Thoreau Way, Sudbury, MA 01776, USA. +1.978.776.9498