You know, a lot of writers and other creative folks don’t spend a lot of time chasing down the latest productivity tools and tips, and with good reason. Most of us are too busy actually writing and making stuff.

Go figure.

But there is an amazing selection of free or low cost applications out there that can help us create things better and faster. It’s just a matter of finding them.

Well, you’re in luck. The Ultimate Productivity Toolbox for Creative People assembles the best stuff all on one page. It’s the hard work of former Lifehacker contributor Tamar Weinberg, who joins Lateral Action today as Associate Editor.

Check it out now or bookmark it for future reference.

Congratulations! You’ve built a great blog with high-quality content. You’re getting decent traffic, and your readers might even be using social media tools to recommend your stuff. Life should be good.

But no one’s buying. Or barely anyone, which is no fun.

So why isn’t that great content translating into more sales? Let’s look at three common copy mistakes that keep your readers from becoming customers, and how you can turn that around.

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1,000 songs in your pocket.

Sounds great, doesn’t it? You may recognize that marketing message from one of the biggest companies around today.

Or you may not.

It doesn’t matter if you recognize who crafted that tagline, because you know what you’re getting right away—1,000 songs in your pocket. You don’t know how that happens or why, but it’s irrelevant. You know at a glance that whatever the product, it’s going to give you tons of music in a small package you can carry around.

Now that’s smart.

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Two or three times a week, struggling freelance writers will email me questions. The messages are usually something along the lines of:

• “I’m having a hard time finding writing gigs now. What am I doing wrong?”
• “I keep sending out queries but nobody’s getting back to me. What else can I do?”
• “Why hasn’t anybody gotten back to me? I sent out a ton of stuff a couple of weeks ago.”

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If you want to start a business, or you’re struggling to grow one, you might want to check out this article I wrote for Lateral Action – The Kurt Cobain Guide to Startup Success. You’ll likely be surprised at how deliberate the success of Nirvana’s breakthrough album Nevermind was.

And since Nirvana was in the music business (a form of content), every blogger and copywriter can use Nirvana’s story as inspiration to create more compelling and innovative content themselves (hopefully you’ll have a happier ending).

Check it out here.