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How to Find the Gold in Your Business

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I was talking to a concerned client recently.

After taking my advice, his traffic and blog comments had started to decrease. We’d had three or four sessions, and he’d diligently done all I suggested, and he was implementing and enjoying himself and excited about his business.

But that graph kept trending downward. And it was starting to get to him.

Honestly, I could see where he was coming from. You hire a coach, and he tells you what to do, and your numbers go down?

Awesome.

But here’s the flip side:

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Copyblogger Weekly Wrap: Week of December 6, 2010

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This week, the sky decided that it was sick of my crap and dropped like a foot of snow on me all at once. I guess I shouldn’t complain. I live in northeast Ohio. Although this deluge is extremely annoying, it’s hardly surprising given our state motto: “So, are you ready to kill yourself yet?”

So instead of leaving the house today, I’ll start the tractor (trying not to catch it on fire like I did two years ago) and plow the driveway. And, you know, write Copyblogger wrap-ups to keep warm — because this isn’t just a blog; it’s a small piece of digital Texas.

Everything here is bigger, warmer, and more likely to involve the death penalty.

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8 iPad Apps for Brilliant Writing

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While I was up late one night reading the Copyblogger archives (yes, I know I need to get a life), I stumbled across a great post discussing some brilliant writing tips.

The post inspired me to write — but since I was on my iPad at the time, how was I going to capture my brilliant insights on my mobile device?

More and more people are using mobile devices to create content — and thankfully, there are a slew of new apps that make it incredibly easy to write on the go.

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What’s the Perfect Time to Make an Offer?

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In advertising we used to have a saying:

“Everyone hates advertising until they have to sell their own car.”

Sometimes we all encounter readers who get mad at us for “selling too much.”

And sometimes you have to ignore those readers. They might just not be your customer. Or they may be those people who hate all advertising, as long as they’re not the ones who have something to sell.

But the problem might be something very different.

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The 6 Elements of an Influential Web Experience

What makes one website highly persuasive and engaging, while others are ignored or quickly abandoned?

If you took a poll asking your site visitors what’s missing from your site, they might not even be able to articulate it. And that’s exactly the point. What influences us isn’t necessarily at our conscious level of experience.

Today, we’ll discuss the 6 elements of a web experience that make a difference at a deep psychological level. My guest is Dr. Susan Weinschenk, a Ph.D. in psychology and an expert in the field of influential digital design. She’s the author of Neuro Web Design: What Makes Them Click and the excellent companion blog.

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8 Incredibly Simple Ways to Get More People to Read Your Content

Your precious words. You know they’ve got to be right to attract the audience you want.

You’ve slaved over them, carefully crafting each phrase. You finally hit “publish,” and what happens?

Nobody reads them.

No comments, no tweets, no sharing on Facebook.

It’s enough to send a writer into deep depression, and wipe out motivation to keep producing great content.

Think you need to spend another 10,000 hours perfecting your writing skills? Probably not.

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