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Amazing Blogs: The 1-2-3 Plan
Every Blogger Should Know

1-2-3

There are well over 100 million blogs out there. Why’s anyone going to read yours?

Every keyword phrase, every niche, every topic, every angle has been covered. The competition for attention and traffic is fierce. But there’s still room for your blog . . . if it’s amazing.

A blog is trivially simple to start, but not so easy to keep rolling. There are so many factors — traffic, social media strategy, design, monetization. If you try to absorb everything at once, you’ll be too overwhelmed to keep going.

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The #1 Conversion Killer in Your Copy (and How to Beat It)

Troll

What makes people almost buy?

What makes them get most of the way there, then drop out of your shopping cart at the last second?

What makes them stare at your landing page, wanting what you have to offer, and yet, ultimately, close the page and move on to something else?

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It’s the End of the World as We Know It
(And I Feel Fine)

Worlds Collide

Matter meets antimatter, cats are sleeping with dogs, and President Obama is going to grab a venti soy latte with Rush Limbaugh.

And in other end-of-the-world news, I’m going to be having a chat with the most curmudgeonly marketing guru of all time…

Dan Kennedy.

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Why Content Marketing and Social Media are a Powerful Match

Content Marketing 101

This is an installment in the Content Marketing 101 series.

Creating stellar content for your marketing is great. But great content doesn’t (quite) distribute itself. It needs vehicles for people to pass it along, discuss its merits, argue over its controversies, blog it, mash it, tweet it and even scrape it. Which is, of course, where social media comes in.

Social media didn’t create content marketing, but it’s an unsurpassed tool for getting it distributed. On the flip side, great content gives social media life, by giving people something more interesting to talk about than what they’re ordering right now at Starbucks.

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Content Marketing Gets Real:
An Interview With Naomi Dunford of IttyBiz

Content Marketing 101

This is an installment in the Content Marketing 101 series.

In March I attended the South by Southwest conference. In addition to keeping Brian out of jail enjoying some quality business planning time with Brian, I also met one of my great blogging friends face to face for the first time.

Naomi Dunford of Ittybiz is a genuinely remarkable voice in a sea of sameness. She’s a fantastic example of how content marketing can be used as the backbone of a real business that makes real money.

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How to Use Content to Find Customers

Content Marketing 101

This is an installment in the Content Marketing 101 series.

Sure, it makes us feel warm and fuzzy to create great content. But can we actually get any customers with it?

Absolutely, but not if we take the usual blogger’s approach. Money doesn’t drop out of the sky just because we produce high-quality material. We need to put some time, thought and planning into the marketing side of the content marketing equation.

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