Some weeks are all sunshine and lollipops. This week is not that week.
Actually, all week we’ve been warning you of various colorful ways online professionals can shoot themselves in the foot. On Monday, I talked about a bunch of ways (around 30, I think) that people mess things up for themselves when they’re conducting their professional lives on the web. Some of them are silly, and some of them are serious. (I hope you’ll add your own advice in the comments!)
On Tuesday, Robert Bruce alerted us to the dangers of the writhing, pushing, sweating bodies of hype. Goodness gracious me. He does have an important point to make, beyond all the heavy breathing, and it’s an entertaining read.
And on Wednesday, Stefanie Flaxman shared an embarrassing email marketing fail (not ours, thank goodness) — and the lessons to be learned from it.
Over on the Copyblogger FM podcast, I dug into the deliciously awful disaster of the Fyre Festival that Wasn’t … and talked about what it means to accept responsibility for messes.
How about you — got any interesting disasters to share? (Your own or someone else’s?) Mistakes are how we learn and grow, so let us know in the comments!
Chief Content Officer, Rainmaker Digital
Catch up on this week’s content
The Goofus and Gallant Guide to Success on the Web
by Sonia Simone
![are you a writer, or a flimflam artist?]()
Why Sex Doesn’t Sell
by Robert Bruce
![reveal the details that compel your prospect to take action immediately]()
A Quick Copywriting Lesson Taken Directly from an Email Marketing Fail
by Stefanie Flaxman
A Different Way to Think About Your Online Competition
by Sean Jackson & Jessica Frick
Plagiarism, Self-Deception, Bad Sandwiches, and Other Interesting Disasters
by Sonia Simone
How Bestselling Fantasy & Sci-Fi Author Catherynne M. Valente Writes: Part One
by Kelton Reid
Showrunner 101 (Back to Basics)
by Jerod Morris & Jon Nastor
![[52] The Simple Way to Manage Social Media for Maximum Success](https://rainmaker.fm/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/sites-052.jpg)
Love your refreshingly honest look at the blogging lifestyle. My mini disaster – I called it my “duh” moment came when I found that my WordPress time zone was set (in Settings UTC timezone offset) the wrong country! No wonder all my traffic was from overseas. My daily “duh” :0
Another fantastic week on Copyblogger! I particularly enjoyed Stefanie’s article on the email marketing fail.
Looking forward to next week already…
Hi Sonia,
No big mistakes this week.
But a few weeks back – as I was flying from Thailand to NJ on a 52 hour trip – my blog crapped out. Pretty much down for 24 hours. Somehow one plug in mucked things up (isn’t that the case like 90% of the time? 😉 and I was in a go-between back and forth bit with my developer and host. Waiting on host and they said all looked OK on their own. Should have went to my developer earlier but oh well.
Happy ending as my developer guy fixed the situation caused by the plug in and my blog went live again while I went into the air up there.
As for all my mistakes over a nearly decade long blogging career your comments section could not fit ’em 😉
Really though; anybody who is a pro, full-time, established blogger has made more boo-boo’s then they can remember. Part of our online tuition. Everybody gotta pay 🙂
Ryan