The Sex and the City Guide to Blogging

The Sex and the City Guide to Blogging

Reader Comments (62)

  1. I love this post! The Sex and the City guide to blogging, to me this is like the marriage of chocolate and peanut butter-perfection. As I’m a SATC girl myself and can site the episode that each one of these quotes came from.

    Thanks for writing a ‘How To’ post about blogging that speaks my language and is so very entertaining to read… This is worth a stumble, digg and a tweet.

  2. Kato the wonder dog?

    I’m not ashamed to admit that I’ve never watched Sex and the City (while the post was helpful), but that quote was the kind of thing that makes a poor little martial artist cringe.

    Kato was Bruce Lee, not a dog.

    Good points, especially about not getting complacent once you’ve got readers. I’m thinking ‘spice up your love life’ articles could work for blogging now.

  3. I wouldn’t sell my soul to a demon to get to know about writing great copy. So Briak Clark did and got 100k readers and rest of us follow. You know, happens everywhere – it’s about not reinventing the wheel.

    This was great post btw. and thanks for horrifying about the idea of writing for print media. I mean wait for hours before you see your content live and edited? Scary!

    You spoke to all of it, you revealed the sweaty armpits of bloggers. Cool yo!

    Your Classic Teen Entrepreneur.

  4. Oh no, Dan! I so apologize. I just figured this out – in that episode of SATC, Aidan (Carrie’s boyfriend) refers to Kato – and then says that his dog is his Kato. I thought that meant that Kato was the Green Hornet’s Dog.

    Thank you for setting me straight here. My sincerest ‘sorry’ to Bruce Lee, martial arts enthusiasts and comic book folk EVERYWHERE.

    (Brian – can we take out the ‘wonder dog’ bit? Thanks!)

  5. Great post Julie! Loved your line, “Success makes us pretty. When you feel good, when things are going well, it shows.” This is so true.

    And maybe Carrie will be ‘Carrie the Blogger’ in the new movie instead of Carrie the columnist or Carrie the author!

  6. Hello Julie,

    I loved this blog post, the analogy was perfect. I have only watched one episode of Sex and the City, but your comparisons brought your writing to life. You touched on issues that are important such as operating with integrity. And I do agree that blogs give a platform to the underdog. By the way, I am always rooting for the underdog.

    You are absolutely correct when you say the only way to get followers is to have followers and that ties into retweets. People like to feel like they are a part of the in crowd. I look at a blog post and I see over 100 retweets and I wonder why, because there was nothing special about the post. But the reality is that the blogger has many followers and that gives him authority.

    Thanks again! Avil Beckford @avilbeckford

  7. I wouldn’t sell my soul to a demon to get to know about writing great copy. So Briak Clark did and got 100k readers and rest of us follow.

    If you consider working your ass off the same as selling your soul to a demon, then yeah, that’s exactly how it happened.

  8. Terrific posting.
    Almost like Dan, the guy who posted before me, I haven’t watched SATC. Well, not much. Seems nearly every time I watch Murphy’s Law comes into play and the same episode is showing!

    However, you are spot on regarding copy being stale (unshaven legs), knowing your product (flowers), writing great content (coulda!), and looking the other way (sex and red flags) that I need to start ‘netflixing’ (is that a verb?) SATC and see what all the hubbub is about.

    Thanks for taking what we do (copy writing, blogging, etc…) and placing a pop-culture twist to it!

  9. If you consider working your ass off the same as selling your soul to a demon, then yeah, that’s exactly how it happened.

    Yea, that’s just my style of writing copy … you know learned from you.. otherwise you’d not have replied. LOL
    Success! haha!

    C’mon now I have right to say the classic thing ‘He was lucky’ I know he wasn’t coz I know he paid a price and that I called selling your soul to demon. (in non-traditional way)

    Let’s be Awesome

  10. Hi Julie,

    Great post! What a fun way to talk about blogging! That’s how it should be! So, thank you.

    I love your point about knowing your audience:
    “If you don’t take the time to listen and get your context, you’re liable to send a wildly ill-suited message – the equivalent of showing up at the school dance in a tux when everyone else is wearing jeans.”

    This may be the point I struggle with the most. It’s not that I don’t know what I want to write about, but it’s packaging it in an appropriate manner to attract the readers I want that I sometimes struggle with (hope that makes sense).

    Either way, thank you for the post. I look forward to reading more!

    Farrah

  11. Julia:

    You have mentioned one of my favorite TV shows.

    I enjoy reading your posts. You always have an interesting angle, which is why I have become a regular reader. Please keep on writing and sharing your ideas.

    In general, people are attracted to fame and fortune. Translation: your popularity does matter and people will flock to you just because. Look at the celebrity cult, and you know what I mean? Is Paris Hilton really deserving of all the media buzz? Did Paris win the Nobel Prize? No.

    But if you are smart–and know how to use PR to your advantage–you can be suddenly rich and handsome and the chicks will flock to your nest like bees to honey. And that’s the way the cookie crumbles, folks. Cheerio.

  12. @King

    Ho, Hum. Leave it up to a “teenager” labeling himself a “king” who ever so intelligently is “leading the edge of thought” to prove to 100,000 people what an uninformed court jester he really is.

    Get to know your host before you spit in his face. Don’t they teach that in 5th grade anymore?

  13. Okay, so I don’t watch enough TV to have ever been a SATC fan, but I am a woman, and this is totally framed in a way that I could pick up on. 😉

    A lot of really great points – especially about the ‘shaved legs’. The funny part is that everyone woman who reads it will not only take in the advice and understand it completely, but will likely be aware of their legs for the rest of the day. “…right, where did I put my razor again?”

  14. It’s so funny I was just thinking about this same thing last night. I was thinking my blog needed a subject and a way to write like that of sex and the city. How strange is that?

  15. Oh, Lynda – I don’t think that’s strange at all. Seriously – throw any life situation or quandary at me – I will find you the answer thru SATC.

    It’s why this show was so successful – so much of it rang true for so many of us. Not just the content, but also the way it was done. And for us writers, it was just a series of ‘AH HA!’ moments…one after the other.

  16. G’day Julie,
    Years ago, I spent almost all my spare time running a basketball cub in an extremely remote Australian outback town.
    When people would volunteer to coach our kids’ teams,I’d insist on two things: teach the fundamentals well and make sure they have fun.
    Thanks for reminding me that we learn best and easiest when our teacher makes us smile.
    I never watched SATC either. What have i missed!
    Best Wishes
    Leon

  17. Julie – Heh, no worries. I can see why anyone would be more familiar with a current show that’s crazy popular than a show about a super hero that aired like 50 years ago ;).

    While I’ve gone out of my way to find anything and everything Bruce Lee, I can forgive anyone that lives like one of those ‘normal people’.

    Digging your website by the way, I really like the typewriter keys as nav buttons. Uber cool.

  18. Great. Now everytime I see an advertisement for Sex and the City I’m going to be thinking about a Dog, Copyblogger and Disco. I like the relation though. I think we have a video here… Makes me wave my own red flags! 🙂

  19. Great post Julie. I like how you said that anybody can be a blogger and just because there are a million different ideas out there that have been used, there is only one you. Nice! And also good job with putting in a Sex and the City spin into this article (as well as using references the Batman and the Green Hornet). 🙂

  20. To comment on your last point, Copyblogger could stop shaving it’s legs today and people would still come running for the next many months, because of it’s popularity.

    Just right now, I thought I’d read one great blog post before heading to bed, so I came here… and was immensely satisfied with your effort. However, if I came here and all I found was “unshaven legs”, I might go somewhere else tomorrow. Bloggers must always remember that they may have a “another date”, but if they show up unshaven, they might not get a third… and that’s whether you have a “Kato” or not.

    Peeps, if you read this, do yourself a favor and check out Julie’s blog too. She has something to say worth listening to.

  21. The “Coulda, woulda, shoulda…” excuse is simply that – an excuse. You don’t need to reinvent the wheel, just make a better wheel.

    Or, you know, actually write a blog that helps people solve a problem or learn something.

    EUREKA! I’m on to something – I gotta go . . . Great post.

  22. Love this post. So many people spend their time explaining why their blog is gonna be great once they (fill in the blank), when all they really need is content, content, content from their own brains on a regular basis.

    Everyone has their take, their voice, their thing. Make the most of it!

  23. This was such a fun read. And perfect for someone like me who is still a newbie in the blogosphere. I think I need to rent some SATC once the Olympics are over.

  24. Julie,
    You have such a fresh & creative writing style. I loved this post — especially the part about all the letters in the alphabet have been used!
    Very clever tying Carrie and folks to blogging community. I do miss the reruns of SATC (I killed my TV a year ago..gives me more time for blogging).

  25. This is the greatest post ever. I love the analogy, you are 100% correct with you comparison. And yes I agree Carrie Bradshaw would have been a blogger. I love the ladies on Sex in the City, and Copyblogger is just as classy.

  26. Oh no you di-in’t! You didn’t just manage to write a blog post about Sex and the City AND link it to blogging and copywriting!!

    Oh wait you did…

    Love the post!

  27. How do you get traffic to your blog? With traffic. How do you get guest posting opportunities? By guest posting. How do you get more followers on Twitter? By having a lot of followers on Twitter. How do you get a lot of inbound links to your blog? By having quality inbound links that tell more and more people about your blog.

    HOw simple and how unachievable for most of us 🙂 great article. I can tell you that I m also judging blogs when I see the amount of followers…if its more than 100k then I take time to digest into it. Its lot easier to find them also than smaller ones

  28. “You are unique. Sure, a zillion people are writing about SEO or hats or astrology. But there is only one you – with your experiences and thoughts and context – writing about it.”

    You are right, when I started blogging, I was not sure that it will gain an handsome traffic, but now I believe that writing and writing, don’t be shy about topic, will give a boost to your blog.

    thanks for this inspiring post.

  29. Spot on with every point.

    You really struck a chord for me in the section on “rationalizing red flags.” I like to think I don’t compromise ethics: Hey, I did turn down that well-paying pesticide client, yay for environmentally responsible me.

    But then you delineate a more insidious red flag, “agreeing to write really bad copy.” I’m guilty of writing corporate-centric copy when clients insist–and attempts to educate them proved futile.

    When the relationship is bad, you can’t continue sleeping with someone and rationalizing it. It’s time to end the dangerous liaison and make room for happier, more compatible relationships.

  30. Hani!!! That was a dead-on impersonation of Carrie! (Episode reference: when the girls go to L.A. and Samantha gets a fake Fendi out of some dude’s trunk….).

    Thanks everyone for your fantastical comments…so much SATC love!

  31. Not only was this a good post, but there is a bigger lesson here when you pull back the curtain.

    Just look at Julie’s use of juxtaposing something from pop culture with a useful blogging lesson.

    If she were to just come out and tell us NOT to take our customers for granted, not to produce stale content, and not to be deceitful then it could have come across as a publice service message. However, when you create a post (or copy) in the eyes of something that the customer is already familiar with, then a much bigger picture is painted.

    Now we are all going to think about shaving legs as a placeholder and vidi reminder of creating fresh content instead of just hearing “do the right thing.” Great work.

    -Joshua Black
    The Underdog Millionaire

  32. I love, love, love your idea for the post -so original and fresh. I also loved how you carried the theme through the entire post as opposed to explaining your great title in the beginning of the post and then writing about something unrelated!

  33. I love the way carrie writes, the voice over is so fresh and to the point.

    I would have loved her to have been a blogger and if we have a good look around the fashion blogs i am sure we can find our own real life carrie!!!

    kind regards

    sam
    X

  34. It pays to look at pop culture!

    Example:

    Cosmopolitan is one of the most successful magazines in the world.

    Smart marketers read Cosmopolitan to learn how to write compelling copy.

    Most people read Cosmopolitan because they think they’re actually going to get what the copy on Cosmo promises.

  35. Julie that show is quit a hoot but I was think more sex in the country. It is much different but funny all the same. I have quit a few stories as I have been single most of my adult life.
    Finally getting married after 40 years and seems to me I have had some sex in the city episodes of my very own. How fun who it be to write that all down.
    Wonder if that would sell make up?

  36. I was a huge SATC fan when it was airing. The movie didn’t grab me as much as I wanted it too, but it did give me a nice dose of what I had been missing.

    You are spot on when you say Carrie would have been a blogger, and I would add that she would be tweeting nearly 24 hours a day from her crackberry.

    All of those quotes still ring true today even those SATC is over 10 years old. Technology may have moved on, but life lessons of women in a big city remain the same.

  37. Dear Ms. Roads,

    Hello, my name is Akiho Miyoshi. I am a student at Kobe college in Japan,
    and I have recently started a blog about SEX AND THE CITY. For my next
    blog, I’m writing about the witty remarks of drama SEX AND THE CITY . I
    can see from your website that you are an expert about my question. I
    know you must be busy but if you give me your opinion or comment, I
    would be grateful for your assistance.

    In your opinion, what is the best witty remarks of SEX AND THE CITY?

    Thank you very much for your time and attention to my question. I hope
    to hear from you at your convenience.

    Sincerely,
    Akiho Miyoshi

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