Copyblogger Weekly Wrap: Week of October 11, 2010

I don’t understand air travel in the least. I mean, I’m on a plane as I’m writing this, and really, the physics of the whole thing are astounding when you stop to think about it.

The Wright brothers get all the credit for inventing flight, but they did the easy part. Get many tons of metal into the air, defy gravity, yada yada. Whatever.

But who figured out you could get ten passengers to fit into three square feet of space? And who was first brave enough to charge for baggage, and movies, and make the seat cushion flotation devices coin operated? Now that’s impressive.

So… as soon as my spine uncurls from the shape I forced it to assume when I got into this seat, we can get down to discussing what happened this week on Copyblogger.

Monday:

7 Tips for an Authentic and Productive Writing Process

Hate writing? Or maybe love it, but sometimes can’t come up with stuff and get all nervous and twitchy and small children start running away from you? Then you should read this post on being authentic and getting unstuck. (The post’s author has a post brewing in him about Gene Simmons, so you really should listen.)

Read the full post here.

Tuesday:

Announcing the Prose Theme for WordPress

There’s a new Genesis framework child theme out there now called Prose that you need to take a look at. And if you have no idea what any of that means, it’s all in this post. (Hint: Child themes are not themes for your child. This is a common misconception. Child themes are actually the offspring of adult themes that fell in love, settled down, and started a family. Okay, not actually.)

Read the full post here.

Wednesday:

3 Steps to Take Yourself from Good to Great

Like so much on Copyblogger, this post reminded me of a quote by powerlifter Dave Tate. Dave classified skill levels in a discipline as “shit,” “suck,” “good,” and “great.” (It totally translates because copywriting and powerlifting are essentially the same thing.) Dave said it was super hard to go from good to great, but apparently he was wrong, and Sonia proved it! She has tips on moving from good to great, and implied tips on why you should sidestep the shit. So to speak.

Read the full post here.

Thursday:

Madonna’s 6 Secrets to Personal Branding Mastery

I think the key message to this one is that you may need to grow a pair. Madonna has a really strong brand because she has the guts to stand out, and also apparently to adopt significant portions of Third World nations. So are you like Madonna? Are you? Are you? Didn’t think so. So get out there and start Vogueing like you mean it.

Read the full post here.

Friday:

How to Show Up and Write

Think writing is hard and complicated? Yeah, kind of, I guess, but Taylor doesn’t want to hear any of your lame excuses anyway. She says it may be hard, but it’s NOT complicated. There’s really only one thing you need to know if you want to become better and more prolific, so here’s how you do that.

Read the full post here.

This week’s cool links:

• 3 Ways to Achieve Explosive Blog Growth: This week’s links make for easy descriptions. Guess what this post is about?
• The Psychological Principle Behind Marketing Success In a Networked World: This is kind of dense but worth the read, especially if you enjoy playing around inside of other people’s brains. (Tip: When doing so, stay out of the medulla oblongata unless you have boots and a poncho.)
• Persuasive Storytelling – The McKee-Fields Sessions: Part 3: While I’ve been in Vegas at Blogworld, like seven people have told me to watch this interview on persuading with stories. So I guess it’s important or something.
• 29 No-Brainer Tips for Quick Blogging Success: Don’t you love how-tos filled with a bunch of relatively simple stuff you can start checking off right away and improving on stuff? Yeah? Then read this.

About the Author: Johnny B. Truant specializes in selling through stories and would like very much to set you up with a cheap blog or website. (That’s “cheap” as in “inexpensive,” not as in “tawdry.”)