Podcast appearances and mentions of sonia simone

“Content is the way you get your amazing ideas, visible and audible.” ~ Sonia Simone   In this episode of The Widest Net Podcast, Pam is joined bySonia Simone, a seasoned writer, marketer, and coach, known for her groundbreaking work in content marketing. As the founding partner of Copyblogger Media and a coach to numerous clients, she brings over a decade of experience and has penned more than 1.6 million words. With a teaching approach that emphasizes business strategy, content, and ethical marketing, Sonia's insights have influenced countless small business owners. Her ability to translate complex ideas into actionable strategies makes her an invaluable resource for anyone seeking to align their content with business goals. Through her courses and coaching, Sonia shares her expertise, helping others navigate the ever-evolving landscape of content marketing with clarity and confidence.   Here's what you can expect from this episode:  Maximize your business impact with effective content marketing strategies Unlock the power of aligning your content with your business goals Discover the essential components for successful email marketing Source and recruit top-notch copywriters to elevate your content Streamline your content strategies for maximum efficiency Remember we all need each other - life and work is better together.   Resources mentioned in this episode:  Creative Fierce Website Resources from Sonia Simone - Creative Fierce LinkedIn - Sonia Simone Rachel Allen - Bolt From The Blue {Copywriter} James Hipkin {Copywriter} Copy Blogger Agency {Copywriter} The Widest Net Book by Pamela Slim   Connect with The Widest Net Podcast If you haven't done so already, subscribe to the podcast. Published episodes will come directly to your favorite podcast app.  If you enjoyed the show, please rate it on Apple Podcasts with a short review. Doing so will help me reach more entrepreneurs and small business owners just like you.  Connect with Pam directly on LinkedIn

From the moment I met Sonia and saw her rocking hot pink hair, I knew she was someone I wanted to befriend. Today, we're diving into topics that are close to our hearts… like embracing your unique self and recognizing you're not going to be everyone's cup of vodka! We're here to harp on the beauty of being YOU, even when people want you to “tone it down” or “be more professional.” If you're wondering if you're doing this authenticity thing right, this one's for you. Listen now!Can't-Miss Moments From This Episode:Teetering on the edge of burnout, trying to conquer the world in a day? If you're a die-hard “gettin' shit done" type (running on a toxic mix of adrenaline fumes, anxiety, and caffeine), Sonia and I will show you how to reach your goals without sacrificing your sanity.  Let's talk about the D-word: Deadlines. They're such a good way to stay motivated and check things off the to-do list… and yet they're also stressful AF. Sonia and I reveal when we've strategically blown deadlines (and how it actually HELPED instead of hurt).  Spending hours on Candy Crush to avoid responsibilities? Doom scrolling for an hour? Stop punching yourself in the face: Sonia and I will show you a better way to escape the day to day… no self sabotage required.  Sonia's Universal Law: Everyone we admire is full of $hit about something (even if we think the sun shines out of their butt). People aren't perfect, but what if we let that be okay?  Reality check: you are the only YOU on this planet, and that's pretty damn special. At the risk of getting a little ranty, do you know how many things had to line up just perfectly for you to exist? If you're questioning your ability to stand out in the sea of competition, Sonia and I are here to guide you in unlocking your unique potential! This one is jam-packed full of advice. Don't miss out - listen now!Sonia's Bio:Sonia Simone is a writer, marketer, and teacher. She was a founding partner of Copyblogger Media when it formed in 2010, and sold her interest in that company in 2019. Today she works closely with digital business owners to help them develop compelling and profitable offers.Sonia estimates she's written more than 1.3 million words over her career as a content marketer. She's been amused to watch as her once "weird" content strategies have become mainstream best practices.Sonia believes that marketing is, very simply, the sum total of what you communicate to your customers — both in words and actions. She also believes the audience is the source of all good things in business, and that's the approach she teaches her audience, clients, and students.Resources and links mentioned:Sonia's Website Sonia's LinkedInCome kick ass with me:Permission to Kick Ass websiteAngie's Facebook PageAngie on InstaAngie on YouTube

In this interview you'll learn about how Sonia Simone, founder of Copyblogger and Creative Fierce, finds ways to process her thoughts and emotions so she can grow as a person and entrepreneur. I really enjoyed when Sonia talked about her mental health tools to help her shift her perspective when she is struggling. I think you will too. Highlights from the interview: How Sonia is working on her ADHD diagnosis.How to take things out in the world and connect them with your life to tell a story.Taking baby steps with your writing.The importance of psychological safety.How to tell a personal story about yourself so it lands for your audience.Turning a stumble into a learning moment.Talking about things that are hard and why it makes her position stronger.How she dealt with the passing of a friend.Why our inner armor is so toxic.How to improve our “suck it up” culture.Why accepting our mistakes helps us grow as a human.Benjamin Zander has shifted from being a tyrant conductor to a growth mindset leader.Talking to yourself is an underutilized skill.Using mental health tools that work for her.Watching how our minds judge people.The power of sending loving thoughts when we are negatively judging people.When we judge other people we increase the internal judgements of ourselves.What it's like in Sonia's head. I love how she describes it.Working with the voices in our head.How your values can help inspire you to take action on a tough project.Journaling is really useful because you take the internal and get it outside yourself.Sonia's most impactful book, podcast, speaker, favorite toy as a kid and essential tool. You can learn more about Sonia over at Creative Fierce and Unlock Your Words. You can also connect with her on LinkedIn. And as always if you have any questions or want to submit a guest for the podcast that you think would be amazing just reach out on Dig to Fly and I'll do my best to get them on. If you enjoy the interview please take 30 seconds to rate the Dig to Fly podcast on your favorite platform. Thanks!

“Why not put your best stuff in front of the biggest room?” On this episode, I'm joined by writer, marketer, teacher, and Creative Focus Workshop alumni, Sonia Simone. Sonia goes into detail about her two major career pivots, including how she went from “fan-girl” to founding partner at Rainmaker Digital, formerly CopyBlogger Media. She describes the moment she realized she was “burnt to a crisp”, after years of stretching herself too thin, and her decision to focus on her own business, Remarkable Communication. Sonia talks about her compassionate, human-centered approach to marketing, and her mission to help creative pros craft marketing content that doesn't make them cringe. Plus, Sonia shares how she gained visibility for her personal work by embracing her geekiness (and being a little extra). More from this episode… Sonia describes feeling like a “square peg” at her corporate marketing job, and the drunk Twitter DM that transformed her career. As a founding partner at Copyblogger, Sonia invented her own job. What caused her to invent one that was completely unsustainable? Sonia shares how she divides her time between client work and other creative pursuits, and why it's important for her to keep them separate. Sonia talks about being an early user of the internet, and how bloggers eventually came to terms with content marketing: “There was a group of people saying you could use this internet thing to find clients without just being a villain.” Why so many talented writers hate the work they do for themselves, and what should be at the core your marketing. “So much of coaching is just holding up a mirror and saying, ‘This is how I see you.'” — How Sonia helps her clients harness what makes them unique. We discuss the tendency of creatives to forget the depth of their experience, and the usefulness of reflecting on past work. Why Sonia believes, “If you can find one or two new clients of a month you're in great shape…As long as you're charging enough.” More from Sonia Simone Sonia Simone was a founding partner of Copyblogger Media and is the owner of Remarkable Communication. She's a longtime veteran of social media, having started out in online community in 1989. She's worked for many years in marketing communication, both with startups and established corporate environments. Sonia led the editorial direction on the Copyblogger blog, as well as developing the content and email strategies that supported the company's software and e-learning lines of business. She sold her interest in Copyblogger in 2019. Today, Sonia helps content writers get more writing done at a higher quality standard with her new project, Creative Fierce. She also has a free report on becoming more productive, which you can grab at UnlockYourWords.com Connect with Sonia Simone: https://www.linkedin.com/in/soniasimone/ https://www.remarkable-communication.com http://twitter.com/soniasimone https://copyblogger.com/author/sonia-simone/ Additional Links Katamari DamacyThe Autonomous Creative is brought to you by Authentic Visibility: marketing for creatives who (think they) hate marketing. Learn more here!

Digital marketer isn't one of those occupations that kids in school blurt out when they are asked “what do you want to be when you grow up?”  Thankfully, a book came out in 2019 that lays out very plainly many of the things I wish I'd known when I joined this profession.  Becoming a Digital Marketer has elements that are tactical but it also weighs in on existential questions like ‘what kind of lifestyle can I have being in this field?' and ‘should I work client-side, agency-side, or be my own boss?” Though I've been at this for decades, I'll admit that I learned a number of things in the book, both about marketing and about  Kombucha, which was the product used throughout the book's marketing tales. Once our guest, Gil Gildner, got out of school, he worked in media for NGOs, where he traveled to over 45 countries, wore hazmat suits in Ebola units, and rode Ugandan motorcycles. Realizing that he wanted to survive into his thirties, he started doing marketing for a company that sold around-the-world airfares. It's in this company where he met his wife Anya, a paid search specialist. Listen to our conversation for more of the interesting story of how Gil and Anya wrote this book and founded an agency which they operate from wherever they are. Today he happens to be in his hometown of Fayetteville Arkansas, near Walmart world Headquarters  People/Products/Concepts Mentioned in Show Lambo guy Sonia Simone's blog post that says about Internet Marketers:  ‘they spend 16 hours a day working so they can make money while they sleep.' Rand Fishkin Peter Thiel book Zero to One Gil & Anya's agency, Discosloth Gil & Anya's book: Becoming a Digital Marketer Episode Reboot. Check out Discosloth's free resource The Beginner's Guide to PPC For details, please visit https://funnelreboot.com/episode-79-becoming-a-digital-marketer-with-gil-gildner/

In this episode, Carole Issa talks with Ash Roy, founder of Productive Insights about his entrepreneurial journey and the biggest lessons he's learned along the way. Some of the key themes that Carole explores with Ash: 1'27” Leveraging your strengths 2'43” The defining moment that put him on his entrepreneurial path 4'39” What he learned from creating his successful podcast 7'07” Who has inspired Ash on his entrepreneurial journey 11'47” Making a difference while being worried about making money to keep the business afloat 13'34” The top 3 mistakes that entrepreneurs make when marketing their business online 17'04” Ash's definition of success 17'32” What drives Ash to do what he does 18'10” Loving the complex and attempting to simplify it 24'07” The biggest challenges that Ash faced early on in his journey 24'54” The trap of looking for shortcuts 26'41” The meaning of the word leadership 30'30” And an exciting project that Ash is working on 31'43” A book that Ash would recommend 36'37” A 30-day challenge that After a corporate career in finance and strategy, that spanned 15 years in large multinational corporations, a CPA, and an MBA from the Australian Graduate School of Management (Distinction), Ash founded Productive Insights in 2013. Productive Insights' passion is to partner with small business owners to help them grow sustainably and profitably using strategies that actually work. Ash also hosts a successful podcast called “Productive Insights Podcast” with over 200 episodes. It features some of the world's leading online entrepreneurs including Seth Godin (episode 200), Guy Kawasaki (episode 210), Rand Fishkin (episodes 38, 126 & 159), Neil Patel (episodes 1&212), Ryan Deiss (episode 170), Amy Porterfield (episodes 145 & 201), Sonia Simone (episodes 107,108 & 144), Noah Kagan (episode 147), and many others. You can access it via this link: https://www.ProductiveInsights.com/podcast More recently Ash launched the Productive Insights membership program where he works with a close-knit international community of business owners to help each other grow their businesses using digital marketing strategies that focus on important (not just urgent) activities that really move the needle in their business and increase their profit per hour. You can learn more at: https://www.productiveinsights.com/membership

Sonia Simone of Copyblogger calls digital sharecropping “the most dangerous threat to your online marketing.”In Robots Make Bad Fundraisers, Steven Shattuck explains how that digital sharecropping happens when a nonprofit uses someone elses "land" to grow their "crops" and how it keeps the sharecropper in bondage.  It is a relationship where the landowner ALWAYS gets the best part of the deal and the sharecropper ALWAYS gets the worst part.STOP sharecropping, get my free download today:My Bulletproof, 5 Step Process To Create Alluring Lead Generators For Your Business

This week, we discuss a topic that gets asked about nearly every time we do a Q&A for Unemployable Initiative members: how to build an audience. Specifically, how do you start from scratch, or close to scratch, and build a minimum viable audience?As you know from the definition of minimum viable audience, once you have an MVA the audience starts to build itself. That doesn’t mean the work of filling the top of your funnel is done, but it does mean that you have some momentum and a head of steam to help keep you growing.But how do you get that momentum going in the first place? Especially when there is so much content out there already, which can it feel like such an immense challenge just to get noticed?To be clear: there are no silver bullet in this episode. There is no secret we reveal that will allow you to supersede a couple of fundamental truths of audience building: 1) you have to create high quality content for a specific audience, and 2) you’re going to have to invest time or money, or both, to get that content in front of the right people.If either of those two truths scare you off, this conversation may not be of much use. But if they don’t, then join us and our special guest Sonia Simone to talk about what’s working for building a minimum viable audiences in 2021.In addition to this week's main topic, we take another trip inside Brian's mind, answer a bevy of listener questions, and discuss headlines about how the pandemic is messing with our brains, whether the PRO Act should worry freelancers, and how marketing will (or won't) change after the pandemic.This week's headlines:1. How the Pandemic is Messing with Our Brains (https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2021/03/what-pandemic-doing-our-brains/618221/)2. Does the PRO Act Threaten Freelance Careers?(https://www.jennifergregorywriter.com/2021/03/01/guest-post-deborah-abrams-kaplan-explains-why-the-pro-act-threatens-freelance-careers/)3. 10 Truths About Marketing After the Pandemic (https://hbr.org/2021/03/10-truths-about-marketing-after-the-pandemic)

Learn how to sign up for the waitlist to My.Copyblogger and a free content marketing workshop with Sonia Simone! This week hosts Darrell and Tim also nerd out on SEO, newsletters, the future of online marketing, and answer more of your questions. Recent chatter in the world of content marketing includes why “awesomeness” is now a Google ranking factor, the bright future for content marketers, and the guys answered your question about how frequently to publish content to your blog. In this episode, Darrell and Tim also talked about: A teaser for the return of My.Copyblogger and … The Key to Marketing or Selling Anything Why building something of value for your audience is (still) so important The power of curated newsletters for content marketers And finding the sweet spots for your content, schedule, and promotion balance The Show Notes ConvertKit — Audience Building for Creators Drop Your Questions Here: Copyblogger.com/ask Join The My.Copyblogger Waitlist, And Be The First To Know! The Key to Marketing or Selling Anything — A Free workshop with Sonia Simone: Date: July 8,2020 Time: 3 p.m. Central Time Duration: 60 minutes Cost: FREE! What 20 years of Google algorithm updates say about what SEOs should focus on next — SearchEngineLand.com MorningBrew.com/marketing — Newsletter Darrell on Twitter Tim on Twitter --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/copyblogger-podcast/message

Somewhere along the way, our culture fell into this mindset that more time working = more "success." This is the same logic that all too often forces our creative pursuits to take a back seat. You can't pull time for creativity out of thin air—so, you've gotta grant yourself permission to be creative. Permission to be creative begins with accepting that there are countless different definitions of creativity. Sure, images of paintbrushes and instruments come to mind when we first hear the word. But creativity means different things to different people. From debating to looking at a new topic at work from a different angle, creativity isn't always spontaneous or affiliated with the arts. It's simply exploring and experiencing things in a way that's different from what your day to day typically allows. Creativity is important for everyone, and those who are tempted to say they "aren't creative" are often the ones who can benefit from it the most. But how can we give ourselves permission to stop focusing on work (for even just a second) and let our minds wander? Mentioned in this episode: Sonia Simone

In today’s episode of Freelance to Founder, you’ll hear the story of Sonia Simone, co-founder and Chief Content Officer of Copyblogger. If you enjoyed this episode, please leave us an honest rating on iTunes. Copyblogger is a massive business that’s gone through quite the evolution over the years. If you’re into content marketing, you’ve run across Sonia’s and Brian Clark’s content at some point. In this episode, you'll hear about how Sonia came to join forces with Brian in the earliest days, why she never felt comfortable in the corporate world, how learning how to start a blog and make money from it has challenged her skillsets and priorities, and how she balances her Copyblogger work while continuing to do freelance work on the side. Complete show notes for this episode can be found on Millo.co Thank you to our Sponsors for supporting this episode Wix: Over 150 million people use Wix for their website, choose from over 500 stunning templates or start from scratch and create a professional website. Click here to get 10% Off Your Wix Premium Plan Limited time offer––enter the code WIXPROMO at checkout. Care/of: Care/of is a subscription service that makes it easy to get vitamins, protein powders, and more, personalized just for you and delivered straight to your door. For 30% off YOUR first Care/of order, go to TakeCareOf.com and enter the promo code FREELANCE30. Subscribe for new episodes at freelancetofounder.com. This podcast is a production of Millo. Recently from the Millo Blog: This proposal template will help you win more freelance clients Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Content marketing has officially gone mainstream. It’s a “must do” for most businesses in today’s trust economy. While this increased demand has created huge opportunities for writers, it has also commoditized a lot of our work and given rise to content mills and rock-bottom fees. We’re not doomed. But to succeed, writers have to become a higher-value resource for their clients. In this episode, I speak with Sonia Simone, founding partner of Copyblogger Media (now Rainmaker Digital) and seasoned content marketer. In the course of our conversation, she shares how you can position yourself as a strategic partner and build stronger relationships with clients.

5:00 - Using empathy to create more compelling content. Sonia Simone wrote an awesome article that explains how to walk the line between having a brand voice and personality, and not offending half your audience. The gist of the conversation is around how to be the Chief Empathy Officer for your audience - how do you create content that's really going to solve their problems? How are you going to select topics that truly matter to them? 18:00 - Creating content as a team activity. Imran Tariq brings up an interesting concept: using a team to create content. Jeff and Francis talk about how this strategy can be extremely useful, and how it can quickly become a major detractor. Listen to the intern, listen to the CFO, but make sure the specialist decides which ideas are good and which are bad. 33:00 - SEO is an $80 billion industry, apparently. Great article found on SparkToro's Trending tool. But the real interesting topic is at the bottom of the article: will Google change the rules? Have we put all our eggs in the Google basket in the hopes that they don't pull the rug out from under us?

If you have a WordPress website and are looking to grow your audience through content, then this episode will help. Sonia Simone is one of the most accomplished content marketers in the world, and she stops by to discuss smart, winning content strategies with Sean Jackson. Rainmaker.FM is Brought to You By Discover why 201,344 website owners trust StudioPress, the industry standard for premium WordPress themes and plugins. Launch your new site today! Here is a quick rundown of what you’ll find in this episode: Sonia s one essential tip for avoiding overwhelm The importance of understanding what your website is going to do Why marketing matters for all sites, not just websites that are selling stuff How your blog can be a tool to create important stepping stones for your audience Sean goes knee-deep : what is the first step to take when it s time to start publishing content? The evergreen power of simply answering questions Why you should think about things you love AND things you hate about your topic Are you getting to the point quickly enough? (And doing it simply enough?) Why you should never, ever build your online platform on land that is owned by somebody else — but — how you can leverage social media tools to your advantage Listen to Site Success: Tips for Building Better WordPress Websites below ... Download MP3Subscribe by RSSSubscribe in iTunes Resources and links mentioned in this episode: The advantages of starting out small Beware of Digital Sharecropping How to write an About Page Marcus Sheridan, “The Sales Lion” How to Connect the Dots that Can Make You a Star Other links of note: Try StudioPress Sites Sites Weekly Newsletter Subscribe to Sites on Apple Podcasts Sean Jackson on Twitter Contact Jerod: jerod@copyblogger.com

Do You Take Your Internet For Granted? Sonia Simone And I Discuss Net Neutrality And How You Can Protect Your Online Freedom Before Its Too Late Sonia Simone is one of the leading authorities when it comes to content marketing and creating high-value ...

Do You Take Your Internet For Granted? Sonia Simone And I Discuss Net Neutrality And How You Can Protect Your Online Freedom Before Its Too Late Sonia Simone is one of the leading authorities when it comes to content marketing and creating high-value customer relationships. She is the co-founder of Copy Blogger and Chief Content Officer of Rain Maker Digital. She also just launched her own personal project, a blog called remarkable-communication.com In this episode we discuss important issues around net neutrality and how it ensures that we all have access to a free and fair internet. We talk about what you can do to protect your access to the free and fair internet before its too late. Share this Episode: Click to Tweet Links Mentioned: Click here to download the podcast shownotes Remarkable-Communication.com CopyBlogger.com RainmakerDigital.com Wired.com FCC.gov FreePress.net www.CallAshRoy.com www.Youtube.com/ProductiveInsights Related Episodes: 075. Joe Pulizzi — Founder of Content Marketing Institute — Does Your Content Fit Into Your Buyer’s Journey? 107. Sonia Simone CopyBlogger Co-Founder on How To Be A Prolific Content Marketer (Part 1 of 2) 108. Sonia Simone CopyBlogger Co-Founder on How To Be A Prolific Content Marketer (Part 2 of 2) 116. Brian Clark — Founder of Copyblogger — On How To Create Content That Converts, Empathy Maps, How To Use Content To Build An Eight Figure Business and Lots More! Key Points and Insights 3:17 - Net Neutrality and why it matters to you right now 11:19 - The Free Market Hypothesis is just a that — a hypothesis (to see it as anything else is flawed) 14:15 - What Net Neutrality means to your business and why you need to pay attention 15:30 - How a free internet rewards true innovation to surge past the behemoths and how it helped the likes of Facebook and Google become what they are today 19:57 - What can you do about Net Neutrality as a business owner 20:11 - Action Steps and Key Insights 25:14 - The Mindset of independence explained and why it matters to you right now Action Steps Write to FCC Contact your representatives and speak to them about your concerns Vote for Internet Service Providers that support Net Neutrality Stay informed Follow FreePress.net Be seen and be heard

In this week s episode we proceed to the next step in our series on content marketing strategy by discussing how to know what content you need to be delivering to achieve your content marketing goals. Listen to Site Success: Tips for Building Better WordPress Websites below ... Download MP3Subscribe by RSSSubscribe in iTunes Important links from this episode: Experimental study of apparent behavior. Fritz Heider & Marianne Simmel. 1944 Try StudioPress Sites Sites Weekly Newsletter Subscribe to Sites on Apple Podcasts @JerodMorris on Twitter How to Know Exactly What Content to Deliver to Convert More Prospects The Anatomy of an Experience Map How to Use Customer Experience Maps to Develop a Winning Content Marketing Strategy Principles of Persuasion video The Ultra Powerful 7th Principle of Persuasion The Transcript Jerod Morris: Welcome to Sites, a podcast by the teams at StudioPress and Copyblogger. In this show, we deliver time-tested insight on the four pillars of a successful WordPress website: content, design, technology, and strategy. We want to help you get a little bit closer to reaching your online goals, one episode at a time. I m your host Jerod Morris. Sites is brought to you by StudioPress Sites — the complete hosted solution that makes WordPress fast, secure, and easy without sacrificing power or flexibility. For example, you can upload your own WordPress theme, or, you can use one of the 20 beautiful StudioPress themes that are included and just one click away. Explore all the amazing things you can do with a StudioPress Site, and you ll understand why this is way more than traditional WordPress hosting. No matter how you ll be using your site, we have a plan to fit your needs — and your budget. To learn more, visit studiopress.com/sites. That s studiopress.com/sites. Welcome to Episode 9 of Sites. Last week we discussed strategy, outlining 10 content marketing goals worth pursuing. Assuming you are focused on pursuing at least one of those goals, and hopefully many more than one, it s now time to resume our series on content marketing strategy. In Episode 1, we outlined the three-step process for creating a winning content marketing strategy: the who, the what, and how. Then in Episode 5, we took a deep dive into the first step in that process, the who, by analyzing how to attract your ideal customer with perfectly positioned content. And in this week s episode we proceed to the next step, the what, by digging into a decision that can be, at times, really exciting and fun, and at other times somewhat challenging and even frustrating. We re going to discuss how to know what content you need to be delivering to achieve your content marketing goals — one of which, I assume, is to convert more prospects. And since the blog post that I am adapting for this episode was written by Brian Clark, you won t be surprised to find out that there is discussion of the hero s journey and examples from Star Wars right around the corner. Let s dive in now and learn how to know exactly what content to deliver to convert more prospects. How to Know Exactly What Content to Deliver to Convert More Prospects Back in the 1940s, psychologists Fritz Heider and Marianne Simmel conducted an experiment. They showed study participants an animated film consisting of a rectangle with an opening, plus a circle and two triangles in motion. The participants were then asked to simply describe what they saw in the film. Before you continue listening, if you want to take a look at the film yourself, go to the show notes for this episode at studiopress.blog/sites09. There s a link to the film on YouTube right there at the top of the link bullets. It s a short film, about a minute. I ll be here when you come back. So … what did you see? Out of all the study participants, only one responded with a rectangle with an opening, plus a circle and two triangles in motion. The rest developed elaborate stories about the simple geometric shapes. Many participants concluded the circle and the little triangle were in love, and that the evil grey triangle was trying to harm or abduct the circle. Others went further to conclude that the blue triangle fought back against the larger triangle, allowing his love to escape back inside, where they soon rendezvoused, embraced, and lived happily ever after. That s pretty wild when you think about it. The Heider-Simmel experiment became the initial basis of attribution theory, which describes how people explain the behavior of others, themselves and also, apparently, geometric shapes on the go. More importantly, people explain things in terms of stories. Even in situations where no story is being intentionally told, we re telling ourselves a tale as a way to explain our experience of reality. And yes, we tell ourselves stories about brands, products, and services. Whether you re consciously telling a story or not, prospects are telling themselves a story about you. Are you telling a story? And more importantly, does that story resonate with the way your prospective customers and clients are seeing things? This is the key to knowing what your prospect needs to hear, and when they need to hear it, as part of your overall content marketing strategy. And in a networked, information-rich world where the prospects have all the power, this is your only chance to control the narrative. What kind of story should you tell? You need to tell a Star Wars story. And by that, I mean you need to take your prospects along a content marketing version of the mythic hero s journey. In The Hero with a Thousand Faces, Joseph Campbell identifies a monomyth a fundamental structure common to myths that have survived for thousands of years. Campbell s identification of these enduring myths from disparate times and regions has inspired modern storytellers to consciously craft their work following the monomyth framework, also known as the hero s journey. Most notable among those inspired by the hero s journey is George Lucas, who acknowledged Campbell s work as the source of the plot for Star Wars. As a content marketer, you can also consciously incorporate the monomyth into your launches, funnels, and general editorial calendar. If you go to Brian Clark s original post, at copyblogger.com/what, you ll find an image that shows the general elements of the hero s journey. They include elements you re likely familiar with if you ve learned about the hero s journey in the past: The call to adventure Meeting the mentor Crossing the threshold between The Ordinary World and The World of Transformation Helpers and Challengers Into the Innermost Cave The Supreme Ordeal Seizing Your Treasure, And finally, The Journey Home It s important to note that not all monomythic stories contain every aspect, but the original Star Wars faithfully follows almost every element of the hero s journey. Let s focus on the first two steps of the journey, in the ordinary world before the journey truly begins. Here s how those elements occurred in the original Star Wars. Luke is living in the ordinary world of his home planet, working on the family farm. The call to adventure is R2-D2 s holographic message from Princess Leia, the classic princess in distress. Luke initially refuses the call due to his family obligations, until his aunt and uncle are killed. Luke meets his mentor and guide, Obi-Wan Kenobi, who convinces Luke to proceed with his heroic journey. Obi-Wan gives Luke a gift that determines his destiny his father s lightsaber. How does this apply to content marketing? Simple. Your prospect is Luke. You are Obi-Wan. The mistake most often made in marketing is thinking of your business as the hero, resulting in egocentric messages that no one else cares about. The prospect is always the primary hero, because they are the one going on the journey whether big or small to solve a problem or satisfy a desire. The prospect starts off in the ordinary world of their lives. The call to adventure is an unsolved problem or unfulfilled desire. There s resistance to solving that problem or satisfying the desire. A mentor (your brand) appears that helps them proceed with the journey. You deliver a gift (your content) that ultimately leads to a purchase. By making the prospect the hero, your brand also becomes a hero in the prospect s story. And by accepting the role of mentor with your content, your business accomplishes its goals while helping the prospect do the same. Which is how business is supposed to work, right? 8 core steps in the buyer s journey Brian Clark has been using the hero s journey to teach marketing and sales since 2007. He has found that just the act of thinking of the prospect as the hero makes you a better content marketer. When you think in terms of empowering people to solve their problem by playing the role of mentor, you re naturally performing better than competitors who take an egocentric approach. This is also the exact way we come up with content marketing strategies for our own launches, funnels, and general editorial calendar. After years of using this strategic process, I ve found that every buyer s journey contains key points where you must deliver the right information at the right time to succeed at an optimal level. Remember, each journey is tied to a particular who that you have documented. Some people create content journeys for multiple personas, but my advice is that you pick one at first and focus. Even Apple stuck with one target persona for the entirety of the Get a Mac campaign, which we discussed back in episode 5. You ll notice I use the word problem here coming up, rather than problem or desire. An unfulfilled desire is a problem in the mind of the prospect, so it works on its own. Here are the 8 core steps in the buyer s journey: 1. Ordinary World: This is the world (and worldview) that your ideal prospect lives in. She may be aware of the problem that she has, but she hasn t yet resolved to do something about it. You understand how this person thinks, sees, feels, and behaves due to the empathy mapping process. 2. Call to Adventure: The prospect decides to take action to solve the problem. It could be a New Year s resolution, a longstanding goal, or a problem that rears its head for the first time. 3. Resistance to the Call: At this point, the prospect starts to waver in her commitment to solving the problem. Maybe it seems too hard, too expensive, too time consuming, or simply too impractical. As we ll discuss in a bit, this is a key content inflection point. 4. The Mentor and the Gift: This is the point that you are initially accepted as a mentor that guides the buyer s journey. The prospect accepts your offer of a gift, in the form of information, that promises to help her solve the problem. 5. Crossing the Threshold: This is the point of purchase where the prospect believes that your product or service will lead to the problem being solved, which will lead to transformation. The most important thing to understand is that, unlike flawed funnel metaphors, the journey does not end at purchase. 6. Traveling the Road: The customer begins using the product or service with the goal of achieving success in the context of the problem. Who cares if the customer stops the journey right after purchase, right? Wrong too often this leads to a refund request; plus you miss out on the huge benefits that accompany a happy customer. 7. Seizing the Treasure: The customer experiences success with your product or service. What does this look like for them and you? How will you know when it happens? 8. The New Ordinary: The customer has experienced a positive transaction with you, and yet we re just now getting to the really good stuff. This is a perfect time to prime them for repeat or upsell purchases or referrals. At this point, deliver content that aims at retention for recurring revenue products, and make savvy requests for direct referrals, testimonials, and word of mouth. Of the eight, only Traveling the Road isn t universal if you re an electrician, you show up and either fix the problem or don t. But if you re selling software-as-a-service, for example, content that gets users engaged with the platform is critical to reducing churn. These core steps can provide you with a beginning framework for a detailed map of the buyer s journey. The next step is to add the touchpoints that are unique to your product or service. Your unique journey map You may be thinking about how exactly you re supposed to map this out. Fortunately, there s already an established procedure for this, just as during the who phase. An experience map is a visual representation of the path a consumer takes from beginning to end with your content, and then with your product or service. By mapping the journey, you know where the additional crucial touchpoints are, and what content can empower the journey to continue. There is an example of an experience map in Brian s original post at copyblogger.com/what. The map demonstrates the journey a consumer would take while riding the trains in Europe. It follows her from the early stages of research and planning to the end of her trip. You see what she is doing (searching Google, looking up timetables), what she is thinking during each action (do I have everything I need, and am I on the right train?), and what she is feeling (stressed: I m about to leave the country and Rail Europe won t answer the phone). Do you see the correlation with the empathy mapping exercise you did back when developing a snapshot of your ideal customer in Episode 5? It s no coincidence that we re now applying what the prospect is Thinking, Seeing, Doing, and Feeling in their ordinary world to the journey they need to travel. In a piece called the Anatomy of an Experience Map, Chris Risdon at Adaptive Path suggests your experience map should have these five components: 1. The lens: This is how a particular person (or persona) views the journey. Keep in mind, this journey will not be the same for everyone. You will more than likely have more than one experience map. 2. The journey model: This is the actual design of the map. If all goes well, it should render insight to answer questions like What happens here? What s important about this transition? 3. Qualitative insight: This is where the Thinking-Seeing-Doing-Feeling of an empathy map comes in handy. 4. Quantitative information: This is data that brings attention to certain aspects of your map. It reveals information like 80 percent of people abandon the process at this touchpoint. 5. Takeaways: This is where the map earns its money. What are the conclusions? Opportunities? Threats to the system? Does it identify your strengths? Highlight your weaknesses? If you want more insight on customer experience maps, I ve placed a link in the show notes to a post on Copyblogger by Demian Farnworth that does a deep dive into the subject. Like empathy mapping, it can be done solo, but works even better as a collaborative process, so that everyone on your team understands the journey from the perspective of the prospect and subsequent customer. Mapping the 7 key influence principles When you consider influential content, you may naturally think that it s about how you present the information. While that s true from an engagement standpoint, which principle of influence to apply and when to emphasize it is an exercise in what as well. In other words, beyond the raw information of the what, you ll also want to identify the order of emphasis for things like reciprocity, social proof, authority, liking, commitment and consistency, unity, and scarcity. Every successful digital marketer I know purposefully applies those seven principles in their content and copy, because they all treat the book Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert Cialdini as their bible. If you haven t read it, you should but in the meantime check out two additional links I ve included in the show notes, at studiopress.blog/sites09: one a short video that explains the original six principles of persuasion, and then also an article by Sonia Simone on the all-important 7th principle of unity. At Rainmaker Digital, we think in terms of four different types of content when mapping the buyer s journey. Keep in mind that great marketing content contains all of these elements; you re simply selecting a category based on the primary aim of the individual piece at the appropriate time. First up we have Attraction content, otherwise known as top of funnel information. This corresponds best with the Resistance to the Call point of the hero s journey it addresses the problem while also addressing common objections to moving forward. In addition to creating the feeling that you re reading their mind, you re also invoking early influence through reciprocity, social proof through share numbers, and establishing authority. Next up, you have your cornerstone influence principle thanks to Authority content. The important thing is that you demonstrate authority, rather than claim it. Your Attraction content sets the stage, and your Authority content should be gated behind an email opt-in. At this stage, you re establishing clear authority, continuing to leverage reciprocity and social proof, and adding liking, plus commitment and consistency thanks to the opt-in. Next is Affinity content, which solidly positions you as a likable expert, but it goes beyond that. This is where you let your core values shine. You reflect the prospect s worldview back to them in a completely authentic way, prompting the powerful principle of unity. Never underestimate how often people choose to do business with people they like, and who also see the world like they do. Finally, it all comes down to Action. You don t look for ultimate action at the beginning of the journey. But you do rely on smaller actions along the way, especially at the bridge between Attraction content and Authority content. That said, the key influence principle at this stage is scarcity, which you ve earned the right to employ thanks to the other six principles. People fear missing out more than they desire gain, so make sure to use it ethically. This is the outline of your story It s tempting at this point to try to imagine how you re going to execute on your strategy, but you re not quite there yet. For now, map the journey experience. In addition to your character, you ve now got the plot points in the narrative you re weaving. All that s left is to figure out how to tell the story. That s coming up in four weeks when we hit Content again and continue our series on content marketing strategy. Now stick around this week s hyper-specific call to action is coming up. What you just heard was adapted from Brian Clark s blog post How to Know Exactly What Content to Deliver to Convert More Prospects, originally published at Copyblogger.com. You can find a link to the original article in the show notes at studiopress.blog/sites09. It s a pretty simple link: copyblogger.com/what. Now to this week s hyper-specific call to action … Call to action As usual with these episodes adapted from Brian s content marketing strategy series, the CTA is pretty simple and right there in the post. For this episode, it is to map the journey experience you want your audience to go on as they interact with your content. Think about the 8 steps in the buyer s journey that we outlined in this episode, and then figure out how the four different types of content — Attraction, Authority, Affinity, and Action — will help you create that experience. You can use the experience map example in the show notes to help you, or you can devise your own style of mapping, or even just describing this experience. At a minimum, think about it. Take some step toward being intentional and strategic about the experience you want your audience to have as they go through your content. And remember: THEY are the hero, not you. You are the mentor, the guide, but it s THEIR problems you re looking to help solve, THEIR goals you re looking to help them achieve, THEIR objections you re looking to overcome. This call to action may take you a little bit longer than the others, but it s worth it. Coming next week, it s back to design. We re going to talk about a specific type of design: UX design, or user experience design, and how doing this right is an investment that pays off in numerous ways. That s next week, on Sites. Finally, before I go, here are two more quick calls to action for you to consider: Subscribe to Sites Weekly If you haven t yet, please take this opportunity to activate your free subscription to our curated weekly email newsletter, Sites Weekly. Here s how it works: Each week, I find four links about content, design, technology, and strategy that you don t want to miss, and then I send them out via email on Wednesday afternoon. Reading this newsletter will help you make your website more powerful and successful. Go to studiopress.com/news and sign up in one step right there at the top of the page. That s studiopress.com/news. Oh, and I should mention, we occasionally include special offers in these emails too — stuff that isn t otherwise marketed publicly. So if you like StudioPress products, keep your eye out for special deals in your Sites Weekly email. Again, it s studiopress.com/news. Rate and Review Sites on Apple Podcasts And finally, if you enjoy the Sites podcast, please subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts (formerly known as iTunes), and consider giving us a rating or a review over there as well. One quick tip on that: to make the best use of your review, let me know something in particular you like about the show. That feedback is really important. For example, here is a recent review we received Apple ID Enlightenment Through Food: I was looking for some advice on setting up my site, but I didn t realize how important my content and strategy is. It doesn t matter how pretty your site is if you aren t getting your message out and creating an audience. Thank you for helping with this piece of my site puzzle! You re welcome Enlightenment! Thank you for listening, and for being so open to additional ideas for how to create a thriving web presence. To find us in Apple Podcasts, search for StudioPress Sites and look for the striking purple logo that was designed by Rafal Tomal. You can also go to the URL sites.fm/apple and it will redirect you to our Apple Podcasts page. And with that, we come to the close of another episode. Thank you for listening to this episode of Sites. I appreciate you being here. Join me next week, and let s keep building powerful, successful websites together. This episode of sites was brought to you by StudioPress Sites, which was awarded Fastest WordPress Hosting of 2017 in an independent speed test . If you want to make WordPress fast, secure, and easy — and, I mean, why wouldn t you — visit studiopress.com/sites today and see which plan fits your needs. That s studiopress.com/sites.

In this episode of Sites, we revisit a classic post from Sonia Simone that lists and describes 10 content marketing goals that are worth pursuing. Which ones are you already pursuing? Which ones should you add to your mix? Listen and find out. Listen to Site Success: Tips for Building Better WordPress Websites below ... Download MP3Subscribe by RSSSubscribe in iTunes Important links from this episode: @JerodMorris on Twitter Try StudioPress Sites Sites Weekly Newsletter Subscribe to Sites on Apple Podcasts 10 Content Marketing Goals Worth Pursuing The Transcript Jerod Morris: Welcome to Sites, a podcast by the teams at StudioPress and Copyblogger. In this show, we deliver time-tested insight on the four pillars of a successful WordPress website: content, design, technology, and strategy. We want to help you get a little bit closer to reaching your online goals, one episode at a time. I m your host Jerod Morris. Sites is brought to you by StudioPress Sites — the complete hosted solution that makes WordPress fast, secure, and easy without sacrificing power or flexibility. For example, you can upload your own WordPress theme, or, you can use one of the 20 beautiful StudioPress themes that are included and just one click away. Explore all the amazing things you can do with a StudioPress Site, and you ll understand why this is way more than traditional WordPress hosting. No matter how you ll be using your site, we have a plan to fit your needs — and your budget. To learn more, visit studiopress.com/sites. That s studiopress.com/sites. Welcome to Episode 8 of Sites. Last week we talked about technology and did quite a deep dive into SEO. That means that this week we come to the conclusion of our second full cycle through our four pillars of a successful website: content, design, technology, and strategy. And I know what you re thinking from looking at the title of this episode: strategy? But isn t this about content? Yes. It s about strategy and content. Just like last week, when we discussed SEO, it was really about strategy and technology (and, in some ways, content and design too). As I mentioned when we launched this podcast, and first explained these four pillars that will guide our content, overlap is inevitable. And that is okay. The goal is simply to make sure we don t miss anything essential. It s certainly not going to hurt us if we double up or triple up or even quadruple our focus on these important concepts in any one episode. Plus, as you ll see, while some of the 10 goals we re going to discuss in this episode deal specifically with actual blog content, others don t — #7 especially. And that s why I chose to cover this topic for one of our strategy episodes. Because if you aren t pursuing at least one of these content marketing goals, and probably many more, you clearly don t have a defined strategy for your website that is going to lead you in a positive direction. Chances are, you are indeed following one or several of these goals. But might there be a new one you could add to the mix? Or might hearing these ideas spark a new one in your mind? I sure hope so. This week s episode is based on an article that was originally written by Sonia Simone for Copyblogger. It is called 10 Content Marketing Goals Worth Pursuing. Let s get to it 10 Content Marketing Goals Worth Pursuing Ever wonder why content marketing works so well for some businesses but doesn t seem to do anything at all for others? Curious about why some content that seems great doesn t do anything to build a business? Content is king has been an online cliché for years now, but it s not true. It s never been true. Content all by itself even terrific content is just content. It may be entertaining. It may be educational. It may contain the secret to world peace and fresh, minty breath, all rolled into one. But it has no magical powers. It won t transform your business or get you where you need to go, until you add one thing Content marketing is a meaningless exercise without business goals. So what makes content marketing work? To make content work, you need to understand your marketing and business goals. Then you can create content that serves those goals, instead of just giving your audience something to pass the time. Your blog posts, email marketing, ebooks, podcasts, advertising all of it needs to fit into a larger picture. Now, if you blog purely for creative self-expression, go ahead and write as the spirit moves you. But if you re using content to market a business, you need a strategic framework so you can get the most out of your time and hard work. Here are 10 of the business goals that drive our content marketing at Rainmaker Digital. You might focus on just one or two, or you may use all 10. As you listen to this episode, see which of these you can apply to your own content marketing plan. Goal #1: Build trust and rapport with your audience This is the most obvious use of content marketing, and it s a good one. When you create useful, interesting, and valuable content, your audience learns they can trust you. They see that you know your topic. They get a sense of your personality and what it would be like to work with you. Lack of trust kills conversion. An abundance of valuable content builds trust like nothing else. But too many marketers stop there. In fact, it s just the beginning. Goal #2: Attract new prospects to your marketing system We all had it drilled into our heads by Mr. Godin when we were just baby content marketers: You have to be remarkable. Your content has to be compelling enough that it attracts links, social media sharing, and conversation. Why? Because that s how new people find you. No matter how delightful your existing customers are, you need a steady stream of new prospects to keep your business healthy. Remarkable content that gets shared around the web will find your best new prospects for you and lead them back to everything you have to offer. Goal #3: Explore prospect pain No, you re not doing this to be a sadist. The fact is, most enduring businesses thrive because they solve problems. They solve health problems, parenting problems, money problems, business problems, technology problems, What should I make for dinner? problems. When you understand your prospect s problems, you understand how to help them and then you have the core of your marketing message. Strategic content dives into the problems your prospects are facing. What annoys them? What frightens them? What keeps them awake at night? A smart content marketing program leaves room for audience questions. These might come in email replies, blog comments, or you may hold Q&A sessions or webinars specifically to solicit questions. Listen to the problems your market asks you about, and use those as a compass to guide your future content. Goal #4: Illustrate benefits Obviously, we don t dig up prospect problems and leave it at that. We talk about solutions. We talk about what fixes those annoying problems. Techniques, tips, tricks, methods, approaches. If you have a viable business, you have a particular take on solving your market s problems. Your individual approach is the flesh and blood of your content marketing. Your 10 Ways to Solve Problem X post shows the benefits of your approach. It illustrates how you solve problems and shows customers what they get out of working with you. Strategic content doesn t just tell a prospect My product is a good way to solve your problem. It shows them. And that s a cornerstone persuasion technique. Goal #5: Overcome objections Your prospect is looking for ways to solve his problem, but he s also keeping an eye out for potential problems. Strategic content can be a superb way to address prospect objections the reasons they don t buy. Is price a pain point? Write content that demonstrates how implementing your solutions saves money in the long run. Do your customers think your product will be too complicated to use? Write content that shows customers going from zero to sixty painlessly. Understand the objections that keep customers from buying, and then think about creative ways to resolve those objections in content often before the buyer ever gets to that sales page. Goal #6: Paint the picture of life with your product Ad-man Joe Sugarman was one of the great early practitioners of content marketing. He was a master of long-copy magazine ads for his company JS&A (a consumer gadget company) ads that were often as interesting and compelling as the magazine articles they appeared next to. In his Copywriting Handbook, he described how he might approach writing an ad for a Corvette. Feel the breeze blowing through your hair as you drive through the warm evening. Watch heads turn. Punch the accelerator to the floor and feel the burst of power that pins you into the back of your contour seat. Look at the beautiful display of electronic technology right on your dashboard. Feel the power and excitement of America s super sports car. Sugarman isn t describing the car. He s describing the experience of the driver. Sugarman was a master at mentally putting the customer into the experience of owning the product whether that product was a pocket calculator, a private jet, or a multi-million dollar mansion. It works very nicely in an ad. It works even better in your content. Storytelling is one of the best content marketing strategies, and it s a superb way to let customers mentally try out your offer before they ever experience it for themselves. Use content to show what it s like to own your product or use your service. Case studies are terrific for this, as are any stories that show how your approach to problem-solving works. Pick up Sugarman s book for lots of ideas about how to create fascinating content for products that might not immediately suggest a fascinating story. Goal #7: Attract strategic partners Once upon a time, Copyblogger was one writer. No software business. No marketing education business. No Authority, no Rainmaker Platform, no premium WordPress themes from StudioPress, no super-fast and secure WordPress hosting with StudioPress Sites, no Digital Commerce Institute, no Rainmaker.FM you get the idea. From very early days, the quality of the content posted here has attracted strategic partners the partners Brian Clark worked with to create every line of revenue-generating business we have today. Eventually, that evolved into the creation of a new company Rainmaker Digital (formerly Copyblogger Media). The partnership brings together a great complement of skills, and together we can go farther and faster than Brian could have on his own. Whatever your business goals are, partnerships are often the smartest way to get there. When you re passionate about creating excellent content, you ll find that potential partners are attracted to that passion. Goal #8: Deepen loyalty with existing customers This one is probably my favorite. Every company needs to attract new customers. But the biggest growth potential in most businesses comes from building a tighter relationship with your existing customers. A solid base of referral and repeat business is the hallmark of a great business. Even if you never did any content marketing to anyone other than your customers, you could radically improve your business by improving the communication you have with your customers today. Create a richer experience for the people who have already bought from you. Make your products and services work better by pairing them with useful, user-friendly content. Don t treat the waitress better than you do your date. Give great stuff to the people who have already bought from you, and they ll reward you for it. Goal #9: Develop new business ideas Your content stream is a fantastic place to try out new ideas. Thinking about repositioning your key product? Trying to better define your unique selling proposition? See a new problem on the horizon that your customers might want you to solve? Get those ideas into your content, and see how people react. You can watch what excites people and what fizzles out. Business writer Jim Collins talks about firing bullets, then cannonballs. In other words, when you get a new idea for your business, fire off something low-risk to test the waters. Don t start firing your big ammunition until you re sure you can actually hit the target. (And that there s a target there to hit.) Content is an amazing low-risk way to try out your ideas while risking very little. Your audience will let you know with their reactions which ideas fire them up and which ones leave them cold. Goal #10: Build your reputation with search engines Lots of content creators think this is reason #1 to create content but if you put this goal in the wrong place, you ll probably struggle with SEO. That s because search engines find you valuable when readers find you valuable. Search engines are looking for content that s valuable to their users. If you create that type of content, your SEO battle is 9/10 done. So put the first nine content marketing goals first, and the 10th becomes a matter of relatively simple SEO optimization. Stick around this week s hyper-specific call to action is coming up. Again, that was a reading of Sonia Simone s blog post 10 Content Marketing Goals Worth Pursuing, originally published at Copyblogger.com. You can find a link to the original article in the show notes at studiopress.blog/sites08. Now to this week s hyper-specific call to action … Call to action Answer this simple question: What s the main thing you re looking to get out of content marketing? What is your goal? To be more specific, what is your business goal? Because as Sonia said in her post, Content marketing is a meaningless exercise without business goals. And, as with all these goals, don t just think about it. Write it down. In your journal, on a piece of paper, in Evernote, in an email to yourself — that s actually what I usually do when I m listening to a podcast and think of something important. I shoot off a quick email to myself so that I m forced to see the idea again when I process that email. That works for me, it may not work for you, but just an idea. The point is: think about this question, experience your answer through the act of recording it, and then actually take some action on it. So if your goal is #6 from Sonia s post, paint the picture of life without your product, then really work on getting into the shoes of your audience and then telling a compelling story that will help them experience what life will be like with you or without you, depending on the context. Actually write that blog post. Or if your goal is #2, to attract new prospects to your marketing system, then get content out there that will do that and, of course, have a marketing system for them to opt into. Get your email list going, have an autoresponder, make offers, etc. You get the idea. Again, this week s question: What s the main thing you re looking to get out of content marketing? What is your goal? Write it down. And you know what? Do something else with it. Tweet it to me. @JerodMorris. J-E-R-O-D-M-O-R-R-I-S. I want to know. And if you have a goal that we didn t discuss in this episode, all the better! Send that to me too. We re now 8 episodes into this podcast. Let s start to get to know each other a bit, shall we? Send me a tweet. Let me know your answer to this week s CTA. I want to know. Coming next week, we go back to the beginning. After two complete cycles through our four pillars of content, design, technology, and strategy, we re back at content. And that means we take the next step in our series on content marketing strategy that Brian Clark outlined. We ll be exploring how to know exactly WHAT content to deliver to convert more prospects. It dovetails nicely with this week s episode, because who among us doesn t list among our content marketing goals: convert more prospects? Hopefully we all do! That will be a great discussion. Don t miss it. That s next week, on Sites. Finally, before I go, here are two more quick calls to action for you to consider: Subscribe to Sites Weekly If you haven t yet, please take this opportunity to activate your free subscription to our curated weekly email newsletter, Sites Weekly. Here s how it works: Each week, I find four links about content, design, technology, and strategy that you don t want to miss, and then I send them out via email on Wednesday afternoon. Reading this newsletter will help you make your website more powerful and successful. Go to studiopress.com/news and sign up in one step right there at the top of the page. That s studiopress.com/news. Oh, and I should mention, we occasionally include special offers in these emails too — stuff that isn t otherwise marketed publicly. So if you like StudioPress products, keep your eye out for special deals in your Sites Weekly email. Again, it s studiopress.com/news. Rate and Review Sites on Apple Podcasts And finally, if you enjoy the Sites podcast, please subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts (formerly known as iTunes), and consider giving us a rating or a review over there as well. One quick tip on that: to make the best use of your review, let me know something in particular you like about the show. That feedback is really important. For example, here is a recent review we received, from gembrechts: This show came in the exact moment I needed it. Although I have owned and operated a few businesses, this is my first dip into content marketing. So everything they are converting is the information I need to take in and internalize. Funny, I just love the music on this site. It is very uplifting. Thank you gembrechts. First off, it s great to know that you find this show at a time when it can make a huge impact for you. That s the reason we started it. And secondly, can I just tell you how much I appreciate the kind words about the music? I spend an inordinate amount of time trying to identify the perfect songs for every podcast I host. I actually really enjoy the process. And I ve never felt more enthusiastic about the intro and outro music for a show than for this one. So I m so glad you like it! By the way, I found the music at Premium Beat. It s a good resource if you re looking for podcast music and willing to pay a little bit for it. Anyway — to find us in Apple Podcasts, search for StudioPress Sites and look for the striking purple logo that was designed by Rafal Tomal. You can also go to the URL sites.fm/apple and it will redirect you to our Apple Podcasts page. And with that, we come to the close of another episode. Thank you for listening to this episode of Sites. I appreciate you being here. Join me next week, and let s keep building powerful, successful websites together. This episode of sites was brought to you by StudioPress Sites, which was awarded Fastest WordPress Hosting of 2017 in an independent speed test . If you want to make WordPress fast, secure, and easy — and, I mean, why wouldn t you — visit studiopress.com/sites today and see which plan fits your needs. That s studiopress.com/sites.

What is digital sharecropping and why is it so dangerous? We explore those questions this week on Sites, with the help of one of the most widely shared strategy articles in the history of Copyblogger. Listen to Site Success: Tips for Building Better WordPress Websites below ... Download MP3Subscribe by RSSSubscribe in iTunes Important links from this episode: Try StudioPress Sites Sites Weekly Newsletter Sonia Simone’s article: Digital Sharecropping: The Most Dangerous Threat to Your Content Marketing Strategy The Transcript Jerod Morris: Welcome to Sites, a podcast by the teams at StudioPress and Copyblogger. In this show, we deliver time-tested insight on the four pillars of a successful WordPress website: content, design, technology, and strategy. We want to help you get a little bit closer to reaching your online goals, one episode at a time. I m your host Jerod Morris. Sites is brought to you by StudioPress Sites — the complete hosted solution that makes WordPress fast, secure, and easy without sacrificing power or flexibility. For example, you can upload your own WordPress theme, or, you can use one of the 20 beautiful StudioPress themes that are included and just one click away. Explore all the amazing things you can do with a StudioPress Site, and you ll understand why this is way more than traditional WordPress hosting. No matter how you ll be using your site, we have a plan to fit your needs — and your budget. To learn more, visit studiopress.com/sites. That s studiopress.com/sites Hi there, and welcome to episode 4 of Sites. It s great to be back with you, and have another opportunity to help you take the next small step toward the continuous improvement of your website and overall online presence. It s time to complete the cycle. In the first three episodes we covered content, design, and technology which means there is one pillar of a successful WordPress website left for us to cover this week before we start the cycle over again next week. That pillar is strategy. So in this episode of Sites, we review one of the most widely shared strategy articles ever written at Copyblogger. As of the day I m recording this, it has 7,447 shares — over 3800 on Twitter and over 2000 on Facebook. Clearly, this is a topic, and a lesson, that has connected in a major way. The reason is because it taps into one of the greatest fears we all have about investing legitimate time and money into building something online: that someday, due to forces totally outside of our control, we could lose what we ve built. It s a frightening proposition, especially if you ve built your business and livelihood around your online presence. But it needn t be so frightening if you own the land on which you build. That keeps you in control. And that is the big lesson of this week s episode of Sites, which is based on a blog post written by Sonia Simone titled Digital Sharecropping: The Most Dangerous Threat to Your Content Marketing Strategy. What is digital sharecropping and why is it so dangerous? Let s explore that now, via words written by Sonia and spoken by me and don t forget to stick around after the reading for this week s hyper-specific call to action. Digital Sharecropping: The Most Dangerous Threat to Your Content Marketing Strategy We have a great bookstore in my town the kind of place you picture in your mind when you think of a great independent bookshop. It s perfect for browsing, with lots of comfy chairs to relax in. The books are displayed enticingly. There s a little coffee shop, so you can relax with an espresso. They get your favorite writers to come in for readings, so there s always an event and a sense of excitement. They do everything right, and they ve always had plenty of customers. But they still closed their doors last year. No, not for the reasons you might think. It wasn t Amazon that killed them, or the proliferation of free content on the web, or the crappy economy. They closed the store because they were leasing their big, comfortable building and when that lease ran out, their landlord tripled the rent. Literally overnight, their business model quit working. Revenues simply wouldn t exceed costs. A decision made by another party, one they had no control over, took a wonderful business and destroyed it. And that s precisely what you risk every day you make your business completely dependent on another company. It might be Facebook. It might be eBay. It might be Google. It s called digital sharecropping, and it means you re building your business on someone else s land. And it s a recipe for heartbreak and failure. What s digital sharecropping, anyway? Digital sharecropping is a term coined by Nicholas Carr to describe a peculiar phenomenon of Web 2.0. One of the fundamental economic characteristics of Web 2.0 is the distribution of production into the hands of the many and the concentration of the economic rewards into the hands of the few. In other words, anyone can create content on sites like Facebook, but that content effectively belongs to Facebook. The more content we create for free, the more valuable Facebook becomes. We do the work, they reap the profit. The term sharecropping refers to the farming practices common after the U.S. Civil War, but it s essentially the same thing as feudalism. A big landholder allows individual farmers to work their land and takes most of the profits generated from the crops. The landlord has all the control. If he decides to get rid of you, you lose your livelihood. If he decides to raise his fees, you go a little hungrier. You do all the work and the landlord gets most of the profit, leaving you a pittance to eke out a living on. Well, we re professional content marketers not subsistence farmers and our work doesn t involve 12-hour days in grueling conditions. So is sharecropping still dangerous? It is, for a couple of reasons Reason #1: Landlords are fickle Let s look at Facebook. What if you moved all of your marketing to a site like Facebook? It s local, it s free to sign up, and it makes businesses feel like they re doing something cutting-edge. But what happens when Facebook thinks you ve done something that violates their terms of service and deletes your account? Or changes the way you re allowed to talk with your customers? Facebook is a particularly fast-changing platform, but it s not the only one. An entire industry has sprung up based on trying to figure out what Google s going to do tomorrow, both as a search engine and as an advertising platform. If you re relying on Facebook or Google to bring in all of your new customers, you re sharecropping. You re hoping the landlord will continue to like you and support your business, but the fact is, the landlord has no idea who you are and doesn t actually care. Reason #2: Landlords go away The other problem with sharecropping is that the landlord may or may not be here next year. Sharecroppers have put millions of hours into sites like Digg or MySpace. And those sites still exist but they re no longer bringing the traffic they once did. Sharecropped land, in other words, has a tendency to become less and less fertile over time. Maybe Facebook, LinkedIn, or Pinterest will buck the trend. Maybe they ll continue to stay healthy and vibrant for decades. The best we can do is guess. And if we guess wrong, our business goes into a slow and steady decline. So are Facebook and Google bad for business? Of course not. Facebook, Google, LinkedIn, Twitter, Pinterest and many more search and social sites are all superb tools to add to our marketing mix. The secret is to spend most of your time and creative energy building assets that you control. There are three assets you should be building today and should continue to focus on for the lifetime of your digital business: A well-designed website with your own hosting — go back and listen to episodes 2 and 3 of Sites for more on each of these topics. An opt-in email list, ideally with a high-quality autoresponder A reputation for providing impeccable value Developing these assets are the equivalent of buying your building instead of renting it. Any of these can still fall prey to outside influences. The bookstore s building can burn down. And your site can be hacked, your email account closed down, your reputation smeared. But repairing your assets is in your control. You can fix the hacked code, export your email list to another provider, and respond effectively to manage your reputation. More importantly, you can proactively protect those assets by taking website security seriously, avoiding any spammy or dodgy practices with your email, and cultivating a loyal audience who will vouch for you as being one of the good guys. You ve put a lot of time and effort into your business don t put it all at risk by building on rented land. Again, that blog post by Sonia Simone is titled Digital Sharecropping: The Most Dangerous Threat to Your Content Marketing Strategy and it was originally published at Copyblogger.com. I ll have a link to the original post in the show notes, which you can find at studiopress.blog/sites04 because this is episode number four. Now here is this week s hyper-specific call to action: Call to action Take five minutes this week — preferably right now, since this content is fresh in your mind — and review your content and community mix. How dependent are you on Facebook, Google, Twitter, or any other sites that are great for distributing content and making connections but that you don t own? And here s a way to think about it: when you consider your audience, is your first thought to think about how many Twitter followers or Facebook likes you have, or is your first thought to think about how many people are on your email list or how many site members you have? Because remember: the way you interact with your audience on Twitter and Facebook could be forced to change or even taken away at any time. But you ll always own and determine the rules of engagement with YOUR list on YOUR site. It s an empowering feeling. So think about how much you may be digital sharecropping, even unintentionally, and then the next step is figuring out how to regain any control you may have ceded. Coming next week, we start the cycle over. We ve now done an episode each on content, design, technology, and strategy so it s back to content. In our first content episode, we discussed the three-part strategy for crafting a winning content marketing strategy: the who, the what, and the how. Now we get to explore each of those areas further, starting with the who. We ll discuss how to attract your ideal customer with perfectly positioned content. That s next week, on Sites. Finally, before I go, here are a couple more quick calls to action for you to consider: Subscribe to Sites Weekly Take this opportunity to activate your free subscription to our curated weekly email newsletter, Sites Weekly. Each week, I find four links about content, design, technology, and strategy that you don t want to miss, and then I send them out on Wednesday afternoon. Reading this newsletter will help you make your website more powerful and successful. Go to studiopress.com/news and sign up in one step right there at the top of the page. That s studiopress.com/news. Rate and Review Sites on Apple Podcasts Also, if you enjoy the Sites podcast, please subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts (formerly known as iTunes), and consider giving us a rating or a review over there as well. One quick tip on that: to make the best use of your review, let me know something in particular you like about the show. That feedback is really important. For example, one of our early reviews says: I never knew that there was so much to consider when it came to my website, but thanks to this podcast, I now look at my site through a new constructive lens. Thanks to this show, I ve been taking action to improve my online appearance. I am eagerly awaiting more. That s helpful — both to me, as I look to continue to improve the show, and to people who are browsing shows in Apple Podcasts wondering what will give them the most value for the time they invest in listening. To find us in Apple Podcasts, search for StudioPress Sites and look for the mesmerizing purple logo designed by Rafal Tomal. You can also go to the URL sites.fm/apple and it will redirect you to our Apple Podcasts page. And with that, we come to the close of another episode. Thank you for listening to this episode of Sites. I appreciate you being here. Join me next week, and let s keep building powerful, successful websites together. This episode of sites was brought to you by StudioPress Sites, which was awarded Fastest WordPress Hosting of 2017 in an independent speed test . If you want to make WordPress fast, secure, and easy — and, I mean, why wouldn t you — visit studiopress.com/sites today and see which plan fits your needs. That s studiopress.com/sites.

Accelerate! Expresso. It's a weekly round-up show that contains snippets from each interview from the previous week's slate of guests. These clips have been edited into tight, short show that will give you just a taste of the insights you missed if you didn't catch every episode of Accelerate! In this episode, you'll hear from excerpts from my conversations with the following experts: Libby Gill, Javaid Iqbal, Ray Makela, Lolly Daskal, Bridget Gleason, and Sonia Simone

On this show, we discuss how content marketing continues to evolve, and how that evolution affects the sales profession.

Sonia Simone joins our show to walk you through the most important elements of setting up a membership site, today. As we approach the new year, you may be thinking about the changes you want to make to your life. And if you have been following the show, that may mean that you are looking... Listen to episode

On this episode of Elsewhere, Sonia Simone chats with Ash Roy on the Productive Insights Podcast about what it means to be a prolific content marketer. In Part One of the show, Sonia and Ash discuss: Understanding your audience and their needs Content marketing’s role in today’s sale cycle When and why to use guest... Listen to episode

It's one thing to get by with your business moving around the globe - it's another entirely to co-build a thriving business like Copyblogger from a laptop. Sonia Simone has been absolutely killing it in the copywriting world and has recently moved her life to Rome. Making her way from freelancer to co-founding Copyblogger was no easy task and in this week's podcast episode, Sonia shares her journey as well as some of her top tips for getting more clients and how relocating has shifted her business. Listen in to this episode to learn about: Sonia's journey from a corporate world to copywriting as a freelancer and building up a business in a very competitive niche How to differentiate yourself and get more clients What prompted her to move to Italy and how that's affected her business, working style, and daily flow How she became a co-founder of Copyblogger How to get acquainted and settled in a new country The pros and cons of being location independent Subscribe: iTunes | Android | RSS [Tweet "How to uplevel your business while working from anywhere!"] Key Resources I mention or add value to this podcast: Copy Blogger Copyblogger FM Connect with Sonia on Twitter Book Yourself Solid Ryan Levesque's Ask   Want reliable hosting for your blog and website at 50% off? HostGatoris your one-stop shop for all things web hosting. From design and marketing services to easy-to-use website builders, they are with you every step of the way. Thanks to their 24/7 - 365 days a year live support – which you can get via chat, phone and email - any and all questions you have can be answered in no time at all. They offer unmetered disk space and bandwidth, an easy to use control panel, 4500 free website templates, and one-click WordPress installs. HostGator has partnered with me to help my listeners get started. Click the link below to get 50% off any new hosting package. Visit Hostgator.com/Suitcase See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

How To Be A Prolific Content Marketer with Sonia Simone Co-Founder of Copyblogger Media (Part 2 of 2) Share this Episode  Click To Tweet Share on Facebook Links Mentioned ash@productiveinsights.com callashroy.com http://www.copyblogger.com/ http://rainmakerplatform.com/ http://rainmaker.fm/series/pink/ http://www.copyblogger.com/10-steps-to-better-writing/ https://moz.com/ http://dayoneapp.com/ https://wordcounter.net/ http://www.copyblogger.com/rainmaker-fm/ Related Episodes 038. Rand Fishkin – How To Create Great SEO Friendly Content Plus Key Trends […]

How To Be A Prolific Content Marketer Part 2

How To Be A Prolific Content Marketer with Sonia Simone Co-Founder of Copyblogger Media (Part 1 of 2) Share this Episode  Click To Tweet Share on Facebook Links Mentioned ash@productiveinsights.com callashroy.com http://www.copyblogger.com/ http://rainmakerplatform.com/ http://rainmaker.fm/series/pink/ http://www.copyblogger.com/10-steps-to-better-writing/ https://moz.com/ Related Episodes 038. Rand Fishkin – How To Create Great SEO Friendly Content Plus Key Trends In Search 003. […]

How To Be A Prolific Content Marketer Part 1

Here's a great problem to have: Producing so much high-quality content that your audience gets overwhelmed. But the thing is … it's still a problem. Today, Sonia Simone and Pamela Wilson take you behind the scenes to look at the development of our new weekly email roundup — Copyblogger Weekly. We're putting this new approach... Listen to episode --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/copyblogger-podcast/message

Here’s a great problem to have: Producing so much high-quality content that your audience gets overwhelmed. But the thing is … it’s still a problem. Today, Sonia Simone and Pamela Wilson take you behind the scenes to look at the development of our new weekly email roundup — Copyblogger Weekly. We’re putting this new approach... Listen to episode

We hear from people all the time that their #1 problem with content marketing is all the writing involved! Whether that’s writing a blog post or email sequence, crafting a sales page or a video script or even putting together a tweet or Facebook ad, creating content that sells involves writing copy. So, if you’ve got to do it, you may as well find a way to make it easier and feel more “natural”, even if writing doesn’t come naturally to you.In this episode, hosts Suzi Dafnis and Michelle Falzon, invite a REAL natural writer, Sonia Simone co-found of Rainmaker Digital and host of The Pink Haired Marketer Podcast, to share her secrets for producing content in a way that feels natural and expresses your voice in an authentic way.

Fiction needs what editor Shawn Coyne calls “obligatory scenes” — the elements that satisfy audience expectations and make the book a must-read. Do those elements exist for content? And if so … what are they? Today, Sonia Simone gives her thoughts on the “must-include” elements of a solid content marketing program. In this 28-minute episode,... Listen to episode --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/copyblogger-podcast/message

Fiction needs what editor Shawn Coyne calls “obligatory scenes” — the elements that satisfy audience expectations and make the book a must-read. Do those elements exist for content? And if so … what are they? Today, Sonia Simone gives her thoughts on the “must-include” elements of a solid content marketing program. In this 28-minute episode,... Listen to episode

Sonia's back on the podcast this week with suggestions on how to address three challenges that pop up often in our communities. When we're talking with creative professionals, and content marketers in particular, we've noticed certain challenges that come up again and again. In this 22-minute episode, Sonia Simone is back on Copyblogger FM to... Listen to episode --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/copyblogger-podcast/message

What is the biggest difference between a perpetually aspiring digital entrepreneur, who has all the ideas in the world … and a successful digital entrepreneur, who actually goes out and gets things done? Sonia Simone, Chief Content Officer and Founding Partner of Rainmaker Digital, says there are two factors; and the first one is the... Listen to episode

This week on Elsewhere, Rainmaker FM host and Chief Content Officer Sonia Simone discussed marketing, careers, and digital business with Charlie Gilkey on The Creative Giant Show. In this 53-minute episode Sonia and Charlie discuss: Why Sonia believes that selling and marketing are skills you don t have to be born with, but can acquire How... Listen to episode

Think about what comes to mind when I ask you to think about a marketer or sales person. Be honest! Did you think of a smart, soft spoken, insightful woman? If not, I hope today’s episode changes that for you. Sonia Simone is a marketing trend setter and founding partner of Rainmaker Digital, formerly Copyblogger Media. Throughout our conversation, she reveals how a risk averse, introverted and insanely curious writer became one of the leading voices in digital marketing today. Ready? Let’s do this!   Key Takeaways: [1:03] Thank you to SaneBox.com for sponsoring episode #89. [2:17] Charlie introduces Sonia and her line of work. [4:22] What is it about marketing that got Sonia involved? [6:34] There is an invisible aspect of digital marketing. Sonia explains. [8:01] Sonia has always approached marketing from the content marketing perspective, even before there was a word for it. [10:25] Marketing and selling are learnable skill sets; you don’t need to be born with them. [12:29] Every human being on this planet has a certain set of assets and a certain set of constraints. [15:28] Barriers are a lot easier to step over in digital platforms. [18:39] Sonia walks us through her journey from corporate to Copyblogger. [25:22] Sonia speaks on folks out there that sell business advice based on the fast outliers. [28:58] Sonia likes Chris Gilbo’s flavor of entrepreneur teaching because it includes a big minimalist component.  [32:06] Sonia talks on Clay Collins’ vision of being a business owner. [34:10] “What’s the shortest line between me and a cheque?” - Naomi Dunford [36:40] Internet Marketing for Smart People vs. Nice People!! [39:49] Sonia has been highly focused on values lately. [44:10] Naomi writes 85% of the things she says in her podcast Confessions of a Pink-Haired Marketer, which she has been her primary focus lately. [48:34] What’s the most unanticipated challenge Sonia is currently facing? [52:05] Sonia’s final words of advice: “Be honest about your own set of Legos and don’t try to build somebody else’s thing.”   Mentioned in This Episode: SaneBox.com/Giant www.copyblogger.com Rainmaker Digital Remarkable Communication Clay Collins Naomi Dunford Internet Marketing for Smart People Confessions of a Pink-Haired Marketer Podcast

Chief Content Officer at Rainmaker Digital and founding memberofCopyblogger Sonia Simone joins the podcast. Listen in as wediscussthe current state of publishing, personal branding, and the"60'sband name" technique for finding a good domain.

Sonia stopped by for a chat with Glenn Leibowitz to discuss content marketing in the digital age. In this episode, Glenn and Sonia discuss: Sonia’s advice on developing your own blogging voice How to expand your professional network and build your audience by cultivating relationships with other writers Why you should be paying close attention... Listen to episode

Sonia Simone is Co-Founder and Chief Content Officer of Rainmaker Digital, which until recently was known as Copyblogger Media. If you’re not familiar with what they do by now, Rainmaker Digital is a highly successful digital commerce company that offers an enormous range of free and paid content, as well as platforms and solutions for digital marketers. In addition to running Rainmaker Digital with co-founder Brian Clark, and blogging on a range of topics that content marketers care about, Sonia is also the host of a podcast she launched earlier this year as part of the new Rainmaker.FM podcast network: Confessions of a Pink-Haired Marketer. In this conversation we cover a lot of ground. Sonia shares her advice on developing your own blogging voice, how to expand your professional network and build your audience by cultivating relationships with other writers, why you should be paying close attention to your email list to see what people are reading and sharing, and so much more.  You can find the show notes to this episode over at writewithimpact.com/episode27. There you’ll find links to Sonia’s podcast and the Copyblogger website.  While you’re there, you can also pick up some writing tips from me and join my newsletter so you can be the first to get updates on new podcast episodes, blog posts, and a number of great offers that I provide from time to time.  Follow Write With Impact on Twitter @impactfulwriter Like Write With Impact on Facebook: facebook.com/WriteWithImpact  

The one and only Sonia Simone joins us to teach the art and science of driving traffic to your posts on LinkedIn. Sonia shares about the people aspect of all markets and how to find your people. You ll learn about sharing your content through video and how it can tie successfully into your marketing strategy.... Listen to episode

Award-winning designer and marketing consultant Pamela Wilson — who has helped small businesses and large organizations alike create ”big brands” since 1987 — stopped by to chat about what it’s like to run the blog at Copyblogger.com, and her mission to publish impeccable online content. Rainmaker.FM is Brought to You By Discover why more than 80,000 companies in 135 countries choose WP Engine for managed WordPress hosting. Start getting more from your site today! As head of the editorial team for Copyblogger Media, she helps guide an abundance of educational content for one of the top online marketing, blogging, and copywriting sites in the world. Pamela’s unique point-of-view comes from the marriage of design, branding, content, and conversion — something she has coined “Customer Experience Design.” In this file Pamela Wilson and I discuss: How Coming Late to Writing Can Work in Your Favor Why Useful Content Creates Priceless Inroads for Writers The Difficulty of Designing a Remarkable Online Presence How Writing Has Become Her Yoga Practice Why You Should Commit to Writing 750 Words a Day The Hallmarks of Great Online Writing Why Picasso is an Inspiring Model for Writers to Follow Listen to The Writer Files: Writing, Productivity, Creativity, and Neuroscience below ... Download MP3 Subscribe by RSS Subscribe in iTunes The Show Notes Pamela’s Author Page on Copyblogger Big Brand System Blog The Bobby McFerrin Plan for Creating a Remarkable Business The Write Way to Answer Your Most Pressing Questions by Pamela Wilson 750words.com Accidental Genius: Using Writing to Generate Your Best Ideas, Insight, and Content by Mark Levy Pamela Wilson on Instagram Pamela Wilson on Twitter Kelton Reid on Twitter The Transcript How Pamela Wilson (VP of Educational Content for Copyblogger) Writes Voiceover: This is Rainmaker.FM, the digital marketing podcast network. It’s built on the Rainmaker Platform, which empowers you to build your own digital marketing and sales platform. Start your free 14-day trial at RainmakerPlatform.com. Kelton Reid: These are The Writer Files, a tour of the habits, habitats, and brains of working writers, from online content creators to fictionists, journalists, entrepreneurs, and beyond. I’m your host Kelton Reid: writer, podcaster, and mediaphile. Each week, we’ll find out how great writers keep the ink flowing, the cursor moving, and avoid writer’s block. Award-winning designer and marketing consultant Pamela Wilson, who has helped small businesses and large organizations alike create big brands since 1987, stopped by to chat with me about what it’s like to run the blog at Copyblogger.com and her mission to publish impeccable online content. As head of the editorial team for Copyblogger Media, she helps guide an abundance of educational content for one of the top online marketing, blogging, and copywriting blogs in the world. Pamela’s unique point of view comes from the marriage of design, branding, content, and conversion — something she’s coined ‘customer experience design.’ In this file, Pamela Wilson and I discuss how coming to writing late can work in your favor, the difficulty of designing a remarkable online presence, why you should commit to writing 750 words a day, the hallmarks of great online writing, and why Picasso is an inspiring model for writers to follow. If you enjoy The Writer Files podcast, do me a favor and leave a rating or review in iTunes to help other writers find us. Thanks for tuning in. Pamela Wilson, thank you so very much for joining me on The Writer Files. Pamela Wilson: I am so happy to be here. You know, I’ve told you like five times. I’m so happy you invited me to The Writer Files. Kelton Reid: Well, it’s truly a pleasure to have you on, and I can’t wait to pick your brain and get into your file. Pamela Wilson: Awesome. I’m ready. Kelton Reid: Okay. Let’s talk a little bit more about you, the author. For listeners who aren’t familiar with your story — I’m sure that many of them already are — who are you, and what is your area of expertise as a writer? How Coming Late to Writing Can Work in Your Favor Pamela Wilson: So the funny thing is, I actually think I’m probably the least likely writer to appear on this series because I came to writing really late in my career. I like to think that might be helpful for some people who don’t think of themselves as writers. You may have a different area of expertise, but writing really is something that you can learn. We’ll talk about that a lot today because it’s something I learned. It was an important part of my professional development. My history is that I was the person who made writers’ words look great. I was working primarily as a designer, but also as a marketing consultant. In that work, part of what I did was people would give me Microsoft Word documents that had very little formatting in them. It was just basically the words on a page. What I would do is make those documents look fantastic, make people want to read them. I’d pull photos to put with them, format them, give them nice-looking fonts and colors, and all of that to draw people in and make them want to read them. I did that primarily through publication design, magazines, books, newsletters, and things like that. Some online design as well, but primarily print. All my career, that’s who I was. I was the person who made the words look good. I never supplied the words myself. I had this award-winning design business, so I did really well at that part of my career. But no one was asking me to write. Every once in a while, somebody would give me copy and they would forget to give me a headline, so I might write the headline for their copy. That was about the extent of it. That was the most I ever wrote except for emails to clients. That was about all I ever wrote. Back in the late 2009, I started to feel antsy. I had been doing this for a long time, and I felt like I’d figured out this system that worked really consistently for all of my clients to help to build a recognizable brand. It was relatively simple. It wasn’t expensive to implement, and it worked really consistently. Without fail, it always worked. I felt like I had figured something out. I wanted to share it, so I decided to write a book. This was the fall of 2009, and I was obsessed with this idea that I wanted to write a book. Right around that time I found Copyblogger. I don’t know where I had been hiding online. I had not found Copyblogger up until that time, and around that time, I did. Just a few weeks after I found Copyblogger, they launched Teaching Sells. I joined Teaching Sells because I thought, “Maybe this is a way to share my information by teaching it online instead of trying to write a book.” What happened as a result of taking Teaching Sells is, I put together a blog, Big Brand System, and I started writing for it consistently in January of 2010. Really, that was when I started writing. It’s only been a little over five years. Kelton Reid: Wow. I saw you speak at Authority Rainmaker Conference, and it was a truly inspiring session you did there. You talked about customer experience design, which I thought was really, really cool. A lot about content and building that warm, personal relationship. You were doing that online as proof of concept I guess? Why Useful Content Creates Priceless Inroads for Writers Pamela Wilson: I was. One of the things I talked about in that talk was the fact that it was so disconcerting to have this offline business that had worked really well and that I thought relied on having this personal connection with my clients. Then I went online, and I was like, “Well, how am I supposed to have a personal connection with people I can’t even see?” It was a huge revelation to me that, by crafting really useful and approachable and friendly content, you could make that same kind of connection. You could make that connection with your writing. That was a huge eye opener for me. I hadn’t realized that. Kelton Reid: Yeah, yeah. I love that. Where can we find more of your writing? Pamela Wilson: You can find a lot of my writing on BigBrandSystem.com, but nowadays, I’m actually running the day to day Copyblogger blog along with Demian Farnworth and Stefanie Flaxman. I write for Copyblogger a lot more than I write for Big Brand System nowadays, so you can mostly find me there. What happened with that is I got this inspiration when I was at this concert way back in 2010, so it was right after I had started my own blog. I went to this Bobby McFerrin concert, and I got hit by a bolt of lightning. I was like, “What he’s doing in this concert is what I need to be doing with my online business.” I got home from that concert and I told my family, “Okay, I need to do something in the office.” I closed myself in my office. I wrote this post and submitted it to Copyblogger, and it was published on Copyblogger, which was a huge moment. It was a very exciting moment for me. Then I started writing for Copyblogger on a regular basis, developed a nice relationship over time, and now, as you know, I’ve been working with Copyblogger as a member of the team. It’s been just a little over a year now. All of that happened because of my writing, because of this thing that I had never done before. Kelton Reid: Yeah. What projects do you have in the works presently? The Difficulty of Designing a Remarkable Online Presence Pamela Wilson: Well, at Copyblogger, the big thing that I’m working on is helping to tell our story in a more cohesive way. As you know, it’s a very complex company that we work for now. The offer is not something that’s easy to sum up in just one sentence. That’s a lot of what I’m working now — how to tell that story in a way that everyone understands the story right away. The one thing that I’ve kind of zeroed in on is that all of our products — whether it’s StudioPress, the Genesis Framework, or the child themes, or it’s the Rainmaker Platform, Synthesis, or any of our educational products, Authority or anything else that’s really focused on helping to educate people on how to run an online, digital-based business — all of those things are trying to help people to build a remarkable online presence. That’s the story I’m trying to tell about what we do as a company. I think that one story kind of brings everything together. Kelton Reid: Absolutely. That’s really cool. Let’s talk a little bit about your productivity. You’re a busy lady with all of the things that you get into on a daily basis. How much time per day would you say you’re reading or doing research? Pamela Wilson: I’ve listened to a few of these interviews before. You do such a great job, so I enjoy listening to them. They’re very inspiring. I hear people answer this question, and they say like, “Oh I spend two hours researching,” or “I spend four hours reading.” I always think to myself like, “Are those consecutive hours?” Because my day never works like that. I don’t have a chunk of two hours or four hours. It just never seems to work out that way. If I added up all of the little slices, I probably spend two hours total, but it’s divided into a lot of very thin slices. I like to listen to audio books while I exercise. I probably spend 20 to 30 minutes reading throughout the day and probably an hour researching things on websites, but it’s five minutes here and five minutes there. Kelton Reid: Right. Pamela Wilson: I don’t have this research hat that I put on and just close out the world and sit there and do my research. I have this alternate universe where I live where I spent all afternoon sitting in a hammock and reading and researching and thinking about what I’m going to do the next day, but I don’t actually live there. That’s not what my day usually looks like. Kelton Reid: No, no. Mine either, as you can probably guess. Let’s talk about before you kind of get into the writing mode. Do you have any pre-game rituals or kind of warm-up practices? How Writing Has Become Her Yoga Practice Pamela Wilson: The weird thing about this question is that I have thought about it. I’ve realized that my pre-game ritual has to do with my body position. This is going to be a weird answer. What I have found is no matter where I am, because I do travel quite a bit, I seem to do my best, fastest, most productive writing sitting in a chair with my legs crossed under me, and my laptop balanced on my knees. I have no idea why this is, but whether I’m here, at home in Nashville, or I’m travelling somewhere, I always seem to sit in that position. That’s how I write. It’s kind of good to have this body position that works. Then no matter where I am, as soon as I sit down, cross my legs, stick my laptop on my knees, I’m in writing mode. It’s really weird, but it’s very consistent with me. Kelton Reid: You’re like a writing yogi. Pamela Wilson: That’s funny. It is like a meditative position. I hadn’t thought about that. My fingers are not meditating while I’m doing that, I have to say. Kelton Reid: Do you have a most productive time of day or locale? Pamela Wilson: Well, locale doesn’t seem to matter as long as I’m in position, so that’s the good news because I move around a lot. That has worked out well to recognize that seems to be what works for me. As far as time of day, I would say first thing in the morning after a good night’s sleep and after I’ve had my morning caffeine is probably the best. Kelton Reid: Oh, yes. Pamela Wilson: I get the most done. Kelton Reid: Absolutely. Well, you’re kind of a globetrotter, much like Sonia Simone, so I guess you have to find that perfect locale wherever you may be, be it Barcelona or elsewhere. Pamela Wilson: Right, I think so. Speaking of that, the other thing that I’ve noticed is I get so much done when I’m locked on a plane. I don’t know what it is. I think it’s because you may have Internet, but it’s usually spotty, so you tend to just have that off. You want something to do to pass the time. You end up writing. I do anyway. I always get so much done on planes. Kelton Reid: Austin Kleon said the same thing. Maybe I should fly more. Pamela Wilson: I don’t know what it is. It’s like you’re locked in this metal tube, and you need to do something to pass the time. I was on this flight a few months ago, actually I think it was on the way back from Authority, and I was doing the usual thing. I had my laptop open on the table in front of me, and I’m trying to get all this stuff done. It’s a little bit awkward because you have this person who’s right on your elbow next to you, and you’re just trusting that they’re not looking over your shoulder. I did all my writing. I got it all done, and then just as the flight is ending, she turns to me and says — this was the first thing that she had said to me the whole flight — “I’ve never seen someone use a track pad so quickly,” and I’m like “Okay.” Kelton Reid: Compliment or ? Pamela Wilson: I know. Hard to know how to take that. “I guess you were watching,” so that told me everything I needed to know. Kelton Reid: Do you stick on the headphones while you’re writing, or do you prefer silence? Pamela Wilson: I usually prefer silence. It works better for me to not have anything distracting me. That’s actually something I miss from my design days. When I was working on purely visual things, I used to be able to put music on in the background really loud. I could listen to whatever I wanted, and it would inspire what I was doing visually. I really can’t do that when I write. It’s too distracting. I miss that. I miss my music. Kelton Reid: How many hours would you say you put in when you do settle in for a session? Pamela Wilson: I’d say it’s about an hour. Sometimes it ends up being less. I love it when I can put in a full hour. I can get a lot done in an hour. Because I’m writing but I’m doing a lot of other things, it’s usually not much more than that. I wish it was more, but I don’t usually having more than that much time. Kelton Reid: Are you also of the school of writing every day? Why You Should Commit to Writing 750 Words a Day Pamela Wilson: Oh yes. I’m a huge believer in that. Actually, I have a post going up on Copyblogger, I think it’s actually this week that we’re talking about what I do to write every day, which is I use this site called 750words.com. It’s a very cool site. You basically sign up for it. There’s a small fee. I think it’s $5 a month or something. Then you commit to writing 750 words every day. This is a great length in my opinion because 750 words is long enough to be a blog post, so if you’re a content creator, it’s a way for you to get a blog post written. Oftentimes, I don’t use it for that. I just use it to physically write. To sit in front of a keyboard, put my fingers on the keys, make the move, and make words come out. I find the act of physically doing the writing is what makes the ideas flow. That’s what my post is about actually. That has ended up being a very surprising side benefit, to me anyway. That the act of sitting down and writing every day has actually helped me to come up with some amazing ideas and to solve problems that I could not figure out when I just thought about them. There is something about writing about them that — it sounds strange — but it’s like it allows you to tap into this part of yourself that’s really wise, that already knows what to do, and somehow you make that connection. By writing, those ideas can come out. I wrote about it in this post because it was a surprising side benefit that I was not expecting. It works so consistently now for me that, if I have something that I’m puzzling over and I can’t figure it out, I just kind of say, “Well, I look forward to writing about it,” because I have a feeling as soon as I write about it, I’ll know what to do. Kelton Reid: I like that a lot. We’ll link to the post and to the website that you mentioned as well. Pamela Wilson: Great. Kelton Reid: Do you believe in writer’s block? Pamela Wilson: I don’t. I don’t, because for me, the physical act of actually typing words on your keyboard is all you really have to do. I read this book a while back — and I’m sure someone else has mentioned this at this point in your series — there’s a book called the Accidental Genius by Mark Levy. It’s really about the act of writing and being completely unattached to the end product that you get. That made a huge difference for me when I was getting into the rhythm of writing on a consistent basis. It just made me realize that whatever I wrote didn’t have to be great. It’s more about the practice of writing that counts. A site like 750words.com is a huge help as well. They send you these email prompts. The email prompts basically say, “Look, you don’t have to write a masterpiece. Just write. That’s all that matters.” What I find is, when I write consistently like that, it’s almost like you nurture that connection between your brain and your fingertips. You leave that channel open, and you make a strong connection. It’s just easier to tap into your thoughts and easier to write overall. Writer’s block is just not a problem for me. I have that connection reinforced because of my daily habits and my leg crossing and all that crazy stuff. It just seems to work pretty well. Kelton Reid: Nice. We’ll link to Accidental Genius as well. I’m blanking on who else mentioned it, but it has been brought up before. Now I’m going to find it myself. Let’s talk about workflow a little bit. What hardware or typewriter model are you using? I know you’re not using a typewriter because you can’t balance that on your knees while you’re doing yoga. Pamela Wilson: Yes, writer’s yoga. It’s a little tougher with a typewriter. I had a 15-inch Mac Book Pro, and I just recently switched to a 13-inch because of the travel. It’s a little bit lighter. Kelton Reid: Yeah. Pamela Wilson: I know a lot of people at Copyblogger use the Mac Book Airs, but I work enough with images and audio and video that I really needed a little bit more power. I do have a Mac Book Pro just for the processing power. Even just moving from a 15 inch to a 13 inch was a huge relief as far as just walking through airports with the laptop on your shoulder because it’s so much lighter. Kelton Reid: Yeah. Do you have some favorite software that you use most for writing and your general workflow? Pamela Wilson: I do. One of the things I discovered a few years ago was how easy mind mapping software made my writing. What I will typically do is — and not for every post, but a lot of them — if I have some ideas, kind of disparate, random concepts for a post, I’ll open up a mind map and start dropping those onto the mind map. Any connection I make to any of the original ideas, I just build a branch and add that connection. My thoughts don’t tend to be organized when they come in. They just come in, and they’re not in any logical order. They’re not presented to me on a silver platter all organized. They come in randomly. So what I’ve found is, if I can put them on to a mind map, that gives me a place to register everything and then move it around and reorder it until it starts making sense. Typically, what I do is take what’s in the mind map, and then I just paste it into a text document and start fleshing out each section. Most of the posts I write start like that. Kelton Reid: Let’s get into maybe some best practices for staying organized. Do you have any tips, tricks, or hacks for us? Pamela’s Hack: Why Less Is More Pamela Wilson: The biggest hack that I have is something that I discovered a few years ago. I try not to give myself such a long to-do list to do every day. It sounds kind of counter-intuitive that you would actually get more done when your to-do list is shorter. What I’ve found is, when I had a to-do list that has seven or eight or 10 things on it, I didn’t tend to get to everything. I tended to only get to a few things. I always way underestimated how long things would take to do. You write your to-do list, and you think you’re superhuman. Somehow time is going to warp for you. You’re going to be able to achieve all this stuff. You forget about all the interruptions that you know you’re going to have, so you write this super ambitious to-do list. Then, at the end of the day, when you only have a few things checked off, what ends up happening is you feel terribly guilty. I do anyway. I look at all the things I didn’t get to, and I feel terrible at the end of the day. What I ended up doing a few years ago is I switched that around. I try to just have three projects to focus on every day. Kelton Reid: Yeah. Pamela Wilson: Now that doesn’t count things like, of course, I have to deal with email. You and I both end up having to deal with people contacting you on HipChat, for example. At Copyblogger, we use Hipchat to communicate. There are all those things that take time out of your day. But what I’ve found is, counting all those things, I can usually get three other projects done. I try to make a to-do list that’s very realistic and has those three things on it. What ends up happening is, every once in a while, I get to three o’clock and I’m done with all three things. It’s a completely different feeling. You have this list of eight things and you only got three done, so then you felt guilty about the five that you didn’t get to. But when you have a list of only three things and you get them all done, it’s like, “Wow, what am I going to do with this extra time? Maybe I can do something from tomorrow’s list.” You know? Kelton Reid: Totally. Pamela Wilson: That has been a huge attitude shift toward my to-do list. I’ve tried to basically take on less and be very realistic. Kelton Reid: Do you have any best practices for beating procrastination? Pamela Wilson: Deadlines. Kelton Reid: Yeah. Pamela Wilson: Just deadlines, really. Everything I did when I was working as a designer was deadline oriented. I was doing a lot of print design work, and the designer is only one person in a long process. The client gives you the information. Typically, the client needs to get approvals on whatever you submit. Then it has to be finalized and sent to a printer. A printer actually prints the job. The job has to be delivered. Everything in that process has a deadline, and I got very used to having to hit deadlines. If my business was going to make it, I had to hit my deadlines. That was just a thing I had to do. Kelton Reid: Yeah. Pamela Wilson: In order to succeed in business, I had to learn to do that and structure my time so that I would be able to hit the deadlines as promised. Then, the other thing is just not wanting to disappoint people. Kelton Reid: Yeah. Pamela Wilson: You have coworkers or customers, or you have followers. I still write for Big Brand System, and there’s a post that goes up every other Wednesday at 6 am Eastern. Come hell or high water, that post has to go up. I’m sure nobody is sitting there with a stopwatch watching it, but I feel like I don’t want to disappoint anyone. That self-imposed deadline seems to work really well for me. Kelton Reid: Nice. How does Pamela Wilson unplug at the end of a hard day? Pamela Wilson: I work at home, which is always a struggle. You have this siren song of your laptop that’s glowing over there in the corner, and at the end of a long day, a lot of times you end up being drawn back to it. What I do to get away from that is I try to just change location — even if it’s just in my house. I moved to Nashville about a year ago, and we have a house that has a basement. There is actually a space down in the basement that used to be a kids playroom, but now it’s Pamela’s playroom. I have all my art supplies down there. That’s actually a place that I enjoy going, cranking the music, and making artwork and doing stuff with my hands. That’s a huge help — to just go to a different location and do something different than what I’ve done all day long. Kelton Reid: Yeah. Pamela Wilson: I feel the same way about cooking at the end of the day, honestly. After spending all day in front of a screen tapping on a keyboard or working with a stylus pen, it’s great to go into the kitchen, get your hands dirty, and chop things. I enjoy that as well. We have woods behind our house. There’s a little path through the woods, so I like walking through the woods and reading, all the usual stuff. Then I do watch TV. There’s good TV on nowadays. I do watch it occasionally, but it’s usually my last choice of things to do. Kelton Reid: Sure. Pamela Wilson: It usually puts me right to sleep, so it might take me three days to watch a show that’s an hour long. I watch 20 minutes, and then I’m like zonked. I’m not a very devoted TV watcher unfortunately. Kelton Reid: That’s funny because I have that same malady. Pamela Wilson: I think it’s great to put you to sleep. You just turn it on really low, and it’s kind of glowing over there in the corner. It works every time for me. I think my husband gets frustrated because he’s like, “Oh man, this is going to take forever to get this show watched.” He’s very patient about it. Kelton Reid: Significant others do love when you fall asleep during an important scene, without fail. Pamela Wilson: I know. Every once in a while, I’ll say to him, “Just keep watching. It’s okay. Just tell me what happens tomorrow. I’m really sleepy.” It’s like you give them permission to keep going. Kelton Reid: Just a quick pause to mention that The Writer Files is brought to you by the Rainmaker Platform, the complete website solution for content marketers and online entrepreneurs. Find out more and take a free 14-day test drive at Rainmaker.FM/Platform. Let’s talk about creativity since that seems to be such a big part of your life and work. How do you define creativity? Why Creativity Happens Through Action Pamela Wilson: I love this question. I think each person really is going to have their own creative answer. It’s going to be a little bit different. This is very much a designer’s way of seeing creativity. It’s very much about combining things that aren’t normally combined. Combining things in a surprising way or looking at things from a slightly different angle., I’m kind of touching on this theme over and over, but I really believe that creativity happens through action. We have this image of this creative person who’s sitting still under a tree, and this bolt of lightning hits them when they’re sitting there. I don’t think that actually happens. I don’t think we just sit there and suddenly we feel creative. I think creativity happens when we are in motion doing something, like typing on your keyboard, creating some kind of artwork, doing something with your hands, or walking through the woods. I just feel like action is what makes creativity happen. Kelton Reid: Do you have a creative muse? Pamela Wilson: I don’t really have one creative muse I would have to say. I’ve kind of built my whole career out of the ability to tap into creativity all day long. It’s not something that I have to feel inspired about. It’s just a part of what I do. I don’t know if that’s a good answer, but that’s kind of how it works for me for some reason. Kelton Reid: Sure. When do you feel the most creative, personally? Pamela Wilson: That’s the thing, Kelton. I don’t see it that way. I honestly feel like I can be creative all day long. It’s a little bit of an energy thing. Last night, for example, it was getting toward the end of the day. I was finishing up some slides for a webinar that I had to do, and it was going slowly. I walked away, cooked something, had a glass of wine. I relaxed and got away from it. Then I came back to it this morning, and it came right out. It just came together very quickly. Kelton Reid: Yeah. Pamela Wilson: It’s a little bit of you run out of energy, but as far as actually tapping into the creativity, I feel like it’s always there. The whole muse idea, I just don’t see it that way. It doesn’t work that way for me for some reason. Kelton Reid: Let me ask you, what makes a writer great? The Hallmarks of Great Online Writing Pamela Wilson: This is such a great question. It’s something that I’m thinking about all the time now that I’m helping to run the Copyblogger blog. What we are trying to do at Copyblogger is to become the premier resource for content marketing professionals. We want our posts and everything we put together — so our infographics, our ebooks, everything we put together — we want it to be the most clear and helpful resource out there for content marketers. It’s a big goal. When we’re looking at posts, whether they’re our own posts or posts that we bring in from other writers who we’re working with, I’m always looking for clarity. That’s the big thing. I’m not impressed with people who use a lot of big words or people who string together these very complex sentences. In the end, everyone is busy. If your writing is easy to follow, then it’s better. I always think people need to just get to the point. Spit it out. Don’t stumble. Say it as clearly as you can. Try to make a connection with the reader. That’s what’s going to make you a great writer. Don’t try to impress people with complex sentences and long, obscure words. Instead of impressing them, you’ll just end up losing them. Kelton Reid: Yeah. Do you have a few favorite authors at the moment? Pamela Wilson: Well, Mark Levy’s Accidental Genius. It really changed my approach to writing, so he’s a definite favorite. It’s kind of boring because I read a lot of nonfiction. I’m not reading a lot of fiction lately. I’m not sure why. It’s been a long time since I’ve read fiction. I just tend to read nonfiction. There are so many different things I want to learn. One of the things that I’m reading a lot of lately is books on management. In this position at Copyblogger, it’s really a management position. Even though I had my own business before and I had freelance employees, it wasn’t really a management situation. It was my business, and I was the CEO of the business, passing along information to them. It wasn’t the same situation. Now, I feel like I’m in more of a management position, and of course, I want to rock at it. I want to be really, really good. I’m reading a book right now by a Navy captain named L. David Marquette, and he wrote a book called Turn This Ship Around! with an exclamation point. It’s about how he applied these management techniques within the context of the Navy, which is very much a top-down management structure. His technique is basically putting the power back at the bottom of the structure and sending it upwards. It’s a different approach to management. I love it because it kind of empowers the people who know best what your organization should be doing. Then I’m also reading this book called Reinventing Organizations. That is by Frederic Laloux. I don’t know if that’s how you pronounce his name, but it looks like that’s how you pronounce his name. I have this really bad habit of reading two books at once. In the case of these two, they’re both about management. They’re kind of complementary, so I’m not managing to confuse myself, but I have a bad habit of picking up several at once and starting them. Those are the two that are on my night table right now. Kelton Reid: Cool. Yeah, I’m the same way. I will pick up multiple volumes and really just rotate through and have no idea where I am at any one given time in any tome. Do you have a best-loved quote? Pamela Wilson: This is actually a tough question to answer because I collect quotes. I’ve been collecting quotes for years. There’s something about a really well-formed quote that I just love. It’s that clarity thing. It says so much in so few words. Actually, my last set of business cards from my design business, I got them custom printed with 16 different quotes. Kelton Reid: Oh cool. Pamela Wilson: I used to tell my clients, “Oh it’s like a playing card. Let’s see which one you got.” It could be one of 16 quotes. I couldn’t choose between the 16, so I got 16. One of my favorites — and this is like the story of my life because I’ve had so many new beginnings in my life — there’s a quote that just struck me. It says, “The world is round, and the place which may seem like the end may also be only the beginning.” It’s by George Baker. Kelton Reid: That’s a good one. Pamela Wilson: I love that one. Kelton Reid: Let’s do a couple fun ones. Do you have a favorite literary character? Pamela Wilson: Well, as I told you, I read a lot of nonfiction, so there aren’t a lot of characters in that. I think to answer this one I have to go way back in time. One of the first characters that I really related to and I connected to was a character in a book by Beverly Cleary. I think I read it in third grade, Ramona the Pest. I loved that book because she was always getting into trouble. She always managed to get herself out of it, but she was always getting herself into trouble. She had all sorts of spats with her family and her friends. She just seemed very real. I loved that character. It goes way back in my life, but that was the first one that I felt like I really connected to. Kelton Reid: If you could choose one author, living or dead, for an all-expense paid dinner to your favorite restaurant, who would you choose, and where would you go? Why Picasso Is an Inspiring Model for Writers to Follow Pamela Wilson: I have to tell you, Kelton, this is the question I have most been looking forward to answering. I heard your interview with Austin Kleon, and Austin said something like he’d never want to take Picasso to dinner. The first thing I thought when I heard that was, “That is totally who I want to take to dinner.” Kelton Reid: Nice. Pamela Wilson: Picasso wrote books. We know him for his artwork, but he wrote books. He qualifies as an author that you could take to dinner, right? Kelton Reid: Yeah. Pamela Wilson: I would totally take him to dinner because, as a creative person, he is someone I admire so much. I actually wrote a post for Copyblogger years ago about Picasso and about his work ethic. In the process of putting this post together, I did some research. I saw that, in his lifetime, he produced 50,000 unique pieces of art. If you look at his career, if you kind of divide it up over his lifetime, that’s 632 pieces for every year that he was working as an artist. That’s more than a couple of pieces most days, right? Kelton Reid: Amazing. Pamela Wilson: That so inspires me. When you think about the great artists of the world, Picasso is always on that list. If you’ve seen his work in museums, it’s very impressive. But what you’re seeing is just the tip of the iceberg. There are a lot of pieces that we will probably never see. What I realized when I saw those numbers and when I saw his artwork is that it goes back to this idea that creativity is really about taking action. It’s not about the end product. It’s about actually doing the thing. I’ve always been interested in his work and in his life, I tend to kind of gravitate to his pieces if I’m in a museum. I’ve seen a lot of Picasso pieces, and most of them are amazing. When you see them in person, they’re bigger than you expect many times. The colors are more vibrant. You can almost see his movements in the brush strokes. It’s really impressive to see it in person, but the other thing that I notice is it’s not all good. Kelton Reid: Right. Pamela Wilson: Not everything he did was a masterpiece. There’s something that’s weirdly comforting in that for me. You just realize, “Wow, if I produce enough, if I just churn out enough creative work, some of it is going to be amazing.” If you think about it, 50,000 pieces, even if only 1 percent is amazing, that’s still 500 pieces of artwork that you’ve created that are masterpieces, right? Kelton Reid: Right. Pamela Wilson: Nobody’s going to talk about the others, but it’s the act of creating that much work that helps you to create that 1 percent that really, really sticks out. Kelton Reid: To circle back, where would you take Picasso to dinner? Pamela Wilson: Well, I speak Spanish, so this is something that not everyone knows about me. I was an exchange student in between high school and college. I lived in Columbia, South America, and I learned to speak Spanish fluently. I would definitely take him out to dinner, probably in Barcelona. Kelton Reid: Yeah. Pamela Wilson: We could go out for paella. We’d make a reservation for 10:30 because you don’t start eating until really late. It would be somewhere where he felt like he was comfortable and in his own territory, and we would speak in Spanish. It would be awesome. Kelton Reid: That’s cool. Do you have a writer’s fetish? Pamela Wilson: Would an iPhone count? Kelton Reid: Sure. Pamela Wilson: Okay. It’s the only thing I could name it. So I got a new phone last year and I got one of those big ones, one of those 6 Pluses. It’s the most expensive small piece of technology I’ve ever had in my life. Kelton Reid: Sure. Pamela Wilson: Now that I have it, it’s like my favorite way to read books. Because either I can read them on Kindle or on iBooks, and it’s big enough that it feels like you’re reading a small paperback. I used to travel around with my tablet, and I don’t take it anymore because I just use my phone. Then I have Audible, so I listen to books on audio as well. I would say that’s probably it. I don’t know if that counts as a fetish item, but I think that’s the closest I can come. Kelton Reid: Well, you’ve dropped a lot of great knowledge for writers already in this session. Can you offer any additional advice to fellow writers on how to keep the ink flowing and the cursor moving? Pamela Wilson: Stop thinking about it, and just start doing it. Thinking about it is probably your worst enemy. What you really need to do is put your fingers on your keyboard and move your fingers. If you do that, if you do what I was saying earlier — you kind of assume the writing position — it won’t take long for your brain to kick in and start flowing down into your fingertips and giving you ideas about what to write about — but you have to assume the position first. You have to be in position to receive those ideas. Doing that on a regular basis will help you to keep that connection so that you can keep the ideas flowing. Kelton Reid: For sure. So where can fellow scribes connect with you out there or online? Pamela Wilson: Well, I still want to write that book, so at some point, I will write a book. Maybe I’ll bug you so you have me back on here. Kelton Reid: Absolutely. Pamela Wilson: But for now, the best place to find me is on the Copyblogger blog. That’s where I’m writing more than any place else these days. They could also find me on Big Brand System. I’m pretty active on Instagram and Twitter, so I’ll give you both of those accounts. That’s a good place to connect as well. Kelton Reid: Great. Pamela Wilson: I would love to connect with people who’ve heard this and keep talking about creativity. It’s one of my favorite topics. Kelton Reid: Absolutely. Pamela, thank you so much for stopping by The Writer Files and sharing some stories with us. It’s been really, really a pleasure. Pamela Wilson: Thank you, Kelton. I appreciate it. Kelton Reid: Cheers. Thank you for tuning in to The Writer Files. Now go write your 750 words. I’m about to do mine. For more episodes of The Writer Files and all the show notes, or to leave us a comment or a question, drop by WriterFiles.FM. You can always chat with me on Twitter @KeltonReid. Cheers. See you out there.

The need (and desire) for on-demand education has intensified, and will only continue into the future. But can you really make a living from it? To further our ongoing discussion about online education as a viable career and business model for content creators and entrepreneurs, I brought in a special co-host today. It’s Sonia Simone,... Listen to episode

Coral-coiffed marketer and prolific online publisher Sonia Simone stopped by the show this week to share her writing secrets with us. Ms. Simone is co-founder and Chief Content Officer of Copyblogger Media as well as an educator, speaker, and the devious mastermind behind the podcast Confessions of a Pink-Haired Marketer. Sonia appeared in the written series over on Copyblogger.com and stopped by again to drop some writerly wisdom on us. You can also see Sonia Simone live at Authority Rainmaker, a carefully designed live educational experience that presents a complete and effective online marketing strategy to help you immediately accelerate your business. In addition to Ms. Simone you ll have the opportunity to see Dan Pink, Sally Hogshead, Ann Handley, punk legend Henry Rollins, and many other incredible speakers live. Get all the details at rainmaker.fm/event, and we look forward to seeing you in Denver, Colorado, May 13th, 2015. In this 18-minute file Sonia Simone and I discuss: Why You Should Read Outside Your Echo Chamber Sonia s Secret of Reading the Tea Leaves Writer s Block Vs. Deadlines Productivity for Flakes, Head Cases, and Other Natural Disasters The Fetishization of Creativity Sonia Admits Her Most Unwholesome Writer s Addiction Why the More You Care, the More You ll Write Listen to The Writer Files: Writing, Productivity, Creativity, and Neuroscience below ... Download MP3 Subscribe by RSS Subscribe in iTunes The Show Notes Here s How Sonia Simone Writes Copyblogger.com The Authority Community Are You a Talented Professional Writer? Read This Copyblogger Media Certified Content Marketers Confessions of a Pink-Haired Marketer Productivity for Flakes, Head Cases, and Other Natural Disasters Authority Intensive, May 13-15 in Denver, Colorado Sonia on Twitter Kelton Reid on Twitter Rainmaker.FM is Brought to You By   Discover why more than 80,000 companies in 135 countries choose WP Engine for managed WordPress hosting. Start getting more from your site today! The Transcript How Chief Content Officer Sonia Simone Writes Voiceover: This is Rainmaker.FM, the digital marketing podcast network. It’s built on the Rainmaker Platform, which empowers you to build your own digital marketing and sales platform. Start your free 14-day trial at RainmakerPlatform.com. Kelton Reid: These are The Writer Files, a tour of the habits, habitats, and brains of working writers, from online content creators to fictionists, journalists, entrepreneurs, and beyond. I’m your host, Kelton Reid: writer, podcaster, and mediaphile. Each week, we’ll find out how great writers keep the ink flowing, the cursor moving, and avoid writer’s block. Coral-coiffed marketer and prolific online publisher Sonia Simone stopped by the show this week to share her writing secrets with us. Sonia is cofounder and chief content officer of Copyblogger Media as well as an educator, speaker, and devious mastermind behind the podcast Confessions of a Pink-Haired Marketer. Sonia appeared in the written series over on Copyblogger.com and stopped by again to drop some writerly wisdom on us. On this week’s episode, Sonia and I will chat about why you should read outside your echo chamber; Sonia’s secret of reading the tea leaves; productivity for flakes, head cases, and other natural disasters; and why the more you care, the more you’ll write. Welcome back to The Writer Files, Sonia. Sonia Simone: It’s just lovely to be here, Kelton. Always good to hear your voice. Kelton Reid: Thank you so much for blessing us with your presence here on the Files. Listeners may not know or remember that you were on the written series before, but I’ll post a link to that in this show now so that they can find that. Let’s start talking about you, the author. For listeners and writers that don’t know who you are, who are you, and what is your area of expertise? Sonia Simone: My name is Sonia Simone, and I am the chief content officer of Copyblogger Media, which I kind of dig, because two years ago there was no such title as chief content officer. I think that’s kind of cool. I suppose you would say content is my area of expertise. I think more specifically, I have a knack for writing things that create some connection and resonance in other people and then teaching them how to be more awesome at the things they want to do, and more specifically, how to be more awesome at having a business and finding clients and keeping their sanity and all that good stuff. Kelton Reid: This might be a good time to mention that you are a podcaster as well and your show, Confessions of a Pink-Haired Marketer — awesome show, I love it — is over at Rainmaker.FM. The specific URL for that one is? Sonia Simone: I have an easy to remember one, which is PinkHairedMarketer.FM. Kelton Reid: Very cool. Over there, you deliver advice, encouragement, and the occasional rant from outside the drone of the marketing mainstream. I love it. Where else can we find your writing? Sonia Simone: I do show up a few times a month over at Copyblogger at the Copyblogger blog, always glad to connect with people there. A lot of my work these days is audio, the podcast but also audio interviews. I also do in-depth interviews in our community, Authority, which is a community of content marketers — really cool, smart folks. I spend a lot of my time there. Kelton Reid: I know it well. I guess we’ve covered exactly what you’re working on now. Do have any other big projects in the pipeline? Sonia Simone: I’m excited about this year, because we are returning to our roots in education. I am wrapping up a project with Brian Clark that’s a training for freelance writers on how to get a lot more clients and have better relationships with clients, how to deliver more services to clients. That is part of our Certified Content Marketer program. The minute that I’m done with that — actually before I’m quite done with it — we’ll be launching into a reboot of our teaching sales course, which is a course about building a business based on teaching people to do things. I find it endlessly hilarious that when I was an undergraduate and desperately wanted to go to grad school, I didn’t because I couldn’t see myself teaching for a living. Of course, now I teach for a living. I m going to be doing a lot more teaching this year, which is awesome. Kelton Reid: Exactly. Let’s talk about your productivity a bit. How much time per day do you read or do research? Why You Should Read Outside Your Echo Chamber Sonia Simone: That’s a good question. There are no days when I’m not reading at least two hours a day. It can go up from there depending on what I’m working on. Two to four, I would think. It’s a lot of time. I research for the projects that I’m working on professionally, but it’s also very important to me to have reading time in things that have nothing to do, or seemingly nothing to do, with the business. It’s just very important to me to keep putting things on my brain coming from other places, whether it’s a Terry Pratchett novel or an interesting piece of neuroscience or something that comes from outside my echo chamber. It s really important to me. Kelton Reid: Before you actually sit down and start to write — I’m assuming you sit, but I actually don’t know — do you have any pregame rituals or practices? Sonia s Secret of Reading the Tea Leaves Sonia Simone: I have to have some kind of a caffeine-free tea. I alternate between a couple of teas that are important. I think the words are apparently somewhere in the tea bag, and I have to steep the tea and get the words out or they don’t like to come. Coffee works, but it doesn’t work as well as tea for some reason. Kelton Reid: You’re literally reading the tea leaves and then transcribing them? Sonia Simone: That’s right. That’s where I get my wisdom. Kelton Reid: Yeah, sure. What would you say is your most productive time of day and locale for writing? Sonia Simone: Mid-morning, which is weird one. I don’t know if a lot of people are good then, but midmorning. I have to be suitably caffeinated before I start the tea. Like a lot of people who are parents, I have pandemonium in my house until about 8:30 in the morning. Right after that, about 9:00, I get started on my focused productive time. Between that and lunchtime is when I really seem to get the most done. Afternoons are a total dead zone for me, so I usually work out. Kelton Reid: Do you like to listen to music or do you prefer silence while you’re writing? Sonia Simone: It has to be very silent. I can’t have music. Lisa Barone, in her Writer Files, had a great rain — like the sounds of rain. Sometimes I kind of dig that, but usually it’s just dead silence. Kelton Reid: I love that. She uses some apps that do coffee shop noises or rain. Yeah, I do like the rain one, for sure. How many hours a day do you spend writing, excluding email? I know that you do a lot of email too. Sonia Simone: There’s a lot of email. I think I should be able to count the email. It varies a lot. I always write. I write every day. I write something every day. Some days it could literally be 20 minutes, and some days it can be three or four hours. I would say probably average, working on some actual project, it’s probably an hour to two hours. It varies a lot, and also it depends. Some days are heavy audio content days. That’s a 20-minute day. I’ll spend 20 minutes writing a script and then more of my time actually recording it. Kelton Reid: Do you believe in a writer’s block? Writer s Block Vs. Deadlines Sonia Simone: I believe in deadlines. If I don’t have deadlines, it’s not just writer’s block. It’s just nonexistent. I have to have something I’m aiming for. I think it hits people. It doesn’t hit me because I’ve always got a deadline. Kelton Reid: Let’s talk some about your workflow. What hardware or typewriter model are you presently clacking away on over there? Sonia Simone: Did you just put that typewriter in there just for Robert Bruce? Kelton Reid: I did, yes. Sonia Simone: I use a rather elderly MacBook Air. I think it’s the most perfect writer’s device ever created. It is getting old and slow and tired, and I don’t ever want to get rid of it. I don’t want to replace it with another one either. I love this machine. Kelton Reid: Do you have some software that you use most for your writing and general workflow? Sonia Simone: Almost exclusively, I write in Text Editor. I don’t want any dancing baloney when I’m trying to get writing done. I keep things as minimal as possible. If it’s really rough, if I’m really struggling, I will go to pen and paper. Kelton Reid: Do you have any methods for staying organized that you want to drop on us? Productivity for Flakes, Head Cases, and Other Natural Disasters Sonia Simone: I did a full, rather confessional podcast on this. The title of the podcast was Productivity for Flakes, Head Cases, and Other Natural Disasters if that gives you some indication. Kelton Reid: Yes. Yes, please. Sonia Simone: How do I stay organized? I have two modes. I have things that I am extremely crisp about, for example, producing the podcast. If I’m not very crisp and I don’t have a very, very well-defined system, then it’s a disaster. Those are my two. It’s either got to be totally on, or it’s totally off. I have all manner of things. The main thing for me is to keep everything visible. For example, for my podcast, I have a one-sheeter that has the recorded episodes, the episodes that I’m going to record, when I’m going to record them, have they been uploaded to the production team, all that stuff. I can see it at a glance because I can’t keep anything in my head for five seconds anymore. Kelton Reid: Do you have any secrets for beating procrastination? Sonia Simone: Yeah. Wait until you’re just out of your mind with panic on a deadline. That works for me. Kelton Reid: How do you unplug at the end of a long day of writing? Sonia Simone: My favorite way to unplug — some of you who have connected with me on social media know this — I love nothing more than to sit down with my nine-year old, almost 10-year old and play a nice hour of Minecraft. It is my favorite thing right now to just veg out and forget all my troubles. Kelton Reid: Just a quick pause to mention that The Writer Files is brought to you by the Rainmaker Platform, the complete website solution for content marketers and online entrepreneurs. Find out more and take a free 14-day test drive at Rainmaker.FM/Platform. Let’s talk about creativity now. Can you define creativity in your own words? The Fetishization of Creativity Sonia Simone: I think that we fetishize creativity, and we make it into something that only some professional cast of honored creatives can do. I think anytime you bring something into the world that hasn’t been here before, you have been creative. That could be a pie. It could be a sweater. It could be a Facebook post, especially if it’s a Facebook post that maybe reaches out to a friend or somebody and helps them with something. I think we get very high-falutin about creativity. All humans are creative. We’re a creative species. We’re always bringing forth new and interesting things. I think we should get over ourselves a little bit about it. Kelton Reid: Who or what is your muse at the moment? Sonia Simone: Hmm, my muse at the moment I’m very pragmatic about these things. My muse at the moment is an upcoming vacation that I need to get some money in the bank for. That’s my muse. Isn’t that awful? It’s terrible, isn’t it? Kelton Reid: It’s perfect. What do you mean? When do you feel the most creative? Sonia Simone: I feel the most creative when I feel the most in balance. I feel very creative when I’m getting plenty of exercise. The more walking I do, the easier the words will come and the more they seem to be worth reading or listening to. I need to have things going pretty well. My family has to be in good shape. My sleep needs to be in good shape. When everything is in a good balance, then the creativity seems to come a little more easily. Kelton Reid: What makes a writer great? Sonia Simone: Moving other people makes a writer great, moving them to something worthwhile. Kelton Reid: Do you have a few favorite authors at the moment? Sonia Simone: Oh, yeah, I always have lots of favorite writers. I’m really enamored of a book by a guy named Jonathan Haidt. He wrote a book called The Righteous Mind, which has really been ping-ponging around my brain for a couple months now. I am on a jag with Terry Pratchett right now. I am just going through Terry Pratchett novels, and thankfully there’re a billion of them so I can satisfy my jones. Those are two people. Italo Calvino is one of my enduring favorites. Often, if I need a little inspiration, I’ll actually sit down and copy out a couple of pages of one of his books. It’s kind of almost a writerly meditation. Kelton Reid: Yeah, his stuff is powerful. Love it. Sonia Simone: Yeah. Kelton Reid: Can you share a best-loved quote? Sonia Simone: Can I swear? Kelton Reid: Of course. We’ll bleep it out. Sonia Simone: My best-loved quote is something that a friend of mine — she’s a romance writer. She writes as Ann Stuart, and her name is Krissie Ohlrogge. A long time ago she said this to me, and this has been my marching orders for 15, 20 years. It’s on my corkboard right now. She said to me in her wise way, “**** it out, press on.” That’s my favorite quote. Kelton Reid: Let’s do a couple of fun ones. Who is your favorite literary character? Sonia Simone: Commander Vimes from the Pratchett novels. Kelton Reid: If you could choose one author, living or dead, for an all-expense paid dinner to your favorite restaurant in the world — I have a feeling it’s in Italy — who would you choose? Sonia Simone: Let’s see. Unfortunately, I think most of the writers you love the best are not very good company. I bet Calvino would be an exception. I would love to take Italo Calvino to dinner. Kelton Reid: I said Italy, but I probably meant France. Sonia Simone: There’s good options in both places. Kelton Reid: Who or what has been your greatest teacher? Sonia Simone: My family has been my greatest teacher because taking care of my family, in a multitude of ways, has pushed me to do things I never thought I was going to be able to do. Kelton Reid: Do you have a writer’s fetish? Sonia Admits Her Most Unwholesome Writer s Addiction Sonia Simone: I have my fancy fetishy writer tea. I do have a writer’s fetish! I think my fountain pens would qualify as a writer’s fetish. I have an unwholesome and longstanding addiction to fountain pens and good paper. I have a bit of an issue with proliferating pens and inks. I have two drawers full of ink. I have an entire shelf of fancy notebooks and more pens than I’m willing to admit to. Kelton Reid: Can you offer any advice to fellow writers on how to keep the ink flowing and the cursor moving? Why the More You Care, the More You ll Write Sonia Simone: Know who you’re talking to. Know who you’re writing for. Don’t give up on helping that person and care about that person. The more you care about the person you’re writing for, the more writing you’ll do. Kelton Reid: Where can writers connect with you out there? Sonia Simone: Two places I would absolutely love to hang out with people. One of them is just on Twitter @SoniaSimone, and the other is on the podcast, where I would just dearly love to see your comments and questions and anything else. You can actually ask me questions, and I will answer them on the podcast. That is PinkHairedMarketer.FM. Kelton Reid: I’m going to see you very shortly at Authority Rainmaker here in Denver and actually will probably see you a couple of days after this goes live. Sonia Simone: Yes, indeed, yes. I m looking forward to it. For those who don’t know, Kelton and I could fairly easily walk to one another’s houses, so of course, we see each other three times a year at company meetings out of state. Kelton Reid: Exactly. I’ll drop the information about the conference, which will be happening very shortly. I’m really looking forward to hearing you speak there. Sonia Simone: I’m looking forward to it too. It’s going to be exciting. It’s a fun event. It’s an awesome event for making connections. I’m excited. Kelton Reid: Very good. See you out there. Sonia Simone: All right. Take care. Kelton Reid: You can see Sonia Simone live at Authority Rainmaker, a carefully designed live educational experience that presents a complete and effective online marketing strategy to help you immediately accelerate your business. In addition to Ms. Simone, you’ll have the opportunity to see Dan Pink, Sally Hogshead, Ann Handley, and punk legend Henry Rollins as well as many other incredible speakers live. Get all the details at Rainmaker.FM/Event. We look forward to seeing you in Denver, Colorado, on May 13th, 2015. For more episodes of The Writer Files and all the show notes or to leave us a comment or a question, drop by WriterFiles.FM, and please subscribe to the show on iTunes. Leave us a rating or a review, and help other writers find us. You can find me on Twitter @KeltonReid. Cheers. See you out there.

Sonia Simone is co-founder and Chief Content Officer of Copyblogger Media "The 7 Things Writers Need to Make a Living" is written to  writers who live to write and write to live. These 7 Things are the basic, but so many times we get distracted by the peripheral and forget the basics. This is a grounding read and peels back the layers to get at the core needs of the steady income writer. I really hope you enjoy it as much as I did. Please use it to help your writer friends and expand your mind if you are currently a struggling writer. --SamT

Schedule Guests: Copyblogger CMO Sonia Simone,  Annie Xu, General Manager of B2B eCommerce marketplace, Alibaba, Lonnie Hayes at BBVA Compass Bank and Anime Khechfe, the founder of postal giant, Endicia. Sponsored by Sage North America and Nextiva.