Men With Pens

APRIL 25, 2010

28,759 On-target web design and copywriting to help you hit the bulls-eye of success Home How-to Books Our Services Portfolio FAQs About Us Archives Contact Us Better Blogging Guest Posting Better Books Better Business Better Design Drive-by-Shooting Sundays Better Writing 7 Deadly Fears of Writing Fiction Writing How To Write Website Content The Way of Writing Way Off Topic Announcements The Procrastinator’s Guide to Writing That Thing You Need to Write Written by James - 29 Comments Phot

Writing 103

Writing Copywriter Copywriting Projects 103

ProBlogger

DECEMBER 5, 2010

This guest post is by HubSpot’s social media scientist, Dan Zarrella. Of all the data analysis that I’ve done, day-of-week and time-of-day data has been consistently the most popular. So in preparation for my upcoming webinar, titled Science of Blogging, I decided to combine all of my existing data on timing with my new research into one master post on the subject.

Publisher 55

Publisher Publishing Publishing Blog Post 55

Men With Pens

AUGUST 12, 2010

Today’s guest post comes to us from far, far away – at least, far away from where I live. This is one of the reasons I accepted Kwame’s post, by the way; he comes from Ghana. Isn’t that cool? What’s also cool are the 10 freelancer mistakes that follow – I bet most people are making at least one of them right now! Enjoy. Success, as defined by the Cambridge Advanced Learners dictionary, is “the achieving of the results wanted or hoped for&#.

Freelance 97

Freelance Finance Projects Education 97

Men With Pens

FEBRUARY 18, 2010

Today’s post is a killer, and it comes to us from none other than Dean Rieck , a copywriter I respect for his straightforward attitude and damned smart advice. He’s put together a ton of both in this posts – and it’s all about the money. Enjoy! A couple of recent conversations got me thinking about setting fees for copywriters. One was a conversation with James, who commented on one of my blogs that many copywriters aren’t good with numbers.

Copywriter 97

Copywriter Copywriting Projects Freelance Copywriting 97

Speaker: Neal Boornazian, President and Nancy Harhut, Co-Founder and Chief Creative Officer - HBT Marketing

Direct mail has consistently remained a powerful tool in the marketer's arsenal, but in an age of digital dominance, its effectiveness hinges on the strategic integration of behavioral science. 💡 When you incorporate powerful behavioral science principles into your direct mail marketing strategies, you can prompt the hardwired decision-making shortcuts your audience relies on — and that automatically unlocks new avenues for engagement, conversion, and brand loyalty.

Engagement

Men With Pens

DECEMBER 9, 2010

I like to think about conventions and challenge them. I ask questions like, “But what if…?&# or say things like, “Yes, but just imagine…&# That natural curiosity has gotten me far in life. Then I get guest posts like these. I sat there for a long time after I read this post, thinking Tim Brownson had completely lost his skates to think I’d accept it.

Creativity 91

Creativity Projects Text Copy 91

Men With Pens

NOVEMBER 22, 2010

Write lots. Write often. Write every day. Write as much as you can, prolifically and continually and constantly. And if you do, they say your skills will improve. It’s the key to being a great writer. I don’t think so. If all you’re doing is writing, you’re only producing volume. You’re repeating behaviour – but you’re not improving.

Writing 90

Writing Writer Blog Blogging 90

Men With Pens

NOVEMBER 7, 2010

People write me often to ask my advice on using online personas, pseudonyms and pen names. They have questions, and they’d like to know my thoughts. (It seems I’m considered somewhat of a go-to resource on the topic – like Aerosmith said, dude looks like a lady.). I’ve noticed that most people who contact me aren’t just trying to satisfy their curiosity, though.

Freelance 88

Freelance Projects Copy Management 88

Men With Pens

JULY 4, 2010

28,759 On-target web design and copywriting to help you hit the bulls-eye of success Home How-to Books Our Services Portfolio FAQs About Us Archives Contact Us Better Blogging Guest Posting Better Books Better Business Better Design Drive-by-Shooting Sundays Better Writing 7 Deadly Fears of Writing Fiction Writing How To Write Website Content The Way of Writing Way Off Topic Announcements How to Find Your Writing Voice Written by James - 34 Comments When you’re a writer or a blogger, you&#

Writing 88

Writing Writer Copywriter Copywriting 88

Men With Pens

NOVEMBER 25, 2010

Giuletta’s a pretty cool person. She’s bold, she’s brave and she submitted her post fearlessly. Nice. But truthfully, Guiletta didn’t start off bold and brave or even close to fearless. Fearful is more like it, as I read her story. I couldn’t help but grin, though, when she hit on something near and dear to my heart – can you figure out what it is before you reach the end of the article?

Sales 87

Sales Promotion Brand Marketing 87

Men With Pens

OCTOBER 7, 2010

Everyone thinks they can win at SEO, but some SEO hopefuls make some pretty amateur mistakes – ones that can even hurt your rankings. Nancy Strauss, today’s guest poster, thought it might be a good idea to remind you of 5 SEO mistakes that make you look like an amateur… and I agreed. Enjoy! I keep getting spam from “SEO companies&# who promise that they can improve my website rankings for Google.

Search Engine Optimization 86

Search Engine Optimization SEO Copywriter Copywriting 86

Speaker: Tim Buteyn, President of ThinkingKap Learning Solutions

💢 Do you find yourself stuck in never-ending review cycles? Are you wondering if your Subject Matter Expert actually got that last review request? Are you having trouble trying to decipher impractical or conflicting feedback? 💢 If any of these scenarios sounds familiar, you may benefit from a crash course on managing SME relationships!

Collaboration

Men With Pens

APRIL 8, 2010

28,759 On-target web design and copywriting to help you hit the bulls-eye of success Home How-to Books Our Services Portfolio FAQs About Us Archives Contact Us Better Blogging Guest Posting Better Books Better Business Better Design Drive-by-Shooting Sundays Better Writing 7 Deadly Fears of Writing Fiction Writing How To Write Website Content The Way of Writing Way Off Topic Announcements 20 Powerful Apps to Organize Your Thoughts Written by Agent X - 26 Comments I always did like those posts th

Collaboration 82

Collaboration Projects Freelance Copywriter 82

Men With Pens

SEPTEMBER 23, 2010

When Ali Hale sends me a post, I know it’s going to be good. And this one – on what to do about writing when life sucks – hits the target. Feel free to let us know in the comment section what you’ve done with those “life sucks&# moments and how you can use them to create emotional content that packs a punch. This isn’t news to you: sometimes life sucks.

Writing 81

Writing Prose Food Copywriter 81

Men With Pens

MARCH 25, 2010

28,759 On-target web design and copywriting to help you hit the bulls-eye of success Home How-to Books Our Services Portfolio FAQs About Us Archives Contact Us Better Blogging Guest Posting Better Books Better Business Better Design Drive-by-Shooting Sundays Better Writing 7 Deadly Fears of Writing Fiction Writing How To Write Website Content The Way of Writing Way Off Topic Announcements Why Good Copywriting Goes Bad: You’re Not Stupid.

Copywriter 81

Copywriter Copywriting Food Copy 81

Men With Pens

OCTOBER 21, 2010

I believe in confidence. I like to be confident and my closest friends are strongly confident people. That’s why Steve Errey caught my eye a long time ago, and not just because his blog was fuchsia pink at the time. (It was a bold, confident color, but I like the current blue better.) Steve is a confident, insightful person who knows a hell of a lot about the subject – well, he would, considering he’s THE Confidence Guy.

Freelance 79

Freelance Projects Engagement Blog 79

Speaker: Jeff Tarran, COO, Gunderson Direct & Margaret Pepe, Executive Director of Product Management, U.S. Postal Service

Learn the secrets to direct mail success for growth marketers! Industry veterans Jeff Tarran and Margaret Pepe are here to delve into how direct mail has completely evolved in recent years, and has rightfully earned a seat at the table alongside the email and digital marketing plans of SMBs, enterprise companies, and agencies as they look into strategy for 2024 and beyond.

Marketing

Men With Pens

NOVEMBER 7, 2010

People write me often to ask my advice on using online personas, pseudonyms and pen names. They have questions, and they’d like to know my thoughts. (It seems I’m considered somewhat of a go-to resource on the topic – like Aerosmith said, dude looks like a lady.). I’ve noticed that most people who contact me aren’t just trying to satisfy their curiosity, though.

Freelance 79

Freelance Projects Copy Management 79

Men With Pens

DECEMBER 20, 2010

About a year ago, I offered my teen a business. She’d been heavily into hip-hop and dance at the time. She’d flown around Canada to attend workshops, had landed an instructor job at a studio and was very enthusiastic this hobby. I wanted to encourage her and help her reach her ambitions. So I casually dropped the offer. If my teen did the homework of scoping out a place to hold classes and drafted up a business plan that looked fairly viable, I’d help her plan, promote and star

Consulting 79

Consulting Promotion Management Sales 79

Men With Pens

NOVEMBER 22, 2010

Write lots. Write often. Write every day. Write as much as you can, prolifically and continually and constantly. And if you do, they say your skills will improve. It’s the key to being a great writer. I don’t think so. If all you’re doing is writing, you’re only producing volume. You’re repeating behaviour – but you’re not improving.

Writing 79

Writing Writer Blog Blogging 79

Men With Pens

OCTOBER 14, 2010

I’ve had more than my fair share of ‘how to connect’ articles. Seriously. That said, connecting is crucial if you want your business to succeed – and the good news for YOU is that there are plenty of people out there who aren’t connecting at all. They think it’s strange because they don’t know you yet. Some are even scared to connect.

Social Media 78

Social Media Freelance Publisher Publishing 78

Speaker: Akeel Jabber, B2B SaaS Investor and Growth Marketer at Horizen Capital

⭐ Are you ready to boost campaign success? Consider the untapped potential of integrating direct mail marketing seamlessly with digital marketing strategies. Combining the physical, tangible impact of direct mail with the dynamic reach of digital marketing can be a game-changer, significantly increasing your ROI when done right. Direct mail grabs attention, making it great for reaching your target audience 📩 Digital marketing keeps the momentum going, driving action 📲 So.

Digital Marketing

Men With Pens

NOVEMBER 18, 2010

A while back, I couldn’t sing enough praise for Ali Hale. She wrote great posts, she loved fiction, she was fun and chatty and reliable and made me smile every month. Then she disappeared. It felt like years of absence and I’d just about given up on her when Ali returned from her adventures of marriage, name changes, a house move and traveling overseas.

Writing 77

Writing Construction Banking Creativity 77

Men With Pens

JANUARY 17, 2010

28,759 On-target web design and copywriting to help you hit the bulls-eye of success Home How-to Books Our Services Portfolio FAQs About Us Archives Contact Us Better Blogging Guest Posting Better Books Better Business Better Design Drive-by-Shooting Sundays Better Writing 7 Deadly Fears of Writing Fiction Writing How To Write Website Content The Way of Writing Way Off Topic Announcements Four Reasons to Love Your Competition Written by James - 22 Comments Every business owner who has a blog has

Copywriter 77

Copywriter Copywriting Sales Portfolio 77

Men With Pens

DECEMBER 16, 2010

Sometimes you meet surprising people online. They’re the ones you never expected to like but end up liking anyways, just because they’re quirky or funny or nice to you. So when Martin Stellar sent me a post that tells you the secret of getting big names to like you and how to get people paying attention to you, I had to share it. Enjoy. James Chartrand has a crush on me.

Social Media 76

Social Media Copywriter Copywriting Media 76

ProBlogger

JUNE 30, 2010

I was always a doubter when it came to using Facebook to promote a blog. I’m not sure why – but despite my best efforts I couldn’t seem to get Facebook to ‘work’ as well as I could with Twitter when it came to engaging readers, driving traffic and building community. However in the last few months things have changed – Facebook has become HOT for me, at on my photography blog.

Engagement 55

Engagement Brand Landing Page Social Media 55

Speaker: Tim Buteyn

Let's set the scene: you’ve identified a critical performance gap in your organization and need to close that gap. A colleague suggests training, but you suspect there’s something going on that training can’t address. How can you determine if training is the right solution before you commit your budget and resources to a new training program? In this webinar, you will learn how to determine if training is the right solution using the Behavior Engineering Model.

Engineering

ProBlogger

JULY 23, 2010

Whether you like it or not, people will judge your blog by the quality of your writing. The first thing you should do is to avoid the most common spelling mistakes, as they can turn off first-time visitors to your site. Below you’ll find 10 such mistakes to get you started. 1. accept / except. INCORRECT: Please except this gift. CORRECT: Please accept this gift.

Blogger 54

Blogger Writer Writing Ads 54

ProBlogger

SEPTEMBER 22, 2010

A guest post by Naomi Dunford from IttyBiz who emailed last week to remind me (Darren) that today is ProBlogger’s 6th Birthday and asked if she could write a birthday post. Here it is! I’ve sat where you sit. I’ve devoured the articles and the blog posts and the link roundups. I’ve agonized over whether I could afford that video camera or that conference or that membership program.

Blogger 53

Blogger Copy Blog Blogging 53

ProBlogger

OCTOBER 24, 2010

Last week at Blog World Expo, I had conversations with literally hundreds of bloggers about their blogging. It was interesting to see some of the themes that emerged as bloggers shared their challenges, problems and fears. One of the recurring conversations that I had revolved around bloggers’ fear of being seen as sell-outs by readers when they started to monetize their blogs.

Blog 53

Blog Blogging Communication Blogger 53

ProBlogger

DECEMBER 15, 2010

For most businesses, participating in social media is unchartered territory. When there are no examples to follow, the only way to learn is to experiment. Over the last 18 months, I’ve been observing what’s worked and, more importantly, what hasn’t. Here are the top five ways a business can alienate people and waste time using social media. 1. Use social media as a broadcast medium.

Social Media 53

Social Media Media Communication Promotion 53

Speaker: Tim Buteyn, President of ThinkingKap Learning Solutions

We’ve all been there. You’ve been given a pile of dry content and asked to create a compelling eLearning course. You’re determined to create something more engaging than the same old course that learners quickly click through, but how do you take this “boring” content and create something relevant and engaging? Many instructional designers will say, “Boring in means boring out.

Content

ProBlogger

NOVEMBER 16, 2010

This article is by Gretchen Rubin of The Happiness Project. I started The Happiness Project blog as a way to test the argument that novelty and challenge bring happiness (turns out they do!), but I knew nothing about blogging when I began. Here are some strategies that I learned the hard way, through experience. As Benjamin Franklin once remarked, “Experience keeps a dear school, but fools will learn in no other.”.

Blogger 51

Blogger Projects Copy Text 51

ProBlogger

JULY 14, 2010

Have you ever felt completely overwhelmed by some element of your online business? Image by Stephan Poff. I’ve felt that way many times, both in the early days and even now. For me it usually comes when I’m working on a new venture or expanding something that I’m already doing into something bigger. For example: When I started my first blog and had no idea how to make decisions about blog platforms, didn’t know where I’d find readers, or if they’d like me when

Projects 51

Projects Collaboration Blogger Promotion 51

ProBlogger

DECEMBER 10, 2010

Stanford obsesses about how to get passionate people’s blogs noticed and promoted at Pushing Social. Great posts often get ignored. It shouldn’t happen. Literary masterpieces should be revered but that just isn’t the case in the blogosphere. On a blog, a post has a few seconds to capture and pull in a reader. The writer needs to state their idea and immediately begin to persuade, entertain, and motivate.

Blog Post 51

Blog Post Post Blog Blogging 51

ProBlogger

DECEMBER 8, 2010

Last week we talked about what type of social media account you should set up. Regardless of which you choose, you’ll want to start building an audience straight away. Remember, the value in social media is the depth of the personal connections you make, not the number of people who you’re connected to. You don’t want to get followers quickly—you want to build an audience.

Social Media 51

Social Media Audience Media Promotion 51

Speaker: Chester Santos – Author, International Keynote Speaker, Executive Coach, Corporate Trainer, Memory Expert, U.S. Memory Champion

In October, scientists discovered that 75% of patients who experienced brain fog had a lower quality of life at work than those who did not. At best, brain fog makes you slower and less efficient. At worst, your performance and cognitive functions are impaired, resulting in memory, management, and task completion problems. In this entertaining and interactive presentation, Chester Santos, "The International Man of Memory," will assist you in developing life-changing skills that will greatly enha

Entertainment