So, a bird flew into my studio…

Nope, not the beginning of a bad joke – it actually happened. And I wrote about it, of course.

Copyblogger got the post…and I’d love for you to fly on over there and check it out…it’s right up the Writing Roads blog-alley, promise.

Dead dudettes and some news…

Jonathan Fields wrote a snappy post about 10 Dead Dudes to follow a couple of weeks ago and asked me to write the companion piece about Dudettes, seeing as how I am one.

Here’s a snippet of the babes that made the cut:

5. Eve There’s a bumper sticker that I believe was written for Eve, it says: Well-behaved women seldom make history. Once upon a time, Eve had a choice, she could follow the rules or not. She chose to be a daredevil, truth be told. That serpent helped her get the hell out of dodge and pave her own way – a way filled with the good and the bad. Because, as all women know, being good is just plain boring (most of us like bad boys and if Adam was going to play the goody two shoes, by God, Eve was going to corrupt him). Follow Eve by being curious, by following your cravings and your passions, and – of course – by misbehaving. There are many books that talk about Eve, (sadly she didn’t leave us a personal account of what really went down) but you might want to start with the Old Testament (and make sure to read in between the lines).

7. Katharine Hepburn wore pants and wore them so well. She was the picture of poise, but she was fiercely strong. In a biz where smiling for the press and everyone else was box office gold, she was labeled box office poison for her unconventional, straight-shooting, anti-Hollywood attitude. She was outspoken, esoteric and had a sharp tongue. And none of this was softened by her refusal of make-up and pretty dresses. Still, she earned 12 Oscar nominations and four statues. On location filming African Queen, director John Huston spoke of how on their days off, he and Bogart would go hunting for lions and such, and how one day Hepburn asked to join them. “He described her as a “Diana of the Hunt” — utterly fearless — and able to shoot with the best of them.” Follow Katharine to go against all conventions and to be real – as in ‘not fake’ or hidden under pretenses or make-up (actual or metaphorical). Read Me: Stories of My Life

Read the full post…

Also…

Next Tuesday 4/6, I’ll be on Bonnie Marcus’ fantastic radio show, Head over Heels, talking about Blogging for Business. Do I talk like I write? Hmmm…this would be a good way to find out. Also, she’s going to take questions from folks via her Facebook page which could be highly entertaining except for the fact that I think the questions have to be about blogging…so it’ll just be highly informative.

And…

I’m heading off on a fabulous adventure for a few days. I’m not sure if I’ll be posting Friday or Monday – and I don’t want anyone to think I’m dead if I don’t. So consider yourself informed. Capiche? I will be in very, very, very good hands…(my own included, of course).

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The Sex and the City Guide to Copyblogging – (Copyblogger post)

Originally posted on Copyblogger

I’ve always been of the opinion that if Carrie Bradshaw had popped onto our television screens in 2010 instead of 1998, she would have been a blogger. But alas, she didn’t, so she wrote a (gasp!) print column for the fictional New York Star newspaper.

Yes, before there were blogs, there were newspaper columns – where readers couldn’t talk back or share good content. ‘Carrie the blogger’ would have been huge.

Though the words of Carrie and her cohorts have not been etched in permalink stone, their messages linger on. And despite the fact that Carrie was allergic to the internet and only used her Apple Powerbook for word processing her articles, the lessons, ideas and, more pointedly, the actual quotes that came barreling out of Sex and the City still speak directly to us Copybloggers.

“You sleep with someone, all of a sudden you start rationalizing all of the red flags away.”

Now, hopefully, you aren’t sleeping with your clients, readers or other bloggers (on a regular basis). Typically, the copybloggers’ dangling carrot (no pun intended, I swear) isn’t sex, it’s money….

Hop on over to Copyblogger to finish reading this post, yo.

(And I haven’t forgotten the non-hoopla post…it’s coming!)

Image credit: 22

Want to be a Better Writer? Get Your Ego Out of the Way (copyblogger)

Raise your hand if you’re a writer.

Now, raise your hand if you have a nice-sized ego.

And now, raise your hand if you lied on that last one and kept your hand down.

The thing is, writing and a big ego kind of go hand in hand. And if you haven’t quit, gone crazy, or offed yourself yet — which I know you haven’t because you were just raising your hand — then like it or not, you have a big ego.

How do I know this? Well…

To read the rest of this post, hop on over to Copyblogger where, I’m pleased as punch to share, I am now a regular contributor…

And I hope you don’t mind me making you click to read the rest, but this post (and I’m guessing all of the posts I put on Copyblogger) are also posts that I’ll want to share with you – AND (I’m hoping you know this already) it is bad, bad blogging behavior to reprint the whole article in duplicate here. Copyblogger owns it now…

I’m sending you off on an adventure around the blogosphere…and the importance of a landing page

Really, I am. I’m sending you elsewhere…(but just for a little field trip).

Because today, I have a post that lives on a different blog. It’s a little, teeny, tiny blog with oh, I don’t know, over 100,000 subscribers and god only knows how many daily hits. (I like to fantasize that it’s a million).

But before I send you off, I have to share an important trick of the trade that I’ve learned via this particular guest posting experience. How many times have you read a guest post on one of your favorite blogs, loved it and clicked through to the author’s site only to land on their home page or blog where you poke around directionless before either 1) subscribing because you liked the guest post so much or 2) leaving because it’s all just kind of blah or 3) finding this blogger’s blog so enthralling that you read everything they’ve ever written?

When Sonia Simone, Copybloggers’ Senior Editor, emailed me to arrange my guest post, she recommended that I create a landing page for Copyblogger traffic. Brilliant. Really, this is such a fantastic idea. I immediately created a page that my guest post bio would link back to on my site instead of just sending them to my blog url. The page tells new visitors:

• Who I am
• What I do
• Where to find the things I want them to find on my site (ebook, teleclass info, blog, services, etc.)
• Special projects

You could also include:

• Links for people to buy your products
• Favorite blog posts
• Contact information
• And on and on

I’ve seen people use landing pages for Google Ads, their Twitter (or other social media sites), conference bios, etc. It’s your landing page, you are directing the flow of traffic exactly how you want to, total control.

Guest posting is a very good thing. It’s critical for bloggers interested in growing their readership. But, ceating a landing page for new readers so they know where to go and what to do and how to get the most out of you? As I said, brilliant.

And now, without any further ado, I’d love for you to click on over to Copyblogger to read my post. And you can find my landing page here.

Thanks y’all.

Image credit: waywuwei

Blogstipation (and how to avoid it)

Cheers to Cassie Aiden for introducing me to this fabutastic word…

Blogstipation. Is it the inability to write blog posts? The back-up of so many good blog ideas? Or is it a blog that’s just not moving – no increase in visitors, pageviews, business?

Of course the term itself fits all three of these possibilities….it’s that good.

The inability to write blog posts

You’ve run out of ideas, you’re having a bad day, you’re simply out of juice.

1. Search the net, check other blogs. Chances are someone’s writing about something that either you could write better or their take on it is a 180 degree spin from yours…make it your own.

2. Walk away from your computer. Literally – take a walk, a bike ride, something to get out of your head and get creativity flowing through every limb again.

3. Don’t panic. Ask some folks to guest post, do some interviews – take the heat off of yourself and your muse.

4. Whatever you do, don’t just write something for the sake of filling your blog. People are less likely to leave you because of your silence than because of your pointless or crappy posts.

The Back-up

So many things brewing that you simply can’t get anything done or published.

1. Don’t let ideas back up in your brain, it’s very crowded already. Carry a notebook or a digital voice recorder or a smart phone to get the ideas out of the brain and into the world as they happen. You know, let it flow.

2. Make a list, schedule, calendar…and use it.

3. Hire a VA or other specialists (like writers, designers, techies, cleaners, bookkeepers, etc.) to help you get things done.

4. Prioritize. There’s bound to be something in that there should be done first. Do it…and get the ball rolling again.

The stagnation

Same number of visitors day after day? No new business?

1. Guest post somewhere else – preferably on a blog with readers who have never heard of you and need your services.

2. Use Twitter. Follow new people, build relationships, give good tweet by sharing interesting links and info on a wide range of subjects. (I ‘spose a little LinkedIn and Facebook wouldn’t hurt either)

3. Write an ebook and make it free and valuable.

4. Do some keyword research about your topic and find out what people are looking for…then give it to them.

If absolutely none of this works:

1. Shut down your blog. Maybe it’s just not your thing?

2. Add more fiber to your diet: get out there and experience life, learn more about your industry, go to conferences. LIVE away from your computer.

3. Take some blogging Pepto: Shot of Red Bull? Glass of Merlot? Shot of Tequila? Mug of green tea? Flask of hot chocolate?

4. Call me…a good friend, your coach or mentor. Sometimes we just have to talk these things through…

Image credit: Alexander Ekman

How to Get a Ratings Bump Without George Clooney

So, ER is finally winding down. I have to tell you that I haven’t watched the medical drama since George left the set. I have that thing where you believe you have every illness that happens on the show (even gun shot wounds, which last I heard aren’t a communicable disease). What’s that called? Oh yeah, hypochondria.

But, I dealt with it for Clooney.

Anyway, for the end of the series, ER brought all of the heavy hitters back, the original cast: Eriq La Salle, Julianna Margulies, Anthony Edwards…and, yes, George.

I was just standing in my kitchen daydreaming about Hollywood, as I often do. And, I was imagining the producers of the show finding out that everyone was coming back – George Clooney, in particular – and how they must be thrilled to get the ratings bump.

And, it occurred to me that what us bloggers deal with – the highs and lows of stats, the rare superstar post, the prized guest post or the coveted mention on a bloggeratti’s blog – isn’t so different from this television phenomenon.

Their episodes are our posts. Their guest stars are, well, our guest stars. Their feature on the Today Show is our feature on Chris Brogan’s blog. The ratings bump sometimes disappears in a flash, but sometimes the audience stays, grows, builds. We both win awards – though ours isn’t quite as prestigious…yet. But, we’re getting there.

So, if you can’t get George, what do you do for this ratings bump? Here are some ideas:

1. Bring in a guest blogger who has a wide audience in a field that will be valuable to your readers, but won’t take your readers away.
2. Same as above, but make it an interview.
3. In either case, ask your guest to mention the appearance to their readers.
4. Write something really good about a very hot and current topic.
5. Guest post or be interviewed on someone else’s blog and meet their audience.
6. Have a social media network that supports you and shares you (because you do the same for them).
7. Provide information and value – give the people what they need!

Okay, chime in – your ideas always dazzle…

Image from Wikipedia

This Shack is Hoppin’

Things are hopping around the old Writing Roads shack, and this post is a little news update.

Blog beautiful

If you’ll take a look over to your right, you’ll notice that I have had the AMAZING Shauna Callaghan hard at work on my sidebars. Notice the gray dividing lines, the orderliness, the new Twitter button, the defining widget headers that let you know where you are and what you’re looking at! (And how much nicer things are for advertising.)

New FREE eBook

You also might notice a lovely banner over there that features my new, FREE eBook: How to Be a Successful CopyWriter. I’m thrilled to let you all know that it is here and live. So if you, or anyone you know, is considering starting a new life as a copywriter or jump-starting a rather dull one, share this eBook with them. Hopefully, it will do for you and them, what I was searching for and didn’t find when I got started. Click on that link above and you’ll get more details about what’s inside…

I had a little fun with the eBook’s download page. Of course, the eBook is free for the taking – but I thought I’d give you the option, as I say on the landing page, to throw a little change in my proverbial guitar case. Cut to me blogging on a street corner…

Please know that I can’t see you if you take the eBook for free – I have no way of knowing – so I couldn’t judge you even if I wanted to – and really, I want you to have the eBook and to share it, no matter how you get it.

Guest Blog

And, finally – a very exciting thing happened to me over the weekend. I described it to a non-blog/social media person like this: ‘Imagine I’m a food blogger and Martha Stewart has me guest blog my latest epicurean creation on her incredible blog.’ Now, translate that to the blog/social media sphere, and you have me extraordinarily honored to guest post on Chris Brogan’s blog this past Saturday.

The only sad piece, and believe me, the rest was ecstatic – was that I couldn’t publish that post here on this blog that I love. If you’d like to read it, you can find Things that keep me from falling down on Chris’ blog.

…and thanks for being here. If it weren’t for you, I actually might be on that street corner.

my news, your news: as we get back to work post-election

This is tough, but here I go, diving away from the election news blogs. And, in an attempt at re-entry, here’s some news from my little slice of the world wide web.

1. A few weeks ago, I was approached by the make-my-life-better team at Personal Chef To Go. They wanted to advertise their Thanksgiving meals on this blog…and can you believe these people? They insisted on sending me 10 huge, succulent samples of their food. Seriously, I don’t know what gets into people – I’m a mom with a business to run, I don’t have time to eat all of this food!

I agreed to post the ad and to write about their company because, as they predicted, it’s a great fit for me and my busy life (and the lives of many of my colleagues/readers). The food ships with ice packs and insulation to your door – and you can freeze it or stick in the microwave (something I detest and don’t own) or oven. And it’s really good – the chefs are real, live Professional Chefs – the kind that have cheffed for the Emmy’s and the Tony’s.

Chef Gene Castelluccio and Chef Blair Grossman use all natural ingredients, make everything from scratch and add no preservatives. Personal Chef To Go also provides automatic delivery – so you don’t even have to think about this – your food just shows up. And, if I can come home to a good, already made meal, then I can spend more time with my family – and that is invaluable.

2. I’m the Working Mom of the Week on Confessions of a Diet Coke Addict today. While I do not condone the use of poisonous soft drinks, I do think that Laura Pink is fantastic, and I understand that Motherhood relentlessly asks us to dig deep for survival – so I’m not too hard on her about the addiction. It’s an honor to have been invited and to be featured on her blog. So head over there if you feel like hearing about my family and mom-ness.

3. Today at 2pm, I’ve been invited to speak at/on/in (?) a tele-seminar about using Twitter to promote your small business with Margie Zable Fisher of Zable Fisher Public Relations. Can’t wait and hope you’ll be there! And, I’ll probably recap it with an upcoming post, so stay tuned.

Okay, that’s my news…your turn. Anyone want to tell me what you’re up to now that we can breathe again? Just comment below…