DemianF, Author at Copybot

Introducing My New Podcast: Rough Draft

March 16, 2015 by DemianF 16 Comments

And then there was the podcast: Rough Draft.

Essential writing advice you need to succeed online, in about four minutes a day, four days a week.

It’s a sequential show. A journey. I start from the very beginning and work through principles and practices of writing for the web. Tomfoolery included. With the occasional semi-robotic surprise guest host.

If you’re a pure writer, and you wonder how you’ll be able to build your own online platform that actually gets seen, this show is your shortcut.

Subscribe to Rough Draft on iTunes

While you are at it, check out some of the other shows in the Copyblogger podcast network: RainmakerFM.

I’m particularly fond of Sonia Simone’s show art (Confessions of a Pink Haired Marketer). Intrigued by the angle on editing Stefanie Flaxman takes in her show (Editor-in-Chief). And smitten by the name of Loren Baker’s podcast on SEO (Search and Deploy).

And not to mention the next four episodes of The Lede (with Jerod and I) are going to be good. Like so good the world will end, children will forget their names, and birds will bring us food.

Come, join us.

How My Admiration for Maria Popova Turned into Jealousy (but Not for Long)

March 13, 2015 by DemianF 6 Comments

If you don’t know who Maria Popova is … shame on you.

She’s the founder and curator of Brain Pickings … one of the few blogs catalogued into the Library of Congress.

That blog is a bottomless source of curiosities. And for any writer, a well of inspiration. Which made her interview with Kelton Reid hands down my favorite.

Let me put this in context.

Over the years Kelton has interviewed some great writers: Seth Godin, Daniel Pink, Elizabeth Gilbert, and Jeff Goins.

But HER interview had me hanging on every word. To say she is intelligent and creative is a gross understatement.

No wonder: her life is consumed by reading and writing. Devoted to books like a nun with a iron-clad pact to serve God. It’s an entirely enviable life.

And not just any kind of books. Old, non-digital books. [Read more…]

How to Be More Successful When You Ask a Favor

March 10, 2015 by DemianF 6 Comments

While Enlightenment-era thinkers would like you to believe otherwise, we are not as rational as we think we are.

Books like Irrational Exuberance, Emotional Intelligence, and Descartes’ Error teach us that even the most analytical among us make decisions with emotions. Furthermore, we learn that without emotions we can’t make a decision in the first place.

In the sales context, this means people buy based on desire.

Whether someone wants a promotion at work or a healthier lifestyle, they desire these things for emotional reasons like prestige, approval, sex appeal, or security.

However, those desire-based decisions are eventually justified with logic. That’s where “reason why” advertising comes in.

In essence, if you make an offer, state a claim, or ask a favor, expect your prospect to wonder why you are making that claim. Satisfy her curiosity. Sweep away her skepticism.

Kill the troll.

For example, explain why you are giving away a free sample of your book (because you know the advice in the first chapter will help them survive Manhattan traffic that very night).

Explain why you are throwing in a free 30-minute consultation with every contract (because this helps clients warm up to your strange coaching process).

Elizabeth Langer’s famous 1977 Copy Machine Study demonstrates we don’t need much. Your reason why could be as simple as “I’m just a generous person” or “because.”

Whatever it is, make it clear. Otherwise people will wonder if there’s a catch and remain skeptical.

P.S. Have you seen my new podcast Rough Draft?

This piece originally appeared as part of this Salesforce article (which I am told by a source close to the company is their most socially popular post).

What In the World Is Wrong with These Bloggers?

March 6, 2015 by DemianF 5 Comments

I’m about a month late to this party. Oh well. It’s still important to address.

On January 28, 2015, Andrew Sullivan announced his retirement from blogging. For those who don’t know, Andrew Sullivan is the grandfather of political blogging.

That’s probably an understatement. Okay, he invented political blogging.

A few days later Vox followed up with a report on what it meant that Sullivan had created a popular blog, but couldn’t figure out how to monetize it.

This seems to be the perennial challenge, doesn’t it? How do you make a living from a popular blog?

Klein said there were two reasons: scale and the erosion of voice. In his own words, “the bigger the business gets, the harder it is to retain the original voice.”

Can’t argue with that. His next statement is more revealing:

He was trying to make his blog — and its sizable audience — into a business. But blogging, for better or worse, is proving resistant to scale.”

As if it was an enigma. Like we haven’t solved this problem a hundred times over.

But not so fast.

Klein is careful to define his terms. Blogging is “the unedited voice of a person.” (That’s actually Dave Winer’s definition, Klein notes.) It’s transparent, off the cuff, random.

We all know bloggers like this whom we love. Unfortunately, some of them don’t know how to go from popularity to profitability. Which is a shame. But it’s really quite easy to fix. [Read more…]

Want to Sweep Away Skepticism? Demonstrate Your Product

March 3, 2015 by DemianF 6 Comments

The first mention of an elevator is thought to be around 236 A.D. It was nearly seventeen hundred years later before the first working models were actually installed (in English and French palaces, no less).

There was just one problem. If the lift cable broke, the cab dropped – wounding or killing everyone inside.

In 1852, Elisha Otis hoped to save lives (and make money) by introducing his safety elevator. And he did it with a very dramatic demonstration. In front of a crowd of onlookers at the Crystal Palace in 1853, Otis raised his safety elevator three stories high, and then cut the cable – while he was still inside.

Everyone gasped.

But instead of plunging into the ground below, the elevator stopped when knurled rollers engaged. Otis was shaken up, but unhurt. As you can imagine, orders came in hot and heavy.

Otis’ demonstration proves an important principle about belief: If you want people to believe in the hard to believe, then simply demonstrate what your product does.

The blender company Blendtec’s attention-getting “Will It Blend?” YouTube videos are examples of dramatic demonstrations. To dismiss any skepticism about their claim that their blenders could grind anything and still remain sharp, Blendtec blended iPhones, hearing aids, rakes, and so on.

Views of the videos blew through the roof – as did sales.

Of course car salespeople rely heavily on this principle. Instead of wasting hours talking about a car they simply hand the keys over.

You must do the same. Find a way to demonstrate your product. Whether it is software or a service. You’ll have to be creative. And don’t forget: the more dramatic, the better.

P.S. Have you seen my new podcast Rough Draft?

Image source: Thomas Hawk

This article originally appeared as part of this Salesforce article (which I am told by a source close to the company is their most socially popular post).

Atlantic Writer Misses What Makes Twitter Truly Great: Social Proof

February 24, 2015 by DemianF 12 Comments

Last Monday Derek Thompson (senior editor at The Atlantic) missed a wonderful opportunity to talk about one of the things that makes Twitter truly great.

Let me give you some context.

Less than three weeks after deleting the Twitter app from his phone (part of a slew of 2015 resolutions revolving around better productivity), Derek redownloaded the app. Eventually he discovered a new feature: “View Tweet Activity.”

This got him exploring, asking questions, and digging deeper into analytics only to discover what I thought was a common truth: [Read more…]

Scared You Aren’t Good Enough to Start a Blog? Read This Short Parable

February 19, 2015 by DemianF 24 Comments

Lying on his back, blinking the blood out of his eyes, the king watched a red kite reel in the sky. The scent of pine and old snow in the air. He rolled onto his stomach, pushed himself to his feet. He touched his left eye.

It was gone.

He lumbered down the rocky valley following the narrow stream. He paused in a meadow of foxtail, to regain his sense of direction. The sun hung hot over the trees in the east. He put his hand to his left eye.

It was still gone.

In the afternoon he lie beneath a warped juniper. Slept while the wind swarmed. When he awoke with a start a nearby hare jumped and bounded uphill, disappearing behind a crop of rocks. The king put his hand to his left eye.

It was still gone.

The following day, at dawn, he drank from a pond. While still crouched he touched his left eye. He wept long, hard. And then he rose to his feet, eyed a storm cloud, and lumbered west.

He marched through rain, through cold, through dark. But he marched.

By evening of the fourth day he spotted a large camp. A few souls wandered with canes about the space between the battered tents. Their eyes were covered by a swath of dirty cloth.

He entered the camp, built a roaring fire, and, throughout the night, replaced every dirty swath with a clean strip he tore from his own robe.

Then he ate.

The next day he taught the men how to shape yew into a bow, the women to milk cattle. The young men to plow, the young women to dye cloth. And, beneath the stars, he taught the children about the sun and the moon.

Over time they replaced the tents with houses made of stone. And until the end of his life he quietly ruled this small kingdom of the blind. The king with one eye.

So: what’s the moral? Leave your answers in the comments. And please share this story with people who need it.

Do This When a Monster Project Paralyzes You

February 13, 2015 by DemianF 15 Comments

Floss just one tooth every day. That’s not a big commitment. But it is what dentists tell people who have trouble remembering (or feel overwhelmed) when it comes to flossing.

Sounds lame, actually.

Flossing isn’t laborious. Pull out a twenty-four inch string of floss. Wrap one end around the index finger of your right hand, the other end around the index finger of your left hand. Work it between your teeth.

I just timed myself and the whole affair took me fifty-two seconds. And I was being particularly lifeless.

We don’t floss because we are lazy. And look for any excuse not to floss. This mindset holds for big projects. Take writing a book, for example.

I’ve got this side project I so want to finish. But, to be realistic, will involve at least a year or two of writing and research. That’s overwhelming. And the project only continues to grow. For every book I read I discover three more I want to read.

Add my mounting responsibilities at Copyblogger and, naturally, there is a logjam. I may go days without touching my side project. Unless I think about it like flossing just one tooth.

Why would a dentist tell patients to floss just one tooth a day? Because she knows once someone goes through the trouble of getting the floss out for one tooth, they are more than likely to floss every tooth. And flossing just one tooth doesn’t seem like a big deal.

So what I’ve committed to is at least 24 minutes every 24 hours. Even if all I do for those 24 minutes is re-read what I wrote the day before. That doesn’t seem nearly as daunting. And usually that’s enough to get me back into the momentum.

By the way, there’s nothing special about 24 minutes except that it mirrors 24 hours. Which makes it handy. Easy to remember. Cute you might say. Like your pearly whites (if, of course, you floss everyday).

What’s your gimmick to trick your mind into doing stuff it hates? Share in the comments.

Image by Alexander Rentsch