I didn’t write the Wrap last week because Brian didn’t figure many people would be cruising Copyblogger over the holiday weekend, but I think that’s just yet another ethnocentric case of an American arrogantly assuming that his readership isn’t entirely composed of obsessive-compulsive Danish copywriting sailors with a high-bandwidth nautical Wi-Fi connection onboard their schooners.
And to that I say, Tillykke med fødselsdagen!
While I hobble off to the shop to get a fresh quill and have my peg-leg replaced (and naturally to flip each light switch I encounter along the way exactly seventeen times), you can check out what happened this week on Copyblogger:
Monday:
How to Captivate Your Audience with Story (From America’s Greatest Living Playwright)
This may mark the first time that a memo became a source of inspiration rather than de-motivation. This post takes snippets from a memo from playwright David Mamet to the writers working on his television show and pulls dramatic lessons from them. Want to know about drama, business, and the conveyance of information vs. entertainment? It’s all here, folks.
Tuesday:
The Most Important Element of Your Marketing Story
It’s kind of cool to think of yourself as the protagonist in your own marketing story, and it’s also quite beneficial from a copywriting standpoint. I’ll just point out that I don’t really want to be a Charlie Chaplin protagonist per this post’s photo. Instead, I usually choose to be an androgynous wizard with mall hair ala David Bowie in Labyrinth.
Wednesday:
Your Staggeringly Unfair Marketing Advantage: IMfSP Radio #4
This episode of the IMfSP radio show focuses on the huge advantage that good content marketing will give you, but also on mixed martial arts, Salman Rushdie, and the President. Once you have that, the marketing kind of takes care of itself. I mean, who wouldn’t watch that bout?
Thursday:
How to Craft a Marketing Story that People Embrace and Share
Continuing the story theme, this post is all about crafting your marketing story so that people will want to share it, much like they’d share a delicious jelly donut. It’s got good nuts and bolts about minding your audience, etc. to be most effective in using that story as a tool, but precious little time is spent talking about donuts. You know what kind I like? The glazed chocolate cake ones.
Friday:
The Rockstar Guide to Getting More Traffic, Fame, and Success
Awesome, I love posts like this on the “hold your head up” aspect of success. This one is about using showmanship to step into the position you want as an authority, and it makes me realize that TRUE branding might just be about KISS makeup and clothing with giant metal spikes on it. And big hair. Fortunately, I’ve lucked into it and already have all of those things covered. BRING ON THE GROUPIES!
This week’s cool links:
- You Are So Stupid: I waded into this post ready to fight Chris Brogan for mocking me YET AGAIN, but it’s actually a post about the negative things we say to and about ourselves. I actually pay attention to this kind of thing… good stuff.
- Why a Bad Memory’s Not Such a Bad Thing: THANK you for this post. The net gets criticized all the time for changing the way we think, but it’s usually assumed it’s for the worse. But is “education” really about memorizing and regurgitating?
- A Wandering Mind is an Unhappy One: So apparently, happiness correlates really well with mindfulness about what’s actually going on rather than having your thoughts elsewhere. Oh, what… so now I’m supposed to actually pay attention to the chainsaws I’m juggling?
- The inevitable decline due to clutter: This from the “more is less” school of thought, Seth Godin ruminates on whether adding more stuff to digital marketing is a good thing or a bad thing. (Hint: He thinks it’s a bad thing.)
About the Author: Johnny B. Truant specializes in selling through stories and would like very much to set you up with a cheap blog or website. (That’s “cheap” as in “inexpensive,” not as in “tawdry.”)
Reader Comments (11)
oh yeah , i have been reading posts regularly , i will just be checking if i missed some !!! great posts last week by the way !!! 😉
I liked Monday’s top how to create a story to engage your audience because everyone can relate to someone else’s story.
This was a very good summary of all the topics that was covered last week. I found it refreshing as drinking Coca-Cola on a hot summer day.
Oh I was there during the thanksgiving period and I’m not even Danish, let alone a Sailor.
I read every post on Copybloger.com even if I do not always comment.
Thanks for the wrap up
Great links to awesome posts. Got my printer working and soon will start reading them 🙂
Hi John,
I am picking up so many great ideas and best practices by reading Copyblogger!
This is the first ‘weekly wrap’ that I have read on Copyblogger.
I am going to implement this same idea onto my blog.
Thanks very much.
All the best,
Neil Uttamsingh
Thanks Johnny for the wrap up!
I read the blog post from Lateral Action too, and learnt about the benefits of using the internet as a form of backup for our memory.
Also liked the theme like approach copyblogger took this week, focusing on creating a compelling story for our audience one article after another, made it easy to consolidate all the necessary ideas on the subject.
Going to check on some other links you shared.
…and a happy birthday to you too, Johnny!
From one of the obsessive-compulsive Danish Sailors 🙂
I figured someone would assume I’d picked some random profanity. 🙂
You know, this is uncanny. Not only am I NOT American and was I NOT in America over Thanksgiving weekend, but I WAS in Denmark and I DID use Wifi.
I didn’t meet any sailors though. Or I WASN’T AWARE that anyone I met was a sailor. But that doesn’t rule it out.
And my pleasure re the memory post. I really wrote it as a catch-all excuse for forgetting people’s birthdays (‘Don’t blame me, blame Google Calendar’) but it’s good to know it had some residual value elsewhere.
Thank you for sharing great ideas… by an obsessive-compulsive reader and copywriter from Florence, Italy 🙂
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