The Art of Finding Ideas

Every writer who has ever lived has lusted after ideas.

Where are they, how do I get them, and how do I keep them coming?

If you've been writing long enough, you know that - like Solomon - there is nothing new under the sun.

Try as you might to sweat them out of your head or pull them gently from the stars above, there are no new ideas.

So, relax.

But the page is not going to write itself, is it? Where then do we turn for ideas that work, ideas that move, ideas that persuade?

In short, we “steal” them.

The moment you free yourself from The Cult of Originality, you realize that original ideas do not come from within.

They are given to us, from without.

A writer should not look inside, but outside, at external sources, stories, events, and emotions.

If you're offended that I'd suggest you “steal” ideas, please get over it. You're already a thief - you just don't know it.

Here are two of the most significant idea repositories on Earth …

1. The modern media is a torrent of ideas

In this information age, you have absolutely no reason to “draw a blank.”

Ever.

What used to take days and weeks to research and learn, can take us mere moments.

In fact, the only problem we have now is one of finding trusted curators. We need to develop self-discipline and discernment in seeking out correct information from reliable sources.

There is no drought of ideas.

Brian Clark once wrote:

“You have more computing power in your pocket than it took to send men to the moon. What are you doing with it?”

Indeed.

Are you wasting it or harnessing it? You don't need to go to the moon; the crossroads will do just fine.

Research. Read. Compile.

Product manuals, literature, interviews, talk radio, podcasts, magazines, newspapers, television, Twitter, Google Trends, movies, Wikipedia, and on and on and on …

It's all there, right in your pocket, waiting to be compiled and analysed. And it's actually more than you'll ever need.

So use it. Don't let it use you.

2. People will give you exactly what you're looking for

Ideas are walking around everywhere out there.

Eugene Schwartz once told a story about a copywriting job he was working on.

He met with the client and asked him to start talking about the product. They ended up sitting together for four hours - the client talking, and Schwartz simply listening and taking notes.

Later that night, while he was waiting for his wife to get ready for a night out in Manhattan, Schwartz sat down and wrote the ad.

The entire ad.

He said about 70 percent of the finished copy was composed of his client's own words.

The headline itself was a phrase the client had hit on, word for word.

He waited two weeks, mailed the ad to the client, and they both made a lot of money.

You might think this was some kind of dirty trick on Schwartz's part, but you'd be wrong.

Schwartz knew how to write a powerful direct response ad. The client didn't.

Schwartz was smart enough to know that the client knew (in this case) his own product better than he ever could, and simply translated that knowledge and passion onto paper.

The ideas were sitting in the client's head and Schwartz knew exactly what to do with them.

It goes further …

For better or worse, a writer is working all the time.

Phone calls with friends, the plumber, your spouse, your child, your boss, your client, your neighbor - they are all constantly giving you ideas.

They are all constantly telling you what they - and the entire world - truly want.

It's all grist for the mill.

All you need to do is … listen.

Steal this post

Eugene Schwartz summed this up for me perfectly:

“You don't have to have great ideas if you can hear great ideas.”

I stole this post from him, and he stole it from many others.

Listen more. Talk less.

Read less. Read better.

The Art of Finding Ideas is then … the act of going out and finding ideas.

Originality? That'll come from using your own voice, and your voice develops from writing more. And more. And more.

Where have you been getting your ideas?

Editor's note: This post was originally published on October 18, 2011.

Image source: Jamie Street via Unsplash.

The post The Art of Finding Ideas appeared first on Copyblogger.

The Art of Finding Ideas

Every writer who has ever lived has lusted after ideas.

Where are they, how do I get them, and how do I keep them coming?

If you've been writing long enough, you know that - like Solomon - there is nothing new under the sun.

Try as you might to sweat them out of your head or pull them gently from the stars above, there are no new ideas.

So, relax.

But the page is not going to write itself, is it? Where then do we turn for ideas that work, ideas that move, ideas that persuade?

In short, we “steal” them.

The moment you free yourself from The Cult of Originality, you realize that original ideas do not come from within.

They are given to us, from without.

A writer should not look inside, but outside, at external sources, stories, events, and emotions.

If you're offended that I'd suggest you “steal” ideas, please get over it. You're already a thief - you just don't know it.

Here are two of the most significant idea repositories on Earth …

1. The modern media is a torrent of ideas

In this information age, you have absolutely no reason to “draw a blank.”

Ever.

What used to take days and weeks to research and learn, can take us mere moments.

In fact, the only problem we have now is one of finding trusted curators. We need to develop self-discipline and discernment in seeking out correct information from reliable sources.

There is no drought of ideas.

Brian Clark once wrote:

“You have more computing power in your pocket than it took to send men to the moon. What are you doing with it?”

Indeed.

Are you wasting it or harnessing it? You don't need to go to the moon; the crossroads will do just fine.

Research. Read. Compile.

Product manuals, literature, interviews, talk radio, podcasts, magazines, newspapers, television, Twitter, Google Trends, movies, Wikipedia, and on and on and on …

It's all there, right in your pocket, waiting to be compiled and analysed. And it's actually more than you'll ever need.

So use it. Don't let it use you.

2. People will give you exactly what you're looking for

Ideas are walking around everywhere out there.

Eugene Schwartz once told a story about a copywriting job he was working on.

He met with the client and asked him to start talking about the product. They ended up sitting together for four hours - the client talking, and Schwartz simply listening and taking notes.

Later that night, while he was waiting for his wife to get ready for a night out in Manhattan, Schwartz sat down and wrote the ad.

The entire ad.

He said about 70 percent of the finished copy was composed of his client's own words.

The headline itself was a phrase the client had hit on, word for word.

He waited two weeks, mailed the ad to the client, and they both made a lot of money.

You might think this was some kind of dirty trick on Schwartz's part, but you'd be wrong.

Schwartz knew how to write a powerful direct response ad. The client didn't.

Schwartz was smart enough to know that the client knew (in this case) his own product better than he ever could, and simply translated that knowledge and passion onto paper.

The ideas were sitting in the client's head and Schwartz knew exactly what to do with them.

It goes further …

For better or worse, a writer is working all the time.

Phone calls with friends, the plumber, your spouse, your child, your boss, your client, your neighbor - they are all constantly giving you ideas.

They are all constantly telling you what they - and the entire world - truly want.

It's all grist for the mill.

All you need to do is … listen.

Steal this post

Eugene Schwartz summed this up for me perfectly:

“You don't have to have great ideas if you can hear great ideas.”

I stole this post from him, and he stole it from many others.

Listen more. Talk less.

Read less. Read better.

The Art of Finding Ideas is then … the act of going out and finding ideas.

Originality? That'll come from using your own voice, and your voice develops from writing more. And more. And more.

Where have you been getting your ideas?

Editor's note: This post was originally published on October 18, 2011.

Image source: Jamie Street via Unsplash.

The post The Art of Finding Ideas appeared first on Copyblogger.

7 Financial Aid Appeal Tactics To Improve Your Child's College Aid Award

Your child got into the college she wanted, but the aid award is too low. Using these 7 tactics to appeal the aid award will improve your chances of getting more grants and scholarships.

7 Financial Aid Appeal Tactics To Improve Your Child's College Aid Award

Your child got into the college she wanted, but the aid award is too low. Using these 7 tactics to appeal the aid award will improve your chances of getting more grants and scholarships.

Make Your 529 College Savings Portfolio Perform Better, Longer

By identifying ahead of time where their child may be able to get into college, get aid and afford to go, investors in age-based 529 college savings portfolios can choose to leave some of their college savings in higher return investments longer, while the money they need to pay college bills sooner is adjusted based on the age of the child to take little or no risk, meaning parents can ace their college savings strategy while their kids ace their exams and ACT.

How to Embrace Your Quirkiness and Build a Profitable Business

We are … how shall I say this? Unusual around here.

• Our Founder and CEO is a reformed lawyer-turned-marketer-turned-serial-entrepreneur-turned-who-knows-what's-next.


• Our COO runs our galaxy when he isn't keeping our company running.


• Our CCO rocks hot pink hair and an unmistakable style.


• Our CFO has remade himself as a LinkedIn shock jock.


• Our CPO promotes a minimalist life with maximum heart.

I could go on.

Company meetings feature an eye-popping variety of hair colors, styles of dress, and tattoos of all shapes and sizes. Our hobbies range from geeky (please don't get us started on Marvel comics movies) to traditional (ask Andrea about quilting or check in with Rebecca about what she's knitting).

Pets? We have plenty of dogs and cats. Turtles, too. Horses of all sizes. A goat named Frankie.

And we speak multiple languages. There's English (obviously), but also French, Italian, Polish, Portuguese, Punjabi, Romanian, Russian, Spanish, and Urdu.

That's all to say … we're kinda weird, you know? Diverse. We have personality.

Wait … you too?

I'm betting you're a little quirky, too. Why else would you hang out with us?

There are plenty of websites that could teach you about using content marketing to build an online presence. But you're here reading Copyblogger.

Let's turn that around and think about your situation:

There are plenty of people who will resonate with your particular brand of quirkiness, too.

But only if you let it show. And that's what today's post is going to spell out how to do.

Seriously weird. And weirdly serious.

As Demian Farnworth loudly proclaimed in Conquer Content Shock with Illegitimate Ideas, and I talked about in Defy Convention or Be Forgotten, there are distinct business advantages to embracing your unique, quirky style.

Weirdness stands out. Weirdness is remembered. And weirdness - as long as you're not insulting, degrading, or a train wreck - can make your brand seriously unforgettable.

But how do you find your unique writing voice? And once found, how do you go about expressing it?

That is the question. And here are my four succinct answers.

1. Say your words out loud, and then write them down

One way to pinpoint your quirky voice is to actually use your voice when you write.

You can do this several ways:

• You can say what you're thinking out loud and write it down exactly the way it comes out of your mouth.


• You can use a voice-to-text system that captures your speech and turns it into words that you edit later.


• You can record your thoughts into your phone and transcribe the phrases you use when talking about your topic.

As you become more proficient in writing using your own voice, I recommend you read your final draft out loud.

Sometimes hearing your words spoken aloud can help you identify places where they don't flow or aren't expressing your voice accurately.

2. Shake free from all those rules and regulations

You'll be happy to know that you will not be graded on your work. There are no roaming bands of English teachers hovering over your content with their red pens.

Oh sure, it's wise to follow standard usage, but that's mostly because it's the best way to ensure you're understood.

And yes, your helpful readers may occasionally point out an embarrassing gaffe. You'll survive. A quick edit plus a click on the update button and your mistake will disappear.

Those rules you dutifully followed so you could get decent grades in your English classes can be loosened up to allow for greater self-expression.

So go ahead and write conversationally: End your sentence with a preposition. Go crazy and italicize words for emphasis. Add an ellipsis if it helps build suspense …

3. Stand on the foundation of your expertise and experience

There's nothing more delicious than attending a get-together with friends and having someone ask you about the topic you've obsessively studied for years.

They seem genuinely interested. They ask probing questions. And you have the opportunity to wax poetic about your most-loved subject for a full 10 minutes.

You don't stumble over what to say. You don't put on airs or pretend to be someone you aren't.

Your words flow effortlessly because when it comes to this particular topic, you're a natural authority.

When you write from a place of comfortable mastery - whether you're still a beginner or you're a certified expert - your voice shines through as confident, unforced, and authoritative.

4. Step out from the shadow of the writers you admire and write it your way

If you find yourself trying to mimic the style of a writer you admire, you're not alone.

Even the most experienced writers - the ones you may try to emulate as you write - have writing heroes. It's not a bad thing.

One thing that unites truly great writers is that they have written enough to peel back the layers of imitation that might have grown around them. They write from a place deep inside that doesn't sound like anyone else.

The only way to find this place is to write.

It's only through writing - a lot - that you'll find a voice that you own 100 percent.

To find your own quirky voice, write. Then write some more.

Be loud and proud, and don't be afraid to share who you are

Sameness is the enemy online. We're all fighting a battle for eyeballs, attention spans, and brain space.

How can you stand out?

• Tap into the quirky traits that make you who you are. What are they? Write them down.


• Emphasize these traits in your work: both in the voice you write with and the way you present yourself on social media.


• Serve up your unique voice consistently over time.

It may take some work to find what's unique about you and your business. And it will take some practice to feel comfortable expressing it.

But when you make the effort, you'll see the payoff.

Want to get attention and keep it? Embrace your quirkiness!

Build a profitable business based on your unique approach

Authority is our content marketing training and networking community designed to help you pinpoint your quirky voice and build the skills you need to profit online.

Enrollment is closed for now, but put your name on the Authority interest list by clicking on the button below. We'll let you know when doors open again.

Join the Authority interest list

The post How to Embrace Your Quirkiness and Build a Profitable Business appeared first on Copyblogger.

Make Your 529 College Savings Portfolio Perform Better, Longer

By identifying ahead of time where their child may be able to get into college, get aid and afford to go, investors in age-based 529 college savings portfolios can choose to leave some of their college savings in higher return investments longer, while the money they need to pay college bills sooner is adjusted based on the age of the child to take little or no risk, meaning parents can ace their college savings strategy while their kids ace their exams and ACT.

4 Indirect Ways to Improve Your Search Rankings

I know you want it…

More organic search traffic.

Who doesn't want free, high quality traffic, that comes in month after month?

That's why SEO is such a big deal and one of the main topics I focus on-here, on Quick Sprout.

I believe that most marketers should be dedicating a significant portion of their time and resources towards SEO.

There are many things you can do that have a direct impact on your search traffic.

However, there is more to marketing than just SEO, and you probably know that.

The thing is, they don't have to be mutually exclusive.

Just because some of your marketing isn't specifically done to improve search traffic, that doesn't mean that it can't.

And this type of situation is more common than you might think.

In this post, I'll go over four ways that can indirectly improve your search rankings.

This means that the primary benefit of these marketing techniques is not to improve search traffic, but there's a good chance that, if done right, they might help you with your search traffic too. 

1. Following up with customers leads to extra benefits

This is a great place to start because there doesn't seem to be an obvious connection to SEO.

But I assure you there is.

Getting feedback from your customers is always a great idea, but it can eat up a lot of time.

Some businesses figure they don't have the resources to follow up continuously with customers and would rather dedicate them all to sales/marketing channels such as SEO.

However, if you get customer feedback and use it correctly, it can lead to some great backlinks in a few different ways.

Here's the simple 2-step process you'll need to follow:

Step #1 – Contact customers immediately after the sale: You have very few opportunities to open up communication with customers without annoying them.

After the sale is one of them.

Once someone purchases something from you, they're usually excited to hear from you and possibly want reassurance that everything went well.

Send them an email that confirms their order and lets them know whom to contact if they need help.

Step #2 – Follow up after they've had time to use your product: The more important part, when it comes to potential SEO benefits, is to follow up with customers again.

Once they've used the product, they can tell you if they've had any problems or complaints. This is the main reason why you'd want to follow up-these issues are important to address if you want to retain happy customers.

In addition, ask for their feedback on their experience.

If someone says that they're thrilled, that's great. Then you should ask them to share their experience with others. Since they enjoyed your product or service so much, you'll get a high percentage of these customers willing to help you out.

You have a few options that can help with SEO.

If you'd like to ask for a simple favor, ask them to leave a review on a big review site in your niche. For most niches, this will include sites such as Yelp and Yellow Pages.

Let's look at an example of a search for a carpenter in New York:

The top result is a Yelp business page, while the second result is Yelp's internal search results for carpenters (another search listings page).

The second is most interesting here:

This page orders businesses based on several factors, e.g., the number of reviews they have and how positive the reviews are (in addition to price).

As long as you fall into the default filters, the more good reviews you have, the higher your profile will appear.

Why does this matter for SEO?

Because the more prominent (higher) a link is on a page, the more weight it has.

This page has a lot of search engine authority (that's why it can rank at #2), and it passes that authority mostly to the top profiles that it links to.

Those profiles all have links back to their corresponding websites, which, of course, improves those websites' search authority.

Not only will reviews get you more direct business on these review sites, but that extra link power can help your rankings in search engines. Not by a ton, but by enough that you will notice it after a while.

The second option, which is best for high priced products, is to create a case study of the results your customer got.

Brian Dean at Backlinko does it all the time, both for his readers and actual customers:

Case studies are typically really easy to promote, and they can get a ton of traffic and links.

I've created an extensive guide to creating effective case studies that you should read if you take this approach.

2. Get out of your shell and go to events

Just about every industry has several conferences throughout the year. No doubt you can find a few local events to attend if you wanted to.

Now, conferences can be a huge waste of time, but they can also be incredibly valuable.

Obviously, you go primarily to learn, but a huge secondary result can be the relationships you come back with.

Events are a great way to meet other people in your industry and explore opportunities to work together.

But guess what else happens?

When you email them down the line, asking them to check out your latest piece of content, most will be happy to read it and give feedback.

What's even better is that if they have a chance to link to it within their own content, they usually do. These links can have a big impact on your search rankings if you make several connections per event.

Finally, even if your connections don't manage their content, they can introduce you to the content manager for their business. You can explore collaboration opportunities or offer to create guest posts for them (which will give you more links to your site).

All of these potential benefits are important if you have to convince your boss that it's worth sending you to conferences.

Finding conferences is easy: I won't spend much time on this, but I'll show you quickly how to find conferences.

Start by Googling:

(industry) conferences (year)

You could also try “events” instead of conferences:

Typically, you'll find a roundup of all the best events, often multiple.

Each of these results will give you a listing of events, separated by date, location, and audience:

I recommend going through more than one list so that you don't miss any good ones.

Remember that conferences can be either worthless or extremely valuable. The difference depends on how you spend your time at them.

That's why I wrote the Beginner's Guide to Conferences in the past. Give it a quick read.

3. Hire the best help you can get

If you're truly creating “epic” content, chances are that you're not doing everything on your own.

In most cases, you're hiring freelance writers and designers to help fill in any gaps in your skillset.

Obviously, if you're hiring the best freelancers you can afford, it's because you primarily want to create great content.

That kind of content is the easiest to get to rank.

However, the very act of hiring freelancers will make it easier.

Let me explain…

Type #1 – Writers: Whether you hire a freelancer or offer them an attractive opportunity to collaborate, these relationships will often get you some extra high-quality backlinks.

A good set of examples are my ultimate guides (sidebar of Quick Sprout). For these guides, I teamed up with experts in each of the subjects.

I had some help from Kathryn Aragon writing The Advanced Guide to Content Marketing, for example:

When someone helps create a piece of content of that quality, they, of course, want to show it off.

How?

By talking about it and linking to it.

It makes them look great to say they wrote or co-wrote an amazing piece of content.

Because of this, I didn't have to ask Kathryn to link to the guide; she's mentioned it dozens of times in her posts on other sites and social media (linking to it most of the time):

Essentially, your writer will help you with the content promotion.

Type #2 – Designers: More commonly, marketers hire freelance designers to help create images for content.

The exact same principle applies here:

If you hire a freelancer to create something great, they will want to show it off in their portfolio, leading to great backlinks for your content.

Continuing with the example of my guides, I needed professional help to design them.

My designer had accounts on sites such as Behance and Dribbble, both of which are authoritative sites in the design niche.

Of course, they shared the images with links to those guides:

Those links are the indirect benefit of working with great freelancers.

4. User experience optimization is a great use of your time

Creating a great user experience on your site and with your products is valuable for many reasons.

Typically, the main motivation for working on improving your users' experience has to do with the conversion rate. It's a good reason.

What most don't consider is that this often inadvertently plays a big role in improving search rankings.

There are a few reasons why, but most applicable here is the concept of pogo sticking.

Basically, if a Google user clicks on your page but then goes right back to the search results for another, it indicates to Google that your content didn't satisfy the user.

Conversely, if most users stop on your page, you did a good job and are rewarded with better search rankings.

If you improve the user experience of your website, you'll usually end up increasing the number of visitors that you fully satisfy, decreasing pogo sticking. This can indirectly improve your rankings.

User experience is extremely complicated, but there are three common factors we can focus on and look at the ways they affect pogo sticking.

Factor #1 – page load speed: Studies have shown that people will not wait for pages to load.

Even a fraction of a second can affect 5-10% of people who will leave before they even see your content.

Ideally, you want your pages to load in less than 2 seconds.

You can test page load speed by using the Quick Sprout tool or a tool such as GTmetrix.

Improving page load speed will have a huge effect on pogo sticking, but it's also a direct ranking factor confirmed by Google.

It's not a huge one, but factoring both of these aspects together, speed can make a big difference in rankings.

Searchmetrics found a huge correlation between a quick load time and the top Google positions:

Factor #2 – clutter: One thing that makes a big difference in user experience is the amount of clutter on the page.

Most people are looking for one specific thing, so everything that's unrelated on the page only serves as a distraction.

Compare that to a site like Medium, where the content is essentially the only thing on the page:

It's no surprise that Medium posts rank well in Google. When a user clicks through, they easily find exactly what they're looking for, leading to less pogo sticking.

Try to declutter your layouts as much as possible, taking out anything that your visitors don't need to see.

Factor #3 – site architecture: Site architecture refers to the way all the different pages of your website are organized in relation to each other.

For our purposes, good site architecture essentially means you have organized internal linking.

Here's what a good structure looks like:

Everything is organized into topical silos.

When search engines crawl the site, it will be easier for them to determine the relevancy of your pages, which often leads to better rankings.

Conclusion

By all means, you should spend a lot of time and resources directly on SEO.

However, you can still focus on other areas of your business while also getting SEO benefits.

I've shown you four great business practices that accomplish valuable things plus give you indirect improvements to your search rankings.

I encourage you to incorporate as many of these as you can, without fearing that you're neglecting your SEO work.

If you have any questions about the subject of this post, let me know in a comment below.

How to Embrace Your Quirkiness and Build a Profitable Business

We are … how shall I say this? Unusual around here.

• Our Founder and CEO is a reformed lawyer-turned-marketer-turned-serial-entrepreneur-turned-who-knows-what's-next.


• Our COO runs our galaxy when he isn't keeping our company running.


• Our CCO rocks hot pink hair and an unmistakable style.


• Our CFO has remade himself as a LinkedIn shock jock.


• Our CPO promotes a minimalist life with maximum heart.

I could go on.

Company meetings feature an eye-popping variety of hair colors, styles of dress, and tattoos of all shapes and sizes. Our hobbies range from geeky (please don't get us started on Marvel comics movies) to traditional (ask Andrea about quilting or check in with Rebecca about what she's knitting).

Pets? We have plenty of dogs and cats. Turtles, too. Horses of all sizes. A goat named Frankie.

And we speak multiple languages. There's English (obviously), but also French, Italian, Polish, Portuguese, Punjabi, Romanian, Russian, Spanish, and Urdu.

That's all to say … we're kinda weird, you know? Diverse. We have personality.

Wait … you too?

I'm betting you're a little quirky, too. Why else would you hang out with us?

There are plenty of websites that could teach you about using content marketing to build an online presence. But you're here reading Copyblogger.

Let's turn that around and think about your situation:

There are plenty of people who will resonate with your particular brand of quirkiness, too.

But only if you let it show. And that's what today's post is going to spell out how to do.

Seriously weird. And weirdly serious.

As Demian Farnworth loudly proclaimed in Conquer Content Shock with Illegitimate Ideas, and I talked about in Defy Convention or Be Forgotten, there are distinct business advantages to embracing your unique, quirky style.

Weirdness stands out. Weirdness is remembered. And weirdness - as long as you're not insulting, degrading, or a train wreck - can make your brand seriously unforgettable.

But how do you find your unique writing voice? And once found, how do you go about expressing it?

That is the question. And here are my four succinct answers.

1. Say your words out loud, and then write them down

One way to pinpoint your quirky voice is to actually use your voice when you write.

You can do this several ways:

• You can say what you're thinking out loud and write it down exactly the way it comes out of your mouth.


• You can use a voice-to-text system that captures your speech and turns it into words that you edit later.


• You can record your thoughts into your phone and transcribe the phrases you use when talking about your topic.

As you become more proficient in writing using your own voice, I recommend you read your final draft out loud.

Sometimes hearing your words spoken aloud can help you identify places where they don't flow or aren't expressing your voice accurately.

2. Shake free from all those rules and regulations

You'll be happy to know that you will not be graded on your work. There are no roaming bands of English teachers hovering over your content with their red pens.

Oh sure, it's wise to follow standard usage, but that's mostly because it's the best way to ensure you're understood.

And yes, your helpful readers may occasionally point out an embarrassing gaffe. You'll survive. A quick edit plus a click on the update button and your mistake will disappear.

Those rules you dutifully followed so you could get decent grades in your English classes can be loosened up to allow for greater self-expression.

So go ahead and write conversationally: End your sentence with a preposition. Go crazy and italicize words for emphasis. Add an ellipsis if it helps build suspense …

3. Stand on the foundation of your expertise and experience

There's nothing more delicious than attending a get-together with friends and having someone ask you about the topic you've obsessively studied for years.

They seem genuinely interested. They ask probing questions. And you have the opportunity to wax poetic about your most-loved subject for a full 10 minutes.

You don't stumble over what to say. You don't put on airs or pretend to be someone you aren't.

Your words flow effortlessly because when it comes to this particular topic, you're a natural authority.

When you write from a place of comfortable mastery - whether you're still a beginner or you're a certified expert - your voice shines through as confident, unforced, and authoritative.

4. Step out from the shadow of the writers you admire and write it your way

If you find yourself trying to mimic the style of a writer you admire, you're not alone.

Even the most experienced writers - the ones you may try to emulate as you write - have writing heroes. It's not a bad thing.

One thing that unites truly great writers is that they have written enough to peel back the layers of imitation that might have grown around them. They write from a place deep inside that doesn't sound like anyone else.

The only way to find this place is to write.

It's only through writing - a lot - that you'll find a voice that you own 100 percent.

To find your own quirky voice, write. Then write some more.

Be loud and proud, and don't be afraid to share who you are

Sameness is the enemy online. We're all fighting a battle for eyeballs, attention spans, and brain space.

How can you stand out?

• Tap into the quirky traits that make you who you are. What are they? Write them down.


• Emphasize these traits in your work: both in the voice you write with and the way you present yourself on social media.


• Serve up your unique voice consistently over time.

It may take some work to find what's unique about you and your business. And it will take some practice to feel comfortable expressing it.

But when you make the effort, you'll see the payoff.

Want to get attention and keep it? Embrace your quirkiness!

Build a profitable business based on your unique approach

Authority is our content marketing training and networking community designed to help you pinpoint your quirky voice and build the skills you need to profit online.

Enrollment is closed for now, but put your name on the Authority interest list by clicking on the button below. We'll let you know when doors open again.

Join the Authority interest list

The post How to Embrace Your Quirkiness and Build a Profitable Business appeared first on Copyblogger.

4 Indirect Ways to Improve Your Search Rankings

I know you want it…

More organic search traffic.

Who doesn't want free, high quality traffic, that comes in month after month?

That's why SEO is such a big deal and one of the main topics I focus on-here, on Quick Sprout.

I believe that most marketers should be dedicating a significant portion of their time and resources towards SEO.

There are many things you can do that have a direct impact on your search traffic.

However, there is more to marketing than just SEO, and you probably know that.

The thing is, they don't have to be mutually exclusive.

Just because some of your marketing isn't specifically done to improve search traffic, that doesn't mean that it can't.

And this type of situation is more common than you might think.

In this post, I'll go over four ways that can indirectly improve your search rankings.

This means that the primary benefit of these marketing techniques is not to improve search traffic, but there's a good chance that, if done right, they might help you with your search traffic too. 

1. Following up with customers leads to extra benefits

This is a great place to start because there doesn't seem to be an obvious connection to SEO.

But I assure you there is.

Getting feedback from your customers is always a great idea, but it can eat up a lot of time.

Some businesses figure they don't have the resources to follow up continuously with customers and would rather dedicate them all to sales/marketing channels such as SEO.

However, if you get customer feedback and use it correctly, it can lead to some great backlinks in a few different ways.

Here's the simple 2-step process you'll need to follow:

Step #1 – Contact customers immediately after the sale: You have very few opportunities to open up communication with customers without annoying them.

After the sale is one of them.

Once someone purchases something from you, they're usually excited to hear from you and possibly want reassurance that everything went well.

Send them an email that confirms their order and lets them know whom to contact if they need help.

Step #2 – Follow up after they've had time to use your product: The more important part, when it comes to potential SEO benefits, is to follow up with customers again.

Once they've used the product, they can tell you if they've had any problems or complaints. This is the main reason why you'd want to follow up-these issues are important to address if you want to retain happy customers.

In addition, ask for their feedback on their experience.

If someone says that they're thrilled, that's great. Then you should ask them to share their experience with others. Since they enjoyed your product or service so much, you'll get a high percentage of these customers willing to help you out.

You have a few options that can help with SEO.

If you'd like to ask for a simple favor, ask them to leave a review on a big review site in your niche. For most niches, this will include sites such as Yelp and Yellow Pages.

Let's look at an example of a search for a carpenter in New York:

The top result is a Yelp business page, while the second result is Yelp's internal search results for carpenters (another search listings page).

The second is most interesting here:

This page orders businesses based on several factors, e.g., the number of reviews they have and how positive the reviews are (in addition to price).

As long as you fall into the default filters, the more good reviews you have, the higher your profile will appear.

Why does this matter for SEO?

Because the more prominent (higher) a link is on a page, the more weight it has.

This page has a lot of search engine authority (that's why it can rank at #2), and it passes that authority mostly to the top profiles that it links to.

Those profiles all have links back to their corresponding websites, which, of course, improves those websites' search authority.

Not only will reviews get you more direct business on these review sites, but that extra link power can help your rankings in search engines. Not by a ton, but by enough that you will notice it after a while.

The second option, which is best for high priced products, is to create a case study of the results your customer got.

Brian Dean at Backlinko does it all the time, both for his readers and actual customers:

Case studies are typically really easy to promote, and they can get a ton of traffic and links.

I've created an extensive guide to creating effective case studies that you should read if you take this approach.

2. Get out of your shell and go to events

Just about every industry has several conferences throughout the year. No doubt you can find a few local events to attend if you wanted to.

Now, conferences can be a huge waste of time, but they can also be incredibly valuable.

Obviously, you go primarily to learn, but a huge secondary result can be the relationships you come back with.

Events are a great way to meet other people in your industry and explore opportunities to work together.

But guess what else happens?

When you email them down the line, asking them to check out your latest piece of content, most will be happy to read it and give feedback.

What's even better is that if they have a chance to link to it within their own content, they usually do. These links can have a big impact on your search rankings if you make several connections per event.

Finally, even if your connections don't manage their content, they can introduce you to the content manager for their business. You can explore collaboration opportunities or offer to create guest posts for them (which will give you more links to your site).

All of these potential benefits are important if you have to convince your boss that it's worth sending you to conferences.

Finding conferences is easy: I won't spend much time on this, but I'll show you quickly how to find conferences.

Start by Googling:

(industry) conferences (year)

You could also try “events” instead of conferences:

Typically, you'll find a roundup of all the best events, often multiple.

Each of these results will give you a listing of events, separated by date, location, and audience:

I recommend going through more than one list so that you don't miss any good ones.

Remember that conferences can be either worthless or extremely valuable. The difference depends on how you spend your time at them.

That's why I wrote the Beginner's Guide to Conferences in the past. Give it a quick read.

3. Hire the best help you can get

If you're truly creating “epic” content, chances are that you're not doing everything on your own.

In most cases, you're hiring freelance writers and designers to help fill in any gaps in your skillset.

Obviously, if you're hiring the best freelancers you can afford, it's because you primarily want to create great content.

That kind of content is the easiest to get to rank.

However, the very act of hiring freelancers will make it easier.

Let me explain…

Type #1 – Writers: Whether you hire a freelancer or offer them an attractive opportunity to collaborate, these relationships will often get you some extra high-quality backlinks.

A good set of examples are my ultimate guides (sidebar of Quick Sprout). For these guides, I teamed up with experts in each of the subjects.

I had some help from Kathryn Aragon writing The Advanced Guide to Content Marketing, for example:

When someone helps create a piece of content of that quality, they, of course, want to show it off.

How?

By talking about it and linking to it.

It makes them look great to say they wrote or co-wrote an amazing piece of content.

Because of this, I didn't have to ask Kathryn to link to the guide; she's mentioned it dozens of times in her posts on other sites and social media (linking to it most of the time):

Essentially, your writer will help you with the content promotion.

Type #2 – Designers: More commonly, marketers hire freelance designers to help create images for content.

The exact same principle applies here:

If you hire a freelancer to create something great, they will want to show it off in their portfolio, leading to great backlinks for your content.

Continuing with the example of my guides, I needed professional help to design them.

My designer had accounts on sites such as Behance and Dribbble, both of which are authoritative sites in the design niche.

Of course, they shared the images with links to those guides:

Those links are the indirect benefit of working with great freelancers.

4. User experience optimization is a great use of your time

Creating a great user experience on your site and with your products is valuable for many reasons.

Typically, the main motivation for working on improving your users' experience has to do with the conversion rate. It's a good reason.

What most don't consider is that this often inadvertently plays a big role in improving search rankings.

There are a few reasons why, but most applicable here is the concept of pogo sticking.

Basically, if a Google user clicks on your page but then goes right back to the search results for another, it indicates to Google that your content didn't satisfy the user.

Conversely, if most users stop on your page, you did a good job and are rewarded with better search rankings.

If you improve the user experience of your website, you'll usually end up increasing the number of visitors that you fully satisfy, decreasing pogo sticking. This can indirectly improve your rankings.

User experience is extremely complicated, but there are three common factors we can focus on and look at the ways they affect pogo sticking.

Factor #1 – page load speed: Studies have shown that people will not wait for pages to load.

Even a fraction of a second can affect 5-10% of people who will leave before they even see your content.

Ideally, you want your pages to load in less than 2 seconds.

You can test page load speed by using the Quick Sprout tool or a tool such as GTmetrix.

Improving page load speed will have a huge effect on pogo sticking, but it's also a direct ranking factor confirmed by Google.

It's not a huge one, but factoring both of these aspects together, speed can make a big difference in rankings.

Searchmetrics found a huge correlation between a quick load time and the top Google positions:

Factor #2 – clutter: One thing that makes a big difference in user experience is the amount of clutter on the page.

Most people are looking for one specific thing, so everything that's unrelated on the page only serves as a distraction.

Compare that to a site like Medium, where the content is essentially the only thing on the page:

It's no surprise that Medium posts rank well in Google. When a user clicks through, they easily find exactly what they're looking for, leading to less pogo sticking.

Try to declutter your layouts as much as possible, taking out anything that your visitors don't need to see.

Factor #3 – site architecture: Site architecture refers to the way all the different pages of your website are organized in relation to each other.

For our purposes, good site architecture essentially means you have organized internal linking.

Here's what a good structure looks like:

Everything is organized into topical silos.

When search engines crawl the site, it will be easier for them to determine the relevancy of your pages, which often leads to better rankings.

Conclusion

By all means, you should spend a lot of time and resources directly on SEO.

However, you can still focus on other areas of your business while also getting SEO benefits.

I've shown you four great business practices that accomplish valuable things plus give you indirect improvements to your search rankings.

I encourage you to incorporate as many of these as you can, without fearing that you're neglecting your SEO work.

If you have any questions about the subject of this post, let me know in a comment below.

Tax Court: Expired Limitations Period Stops Tax Debt Collection

A recent Tax Court case demonstrates the effect of the 10-year limitations period on tax collection.

An Effective (but Embarrassing) Way to Develop Elite Copywriting Skills with Mini Habits

After reading smart advice, how many of us immediately turn around and apply it?

Not many, unfortunately.

If smart advice only produces results once we begin applying it, why doesn't it automatically become a part of our lives after we read it?

This post will help you bridge the vast gap between learning something and applying it.

To bridge the gap between theory and reality, we need an application strategy that empowers us to practice.

Until we apply what we've learned, the benefits of any action remain theory instead of reality.

My secret for applying what I've learned … fast

For the first 10 years I was interested in personal growth, I made meager progress.

I wasn't one of those transformation stories like Jack LaLanne, who heard a seminar on healthy eating and changed his behavior dramatically - starting his path to become the “godfather of fitness” for the next several decades.

I'd be willing to bet that most other people don't fall into that quick frog-into-prince category either.

In the last three years, however, I've made massive strides in multiple areas of my life at the same time.

Do I have a secret? Yes, actually. I stumbled upon a nearly foolproof application strategy. Before we talk about that, it's important to understand the supreme importance of practice.

Practice makes subconscious

The popular saying is “practice makes perfect.” The more accurate saying is “practice makes subconscious.”

If you want to become good at anything, you have to recruit the power of your subconscious brain. There is no other way.

For example, Michael Jordan was so skilled at basketball because he practiced so much that all the scenarios, movements, and requirements of the game became second nature to him.

He didn't have to consciously think, “Okay, I'm going to dribble around this guy, do a quick spin, pump fake to get the big man to jump, and do a reverse layup on the other side.” Instead, he did it all instinctively and swiftly. He had the skills, athletic ability, and court awareness, all of which were developed through hours and hours of practice.

Similarly, expert copywriters have practiced the craft so much that the right words, sentence structure, and emotional tone flow out of them - the concepts of effective copywriting are already a part of their ways of thinking. They may consult materials to aid their efforts (as Jordan studied the game of basketball), but they don't necessarily need them in order to do a fine job.

Beginners in any discipline need external help because they haven't learned the core skills yet. On their paths to mastery, they'll often emulate known authorities.

The difference between experts and those trying to emulate them is the amount and consistency of practice.

To reach your goal - whether it's to create a popular blog, become a world-class copywriter, or do a double backflip on skis - you must practice consistently.

Success comes from consistent, repetitive action

When most people want to become good at something, they do it a few times and quit, or they do it sporadically for years.

To the subconscious mind, this doesn't cut it. If you want to change your subconscious, repeat a behavior over and over and over again. Repeat it once more after that. Do it every day. Repetition is the language of the subconscious mind.

Seth Godin has written 18 bestselling books and has one of the most popular blogs in the world. Do you think it's coincidence that he's published a post every day for years and is a successful writer? I don't.

“If you know you have to write something every single day, even a paragraph, you will improve your writing.” – Seth Godin

Success is born from consistency. People aren't consistent because they're successful; their consistency creates and sustains their success.

You won't believe what triggered my breakthrough

If you've been reading carefully, you've noticed that I think consistency matters a lot. Well, I want to take it a step further. There is nothing more important than being consistent.

Let me briefly explain why I believe this so sincerely.

It was mid-2013, and I was struggling (to put it lightly). I had been blogging for 2.5 years and only had 440 subscribers to show for it. Most of my peers had done far better in far less time. Despite my Finance degree, I was jobless and living with my parents at the ripe old age of 28. My hopes for the future were ashes at the feet of my reality.

I made a decision in mid-2013, however, which gained me 4,000 more subscribers during the rest of that year.

Later that same year, I self-published a book which has been translated into more than a dozen languages and has been the number one self-help book in the USA, Canada, and South Korea.

After that, I created a video course, which now has more than 7,500 paying students. I wrote another international bestselling book last year, and my blog has grown to more than 12,000 subscribers. I've also put on 15 pounds of muscle by going to the gym.

It was a dramatic turnaround. What do you imagine was the “big” strategy that changed my life?

Writer's Xtreme Boot Camp: Bleed By Day Three or Your Money Back!

Um … no. Yikes.

You went to Tibet and found yourself!

Nope. Sounds fun though.

You got lucky.

I don't believe in luck anymore; I believe in consistency.

I'll tell you the real strategy that created my avalanche of positive change, but you might laugh at it and you may not even believe me. In mid-2013, at the height of my failure, I set four daily goals that changed my life:

1. Do one push-up.


2. Write 50 words (blog).


3. Write 50 words (book).


4. Read two pages in a book.

Anticlimactic, isn't it? Four activities that took me a cumulative time of five minutes to do completely transformed my life.

I call these “mini habits,” and it's the topic of that book I published in December 2013.

Mini habits make application (really) easy

The transformation in my life occurred as a direct result of my strategy change. I switched from chasing “goals” to chasing consistency. Because these mini habits were so minuscule, I had no problem accomplishing them every day.

This concept is about more than just “set small goals.”

A unique part of the mini habits strategy is that the daily goal is not a ceiling. I actively encouraged myself to do more than my mini requirements. This ensured my consistency and also gave me an outlet for excess motivation. I realized that motivation isn't supposed to be our primary fuel for action, though - it's too inconsistent for that.

In psychology, there's a term called autonomy. It's far more important than people realize: “The term autonomy literally refers to regulation by the self. Its opposite, heteronomy, refers to controlled regulation, or regulation that occurs without self-endorsement.”

Autonomy means that you feel in control and are in charge of yourself.

Most goals people set seem like they provide autonomy since they're decisions we make, but a big goal can easily become the boss you despise.

For example, when you're unmotivated, you'll resist the goals you've set, and you'll feel controlled by your prior decision to pursue the goal. Your sense of autonomy will disappear and you'll feel controlled. When people feel controlled, they fight back or try to escape.

Instead of stripping away your sense of autonomy, a mini habit enhances it and makes you feel empowered.

It's never too intimidating to practice copywriting for 50 words or one minute. You'll often exceed your small goal, not because of an arbitrary aim, but because you want to get better at it. You want to practice more, and meeting your mini habit requirement is a potent momentum and motivation booster to keep going.

A mini habit shines most on the days you're tired and unmotivated, as you can still knock out your requirement and feel good about what you did.

This is why the mini habits strategy is the ultimate consistency tool.

Start small on your way to big results

Aristotle famously said, “We are what we repeatedly do.” That is true, even if what we repeatedly do is really small and simple.

Before my writing mini habit, I wrote sporadically and my results were sporadic.

When you do something every day, you resist it less over time. That's why I was able to go from one push-up a day to a full gym habit. As a bonus, you will also develop the skill more rapidly.

There are considerations, such as how many mini habits to pursue at once and how to keep your mini habit small, but that's beyond the scope of this article. For that, I recommend reading the Mini Habits book, which goes into more detail.

Dream big, but keep your goals small to harness the exponential power of consistency. You won't look back.

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