3 Resources to Help You Publish the Content Your Audience Wants

By Stefanie Flaxman

copyblogger collection - meet your audience's desires

“Oh no. We have to toss them out,” the bartender said with a sour look on her face as she removed a thin, black straw from her mouth. Four intricate cocktails she just made were lined up in a row in front of her.

“All of them?!” her coworker asked.

“Yep. When I taste-tested them, I realized I added too much Fernet-Branca.”

And down the drain the cocktails went.

A couple months ago, I sat a few feet away from this interaction and observed the bartender acknowledge her mistake, even though it was costly. She then produced the proper cocktails before presenting them to …read more      

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What Is the True Cost of Building and Managing a WordPress Website?

By Jerod Morris

wordpress website cost analysis

In any description of WordPress features, there’s one word you’re sure to see:

Free.

This is, of course, true. The files necessary to install WordPress on a server and run it are indeed free.

A casual content producer could even sign up at WordPress.com and run their entire website for free, never paying a dime if all they wanted were the most basic features.

But you are no casual content producer.

You use WordPress like we use WordPress: as a serious business tool to drive serious revenue.

You understand — like we do — that the true cost of running WordPress is far from “free.”

So, …read more      

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Don’t Drive Your Business Into the Ground: 5 Ways Metrics Can Cause Bad Decisions

By Neil Patel

image03

We’ve all done it before…

At some point in our lives, whether it’s related to marketing or something else, we’ve lied to ourselves.

It’s natural to want to feel good, and the brain can distort truths to make you feel that way.

But lies get in the way of progress.

They can make you feel okay about not putting in the effort required for success.

The scariest part is that sometimes we don’t even know we’re doing it.

The cause of this, when it comes to marketing and business, is using metrics incorrectly.

Metrics are very important because they allow us to quantify our results.

However, not all …read more      

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Sour to Sweet: An Advisor Who Transforms Businesses

By Pamela Wilson

hero's journey - helping businesses evolve

Every business has moments when it’s on shaky ground.

Sometimes the business is in the middle of a major growth phase. It’s traveling over rocky ground as it transforms from what it was to what it’ll become.

Sometimes it’s simply struggling to put its best face forward on the web.

And sometimes the business lacks the technology or processes needed to get to the next level of growth.

Raúl Colón helps with all of the above.

His story is this month’s Hero’s Journey feature. We’re tapping the collective wisdom of our community members to bring you reports from the front lines of the content marketing …read more      

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Big Bums, Scuffles, and How to Craft Copy Your Competitors Wouldn’t Dare Write

By Joanna Wiebe

dare to say what the others won't

Your biggest copy opportunity is this: your competitors are chickens.

They’re scared of saying something that gets noticed.

They’re scared of writing copy that sounds and looks different from what everyone else is publishing.

They’re terrified of stringing together line after line of notice-me copy that’s actually sticky enough to make visitors do a double-take. To stop bored eyes from rolling along aimlessly. To make busy people pause and take notice.

But what if taking a chance on unexpected copy could bring in, say, 124 percent more clicks? Or 26 percent more leads?

Can you tell these services apart …read more      

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