Within seconds, I started getting emails, DMs on twitter, messages on Facebook and comments saying “stop the presses, change the spelling before too many people see it.” And I genuinely appreciated so many people looking out for me. But I wasn’t about to change it.

I know the “other” spelling, my variation was intentional.

So, why’d I do it? A number of reasons.

One, my spelling created a better visual for me of what the word’s really about. It’s grittier. I could taste that spelling, not so much the mainstream one. Yum.

Two, I live in da Bronx in NYC and the Urban Dictionary says, YO, that’s one way to spell the damn word!

Three, I don’t like rules. I was Managing Editor of Law Review many moons ago. I’ve written for journals, mags, books, the whole yadda yadda. I know the rules. And I also know that my favorite renegade writers, entrepreneurs and makers know them too, and they break them. Just like that.

I love language. To me words matter. That same love drives some people to never want to mess with the way it’s “supposed to be.” For me, it does the exact opposite.

I am far more interested in exploring the evolution from, rather than the preservation of status quo.

I question authority. I enjoy the occasional push, nudge or shimmy against “because I’m the grown up and I said it’s so.” Even if it’s just in the name of fun. Even if I end up wrong.

And guess how new expressions, variants, rules, words, ideas, companies, spellings and movements are created? Someone does something different. They poke. Then someone else wonders about it. Then someone else blasts them for it. Then someone else joins in. Then another person wonders. In the blink of an eye, it turns into a conversation. And maybe, just maybe, an evolution.

Even if it doesn’t, it’s gotten people to think. And people need to think.

Language, by the way, is a gorgeous example of dynamism. This may come as a big surprise, but linguistic conventions, usage, spellings and pronunciations are not fixed. There is no eternal right or wrong.  They evolve over time to reflect common use. What begins life as an outlier, with enough adoption over time, becomes a viable alternative and sometimes even the mainstay.

The one right answer today becomes one of the right answers tomorrow. Some folks can’t stand that. Drives them batty. I get that. But I’m on the side of thinking it’s pretty cool (oy, started yet another sentence with “But.” Hack!).

There’s one last reason I spelled the title the way I did. It was a little devious, but I wanted to demonstrate something.

It was a test. I wanted to see how much of a pattern interrupt the misspelling would create and how motivated people would be to say something about it. And, wow, it did not disappoint. What you see in the comments is only part of the conversation. You should see my emails, DMs and more.

For you marketers and raconteurs out there, a pattern interrupt an example of doing something unexpected in the quest to change someone’s state and open them to a conversation. My spelling of comeupins stopped a solid chunk of people, made some laugh, some scratch their heads, some angry at how a dude who calls himself a “writer” could make such an error or even acknowledge the existence of something so devoid of authority outside the Urban Dictionary and, well, many others had no clue how the word is normally spelled anyway.

More importantly, it started a conversation in a way the proper spelling never would have. I like that.

So next time you feel bound by the rules, or bound to jump on someone who’s not following them, maybe take a step back and say, “hmmm, wonder why the rule is there?” or “wonder why she did THAT?!”

Then have a little fun with it…

How about you?

Today, I want to turn to another element of writing that really matters. But that you can’t see.

Rhythm and flow.

Writing has its own pace. Its own energy.

And, what so many writers never really get, especially those writing for digital media, is that readers respond not just to what’s on the page. Not just to what’s left to be filled in by the reader’s experience. But to the cadence and ease with which a writer moves them through the text, the story.

While researching the book I’m working on right now, I stumbled upon another book that shared a fascinating 3-year experiment that was a direct hit for what I was writing about. The topic, the approach and the conclusions blew my mind. But it took me nearly three-months to get through it. Because it was written in an academic style that was much more concerned with conveying information in an accurate, linear, logical progression than it was guiding the reader along an intriguing quest of discovery.

Rhythm and flow, worked well, help turn rote delivery of information into the breathless pursuit of the next sentence. Rhythm and flow, worked poorly, make interesting content brutal to read.

So, how do you create gorgeous rhythm and flow?

There’s no easy answer.

For some it comes naturally. For most, not so much.

It’s the effect of labor and attention over years. That’s certainly the boat I’m in.

And, it comes into play on both a sentence-by-sentence basis and a sense of flow across an entire work.

My approach is to write as closely to the way I speak as possible. Because I’ve found my readers respond best when my language patterns mimic my speech patterns. That assumes I can speak and tell stories reasonably well (yeah, yeah, I know, we’ll leave that for another conversation, lol). It also may mean consistently breaking many of the most-revered pillars of grammar. Like starting a sentence with the word like. Or because. Splitting infinitives with relish. And shredding into sentences midstream with and or but.

And, in the bigger picture of a longer work, it means being constantly aware of the broader pace of things.

Noah Lukeman, in his fabulous book, The First Five Pages, shared some wonderful insights on the topic in the chapter entitled “Pacing and Progression.” where he asks:

The manuscript might be fine, but does it read?

Lukeman’s insights on the issue include:

• Pacing and progression are difficult to self-edit. Ask a small number of trusted readers for insight.
• If you must self-edit, take a few weeks off to allow you a fresher perspective, then read through the entire work in one sitting to get a feel for the full ebbs and flows.
• In areas where things are too slow, ask if there is enough at stake, if you’ve got solid beginning and ending points but the middle plods, if you’re telling too much and showing too little.
• If it’s too fast, ask if you’re avoiding an inability to fill in the gaps or using dialogue (that speeds pace) in place of more artful, gradual building.

These are just a few things to think about.

If you’ve never read Lukeman’s book, by the way, get it now.

Curious, how do YOU work with issues of rhythm, flow, progression and pace when you blog or create longer works?

And, how aware of it are you when you read what others write?

Share away in the comments, let’s all learn…

Oy, I’ve heard this so many times from small-business owners and bloggers. Folks who want to cast their nets as wide as humanly possible, so that they can reach the greatest number of people, solve their problems and turn them into readers, customers and evangelists.

Only problem with that is, its a recipe for disaster!

For you to succeed in business…

You’ve got to be be able to solve a very specific problem for a very specific person.

You may pile on more problems, more solutions and more types of people after the first one, but you never do it all at once.

And, you need to be able to communicate your solution in the most compelling possible way.

The best way to do that is to create an avatar, a detailed persona of the person who’s problem you can solve. What do they look like, where do they live, how old are they, what sex are they, are they having sex, what are their hopes, fears, desires, challenges, daily experiences, dramas, elations, yadda, yadda, yadda?

Start with their psyche, then build out their world.

Give that person a name. Reginald sounds good to me. Maybe even a telephone number and an address. Then, and only then, are you ready to begin trying to figure out how to communicate to Reginald how seriously you get his life. How much you know his struggles, his quirks, his hobbies and secret desires. How insanely better you can make his life.

And, when you create your message, you speak only to Reginald.

Because, in doing so, you can get so specific, go so deep into his specific mindset, life and emotions that you become monumentally more effective at making him your customer, client or reader. And maybe even turning him into one big, bad basket of evangelical goo!

But, and yes, here’s the big BUT…in making such a targeted bee-line into Reginald’s psyche, you’ve got to accept another fact.

You’re NOT going to be talking to a boatload of other people.

Folks who might be potential clients, but aren’t nearly as well qualified for your help or in nearly as much pain as Reginald is. Hell, to really hit a homerun, you’re going to have to get so specific with Reg that you may even end up alienating a whole lot of non-Reggies.

And, that freaks people out a bit.

Because we all want everyone to love us all the time. We want everyone to buy our stuff. We don’t want to lose a single potential customer, no matter how poorly qualified, tangentially interested or barely in-need that potential client might be.

So, instead of writing to Reginald, and ONLY Reginald, we attempt to speak to every conceivable person who might in some way be interested on even the remotest level. Every conceivable persona, world-view, pain-point and emotional trigger, no matter how weak the connection might be.

And, the problem with that is…

The moment you speak to the world, you speak to no one.

Because, when you try to make EVERYONE happy, you give up your laser focus on Reginald. You water down your rapport, your promises and your level of engagement with the one person who’s most in need. You build a sea of noise around the previously laser-targeted signal, then transmit the whole morass to the single most qualified, single most pained, single most in-need person…and expect your message to still resonate.

But, in doing so, you lose the person you’re most there to help…and most likely to sell.

So, when you’re looking to solve problems. When you’re looking to build a business around a remarkable solution. Don’t make the mistake of trying to speak to, engage, tantalize, solve for and sell to the world. Identify that one dream person. The one most in need. The one who’s already out there looking desperately for what you’ve created.

Go deep into that person’s world.

Understand the conversation that’s already going on in her head.

Then, enter that conversation.

Speak to that one exquisite seeker and nobody else.

Put on blinders.

But, before you do that, do one more thing…

Do not EVER launch or build a business UNTIL you’ve done the work needed to make sure there are enough Reginalds out there to keep you in business for years to come.

So, what about you?

Who’s the dream persona for your business?

Who are you writing to in your marketing, blogging and beyond?

The world…or them?

But, there’s something more, something deeper that seems to be going on, too.

What we wear may change how others perceive us, at least in part, because it also changes how we act and interact with the world. It effects what goes on in our own internal psychic ecosphere.

And, I began to wonder…

How does what you wear impact what you create?

Legendary copywriter, John Carlton, tells the story of how he used to have a very specific outfit that he’d to wear to write copy. And, he had to wear the same thing every time, right down to his hat in order to get into that place where, as he says, he literally stalked and attacked his writing.

Could it really be that what you wear changes how you feel enough to impact what you create?

And, what about other factors like where you work, what your view is, how light or dark or loud or quiet it is. Do these things change your creative output, too? In my experience, everything from what I wear to where I am and what I eat have a pretty profound impact on my creative output.

These things form my Optimal Creative Modus Operandi (MO).

So, I thought it would be fun to do an experiment here and share our collective creative MOs. I’ll start and I’d love for you to share yours in the comments.

Below is a short list of personal and environmental conditions that have an impact on my creative output, along with my preference for maximizing the flow of creative juices.

Here is my Optimal Creative MO:

• Clothes – Bare feet, old jeans and a well-worn t-shirt.
• Sound – Moderate background noise, classic rock, love writing to Led Zeppelin
• Light – Bright, sunny setting, preferably with sunlight on my face and body
• Time of Day – Early morning (5:30am), then again late in the evening.
• Location – Crunchy, low-key cafe, home-office or Soho House in NYC.
• Directionality - Facing out into a room with a wall or substantial piece of furniture at my back
• Routine/spontaneous – Routine, BUT provided I have an idea capture device
• Long periods or short bursts – 2 to 4 hour intensive creative sessions where time often fugues
• Carry something to capture ideas on the fly? – Always have a voice recorder or app on me
• Squeaky Clean or squalor (setting) – Squeaky clean
• Clean or dirty – Unshowered in the morning, showered at night and in the final weeks of writing a book, you probably don’t wanna get too close to me, lol.
• Solo or surrounded – Solo, except when creating music, then collaborative
• Digital or analogue – Analogue to ideate, digital to flesh out and build out
• What fuels you? – Raw almonds, organic berries and ice-cold water
• Leaded or unleaded? – Leaded latte in the morning, nothing in the evening.
• Breaks – Getting outside between creative bouts, preferably by water or woods.
• Mindset practices that fuel creation – Meditation, playing guitar.
• Movement practices that fuel creation – Yoga, hiking, running, spinning

So, now it’s your turn.

What’s YOUR Creative Modus Operandi?

Copy and paste the below list into your comment then share YOUR creative M.O…

Clothes –
Sound –
Light -
Location - 
Directionality –
Time of Day -
Routine/spontaneous - 
Long periods or short bursts - 
Carry something to capture ideas on the fly? - 
Squeaky Clean or Squalor - 
Clean or dirty - 
Solo or surrounded - 
Digital or analogue -
What fuels you? - 
Leaded or unleaded? -
Breaks –
Mindset practices that fuel creation -
Movement practices that fuel creation -

Looking forward to discovering YOUR optimal creative MO…

A little over 2 months ago, I interviewed article marketing expert

She laid bare a lot of myths and truths about article marketing, and opened my eyes to it’s potential impact. But I was still suspect, so I issued her a public challenge to take a site that I owned and get it ranked high up on google for two of the top search terms in the niche using article marketing.

It was all up to her, I didn’t want any involvement.

Even though Elysia had set me straight on a lot of article marketing lore, I have to confess to not expecting a whole lot. Man, was I wrong.

Here’s what she accomplished in 60 days:

• Search ranking for the top keyword in the niche (approximately 130,000 searches a month) moved from position #9 to position #2 on the first page of google.
• Search ranking for the second keyword went from being buried way back on some undetermined page to ranking #3 on the first page of google search results.
• Daily search-driven traffic doubled.

Wow, those are some pretty stunning results!

So, I circled back to Elysia to debrief after the challenge and to ask her how she did it. And, here’s what unfolded:

JF: I’ve gotta be honest, I didn’t expect such a strong improvement in my search rankings in such a short period of time, especially when the two keywords we chose were the most searched one and a second reasonably competitive one AND the website you were working on has been largely dormant. Okay, now, the big reveal…what did you you do make this happen (in as much detail as you can share)?

EB: Search engines use a number of different factors when determining where a website should be ranked. We discussed this in the previous interview, but just briefly one of the major factors considered include: the number (and quality) of links coming back to the web page.

Keeping that in mind, we wanted to build as many high-powered and high quality backlinks to your site as we could.

This process involved:

1) Creating informational content (search engine optimised) based around the two major keywords JF selected for the challenge. This content was prepared in a variety of different formats including tips, general info, methods etc. As suggested in the previous interview, we stuck to 300-350 words – in my experience, there’s no need to go above that word count.

2) Hand submitting this content, every day or so, over the 2 month period to a select group of high PR article directories including Ezine Articles, Go Articles and approximately 10 other carefully selected (and high powered directories).

3) Sourcing a number of guest blog posts on authoritative websites in related markets. These blog posts contained 1-2 links back to the website with keyword-targeted anchor text.

And a few other extra goodies that I might have to keep as classified Pajama Team tricks of the trade.

JF: And, why did you do what you did?

EB: I did this because I wanted both fast, and long lasting results. To be honest, I could have probably gotten you the same results even faster if I hadn’t been concerned about how long the rankings would “stick” after we finished this challenge. But, obviously I wanted the SEO effects to be felt long after I completed the challenge.

With this in mind, I focused my attention on link building efforts that were “viral” in nature. Both links that would continue to grow in value as they aged – and methods with a syndication element that would continue to spread them like wildfire around the web.

JF: Are the results you generated from me via article marketing typical of the results you’ve seen from your own campaigns and those you run for clients?

EB: I’ve had great results with these methods in many different niches from smaller affiliate style  niches to corporate business markets. That is the beauty of content-based link building – you can tailor it to any niche and with the right keywords produce similar results.

The major factor that varies between clients is the speed at which you achieve front page rankings. The speed can be influenced by a few elements, some within my control and others outside of it:

1) The existing age and authority of the client’s domain. Google looks far more kindly on sites that have been around for awhile and have established a presence in a given keyword market

2) The amount of work we’re able to do. The size of a client’s budget determines how much of the work we discussed earlier we can perform and the more we can do, the faster the results will be.

JF: Have you noticed any recent changes in the way google ranks sites that people who are considering article marketing should be aware of?

EB: If you are doing content marketing legitimately i.e. producing quality, unique content and hand distributing it in the right places then I don’t think you have to be scared of changes at the big, bad Google. The updates that they make are only ever to weed out spammers and improve the quality of indexed sites in their search engine. If you are doing things right, and really serving your market with your content marketing strategy, then you have nothing to worry about.

JF: I’ve noticed that even though my rankings went way up, I’m still not getting a whole lot more traffic from these keywords. What do you think might be the reason?

EB: It can take time for all the Google servers to update across all the different locations around the world. As that ranking solidifies over the coming month or two I’m sure you will start to see more of an increase in traffic.

Also, one really underrated part of SEO is the on-page optimization. Often people don’t  realise that ranking on Page 1 and getting traffic aren’t always the same thing. It’s almost like there is two sciences to SEO: 1 is getting your site ranked on page 1 and the 2^nd is actually getting people to click through to your site. They require 2 completely different skill sets.

When it comes to click through’s, there are certain things you can tweak with your on-site SEO in order to increase the traffic coming through to your website from Google.

We don’t have time to fully go into it but you mind find it to be the case that small improvements to your page titles and descriptions will increase the click through rates and amount of traffic you receive to the pages. That might be something we need to handle on the next challenge.

JF: If I do change the actual listing content to increase click-rates, will that mess with my ranking, considering that ranking likely comes at least in part from my own content?

EB: No, as long as you don’t for some reason take the keywords we were targeting out of the titles and descriptions then updating it shouldn’t hurt your rankings at all.

JF: And, if I do, will that eventually get re-spidered and pulled into the SERP?

EB: Yes definitely. The content marketing we performed will increase the amount of spider activity your site gets and thus increase the speed at which the changes you make will get re-indexed and updated in the SERPs.

JF: Okay, last question…so, this public challenge worked out really well for both of us, but when I asked you to agree to it, what went through your mind?

EB: Haha…

Once I had researched the keywords and got a feel for your competing market I was pretty confident. I’ve been perfecting my SEO system for awhile now and have got to a place where I can apply the same methods across basically any market and see similar results.

Although, the idea of failing in front of your JF-lovin audience was a good motivator for sure!

And, speaking of your community…

I’d love to offer your tribe a 10% discount on my services. Just tell them to mention your name.

++++

Elysia Brooker is the founder of article marketing and SEO consulting company, Pajama Team.

The moment you want someone to buy something from you, you take on a Herculean burden…

The burden of proof. You need to prove to a potential customer, client, patient, reader or visitor that the solution you’re offering will solve their problem better, faster, easier, more-effectively or less-expensively than others.

You can answer every other question, grab attention, build rapport, establish though leadership, disqualify others, differentiate your offering, share benefit after benefit, claim superiority, reverse risk, create scarcity, incentivize immediate buying and call people to act.

But if you stumble on the issue of proof…you still lose the sale.

Because folks need a rational hat upon which to justify an emotional buy.

That’s not a good thing or a bad thing, it’s just a thing. Simple human nature. We buy emotionally, but feel strongly compelled to be able to point to something rational as the outward basis of our purchases.

So, here are the 7 ways you can offer up the proof needed to close the loop on nearly any sale:

1. Actual Proof / Track Record

Point to examples, case-studies, research or other data that demonstrates objectively that your solution (a) works, and (b) works better than anyone else’s. If you’re a direct-response copywriter, for example, reveal your track record or conversion ratio for the recent campaigns you’ve written. If you’ve got a product that’s been studied and the data support your claims, share the results of the research. If you’ve got a product you can demonstrate, go ahead and demonstrate, let a potential buyer experience the results firsthand.

2. Pedigree

If you have any specialized training, degree, certification, license or other accreditation or qualification, share that pedigree as another touchpoint that demonstrates you know what you’re doing and your product, service or solution rocks. So, if you’re looking to build a giant fitness private practice, you might point to your certifications or degree in exercise science. A surgeon might point to her degree and board certification in her area of specialty. Does having one of these qualifications always mean you ACTUALLY know what you’re doing? Nope. But, it’s just another piece of evidence that builds toward your burden of proof.

3. Authority Endorsement

Find a leading authority in your industry who is willing to publicly endorse you. This allows THEIR perceived authority to inure to YOUR benefit. It rubs off on you. The authority can be a person or an organization. You see this politics all the time, where one highly-respected person or group endorses a candidate in a effort to help prove that candidate’s worth to those still on the fence.

4. Celebrity Endorsement

Similar to authority endorsement, but here it’s a celebrity, rather than a perceived authority. Why does this matter? Honestly, in almost all cases, it shouldn’t, but it does. There are a variety of reasons. But sitting on top is the odd fact that millions of people either want what many celebrities have or secretly harbor a desire to “be” a celebrity.

That lays the the groundwork for a mental leap, which is “if Celebrity A loves and uses this product and they’re living the life I dream of, it must be an amazing product AND maybe if I use it, I can be just like them.” Again, is this logical? Not so much, but for many, it’s reality. And, for many, it moves the proof needle.

5. Social Proof

One of the first things people do when they are on the fence about buying something is look to see what decisions other similar people have made in a similar circumstance. The decisions of those around you, whether good or bad, hold huge sway over your decisions.

So, as a marketer, if you can demonstrate that other people “just like” your prospect regularly choose your product, service or solution over others and are thrilled with that choice, you’ve just satisfied a serious chunk of your burden of proof. Social proof, done well, is an immensely powerful part of any persuasion funnel. The typical example of this in any field is the classic testimonial. The more detailed, the more benefit-oriented, the more personal and attributable, the better.

Note – be sure to know and abide by any laws that guide the use of this type of proof for promotion.

6. Theoretical /Logical Proof – “It makes sense that…”

When you’re lacking any of the above, but you’ve got a product, service or solution that, as lawyers say, “res ipsa loquitor” or “the thing speaks for itself,” sometimes all you need to do is make the case. If “it just makes sense” that it would be the clear choice, you can lean on theoretical or logical proof.

This is the classic “if A = B and B = C, then A must = C” approach. Here, you would lay out, in the simplest, most direct and irrefutable way possible, a logical argument that allows a prospect to convince themselves that your solution is the most sensible.

7. Metaphorical Proof

This approach to providing proof is one of the most under the radar, yet potentially powerful approaches. Here, you create an anecdote in the style of a metaphor where a person in a story endures a struggle or experiences a need or pain very similar to what your typical prospective buyer would experience. You set-up the problem and demonstrate the pain, then show how that person resolved their pain and solved their problem using your product, service or solution.

If you get the first part right, the reader will subconsciously transfer themselves into the story, assuming the role of the protagonist, and like the subject of your story, come to view your product or service as the ultimate solution to their problem. Doing this artfully is not an easy task, but done well, it’s extraordinarily powerful. And, of course, the story you’re telling should be based on a genuine experience of an individual or a composite of people who’ve benefited from your solution.

Will satisfying your burden of proof assure you of a sale?

Of course not, it’s just one piece of the mental sales puzzle that needs to be solved. But, it’s a mission-critical piece. It’s nearly impossible to close any meaningful sale without it.

So, have you tapped any of these sources of proof in your marketing, copywriting or sales funnels?

Is your current sales process too light on proof to be effective?

Got any cool examples of any?

Share away in the comments…

One of the things I’ve written about in the past is something I call the headline “persuasion trifecta.” Three elements that when integrated into a headline serve as such a powerful tease, you simply cannot blow past it.

Those elements: (1) Self-interest, (2) Curiosity that rises to the level of intrigue, and (3) News.

And, I love when I stumble upon examples of headlines that are potential “teaching moments,” especially ones that work as email subject lines. So, let’s take a look at this one that just hit my inbox a few days ago…

If You Use Sunscreen, This is Urgent Information You Must Have

If you saw this as a tease for the evening news…and you were the target market…you’d have to tune it. The audience is massive. And driven largely by self-interest…their health. For decades, we’ve all been told to wear sunscreen or risk cancer…and nobody wants that. Plus, it’s not just about us, there’s an evil (or philanthropic, depending how you look at it) subtext here.

Even if you won’t take care of yourself, you don’t want to expose your kids. So, if you’re a parent who slathers their kids up with sunscreen thrice a day from Labor Day straight through to Memorial Day, you’d be downright reckless to skip past this news, no?

Self-interest? check!

The words urgent information strongly imply your going to learn something new. There’s something big to add to your human database. And, while some of you will instantly sense you’re about to be sold something, many others fear of being sold will be assuaged by the use of the word information. Something like “breaking research” might’ve worked better, though.

News? check!

What about curiosity? The headline has peaked self-interest, peaked the desire for information, again, for the right person…then not given the answer. Your brain has been primed, your not being overtly sold something, but rather offered information.

Now, granted, a certain percentage of you will also be repelled by the headline.

That’s supposed to happen. A strong headline will provoke a strong reaction…on both sides of the desire spectrum. It’ll draw in the small percentage of readers who are “buyers in waiting” and send everyone else away, either nonchalantly or running.

The worst thing a headline can do is…nothing!

Anyway, end of today’s mini headline-writing lesson.

UPDATE: This headline just hit my inbox -

“Snails on Methamphetamine: Memories Formed by Snails Under Influence of Meth Are Harder to Forget”

Now THAT got my attention…but only because I couldn’t stop wondering who funds this stuff? LOL!

Ever wonder how to make yourself stand out from all the other business puppets?

One of the most compelling ways to launch and build a business or brand is to create a legend around it. Tell a deeply compelling story that draws in not only clients and prospects, but employees, partners, collaborators, mentors and evangelists.

I’m not talking about fabricating a story from thin air, but, rather, bringing substantially more art and deliberation to the way you craft and share yours. Done right, with integrity and authenticity, it can transform the way you do business and make everything from day to day operations to sales and marketing infinitely more easy.

There are many powerful story lines around which to build your legend.

The reluctant hero is a classic example. Elements include:

• Setting the scene
• The ordinary Josephine or Joe stepping into the role of protagonist
• Exploring and deepening a pain or yearning for something
• Being forced with great reluctance into action by the inciting incident, which creates…
• The unlikely hero/adventurer/discoverer, vision-quester…you… and
• Sets in motion the quest for an answer, during which there comes
• The inner struggle, which inevitably leads down the wrong path
• That circles at the last possible moment back to
• The revelation, an awakening or moment of discovery, which leads to
• The solution, that sets in motion a new fully-awakened path, then
• Salvation, innovation, creation and adoration

When we tell this story in the context of defining, launching and building a brand or business, the purpose is not to provide a respite, escape or moment of entertainment, but rather to so closely pace the experience of the reader that they actually step into the story, they experience a sense of transference that goes beyond rapport.

They become the protagonist. And, in pacing their current experience, you are telling their story, sharing their tale of woe, their pains, frustrations, emotions and deep need for resolution.

You bring them to a place where they’re hanging on every word to find out just how the story resolves itself.

Because in the story’s resolution, they find their own resolution.

And, this is the moment you bridge the gap from pacing and agitating the readers’ current experience, from telling their story through the lens of your own quest to leading them into the part of the story that’s yet to unfold. The events, people and solutions that will bring solace, remove pain and deliver them into a place of exaltation. Salvation. Respect. Success. Devoid of pain.

And, guess who those people, events and solutions are?

They are you, your ideas, your products, your services, your solutions.

This is just one example of how to tap the power of a well-crafted evolutionary metaphor, the reluctant hero, to build a connection between you and your prospects, then deliver them into what seems an irrefutable desire to buy what you’re selling as the only logical way to resolve their own pain, to solve their own problem.

So, my question to you is…

What’s your story?

Your legend?

Your journey of discovery?

The one capable of defining your quest and revelation, fueling the growth of your community and driving them to action?

___________Wednesday’s Awakened Shout Outs_____________

• Pro Blogger Book 2nd Edition – Speaking of story, my friends, Darren Rowse & Chris Garrett have just released the 2nd edition of their book Pro Blogger. Among the many revisions and new material, Darren spent an entire chapter revealing a side of his own journey, the launch and growth of his massive Digital Photography School venture, that forms the foundation of his own business. It’s all new material, and incredibly compelling as both proof of what can be done and strategies that can be leveraged. Go check it out!
• World-Changing Writing Workshop - Pace & Kyeli from the acclaimed Freak Revolution have put together a very cool 6-week online writers’ workshop where an intimate faculty of top online writers and well-known authors will be sharing strategies, tactics, insights and ideas designed to take your writing to a whole new level. You can learn more here (disclosure – I’m one of the presenters for this program and I’m also an affiliate, so if you register using the above link, I’ll not only get to play with you in the program, but make gobs of money and likely retire to a small island off Puerto Rico shortly after)

_________Seriously, You Guys Rock…You Know That, Right?!_________

In the advertising world, it’s commonly agreed that the headline is responsible for about 90% of an ad’s effectiveness. Same thing in the book world. The title does nearly all the heavy lifting. And, it’s no different in newspapers and social media, especially places like twitter where all you’ve to sell the click is the headline. Or digg.com, where a brief glance at the headline makes or breaks your shot at hitting the front page.

Your headlines can either launch you…or bury you.

Which makes you wonder. Why do so many bloggers spend so much time on the body of a post, then punt when it comes time to create the headline?

So, how do you write headlines that rock?

Here are 7 things that’ll help make your headlines sing, pull, lure and lull. One big picture and 6 a bit more under the radar…

First, SEO Optimize Your Headlines.

Let’s talk about SEO first, because that’s the, how do I say this, suckier part of writing headlines at least for me. In fact, it’s the part I bailed on for most of my blogging career, until I realized how critical it was in driving search engine traffic to my blog.

Simply put, search engines are looking for the most relevant answers to their search queries. How they determine relevance is a complex, ever-evolving formula, but what IS clear is that the title of your post plays a significant role.

So, if someone is searching for “clubs for balding molecular biologists,” there’s a good chance that a post with a headline that closely matches that search term will end up well ranked and send traffic (at least the 3 people and 1 cat that search for this term).

What’s the takeaway?

Use google’s free eternal keyword tool to search on a ton of different keywords and phrases to determine which ones are both relevant to your target readership and have decent search volume, but aren’t hyper-competitive (this will all be in the reports). You can also check out SEOBook’s keyword tool or the even the Scribe WordPress plugin. Then, see if you can integrate those keywords and phrases into your headlines…WITHOUT SOUNDING LIKE A BOT!

But Remember, SEO Is Just The Beginning…

Back in 1932, legendary copywriter, John Caples, wrote a book called Tested Advertising Methods. It quickly became the bible of direct response copywriters and the coolest thing is, it’s as relevant today as it was back then. Because, headlines and copy are fundamentally about appealing to human nature and, while the human condition evolves, human nature has stayed largely the same for thousands of years.

We still respond to the same basic triggers.

Caples shared three critical elements that make for high impact headlines:

• Curiosity—Craft your headlines to create a sense of intrigue, an incomplete thought or a questions that just has to be answered.

• News—Either report news with your post or piggyback your topic onto breaking news that’s relevant to the interests of the reader, and

• Self Interest—Speak to the desires, fears, needs and emotional triggers of your reader. Ask, “what’s in it for them?”

These same principles can be used to guide your quest to create compelling headlines. The ones that stop people in their tracks and get your content passed around in social media and social bookmarking/voting sites like crazy.

And, while you’re at it, why not go for the headline triple-threat—combine all three elements in one headline…and you may very well have a slam dunk.

Some examples include:

• Are Your Sleep Habits Making You Fat Nasty and Dumb?
• Why Entrepreneurs Should Eat Their Young
• Five Grammatical Errors that Make You Look Dumb
• They Laughed When I Sat Down at the Piano, But When I Started to Play (ad written by Caples).
• How to Lose 20 lbs. of Fat in 30 Days… Without Doing Any Exercise
• How I Burn 600 Calories a Day Blogging
• How to Make Exercise More Fun Than Sex
• Headless Body in Topless Bar (1983 NY Post Headline)

Three more considerations:

• Numbers – One of the thing that makes a headline, copy or story memorable is how concrete it is. Copywriters have known this for years. More recently, the Heath brothers proclaimed it one of the critical elements that makes a message memorable in their bestseller, Made To Stick. And, one of the easier ways to make content more concrete is to add numbers. So, in a headline, rather than saying, “Here’s How to Get The Lead Out and Feel More Energized,” you might say, “7 Tips to Double Your Energy in 7 Minutes.” BTW – copywriting and internet marketing lore says the number 7 always converts better than any other, but I’ve never found the research to prove it or known anyone who’s actually tested it.

• Presuppositions – This is an NLP terms that also means “assumed facts.” I love to write headlines that presuppose the reader is experiencing something, then speak to that presupposition. Doing this draws the reader in much more effectively. So, for example, the headline, “Top 10 Ways to Unbake Your Brain” assumes that your brain is already baked and that you’re looking for a way out. With a world filled with pervasive stress, this is a pretty safe assumption. Then, I build on the presupposition by providing 10 solutions to the assumed pain (self interest), and implying that this is new information (news), but holding back the strategies (curiosity).

• Overriding Purpose of Headlines—Let’s add one last element to Caples’ list of three compelling headline qualities. And, that’s what legendary copywriter, Joe Sugarman, defined as the essential purpose of the headline:

• To get peoples’ attention, then
• To get them to read the next line

Wrapping it all up…

We’re left with a pretty interesting and fun challenge—how to create headlines that are appealing to search engines while also triggering the human emotions and behaviors that make readers stop cold, read the headline, then be irresistibly compelled to dive into the post.

Meet that challenge and your life as a blogger just got a whole lot easier.

So, what do YOU think?