Nassim Nicholas Taleb wrote about the black swan " the impossible-to-predict event that changes everything. The terrorist attack, the earthquake, the worldwide economic meltdown. But in the world we live in now, it's the white swan " the ordinary, predictable event " that's becoming rare. Black swans show up every day. Storms and disasters ' and positive black swans, too, like world-changing technology. Unpredictability is the new predictability,

I don't have a cool life-or-death story. I didn't almost die from a snowboarding accident . I wasn't diagnosed as a toddler with an illness that was supposed to kill me . I was a working mom with a good job. The money was good, the benefits were great, and the people were smart and nice. I had a cute little private office and the company was doing interesting work. I had created my own department, and everything we did was based on something I had built.

Have you ever noticed how obsessed we are at Copyblogger with wanting to help you get more ? Every week we write about how find more readers, convert more sales, make more revenue. Get more traffic to your site. Build more buyers for your business. Be a smarter, more confident businessperson. Get more out of your time. More, more, more. So let's just cut to the chase. What you really want is to feel rich and powerful enough to rule the world, right?

So in the past few weeks, we've told you it's a bad idea to be a digital sharecropper , building your business entirely on someone else's land )like Facebook, Tumblr, or any other third party you don't control(. We also poked a pin in the sacred cow of social media authenticity, telling you that your audience and customers don't want an unedited version of the "real" you . So you may be asking yourself " OK, what should I be doing with social media marketing?

We have a great bookstore in my town " the kind of place you picture in your mind when you think of a great independent bookshop. It's perfect for browsing, with lots of comfy chairs to relax in. The books are displayed enticingly. There's a little coffee shop so you can relax with an espresso. They get your favorite writers to come in for readings, so there's always a sense of event and excitement. They do everything right,

On August 5-7, fellow Copyblogger Media partner Brian Gardner )founder of StudioPress ( and his wife Shelly will be walking 60 miles in the Susan G. Komen 3-Day for The Cure in Chicago. This is Brian's tenth year walking, and in that time he's raised more than $60,000 to fight breast cancer. And he's not even close to being finished. You might not be able to join Brian and Shelly in Chicago for their three-day odyssey.

No one loves blogs more than I do. They're a great way to build your authority , attract an engaged audience, develop trust and rapport, attract links, and stake your claim in search engines. I love blogs. But like babies and kittens, two other things I love, they're also a lot of responsibility. Blogs take time. You've got to write terrific content that stands out from the general noise, promote it intelligently, and cultivate reader relationships.

Gary Vaynerchuk, in his usual low-key, mellow way, said last month that 99.5% of social media experts are clowns . This immediately prompted a schoolyard-style kicking of the whole idea of a social media expert, with one prominent writer saying that anyone who does it for a living should "go die in a fire." And that was one of the nicer responses. The name-calling and vitriol are a little hard to watch. Here's the thing, though.

Today is Memorial Day in the U.S. " a day that commemorates those brave folks who have died in our military service. Today also unofficially kicks off the summer vacation season for us and a whole bunch of other people. So wherever you may be, we hope you'll join us in spending a little extra time with your family and friends today. And if, for any reason, you might need a break from the relatives,

You're trying hard not to show it, But baby, baby I know it ' You've lost that loving feeling ' ~The Righteous Brothers Ever get to a point with your blog and your content marketing strategy where you're just ' worn out? The writing that used to thrill you now feels like a chore. Your readers are getting on your nerves. The tedious little tasks are getting to you. You don't want to quit ' but you do want to get some of that old magic back,

Yesterday we talked about why it's smart to hold a little something back in your marketing " to tease and fascinate the reader, to seduce the buyer with a bit of mystery, rather than giving everything away in your promotions. This is particularly important for those of us in the online education and training business. It's less of an issue with physical products. Let's face it,

We preach it every week. Attract the right kind of traffic by creating exceptional content. Engage your audience so they know, like, and trust you. Let them know you're the likable expert who's going to give them the information )and eventually the products and services( that won't let them down. Then use smart copywriting and conversion techniques to turn those raving fans into customers. No, it's not paint-by-numbers, but it is a proven,

What's the first thing any business with a website needs? Traffic, right? Without it, you're dead in the water. Your site design might be amazing. Your content might be useful and entertaining. Your salesmanship might be brilliant. But if no one's visiting your pages, you've thrown a great party that no one showed up for. And we can't have that, now can we? And, of course, you need more than raw numbers.

We are here to find meaning. We are here to help other people do the same. Everything else is secondary. We humans want to believe in our own species. And we want people, companies, and products in our lives that make it easier for us to believe in one another. ~Hugh MacLeod, from "The Hughtrain Manifesto." I first read those words in about 2006, and I immediately recognized an idea that would end up changing my life.

Last night I tuned in for one of my favorite guilty pleasures " watching The Biggest Loser on NBC. The episode featured celebrity trainer Jillian Michaels being hurled off of the Auckland Sky Tower, the highest structure in the Southern Hemisphere. )OK, she had a sort of bungee cord apparatus that kept her from falling to her doom. But you know there were still some cheers(. Michaels is one of those people you either love or loathe. She screams at the contestants.

You may have heard us say before that to attract traffic, engage readers, and convert them to buyers, you need to become an authority in your topic. But what does that really mean? Does it mean you puff yourself up and pretend to know more than you do? Does it mean you put other people in your niche down? Or does it mean you bore your audience to tears with dry, flavorless facts? Of course not. For awhile,

A little more than a year ago, we tried out a new idea. What if there was an online community where you could learn cutting-edge online marketing " without compromising your ideals or turning into some kind of internet hype machine? What if you could listen in on some of the blogging world's most successful entrepreneurs, like Darren Rowse, Brian Clark, and Chris Brogan?

When I was preparing for my panel earlier this month at South by Southwest, I thought a lot about what I wanted the audience to take away. Of course, there's always the First Rule of Copyblogger , which I preach to anyone who will listen. But telling people "don't publish content that sucks" tends to need a little more explanation if it's going to be helpful. So what could I give content marketing newbies that would give them the right foundation?

A couple of weeks ago, one of our guest writers wrote a post about a powerful copywriting technique that can be used to get great results even if you aren't a professional copywriter. In fact, we write a lot of posts on Copyblogger about how entrepreneurs can apply the techniques used by professional copywriters. Strong calls to action , compelling benefits, fascinating bullet points , magnetic headlines . With all of this information, no one should ever need a pro, right?

You might be thinking, "Yeah, I've seen lots of great-looking WordPress themes, but I lead a vibrant , colorful life. I want my website to reflect it!" You want a site that's bright, charming, ' and, yes, gosh darn it, pretty . If you've always wanted a website that expresses your youthful exuberance, take a look at one of the latest creations from Copyblogger Media's StudioPress division " the Pretty Young Thing theme .