I know what you're thinking. You see the title of this post and you see who wrote it and you just might assume that I'm going to ask everyone to join hands and sing Kumbaya. Again. Maybe you figure that idealism is all well and good for pink-haired bleeding hearts, but it doesn't pay the bills. Sure, it's great to donate and volunteer and do pro bono work ' later. Right now, you're trying to make the cashflow work. Right now, you need to take care of your family.

Search marketing is a huge topic " and includes dozens of ways you can grow your business and get more )and better( traffic to your site. And Search Marketing Expo is a conference that offers more than 60 cutting-edge sessions )as well as invaluable networking opportunities( to help you do exactly that. At SMX, you'll learn how to: Optimize your site content for better organic search results, Get the best ROI from pay-per-click search advertising,

Ever wonder if all those links that result from people retweeting and sharing content on Twitter give you a boost with SEO? For a long time no one was sure, because the dreaded nofollow was in use on big social sites to keep those links from being counted as a "vote" for search engine purposes. No matter what, social networking links are still highly useful from a traffic perspective, because they had the power to get new readers to your content. But in December,

If you're new to Copyblogger, you may not know about one of our old friends and partners " Mark McGuinness. Mark's an energetic, creative entrepreneur who lives life precisely on his own terms. He travels when and where he wants, lives where he likes, spends lots of time with his family )he has twin toddlers, heaven help the man(. And he works with the kinds of clients and projects that give him plenty of energy ' and, yes, cash.

For a traditional marketer, the answer to the above question is simple. Content marketing is the creation of valuable content that has a marketing purpose. For example, my company creates an awesome special report, and we exchange it for your email address and your permission to educate you further about our stuff. Copywriting is designed to get the reader to take a specific action. Sometimes that's making a purchase, but it can also be confirming an email opt-in,

The Top 10 Blogs for Writers contest is always fun to watch, and a great way to add some new favorites to your own list of must-read blogs. This year the contest has shaken things up a little, moving from Michael Stelzner's Writing White Papers site to Leo Babauta and Mary Jaksch's Write to Done . Copyblogger was not eligible this year because our own Brian Clark was one of the judges along with Leo, Mary, Michael and Deb Ng. The winners are a talented and creative bunch,

Back when I took copywriting clients, I had one request that seemed to come up over and over again. "I don't want to do any marketing or selling," the client would say. "I just really hate all that stuff. It makes me feel sleazy and gross and I don't want my name associated with it and I don't want to have anything to do with it. "But, um, I don't want the business to die. "Is it hopeless? Is there anything you can do for me?

Robert wrote yesterday about David Mamet's advice on dramatic tension , the key element that drives every compelling story. But there's another element that's critical to story, and it's particularly important when you're telling a story that intends to persuade. Whether you want to make a sale, gain an email subscription, or motivate a change in behavior, your dramatic story will fail if it doesn't have one thing: A relatable protagonist. In other words,

"Shouldn't I be grateful for something other than Tivo? And Lost?" ~ Christine Kane , "What the Hell Am I Doing with My Life" Tomorrow is Thanksgiving in the U.S., a holiday traditionally dedicated to heroic feats of overeating, football watching, and avoiding delicate topics of conversation with family members. But I'm told that before the development of these fine traditions, the holiday was supposed to be about gratitude.

"Ask your physician how to feel good, and he'll look you squarely in the eye and say, 'Eat right and exercise.' Yet for every dollar spent in fitness centers, Americans spend nineteen dollars on cocaine. "The reason? Two seconds after you snort cocaine you feel like Superman. Two weeks of diet and exercise just makes you hungry and sore." ~Roy H. Williams, The Wizard of Ads Of course you want to do it the fast, easy way. You're smart. You're a human being.

I want to tell you a story about two women. One is my hairdresser and the other is my massage therapist. Of the two, I have a stronger connection with my massage therapist. I see her more often, she's closer to my age, and well, there's just a certain bond that develops when you get naked that often with a person. A month or two ago, my hairdresser asked me to recommend her for a "best of" list our local TV station was running. She didn't cajole, bribe, beg,

Hey everyone, I just wanted to give you a heads up that the STEPUP discount code for Scribe SEO expires today at 5:00 PM Central Time. )That's 3 PM Pacific and 6 PM Eastern(. Have no idea what I'm talking about? Click here to read all about it . Or, head over to the Scribe site to sign up . This post will self-destruct at the end of the day )along with the deal(. About the Author : Sonia Simone is Senior Editor of Copyblogger and CMO of Copyblogger Media.

In a good economy, you can do reasonably well with "good enough." Good enough design, good enough marketing, good enough skills. When demand is high and dollars are sloshing around, there's a market for Decent. Capable. Adequate. Acceptable. Unfortunately, we're not in a good economy. We're in a wretched economy. Industries all over the world are falling like bowling pins, and "good enough" professionals in all fields are scrambling.

You may have seen recently that we merged StudioPress, creator of the powerful Genesis theme framework , into Copyblogger Media. Why did we do it? I can sum it up for you in a single phrase: because we're control freaks . With Genesis, we saw an opportunity to create WordPress themes that were tailored exactly to our customers' needs and desires. We could incorporate the features that are most important for content-rich sites, the expert SEO you insist on,

Be remarkable. Be the purple cow. Get yourself noticed. Just be your own beautiful and unique snowflake self, and your allotment of raving fans will come find you and buy everything you make. Ever heard that advice? It's a social media truism that as long as you're authentic , you can't go wrong. Fame, fortune, and the latest Apple products will all be yours. Let's face it " authenticity can be a great way to draw a crowd.

Have you ever been kept awake until 2 in the morning having an imaginary conversation with one of your blog readers who thinks you're great and left a long comment telling you so? Or spent hours obsessively trying to figure out how to do better work, spurred by a fan letter from a customer about the terrific job you did? Or is it maybe more likely that your late-night solo conversations and obsessive problem-solving go to the trolls , the complainers,

Back when I worked in the corporate world, I used to get called naive at least once a week. I kept treating my employees like adults, instead of like naughty children. Naive. I tried to lighten up the uptight, lawyer-crafted language we used with our customers. Naive. I was even dumb enough to occasionally tell the truth at meetings so we had some chance of fixing business-threatening problems. Naive. Tsk, tsk, tsk. Such a bright girl,

If you're trying to make money online, sooner or later you have to face it. Conversion . That intimidating topic: how to get more buyers from the same amount of traffic. The only reason conversion is intimidating is that there are a lot of places you can go astray. Most of them aren't that hard to fix, but any one of a thousand little problems can keep you from getting the conversion you should have. I don't have a thousand tips for you today,