If you have a web site, you may have noticed one of two things about the traffic you get from search engines. Your search traffic may have dried up overnight, with once-healthy streams turning into a sad little trickle. Or you may have noticed a nice, steady improvement as you've climbed higher in the SERPs )search engine results pages(, while other sites that used to outrank you suddenly evaporated. There's a super-secret new ingredient in SEO. It was always a factor,

It's a Twitterized world , we're just living in it. Blog posts, Tweets, quick videos, Google+, the Facebook Timeline, and tens of thousands of images pinned to digital boards are flying past us faster than we can read them. Faster than we can even scan them, depending on the time of day. What does this mean for writers trying to cut through it all?

We all know that guest posts grow blogs . But not many people realize that tactical guest posting grows careers . Most bloggers I see pump out these articles while reciting the mantra "quantity over quality"; there's no real strategy and there are no real long-term benefits. In this post I am going to show you the seven crucial tactics for writing a radically successful guest post. Done right, these strategies will get you more email subscribers ,

This week on The Lede ' What really works on Twitter One thing social media copywriters should never do 9 productive social media hacks A reminder of the power of the original social media If you just can't wait for The Lede every Saturday, and you want even more practical, useable links than the seven we highlight here every week, follow @copyblogger on Twitter . It's painless. Really. // 9 Social Media Hacks You Need to Embrace Now Mr.

What if the entire business world stopped blogging tomorrow? Would you stop as well? No, if that happened, you'd find yourself sitting on the opportunity of a lifetime. Social networking sites would explode with likes and retweets and pins and +1s of your original content all day long. This is why the annual "blogging is dead" claim is so dumb. Even if it were true, your continued content production would dominate the web in every way. So,

What can a well-run shoe store teach you about your own online business? Well, everything. If you've ever bought anything from the mega online shoe store Zappos, or if you've so much as heard them mentioned, the word that comes to mind is probably service . But there's more to the Zappo's secret sauce than free shipping and some nice people on the phone. They embody three important lessons that any blogger, online marketer,

Ever wonder why content marketing works so well for some businesses ' and doesn't seem to do anything at all for others? Curious about why some content that seems great doesn't do anything to build the business? " Content is king " has been an online cliché for years now, but it's not true. It's never been true. Content all by itself " even terrific content " is just content. It may be entertaining. It may be educational.

It's time to teach that old dog some new tricks. That old dog I'm referring to is social media . Sure, you're already blogging, and on Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, Facebook, and more. Great. But I'm telling you " there's more to social media than meets the eye. The final chapter on social media hasn't been written. When I kicked off my writing business in April, I decided to use social media my way .

Freelance writers make lots of mistakes, especially when they're starting out online. Mistakes are useful . They're fertilizer for entrepreneurial growth. They keep you learning and moving forward. However, if you fail to make the right mistakes " and to learn from them " you may as well just keep your writing as a weekend hobby.

This week on The Lede ' Seth Godin's simple cure for writer's block. Why David Ogilvy called himself a lousy copywriter. A case study in the power of the blog. 10 ways to use Pinterest for your business. If you want more links you can use than the seven we highlight here every week, follow @copyblogger on Twitter . // A Stalker's Guide to Competitive Research If you ever wanted a shot at becoming a private detective )without the hassle of becoming a private detective(,

We're back and we're ready to talk email marketing . I asked two pros to come on and spill their best advice on the three biggest email marketing questions we get here at Copyblogger.

If your memories of high school involve wedgies, broken hearts, and getting stuffed into your locker, you probably love Glee. The musical comedy TV show " Ryan Murphy's smash hit about the nerds, misfits, and social outcasts of McKinley High School's glee club " is equal parts quirky, cheesy, heartbreaking, and surprisingly delightful. Over its first two seasons, the show has also attracted millions of obsessive fans from all over the world. Glee fans, or "Gleeks,

So how about that new Facebook Timeline? Love it? Hate it? Either way it's here to stay )until it isn't(. As always, Facebook loves to change things up and people love to kvetch about it. You can always use new Facebook Features to improve your marketing, so how can you use the Facebook Timeline to your advantage? Read on. First, a few facts about the Facebook Timeline. The Timeline only affects personal profiles at the moment.

Reading this post made us smarter, richer, more fascinating, and an average of 3 inches taller. Let's say you place a photo of a client on your landing page . Just the photo. No client name. No title, or business name. No clue as to what industry that client is in, or where they come from. Now, photos are a great addition to landing pages. Photos of happy clients help to build trust with your readers , showing the type of people who do business with you.

Time for a quick pop quiz ' What percentage of online shoppers are from the United States ? Better yet, what percentage of online shoppers speak English ? 90%? 80%? Surely at least 75%, right? Nope. This might shock you, but according to J.P. Morgan " reporting for the Department of Commerce " only 27% of online shoppers speak English . By neglecting to communicate with the rest of the non English-speaking world, you're costing yourself a mountain of money.

Almost everything you wanted to know about content marketing in one post. How to thrive in difficult times. How to create a social media calendar. And a powerful content marketing plan you can put to use right now. Follow @copyblogger on Twitter to grab these links )and more( every week. This is The Lede ' // [Almost] Everything You Wanted To Know about Content Marketing in One Post Brackets are mine. Shane Snow has made things easy for the beginning content marketer,

What if getting big PR and media exposure for your business or idea were no longer out of your reach or budget? What if you could "inject" your name or brand into a national or international story of your choosing, becoming part of the story yourself? David Meerman Scott, a veteran PR and marketing expert , has written a book that teaches you how to accomplish that, and more. Enter Newsjacking ,

The landscape of search and search engine marketing change rapidly. To keep up, stay ahead, grow your business, and get more )and better( traffic to your site, you need the right help. Search Marketing Expo is a conference that offers more than 60 cutting-edge sessions )as well as invaluable networking opportunities( covering the search marketing strategies and tactics you'll need to thrive in 2012 and beyond. At Search Marketing Expo from February 28th to March 1st,

Let's quickly review: Email marketing works. In fact, none of the shiny new communication technologies even come close. With more than 188 billion messages sent every day, email is a more important and influential tool for your business than it has ever been. Email isn't going anywhere, and we think it's time you got serious about building your email list. Our StudioPress division has built the Generate theme for WordPress to help you get that done.

Joe Pulizzi over at the Content Marketing Institute recently shared a fascinating video presentation from Coca-Cola about their upcoming marketing strategy. The short version? Content marketing has arrived. For more than 100 years, Coca-Cola has been one of the world's foremost practitioners of what they call "one-way storytelling." )You and I call that an ad.( But Coke " in the form of their brilliant VP of global advertising strategy,