Ever feel like you're a little bit of a ' coward? No, you're not spending your days hiding, running, and weeping, but you haven't exactly lived up to your expectations, either. Your blog isn't getting nearly as much traffic as you thought it would. You still haven't finished that product you intend to sell. In fact, months or years have gone by, and you haven't made much progress at all. You're beginning to wonder if you ever will.

When I turned 18, my father took me aside to talk about my future. "I don't care what you do for a living ", he said, "as long as you don't go into education." I obeyed to a point. I never did go into academia; I didn't become a schoolteacher or a professor. But I currently run a business that teaches craftsmen and professionals how to master the fundamentals of business on their own terms, without spending years in school and without racking up six-figure debts.

You create brilliant content for your clients. Smart writing, good analysis, compellingly readable style. Your copy makes the brand manager feel warm and fuzzy and it looks good on the web page. But so what? The marketing and media worlds are shifting ' from "tell me" to "show me." Being able to produce well-written copy alone is no longer good enough for the professional copywriter. It doesn't matter how good your writing is.

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.

Yesterday, Brian told you how to avoid hopelessly screwing up your landing pages. But does that guarantee your landing page is good, much less great? Survey says ' not so much. Turns out, Brian's already told you about a three-step "big picture" approach to crafting copy that results in a killer landing page. You might have missed it because it was delivered under-the-radar. He does that. So, we're discussing that today in even great detail,

A landing page is a place you send traffic when you really want some action. And no, this has nothing to do with Craig's List personals. It can be a sales page, an email opt-in page, a video landing page, or even a content landing page designed to rank well in search engines. As you might have guessed, there are a lot of ways to screw these up. Here are five of the most common mistakes people make with their landing pages. More importantly,

Whether you're a one-person shop at a kitchen table, or the next Rupert Murdoch )or both(, you need to start thinking like a media business. Say you want to run an online magazine. Or maybe you're a personal publisher executing on myriad ideas that need more options than a simple blog post can provide. You're covering multiple topics, in multiple formats. You've got video, you've got text, you've got photos ' You've got the idea.

I grew up hearing the story of Cinderella, whose cruel stepmother forced her to work as a servant in her own home. She spent her days tending the fire, washing and cooking for her evil stepsisters. She dreamed of a better life. By the end of the story, Cinderella is queen. Her name is synonymous with radical transformation " going from the cinders to the palace. Think transformation only happens in children's stories?

Remember when you could simply sit down and pound out your "web log" post in 10 minutes? Well those good ol' days are over. Today, millions of blogs and other types of content are competing for your readers' attention. Slicing through the clutter means taking your content writing skills to a whole new level. The best way to bring your A-game is to focus relentlessly on the fundamental mechanics of meaningful content .

Change ' and it's not the kind rattling around in your pocket. We're talking about the kind of change that keeps you up at night. The kind that makes you wonder why, for all your marketing efforts, not enough folks are finding and doing business with you. What can you, the small business owner, do about it? For starters, start thinking like a media company, because that's the first step to reaping the huge rewards that come from content marketing.

Everyone's creating all this online content, but does it matter? More importantly, are you accomplishing your goals with the content you deliver, or are you simply spinning your wheels? Well, if you're doing it right, your content is highly effective and tightly tied to your ultimate objectives. Otherwise, you're just filling up space on an ignored web page. Content marketing is the most effective and lucrative form of online marketing, because it not only works,

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,

Your blog is a business. I'm not saying that your blog should make money. If you're a Copyblogger reader, that's probably already something you're focusing on. I'm saying that your blog )independent of the other parts of your business( itself has all of the components of a business: You have an idea ' that's entrepreneurship . You write content ' that's the product . You build a list of subscribers and do some guest blogging ' that's marketing .

Yep, it's time to put on the big boy pants ' Copyblogger is five years old today. A lot has happened in those quick five years, but as with any 5-year-old, we're just getting started. Most of all, we want to thank each and every one of you for "raising" us to this point " it truly could not have happened without you. So thanks for that, and also for sticking with us for the cool stuff we've got for you as we head toward age six.

ex•cuse n. ik-skyoos An explanation offered as a reason for being excused; a plea offered in extenuation of a fault or for release from an obligation, promise, etc. I don't have enough money. It's too hard to find an audience. I don't have enough time . I don't have the talent. I started blogging too late. I don't have a quiet place to work . I'm tired. Nobody will hire me. Really?

If you'd like to figure out exactly how to start reaping the benefits of more traffic, better search rankings, and the free social media word-of-mouth that blogging brings, consider taking the fast track with Blogging Success Summit 2011 . And you won't need to spend money on travel, hotel rooms, or even leave the house. This is a completely virtual event and it's currently 50% off )a limited-time early bird rate(.

On Copyblogger recently we've talked about why it's so important to make your website mobile-friendly . And we've hammered on how critical it is to get people onto your email list . But there's a problem: it can be really hard for your mobile visitors to sign up for your newsletter. Here's why: Most mobile-friendly themes )in WordPress or other content management systems( hide the sidebars. They show just the main content area. For example,

According to this awesome Roland Emmerich documentary I just watched, the world is going to end on December 21, 2012. If John Cusack participates in a Mayan end of days depiction, you know it's the real deal. Just like Say Anything .

A few weeks ago I saw this tweet from Johnny B. Truant : If I were Frida Kahlo, I would have painted myself without a unibrow. Or at least have become aware I needed a pair of tweezers. Johnny made me smile. Then he made me think. Would we remember Frida Kahlo today if she hadn't had the audacity to leave her eyebrows natural, and sport a wisp of a mustache across her upper lip? We might. Her artwork is memorable and intensely personal.

There are countless blogs and articles on the web that proclaim the importance of building a unique brand. But how, exactly, do you create a brand that's irresistible to your audience and positions you as an authority? And how do you do it if you've never built one before? In the comments of my last post, The Rockstar Guide to Getting More Traffic, Fame, and Success , many of you said you were having trouble finding your unique style and turning it into a brand. So,