By James Chartrand Have you ever asked yourself if you should be branding yourself or branding your business? You're not alone. It's a hot topic these days, and one worth thinking over. Anyone can open a business on the Internet. The little guy has a chance. The individual can make it big. New businesses are cropping up left, right, and center. People are feeling good these days, too.

By Sonia Simone One of the underlying themes from last weekend's SOBCon was putting more you into your work. There are literally hundreds of millions of blogs out there, with more starting every day. In a sea of competition, you've got to capitalize on what makes you unlike anyone else. Your unique point of view. Your writing style. Your own individual, personal stories and the way they shape your message. There's just one problem with all of that. It's terrifying .

Absolutely. In fact, I know a freelance writer who makes over $300,000 a year from writing white papers alone. And I can tell you from personal experience that I launched an entire real estate brokerage firm with a white paper that revealed the inner workings of the MLS. I've seen countless other small businesses go from struggling to successful with educational marketing content that not only goes viral' it persuades people to buy.

The massive pool of blood in my head was pressing precariously against my brain. The doctors marveled that I was alive, much less walking and talking. They looked and shook their heads in wonder at the MRI results. I politely reminded them I was indeed alive, awake, and actually in the room. It was three years ago today that they wheeled me in for emergency surgery, and I said goodbye to my wife, not quite three-year-old daughter, and newborn son.

By James Chartrand This is my generation, baby. ~My Generation by The Who The right words on your website gets you what you want: better sales, more readers or increased credibility. You can achieve all kinds of goals by tweaking to target your online market audience. Be like Robin Hood in an archery contest - think, research, test and hit it dead on, baby. Here are some good ways to get a head start: Engage in two-way conversational marketing .

What's the secret to effective affiliate marketing? It all boils down to engagement. If you have a page with an affiliate offer that ranks well for searchers in buying mode, that's pretty high engagement. You need a trusted, authoritative site to pull that off, which means strong content and plenty of links. But don't forget that the very same content creates engagement with regular readers first. If you're building authority sites that attract subscribers,

By Sonia Simone I don't think there's a more scorned form of literature than the romance novel. "Bodice rippers," "trashy books" or "that Harlequin crap" are some of the more charitable terms I've heard. It was probably pure perversity that led me to try to write one. It was a lot harder than I thought it would be, and I didn't expect to learn as much as I did.

Affiliate marketing isn't that tough' if you've got attention and trust. You can gain attention and trust through your relationship with people who agree to receive content from you. And you can gain attention from people via search engines because Google trusts your content. Ideally, you want both. Of course, there are ways to make money with affiliate marketing that don't involve content at all. You can use search marketing to send traffic to pre-sell landing pages,

"A gossip is one who talks to you about others; a bore is one who talks to you about himself; and a brilliant conversationalist is one who talks to you about yourself." ~Lisa Kirk Any questions?

Kristen Galles wants to help book clubs tackle and appreciate good books, both classics and more recently due to customer interests, hot new titles. Until recently, Kristin was selling 2-3 kits per week but sales have seen a downturn. She's looking for a tidy annual revenue. Product Summary : Standard and Custom Kits for Book Clubs to help members tackle and appreciate the classics. Kits include questions, bookmarks, menu ideas, vocabulary lists, activities, etc.

By Jon Morrow Care to play a little game? Okay, think back to your days in high school for a moment. Try to remember some of the class clowns. You know, the people that never seemed to get any work done, preferring to either tick someone off or make everyone laugh. Can you remember what they looked like? If I asked you to tell me a story about them, could you do it? Good. Now, forget about the class clowns. Try to remember your valedictorian,

By James Chartrand Building a commercial website means finding the right style, tone, and words that convert hits to sales. That goal isn't an easy one to reach. One word - just one - can mean the difference between a trickle of sales and a whole lot of success. That's one of the reasons split testing your copy is an important part of the online business process. Who's reading your content, though? Who skims the headlines of your web page?

By Sonia Simone Do you ever feel like the world is starting to look at lot like Bladerunner? Or maybe Minority Report. Something by Philip K. Dick, anyway. We've got ads on grocery receipts, ads on toys, ads on cars, ads on diapers, ads superimposed on top of other ads, ads that look like tv shows, ads that look like movies, ads in our email box, ads in our snail mail box, ads in church, ads at school, ads on airplanes, ads in restrooms. Of course,

By Jon Morrow. Good news for Copyblogger readers' The generous folks over at Wordze have agreed to give a free 7 day trial to each and every one of you. If you don't think the Wordze keyword research tool is right for you, simply unsubscribe before the end of the trial, and you'll never be charged a penny. Cool, huh? Well, there's more. If you decide to stay subscribed, we've been able to reduce the monthly rate from $45 to $35,

Publishing online content is great' if you have something to sell. Many people who publish online are still seeking that almighty advertising dollar, but the results for most are dismal. And there's evidence that things will actually get worse, not better. Why? Well, maybe it's because current online advertising is fundamentally flawed. Online, you can't make people look at what they don't want to see.

By James Chartrand. American rock band Extreme released the ballad More than Words in 1990. The romantic lyrics blended with melodic acoustic guitar soon became a huge hit, as the song raced up the charts all the way to number one. More than words to show you feel that your love for me is real. What would you say if I took those words away? Then you couldn't make things new just by saying I love you. ~More than Words,

By Robert Hutchinson Years ago, a friend of mine' who built up a $200 million travel club business from scratch' told me his entire philosophy of direct response marketing could be reduced to just two magic words: The Offer. He told me he had tested every variable imaginable both online and offline - lists, headline, body copy, colors, text sizes, formats, you name it. But when push came to shove, he said,

By Alan Johnson Are you writing for )search engine( spiders? Take a quick look at this copy: This article provides free writing tips, so be sure to check out this free writing tips article if you are interested in free writing tips. Does that writing style sound familiar? I'm sure anyone familiar with search engine optimization and SEO copywriting realizes that an article with such an "introduction" is )desperately( optimized for the term "free writing tips.

By Sonia Simone Are your readers doing what you want them to do? Are they clicking through to your links, ordering your eBook or signing up for your opt-in? If not, you need to learn a master craftsman's copywriting secret. This technique acts like a remote control to get your readers to take action. Press this "magic button" and you'll see your results improve dramatically. The secret, masters-only technique to compelling your readers to act is to . . . . . . .

By Dean Rieck Do you want to know the real secret of success? Okay, I'll tell you. But first I want you to meet my grandparents. They lived in the heart of West Virginia. As a child, I spent many long summer days at their home, running in the wide green yard and splashing through the creek looking for crawdads. I'd play until my grandmother called me in for dinner. The meals were never fancy but always fresh because my grandparents raised a lot of their own food,