Have you been watching the big Internet marketing “guru launches” lately?

Boom, boom, boom, one after another. Overwhelming, exciting, confusing, enticing!

The most noticeable coming from Andy Jenkins (Video Boss), Frank Kern (List Control), Jeff Johnson (Traffic Voodoo), Mike Koenigs (Main Street Marketing), John Reese (Outsource Force), Eben Pagan (Guru Blueprint) and now Product Launch Formula 3.0 from Jeff Walker which started pre-launch today…

The launches and the products they promote have many things in common. And that makes sense because the products are all about showing you how to make money with an online business. That much is clear!

Each one, as you can tell by the title has a central focus but all of them teach the bedrock of any online business on how to build a list, create the right kind of relationship with that list, how to produce quality content and products, as well as attracting affiliates and joint venture partners.

And that’s where it starts to get a bit muddy in terms of choosing which one of these to follow. Personally, I don’t think you can go too far wrong, especially if you are new to online business because all of these gurus are currently at the top of their game.

This week is the unveiling of Product Launch Formula 3.0, which is the upgrade from the last version at 2.3. “All new” is the catchword from Jeff and his people in Colorado.

And that’s a big deal and why I’m writing this review.

You see, the latest guru products are the children of Product Launch Formula, which was first released in 2005. You see it in the marketing – all of the gurus use Product Launch Formula to roll out their launch. So it seems to me, that if you want to be sure about getting your online marketing right, listen to Jeff.

The thing that was the biggest surprise for me was that PLF is not just about running launches. Jeff shows you how to create products from the ground up – products for which there is a hungry market. He also goes deep into the how-to of joint venturing which is certainly the quickest way to build a profitable and sustainable passive income for the long-term.

It’s no surprise that PLF 3.0 is coming out at the end of all the big launches. Jeff is being awfully graceful about it – if he were first in line, there wouldn’t be much reason to consider anything that came after.

The best for last, as they say.

So if you’re looking for the definitive how to blueprint on how to sell massively online straight from the guru’s guru himself, then you’ll definitely want to take a look at the free content Jeff puts out for PLF 3.0 this week.

The evidence is clear: there is just one Internet marketing product that you’ll find in every guru’s toolbox: Product Launch Formula.

Blogs are great resources. They let you publish high-quality content quickly, efficiently, and inexpensively.

The problem is, the default functionality of blogging software makes it easy to show what’s new — but hard to show off the depth of what you’ve done over time.

Blogging excels at presenting new content, but fails at aggregating old content in a way that works for people and search engines.

So what can you do? How can you help both people and search engines find your content efficiently?

Create some solid cornerstone content. If you’ve read Brian Clark’s new SEO copywriting report, you know how important this type of content is to attracting links and ranking for the terms that are central to your site.

If you haven’t read Brian’s report, you should to get the full picture. But for now, it’s enough to know that a page hosting cornerstone content helps readers by pulling all of your content about a specific topic together in one place.

In other words, each cornerstone page is a home for related content. If you want an example before I continue, check out Landing Pages or Copywriting 101 in the “resources” sidebar to the left of this post.

Cornerstone pages let you highlight your most important archived content. They also help you attract links, get subscribers, and increase traffic.

Keep reading to find out how.

Cornerstone pages are great targets for link-building campaigns

Remember, links matter first and foremost with search rankings. But complete, in-depth content on the topics you want people to find you for is important, too.

When you group similar content into a home on a single page, you’ll have a keyword dense page which will rank in search engines when you build links to it.

Sticking with the Copyblogger examples, do you think they chose phrases like “landing pages” and “SEO copywriting” by accident?

Absolutely not. These are two popular keyword phrases that the Copyblogger crew wanted to rank well for in Google. And sure enough, they do.

I know what you’re thinking. Copyblogger is a large site. They don’t need to focus on building links to each page, because they will gain links naturally over time.

(Never mind the fact that, like every blog, Copyblogger started with no links and just one subscriber — which in this case was Brian.)

That’s why cornerstone pages are even more important for new bloggers. These resource-rich pages are perfect for you to link when you do guest posts on other blogs. They’ll help you rank for specific keyword phrases and help you find new readers.

2. Cornerstone pages help you get subscribers

People listen to authority figures. Brian also wrote a complete report on authority: why you want it, what it will do for you, and how to get it. People also tend to bookmark, share, and reference authoritative content.

Cornerstone content is authoritative because it demonstrates your knowledge around a specific topic. And if it’s genuinely useful, people won’t hesitate to go further with your content, such as subscribing to your blog or signing up for an email newsletter.

Does this strategy really work?

Yes. How do you think Copyblogger became one of the top blogs?

Scroll through the left sidebar and you’ll see all of the Copyblogger resources. Most of these are cornerstone pages, grouping several pieces of valuable content with a call to action to subscribe to the blog.

3. Cornerstone pages are shareable

Since each piece of cornerstone content helps people address a specific need, they often remember it.

For example, any time someone asks me how to write a great blog headline, there’s one resource that comes to mind . . . the Headline Writing series here on Copyblogger.

Even though I first read it almost three years ago, I still refer back to it every time I need some inspiration.

Whenever anyone asks me how to write a headline, I send them to this resource because of how helpful and complete it is. I don’t have to send them to five different sites, just one simple URL that’s easy to share.

How do you create cornerstone content?

There are two ways.

One, you can start from scratch and write a blog series with the main goal of turning it into cornerstone content.

This is a great way to kick off a blog, or to give your blog a boost. But if you’ve been blogging for a while, there’s a faster way to benefit from this strategy . . . without doing extensive content development.

Let me explain.

You probably have blog categories, right? Take a look through some of your more important categories. What if you hand-picked some of those category-specific articles and grouped them onto a cornerstone page? It would be easy, right?

Now what would make this content effective?

First, you’d want to do some basic keyword research to make sure you’re targeting a keyword phrase that makes sense.

Then you’ll want to write a snappy, informative introduction that builds desire for your content, using smart SEO copywriting to make it search engine-friendly.

And finally, you fill out the page with links to content you already have on your site. It’s that simple.

Now get to work. If you focus, you can get your first cornerstone page posted in 30 minutes. And of course, the next time you write a guest post, make sure you link to your new cornerstone content page using the appropriate keywords as anchor text (Brian’s new report gives an example of this).

How about you? Using any terrific cornerstone content on your own blog? Let us know where to find it in the comments.

About the Author: Derek recently launched the blog Social Triggers. Check it out to learn how to use human psychology to get traffic, sales, and subscribers. Also, don’t miss out on his cornerstone content page, Online Sales 101.

This one will probably get me into trouble.

I’ve worked as a graphic designer for over two decades and I’m not supposed to say this stuff. After all, it’s my job to make miracles. To wave my magic design wand and make a business look stronger, smarter, and more powerful than it really is.

Before I start dodging rotten tomatoes, though, I’m going to go ahead and say it out loud.

It’s a smart business move to have a well-designed website.

But good design — even great design — won’t solve all your business problems. Not even close.

Design is not a magic pill

If you don’t have a basic marketing plan in place, design can’t cover that up.

The first question I ask people when we talk about a new project is, “Who are you trying to reach?” It’s shocking how many businesses have put hours of thought into their design without ever considering the most basic of all marketing questions: “Who am I selling to?”

If you’re not clear on who you want to appeal to, the most gorgeous website design in the world won’t help you make sales.

Figure out who you want to reach first, and focus on design after you’ve made that decision. You’ll find your design works a lot better when every color choice and pretty picture is especially made to appeal to the people you want to draw to your business.

Design is not your message

Before you add design into your marketing mix, you have to know what you want to say.

This should be easy for you. After all, you’re reading Copyblogger to learn more about the vital elements of quality content. That’s why it’s strange that there are people out there who think they can rely on their design alone to communicate their message.

Think about it this way: you have a beautiful website. It may stop people in their tracks long enough to want to learn more. That’s great, but if they read on only to discover that you have unfocused or boring content, you will lose them.

Good design may get customers in your door, but great content keeps them from walking right back out again.

When you implement both good design and solid, valuable content, you’ll double the power of either of these elements alone. Don’t rely on design alone to communicate your message.

Design is not about you

Don’t make design decisions based on personal likes or dislikes. Make them based on what appeals to your target market, and the colors and forms that will best communicate your message.

If your target market thinks yellow is an appealing, fresh, happy color that endears them to your services, then it doesn’t matter that yellow is your least favorite color.

When you let your site or materials reflect only your personal tastes, you’re risking your design not resonating at all with the people you want to bring to your business.

Check your ego at the door and think about who you want to sell to.

What are their problems? What colors, shapes and content will appeal to them?

Let those answers inform your decisions far more than what you personally like to look at.

Design won’t work miracles

Don’t expect miracles from your graphic design. It’s definitely a valuable part of creating your business’s image, but it’s not a substitute for a sound marketing strategy.

A great design is a wonderful package for what you have to offer. And packages matter — a lot. But there always has to be something good inside the package.

Do your homework first and start thinking about your design only once you are clear about who you want to reach and what you want to say. This information should influence every design decision you make.

And by considering those two elements first, it’s practically guaranteed that the pretty colors, typefaces, and pictures you choose will reach out and touch the market you’re aiming for.

About the author: Want to know more? Pamela Wilson helps people grow their business with great design and a great message. Check out her free Design 101 e-course at her site, Big Brand System.

This one will probably get me into trouble.

I’ve worked as a graphic designer for over two decades and I’m not supposed to say this stuff. After all, it’s my job to make miracles. To wave my magic design wand and make a business look stronger, smarter, and more powerful than it really is.

Before I start dodging rotten tomatoes, though, I’m going to go ahead and say it out loud.

It’s a smart business move to have a well-designed website.

But good design — even great design — won’t solve all your business problems. Not even close.

Design is not a magic pill

If you don’t have a basic marketing plan in place, design can’t cover that up.

The first question I ask people when we talk about a new project is, “Who are you trying to reach?” It’s shocking how many businesses have put hours of thought into their design without ever considering the most basic of all marketing questions: “Who am I selling to?”

If you’re not clear on who you want to appeal to, the most gorgeous website design in the world won’t help you make sales.

Figure out who you want to reach first, and focus on design after you’ve made that decision. You’ll find your design works a lot better when every color choice and pretty picture is especially made to appeal to the people you want to draw to your business.

Design is not your message

Before you add design into your marketing mix, you have to know what you want to say.

This should be easy for you. After all, you’re reading Copyblogger to learn more about the vital elements of quality content. That’s why it’s strange that there are people out there who think they can rely on their design alone to communicate their message.

Think about it this way: you have a beautiful website. It may stop people in their tracks long enough to want to learn more. That’s great, but if they read on only to discover that you have unfocused or boring content, you will lose them.

Good design may get customers in your door, but great content keeps them from walking right back out again.

When you implement both good design and solid, valuable content, you’ll double the power of either of these elements alone. Don’t rely on design alone to communicate your message.

Design is not about you

Don’t make design decisions based on personal likes or dislikes. Make them based on what appeals to your target market, and the colors and forms that will best communicate your message.

If your target market thinks yellow is an appealing, fresh, happy color that endears them to your services, then it doesn’t matter that yellow is your least favorite color.

When you let your site or materials reflect only your personal tastes, you’re risking your design not resonating at all with the people you want to bring to your business.

Check your ego at the door and think about who you want to sell to.

What are their problems? What colors, shapes and content will appeal to them?

Let those answers inform your decisions far more than what you personally like to look at.

Design won’t work miracles

Don’t expect miracles from your graphic design. It’s definitely a valuable part of creating your business’s image, but it’s not a substitute for a sound marketing strategy.

A great design is a wonderful package for what you have to offer. And packages matter — a lot. But there always has to be something good inside the package.

Do your homework first and start thinking about your design only once you are clear about who you want to reach and what you want to say. This information should influence every design decision you make.

And by considering those two elements first, it’s practically guaranteed that the pretty colors, typefaces, and pictures you choose will reach out and touch the market you’re aiming for.

About the author: Want to know more? Pamela Wilson helps people grow their business with great design and a great message. Check out her free Design 101 e-course at her site, Big Brand System.

“Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful” ~William Morris, poet and designer

Imagine the household you would have if you got rid of every item that was neither useful or beautiful.

Gone would be the plastic doodad with no known purpose, the ugly frame your great-aunt gave you, the Special Free Offer™ you never opened, the collection of someday-useful peanut butter jars . . .

Every room would be so much more pleasant to be in, and every tool so much easier to find.

What if you applied the same rule to the content you wrote? Every email, sales letter, blog post, and comment you wrote would have to be useful or beautiful. Or both.

Does that sound a little . . . scary?

Most copywriters are fine with this, in principle. (Remember the first law of content marketing? Every piece of cookie content should reward the audience for reading: by solving a problem they have, or by entertaining them. Sounds pretty similar, doesn’t it?)

The main problem people have with this advice is they don’t trust their own judgment. They’re unsure if what they’re writing is useful or beautiful.

And of course, some people are certain their writing would make James Joyce weep and Dale Carnegie gnash his teeth, while their readers are wondering what this pretentious and useless fluff piece is all about.

Are you unsure? Never fear! Here are some guidelines to help.

How do I know if my content is useful?

1. Write content that suits your audience

Your content must match your audience’s level of understanding. Experts won’t consider entry-level content useful and beginners won’t get much use out of advanced discussions.

Your audience must have the required resources — time, energy, money, potato chips — to use the content. Telling new parents about a relaxation technique that requires eight hours a night of uninterrupted sleep? Not useful.

Your content must relate to something your audience cares about. I’ll never find content on how to dress in corporate style useful, because I don’t care about dressing in that way.

2. Write specific content

Generalisations aren’t useful.

Vague:

Scooters need oil on a regular basis.

Specific and useful:

Refill your scooter’s oil tank to the indicator line with two-stroke motorcycle oil every third time you refill the petrol tank.

3. Write actionable content

Useful content creates action.

If your readers don’t do something as a result of reading your content (change their mind, buy something, tear up their desk calendar, dance a boogaloo, write a better headline, pick a fight, talk to their children, set a goal, start a collaborative experience), then the content wasn’t useful.

Your content must encourage, advise, mentor, support, bully, or dare your audience into acting.

And you must, must, must include a call to action in every piece of content you write.

How do I know if my content is beautiful?

This is the point where people get uncomfortable. Don’t worry! You don’t have to produce sonnets to write beautifully.

Experiences that provide pleasure or meaning are beautiful.

Johnny B. Truant writes posts that are beautiful, although he’ll likely laugh in your face and pour jam down your pants if you say so. They’re beautiful because they’re funny and vigorous and meaningful.

If you’re not Johnny, here are some tips. (If you are Johnny, hi Johnny!)

1. Write meaningful content

If you write your content with emotion, it’s more meaningful.

Ever read a “Thank you for subscribing” email with sincere gratitude in it? (I read one that was so beautiful I saved it. Really.) If your feelings don’t match the anticipated emotion it’s even more effective: an angry product review, an excited tax letter, a sympathetic auto-responder . . .

Be vulnerable. Instead of writing about the mistakes some people have made, write about the mistakes you made. And what they meant to you.

Write about the bigger implications. Fixing a dripping tap is ordinary. Learning to perform house maintenance as a sign of your new independence is meaningful.

Real benefits are meaningful. Creating more wealth, more connection, more options, and more purpose are some of our most meaningful activities.

2. Write pleasurable content

Write to inspire emotion in your readers: make them smile. Make them cry. Make them wistful. And make sure they know they’re not alone in feeling that way.

If you know your audience well, you can write mass communication that feels personal, where every reader thinks you’re psychic because you’re writing Just For Them. Everyone enjoys the pleasure of feeling understood.

Use the tools in your linguistic toolbox to make the writing entertaining: play with alliteration, hyperbole, rhythm, flights of fancy, metaphor, perspective, storytelling . . . whatever feels natural and unforced to you.

It’s hard to beat the pleasure of seeing your name in print. Praise your readers in public, hold them up as an example, thank them, or mention them as an inspiration . . . and do it by name.

Do you want to take it even further?

Think of a piece of content that’s critical to your success, like your sales letter.

What if you applied the same rules to every paragraph of that content? What if you judged every word?

If you wrote your sales letter and removed every word that wasn’t useful or beautiful:

• You couldn’t use weasel words like “actually” or “amazingly” or “absolutely.”
• You’d have to use evocative, beautiful words and images.
• The writing would be muscular, short and punchy (Like Hemingway would write it).
• You’d become a thoughtful student of copywriting, so you knew how to make each word as useful as possible to create the result you want.
• It would kick ass!

Do you think you could improve the usefulness and beauty of your content? Tell us how you plan to do it in the comments!

About the Author: Catherine is wicked passionate about helping people to start and grow an awesome website: she’s even published a manifesto about it. When she’s not adding five-minute missions to BeAwesomeOnline.com, she can invariably be found on Twitter.

These days, a lot of online product launches are like zombie attacks.

One day, everything is fine. The next day, there’s a legion of crazy people banging on your virtual doors and windows, wanting to feed on you.

Who the hell are these zombies and how did they get my address? Time to break out the shotgun, or in this case, the Delete All button.

And it gets worse. That group of friends you hang out with from time to time? Yeah . . . they’re zombies too.

“Wait dude, I thought we were cool . . . why are you . . . Gaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!”

You can always tell when the first wave approaches, because your inbox will suddenly fill up with variants of the same message. And the guy who hasn’t talked to you since his last launch is suddenly your best friend again.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I’m the last person to hate on someone for trying to make a buck. But let’s face it, some of these guys are doing their reputations an injustice by treating their customers this way. Product quality aside, in some markets we’ve become so immune to these tactics that zombie leaders are forced to gather new streams of recruits each and every time they launch an invasion.

So what’s my point?

Instead of forcing yourself to do the hard work of constantly capturing fresh flesh to lunch on launch to, why not implement a strategy that takes the best parts of the product launch model and combines them with high-quality content marketing?

That way, you not only build trust and authority with your readers, but you also keep them ready and eager to listen to you. (In other words, you make yourself zombie-proof.)

That’s what they do here at Copyblogger, and it’s why so many other bloggers have been able to form six-figure businesses without having giant lists and hundreds of superaffiliates.

It works like this:

You let your content do the talking and you build your lists the old-fashioned way.

That means building an effective blog, providing value, and following up to help your readers be successful in their own right. You take your time to show off some of your best stuff before you ask for any cash.

When it’s time to launch your product, you will have already built trust and authority with your readers, so they won’t be wondering why you are emailing them out of the blue. And although you might use a big tribe of affiliates, a long-form sales letter, and a variety of techniques to build excitement about the launch, your audience isn’t turned off by what you have to offer. In fact, they can’t wait to come along for the ride.

What makes the difference?

Well for starters, your audience knows you already, because they’ve been reading your blog for months before the launch. They probably got your name from another satisfied reader, a retweet, or a link from a blogger they trust. So you start out with a good shot of social proof.

Second, unlike certain clumsy marketers, you don’t abuse that trust. You treat people as friends, not food.

And finally, when you’ve closed the sale and converted your readers into buyers, you follow through on your promises by (over)delivering what you promised. Not only that, but you stay in touch.

You aren’t the hit and run marketer that we’re used to

The funny thing is, the original Product Launch Formula created by Jeff Walker is totally in sync with this approach.

That’s probably why Brian Clark found PLF so useful several years ago when he used Jeff’s ideas to start building Copyblogger into a powerhouse business, not just a powerhouse blog.

In fact, lots of Third Tribe-style marketers use the strategies outlined in PLF. Because they work. But we’re using them to build businesses, not just one-shot brain buffets launches.

Need some examples?

• Teaching Sells quickly sells out, launch after launch. (Its most recent launch sold out within a day.)
• Naomi Dunford creates five-figure paydays without damaging her relationship with her list of fanatically loyal fans.
• Dave Navarro sold 500 copies of his remarkable product without resembling anyone from the film Shaun of the Dead.

As a marketer, consider building an army of fans rather than traveling from town to town in search of fresh victims. The difference might be small, but over time, the benefits are tremendous.

Alternately, you can build your own legion of zombies and consume everyone on your list. I don’t know about you, but to me, that sounds like a lot of work.

Besides, something tells me that brains don’t actually taste very good.

About the Author: Nathan Hangen teaches people how to build digital empires, helps them rock through their workday, and works with small businesses to implement digital marketing campaigns.

I’ve been traveling quite a bit lately, so the recent IMTW Podcast with Ed Dale and Paul Colligan is the first I’d heard of the buzz about Third Tribe Marketing.

It’s a new community launched by Darren Rowse (aka Problogger), Brian Clark (aka CopyBlogger), Chris Brogan and Sonia Simone. Third Tribe membership is $47/month, and already has over 2,000 members.

I’m actually traveling again this week, to Australia. I’ll be on a panel with Darren Rowse at the Coming Home Seminar in Melbourne, and on this topic, so I decided to sign up and check it out.

The concept behind it is that there are basically two tribes: the dirty internet marketers who monetize everything online, and the social media evangelists that want to protect the social space from marketing clutter and spam.

Third Tribe is a meeting ground in between, where all groups can come together to discuss the topics and learn from each other…

The link is: http://thirdtribemarketing.com

There is a discussion forum of course, but the members area also contains high quality content. There is a live training seminar every month, plus two Live Q&A calls for members. This month the topic is Building A Business Around A Blog. You get the one-hour audio, the PDF transcript and the Next Action Worksheet – along with a list of the links mentioned in the audio for easy access.

You can then use the forum to discuss the training topics, and specifically how you can best implement the ideas in your own business.

Another thing I like about the Third Tribe community is The Niche Corner. This is a great place to discuss niche-specific topics, or network with other bloggers or online business owners in your niche. It’s an ideal place to meet people for things like interviews or guest posting.

While there are many public forums on the net, there is something to be said for a private community where the members have qualified themselves as being serious enough about their business to invest in growth & networking.

And of course, if you’re from the dirty internet marketer tribe (lol) you already know the value of being involved with a group of people that each have an active PayPal account – and are paying $47/month to be there.

On a side note- I can only guess why Ed Dale wanted me on the panel for this topic alongside Darren Rowse, Dan Raine, and Yaro Starak. It shall be an interesting panel indeed!

So far I am really impressed with Third Tribe. The 4 people behind this community are well-known both for their integrity and quality of content. And the forums are a goldmine of resources and networking opportunities.

This definitely met the criteria in my filter for making an investment in my blog and business. I know the value of just one connection or guest blogging opp goes far beyond the $47/month to be a member.

I am also seeing a lot of familiar faces inside Third Tribe. It will be a great space to communicate openly but privately, and also meet some cool new folks in the space.

Here are some great links if you’d like to read more about the launch & buzz of the new Third Tribe Marketing community:

Is Your Tribe Holding You Down? by Sonia Simone

Third Tribe Marketing is Live by Sonia Simone

What Third Tribe is About by Chris Brogan

Some Of The Third Tribe Conversations by Chris Brogan

The Third Tribe – Launched [My Back Story] by Darren Rowse

Best,

If I asked you to define what an A-list blogger actually is, what would you say?

I’m sure the usual thoughts like “thousands of subscribers,” “lots of comments,” and “large influence” come to mind.

While these may be things that many of us agree on, they aren’t really about the blogger, they’re about the blog.

Yet it’s the writers behind the blog that position it at the top of an industry and gain so-called “A-list” status.

Now, of course, if you’re sitting on a feed count of 400 subscribers today, there’s no magic bullet that’s going to get you 4,000 subscribers tomorrow. But the key to building those numbers is to be the kind of blogger who attracts plenty of subscribers and links.

Today I want to offer the suggestion that instead of focusing on all the factors that define an A-list blog, let’s look at the factors that define an A-list blogger. The characteristics behind the men and women who build massively popular websites.

While I don’t personally think of myself as anything special, I have managed to build two blogs to a combined audience of 10,000 subscribers, and I call a few A-list bloggers my friends. Four years of blogging and interacting with thousands of people have helped me to see what it is about the “big guys” that makes them successful.

Now I’m going to share those findings so that you really can have the qualities of an A-list blogger, today.

Make content your # 1 focus

When it comes to blogging, there are plenty of important factors. Having a unique and professional design, a viable topic, a brandable logo, and clear options for subscribing are all important.

But without one factor, none of the rest of them matter.

All A-list bloggers recognize content as the biggest factor to their growth. As a quick scenario, let’s imagine that Brian Clark owned your website. Do you think if he wrote the high-quality content he did for Copyblogger and applied the same marketing strategies, that blog would go nowhere? Of course not. Copyblogger’s excellent content would do well on any relevant website and is what has kept people coming back here for more than four years.

I’m someone who gets obsessed with designing and tweaking sites for maximum conversion, so it took me a while to really implement this. In fact, I would say that I was blogging for almost two years without giving writing the focus it deserved.

It was only after I eventually took my head out of stats programs like Crazy Egg and BLVD Status (which are both fantastic, by the way) and put my effort into writing that I managed to build a 4,000-subscriber blog in 12 months.

Content is your main way to shine in an increasingly competitive field. Make sure that it’s getting your full attention.

Stick to your own guidelines

I believe that most bloggers reading this could eliminate all blog reading from their lives and still do well online.

Sure, it’s great to read the stories of people doing well and gain nuggets of knowledge that will help to improve your current offering.

But this knowledge-seeking becomes a problem when you allow your search for great information to change how you operate.

In the social media space, I am always changing, because it’s my job to be active on the latest service and see how it can best be used to connect with others in my niche.

My blogging strategy, though, rarely changes.

If you look carefully around your niche, different bloggers write very differently. You’ll find variations in things like:

• Posting frequency
• Writing style, tone, and voice
• Article length
• Use of images

In the internet marketing niche, the common length for most blog posts tends to be around 500-800 words. If you look at my own articles though, you will see that I regularly surpass 2,000 words. This is completely different from anyone else in the niche, but because I provide a lot of value in one place, it’s working well for me.

Just like you’ll probably never see Brian start publishing two or three posts every day, I’ll rarely write less than 1,000 words on my own website. You lose your winning difference the moment you do something because someone else is doing it.

Set your own guidelines and you’ll build an audience that will not only love what you have to say, but stick around because they expect more great things from you in the future.

Recognize your own influence

Everyone has some influence online, even if some have more than others. Growing that influence involves a lot of effort and a lot of time, but losing it can happen overnight.

Even if you only have 10 twitter followers and your blog hasn’t yet received its first comment, you still have influence. And that means you have a responsibility to give people the best advice and value that you can.

If you care about your audience and put value first, your influence will grow more quickly than you might think.

Look at “who,” not “what”

Looking at who is behind a blog and trying to model how they achieved what they did, rather than focusing on the end result as we usually do, has been a big game-changer for me.

I hope I’ve helped you see that most of you are A-list bloggers already — you just need to leverage that talent. Focus on your content, stick to your own guidelines, and use the influence you have today to help your audience.

Those thousands of subscribers are waiting for you. You’ve just got to be ready for them.

About the Author: Glen Allsopp is a 20-year-old who travels the world and makes his living online. If you like what he has to say, check out more of his work at ViperChill.

As the year comes to an end, there is a lot of SEO News coming down the pipe that will affect your search results (and your rankings) in 2010. We’ll take a look at all three of the major search updates including Google Caffeine, Real Time Search and the new site hierarchies that are being displayed in Google search results…

Google Caffeine was set to roll out with the New Year, just after the holidays. This is basically a new version of Google that will increase size, indexing speed, accuracy, etc. Matt Cutts explains Google Caffeine in this video:

I haven’t yet read anything definitive on how this may affect SEO, if at all, but will definitely keep my ear to the ground. For now it’s safe to say that good site structure, quality content and relevant inbound links are still the key.

As Matt mentions in the video, the Caffeine update will allow Google to handle the power and speed of Real Time Search…

Real Time Search

Real Time Search is probably the biggest and most exciting update for most online marketers, though Rand Fishkin predicts it will fade away in 2010.

Google describes it as a way to discover breaking news on the web with real-time updates from news, blogs and social networks. They put out this video earlier this month to demonstrate Real Time Search results:

What does this mean to you? As a marketer, you can now easily trump the current top results with a simple tweet or a new blog post… This is huge.

Tweets are showing up in Google search within minutes, if not seconds.

If you are not already actively blogging and using Twitter & Facebook, now would be the time to start. Now as in right now

Site Hierarchy Displayed in Search Results

Last month Google announced that site hierarchies would be displayed in SERPs, to help searchers see relevant information about each individual result.

This is similar to what we call breadcrumb navigation on websites. Here is an example given by Google:

What does this mean for you? Take some time to examine your site structure. Use categories to group micro-topics (or sets of products) on your blog or website, and make sure your categories are descriptive.

Best,

p.s. Still unsure about SEO? See Web Page Optimization (free tutorial & checklist) and download the free SEO Fast Start guide by Dan Thies

Earlier this week on TechCrunch, Michael Arrington wrote an alarmed post about “fast food content that will surely, over time, destroy the mom and pop operations that hand craft their content today.”

Mom and pop operations and hand-crafted content sounds an awful lot like you and me, doesn’t it?

So is this actually something we need to worry about? Is what Arrington calls “the rise of cheap, disposable content on a mass scale, force fed to us by the portals and search engines” going to destroy the businesses we’re building on a foundation of high-quality content?

Arrington is deeply concerned about sites like AOL and Demand Media, which scrape and mash real content into something that’s theoretically legitimate (since it was compiled by a human being rather than a piece of software), but in practice gives no value to the reader.

This “mainstream spam” can be efficiently optimized for search, or thrust onto the unsuspecting eyeballs of AOL users. (Haven’t the poor things suffered enough already?)

Arrington believes there’s no hope against this onslaught of junk content, which is going to overwhelm all of the good stuff.

Clearly, we’re all doomed

Arrington advises content creators (that’s you and me) to:

Figure out an even more disruptive way to win, or die. Or just give up on making money doing what you do. If you write for passion, not dollars, you’ll still have fun. Even if everything you write is immediately ripped off without attribution, and the search engines don’t give you the attention they used to. You may have to continue your hobby in the evening and get a real job, of course. But everyone has to face reality sometimes.

Apart from the whining, the exaggeration, and the hysteria, the problem with Arrington’s argument is it’s based on a number of bad assumptions.

Specifically:

Bad assumption #1: Search engines and mega portals are the only way to get traffic

AOL is feeding their content slop to their “massive” audience (which, in fact, is shrinking at rates that would make Biggest Loser proud). Arrington makes the assumption that those AOL customers won’t come find your non-crap content, because the fast food stuff is the only thing on their radar.

This then leapfrogs to another bad assumption, that the only way anyone sees content is to find it on a mega site like AOL, or via a search engine like Google.

Links from your favorite bloggers count for nothing. Tweets from a friend count for nothing. Facebook pointers count for nothing. Email from your mom counts for nothing. No one ever points a friend to genuinely valuable content and says, “Hey, you should check this out, you would like it.”

The entire direction of social media and content sharing indicates otherwise.

Bad assumption #2: Readers will keep reading crappy content

AOL’s user base is still big enough that I’m sure they’ll get some readers at least skimming their stuff.

But when it comes to content, Darwin rules. If content doesn’t meet the needs of users, it dies. We can’t even force grade-school kids to read what doesn’t engage them. What makes us think that AOL can “force feed” their users anything?

And what makes us believe that even if those users do skim AOL’s lame content, that they’ll never read anything else, or that, when they have a particular need or concern, they won’t go actively looking for something more useful?

Business tip for TechCrunch: when you find yourself afraid of a stumbling dinosaur like AOL, there’s something gravely wrong with your thinking, your business model, or both.

Bad assumption #3: Google would rather serve fast food content than your content

Now I hold no illusions that Google is a benevolent, all-knowing deity that rewards the just and punishes the wicked. But based on observation, it’s pretty clear that Google would rather serve good content than scraped and mashed junk content.

Google wants their searchers to find a good experience on the other side of their search result. If sites like Demand Media, a video producer that slaps together 4,000 videos a day in what amounts to content sweat shops, can deliver content worth watching, they’ll do well.

If they don’t deliver something worth watching, they don’t give Google’s searchers the experience Google wants to deliver. Which means Google becomes less valuable.

Google can’t be “force-fed” any more than readers can. There’s no reason to believe they’ll treat this “hand assembled” spam more kindly than the bot-created kind.

Bad assumption #4: Content means news

Arrington also says that sites like the New York Times are “outright stealing” his content and passing it off as their own. (And he warns you, little mom and pop, that your content’s going to be stolen without attribution as well.)

By “stealing,” Arrington apparently means that when TechCrunch publishes a breaking story, the New York Times often writes a story on the same topic, using their own reporters and neglecting to thank him for his tireless journalistic efforts.

If you’re not TechCrunch, this is not a problem that you need to spend even four seconds thinking about. You already know from hanging out on Twitter and reading blogs that news spreads more quickly than anyone’s ability to control it, and that nobody “owns” a breaking story.

For those of us who create “hand-crafted” content, what we say isn’t nearly as important as how we say it. We rarely break news (although occasionally we become the news.)

If readers want the latest news, they rightly go to a site like TechCrunch, the Times, or, increasingly often, Twitter.

It’s when they want useful knowledge, insight, or analysis that they come back to us. Plus, there’s a reason we get you to focus on delivering educational content versus commodity news, right?

We’re valuable precisely because we can cut through the noise and give them only what’s useful and relevant to them.

I’m sure it’s irritating to Arrington not to get a linkback from the Times, but that’s his headache, not ours. He seems to be doing ok without it.

Bad assumption #5: You need millions of eyeballs to make a living

There’s an implicit bad assumption behind all of the explicit bad assumptions in Arrington’s post, which is that the only way you’ll be able to make a living with content is to attract huge amounts of traffic.

In other words, the only possible model is to attract enough attention (via search engines, for your breaking news) to monetize your site with advertising.

But you already know that’s not a business model for the real world.

Let’s say you have a blog that gives business advice to yoga teachers. You’ve paired that with a simple but effective marketing system to sell group coaching, individual consulting, and information products to readers who want to go further with what you’re teaching. You only need to find a few hundred customers a year to make a very nice living.

• No fast food content generator on earth is going to outrank you for “how to run a yoga studio.”
• If a cheap, scratch-the-surface video or post does outrank you for that #1 spot, the reader quickly finds out that the fast food content doesn’t meet her needs at all. Click goes the back button, and she’s looking for you again.
• Your content collects links from like-minded people, because it’s cool and valuable.
• Other yoga teachers (and herbalists and organic co-ops and past-life regression therapists) will spread the word about you faster than Google ever could.
• You have no reason to run advertising for anything other than your own products. So you don’t need to pull hundreds of thousands of “eyeballs” to make a decent living. You just need to make a great connection with the right 300 people.

So what should a “whole food” content producer do?

Exactly what you were doing yesterday.

Keep your eyes on your audience, not Chicken Little pundits telling you (again) that you can’t make a living.

Keep following the First Rule of Copyblogger. Keep creating content that rewards the reader for consuming it. Keep cutting through the clutter and noise by being smarter, more relevant, and more interesting.

Fast food content is just the latest incarnation of an old affliction — spam. If it hasn’t killed us yet, this new version isn’t likely to make much of a dent.

For content-based marketing strategies that work in the real world, sign up for the free Copyblogger email newsletter, Internet Marketing for Smart People. It’s packed with the information and advice you need to create real business success, and it’s 100% hysteria-free.

About the Author: Sonia Simone is Senior Editor of Copyblogger and the founder of Remarkable Communication.