You feel your blood pressure rising.

Maybe you’re mad, maybe you’re inspired, or maybe you’re just excited to find someone who really, truly gets you. Regardless, your attention is riveted — you can’t look away.

Bang!

You’ve just been spellbound by content that persuades. It grabs us like nothing else can.

How?

The truth is, words are very powerful things.

They can make us buy things we didn’t think we needed. They can reveal ideas that we’ve been looking for for years. They can make us cry or laugh almost hysterically.

Professional writers know how to use the right words to communicate their intent, they become masters of telling stories over time.

But they don’t just write random content. They write persuasive content.

And if you want to master this craft, you need to start with the basics.

There are many more available for your your content toolbox, but here are 48 essential elements from A to Z (well, almost) to get you started …

1. Anxiety

The written word should provoke a response, but truly persuasive content contains multiple responses. Chief among these is anxiety. Readers should feel like they need to move forward now – RIGHT now. Don’t be afraid to make ‘em sweat.

2. Authenticity

Content delivered over time gives you more room to persuade than a one-shot sales page. So put those words to good use by making your writing ring true. Trustworthiness is persuasive.

3. Authority

If you’re going to convince someone with your words they need to ring true. Write with authority and be sure to use the sort of examples that resonate with readers. If you’re writing to moms, they are going to know if you can truly talk “mom,” for example.

4. Boxes

Break up your text by including boxes and side bars with extra details including graphs, charts, bulleted lists and engaging quotations.

5. Breaks

There is nothing worse than giant blocks of text. Break it up, people! Format your content to be readily scannable. Break your lines every two to three sentences. White space is your friend.

6. Bullet Points

Lists are the most commonly read thing on a page of content. Bullet points are particularly effective — they’re fast and easy to skim. Spend some time writing them well.

7. Buttons

Let me know periodically what I can do next. Have a button to help me “Buy Now” or to “Click Here to Sign Up.” Buttons get a better response than random links on a page.

8. Catch Phrases

Put those boxes to good use with quick snippets of text. Write with the intent of creating catch phrases — things others can Tweet or remember about what they are reading. Be clever, but subtle. You want to guide the reader through content — not force feed them slogans.

9. Catchy Headlines

If you read Copyblogger regularly, you know the importance of headlines. How else are you going to get readers to pay attention to you? “10 Things You’ll Never Know about Beans” is much more compelling than “Beans: Facts and Information”

10. Color

Use color to your advantage when writing killer content. You don’t have to make your words different colors necessarily, but think about the page itself and how to showcase the text you’re creating.

11. Commas

Commas are great — but use them sparingly and only when necessary. If you often find yourself putting in more than one comma in a sentence, it may be a sign that your sentences are too long. Long-winded sentences bore and confuse readers.

12. Common Language

We know you’re smart and you know all sorts of big, fancy words. But unless you’re trying to be irritating, don’t talk down to the reader. Give us something conversational with a common language that we can understand.

13. Contractions

Formal English can be tough to use if you’re trying to make things approachable and trustworthy. Rather than “cannot”, use “can’t.” Instead of “does not”, use “doesn’t.” It’s quick, fast and instantly comfortable for readers.

14. Dashes

Commas definitely have their place, but also consider the mighty dash. Dashes are great for visually breaking up text, and they tend to make content feel less formal. Because they’re such a strong visual element, they can also help with clarity — it’s easy to see the break in the sentence.

15. Depth

Just because you’re avoiding overly fancy words doesn’t mean you’re going to insult your reader’s intelligence. Your content needs depth. Leave readers as satisfied as if they’d just eaten a good meal.

16. Email Addresses

If you want to make your content authentic, especially on a landing page, don’t make the customer search for your contact information. Make your email address or a contact form easy to find. If your business has a physical address, include that as well.

17. Emotional Response

Engaging content is powerful business. If you can evoke an emotional response from the reader — make her laugh, cry, fume with anger — she’ll be more engaged and likely to read and act on what’s she’s reading.

18. Extras

If your content is leading up to a big promotion, be sure to throw in some extras. Include a valuable bonus, or perhaps link to extra resources as part of your content to build additional trust with your reader. Deliver plenty of value.

19. Eyes

A simple trick of persuasive content — include a picture with eyes. If you have a picture of a woman looking to the left, the reader’s eyes will look to the left, too. They want to see what she’s looking at. So if you need attention on something on the page, let the eyes lead the way.

20. Facts

Good content is based on facts. Including true facts and statistics makes your material memorable and reliable as well.

21. Fluency

Persuasive content must be smooth and easy to follow. Move through subheadings with logical transitions and avoid obvious repetition. Make it flow into the eyes and mind of the reader.

22. Guarantee

If you’re housing your persuasive content on a landing page or sales letter, you’ll want to encourage your readers to make the right choice. Offer them an iron-clad guarantee. Be sure it’s something you can actually honor — “We guarantee you’ll have the time of your life with these new tips!” isn’t particularly iron-clad. (But if you’re feeling very confident, you can offer a money-back guarantee if the customer is not entranced, delighted, and positively starry-eyed.)

23. Images

Images break up the text of your persuasive content nicely. Images can guide the eyes of the reader around the page, and can also help the reader get additional meaning from the content. For persuasive content, captions are an excellent addition.

24. Instructions

Content leading up to something — a sign-up, a petition, a purchase — must include explicit instructions. Sure, you can leave your reader alone to figure it out, or you can help him out with simple instructions to simply fill in his email address below to get new coupons and specials!

25. Locality

Nothing beats going local. Make your content appeal to local markets with clever references to landmarks, events, or local slang. It builds confidence with readers, as well as authenticity.

26. Logic

Persuasive content must be logically arranged on the page. Jumping from voter registration to a particular candidate’s politics and back to polling statistics and ending with the importance of civic duty is going to give your readers visual whiplash. Plan ahead and don’t be afraid to move things around once they are written.

27. Meat

We all like something that makes us think. Give readers something to really bite into and mentally chew on.

28. Opinions

While facts are a great foundation to persuasive content, opinions are what make it fun to read. Interview experts, insert your own opinion, or dig around for previous commentary on the topic to liven things up a bit.

29. Paragraphs

You absolutely, positively must use short paragraphs when you’re writing persuasive content. If you want to get it read, break it up.

30. Periods

Please include periods in your persuasive content, and use them frequently. Shorter sentences create balance. When you use a short sentence next to a longer one, it makes the material more lyrical and enjoyable. (Remember to make it swing.)

31. Phone Numbers

Readers interested in following up on your content or looking for additional information should be able to reach you. While we’re all a big fan of instant messages and email, consider a real phone number. It builds trust with readers.

32. Phrasing

Watch your phrasing in your persuasive content. Your sentences should be personable and easy to read, and they should say something meaningful. Avoid ambiguous words like “one” and “the individual” and try to stay in the active voice as much as possible. Don’t sound like a corporate robot.

33. Polish

Typos happen to the best of us, but we should make a good faith effort to avoid them. Give your persuasive content a bit of spit and polish before you make it live and then go back and read it again periodically in an effort to continuously improve.

34. Post Scripts

Ever wonder why there are so many postscripts in sales letters? It’s because they’re one of the most-read elements of a page. You can use a P.S. in your persuasive content, too. You might use them to to work in some humor, re-state the guarantee, or drive a key benefit home.

35. Presence

There is a place for mindless drivel online, but not in the form of persuasive content. Your content should have presence online and on your site. It should stand alone.

36. Questions

What better way to make people think while reading your material than to ask questions? Rhetorical questions are a highly effective way to engage a reader and transition through text.

37. Quotes

Want truly persuasive content? Ask an expert what she thinks and quote her response in your content. You can also respond to a thought-provoking post in your topic, quoting liberally (with links and attribution, of course). Or come up with some clever elements that can work beautifully in quote boxes on the sides of your text.

38. Rationale

Copy is written to convince. Copywriting takes an “either/or” approach … you buy or you don’t. But content leaves plenty of room for debate. Rather than forcing an opinion on a reader, use content to build a case for or against something with resounding rationale. No holes in this argument!

39. Seals and Stamps

If your content is explaining or outlining a product or service, go ahead and throw around a few names. Put your stamp or seal of approval at the bottom of the content to make it credible.

40. Short Introduction

Catch the reader’s interest with a short introduction, then get into the meat of the matter.

41. Short Sentences

Long sentences can be effective. But that long sentence had better have at least three shorter friends hanging around. Short sentences are powerful. Use them.

42. Signature

If your content is part of a sales letter, be sure to add a signature. If your content is more formal, consider adding a signature or bio box, even if it’s on your own website. What a great place to learn more about the author, an expert on the subject!

43. Social Connections

What’s the point of content that can’t be Liked or Tweeted? Include all the important buttons to make sharing easier.

44. Spacing

Text isn’t just about words, it’s about positioning as well. Paragraphs, punctuation and short sentences help to position words on the page. Think about website spacing as well. White space frames words for maximum power.

45. Testimonials

If you’re selling something — even especially an idea — you’ll need testimonials. Get the opinions of others to include in your content and you’ll be presenting a balanced, honest opinion. Balanced content can work surprisingly well at reassuring readers.

46. Texture

Texture is the “feel” of your written piece. Does it look good on the page? Does it flow easily? Are the sections sized correctly and balanced? Are images placed appropriately? Layers of images, text, and balance create an outstanding texture for persuasive content.

47. Tone

Consider the tone of your piece, and stay in character as you’re writing. Are you joking with friends? Warning off potential victims? Creating a sense of emergency? Tone is created through sentence construction, phrasing, and word choice. Short, excited sentences sound urgent! Longer, more fluid sentences help the reader create a feeling of peacefulness and contentment.

48. Voice

Hand in hand with tone is the sound of your voice coming through content. Persuasive content isn’t technical writing, and your unique voice should be present as you’re writing. A strong voice is entertaining, engaging, and enjoyable to read.

Persuasive content is still on the throne …

We know how valuable copywriting is.

But highly persuasive content — dripped out over time — does 90% of the work that single-shot copywriting used to do. That’s why content marketing is this year’s hot topic — and it will be for years to come.

With content you have more chances to present your case, more opportunity to build trusted relationships. You can play with tone, approach, and bias. But the only content worth actually reading is of the fierce variety — persuasive content is most certainly still king.

About the Author: Uttoran Sen is a full time blogger and a Freelance Content Writer since 2004. Follow him on Twitter and connect with him on Facebook.

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How smooth is your copy?

Is your writing powerful, seductive, and engaging? Can you move people to act, without having to give it a second thought?

Some people are like that. The naturals. They always know exactly what to say, and how to say it.

Lucky them.

The rest of us have to work at it. We have to study and figure it out, one hard-learned lesson at a time.

It’s just like dating and relationships — some people just “got it” straight out of the gate, and others needed more time to figure it out.

Here’s one for the non-naturals …

Some people are naturally smooth … and some aren’t

You know that guy (or gal) for whom it all seems to come so easily? They always know what to say and how and when.

I’m jealous of those people.

The rest of us mere mortals tend to flounder around a bit more before we find our groove. We have to work, and work hard, to figure things out. And it often takes a few tries.

That’s okay though, because we get better every time (practice makes perfect!), and every opportunity to try your “line” or your pitch is another opportunity to polish it.

But it can be a longer road, and it’s normal to feel a bit discouraged and start looking for shortcuts.

Enter the world of the pick-up artist

In the world of dating and relationships, the shortcuts are called “pick-up,” or the “art of seduction.”

There’s an entire body of literature dedicated to the subject, full of jargon like “compliance test,” “neg,” “bounce,” “DHV,” and plenty of others.

Do yourself the monumental favor of not looking them up.

These bits of jargon all refer to the ways and methods that can be used to manipulate someone into bed — for a one night stand.

The internet marketing world equivalent is promises of magical, instant, push-button profits through some loophole in Google or Facebook’s system that you should rush to exploit.

Never mind that the loopholes all close sooner or later — the real problem is that it’s the business equivalent of a one-night stand.

Do you want a bunch of one-night stands for customers?

I thought not.

True seduction isn’t about impulse buys or one-night stands

The opposite of pick-up artistry is the true seduction of Naked Marketing. This isn’t about one-night stands. Not by a long shot.

Naked Marketing is just the opposite — lining up all the right steps and factors to create a powerful attraction and desire that leads to a relationship that will last a long, long time.

We’re talking about the stuff of fairy tales and happy marriages, loyal customers and raving fans.

Something real that lasts forever, evolving over time.

And not morning-after regrets.

Start by being sexy

Just as with finding a mate, the first step in powerful Naked Marketing is to attract attention with a headline that is as sexy as you can make it.

Now, of course, there as many ways to be sexy as there are people to see you do it, so having a good idea of who you’re talking to and what they like is critical. Sexy doesn’t always mean “involving sex” — it just means whatever will be attractive to the person you’re trying to attract.

Remember that this is your first impression — the first exposure to you and your work for a brand new person, might eventually (if everything goes well) become a lifetime customer.

What that first impression should be is up to you and your customer. Maybe you’ll woo them with humor. Maybe you have something to teach them. Maybe you have a viewpoint they’ll be interested in, or an idea to share.

Example: Need more customers? Naked Marketing will find them, attract them, and lock them into profitable relationships for the long-term.

Whatever it is, it’s got to be something that will grab their attention on the very first try, and get them excited enough to listen for more. It also has to be something genuine — you can try to fake this, but you’ll fail.

Then create desire

Sexy headlines are just the beginning.

Once you’re past the initial attraction, you have to introduce real desire into the picture.

So how do you create that desire?

Not by just stripping down and asking for a sale, that’s for sure! (Unless maybe you’re Barney Stinson, that is …)

Across the board, there are a few things that make something desirable: it’s got to be interesting, it’s got to be attainable, and it’s got to be worth the trouble of getting it:

• Interesting means that that at a fundamental level, it will alleviate a pain that the person is experience, or create some kind of pleasure that they want but don’t currently have.
• Attainable means that if they like what they see enough to act on it, that action is actually within their means to take. The supermodels on the covers of magazines at the supermarket checkout might be awfully attractive, but that doesn’t mean they’re waiting for your call!
• Worth the trouble means that when all is said and done, the effort required to take that action is substantially less than the value of the outcome that they’re after.

Or on simple terms, it’s something that they want, and they can get it at an acceptable cost (in money, time, effort, etc.).

Example: The Naked Marketing Manifesto teaches marketing that really works in plain English, on small pages, and in large print. In other words, it’s a quick, easy read that just might change your life. Oh, and it’s a free download — no opt-in required.

The upshot for you is that whether you’re offering products, services, or anything in between, it’s got to be structured and packaged in a way that will be both interesting and attainable to your target customer.

If you do all of this and do it well, then they just might be thinking about getting naked, too.

Then make your move

So you’ve created intense desire with an offer that is interesting, attainable, and more than worth the trouble. So far so good, but you aren’t done yet!

Everything that you’ve done so far can be likened to a fantastic first date. You’ve gone out, gotten along, and the chemistry is just perfect. Then you reach the end of the evening, and you either lean in for that first kiss, or you chicken out and it all fizzles.

What’s the first kiss in a business relationship?

It could be an email opt-in, or it could be a purchase. It could be as simple as a social share, or as involved as jumping on the phone for a mentorship call.

The key is the commitment.

You work up the courage to ask for a commitment, and they make it. This is the call to action that every copywriter since the beginning of time has been telling you that you need. If you want somebody to do something, you’ve got to tell them exactly what you want, and how to do it.

Example: Click here to download my Naked Marketing Manifesto right now!

If you make an offer that they will truly desire, on terms they find acceptable, and ask them to make a commitment in so many words, then odds are that they’ll do exactly what you ask.

But that isn’t the end of the story — not if you’re looking for a serious relationship, that is …

There’s always a morning after!

It’s not enough to get someone to take an action — anyone can do that, and most people do. The last step in truly effective naked marketing is the morning after.

There’s nothing worse than waking up regretful, and you can make sure that your customers don’t experience buyer’s remorse by being mindful of the process you’re taking them through, and making sure they are as comfortable and happy with it as you are.

If you’ve done everything right, the morning after should be a wonderful time of celebration because your new customer is so ecstatic about their interaction with you — so much so that they can hardly wait for the next time.

And of course, that’s bound to be the case.

After all, you knew your customer well enough to get their attention with some genuine sexiness, and then created desire with an offer that is custom-tailored to make their heart beat faster. Then you asked for a commitment which they happily made, and you repeatedly exceeded their expectations and asked for a little bit more.

Sounds like true love to me.

So that’s it: Naked Marketing in a nutshell.

Now of course, there are more details. A whole manifesto full of them, in fact. And you can get it all for free — no opt-in required. Just tweet or share, and it’s yours.

Now over to you.

In this post, I used the metaphor of Naked Marketing to show you the steps that I follow in my marketing.

Does the metaphor work for you? Would you prefer another? Please leave a comment and let us know!

About the Author: Danny Iny (@DannyIny) is the co-founder of Firepole Marketing, the "Freddy Krueger of Blogging", and the co-author (with Guy Kawasaki, Brian Clark, and many others) of Engagement from Scratch! (available on Amazon, or as a free download). The latest and greatest thing you can get from him (for free, of course) is his Naked Marketing Manifesto, about marketing that really works!

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Today is Memorial Day in the U.S. — a day that commemorates the brave men and women who have died in our military service.

Today also unofficially kicks off the summer vacation season for us and a whole bunch of other people. So wherever you may be, we hope you’ll join us in spending a little extra time with family and friends today.

And if, for any reason, you might need a break from the relatives — or if picnics just aren’t your thing — why not get started with our 20-part Internet Marketing for Smart People course?

It’ll start your summer right, and it’s guaranteed not to get rained out.

See you tomorrow!

About the Author: Sonia Simone is co-founder and CMO of Copyblogger Media. Get more from Sonia on Twitter and Google+.

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This week on The Lede …

• 13 Ways to Make Idea Generation a Daily Habit
• 10 Signs You’re About to Hire the Right Copywriter
• RSS: Your Social Media Monitoring Secret Weapon
• Convert More Visitors from Your Guest Post with These 10 Landing Page Hacks
• The Jedi Master Approach to Content Marketing that Converts
• Twitter v. Facebook: A Short Case Study in Building Trust
• Stephen King’s 20 Tips for Becoming a Frighteningly Good Writer

If you want to grab more useful links (than the seven we highlight here every week), follow @copyblogger on Twitter.

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13 Ways to Make Idea Generation a Daily Habit
You ever hear that story about Thomas Edison’s idea naps? He’d sit on the couch with his head in his hand, propped up on his elbow, holding a few ball-bearings. He’d allow himself to drift off to sleep — in order to let his subconscious mind go to work on his ideas — and when he drifted too far into a deep sleep, the bearings would fall to the floor and wake him. Legend says he repeated this throughout the day. Consider it number 14, and get on over to Ms. Jones article for 13 more …

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10 Signs You’re About to Hire the Right Copywriter
Are you paying too much for a copywriter (probably not)? Too little (probably)? Is the writer you’re looking at a hack with a briefcase full of “social media” buzzwords, or a pro that knows what really matters (e.g., the right offer is more important than perfect copy)? If you’ve had some of these questions in the past, read through the list Mr. Robisch has compiled. It’ll take you a long way down the road to finding a good copywriter who knows what she’s doing.

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RSS: Your Social Media Monitoring Secret Weapon
Who says RSS is dead? Well, a lot of folks actually, but The Lede would be a lot more difficult to run without our old, never-quite-made-it-to-primetime friend. You might still be using an RSS reader to catch the latest blog posts in your industry, but you may have missed this cool little implementation that Ms. Seiter brings up — social network monitoring. Instead of running ragged between all your accounts, bring all those tweets, updates, pins and answers right into one place. Feels like 2006 all over again, feels good …

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Convert More Visitors from Your Guest Post with These 10 Landing Page Hacks
Getting that guest writing gig on an influential site that’s relevant to your goals is a win. But what are you doing with the traffic that’s hitting your site as a result? If it doesn’t convert, you’re no better off than if you’d never written that guest post at all. Mr. Patel gives you 10 specific ways to turn a piece of that traffic into customers, subscribers and/or regular readers.

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The Jedi Master Approach to Content Marketing that Converts
Human beings tell stories all day long. We tell them to ourselves and we tell them to each other. Humans also need to hear stories, it’s how we’ve been wired. And, whether you’re doing the telling or not, the world is hearing a story about your product, service, or idea. In this article, Mr. Clark takes us back a few decades — and a few thousand years — in order to find a storytelling template that works.

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Twitter v. Facebook, A Short Case Study in Building Trust
You can have all the users in the world. You can get all the press that the media has ink for. You can build one of the most recognizable brands ever made, but if you don’t have trust, you ain’t got nothing. And if you do have it, you won’t need all that other crap to build a profitable business anyway.

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Stephen King’s 20 Tips for Becoming a Frighteningly Good Writer
Mr. Morrow dissects and analyzes one of the best books on the craft of writing that’s ever been … uh … written. If you’ve dismissed Stephen King as an American horror hack: 1) you’re wrong, and 2) you’re missing an opportunity to learn from a master. So knock it off, read this post, and then go get On Writing.

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Did you miss anything on Copyblogger this week?

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About the Author: Robert Bruce is Copyblogger Media's Copywriter and Resident Recluse. Get more from Robert on Twitter and Google+.

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Once you decide to learn more about the craft of copywriting, you quickly find out there are two schools of thought.

One school hammers the reader with red headlines, yellow highlighting, and aggressive copy that grips the reader like a terrier shaking a squirrel.

The other school develops a compelling personal voice, nurtures a relationship with the reader, and uses soft-sell techniques to nudge the reader down the path to purchase.

So which one is right?

Well … they both are.

How to harpoon a customer

It’s easy to make fun of traditional sales pages, but they’ve been widely used because for a lot of years, they worked like crazy. And there are still versions that work well today. Like infomercials and Cosmo headlines, they may look dopey, but they’ve convinced millions of people to take action and spend money.

Traditional sales pages are ugly because they’re designed to hold and keep attention. Attractive design is completely secondary.

Readers for these pages typically arrive from an ad or, somewhat less commonly these days, an affiliate referral. The prospect tends to make up his mind in a split second about whether or not he’s in the right place. He then spends another three or four seconds deciding if this offer is going to meet his needs.

Red headlines, yellow highlighting, irritating pop-ups and pop-overs, and the other tricks of the trade are all ways to grab a stranger and focus his attention on what you have to offer.

Sure, long sales pages can be cheesy, but if you only have one shot at the prospect, they can work very well. A well-written traditional sales page acts like a harpoon. When a likely prospect swims along, if the writer’s aim is good and she gets enough power behind that harpoon, she can make the sale.

Is a harpoon always the right tool?

Harpoons work great when you need to strike quickly. But they have a few problems.

First, the “ugly” version that used to be widely used gives an impression of shoddiness and a lack of ethics.

That impression isn’t always accurate — long sales pages have been used for great stuff as well as junk. But unless you’ve already established credibility with your audience, the prospect can’t tell the difference. If the reader doesn’t urgently need what you’re selling, she’ll hit the back button as fast as she can.

Second, it’s really hard to write a good “harpoon” sales page that can convert a prospect in one shot.

The difference between effective sales letters and miserable failures can be surprisingly subtle. If you aren’t already Clayton Makepeace, you may find that although your letters look like his (to your untrained eye), they don’t work like his.

Third, cheap traffic is getting hard to come by.

With competitive pay-per-click keywords going for a few dollars instead of a few cents, these single-shot long sales pages are becoming less and less effective. The masters can still pull it off, and do … but you have to be a master.

If you’re still inspired to learn this strange and fascinating form, study the crusty old guys who developed the original techniques. Gary Bencivenga, Joe Sugarman, Clayton Makepeace, and Dan Kennedy all have resources out there that can start you on your apprenticeship.

You could also use a net

There’s an alternative approach you might want to consider.

Instead of hurling your single-pointed communication as forcefully as you can, consider encouraging your prospect to wrap himself in a friendly, supportive net.

In other words, rather than trying to harpoon customers with single-shot sales letters, snare them in a net of useful, relevant content.

Strong content will keep luring your prospect back for regular bites. Each bite builds a little more trust. Each bite builds your reputation as a friendly authority.

Whether it’s a freeform stream like a blog or the organized sequence of an email autoresponder, a well-crafted content net not only snags your prospect for this sale, it keeps him fat and happy for the next one.

And you’ve probably noticed that it’s very handy for things like SEO and social sharing as well. The more connected we are with communication technology, the better the net works.

How to use a net without getting tangled up

Great single-shot copywriting is usually the result of many years of work and study.

Creating a net of great content over time, on the other hand, is a lot easier to master. You don’t have to get every word perfect. You don’t need an arsenal of sales tricks.

It’s mostly a matter of figuring out what your customer wants and needs, then getting out of your own way. And the copywriting techniques you do use can be “pretty good” instead of “The next incarnation of Gary Halbert.”

As you’ve probably guessed by now, the content net is the copywriting method we favor here at Copyblogger. You’ll still benefit from a well-crafted landing page (not an ugly one, please, we’re in 2012 now). But frankly, the fish are a lot easier to catch when you’ve been keeping them happy in your content net.

If you’re interested in finding out more specifics on how to do that, I put together a free, 20-part course called Internet Marketing for Smart People that can give you a solid head start.

It talks about the delicate balance between audience relationship, selling, and traditional copywriting. Go snag it now, and start weaving a net of your own.

Editor’s Note: This is a Copyblogger Classic post, originally published in June, 2008. We’ll be republishing classic content from the archives from time to time, updated — as this post has been — to be sure the advice is as relevant as ever.

About the Author: Sonia Simone is co-founder and CMO of Copyblogger Media. Get more from Sonia on Twitter and Google+.

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Many online publishers run into the same vexing problem when they start email marketing:

You know that email subscribers drive traffic and make up the long-term, profitable audience for your brand or business. But only a handful of your site’s visitors are choosing to sign-up.

Maybe you’ve just started building your list, or maybe you’ve had that opt-in form on your page for months.

No matter how many unique daily visitors you get — or how amazing your service or product is — if they aren’t finding your valued subscriber content, all the likes, tweets, pins, and pluses in the world aren’t going to build that loyal following you need to grow.

Getting your readers and prospects to opt-in to your email list grows harder every day for a very simple reason …

Your prospects have a very limited focus

During most everyday tasks, psychologists now say that our minds wander 30-70% of the time.

Have you ever surfed the internet, only to find an hour later you had no idea what you set out to look for in the first place?

With mobile devices putting us all on an “on all day” multi-tasking collision course, it’s no wonder the visitors to your site are blind to your email opt-in form … if you even have one, that is.

Thankfully the special-ops team over at StudioPress has done much of the hard work for us with a handful of premium WordPress themes designed specifically to boost your email opt-ins. Here’s why …

They know that attention is selective. And when you give someone specific instructions to focus on one thing, they will unconsciously filter out all other stimuli.

Most of the world’s 2.1 billion internet users check their email daily, and most of us can’t pass up valuable information or content, especially when it’s offered for free.

Email is still your prospect’s preferred form of permission-based marketing. And that is great for your bottom line because:

• Email marketing is still the most cost-effective way of promotion
• By consistently offering valuable content, you build loyal followers
• More followers drive repeat traffic through referrals and word-of-mouth
• You can track data easily and watch your response rates as they climb or fall
• Higher engagement means higher conversion rates that boost your bottom line

That’s why, when readers and prospects scan your page, you need to laser-focus their attention visually and verbally to the critical information you have to offer.

By offering them something they really need or want — in exchange for that email opt-in — you’re hard-wiring your brand or business for loyal repeat visitors and customers.

To help you get started, take a look these four specially designed WordPress themes from StudioPress.com that make email opt-ins a primary focus for your brand or business:

1. Minimize distractions

If you’re serious about focusing your audience’s attention, then clean lines and minimal distractions are the key.

Your compelling content becomes the center-piece of this brilliant theme with its mobile responsive design that also grabs the attention of smart-phone and tablet users.

With a clear call-to-action, valuable content, and email opt-in, you’ll be growing your audience in no time.

Click here for the sharp relief of Focus Theme

2. Grab their attention and keep it

By drawing the eye of your readers with bright colors and great fonts, you can get them to pay closer attention to the value of your services and subscriber content.

The Streamline theme offers a stunning, minimalist design that offers not one, but two email opt-in forms and intuitively gets out of your way to highlight your best stuff.

By showing your prospects what matters most, you’ll find it’s easy to build those loyal followers, and connect with them on a continual basis.

Click here to zoom-in with Streamline Theme

3. Build your email list quickly

If you want to put the emphasis on building your email list front and center, there is no better way to do it than by filtering out the noise altogether and making your call-to-action crystal clear.

The Generate theme lives up to its namesake, by making your email opt-in the focal point of your site and pulling in the attention of your audience with great lines and bold content.

Designed to make your site both simple and sophisticated, Generate explicitly asks your readers to join your community in exchange for the valuable information or services you offer.

Click here to accelerate opt-ins with Generate Theme

4. Opt-in with simplicity and style

The easier you make it for your readers, clients and prospects to become subscribers to your relevant, valuable content, the hungrier they’ll be for more.

The Decor theme offers sophisticated lines and a spacious openness that enhances the laser-focused email sign-up, making it a snap to grow your audience.

This mobile responsive theme effortlessly showcases your products and services on any device while offering a bold frame that enchants the eye.

Click here to wow them with Decor Theme

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With search-optimized code and functions, 47 turn-key designs, and unlimited support, updates, and websites you can build, Mashable calls Genesis the “best of the best” among premium WordPress themes.

Serious online publishers trust Genesis to provide a solid foundation for their sites. (And by “serious,” I mean people planning to get somewhere with this whole Internet thing.)

Whether you’re a novice or an advanced developer, Genesis provides you with the rock-solid infrastructure to take WordPress places you never thought it could go.

Click here to check out Genesis and all the turn-key designs today.

About the Author: Kelton Reid is an independent screenwriter and novelist, as well as a copywriter for Copyblogger Media. Get more from him on Twitter @keltonreid.

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You probably know about Google’s “Panda” update last year, which created a major shift in which sites ranked well on Google’s search results pages and which didn’t.

Now there’s a new update called “Penguin” (what is it with the cute animal names?) that has the internet buzzing again.

Just like with previous updates, some sites have been smacked so hard they’re seeing stars. Others are actually doing better.

As you can guess, you’ll hear a lot more noise from those who were bitten by the Penguin than you will from those who were rewarded.

So how about your site? Is this something you should be worried about, or need to re-optimize your content for?

Today we’re going to talk about why you should not fear the Penguin. And if it did bite you in the backside, we’ll talk about the strategies you can move to so future updates are much less likely to give you headaches.

Penguin isn’t as new as you might think

For the most part, Penguin is simply automating work that the Google search quality team was already doing manually.

Were you doing something tricky to cloak your keywords, or participating in dodgy link exchanges? Before, Google had a quiet army of employees out scouring the web to look for spammy practices like this.

Many SEO researchers actually thought this work was automated already, because the Google team was so diligent. (They only looked like a robot army …)

Now Google’s algorithms have at least partly caught up with their manual work. Which means they’re just getting a little better at catching what was already “against the rules.”

What is “overoptimization”?

One of the specific targets of Penguin is what’s called “overoptimization.”

That means search optimization that’s a little too perfect. When 99% of the links to you are using your preferred keyword term as anchor text, for example.

The penalty also applies to what’s called keyword stuffing.

One important function of our Scribe content optimizer is to let you know if you’ve used your keyword phrase too many times in your content. That’s because “stuffing” your keyword too many times into your content is actually probably more harmful than slightly underusing your term.

(One of our goals with Scribe is to get you to that Goldilocks “Just Right” level … using your term often enough so the search engine can figure it out, without overdoing it.)

It’s still fine to include keywords that are related to your term. So if your keyword is contract attorney, you might squash in dozens of references in to contract law, contract lawyer, negotiate contracts, etc.

There’s a very simple test to see if you’ve overdone this:

Read your content out loud and see if it will make sense to a human reader.

If it’s useful and “sounds right” to a person, it’s unlikely to trigger any red flags with the search engines, today or tomorrow. That’s the key to good SEO copywriting, and it always will be.

Write for humans first.

Why you should love the Penguin

Updates like Panda and Penguin exist to weed out the bad actors who are using scripts and other practices to make poor-quality content rank better than it should.

That means they’re getting rid of the content that ranks purely because it was optimized by a clever SEO — but that isn’t actually useful to human readers.

And what does that make room for?

It makes room for your content. Written to be useful and shareable for real people in the real world, not robots or scripts.

Attracting natural links from real web sites.

Serving a real purpose for readers by educating them, informing them, and keeping their attention with good writing.

Search engine updates will tend to clear out the clutter and allow your content to find the audience it deserves.

(Why am I so confident about your content? Because you read Copyblogger. If you wanted to write thin, spammy, second-rate content, you’d be reading someone else.)

Your best defense against Google or Bing/Yahoo updates is to write excellent content, then promote it naturally and without too many automated shortcuts.

If you write well, in a way that both people and Google love, you will rank well. And no Google update has ever altered that.

How are you holding up in the Update Wars?

How about your sites? Have Panda and Penguin been kind, or cruel? We would love to know, so let us know in the comments. And be sure to include your website in the box so we can check it out.

Note: This article originally appeared in our private newsletter for Scribe SEO customers.

Image from the glorious Aardman Animation film The Wrong Trousers

About the Author: Sonia Simone is co-founder and CMO of Copyblogger Media. Get more from Sonia on Twitter and Google+.

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I’ve been in the publishing industry for more than a dozen years now, and along the way I’ve noticed a couple of things about editorial calendars.

First, they are utterly critical for any content marketing program to be successful.

Second, most businesses don’t use them.

New social media platforms are sexy. New marketing ideas are sexy. Calendars, for most of us … not so sexy.

Let’s be honest … even though content marketing has been around in various forms for hundreds of years, most marketers are short-term campaign driven types — similar to what you might see on Mad Men — who throw some social media tools on top of it all.

But that’s not content marketing.

Content marketing is not a short-term campaign … it’s a long-term strategy to attract, convert, and retain customers.

You can’t have a long-term strategy without some tools to manage it all. And one of the most effective tools you can use is the editorial calendar.

So let’s take a look at how this works …

The 3 basic components of an editorial calendar that works

Traditional marketing departments used to gear up around the latest product push. But more and more marketing resources are starting to look like publishing operations, similar to what you’d see out of Inc. magazine or Entrepreneur.

This change is exactly the reason we are covering this topic in-depth at Content Marketing World this year.

Because it is longer-term, and because content marketing often involves multiple content producers, customers, and outside influencers. It can be tricky to keep track of all the stories you are telling and developing, and all of the formats (online or offline) you’re developing them for.

Note: Though I’ve use the terms spreadsheet and document below, there are many online tools that can work as your customized editorial calendar. Most of us start with simple tools such as Google Drive (formerly Google Docs) combined with a WordPress tool like the Editorial Calendar plugin. As your business progresses, you may move up to paid software-as-a-service offerings like KaPost, Central Desktop, Contently, Compendium, Zerys, and Skyword (just to name a few).

1. Understanding what an editorial calendar is and is not

The editorial calendar is much more than just a calendar with content assigned to dates.

A good editorial calendar maps content production to our buyer personas (who we want to sell to), the engagement cycle (delivering appropriate content based on where the prospect is in the buying process), and the channels that we use.

Beyond dates and headlines, your editorial calendar should make room for:

• A prioritized list of what you are publishing based on the content strategy you’ve developed. This may contain existing content, content that will be redesigned or repackaged, content that will come from partners, or content yet to be developed. It’s your inventory.
• Assigned content producer(s) and/or editors responsible for the content. Here you name the people responsible for producing the content. If you have multiple editors, you identify them as well.
• The channel(s) for the content. A listing of formats and channels targeted for the content. For example, you may have an blog post that is part of an eBook series that you are publishing on Slideshare. You may want to identify if you will also deliver pieces through multiple distribution outlets like your email autoresponder, or social sites like Twitter or Google+.
• Meta data. These are “tags” you assign to keep track of what you’re working on and what role it plays for you. The number of these you want to include is really up to you. You’ll probably want to include tags for important aspects of the content such as “target persona” or “engagement cycle” so that you can make sure you’re balancing your editorial to your overall goals. You may also want to include columns (or tags) for things like content type (for example white paper, video, email) or even SEO keywords.
• Dates for both creation and publishing. These include the dates that the content is due to the editor, along with target dates for publishing. These should be mapped to your story map. As you become more sophisticated, you may want to include the refresh date (a triggered date to update the content when needed).

(If you work for a larger organization, you may want to add workflow steps including legal, fact checking, proofreading, or other elements that will affect your content creation and management process.)

As you begin to assemble the elements you want to have in your editorial calendar, remember that the calendar is a management tool.

Include only the elements you need to facilitate your process. For example, if you write one blog post a week and two email messages a month to support your small business, there’s no reason you need to overcomplicate your editorial calendar. Keep it as simple as you can.

2. Organizing the calendar

Set your calendar document up in the way that works best for you.

For the sake of simplicity, let’s assume that you’ll have one spreadsheet for the year — and that each tab will be a month. Across the columns you might have:

• Content headline
• Content type
• The buyer persona you’re writing this piece for
• Person who will write/create the content
• Date due
• Person who will edit the content
• Channels — where does this get published?
• Those “meta data” tags
• Publish date
• Status (perhaps indicated by green, yellow, or red)
• Any notes
• Metrics (e.g., comments posted, pageviews, downloads, etc.)
• Call to Action (the primary action or behavior you’ve asked for)

Finally, as separate documents — or even tabs within your editorial calendar — you may want to include “brainstorming” elements (e.g., ideas that are under consideration or new stories that come up during the process). The editorial calendar can be a great tool for capturing creativity as well.

In the end, your editorial calendar will most likely become the most frequently used tool in your process. And whether it’s a combination of documents, a single spreadsheet, an online production tool, or just a monthly email that you send to your team — the key is that it works for you. In the end, whatever helps to smooth out your process and keep you on track is the best editorial calendar format.

3. Developing the editorial style guide

Obviously, when we talk about a “calendar,” the first thing we think of is a guide for planning what content gets created when.

But your “calendar” has another important function. You’ll want to develop an editorial style guide as a tool for your content creators, editors, and producers. (Yes, even if those people are all you.)

This style guide can also develop into a social conversation style guide (in other words, a social media policy), which will provide guidelines for how people should respond and converse.

As more people start “telling the story” of your brand, you need to be sure that they have the right tools and training to properly communicate your brand’s voice. You also need to police them to make sure they are keeping to that voice.

And even if you’re flying solo right now, keeping your editorial voice consistent will help your content feel more professional and trustworthy. And it makes it much easier if you ever do want to bring other writers in.

Like the continuing story, it’s easy to let tone, quality, and style slip bit by bit — until the story is way off track. This is where your editorial style guide will come into play.

Here are some key things to include:

• The overall tone and voice of your content marketing. Who are you and what do you convey in your content?
• The average (or minimum/maximum) length of pieces developed.
• Branding guidelines. How to refer to the company, product lines, individuals, etc.

For grammar, style, and word usage, you can also choose to conform to guides such as the Associated Press Style Guide. In addition, many content marketing strategists — especially those focused on the web — are using the Yahoo Style Guide.

How about you?

How strategic are you about your content creation? Do you use a content calendar? An editorial guide? Do you try to follow a long-term plan, or do you mostly wing it?

Let us know about your experiences in the comments …

PS.

Note from Sonia: If you’re ready to tackle your content creation in a deeper, more strategic way, Brian Clark and I both recommend the Content Marketing World conference, the largest gathering of content marketing professionals in the world. The conference is held in Columbus, Ohio in September, and Brian and I will both be speaking this year. You can save $200 on the conference registration if you sign up before the Early Bird period ends on May 31. Brian and I would love to see you there!

About the Author: Joe Pulizzi is founder of the Content Marketing Institute, which produces the largest content marketing event in the world, called Content Marketing World. For more on managing the content marketing process, check out Joe’s new book, Managing Content Marketing. Find Joe on Twitter @juntajoe.

Good morning, you epic article writer, you.

That’s right, I’m talking to you. You wield your WordPress editor as a valuable tool. You use it to attract new prospects, to build trust with them — word-by-word — so you can get down to business.

And you do it in your slippers. Because shoes are optional in our world, right?

Your shoes might be fuzzy, but your words need to be consistently remarkable.

Consistently good content creation is the backbone of online business.

But how can you make that happen? Well, one option is to drink lots of coffee and stay up late the night before you publish your post, stifling yawns and squinting to see your screen.

But the better option is to spread the writing and editing process over a few leisurely days, and write your post in stages without ever getting out of your slippers. Sound good?

Read on …

Quality over quantity

If you believe Jon Morrow (and who doesn’t?), you know that writing one epic post per week is a better long-term strategy than writing mediocre content every day.

That’s what you’re aiming for in your start here: one weekly post that will attract attention, establish your authority, and encourage people to share your information.

And keep in mind, Brian Clark built Copyblogger.com by writing two posts per week in the beginning.

It all starts on morning one.

Morning 1: Start with a mind mapping tool

Slippers on? Favorite beverage at your side? It’s time to begin.

Start by thinking about your topic, and what angle you’ll approach it from. Fire up a mind mapping program — or a piece of paper and your favorite pen — and get ready to start writing.

Your headline is the most important group of words in your post, so spend plenty of time crafting one that will get your post the attention you’re looking for. Put that at the center of your mind map.

Your subheads can branch out from there. Subheads form the backbone of your content: get these right, and everything else will flow.

Your subheads should be informative enough that someone scanning your post will understand the gist of it.

They should be intriguing enough that your scanner is left wanting to dig deeper and learn more.

And that’s enough for day one.

The first step is the most difficult, and you’re off to a good start. Move on to the rest of your day, and prepare for tomorrow — it’s going to be a heavy one.

Morning 2: Time to fill in the details

You might need an extra helping of your favorite beverage for today’s task. You’re going to be fleshing out the details of the outline you created yesterday, and writing the rest of your post.

Still, keep those slippers on. You need to be comfortable so you can get the job done.

The first thing to tackle today is to look over the headline and subheads you wrote yesterday. Do they still make sense? Are they still intriguing? Are you looking forward to filling in what’s missing?

If not, take some time to tweak. Reinforce the basic structure of your post so you’ve got something to hang the rest of your words on.

Once you’re satisfied, it’s time to fill in the details. Ready? Set? Go!

I know what you’re saying right now. “It’s not a race.” Actually at this stage, it is.

The fastest way to get the rest of your post written is to write it as fast as you can. Write your first paragraph. Write the rest of your introduction. Fill in the details under your subheads. Wrap it up at the end, and include some kind of call to action.

As. Fast. As. You. Can.

Why so fast?

Because at this stage, you shouldn’t be sweating every word. You need to register your thoughts, not edit. Editing is for tomorrow.

Finally, before you wrap up working on your post for the day, look for an image. There are lots of resources for finding good images: spend some time finding one that will complement your words and draw attention to your concepts.

Then, walk away. Focus on something else, get a good night’s sleep, and plan to take a last look at your post with fresh eyes in the morning.

Morning 3: Edit, massage and tweak

On day three, you’ll wake up refreshed, slip on your slippers, and pour one more cup of that favorite beverage. Sidle up to your keyboard, and fire up that draft post one more time.

Do a read-through to see how it looks today. Better yet, read it out loud in a monotone voice to be sure it still makes sense and sounds good, even with no inflection.

Edit, re-write and move copy around as needed. Keep reading and tweaking until it’s just right.

Next, spend some time formatting your post for readability. Add bulleted lists where you can. Add excerpts using block quotes. Break up long paragraphs into smaller chunks to make them easier to read on screen.

Before you queue it up for publishing, go down this checklist and make sure you can answer “yes” to everything:

• Does the headline stop them in their tracks?
• Is the image intriguing on its own?
• Do the subheads tell your story all by themselves?
• Have you asked an engaging question at the end to encourage comments and conversation?
• Did you add a call to action for a product, service, or your email list?

Morning 4: Publication and Promotion day

Back in your slippers on morning four, you can enjoy the fruits of your labors. But your work isn’t over, so don’t relax just yet.

Publication day is promotion day. This post you spent three days crafting deserves attention, and it’s your job to ensure it gets it. How can you do that? Try:

• Making yourself available to respond to comments, answer questions and converse with your readers
• Promoting your post across the social media channels you use
• Sharing it on sites like Digg, Reddit and StumbleUpon

Did you write an especially epic post? If so, add this one task:

• Email other blog owners and tell them about it. Ask them to share it with their followers.

It’s not easy to write epic posts week after week, but dividing the work up over several days will make it manageable.

Building time into your schedule to get away from your post will make you a better editor.

And doing it all in your slippers will make you feel like the king of your world.

What’s your writing schedule?

This is one way to write epic posts, but there are many others.

Do you have a favorite technique?

Let’s talk about it in the comments.

About the Author: Pamela Wilson believes your WordPress website should be easy to create, write for, and maintain. To find out how to do it right, sign up for her free easy website course here.

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This week on The Lede …

• 6 Reasons Why You Should Quit Blogging
• The Secret Code for Cracking ‘Tough’ Books and Reading Above Your Level
• The True Cost of Building and Managing a WordPress Website
• The Bootstrapper’s Bible
• Why the iPad Works for Writing
• The “5 A” Framework for Content Marketing Success
• A 5-Step Technique for Producing Ideas

If you want to grab more useful links (than the seven we highlight here) every week, follow @copyblogger on Twitter.

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6 Reasons Why You Should Quit Blogging
Mr. Tynski thinks you should quit. Everybody’s doing it. Problem is, they’re doing it for the wrong reasons. Horribly, sadly wrong. Where did you ever get the idea that content production was easy? That overnight success was the norm? That a billion dollar IPO was something you should shoot for? Aw, just go ahead and quit. I’m sure there’s something new and shiny for you just around the corner …

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The Secret Code for Cracking ‘Tough’ Books and Reading Above Your Level
Read less. Read better. A dirty little secret of human wisdom (and western publishing) is that, for any given subject you’d like to master, there are only a handful of books that need to be read. Everything else is filler or pale imitation. The catch is, you’ve got to pick the right books. It’s not necessarily difficult to determine what they are, what’s difficult is getting down to business with them. Mr. Holiday lays out a useful plan for doing just that — extracting the valuable lessons from “tough” reads.

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The True Cost of Building and Managing a WordPress Website
Think you’re getting a deal from that cheap web host? Think again. The cost of hosting and maintaining a WordPress website is a bit more complex than “getting the cheapest price I can find”. From our newly unboxed Synthesis Managed WordPress Hosting blog, Mr. Morris analyzes these costs — the ones you know about, and the ones you might have missed — and explains what they mean for you, your site, and your business.

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The Bootstrapper’s Bible
Mr. Godin wrote this impressive little manifesto in 2004 stating, “There’s never been a better time to start a business with no money.” Seven years later, that statement may be even more true. Mr. Clark has said that, in many ways, building Copyblogger would be much easier today, with the rise of the sharing economy, etc. So take the tools in this free PDF and run them into 2012 and beyond.

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Why the iPad Works for Writing
Call me crazy, but if I wasn’t producing Internet Marketing for Smart People Radio, I’d run my entire working life from an iPad. No desktop, no laptop, just that gorgeous, single-tasking little solid-state tablet. Granted, not everyone can do this, but 90% of my work is done in a text editor and through email. Anyway, here’s a few good reasons why the iPad makes for a great writing environment. And, if you developers out there would make an all-in-one serious podcasting app for iOS, you got your first customer right here baby.

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The “5 A” Framework for Content Marketing Success
Frameworks are cool. They drop in place, and allow you to get to work on the things that matter, keeping you on course as you go along. Frameworks that build businesses are even cooler. The reason why should be obvious. Mr. Clark drops a content framework into place for you here, one that he’s been working out since the 1990s. No reason to spend a decade or more sweating to figure it out for yourself, he’s got you covered.

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A 5-Step Technique for Producing Ideas
Speaking of frameworks, how do you grab your ideas? Do you stare at a wall, or out the window, waiting, praying for a good one to come along? What if there were a systematic process for “producing” ideas? Turns out, there is. You can thank me later.

Did you miss anything on Copyblogger this week?

• The Truth About Making Money While You Sleep
• WordPress Hosting That Means Business
• How to be a World-Changing Writer
• What Does it Take to Write a Billion-Dollar Marketing Story?
• 3 Simple Ways to Turn Your Website Archive into Profitable Books and eBooks
• Seth Godin on When You Should Start Marketing Your Product, Service, or Idea

About the Author: Robert Bruce is Copyblogger Media's Copywriter and Resident Recluse. Get more from Robert on Twitter and Google+.

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