Jeff Sexton’s secret to greater ads: bubbling
“The rabbit is never harmed and the poor boy’s head is never shot, except for in your mind’s eye. And that makes both ads all the more emotionally powerful.”
Doug Stanhope on advice to comedians…
“He [Joey Scazzola] said ‘Never give anyone advice because you’re only telling them how to be more like you.’ Every time I’ve erred and given someone advice, I remembered that.
If you want advice, you most likely just want someone to reassure you of what you already know. If they tell you otherwise, you’ll either discount it or you’ll take their advice and no longer be following the instincts that got you in this to begin with. So either way, you didn’t need the advice.
But if you really want the advice anyway, you can get it very easily for free without going far out of your way. If there’s one thing that you never have to pay for, it’s some other jerk-offs opinion.”
Merlin Mann on Care…
“Before you sweat the logistics of focus: first, care. Care intensely.”
7 Life-Altering Blog Headline Tips To Cure Cancer
Headlines are important, maybe the most important… for SEO, but mostly for whether or not a person reads your content, clicks on your tweet link, etc.
There’s so much shit out there about writing headlines. Some of it’s good. Some of it’s just pumped full of hot air.
But here’s one tips that will always get you read: write about something interesting.
I saw a headline that was so good I was basically compelled to read it. It read: How To Feel Great Every Time You Get Dressed (link).
Don’t judge me. I think about the clothes i’m wearing often. I want to look good. This article is interesting. I click. I read.
There are some construction elements to this headline – e.g., using “how to” which makes me feel like i’ll get a tip/trick out of the post – but the real trick to this headline is that it’s about something I want the answer to.
You can’t polish a turd, people. Write better stuff, get better activity on the site.
p.s. I’m not downplaying the role of the headline here. The headline is important, always has been, always will be. Just don’t worry about the construction of the headline so much as you do about whether or not your article merits some eyeballs.
If Quality Matters More…
The quality of your audience matters more than the quantity. I keep needing to be reminded of this in my online ventures.
The number of visitors to your site doesn’t matter as much as who those visitors are.
The number of tweets you send out doesn’t matter. (more…)
The Entrepreneur As Predator
I stumbled across a fascinating article at Malcolm Gladwell’s blog called The Sure Thing in which Gladwell parses a few successful entrepreneurs looking for the pattern. Here’s a few passages.
The One Marketing Question You Need To Ask
You want to kick some ass with a product? Want to build a brand that makes money and lasts a long time? Want to build a legacy your kids can inherit? Just discover a true (and good) answer to this one question: Who are you and what do you stand for in the world. (more…)
How To Beat Futility
It really doesn’t matter who you are, Sarah Silverman is pretty funny.
And, although her memoir The Bedwetter started out kinda slow, it’s getting good because she’s talking about how she started developing her act, her voice. This is the part I love to learn about.
Here’s the setup: At this point in her life, Sarah was just starting out – young, eager, hopeful, chumming about with other comedians working on their acts in NY (people like Luis C.K., Ray Romano, John Stewart). One sentence jumped off the page at me: (more…)
John Cleese On Creativity
Very interesting John Cleese video on creativity. Here’s some notes:
- There’s a part of our mind that helps us be more creative.
- The most dangerous thing when writing is to be interrupted.
Moshe Feldenkrais Quote
“If you know what you’re doing, you can do what you want.”
~ Moshe Feldenkrais