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Posts from the 'All About Content' Category
August 1st, 2008 by Allen Voivod
We’ve recently been passing emails back and forth with Dailey Pike, a marketing consultant (among other talents) who runs the Cedarlane Natural Foods social network and blogs for “Cedarlaneoholics,” the mavens of the Cedarlane brand. (Full story in Dailey’s comment.)
Inspired by our conversation, Dailey put together a 14-page ebook entitled “10,479 Free to Use Graphic Images,” and though I’m excited enough to spoil the surprise, I’m going to do the right thing, keep my mouth shut, and simply promise you it’s worth the look. (Yes, it’s free, but so are all 144 rack cards for every tourist attraction on display at our local grocery store. Some free things are worth more than others.)
Get Dailey’s breezy and highly useful ebook here, and if you need to get Adobe Reader first, get that here.
Posted in All About Content | 1 Comment »
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July 21st, 2008 by Allen Voivod
Well, they didn’t adapt, that’s for sure. And for a modern-day variation on this scenario, look no further than the Associated Press.
In the Web 2.0 world, where bloggers often post snippets of other people’s work and then link to the full details, AP has gone the way of the cyber-dodo and filed multiple Digital Millennial Copyright Act (DMCA) takedown requests against bloggers.
The non-gobbledy-gook explanation: Claiming misuse of copyright, AP filed a complaint with the bloggers’ hosting companies. Because the DMCA is a guilty-until-proven-innocent law, the hosting companies had to comply.
Check out Mike Masnick’s Techdirt analysis of the situation, a response to the AP by Rogers Cadenhead (one of the takedown-ees), and a pointedly funny response by Silicon Valley blogger Michael Arrington to get the full scoop.
Me, I think the whole thing about using a snippet in a blog and linking to the article is the high-tech equivalent of how we used to use footnotes and bibliographies, back in the days of secondary school. It’s a good thing no one from AP was sitting in any of my classrooms, waiting to sue me over a reference in a history paper, or takedown my final essay in civics. Sheesh, I’d have flunked if that were the case!
C’mon, AP. Adapt. Get with the new.
(Thanks to Kevin Skarritt at Acorn Creative for flagging the issue for us.)
Posted in All About Content, Blog Bits | 2 Comments »
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on Monday, July 21st, 2008 at 12:35 pm and is filed under All About Content, Blog Bits.
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July 15th, 2008 by Allen Voivod
 We’re members in Melanie Benson Strick’s “Ultimate Wealth and Success Circle” coaching program, and part of it includes access to their forums. Lani posted this little story under the title “Cool things, small world, serendipity abounds”:
So I recently joined a local networking group that’s just celebrated its one-year anniversary called “Women Inspiring Women.” Leslie Sturgeon, the President and Founder, has already demonstrated an authentic bent toward being truly supportive for our biz in many ways, including asking Allen and I if we’d be open to putting on workshops on blogging, branding, social networking, etc. in the future. (Heck yes!)
Soon after I joined, Leslie asked if I was available for an evening phone call. Of course, I said yes. We ended up chatting about everything under the sun for 2+ hours, which was fab, but the thing that drove her to want to connect to me in such a powerful, intentional way is this:
She had recently heard about this amazing lady named Melanie Benson Strick. She’d been reading Melanie’s ezine and checking out some of her blog posts, etc. One day she decided to take Melanie up on an offer to check out a CD on “How to Get Out of Overwhelm.” You know, get the CD and only pay for the shipping. As she was listening to Melanie in her element, she heard a familiar voice talk about a breakthrough. This familiar voice was laughing, and mentioning her husband Allen, and sharing a story about how she went from five calendars all over the house and office to one main calendaring system after just 20 minutes with Melanie.
Turns out the voice this woman heard was mine.Moral of the story?
It’s a very good thing for a community leader and networking maven to hear you rubbing elbows at a boot camp with the visionary behind Success Connections.
Leslie now knows I’m on the “bleeding edge” of success-minded lifestyle entrepreneurs, that I’m spending my time and energy pursuing the things she’s trying to infuse in her own life and networking group.
I just love this kind of serendipity, don’t you?
Great little story, right? Well, Melanie saw it, and said:
This is such a great story, thanks for sharing it!
I hope you don’t mind but I have to post this on my blog…it’s a great story and it made my whole body tingle when synergy shows up like this!
Which she did, here. And she also referenced it as part of the regular content in her weekly communications to the Ultimate Wealth and Success Circle as well as her Fast Track to a 6 & 7 Figure Lifestyle Business groups.
That’s how easy it is to make content work harder for you - sometimes, you don’t even have to create your own to get your message, mission, and vision “out there”!
Posted in All About Content, Dances With Gurus | 1 Comment »
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June 26th, 2008 by Lani Voivod
Okay, so Allen and I have been proudly calling ourselves “The Content Lovers” of Epiphanies, Inc. for a couple of years now. Which is to say…
- We love content (duh, right?)
- We believe in the power of great content to build businesses and skyrocket profits
- We champion its vital role in all marcom for ALL ventures - from the solo pro’s email signature or website to corporate white papers, CEO podcasts, social networking pages, tweets, text messages, YouTube clips…the works.
Then this Joe Pulizzi dude of Junta42.com strolls into the picture, and all I want to do is build him a monument, declare him the King of Content, and bow down to his passion and commitment to everything content-related until the end of my days.
I can only imagine he’s got an army of brilliant content trolls working underground 24/7 to pull off what he’s been doing over the last year or so. Not only has he launched and declared a CONTENT REVOLUTION (and explained it in quick, rock-n-roll powered 2-minute videos!), but he’s created Junta42 Match – the eHarmony for Publishers and Content Providers — a place they can flirt, assess needs and expectations, and go all the way with their missions and visions, if that’s the way the relationship plays out.
Jeez, Joe. Do you sleep? How are you doing this all so well?
Here’s the quick YouTube vid, if you’d like to find out more about how you can use Junta42 Match to help take your message, mission, and vision to the next level. It’s a killer idea, and it sure looks like Joe has executed the idea like a rockstar. Hope you can use this resource to drive your profits and build your business with stellar content! (Which, of course, is a KILLER way to “A-Ha Yourself!”)
And, if you end up using Junta42 Match, please let us know how it goes for ya. 
Posted in All About Content, How do you "A-Ha Yourself"?, Tools to "A-Ha Yourself!" | 1 Comment »
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on Thursday, June 26th, 2008 at 7:52 pm and is filed under All About Content, How do you "A-Ha Yourself"?, Tools to "A-Ha Yourself!".
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May 7th, 2008 by Lani Voivod
TV theme songs. Groundbreaking sports milestones. Interview clips. Commercial jingles. Historical benchmarks. Famous personalities. Comedy routines. Political speeches that actually said something meaningful.
We all have a lot of aural flotsom and jetsom floating around in our heads, right? And when we’re lucky enough to hear one of our favorite soundbites from yore, it’s amazing how quickly we can be transported to another time, place…even dimension.
 One guy who always makes Allen insanely happy is Vin Scully. If you don’t know about this legendary sportscaster (literally named “Broadcaster of the Century” in 2000 by the American Sportscasters Association), he’s been the play-by-play voice of the Brooklyn and Los Angeles Dodgers since 1950 (!!!!!), and he’s still going strong.
Allen made it to a Dodger game with his old writers’ group buds during our three-week romp in Malibu, CA. That made him happy, but what REALLY thrilled him was hearing Vin’s voice every time he tuned into a Dodger game on TV. (Here’s a recently-discovered vintage Vin clip I found on NPR that’ll no doubt THRILL Allen once he realizes I’ve blogged about Vin: Recorded History: Vin Scully Calls a Koufax Milestone.)
I think we all have those amazing voices in our heads - the ones that defined our lives, before we knew they were being defined. Among my childhood flotsom and jetsom are: the Celtic’s Johnny Most (”Bird stole the ball!!!!”), Archie and Edith Bunker’s version of Those Were the Days, DJ Little Walter and his Time Machine, and the theme song from a silly kids’ TV show called Barbapapa.
Which brings me to my question: Is there a YouTube-esque website that collects nothing but user-generated audio clips? I’m not talking iTunes or some other mp3-farm site, but a site that collects, categorizes, and openly shares all manners of audio snippets? And if there isn’t, shouldn’t there be?
The YouTube model is so inspiring and can be duplicated, niched-out, or tweaked in so many creative ways — many of which could likely help out your own business or industry.
For example…
How ’bout a G-rated YouTube for kids? (If Mattel or Disney or Nickelodeon or Cartoon Network got to work on making that happen, don’t you think they’d get their money’s worth in targeted eyeballs?)
Or, a collection of “Best-Ever” radio commercials? (We pitched a blog version of this idea to the GM at Nassau Broadcasting two years ago, but he was pretty old school in his thinking and couldn’t see how this would help his sales team sell more ad space. Too bad. I still think it would be deliver a HUGE bang to the savvy radio station manager ready to use Web 2.0 for mucho financial gain. If you’re a radio GM and would like to hear more, by all means, give us a ring at 603.524.5248!)
Even something as ridiculous as audios of “Ultimate Sports Smack Talk” cribbed from the sidelines or bleachers, or a massive collection of video clips of nothing but authentically accidental groin injuries. Don’t you think these strategically-themed content meccas would call like the siren’s song to their target audiences? Having both a husband and a brother who’d eat this stuff up, I know for a fact they’d KILL.
Hey, we all eventually find ourselves lost in cyberspace, poking around, looking to be entertained or educated around the topics that ckick with our geeky little brains. Think about your target audience. What would make them smile? What would have them laughing, or feeling smarter, or just feeling better for having spent a few minutes on your website, with your brand? What would get them to send your site to their circle of similarly-minded friends?
Keep it simple. You can add on over time. If you stay true to the intent of entertaining them, they WILL come to you.
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April 9th, 2008 by Allen Voivod
Can I be totally honest for a second?
Sometimes, I just don’t get it. Social media, that is.
I mean, intellectually, I understand that social media is the Next Big Thing, that over the next few years it’ll become as indispensable as the Internet and email eventually became, and it’s going to be the next tech bubble and burst on Wall Street.
But sometimes, I don’t see the point of it. I have profiles set up in LinkedIn, Facebook, Ryze, Twitter, Squidoo, and so forth. But I’m not always confident about the value setting up and spending time on these sites actually contributes to my business. As an attendee said, at a recent workshop where we were presenting, “Sometimes I think you people are just fooling around all day,” referring to those in the assembled group who said they were blogging for their business.
 Then I happen to read an issue of Melanie Benson Strick’s Success Connections ezine, where she says:
I have a new obsession that is really paying off.
Recently I was introduced to two social networking sites that have made a HUGE impact on my leads and have introduced some wonderful new clients into my programs. As a quick example, one person who read my blog posts from MySpace ended up purchasing my Get Out of Overwhelm and Create your Lifestyle Business CD set. Then he immediately called me and joined the Fast-Track to a Lifestyle Business Mastermind. He then went on to join my Platinum Elite coaching program. You can do the math but let’s just say it was worth over $15k to my bottom line (plus I have a wonderful new client to work with).
Yes, you read that right. One client, worth $15,000 (and probably more, considering his lifetime value to her). I’d assume this is the “results not typical” example, but Lani and I know Melanie, and based on what she’s saying in the rest of her note, there’s more where that came from.
Notice, too, one other thing she says in there, which I put in helpful bold font for you. Melanie’s having the blog posts from her website piped in to her MySpace page through the magic of RSS feeds.
That means Melanie didn’t have to create additional, brand new, constantly refreshed content exclusively for her account on MySpace. She multi-purposed her content. And you can do the same thing with Facebook, Squidoo, and many others.
As lifestyle entrepreneurs and million-dollar business owners, we all want to give our clients and customers the best service and value we have to offer. But we also have to make money at it. So if you (like me) ever doubted the value of being on social media sites, here’s one hard-dollar bit of proof for you.
Posted in All About Content, Dances With Gurus | No Comments »
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March 31st, 2008 by Allen Voivod
 I’ve had this blog post on my mind to write for a while, and in the intervening time, I’ve lost the reference source I had for this, so I’m going to tell you this factoid…
Pastor Joel Osteen of Lakewood Church based part of his latest book, Become a Better You, on material he developed in his weekly sermons.
…and ask you to take that on faith. 
Now, you may be thinking something along the lines of, “He used the same material over again?! How unoriginal and lazy!” That’s the Deadly Sin thing - sloth, namely.
Years ago, I used to think that re-using material was lazy myself. But over time, I’ve come to realize that it’s not lazy at all. In fact, it’s darned smart for three very good reasons:
1. Your Ideal Audience doesn’t want to absorb your message, mission, and vision in just one way. In Osteen’s case, one person might only watch his sermons live, and another might only read his book. It’d be foolish - even pride-filled, if we continue the Deadly Sins analogy - if Osteen thought everyone in his following read every single word, watched every single broadcast, and listened to every single radio message or podcast.
2. Having multiple “Content Catapults” reinforces your expert status. Undoubtedly, some people do take in Osteen’s content in multiple ways. Do they resent the fact that he re-purposes content from one venue into another? Of course not! Quite the contrary, they appreciate each in their own way, and they respect him more for it. Additionally, reading a lesson versus hearing it on a TV show exposes us to different communication cues and nuances. The brilliant insight you didn’t have the first time may come leaping out to you when you experience it differently.
3. For the time-crunched lifestyle entrepreneur or doing-it-all small business owner, efficiency is everything. One well-crafted piece of content can serve as the basis of:
- An article
- A blog post
- A news release
- A direct mail postcard campaign
- A newsletter
- An ezine
- Part of a media kit
- A display ad
- A piece of a larger ebook, book, white paper, or special report
- A podcast
- A video blog
You get the idea.
And for what it’s worth, Osteen isn’t the only one re-purposing content for different audiences (and revenue streams). Dilbert creator Scott Adams’ recent bestseller, Stick to Drawing Comics, Monkey Brain! and Seth Godin’s Small Is the New Big are two prominent examples of books where the content was culled almost entirely from Adams’ and Godin’s blog postings.
Other books, like David Meerman Scott’s The New Rules of Marketing and PR and Scoble/Israel’s Naked Conversations were developed on Scott’s and Israel’s blogs with the specific intent of turning them into books.
Lani and I aren’t the only people out there preaching the gospel of content as the key to getting your message, mission, and vision out to your Ideal Audience. We’re not the only ones preaching the re-purposing of content, either.
So if we aren’t causing that flash of insight for you, at one of our workshops, on this blog, or in article directories and archives across the web, then hopefully, someone out there - whether a pastor like Osteen, a satirist like Adams, or other thought leaders like Scott, Godin, Scoble, and Israel - will inspire you to create and re-purpose content for your own business and bottom line.
Posted in All About Content | 2 Comments »
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March 25th, 2008 by Allen Voivod
 Do you remember what you read in a magazine two weeks or two months ago? Have you read multiple issues of a magazine recently? And do you care about what anyone else thought about an article you read, way back when?
If so, then you must be a “Letters to the Editor” reader. Personally, I’ve never been that person. I read part or all of about a dozen different magazines in a given month, and until recently, I’ve never even bothered with the Letters section.
Unlike a blog, where the feedback is instantaneous and I can join in a conversation, it doesn’t serve me to see what Jim Smith from Des Moines thinks, because I can’t reply to him, and if I reply to the magazine, they won’t print it because they’re off printing letters about the next issue. So what’s the point of even giving the time of day to the Letters section?
Then Esquire magazine turned the Letters section upside down.
Crack open an issue (no link, because in actuality, the online version doesn’t replicate or do justice to the print version), and you’ll find in their recently re-named “The Sound and the Fury” things like:
- Graphs showing a breakdown of letter topics
- Highlights in, footnotes on, and annotations of letters
- Behind the scenes peeks at features in the current issue
- Funny quotes from unpublished letters, pulled completely out of context
- “Letter-Inspired Fiction,” where a highly-regarded writer improvises a micro-story using a reader letter as a jumping-off point
Just to name a few. I don’t know who’s responsible (and I’d like to) for the re-imagining of the Letters section at Esquire, but I gotta say, it’s one of the coolest changes in a magazine’s format I’ve seen in … gosh, I don’t know how many years. Maybe this decade?
I could also say in this century or millennium, considering it’s the same thing. Either way, kudos to Esquire for doing what I had once thought impossible - not only getting me to read a Letters section, not only getting me to enjoy it, and not only to get me to look forward to it.
Esquire actually changed the way I read their magazine, by making their Letters section so cool that it’s the first thing I read.
Posted in All About Content | 2 Comments »
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March 17th, 2008 by Allen Voivod
 We just got notices over the weekend that Alexandria Brown, aka “The Ezine Queen,” is about to throw a free, two-part teleclass on ezines, which she says will be her last one EVER. (Wonder what she’ll call herself from now on, if she’s not going to do ezine-related calls anymore?)
That said, the calls are happening March 25th and 27th at 8pm Eastern, and if you can’t make it live, by signing up here with your first name and email address, you’ll get access to the recordings of the calls, where Ali says:
During these two 75-minute calls, you’ll discover:
- the 3 BIG problems with email right now that you MUST be aware of
(and how to do a complete and easy workaround)
- my top 5 personal recommendations to help you continue to MAKE MONEY from your ezine (and in fact, you can make a higher income than ever!)
- my 3 best NEW strategies that will help you get MORE EZINE SIGNUPS online than ever before (Need to grow your list fast? Then don’t miss this.)
- the new BEST DAY of the week to publish your ezine
(simply changing your schedule alone can increase your response… and sales!)
- the 2 things you MUST start doing NOW — whether you are a beginner or advanced — that will SAVE your online business future. (I’m not being dramatic or “doom and gloom” here… this is serious, folks.)
- 5 real-life lessons learned from ezine publishers just like you, and how they are using their ezines to continue to dramatically increase sales and publicity — despite
all the email naysayers. (You’ll want to hear what these solo-preneurs are doing so you can model what works.)
As we retool how we do our ezine this year, and considering the issues we’ve been hearing over the years about email deliver-ability and what can be done about it, we’re definitely going to be tuning in to find out the latest from the greatest in the ezine field, so to speak.
Mark your calendar, and join the fun next week!
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