Copyblogger Weekly Wrap: Week of March 14, 2011

Last week, I was in Austin, Texas for the South by Southwest conference. Which meant that I did absolutely no conferencing and instead just hung out with people and caught up with both old and new friends.

One of those old friends was Copyblogger founder Brian Clark, who told me he’d received the Copyblogger weekly wrap I’d written for last Saturday, but that he wouldn’t run it unless I bested him in an American Gladiators style competition wherein we’d attempt to knock each other off of the roof of Sonia’s rental house using giant padded Q-Tips.

Now, where’s the Advil?

Here’s what happened this week on Copyblogger:

Monday:

The Blockbuster Secret to Seducing Your Audience

I think the term “open loops” was used in describing this technique for drawing readers in because too much talk about “seducing” and “tantalizing” would lead down a salacious path from which we’d never return with any degree of dignity. It suffices to say that sometimes what you don’t say is more appealing than what you do say.

Read the full post here.

Tuesday:

New WordPress Theme: Pretty Young Thing is Ready for Her Close Up

Whenever I’m called on to summarize announcements, I never know what to say other than, “Go check out this sweet new theme. It’s awesome and has many options and will make life easier and can juggle chainsaws.” So… yeah. Check it out. Even if you don’t need the theme, you can use the chainsaws for forestry and stuff.

Read the full post here.

Wednesday:

5 Situations That Demand You Hire a Professional Copywriter

I have this blog about using churros to play the drums and was just despairing over trying to write copy for it when I came across this post. The problem is that I don’t seem to know anything about it. But, you mean I can hire a copywriter… and maybe should when I need specific expertise? Huzzah! Winning!

Read the full post here.

Thursday:

The Charlie Sheen Guide to Winning! at Online Marketing

Want a big branding event? Then look to the questionable antics of the younger Mr. Sheen. The part I like best about this post is that it does kind of imply that Charlie Sheen is making good career moves by going totally insane. And what I like even better than that is that I’d bet money that Charlie will be in movies and on TV again, crazy or not. (Mental note: Ask pharmacist about prescription to this compelling “Charlie Sheen” drug.)

Read the full post here.

Friday:

Rock-Solid SEO is Simple. Really.

I know that this post and this podcast has some “better understanding through simplicity” info about how SEO doesn’t need to be complicated, and I know you can learn how to improve your own SEO in simple ways by reading and listening to it. But I stopped at “Mr. Burgerwinner.” Don’t tell me that guy didn’t take crap from students all the time.

Read the full post here.

This week’s cool links:

• Say What You Are, Not What You’re Not: I am not the kind of guy who wouldn’t send you to this post, because I’m not all about providing irrelevant content. I’m not not serious!
• A no-nonsense guide to sharing and promoting content on Twitter: HEY SPAMMERS! You should read this. It’s so much better than having ads for erectile drugs @’ed at me on Twitter. Relevance? Community? Hey, I like it!
• Want Engaging Content? Answer These 3 Questions First: “Engaging” is a strange word, so these three simple questions will help you out in deciding if something will be engaging to folks. (HINT: Don’t actually propose to your content.)
• RIP Digg: One of the best Copyblogger rants ever was over 3 years ago, when Brian proclaimed Ding Dong, Digg is Dead. Looks like Digg’s life support is fading fast. Where will all the hostile little basement dwellers hang out now? Oh yeah, they left long ago for 4chan.

About the Author: Johnny B. Truant specializes in selling through stories and is the proud creator of The Badass Project, a site profiling amazing people who make your excuses look stupid.