My 6-year-old son has become completely obsessed with playing Super Mario Bros. on our Wii game system. A regrettable side effect is that I hear that music in my head constantly and now see everything in terms of Mario.
For instance, the other day I was negotiating a crowded store and I thought how the correct way to deal with the situation would be to jump on the heads of everyone who was in my way, or perhaps step on a turtle so that it went back into its shell, and then hurl said turtle at the crowd to thin it out. Seems in real life, neither of these approaches works very well.
Now if you’ll just excuse me, I’m about to grab a flashing star so that I can “invincibility” my way through this week’s posts to tell you what happened this week on Copyblogger:
Monday:
How to Get More Clients, Money, and Respect for Your Copywriting Business
So apparently it’s a good idea to stand out and specialize instead of just being “a copywriter” or “a writer” or “that guy who keeps stealing our Xerox machines.” There’s a metaphor in this post that you should check out, but suffice to say that it involves invisible clerks and guys named Steve. Trust me; it makes sense when you read it.
Tuesday:
The 4 Words That Will Get Your Email Opened
This post about having empathy with your audience and making them feel as if they’re not totally on their own was really compelling, but I have a complaint. Sean suggests that the phrase “You are not alone” grabs attention, so I tried texting that phrase anonymously to several single female acquaintances late at night. The results were not good.
Wednesday:
Cut the Crap and Write Better Now
This post is about the power of editing out the extra crap in your writing to make it better and clearer. That’s all well and good, and everyone should learn how to do it to improve your writing, but I’m confused because the photo that goes with this post shows sheep. What’s that about? Anyway, remove the sheep from your writing and watch it sizzle.
Thursday:
Heretics, Superheroes, and Fighting the Lonely War of the Writer
This is a pretty complex and interesting post that really can only be explained by reading. Let’s just say that it somehow melds Sea Monkeys, DNA, desiccation, and other nerdiness into somehow being a remedy to the lonely writer’s life. And also, Jen and I should talk, because we may be the only Copyblogger contributors with backgrounds in biochemistry.
Friday:
Why Johnny B. Truant Wears Women’s Underpants
There’s a pretty interesting revelation in this post involving gender and beards, so check it out if you enjoy things that aren’t as they have always appeared to be. This post ran in celebration of some sort of occasion or other on the calendar, but I forget which one it was. Happy April!
This week’s cool links:
- Tracking Offline Conversions for Local SEO: So how exactly do you track leads from print, a billboard, or a TV ad in the computer age? Well, read and find out.
- What Don Corleone Could Learn from Guy Kawasaki: I was really hoping that the Godfather quote in this lesson would involve Kawasaki really knowing how to make an offer someone can’t refuse, but alas, it’s not. Read on to find out what these two titans have in common. NOTE: The quote is also not “Leave the gun. Take the cannoli.”
- The One Effective SEO Copywriting Tip You Shouldn’t Ignore: SEO meets effective storytelling? Sign me up!
- 85% of women annoyed by Facebook friends: This post isn’t that businessy, but it made me laugh out loud so I’m including it. Reads like an Onion piece, but for real.
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.
Reader Comments (12)
I wanna see my picture on the cover of the Copyblogger wrap.
This stinks. I’m in my third game of scrabble with Blog Tyrant, and as usual I’m beating his rear. But he’s gotten his picture on the cover of the Copyblogger weekly wrap, and I haven’t.
As merciless fate would have it, the one time I do a post on Copyblogger, you guys skip the weekly wrap because it’s SXSW week.
Next Friday morning I’m publishing an article called “How I got my first BIG client … from Twitter.” The next day I have an epic post going out on Problogger.
I wanna my picture on the cover of the Copyblogger weekly wrap.
Thanks Johnny.
Tell Joseph hi.
What are you talking about, dude? The wrap-up picture is always that bubble wrap thing. You must be being figurative. Or high, possibly.
Dude I’m talking about the cool links.
“Picture” and “cover” threw me off. Then you’ve gotta get Brian to tweet it. I’m lazy, so I just scour his tweet stream for stuff to put in there.
So … when he’s looking for sweet stuff to tweet, where does he go? I guess that’s where I need to be.
>My 6-year-old son has become completely obsessed with playing Super Mario Bros. on our Wii game system.
I’ve been through this and wish we had put rules in place – and stuck to them – back when the kid was 6 years old. You have the chance to do that now, while the genie is not completely out of the bottle. As one parent to another, I wish you good luck.
So, allow me to be uncharacteristically serious: What was your result, and which rules do you wish you’d put in place?
Haven’t ever thought them through – let alone written them down – but it as long as you’re being uncharacteristically serious, I’ll honor that.
1) No electronics – PC-based games, mobile apps, handhelds, consoles – until chores and homework are done.
2) No more than x minutes per schoolday, 2x minutes per weekend/vacation day. If you stick to it, you get x additional minutes one day a week.
3) I don’t give a damn where you are in the level, you get a 5-minute warning, and when the timer goes off, you turn it off or I cut the power, whether you’ve saved or not. (You might not need to phrase it quite that way, but this is a very important line in the sand I wish we’d drawn.)
4) Handhelds live on the bookshelf in the living room. That way, I know where they are and you know where they are.
Mind you, I’ve never gotten into electronic games myself, so for gamer-parents these rules may seem anachronistic and Draconian. (And futile, for that matter.) I would guess that every family can work this out within its own culture.
Anybody with any sense will tell you that, deep down, the kids really do want rules. If you want your kid to have control over his behavior around something as tempting as gaming, would you rather help instill that sense of control yourself, or would you rely on the kindness of Nintendo’s app developers?
Don’t get me started. This is Copyblogger, not a parenting blog.
Keep up the good work, Dad.
I hear you, man… thanks for the thoughts. We’ve got some of this in place and I’m finding my way on the rest. I have to find my own line where I think that fun things shouldn’t be bad by default… but that it’s sensible to have limits on anything.
My article of this week @ CopyBlogger was the Email post made on tuesday. Combo of Cachy title + quality content
What if it’s my wife that’s completely obsessed with Mario? Sometimes she’ll stay up until 1 or 2 am playing…..
At least she doesn’t do it as much now that she has a full time job and has to get up at 6:30 like me!
Dude, my wife is obsessed too. The trick is to hope she’s at least good at it. My wife backed of once she won the game, but she never did the 2am thing!
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