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There are no shortcuts

I'll tell you up front, it's not easy.

If you want to do something worthwhile, you need to work at it.

Many people ask me about writing a book. I've written 8 books and each one was a tough slog. If you want to write nonfiction, you’ve got to research your topic, find an angle nobody else has, do a bunch of drafts, get feedback, do several rounds of edits, and more.

Fiction is even tougher because your writing has to work on so many levels including conflict, characterization, dialog, setting, and much more.

And that's only half of it. The other half is promoting your work so people find you and get interested in what you do. It's about building a platform years before your book's publication date by blogging, doing videos, speaking at conferences, reviewing books similar to the one you wrote, being social.

There are no shortcuts.

"Diet and exercise." That’s what I tell people when they ask me how I dropped 50 pounds in a year.

Most people stop there.

Some probe for details and I usually say something like: "I eat very little starch and exercise every single morning." For most people that's enough.

Unless someone is serious about getting fit themselves (or is already fit and interested in swapping stories) they really don't want to hear that there are no shortcuts. There is no magic pill, special machine, or secret diet. It is a lifestyle change.

Very few people want to hear what it really takes. Paying attention to every single little thing that goes into your mouth and an average of 90 minutes of tough exercise every day with no excuses for things like being in a hotel room.

What are you doing now?

Are you looking for a new job? Starting a business? Beginning a blog or YouTube channel? Learning to paint? Preparing a TEDx talk?

It's not easy. Nothing worthwhile is.

But if you work hard you will be rewarded.

One of the most difficult things I've ever done is learn to surf. I took it up with my daughter and she was a natural. But I wasn't. My balance stinks. I fell a thousand times before I felt even remotely comfortable. I'm not very good but I love it. It was totally worth the effort over several years.

Your effort will be worth it too. Don't try for shortcuts.

Welcome to Seth Godin readers who found this blog from Seth's shout-out this week. I typically post twice a week.

Effective storytelling for business

As content takes its rightful place at the forefront of marketing, I'm seeing many marketers fail at basic storytelling.

Marketers are ineffective when they use the classic "customer testimonial" format and pop that onto their blog or make it into a video. "Here’s our product. It is great. Here are customers who say it is great. Now buy some of our product." This just doesn't hold people's attention.

How interesting would a book or movie be were it to have this plot?:
Boy meets girl.
They fall in love.
They get married.

That's what most people do with their business writing.

Effective storytelling

The best stories drip with conflict. They have a hero and sometimes a villain. There is a story arc. As a writing teacher once told me: "Writing without conflict is propaganda."

Movies and novels have these elements – the best open with conflict in the first scene, on the first page, or even the first paragraph. Usually, it's one character in conflict with others (Batman against the bad guys). Sometimes it's a character in conflict with herself ("I really shouldn't go into this bar, but...").

Example of a good storytelling TV ad

Here an example of a story driven TV ad Audi aired during the 2012 Super Bowl called "Prom". I really like this ad because it is an example of all the elements of a good story. A slightly insecure teenager is unhappy about going to the Senior Prom without a date. But when Dad lets him borrow the new Audi S6 for the night, he gains more and more confidence with every mile, arriving at the Prom a changed young man. There's a confrontation and a resolution. And it all happened in one minute. (The YouTube version of the ad has 10 million views.)

Direct link to Audi Prom on YouTube.

Example of a good storytelling blog post

For an example of a story-based blog post, check out Weather Happens – Be Prepared by Kristiana Almeida on the American Red Cross blog.

Kristiana writes about her life as a kid on Cape Cod and uses that to educate on being prepared for a blizzard. Great stuff. What does the Red Cross really want? A donation. Is a donation mentioned in this post? No.

You too can be an effective storyteller

Here are a few ideas to get you thinking about telling stories that people will want to pay attention to rather than propaganda they will ignore.

- Instead of "creating copy", think about sitting in a restaurant with friends and explaining a little about your work to them. How would you say it? How would you hold your friends' interest? Write that down.

- Rather than talking about the features and benefits of your products and services, consider how you help people to solve problems.

- Who or what is the "bad guy" in your market? Is it the big, famous company that everybody does business with but nobody really likes? Is there some silly government regulation that holds buyers back? How can you weave those into a story with conflict?

- What is the status quo? Use that as the bad guy in your story.

Bonus for reading this far: Here's how I create many of the stories of success I share in this blog, in my speeches, and in my books: I think of the story as a movie or novel and cast the people from around the world whose success I showcase as my hero and traditional offline advertising and the PR pitching approach as the villains. That's what I did in this post. Audi and the Red Cross are my heroes and the traditional customer testimonial is the villain. (Shh... don't give away my secret.)

Want more?

Several years ago I wrote a free ebook Gaijin Male Model: A Case Study in Conflict-Driven Business Writing.

If you’ve got a few minutes and want to dig deeper into using conflict in your own writing, this is a good place to start. No registration required.

Why Make Art? And how to fund it

This morning, Seth Godin announced his newest book The Icarus Deception and a fascinating Kickstarter Project to fund it.

Seth's new book is about the mythology of success (and failure) and how our economy rewards people who are willing to stand up and stand out.

Seth writes: "For too long, we've been seduced into believing we should do less. It's time to redefine what we're capable of. We are all artists now, and the connection economy we're living in relentlessly rewards those who do work that matters."

I'm a Seth Godin fanboy and enjoy reading each of his books the second they are released.

I'd certainly read The Icarus Deception anyway. But this book is also interesting because of how Seth is funding it.

Kickstarter and Seth's art

Seth has a Kickstarter project to fund the new book. Like Amanda Palmer, who raised over $1 million to fund her new album through Kickstarter (I wrote about Amanda's project here), Seth is tapping his loyal fans to help him fund his new book – using the proof of support to convince his publisher and bookstores to back it in a big way.

As I write this, it is just a few hours into the project and one funding level has already sold out. It looks like Seth is on a similar trajectory as Amanda was in the early days of her project.

Seth is betting (rightly it seems) that his fans are willing to fund the book even before it has come out. People like me are going to buy it anyway, so why not get a commitment up front and use the fan support to make the book even more successful.

Supporting your favorite artists

Yes, I am a backer at one of the higher pledge levels. Sure, I want all the stuff that comes with being a backer.

However, more than that, I want to support the artists, like Amanda and Seth, who I believe in. I want them to live well so they can continue to produce art and enrich my life.

People want YOU to succeed too!

If you provide great art, even in the form of products and services, your fans want to support you. That's why people line up to buy new Apple products without even trying them. Do they line up for your art?

If you make great stuff, people will take a chance on you. They'll order the software upgrade, visit the chef's new restaurant, reserve a room in the resort on a different island.

Say it with fewer words

My blog posts always seem to be long. Sometimes as much as 500 words (or more). I find it difficult to say something in just a few words.

But we're all busy with so many things demanding our attention. When you see a long blog post, are you eager to read it? Maybe not.

Brevity: "the attribute of being brief or fleeting."

Sometimes brevity is best. I'm trying to say things with fewer words.

Do not vague up your content

Over the years, I've read countless corporate blogs, seen a bunch of videos, and watched tons of Twitter feeds that look as if the PR pros or Marketing geniuses have gotten their grubby little hands into the mix.

The language is clean but generic. The passion is non-existent. And corporate messages are inserted at every opportunity.

When you create content to educate and inform, authenticity is a must. You must create information that comes from the passion of caring deeply about a subject.

Don't let your marketing communications or public relations staff vague up your stuff. Don't let the agencies MarCom it to death.

As soon as content has been through the Marketing Communications wringer and the PR gauntlet, it ceases to be authentic and people don't pay attention.

Resist the urge to message.

Allow people to let it all hang out, quirks and all. Your readers will thank you for it. And your business will prosper.

Make your writing easy to understand

Doug Brockway points us to some world-class gobbledygook from a company called ITA Software by Google.

Yikes, what does this company do?

I looked at a bunch of pages on the company's site and honestly didn't understand what they do. It wasn't until I went to some external sites that I sort of figured it out.

Here is the about page. (I have pasted the headline and first two paragraphs below). Click the thumbnail to see the screenshot of the page as of November 21, 2011.

Travel Technology's Game Changer

ITA Software is a leading provider of innovative solutions for the travel industry.

Founded in the mid-nineties by MIT computer science graduates, ITA Software has pioneered a new generation of travel technology. Our world-class engineers and travel industry experts are solving the industry's most complex computing challenges, and in doing so reshaping its very foundations.

This is not a good way to talk about what you do.

Here is the product page. Click the thumbnail to see the screenshot of the page as of November 21, 2011.

The problem with using language like game changer, innovative solutions, next generation, world-class, customer-centric, and the like is that these words and phrases are so overused as to have become meaningless.

Here is an analysis I did on gobbledygook phrases so you can avoid the most overused ones. (Incidentally, the most overused phrase in my analysis was innovation / innovative.)

Make your writing easy to understand

I've taken a stab at re-writing the about us section for ITA Software by Google by learning more about what the company actually does. My suggestion is certainly not perfect, but it is, to my mind at least, easier to understand than the one currently being used by the company.

Software for the air travel industry

ITA Software by Google helps air passengers, airlines, and online travel agencies by making it easier for people to comparison shop for flights. Because of the huge volume of real-time transactions in airline pricing, the ITA Software engine is central in the travel industry’s most complex computing application.

The company was founded in the mid-1990s by computer scientists from the MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory and was acquired by Google in 2011.

What do you think?

Telling the Truth

UPDATE: On October 7, 2011 at 2:00 pm a representative of Starwood Social Media Team commented on this post. Please take a look at the response.

+++++++++++
“Your call is important to us.”

“We love our customers.”

Are you telling the truth? Or is some marketer making something up in an attempt to sound good while hiding what's really going on?

You know what? Your customers can see through the smokescreen.

Truth: We're trying to save money by firing customer support reps and therefore average wait time is now over 5 minutes.
Marketing: Your call is important to us.

I stayed at the Gaylord National, a Westin property near Washington DC this week. The hotel sports a massive energy sucking atrium. It's really a rather nice atrium. I liked being in the climate controlled outdoors.

So is this the truth? (This is what the marketers say in one place.) "The Gaylord National Resort features a dramatic, soaring 18-story glass atrium complete with vibrant indoor gardens, flowing waterways, and panoramic vistas of the Potomac River."

Or is this the truth? (This is what the marketers say in another place.) "One of your Heavenly® Shower heads has been turned off in an effort to minimize water usage and protect one of our most precious natural resources."

Does the Gaylord National want to protect the environment? Or do they want an atrium with water fountains and sunlight coming in during the hot day?

Or maybe this is the truth? Some bonehead convinced the Westin to install these newfangled shower heads and when the CFO saw the huge increase in water and energy use the CFO had a fit and told the boneheads to do something about it so they made up some hogwash about how they love the environment.

Or this: Westin Hotels really want to save the planet and some idiot convinced them that an atrium makes sense and now they are stuck with it.

Your customers can spot hypocrisy a mile away. What are you saying to people? Are you telling the truth?

Shower photo by David Meerman Scott
Atrium photo via Gaylord National site

Yahoo! vagues up leadership reorganization PR with cutting edge gobbledygook

Yesterday, Yahoo! announced a reorganization of top management. The press release is choked with cutting-edge, innovative, industry-standard gobbledygook.

Check out the third paragraph: Roy Bostock, Chairman of the Yahoo! Board, said, "The Board sees enormous growth opportunities on which Yahoo! can capitalize, and our primary objective is to leverage the Company's leadership and current business assets and platforms to execute against these opportunities. We have talented teams and tremendous resources behind them and intend to return the Company to a path of robust growth and industry-leading innovation. We are committed to exploring and evaluating possibilities and opportunities that will put Yahoo! on a trajectory for growth and innovation and deliver value to shareholders."

Read the full press release here.

WTF?

The release is so full of gobbledygook words and phrases as to be completely ineffective.

The problem with this is that the words chosen in this release are so overused as to have become meaningless. When I last analyzed gobbledygook, "innovate" and related words like "innovation" was the most overused word in press releases. The paragraph above uses the word "innovation" twice.

The information being conveyed in the Yahoo! release is tough. The board sacked the CEO and is looking for a replacement. Yahoo! missed an opportunity to communicate like humans and deliver some real information.

When companies vague up their communications like Yahoo! did, it doesn't give people reason to cheer. It may even make them wonder what else is happening in that boardroom. Investors might sell or short the stock.

Your buyers (and the media and analysts who cover your company) want to know what specific problems your product solves, and they want proof that it works—in plain language.

Every time you write—yes, even in news releases—you have an opportunity to communicate. At each stage of the sales process, well-written materials will help people understand how you, specifically, will help them.

A big hat tip to David Dalka for pointing us to this press release.

How smart people who are poor writers create great content

I'm hearing much more these days about content marketing - something I've talked about for nearly a decade. It's kinda cool that something that I was once a lone voice in the wilderness talking about has gotten such buzz.

I wrote a book published by CyberAge Books in 2005 called Cashing in with Content. It was a decent book but with a crappy title because I didn't use "marketing" in the title so marketers had no clue what it was about. It didn't sell many copies. In fact my next book The New Rules of Marketing & PR (which is also about content marketing although I did not use that term) has sold more than 100 times the number of copies.

Content Marketing -- The New Rules of Marketing & PR -- is the idea that marketing on the Web is all about publishing great information that the search engines will index highly and that people will eagerly share via social networks.

Now Content Marketing is hot

Content Rules, a book by Ann Handley and C.C. Chapman is selling like crazy (I wrote the foreword) while Joe Pulizzi has created an event called Content Marketing World that is expected to draw nearly 1,000 people (I am one of the keynotes). Wow. We certainly have come a long way.

Many people ask me about the best ways to create content. People say that they have good ideas but are not skilled writers.

Here are a few ways for smart people who are poor writers to create great content

-- Maybe the best form of content isn't text based.
You can create a video series. Or publish photos. Perhaps you can do some research and analysis and create an infographic.

-- For years I've advised that companies should hire journalists.
If you have a journalist on staff, she can help create content for you by drawing on your expertise. Note that I don't advocate "ghost writers" but instead a journalistic approach to a story of interest about what you do. I call this brand journalism.

-- Talk your ideas through and then transcribe the results.
Another approach that works well for those people with expertise but who are not good writers is this three step process:
1) Have someone interview the in-house expert and record the audio of the interview. A good interviewer should be able to tease out some great content in a half hour conversation.
2) Then have the audio transcribed. I use a service that costs about $30 to transcribe a half hour conversation. Using Amazon Mechanical Turk you can get it done even cheaper.
3) Then, working with the expert, have a skilled editor work with the word file of the transcript to make an interesting blog post. Several interviews can be made into an ebook.

Don't let lack of writing skills keep you from creating some interesting content that brands you as an expert.

Thanks to my friend Alan Belniak for sparking the idea for this post.

Content Rules

Today, the new book by Ann Handley and C.C. Chapman
Releases: Content Rules: How to Create Killer Blogs, Podcasts, Videos, Ebooks, Webinars (and More) That Engage Customers and Ignite Your Business.

Content Rules is part of my New Rules series and I wrote the foreword to the book.

Here is the Content Rules companion site to learn more.

"Marketing is about publishing great content."

How many times have you heard a statement more or less like this? Tons, right? I know I've said probably a thousand times myself! By now every marketing professional and entrepreneur on the planet understands this fundamental truth. We don't need convincing.

But what the many content-marketing experts have failed to do is tell us how to create that content.

What, exactly, should I do?

In my experience, the art and science of creating content had never been adequately explained to marketers. Perhaps you would build a Web site and spend a bunch of cash on the design. But the best that the designers could do with the content was put in some filler text.

Okay, then what? You stared at "Lorem ipsum" for days not knowing what to write and then defaulted to some gobbledygook-laden drivel about your products and services. Ugh.

There is a better way.

Ann and C.C. show you how!

Throughout Content Rules, Ann and C.C. show how to construct interesting and valuable information using many of the same skills that journalists and storytellers use. They show how to identify an audience, how to develop a distinct point of view and voice, and how to construct a narrative that is exciting and engaging.

Content Rules includes many success stories from consumer brands, B2B outfits, government agencies, and other organizations—together with "ideas you can steal" from each. (Love that part).

When I created the New Rules Social Media Book Series with John Wiley & Sons, I said that it was essential to have a book about how to create killer content. And I knew just the people to do it.

Ann and C.C. are storytellers, journalists, and marketers. In my opinion, that's the perfect combination of skills and expertise to identify and deliver rules that we can all use to create killer blogs, podcasts, videos, e-books, Webinars, and more.

Ann Handley @MarketingProfs is the Chief Content Officer of MarketingProfs, an educational resource for marketers with nearly 400,000 subscribers. She also writes for American Express OPEN Forum, Mashable, and The Huffington Post. Previously, Ann was the co-founder of ClickZ, one of the first sources of interactive marketing news and commentary.

C.C. Chapman @cc_chapman is the Founder of Digital Dads, "where a Dad can be a guy." He is also the creator and host of of the widely popular Managing the Gray podcast and is also a member of the Media Hacks and Cast of Dads podcasts.

I've followed the work of both Ann and C.C. with keen interest for nearly five years, learning from them as they pave the way forward to new forms of marketing. They must have more than a thousand blog posts, hundreds of videos, and dozens of articles between them.

Now, in one place, you have access to their greatest hits.