Vanity Fair just published a two-part article on the brain trust surrounding Donald Trump. The writer, Chris Whipple, is the author of a book on chiefs of staff in the White House. The photos were by Christopher Anderson, an accomplished portrait photographer. Trump’s advisors look very, very bad in this piece. His chief of staff…
My inbox regularly receives emails from people I don’t know, soliciting me for things I don’t want. We’re all used to marketing emails, which Gmail helpfully segregates in its “Promotions” tab. But marketers know that they’ll get a greater response if they can get into your primary tab, so they’ve designed “personalized” emails that are…
A copywriter is a person who gets paid to write words for someone else. If you like to write, it’s a fine way to make a living. But it’s not a job at the top of the pay scale. At least not normally. But in some situations it can be. If you aspire to get…
Stupid and manipulative strategies to drive traffic have always been part of the online world. Now that we have AI, they won’t go away. They’ll just be different. They’ll be based on bullshit. In the age of Google search, one way to get your site found is by consistently writing valuable information, the type that…
My marketing looks like this: blog every day about writing and books, regularly interact with writers on LinkedIn and Facebook, publish books on writing, speak at industry events. That perfectly fits the definition of content marketing. My writing and editing business is doing great. But far less than 10% of it comes from leads generated…
I was surprised to get this email yesterday: Turning expertise into influence – a thought for Wobs LLC from: rob@brandingbybooksnext.com Hi there, I was reviewing Wobs LLC and couldn’t help but think how powerful it would be to transform your insights and methodologies into a professionally crafted book. Consultants like you already have the expertise,…
Starting today, you can participate in the “AI and the Writing Profession” survey. This survey is a joint project of Gotham Ghostwriters and Bernoff.com. Dan Gerstein, the CEO of Gotham Ghostwriters, proposed this project to me and I enthusiastically agreed to become his partner in it. The web is filled with all manner of opinions…
I’m subscribed to Jane Friedman’s weekly Bottom Line email newsletter. Jane’s updates on the publishing industry and opinions on trends are essential, and she’s been sharing them since 2015. But rather than her expertise, today I’d like to call out her courteous and respectful attitude towards subscribers, which ought to be the standard for every…
According to the Boston Globe, the owners of the Connecticut Sun WNBA team are exploring options for selling the team. I’m not that surprised; Uncasville in southern Connecticut is an out-of-the-way place to put a team, and their facility is not quite up to the level of the growing professionalism and booming audiences of today’s…