The undead are white hot these days. From the “Walking Dead” to “World War Z,” zombies have hit the mainstream—they’re everywhere. Some talk about a Zombie Apocalypse as if it’s a forgone conclusion. A friend recently told me he’s shopping for a new vehicle, and it needs to be a four-wheel drive SUV so he [...]

So you’ve realized the benefits of having a kick-ass blog. Now what are you going to say on that blog? You could go the route of taking all that carefully-prepared corporate branding, and using your blog to put out press releases about things that you want your customers to care about (but really only matter [...]

Content strategists of the world unite! Have you heard? Content marketing is the future. I hear you saying to yourself, “But you’re an inbound marketer, Rebecca, isn’t that statement just a tad self-serving?” It’s not just me. Look at the spike in interest over the past two years: This is a conversation that’s being had [...]

”There are no new ideas. There are only new ways of making them felt.” – Audre Lorde At SearchFest on Friday, Ian Lurie debuted a fantastic new tool, the Content Idea Generator. I could tell you about how amazing the tool is and how influencers like Jonathon Colman shared it all over social media: How [...]

When he’s not streaking through the Danger Zone on an Impossible Mission, the world’s biggest movie star (yes, still arguably) veers Far and Away from his core competency, occasionally taking a mega-risk with his Eyes Wide Shut. Corniness of that opening sentence aside, Tom Cruise makes for a compelling model of how to run a [...]

Marketing departments are endlessly busy. Each one has different internal and external expectations about what they can (and should) accomplish. I mean, everybody’s a marketing whiz who watches the Super Bowl, right? If only it were that easy. Marketing departments are regularly expected to accomplish a wide range of goals. Ingeniously. Inexpensively. Instantaneously. Consequently, when [...]

Last night, when most of Seattle was at a holiday party or stuck in traffic on the way to a party, a group of intrepid souls filled the Portent presentation room to discuss using content strategy to save the world. The event, Content Strategy Forum 2012 Redux: Out of Africa, was part of an ongoing [...]

In a world of endless content, innovative copywriting is a great way to catch and keep the attention of the customer. While a creative approach will often draw a bigger audience than simply following best practices, it can be tempting for an editor to change the writer’s style to fit an assumption about what sells. [...]

During my mediocre bike racing career, a lot of my teammates raced wearing two pairs of shorts. I didn’t. Then I crashed, ripped out the entire right cheek of my lycra tuchus-cover, and had to finish the race with a gentle breeze wafting across my abraded buttock. From then on, I wore two pairs of [...]

I’m a generous guy. So, when I see someone acting like a complete scumbag, I assume they’re ignorant, instead. For example, if you take an article I wrote in 2005 and put it up for sale, without my permission, on a third-party site, like this: …I take the high road: You’re not a dishonest pile [...]