Learn how to seduce your audience — and why it’s so important to do so — in this episode of The Lede. Has a singer ever been more seductive than Marvin Gaye? Especially when crooning his classic, “Let’s Get It On”? We often think about seduction in this sense: as being sexual, sometimes even manipulative.... Listen to episode

You have to capture and re-capture your reader’s attention every time they scroll their mouse. Here’s how to do it. Sorry. I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but you know all that work you do to drive people to your blog posts? All the content optimization (don’t you say SEO!), all the... Listen to episode

Well-crafted bullet points make your copy more readable. And they allow you to do something else that is very important, as well. What is that something else? You’ll have to listen to the latest episode of The Lede to find out. Keep your readers running down your page like water on a slide.” Wouldn’t you... Listen to episode

Demian Farnworth imparts his vast wisdom to teach you what makes a good sentence a damn good sentence. Well look at that. Can you believe this is already the fourth installment in our 11-part series on the essential ingredients of a blog post? Time sure does fly when you’re having pure podcasting fun … and... Listen to episode

Want to become a better writer? Learn how to use persuasive words to your advantage. We discuss that in this episode of The Lede. In this episode, we discuss: The five most persuasive words in the English language Demian’s favorite of the bunch The importance of personalization (and how to do it effectively) Why context... Listen to episode

From nothing to Technorati’s #1 business blog in a little over four months. That’s quite a story. It’s Michael Stelzner’s. And on the latest episode of The Lede, he shares two of the most important ingredients in his online success — ingredients that too often get overlooked. Capturing emails and committing to quality … Stelzner... Listen to episode

It’s essential that you nail the opening of your blog posts. To do so, you must open with a bang. Bubkes. That’s what happens when you write a great headline, get scores of people to open your post, but then bore them with a lame opening. They leave, and you accomplished nothing … except making... Listen to episode

The most important element for getting a blog post read is the headline. But you can’t just use any headline. You need a magnetic headline — one that makes an irresistible promise to readers. In the first episode The Lede, Copyblogger’s new regular podcast, Demian Farnworth and I deliver a series of actionable tips and... Listen to episode

What is marketing? Is it a process of gathering as much money as you can, throwing it to the “creative” winds, and hoping something will come back? Is it a practice of interrupting as many people as possible with a message they don’t care about, and never asked to receive? Is it a performance you... Listen to episode

Google’s been pissing people off lately. Panda, Penguin, Parakeet (okay, I made that last one up), who knows what’s next … Then there are the social networking evangelists whose entire fortunes are deep in Zuckerberg’s asset. And finally, the faithful content producers, who labor slowly and quietly to build their businesses one thousand words at... Listen to episode