Cat's Eye Writer

Team Blogging: Will Hanging Around Smart People Raise Your IQ?

Back in my Halls of Academia days, I taught gifted students. Kids who just happened to be smarter than me.

The first time I said,  "I don't know the answer to that, but I wonder how we could find out," I felt stupid.

But, as the years passed, I realized this super-charged, creative environment was actually making me better—more inquisitive. 

Smarter.

Because I was hanging around with people (granted, little people) who had an unquenchable thirst for knowledge and a deep need to find "another way" to solve a problem. And it rubbed off on me.

For Bloggers By Bloggers

In a way, I feel like I'm back in that 'gifted classroom.' Learning, absorbing, sharing. Because I've just joined the team of For Bloggers By Bloggers.

I've heard the estimate of the number of blogs online to be anywhere from 133 million to 180 million. At times it feels like it's impossible to rise above all that noise.

For Bloggers By Bloggers is the first site I've seen whose sole purpose is to get you to that amazing place, where your blog is noticed. Read. Talked about.

All of us are passionate bloggers who are committed to your success. We'll share tips, resources, tools— and everything we've learned to help you shorten your learning curve.  For beginning bloggers and those of us who have been living this grand adventure for years.

My new 'smart team'

I'm humbled and honored that Danny Brown invited me to join the For Bloggers By Bloggers team. My fellow bloggers include:

Danny Brown: Compassionate, humble, smart. Partner at Bonsai Interactive in Toronto, and the founder of For Bloggers By Bloggers, Danny is an award-winning blogger and a leader in the field of using social media for social good. Follow him on Twitter at @DannyBrown.

Joey Strawn: Funny, insightful, animal lover. Joey is President of Empty Jar Marketing in Nashville, Tennessee. He works with local and national businesses to increase exposure and brand with digital marketing strategies. Follow him on Twitter at @joey_strawn.

Frank Dickinson: Inspiring, creative thinker, world famous sushi eater. Frank advises solopreneurs and small businesses in the areas of Internet marketing, affiliate marketing, social media and personal development. Follow him on Twitter at @FrankDickinson. 

Aaron Lee: Passionate, global thinker, social media addict. Aaron is an International Marketing student, part-timer Internet marketer and owner of the blog,  AskAaaronLee. Follow him on Twitter at @askaaronlee.

You are going to love For Bloggers By Bloggers.

Visit and take a peek. If you like what you see, I hope you'll subscribe. I'll be writing about the content side of blogging there.

What about you? Have you ever felt better, smarter, just by teaming up with the right group of people? Do collaborative projects excite you?

Tell me what you think in the comments.

5 Tips for Writing an About Page that Connects with Your Reader

The 'experts' will tell you that your about page is one of the most important spots on your blog.

They are right. In fact, on the CatsEyeWriter blog, my about page is consistently the second or third most viewed page.

Because the first thing a new visitor wants to do when they are intrigued about a post I've written is find out just who this CatsEyeWriter person is.

They are curious. 

What the 'experts' are wrong about

For every expert opinion on how to write the 'perfect' about page, you'll find an equal and opposite one.

"Keep a professional focus," says the expert of stuffiness. "You need to separate business from  personal."

"It's all about credibility. Your degrees and post-graduate work count the most," says the guru of self-importance.

"Be 'authentic' and talk about some mistakes you've made," says Mr. Warm and Fuzzy.

All of these people are wrong.

Because there are no about page rules—except for one.

Now some of you have heard me say that a good about page must have certain pieces.

That's true. But you must also find the right mix of personal and business—the recipe that makes the most sense for you.

The right ratio of business and personal is determined by the kind of business you are in, who your customers are and how you have built your brand.

So each about page is unique.

You do not want a reader to visit your blog and wonder what you do. That would be a bad thing.

But don't write a dry bio that leaves your visitor cold and feeling like there is no living, breathing person behind your business.  Because that would be bad, too.

So what's the  one rule?

Don't make it all about you.

About pages can be tricky because at first glance they are about you. But ultimately, you must connect your skills, abilities and interests to your client's needs. Keep that hat on as you write and you should do just fine.

5 tips for writing an about page that connects with your reader

Your reader wants to know know who you are, who you help and what matters most to you in this world. Here are five distinctly different about pages I wrote—four for my clients and one for myself.

1. Say what—but don't forget the why.  

Your readers want to feel your passion for what you do, but they also are interested in why you chose your life's work. For one of my clients, the turning point was the day he realized that he was seeing too many adults in his counseling office who had been sexually abused as children.

He decided to figure out how to stop the abuse before lives were ruined. And so he launched a cool program to teach parents and teachers how to talk to kids about staying safe. 

2. Tell us a good story.

Stories are just a part of us. They help us understand your personal journey—if that is important to who you are and how you are uniquely qualified to help us. We remember a good story long after the telling is over.

For one of my clients, a business coach, her story of going from 'broke, busted and disgusted' to becoming an award-winning coach and nationally renowned speaker was important to show that she gets being stuck, understands barriers to growth and knows how to get people on the road to living a life filled with passion.

3. Don't lead with boring credentials—even if they are important.

Most about pages don't start with a list of the person's degrees—and for a good reason. Names of colleges and pieces of paper do not excite us. When is the last time you hired someone based on what college they went to? One of my clients is a career development specialist.

His students and coaching clients expect him to have the proper credentials and he shares them—at the end of his about page. We decided to lead with the story of the  'accidental' job that caused him to take a huge leap— from forestry to career education—and why. Because it shows how important he thinks it is to find the life work you were meant to be doing, which is what he helps his clients do.

4. Tie in some relevant accomplishments.  

You can't talk about every activity you enjoy and everything you've accomplished in your about page. So focus on the things that increase our trust in you as someone who knows what you are talking about and who can also solve our problems.

I wrote an about page for a client's social media marketing blog. He also happens to be founder and president of Social Media Club Seattle, which gives him huge amounts of added credibility in his blog niche. So try to pick the things that are relevant to your business, your services, your blog.

5. Write in your own unique voice.

Show us some of the personality that makes you unique. I close my about page with 7 things you'd probably rather not know about me but I'm going to tell you anyway. At first glance, they may seem to be unrelated, but they do two things: They reflect my ever-present sense of humor and show my love of language, words and writing.

I'm a writer and blogging coach, so the facts that I've written three unpublished middle grade novels, I can say "Four knives will be sufficient' in Swahili and I wanted to be an interpreter at the United Nations when I was in third grade connect with who I am today.

Use these five tips to spice up your about page. And if you think you need some help with that, I'm here.

5 Evil Blogging Fears and How to Vaporize Them

I'm a blogging coach.

I love what I do. Because I get to help people discover who they are, who they need to help in this world and how they can do that with their blog.

But sometimes it's a little hard to get through all the muck. And when you finally figure out your blog's purpose, your content niche, your post categories, still those mean-tempered little trolls poke at you as you write:

What makes you think you can write?

Why would anyone be remotely interested in what you have to say?

Didn't you know that there are no interesting things left to write about?

Most writers come to learn that the first step to killing our fears is to admit them. When we say them out loud, when we name them, they lose some of their power over us.

Today we go head to head with five of the most common fears of bloggers. We'll take them one by one and vaporize them.

5 evil blogging fears and how to vaporize them

1. I can't find my niche.

If you haven't niched your business, you might think it's impossible to narrow down the content and focus of your blog. But that's not true.

If you think a little about what you are interested in—even passionate about— what your target clients care about, the thing you are the best at doing and a topic that has enough content, you are on your way to finding your blogging niche.

When your clients think of you, what do they think of first?   What do you have both tons of expertise and interest in? Make a short list and work from there.

 2. I won't be able to think of any good post ideas.

Stephen King, in his classic book On Writing, calls all those great ideas The Boys in the Basement.

They are there. You just need to let them out. To release them before they go poof.

Pay attention to where they are when they come to you. Some people get their best ideas in the shower. Others tell me it's when they're scrubbing the sink. Or driving. Or watching commercials or movies.

Me? I keep a little spiral notebook on the nightstand because often they pop up right before I fall asleep.

They'll also come to you if you listen to your clients' questions. Read other blogs in your industry. Watch and listen when you are grocery shopping or at the bank.

You'll be surprised the things you can turn into a blog post. But do keep a list.

3. I'm afraid my topics are 'too big.'

Once you have all those ideas, what do you do with them? You break them down into manageable pieces. And, yes, it can be scary looking at that big idea.

When I was a teacher, I helped my students sort, organize and refine their ideas with a tool called a mind map. Now there is sophisticated software for mind mapping, but I prefer the sweeping motion of a pen on paper. For me, it seems to release the Boys in the Basement.

To mind map, take one big idea and place it in the center of your paper. You can draw a circle around it if you'd like. Then, draw a line from that idea and write a sub-idea, which is part of the main idea, a smaller piece of it. Continue breaking the idea down until you have something manageable to blog about.

Example: My big idea is how to become a more productive blogger. So I put that in the center. That makes me think of developing lots of unique ideas. A part of coming up with ideas for me is keeping a journal for free writing.

Finally, I am down to something I can write about in a single blog post, and I did:  5 steps to becoming a better blogger by keeping a journal.

4. I'll never finish a post because I noodle with every freaking word.

I really get this one, being a perfectionist myself. All I can say is that the best way to get over it is to give yourself permission to write poorly.

Anne Lamott, author of Bird by Bird, calls them shitty first drafts. Just let it all come out. Even if you think you have focused your topic, your first draft will probably end up way too long, with ideas that spread out and wander, like those spidery weeds on your lawn.

You'll have a few poorly-constructed sentences and half-baked thoughts (okay, maybe a lot), but you'll also find in that rambling first draft some good, unique and interesting stuff.

Get it all down. Uncensored. Let it sit in the compost pile overnight. When you go back to it with fresh eyes, you'll see where to cut, where to add, how to shape it into a post that doesn't wander from your main idea.

But save what you have cut because, though it might not fit this topic, you may be able to create a cool new post with it.

5. I don't know how to blog about my business without sounding like an OxiClean infomercial.

This one is huge. How do you go from the content marketing thing—providing tons of helpful information and advice—to getting your readers to take the next step: to hire you?

You can include a call to action in your blog post without screaming, "Buy now!"

One way to do it:  If you are blogging on how to solve a problem your customer has, in your closing paragraph, link to a page on your blog or website with a service your readers can purchase that solves the problem more completely. And here are five other strategies.

What is your biggest blogging fear? Tell us in the comments and help us out by sharing what you've done to get over it.

6. I am afraid it will give me a skin disease.

 This is just crazy thinking, but actually I read that one guy got a skin disease named molluscum contagiosum (here are some pictures) just because staying on a unhygienic chair when typing.

This is that last thing that you should think of.

The Number One Reason You Don't Have More Blog Readers: 6 Ways to Fix A Boring Headline

I was wrapping up a blog critique for a bright, talented client last week and the question came up.

 "How can I be more creative with my titles?" she said.

 It is a question I am asked a lot. And it's a good one.

 You already know that when your blog post arrives in someone's email box or RSS feed reader—or when your customers hit that web page of sales copy—you have a split second to snatch them. They have very little patience and a tiny attention span.

 As a copywriter, I know this stuff. Bad headline? Kiss the reader good-bye.

 When I look back at pieces I've screwed up on, it was often the title, the headline, that was a stinker. And I've learned a lot over the years about what makes a headline work.

 6 ways to fix a boring blog post headline

 There are endless ways to make a headline appealing enough to pull your reader into your copy. Keeping her there is a different story. But that's the subject of another post.

 Good headlines work because they make people curious. I looked back at some of my recent blog posts that got unusually high reads. Here are some of the strategies that worked for me:

 

1. Make a unique comparison.

 Take a new concept and apply it to a problem your reader is trying to solve. We all want more comments on our blogs. The headline of my post was, What We Can Learn About Commenting on Blogs from a First Grader. I tackled this question: why don't we get more comments on our blogs?

But what does that have to do with a first grader? I made my reader curious.

The unique part was bringing my experience as a teacher of 7-year-olds and telling a story about the practice they needed when they first began writing. (At first, they didn't know what to say).Then I compared it to adult readers. Same problem. 

1. Make a promise to solve a problem.

If you listen to your customers and clients (or hang out online), you will learn what is driving them crazy. This is prime stuff for a blog post. My headline was, 5 Ways to Avoid Social Media Overload. A topic I was fairly sure people were having a problem with. I wrote about ways we can tame the social media beast so we are not spending every waking hour online. 

1. Make a controversial statement—and defend it.

I knew what I wanted to write about in this one: How biz owners with high-ticket items can remove customers' fears and earn their trust. Because hiring a consultant to design a website or write several sales pages can be scary. What if I spend all this money and it doesn’t work out?

My headline for this post was, Why I Like to Sell Cheap Stuff. It was a way to catch attention. What? She sells Cheap Stuff? In my post, I defined cheap as "less expensive" and talked about the strategy of "try something small before you buy something big." A way to earn customer trust. 

1. Connect yourself to a big name.

It always works to have the name of someone semi-famous in your blog post title. Chris Brogan is probably the most well-known thought leader in the field of social media. This post was all about my taking him up on a challenge he made on his own blog.

My headline was Chris Brogan Told Me to Write This: Ten Guilty Pleasures. Because Chris is always asked how he comes up with so many blog post ideas, he decided to throw out 100 more, with an invitation to use any of the topics and write our own posts. The title caught the reader's eye because, well, who wouldn't want to see what Chris Brogan told me to write?

1. Make an outrageous (but true) statement.

 This idea came from a Google Alert that landed in my inbox. (You know, that cool tool that lets you track mentions of your name or business name?)  It was a funeral notice for Judy Dunn. Hey, that's me!

I got to thinking: It's probably good to be tracking what Judy Dunn is doing, especially since she died. My headline for this post was, Google Said I Died: Will That Be Bad for Business?

My goal was, first, to shake my reader up with a shocking headline, then to make her laugh, and finally to answer the question: How can I track and monitor my name-alikes online and be sure that people don't confuse them with me?

1. Take a stand on an issue.

With this headline type, you want to stir things up a little. Start a discussion.

Here was the issue I took on: There are the people who are completely sold on social media and then there are the people who think it's a flash in the pan—a bubble that's just about to burst.

My headline was, Why I Think The Social media Bashers Are Wrong. This kind of title pretty much guarantees that you will attract people on both sides of the issue: the readers who agree with you and the ones who don't.

There you go. 6 ways to fix a boring headline. Have you used other kinds of headlines to attract your readers? I'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments.

6 Tips for Grabbing Your Customer with a Well-told Story

Stories hold power. They capture and captivate us.

It's in our DNA. We are genetically coded to respond to a good story. Cave men, Vikings, Hollywood scriptwriters, novelists: they all share a common trait. They were—or are—good storytellers.

If a story is written well enough, we are invested in the outcome. We want to know what happens next. How the main character will solve their problem.

Telling stories in your marketing copy is no different. You want to appeal to your readers' curiosity. You want to bond with them. And you do that by getting emotional buy-in, by appealing to the senses, by having a unique voice.

That is what will set your website, brochure, blog or newsletter apart from all the other mediocre stuff your customers are assaulted with on a daily basis.

6 Tips for Grabbing Your Customer with a Well-told Story

 

1. Be an 'interesting' character. In all of history, there has never been a person exactly like you. Can you boil down the essence of your personality in a few sentences? Me, I'm slightly neurotic (in a good way). I love to laugh more than anything else in the world. And I like to think of mundane things in new ways. That's my personality. Let your personality shine through in your writing, even if it's a little quirky. It's what people are craving to see.

1. Use your own voice—not someone else's. Write the way you talk—but without all the um's. If you can't remember what your true voice sounds like, try tape recording yourself. Your goal should be that if someone doesn't see your name attached to a piece you wrote, they will still know it's you.

1. Sprinkle in a few metaphors. They will create vivid images in your readers' minds by helping them remember your message longer and creating a greater emotional response. An example: my post from a while back called Keeping the Teenager, Gave the Baby Away.

1. Hit as many senses as you can. While it's true that one of our most powerful senses is the visual one (60 percent of us remember information better when we can picture it), don't forget auditory (words depicting sounds) and tactile. If you use words that appeal to these three major thinking and learning styles, you'll hit each reader with their way of taking in information. Your readers will be much more likely to remember your content.

1. Show your imperfect self. This is a great device for building empathy. Tell a story about a mistake you made and what you learned from it. Or maybe you tried something new that you thought you would suck at and you actually enjoyed it. Like the time I blogged about how this introverted writer conquered her fear of hosting a live networking event. Your readers will be supportive because they can relate to what you went through.

1. Make them laugh. Humor unites us—as long as it isn't the cruel, offensive kind. If you can make your readers laugh, they will listen more to what you have to say. I've quoted him before, but John Cleese of Monty Python and Fawlty Towers said it best: "If I can get you to laugh with me, you like me better, which makes you more open to my ideas." For more on using humor, see this separate post, How to Be Funny: Why Humor Sells.

Where do stories fit in your marketing? Can you think of ways to use them?

On Respecting Your Readers: Headline Trickery

Last week I wrote about rant blog posts. How they work and why they work. 

Big fat coincidence:

This week I feel a rant coming on. 

My first rule of writing is this: respect your readers. It's about trust. If you make a promise, keep it.

 And did you know that your headline is your promise?

I remember once, some time ago (okay, it was a long time ago because Lucille Ball, AKA Lucy Ricardo, was still alive), I saw a National Enquirer headline when I was in line with my mom at Scott's Market. In big old black letters it said:

"Lucille Ball throws her life away!"

Of course, my mom was beside herself.

"What? Lucille Ball killed herself?" she said.

It was the only time I saw her buy a National Enquirer. She thumbed through the pages quickly until she found the article, way at the back (why are they always way in the back?).  There it was—a tiny blurb: A Life Magazine had been found in the trash bin outside Lucille Ball's home.

A Life Magazine.

So, yes, technically she had thrown her life away. 

Now I admit. From a paper that later would print stories like, "I Cut Her Heart Out and Stomped on It" and "Mom Boiled Her Baby and Ate Her," this was nothing.

Though I was small—years away from being a writer—I never forgot that story—and how it made me feel. I'd been tricked. Even back then, I had this fierce sense of justice that bounced around inside my brain. It wasn't fair.

The sneaky headline writer

Have we become so jaded that we only pay attention to outrageous headlines? And we don't care if they were a lie or, at best, trickery?

This week, on a social networking site I belong to, a marketing consultant submitted an article. It was called, "Why No Business Should Be Involved in Online Social Networking. "

That's right. He promised to tell us why we shouldn't network online.

Would you click through to read an article with a headline like that? Of course. In fact 9,116 people did just that.

But this writer broke the cardinal rule: Deliver what your headline promises.

Eight paragraphs into his article he tells us that it's time to stop referring to it as "social networking." We should really call it "social marketing."

Huh? You got me invested in an article with a sensational headline: No business should be involved in online social networking.

Only to tell me that the reason is that you'd rather call it "social marketing"?

Why do we have to be so gimmicky? Is it that we are afraid that content won't stand up on its own merit? Do we think our readers are stupid?

A headline can generate interest without deceiving the reader

When we write with honesty, we build trust with our readers. If we break the trust, it can be more difficult to keep our audience. And if we do it over and over again, well, they may stop reading our stuff.

Don't get me wrong. I'm all for catchy titles. I am especially fond of analogies and visual imagery.

Yesterday, the headline to Scott Ginsberg's guest post on the Duct Tape Marketing blog was, "6 Ways to Be More Referable than Edward Scissorhands at a Lawn and Garden Convention." Great title, unique imagery, and he followed through with six practical, actionable tips to get more referrals.

I wrote an article a few months ago. 

The headline was, "Swedish Cowboys and Scuba-diving Brides: 8 Reasons You Should Have a Niche." It got a lot of click-throughs, I am sure it was because of the Swedish cowboys and scuba-diving brides. 

But I followed through in the article, wondering aloud how small of a niche would still be profitable and whether those two market niches are too limiting. (Some of my readers disagreed with me on that.)

In each of these two cases, the writer did not go for tricking the reader with their headline. Yet it was still interesting. Memorable. And it motivated the reader to read on.

What do you think? Are you bothered by "trick" headlines that don't deliver what they promised? Or does it not matter to you if you still get something out of the article?

Please. Tell me what you think. I'm curious.

Writing Mistakes That Make You Look Stupid: 5 Things Your Teacher Was Right About

Recently I read an article on writing that encouraged bloggers to forget everything about writing they learned in school.

Yeah, sometimes English teachers can overload you with reading books by dead white authors.

It's not exactly the way to get the hang of writing to inform, engage and entertain. You know, like the good bloggers and content marketers do?

I believe in breaking the rules—when it makes sense and doesn't make you look stupid.

Take my blog post title. You are never supposed to end a sentence with a preposition like "of" or "about," right? The right way to write that title would be:

5 Things About Which Your Teacher Was Right.

Now read that aloud. It's silly, clunky and downright stupid sounding. So don't write it that way. Go ahead. Break the rule.

But there are other rules you shouldn't break. Because when you do, your readers lose faith in you. Your silly mistakes make them stop reading. Or they just get so distracted about the wrong word choice that it's all they can see, in a blinking-stoplight-at-an-intersection kind of way.

 

5 things your teacher was right about

1. Use exclamation points sparingly. You've seen it before. A piece of marketing copy that screams at you:

Sign up now! Don't wait! Time is running out! Get your online marketing ebook for just $19.99! It'll give you everything you need to know to start your own online business! Offer good until December 31, 2009! Click here to order!

Okay, the exclamation point test. Read the above paragraph aloud. For every sentence that has an exclamation point at the end, read with the proper emotion. That would be with extreme excitement. Go ahead. I'll wait.

Does it sound a little silly? Of course it does. I don't use exclamation points a lot. When I do, it's to scream.

 

1. Use apostrophes in the right way. This one gets me going. A lot. Someone will write:

The movie had it's moments, but, mostly, it was boring.

Okay, test time. Every time you use an apostrophe, say the sentence using the two separate words instead (in this case, "it is" instead of "it's). If it still makes sense, you've used the apostrophe correctly. If it doesn't make sense, lose that apostrophe. In the above sentence, it would read:

The movie had it is moments, but, mostly, it was boring.

The writer should have used "its" instead of "it's."

 

1. Dump the clichés. I wrote one post on clichés and then another, so I won't go on and on here. Just know that words like "killer" and "awesome" and "rock star" make you sound like every other writer out there. Find your unique voice and use it.

 

1. Avoid 'throat clearing.' I love this term. I heard it first from Chris Brogan. One of the rules in the classic book on writing by Strunk and White says it a little differently: "Omit needless words." Whatever you want to call it, it means getting the scissors out and cutting anything that doesn't add meaning or value to your sentence. Take the first sentence of this memo: 

It has come to my attention that we are having a problem with some of our staff who are arriving late and leaving early. 

The writer doesn't need the first seven words. Because if it hadn't come to her attention, how could she be writing about it? So, removing those and other needless words, you have: 

Some staff are arriving late and leaving early. 

Then go on to explain how that is hurting the company and what should be done about it. 

1. Adverbs are not your friends. This one comes from the great Stephen King in his book On Writing. He goes so far as to say, "The road to hell is paved with adverbs." Use a strong verb instead. It's much more powerful. Take the sentence:

He closed the door firmly.

Is the word "firmly" really necessary? Why not say instead: 

He slammed the door.

 It's okay to use adverbs. Just be careful, so when you do use one, it makes your sentence stand out. Mostly though, you should just avoid them. 

Do you see writing mistakes that make you cringe? Care to share them?

Best of 2009 Copywriting Clichés: Tips For Killer, Rockstar Writers Who Don't Want to Suck

I love my readers. You challenge me all the time. A smart, inquisitive bunch you are.

Soon after I hit "publish" on last week's post, I heard from some of you.

"Don't just tell me how to wake up an old blog post," you said. "Show me." 

Okay. That's a fair request. I went fishing through my old posts. And I found one in particular that had touched a nerve. In fact, it's still one of the most googled posts I have ever written.

The topic? The runaway use of cheesy clichés in copywriting.

So hearing the same old tired words can make us a little crazy. Our eyes glaze over when we hear "We go the extra mile," "discover the difference," and "out-of-the-box."

But why?

Now, I will admit. Clichés became clichés in the first place because they were powerful. People just got what you were saying immediately when you used the word or phrase. You could picture it.

But if every product is "cutting edge," then what does cutting edge mean? It means nothing anymore. It's a tired, deflated party balloon, once full of energy, now just sad.

The three clichés that made my new list for 2009

Okay, it was hard,but here's the list: Best Clichés of 2009. I wish I could give them all an award (she smiles). Cause they're all winners.

Counting down, in David Letterman reverse order: 

3. 'Killer'

I'm finished reading a piece when this word rears its ugly head. In a Google search, you'll find 457,000 entries with the word "killer."

We have killer apps, killer websites, killer ads.

Aside from who wants to kill anyway (aren't there laws against that?), how did this word worm its way into our language? And what did it mean when it was bright and shiny new?

I think it started out as another word for great. Awesome. What does it mean now? Nothing. A simple search turned up hundreds of articles with "killer" in the headline:

"Increase Your Click-Throughs with Killer Title Tags"

"Get More Online Dates by Writing a Killer Profile"

And my all-time favorite, she says, tongue firmly embedded in cheek:

"Become a Killer Writer: Avoid Overused Adjectives" (Huh?)

2. 'Sucks'

This one took a close second.

"How to Succeed at Content Marketing Even if Your Content Skills Suck"

"How to Write a Good eBook—You Know, the Kind That Doesn't Suck." 

"6 Words That Make Your Résumé Suck"

And now, my personal favorite:

"Clichés Suck"

Okay, ready? Time for the guy in the  tux to pass me the sealed envelope on silver tray). And the winner of the Best Cliché of 2009 is:

3. 'Rock star' 

If I hear one more writer compare a person or thing to a rock star, I'm going to light an incendiary device under my computer monitor, just like in those old movies where the trailer trash guy shoots the television.

Blog like a rock star.

Network like a rock star.

Use QuickBooks like a rock star. (Okay, I made that one up.)

All right. Enough with the "rock star."

Even the top bloggers, who I will be nice enough not to name here, are guilty. Here are two recent post titles:

"How to be A Rock Star in Your Niche"

"Rockstar Plugins You May Not Know About" (Now even a WordPress plugin can be a rock star!)

Rock star meant something once. Charismatic, passionate, attractive. (On second thought, looking at Arrowsmith's Steven Tyler, maybe not so much that last one).

But these words have had the life sucked out of them. The visual imagery is gone. Because if everyone can be a rock star, then it isn't that special anymore. 

There you go. Avoid these three clichés and you'll be on your way to becoming, as my blog post title so cleverly described:

A killer, rockstar writer who doesn't suck.

A Copywriter's Rant: Marketing with Cheesy Clichés and Lazy Words

Bob and I used to play a word game when we got bored at a business event.

Driving back from, say, a State of the City rubber chicken luncheon, we scanned our notes of words we had jotted down. The point of the game: to make the sentence that used the most tired, overworked phrases from the main presenter's speech.

This day, the game was easy because we had just listened to the mayor's mind-numbing, 60-minute speech.

The rules were simple: To count, the word or phrase must be overused and the speaker must have uttered it at least once.

My winning sentence

On this day, I won the contest with this 61-word sentence using 20 of the mayor's inspirational words:

This innovative, grassroots initiative is a hands-on example of how one community-based, valued-added project with out-of-the-box solutions can create a win-win situation by engaging the community and harnessing the power of partnerships, leaving no stone unturned as we set the stage for our vision for a bright future and a world-class, state-of-the-art city government that celebrates diversity and gets measurable results.

Bob decided to concede the contest right then and there.

What's wrong with a well-placed cliché?

At one time, clichés had their place. They were fresh, memorable.

For example, when the caveman first heard his pal say, "A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush." I can just see the way his eyes must have lit up as he pondered the idea, picturing the bird, the hand, the bush.

Or the first dozen times a sales letter talked about a product "selling like hotcakes." Clichés became popular in the first place because people "got" what you were saying, often instantly.

But somewhere along the line we've heard them too many times. One description too many of a "cutting edge" product, or a "hands-on" session. Those words are now fluffy, full of air, balloons we deflate only to find nothing inside.

Banning "lazy" adjectives

While we're on the subject, why not take a look at "lazy" adjectives? You know, the ones that don't add any meaning, don't appeal to the senses or emotions?

Here's a clue. How many of the adjectives below help you get a picture of something, hear something, feel something?:

• amazing (I'm guilty of this one. Me and talk show hosts and a million other people.)
• awesome (Does this still mean inspiring in a kind of mouth-dropping way?)
• cool (Nothing could be less descriptive, except, perhaps, "very cool").
• great (I thought Abe Lincoln was a great president, but now blog posts are "great," so I'm not sure.)
• nice (Don't get me started on this one.)
• innovative (Used to mean original, new. Now I don't know because everything is innovative.)
• once-in-a-lifetime (How can they tell?)

Marketing tagline hell

You've seen the carpet cleaners' and furniture stores' commercials, the ads for the tire companies. They litter the marketing schoolyard with tired, worn-out phrases like:

X is the new y (as in 70 is the new 50).
We deliver.
We go the extra mile.
We're here for you 24/7.
Discover the difference. (What in the world does this mean?)
One-stop service.
The leader in (fill in the blank).
The next-generation car.

How do you describe your business?

When I read a business's marketing stuff, I scan the text, jumping over the words that I've read too many times to attach any meaning to them. Like these, which I found on a few business networking sites—on the profile pages of some very smart, talented solopreneurs:

competitive edge
strategic alliances
partner with
grow your business
push the envelope
identify barriers
implement success strategies
breakthrough technology

Not sure what any of them mean anymore.

When and how to use clichés in your marketing copy

1. Know when to use them. Use clichés when you want to connect with your audience, but do so wisely—and sparingly. Avoid them when you want to wake your reader up. And never change a phrase just to change it. Sometimes a cliché says what you want to say perfectly. If it does, use it.

2. Use this three part-test when you are considering writing with a cliché.

• Does it appeal to one of the senses (can the reader picture it, hear it, smell it, touch it?)
• Does it evoke an emotion?
• Does it convey your business's uniqueness or does it sound just like everyone else?

So, what's the word or phrase that drives you crazy? If you could erase one word (or group of words) from the collective memory of humankind, what would it be?