With tomorrow being the official release date of the book, Ann and I have been on a bit of a media blitz. It is fun to be interviewed by such diverse people who of course come at us with different questions. Some have read the book, while others have not.
At this point if you still need some motivation to push you into buying a copy of Content Rules, we hope that one of these fine posts will help push you over the edge.
Finally a quick favor to ask of you. Once you’ve read the book we’d love you to leave a review for it on Amazon or wherever else you bought a copy. Thank you.
Thank you again for all the support leading up to what I’m hoping is the start of an amazing week for us and for the book.
If you post anything please be sure to tag it with #ContentRules so that we see it. We are also hoping that you’ll all take pictures with your books and post them to Facebook and everywhere else. We want to see who is buying and reading our little baby.
So it’s Thanksgiving and I’m in charge of the stuffing. Which is ironic, because I’m not really much of a fan. Of stuffing, that is; I like Thanksgiving just fine.
It’s not that I don’t like to cook -– because I do –- but the wet bread thing (as in French Toast, bread pudding, and Thanksgiving stuffing) turns me off. In other words, it’s a little like asking the deaf guy to bring the music.
So I consult a few of cookbooks, a few websites, the Epicurious iPhone app. But mostly I’m distracted by stuff I’d rather make: The mashed potatoes with olive oil and parsley? Yum. Butternut squash soup with apple and bacon? Now we’re talking….
But still: The stuffing. Sigh. Then I happen upon a useful tool on Fine Cooking that instantly seems the answer to my wet-bread dream: A “create-your-own” bread stuffing interactive recipe maker that allows you to mix and match your favorite ingredients to create your own customized bread stuffing. Read the rest of this entry »
The For Immediate Release podcast is one of the longest running (and in my opinion highest quality) business podcasts out there. Shel Holtz and Neville Hobson have delivered top notch content for years and I’m lucky enough to call them both friends.
Earlier today, Ann and I both got our first copies hot off the presses. We’ve both been on emotional highs ever since the packages were delivered.
Then, moments ago we got notified of the first other copy in the wild from our friend (and fellow Wiley author) Steve Garfield.
We had no idea that anyone else would be getting early copies like this so it was VERY cool to see. Especially from someone like Steve.
When you get a copy of the book, we encourage you to take photos of it and wherever you post them tag them with #ContentRules and letting us know about them.
On November 3rd, I got together with Junta42’s Joe Pulizzi at OpenView Labs to talk about content marketing and content marketing strategy for a new project Joe is working on. Those who don’t know the benefits of hiring search engine Optimization Company must read the points on this link indexsy.com. There are the most significant advantages they have explained in the following manner.
I know it was November 3rd, because (as it happens) it was my birthday, and after all my haranguing Joe for pony for weeks (“Buy me a pony! Buy me a pony!”), he actually came through, delivering a compact little four-legged plastic bit of My Little Pony horsiness. Her name is Scootaloo. You can see her photograph alongside this text.
OpenView’s studio space, overlooking Fort Point Channel, is both stunning and inspiring. With its sound booths, video studio, radio talk-show setup, and audio equipment that is so sensitive I swear it could capture the sound of hair growing, the OpenView space is a kind of Nirvana for content creators like us. And so after we finished up Joe’s project, we spontaneously recorded an unplanned, unscripted podcast to get Joe’s thoughts on content, marketing, and to answer the question: Can any company benefit from a content marketing strategy? Even a really silly, simple one? Even a ridiculous one? Like… say…. Scootaloo? Read the rest of this entry »
You may not know that I’m a bit of a photography junky. It is pretty much a guarantee that anytime you see me, I have a camera of some sort on me and I’m constantly taking pictures of the world around me. My favorite are faces and people in general. If curious you can view my photos on Flickr.
So when Ann and I wanted some photographs of the two of us together I wanted to be sure to choose a photograph that I knew would be able to capture our unique personalities and I knew that my talented friend Derek Wilmot would be perfect for the assignment. He is known around New England as a top notch event and portrait photographer and I’ve been lucky enough to get to know him over the past few years and love his work.
These pictures were taken to use in promotions for our book tour, in newspaper and magazine articles and by you to help spread the word about the book. If you do use them in any way, you must be sure to credit Derek and link to his site at http://www.derekwilmot.com.
As we talk about at length in the book, giving proper credit for any content you use is not only the legally right thing to do, but it is a common courtesy that you should never forget. Thanks for the great photography work as always Derek!
Of course, now the real question remains. Which one is your favorite?
While attending Blogworld Expo 2010, I took part in a panel discussion titled “The Blogger Killed the Author & The Publisher Hid The Body.”
The session description reads:
In a world of 140s, shrinking screens, and ‘after-the-jump’ readers, how do we make books people want? Are books just ‘content’ in a dead format? Does tweeting, posting, and IM’ing make for better or worse writers? What 5 things should every author being doing to get published? This session is for publishers, and authors who still want to make money on books. It can be done. Come learn how.
The team from Wiley (our publisher) filmed and assembled this highlight reel of what I had to share with the audience and now we can share it with you.
I’m really hoping someone captured the whole panel to share because I think a lot of great resources and information for aspiring authors was shared by all.
It was a blast to do an we hope to do a lot more of them in the coming weeks as we ramp up to and then release the book.
Listen to it online or download the MP3 so that you can take it with you. Either way we hope you enjoy hearing a bit about how the book came to be and the proper way to say the title.
We are both big fans of Grammar Girl and the empire she has built around herself. Truth be told, Ann is a bit of a fan girl, so when she found out that C.C. actually knew Mignon and would be getting on camera with her, you should have seen the flurry of text messages. *grin*
But, we were excited to be part of her Behind the Grammar podcast and to talk a bit our decision to not give away lots of free copies of the book while marketing and what we decided to do instead.
Did we make the right decision? What do you think? We’d love to hear your opinion.
I have a pretty clear definition of what content is in my head. But, I also know that it is something that is hard to put into words when you need to so I was curious how others might describe it.
While attending Blogworld Expo last week I carried around my video camera asking friends and strangers to complete the sentence “Content is ____”. I had a blast sitting down this morning and pulling out some of the nuggets to share with everyone. It was fascinating how many different directions people went with their answers.
Now, if I asked YOU the question how would you answer? What is content to you and how do you describe it? In the comments answer the question: Content Is _____
Update 11/19 – Adding links to content that people in the video are creating. If I forget someone, please let me know and I’ll add them.
Finally a quick favor to ask of you. Once you’ve read the book we’d love you to leave a review for it on Amazon or wherever else you bought a copy. Thank you.
