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100 The Episode That Explains the Future of Rough Draft

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Previous Episode:099 A Better Way to Find Big Ideas (That Make You Stand Out) More Episodes Next Episode:101 The Greatest Storytelling Guide This Side of Saturn

All Episodes:

October 21, 2015

102 The Beautiful Message Joseph Campbell Was Really Trying to Tell Us

October 8, 2015

101 The Greatest Storytelling Guide This Side of Saturn

September 1, 2015

100 The Episode That Explains the Future of Rough Draft

August 31, 2015

099 A Better Way to Find Big Ideas (That Make You Stand Out)

August 27, 2015

098 How to Grab Great Ideas (Without Using Your Hands)

August 26, 2015

097 The Problem with the ‘Hell-For-Leather’ Writing Movement

August 25, 2015

096 Why These Famous Time-Management Techniques Are Ruining Your Productivity

August 24, 2015

095 Freaking Out Over the Thought of Writing a First Draft? Try Scaffolding

August 20, 2015

094 How to Avoid Obscurity by Misusing Language

August 19, 2015

093 A Creative Email Trick for Becoming a Plain Spoken Writer

August 18, 2015

092 Let This Stupid Machine Read Your Copy Out Loud

August 17, 2015

091 This Free App Will Help You Write Bold and Clear Copy

August 13, 2015

090 Four Writing Lessons I Learned from This Depressing Music Project

August 12, 2015

089 The Clear-Copy Rule of Writing for the Web

August 11, 2015

088 Three Ways Writers Must Adjust in a World Dominated by Social Media

August 10, 2015

087 How This Social Media Thing Kicked Web Writing Right in the Feels

August 6, 2015

086 An Elegant Story on Outsmarting Career Obsolescence

August 5, 2015

085 Raise the Stakes! 13 Writing Ideas That Really Work

August 4, 2015

084 The Two Things That Make a Dull Product Irresistible

August 3, 2015

083 Proof That Stories Can Increase the Value of Even ‘Worthless’ Items

July 30, 2015

082 Could Podcasting Make You a Better Writer?

July 29, 2015

081 When Do You Abandon the Editing Process?

July 28, 2015

080 Four Ways to Get Attention by Rocking the Boat

July 27, 2015

079 A Brief Introduction to the Art of Catching Hell

July 23, 2015

078 Six Storytelling Lessons from a Famous Urban Legend

July 22, 2015

077 Vexed by Your Bankrupt Vocabulary? Listen to This

July 21, 2015

076 Why Writers Need to Develop a Sense of Humor

July 20, 2015

075 Listener Challenge: Could You Read 100 Books in a Year?

July 16, 2015

074 How to Get Massive Attention with a ‘High-Concept Pitch’

July 15, 2015

073 A Lesson in Swagger from a Wooden-Legged Civil War Soldier

July 14, 2015

072 Six Ways to Becoming a Completely Original Writer

July 13, 2015

071 The Oldest Writing Trick in The Book

July 9, 2015

070 Eight Things Every Writer Should Know about Landing Pages

July 8, 2015

069 The Fascinating Truth about Boring Topics

July 7, 2015

068 How to Craft an About Page That People Actually Read and Share

July 6, 2015

067 The Psychology Behind Winning Email Subject Lines

July 2, 2015

066 All Great Writing Boils Down to These Four Emotional Appeals

July 1, 2015

065 A Mildly Spooky Illustration of “Reason Why” Copy

June 30, 2015

064 A Mild Warning for All Headline Writers

June 29, 2015

063 How Every Creative Must Think about Marketing and Advertising

June 25, 2015

062 Do Millennials (Really) Hate Long Copy?

June 24, 2015

061 These 4 Sales Principles Can Improve Anyone’s Writing

June 23, 2015

060 How to Use the 5 Stages of Audience Awareness to Dominate Online

June 22, 2015

059 Why The Most Hated Headline Structures Work So Well

June 18, 2015

058 This is the Most Fun You’ll Ever Have “Explaining the Mechanism” …

June 17, 2015

057 The Doomsday Cult School of Specificity

June 16, 2015

056 How to Sweep Away Skepticism with a Dramatic Demonstration

June 15, 2015

055 Meet the Tragic Poster Boy for the Emotional Brain

June 11, 2015

054 A Straightforward Research Method for Finding a Potent Hook

June 10, 2015

053 What You Don’t Know about Your Product Can Kill Your Copy

June 9, 2015

052 Three New Ways to Write a Headline (and When to Use Each)

June 8, 2015

051 Want Copy That Actually Works? Start with Mass Desire

June 4, 2015

050 The Curious Secret to Building Trust and Credibility

June 3, 2015

049 My Second Most Favorite Copywriting Formula in the World!

June 2, 2015

048 How to Get Lazy People to Care about Your Ideas

June 1, 2015

047 My Favorite Copywriting Formula … Ever!

May 29, 2015

046 How to (Rapidly) Build an Audience with Content Syndication

May 28, 2015

045 Solve Your Online Proofreading Problems With This Simple Trick

May 27, 2015

044 The Profanity Princess on Finding Your Voice

May 26, 2015

043 The Oddest Story About Overcoming Obscurity You’ll Ever Hear

May 21, 2015

042 10 Odd Books That Will Improve Your Writing

May 20, 2015

041 How to Read a Book in 2 Hours

May 19, 2015

040 The Shocking Way to Master Any Book

May 18, 2015

039 Nine Copywriting Books for Web Writers

May 14, 2015

038 The 8 Rules of Ruthless Editing from David Mamet

May 13, 2015

037 Revealed: The Perfect Blog Post Length

May 12, 2015

036 The Aggressive Work Ethic of Highly Creative People

May 11, 2015

035 The 10 Rules of Rough Drafts

May 7, 2015

034 5 Ways to Create the Perfect Ending that Your Content Deserves

May 6, 2015

033 6 Simple Rules For Writing Effective Dialogue

May 5, 2015

032 Use Internal Cliffhangers So People Never Stop Reading

May 4, 2015

031 226 Transitional Words and Phrases Every Writer Should Know

April 30, 2015

030 The Great Paragraph Hoax

April 29, 2015

029 5 Ways to Write a Seductive Sentence

April 28, 2015

028 How to Be Smart in a World of Dumb Verbs

April 27, 2015

027 How the Perfect Article Is Framed by White Space

April 23, 2015

026 The Best Articles Always Have This (and a Great Headline)

April 22, 2015

025 The Anatomy of a Hyperlink That Woos Readers

April 21, 2015

024 The Beginner’s Guide to Writing Bullet Points That Work

April 20, 2015

023 How to Create Exquisite Subheadlines

April 16, 2015

022 Four Safe Ways to Find Your Writing Voice (and One Dangerous One)

April 15, 2015

021 The Two Kinds of Knowledge Every Writer Needs

April 14, 2015

020 The Crazy Thing Writers Do to Become Exceptional

April 13, 2015

019 How to Answer the Most Important Question About Becoming an Exceptional Writer

April 9, 2015

018 Four Things That Can Make Writers Famous

April 8, 2015

017 A Small Gift for Your Dark Days as an Obscure Writer

April 7, 2015

016 Steal This Episode

April 6, 2015

015 David Sedaris’ Guide to Writing Brilliant First Sentences

April 2, 2015

014 Six Proven Ways to Open an Article With a Bang

April 1, 2015

013 How I’ll Make You Read Every Single Line of This Article

March 31, 2015

012 The Ugly Truth About How People Read Online

March 30, 2015

011 The 3 Pillars of Great Web Writing

March 26, 2015

010 How to Use RSS to Write Better Headlines

March 25, 2015

009 How to Write Headlines that Get Results

March 24, 2015

008 Where Headlines Have Gone Horribly Wrong

March 23, 2015

007 A 12-Minute Crash Course on Link Building (Ugh)

March 19, 2015

006 An Idiot-Proof Guide to Writing Blog Posts That Google Loves

March 18, 2015

005 Keywords: Your Love Affair With the Language Your Audience Uses

March 17, 2015

004 How Search Engines Work, Part Two

March 16, 2015

003 How Search Engines Work, Part One

March 3, 2015

002 The Unbreakable Law of the Web

March 2, 2015

001 Two Challenges All Digital Content Must Conquer

September 1, 2015

100 The Episode That Explains the Future of Rough Draft

So, we are making a few changes here at Rough Draft. Good changes. Three in fact.

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One, after this episode, I’m taking a month break. A month to clear my head. A month to plan the next 100 episodes, namely the content and the format.

Listen to this twelve minute episode to learn about the other two changes. Plus, find out what I think are the ten best shows of the last one hundred episodes (I cheat a little on this one).

This is also your opportunity to tell me what you think are your favorite shows — so we can share on episode 101.

Also, let me know how many shows you’ve listened to in a row. We all love to binge — and the short format of Rough Draft allows for a little more binging that usual!

Prize for the person who binges longest: get a mention on the show! Leave your responses on Twitter or in the comments below.

Listen now! And talk to you soon.

Listen to Rough Draft below ...

100 The Episode That Explains the Future of Rough DraftDemian Farnworth
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The Show Notes

  • How Search Engines Work, Part One
  • How Search Engines Work, Part Two
  • Meet the Tragic Poster Boy for the Emotional Brain
  • A Small Gift for Your Dark Days as an Obscure Writer
  • How the Perfect Article Is Framed by White Space
  • A 12-Minute Crash Course on Link Building (Ugh)
  • The Doomsday Cult School of Specificity
  • The Profanity Princess on Finding Your Voice
  • The Oddest Story About Overcoming Obscurity You’ll Ever Hear
  • Solve Your Online Proofreading Problems With This Simple Trick
  • How to (Rapidly) Build an Audience with Content Syndication

The Transcript


 

The Episode That Explains the Future of Rough Draft

Voiceover: This is Rainmaker.FM, the digital marketing podcast network. It’s built on the Rainmaker Platform, which empowers you to build your own digital marketing and sales platform. Start your free 14-day trial at RainmakerPlatform.com.

Demian Farnworth: Howdy, and you are listening to Rough Draft, your daily dose of essential web writing advice. I am Demian Farnworth. Your host, your muse, your digital recluse, and the Chief Content Writer for Copyblogger Media.

And thank you for sharing the next few minutes of your life with me.

So, bad news. That’s the last time you are ever going to hear me say that line. Because we are making a few changes here at Rough Draft. Good changes. Three in fact.

The Three Changes Coming to Rough Draft

One, after this episode, I’m taking a month break. A month to clear my head. A month to plan the next 100 episodes, namely the content and the format.

The thing about the format is this: I’m moving away from the short episodes and into longer shows. Like in the neighborhood of 30 minutes.

I’ve covered a lot of fundamental topics in the first 100 shows, laid a solid foundation, topics that worked in the ten-minute or less range, but I find myself bumping up against that limitation, and wanting to stretch the boundaries of each show.

That’s change two. And change two naturally leads into change three: I’m moving away from the daily to weekly, and maybe even bi-weekly. Just depending on where I land on how I want the show to unfold from here on out. Because obviously I can’t manage a daily show with each show being 30 minutes give or take. I could do it, but each show would suck.

So, let’s not suck.

See, I’ve covered a lot of basic ground in the last 100. Now I need more space to meander and explore more complicated topics, more protracted subjects, like storytelling for instance. Which will be the first episode out of the gate when I get back. 101.

Now I don’t think I’m going to go Dan Carlin and Hardcore History on you and drop a three hour episode ever. But something similar. But different.

My Top 10 Most Favorite Rough Draft Episodes

Now, until then, let’s do a little celebrating of the last 100 shows, meaning we are going to revisit what I think are the ten best episodes, which really means, my ten most favorite episodes.

Now I’m going to cheat a little out of the gate and include 2 episodes in this list, episodes 3 and 4, that’s because these are actually one longer episode: I’m talking about How Search Engines Work Part One and Part Two.

I’m mighty proud of these two because it amounts to the most fun you’ll ever have talking about search engines. All you need to know about search engines as a web writer, like the cute fictional conversation search engine spiders have with each other and also a running example using people who LOVE jaguars.

Each episode is only four minutes long, so eight tops. Time well spent.

But if you’d prefer something more personal, try A Small Gift for Your Dark Days as an Obscure Writer. In that I actually read the poem “Ulysses” by Tennyson. That’s it. Gutsy, but here’s the thing: I also confess to my temptation I endured during one of my most darkest moments. It’s kind of a funny temptation Occupy Wall Street. In a grim sort of way.

Number three favorite show is How the Perfect Article Is Framed by White Space. The reason I love this episode is because the blend of monologue and music are pure magic. It was kind of the first time it really came together. I tip my hat to our sound guy, Toby Lyles, for helping me out, for encouraging me to use an underscore.

And a really close fourth place is Meet the Tragic Poster Boy for the Emotional Brain. I share my favorite story about the relationship between emotions and decision making …

It’s an amazing, gripping story about a 19th Century railroad foreman that involves dynamite and crowbars in the Vermont hills. A bit graphic, however. But I keep that part brief.

For my fifth choice The Doomsday Cult School of Specificity. I love this because you learn things like the lesson you can learn from successful doomsday cult messages
and how criminal investigators use details to tell if you are lying. And it opens with a fun story that proves my point.

And for my sixth choice I’m going to go with something a little bit technical … it’s called A 12-Minute Crash Course on Link Building (Ugh). The number one SEO practice you can employ to get people (and Google) to pay attention to your online content.

To shake things up a little, I want to share my seventh through tenth choices … where I broke the monologue mold and pulled in some of the smartest brains in online writing (all women, by the way) for a series of short interviews — about twenty minutes.

Those interviews are as follows:

  • The Oddest Story About Overcoming Obscurity You’ll Ever Hear with James Chartrand
  • The Princess of Profanity on Finding Your Voice, who is Erika Napoletano
  • Solve Your Online Proofreading Problems With This Simple Trick with our very own Stefanie Flaxman
  • And finally How to (Rapidly) Build an Audience with Content Syndication with Belle Beth Cooper.

All my heroes. This series is quickly becoming my favorite set of episodes. The reason is simple …

Not only do you learn from the best, but you realize that every single one of these gals started at the bottom. In other words, these episodes should give you hope in this journey to conquer obscurity and overcome neglect …

Because if average people like me, James, Erika, Stefanie, and Belle carved out careers online as a writer, so can you.

What’s Your Favorite?

So, those are my ten favorite … but what about you? You are who actually can make this show possible. You who listen. Leave comments, share on blogs and Twitter, who post ratings and reviews on iTunes … what do you think? What are your favorite episodes?

Let me know on Twitter or comments on this blog. I’ll tally up responses and then share them in episode 101.

And one other thing before I let you go: how many episodes in a row have you listened to? 10? 20? All 100? The person with the most episode listens in a row will get a mention in the next show — in show 101 — by name. Promise.

Tweet it, comment. When we come back a month from now.

So that’s it for 100. Thank you again, so much. And I look forward to seeing you on the other side of a month. By the way, I’ll still be around on Twitter, the Copyblogger blog, so let’s stay in touch.

And until then, take care.

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Comments

  1. Barry Desautels says

    September 1, 2015 at 9:11 AM

    Hi Demian,

    Thanks for ALL the fantastic copy.
    You and the team at Copyblogger are an incredible group of writers.
    A fabulous collection of work!
    However, I must confess, I don’t spend enough time reading, listening and learning.
    I haven’t quite found my legs nor my voice in this business, thus I get dragged all over the Internet by various headlines, and promises, etc.etc. And always back to Copyblogger.
    I promise to be a more faithful fan and look forward to the new format.
    Enjoy your time off. Stay safe.

    Reply
    • Demian Farnworth says

      September 1, 2015 at 9:42 AM

      Barry, thanks for the kind words and totally get where you are coming from. It happens to all of us. Looking forward to hearing form you in the future.

      Reply
  2. Beca Lewis says

    September 8, 2015 at 2:22 PM

    Just wanted to say Demian – I’ll be here, when you get back, as I suspect most everyone else will be. Can’t wait to hear what you have in store, I know it will be unique and just what I need to hear.

    In the mean time – thanks to links to past shows!

    See you on the other side … Beca

    Reply
    • Demian Farnworth says

      September 8, 2015 at 3:48 PM

      Thanks Beca for listening and hanging around for the show to come back!

      Reply
  3. Aaron Orendorff says

    September 11, 2015 at 10:39 AM

    Favorite episodes?

    Hands down the series of interview you did. The amazing background music didn’t hurt either. 🙂

    In particular, 044 The Profanity Princess on Finding Your Voice was so inspiring and genuinely helpful.

    Reply
    • Demian Farnworth says

      September 11, 2015 at 11:16 AM

      I’m pretty partial to that one, too. She is gold.

      Reply
  4. John Bordin says

    September 21, 2015 at 9:20 PM

    Demian. I hope you get a well deserved break and come back soon with the usual top notch invaluable content. I am looking forward to the future episodes and will be re-listening the old ones in the meantime. Thanks very much (I left 5 star reviews on Stitcher and iTunes. Keep up the good work).

    Just in case it helps other people, the list below includes the episode numbers of your top 10 favourites:

    Fav # The Show Notes Episode #
    1 How Search Engines Work, Part One 3
    1 How Search Engines Work, Part Two 4
    2 Meet the Tragic Poster Boy for the Emotional Brain 55
    3 A Small Gift for Your Dark Days as an Obscure Writer 17
    4 How the Perfect Article Is Framed by White Space 27
    5 A 12-Minute Crash Course on Link Building (Ugh) 7
    6 The Doomsday Cult School of Specificity 57
    7 The Profanity Princess on Finding Your Voice 44
    8 The Oddest Story About Overcoming Obscurity You’ll Ever Hear 43
    9 Solve Your Online Proofreading Problems With This Simple Trick 45
    10 How to (Rapidly) Build an Audience with Content Syndication 46

    Reply
    • Demian Farnworth says

      September 22, 2015 at 8:32 AM

      John, thanks for the kind words and thanks for going out of your way to add the episode numbers! You rock. Thank you sir!

      Reply
  5. Scott Cooper says

    March 20, 2017 at 8:12 PM

    Hey Demian.

    I just recently discovered this podcast and it looks like you have ended it. Hope that there is a new start very soon. Or that it gets reimagined. Loving what Ive heard.

    — Scott Cooper

    Reply

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