100 The Episode That Explains the Future of Rough Draft

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.