Rainmaker.FM is Brought to You ByWP Engine

Discover why more than 80,000 companies in 135 countries choose WP Engine for managed WordPress hosting.

Start getting more from your site today!

Rainmaker.FM

The Digital Commerce and Content Marketing Podcast Network

  • Home
  • Shows
  • Hosts
  • About
  • Home
  • Shows
  • Hosts
  • About
  • Member Area
  • Log In
Menu
  • Log In
  • Free Training
7-Figure Small with Brian Clark
Confessions of a Pink-Haired Marketer
Copyblogger FM: Content Marketing, Copywriting, Freelance Writing, and Social Media Marketing
Get More Clients With Smarter Email Marketing
Hack the Entrepreneur
Members Only
Rainmaker.FM Elsewhere
Site Success: Tips for Building Better WordPress Websites
StudioPress FM
Technology Translated
The Digital Entrepreneur
The Missing Link
The Showrunner
The Writer Files: Writing, Productivity, Creativity, and Neuroscience
Youpreneur with Chris Ducker
Zero to Book
Copyblogger FM: Content Marketing, Copywriting, Freelance Writing, and Social Media Marketing
hosted by Darrell Vesterfelt and Tim Stoddart

The Most Important Lessons You Should Have Learned in 2014

  • Social:
  • Link:
  • Embed:
https://www.copyblogger.com/cdn-origin/audio/lede-reflections-2014.mp3
Download MP3 Subscribe by RSS Subscribe in iTunes
Previous Episode:How We Built Our Careers Online (And What You Can Learn From It) More Episodes Next Episode:Adaptive Content: A Trend to Pay Attention to in 2015

All Episodes:

March 30, 2020

The Advantage of Email Marketing, Featuring Nathan Barry of ConvertKit

March 15, 2020

How to Write Content That Resonates

March 9, 2020

How to Conquer Your Fear of Selling, with Leah Neaderthal

March 2, 2020

How to Build Remarkable Products to Grow Your Business, with Ramit Sethi

February 17, 2020

What You Should Talk about on Your Podcast, with Tara McMullin

February 9, 2020

How to Win at Search in 2020

February 3, 2020

How to Turn Pro as a Freelance Writer

January 27, 2020

Marketing Segmentation and Personalization with Brennan Dunn of RightMessage

January 20, 2020

Podcasting Still Matters, with Pat Flynn from Smart Passive Income

January 13, 2020

The New Look Copyblogger in 2020

January 8, 2020

New Year, New Copyblogger

October 23, 2019

The Self-Reliant Entrepreneur with John Jantsch

October 2, 2019

Consistency Will Take You Further

September 25, 2019

The Past, Present, and Future of Online Learning

September 16, 2019

How to Get More of the Right Things Done

September 9, 2019

Why the Future Is Still Email

September 3, 2019

What’s Next for
Copyblogger Media?

August 26, 2019

How Smart, Nimble Companies Are Using Webinars Today

August 19, 2019

The Clarity Method: A Conversation with Tim Brownson

August 12, 2019

Digital Business Trends and the Latest on the Rainmaker Platform

August 5, 2019

4 ‘Naive’ Business Principles for Enduring Success

July 8, 2019

How to Write an Epic Blog Post, Part 3: Polishing and Promotion

July 1, 2019

How to Write an Epic Blog Post, Part 2: Getting It Written

June 24, 2019

How to Write an Epic Blog Post, Part 1: Thinking and Research

June 17, 2019

3 Almost Magical Headline Ingredients for More Traffic, Engagement, and Shares

June 10, 2019

Lessons Any Business Can Learn from an Impressive Influencer Marketing Fail

June 3, 2019

13 Ways of Looking at a Headline

May 27, 2019

The 7 ‘Bad’ Habits of Incredibly Successful People

May 20, 2019

Writers: How to Move from Making a Living to Driving Revenue

May 13, 2019

Choose the Right Frame to Boost the Power of Your Content

May 6, 2019

How Copywriting Teacher Belinda Weaver Reenergized Her Email List for Massive Engagement

April 29, 2019

3 Reasons Why Really Good Writers Sometimes Can’t Find Great Clients

April 22, 2019

3 Slightly Embarrassing Emotions that Drive Effective Copywriting

April 15, 2019

Get 10 Content Marketing Boosters in 20 Minutes

April 8, 2019

Becoming the ‘Chief Empathy Officer’ of Your Copy and Content

April 1, 2019

One of the Most Important Marketing Decisions You’ll Ever Make

March 18, 2019

What Nobody Wants to Hear about Content Marketing

March 11, 2019

Getting Your Big, Scary Projects Finished: A Conversation about Growing Gills

March 4, 2019

When Is It Time to Bring in a Professional Copywriter?

February 25, 2019

Using Content to Systematically Move Prospects Toward a Purchase

February 18, 2019

Understanding the Lifecycles of Your Website, with Pamela Wilson

February 11, 2019

5 Ways to Manage a Stress-Induced Creative Slump

February 4, 2019

3 Ways Strategic Content Can Drive Measurable Business Outcomes

January 28, 2019

The Social Media Platform Every Content Creator Should Be Using in 2019 (Nope, It’s Not Facebook)

January 21, 2019

Real Talk about Generating High-Quality Content

January 14, 2019

A Conversation with Paul Jarvis about Staying a ‘Company of One’

October 29, 2018

The 3 Plus 1 Foundational Elements of Effective Persuasion

October 22, 2018

5 Essential Copywriting Techniques from Copyblogger

October 15, 2018

5 Ways to Recover Your Professional and Creative Confidence

October 8, 2018

5 Stinky Sardine Secrets to Make Your Content More Fascinating

September 24, 2018

The Mindset ‘Hack’ that Frees Your Creativity and Makes You Happier

September 18, 2018

How to Kill Your Sales and Mess up Your Business: Lessons from a Used Car Salesman

September 4, 2018

The 7 Things Writers Need to Make a (Good) Living

August 27, 2018

Are You Making These Social Media Marketing Mistakes?

August 20, 2018

Fix These 7 About Page Mistakes for More Traffic and (Possibly) Better SEO

August 13, 2018

7 Ways to Boost Your Creativity

August 6, 2018

A 10-Step ‘Checklist’ for Your Content Marketing Site

July 30, 2018

The 3 Keys to Publishing Strong Content … Even If You Aren’t a ‘Great’ Writer (Yet)

July 23, 2018

Fix These 3 Points of Failure to Get Better Results for Your Content

July 16, 2018

Big Changes at ConvertKit: A Discussion with Founder Nathan Barry

July 9, 2018

3 Skills to Master to Become a Marketing Badass this Year

June 18, 2018

The Quiet Power of Conversational Copy

June 11, 2018

5 Rules of Thumb to Relieve SEO-Induced Stress

June 4, 2018

How to Use the GDPR to Make Your Business Stronger than Ever

May 14, 2018

‘Good Karma’ Selling that Works: A Conversation with Tim Paige

April 30, 2018

How to Get More Comfortable (and Effective) at Selling

April 23, 2018

Privacy and Permission in the Wake of Cambridge Analytica

April 16, 2018

Seth Godin and How to Create Change

April 9, 2018

Email? Chatbots? Social? How Are We Supposed to Reach People?

March 26, 2018

The Double-Edged Sword that Can Make (or Break) Your Content

March 19, 2018

Make More Progress by Getting (Gently) Out of Your Comfort Zone

March 12, 2018

Are You Doing Content Marketing Wrong?

March 5, 2018

Storytelling for Modern Content Marketing (Part 2 of 2)

February 26, 2018

Storytelling for Modern Content Marketing (Part 1 of 2)

February 19, 2018

10 Quality Factors Search Engines Need to See on Your Site

February 12, 2018

A Simple Content Strategy to Make Your Site Massively More Useful

February 5, 2018

How to Avoid a Heartbreaking Business Failure

January 29, 2018

Hey Writers: Let’s Get You Paid What You’re Worth

January 15, 2018

5 Keys to Making Your Content More Shareable

December 18, 2017

3 Observations on Trends (but not Predictions) for 2018

December 11, 2017

3 Tips Now to Build a Strong Foundation in 2018

December 4, 2017

The 3 Success Factors that Help Writers Earn a Great Living

November 27, 2017

How to Recognize a Great Content Idea

November 20, 2017

How to Cultivate a More Meaningful Gratitude Practice

November 13, 2017

Advice for Poets, Advice for Killers

October 30, 2017

Face Your Business Fears on Halloween Week

October 23, 2017

How to Make Smarter Decisions about Your Website

October 2, 2017

A Series of Unfortunate Content Events

September 18, 2017

The Evolution of a Successful Copywriter

August 28, 2017

7 Ways to Improve Your Marketing by Harnessing the Power of Evil

August 14, 2017

Smart Questions from our Brilliant Audience

August 7, 2017

Does the Web Have Enough Patience for Your In-Depth Content?

July 31, 2017

How to Write (Much Better) Blog Comments

July 17, 2017

Which Works Better: Positive or Negative Content?

July 10, 2017

How to Attract the Exact Customers You Want

July 3, 2017

How to Create Stability and Success as an Artist

June 19, 2017

Two Powerful Resources for Life-Changing Growth

June 12, 2017

How to Turn All that Marketing Advice into Action

June 5, 2017

How to Develop a Compelling Marketing Idea in 4 Steps

May 30, 2017

Getting Over the Fear of Selling

May 22, 2017

Talking Community and Digital Business with Tara Gentile

May 15, 2017

Plagiarism, Self-Deception, Bad Sandwiches, and Other Interesting Disasters

May 1, 2017

Professional Writers: Find Out How to Get Certified by Copyblogger

April 17, 2017

The Painful Core Lesson Taught by 3 Astonishing Big-Brand Fails

April 3, 2017

5 Mindset Habits that Actually Work

March 27, 2017

On Grammar, Usage, and Not Being a Great Big Jerk

March 20, 2017

Creative Strategies for Content Writers

March 13, 2017

A New Ultra-Easy Resource for Creating Excellent WordPress Sites

February 20, 2017

Thriving Freelancers and Clients from Hell

February 13, 2017

Politics, Content Marketing, and the 2017 Super Bowl Ads

February 6, 2017

Copyblogger Book Club: Winning the Story Wars

January 23, 2017

3 Content Marketing Strategy Fails (and How to Fix Them)

January 9, 2017

The 2017 Content Excellence Challenge: Your January Assignments

December 19, 2016

Bad Writing Advice: The ‘Post Truth’ Episode

December 12, 2016

Get Ready Now for a Creative and Productive 2017

December 5, 2016

The 4 Pillars Every Online Business Is Built On

November 28, 2016

Orbit Media’s Latest Survey of 1000 Bloggers

November 14, 2016

Have You Already Missed the Podcasting Gold Rush?

November 7, 2016

Getting More Traffic, Links, and Shares to Your Content

October 31, 2016

5 Quick Wins for Content Marketers

October 24, 2016

Announcing: An Intriguing New Tool for Collaborative Content

October 17, 2016

A New Book to Make Content Marketing Easier

October 10, 2016

Behind the Scenes at Copyblogger: Our New Email Approach

October 3, 2016

The ‘Obligatory’ Structure of Effective Content

September 26, 2016

7 Powerful Content Strategies Borrowed from Advertising Masters

September 15, 2016

How to Handle Demographic and Psychographic Segmentation (without Looking Like an Idiot)

September 8, 2016

Ethics, Professionalism, and Good Manners for Content Marketers

September 1, 2016

3 Questions that Can Haunt Creative Professionals

August 25, 2016

How to Give and Get Exceptional Testimonials, Part Two

August 18, 2016

How to Give and Get Exceptional Testimonials, Part One

August 11, 2016

Are You Leaving Money on the Table with Weak Headlines?

August 4, 2016

Content Marketing for Nonprofits

July 28, 2016

The One-Two Punch that Creates the Most Successful Copywriters

July 21, 2016

Pokémon Go: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

July 14, 2016

5 Suggestions When You’re Writing About Controversy

July 7, 2016

Announcing: A Breakthrough Educational Collaboration between Copyblogger and U.C. Davis

June 30, 2016

How to Break Past the #1 Conversion Killer

June 23, 2016

The New Age of Marketing Automation: Powerful, Simple, Cost-Effective

June 16, 2016

How to Make a (Really Good) Living as a Freelance Writer

June 9, 2016

Self-Publishing, Side Hustles, and Doing It All: A Conversation with Linda Formichelli

June 2, 2016

A Process for Content Marketing Success

May 26, 2016

Content Marketing Best Practices: Getting Email Opt-Ins

May 19, 2016

Behind the Scenes: Adventures in Advertising

May 12, 2016

Trump, Apple, and Facebook Advertising: Content Marketing News for May, 2016

May 5, 2016

Sally Hogshead and the Art of Fascination

April 28, 2016

Behind the Scenes at the Rainmaker Digital Company Meeting!

April 14, 2016

Social Media News, Social Media Constants

April 7, 2016

Strategies for B2B Podcasting, with Clark Buckner

March 31, 2016

Content Marketing Success Stories: Fitness Powerhouse Examine.com

March 24, 2016

Behind the Scenes: An Inside Look at the Rainmaker FM Redesign

March 17, 2016

Our Latest Advice and Resources for Digital Business Owners

March 10, 2016

Should Content Publishers Adopt Google’s New AMP?

March 3, 2016

7 Ways to Get Smarter with Social Media Listening

February 25, 2016

Content Marketing Shout-Out: Orbit Media and Andy Crestodina

February 18, 2016

The Tactic You Should Steal from Copyblogger

February 11, 2016

Content Marketing News for February, 2016

February 4, 2016

Email Marketing: The Misunderstood Powerhouse

January 28, 2016

The Secret Weapon Behind Great Websites: The Role of the Content Editor

January 21, 2016

Behind the Scenes: The Relaunch and Re-Imagining of Copyblogger.com

January 14, 2016

Trends and Predictions for Digital Commerce: A Conversation with Brian Clark

January 7, 2016

2016 Content Marketing Resolutions

December 28, 2015

The End of The Lede, The Beginning of Copyblogger FM

November 10, 2015

Constraints Can Be Blessings (Plus 2 Other Essential Lessons Jerod Re-Learned This Week)

November 3, 2015

Long or Short? The Content Length Question Answered, Once and For All

October 27, 2015

The Simple Publishing Hack That Gives Old Content New Life (Plus 3 More Tips)

October 20, 2015

The Surprising Truth about Earning a Profit from Your Content

October 13, 2015

How to Move Your Audience From Infatuation to Love

October 6, 2015

3 Things Your Audience Wants You to Know about Useful Content

September 29, 2015

Revisiting Authenticity: What It Is, What It’s Not, and Why It Matters

September 22, 2015

Publishing Lessons from Dave Pell, the Most Fascinating Email Newsletter Writer in the Business

September 15, 2015

Why Content Creators Should Kiss Their Programmers

September 8, 2015

Finally — A Podcast about the Superiority of Written Content

September 1, 2015

Hot Seat: Grilling Jerod on Using Audio Content to Seed a Content Arsenal

August 25, 2015

How to Optimize Your Headlines for Content Discovery with Vinegar (Before You Die of Cholera)

August 18, 2015

5 Stories That Explain Jerod Morris (Plus One Massive Marketing Lesson)

August 11, 2015

Lede Potpourri: A Big Idea, Talking About Demian Behind His Back, and Lessons from #PM15

August 4, 2015

How to Attend an Industry Conference Like a Boss

July 28, 2015

Getting the Most Out of a Conference When You’re There to Promote, Part 1

July 21, 2015

How Much Does the Modern Content Marketer Need to Know About SEO?

July 14, 2015

Are Podcasters Digitally Sharecropping Without Realizing It?

July 7, 2015

Celebrating Our 101st Episode (with a Special Guest Interviewer)

June 30, 2015

Why The Phrase ‘Leaders Are Readers’ Should Die

June 23, 2015

Why You Should Think Outside the Box About Online Courses

June 16, 2015

The Proper (and Safe) Way to Republish Old Articles

June 9, 2015

How to Grow an Audience on LinkedIn by Repurposing Content

June 2, 2015

Key Takeaways from Three-and-a-Half Hours with Henry Rollins

May 27, 2015

Rapid-Fire Takeaways from Authority Rainmaker

May 19, 2015

The Proper Way to Grow an Audience on Medium

May 12, 2015

The Introvert’s Guide to Launching a Successful Podcast

May 5, 2015

The One Quality All Popular Podcasts Share

April 28, 2015

Proof That Grit Is the Only Way to Reach Your Potential

April 21, 2015

Do We Celebrate Failure Too Much?

April 14, 2015

Choose Yourself Part 2: James Altucher Fights Back

April 7, 2015

Should We Fear Content Shock? (Or Could It Actually Be a Good Thing?)

March 31, 2015

Should You Really ‘Walk in the Direction of Your Fear’?

March 24, 2015

Is ‘Choose Yourself’ Good Advice … or New-Age Phooey?

March 17, 2015

Is Authority Earned or Bestowed?

March 3, 2015

Dan Pink on How to Succeed in the New Era of Selling

February 24, 2015

Here’s How to Answer the Most Important Question in Life (and Make a Living from It)

February 17, 2015

Sally Hogshead on How You Can Unlock Your Natural Ability to Fascinate

February 10, 2015

How to Learn from Your Successes

January 27, 2015

How to Learn From Your Mistakes

January 13, 2015

Lessons Learned from Conducting Two Monster Audience Surveys

December 16, 2014

Adaptive Content: A Trend to Pay Attention to in 2015

December 2, 2014

The Most Important Lessons You Should Have Learned in 2014

November 18, 2014

How We Built Our Careers Online (And What You Can Learn From It)

November 4, 2014

Interview with Brian Clark: How Customer Experience Maps Help You Develop a Smarter Content Strategy

October 21, 2014

How Empathy Maps Help You Speak Directly to the Hearts of Your Audience

October 7, 2014

How to Ignite a Feeling in Your Audience

September 23, 2014

Are You Overlooking This Cornerstone of a Smart Content Strategy?

June 26, 2014

How to Curate Knowledge, Turn it Into Wisdom, and Build Your Audience

June 19, 2014

How Successful Writers Curate Ideas

June 13, 2014

The 5 W’s of Link Curation

June 6, 2014

Why You Should Curate Content (And How to Do It Right)

May 30, 2014

How Freaks and Misfits Can Succeed in Business: A Conversation with Chris Brogan

May 23, 2014

The 2 Reasons People Don’t Click on Your Buttons … And How to Overcome Them

May 16, 2014

Chase Customers, Not Clicks

May 9, 2014

How to Be Authentic

May 2, 2014

How to Close With Style

April 25, 2014

The Best of Seth Godin on Copyblogger

April 17, 2014

How to Choose Arresting Images for Your Blog Posts (And Why You Should)

April 11, 2014

Removing Blog Comments: The View So Far

April 4, 2014

How to Use Internal Cliffhangers

March 28, 2014

Hangout Hot Seat with Brian Clark

March 21, 2014

How to Tell a Seductive Story

March 14, 2014

How to Create Exquisite Subheads

March 7, 2014

How to Write Killer Bullet Points

February 28, 2014

How to Write Damn Good Sentences

February 21, 2014

How to Use Persuasive Words

February 14, 2014

Michael Stelzner on Capturing Emails and Committing to Quality

February 7, 2014

How to Nail Your Opening

January 24, 2014

How to Write a Magnetic Headline (in Under 15 Minutes)

May 18, 2012

Seth Godin on When You Should Start Marketing Your Product, Service, or Idea

May 11, 2012

How to Attract an Audience by Integrating Content, Social, and Search

March 30, 2012

Why You Should Build an Audience Before You Build a Business

March 16, 2012

How Chris Brogan Built His Content Platform

March 9, 2012

Jay Baer on How to Turn Interested Prospects into Lifelong Customers

March 2, 2012

A 30-Minute Copywriting Course from a Master of the Craft

February 24, 2012

The Path to a Legendary Copywriting Career

February 17, 2012

5 Tips for Affiliate Marketing Beginners

February 10, 2012

Why Not Sell Physical Stuff With Digital Media?

February 3, 2012

Whether You Call it Blogging or Not, Online Content Still Rules

January 27, 2012

Answers to the 3 Biggest Email Marketing Questions We Get

January 20, 2012

How to Newsjack Your Way to Free Media Exposure with David Meerman Scott

January 13, 2012

Steven Pressfield and the War of Work

November 18, 2011

The Strategy Behind the Copyblogger Redesign

November 11, 2011

7 Ways to Create an Email Marketing "Snowball Effect"

November 4, 2011

Warning: If You're Not a Privacy Nut, You're Losing Sales

October 28, 2011

The 3 Kinds of Writing That Builds a Business

October 21, 2011

The Art of Seductive Writing: A Conversation with Robert Greene

October 7, 2011

Why Content Marketing Doesn't Suck

September 30, 2011

Are You Weird Enough to Succeed at Content Marketing?

September 23, 2011

What Works With SEO Right Now and Why No One Does What You Want

September 16, 2011

Are You Flushing Your Marketing Down the Social Media Toilet?

September 11, 2011

Seth Godin on Blogging, Business Books, and Creating Content that Matters

September 2, 2011

The Return of Copyblogger Radio …

June 10, 2011

Answered: Your Most Burning Content Marketing Questions

June 3, 2011

How to Get All the Clients and Customers You Can Handle

May 20, 2011

Is Content Marketing Worth the Work?

May 13, 2011

How to Write Nearly Undeletable Emails

May 6, 2011

Is the Online Gold Rush Over?

April 22, 2011

The Art of Enchanting Online Marketing with Guy Kawasaki

April 15, 2011

The Market for Something to Believe in is Infinite: An Interview with Hugh MacLeod

April 8, 2011

How to Constantly Create Compelling Content

March 25, 2011

The Content Marketing Question You Need to Answer … Now

March 18, 2011

Good SEO is Simple. Really.

March 4, 2011

Did Social Media Kill the Marketing Star?

February 25, 2011

How to Write (and Execute) a Simple but Powerful Business Plan

February 17, 2011

How to Kick Groupon to the Curb and Become a Local Hero

February 3, 2011

Convert … Or Die

January 27, 2011

Attention: Is Your Headline Getting Any?

January 20, 2011

How to Craft Landing Pages that Work

January 13, 2011

Why Every Smart Business is in the Media Business

January 5, 2011

2011 Content Marketing Predictions

December 15, 2010

Tim Ferriss on How to Reinvent Yourself with Blog Marketing

December 8, 2010

The 6 Elements of an Influential Web Experience

December 1, 2010

Your Staggeringly Unfair Marketing Advantage

November 17, 2010

How to Get Some Action

November 10, 2010

The Foundation of All Marketing that Works

November 3, 2010

Introducing Copyblogger Radio

December 2, 2014

The Most Important Lessons You Should Have Learned in 2014

On this episode of The Lede, Demian Farnworth and I spend a little time purposefully reflecting on 2014 and the most important lessons we will carry forward with us into 2015.

For so many of us, the end of every year revolves around holiday celebrations and spending quality time with friends and family. As it should.

But the end of the year is also a time for purposeful reflection — for considering the successes and failures of the year gone by, and for making sure that lessons have been learned and that plans are in place to hit the ground running in the new year.

In this episode, Demian Farnworth and I discuss:

  • The impact of Google killing Authorship
  • Predictions about Google+ and Author Rank
  • Why we eliminated blog comments and our Facebook page
  • Is native advertising working?
  • The intersection of serving your audience and creating a profitable business
  • How empathy can influence the customer experience
  • The next episode of The Lede: looking ahead to the evolution of content marketing in 2015

Listen to Copyblogger FM: Content Marketing, Copywriting, Freelance Writing, and Social Media Marketing below ...

The Most Important Lessons You Should Have Learned in 2014Jerod Morris
  • Social:
  • Link:
  • Embed:
https://www.copyblogger.com/cdn-origin/audio/lede-reflections-2014.mp3
Download MP3 Subscribe by RSS Subscribe in iTunes

React to The Lede …

As always, we appreciate your reaction to episodes of The Lede and feedback about how we’re doing.

Send us a tweet with your thoughts anytime: @JerodMorris and @DemianFarnworth.

And please tell us the most important point you took away from this latest episode. Do so by joining the discussion at Google+ or over in our new LinkedIn Discussion Group.

The Show Notes

  • Authority Rainmaker — Copyblogger’s second annual live conference focused on providing content marketing training and networking opportunities for real-world results
  • The 5 W’s of Link Curation (includes Jerod’s ROAR framework for assessing share-worthiness) — The Lede
  • The end of Google Authorship
  • Google Authorship May Be Dead, But Author Rank Is Not — by Danny Sullivan
  • What if Author Rank Never Happens? — by Brian Clark
  • The Right Way to Think About Google — by Sonia Simone
  • Why We’re Removing Comments on Copyblogger — by Sonia Simone
  • Why Copyblogger Is Killing Its Facebook Page — by Erika Napoletano
  • Copyblogger’s 2014 State of Native Advertising Report — by Demian Farnworth
  • 12 Examples of Native Ads (And Why They Work) — by Demian Farnworth
  • Study: Most Readers Have Felt Deceived by Sponsored Content — by Joe Lazauskas
  • What You Think You Know About the Web Is Wrong — by Tony Haile
  • Rainmaker Platform — the complete website solution for content marketers and Internet entrepreneurs
  • How to Make Winning Infographics Without Risk — by Demian Farnworth
  • 11 Essential Ingredients Every Blog Post Needs [Infographic] — by Demian Farnworth
  • How Empathy Maps Help You Speak Directly to the Hearts of Your Audience — The Lede
  • Google: “Dear Sophie” commercial
  • Procter & Gamble: “Thank you, Mom” Olympics commercial
  • Interview with Brian Clark: How Customer Experience Maps Help You Develop a Smarter Content Strategy — The Lede
Rainmaker.FM is Brought to You ByWP Engine

Discover why more than 80,000 companies in 135 countries choose WP Engine for managed WordPress hosting.

Start getting more from your site today!

The Transcript

Please note that this transcript has been lightly edited for clarity and grammar.

The Lede Podcast: The Most Important Lessons We Learned in 2014

Jerod Morris: Welcome back to The Lede, a podcast about content marketing by Copyblogger Media. I’m your host, Jerod Morris.

This episode of The Lede is brought to you by Authority Rainmaker, Copyblogger’s second annual live conference focused on providing content marketing training and networking opportunities for real-world results.

Authority Rainmaker takes place in May of 2015, and will be held at the stunning Ellie Caulkins Opera House in Denver, Colorado. Keynote presentations will be delivered by Daniel Pink, Sally Hogshead, and Henry Rollins.

Super early-bird pricing is still available. Go to authorityrainmaker.com for details.

For so many of us, the end of every year revolves around holiday celebrations and spending quality time with friends and family, as it should.

But the end of the year is also a time for purposeful reflection, for considering the successes and failures of the year gone by and for making sure that lessons have been learned and that plans are in place to hit the ground running in the new year.

On this episode of The Lede, Demian Farnworth and I spend a little time purposefully reflecting on 2014 and the most important lessons we will carry forward with us into 2015.

Demian, when you reflect back on 2014, what sticks out in your mind?

Demian Farnworth: What sticks out in my mind? The fact that you roared on one of our episodes.

Jerod: Okay, that’s ridiculous. What about …

Demian: (Laughs)

Jerod: (Laughing) … content marketing?

Demian: Oh, content marketing! Okay. Content marketing.

Thinking back over 2014, I think of two major events that — I don’t want to say defined content marketing — but at least changed the course, gave it a rumble, so to speak.

The first event was when Google killed Authorship, and the other one was the emergence of native advertising.

The impact of Google killing Authorship

Jerod: Let’s start with Google killing Authorship, because obviously that was big news.

What about that really sticks out? And then, more importantly, what can we learn from that?

Demian: Google Authorship was something that Google rolled out about three years ago in June.

It was an experiment, and — as we know with Google, nothing is a sacred cow — the experiment failed.

Google Authorship was supposed to allow authors to claim their content and then display it in search results with markup code.

Over the past three years, we’ve probably all seen when we’ve gone to Google and searched for something that some of those entries had photos on them. That’s the display or the image support that Google allowed.

Google was trying to connect authors with their content, because they had PageRank, and PageRank evaluates and judges content based upon the content on that page.

The other half of the equation is who is the author. They wanted to bring in an authority factor. So it was not just the content on the page that was important but also who wrote it.

Authorship was their attempt to do that, and it didn’t work out. Ultimately, they killed image support. They actually, in December of 2013, reduced image support and then ultimately killed it in June of 2014.

Then just this past August, Google said Authorship’s done, and it’s gone.

The reasons why they did it were, first, low adoption rates. People weren’t implementing it. It was somewhat complex. It was even absent in some verticals.

You go to some industries, and it’s completely absent. Nobody was implementing it.

And, in fact, it had such a low adoption rate only 30 percent of the top 50 most influential social media marketers had implemented Authorship.

Those who you’d think it would be most important to weren’t even getting involved, weren’t even interested in it.

The other reason it failed was that it just had low value to searchers. The novelty had worn off.

Google sees that half their searches come from mobile devices. And since photos and Authorship snippets didn’t look right in mobile searches, they decided to kill it.

Predictions about Google+ and Author Rank

Jerod: Let me jump in here and highlight a lesson, what we can take from this.

When Authorship came out, there was a pretty big rush of people, especially in our industry, who implemented it on their sites, and with good reason.

And it also seemed to really increase Google+ usage there for awhile. Once they removed Authorship, it feels like people have started to use Google+ less.

The lesson is, as always, with Google and any of these social media sites: You have to be careful about putting too many eggs in one basket because the rules of the game can change at any time, just as they did here.

It’s not that implementing Authorship was a waste of time by any means, but it’s just another lesson that these things can change.

It should just be one portion of your strategy, and you never want to go all in on anything that you don’t control.

Demian: That’s right. And I wouldn’t be surprised — even though they’ve said contrary — if at some point in the future that Google kills Google+.

Because it’s a social site now as it stands, and that’s the only function that it’s really serving. Unless they find a fundamental use for it, it’s not serving a business objective.

I would not doubt that it goes away, too. Because we saw comments and such drop off on our actual Copyblogger profile, and I think part of that is because Authorship ended.

However, Author Rank itself — the concept that Google is trying to judge content based on who wrote it — is not dead.

And Danny Sullivan at Search Engine Land discusses the current state of Author Rank in a good article we’ll provide in the show notes.

Because it’s still used in what’s known as in-depth articles, and of course, Google hasn’t told us this, but they have other ways of identifying author authority.

Brian asked the question in an article he wrote: What if Author Rank never happens?

The answer is: It doesn’t matter as long as you’re still building authority and creating great content — then you have nothing to fear.

It’s what we’ve been teaching you for the last eight years. If you continue to do those things, you’re in good shape.

Why we eliminated blog comments and our Facebook page

Jerod: One of the lessons that’s become a lot more clear to me this year is the idea that we’re all in business, right?

An online business, or in business to make money — but to make money while serving an audience.

That’s why I think it’s so important to understand this intersection of where you offer the most value to your audience, and then what drives profit in your business.

And this is going to be different for everyone, right?

Two decisions we made this year that created a lot of discussion were removing blog comments and killing our Facebook page.

Some people agreed, some people didn’t, and everyone’s entitled to their own opinion.

For us, it really came down to understanding where we provide the most value for our audience with limited resources.

We can’t be everywhere at all times and everything to all people, so where do we provide the most value?

In terms of our business, what actually drives revenue and profit? Understanding that intersection is what led to those decisions.

It’s what you have to understand and think about when you consider possibilities such as “should we go after Google+, or should we step back from Google+? What social networks are we going to invest in? What type of content are we going to invest in?”

It really is a lesson that is not specific to 2014, but understanding that intersection of where you’re providing value for your audience and where you derive the most business value really is a way to guide your decisions.

Demian: That’s right.

Is native advertising working?

Jerod: Let’s move on to the next one. I know that you wanted to talk about native advertising.

As you reflect back on the big research project you did on native advertising, what are your thoughts?

Demian: Native advertising has got to be the buzzword of the year, I think. Especially at the start of the year, it was huge.

Companies were coming out of the woodwork to support it, and the funny thing is: we did a series and survey about it, and not very many people actually knew what it is.

In fact, our native advertising survey results demonstrated nearly 50 percent of the respondents didn’t have a clue what native advertising is, and another 48 percent had a shaky understanding of what it is.

There were only about three percent that were very knowledgeable about it, and I guarantee those were people who have businesses that cropped up to serve native advertising.

For those who don’t know, native advertising is paid content that matches a publication’s editorial standards while meeting the audience’s expectations.

For example, if you go to BuzzFeed, you can see lots of examples of promoted content, native advertising. If you go there right now, you’ll see promoted content by PlayStation and Heinz.

Another thing, too, is native advertising is not new. It’s just new online.

Because David Ogilvy was doing native advertising back when he did campaigns for Guinness beer, and we termed that an advertorial.

It looked like an article, a top 10 best-of list, but it was an ad for Guinness. It was to promote their beer. It had a clear call to action, which is basically that a Guinness guy eats oysters.

You eat oysters, and it’s best to wash them down with Guinness beer. Now we have the same thing online.

That’s the editorial side of native advertising.

There’s also the in-feed ad side of it: Twitter’s promoted posts, Facebook’s promoted stories. You’ll see in-stream ads inside apps, and Google text ads are also an idea that comes from native advertising.

It’s just advertising that is basically invading, coming into the editorial space, but it’s designed to look as if it was editorial, if it was an article.

Jerod: Let me ask you: is it working? Does it work, and what opportunities does it provide, especially as we look forward into next year?

Demian: That’s a great question because here’s the thing: Native advertising has been a boon for publishers.

Many big, blue-chip media companies have come collapsing down because they can’t compete in the online world.

Well, here comes native advertising and publishers get to sell major real estate at a premium price.

Advertisers pay for this space, so this revenue model actually saves these businesses.

BuzzFeed is a great example. VICE is another example. For the time being, this revenue model is profitable. The question is, like you said, will it be profitable in the long run?

This is to be seen, because eventually the novelty will wear off. And in fact, the sponsored content’s native advertising does have a trust problem.

Contently ran a survey in 2014 and demonstrated that people look at, say, an advertorial in Entrepreneur magazine by Dell with a very skeptical eye.

And then ChartBeat, a data analytics company, did a survey in early 2014. They said people simply are not scrolling on this content.

Either advertisers are going to wise up and say, “Native advertising isn’t working,” or they will create compelling content that will actually engage an audience, and maybe close that trust gap.

The opportunities are two-fold, I think. Brands are hiring a lot more writers to fill this gap because they see the value in native advertising, sponsored content, and promoted content.

We’ve seen a lot of journalists become content marketers.

But this could also be a revenue model for small-time publishers — actually allowing brands to come in and create content for their site as an ad.

But again, this is like what you mentioned earlier. You don’t want to put all of your eggs in one basket.

The intersection of serving your audience and creating a profitable business

Jerod: And for some advertisers, native advertising isn’t going to be possible simply because of the budget.

Like you said, it’s a big opportunity for small-time publishers, but when you look at it from the content creator side, it’s not always going to be feasible.

That leads me into another lesson from 2014. There’s a lot of discussion about content shock — there’s all this content out there, so how do you rise above it?

You’ve got to create better content. That simply doesn’t change. The quality of your content, its usefulness to an audience, has to continue to get better.

That may mean thinking outside the box and finding new ways to reach people and new ways to maximize different mediums.

Most of our audience, as well as us at Copyblogger, don’t have unlimited resources or unlimited budgets, right?

Demian: Right.

Jerod: If we’re going to invest more in our content, we’ve got to take time, effort, and resources away from something else.

You have to find a balance between content and technology.

If you can find ways to be more efficient with what you’re doing on the technology side, it will give you more resources on the content side.

And obviously for us, we released the Rainmaker Platform as the solution. The technical part of your business is taken care of on this one platform so that you can focus more on content.

I think as we look into 2015 that is going to continue to be so important, especially for publishers, advertisers, and companies who don’t have unlimited resources.

For most of us, we need to find ways to be more efficient with technology so that we can invest more time into creating better content and become more successful with our content marketing efforts.

Demian: And I think to add to that, the idea of content shock is silly because we’ve always been under a deluge of content. There’s never been a shortage.

I can’t think of any time in my past that I’ve ever had a surplus of time to consume all the content that was out there. It’s always been a flood of content.

It’s really about content fatigue, right? Saying the same thing over and over. Rather than “efficient,” I think a better word is probably being “effective” with your content.

For example, instead of a daily publishing schedule, maybe you only publish twice a week so you have time to focus on creating and researching.

Because the thing is, you have to figure out a way to rise above the noise. If you can pour more of your resources on one piece of content, then you’re going to create something better than if you’re spreading resources out to create five pieces of content.

It’s also this idea of creating asset pillars, and I talked about this in a blog post on infographics. The infographic an as asset pillar reduces your content strategy time.

Say you wrote five different articles that are in your archives. You’d take those, create an infographic, and then you create a podcast from that infographic, like we did with the 11 Essential Ingredients Every Blog Post Needs.

It’s being smarter with what you have, especially for the small-time publishers. It allows you to pour more energy, focus, and creativity into one particular piece of content.

It gives you a fighting chance versus spreading yourself thin.

Jerod: That’s a great point. So one more topic, here, before we close out this episode, and that is empathy, which is one of the biggest buzzwords from 2014.

Anybody who attended our first Authority conference in Denver in May knows empathy was a big word. It really carried throughout the entire year.

Let’s close out by talking about empathy and then also how it influences that next-step idea of experience and journey maps.

How empathy can influence the customer experience

Demian: Empathy is this idea of relating to your customer, being in their shoes, but then also wanting to provide a solution to their problem.

For example, I have empathy for freelancers, because I’ve been in their shoes and I understand them. I know where they’re at, and so I can speak to their plight. Their plight resonates with my plight.

Being able to do that is what we’re after. And so empathy is just another way of saying something that we’ve been saying for quite some time, which is about focus on the customer rather than upon ourselves.

We’re constantly fighting this from a commercial standpoint. You shift from “it’s all about me, the brand” to “it’s all really about the customer.”

In regard to empathy, what we’re trying to do is just relate to them. Google did this when they were promoting some of their products, like Chrome and gmail.

They did it through the dad using Google products to chronicle the birth of his daughter and document milestones as she grows up. That’s empathy, right?

Procter & Gamble did a commercial for mothers who are raising Olympic athletes that spoke to everything mothers do for their children.

It was a short commercial, but the idea was “we understand, we see what you do, so we want to create products that help you do your job better.” That’s empathy, too.

Jerod: Our next episode of The Lede will tie what we learned in 2014 into what we’re going to focus on in 2015.

Empathy is really the first step toward being able to provide the most personalized experience to your users.

You have to understand what they’re thinking, what they’re feeling, and what they’re going through to really be able to tailor content that’s going to fit their needs at any given time.

Demian: Right.

The next episode of The Lede: looking ahead to the evolution of content marketing in 2015

Jerod: I think one of the concepts that is starting to gain some traction that will gain even more traction in 2015 is adaptive content.

You can’t adapt content if you don’t understand who you’re adapting it for. And that’s why empathy is such an important building block and foundational principle.

We’re actually going to talk about that in our next episode. This episode was more about looking back to 2014.

Our next episode, which will be the final episode of The Lede in 2014, we will look ahead to 2015 and talk about some of the trends that we expect to see and how we individually, and as a company, are planning to capitalize on those.

Demian: Right.

Jerod: Any final thoughts here, Mr. Farnworth, before we close?

Demian: Yes. I was just going to say I have an article coming out on experience maps that will explain more of what we’re talking about here.

But it’s a natural progression from empathy to experience maps. An experience map is just a story of how your customer interacts with your product and your brand from start to finish.

We talked about customer experience maps with Brian, and as I did more research on it, it became clear that it’s a natural next step to what we’re calling adaptive content.

Because once you understand who your customer is and the interactions they have, and you see the high points and the low points, then you can create a better, a sublime customer experience from that experience map.

I suggest creating a prescriptive map, meaning looking forward. What is the most sublime, supreme customer experience you can create?

You can only do that by resonating, knowing your audience, knowing your customer, creating that experience map, and then creating that content, which then adapts to how they interact with your brand.

Jerod: In closing, Demian, I know we’re recording this podcast before Thanksgiving, but it’ll be released after. I just want you to know that I’m very thankful for you and for your contributions to The Lede.

Demian: That’s very, very, very sweet of you. I need to find a tissue.

Jerod: (Chuckles) All right.

Demian: I am very, very grateful for you too, Jerod. Honestly.

Jerod: Thank you.

Demian: Yes. And you have a wonderful Thanksgiving in your new home, with your gal. Are you guys spending Thanksgiving in your new home?

Jerod: No. We are actually doing the family thing this year, and then next year will be the first time that we bring everybody together in the house.

Demian: Great. Right. Okay, good. All right, buddy.

Jerod: Yes. All right, man. Always a pleasure, and we’ll be back to wrap up the year in a couple weeks.

Demian: I’ll be talking to you. Sounds good, man. Take care.

Jerod: All right. Bye.

Thank you for listening to this episode of The Lede. If you enjoyed this episode, please consider giving the show a rating or a review on iTunes. We would greatly appreciate it.

And don’t forget to go to authorityrainmaker.com and check out all the details about the Authority Rainmaker live conference coming in May of 2015.

You won’t want to miss it, and the super early-bird pricing is still available.

All right, everybody. We will be back two weeks from now with one final episode to wrap up 2014 as we look forward to 2015.

*Credits: Both the intro (“Bridge to Nowhere” by Sam Roberts Band) and outro songs (“Down in the Valley” by The Head and the Heart) are graciously provided by express written consent from the rights owners.

Never Miss New Shows and Episodes on Rainmaker.FM

Get the best of the Rainmaker.FM network in a single weekly email, along with two weeks
of free training that will change the way you think about online marketing ...

Free Registration

You might also like...

Zero to Book

‘Helpful’ Feedback on your Book: Use It or Ignore It?

Listen to episode
The Showrunner

No. 086 10 Tips for a Better Show in 2017

Listen to episode
Confessions of a Pink-Haired Marketer

Deep Creative Focus, the Long Haul … and, Yes, David Bowie

Listen to episode
Editor-in-Chief

The Counterintuitive Truth about Working Hard

Listen to episode
The Missing Link

Everything You Need to Know About Recommendations on LinkedIn

Listen to episode
The Showrunner

No. 103 What Should I Do with My Archive?

Listen to episode
Rainmaker.FM is Brought to You ByWP Engine

Discover why more than 80,000 companies in 135 countries choose WP Engine for managed WordPress hosting.

Start getting more from your site today!

Copyright © 2023 Rainmaker Digital, LLC. Powered by the Rainmaker Platform.

Privacy Policy  ·  Refund Policy  ·  Cookie Policy  ·  Terms of Service  ·  Contact