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The Path to Freedom, More Creativity, and … Really Good Audio Quality

The Path to Freedom, More Creativity, and ... Really Good Audio Quality

We kicked off the holiday week on Monday with your July creativity and productivity prompts.

Each month this year, we’re suggesting practical ideas to improve your content and help you get more done. In July, we’re challenging you to select two content types that are new to you and schedule an extra hour each day to work on something meaningful.

(If one of your new content types is audio, be sure to check out Wednesday’s post this week as well.)

Tuesday was U.S. Independence Day, and I shared my latest thoughts on three steps toward greater economic and time independence: growing your audience, creating a revenue stream, and committing to growth and learning.

Each of those three is a big topic, which is why it’s our privilege to help you with them throughout the year.

On Wednesday, Toby Lyles, who was instrumental to the development of our Rainmaker FM podcast network, gave some of his best tips on how to get that smooth pro sound from your audio — without killing your budget.
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2017 Content Excellence Challenge: The July Prompts

2017 Content Excellence Challenge: July Prompts

Happy July! Here are the Copyblogger Content Excellence prompts for this month.

For those of you who haven’t joined us yet, each month in 2017 we’re providing a pair of prompts: one to make you more productive and one to improve your creativity or writing skill.

Feel free to try one prompt or both. You can join the fun anytime you like. And let us know about your experiences in the comments!
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The Balance of Creativity and Productivity

The Balance of Creativity and Productivity

If you read Copyblogger for any length of time, you’ll notice a theme that comes up again and again — the balance of creative “arty stuff” with pragmatic productivity.

Creativity makes our content worth reading. Strategic implementation gets us where we want to go. Each depends on the other.

On Monday, Stefanie Flaxman talked about cultivating a Pomeranian state of mind to expand your creativity. (Read the post to find out why you actually do want to do this.)

And on Tuesday, she outlined a plan to use that Pomeranian creativity to actually make something that other people want to read, watch, or listen to.

Finally, on Wednesday, our editorial team sent me their favorite writing books — a healthy mix of the arty, the crafty, and the strategic.
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A Simple Plan for Managing and Completing a Content Project

"Think about where you could be one year from now if you start today." – Stefanie Flaxman

On June 20, 2009, I was reading Copyblogger and I got a new idea: I should write an ebook.

At that point, my writing and editing business was less than a year old, and I had never written anything that resembled a book.

Could I actually do it?

I knew I wanted to try, so I established a plan on July 1 that would help me write, design, and self-publish an ebook on my website by September 15.

I’m going to share that plan with you today, so you can adapt it to any type of content project you’d like to finish by the fall. You’ll also learn some habits I like to avoid when there is a specific goal I want to accomplish.
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2017 Content Excellence Challenge: The June Prompts

2017 Content Excellence Challenge: June Prompts

There’s something about June … maybe that it’s the sixth month, so you have that reminder that the year is half over. Or maybe it’s the June sunshine (at least in my hemisphere) that makes you want to be ultra productive so you can sneak out for a before-dinner walk.

In any event, I’m feeling rather conquer-the-worldish at the moment, and I hope you are, too. To help with that, here are our community prompts for June.

Each month in 2017, we’re giving you a pair of prompts — one to make you more productive and one to improve your creativity or writing skills.

You can jump in anytime — and let us know about your experiences in the comments!
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2017 Content Excellence Challenge: The May Prompts

Content Excellence Challenge: May Prompts

It’s May! Holy beans, the year’s nearly half over. I’m still wondering where March went, never mind April.

Here’s our pair of community prompts for this month. Each month in 2017, we’re giving you a pair of prompts — one to make you more productive, and one to improve your creativity or writing skill.

You can jump in anytime — and let us know about your experiences in the comments!
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