This is not a shill, I promise.

One of my favorite sites out there right now is CopyBlogger–both for the quality of the content and the mindset it embodies. For the last few months I have literally scoured the internet in search of every site related to blogging, web 2.0, technology, marketing, citizen journalism etc, and came across a sad truth.

NO ONE CARES ABOUT CONTENT.

Except for Brian Clark at CopyBlogger. Of course, only in Tech could everyone’s focus be so misguided, but it’s true. You could drown in all the PR, link dumps, social networks, SEO, advertising optimization, even grammar blogs, without ever seeing someone go more in depth then “Oh, don’t forget to have great content.”

The name CopyBlogger should be redundant. Blogs ought to imply copy, but they don’t. The internet is thriving because people are hungry for great writing (+ video and audio) but hardly anyone is willing to do the work required to provide it. Instead, we’re all so focused on tricking people into liking what we already have. That’s how old media works–we’re supposed to be different. We’re supposed to cater to the audience, not cascade them into consuming.

This is why Brian’s site is so great. He doesn’t update a ton, but when he does, it’s awesome stuff. Last week’s post was straight out of the 48 Laws of Power, with him advising that you create an enemy as fall-back inspiration for writing. Earlier in the month he advised on how to avoid burying the lead, and captivating the audience with a killer opening. And he’s done a great series on headlines, which have really helped me on sites like Digg and Reddit.

Seriously, if you’re a writer on the internet (or a writer anywhere) you need to be reading his site. It’s worth 5 TechCrunchs or ValleyWags, because without content, none of this is sustainable. It’s about time the rest of the internet woke up and starting looking at the creative process as the engine instead of an afterthought.

Paul Levinson wrote a great piece on what he called “The Deeper Digg Effect.”

He is discussing an often ignored benefit of social networks. The real boost you get after scoring on Digg is not the first wave of traffic, it’s the third, fourth and fifth waves that are important. Every time a Rudius author is submitted and is dugg significantly, a whole slew of PR and link offers come through from other sites. In the last Ebner push, he garnered and enormous about of votes. And yes, the traffic was important, but Diggers are notorious for not sticking around. But many of them reposted the link on the Myspace blogs and Livejournals; which in turn recruited 5 or 6 six friends to come over. Those are the valuable referrals, because they’re genuine. Who do you trust more, Digg or your real-life friends? Not to mention the radio interviews that followed.

It’s easy to get distracted by the first traffic spike, but that’s not the end all be all. Be a little patient and wait for the next one. Those are the people you need to woo and thank for their support. Someone who has linked your site after finding it on Digg is a ripe, potential contact for your site. Do not let that go to waste. Comment on their posts, drop them an email. If they’ve started a forum discussion based on you, you ought to join in. It’ll pay big dividends, trust me.

EDIT: Ironically, Paul’s piece is doing well on Digg. Vote for it here.

I know I wrote about Web 2.0 rather negatively a few weeks ago, but I’ve got a bit of an announcement.

Rudius Media has joined Twitter–or at least one of the sites has. DrinkingForTwo, probably the funniest one on the entire network is now microblogging. Basically, now you can get the ridiculous one-liners from DFT directly on your phone, IM client or RSS reader. I set it up for my phone and now one or two times a day, they show up in my inbox and show them to my friends.

The problem for Twitter before was that 1) No one was posting anything of any sort of quality. 2) The gung-ho early adopters enthusiasm made it annoying. Since Rudius understand how most of Web 2.0’s features are invasive and unwanted, we’re not going to abuse that trust. We’re not going to bombard you because we wouldn’t wanted be bombarded. And since I’m a subscriber myself, I’m going to shut anything down that crosses the line.

So seriously, join Twitter and add Drinking For Two to your friends list. The content is much more suited for a service like Twitter than it is for the regular domain it’s on now. If you like it, pass it along.

Here are some drinking for two quotes:

-i say if you can have a drink with a straw then you can do the same with soup god dammit.

-my new word for the day is ‘restimate’. a restimate is the amount of time that i think that i am going to nap for.

-although i have never been to northern china or am related to anyone from northern china i really miss the place.

-i got a new pair of shoes today. when i went up to the cash with the box the chick behind the counter asked me ‘who served you?’. I didn’t know, i didn’t pay attention to the name as i didn’t think that i was going to be tested. I wanted to tell the girl at the cash that i was served by the girl with the nice ass and perky tits but instead i just said ‘i think she had glasses’.