2009′s Hundred Best Tweets and Links for Marketing Copywriters

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If you’re active in the Twitter community, you delight in the Tweetstream’s flood of information, entertainment, gossip and debate.

But you know you can also drown in the data deluge.

No way can you read every Tweet coming down the pike—let alone click through links to all posts, videos or articles.

I cope by dipping into the Tweetstream and “favoriting” tweets that catch my eye. Later, when I have time, I click through to read, watch, hear and comment.

Of 2009’s gazillion Tweets and links, I’ve culled 100 to re-read and share in the New Year:

Writing and Blogging

1. The 10 Mistakes Writers Don’t See—But Can Easily Fix
2. How to Write Hype-Free Copy. Avoid “howler monkey” copy and write content that helps you gain trust and credibility. Post from @RobertStover.
3. Copywriting Witchcraft and the Black Arts Of Persuasion. When tooled into analogies, metaphors and other artful copy, words carry tremendous persuasive powers. This post shares the copy mysteries.
4. 50 Useful Twitter Tools for Writers. Handy list via @KristenKing
5. How to Write Better Creative Briefs. Creative briefs are often anything but brief–and often fail to clearly communicate your goals. This post helps you prepare, simplify and test out ideas–for tighter, more effective briefs.
6. The Myth of the Sales Page. “The efficacy of the sales page is the biggest myth perpetuated by copywriters,” says online marketer @SeanDSouza. Find out why.
7. 60-Minute Naked Truth Salesletter Formula. You can structure and draft a decent sales letter very quickly with these pointers from direct response copywriter @MichelFortin
8. 3 Steps for Writing—and Testing—Headlines. Whip-smart copywriter @JeffSexton analyzes key elements needed for successful Web headline writing—and includes a wealth of best-headline links. Via @CopywriterMaven
9. 7 Ways to Power Your Landing Page Headline. Lots of posts tell you how to write headlines. This guide, from copywriter @NickUsborne, shows you how to think strategically and plan carefully before you write.
10. 45 Blog Post Ideas That Always Generate Buzz. Great post suggestions range from aggregated lists to Flickr Creative Commons photo galleries to rants and more.
11. Journalists’ Guide to Facebook. Writers, editors and journos: Here’s how to use Facebook to find leads, check sources and reach new audiences.
12. What Journalists Can Learn From Bloggers. Astute advice from @ZenHabits‘ Leo Babauta, journalist, copywriter and blogger extraordinaire.
13. Writers: Are You Getting Paid What You’re Worth? So many variables go into project pricing. Writer Julie Roads of @WritingRoads helps you sort through the issues and decide on pricing you can live with.
14. Free PDF to Word Converter. Stop cursing un-editable PDFs and download this free tool that lets you easily convert PDF content and re-use it in Microsoft Word, Excel, OpenOffice and WordPerfect.
15. Download Over One Million Books Free. Google Books gives you access to tens of thousands of downloadable fiction and non-fiction books in the public domain.
16. 50 Useful Blogs for Writers handily organized in categories that include Writing Tips, Word-of-the-Day and Grammar. Via @Copyblogger.
17. 40 Freelance Writing Blogs. ODesk lists and describes scores of useful copywriting, editorial and creative writing blogs.
18. 30 Copywriting Blogs Worth Reading. Want to skip the creative writing and journo sites—and hone-in on copywriters only? Check out this post compiled by direct marketing creative @DeanRieck.

Twitter/Social Media



19. What Socrates Can Teach You About Social Media. Two thousand year-old philosophic wisdom applied to social media. Post by @JesseNewhart
20. 62 Ways to Use Twitter For Business from Web Worker Daily via @SteveRubel
21. How to Tweet for a Brand or Organization. Tactics that help you and your client navigate unfamiliar social media waters.
22. How to Pitch Social Media. Great interview and ideas from Helen Klein Ross, aka @AdBroad, a veteran of traditional and new media.
23. Ultimate Guide to Del.icio.us Bookmarking. Everything you ever wanted to know about using Del.icio.us from @ChrisBrogan
24. Periodic Table of Social Media Elements. Color coded and including keys to Social Media Behaviors, Social Media All-Rounders, Social Media Tools and more. Via @MarketingProfs.
25. At-a-Glance Social Media Site Stats. Top SM networking sites, demographic info, traffic stats and more collected by @BrianSolis via @GuyKawasaki.
26. Find the Meaning of Any Twitter Hashtag. Just what the heck do all those little checkerboards mean? Get the answers here. Via @SteveRubel.
27. 10 Ways You Can Use Mayo Clinic’s Social Media Tools—good primer for healthcare marketers.
28. Don’t “Friend” Your Boss on Facebook Then Kvetch About Your Job. Enjoy a little Schadenfruede with this hilarious, true account that makes you almost happy to be wise and middle-aged. Almost.
29. When Did You, Your Followers—or Your Competitors—Join Twitter? Find out with this simple, free tool.
30. Need to Search For a Year-old Tweet? Currently Twitter Search only archives for 2-3 weeks. When you need to delve back further, check out this Twitter search alternative. Via @MayhemStudios
31. 10 Ways to Search Tweets in Twitter. If Topsy doesn’t do it for you, this post provides many more Twitter search options.

Internet Marketing/Branding/SEO



32. 12 Brands Predicted to Disappear This Year. But did they? Check it out.
33. Free Explained by Chris Anderson. Before you pass judgment on the “free” concept, hear out the man who wrote the book.
34. Will Paid be the New Free? Some people are still raking in the bucks with paid content. Learn more in this post via @JesseNewhart.
35. The Federal Trade Commission recently ruled bloggers must disclose affiliates. Get details on the new FTC regulations and guidelines for product reviews and freebies.
36. The Evolution of Content Marketing. As push marketing wanes, content-based initiatives help you gain trust, build relationship and sell your products. Get the latest on tactics and strategies from Conversation Agent via @JesseNewhart.
37. How to Promote Your Blog Like a Madman. Five tips that help increase traffic and readership at your blog.
38. Persuasive Online Video Strategies That Prompt Action from @copyblogger.
39. 15 Places to Make Money Creating Your Own Products. Want to market your own book, CD, t-shirt line or other product—but have no idea how to produce it? Check out 15 helpful resources.
40. Name That Product. A product’s success—or failure—often hinges on a name. This video explains how to choose great names that enhance and sell your product. Via @MichelFortin.
41. Product Features, Benefits, Advantages and Motives. Learn the nuances of presenting products persuasively from direct response marketer @MichelFortin .
42. Multivariate Testing for Dummies. Like to move beyond linear A/B testing? @MichelFortin delineates and demystifies more complex multivariate tests.
43. Test Your Landing Page in Five Minutes—Free via @CopywriterMaven.
44. A Gazillion Ways to Test Landing Pages to Increase Conversions—laid out in succinct list format.
45. 5 Tips to Avoid Deceptive SEO Companies. Looking for a good SEO? Here are some simple ways to tell the good guys from the bad.
46. Spy on Your Competitors. This downloadable tool reveals the keywords used in your competitors’ AdWords.
47. Case Against SEO. Derek Powazek makes an intelligent argument for building search ranking with strong content and word-of-mouth. He also explains his (ahem) strong dislike of black hat Search Engine Optimizers.
48. 18 Powerful Linking Strategies. Great overview of the best linking techniques that help boost your search engine ranking.
49. 12 Tips for Sprucing up Your Non-Profit Organization’s Website. Use these practical suggestions to help donors and visitors get more from your site–and give more to your organization.
50. SocialMarker Promotes Your Website in One Easy Step. Instantly bookmark posts and websites—including your own—to dozens of bookmarking sites with this free tool.
51. Guide to Google Analytics. Now you can finally figure out what all those charts, bullets and stats on your Google Analytics account actually mean.
52. How to Build Your Business with Newsletters. A great tool for permission-based marketing, newsletters provide useful, non-salesy information and keep you in front of clients’ eyeballs.
53. Secrets of Social Networking for Non-Profit Organizations. @Kanter, an expert in non-profit social media, delineates tips and best practices gathered from her recent survey. Via @FreeRangeStudios

Work and Productivity



54. 10 Great Ways to Use Evernote, my hands-down favorite organizational app–and it’s free.
55. 18-Minute Plan for Managing Your Day. This Harvard Business Review post shows you how to use the power of ritual to better organize your day and finish tasks. Via @pubcoach
56. Are Perseverance and Passion More Important Than Talent? This Psychology Today article profiles hard-working achievers, including the UK mathematician who logged 15,000 hours to solve Fermet’s Theory.
57. How to Find Someone’s Email Address. Searching for a business associate, high school classmate or long-lost relative? Use these helpful suggestions to find the elusive person. Via @jeanlucr.
58. Laid Off? Visit These 30+ Websites. With links to blogs that offer support, short-term job suggestions, networking advice and more—this Mashable post is perhaps more useful today than when it was published in February 2009.
59. 100 Top Freelancing Blogs. This comprehensive list from ODesk includes links to selected blogs of graphic designers, software developers, writers and other freelancers.
60. How Twitter Will Change the Way We Live. If you need a way to explain Twitter to skeptical friends and colleagues, send them this Time Magazine link–or download and print a copy for the digitally averse.

Stand and Deliver



61. Top 10 Public Speaking Tips. Whether you’re slated to speak in front of an audience of five or five hundred, these 10 useful tips from @DMScott help you prepare with confidence.
62. Make Great TED-style Presentations using the Ten TED Commandments and other tips and links that help you present as brilliantly as TED speakers.
63. How to Present Like Guy Kawasaki, Seth Godin and Steve Jobs. This video shows and tells you how to organize your material and prepare yourself to give great presentations. Via @emailcopywriter.
64. 10 Words You Mispronounce.
65. 10 Words That Make You Sound Smart.

YouTube/Videos



66. How to Stalk Your College-aged Kids on Facebook. Just when your kid thought he’d achieved a modicum of independence…
67. Susan Boyle on Britain’s Got Talent. If you haven’t already, you’ll watch this video over and over. We all love to see underdog, Susan Boyle, a frowsy middle-aged UK woman belt I Dreamed a Dream—and command a standing ovation from the skeptical, eye-rolling audience.
68. Best Wedding Entrance Ever. No wonder this irresistible video went viral: Real-life bride, groom and attendants startle and delight church congregants with a dancing entrance choreographed to Chris Brown’s Forever.
69. Flutter, the New Twitter. Slate sends up microblogging and pretentious geekiness in this hilarious video.
70. The Social Media Guru. Before you think about hiring a jargon-spewing hipster to run your company’s social media campaign, watch this very funny video.

WordPress/Coding/Design



71. 10 Ways to Increase Traffic by Changing Your Code. These little tweaks make a big difference.
72. 12 Tips for Designing a Website Portfolio. Artists, designers and copywriters, check out these tips and best practices for creating great sites that showcase your work.
73. How to Create a Unique Twitter Background. Gallery of cool, customized Twitter backgrounds, do-it-yourself tutorials and Twitter background design services.
74. Creative 404 Error Pages. When you want to say something a little more conciliatory than “You gnarly’d it, dude.” Via @sarahrobinson.
75. 25 Stylish Web Forms. Filling in informational fields just got a lot more fun with these creative forms.
76. Ultimate Guide to Thesis SEO. Make the most of this versatile and beautiful WordPress theme. Via @Remarkablogger.
77. WordPress Plugin Checks Spelling, Grammar and Usage. Save time and hassle with this plugin that checks and corrects your copy–right in WordPress.
78. 25 Detailed Tutorials for Coding Your Web Design.
79. 9 Ways to Make Your WordPress Blog Smart. “Home improvements” for your blog that make it easier for visitors to navigate, hang out and revisit your site.
80. 70+ Seriously Useful Handwritten Fonts and Inspirational Showcases. Grab one of these cool fonts the next time you need a callout or headline for your eBook, landing page or collateral.

News/culture



81. On the Shortness of Life: An Introduction to Seneca. Start the New Year with a little perspective from a classical philosopher.
82. Investment Lessons of the 1930s. During 2009’s annus horribilis, pundits frequently embraced a hindsight-is-foresight angle. Ditto this Wall Street Journal story on post-Depression stock-buying trends. Via @GuyKawasaki.
83. Credit Crisis Animated Video. Never wrapped your mind around the sub-prime mortgage mess and credit crisis? This cleanly designed, animated video explains it in 11 minutes.
84. Why Small Companies Win in This Economy. We don’t trust companies anymore. We trust people. And that gives small businesses a huge advantage, says Peter Bregman in this Harvard Business Review post via @MarieLancup.
85. Tech Generation Gap. A Baby Boomer finds your Blackberry use rude. A Millennial thinks it’s productive. Get the lowdown on generational attitudes towards technology in this NexisLexis survey.
86. 7 Best Reactions to President Obama Winning the Nobel Peace Prize via @GuyKawasaki.
87. 100 Best Blogs. Chosen by The London Times, blog categories include World Affairs, Celebrities, Style, Words, Cult, Original Thinkers and more.
88. Amazon’s Investments and Acquisitions Visualized. If you thought Amazon was just about books, you’re in for an illustrated surprise.
89. Hospital Uses Twitter During Live Surgery. In February, Detroit’s Henry Ford Hospital broke new media ground—and privacy boundaries, say some critics—when hospital surgeons posted Twitter updates while performing robot-assisted cancer surgery.
90. Pharma Blogs Face Unique Challenges—but many are eager to join social media communities.
91. Elizabeth Gilbert on Nurturing Creativity. The author of Eat, Pray, Love shares insights, fears and inspiration in this TED talk video.
92. 10 African American Women Who Changed the World. From Sojourner Truth to Oprah, Huffington Post gives us a look at some powerful and inspiring women of color.

Technology



93. How to Use the iPhone as a Photography Tool. In addition to taking photos, the iPhone lets you share images, find shoot locations and more.
94. Flickr Comes to the iPhone. Now you can share, tag and organize your iPhone photos with this free app.
95. 17 Reasons Your Mac Runs Slower Than it Should. No more counting to 20 while your page loads…

Food



96. Why Cooking Matters. Americans have forgotten how to prepare simple, scratch-cooked meals, The Nation and I agree.
97. 50 Best Things to Eat in the World—and Where to Eat Them. International list of yummy edibles compiled by UK’s The Guardian.
98. Jamaican Rum Punch Recipe. Sip this potent tropical blend, close your eyes and imagine white sand and lapping turquoise water.
99. Best Cheap Eats in New York City—Under $10.

In its Own Class



100. How to Perform the Heimlich Maneuver on Yourself. Go. Read. Learn. Then chew carefully so you’ll never have to use this post’s instructions.

Please add your own favorite Tweets and links in my comments.

Vintage typewriter photo courtesy of Confections; Twitter Bird photo courtesy of Amy Gurumi; Stack of 100 dollar bills courtesy of amagill; Factory girl photo courtesy of the Library of Congress; You Tube photo courtesy of Osmario Marques; President Obama photo courtesy of afagen; IPhone photo courtesy of Shuffle Art; Question Mark photo courtesy of Segozyme