I must have been in my mid to late 30s when one Thanksgiving afternoon my sister-in-law, Teresa, asked “Where is the cranberry sauce?” I explained cranberry sauce is a weird and unnecessary thing to put on turkey.

Teresa, who somehow got the nickname “Bird,” wasn’t having any of that. She insisted we bike around the corner to the PW Market and snag a can of the essential ingredient of a Thanksgiving dinner. She also insisted I try it.

Fruit on my bird? Sounded gross. But it tasted great. I rarely eat turkey now without cranberry sauce. In fact, now I even make my own  secret version of cranberry sauce, with a kick.

No doubt, sometimes I learn slowly, if at all. I’m stubborn.

Now I can tell a similar story about online marketing.

See, I had been in the copywriting game for over 20 years with a general disdain for the idea of blogging. I thought, ehnh… I rarely read them, so what’s the big deal?

Then I read “Inbound Marketing,” the great book by the two founders of HubSpot. It sort of got me on my bike and headed to the market again, if you will. A mind-boggling amount of reading about online marketing followed. And then I decided I was going to create a WordPress site, start blogging, get active in social media, and climb (or crawl) my way up the content marketing ladder, make my presence known, and share what I’d learn with anyone who cared to learn.

It worked. Or maybe I should say, it’s working.

But I didn’t do it alone. I attended a lot of conferences and webinars, shook a lot of hands, contributed boatloads of guest posts, and Tweeted until my claws turned blue. Along the way I met a cast of generous, caring characters who were happy to help out and invite me to the party, so to speak.

I’m thankful to y’all.

Thanks for giving me my own column…

Social Media Today” “Content Marketing Minds”

Thanks for calling me influential…

Onalytica Top 50 Influencers on Content Marketing

CyberAlert Top 30 Most Influential Bloggers

Quite a few talked about my site, blog, articles… Appreciate them all. Here’s one from HubSpot I was thrilled to see… B2B Companies that Deliver Delightful Copywriting.

Thanks for having me on your program…

Social Media Explorer: Podcast interview, “Is Content Truly King”

Vertical Measures: Video panel interview, “How to Get Started with Content Marketing” (with Arnie Kuenn and HubSpot’s Mike Volpe)

John Lowe’s “Be Compelling Now:” Podcast interview, “Speaking of Content Marketing”

Content Marketing Examiner: Podcast interview, “Good Content Has Almost Nothing to Do with What You Sell”

Thanks for having me on your webinar…

MarketingProfs: Digital Marketing World’s “Transform Your Website into a Customer Attraction Force Field”

MarketingProfs: Professional Development Solutions “The Right Way to Write Content” (The course is available exclusively to subscribers.)

Online Marketing Institute: Learn—Digital & Social Media, “Nail Your Content Writing”

Thanks for having me speak at your conference…

Silicon Valley Forum – Marketing Group, “Magnetic Content”

MarketingCamp SF, “WTF Marketing Game Show”
> Video highlights
> The game show questions (This is fun.)

 

Thanks for including me in your eBook…

Vertical Measures: “What is Content Marketing?”

Thanks for including me in your expert roundup posts…

Heidi Cohen, Actionable Marketing Expert

Thanks for inviting me to guest post…

HubSpot

MarketingProfs

Unbounce

Marketo 

Thanks for doing interviews for my blog…

Gregory Ciotti, Jason Falls, Doug Kessler, Megan Berry, Spencer Haws (on a Convince and Convert article)

Thanks also to…

Thousands of “Get Magnetic” email and “The Point” blog subscribers…

Thousands of Twitter, Google+, Pinterest and Facebook followers…

My many LinkedIn connections, groups and endorsers…

American Express Open Forum…

30 some-odd new clients…

Convince and Convert, Content Marketing Institute, SlideShare, Rebekah Radice, BitRebels, Ragan.com

Thanks for the countless links, plugs, tweets, shares, comments, and emails.

Big time thanks to my assistants Deena Levenstein and Aviva Blumstein.

May your bird be buried in tasty cranberry sauce.

Happy Thanksgiving to you, my friend and reader. And thanks.