At 10e20, Shannon put together this info-intensive rundown of Seth Godin’s Meatball Sundae and 14 Trends No Marketer Should Ignore. There’s a lot to digest here besides meatballs and sundaes, and it’s very nutritious for anyone involved in the arts of persuasion. (What do you think of 10e20’s new post design with the big, bright headlines and subheads? It’s quite different.)

The Laws of Copywriting command us to avoid the passive voice at all costs. But expert copywriter Michel Fortin makes the case for using the passive voice. Brilliant or blasphemous? In my opinion, brilliant. His penetrating analysis of words and persuasion is not only hard to argue with, it’s easy to agree with. (Pardon me for breaking another Law and ending the last sentence with a preposition.)

Effective business writing must focus on the customer, not the seller. In Hey Business Owner, Nobody Cares About Your Story, Dawud Miracle explains why this is true. While he overstates the case just a bit, the point of view problem is serious enough to demand shock therapy. Ask yourself, how often do you visit a commercial site and ask yourself, “So what?”

Interested in a hearing a contrarian view? Here’s a fantastic article by Clive Thompson, Is the Tipping Point Toast? Thompson discusses the views of Duncan Watts, a network-theory scientist who …

. . . has performed a series of controversial, barn-burning experiments challenging the whole Influentials thesis. He has analyzed email patterns and found that highly connected people are not, in fact, crucial social hubs. He has written computer models of rumor spreading and found that your average slob is just as likely as a well-connected person to start a huge new trend. And last year, Watts demonstrated that even the breakout success of a hot new pop band might be nearly random. Any attempt to engineer success through Influentials, he argues, is almost certainly doomed to failure. [Is the Tipping Point Toast?]

Sacrilege! Blasphemy! Hmm … Could it be true … ?

Joanna Young gives us five rock-solid tips for writing outstanding blog posts. She has a simple formula (all her tips begin with the letter “A”), but that’s a good sign, because most useful concepts are simple at heart.

Robert Hruzek’s latest compilation of Great Quotes is possibly his best yet, so hop over to MZM and have a look. They’re all so good, but my favorite is -

The most dangerous strategy is to jump a chasm in two leaps. - Benjamin Disraeli

Can’t argue with that!