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November 2017 Monthly Performance Report

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While I’m hard on myself for most performance reports, I am very happy with my overall performance in November. I have some very interesting ideas for 2018 and plan to finish strong in 2017.

 

Speak Out For Net Neutrality

Before you read the performance report, read this. It’s important and I know you’ve heard about it from someone.

FCC chairman Ajit Pai, big phone and cable companies, and their lobbyists want to destroy Net Neutrality. Destroying net neutrality would let cable and phone companies decide who’s heard and who isn’t.

What’s that mean?

If for some reason one of these companies (let’s say AT&T) gets paid off by a site like Amazon to make their site run faster and the Amazon site run significantly slower (think about trying to load Amazon on a 10-year-old computer but worse).

Or they could just block Amazon all together. That means all of the self-published authors writing books on kdp.amazon.com lose a big chunk of their audience because greedy companies and lobbyists are trying to fill their pockets.

What about the people who use Amazon FBA to make a living? And Amazon’s just one of the many websites that would be affected. Google, Facebook, and any website you visit (including yours if you have one) are all at risk. This wouldn’t just affect the big guys. It would affect all of us.

They could shut me (or anyone) down because I’m talking about net neutrality, or just because they feel like it or have a conflict of interest. This quote sums it up:

“Our world is digital – all digital. To make the most of it, my delivery truck and your delivery truck should have equal access to the same highway system and connecting roads. Just like we do in the physical world.” — Ad Age

This is like Chris Christie’s Bridge Scandal, but digitally spread across whoever AT&T, Comcast, Verizon, and others would like to choose. They can slow down digital bridges and even tear them apart. As our world revolves around digital, this wouldn’t just disrupt businesses, but also the entire nation.

Here’s an idea for the companies and lobbyists who want to end Net Neutrality. Instead of making money by threatening some of the most innovative companies on the planet (and possibly getting them to pay up for normal load times which everyone gets now…and to avoid getting blocked out entirely), why not do something innovative that actually generates revenue and results in happier customers?

Just a thought.

Here’s the link if you want to help.

I know you didn’t expect to hear about Net Neutrality in this Performance Report. I promise it won’t come up again. The rest of the Performance Report is strictly business. I’m enjoying my privilege to write my content on the free web where the big companies don’t decide what websites I can and can’t visit (or have to wait very long before they load).

 

Daily Blog Posts Will Return In 2018

I feel so happy just to write that. I’ve mentioned daily content in past performance reports and found myself struggling to reach that goal each month. That’s when the frustration mounted and it seemed as if I got harder and harder on myself in each performance report.

Now I finally have a system that works for me.

I don’t just publish a new blog post every day. I write exactly one blog post every day. With past experiments of content batching and writing multiple blog posts at the same time, this approach works best for me.

You may be naturally better at batching the content, but I prefer to write one blog post each day. Nothing more and nothing less. If I have a second idea I really want to write about, I let all of that excitement overflow into the next day.

It only takes me 30-45 minutes to write most of my blog posts, and I get started on them first thing in the morning. Now I can write 365 blog posts or more each year.

If you include contributors, we could return to the golden 12-hour standard, but I’m not ready to make that commitment yet. However, this commitment is a big step in the right direction.

 

One Final Step To Daily Podcasts

If it were free, I would have no problem with hosting my own daily show. However, a daily podcast comes with a significant boost in storage and editing costs. I have a month to figure out how I’ll reduce these costs and generate more revenue from the podcast to make a solid profit.

I’m landing interviews as if Breakthrough Success will become a daily podcast on New Year’s Day. I want to be prepared to host daily episodes when the time comes.

With this part of my content strategy in sync, I’ll publish over 730 pieces of content every year (blog + podcast). Plus, I get to interview 365 awesome people who will have a positive impact on my growth.

I love creating content, and 2018 looks to be quite the treat for that part of my life.

 

My Reading Habit Is Changing

In past months, I’ve read as many as 30 books. These books weren’t quick reads either. Tools Of Titans is like six books wrapped into one.

But now my reading habits are changing. I no longer intend on reading 30 books every month. My new target is 10 books per month because I now spend ore time reading articles. This is part of my new initiative to provide more outbound links in my blog posts. I can’t link to a page in a paperback book, but I can definitely link to someone else’s blog post.

I also learn a lot from reading articles. While I am reading content from my favorite writers, I’m also finding new writers on Medium. I’m slowly turning into a Medium junkie, and I am perfectly fine with that.

 

The Race To 400K

I know that you shouldn’t get fixated on the numbers on social media. I feel like I’ve been stuck at 300K Twitter followers for a while, and surpassing this milestone is more symbolic than anything else.

With that said, I do have a spreadsheet tracking how many followers I need to gain each day, but I don’t view social media as a numbers game. Those who do will eventually lose.

 

A Big Revelation

For a long time, I was confused and disagreed with a big part of Neil Patel’s work schedule. For people who click the link, I understand that Neil changed his work schedule so he isn’t grinding for as many hours (he uses more time to recharge).

However, one single task dominates the others by storm. That one task is sending emails, and he’s usually in his inbox for four hours every day.

I thought to myself, “Why would you spend that much time in your inbox? You could be creating so much content (even more than what he’s already doing)!”

Then it hit me.

During those four hours, Neil builds relationships, communicates with his audience, and leverages opportunities that and in his inbox. He spends much more of his time marketing his content than creating it, and that’s why Neil can scale a new blog up to 100,000 monthly visitors in under a year.

I now plan to commit at least an hour of my time each day to sending emails. Whether that means replying to emails or outreach, I’m sending emails for an hour each day. I plan to delegate this task so I have a helper rather than taking this responsibility off my shoulders.

You should delegate most of your business, but don’t delegate everything.

 

Books I Read

From now on, I’ll skip the parts where I share the podcast episodes and blog posts I published because those lists will be too long in 2018. That’s why I’m heading right into my reading list for the month.

I did surprisingly little reading this month. I read Gary Vaynerchuk’s The Thank  You Economy and re-read The 12 Week Year (I strongly recommend The 12 Week Year. It was one of the first productivity books that had a big impact on me, and it had an impact on the re-read as well).

 

Review Of November 2017 Goals

1. Get Consistent CMP Sales: I’m still working on this, but I took steps in the right direction this month. I included three packages so CMP now ranges from $497 to $1997 depending on which package you want.

#2: Fully Activate My Freelancers: I’ve communicated more effectively with my freelancers and created Google Docs for them. I wish I used Google Docs to lay out instructions and changes to the plan much earlier.

#3: Have All Of This Year’s Content Scheduled: Boom! This one is done. I just have to schedule podcast episodes. I can’t schedule them all in one month due to storage space limitations, but the episodes are all done. Blog posts are scheduled past 2017 🙂

#4: Crush It With Content Marketing Secrets: It has been a long time since I looked at something I did and said, “WOW,” to myself. I set very high standards for my work which is why I rarely have that wow feeling, but Content Marketing Secrets provided me with that wow feeling. And over 1,000 customers (mix of free and paid) now have their Kindle edition of the book.

 

December 2017 Goals

#1: Land 7 Coaching Clients: I am taking a new shift to coaching clients. I was originally skeptical of coaching because I thought it would take up too much of my time. However, I discovered how to make the process efficient and effective for my clients. If you are interested in my coaching services, you can contact me through my email marc@marcguberti.com.

#2: Make Breakthrough Success A Weekday Podcast: In this Performance Report, you’ll see that I wanted to turn Breakthrough Success into a daily podcast. I decided to go for a weekday podcast at the end of November and into early December, so I didn’t modify my earlier thoughts that I wrote. I want to give my listeners the weekends to catch up on any episodes they missed to avoid overwhelm.

#3: Make CMSS Evergreen: I know this summit can positively impact the lives of more people, but I need to make it evergreen for it to impact more people.

 

In Conclusion

This was a very good month for me, and I believe December will be even better. I only have three goals listed which allows me to focus my time on a few areas instead of spreading it thin. I’ll be creating a lot of content in 2018 and have some very exciting things planned.

Also, if you have some extra time, please fight for Net Neutrality. I’d greatly appreciate it.

What are your thoughts on November 2017’s Performance Report? Do you have any questions for me? Sound off in the comments section below.

How To Make Money By Writing Content

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If you’re reading this blog post, chances are you want to make money by writing content. The common script for bloggers is that writing the content is easy but monetizing that content is difficult.

For a long time, I followed that common script. Blogging was an expensive hobby, and while I wrote a lot of content, making money from that content was a different story.

That narrative has now changed, and it can change for you too. In this blog post, you’ll learn how to make money by writing content.

 

#1: Get Clear On What You Want To Write About

Many successful writers generate their revenue by focusing their content on a few topics. With that in mind, you must specifically choose topics that you will stay passionate about for many years.

One of the topics I write about often is content marketing. It’s a type of marketing that continues to fascinate me to this day, and that’s why I’ve easily written thousands of blog posts and dozens of books over the years.

Before settling with content marketing and a few other key topics, I didn’t always enjoy the writing process. It wasn’t the process itself that was painful, but rather the topic. You can have the most effective writing process, but if you put the wrong topic into the process, you won’t be a great writer.

Your favorite authors would appear as terrible writers if they wrote about topics they weren’t passionate about. Make sure you focus on a topic that you are passionate about because the full-time income only comes with patience.

 

#2: Determine How You’ll Make Money From Your Content

There are three main ways to make money by writing content:

Blogging to build an audience, get subscribers, and boost product sales

Freelance writing (ghostwriting or otherwise) where people pay you to write content for them

Writing a book which gives you instant authority, but you’ll need an audience to expand that book’s reach

Blogging is the best long-term strategy for generating revenue because you grow an audience which sets you up for a more successful book launch or other campaigns.

Freelance writing is the best short-term strategy assuming you can find people who are happy to pay you for your content. I rarely freelance, but many of my freelancing opportunities were direct results of the effort I put towards my blog.

I’ve heard of freelancers finding success on UpWork, but it’s better to have a successful blog. Then people will come by with several freelancing opportunities.

You can also attain a massive audience solely from writing books, but you need to know how to crush it on Amazon first. My friend Chandler Bolt wrote an amazing blog post which TKTK

To grow an audience with Kindle books, you must put a landing page offer at the front of your book. That way, people can receive the free offer (and become a part of your email list) without having to actually buy the book.

Some Amazon customers who use the free preview will determine your book isn’t for them, but they love the free offer, sign up for it, and possibly buy the next product you promote to your email list.

 

#3: Form Partnerships

The moment you get clear on your writing topics is the moment you should focus on forming partnerships. Let’s go back to my example.

As a content marketer, one of my goals is to write effective copy for my sales pages. Many people in my audience share this goal.

Some people have more skills in areas like copywriting than I do. I learn from these people and like to share their content with my audience.

That’s why I partner up with Ray Edwards each time he releases his Copywriting Academy course to the public. I share free content that provides value to my audience, and I make a commission each time someone buys Copywriting Academy.

I can promote a variety of training courses, but I choose to promote Copywriting Academy because it’s a valuable course that my audience will benefit from (I went through it myself).

Forming these types of partnerships will allow you to connect with high profile people who can present you with a lucrative affiliate marketing opportunity. And you never know. Some of these same people may decide to promote you or partner up with you when you release a product.\

Regardless of what type of content you create and which topics you focus on, forming partnerships is critical for your success.

 

In Conclusion

You can make a full-time income by writing content. Many bloggers and authors have proven that over the years. The challenge is applying what you know and creating that narrative for yourself.

The most important quality for becoming a full-time writer is persistence. Rejection is a part of the process that you must embrace. Some people won’t like your content and ideas, and that’s okay. Chances are you liked this blog post since you’re still reading.

However, some people will not like this blog post. They’ll skip it or even say something bad about it. That’s just the nature of writing content, and more generally, life.

Believe that you can, and you eventually will.

What are your thoughts on these tactics for making money with your content? Do you have any other tactics for us? Do you have a question for me? Sound off in the comments section below.

E56: Live Out A Remarkable Life With Dwayne Klassen

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Introduction: Dwayne Klassen is known as THE Coach for Men. He’s an engaging and entertaining transformational speaker, author coach, and relationship expert. As the creator of The Remarkable Man Coaching Program, Dwayne teaches that no matter how hard life can get, you can rise up, make a difference, and win.   Quotes To Remember: “We all know who we want to be inside, you’ve already met that individual in life.” “Too many of us are driving through this life with a rear view mirror that’s bigger than the windshield; we’re looking back all the time.” “Be mindful of what that remarkable man looks like.” “When I took full responsibility, that’s when things shifted.”   What You’ll Learn:

  • How to understand and overcome frustration in your life
  • Learn to harness both masculine and feminine energy usefully.
  • How to make time for your loved ones and those important in your life.
  • How your actions and outward appearance have effect on your spouse and children, and how to put out a positive vibe.

Key Links From The Show: Dwayne’s Site The Remarkable Man Show – Dwayne’s Podcast   Recommended Books: The 5 Love Languages by Gary Chapman The War of Art by Steven Pressfield The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari by Robin Sharma

E57: Unleashing Your Personal Brand In The Digital Age With Mark Schaefer

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[podcast src=”https://html5-player.libsyn.com/embed/episode/id/5971105/height/90/theme/custom/autoplay/no/autonext/no/thumbnail/yes/preload/no/no_addthis/no/direction/forward/render-playlist/no/custom-color/0d9cf2/” height=”90″ width=”100%” placement=”top” theme=”custom”]Mark Schaefer is a globally-recognized KeyNote speaker, educator, business consultant, and author who blogs at {grow}, one of the top marketing blogs in the world. He specializes in marketing strategy and social media workshops. He’s consulted a combination of start-ups and global brands such as Adidas, Johnson & Johnson, Dell, Pfizer, The U.S. Air Force, and the UK government. He’s also the author of five bestselling books such as The Content Code and Born To Blog.

 

Quotes To Remember:

“What really keeps me going is I know I’m having a positive impact on people.”

“If you’re just in it for the money, I’m not sure you’re going to sustain it.”

“You can’t just chase every shiny red ball.”

“You need to focus on one kind of content.”

“If you’re not joyful, if you’re not having fun, you’re going to quit.”

“Creating content isn’t the finish line, it’s the starting line.”

“If you got a keyboard or a smartphone, and a WiFi connection, you can create content.”

“You don’t need to be an expert, you don’t need to have all the answers, but you do need to take your best shot and start.”
What You’ll Learn:

  • How to create a large targeted audience.
  • How to get your audience to share your content
  • How to stand out as a content creator in a saturated market
  • How to create useful partnerships that can help further in your career
  • How to enjoy your work.

 

Key Links From The Show:

Mark’s Site

 

Recommended Books:

Innovation and Entrepreneurship by Peter Drucker

The Inevitable by Kevin Kelly

Small Data by Martin Lindstrom

Known by Mark Schaefer

How To Increase Your Email List’s Engagement

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You’ve heard this statement so often that you probably recite it in your sleep. If not, I’ll be the first to tell it to you:

The money is in your email list.

If you create epic content and have a large social media audience, but no email list, you’re missing out on thousands of extra dollars every month.

However, if you have a big email list, but no one on that list engages with your email broadcasts, then you won’t get much money from your list.

Therefore, the money isn’t just in an email list. The money is in the engagement of that email list. With that in mind, let’s explore how we can increase your email list’s engagement.

#1: Weed Out People Who Don’t Engage

Before we focus solely on getting more out of your email list, we must acknowledge another part of the equation. If you have 50,000 subscribers, and only 500 people open your emails, you have a problem.

You can get more opens, clicks, and sales with the upcoming methods, but understand that you should weed out unengaged people from your email list. Here’s why…

For most services, having 50,000 subscribers on your account means spending hundreds of dollars every month. ConvertKit, the service I use, has a rate of TKTK per month for 50,000 subscribers.

If you weed out the people who don’t engage, you will save yourself thousands of dollars every year. To keep the email addresses in hopes of re-engaging with these people, you can create MailChimp accounts which allow you to have up to 2,000 subscribers without paying a penny.

With this important idea discussed, we can now focus on the tactics that will help you get more out of your email list.

 

#2: Write Catchy Headlines

If you don’t get many people to open your emails, it’s time for you to examine your headlines. Mastering the art of catchy headlines is more important than mastering the email copy.

Eventually, you will need to master both, but if you write great email copy with a bad headline, you won’t get any clicks.

On the reverse side, catchy headlines with bad email copy will result in more opens but less engagement after the email gets opened.

It’s easier to fix things like clickthrough rate and sales once you get the open rate mastered.

So how do you write catchy headlines? Here are a few ideas from HubSpot.

Understand that you have a limited number of characters to implement these ideas. If an email headline has more than 50 characters, then your subscribers won’t see the entire headline.

If subscribers can’t see the entire headline, they won’t click. Short and concise is the way to go.

 

#3: Email Your Unopens

Each person’s inbox isn’t as crowded as a Twitter feed, but inboxes are crowded nevertheless. Some of your most loyal subscribers will miss your latest email just because there are so many emails in the inbox but so little time.

If these people get a reminder to open your email, some of them will take action.

You can create that effect by resending the same email to people who didn’t open the email the first time (your unopens). I typically send out the second email 1-2 days after the first email gets sent.

All I do is change the subject line, and just like that my open rate goes up by 10%.

This is the easiest trick in the book as it takes less than a minute to reschedule an email that you already sent to your list (the only difference is the headline).

 

#4: Consistently Send Emails

If you consistently send emails on the same days and at the same times, you’ll develop a cult following. Some bloggers email on Wednesdays at 7 am, and their audiences know to check their inboxes for the message they received on Wednesdays at 7 am.

This is a common practice among bloggers. Depending on your audience, you can add fuel to the fire by increasing the frequency of your email. Instead of emailing your audience every week, try twice a week, and if you can, send daily emails.

Always stay in the frame of your audience’s mind.

 

#5: Get Better At Copywriting

Now that we’ve explored boosting your open rate, it’s time to get results beyond a higher open rate. Copywriting is a dense topic that I can’t fully cover in this blog post. You’ll get better with practice, and while I recommend Ray Edwards’ book, here are a few copywriting tips I can think of right away

  • Use bold font, but more importantly, bullet points
  • Focus on benefits, not features
  • Always think of your customer avatar when writing your emails
  • Ask questions
  • Have a strong topic sentence
  • Use a P.S. at the end of your emails because those get a ton of attention
  • Subscribe to copywriting experts’ email lists and pay attention to their copy

 

#6: Include The Link In Multiple Places

One of the most common mistakes I see is when people send an email with the link in one location (usually towards the end of the copy). If you want to increase your clickthrough rate, you need to increase the presence of links in your email.

I typically utilize the same link in 2-3 locations. Here are my favorite places to put a link:

The very beginning of the email. For some people the headline and first sentence are enough to get the click

The middle of the email. This serves as a reminder. Your subscriber becomes familiar with the link, and with great copy just before that link, you’ll get more clicks

The P.S. Some of your subscribers will skim through your email and quickly scroll to the bottom. Your link will be waiting, and with great copy, you’ll get more clicks.

Some people place the link in as many as five places, but that number of link placements is usually reserved for lengthy emails or product pitches.

 

#7: See What’s Already Worked

Look through all of your emails and see which ones got the most opens, clicks, and sales. All three of those statistics are votes from your community.

If you see a trend where your audience engages better with Topic A than Topic B, then give your audience more of Topic A and tone it down with Topic B. You may prefer Topic B over Topic A, but your job is to serve your audience.

With that said, if you despise Topic A with a burning passion, then stop providing that type of content to your audience. Some people may no longer stick around, but it’s more important to do what you enjoy than find yourself stuck doing something you despise just for other people’s approval.

 

In Conclusion

The email list is your most valuable asset, but to reap the rewards, you must treat your subscribers with care. If you only pop in their inbox once a month, they won’t remember you for long.

The inbox isn’t as bad as a Twitter feed, but there are still hundreds of new emails people receive every day. With more experts advising an inbox detox, you need to stand out more than ever to make the cut.

Just because someone is on your list doesn’t mean they have to pay attention to you or stick around. The value and consistency of your emails will determine whether they stick around or not.

What are your thoughts on these tactics to increase email list engagement? Do you have any tactics for us? Do you have a question for me? Sound off in the comments section below.

E56: Live Out A Remarkable Life With Dwayne Klassen

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[podcast src=”https://html5-player.libsyn.com/embed/episode/id/5919425/height/90/theme/custom/autoplay/no/autonext/no/thumbnail/yes/preload/no/no_addthis/no/direction/forward/render-playlist/no/custom-color/0d9cf2/” height=”90″ width=”100%” placement=”top” theme=”custom”]Introduction:

Dwayne Klassen is known as THE Coach for Men. He’s an engaging and entertaining transformational speaker, author coach, and relationship expert. As the creator of The Remarkable Man Coaching Program, Dwayne teaches that no matter how hard life can get, you can rise up, make a difference, and win.

 

Quotes To Remember:

“We all know who we want to be inside, you’ve already met that individual in life.”

“Too many of us are driving through this life with a rear view mirror that’s bigger than the windshield; we’re looking back all the time.”

“Be mindful of what that remarkable man looks like.”

“When I took full responsibility, that’s when things shifted.”

 

What You’ll Learn:

  • How to understand and overcome frustration in your life
  • Learn to harness both masculine and feminine energy usefully.
  • How to make time for your loved ones and those important in your life.
  • How your actions and outward appearance have effect on your spouse and children, and how to put out a positive vibe.

Key Links From The Show:

Dwayne’s Site

The Remarkable Man Show – Dwayne’s Podcast

 

Recommended Books:

The 5 Love Languages by Gary Chapman

The War of Art by Steven Pressfield

The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari by Robin Sharma