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3 Ways To Fire Up Your Frozen Social Media Strategy

March 4, 2016 by Marc Guberti 2 Comments

Have you ever tried running outside in the middle of the winter? It’s downright difficult, but if you have run in the middle of the winter, you know that the only way to complete the workout is to keep on keeping on.

Maybe you live in Florida where it’s sunny all year long, or maybe this happens to be an evergreen blog post that you may first come across in the summer. But we all know what it means to be frozen from a business standpoint.

Not getting much results, losing control, no revenue to spend on different business tools.

It’s easy for a social media strategy to get frozen. Some people create elaborate social media strategies but throw up the hands if the strategy begins with a bust.

At other times, the social media strategy works but starts to see a small decline. A social media strategy can see a small decline for a variety of reasons such as a change in your audience’s tastes or outsourcing gone wrong.

No matter the reason why a social media strategy freezes up, everyone in this situation wants one thing in common. They all want to fire up that social media strategy so the frost melts away.

The results you have wanted are within that frozen social media strategy, but you must thaw the ice with the fire of your soul. Here’s how you build up the flame that thaws the ice.

#1: Expand Onto Several Social Media Platforms

If you always rely on one social network to bring you all of your results, then you are making a mistake. It’s great to focus on one social network until you master it, but once you master a social network, you must not be afraid to expand.

After I mastered Twitter, it became my blog’s most valuable asset. However, I realized I had put too much reliance on one source when, because of a weird glitch, my Twitter account would get compromised every 33 hours.

This went on for over a month, and I would have to wake up early in the morning (at 6 am or earlier) just to check my email and unlock my Twitter account if it got locked.

Sometimes, it would be locked up for hours in which none of my scheduled tweets went through.

I learned that while social media is good, you should never rely on one social network to bring you straight to the finish line. Not only because some glitch may affect your account, but also because social media is constantly changing.

Twitter is considering extending the limit from 140 characters to 10,000 characters. I conducted a Twitter poll and discovered that most users wouldn’t be happy with the change.

Are you happy with the 140 character limit or do you want to see #Twitter10K happen?

— Marc Guberti (@MarcGuberti) January 7, 2016

Maybe some people decide Twitter is just like Facebook and just spend time on Facebook instead. Maybe it’s a revolutionary change that transforms the way we use Twitter and allows businesses to thrive on it.

But speaking of Facebook…

Remember when a business page’s posts could reach out to everyone who liked the page? I don’t remember that. I became a player in the social media space too late for that.

Right now, various articles have been published that identify how many people who like a business page can organically see the post.

The number is different depending on which article you read, but typically 1-4% of your Facebook audience will organically see the post.

How do you get everyone else to see the post? Easy. You pay Facebook.

Maybe your social media strategy is frozen because you have been relying on one social network to make everything happen.

Social networks change, and different people use different platforms. The more distributed your audience is across all of the social networks, the more people are likely to come in contact with your social media posts.

#2: Outsource Your Social Media Workload The Right Way

Outsourcing has forever changed the way I do my business work. The simple reason is that I can now give any of my workload to someone else.

I asked myself what I would never outsource even if I could clone myself a hundred times. The list was small. Writing content, engaging with my audience, and creating videos were on the top of the list.

Everything else by definition became a distraction. The social media workload I had put on myself for all of these years was suddenly seen as a distraction.

So I decided to outsource a large percentage of my social media workload—scheduling tweets, growing my Twitter audience, growing my Pinterest audience, and sending out pins were just some of the things that I outsourced.

The result was that I could tap into the entrepreneur’s most valuable resource: TIME.

I suddenly had hours of extra time that allowed me to create more Udemy courses (I can now create a new course every 1-2 weeks) and returning to self-publishing.

Some of that extra time went towards making my social media strategy better.

I had more time to experiment with Facebook ads and quickly grow an audience of over 40,000 people on Facebook. I am continuing to gradually grow that audience while experimenting with Facebook ads for my posts which is where the money is on Facebook.

However, if you outsource your social media strategy incorrectly, the result will be miscommunication and a frozen social media strategy—even if you know everything there is to social media.

There are certain tools that always allow you to retain control but still outsource the work. The tool I came across for outsourcing my Twitter growth was ManageFlitter.

I knew how to get 300 followers per day, and I wasn’t getting those same results as consistently when I outsourced my workload to someone else.

ManageFlitter allowed me to regain control through RAM (Remote Account Management) and one of the best filters I have ever seen.

And for those of you curious about the RAM prices in 2016, here they are (I looked everywhere for the current prices, so now that I can always see them, I wanted to provide them in this blog post).

If you don’t feel 100% comfortable with one of your freelancers, then you need to do one or more of the following:

Communicate with that freelancer to fix the problems.
Look for someone else and fire the current freelancer.
Look for an online tool that can do the job.

Your social media audience is very important. If you decide to outsource your workload, be sure to keep an eye (especially sharp in the beginning) on the people who you give control to. Make sure they are fulfilling your expectations and doing what you tell them to do.

If any of the work you outsource to other people is time sensitive, hire a back-up freelancer to make sure the job gets done (i.e. scheduling social media posts).

#3: Spend Money On Your Social Media Strategy

Before I go into spending money on your social media strategy, I want to address that just because you spend money to grow your social media audience does not guarantee everything will fall into place.

So be cautious about how you spend your money on social media marketing, and when you decide to spend money, never dip in the red.

Now with the warning established, I’ll go more into detail about spending money on your social media strategy.

Right now, I only spend money for two parts of my business: outsourcing and social media. I have gone in detail about the outsourcing already, so I won’t mention it now.

Spending money on social media marketing is where it gets interesting. You need the combination of superior online tools, effective advertising, and a budget.

Let’s start with the superior tools. For Twitter, I use ManageFlitter and HootSuite. Just to have access to those two tools, I pay over $300 every year. The results I get from them are worth the investment, but there is more to these tools than their functionality.

Each time I must spend money to continue using HootSuite and ManageFlitter, I have added motivation to make more money from my efforts. Added motivation to create that extra training course or write that extra book. Added motivation to do more marketing.

The tools provide motivation, but their functionality is the reason I invest in them. I wouldn’t spend money just for the sake of getting motivated to make more money. Make sure that when you spend your money, it is spent in an effective manner—not for the sake of it getting spent.

As for social media advertising, Facebook is your best bet for getting results at an affordable price. Some people make their entire income from Facebook ads. I haven’t heard as much about Twitter ads. In my opinion, Twitter is better for getting an organic audience and playing without paying a penny.

The social media advertising landscape will continuously change, but right now, Facebook is king in that department.

The way people make money through Facebook advertising is by promoting their posts that lead people to (preferably) landing pages or sales pages. Initially, you should spend some money building your social proof on Facebook with inexpensive likes (depending on the countries you target, you can get Facebook likes at the rate of $0.01 or less per like).

As you spend more money on your social media strategy, you will force yourself to get more savvy. Investing in your social media strategy is an investment in yourself. That investment makes you responsible.

At that point, all you have to do is analyze your results, constantly experiment in a search for better results, and make sure you stay within your budget.

In Conclusion

Your social media strategy may look frozen now, but by taking action, you can thaw the ice and tap into your social media strategy’s inner potential.

The reason social media strategies freeze up is because results are not obtained, there is a reluctance to taking action, and there is a fear of what will happen.

Social media is the most valuable platform known to mankind. It is the platform where over 1 billion people communicate to each other using tweets, pictures, pins, and posts.

To win on social media, you must stick with it and always find a way. I know that three years ago when I didn’t understand social media, I would have been frustrated about the previous sentence.

During those times, I thought, “JUST SHOW ME!”

But the way you truly win on social media is by sticking with it and always finding a way. Logging in every day and scheduling the posts. You get closer and closer with every day that you take action.

What tips do you have for firing up a frozen social media strategy? Do you currently face the problem now? What advice do you have for people who want to avoid a frozen social media strategy? Sound off in the comments section now!

Myth Busting: Don’t Put Your Eggs In One Basket

March 2, 2016 by Marc Guberti Leave a Comment

In this video, I explore the myth of not putting all of your eggs in one basket. People are fearful if they put all of their eggs in one basket, and there’s a hole in the basket, then it’s game over.

However, you must put all of your eggs in one basket to become successful. Here’s a quote from Andrew Carnegie who, while he was alive, was one of the richest men in the world.

“The way to become rich is to put all your eggs in one basket and then watch that basket.” –Andrew Carnegie

If you don’t put all of your eggs in one basket (i.e. you have your eggs in five baskets), then imagine trying to carry all of those baskets at the same time in town. Baskets will get dropped and eggs will go flying. If you only carry one basket of eggs, it’s much easier.

Focusing on one thing allows you to tap into incredible results. Once you master the one thing you want to do, then you can expand. Millionaire business investors started off with one successful business. They only begin investing once they master their own business first.

Choose one opportunity for making revenue and go all-in with that opportunity. Only start to expand once you master that opportunity.

This is exactly how I became successful on social media. I gave up on every social network and decided to go all-in with Twitter. 275,000 followers later, I am happy with my decision.

But now that I mastered Twitter, I expanded into other social networks. I am approaching 50,000 Facebook likes and 30,000 Pinterest followers. I now incorporate YouTube into my business far more than I used to.

In the short-term though, you put all of your eggs in one basket until you achieve mastery.

I hope you enjoy the video. Please let me know what you thought of the video, and if you like it, then don’t forget to subscribe. You can subscribe to my YouTube channel here.

The 4 Core Beliefs Of Highly Productive People

February 29, 2016 by Marc Guberti Leave a Comment

This is my first video-based blog post. In this video, I discuss the four core beliefs of highly productive people. The video is based on the blog post The 4 Core Beliefs Of All Highly Productive People.

The methods I discuss in the video are as follows:

#1: Dreaming Big Is Better Than Dreaming Small. When you dream big, you expand the possibilities. Even if you don’t reach them all, your bigger goals will inspire you to put in more work. Dreaming small inspires mediocre work and mediocre results.

#2: Being Busy Does Not Mean You Are Productive. There is a huge difference. You can be getting distracted by non-priorities when you are busy, but you are always addressing your priorities when you are productive.

#3: The Vision Must Be Accompanied By A Series Of Micro-Visions. You need the stepping stones to get to the grand vision. The stepping stones will boost your confidence as you head towards that grand vision.

#4: There Is No Stopping. You do have to take the occasional breaks, but you must put in the work every single day. As Daymond John would say, “Keep Swimming!”

I hope you enjoy the video. Please let me know what you thought of the video, and if you like it, then don’t forget to subscribe. You can subscribe to my YouTube channel here.

The Almost Bullet-Proof Way To Make Money With Your Blog

February 26, 2016 by Marc Guberti Leave a Comment

We overcomplicate the process of making money with our blogs. Some people say create advertisements. Other people say write books. Others say create training courses. Sponsored content, offer a service, and the list goes on.

Don’t you wish it was easy to make money with your blog? I’m sure we all do. Some people make six figures with their blogs while others want to learn how.

The actual process is surprisingly simple, and this process is as close to bullet-proof as bullet-proof gets. I know it’s a big promise. You may have been putting years of your time and effort into your blog without getting significant results yet.

But to make a big promise, it only makes sense that I back it up.

Find Something That Works

Look around and find the methods that some bloggers use to make six figures every year. Case studies with methods that work are easy to find. These case studies allow bloggers to further establish their authority.

So you find a bunch of methods that work. First off, if someone makes six figures with ads on his/her blog, then do not rely on that for your blog. Ads do not work unless you are one of the big players, and even then, the ads are not worth it.

Maybe you come across blog posts about successfully freelancing, writing books, creating training courses, or something to that effect that has brought in six figures for some people.

Chances are you have an idea of what already works. You know the email list is king and that what you decide to promote to that email list will make the money.

But with a bunch of options, you will either thrive or barely survive.

Focus On One Option And Ride With It

If you chase two rabbits, then they will both escape from you. We understand this to be true, and in this statement lies the secret to making money with your blog.

Instead of trying every money-making tactic known to mankind, hone in on one of the options. Don’t use social media ads, write books, write paid articles, and create training courses all at the same time. Choose one of them and ride with it.

The reason I became successful on social media was because a few years ago, I abandoned every social network except Twitter. That allowed me to focus all of my time towards Twitter and eventually master it.

However, it took me a long time to transition that way of thinking to making money with my blog. I was trying a bunch of different methods that were bringing in mediocre results.

Then I dropped everything and went all-in with Udemy.

I learned more about marketing in a few months than I had learned in a few years. The reason is that once you master one method for making money, then all of the other methods become easier.

For most money-making methods, it’s all just the same approach but with different types of work involved (i.e. an author must write books while an instructor on Udemy uploads videos, but the approaches are very similar).

Then, as you build multiple platforms, you can use them to make each of your new products more successful.

Expand After Mastery

When I went all-in with Udemy, I had to give up self-publishing. At the time, it was a challenging decision. It was more challenging than giving up on my most successful blog before this one.

I loved writing books and enjoyed holding my paperbacks (I’d be shocked to find an author who doesn’t enjoy that feeling), but I needed to learn more about making money.

So I gave it up and went all-in with Udemy.

But now that I have mastered Udemy, I am giving self-publishing a second go. I learned a lot about self-publishing by mastering Udemy since most money-making methods take the same approach. I also have a significantly larger audience to promote my books to.

I only began writing books again once I mastered Udemy. If I wrote books and created training courses at the same time, the mastery would have been more difficult.

It is better to master one skill at a time, and then once you master that skill, move on to the next skill.

Don’t Overwhelm Yourself

Every single time I fail or find my business stagnating, it’s because I overwhelm myself. For a long time, I looked over it, and you may overlook it too. Let me know if this sounds familiar:

I am putting in so much work in so many areas. I feel tired but I am still going to put in all of the work. If I spread out my work, I am bound to get lucky somewhere.

I overwhelmed myself by trying to master every social network and by trying to make money through any method imaginable.

For a short period of time, I even took online surveys and clicked on ads to make money. The money I made from those two activities was negligible.

So just because you make more money by doing something doesn’t mean it is always worth it.

The success happens when you can look at your massive list of things to do and break that list down. I was able to break my list down to a few activities once I decided to outsource most of my business.

In my opinion, every business owner should outsource at least one part of their business. The simple reason: time is money.

If you have extra time in your day, then you have extra time to figure out how you will make money with your blog. You have extra time to take action and therefore learn at a faster pace.

By taking action, you will learn from your mistakes faster. By learning from your mistakes faster and knowing what to avoid, you also become successful faster.

One of the most common ways I overwhelmed myself was thinking about my future. Do I hit this goal and do I get it at the right time? What results am I going to get from my work?

These are silly questions to ask ourselves because we don’t know for certain what will happen. The only way we discover what happens is by making it happen.

In Conclusion

Making money is simply figuring out one thing that works and then riding with it. Even if that one thing ends up going bust, you will learn more from that one experience than by trying to do 10 things at once.

If you are looking for a specific recommendation from me, right now Udemy, self-publishing, and affiliate marketing are working well for me.

Just because something works for me doesn’t mean it will work for everyone, but you have those options.

Sure enough, you’ll have more options, but if you only choose one option, then you will start making money with your blog.

How do you make money from your blog? Which tip was your favorite? Have any stories for us? Sound off in the comments section below.

How To Leverage Pareto’s Principle For Your Business

February 24, 2016 by Marc Guberti Leave a Comment

Pareto’s Principle is one of the most famous principles in business. Some entrepreneurs live by it.

You’ve heard it before, but maybe you haven’t heard of it referred to as Pareto’s Principle. Here’s what Pareto’s Principle is:

80% of your results come from 20% of your work.

That sounds much familiar. The concept is true, and if you look deep enough, you will discover what that 20% is for your business.

The work that leads to most of your results.

Most people stop there. They acknowledge Pareto’s Principle and acclaim that 20% of their work brings forth 80% of the results.

The people who stop at the acknowledgement only see one side of the coin. To every coin, there are two sides.

To Pareto’s Principle, there are two statements.

The first statement is the one that we know well. 80% of our results come from 20% of our work. The second statement?

20% of our results come from 80% of our work.

That’s a lot of work that only leads to one-fifth of your results. That particular small slice of work that you do leads to everything else.

The other side of the coin doesn’t get much attention because it is the disgusting side of the coin. Most of the work you do leads to little or no results.

Can you still work with that in your mind? Most of the work leads to little or no results.

80/20 Done The Right Way

This blog post isn’t meant to discourage anyone. It is designed to change the way we work.

The successful entrepreneurs understand the principle and look at both sides of the coin. They focus most of their time on the 20% of the work that leads to 80% of the results.

As for the 80% of the work that leads to only 20% of the results? That gets outsourced or eliminated.

Why do something when you know it won’t produce much results? The biggest mistake I see people make is they will look at every possible opportunity without honing in on one opportunity to maximize results.

If someone doesn’t produce much results, and you don’t overwhelmingly enjoy that work, then stop.

If it’s something that you still have to do but know it doesn’t bring in the results you are looking for, then outsource that work.

Since 80% of your work produces 20% of your results, you should look to outsource 80% of your business.

Then you can focus all of your time on the 20% of your work that leads to 80% of your results.

Even if something seems vital for your business’ survival, try to outsource it. Scheduling tweets is essential for my business since that’s how I get most of my blog traffic.

Outsourcing that one task allows me to save hours of my time each week. Outsourcing my blog post pictures allows me to save even more time.

Opportunity Cost

For every minute you spend doing something, you can’t spend that same minute doing anything else. That’s the basic concept behind an opportunity cost.

If you procrastinate for one minute, you cannot be productive and get stuff done during that same minute.

If you find yourself not focusing on the 20% of your work that leads to 80% of your results, then you are missing out on opportunities.

I will provide you with an example involving money just to highlight the importance of looking at Pareto’s Principle differently.

Let’s say an entrepreneur works for five hours a day and makes an average of $100 per day.

With Pareto’s Principle in play, one hour brings in $80 while the other four hours only result in an extra $20.

Let’s say the four hours that bring in $20 get outsourced and the same entrepreneur works for five hours each day.

Now those five hours get directed towards the work that brings forth the best results.

Instead of making $100 per day, that same entrepreneur is making $400 per day ($80 x 5 = 400)

Sure, outsourcing costs comes into play, but it won’t cost $300 per day at that rate.

Overall, a profit is made because the entrepreneur was able to focus more time on the work that brought forth the most results.

If you focus more of your time on what works, then don’t be shocked if you get better results.

Expansion

You’ve figured out Pareto’s Principle and focus most of your time on the work that yields most of your results.

But let’s say you have multiple passions and want to start multiple businesses. Maybe you want to write books or create training courses. Maybe, like me, you want to become a singer.

You can suddenly find that extra time to pursue more adventures by outsourcing most of your work. Inevitably, you will temporarily disrupt your groove.

If you can focus all of your time on the work that leads to the most results, you will have to introduce more work that doesn’t (in the beginning) bring in much results.

Then you discover what works in the new adventure you are taking and outsource everything else that doesn’t yield as much results.

The quicker you master something and the better you master your time, the easier it will be for you to master anything else that you want to master.

Twitter was the first social network I mastered. I only mastered Twitter because I gave up on every other social network.

Now I am on several social networks and have thousands of followers on most of the platforms.

Master one thing and then expand from there.

In Conclusion

There is a lot to learn from Pareto’s Principle. The two key lessons are that most of your work leads to little or no results while some of your work leads to most of your results.

You need to focus more of your time on that some of your work that leads to most of your results.

Success is not just a matter of hustling. It’s a matter of hustling in the right direction. You can have a work ethic, but if you get lost and go on the wrong trail, then it will take a lot longer for you to reach the finish line (while some people never reach it).

Hustling in the right direction means focusing most of your time on the work that brings forth most of your results. The busy work that stands in your way, although it may be important, needs to get outsourced.

What are your thoughts about Pareto’s Principle? Do you have any other advice for leveraging it for our businesses? How do you save time? Sound off in the comments section below.

3 Things That Successful Bloggers Do

February 22, 2016 by Marc Guberti Leave a Comment

If you want to become one of the best bloggers, you have to look at what the best bloggers are currently doing.

In most cases, the best bloggers do a few things differently. Everyone puts in some level of work, but the quantity and quality of the work are slightly different.

Those differences often make all of the difference.

To become a successful blogger, these are the three things that you must start doing. Implementing these methods will potential change your entire strategy and move your blog in a better direction.

#1: Write Valuable Content

This is the most obvious tip here that seems to receive a lot of discussion. There is no reason to take time explaining its importance.

Writing valuable content comes down to your knowledge, writing experience, and your audience.

The more you know about your niche, the more you can write about.

The more experience you have with writing, the more value you can provide in a shorter amount of time.

Understanding your targeted audience lets you know what content specifically applies to them. Then you know what type of content you have to write.

Writing valuable content is an art that you get better at with practice. You can see that with my blog posts and with many other bloggers’ blogs.

My first blog posts were terrible in comparison to the blog posts that I write now. I recently looked back at the first blog posts of some of the bloggers who I have come to admire.

Same thing. Their first blog posts weren’t terrible, but they were terrible in comparison to what they produce now.

#2: Outsource Most Of The Work

The only two things that will never get outsourced for my blog are writing the blog posts and interacting with people who comment.

Everything else is fair game.

I can’t remember the last time I created a picture for one of my blog posts or scheduled tweets for my blog posts.

That work took up too much of my time. So I outsourced that workload.

Now I have more time to write content and look into ways to expand my reach and revenue. 80% of your results come from 20% of the work.

Outsourcing allows you to focus more on that 20% that brings forth 80% of the results.

The most successful bloggers are not doing all of the work.

They have a team around them that makes the work easier. Some of the successful bloggers will systematize the entire process of writing their own blog posts.

Either have a contributor write the content or hire a ghostwriter. The editor makes changes to the content and then someone comes through with the pictures.

You have to begin assembling your team of people to help you out. That way, you can focus more of your efforts on the work that yields most of your results.

Time is a blogger’s most valuable resource. The more of it you have, the more content you can write. The more marketing you can do. The more products you can create.

#3: Spend More Time Promoting Than Writing

You can write content all you want, but if no one visits your blog, then no one will know about your content.

Part of successful blogging requires your content getting seen by as many people as possible. The traffic your blog gets can translate into subscribers and sales.

The mindset for getting more traffic is to spend more time marketing your blog posts than actually writing them.

You can spend 30 minutes each day writing your blog posts, but then you should be spending an hour marketing your blog posts every day.

Connect with influencers, get podcast interviews, promote your blog through social media, grow your email list, and so on.

If that’s too much work for you, then outsource the work. Your team is there to make your blogging workload as light as possible so you can focus your time on what matters the most for your blog’s success.

In Conclusion

Successful blogging requires a different view of blogging. Successful bloggers don’t just put in a lot of work. They put in a lot of smart work.

Successful bloggers put their time towards the work that leads to the best results, and they are on the endless pursuit to outsource as much of the workload as possible.

Right now, I have 10 freelancers who take some of the workload off my shoulders. It’s a start, but I’ll be getting more. Someday, I imagine having hundreds of freelancers who help me in various areas of my business.

You need that team around you and a thirst for more knowledge. The more you learn about your niche, the more value you can provide.

In the same way, the more you learn about blogging successfully, the more likely your blog will become successful too.

What are your thoughts about these three things that successful bloggers do? Do you believe something should be added to the list? What are your blogging tips for us? Sound off in the comments section below.