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How To Brain Dump A Bunch Of Content Ideas Instantly

March 11, 2016 by Marc Guberti 4 Comments

This might sound crazy. But I feel like writer’s block is never going to be a problem for me again.

Just writing that makes me feel like I lost a piece of my mind. Writer’s block is the biggest threat that writers face. It’s the reason writing the 250 word blog post takes too long for some people.

And the people who know how to beat writer’s block? They crank out 1,000+ word blog posts in the same amount of time it takes for everyone to tie their shoelaces.

Okay, I wish it was that easy. Let’s go back to writer’s block.

The main reason writers get hit by the block is because they can’t (at the moment) think of ideas to write about. Writers in the middle of writer’s block find themselves staring at the screen in frustration as they try to think of an idea to write about.

So if you have an abundance of ideas to write about, the theory is that writer’s block won’t be a problem. You get those ideas to write about by conducting a brain dump.

A brain dump is when you spend time simply thinking of as many ideas as you can. The ideal time to start the brain dump is when you still have enough ideas available.

You don’t want to have to think of ideas when you are staring at the screen in frustration. Especially when you’re staring at the screen because you are struggling to think of an idea in the first place.

So you should do the brain dump before you run out of ideas to write about. However, if you do run out of ideas, conduct the brain dump anyway. Without the brain dump, you won’t have content ideas, and you need those to actually write the content.

How To Find Ideas On The Web

Do you have any idea how much content has been published on the web? I don’t, but I bet if all seven billion people on the planet teamed up to read all of the web’s content, there would still be pieces of content that we wouldn’t get to.

In short, there are a lot of ideas on the web. When I look for ideas on the web, I find myself going back to three main sources for inspiration that you can use too:

#1: YouTube

I watch videos related to my niche, and if something interests me about the video (not just something in the video, but also a particular point mentioned or the video’s title), then that inspires me to write a blog post.

For instance, if I watch a video about boosting productivity, and Pareto’s Principle gets mentioned, maybe I am inspired to write a blog post about Pareto’s Principle.

You can also learn more about doing videos because you will be introduced to different styles of delivering content (talking head videos, PowerPoint presentation, etc).

#2: Other Blog In Your Niche

Same thing as looking through other YouTube videos. I usually skim through blog posts so I can read as many of them as possible and retain the good stuff.

Many of the top bloggers make it easy for people to skim through their content. And all blogs should be that way.

Think about it: your readers (and everyone) are very busy people.

You want to provide them with a lot of value in a short period of time so they come back for more.

That’s one of the reasons I use big fonts for specific tips. People who speed read my blog posts still get the important stuff out of them.

But if you have loyally read this blog post word for word, then you’ll be even happier if you stick around 🙂

#3: Your Past Blog Posts

Looking back at some of your first blog posts conjures up one thought, and one thought only, “What was I doing back then?!?”

Sure, I occasionally think, “Look how far you’ve come,” but that first thought reigns superior 99% of the time.

This one section where I talk about using your past blog posts for inspiration is longer than most of the blog posts I wrote in the past.

Sometimes I have to look at those blog posts and wonder what I was even trying to convey.

It may be intimidating to look at those blog posts because you don’t want to go back to them. However, you will see certain points that you did not discuss in enough detail.

Maybe a Part Two is necessary? Maybe you write an entirely new blog post based on that point that you didn’t discuss.

And don’t just look at the oldest bits of content on your blog. Look at as much of it as you can until you have enough ideas.

I may look at this very blog post a few months from now, find a point that I believe deserved more attention, and then write a new blog post about it.

The more blog posts you have on your blog, the better this method will be.

How To Find Ideas Off The Web

For most of my brain dumps, I find myself on the web looking for ideas. I rarely go out of my house to find the ideas because the exit signs in town don’t say things like, “6 Ways To Get More Blog Readers.”

But I recently stumbled across a new way of thinking that has resulted in me looking for more of my blog post ideas off the web.

I was recently walking from my university class back to high school (the university and high school are on the same campus, so the walk isn’t terrible). However, it was cold that day, and a lot of snow was on the ground.

Most people would be more focused on speed walking and getting inside. For about 80% of that walk, I had that same mindset.

Then, the blogger in my emerged on top. For the rest of my walk, here was my thinking process.

It’s freezing, and people want to go inside to get warm. We go inside so we don’t get frozen. Businesses also get frozen, and people don’t like that either. I know a lot about social media. I should write a blog post called 3 Ways To Fire Up Your Frozen Social Media Strategy.

In less than 15 seconds, I suddenly had an idea without staring at my screen. Then I went in my high school and retreated from the cold weather.

If you go around thinking like a blogger, you can think of numerous blog post ideas just by walking around.

I recently saw a tree (we have all had the experience), but then I thought that trees sprout from the ground. Maybe I write a blog post called 5 Ways To Sprout Your [something]. I could substitute [something] for business, social media marketing, Twitter account, or something else, and then I would have a complete blog post title.

And the holy grail for thinking of more blog post ideas? The shopping mall.

I kid you not. And stores within the shopping malls like Target and Walmart— they’ll provide you with dozens of epic blog post ideas alone.

I do not work for Target, I do not work for Walmart, and I have definitely not gone crazy.

If you want to discover more blog post ideas, go to the closest shopping mall. Look through the isles and pay close attention to the products within those isles.

Looking at those products and thinking like a blogger will suddenly allow you to come up with more blog post ideas.

Maybe you come across a LEGO set. You know that LEGO sets contain pieces that can be built into a car, airplane, house, or something else depending on the LEGO set.

So you think of the blog post idea “7 Ways To Build Your [something].”

Maybe you see a cool t-shirt. You remember that people want to feel cool. In the business world, that would mean being the boss.

So you think of the blog post idea “3 Ways To Feel Like A Boss.”

It’s as simple as that. If you spend enough time in the right stores, you could have over 100 blog post ideas by the end of the day.

Now do you understand why I think writer’s block will no longer be a problem for me (or you)?

The Brain Dump Itself

When you brain dump, you are only brain dumping. You are not writing any new content or surfing the web on your smartphone.

If other activities get in the way of the brain dump, then the brain dump loses its potency.

So when you decide to conduct your brain dump, nothing else gets in the way. You only begin to write the content once you have written enough ideas down.

In Conclusion

Brain dumping is the best way to come across various ideas that you can turn into blog posts. It is such an important process that nothing else can stand in its way.

There are plenty of places to go to conduct a brain dump. Lately, I have been walking/running and thinking like a blogger.

I see a long road in front of me. The road to success is a long one. Just like that, I have a blog post idea.

The more comfortable you get with that type of thinking, the easier it will become to think of blog posts in your every day life.

Once you have an arsenal of ideas in front of you, then it’s just a matter of writing the content.

What tips do you have for thinking of more blog post ideas? Which of these tips was your favorite? Sound off in the comments section below.

Myth Busting: It’s Too Late For Me

March 9, 2016 by Marc Guberti Leave a Comment

It’s easy to see other people who are successful on platforms like YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook and think, “It’s too late for me.”

With numerous options available already, how could I even compete with the leaders within my niche?

This myth dissuades people from trying the already established platforms like YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook. However, regardless of how late you join the party, you can become successful on any platform.

The same goes for opportunities that still bring in a lot of results.

In this video, you will learn what it takes to become successful on a platform, just released or well-established, regardless of how late you join the party.

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.