Marc's Blog

5 Reasons Blogging Is Not Working For You

December 28, 2015 by Marc Guberti 8 Comments

We have all read the case studies. We know some of the bloggers who get hundreds of thousands of monthly visitors and are absolutely crushing it.

Blogging works, but it does not work for everyone.

Most blogs aren’t getting 100,000 monthly visitors. Most blogs don’t even get 1,000 monthly visitors. When looking at epic case studies, it is easy to either get very motivated or very discouraged.

I look at these case studies as motivation for what I can do in the future.

But there is more behind a blog’s success than your motivation. That motivation must be combined with the right work ethic.

More specifically, you must know what works and what does not work. Blogging doesn’t work for most people. Some of them still consider it a hobby while others give up on it.

I don’t want you to be one of those people. I want you to be one of those people who eventually gets hundreds of thousands of monthly visitors to your blog.

Don’t believe it’s possible? Consider the FACT that all of those people with the glamorous case studies started with NOTHING. They started with less than what you have now.

Still don’t believe it’s possible for your blog to get so many visitors? I hope the answer is no.

It’s just a matter of avoiding what does not work and focusing on what does work. This blog post discusses what you should avoid.

But in discussing what you should avoid, this blog post also discusses what you should do. Without any further adieu, these are the five reasons blogging is not working for you.

#1: You Aren’t Focused On Growing Your Email List

I could have put this method anywhere on the list. I decided to list it as Method #1 for a reason.

If you haven’t heard people mention the power of the email list, you’re going to hear about it later.

With an email list, you get to know your readers and develop a bond with some of them. In addition, email by far gets more response than social media posts.

Some people get over 20% of their subscribers to click on a message. While this is well above the average level, it does happen.

If you have an email list of 100 people, and 20% of them click on the link to your blog post, then you got 20 new visitors.

To fully understand the power of an email list, we need to inflate the numbers. The marketers with over 1 million subscribers and the 20% clickthrough rate get over 200,000 visitors to the blog post.

Juicy.

But you don’t need a massive email list before you get a lot of traffic and revenue from that email list. You just have to start growing your email list.

But maintaining an email list can get expensive. If you don’t want to spend money in the beginning, then use MailChimp.

MailChimp lets you have up to 2,000 subscribers for free before you pay a single penny.

Right now, I use iContact for my email list. As I continue to grow my email list, the cost increases. That’s the nature of the game. However, as I grow my email list, my profit increases.

Just focus on growing your email list. Don’t overthink it. Just get to the step in which you are gaining a new subscriber each day.

I discussed some of the tactics I use to grow my email list in an earlier blog post.

#2: You Publish And Pray

It’s good to pray. I pray five or more times per day. Publishing and praying on the other hand. That ain’t good.

The Publish and Pray approach was first coined by Brian Dean. Here’s how the approach works:

You publish a new blog post
You don’t promote it in any way, shape, or form
You pray that it will get a lot of visitors

If you rely on this approach for getting more blog traffic, then prepare to be disappointed. It’s like expecting that if you create something the people will somehow, magically come.

The Publish and Pray approach does not work. What works then? Promotion through a variety of platforms:

Social media promotion
Outreach strategy. Check out Brian Dean’s skyscraper technique.
Email list promotion

There are plenty of ways to promote your blog post. As long as you are actually promoting your blog posts in one way or the other, you are doing more than publishing and praying.

You are actually taking action.

#3: You Don’t Write Blog Posts Consistently

The interesting thing about blogging and entrepreneurship in general is that it’s all on you. You don’t get a wage for writing blog posts. You can’t get fired.

But it’s all on you.

You have to find the willpower and the time to write your blog posts at a consistent rate. If you don’t write blog posts at a consistent rate, then it is more difficult to grow an audience.

The reason is that when you write blog posts and always publish them at specific times and days of the week, people know when to check in for new content.

It’s the reason why every successful TV show is successful. The next time you watch your favorite TV show, pay attention to the marketing.

At the end of every The Big Bang Theory show, fans like myself are reminded that the next episode is on Thursday night at the same time.

As an experienced fan, you don’t have to tell me that The Big Bang Theory is on every Thursday at 8 pm eastern. I know.

When I first started watching the show, I had to be told.

Once people know when you publish your blog posts, and they check in enough times, they don’t have to be told when you are publishing new blog posts. They know and check in.

The blogger I admire the most is Seth Godin. You don’t have to tell me when he publishes his blog post. I know that he publishes a new blog post at 6:30 am eastern.

That’s what happens when you write blog posts consistently. But in addition to giving your readers a time and day to check in, writing consistently also boosts your accountability.

Once you write blog posts consistently for a long enough period of time, you have a strong desire to continue writing them.

I have easily spent thousands of hours writing blog posts for this blog. I’m not giving up on it now. I never will.

The only way you will get to that point is by consistently writing blog posts.

#4: You Don’t Enjoy Writing The Blog Posts

I don’t like the blogs that are inspired by shiny object syndrome. There is no passion behind the content. These blogs just focus on the next big thing and try to run away with it.

When revolutionary ideas and tools get introduced, there are passionate people who write awesome blog posts.

However, some people will jump on just for the sake of making the buck. Once the shiny object isn’t so shiny anymore, the blogs inspired by shiny object syndrome die out.

Then these bloggers move onto the next shiny object.

Shiny object syndrome is one reason why bloggers get stuck with topics they don’t want to write about.

In other words, these bloggers ask themselves “What content would make me the most money?” before asking themselves “What do I actually want to write about?”

Only write blog posts about topics that you enjoy. No matter what topic you choose, it will take a long time before your blog ends up making money.

The only way bloggers survive to eventually thrive is by writing about topics that they enjoy writing about.

#5: You Overthink Successful Blogging

You can view the path to success in two ways:

An impossible to solve maze
A staircase

Most people view success as an impossible maze. They don’t know where to start.

They think about all of the possible ways they can complete the maze. But by thinking too much about how they will complete the maze, people stay stuck at the starting line.

If we did everything we thought about, we’d all have successful blogs right now.

The challenge is to take action.

A while ago, I gave up on thinking about how I would get through the maze. The maze indicates luck and that success is all chance. Make the right turn and then you’re closer. Make the wrong turn and then it will take you longer to complete the maze.

I decided to view success as a staircase. You don’t know how many steps are on the staircase, but what you do know is that the final destination is success.

Small things like promoting my blog posts on social media, sending out email blasts, and writing the blog posts in the first place. Those are some of the steps on the staircase.

Sometimes I like to stop where I am and look back at all of the steps I walked up.

I like looking at my past achievements, but the only part of the future I look at is the grand vision. If I think about all of the steps I have to take to get there, it would be overwhelming.

Instead, I focus on the task at hand. Only once I complete the task at hand do I start acknowledging the next task that I must complete.

If you spend too much time thinking, then you won’t spend enough time doing.

In Conclusion

Blogs are powerful tools for building audiences and thriving by following your passion.

Knowing what works and what does not work will aid in your quest to become a successful blogger. But having the knowledge is just half of the story.

The other half of the story is taking action. Writing that blog post. Tweeting the one you wrote a few days ago. Growing that email list. Letting as many people know about your blog as possible.

Which of these tips was your favorite? Do you have any other advice on what we shouldn’t do with our blogs? Sound off in the comments section below.

Where Social Media Fits In The Sales Funnel

December 23, 2015 by Marc Guberti Leave a Comment

Social media can make you a lot of money if you know where it fits in the sales funnel.

I hear a lot of talk about making money on social media. People believe that their social media audiences should result in a higher income.

But most people find themselves disappointed. They wonder if all of the time they spent on social media was worth it.

Social media isn’t the problem. The problem is how most people approach making money on social media. We can clearly see the problem in the first tweet I ever sent on Twitter

First of all, the link is broken now. The more important point is that this tweet makes no attempt at building a relationship with my audience. It was the good old “buy this product.”

I didn’t give people enough time to know, like, and trust me.

For a few weeks after that, I continued using social media wrong. My tweets were Amazon affiliate links and my blog posts (before this blog) had a strong focus on getting the sale versus providing value.

Then I focused on using social media to build the relationship with my followers. Once I changed the way I used social media, my revenue increased.

Here is the most important thing you will ever hear about making money on social media:

Social media is the best platform for generating indirect sales.

What does that mean? Social media is a platform where people get to know, like, and trust you.

Social media is also a great platform to promote your landing pages and get subscribers. The way I make money on social media is by using it to grow my email list.

Subscribers are far more likely to buy something you recommend than your social media followers. The logic is the expectation of each platform.

People are used to finding discounts and product information in their inboxes. In fact, some people welcome it.

People go on social media to escape important decisions. They want to interact and see what’s happening. They want free stuff.

In the sales funnel, social media is the very first stage. After you get your followers to complete a few other stages (i.e. subscribing), then some of them become customers.

Okay, that sounds nice. But I don’t have a landing page. Now what?

The quick answer is to create your own landing page as soon as possible. I use Optimize Press for my landing pages while other people use LeadPages. Both are excellent tools to have.

But I know that (unfortunately) not everyone will want to create a landing page right away. Don’t go back to promoting affiliate links to sales pages.

At any moment, there are dozens (or hundreds) or marketers who are asking affiliates to sell their products. These marketers offer training courses containing a wide variety of material.

At least one of those training courses will be within your niche.

These marketers put a lot of planning into their training courses’ success. They write the copy, set up the landing pages, and have affiliate links that ensure affiliates receive their proper commission.

I occasionally promote other people’s landing pages on my social media accounts for a few reasons:

#1: They have all of the email copy set up for you. These emails are optimized to get a lot of opens, clicks, and sales.

#2: The product is created for you. All you have to do is promote the landing page with your affiliate link.

#3: Each sale equals a big commission. The commissions you receive as an affiliate for a training course can get very high. Some people will provide you with a $500 or higher commission per sale.

#4: You get a better idea of how it all works. Maybe some day, you create your own training course and have your own team of affiliates.

It’s just a matter of finding people in your niche who offer this type of opportunity. Then all you have to do at that point is ride with the opportunity.

Is There Any Room For Direct Sales?

I am not actively pursuing direct sales from my social media audience. I prefer promoting landing pages and building the relationship before I offer any products.

With that said, it is possible to do some direct promotion.

I find myself looking through Kim Garst’s tweets again and again. She’s a social media expert with over 420,000 Twitter followers.

She will occasionally do a direct sale on social media that leads people straight to one of her sales pages. However, most of her tweets entice a relationship to be built.

Indirect sales are the best way to go. If you use social media to generate direct sales, my recommendation is to do so with a big discount involved. Discounts grab anyone’s attention, regardless of which platform the discount is discovered on.

When we buy something for a discount, we feel super smart. That’s the main reason discounts result in more product sales.

Sometimes, we won’t even care much for a product but buy it to feel like smart consumers.

In Conclusion

Social media is the best platform for generating indirect sales. Once you use social media with that in mind, you will get more sales in the long-term.

What are your thoughts about social media’s position in the sales funnel? Do you think direct sales work or that indirect sales are all you need? Sound off in the comments section below.

7 Power Tips To Make Your Blog Crazy Addictive

December 21, 2015 by Marc Guberti 10 Comments

What makes certain blogs so special? I’m talking about the blogs that we stay on for hours upon hours. We lose track of time and find ourselves reading blog post after blog post. What makes them tick?

As a blogger visiting other people’s blogs, I often find myself stuck on certain blogs for a long period of time. However, as a blogger, I also ask myself why these blogs were so addictive.

All of these blogs follow a common pattern. Some of these blogs also have a secret sauce to them (I’ll spill the beans in this can’t miss blog post).

Without any further adieu, here are the seven power tips to make your blog crazy addictive.

#1: Behold: Your Blog Posts Are Now Picture Books!

Remember the time when bloggers could get by with writing a short 250-500 word blog post without any pictures? Few of these bloggers exist today.

While it’s still possible to write viral blog posts that are only a few hundred words long (take a look at BuzzFeed), many people have now shifted to writing 1,000+ word blog posts.

Neil Patel inspired me to make that shift in a fascinating blog post that explained why word count matters in search engine traffic.

Good thing I took his advice to heart. Now I have more fun writing my blog posts because I get to go more in-depth.

But there is another shift taking place. In fact, we are in the middle of it.

Blog posts are now becoming picture books!

One picture per blog post is no longer enough. We are visual learners whose minds can process images 60,000 times faster than text.

Pictures can clearly illustrate concepts that you can’t convey with text. For instance, it’s better to draw a circle than describe what it is. What exactly does that sentence mean? This picture will help illustrate the concept.

Adding pictures throughout your blog posts will make them easier for your visitors to read through. Therefore, they will stick around for a longer period of time. You can get advanced with incorporating pictures into your content by following these data driven tips for using pictures in blog posts.

#2: Did You Watch The Superhero Movie Teaser?

It’s difficult for me to decide which Avenger is my favorite (right now I am deciding amongst Captain America, Thor, and Iron Man. UPDATE: Probably Iron Man). I wouldn’t have cared much about them before Marvel started releasing their movies.

Now I eagerly await to see them in action yet again. Why? For many reasons, but here’s one of them:

Good marketing.

What started as the beginning of Iron Man has evolved into an extravaganza in which we can expect several Avengers movies to get released every year. Marvel even posted a list of movies that we can expect to see between now and 2020 (now past 2020).

Personally, I prefer DC Comics and The Dark Knight is by far my favorite superhero. In recent memory however, Marvel has done a much better job at marketing their heroes.

At the end of each Marvel movie is a teaser leading into the next movie. Since this is the teaser section, I won’t go into spoilers. However, if you have watched any of the recent Marvel movies, you know one of those teasers.

You know the status of Odin, who the big villain is after watching the first Avengers, and what Captain America intends to do at the end of the second movie.

And if you are like most Marvel fans, your mouth is watering as you think about how awesome the next movie will be.

Blogs work in the same way, and few people are capitalizing on it.

At the end of all of your blog posts, you can provide a teaser to your upcoming blog post. The teaser builds anticipation and reminds people to return to your blog for more content.

Imagine a blog post that ended off like this:

“In next week’s blog post, you will learn how Warren Buffet invests in stocks. Buffet allowed me to stop by at his mansion in California and ask him a few questions about some of his most important stock decisions.”

Guess where you’ll be next week.

The important thing to note is that you don’t have to meet famous people like Warren Buffet and interview them to have a great teaser. Here’s a typical teaser you can find on Bryan Harris’ blog:

Teaser For Upcoming Blog Post

This is the strategy Marvel uses to get you mouth watering at the end of their movies. You can use this strategy to make your readers eager for more.

You can apply this for old and new content. While I believe that consistently creating new content is overrated, I am a big advocate for going back and updating your old content. That way, you strengthen your library of existing content.

You don’t want to be a mile wide but only an inch deep.

But anyway, you can let your audience know what blog post they’ll get next even if it’s an old blog post that you plan to bring back to life.

~FREE BOOK: Content Marketing Secrets (grab your free copy here)~

#3: Last Time On Justice League…

I occasionally watch the animated Justice League series (I have a lot of DVDs for Justice League and DC Comics superheroes in general). I only occasionally watch that series because watching it turns into a binge.

One interesting approach the producers used for Justice League episodes was frequently incorporating two-part episodes to boost engagement for the following week.

The second episode would begin with a recap of the first episode. The first episode would be briefly explained in less than two minutes. It’s nothing unique. Many TV producers follow that pattern for two-part episodes.

This same strategy TV producers use is hard to find in blogging. I almost never see it happen. Most bloggers think that “Previous Page” does the trick

Nope. Not enough.

At the beginning of all of your blog posts, you can briefly summarize what your previous blog post was all about in less than a paragraph. I got this idea from Bryan Harris who I mentioned earlier.

Previous Blog Post Summary

He’s got some magic going on with his blog. It’s the perfect blog-post-sandwich:

The summary of a previous blog post to start off
The valuable content from the actual blog post
The teaser for what the next blog post will be

This works better if you write a series of connected blog posts on a similar topic. You can plan your content calendar and blog post updates around an overarching theme to get the best results from this strategy.

I’ll talk about providing valuable content soon. However, there’s one important tip that needs to be discussed first.

#4: Creating The Chain…To The Rhythm

Yes, I like Katy Perry, and I also like Taylor Swift. But going on with the blog post…

If you only implement the second and third tip to one of your blog posts, your blog won’t be addictive. Only that one blog post will result in more people sticking around. The rest of your blog posts won’t have the same amount of power.

The more blog posts you write that follow this approach, the more people will stick around. People will go back to a previous blog post you wrote and then decide to visit the other previous blog post on your blog.

Some visitors may end up going through dozens of your blog posts in one sitting. Creating the chain makes that possible.

No matter where one of your readers starts on your blog, that reader can advance to the very beginning or very end of your blog just by reading previous or more recent blog posts.

#5: Provide A Lot Of Valuable Content

Once you have the chain in place, the next step is to grab people with your content. If you do a good job at summarizing past blog posts and introducing upcoming blog posts, then you will get people to browse through some your content.

However, the only way people will browse through your content for a long period of time is if the content is valuable.

Valuable content adds the wow factor that makes people happy they spent time on your blog. The actual Marvel movies grab our attention because we know they are going to be awesome.

Once they have our attention, they know how to keep it and make our mouths water as we await the next movie.

Providing a lot of valuable content allows you to get the attention. Everything else allows you to keep that attention and make your readers’ mouths water as they await your next blog post.

It’s great to provide valuable content. It’s even better to provide a lot of valuable content. However, providing a lot of valuable content can potentially create a problem.

~FREE BOOK: Content Marketing Secrets (grab your free copy here)~

#6: Make Sure Your Blog Is Easy To Navigate Through

Having a lot of content on your blog can potentially make it difficult for your readers to navigate through your blog.

You can easily solve this problem by creating categories so your readers can easily access blog posts about specific topics.

Then you need to clearly display those categories so your readers know how they can access your blog posts about a specific topic. Few people do this better than Jeff Bullas.

Click on any of those links and you will only see blog posts associated with the category you chose. It’s a simple but ingenious way to make it easier for people to navigate through your blog.

You can also make it easier for people to navigate through your blog with a menu bar that focuses on categories. Mashable is one of the websites that places a strong focus on providing categories in its menu.

Mashable Categories

Once you have these six tips down, it’s just about smooth sailing. But there’s one more tip that provides the icing on the cake.

#7: Cap It Off With A Great Story

As readers spend more time on your blog, they will become curious about who you are.

If you spent an hour on someone’s blog, wouldn’t you want to learn a little more about that blogger?

If you are like most people, the answer is yes. And it’s easy for readers to access your story (that you provided on your blog). Many blogs use “About Me” as the page name for the bio.

Readers understand this. They will click on the About Me section and read through your story.

If you have a captivating (and true) story about your journey, then people will remember you for your story and your valuable content. That’s the perfect combination.

Some people at this point will argue that they don’t have a captivating story. My argument back is that no matter who you are, you have a captivating story.

Some people refuse to admit their greatness. Don’t be one of those people. Let people know about your story, and then they’ll come back for more. You may even go viral for your story.

Also, storytelling is one of the most important skills you can ever learn as a marketer and for life in general.

In Conclusion

Making your blog crazy addictive requires a crazy (but doable) amount of work. You get what you put into it.

The most successful blogs are the ones we can’t get away from. We think about them every day and eagerly await new blog posts. We look forward to receiving an email blast each time new methods get discussed.

Most importantly, we enjoy reading through the blog posts. We either get empowered or entertained. Choose which of the two paths your blog will take, pursue that path, and be sure to make your blog crazy addictive.

Which of these tips was your favorite? Do you have any other tips on making a blog crazy addictive? Which blog do you find yourself coming back to again and again (if it is not this one, I will not be offended. We can still be friends)? Sound off in the comments section below.

5 Blogging Tasks You Must Outsource Now

December 18, 2015 by Marc Guberti 2 Comments

The biggest lesson I recently learned is that outsourcing most of your work is essential. The way people increase their productivity when they “hit a peak” is by outsourcing.

For a long time, I was a lone wolf. I managed to make it, but making it wasn’t good enough for me. I wanted to excel.

The way my workload and schedule were set up, I had no extra time to excel. At the time, it seemed like a legitimate excuse.

It’s funny how when we make excuses, the sound legitimate to us at the time. Outsourcing most of my workload eliminated that excuse.

Most of my social media activity is now outsourced. Outsourcing is the only reason I could focus more of my time towards Udemy and still write these blog posts.

It was scary to hand over some of my power to someone else, but it was worth it. You need a team of freelancers who can lighten your workload.

Now with social media outsourcing mastered, my eyes are now set to outsourcing many of the activities that happen on this blog. The end goal is that I only do two things with this blog:

Write content
Engage with readers like you in the comments section
Promote my content (and most of that is outsourced)

Everything else I do with this blog stands in my way. That’s how I choose to see it. I have outsourced many activities that once stood in my way. The result: more time for myself and my business.

So what should every blogger outsource right now? Here are the big five:

#1: Editor

No matter how great you are at writing content, you are bound to make some mistakes. You wouldn’t want a typo ruining the way people perceive your blog—and even worse—how they perceive you.

With so many blogs on the web, we expect a great experience. Any flaw has the potential to depreciate the experience.

Depending on how many blog posts you write, proofreading your blog posts may take up hours of your time every week. The worst part is that you may skip over the mistakes as you rush to read your blog posts.

If you proofread your blog posts too early, you may not even notice the mistakes. Here’s where a proofreader comes in.

Right when you finish writing a blog post, you can submit that blog post to the proofreader. Then, have that proofreader double-check your blog post for any errors. You can even ask this proofreader to add additional value to your content or reword certain paragraphs.

When I proofread my blog posts, I rely on spell check. Sometimes I will proofread my blog posts from start to finish, but that takes too much time.

If you find yourself proofreading your blog posts too much (or typos find their way on your blog), you should hire an editor to make sure your content is sharp.

#2: Picture Creation

For the most part, this blog has had a fair amount of eye-popping pictures but also a fair amount of decent pictures. Just like any blogger, I want more eye-popping pictures in my blog posts.

I heard about a free tool called Canva. It is an AMAZING tool for creating free pictures. However, I didn’t have enough time to create awesome pictures with Canva. Some of the pictures I created for my blog posts were nice. Other pictures were decent.

So I decided to outsource that part of my blog.

I no longer create the pictures you see on the top of my blog posts. I hire a freelancer who knows far more than I do about creating eye-popping pictures.

It would take me 10 minutes just to create a picture and insert it into the blog post. The same process now takes me less than 15 seconds (I just get the provided picture and insert it into the blog post).

In other words, I shaved off 9 minutes and 45 seconds from the blog scheduling process—for each blog post I schedule.

All of that extra time adds up.

#3: Content Research

Providing data to support your content will give you more authority in your niche. There is a difference between saying, “Twitter is great for business” and providing credible statistics and facts that explain why Twitter is great for business.

That data comes from content research. It is simply the process of using Google or Bing to find articles and information that would strengthen your content.

Some blogs rely more heavily on content research than others. If you find yourself Googling and Binging too often for the sake of your content, a content researcher is the next person you should hire.

Even if you know how to find the right information to strengthen your content, outsource the work.

Successful entrepreneurs don’t exclusively outsource that tasks they don’t know how to do. They also outsource the time consuming tasks, even if the task is relatively simple. Time is money, and entrepreneurs always need more time.

#4: SEO

Let’s be honest. SEO is a bear. Technically, it’s a panda or penguin depending on what Google chooses to call it. Of course, the updates are named after the innocent animals that we aren’t scared of.

But for many people, SEO is this giant maze that seems to double in size when you think the finish line is near.

And if you are one of the people who knows a lot about keyword research and SEO, then you know it takes a large amount of time.

Which keywords to choose? What description would work the best? So many questions and so much work once you know the answers.

Outsourcing your blog’s SEO solves that problem.

However, you want to be very careful when you outsource your blog’s SEO. There is a lot of contradictory advice and not all SEO experts are actually experts.

If you choose to hire a freelancer, ask that freelancer who he/she has already worked for and how much the freelancer knows. If you know a lot about SEO, simply tell the freelancer what you would do and then have the freelancer do it.

#5: Someone To Add The Finishing Touches

Consistent bloggers almost never hit the “Publish” button. We click the “Schedule” button. We must designate the time and date in which all of our blog posts must be published.

Then we add categories and tags to our blog posts to make it easier for readers to navigate through our blogs.

Depending on your blog, you may have numerous finishing touches to make once you write the content and have all of the picture ready.

I have to play around with the HTML to make the big text a specific size. Here is the HTML I manually type in to make the big text the way it is:

<span style=“font-size: x-large;”>#5 Someone To Add The Finishing Touches</span>

Manually making that change takes up time too, and I am sure you have to make similar finishing touches.

Imagine if those finishing touches were all done for you. Outsourcing those finishing touches to other freelancers makes that possible.

In Conclusion

As first glance, outsourcing is scary. Outsourcing requires trust and a willingness to hand over some of your workload to someone else.

Once you become comfortable with outsourcing, you will quickly find extra time in your day. Imagine half of your workload suddenly getting taken off of your shoulders.

The amount of time you would save. The goals you would accomplish. Just imagine it.

Outsourcing makes it possible. Out of all of the tasks associated with a successful blog, those five tasks are the ones you need to look into outsourcing now.

Even if you can’t outsource all five of those tasks now, outsource at least one of those tasks.

Which of these tasks do you think is the most important to outsource? Do you know any other tasks in the blogging process that you believe should be outsourced? Sound off in the comments section below.

The Secret Sauce To Getting More Done

December 16, 2015 by Marc Guberti 2 Comments

If you do something every day for about 66 days, it becomes a habit. Something that you couldn’t imagine doing at all suddenly becomes common in your life a little over two months later. When 2015 began, one of my family’s goals for the year was to sell the piano in our garage.

In mid-August we made a sale, but by a stroke of luck, it was that moment when I wanted to play the piano every day. I hadn’t even touched it for a few years. Now I wanted to play it every day. Sale canceled.

My decision shocked us all. I knew at that point I was automatically committed to playing the piano every day. However, I had to build the commitment. A few months later and now I’m playing the piano every day.

On some days, I am playing the piano for more time than I spend on my business. How did that happen? The first reason is because I quickly fell in love with it. The second reason is that I set forth a plan to get me from Day 0 to Day 66. I knew that once I was playing the piano on the 66th day, it would be effortless for me to play the piano every day.

As a productivity expert, I knew many tricks of the trade. The best way to perform a task every day is to give yourself a productivity spreadsheet. For the piano, I would identify what songs I had to play and what exercises I had to perform to allow my fingers to cover a greater range of the keyboard.

Before I turn this blog into a musical blog, I’ll shift back to business. You don’t have to play the piano to utilize this method. In fact, I use productivity spreadsheets do create videos for my training courses every day. Productivity spreadsheets are the main reason why I can create numerous videos every day but still have time for the piano.

Productivity spreadsheets work like this:

#1: Have A Physical Calendar

Yes, a physical one. I am what some people would call a digital native. Just as people describe this current generation as Generation Z, many people refer to the people in this generation as the digital natives.

However, this is something that you can’t do on a device. There is something about writing down your dreams and goals on a piece of paper that you don’t get by typing them on the screen.

I tend to take a piece of paper and fill in the boxes and form my calendar. All of the boxes and numbers are drawn on the paper with a marker. That’s how seriously I take the idea of having a physical, non-digital calendar. And I’m a digital native. Let that sink in.

#2: Apply The Seinfeld Method

The Seinfeld Method is one of the best ways known to mankind to stay accountable. You simply put an “X” on all of the days that you complete the task. Then, keep the streak of “X’s” going. I used to have a calendar of “X’s” for playing the piano every day. Each time I could write another “X” on the calendar, I felt more accomplished.

I no longer have a calendar for “X’s” for playing the piano because it’s habitual. I don’t even think about it. I just do it.

That’s all a productivity spreadsheet is (fine, you can call them calendars but I personally think spreadsheet sounds cooler). However, how do we fully utilize those productivity spreadsheets so they allow us to be more productive? These are two power tips:

#1: Identify What You Will Do The Night Before

The best time to plan your day is the night before. At nighttime, we aren’t in the rigorous workflow state of the mind. At night, we tend to be more creative since there are fewer boundaries. Think about what your schedule looks like at 1 pm. You could be doing so many different things at 1 pm.

So, as an extreme example, what are you doing at 1 am. Chances are you aren’t working. You are either sleeping or are absolutely fried.

The longer we stay up, the less productive we become. It is at this time, just before going to bed, when we need to identify what we will do on the following day. That way, we can wake up knowing what we must accomplish.

You don’t want to think about what your day will comprise of in the morning because at that point, you are losing too much valuable time. Your first hour dictates how the rest of your day goes. Have a productive first hour, and you will probably have a more productive day.

#2: Take The Path Of Least Resistance

Let’s say you want to create video every day and turn that into a habit. You have done some videos here and there but are still not super comfortable with the whole process. I give you two options:

You must complete at least one five-minute video per day
You must complete at least 10 five-minute videos per day

It would be more incredible to do the 10 videos. However, that’s not how we become productive. We are creatures of habit who hate dramatic changes. We can achieve dramatic changes by taking one step at a time.

Most people like to view dramatic change as a colossal leap. That colossal leap is simply the combined total of a series of smaller leaps taken in advance.

To turn a task into a habit, you must perform that task every day for 66 days. It is easier in the beginning to turn one video per day into a habit than it is to turn 10 videos per day into a habit. Focusing on completing a minimum of one video per day allows you to build a strong foundation. That strong foundation results in habit formation.

Finally, once you have the strong foundation, and you choose to strengthen it, you can eventually get to the point of completing at least 10 five-minute videos per day.

In the beginning, you aren’t going for workload. You are going for consecutive days of completion. Only pay attention to the workload after the 66th day.

In Conclusion

If you want to turn your newest tasks into effortless habits, then you need to create productivity spreadsheets for those tasks. The key to becoming productive is to do a little bit each day. Once you have a solid foundation, you can begin to expand upon that foundation.

What are your thoughts about the productivity spreadsheet method? Which of these methods did you like the most? What are your tips for boosting productivity? Sound off in the comments section below.

4 Characteristics Of Thriving Social Media Users

December 14, 2015 by Marc Guberti Leave a Comment

How do they do it? I’m talking about the social media users who have large audiences. The social media users that went from zero to hundreds of thousands of followers. It was a question I often asked myself. I wondered if there was some type of secret formula they used.

Yes, there are some saucy methods involved. However, going from not knowing anything about social media to growing a massive audience is epic. A close look at the surface of these individuals quickly reveals how they became successful on social media.

People like to think there’s some secret sauce involved, but these basic characteristics that they share. It turns out we know most of these characteristics already, but they are the key to success on social media. In addition, knowing and doing are two different things.

#1: They Use It The Right Way Every Day

Most of us are good at using social media every day. Successful social media users use it more productively than the common social media user. They look for targeted audiences, engage with those targeted audiences, and provide them with awesome content.

The intent of a successful social media user is to humor the audience or to empower the audience with knowledge. Successful social media users think, “How can I create a better experience?” before they think, “How can I get more followers?”

Use social media in a powerful way, and you are bound to see powerful results.

#2: They Are Patient

You’ve heard this tip for just about everything in your life. Be patient if you want to run faster times. Be patient if you want to be a singer. Be patient, be patient, be patient (I think we all get the point).

But sure enough, patience plays a role yet again. Successful social media users eventually shift to the question “How can I reach out to more people?” Recognize they aren’t asking themselves how to make the “follower” number bigger. They want to reach and empower as many people as possible using social media.

When you first commit to growing a large social media audience, it takes time. Part of the reason is that when you first start, you won’t know everything. Successful social media users now gain hundreds of followers every day. But there was a time when these same social media users struggled to gain five followers in a given day.

Patience got these users from gaining five followers per day to gaining hundreds of followers per day.

#3: They Are Always Hungry For Knowledge

When a new social network is launched, there are two types of pioneers who grow large audiences on the new social network: The Rare Pioneer and the Expected Pioneer. The Rare Pioneer is someone who isn’t successful on any other social network. However, this Rare Pioneer loves the new social network and quickly masters it. Then, people start following this Rare Pioneer on all of the other social networks.

The Expected Pioneer is the successful social media user expanding his/her platform. The Expected Pioneer gets into the action as soon as possible. Since a new social network is getting a lot of sign-ups, it is normal to get a lot of followers just by posting something.

I did two Periscope broadcasts on the day Periscope came out. I assure you that both of them were subpar at best. For one of them, I didn’t even know I was recording a live broadcast. In the first three days after Periscope was launched, I had over 2,000 followers.

Successful social media users often acquire more knowledge by extending themselves onto other social networks. While they wait for a new social network to come out, they are reading blog posts, reading books, and watching videos about social media. They want to be connected with other successful social media users so they can learn more about the platform and build relationships.

Since you are at this point of the blog post, then you hunger for knowledge too. However, you must always hunger for knowledge and want as much of it as possible—even when you too are a successful social media user.

#4: At One Point, They Focused On One Social Network

The social media world is as easy or as complicated as you make of it. Unfortunately, most of us want to make the social media world as complicated for ourselves as possible. We’re tweeting on Twitter, pinning on Pinterest, posting on Facebook, uploading videos to YouTube, and sharing our pictures on Instagram. We’re catching up with the news about Periscope and Blab and still trying to find some time to get the Vine in.

Successful social media users utilize an arsenal of social networks. However, in the beginning of their journeys, the eventual successful social media users would stick with one social network. They tend to master one social network from the inside-out before they try to master another social network.

I view social media mastery in the same way a linguist would view mastering the romance languages. There are two approaches to mastering a series of languages:

Approach #1: I give you flash cards, proper phrases, and Rosetta Stone for French, Spanish, German, Portuguese, and Italian. You have to master all of these languages at the same time.

Approach #2: I give you everything I gave you in the first approach. However, you choose one language and commit yourself to mastering that one language. You only start learning another language once you have mastered the first language you are trying to master.

Give me Approach #2 any day of the week. This is the same way in which we must view social media.

Do all social media users go with the second approach? I would say about 99% of them do, and you can tell. One way you can tell is by the content they write on their blogs. If you go through this blog, you’ll discover that the first social network I discussed in great detail was Twitter. That’s because Twitter was the first social network that I strived to master.

You can also figure out the first social network a successful social media user mastered by looking at the audience sizes of their social networks. Most of the successful social media users will have large audiences elsewhere, but the social network they started on will almost always have the largest audience.

Out of all of my social media accounts, my Twitter account by far has the largest audience. That could change in the future depending on how much I invest into Facebook likes, but right now, Twitter by far has the largest percentage of my social media audience.

If you find me on social media, chances are you’ll find me on Twitter first before you find me on any of my other social networks.

In Conclusion

In our search for the secret sauce, we ignore the recipe on the kitchen door. All successful social media users achieved their success in large part because of these four characteristics. These four characteristics were the foundation that led to the acquisition of other skills.

Those skills combined with these characteristics allow social media users to become successful. These characteristics give you the GPS needed to achieve social media success. You can’t see how many miles you are away from your destination, but you’ll know that the path you are heading on is the right path for you.

Which of these characteristics do you think is the most important? Do you think there are any other defining characteristics of successful social media users? Sound off in the comments section below.