Marc's Blog

4 Secret Methods To Get More Landing Page Traffic

December 11, 2015 by Marc Guberti 2 Comments

If you were a Jedi Knight, your landing page would be your lightsaber. It is the life-line of your blog.

The landing page allows you to grow your email list by offering a free eBook, report, or video. The free prize encourages people to enter their email addresses into the form. Here’s my most popular landing page:

Landing Page

Since the landing page is like my lightsaber, I want to direct as much traffic to it as possible. I promote it like it’s my gem.

To be a successful blogger with a big email list, you must promote your landing page like it’s the gem of your blog.

I ran through some of the more common methods of promotion in a previous blog post.

This blog post is going to discuss the less traditional methods. These secret methods don’t get as much attention, but they are critical nevertheless.

These are the four secret methods to get more landing page traffic.

#1: Link To It In Your Social Media Bios

Many people believe that they should have a link to their website in their bio. That’s only half true.

Yes, you want a link to your website. However, you have full control over which page on your website you link to.

On my social media accounts, I link to my landing page. Take a look at my Twitter bio. The link isn’t “marcguberti.com.” The link is to my landing page.

Twitter Bio

It’s the simplest change you can make to get more traffic to your landing page.

#2: Link To It In Guest Posts

All guest blogs allow you to write a bio for yourself. If you give them content, and you aren’t a ghostwriter, they will feature you as the author.

Most guest blogs provide you with the opportunity to talk about yourself in a few sentences. Within that small blurb, you need to create a call-to-action.

After people read your guest post, you want people to get led away from that guest post and to your landing page.

But how?

The easiest way is to tell people about your landing page in your bio:

Business2Community Bio

The blurb at the bottom of the guest post matters the most. On Business2Community, my bio could be several paragraphs long.

However, the small blurb only contains a few lines of my long bio. I put the landing page at the beginning of the bio so it makes it into the blurb.

After reading the guest post, people will then click the link and go to my landing page.

Some guest bloggers will let you link to various posts on your blog throughout the guest post. One of those links should be to your landing page.

Capitalize on any opportunity you get to promote your landing page in your guest post. Of course, if you link to your landing page 10 times in the same guest post, people will get annoyed. The person who owns the guest blog probably won’t want you back.

But don’t be afraid of promoting the landing page in your guest posts. It’s the gem of your blog. It’s your lightsaber.

#3: Share The Landing Pages On All Of Your Social Networks More Often

On the surface, this method doesn’t seem like a secret. If anything, it seems like the most common method out there. Promote on social media and that’s where the magic happens.

But within that surface lies some secrets.

It’s not good enough to promote a landing page once in a while. It’s not even good enough to promote the same landing page several times per day.

I tweet about my landing page every other hour. That’s the amount of effort it takes to maximize the landing page traffic you get from Twitter. On Facebook, I am posting a link to one of my landing pages every day.

I share my landing pages as much as possible without annoying my audience. That’s how you get traffic to a landing page from social media without paying a penny.

You can use social media advertising to speed up the process, but I recommend avoiding social media ads until you feel more comfortable with social media.

#4: Have Your Own Affiliate Network

I was recently involved in an affiliate opportunity where I promoted a high-priced training course. I received over $100 in commissions for every sale I made.

I saw other affiliate marketers take part in the promotion of other people’s training courses. I knew that it was lucrative.

What I didn’t know is that affiliate marketing done right can help you dramatically grow your email list.

Part of the affiliate promotion was to promote the landing page with the preset autoresponder. In other words, part of the affiliate promotion was me and every other affiliate helping one person grow his email list.

We made money too, but we also helped to grow an email list.

There was a competition in place where the Top 5 people received some awesome prizes (Apple products or a TV depending on placement. People who didn’t want the prize could just get additional cash instead).

I finished in 17th place. It was very fitting since I was 17 years old at the time of the affiliate promotion. I brought in 139 opt-ins.

I was by no means the biggest player in the affiliate promotion. The numbers of everyone else didn’t get published, but since 16 people were ahead of me, here’s what I do know:

The 17 of us put together brought in at least 2,400 subscribers. I wouldn’t be shocked if in less than a month, all of us put together brought in 5,000-10,000 new opt-ins.
My username was a41 so my guess is that I was the 41st affiliate. Chances are over 100 people promoted the training course and landing page.

Creating your own affiliate network is where the magic happens. It’s how a lot of marketers make their money nowadays. If you have the right affiliate network in place, that can also mean thousands of new subscribers for you in just a few days.

Imagine the most influential people in your niche promoting your landing page to their audiences. That’s what can happen with an affiliate promotion in place.

I’ll just let that sink in as I move on to the conclusion.

In Conclusion

There are many ways to promote a landing page. Some of those methods will lead to some traffic while other methods can completely transform your business.

The only way to know which methods will yield the best results is to give them a try. Then you will know for certain which methods work the best.

Which of these methods was your favorite? Do you know any other methods for getting more landing page traffic? Sound off in the comments section below.

How To Find Your Voice On The Web

December 9, 2015 by Marc Guberti 6 Comments

What do you stand for? What makes you who you are? How can you use that to build an authority and find your on the web?

These three questions are commonly discussed. We want to chase our passions and make money by doing what we love to do.

We spend about 33% of our lives working. That’s a lot of time to either be happy or sad. Finding your voice on the web allows you to gradually build an authority.

Before you can build an authority, you need to find your voice. Here’s how:

Ask Yourself This Question

What is your purpose?

This question will allow you to learn a lot about yourself. If you ask yourself this question every day, you will eventually discover what your purpose is.

Your purpose is the reason you are here. You build your voice around your purpose so you enjoy what you do.

If you are having difficulty finding your purpose, just ask yourself what you like doing. If you don’t like to do something, then it isn’t for you.

In other words, your purpose won’t be to do something that you hate. That’s not living life to its fullest potential.

Your purpose is to do more than to survive. Your purpose is to thrive in a certain area. Where you are to thrive will open itself up if you search for it.

Find Role Models Who Are Fulfilling Your Purpose

Chances are some people already live the way you want to. Their fulfilled purposes parallel with your purpose that you want to fulfill.

There are two ways to look at people who are already where you want to be. Each viewpoint also presents its different consequences:

#1: Envy. You will wish you were in that person’s position and hope to see that person falls. If you can’t have it, neither can the other person. Envy guarantees failure.

#2: Admiration. You recognize that the same people fulfilling the purpose you wish to fulfill started out where you are now. These people then become your role models and help you achieve success. Admire others and soon enough others will admire you.

I have many role models, and I admire them all. This admiration allowed me to become a better individual. Instead of wishing I was them, I use them as motivation.

That’s how we should view all of our role models.

Put In The Work

Identifying your purpose lets you know what you have to do. Finding role models lets you see who is living out your purpose the right way, and who you should use for inspiration.

Once you have these first two steps done, the next step is to simply put in the work.

No matter what blog post you read about becoming successful or doing something incredible, putting in the work will show up in one way or the other.

You don’t become an athlete without putting in the work. You don’t become a bestselling author without putting in the work.

And you definitely don’t become a successful entrepreneur without putting in the work.

Identify the type of work you must put in, and then simply put in the work every day. Regardless of how much work you put in every day, it is critical to put in the work daily.

Putting in the work every day will eventually turn that work into a habit. Eventually, you won’t even think about it as work.

It is better to do the work for 15 minutes every day than it is to only do three hours over the weekend but do nothing during the weekdays.

Mathematically, that doesn’t make much sense. 15 minutes per day does not add up to three hours (it only adds up to 1 hour and 45 minutes).

The importance is that 15 minutes per day turns the work into a habit. Once you turn the work into a habit, it becomes effortless.

If you have time in your schedule, it won’t take long before you can comfortably perform the same work for 30 minutes each day.

It becomes more fun. You get more productive. You feel comfortable doing what you do.

It is better to be consistent than it is to get all of the work done in one day.

Reflect And See If This Is Right For You

After you put in the work, you now have the opportunity to reflect. Is this really something that you want to do for the rest of your life?

Some people will say yes while others will say no.

All that matters is what you say.

If you believe you are on the right track, then stay on that track. If you don’t believe your current path is for you, then get on another path.

The moment you lose belief in yourself is when everything gradually falls apart (unless you change).

I like to reflect by writing in a journal every night. Before I go to bed, I write about the dreams I am chasing after. Writing in my journal every night reinforces the idea that my dreams are worth it and that I must get them.

Everything I am feeling in my mind lands on the journal. The cool part is that many months later, I will look back at those entries and see what I was thinking at the time.

A journal doesn’t cost much. The experiences it provides you with as you chase your dreams may become unforgettable.

In Conclusion

Finding your voice lets you know what you must be. The work that helps you amplify your voice and live life the way you want to matters more than any of your other workload.

Put in the work to achieve your dreams, and with patience, your dreams will be achieved. Patience is the most important part of the process. Few people have it which is why compared to the world population, few people are successful.

Which part of this process do you think is the most important? Do you have any other tips for us to find our voices and build authorities around them? Sound off in the comments section below.

What To Do When You Get Discouraged

December 7, 2015 by Marc Guberti 2 Comments

Is it worth it?

When I started out, I found myself asking myself this question too often. My confidence wasn’t what it is now.

Was it worth it to start a blog and put in that much effort? Is all of the time I am spending on Twitter amounting to anything? Does my age put me at a disadvantage?

The transition from hobby to business was stressful in the short-term. In the long-term, it was a great decision.

Regardless of what I got discouraged about, I knew it was essential to shake off the discouragement as quickly as possible.

It’s easier said than done. But the doing part isn’t as hard as most people think. It usually takes me 5-10 minutes to shake off any discouragement.

I’m not a superhuman. I just know my ideal response to discouragement. Creating responses to challenges makes it easier for you to conquer those challenges.

Once I shake off the discouragement, I go back to my work feeling more reinvigorated than ever.

The way I respond to any type of discouragement can be replicated by any individual. Here’s my three step process:

#1: Listen To Motivational Songs

Music plays a big role in our culture. It’s also played a big role in cultures that existed thousands of years before our current culture.

One truth about music is that some of the songs we listen to impact the way we feel. Some songs automatically make us feel happy while other songs automatically make us feel sad.

Listen to the songs that make you feel motivated. Put an entire playlist together if you have to. The right songs can give you enough motivation for you to shake off the discouragement.

Certain songs are guaranteed to motivate you based on the way you interpret them. These are the songs you need to listen to the most.

There is one song that I always listen to when I feel discouraged. The song I choose to listen to doesn’t matter for the purposes of this blog post (but I promise it’s clean).

The way I interpret the song may be different from how you would interpret the song, so you may not get as motivated by it.

Anyway, there is a song you’ve heard for years that holds a deep meaning in your heart. That’s the song you need to listen to…not the song that I listen to.

#2: Take Some Type Of Action

Every type of motivation you receive is just temporary motivation. It eventually fades away and must then be replaced with another form of motivation.

Idle around after listening to the song, and then that song loses its effectiveness.

Listening to the song is meant to provide you with motivation to take action. Regardless of how significant or minuscule your action looks, take action.

If you are in the middle of writing a book, and you take a break to listen to your favorite song, make it a point to write more content for your book.

Regardless of whether the song motivates you to write an extra 500 words or an extra 5,000 words, you need to take some form of action.

Taking a small action will make you feel better about the task ahead of you. Back when I would get discouraged from doing videos, I would listen to a motivational song.

Then I would go back to creating videos. Each time I listened to the motivational song, I made more progress.

#3: Plan For Next Time

You’ll have to write more words for that book the following day. You will have to put in the work tomorrow just as you did today.

At this stage of the three step process, your motivation is at a high point. When your motivation is at a high point, you do everything you can while your motivation is at its high point.

After I take some type of action, I plan out how I will take my next action. The night before, I will always identify what I must do the following day.

That way, I’m not thinking about what I must do. I already know what I must do.

The more prepared you are for what lay ahead, the more motivated you will feel to tackle the big challenges. Then, discouragement gets washed away.

Continue To Believe

This three step process helps you shake off discouragement. We get discouraged during challenging situations. This discouragement happens to be a part of the hero’s cycle.

It’s natural to feel discouraged in the middle of a challenge. The people we admire felt discouraged at some point in their lives.

They wondered if what they were doing was worth it. They wondered if they could fulfill their dreams. They wondered if they could.

It turns out they could. And we can. The amount of belief you have for yourself determines how far you go in life.

We are all like Ferraris. We have potential to do great things in our lives. Not believing in yourself is like hoping the Ferrari with an empty tank will provide an epic driving experience.

The Ferrari can provide an epic driving experience. Without any gas, it’s no better than a used car from the 1990s.

Choose to believe in yourself throughout your journey. You’ll be glad you did.

In Conclusion

Discouragement hinders our progress. It makes us doubt and wonder if what we are doing is worth the effort.

The way to beat discouragement is with overwhelming motivation. Motivation isn’t challenging to acquire. Listening to the right songs is a quick way to get an instant boost in motivation.

With that instant boost in motivation, you can then take more action and plan out how you will take even more action in the future.

Motivation will take you far, but motivation isn’t permanent. We must motivate ourselves throughout the day (and often in the simplest ways imaginable) to be our best.

What are your thoughts about this three step process? Do you have any other tips to beat discouragement? Sound off in the comments section below.

5 Facts That Will Change Your View Of Blogging

December 4, 2015 by Marc Guberti 4 Comments

The definition of a blog has rapidly changed. What was once nothing more than an online diary is now the must-have platform for any business. Blogging has transformed from a cocoon to a butterfly and then to an eagle.

Blogging has defied many limits that had a stronghold just a few decades ago.

Our view of blogging is constantly changing with every new day. My view of blogging is always changing based on what I do and what I observe. Out of everything that has impacted my view of blogging, these five facts changed my view of blogging the most.

I am sure they will change the way you view blogging too. You won’t want to miss this list.

#1: Your Blog Is A Novel

That means two things. The first thing is that your blog is going to have a boatload of content. Right now, if I took all of the content on this blog and turn it into a book, it would be over 1,000 pages long.

Part of the reason is that bloggers think of a variety of ideas and turn them into blog posts. The way most bloggers approach blogging is to write about a common topic without structure from one blog post to the next.

What makes people reading today’s blog post then want to read yesterday’s blog post and eagerly wait for the next blog post?

And more specifically, what allows this interest to remain the same regardless of which page your visitor starts on?

When optimized properly, a blog can be more attention grabbing than a novel. That’s because regardless of whether a visitor is reading your first blog post or your 100th blog post, that visitor can still find interesting content that provides a proper transition.

If you start reading a novel at Chapter 10, the novel won’t be as attention grabbing since you missed some of the important stuff. The first blog post a visitor reads on your blog, regardless of when it was published, is (for that person) the first page of your novel.

So how do you transition from one blog post to the next. The answer is to briefly mention the previous blog post and then end with a teaser to the upcoming blog post. No one does this better than Bryan Harris:

Bryan Harris Blogging Strategy

And now for the teaser to the next blog post.

Blog Post Teaser

I am immediately (but non-aggressively) presented with another option and am then told what will come next.

All of his blog posts follow this structure, so it’s easy to get stuck on his blog and lose track of the time. In 2016, you may see something similar on my blog.

#2: Popular Blogs Are Starting To Turn Into Picture Books

When I first wrote blog posts for this blog, I didn’t want to include any pictures. It’s a good thing I changed my mind.

For a while now, I have been posting a picture at the top of all of my blog posts. The picture presents a lead-in that gives people an idea of what they can expect from the blog post. The pictures also generate more social shares for my blog posts.

In light of a common pattern and a 2016 resolution, I am trying something different. I am making it a point to include more pictures throughout my blog posts. I

The human mind processes an images 60,000 times faster than text. That’s powerful.

I like to read several social media blogs to enhance my knowledge. Over the years, these blog posts continue providing valuable content. What I also noticed is that over time, these blog posts also turned into mini picture books.

Some of these blog posts now have over 10 pictures within the blog post. But social media experts aren’t the only ones with picture book style blog posts.

BuzzFeed was built on those types of blog posts. Most of their blog posts are only a few hundred words and stuffed with pictures and GIFs. And it’s been working quite nicely for them.

I recently wrote a guest post for BlueLog. I heard about BlueLog after I wrote a guest post for Jeff Bullas. For both Jeff Bullas and BlueLog, I had to write guest posts that included several pictures throughout the post.

If I didn’t have those extra pictures, my guest posts wouldn’t have been published.

The top people in the game understand the value of pictures. They are providing value in a picture book style. If you are not writing blog posts with multiple pictures per blog post, then you are missing out on engaging with your readers in a more powerful way.

#3: A Successful Blog Is A Team Effort

This is true about so many areas of life, and especially blogging. You need a team around you to grow. Part of the reason is that your team can increase your blog traffic.

When my guest post got published on BlueLog, the people who worked for BlueLog tweeted my guest post several times throughout the day. All of these people have thousands of followers which meant the blog post got a nice pinch of traffic on the day it got published.

When I wrote my guest post for Jeff Bullas, I learned about who helps make his blog a success. He has an editor who proofreads the content, and guest bloggers like me provide him with free content.

If Jeff managed his blog without any help, it would be a very different experience. With Jeff in mind, I decided to ask for help. More specifically, I outsourced parts of the process.

Now I never create the picture that goes on the top of my blog posts. Someone else does that for me. Someone else is growing my Twitter audience by implementing my tactics. Someone else is scheduling my tweets and promoting my content.

If I didn’t have all of this help, I wouldn’t have enough time to explore the opportunities that I am exploring now.

#4: Blog Readers Are Busy Skimmers

Let’s face reality.

When a blogger writes a 1,000+ word blog post (much like this one), readers skim through and look for the most important stuff.

So is it a waste to write these long blog posts? The answer is no. Some people do read through the entire blog post, but most readers are skimmers.

What you have to do is write a blog post for skimmers. Make it easy for your readers to find the key points. For example, using the bold font makes it easy for some of your content to stand out.

Using shorter paragraphs will also make it easier for people to read your blog posts. People don’t want the giant block of text. They want tiny paragraphs.

I once had a policy of no more than five lines per paragraph. Now I’m looking at a maximum of three lines per paragraph. These ridiculously short paragraphs, although numerous, are easier to read than a block of text.

What else works? Using pictures. It’s the main reason more blog posts are turning into picture books. Even if you were just skimming through this blog post and didn’t bother reading this paragraph, I bet my lucky horseshoe that this got your attention.

Picture Attracting Attention

That’s what pictures do. They are much easier for the human mind to process than text. As a result, you get to keep the attention of your readers for a longer period of time.

#5: The Competition Is Thick

Nothing new. But the way you interpret old information can lead to new discoveries.

There are thousands of bloggers doing the same thing as you. You need differentiating factors that give your content a unique voice. That way, your readers will recognize you within the crowd. They’ll remember to return to your blog.

Thick competition also provides more opportunities. Most people think of competitors as bitter enemies. However, you can team up with your competition so you pull each other upward. Writing blog posts about each other will result in more awareness for both of you.

In thick competition, you need to learn how to stand out. However, you also have to learn how your competition can help you and why they would want to help you. That way, you can both work towards a common goal.

In Conclusion

The blogging world changes as the days go by. New possibilities are created and more methods get discovered. The way you view blogging impacts the way you write and structure your blog posts.

It is important to view blogging in light of some of the most important changes that have taken place in blogging. Changing the way you view blogging based on new things you come across will allow you to create a strong view that helps you propel your blog forward.

What are your thoughts about these blogging facts? Which one changed your view of blogging the most? Do you have any nuggets of information that would change the way we view blogging? Sound off in the comments section below.

10 Overlooked Factors Of Productivity

December 2, 2015 by Marc Guberti 2 Comments

I’m going to take a wild guess and say that this is not the first productivity related blog post that you are reading. I have probably read through thousands of them in my lifetime and wouldn’t be surprised if you do the same.

Most of these blog posts talk about the same things: write down goals, make sure you wake up early, and not procrastinating. That’s the tone of most productivity related blog posts.

So I decided to write a productivity blog post that has NOTHING to do with writing down goals, making sure you wake up earlier, and not procrastinating.

Stripping out those parts of the blog post originally made it more challenging to write a blog post like this. However, in this challenge, I was able to come across certain factors of productivity that almost no one talks about.

I have a feeling that there will be at least one tip on this list that you haven’t heard before.

#1: The Music That You Listen To

Music is a big part of our culture. Songs have the ability to change the way we feel and enforce different mindsets upon us. One song can leave you angry while another song can raise your spirits.

Certain songs can increase your productivity by giving you more motivation. As a New Yorker, Empire State Of Mind is my go-to song for boosting my productivity. I listen to it when I feel my productivity is dipping.

After listening to the song, I can go back to work more productive than ever.

When you are doing your work, don’t turn on the radio. You never know what song will come on the radio and most of them will distract you in some way or the other. Instead of listening to songs on the radio as you work, listen to focus noises.

I’m talking about forest noises, rushing water, and other focus noises of that nature. There are many focus noise videos on YouTube designed to boost your productivity.

YouTube Focus Noise Videos

Some of these videos are over 10 hours long. The purpose isn’t for you to watch the entire video. It’s for you to stay productive while the focus noises are playing.

#2: How You Handle Stress

We all get some level of stress. For some of us, stress is rare and doesn’t ruin our day. For other people, stress is frequent and day-destroying. As the workload gets more challenging, the way you respond determines how productive you are.

Life is 10% of what happens to you and 90% of how you respond. The reason you have probably heard that statement many times is because it’s true.

The way to handle stress from your workload is to simply attack the workload. The more time you spend thinking about what stresses you out, the more the stress will build.

If something is stressing you out, just get it done. NOW.

#3: How Often You Exercise

Exercising is one of the most important parts of life. I could have said productivity instead of life, but exercising helps you in so many ways other than productivity.

When I went from middle school to high school, I thought my business would collapse because of the added workload. That was before I even joined the cross country team and got home at 6 pm every day instead of 3 pm.

So at that point, I thought I’d just wait until the summer before doing anything big for my business. What happened?

My business soared contrary to my logic.

As the school work got more challenging, my business soared even more. No, it wasn’t because I got more homework that my school did better. Just making that clear in case one of my teachers reads this particular blog post.

It’s challenging to pinpoint one reason for any business’ success since it’s usually a combination of so many factors. I like to think running every day has a significant part in the equation.

The reason is that exercising every day strengthens two things:

Your muscles (yeah, no surprise there)
Your SUCCESS muscles (repeat please)

After analyzing successful people, watching my business grow, and running every day, I came to a conclusion. The mindset of a consistent runner is the same mindset as a successful person.

Always striving to achieve better results/times. Always looking for a way to do the same job better. Always showing up and putting in the work. Having a team around you.

In that last paragraph, you don’t know whether I’m talking about how to run faster or how to become more successful. That’s because they are both so connected.

Not specifically running, but exercising in general. Running in competitions adds that extra flair though because you get your time, and have something to gauge yourself against.

Even if you exercise with some simply stretches for 10 minutes each day, you are doing yourself (and your productivity) a lot of good.

#4: Your Health

You are what you eat. Food affects your thinking and the way you view the world. We have a different view of our work when we stuff ourselves with French Fries and when we eat a tasty, healthy steak.

Some food makes us want to tackle any work in front of us while other food makes us lazy. Becoming more aware of how you react to certain foods will help you make better food decisions for your health and your productivity.

In addition to becoming more aware of what you eat, adding certain foods to your daily eating habits will boost your productivity.

Certain foods like salmon have been proven to increase productivity (but salmon is one of the best super foods out there. It also makes you happier). Here are some other foods that make us more productive.

#5: The Technology You Use

Ever think of the computer, tablet, or smartphone you are using to read this very blog post? Ever think that your device is aging?

It’s something we don’t often think about. The only time we pay attention to it is when our devices get very slow. Once your device gets very slow, and that same device is a few years old, it’s a sign. You need a new device.

After four years, my Mac Book Pro started getting problems. Safari wouldn’t work at all every other day. Before that, I noticed my computer was getting slower.

A slower device nowadays can be detrimental to productivity. Don’t settle with a slow device. Get a new device so you can accomplish your work in lightning fast speeds.

Slow technology doesn’t only result in a decline in productivity. It also results in an increase in frustration. I made the choice to get a new Mac Book. Now I can get my tasks done faster.

#6: The Breaks You Take And Their Frequency

You must take breaks throughout the day to be productive. If you send too much time working, your productivity will naturally dip over time.

Taking a quick 10-20 minute break every 90 minutes is the ideal way to get as many productive minutes in as possible.

If you are pressed for time, just listen to a 3-10 minute song that motivates you to get stuff done. This isn’t procrastinating. Taking breaks allows you to be more productive in the long-run and avoid being the stickler at work. No one likes those.

#7: The Amount Of Stuff On Your Desk

Your desk gives you an idea of what your mind looks like. If you have a cluttered desk, chances are you have a cluttered mind. You forget to accomplish tasks within their deadlines, and all of the workload stresses you out.

A clean desk indicates a clean state of mind. It’s easier for you to accomplish tasks within their deadlines and do more than the minimum. The way you organize your physical presence affects how your mind is organized.

If you discover that notebooks and papers are accumulating on your desk, then get rid of them. Even if you designate one room and fill it with clutter, as long as you don’t see the clutter as you work, that clutter doesn’t matter.

It won’t impact your productivity in the same way a cluttered desk will.

#8: The Chair You Sit In

This is the one tip that I confidently believe you’ve never seen anywhere else. If you have seen it before, I want a link to the article.

I have worked while sitting in a variety of chairs throughout my life. But that doesn’t make me stand out at all. We have all worked while sitting in a variety of chairs.

When I took SATs, I would sit on multiple chairs in the room until I found the perfect chair for myself. Most of the time, it wouldn’t take more than two tries for me to find the perfect chair before the testing began.

If I moved, and the chair moved with me, I simply got up and went to another chair. Rocking back and forth wasn’t on my To-Do List for taking the SAT.

Broken Chair — Here is an extreme example of a bad chair. What would happen to your productivity if you sat on this?

I look for the chairs with the cushioned seats. These chairs feel more comfortable, and it’s easier for me to focus. Sitting on a wooden or un-cushioned chair doesn’t work for me as well.

At the same time, a chair that is too comfortable will decrease your productivity. At one point, I chose to do my work on a chair with wheels. There were two problems with that choice.

The first problem is that if I slightly moved the chair, my entire body would slightly move. I had to keep the chair still so I could write blog posts. The chairs without wheels don’t give me that problem.

The second problem is that I am a teenager. When I got stuck on an idea, I would spin around and around to pass the time. In the end, I would only think of a good idea when I stopped spinning on the chair and came back to reality.

#9: Your Working Pattern

The way you work determines how much you get done. Establishing a consistent work flow for yourself will make it effortless for you to get work done.

What is a work flow? It’s simply a series of daily rituals you follow that let you know you are on the right track. Once you follow these daily rituals, it will be easier for you to tunnel-vision and focus on getting ONE thing done effectively.

Focusing on getting the daily rituals right eventually turns those daily rituals into a habit. In other words, you are turning productivity and achievement into habits. That’s powerful.

#10: The People Who You Surround Yourself With

The people you surround yourself with impact who you become. If these people are below your level of excellence, you will find yourself stagnant or on the decline.

On the other hand, if you surround yourself with people who are better than you, then you challenge yourself to become better.

When I run, I always run with the people who are better than me. That way, I get more out of each practice and run better at the meets.

I started becoming successful on Udemy when I teamed up with instructors who are better than me. And if you’ve been following a lot of marketers, you’ll notice that they all promote each other and are friends with one another.

Surrounding yourself with people who challenge you to become better will result in you becoming better. You will become more productive and accomplish your goals faster than ever before.

In Conclusion

Productivity is important for anyone—the employee, employer, entrepreneur, parent, and everyone else. While there are the usual methods of boosting productivity, there are also overlooked factors that can also increase your productivity.

Now that you are aware of these overlooked factors of boosting productivity, the next step is to become more aware of how these overlooked factors play out in your life.

Be more observant of the people you hang out with, the music you listen to, what you eat, and how often you exercise. That way, you will know to make small changes that can have a dramatic impact on your productivity.

Which of these tips was your favorite? Do you know of any other overlooked methods of boosting productivity? Sound off in the comments section below.

How To Quickly Get A Ton Of YouTube Views

November 30, 2015 by Marc Guberti 1 Comment

YouTube recently changed the analytics dashboard of every channel. The change made one thing clear: YouTube cares more about minutes watched than the number of views a video has. That makes sense. If a video has over 1 million views but the average view duration is just two seconds, then there’s a problem.

There is now a greater need to create lengthy, high value YouTube videos that grab people’s attention. But even after you create those videos, how do you get the ball rolling? Just because you create an awesome video does not mean YouTube will promote it to the masses.

You need to get the views on your own, but not just any views. Quality views are more important. You want people to watch as much of your YouTube video as possible. So how do you get more YouTube views and minutes watched? That’s what this blog post is all about.

Create Videos Consistently And Frequently

The more often you add videos to your channel, the more often your subscribers will check for new videos. Subscribers who like your videos naturally want to watch more of your videos. If you are consistent and frequent with new video uploads, then your subscribers will know to look at your channel a few times each week.

If you consistently publish videos once every six months, then it’s more difficult for you to grow a devoted fan base.

Even if you don’t have many subscribers, it is important to get comfortable with the process now. Not only will this strategy help you grow your overall audience, but consistently and frequently publishing YouTube videos won’t be a problem once you have thousands of subscribers.

Minutes Watched

YouTube changed the entire analytics dashboard to reflect the importance of minutes watched. We as YouTubers need to change our strategy too. Instead of short videos, it is becoming more important to produce lengthy videos.

One of my most recent YouTube videos was over 45 minutes long. I’m sure people are thinking, “Who would ever watch that entire video?” The truth is that not many people watch it for all 45 minutes.

However, my average viewer watches the YouTube video for over 10 minutes. Minutes watched is a valuable metric, and to get 10 minutes per video is a game changer. One of my other videos about scheduling pins with ViralWoot is about five minutes long.

Even if one of my viewers watches the entire ViralWoot video, the total minutes watched will be less than the average minutes watched for my 45 minute YouTube video.

The short-term results are difficult to see. However, in the long-term, your video is gaining an edge on YouTube’s search engine based on minutes watched. Soon enough, your video will get more views from YouTube’s search engine.

Turbocharge Your Videos With AdWords

For as little as $1 per day, you can get over 100 views for your YouTube video. Add a few extra zeroes next to the price per day and the number of views per day, and the possibilities become clear. Spending $10 per day results in 1,000 views per day.

Of course, your video needs to be optimized to get those types of results. Some tinkering with AdWords may eventually result in an optimized ad that gets $0.01 views for your YouTube video.

AdWords is a very reliable platform to promote your YouTube videos.

Breaking Even With AdWords

The video I currently promote with AdWords promotes my writing course. In addition to the social proof, the AdWords campaign also results in the sales of my training courses. You can break even by promoting YouTube videos that promote your products or landing pages. There are other options too, but products and landing pages seem to be the most popular.

Once you discover how to profit from AdWords, it’s just a matter of feeding the beast.

Promote It To Your Audience

Regardless of how large your current audience is outside of YouTube, you can promote your YouTube video to that audience. When I publish a new YouTube video, I always send a tweet to my Twitter audience. I’ll share it on Facebook and pin it on Pinterest.

I leverage the audiences I have built on other platforms to promote my YouTube videos.

Sometimes, I will even use my email list to promote my YouTube videos. If you are willing to provide valuable videos to your YouTube audience, then you might as well share those videos with your other audiences.

If you don’t have an audience outside of YouTube, ask your friends to spread the word. Create a content marketing strategy in which you contact influencers within your niche and kindly ask them to share your YouTube video.

Many of the most successful entrepreneurs state that it takes more time to market the product than to actually create the product. The same rule applies for YouTube videos. Put in more of your time towards marketing your YouTube video than the amount of time you actually spend creating the video.

If it is not possible for you to invest time towards marketing your YouTube videos, then consider outsourcing that part of your strategy.

In Conclusion

YouTube is changing the rules of success on their platform. The change is a good one. Views are no longer the ultimatum. We now need to go after quality views and create attention-grabbing videos.

We needed to follow these rules before YouTube made its changes. However, the new changes YouTube made have emphasized these rules and put them at the forefront of importance.

What are your thoughts about minutes watched being the key metric for YouTube success? Which of these tips was your favorite? Sound off in the comments section below.