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6 Ways To Grow Your Email List With Social Media

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Grow Your Email List With Social Media

Did you know that your email list reflects your income? This is a powerful statement that has been backed by marketers throughout the industry. Some of the marketers who back this statement have tens of thousands of subscribers. Others have over 1 million. Their earnings don’t lie. The people with tens of thousands of subscribers are making six figure incomes, and the people with millions of subscribers make millions of dollars in income every year.

Many people who focus their time on growing a large social media audience may feel silly, wondering where all of those hours went. I know the feeling. Before I optimized my blog to get more subscribers, my income level would be the same even when my Twitter audience started to grow at a rapid pace. At some points, I wondered why I didn’t just entirely switch from growing my social media audience to growing an email list.

The truth, I quickly realized, is that they both help each other grow. Trying to grow a social media audience and growing an email list at the same time allows those two areas to grow faster than they would if you focused on one area at a time. You can promote your social networks to your email list, and you can promote your landing pages on your social networks.

This article will discuss six of the methods you can use to grow your email list with the help of social media. Stumbling across these methods allowed me to more effectively utilize my Twitter presence. Twitter is now one of my streams of indirect revenue that continues to build my email list, a direct source of revenue. The same can be true for any social networks, but only if you implement these six methods:

 

#1: Pin Your Landing Page To The Top Of Your Social Media Feeds

Twitter and Facebook give its users the option to pin one of their posts to the top of their feeds. These posts automatically get seen by everyone who visits your social media account’s page which gives those pinned posts more visibility. You can use these pinned posts to promote your blog’s landing pages that are designed to get more subscribers.

If you don’t have a landing page for your blog yet, then you need to create one. I use Optimize Press for my landing pages.

 

#2: Promote Your Landing Pages Every Day

Even if your landing page is pinned to the top of your feed, not everyone will check out your feed. Some people who view your tweet or Facebook post may decide to read the post but not click on your name. In these cases, the pinned landing page never gets seen.

That is why it is important to promote your landing page every day. Some social media marketers tweet promote their landing pages 10 times every day. Promoting your landing page every day will give that landing page more attention. The extra attention your landing page gains from constantly getting reposted over a long period of time will lead to more subscribers.

 

#3: Offer An Irresistible Free Prize On Your Landing Page

Landing pages with irresistible free prizes convert better than landing pages without irresistible free prizes. You want your free prizes to align with your niche and your audience’s interests. On this landing page, I give away my eBook 27 Ways To Get More Retweets On Twitter. You want to lead people to a landing page that converts well, not a landing page that simply begs for a name and email address.

 

#4: Create And Promote Multiple Landing Pages 

Once you create one landing page, you can create another landing page with its own free prize, and then another one after that. As you increase your library of free prizes, one of those free prizes is bound to get a visitor’s attention. If you write one book about SEO, another book about social media, and another book about growing an email list, then you will have more free offers that can potentially lead to more subscribers.

You can lead repeat subscribers through different autoresponders based on which list they subscribe to. You can use these autoresponders to provide value and eventually promote one of your products that is related to the free prize. This is a great strategy to get more sales. Kim Garst utilizes this strategy very effectively. She has multiple landing pages that she promotes on Twitter every day, and each of those landing pages has its own autoresponder sequence that promotes her own products that are related to her free prizes.

 

#5: Grow Multiple Social Media Audiences

Once you grow a large audience on a social network, look for the next social network to master. The more social networks you master, and the larger those audiences grow, the more visibility your landing pages will get. More visibility for a landing page never hurt any marketer. You can use some of the revenue you generate from your new subscribers to promote your social networks to the next level. I have been experimenting with buying visibility from Twiends to grow my Twitter audience (this is different from buying fake followers. I would never do that to my reputation), and by the end of 2015, my goal is to utilize Facebook Ads. No matter how large your social media audience is now, it can always grow.

 

#6: Provide Valuable Content

Consistently providing valuable content over a long period of time is what entices people to enter their name and email address on your landing pages. Numerous people who visit your landing pages will have read some of your blog posts. When your potential subscribes decide whether the free prize is truly worthy of an email address or not, those potential subscribers will think of the value you provide in your blog posts.

Providing valuable content for free is okay. It allows you to build the long-term relationships that lead to returning customers.

 

In Conclusion

Social media is the best source of indirect revenue on the web. Where you lead people on your social networks determines how much of your revenue your social networks are responsible for. One of the most powerful ways to generate revenue with your social networks is by promoting landing pages so you can grow your email list. Promoting the landing pages you currently have and create others in the future so you can get more subscribers and put your current subscribers into new autoresponder sequences.

What were your thoughts on the methods discussed in this article? Did you have a favorite? Do you have an additional method that you use to grow your email list with social media? Please share your thoughts and advice below.

7 Ways To Get Your Blog Visitors To Engage With You

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Blog Visitors Engaging

Are you writing valuable blog posts, but you wish more people would leave comments? Do you wish some of your visitors would share your blog posts more often?

The most successful blogs are the ones that get readers to engage with the content. The more readers engage with the content by reading and sharing it, the more likely those readers are to come back, view more of your content, and eventually buy your products. However, the majority of blogs on the web are not getting the amount of engagement they deserve.

Some bloggers are writing valuable content, but that valuable content does not have any comments or social shares to show for it. Even though some of these blog posts may be getting traffic, conversations are not developing, and visitors are not sharing them enough. In order to boost engagement in your blog posts so more people comment and share them, follow these seven methods.

 

#1: Have A Good Headline

Many people read a blog post’s headline to determine whether that blog post is good to read or not. Visitors who get confused by the headline don’t bother reading the rest of the content. It is the catchy, informative, hilarious, stunning, and headlines with numbers/statistics/case studies that bring forth attention. You can either focus on one of those elements or combine multiple elements together. It is possible to write an informative blog post headline with some numbers included. It is also possible to write a blog post headline that indicates a hilarious case study.

One of the easier ways to write better headlines is by looking at how the top people in your niche write their headlines. What are the common patterns that the top people in your niche use? Once you identify top patterns, see how you can replicate these top patterns while putting in your own personal touch.

 

#2: Ask Questions In Your Blog Post

Did you know that asking questions is a great way to perk up a reader’s interest in your content? Asking questions throughout your blog posts, especially at the beginning, adds the conversation component to your blog posts.

Many bloggers write their blog posts like one-sided conversations that basically say, “Do this. Do these other things. Here’s a nice summary of what I said. You’ll do fine.” Some blog posts forget the 4th part because the typical blogger is so focused on providing value. The 4th part is having a conversation with your reader.

Asking questions allows the sense of having a conversation to return to our writing. When you have a conversation with a reader through your writing, that reader will be more likely to continue the conversation by leaving a comment. Maybe the reader enjoyed the conversation so much that the reader will share your blog post on one of her social networks.

 

#3: Encourage Comments In The Final Paragraph

Ask, and you will receive more times than not. Why not give it a try? That’s what I thought when I added a final paragraph that encouraged comments, and I have been pleased with the results. In this final paragraph, you can simply summarize the blog post, ask a few questions, and then ask your readers for their opinion about your article or if they would like to contribute (does the reader have another tip that she would like to share?).

 

#4: Respond To Comments

Asking questions in your blog posts brings back that sense of having a conversation. Commenting allows your readers to continue that conversation. However, many bloggers make the mistake of turning the comments section into a one-sided conversation. These bloggers simply approve each comment they get without responding.

Some of your readers want to have conversations on the web, and if you have a big audience and great credentials, people will enjoy having a conversation with you. There are a group of people with incredible credentials that we would all want to have a conversation with. The people in this group differ for every individual, but we have that group of people who we would like to talk with. Some of your most devoted readers will regard you with such high esteem that, for the reader, you may fall into that special category. When you respond to all of the comments you get, there is a chance that you respond to a reader who greatly appreciates what you do.

You may notice that I make it a point to respond to every comment I get. Responding to comments allows me to build stronger connections with my readers, know who visits often, and even have long conversations with one person about one blog post. Having a conversation with your reader is like giving them the free prize they didn’t expect. Many of them will come back, read your blog often, and comment on other blog posts that you write (and therefore have more conversations with you).

Some readers may feel encouraged to comment because they know I will respond to them. Responding to comments also doubles the total number of comments my blog posts have. If 10 different people comment on one of my blog posts, the blog post actually shows up with 20 comments because I respond to all of the comments.

The higher number builds social proof (a blog post with 20 comments must be getting more attention than a blog post with 10 comments) that leads to more people reading that particular blog post and then leaving their own comments as well.

 

#5: Post Valuable Content

No matter how many questions you ask in your blog post, readers are only going to read a blog post from start to finish if that blog post provides value. The value is ultimately what makes readers read entire blog posts and want to comment at the end. You have no control over whether the reader comments on your blog post or not. The only way your reader is going to comment is if that reader wants to leave a comment.

Valuable content will encourage the reader to leave a comment, often out of gratitude. Then, follow through by responding to the comment, and you may end up having a long conversation with one of your readers. These long conversations are good because some readers who have long conversations with you may feel inclined to buy your products.

 

#6: Make Your Visitors Stay On Your Blog For A Longer Period Of Time

Some of the visitors who stumble across your blog may decide that the first blog post they read is not the right one for them. If a reader interested in Twitter advice first stumbles across about Instagram advice, then the Instagram blog post is not the right one for that particular reader. Many readers who feel as if the content is not the right content for them will look for something else to read (either another article on your blog or someone else’s blog).

It is at this point when many readers click on the back button. On blogs that are optimized to solve this issue, readers who initially did not find what they were looking for don’t click the back button. Instead, they find a desirable article on your blog before clicking the back button. These optimized blogs make it easy for visitors to view categories, popular articles, and the archives. The more organized your blog is, the longer people will stick around.

Another factor that will make people stick around for a longer period of time is the length of your blog posts. Longer blog posts get people to stick around for a longer period of time. In less than one month after writing longer blog posts, I was able to get my visitors to stay on my blog from an average of one minute and 20 seconds to an average of two minutes and 10 seconds. That is a dramatic increase in the blogging industry. Readers who read your content for a longer period of time will be more likely to comment on your articles.

 

#7: Make Visitors Appreciate You

I believe this method is one of the most forgotten methods to get more comments on blog posts. There are some readers who comment on certain blogs because they like the blogger. This is one of the best ways to get more comments on your blog because it establishes a powerful connection between you and the reader. These are the types of connections that lead to returning visitors, subscribers, customers, and opportunities.

 

In Conclusion

Getting more people to comment on your blog posts no longer has to be impossible. Although implementing these tactics may not bring forth overnight results, these methods will help your blog posts get more engagement over the long-term. This engagement is crucial towards strengthening the relationship between you and your readers. You can tell who your most devoted readers are based on the number of comments they have left in the past.

How did you like this blog post? Which tip was your favorite? Do you have any additional tips for us to boost the engagement we get from our blog posts? Please share below.

12 Tips To Increase Your Productivity

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Increase Your ProductivityYour productivity is one of the factors that determines how much you accomplish in your lifetime. The most productive people are the ones who get the celebrity status, the full-time income, and exert the most influence on our culture. The most successful people throughout history have shown the ability to be productive, and many of these people have shown a desire to be more productive than they already were. Productivity is a core element of success, and these 12 tips will help you increase your productivity so that core element of success can be strengthened in your own life.

 

#1: Wake Up Earlier

We are at our peak level of productivity in the morning because we have more willpower in the morning than any other time of the day. In addition, if you get a good amount of sleep (7.5 hours), you will feel refreshed. It is important to work while you feel refreshed instead of starting your work a few minute before you take a nap. When you work, you must be wide awake. If you are feeling drowsy, take the nap before you work. It is better to nap, wake up later, and put in valuable work than it is to work while tired and produce a subpar experience for your existing and potential customers.

 

#2: Write Down Your Goals

Studies have shown that writing down your goals dramatically increases your odds of you accomplishing your goals because it gives you more commitment to accomplish those goals. While typed goals can be deleted, your hand-writing is always there. If you erase with a pencil, you will still see some of your writing from before. If you use white out to remove the goals you wrote with a pen, you will know something (your goals) is underneath the white out.

Writing down your goals also makes it easier to remember them. It is easier to remember something that you repeatedly write down than it is to remember something that you think of but never write down.

Let’s say you wanted to remember the definition of a word like didactic. Here’s the definition:

Didactic—teaching; instructive

If you have never crossed paths with this word, and you wanted to memorize it, you would have to look at it again and again. If you only read this word’s definition once, then you probably won’t remember it a week from now unless you have the perfect memory. Writing the word didactic and its definition will allow you to remember that definition more than simply reading it on your computer’s screen.

 

#3: Have Goals For The Week

Chances are your productivity skyrockets when there is an imminent deadline. It’s one of the universal truths. Many students spend more time on Monday studying for the big test on Wednesday than for the big test on the upcoming Monday. The closer something is, the more we work on it. This ideology is why many New Year’s resolutions fail. They are too far away, and the urgency of those New Year’s resolutions only start to manifest themselves in November.

Imagine how productive you would be if you had a deadline, that sense of urgency, all year round.

Giving yourself goals for the week creates that sense of urgency, the same sense that allows you to get more done. You don’t want your first week to feel overwhelming, so it is important for you to work your way up. Eventually, you will accomplish goals beyond your wildest dreams in just one week. Using this approach allowed me to write 20,000 words in two days when, at one time, I thought it would take me two weeks to reach the same milestone. You may go from writing five blog posts every week to writing five blog posts every day. I should know. When Christmas approached, I put in extra work so I could enjoy the break. Part of the extra work involved me writing as many as 10 blog posts in a given day (and all of them were over 1,000 words long).

 

#4: Create Day By Day Plans

I am a big believer in utilizing stepping stones that allow you to see the steps you need to take in order to accomplish a certain goal. Day by day plans allow you to know what you need to do each day for a week and therefore boost your productivity for that week. In other words, if you want to write 14 blog posts this week, writing two blog posts every day should be a part of your day by day plan.

Day by day plans make your goals for the week look possible. I have gone as far as 18 days with a day by day plan, and they work effectively. We are hardwired to perform steps that are given to us. Therefore, if we give ourselves our own steps to follow (that can, when combined, accomplish your goals for the week), we are already hardwired to accomplish those steps. Granted, don’t expect yourself to write 100 novels in one week if you write that down as a goal, but you will accomplish more than what you thought you were capable of.

 

#5: Know What You Want To Do

Knowing what you want to do in life is just as important as effective planning and everything else that goes along the lines of increasing your productivity. Identify the one thing you want to do in life and spend half of your time pursuing that dream or goal. If you have not read Gary Keller’s The ONE THING, then I recommend grabbing your copy now. Here are more details about why you need to find and focus on your ONE Thing.

 

#6: Raise Your Bar

No matter where we are now, we could both be putting in more effort. I could launch more products, make them more valuable, find more ways to grow my blog, and read more books (among other things). We can never settle with where we are because it is settling with where we are that ultimately makes us disappear in irrelevancy.

The most successful entrepreneurs in the world are not settling, sitting at the beach, and watching the sunset. They are still in the business world, challenging traditional concepts, creating new products, speaking all over the world, and providing more value. Millionaires don’t retire. In fact, some millionaires become billionaires. Millionaires only get to become billionaires by constantly raising their bars higher even when they have enough money to retire.

When you raise your bar, you will challenge yourself to get more accomplished. Raising your bar higher allows you to raise your standard of excellence. Never settle with where you are. We can always do better than we are doing now. The athlete with a four minute and 30 second mile could run faster. There is no fence that stops us from moving forward. The only fences that stop us from moving forward are the ones that we build ourselves.

 

#7: Be Mindful Of Your Internet Browsing

One way to be more productive is by being less unproductive. One of the most unproductive activities people participate in is internet browsing. Whether internet browsing means checking fantasy sports or surfing on YouTube, we can be extremely unproductive on the internet. The internet is a double-edged sword because we can use it to boost our productivity or bring our productivity to a point lower than it ever was before.

When I realize I am surfing the internet too long, I use a tool called Mindful Browsing for Mac laptops and computers which allows me to block any website I choose. I can go back to the website at anytime, but I am notified that it has been blocked, and Mindful Browsing requires that its users wait for 10 seconds before having the ability to unblock a website. I often use Mindful Browsing to block my favorite social networks when I am writing blog posts and books.

 

#8: Unplug Your Computer

When I first stumbled across the method, I could not believe what I was reading. Regardless, I gave the method a try at school, and the results have been incredible. I never bring my charger with my to school, and I have seen my Mac dip below 30% in power. Sure enough, power getting drained from my computer created a sense of urgency where I focused on doing what was truly important. Less time for social media and checking statistics. More time for writing blog posts and books.

 

#9: Think Small Wins

Big wins, the typical wins we strive for, are just a series of small wins carried out over a long period of time. Thinking small wins allows you to turn accomplishment into habit. If you see yourself performing dozens of small wins every day (i.e. successfully walking the dog, writing a blog post, reading an article on the web), then it will be easier for you to accomplish the small wins that lead to big results.

 

#10: Say No 

In many cases, I have become comfortable with saying no. I say no to certain types of work and opportunities that are not worth the effort. Saying no may be painful for some people, but saying no is critical towards your success as an entrepreneur. Saying no to time consuming activities allows you to focus more of your time on your work.

Sure enough, there are people who want to make everyone happy and be the “yes-men” of our generation. However, most of these people make others happy at the expense of their own happiness. You should never give up your happiness by saying yes too often. Not only does saying yes too often have the potential to damage your happiness, but in everything, there are tradeoffs. Not only should you think of what you are saying yes to, but you are also think of what you are saying no to. If you say yes to a friend’s request to attend a party (even if you don’t want to go), then you are saying no to your work and getting closer to accomplishing your goals that evening.

 

#11: Work Non-Stop In The Morning

Remember when I mentioned that you need to wake up earlier? Not only should you wake up earlier, but your entire morning should be dedicated to your work. It is the mornings when we are the most productive. If you want to talk with friends on the phone or play a game, then do so in the afternoon. The first hour of your day dictates how the rest of that day will go, so make that first hour and your entire morning count.

 

#12: Believe In Yourself

These tips only work for the individuals who believe in themselves. If you go through these tips without believing in your own abilities, then the thoughts of self-doubt and unworthiness will creep in. In reality, we are all worthy, and we are all miracles. The web has given us the power to share our unique messages to billions of people.

 

In Conclusion

Productive individuals are the ones who are leading their stampedes. Productivity sparks product creation, writing, and brings various areas of your business to the next level. Individuals who plan ahead are many steps ahead of the competition because they have a series of steps to follow, and our minds are hardwired to follow steps given to us. Major corporations have their marketing campaigns and plans scheduled years in advance. Planning works.

Without the belief in your own abilities, none of this will work. You need to build on the confidence you have and realize that you are valuable to the world. As Seth Godin would say, “The world is waiting. Now, go make a ruckus.”

How To Make Your Blog Hit A Tipping Point

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Blog Tipping Point

The tipping point is one of the most desired points to hit for any blogger. The tipping point represents a giant surge of traffic that increases beyond expectations. It is the type of traffic that takes a blog from a few hundred visitors every month to thousands of daily visitors in a relatively short period of time.

When my blog hit its tipping point, it originally got 500 views every month. Then, month by month, my viewership doubled until this blog got to 25,000 monthly views. It only took a few months to make that big transition. While this transition was taking place, I was utilizing many tools and resources to grow my presence, but I did not know everything that I know now. In order to make your blog hit a tipping point, these are the six things you need to focus on:

 

#1: Provide Valuable Content

Promoting your content only goes so far. One thing that determines your success as a blogger is how many people promote your content. Few people are capable of making content go viral on their own.  Only the Oprah types can accomplish such a feat. 99% of the time, content goes viral when the people in your audience share that content with their friends, and those friends share the content with their friends. Repeat the process a dozen times with each friend, and then you have viral content.

However, people are not going to talk about your content just because it is there. People primarily talk about extremely poor or valuable content. The poor content gets bashed while the valuable content gets praised. Valuable content is the content that wins on the web and gets shared the most. Valuable content results in more returning visitors and stronger relationships between you and your readers. Don’t be afraid to provide free value on your blog. In many cases, it is the free value that encourages the sale. So you’ll make more money anyway.

 

#2: Grow Your Email List

You have to listen to me on this one. I started focusing on my email list a few years after creating this blog. That was by far, undoubtably, without question the biggest mistake I made with this blog (I’m emphasizing this for a reason). Out of the first 100,000 visitors who visited this blog, I didn’t even get 300 subscribers because my blog was poorly optimized to get more subscribers. Your email list is so important because it gives you an easy way to communicate with your subscribers, and the click through rates are incredible. Even if you only get a 5% click through for your emails, that is a much higher statistic than the percentage of click throughs you would get on social media (almost always under 1%).

Some marketers go as far to say that the size of your email list indicates your income. Most of the successful bloggers who make six figure incomes have over 10,000 subscribers (although having 10,000 subscribers does not guarantee a six figure income, having that many subscribers is very helpful). These blogs get a surge in traffic when an email blast gets sent to subscribers promoting the latest article. Imagine having a list of 10,000 email addresses, and 7% of those people clicked on the link. That’s an extra 700 visitors just from that one email. Some of those visitors may decide to share the blog post on social media (very helpful for SEO) or write a blog post about your blog post. Most of the blog posts that I promote on this blog (that aren’t mine) are blog posts written by Seth Godin. I’ve been reading his emails every day for over two years. That’s not a coincidence. I typically share links to blog posts that I read in my inbox first.

Don’t make the same mistake I made. Build your email list now. It is your number one priority for turning blogging into a full-time income.

 

#3: Grow Your Social Media Audience

Once you write valuable content and have landing pages set up to collect email addresses, those pages need visibility. The web is a noisy place with millions of blogs. Someone finding your blog (or anyone’s blog for that matter) is like finding the needle in the haystack. Some needles in the haystack get found more often than others. In order for your needle (blog) to be found in the haystack (the web) more often, you need to promote your content on social media.

Not only is building your social media audience a great way to promote your content, but it is essential towards establishing your authority on the web. Having a large social media audience gives you better social proof. Think about it this way. Would you rather buy the Twitter guide from the person with 100 followers or the person with 100,000 followers? Would you rather take the Facebook course from the trainer with 1,000 Facebook likes or the trainer with 1 million Facebook likes. When you grow your social media audience, you can use the social proof to boost your credibility.

No matter what you do, never resort to buying fake followers. Not only does it hurt your credibility, but the fake followers will never engage with you. They will also make your real followers feel uncomfortable. Here is an interesting case study from Social Media Today about someone who bought 50,000 Twitter followers (and was disgusted by the results).

 

#4: Boost Your Blog’s SEO

To many bloggers, SEO is still confusing. The main reason SEO seems confusing is because there are so many factors that go into a search engine’s ranking system. Some search engine tactics such as adding alt tags do not necessarily improve the value of your blog posts. Those types of search engine improvements are the ones that get done behind the scenes so search engines can understand what your blog is about.

My recommendation is to only learn a few SEO methods at a time and implement them one by one. Focus on improving your blog’s bounce rate, linking to your other blog posts, including alt tags in your pictures, growing your social media audience (that helps with SEO) and writing longer blog posts (while keeping the value). My recommendation is to master one of these tips at a time and then move on to a new set of tips. You can start with any five tips you desire. I wrote a blog post that contains a few more tips about boosting your blog’s SEO.

 

#5: Put In More Work Than You Already Are

If you want to make it to the next level in anything, then you have to put in the next level of work. The more time you commit to blogging, the farther you will go. If you spend twice as much time researching different tactics you can use to boost SEO, get more subscribers, and grow your social media audience, then you will have twice as much knowledge in those areas. If you spend twice as much time writing content, then that content will probably be longer and more valuable.

It is possible to reach a tipping point for your blog, but reaching that tipping point (or anything important and worth the time) is not an easy task. I wrote blog posts every day even when I knew no one would see them. It was the process of writing every day that allowed me to get better, learn new tricks, and turn my blog into what it is today.

 

#6: Persistence

A blogger’s journey is one of persistence. For the average blogger, it takes a few years before his efforts turn into a full-time income. Every blogger, even the most successful ones, started out with no audiences of their own. Successful bloggers had to fight their way through the noise as they grew their email lists and social media audiences. It takes months of research to master SEO and a few weeks of research to learn what happens when Google comes out with a major search engine update.

If you are persistent, and you learn new techniques along the way, then you will become a successful blogger. Be patient, continue to put in the work, and success will greet you on the other side.

 

In Conclusion

Tipping points take a lot of work to pull off, but any blogger can experience a tipping point, the moment when traffic soars more than ever before. Even the most successful bloggers experience tipping points in their social media audiences, blog traffic, and the number of subscribers they get.

The key to becoming a successful blogger is by being persistent and learning new techniques along the way. Which tip was your favorite? Do you have any additional tips for bloggers who want to reach their tipping points? Please share your thoughts and advice below.

The One Simple Way For Entrepreneurs To Get What They Want In Life

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The One Thing

Who wants to be successful by doing what they love? I’m sure everyone’s hand would go up. It is a shame that we are not properly trained to be successful by doing what we love to do. We are trained to get a job and work in the status quo, but for most people, the status quo does not offer a lovable job. There is a distinct feeling of dignity and happiness to make your own success instead of working for someone else.

Every entrepreneur takes a bold step by getting out of the status quo (or never being a part of it), but not all of these entrepreneurs are successful. Many entrepreneurs are rising stars who are not household names quite yet.

If you are like most entrepreneurs, you have an array of tasks to complete. If someone asks you how many tasks you have to complete today, you may say dozens. You may have the sticky notes, the score cards, the plan, and everything else all laid out so you can easily accomplish the tasks in front of you.

It is a shame that few or even none of the tasks most entrepreneurs perform line up with what they truly want in life. The primary reason most entrepreneurs do not reach their high standards is because most of their time gets split up until only the crumbs are left. These crumbs of time are all entrepreneurs allocate to the one thing they want at that moment. Maybe you want to be a millionaire, see your training course get twice as many sales this month, triple your blog traffic in the next quarter, or something else.

The one thing you want, the most important thing, is the one thing you need to spend the majority of your time on. If your one goal is to become a millionaire, you need to carve out 50% of your time towards that goal. You need to grow your email list, create the products, find partners, and make your products wildly successful. If you are focusing on anything that derails you from your one main goal, then it is a distraction. As New York Times bestselling author Gary Keller puts it, “until your ONE Thing gets accomplished, everything else is a distraction.”

[tweetthis url=”http://bit.ly/1xck0wi”]The one thing you want, the most important thing, is the one thing you need to spend the majority of your time on.[/tweetthis]

Of course, events outside of our businesses will call for our attention. Attending the kid’s soccer games, seeing loved ones, and having dinner with your family are three of the many events that are more important than goals and business. Entrepreneurs work on their own schedules which means they control how long they work, but they also control when they take breaks. You don’t want to work on your business at the dinner table when you should be talking with your family members instead. Business is important, but it should not consume your life.

The reason many of us feel consumed is because our tasks do not line up with the one thing we want. If your one goal is to grow your Twitter audience, then don’t focus on growing a Facebook audience. Sure, if your Facebook audience becomes big, you can promote your Twitter account to that audience. However, growing a Facebook audience takes time, and now you have less time to grow your Twitter audience. Then you may give Pinterest, Instagram, and YouTube a try all in the effort to grow your Twitter audience. Creating accounts on all of those social networks and updating them with new content takes up time that you could have used to learn and implement powerful techniques that could have grown your Twitter audience.

This is why social media experts encourage users to focus on one social network at a time. If we split our time amongst different social networks, we will have many small audiences instead of one large audience. I would rather have 5,000 followers on one social network than 500 followers on 10 social networks.

The days of your one thing in life constantly getting the crumbs of your time are coming to an end. In order to truly move forward in your industry and get what you want as an entrepreneur, you need to make your one thing your top priority. In fact, you should allocate 50% of your time towards your one thing. If you want to be a millionaire, 50% of your time should be spent implementing the most important parts of that plan. The other 50% of your time can be carved out to various tasks that are not as important, but those tasks should only be completed after you complete the important tasks that move you closer to the seven figure income.

 

In Conclusion

Logically speaking, the one thing you want to do in life should be the one thing that you spend most of your time on. Although the logic is simple to follow, the actually implementation of this logic is almost never done. We need to identify the one thing we want to do in our lives and then take the bold steps needed to make that one thing happen. Then, everything else that is needed will fall into place. It is better to be good at one thing than it is to be mediocre at 10 things.

6 Reasons To Get On Pinterest If You Haven’t Done So Already

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6 Reasons To Get On Pinterest If You Haven’t Done So Already

We have a natural tendency to go to the things that are the most popular and follow the established leaders. Of all of the social networks, Facebook is by far the most popular one. With over 1 billion users, it dwarfs other social networks in sheer size. Twitter and Instagram are two of the numerous social networks with over 200 million active users.

The social network that does not get as much attention is Pinterest. Although it may not be as big as Facebook, Pinterest still has millions of users that are sharing and engaging with content. Pinterest is constructed in a unique style that makes it different from all of the other social networks. Never before has a social media user been able to categorize and present information in the way that pins and boards make possible.

If you are not on the Pinterest bandwagon, then it is time to get on. Many businesses are using Pinterest to interact with millions of people and build strong connections along the way. Pinterest is not another fad. Here are six reasons why you need to get on Pinterest if you are not on it already.

 

#1: Pinterest is growing

Pinterest is not just the fastest growing social network, but it is also the fastest growing site in history. It reached 10 million monthly unique U.S. visitors faster than any other site on the web and, according to Alexa, quickly emerged as one of the Top 100 websites on the web.

The great thing about Pinterest is that it will continue to grow. There will be a day when Pinterest exceeds 200 million users, then 500 million users, and although this may take a while, 1 billion users. My belief is that if a social network has over 100 million users and continues to grow, it is bound to exceed 1 billion within a decade just like Facebook. Since Pinterest is continuing to grow, it is easier to become an established player on that platform. Some people who have under 1,000 followers on other social networks have over 1 million Pinterest followers. It is a completely different playing field, and since it is still emerging as a top social network, you can make the splash now to boost your chances of becoming popular on it.

 

#2: Pinterest allows content to be organized better than any other social network

On a majority of social networks on the web, content is presented on a user’s feed in chronological order. My most recent tweet will be directly under my pinned tweet, and if you have a few hours to scroll though my profile, you will find my first tweet that over promoted a product link that no longer works (thank goodness it’s at the bottom).

Pinterest is different. While the option to view pins in a chronological order exists, you can also view pins based on categories that a user provides. On my account, I have categories dedicated to Twitter, Facebook, blogging, inspiration, and other topics as well. Those are my boards, and they allow my followers to find specific information.

Some of my followers don’t care about Facebook. Now they no longer have to scroll though information related to Facebook. These followers may only care about Pinterest tips and nothing else. I have an entire board that only contains Pinterest tips. This kind of organization makes it easier for you to present your expertise and for your audience to find exactly what they want.

 

#3: Pinterest allows the real you to come out.

One of the most common mistakes people make is being way too professional. It seems as if some people are only posting links to articles and sharing their expertise. While it is important to humanize your social networks, Pinterest presents a wonderful way to do that. While it is possible to categorize different aspects of your niche, it is also possible to categorize your interests and hobbies outside of your niche.

I have boards about 3D printing, Legos, bookshelves, and other things that have absolutely nothing to do with my niche. Yet, I continue to pin on these boards because I enjoy those topics. You can be professional and give expert advice, but in order for people to remember you, they need to know you beyond your expertise.

There are many people who say that one great way to get more followers on Pinterest is by following other people. However, we only remember a few of the people who said that. Typically, these are the people who share their hobbies and interests outside of their niche. Pinning on boards that allow people to get a deeper understanding of you outside of your niche will allow people to remember you.

 

#4: Pinterest can drive a big amount of traffic to your blog

Just like any social network, Pinterest can drive a big amount of traffic to your blog. The only difference is that Pinterest can drive a ton of people to your blog quicker than the average social network. A statistic that I often reference in my blog posts about Pinterest is that 80% of pins are repins. This statistic indicates that people are constantly sharing other people’s content.

If you are constantly pinning your blog posts, some of your followers may constantly repin those pins. Getting enough repins starts a snowball effect in which numerous people from different audiences start to repin your pins. Then, their audiences see those repins and share them. The snowball effect continues.

On Twitter, only 1% of tweets are retweets which is why the average tweet is not shared as often as the average pin.

 

#5: Pinterest is constantly getting easier to use

When Pinterest was new, you could not pin anything without being on Pinterest’s website. Scheduling pins and getting statistics were also practically impossible to do at a fair price. The tools that are available for Twitter were not available for Pinterest.

However, Pinterest is now getting easier to use. More blog posts have the “Pin It” button at the bottom of every blog post. Others have incorporated a “Pin It” button that shows up when a visitors drags his mouse onto a picture in your blog post or any picture on the blog.

Not only have plugins and blogging services caught up, but Pinterest caught up as well. You can now send a pin without being on Pinterest. You just need to have the “Pin It” bookmark installed on your web browser. If you are not using this bookmark, you can get it here. You can also see how your blog is doing with Pinterest analytics. Track how many repins, clicks, and other engagement statistics your blog gets on Pinterest. You can also track other cool statistics such as how many daily views your Pinterest account gets.

Scheduling pins has been made easier by ViralWoot which allows you to schedule up to 100 pins every month at no cost. There are monthly payments that allow you to exceed 100 pins, but having this option available is a game changer. If you only send out three pins every day, you won’t have to worry about exceeding the monthly limit.

It is easy to imagine better Pinterest tools at lower prices (or with no price tags attached) making their way on the web very soon.

 

#6: Pinterest is addictive

Not only is it true that Pinterest holds the title for fastest growing website on the web, but it is also one of the most addictive websites on the entire web. There are many Pinterest users who are on the social network for hours of time, which is more than enough time for people to find your account, follow you, and repin your pins.

Since many people stay on Pinterest for a long period of time, more people will see your pins. Some of the people who see your pins may decide to repin them or click on the pictures to get redirected to another webpage (such as one of your blog posts). Pinterest is where people stay for a long period of time, and that is the exact place where you need to bring your business, blog, and ideas.

 

In Conclusion

Pinterest is a rapidly growing social network. Since it is not as big as Facebook yet, it is easier to grow a big presence on Pinterest and become one of the leaders of your niche. Some of the people who have millions of Pinterest followers only have a few hundred followers on their other social networks.

Moreover, Pinterest is gradually getting easier to use. The “Pin It” bookmark makes it possible to pin without being on Pinterest. It is easy to imagine changes similar to this one being implemented so it is not necessary to be on Pinterest to interact, comment, and pin.

Are you on Pinterest, and if not, do you plan on joining?