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Episode 2: Building A Kindle Empire With Nick Loper

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Today we listen as our host Marc Guberti chats to Kindle Author/Blogger/Podcaster and Entrepreneur extraordinaire; Nick Loper. Nick runs SideHustleNation.com and has sat down to talk with Marc about all things Kindle, and much more.

We talk about the why and how of Nick becoming a Kindle book author, how he managed to gain authority and respect on his chosen subjects, and what it took for him to finally make a breakthrough.

Nick and Marc talk through getting a book out there, from initial concept to finally publishing a book and everything that is needed in between, as well as sharing valuable information on how to do well in the marketplace. We hear about the importance of having a good portfolio and to always have a solid outline of your goal, to enable you to write and move quickly.

Nick also shares some great entrepreneurial tips, inspirational quotes, and general good advice.

 

Learn:

  • Why writing a book can increase your authority on a subject

  • Publishing a book from start to finish

  • The importance of a portfolio

  • 3 Great tips for Kindle Publishers in the marketplace

  • Why being able to sell a single asset repeatedly is so useful

 

Key Links from the show:

authormarketingclub.com – Jim Kukral’s website

sidehustlenation.com/ideas – Nick’s website

noisetrade.com – Free Publishing/music website

fiverr.com – Online marketplace

Episode 3: Growing Your Blog With Brian Lang

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On Episode 3 of the show, Marc is joined by Brian Lang; Genius blogger, Digital Marketing Consultant, and E-commerce site owner. Join us as Brian goes in deep on blogging, and all aspects of his business.

Marc and Brian discuss blogging from the ground up, and offer advice on how to start your blog, how to get thinking about how your content will perform before you’ve even written it, and why blogging can be so valuable to both the writer AND the reader. 

Blogging and online businesses can be extremely tough ventures, so listen in as Brian and Marc offer nuggets of advice on how to stay motivated, why you should always persevere, and advice on how to really expand your network and audience. Staying inspired is a challenge, and Brian has a few ways you can do this. As always, our guest offers his favourite inspirational quote, and his key tips to a successful blog.

 

Learn:

– How to create quality content

– Why perseverance is key

– The importance of promotion

– Different sources of motivation

– How to use feedback to grow

– Why long term drive is important

– Brian’s key tips to a successful blog

 

Key Links:

– http://www.smallbusinessideasblog.com/ -Brian’s Business Blog

– http://www.mybabyshowerfavors.com/ -Brian’s E-commerce site

– http://buzzsumo.com/ – Mentioned website

Episode 4: How To Get 100,000 Monthly Visitors With Neil Patel

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On today’s episode of the show, Neil Patel takes time to join Marc to chat about entrepreneurship, the drive to succeed and his thoughts on business. Neil Patel is an entrepreneur running several multimillion dollar businesses such as QuickSprout, KISSMetrics, and Crazy Egg. Neil has been recognized for his success by such greats from President Obama to the UN. The Wall Street Journal called him “One of the top 100 influencers on the web”, and he continues to make his business grow among others.

Marc and Neil chat about the never-ending journey that is business, from his start as a teen at 16, to his current exploits. Neil divulges great information about keeping business always moving forward and we learn bits about how he’s developed his multi-million dollar companies, and how you too can attract 100,000s of visitors to your site. Once more, our guest shares one of his favorite inspirational quotes, and what it is that keeps him motivated and inspired.

 

Learn:

– Why hiring the right team is important

– Passion is key to success and motivation

– Why Neil finds business so addictive

– Why making mistakes can be productive

– Why developing habits is important

– Neil’s 3 key tips for entrepreneurs

 

Key Links from the Show:

www.neilpatel.com – Neil’s Website

http://www.copyblogger.com/ – Useful site mentioned in the show

http://apple.co/2c38K56 —Neil’s Podcast

http://amzn.to/2bUbhyy —Neil’s book Hustle

August 2016 Monthly Performance Report

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The end of summer is a love-hate relationship. I don’t like the end of summer because that means I have less time for my business. I also love looking back at what I accomplished, and getting started on a new cross country team definitely left me excited each day.

Here’s a quick recap of August…

 

The Podcast

I am happy to announce that…nope. Not yet. I was really pushing to get the podcast out on August 24th. With the exception of some last-minute changes that were needed, the first five episodes I intended on publishing were edited, and I even had the show notes.

Before I get some boos from the crowd (I can’t hear you but I’m sure some people are wondering what happened), the tentative podcast launch date has been moved from August 24th to August 31st.

The reasoning behind this decision was to avoid a massive amount of stress. I underestimated the work I would have to do to include intros and outros within each episode.

Doing all of that in two days while getting acquainted with my new cross country team would have been too stressful. I was at a crossroads of the work-life balance, and the work in a short period of time didn’t seem worthy of the stress.

The moment I feel like my life is getting encroached on by my workload, I’ll do much less work until I find a solution (it usually takes me 1-2 days to find a solution).

So that’s why the podcast is getting launched on August 31st. I’ll be sending a message out to my email list all about it.

On that launch date, I’ll be publishing my interviews with Jeffrey Shaw, Nick Loper, Brian Lang, Neil Patel, and Jeet Banerjee.

In the beginning, I’ll have most of the show notes on another platform to start and slowly move them over to this blog. That entire transition will take two weeks and then I’ll be publishing show notes on this blog on the day a new podcast episode comes up.

 

I’m Outsourcing More Of My Business

Outsourcing is going into turbo drive. There will be a day when all I do for my business is create content, create videos, communicate with my audience and others, and interview people for my podcast.

Everything else is in the process of getting outsourced. I am in the process of hiring a video editor and have already hired someone to edit podcast episodes and write up the show notes.

Outsourcing more parts off my business will ensure I don’t have to lift the small stuff so I can focus on what I enjoy doing while pursuing new opportunities.

With more time, it will be easier for me to take YouTube and Instagram more seriously. Speaking of YouTube…

 

The 10K Subscribers Goal

My goal for my YouTube channel is to surpass 10,000 subscribers by the end of the year. Right now, I have over 2,700. I am working towards the goal in a few ways:

I’m uploading more YouTube videos. The goal is to eventually upload one new video per day which is a rate few experts in the industry keep up with.

I’m learning more about YouTube. I am conducting research similarly to how I conducted research for Twitter. In fact, I’ll come out with a YouTube series of me conducting my research in real-time. That way, you can learn with me.

I’m utilizing my social networks, blog, and email lists to spread the word.

The response has been strong so far, but I know a few changes will make it even stronger.

 

I’m On Patreon

The 10K subscriber challenge is requiring me to heavily invest my time towards creating free content for everyone. While this time could be directed towards training course videos, I’m putting them on YouTube instead.

I do the same with my blog posts and my podcast interviews which will be coming out shortly. I recently heard about Patreon as a way to get help from your online community.

Basically, patrons pay creators monthly or per creation to continue supporting the content and video creators. I ask my patrons to contribute with a flat monthly payment because I create too much to charge per creation.

This is something completely optional because my content and videos will always be free. But the extra money would make it easier for me to pay my freelancers and related expenses.

You can contribute anywhere from $1 per month to $37 per month and get rewarded accordingly. Based on your monthly payment, you can get any reward from a Twitter shout out to a free coupon to one of my Udemy courses of your choice.

If you are interested in learning more and possibly contributing, go check out my Patreon Page.

 

TSMD

In last month’s Performance Report, I mentioned TSMD otherwise known as Total Social Media Domination. This is the membership site I am currently working on. Right now, I have completed all of the videos (I think 30 in all) and will be sending them to the editor that I choose to hire.

All of the outsourcing I do will make it easier for me to constantly crank out new content and videos I offer for free in addition to the monthly updates within TSMD. Right now, I’m thinking TSMD will get an update of 10 additional info-packed videos per month, but it can be more based on how the social media landscape changes.

I’ll have much more to say about it next month.

 

Unlock Your Potential

While the book manuscript isn’t at the 30,000 to 60,000 words that I proposed, I managed to surpass 20,000 words this month. I am slowly and steadily moving towards a completed manuscript.

Next month’s goal for the book is surrounded with a lot of factors. In August, I was on vacation for two weeks which impacted my ability to reach my original goal. For September, I’m returning to my school schedule. My goal for the book is to exceed 40,000 words.

It will be challenging, but it’s possible.

 

Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is becoming a very enjoyable activity for me. I learn about new people’s backstories, get inspiration from them, and promote their products.

I have learned fascinating things about affiliate marketing this month by promoting and watching others do the same.

Just go give you some background, most affiliates receive some awesome swipe copy that has been optimized for success. I don’t use those anymore. Why?

Everyone is using those swipe copies. If you are subscribed to enough newsletters, you’ll get the same message word-for-word from several people.

I learn about the person I’m promoting before making a final decision, and then I write custom messages. While I use the swipe copy as a guide, I’m not using the swipe copy word-for-word.

If you do affiliate marketing this way, you’ll develop a stronger sense of loyalty towards the person you are promoting. That stronger sense of loyalty will make it easier for you to be a successful affiliate.

 

Content Creation Calendars

In a word, they are AWESOME!

For those of you who don’t know, a content creation calendar is a calendar in which you write down blog post or video ideas and the days that they get published. I can look on my Content Creation Calendar right now and see if I have anything planned for December 3rd.

I have Content Creation Calendars already done for each remaining month in 2016. It makes it easier for me to focus on themes for each week or month based on new launches I initiate or am a part of.

 

Books I Read

I’ll be honest and state right off the bat that I didn’t do much reading this month. I did take some time to listen to Smart Passive Income and EOFire episodes, but not as many as I should have.

I have no promises about how many books I read in September. That depends on my college schedule and if I see any opportunities to crack open an audiobook.

 

Blog Posts I Wrote

How To Gain Confidence In Front Of The Video Camera: Wondering how people get comfortable on the camera? This is the right video for you.

How To Automate Your Social Media So You Can Take More Vacations: While I was on vacation, all of my social media was systematized to the point where I didn’t have to do anything. I’ll reveal how I got to that level in this blog post.

How To Leverage Pareto’s 80/20 Principle For Your Business: If you don’t know this, your business is in trouble. That’s not a joke. I summed it up in a three minute video.

How To Put Training Course Creation Into Your Schedule: Think creating a training course is hard? Think again! In this blog post, I’ll reveal how anyone can find the time to create a training course. I’m an 18-year-old for crying out loud.

22 Experts Recommend Their Favorite Blogging Tools: I guarantee you’ll learn about a new blogging tool in this manifesto. While the blog post was time consuming, it was well worth it.

5 Ways To Make Training Course Creation A Breeze: I reveal the power moves I use to make training course creation as easy as 1,2,3.

5 Reasons To Start A Podcast NOW: In light of my approaching podcast, I had to write a blog post with this title. You’ll learn why podcasting is the best opportunity to explore right now.

 

Looking Back At July

Last month, I spent a part of my Performance Report ranting against Udemy. This time, I’m going to talk about Udemy in a much different light.

The recently made the decision to allow instructors to price their courses between $20 and $200. This is a huge change from the $20 to $50 limitation.

I changed some of my course prices to $200 and kept others at $20. This change has encouraged me to create Udemy courses again.

But now I will proceed with caution.

If I feel like I can create a massive high-ticket course and create my own website for it, I will. If I can’t create a 10+ hour course right away, I’ll put it on Udemy.

I’m still not at 1,000 daily visitors for my blog yet. My blog has performed better this month than it has performed in five months. That’s a good sign, and combined with all of the other ventures I am pursuing, I can see an even bigger increase in the upcoming month.

 

September Goals

With August in the books, it’s time to turn a new leaf. These are my goals for September…

#1: Get 1,000 Daily Visitors For My Blog

While my blog is still not back at it’s best traffic levels, I am making significant progress. There was a small stretch of time in which I was getting 1,000 daily visitors.

I want to make that small stretch last a lifetime. I am pulling out all stops to make this happen. The podcast is just one of the many things I mentioned. Here are the other two:

Facebook Ads. I will start using Facebook ads to collect more leads. That way, I’ll get more blog traffic each time I send an email out to my subscribers.

Multiplied Twitter Growth. @MarcGuberti isn’t the only account in town. While it’s definitely my priority account, I have another account that is picking up more steam. That account is @Tips4Tweeting which my freelancer is doing a great job with. Eventually, that account too will have 100,000+ followers. Two accounts each with hundreds of thousands of followers will result in more blog traffic from Twitter.

 

#2: Launch TSMD

I have all of the videos done. It’s just a matter of getting them to my editor. Why don’t I edit them myself. The answer is that it doesn’t appeal to me anymore and continuing to provide free content and do well in school would be next to impossible if I also took the time to do all of that editing.

 

#3: Complete The ConvertKit Swap

Towards the end of August, I made great progress with swapping over to ConvertKit. I sent my first email blast. The goal is to completely switch over to ConvertKit because it has more features and the price difference is barely noticeable.

For those of you keeping score, ConvertKit is slightly more expensive but well worth it.

If my email blasts look slightly different, now you know why.

 

#4: Leverage Udemy Better

Now that I’m interested in Udemy again, I’m back to creating the occasional Udemy course. What I forgot to do for most of August was utilize my Udemy email list.

I have over 26,000 students on Udemy that I can email at any point when I come out with a new video, blog post, or podcast episode. I plan on sending an email out to my regular list and my Udemy list upon my podcast launch.

With that in effect, I reach over 30,000 people. I am very hopeful in my podcast ending up in the New & Noteworthy section of iTunes.

 

In Conclusion

August represents the last month of summer. Then, my time becomes more scarce due to school.

I have never sacrificed business or academics to gain an advantage in the other. I don’t intend on suddenly changing course.

My response to school coming up in the future is to outsource as much of my business as possible. Video editing, podcast editing, and show notes are just some of the many things I have outsourced.

I plan on outsourcing many more parts of my business as well. Outsourcing opens up more time and makes it easier for me to continue providing you with my content.

Thank you for reading my month in review.

If you haven’t already, I would greatly appreciate a vote to receive the Rule Breakers Award. Voting ends on August 31st at 2:59 pm Central Time.

5 Reasons to Start a Podcast NOW!

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why start a podcast

The inner thought grew louder and louder: CREATE A PODCAST!

That’s what the inner thought kept saying. So I thought about it, looked at the work it entailed, determined it would be impossible, and gave up. Instead, I continued writing blog posts, publishing books, and coming out with new Udemy courses.

But the inner thought was not satisfied.

CREATE A PODCAST!

No matter how much work I piled on myself, that inner thought still rang loudly. And even after two failed attempts at creating a podcast, it had finally won. I wasn’t giving up.

On the path to starting my own podcast, I contacted five people about being a guest. And as soon as I received the first positive response, I found the determination to follow through. Now I want to interview as many people as I can!

Talk about a complete mind shift.

I’ve finally tapped into the power of podcasting — perhaps the most underrated stream of traffic and revenue on the web — and I think that, deep down, everyone wants to start his or her own podcast. So let me assure you that the workload is quite simple once you get the hang of it.

If you are still on the fence, then this blog post is designed to get you off that fence and into the world of podcasting.

Right now I’m acting as a salesman for podcasting because I know it’s so valuable. But I do not currently offer a podcasting product, so don’t expect an up-sell.

Here’s why it’s so beneficial to start your own podcast:

 

#1: Tap Into A Completely New Audience

If you write blog posts, create training courses, write Kindle books, offer consultation sessions or any of your own services, there are two BIG audiences you will NEVER reach: the iTunes Podcasts audience and the Stitcher audience.

Stitcher has an Alexa rank that hovers between 14,000 and 16,000. iTunes has millions of users (and it’s owned by Apple so it’s incredibly popular).

You can’t get access to that audience with any other form of content but the podcast. And from within your podcast intros and outros, you can lead this new audience to your blog, landing pages, and products.

 

#2: Learn From The Best

I chose to start a podcast in which I interview guests who can provide valuable insights. My knowledge is limited, and so is yours. There are many people who know many things that neither you nor I know right now.

But the beauty is the knowledge of any person can be expanded and tapped.

I expand my knowledge of my niche by interviewing people on my podcast. Right now, I have interviewed dozens of people. Not all of the interviews are published yet, but that’s how many people I have interviewed.

I got a lot of inspiration from Nick Loper’s Side Hustle Nation podcast which I have been mentioning here a lot lately. As I listen to more of his episodes, I pay more attention to the guests. Then I contacted some of them and asked them to be guests on my own podcast. Some of those people said yes.

And when I read through Nick’s blog posts, I realize just how much he learns from those guests.

The knowledge he learned from one of his interviewees allowed him to go from virtually no Pinterest traffic in two months to more than 10,000 visitors from Pinterest in the following two months.

podcast example

Want to become one of the best? Then surround yourself with the best. Starting your own podcast and interviewing interesting people is a great way to make that happen.

 

#3: Influencers Will Promote Your Episodes

Many of the guests featured on your show will promote that show to their own audiences. You’ll get more traffic from your guests’ efforts, and some of that traffic will funnel back to your guests’ sites as well.

Some of the people your guests bring over will become devoted subscribers to your podcast. That means each new episode will accumulate more downloads than the last.

All of these downloads will help your podcast rank higher on the iTunes Podcasts and Stitcher search results.

 

#4: Repurpose Your Podcast Episodes 

You can repurpose a podcast episode into several types of content.

You can turn each of your podcast episodes into a video. If you host a Skype conversation with someone, you can take that Skype call and turn it into a YouTube video. If you only use MP3, you can include your podcast’s logo as the image part of the video and then simply insert the audio.

Plus, you can turn every podcast into a blog post. Take a look at how they do it on Social Media Examiner.

social media examiner
This leads into the podcast audio which leads into a 1,000+ word summary.

The show notes turn the podcast episode into a blog post optimized for search engines.

These types of blog posts command significantly higher visit times than most blog posts because people who like the podcast episode may be on the same blog post for 30-60 minutes, depending on the length of the episode.

The higher your visit time, the better your blog will rank on the search engines.

You can also publish that blog post elsewhere. LinkedIn Pulse and Medium are two places anyone can put their blog posts regardless of credibility or social proof.

I also get some of my blog posts featured on Business2Community (but getting featured there isn’t as easy as creating your own on Medium and/or LinkedIn).

 

#5: It’s Fun!

Finding and contacting guests forces me out of my comfort zone and allows me to learn new things. And building a conversation with the guest allows a relationship to develop. I like those too.

Each time I schedule a podcast into my calendar, I feel like a champ. With my different time-consuming commitments, it’s awesome to know that I can still block an hour for an episode.

I love the interviews. I learn, get to know influencers better, and have fun, interesting conversations. Depending on who you invite to your podcast, you can get that epic combination of insight and humor.

If you have a business related podcast and want a guest who can provide awesome insights while making you laugh every other minute, Mike Michalowicz is the go-to guy.

 

In Conclusion

For a long time, I didn’t start a podcast. Now I can’t stop talking about it.

Podcasting has allowed me to connect and chat with some of the brightest people within my niche. Through each of these interviews, I have learned more about how I can expand my business and what it takes to achieve success.

What are your thoughts about starting a podcast? Have any stories for us? Sound off in the comments section below.

My podcast Breakthrough Success comes out on August 31st. In that podcast, I’ll delve into the backstories of successful entrepreneurs and explore how they achieved their success.

5 Ways To Make Training Course Creation A Breeze

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easy training course creation

Ever wonder how some people are able to crank out profitable training course after profitable training course?

They make it look so easy.

I remember the month when I created five training courses. It was a lot of work, but the reward was very high.

Training course creation can be a breeze for you too if you approach it in the right way. This blog post will give you clarity on how you can approach training course creation so it’s light work.

 

#1: Outline The Training Course

For this blog post, I will assume that you already have a training course idea. Once you have that idea, you need to outline that training course. Here’s how that works.

The first step to outlining a training course is to conduct a brain dump. A brain dump is when you think of several ideas related to the training course topic. You want to think of as many ideas as possible.

The more time you spend brain dumping, the more you will have to work with.

After the brain dump is over, the next step is to find common themes with all of the video ideas that you wrote down. Those themes will become sections within your course and the corresponding videos will fit into each section just like parts of a chapter.

That’s all there is to it. You have successfully outlined your training course.

 

#2: Identify Talking Points For Each Video

Once you have identified the video ideas within your training course, you must identify the talking points for those videos. You don’t have to prepare a script for this.

Write your talking points as if they are supposed to be the key takeaways that people should get from your videos.

The best part about these talking points is that they don’t have to be long at all. I usually put all of my talking points on a single index card:

training course creation

If you want to use ScreenFlow or Camtasia for your videos, you could face additional work. When I first started created Udemy courses, I thought that creating slides made the courses better, so I decided to do KeyNote presentations.

While I still delivered on my value, the problem is that creating all of those KeyNote presentations takes FOREVER. Direct-to-camera videos take much less time in the prep work and the production.

The only time I recommend using ScreenFlow or Camtasia for a training course is if you want to show your students how to use something on the web by showing them.

For instance, I can tell you how to use the HootSuite Bulk Scheduler, but wouldn’t it be easier if I showed you how to use it in a video?

 

#3: Hire As Many Freelancers As Possible

Outsourcing changed my life. I tried not to say “changed my life,” but there was really no other way of putting it.

As the work mounted up, I realized that I would be stuck with everything that I was doing. That meant I couldn’t explore any new opportunities. I didn’t have the time to do so.

Then, I decided to outsource all of the busy work. Scheduling tweets, creating pictures for blog posts, editing blog posts, and growing my Twitter audience were just some of the things that I outsourced.

The result was that my time opened up like crazy. I instantly had more time to create more videos for my training courses.

In today’s world, and probably long before, you can’t make it by yourself. The lonely wolf in the woods is going to starve to death. You don’t want that to happen to your business.

The most successful entrepreneurs have teams behind them.

I know the two biggest complaints of outsourcing. The complaints revolve around budget and the classic, “Why would I pay someone else to do something that I already know how to do?”

I knew how to do all of the things that I outsourced to my freelancers. The problem is that those activities took up my valuable time which as a full-time student, I don’t have much time to begin with.

I am approaching the point in which the only things I will do for my business are create videos, write blog posts, conduct podcast interviews, respond to my audience, and promote myself.

My freelancers will take care of the rest so I can focus on the priorities that I enjoy the most.

Some of the freelancers who will help you with your training course include a video editor, someone to write video descriptions, and a copywriter.

 

#4: Do A Little Bit Each Day

It is better to do a little bit for your training course each day than it is for you to attempt to do it all in one day. It’s more manageable this way.

Imagine doing three videos per day for an entire week. While it involves a little work each day, it’s doable. Now imagine choosing one day of the week and doing 21 videos.

What would your voice sound like on that final video? Could you still show people your passion or would it get sucked away? Could you still deliver value?

See why it’s better to do a little bit each day versus designating a day to get it all done?

Building this habit is just as simple as doing it each day for 66 days. Even if you only record one video on some days, one video is better than nothing…and it will help build the habit.

Once you do a video every day for 66 days, that habit will stick. Soon you’ll find it effortless to show up every day and record videos.

 

#5: Get Into A Workflow

Ideally, when you record the videos, you want to record your videos for the day in one shot. It’s better to record three videos in one sitting than it is to record one video in the morning, one video in the afternoon, and one video at night. Here’s why:

Even if you managed to have a perfect workflow despite stopping yourself short twice, you still have the time cost of setting up.

For me, that means turning the lights on, getting dressed in appropriate attire for the video, turning on the microphones, and hitting the record button. When I’m done, I have to turn everything off and then get dressed into something more casual.

I don’t spend my entire day in a collared shirt 🙂

Instead of only doing that once, I’d have to do that three times.

To help get into the workflow, I identify video ideas and talking points in advance. Staring at the camera trying to think of your next video idea is the video creator’s version of writer’s block.

It’s easy to avoid with just five minutes of preparation for each video.

 

In Conclusion

Creating training courses doesn’t have to be hard. The level of difficulty depends on your overall approach.

I have created as many as five training courses in a given month. If a teen can do it, then you can do it too.

Are you thinking about creating a training course? Have any tips on how to create a quality training course faster? Which of these tips did you like the most? Sound off in the comments section below.