Marc's Blog

Content Writing and Marketing Services

How To Preserve Your Ideas For Safe Keeping

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We all come up with remarkable ideas. The problem is that when we think of an idea, we are either in the shower or that idea currently does not fit with the business plan. The best thing to do is write your idea on a sticky note. If you are in the shower when you come up with your remarkable idea, be sure to remember that idea for the duration of the shower and as you run to write it down on a sticky note.

The problem that many people have with writing ideas and goals on sticky notes is that they are easy to lose. All you need is a desk of paperwork and then it’s all over. The sticky notes go to the bottom of the pile and end up long forgotten.

I solved this problem by creating what one can call a mix of Pinterest and a notebook in real life. All I do is have an envelope for every month, and I put in all of the sticky notes for that month into the envelope. Every quarter, I review all of the sticky notes in the envelope. Some of them remind me of past goals while others bring back ideas that are now relevant and doable.

The next time you think of an idea, write it on a sticky note and put that sticky note in an envelope. Even if you think of something that makes no sense right now, it may make sense 6 months later when you look in the envelope.

 

The Question You Need To Ask Yourself Before Trying Something New

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Is it worth learning and mastering?

That was the question I asked myself when I decided to give HootSuite Pro a try. At first, HootSuite Pro’s bulk scheduler seemed just as confusing as a Google product. Here was the problem: When I tried to schedule a tweet for 7 pm, it ended up being scheduled for 7 am. I was unsuccessful at scheduling tweets in every pm time except for 12 pm.

This problem took over an hour to figure out. The main problem is that I went too far ahead without anticipating the problem. Regardless, the problem came, and I was presented with the option to quit and the question above. When I thought about the question, I realized that mastering HootSuite Pro would allow me to save a large amount of time. It takes me well over 4 hours to send out a week’s worth of tweets. With HootSuite Pro, I could do the same task in 15 minutes.

I was thinking to myself, “The time I save here would really add up. I could send out more HARO queries, write two 200+ page books every year, write twice as many blog posts every day, read more books, and work out longer.

In the end, I decided that it was worth it. I figured out that HootSuite Pro’s bulk schedule feature requires the use of military time (i.e. In order to get a tweet to be scheduled at 1 pm, you need to schedule the tweet for 13:00). Although it took me a day to rearrange pages and data, the problem was resolved, and now I save a big chunk of time because I gave HootSuite Pro a chance.

HootSuite’s bulk scheduler was something worth learning and mastering. It was an opportunity that I was not going to waste.

 

My Interview With Shannon Oleen

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Shannon Oleen is a motivational speaker who empowers young adults. Shannon has followed her passions for her entire life. One of Shannon’s big passions was sports. Shannon played sports in high school, and after a lot of practice, Shannon became an NFL cheerleader for the Kansas City Chiefs. After putting the poms down for good, Shannon pursued another passion which was to become a motivational speaker. I had Shannon on a Google Hangout which you can watch here (the noise in the background is my computer’s fans. Sorry about that). Here were the main takeaways from the interview.

  1. Success does not go to you; you go to it. If success came to us, there would not be thousands of books in the world about success systems that never fail and similar book titles as well. The road to success is the road less traveled. However, by taking that road, you will end up becoming successful by doing the things that you love to do.
  2. Patience and action lead to success. Shannon thought that when she became a motivational speaker, she would be able to quit her old job in 6 months so she could focus on motivational speaking. It took a lot longer for her to eventually quit her job, but by staying patient, she was able to quit her job and focus on motivational speaking. In addition, Shannon Oleen tried out several times for the cheerleader team, and after trying out many times, the Kansas City Chiefs had Shannon on their cheerleading team.
  3. We need to find out who we really are as individuals. In one of her blog posts, Shannon goes in detail about her 2 week canoe ride where there was rationed food and water. From this 2 week canoe ride, Shannon was able to discover who she as a person is minus all of the technology. Shannon did not use any social networks during the canoe ride, and although that alone is brave enough for a gold medal, there were no forms of technology or every day things we take for granted. It is amazing how much we take brushing our teeth and toilets for granted. This experience allowed Shannon to know who she is as a person, and that is something we all must do–find out who we really are minus the clutter. I’m not telling you to go on a canoe ride, but I am telling you to dig deep, remove the clutter, and figure out who you are as a person.

The entire interview has elements of humor and motivation intertwined into one. If you want to get in touch with Shannon, you can subscribe to her blog and follow her on Twitter, Pinterest, YouTube, LinkedIn, Facebook, and other social networks (just search Shannon Oleen, and she’ll show up).

 

The Social Media Grade Book

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The ways to be successful on social media are not written out. This results in many people not knowing how well they are doing on their social networks. My version of the social media grade book, provides some information into this problem. Here are some factors that go into consideration for how good your grade is.

  1. Real or fake followers. Having fake followers guarantees a low grade for this social media grade book. Being able to get real followers will prove that people are listening to your message. If you can get people to listen to your message, that is the starting point for success for any social network.
  2. Targeted followers. Having targeted followers is like the extra credit. Targeted followers are people who are interested in what you tweet about before they followed you while not every real follower will be interested in what you tweet about.
  3. Engagement with your followers. If you are able to talk with your followers and get them to share your posts, you are doing a good job with getting engagement. Having a targeted following really helps out towards getting more engagement.
  4. What you share. What are the rewards of someone clicking on the link to one of your tweets. Are they sent to a random article on the web, or are they sent to your blog where they can subscribe or buy one of your products? Does it generate a lot of retweets? The things that you share need to have an impact on your business, not someone else’s. It is okay to share other people’s content, but you should primarily share your content. In addition, your blog posts need to be stellar because that is the only way people will keep on reading your blog posts and your posts on social networks.
  5. How consistently and frequently you post on your social networks. There’s always that person who sends out 5 updates in 1 minute and then does not update their social media profile for the rest of the day. If you want to make it on the map, you need to be scheduling posts to appear on a consistent, frequent basis. I tweet every 30 minutes which is consistent and frequent.
  6. Your ability to have conversations with your followers via email. Once you start a conversation via email, that conversation can last for a long time. The first thing most people do when they get on their computers is check their inbox for new messages. Bringing the conversation to the inbox will allow you to have longer conversations which will result in future clients.
  7. The number of social networks that you use. It is better to have 100 people following you on one social network than it is to have 10 followers for 10 social network accounts. However, as one of your social networks picks up in speed, the others will gradually pick up in speed as well. Each time you get 1,000 followers on a social network, create another social network, and when that social network reaches 1,000 followers, repeat the process. If you have 10 social networks with over 1,000 followers each, some of your followers will decide to follow you on your other social networks. Then, all of your social networks grow and your overall presence on the web grows.

That is my version of the social media grade book. What are your thoughts on the social media grade book and do you think there anything else that I should add to it?

 

 

Take Advantage Of A Problem By Being The Solution

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If you’re like me, you use some of Google’s services and have no idea how half of them work. Adsense and broadcasted Google Hangouts are some of the services I have trouble with (I spent $15 to create a screen recorder for Google Hangouts so I can put those videos on YouTube). Chances are you are probably just like me or were just like me at one point. There are millions of people who have no idea how to use certain Google services or how certain features work. The worst part is that Google makes changes to many of its services every year. Someone who could host a Google Hangout in 2013 would have to relearn how to host a Google Hangout this year.

Let’s continue with my story of misfortune and hope that I am two for two. If you’re like me, you have watched videos or read articles on blogs to try to solve the problem. When seeing someone using the Google service that we cannot get to function, that person suddenly looks like one of those super humans chosen by the ancients or something cool like that.

While trying to find the fix for one of my Google services, I ended up reading 10 blog posts from the same blog dealing with this issue. I did not find the solution to the giant puzzle (trying to use a Google service that is not functioning properly). However, one blogger just got an extra visitor and 10 pageviews. Some people on YouTube got some extra views as well.

As these people get more visitors, pageviews, and views, their SEO increases, and they start to see traffic on the rise. What happened? These people knew the solution to a problem that millions of people have. Not all of these millions of people will get a solution from a single video, but as these people get more views for their videos about Google services, their other videos get viewed as well. In addition, their blogs also get more visitors and pageviews.

There are plenty of problems out there. If you are a solution to one of the problems that a large group of people have, numerous people will come to you to get the answer.

 

How We All Need To Think Of Excuses

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You could have come up with the best excuse for why your book did not get published when you said it would. The best excuse does not change the result–the book was still not published at the time you said it would be published.

“I didn’t study for the test because I had a project that week.” Although this excuse was well done, it does not change the fact that the person scored a low grade on the test.

“I don’t use Instagram because I don’t want to start from scratch when I have 500,000 followers on Twitter.” This is not an excuse. This is a logical reason. Focusing on the 500,000 followers on Twitter is more important than creating the Instagram account.

There is a difference between a reason and an excuse. An excuse is a cover up for a flaw on your part that could have been addressed better. It is better to admit mistakes than to cover them up so everyone can learn from those mistakes, not just you. A reason is something that makes sense but is not trying to cover up a flaw. Not having an Instagram account is not a flaw when you have a strong presence on Twitter. Likewise, not having a Twitter account is not a flaw when you have a strong presence on Instagram.

Excuses should not be tolerated. Mistakes should be admitted. Excuses are just the long route that ends up going exactly where the short route goes–the realization that there is a flaw. Reasons are good especially when they can be supported. Reasons are logical, and reasons don’t hide flaws because there is nothing to hide.