privatekonomi

Editor’s note: This is a guest post from Chris Guillebeau of ChrisGuillebeau.com.

Imagine a life where all your time is spent on the things you want to do.

Imagine giving your greatest attention to a project you create yourself, instead of working as a cog in a machine that exists to make other people rich.

Imagine handing a letter to your boss that reads, “Dear Boss, I’m writing to let you know that your services are no longer required. Thanks for everything, but I’ll be doing things my own way now.”

Imagine that today is your final day of working for anyone other than yourself. What if—very soon, not in some distant, undefined future—you prepare for work by firing up a laptop in your home office, walking into a storefront you’ve opened, phoning a client who trusts you for helpful advice, or otherwise doing what you want instead of what someone tells you to do?

All over the world, and in many different ways, thousands of people are doing exactly that. They are rewriting the rules of work, becoming their own bosses, and creating a new future.

Some of these unexpected entrepreneurs found their freedom through online communities, creating digital goods that were sold for a fair price. Others took to opening retail storefronts in actual neighborhoods—a yarn shop in Portland, a coffee bar in South Carolina.

Some were natural-born entrepreneurs, determined to go it alone from a young age. But most were ordinary people of all ages and backgrounds, who transitioned to a new career after growing disillusioned with the world of traditional work.

They all did it by pursuing two twin concepts: freedom and value.

Freedom is what we’re all looking for, and value is the way to achieve it. The magic formula of skills + usefulness is how you change the world.

When you value freedom above other things, you’ll make different choices. Your priorities will shift. You’ll have more time for your family and more time for the hobbies you enjoy.

When you focus on helping others, connecting your work to their needs, that’s when value is created.

This is what it came down to for all of these people, and that’s how it can work for you too. No special skills, not a lot of money, but the willingness to imagine.

###

Chris Guillebeau is the author of The $100 Startup, a new book that chronicles the rise of unexpected entrepreneurs and provides a blueprint for creating your own freedom. You can also read his free blog at ChrisGuillebeau.com. 

Chris Guillebeau is a blogger and author who writes at The Art of Nonconformity. He is eight countries shy of his goal of visiting every single country in the world. His writing and message has shaped so many lives, including mine. He has a new book called The $100 Startup and took the time to do an interview with me. 

We live in an amazing time where we have so many resources available to create a successful business from almost nothing.

You’ve proven that in your new book. How did you come up with the idea for The $100 Startup?

The idea came about largely from the AONC community. As I traveled during book tour #1, I kept hearing fun stories of people who had found their own freedom by building a business almost unexpectedly. Then we put a call out to collect more data a bit more intentionally, and I was astounded at the results. I thought: we simply have to tell this story in a comprehensive way.

As you gathered research for the book and came across many amazing stories, what were some of the common traits you found in these successful entrepreneurs?

The case studies were diverse and came from many different backgrounds. What they had in common was an ability to create something useful to the world, not just something that they were personally excited by.

In addition, I think it’s fair to say that most of the unexpected entrepreneurs were fairly curious (they wanted to know everything about their topic of interest) and also somewhat persistent (if the first idea didn’t work, they shifted to something else).

For someone who’s starting a business for the very first time, what are some common mistakes they should avoid?

Mistake #1: going into debt, borrowing money, or believing that you need to do either of those things. Chances are, you don’t.

Mistake #2: failing to convert a general business idea into a specific offer. The sooner you can go from idea to offer, the better. An offer includes a price and a means of getting paid. In other words, don’t wait to get that PayPal button up on your site.

I find that our generation is much different that our parents. I know many parents, including mine, focused only on work and left little for enjoyment until they retired.

Now freedom is what we value the most. Why do you think more people now would rather have more freedom than more money if they had to choose?

Good point. Perhaps some of it is a rejection of an earlier way of life, in the way that most generations tend to do, and perhaps it’s also just the natural evolution of human progress. I think there’s much more of an aspirational aspect to our lives now. We know more of what’s possible, and we know there are more available opportunities.

This is your second book, after The Art of Non-Conformity. Was this book easier or more challenging to write and why?

Much easier. The first book was fairly general and all-encompassing, whereas The $100 Startup is much more specific. It was certainly a lot of work, but in many ways much of the story told itself.

You just turned 34 and your blog is four years old. A lot has changed since you’ve started the AONC.

Knowing what you know now, what would you say to the person you were just five years ago before you started this chapter in your life?

“Look out! This is going to be more thrilling than you ever imagined. (Also: why didn’t you start earlier?)”

Traveling is certainly a part of you. Do you have another big travel goal?

I expect that travel will always be an important part of my life. I’m looking forward to traveling with less of an agenda, spending more time in certain places, etc. But I don’t think I’ll revisit every country, and I don’t yet have another specific travel goal.

Virgin Galactic is taking reservations for their suborbital space flight for $200,000 or 2,000,000 frequent flier points. Are you interested?

That would be great! Except I don’t have $200k or 2M Virgin Atlantic miles to spare at the moment, so we’ll put this on the wishlist for the future.

 

A Copy of the $100 Startup

I’ve got a hardcover copy of The $100 Startup to giveaway to a Get Busy Living reader. It’s a fantastic book and if you’re looking to create a business that you love and get paid for it, this book is for you.

It’s really easy:

• Tweet, Facebook Like for one entry!
• Comment below on your “why” for wanting to start your own $100 startup.
• I’ll randomly pick a winner on May 28th!

Ja, visst var den bra skriven, Jims förra blogg ! Jag följer impulsen att säga ”håller med föregående talare”. Jag skrev en krönika i Skandias senaste marknadsbrev om att göra som proffsen. Investera på ett smart sätt, helt enkelt. Den handlar om att tänka i olika steg - risknivå, intressanta marknader just nu och till sist intressanta fonder just nu - och att söka riskspridning. Det där med riskspridning kan man ju fundera en sväng på. Lägg inte alla ägg i samma korg, osv. Men sätt det i relation till historien och hur vi tar till oss historien. Går vi till det som redan hänt för att hitta svar är riskspridning helt irrelevant. Det är ju bara att ta den fond som gått allra bäst under vald historisk tidsperiod. Ingen risk, alltså inget behov av riskspridning. Men nej, tänker ni. Så kan man väl inte göra. Nej just det, så kan man absolut inte göra! Historien är, i bästa fall, en bra historia vid brasan en sen oktoberkväll. Som spaningsverktyg in i framtiden är den verkligen urkass. Backspegelstradern – stensäker, helt förvissad om sin egen excellens – är ute på hal is. För betänk, för varje vald tidsperiod bakåt i tiden får du en story. Ta en Sverigefond och titta ett år tillbaka, tre år tillbaka, fem år tillbaka… Tvära kast mellan positiv avkastning och riktiga bottennapp – precis som det kommer att vara i en fond med någorlunda hög risknivå. Därför är den historiska avkastningen bara en spegling av den valda tidsperioden och inte en bra gissning om vad som komma skall, precis som Jim skriver. Nästa gång du råkar på någon stensäker bekant som orerar om den där toppenfonden som gått som tåget och som är det självklara svaret på alla investeringsproblem, både nutida och kommande - hav Bertrand Russels ord i minnet: ”The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubts”.         Hälsningar Jeanette Hauff, sparekonom   

Ja, visst var den bra skriven, Jims förra blogg ! Jag följer impulsen att säga ”håller med föregående talare”. Jag skrev en krönika i Skandias senaste marknadsbrev om att göra som proffsen. Investera på ett smart sätt, helt enkelt. Den handlar om att tänka i olika steg - risknivå, intressanta marknader just nu och till sist intressanta fonder just nu - och att söka riskspridning. Det där med riskspridning kan man ju fundera en sväng på. Lägg inte alla ägg i samma korg, osv. Men sätt det i relation till historien och hur vi tar till oss historien. Går vi till det som redan hänt för att hitta svar är riskspridning helt irrelevant. Det är ju bara att ta den fond som gått allra bäst under vald historisk tidsperiod. Ingen risk, alltså inget behov av riskspridning. Men nej, tänker ni. Så kan man väl inte göra. Nej just det, så kan man absolut inte göra! Historien är, i bästa fall, en bra historia vid brasan en sen oktoberkväll. Som spaningsverktyg in i framtiden är den verkligen urkass. Backspegelstradern – stensäker, helt förvissad om sin egen excellens – är ute på hal is. För betänk, för varje vald tidsperiod bakåt i tiden får du en story. Ta en Sverigefond och titta ett år tillbaka, tre år tillbaka, fem år tillbaka… Tvära kast mellan positiv avkastning och riktiga bottennapp – precis som det kommer att vara i en fond med någorlunda hög risknivå. Därför är den historiska avkastningen bara en spegling av den valda tidsperioden och inte en bra gissning om vad som komma skall, precis som Jim skriver. Nästa gång du råkar på någon stensäker bekant som orerar om den där toppenfonden som gått som tåget och som är det självklara svaret på alla investeringsproblem, både nutida och kommande - hav Bertrand Russels ord i minnet: ”The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubts”.         Hälsningar Jeanette Hauff, sparekonom   

People are more stressed than ever. We have more pressure put on us than any other time in history.

You see it on your TV, the toothpick models and rugged “sexiest men alive” occupying the screen. This is what you’re supposed to look like.

You hear it on your radio, the solipsistic over-indulgence of Hummer-driving rap stars and champagne-guzzling pop stars promulgating irresponsible living. This is how you’re supposed to consume.

You notice it at work, the co-worker gossip about him and her and, god forbid, you. This is how you’re supposed to behave. To have the tallest building in town, you must tear down everyone else’s.

Suffice it to say, the pressure is all around us.

Or is it?

The truth is that nearly all of the pressure we feel is completely internal. Sure, this pressure is influenced by external factors, but the that doesn’t mean we have to take the bait. We needn’t succumb to these influences.

You see, the pressure is only there if you allow it to be. Sure, everyone will judge you, but no one actually cares about the details of your life. No one cares if you fit into that size 0 dress or if you drive a fancy sports car or if you have the tallest building in town. Once you realize this, you can give yourself permission to get rid of the pressure. You are already perfect without it.

—

If you’re in Columbus, Ohio, we’ll be attending (and briefly speaking at) Chris Guillebeau’s book tour stop on Tuesday 5/22, 7pm at Garden Theater. Come say Hi.

No pressure, but feel free to share this essay with others if you found value in it:

It’s been a while since I last published a dedicated update about my niche site, securityguardtraininghq.com. A lot has happened in the world of search engine optimization since the last update and there’s a lot of interesting data to report and thoughts in my head that will determine where I go with this site in the future.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with this particular project, it’s a site that I created from scratch as part of a publicly documented challenge which later became known as the Niche Site Duel.

From keyword research to niche selection, all the way through building the site and earning from it – it’s all documented on the hub.

Today I’m going to share some interesting updates about the earnings and traffic on the site, and walk you through the process of trying to figure out my next steps.

Earnings: Have I Hit My Peak?

Since I started the site, it has earned a total of $23,543.79.

Earnings primarily come from Google Adsense (96%), with additional earnings coming from a job board, private advertising and Media.net.

$23.5k from a niche website in under 2 years is excellent, but looking at the trend of earnings-over-time, I can’t help but be a little concerned:

As you can see, since the beginning of 2012 the earnings have been on the downward slope, which is never good.

Although I’m still earning over $1,500 per month (and on pace to do nearly the same here in May), I’d rather turn things around and continue to climb upwards like what was happening all of last year.

In order to turn things around, we have to first examine what may have caused  this particular downward trend.

Traffic, Maybe?

The first and easiest thing to examine is the traffic that’s coming to the site.

If the traffic graph follows the same path, then we can determine that the earnings have decreased because the amount of traffic has decreased – in which case we would then have to dig deeper to see what’s causing the drop in traffic. For instance, it could be a drop in search engine rankings – possibly due to recent changes in Google’s search engine algorithm.

That would make sense, but let’s head to the graph:

Hmm..after January 1 2012 the traffic does decrease slightly, but the drop is not nearly as dramatic as it was with the earnings, and it starts to go back up again in April.

It’s good to know that Google is still liking this site.

Even after all of the algorithm changes, including the latest penguin update (which I talk about in my latest monthly income report, including what happened to a couple of my other niche sites), it’s still ranking #1 for it’s primary keyword and continues to pull in traffic from over 6,230 different keywords over the past month.

So if it’s not the traffic and rankings, what is it then?

The next logical thing to check would be the trends at the point at which money is earned – Google Adsense.

There are three main metrics of interest within Adsense:

• Click-Through Rates (CTR)
• Cost-Per-Click (CPC); and
• Revenue Per  1000 Impressions (RPM)

If click-through-rates follow the same path as the earnings graph, then we can determine that the earnings have decreased because the number of people clicking on ads has decreased – in which case we would then have to dig deeper to see what’s causing the drop in click-through-rates.

It’s hard to get an overall picture of the CTR with all of the different ads on the site, each with their own specific locations, and some not showing on each page. So instead, I’ve taken 3 specific kinds of top-performing ads on this site and put them each into one graph against each other. Those three ads include:

1. The set of Link Ad units across the top of all posts and pages, including the homepage.
2. The large rectangle ad unit on the homepage, justified to the right hand side within the first paragraph of text.
3. The large rectangle ad unit on all inner posts, justified to the right hand side within the first paragraph of text.

And here’s what we get over time:

*Note that before March 2011 I used a different set (sizes and placements) of Adsense ads, which is why the data here starts “late”. Also note that the actual Click-through Rates are hidden to comply with Google Adsense’s terms and conditions.

--------------------- Thanks for reading! If you would like to leave a comment on this post, please click the link below: Niche Site Duel – Investigating a Sudden Drop in Earnings Join the community of over 18,000 fans of SPI on Facebook!

‘He who is contented is rich.’ ~Lao Tzu

Post written by Leo Babauta.

There has been little in my life that has made as much an impact as learning to be content — with my life, where I am, what I’m doing, what I have, who I’m with, who I am.

This little trick changes everything.

Let’s take a look at my life before contentedness:

I was addicted to junk food and fast food, and overweight and unhealthy. I bought too many things on impulse, owned too much clutter, and was deeply in debt and struggling to make it to the next payday. I was unhappy with who I was, wanted desperately to change, tried a thousand different programs and books. I was always worried I was missing out on exciting things, and wanted so much to be out doing the fun things everyone else was doing. I was always changing the way I did things, because it seemed everyone else had a better system or tools. I strove to meet goals, because they would get me to a better life.

And as I learned to be content, here was what changed:

I learned to be happy with healthier food, with less food, and my health improved and waistline shrunk. I relied on a good book, spending time with people I loved, going for a nice run … and my debt began to be reduced as I learned I didn’t need to spend money to enjoy myself. I learned to be happier with who I was, and what I was doing, and so no longer needed self-improvement books and programs, no longer needed to try all kinds of new systems and tools. I became happy with myself, with those around me, and with what I had — and so didn’t need to strive to change everything. Letting go of goals helped me to simplify things so I had less to worry about, less to do.

That’s just the start. There is no way to account for the tremendous change that happens when you learn to accept who you are, when you tell yourself you are perfect just as you are, when you love yourself and everything about yourself. You stop criticizing yourself, you are happier, you are a better person to be around, and you can now help others and work without the insecurities you had before.

This is not a magical state, and doesn’t require any new tools or books. It’s simple, and I’ll share what has worked for me.

Learning to Be Content

If you are in a bad place in your life, and are unhappy with everything about it (job, relationship, yourself, house, habits, etc.), it can be a miserable thing. But here’s something interesting: it can also be a happy thing.

I’ve been in situations where you might think things were bad, and sometimes I was very unhappy, and other times I was happy. The difference wasn’t in the external circumstances, but in my mindset — I learned to appreciate what I had, instead of focusing on the things I didn’t have or didn’t like. I was grateful for my health, for the people in my life, for having food and being alive.

If you can learn to develop the right mindset, you can be happy now, without changing anything else. You don’t need to wait until you’ve changed everything and made your life perfect before you’re happy — you have everything you need to be happy right now.

The mindset of waiting for happiness is a never-ending cycle. You get a better job (yay!) and then immediately start thinking about what your next promotion will be. You get a nicer house and immediately start looking at how nice your neighbors’ houses are, or the faults in the house you have. You try to change your spouse or kids, and if that works (good luck), you’ll find other things about them that need to be changed. It keeps going, until you die.

Instead, learn that you can be content now, without any external changes. Here’s how to start:

1. Take a moment to be grateful for something. What in your life is amazing? Even if everything seems to suck, there must be one good thing. It might simply be that you have beauty somewhere nearby, or that you are alive, or that your kids are healthy. Find something, and give thanks for that.
2. Catch yourself thinking, “This sucks.” It’s amazing how often people think this thought. “This sucks!” “My co-worker is the worst — he sucks!” “My wife doesn’t understand me — this suuucks!” It might be in different words, but if you catch yourself thinking something like that, pause. Reverse the thinking. Find a way to be thankful for the situation. “My wife is a caring and sweet person — maybe I should give her a hug.” “My co-worker might be annoying sometimes, but he has a good heart, and maybe I should get to know him better.” “My room might be messy but at least I have a roof over my head.”
3. Find the little things that can give you simple joys. What do you need to be happy? I love simple things, like taking a walk, spending time with a loved one, reading a book, eating some berries, drinking tea. These cost very little, and require very little, and can make me very happy. Find the simple things that give you similar happiness, and focus on those rather than what you don’t have.
4. Find the things about yourself that you’re happy with. We tend to criticize ourselves easily, but what if we turned it around and asked, “What do I do right? What am I good at? What is loveable about me?” Make a list. Start to focus on these things rather than what you’re unhappy with.
5. Do the same with others in your life. Instead of criticizing them, ask yourself, “What is good about this person? What do I love about them?” Make a list, and focus on these things above all else.
6. Assume that you, others, and life are perfect. You are great, and don’t need improvement. You aren’t a piece of clay that must be shaped and molded into something better — you are already perfect. Other people are also just as perfect, and don’t need improvement. You just need to appreciate them for who they are. The moment we are living in is not a stepping stone to something better — it is exactly wonderful, and we have already arrived at the perfect moment.

The Contented Life

It might be useful to look at what life would be like if you learned to be content:

1. Self image. We compare ourselves with the images in our head of perfection — movie stars, models in magazines, other people who seem to have it all together — and we can never measure up to those perfect images. But those images are not real. They are an imagined ideal. Even the beautiful people have bad hair days and feel flabby, and if you take away their photoshopped and heavily-made-up façade, you see that they are every bit as human as you are. Even the people who seem successful, living exciting lives — they have the same self-doubts you have. So if they don’t live up to this ideal image, why should you? And even if they did (which they don’t), why would you need to? When we let go of this image of perfection, we realize that we are already exactly who we should be. And then, all our need for self-improvement, and all the activity and effort and pain that implies, fades away. We are happy with ourselves, and nothing else is needed.
2. Relationships. If you are content with yourself, you are more likely to be a good friend, partner, parent. You are more likely to be happy and friendly and loving, more likely to be as accepting of others as you are of yourself. Relationships improve, especially when others learn to be content with themselves, from your example.
3. Health. Much of our culture’s unhealthiness comes from unhappiness — eating junk food to give ourselves comfort and relieve stress, not exercising because we think we can’t (because we have a bad self-image), being glued online because we think we might miss something if we turn off the computer or iPhone. When you realize that you aren’t missing anything, and you don’t need junk food to be happy, and you are good enough to exercise, you can slowly return to health.
4. Possessions. The overload of possessions in our lives comes from unhappiness — we buy things because we think they’ll give us comfort, coolness, happiness, security, an exciting life. When we become content with ourselves and our lives, we realize none of that is necessary, and we can start getting rid of these extraneous crutches.
5. Busy-ness. Much of our busy-ness comes from fear that we should be doing more, that we might be missing out, that we aren’t enough already. But we are enough, and we don’t need more, and we aren’t missing out. So we can let go of a lot of unnecessary activity, and just focus on doing what we love, and give ourselves the space to enjoy a contented life.

This is all just a few scratches on the surface of a contented life, but it gives you a picture of what might be. And the truth is, once you learn the simple trick of contentedness, it’s really a picture of what already is. You just need to let go of the fears, and see what is already here.

‘Be content with what you have; rejoice in the way things are. When you realize there is nothing lacking, the whole world belongs to you.’ ~Lao Tzu

Perfectionism is a futile endeavor. As a perfectionist, I speak from experience. And this is my confessionary hymn.

At times my perfectionism haunts me. All the pleasure of “getting it right” can be immediately wiped out by small, debilitating imperfections: the sharp stabbing pain of a negative criticism, the disappointment of a brightly-illuminated flaw, the vitriolic feeling brought forth by a set of rolled eyes.

Our culture reinforces certain standards we cannot live up to: the women with their half-a-serving hips adorning the covers of magazines, the expensively-dressed celebutantes wearing an average-person’s annual salary on her wrist, the modern-day rock stars and Fonzarellis plastered all over billboards and TV screens.

Attempting to keep up with these false standards is tantamount to playing a rigged game—the game of Perfectionism is designed for failure. And even if we could win at this game, it wouldn’t make us happy. Contentment comes from within, not from the entrapment of protruding hipbones or the bling-bling of consumer purchases. And yet we continue to play this game with religious devotion—myself included.

Airing Out Flaws

Everyone is subject to public scrutiny at some level. Once your thoughts exit your mouth, people will judge you. Once a creation—a new book, a work project, a term paper—is released to the world, even its most subtle flaws are glaring.

But we can’t hide every thought, hold back every word, restrain every impulse.

And the fact that we can’t mask all of our imperfections is actually a good thing. That’s because our faults improve us; they help us grow. Once we put our individual problems out in the open, they are far more noticeable, and thus we feel compelled to address those problems.

For example, I’ve noticed this phenomena within myself and this website. By writing about my life, my transformations, and my continued pursuit of personal refinement, I’ve “put myself out there,” as it were. Many of you know more about me than certain members of my family do. Ergo, my public display of self forces me to grow in ways I wouldn’t otherwise grow, allowing me to learn important new lessons about life.

The truth is that we are all human. Thus, we are all imperfect. And if I waited for everything to “be perfect,” I’d be waiting in perpetuity, and my writings would never exist. So instead, I write and then release it to the world, warts and all.

Consequently, I’ve learned a valuable lesson by exposing my blemishes to the world: I’ve learned to be happy with my efforts and my growth, not with perfection.

Truth be told, I work incredibly hard on everything I do and I’m proud of that fact. It is exciting and gratifying to write these words for you—to create something from nothing. Although everything I do is inherently imperfect. But I’m happy when I can look myself in the mirror and know it’s the absolute best I can do.

Similarly, it’s just as gratifying to share what I’ve learned about writing with the students in my online writing class, opening myself up in yet another way, airing out my flaws in front of an intimate audience, finding new ways to learn and prosper.

Irrespective of the arena, whenever I air out my flaws, I grow.

Other Life Examples

I think the same goes for all other areas of life.

Health. If you want a perfect body, you’ll never have it. Instead, you can focus on having a better body, you can focus on having a healthier body while enjoying the process of exercising and strengthening your health.

Relationships. If you’re looking for the perfect partner or friend or co-worker, you’ll lose every time. People are, by nature, imperfect. We come equipped with a tackle box of flaws. But instead of focusing on the faults, you can focus on making your relationships better and on establishing new, empowering relationships.

Passions. If you’re looking for the perfect job, it’s not out there. No matter your vocation—even if you land your “dream job” in which you pursue your passions every day—there will be moments of despair, moments of tedium, moments of doubt. But that’s OK. Instead of those moments, you can focus on the joy experienced by pursuing your passions, you can focus on the fulfillment you get from improving everything you do in tiny little ways each day.

Every area of life is filled with imperfection, but we needn’t neurose over every blemish.

Far from Mediocrity

I am not, however, advocating being average. The average person is not happy with his life. I refuse to be run-of-the-mill. I’d rather fail miserably than saunter down the alley of mediocrity. Instead, I’m advocating passionately pursuing what you love and doing so with vigor, knowing that there will be shortcomings and mistakes along the way. I’m advocating learning from those failings—even appreciating them—because they allow you to grow. And that’s what life is about.

Taking Feedback for What It Is

And I’ve learned to take feedback for what it is. Sure, there are some cynics and hypocritical assholes out there, and I’ve learned to pay them no mind (although that’s not always easy). But most people who provide advice are simply attempting to help; they are contributing to the greater good. This feedback allows us to evolve, it allows us to expand and live more meaningful lives.

That doesn’t mean that I apply every bit of feedback I receive, but I do consider the meaningful, value-adding observations and take action accordingly.

Dealing with Imperfection by Letting Go of the Negative

I’ve also learned how to better deal with imperfection. I’ve learned to do three simple things to change my state when I feel overwhelmed or bothered by my foibles.

Breathe. When Stress knocks on my door, I’ll take a walk and focus on my breathing. Deep, diaphragmatic breaths change our physiology, calm us, and provide our bodies with the oxygen we need.

Focus. If we focus on the negative, we’ll feel fear, loneliness, jealousy, and every other negative emotion we can conjure from within. Conversely, if we focus on the positive, we’ll feel joy, happiness, and contentment. Much of how we feel is directly associated to what we focus on.

Beliefs. Similarly, whatever we believe becomes our reality. If we believe people are rotten and hateful, then we’ll find all the flaws in even the nicest people. But if we believe people are kind and caring, then we’ll find glimpses of perfection in every miscreant and reprobate. The same is true for any event or situation in which we are involved—it is whatever we believe it is.

—

Note: A longer version of this essay, Imperfect Is the New Perfect, was published in 2011. That version addressed some of the imperfections in the best thing I’d ever written, my story collection, Falling While Sitting Down. I thought it’d be helpful to attenuate and edit that essay to make it applicable to all areas of life.

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“Rich Dad, Poor Dad” author Robert Kiyosaki joins host Jay Carter this week on the Financial Survival Podcast. His newest book that was released recently is Unfair Advantage: The Power of Financial Education. Robert Kiyosaki discusses the real “Rich Dad’s Conspiracy of the Rich: The 8 New Rules of Money” that is continuing to impoverish [...]

Jag såg precis ett program om Jonny Depp där man beskrev honom så här:

”Han har lite Gilbert Grape i sig, han har lite Jack Sparrow i sig, han har lite Edward Scissorhands i sig, han har lite Willy Wonka i sig… frågan är hur mycket av honom själv som verkligen får plats därinne.”

Jag antar att det där är en risk när man är skådespelare, man kan blir uppäten av de roller man spelar. Frågan är om det inte är en risk som vi alla utsätter oss för i våra liv. Är det inte så att vi alla hotas av att förlora oss i de roller vi spelar och fullt upptagna med att öva in nya repliker tappar vi blicken på att berika vårt liv?

Som jag ser det så spelar vi roller hela tiden. Vi har yrkesroller, föräldraroller, förtroendeuppdrag osv. Det är väldigt sällan som vi gör saker utan att göra det inuti en ”roll” vi skapat eller blivit tilldelad. Med rollen följer en hel rad synsätt, manér, vokabulär, attityder och vanliga sätt att göra saker. När jag spelar squash är jag någon annan än den jag är när jag läser sagor för Primus. När jag filmar TV är jag någon annan än när jag hjälper mina föräldrar att bygga om deras hus.

Vi behöver roller, de skapar sammanhang för vårt agerande och underlättar vårt liv. De ger oss möjlighet att få vara någon för andra och samtidigt ta oss an utmaningar med en känsla av trygghet. Min poäng är att vi kan ätas upp av våra roller och min erfarenhet är att ju större och bättre roller man får spela, desto större är risken att de äter upp dig.

Häromveckan bjöd en vän in mig att skriva på hans blogg om ett stort misslyckande jag gjort i mitt liv. Efter lite klurande har jag bestämt mig för att skriva om när jag tappade fokus på vad JAG ville för att all min tid gick åt till att spela alla dessa roller jag hamnat i… den gången kulminerade det i, för snart två och ett halvt år sedan, det närmaste en livskris jag kommit i mitt liv!

Om det inte vore för det fantastiska stödet jag fick av mina ensembler då, hade jag troligen inte suttit här och skrivit till er idag. Vad jag lärde mig var att bli regissör för mina ”skådespel” och agent för mitt eget liv. Jag insåg att det inte bara är möjligt för mig att skapa HUR jag spelar mina roller utan även i högsta grad bestämma VILKA roller som jag vill ha. Idag gör jag färre ”föreställningar” och framförallt väljer jag roller mer noga utifrån vad som harmoniserar med de mål jag har i livet.

Mitt råd till dig som jagar på i livet är att, ta en stund och stanna upp och se över vilka roller du spelar och varför. Vi är många som springer och nästan lika många som tror att man måste springa om man vill ta sig framåt i livet. Vad jag lärt mig är att, den som springer ofta springer i sidled eller till och med bort från ett rikare liv.

Att se över sina roller är lätt att säga men svårare att göra. Det är framförallt två saker som verkar hindra oss. Det första är påståendet att det är värt det, att allt springande snart kommer att lugna ned sig och att belöningen kommer… ibland är det sant, men ofta är det en lögn vi kör med för att orka en föreställning till.

Det andra som hindrar oss är vår upplevelse av att vi inte har något val . Om inte vi skulle uppfylla alla dessa förväntningar så skulle allt gå åt skogen och allt kämpande skulle vara förgäves. Det är ofta en förhastad slutsats och omöjligt att se när man står där mitt på scenen med strålkastarna i ögonen.

Mitt råd är att göra som Clintan. Lägg revolvern på hyllan, sätt dig i regissörsstolen och ta sedan bara de roller i dina egna filmer som du är riktigt, riktigt sugen på.

Bara för att något KAN göras betyder det inte att du behöver göra det! Byggandet av ett rikare liv är träningen i uppskjuten belöning och då gäller det att våga välja bort tillfälliga applåder för att lägga tid på det som verkligen gör skillnad i livet.

Over the past couple years I’ve bought tens of thousands of dollars worth of websites outside the typical auction scenario. This method takes a lot of time to find websites worth buying (because you’re talking to people who often aren’t even interested in selling). So late last year I wanted to find ways to get more active in buying websites and specifically to try and make more sense out of Flippa.

Site Finder Pro Finished (5 Months In The Making)

So I spoke with the guys at Flippa and got permission to create a software tool designed to help make the research process on Flippa faster. This isn’t a due diligence replacement, but it does provide a bunch of data about a website without having to do more in depth digging. Here’s a video which covers a little bit more about why I created this tool:

Site Finder Pro Is Opening May 17th at 8:00 AM EST

If you’d like to be notified when the product releases at it’s lowest price join the email list below:

How I Recommend Using The Tool

Beyond just looking at active auctions, determining how the site makes money, where it gets links from and just saving time on research (which is the primary purpose of the tool). I’m also going to be viewing auctions that have ended, then researching that URL to see what other sites the person may own and contacting them about sites they haven’t put on auction yet. (There are a few other tactics I’ll be employing as well)

Overall there are a lot of ways to buy websites and this tool is just one solution towards helping you speed up the time in evaluating websites worth buying.

Let me know what you think of it and if you’d like to buy it feel free to join the email list above to be notified first.

P.S. I’ll be selling this on the Warrior Forum first. I know some people think the forum is cheesy at times, but it’s a really good way for me to be able to release the software projects that I’ve been working on (in this case – 5 months now) at the lowest price possible. After that I’ll be putting it onto Clickbank.

Man brukar säga: ”om du kan din historia vet du hur framtiden ser ut”. Så om du kan din historia borde du då inte kunna ta rätt investeringsbeslut inför framtiden? Jag ställde mig den frågan och kunde snabbt konstatera att vore det så enkelt skulle alla vara ekonomiskt oberoende. Några mönster är ganska enkla, som att krascher (IT, finans osv.) ofta kommer efter ett euforiskt rally. Och tittar vi historiskt kan vi också konstatera att aktiefonder har rört sig kraftigt både upp och ner, medan räntefonder har haft stabilare utveckling. Tittar vi tillbaka skulle man kunna resonera enligt följande för tio år sedan. IT-bubblan hade nyligen briserat och många hade sett sina aktier falla kraftigt. Sannolikt ville vi då satsa på gamla ”trygga” marknader som Europa och USA. Och inte en chans att vi satsade på de där riskabla tillväxtmarknadsfonderna.  Idag, 10 år senare, kan vi konstatera att Japan-, Europa- och USA-fonder har varit de sämsta, medan udda tillväxtmarknadsfonder samt svenska småbolagsfonder tillhör de bästa. Räntefonder ligger någonstans i mitten. För fem år sedan då? Tillväxtmarknadsfonder hade gått som tåget och det fanns ingen kris färskt i minnet. Lätt att tänka: jag lägger det mesta i aktiefonder och framförallt tillväxtmarknadsfonder. Räntefonderna minskar jag på. Den som med ”tillväxtmarknadsfond” menade t ex en Thailandfond eller Kina är nog nöjd då framförallt Thailandfonden har gått upp rejält (125 %). Men den som menade Ryssland eller Balkan är nog mycket missnöjd (Balkanfonden har backat 67 %). Och räntefonderna har slagit majoriteten av aktiefonder. Och hur finns det risk att vi resonerar idag? Vi lever i efterdyningarna av finanskrisen och Greklandskrisen (som vi definitivt inte vet om den är över…) Aktiefonder har inte varit någon lysande placering de senaste åren direkt. Räntefonderna däremot har ju gått riktigt bra! Så då ökar vi väl mängden räntefonder i portföljen och drar ned på aktiefonderna, för de verkar ju faktiskt inte ge någon avkastning? Tänker vi ett steg längre kan vi fundera på framtiden för räntefonder. Lite förenklat kan man säga att en räntefond gynnas när marknadsräntorna sjunker. Och vad tror du är mest sannolikt - att de rekordlåga räntorna gradvis börjar röra sig uppåt eller att de rekordlåga räntorna sjunker ytterligare? Och låter ett decennium med svag börsutveckling som köp- eller säljläge? Lärdomen vi kan dra från de senaste tio åren är att det är lätt att ha fel om vi låter våra känslor styra för mycket, och sparande ska inte baseras på sannolikheten att man ”prickar rätt” eller inte. Du som väljer en grundfördelning mellan aktie- och räntefonder som du kommer att ha kvar både i uppgång och nedgång, och som kompletterar sparandet med någon Thailand- och Balkanfonder som en liten extra krydda har kommit en lång väg för att undvika framtida sparbesvikelser! Hälsningar Jim Rotsman, chef investeringserbjudandet

Man brukar säga: ”om du kan din historia vet du hur framtiden ser ut”. Så om du kan din historia borde du då inte kunna ta rätt investeringsbeslut inför framtiden? Jag ställde mig den frågan och kunde snabbt konstatera att vore det så enkelt skulle alla vara ekonomiskt oberoende. Några mönster är ganska enkla, som att krascher (IT, finans osv.) ofta kommer efter ett euforiskt rally. Och tittar vi historiskt kan vi också konstatera att aktiefonder har rört sig kraftigt både upp och ner, medan räntefonder har haft stabilare utveckling. Tittar vi tillbaka skulle man kunna resonera enligt följande för tio år sedan. IT-bubblan hade nyligen briserat och många hade sett sina aktier falla kraftigt. Sannolikt ville vi då satsa på gamla ”trygga” marknader som Europa och USA. Och inte en chans att vi satsade på de där riskabla tillväxtmarknadsfonderna.  Idag, 10 år senare, kan vi konstatera att Japan-, Europa- och USA-fonder har varit de sämsta, medan udda tillväxtmarknadsfonder samt svenska småbolagsfonder tillhör de bästa. Räntefonder ligger någonstans i mitten. För fem år sedan då? Tillväxtmarknadsfonder hade gått som tåget och det fanns ingen kris färskt i minnet. Lätt att tänka: jag lägger det mesta i aktiefonder och framförallt tillväxtmarknadsfonder. Räntefonderna minskar jag på. Den som med ”tillväxtmarknadsfond” menade t ex en Thailandfond eller Kina är nog nöjd då framförallt Thailandfonden har gått upp rejält (125 %). Men den som menade Ryssland eller Balkan är nog mycket missnöjd (Balkanfonden har backat 67 %). Och räntefonderna har slagit majoriteten av aktiefonder. Och hur finns det risk att vi resonerar idag? Vi lever i efterdyningarna av finanskrisen och Greklandskrisen (som vi definitivt inte vet om den är över…) Aktiefonder har inte varit någon lysande placering de senaste åren direkt. Räntefonderna däremot har ju gått riktigt bra! Så då ökar vi väl mängden räntefonder i portföljen och drar ned på aktiefonderna, för de verkar ju faktiskt inte ge någon avkastning? Tänker vi ett steg längre kan vi fundera på framtiden för räntefonder. Lite förenklat kan man säga att en räntefond gynnas när marknadsräntorna sjunker. Och vad tror du är mest sannolikt - att de rekordlåga räntorna gradvis börjar röra sig uppåt eller att de rekordlåga räntorna sjunker ytterligare? Och låter ett decennium med svag börsutveckling som köp- eller säljläge? Lärdomen vi kan dra från de senaste tio åren är att det är lätt att ha fel om vi låter våra känslor styra för mycket, och sparande ska inte baseras på sannolikheten att man ”prickar rätt” eller inte. Du som väljer en grundfördelning mellan aktie- och räntefonder som du kommer att ha kvar både i uppgång och nedgång, och som kompletterar sparandet med någon Thailand- och Balkanfonder som en liten extra krydda har kommit en lång väg för att undvika framtida sparbesvikelser! Hälsningar Jim Rotsman, chef investeringserbjudandet

Editor’s note: This is a guest post from Matt Madeiro of Make Every Day Count.

Let’s see if this rings any bells.

When the clock hits 8, I sit. I plop back in my rolling chair, crack open the laptop on my desk, and spend the next nine hours with my butt glued firmly to seat. I stand on occasion to step into the bathroom, but I’m back to my post again shortly thereafter — hunched over, bleary-eyed, and nursing my coffee like it’s the greatest thing since toilet paper (I make no claims to the contrary).

When that clock hits 5, I bolt. I’m out the door in the blink of an eye, gunning my way through traffic to finally make it home. There, at long last, I do what I’ve been dreaming about doing all day: sit. I sink into the couch, smile, and seize the remote, content to shut the brain down for a few glorious hours before calling it a night.

Rinse. Repeat. See the common theme here?

We’ve grown used to idleness. The modern life too often asks us to sit, type, and keep off our feet, inviting the kind of sedentary lifestyle our waist lines are so better off without. As someone steadily entrenched in my chair over these last few months in the office, I’ve had to get creative. I’ve had to try and puzzle out how I can devote my daily 9 to 5, in other words, to the betterment—not the detriment—of my health. Here’s what I’ve come up with.

1. Move.

Any motion is better than no motion at all. That’s the core idea behind each of these tricks, and that’s the biggest bullet point worth incorporating into your daily routine.

Your job might demand you spend a lot of time in a chair. You can’t always change that, but there’s nothing stopping you from doing your best to work within those (admittedly comfy) constraints.

2. Set a timer.

Most modern phones come with a built-in timer, but you can always just keep an eye on the clock if you’re not keen on the sound of an alarm. The idea, in either case, is the same: to remind yourself at regular intervals to get up out of your seat and take a quick stroll around the office. I’m the kind of worker who gets quickly absorbed in my work, eyes locked on the screen as the hours sneak by, meaning an alarm set for every 45 minutes is often the only way I remember to stand up, stretch, and do one of the tricks below.

3. Incorporate bodyweight exercises.

It’s tempting to save all your sweat for the gym, but that’s not always practical — especially when life likes to take our rigorous training schedules, punt them into a trash can, and send us scrambling on back to the drawing board.

Saving your exercise solely for the gym, too, misses a simple point: several small sets of bodyweight exercises—knee or wall pushups and air squats as an example—throughout the day can be just as beneficial as thirty dedicated minutes on the treadmill, especially if those sets are timed to interrupt hours otherwise spent barely moving at all.

If you’re aiming to add a little more motion to your routine, in other words, don’t forget that you have a weight room already available. Have arms? Experiment with the Hundred Pushups program, a personal favorite of mine, and don’t be afraid to enjoy some wall pushups in the privacy of your own office. Have legs? Air squats, so long as you go slow and ease them into your routine, work the body like few other movements, and you don’t need more than five minutes to get the blood flowing before you’re forced to move back to your seat.

If you’re keen on setting a timer, too, this is the perfect opportunity to have a mini-workout. When that clock strikes 0, crank out 10 to 15 pushups, lunges, etc., and see how many you can collect over the course of the day. As the weeks progress, so will your totals, and so too will your overall fitness.

4. Capitalize on the size of your bladder.

This might be the first time in your life where a small bladder comes in handy. The next time you hoof it over to the toilet, why not spend an extra few minutes inside the stall? You can easily do twenty to thirty air squats in the privacy of that little box, and there’s nothing stopping you from doing five to ten wall pushups while you’re there. (Nothing, that is, aside from hygiene concerns). Put a thin sheet of toilet paper between each hand and the wall, however, and embrace the additional chance to work in a little exercise without having to wash your hands for the next hour.

And when you walk to the bathroom in the first place? Opt for the one the farthest away from your workstation, even one that forces you to take the stairs to a different floor. The additional minutes spent walking might not seem like much, but they always add up over the course of the day.

5. Keep walking.

You’ve heard the usual tricks: take the stairs where possible, park out as far as possible, and so forth. That’s solid advice, to be sure, but there’s no reason to stop there. Why not go further? Why not keep walking as much as possible?

When your timer goes off, pace around your office for five minutes. At the end of your lunch break, don’t sneak back to spend some time on Facebook — take a walk around your office instead, or head outside to soak up the sun while you circle the block.

When you take a phone call, don’t lean back in your chair to accept it. Pop up and move around for the duration of the call instead. In the case of long calls, this can easily—and effortlessly—add minutes of walking into your daily routine, minutes you otherwise might spend with your jaw flapping and both legs stuck motionless to the floor.

6. Take a stand.

This is revolutionary thinking, so brace yourself: standing is not sitting. It’s so far-removed in how it tasks the body, in fact, that you could call it a kind of exercise in itself (especially when stacked up next to relatively motionless hours spent in a chair). Standing desks, unfortunately, haven’t hit the mainstream, but they’re still a great start if you’re looking to tackle the core problem of the modern office: big, comfy seats, and jobs that demand we spend hours getting intimate with them.

If you’re stuck with a regular desk, however, you can still see the benefits of taking a stand. It might seem like an obvious trick, but try this: when given the choice of sitting or standing, choose standing first. When you’re visiting someone’s office, stand for a decent-sized chunk of the conversation. When you’re enjoying your lunch break, don’t be afraid to stand while you eat or prepare your meal. If you find yourself closing the door to your office for a good think, why not do it up on your feet?

When you get home from work, too, don’t immediately drop down on the couch. Stand in the kitchen while you cook, stay upright while you talk with family, and just try and delay that familiar combo of TV and couch for as long as your legs allow. A sudden increase in your standing time won’t come too easily at first, but stick with it and you’ll see your endurance rise within the span of a week.

The Biggest Step

If you’ll allow a repetition: any motion is better than no motion at all. Given how many hours we spend sunk deep into our chairs, any new emphasis on steady, simple activities can go a long way to helping you keep active. The tips above might not replace dedicated exercise, to be fair, but I think they can do one better: supplement your existing routine, or even put you on the path towards implementing one in the first place.

Remember, lastly, that exercise doesn’t have to be difficult. It doesn’t demand three hours in the gym or long, sleepless nights on the treadmill, but it does ask you, now, to take an interest in your well-being, and to take small, steady steps toward improving your health.

Start today. Set a timer, stand when you can, and take a walk at every chance you get, and I think you’ll realize something exciting: your 9 to 5 doesn’t force you to sit still. Make the decision to start moving, in fact, and you might even find that your time at the office can have a positive impact on your health.

Matt Madeiro is the author of Make Every Day Count, a blog devoted to answering a single question: what does it mean to live well? He explores simple ways to do just that in his latest book, Happiness Is. Follow him on Twitter.

I’m headed back home from Boston today (I was there for the premiere of Crooked Arrows, which was awesome! Pictures of the red carpet event to come soon!), but in the meantime I’m really happy to share a wonderful guest post by my good friend Tom from Leaving Work Behind.

It’s funny because I actually haven’t talked about Twitter very much here on the SPI blog – I talk about Facebook and YouTube much more – but I do use it to successfully drive a lot of traffic to the blog and engage even further with the SPI community

Everything I would want to say about Twitter is covered perfectly in this post, including some of the tools that I use to go along with it, so please enjoy and take it away Tom!

Do you ever feel like you’re wasting time on social media? Like your considerable efforts are not suitably rewarded?

Are you spending hours and hours on social media networks like Facebook and Twitter every week in an effort to promote your blog, and only getting a trickle of traffic in return?

If any of this sounds familiar, don’t worry – you’re not alone. I have wasted more hours than I would care to mention on social media. However, I recently learned something extremely valuable – that investing a small amount of quality time is by far the best way to get results.

And when it comes to getting a huge return on your time investment with Twitter, I have developed a highly effective strategy that takes just 10 minutes a day to maintain.

But What About [Insert Traffic Source Here]?

Let me make something clear up front – I am not claiming that Twitter is the undisputed champion of referral traffic. You only have to go back through Pat’s archives to see that he gets a lot more traffic from the likes of Facebook and YouTube than Twitter. Having said that, there are two things that I love about Twitter:

1. You can start to gain real traction from day one
2. Referral traffic from Twitter is extremely low maintenance

Pat is a huge exponent of both Facebook and YouTube as sources of traffic for your blog. But I’m sure he would agree that driving traffic from those sources is no piece of cake. Pat created a huge YouTube following by taking a great deal of time preparing quality videos, and his Facebook page is testament to the amount of work he puts into that particular social media network.

In my humble opinion, Twitter is the king of referral traffic for startup and intermediate bloggers, because you don’t need an established base, and you can automate a huge part of the process (without being spammy).

Why Should I Pay Any Attention To You?

I am no A-list blogger – far from it. I started my blog last June, and it has been a huge learning curve (I had no prior experience with blogging). Many blogs started at the same time (or after) are far bigger than mine, but I am still pretty happy with how my traffic and readership has increased:

I opened my Twitter account in June 2011 and spent the year scraping around for followers. By December I had painfully amassed a grand total of 552 followers. In the New Year I started testing all sorts of different strategies in an effort to boost my number of followers. I reached 1,000 followers on 16th February 2012, and 2,000 followers on 23rd April. My account is currently growing at an average rate of around 20 followers per day.

The jump in traffic to my blog from February onwards has been down in no small part to Twitter. In March 2012, referral traffic from Twitter accounted for over 10% of my traffic (1,208 visitors):

I am analytical by nature. I’ll always look to assess whether or not the time or money I invest in particular endeavor is giving me a suitable return. On average, I only spend about 10 minutes per day on Twitter. So approximately 5 hours invested on Twitter in March returned me 1,208 visitors. That’s about 15 seconds to get each visitor. And don’t forget – this is for a pretty low traffic blog with a pretty modest Twitter account. The returns should increase exponentially with better-established blogs.

By now you should be sold on the concept that Twitter can be an excellent source of traffic for your blog. Now it is time for me to show you how you can increase your follower base and drive more traffic to your site by investing just a few minutes a day.

Your Profile

I apologize for starting with something so prosaic, but the quality of your Twitter profile has a direct impact on the number of visitors you will attract, and extension, the amount of traffic that Twitter can drive to your site. Your profile is what most people check out when they choose whether or not to follow you, so it should be optimized to maximize your conversion from following to follower.

Work on the 140 characters you are allowed to describe yourself. It should set out your Unique Selling Proposition (USP) in a concise and compelling manner. It is also important to include your website’s URL in the bio itself.

If you have time, do something with your profile’s background. It doesn’t have to be anything particularly spectacular – just something that shows you are a person of substance. It took me about 15 minutes to make mine, but it makes more of an impact than any of Twitter’s default backgrounds.

Finally, and this should go without saying, but you must have a profile photo. Nothing screams “spammer” more than that little egg:

If it is a personal Twitter account (or one for your personal brand), it should be a photo of you. If it is an account for your blog, it should of course be your blog’s logo.

Tweeting for Engagement

There is just one more thing to cover before we delve into the process of increasing your followers.

Just like your profile, the quality of your tweeting has a direct impact on the percentage of people who will follow you. If you follow someone, they may well check out your most recent tweets to see if you are worth following back. If your tweets are sporadic, of a low quality, or even both, you may well lose a potential follower.

Engaging with your followers is where the vast majority of your time spent on Twitter will go. Optimizing your profile and setting up the automated process is an upfront time investment – interaction is an ongoing process.

As I alluded to above, if you want to maximize the success of your Twitter account, you need to have a USP. There needs to be a reason as to why people would want to follow you. It could be because you provide links to high quality articles, or you could tweet out entertaining rants. The what isn’t particularly important, but the effect is. Give people a compelling reason to follow you, and your conversion rate from following to follower will increase.

By its very nature, engaging with your followers will require some imagination, but here are some basic fundamentals and ideas to get you started:

• If someone reaches out to you, respond
• Ask questions – provoke conversation
• Reach out to new followers
• Be interesting!
• Use images
• Showcase milestone followers (e.g. “@tweeter just became my 2,000th follower! You rock!”)
• Do FollowFriday, but be imaginative (how about attaching a photo of a bouquet of flowers, and do a lady’s only #FF?)

Just treat the above ideas as starting points – don’t be afraid to try your own thing.

Increasing Your Followers

Alright – let’s get down to the nitty gritty.

When it comes to increasing your followers, you have two options – manual or automatic. The pros and cons of each are pretty self-explanatory – manual is free but time-intensive, whilst automated will set you back a few bucks but requires barely any time investment. It is ultimately up to you to decide how to proceed.

The key is to find likeminded people to follow. A certain percentage will follow you back – in my experience, between 10-30% (depending upon a variety of factors). When I first started doing this, I was surprised by the amount of messages and emails I received with something along the lines of “I found you because you followed me on Twitter”. Traffic numbers only tell you so much – if someone takes the time to email you as a result of finding you on Twitter, you know you’re onto something.

Finding likeminded people is simple – just find other Tweeters in your niche. Logic dictates that if you cover similar topics to John Doe, his followers will potentially be interested in following you too. You can of course do this manually, but if you want to save yourself some time, purchase TweetAdder. Tutorial videos can be found here, and the full instruction manual can be found here.

Once you have TweetAdder up and running, the following process is almost entirely automated – you only need to “top up” people to follow whenever the well is running dry.

There are two other strategies I recommend. Firstly, you can search for potential followers by keyword, again by using TweetAdder, or Twitter’s Advanced Search feature. You need to be careful about the context of keyword you use – try to be specific, so that you do not follow people who would have no interest in your account. Secondly, if your Twitter account is geographically relevant, you might try targeting people in a certain area. This can also be done with TweetAdder, and also via Twitter’s Advanced Search feature.

Filter Your Following

In my opinion, you need to be very careful about your following/follower ratio. If someone notices that you have followed them, and subsequently see that you have 100 followers but are following 1,000 people, the chances of them following you back are remote. Not only that, you risk being reported as a spammer. Furthermore, once you are following around 2,000 people, your ability to follow more people will be restricted by the number of followers you have.

So in short - don’t push it. I personally always make sure that I am following less people than the number of followers that I have – I think it looks far less spammy. It may not be the most aggressive or perhaps the most efficient way of building your follower base, but I am keen to keep things “natural”.

The key to keeping your following count under control, so that you can continue to follow new people, is to separate the wheat from the chaff. There are three types of Tweeter that you should look to unfollow:

1. Someone who hasn’t followed you after a certain period of time
2. Someone who hasn’t tweeted for a certain period of time (i.e. a dormant account)
3. Someone who has no profile picture (and is therefore highly unlikely to be a real person)

If you are doing this process manually, the first type is the most difficult to handle. With TweetAdder, you can simply set the software to automatically unfollow anyone who hasn’t followed you within a certain number of days (I have it set to 3 days). But I don’t believe that there is a free tool that calculates how long ago you followed someone.

Therefore, you have a choice – you can shorten your cycle to one day and unfollow anyone who hasn’t followed you from the previous day, or you can add people once every few days, and unfollow those who haven’t followed you at the end of every cycle.

The best free tool you can use to unfollow people manually that I have found is ManageFlitter. Just sign in and hit the “Not Following Back” tab:

On the resultant screen, hit “Quick Edit”, and you can then select all those that are not following you, one hundred at a time:

You can repeat the same process for accounts without profile pictures by selecting the “No Profile Image” tab.

I tend to carry out this process twice a week – it takes about 3 minutes in total, and ensures that the path is clear for you to follow people who will be more likely to follow you back.

How Many?

At this point you may be wondering about volume – namely how many people you should follow/unfollow per day. My @tomewer account follows 200 people and unfollows 200 people every single day and I have never encountered a problem – in fact, I could probably push it further if I felt the need to. However, I believe that there are various factors that control Twitter’s lenience in such matters.

For instance, I was developing a Twitter account for a small business and was following people at a rate of 100 per day. After a few weeks of this I received a warning from Twitter that was not to be taken lightly. The message was loud and clear – stop what you are doing, or we will delete your account.

I believe that there were two reasons for this particular account getting warned:

1. The account was young and didn’t have many followers
2. The account may not have been relevant to many of the people I was following

My theory is that growing a Twitter account is much like SEO. A well-established website is likely to be far more stable in its ability to handle large volumes of links than a brand new site.

So tread carefully – especially if your account is relatively new and/or small. Although you are likely to get a warning first rather than an outright ban, it is probably better not to attract Twitter’s attention at all.

Driving Traffic

Everything I have discussed above leads to one thing – how to use your Twitter account to drive traffic to your blog. That is of course the ultimate aim (although there are certainly other benefits to using Twitter). And doing so involves yet more easy automation.

I use the appropriately named Tweet Old Post WordPress plugin, which as you might expect, automatically tweets out your old posts at set intervals. However, I don’t want you to simply fire it up and get on with your day – in order to preserve the quality of your Twitter account and maximize referral traffic to your site, there are a few key changes you should make to the settings.

Firstly, I recommend that you tweet out your post title only. You shouldn’t include any additional text within the tweet – just the title of the post itself. “A post from the archives” or words to that effect will probably decrease your click through rate (people don’t like old content).

You also need to consider how often these tweets are sent out. It really depends on how often you are tweeting out manually – if all your followers are seeing are links to old posts on your blog, they won’t hang around for long. It isn’t an exact science – I would just go with what makes you comfortable. My settings are a minimum interval of six hours, and a random interval of eight. I also set a minimum post age of 28 days.

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, you want to make sure that you are only tweeting out your evergreen content. There is little point in tweeting out a link to a blog post that is no longer relevant. The easiest way to do this is to add a post category called “Tweetable” (or something similar), then exclude all other categories in the Tweet Old Post settings screen:

The alternative option is to exclude specific posts from being tweeted out, but I find the above option to be easier (you simply add a worthy post to the “Tweetable” category when you publish it).

As for new posts, I think it is sensible to tweet them out to your audience 2-3 times within the space of 24 hours or so. The key is to tweet out the post at different times, so that you (a) maximize the people you reach and (b) don’t irritate people by linking to the same post in quick succession. I would recommend that you tweet out something different every time. You can use the original post headline, an alternative headline, ask people a question, or something else altogether. Just keep it fresh.

Tweet Old Post truly is a set and forget plugin that will bring in consistent traffic for as long as you use it.

Conversion

By now you should be well on your way to setting up a largely automated system that will not only send highly targeted traffic to your site, but also increase in effectiveness over time.

But there is one more thing you should consider before you move on – the subject of optimizing your tweets to achieve the highest Click Through Rate (CTR), in addition to maximizing re-tweets and mentions.

It is good “twittiquette” to leave 25 characters spare in your tweets. People like to add their own thoughts and mentions, so give them space with which to do so. Beyond that, anything is fair game, but try to treat your tweets like any other key piece of text that you hope to convert people with. It is not the purpose of this article to explain how to write engaging copy, but the same kind of headline writing advice you can find over at Copyblogger applies perfectly to tweets.

Now to move onto timing. This is something that Pat has spoken about before, with his post on Tweriod and Buffer. If you haven’t already read that post, I recommend that you do so, and follow his advice. The key takeaways are as follows:

1. Find out when most of your followers are online with Tweriod
2. Use Buffer to to schedule your tweets to be sent at optimum times

But now there’s more. Buffer gives you analytics information on every single tweet you send out:

You can see how many times the link was clicked, how many Twitter accounts the tweet was sent out to (including re-tweets), in addition to the number of retweets, mentions and favorites. With this kind of information, it doesn’t take long to figure out what kind of tweets work in terms of attracting more clicks.

Improving your conversion rate in any scenario is a matter of trial and error, and Twitter is no exception. Over time you will gain a better understanding of what kind of tweets resonate best with your own unique group of followers. Keep any eye on the analytics provided by Buffer, and learn from it.

Wrapping Up

There is a lot of information to digest above, and you would probably be best served by bookmarking this post and coming back to it at regular intervals, whilst you are working on your Twitter strategy.

However, if you break the process down into its constituent parts, there is nothing to be intimidated by. The key is getting your systems in place. Once your following procedure is automated, you just need to spend time engaging with your followers – and to be honest with you, I find that a whole lot of fun!

I would like to finish by asking you a question – do you agree with my methods? If so, please share your success stories! If not, I would love to get your feedback and constructive criticism. Just let me know in the comments section!

You can find Tom Ewer over at Leaving Work Behind, where he blogs about quitting your job and living a fulfilling and successful life. He recently discovered a method you can use to boost blog post tweets by 27% or more – click here to check it out!

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Robert Kiyosaki talks about his new book which is co-authored by Donald Trump. They are both extremely concerned with the level of poverty in the USA and have come up with some suggestions to help the country out.

Why gold and silver? In today’s video clip, Christopher Greene explains why the dollar collapse will bring hyperinflation and ultimately the birth of a new underground economy.

We’ve all been MTV’d. We grew up with pop drivel invading every dark corner of our media-saturated lives: The glowing box in the living room showcasing ideal families in ideal homes living ideal lives. The car stereo blaring soul-crushing top 40-isms during rush-hour traffic. Newspapers foretelling inescapable doom and irremediable despair without any hope of salvation or redemption. Magazines twaddling the latest gossip about such and such and what’s his name.

Our collective brains have soaked up the meaningless muck and are now waterlogged with platitudes and cultural niceties and the false expectations of the way life should be.

Snap! Crackle! Pop!

American Express: Never leave home without. Coca-Cola: It’s the real thing. McDonald’s: I’m lovin’ it. 

We know these corporate slogans—and many others—by heart. We’ve let them in without even knowing we were letting them in. And by now we’ve accepted these mantras as maxims by which we should make our decisions.

If someone continuously repeats a lie, does it eventually become the truth? Is it not safe to leave our homes without our credit cards? Is the realest thing in our lives a carbonated aluminum can of sugar? Do we really LOVE the golden arches?

Even Pringles admits that they know we are programed: Once you pop, you can’t stop! Sadly, they’re right. It’s incredibly difficult to shake the sedative weight of everything we’ve learned from pop culture. But fortunately, once you go pop, you CAN stop. Although it isn’t easy.

Ain’t Nothin’ on the News but the Blues

We never opted-in to pop culture. It already had us in its sinister clutch at birth, an invisible umbilical cord that no one ever thought to cut.

After all, what’s the harm in a little TV, in a little late night news, in catching up on the day’s current events? In reality, there’s nothing wrong. But when we simply accept the the idiot box’s catchy one-liners as epigrams by which we must make our most important decisions, then we get lost rather quickly.

It’s easy to be passively entertained and informed, accepting catchphrases to be self-evident. Even the news has to be “info-tainment” these days so that it’s more palatable to the casual listener (read: consumer).

That’s because it’s easy to be entertained, but it’s hard work to seek out the truth, it’s difficult to form our own opinions based on multiple points of view, and it’s much easier to allow someone else—be it Rush Limbaugh or Keith Olberman or a faceless corporation with a seemingly endless marketing budget—to form an opinion for us.

Besides the problems of its inherently passive nature, today’s commercial-riddled pop-information can’t inform us of life’s larger problems, of our deepest troubles and fears, of what it actually means to be alive—what it means to be a human being in the most complex time in human history.

Suffice it to say, the American Dream is broken. It has been for decades. And attempting to go back to “the way things were” will not fix it. “Fixing it” would only perpetuate the inevitable, making it worse in the long-run. The longer we put off our troubles, the harder they are to deal with.

Instead, as a culture, we must take responsibility. We must to fix ourselves. We must create the disciplines necessary to be alive in this complex world. We must become aware of what’s going on around us so that ultimately we can be aware of what’s going on inside us. Only then will we be able to know what’s truly important.

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Most of us are familiar with the bestselling book by Robert Kiyosaki, “Rich Dad Poor Dad.” But most of us don’t know that Keith Cunningham is Rich Dad. Keith’s own riches to rags to riches story is incredible He had amassed 0 million in real estate, only to lose all of it (ALL of it) [...]

Ron Paul is America’s leading voice for limited, constitutional government, low taxes, free markets, sound money, and a pro-America foreign policy.