#Look at all those successful people with like 800 notes and a ton of comments and asks and what not while I can't come up with

[twdeadfanfic]

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[occultexperience-blog]

Demon Clauneck gave me a ton of money, then he took this away. Crazy true story!

This is a true story about working with the Demon Clauneck. It happened a little while ago, back when I was still learning about summoning. I still am learning, by the way, but these days I have a better idea on what to expect.

To set the stage, I have a monetized youtube channel. It's doesn't have millions of hit, and I won't say I am a youtuber because of this channel. I would take material that are in the public domain, using simple editing, and turn them into compelling story. I would also take content that are clearly off copyright, by that I mean, the copyright holding company either went bankrupt,  or in cases of content owner being difficult to determine, usually footage from 80's and 90's.

The channel was a pet project, it yields about 30 to 40 dollars a month. Nothing to write home about. However, I figure if I only take the money out once year, it usually comes out to an extra 500 dollars every Christmas. A nice year end bonus I gave myself every year. In any case, I only log in once a month to do some simple maintenance.

Going back to the occult experience. I got to know Clauneck while searching for the best Demon for money. Clauneck was a surprise hit because he is from Grimorium Verum. I was obsessed with Ars Goetia at the time, so Clauneck was an extra extracurricular spirit, so to speak.

According to the Grimorium Verum, "Clauneck has power over, goods, money, and finances”, “can bestow great wealth”, and finally, “he is much loved by Lucifer”. Clauneck “much loved by Lucifer” is an agent thereof, and so entrusted with accessing astral bank vault. Clauneck is who a myriad of modern-day Hermetic occultists demand or beg money from, and while rightly so this is where their understanding of Clauneck’s vast dominion begins and ends. that was a quote from Wikipedia.

I did my research, I did the summoning. I didn't know about offering at the time, so I didn't have any. I am the type who have a difficult time evoking spirits into life, as in, I am unable to see spirits. But from time to time, I get a prompting, and I would intuitively interpret those signs, sort of a download and decode process.

A few weeks went by and nothing happened. I did feel the urge to start an instagram page promoting one of my other side hassle business, which is writing erotic fiction and publishing them as ebooks. I interpret that as an advice from Clauneck, and so I did exactly that. My instagram is nothing glorious, but I do notice an uptick in sales, with a lot fresh costumers who is exploring my work for the first time. So there, success story.

The end.

Not so fast, during one my routine maintenance check on my pet channel on youtube, I was shocked to notice the analytics went off the chart. One of my video has gone viral! I am not talking about double or triple the hits, I am talking about going from a few hundred hits a day, exploded to a few hundred thousand hits an hour. It went from 8000 hits to 2 million hits, and it was still going strong.

At first I thought the numbers were wrong. Youtube must had gone haywire. but upon checking the traffic source, everything seems legit. Also, the video are getting hundreds of comment per hour. That proofs that the traffic is organic in nature.

It turns out, by happen stance, youtube had place one of my video on the front page in India. Youtube analytics actually tells you where the traffic came from. Also, all the comments are in Panjabi, so that's also a dead giveaway.  

I don't know why, though, my video had nothing to do with India.

This little channel, barely yield 500 dollars a year, and only a few dollars a day, and that's if I was lucky. On the first day it went viral, it yielded a thousand dollar. I thought it was a random spike, but second day came by, another 700 to 800 dollars.  The hits just kept coming. Subscribers too. It went from a few thousand subscribers  to twenty thousand subscribers in 2 days.

It was like a glitch in the matrix. This channel was never destined to accomplish anything great, yet here it is, racking in millions of hits and thousands of dollars.

It was too good to be true, the gravy train has to stop, right? It did. Turns out you can have too much of a good thing. This viral explosion in revenue caught youtube's attention, which prompt them to take a closer look at my channel. Remember how my contents were, ahem, borrowed? Turns out youtube hates it.

On the 3rd day, I logged in to find my channel demonetized. That means it will no longer have advertising, and the channel got kicked out of the partnership program. They said I am welcome to reapply for monetizing once I can show some original content on my channel. I will receive the money I have already made, but no new money would come in.

Effectively, that channel is dead.

The battle is over. What's the body count? I made about two thousand dollars in the spend of 2 days. The channel would had made about 500 dollars that year. With the way youtube is going with small channels, probably less revenue than previous years. On a positive note, I now have a cult following in northern India.

In short, Clauneck gave me a wind fall of cash. It's like winning a mini lottery. Not the jackpot but like 3 or 4 number hit.  I made more money in that short span of time than I would have made in 5 years. But Clauneck also took away one of my youtube channel that took years to grow. It is like an adult taking a tricycle away from child.

I am in full gratitude for Clauneck. I am writing this testimonial as a heads up for other black magician, whenever a Demon gives you something, he would also take something away. That is their nature. It's like eating spicy food in a Thai restaurant, you will be sweating like a foundation and your taste buds would be burnt for weeks. You can't complain because that is what you ordered.

Months later, I came across Morino Ravenburg's youtube channel. He is an expert occultist who like to share his authentic experiences. In one of his video, he talked about his experience with Clauneck.  He also experience the same turbulent energy when working with this same demon, where he described his professional life was turned upside down, but at the end, he was at a better place financially from working with Clauneck.

As did I.

Would I recommend Clauneck? One thing for sure, he delivered results, it is a bumpy ride. Give me an exhilarating experience, also made me depressed for a few days. On a positive note, My instagram account, which was created on Clauneck's nudges, is still alive and drawing new costumers.

E A Koetting once said, "Demons don't care about your comfort."

I am very appreciative of the new experience I gain from working with Clauneck. He feels like a brother to me.

I have worked with other sprits before, and in time, I would like to share those stories too.

Looking online, I haven't found a lot of people who have specifically worked with Clauneck. There are a lot of talks about him, but very few true story I can count on to reference. Do you have an experience with this entity? Share your experience on the comments below.

One last thing, if you are a youtuber or have another blog, and you enjoyed this story, which is 100% true, please share it on your channel. Clauneck would appreciate the attention. Good things happens to people who gain the favor of this powerful spirit.

[urfavmurtad]

Hi! in one of your posts u said: "infanticide, either female or otherwise, was not a common practice in pre-Islamic Arabia." can you please link me to some sources for that? i'd be forever grateful xxx

Anon I just finished one of my final papers and now I’m in a ranting mood and what a GREAT topic for ranting you have brought up. It’s a perfect example of how pre-Islamic Arabia has gotten shat upon for the better part of 1400 years because people, mostly their own descendants, have decided that they were all evil savages. Ask anyone who was raised Muslim, even if they’re no longer practicing, for a fact about “Jahiliyya” and you’ll be told “they buried their daughters”. I think pretty much everyone with even a month of Islamic education, myself included, has been taught that this was a routine and widespread occurrence that Islam stopped. Even non-Muslim people have probably heard of this.

It’s repeated so frequently that few people ever bother to look up where the accusation comes from and what evidence supports it, outside of Islamic texts. Let’s see. There wasn’t a ton of writing before the 7th century, but are there any surviving fragments that mention it? Hm… nope. Maybe it was mentioned in the works of some travelers or foreign writers? Not there, either. How about references to it from neighboring literate peoples, like the Byzantines and Persians, who saw the Arabs south of the Ghassanid/Lakhmid lands as backwards anyway and surely wouldn’t have minded reporting on such a practice? Or even the Christian Arabs to the immediate north? Nope. Well, the gender ratio must’ve been screwed up, isn’t there at least evidence of that? No? Fine, but surely there is at least some archaeological evidence of this? There must be lots of bones of female infants that people have uncovered, right? Uh… no.

I mean… okay, but there must be something, somewhere in the peninsula, from some time before Islam that mentions this, right?! Well, in fact there is one piece of pre-Islamic historical evidence that may concern this subject in the Arabian Peninsula. From between the fifth and the second century BC. In Yemen. It was not written in Arabic, as at the time Yemenis still spoke their own South Arabian language (called Sabaean). Nonetheless, let’s look at what the devious people of Jahiliyya were up to. It was codified that:

It is unlawful for anyone of the people of Matarat to kill his daughter.

…that, uh, it was illegal for people kill their daughters. Over 700 years before Mohammed was born. The linked article points out that the word can also be used to mean female relatives of any age, not only infant daughters, so it seems to have been a general prohibition against killing any female members of one’s family. There are fatwas throughout Islamic history that say the same thing, so we can’t even be generous and say “maybe the fact that this exists means it was socially acceptable beforehand?”.

So the only pre-Islamic evidence we have relating to any form of female-targeted killings comes from hundreds of years before Mohammed’s time, in a different part of Arabia, and it explicitly outlaws the practice. Now look, I’m not saying that infanticide didn’t happen at all, as it certainly did both in pre- and post-Islamic Arabia, in times of great hardship. But for such a supposedly widespread practice afflicting the entire race before Islam miraculously invented feminism and stopped it overnight, is it not a tad strange that no one of any civilization over the span of a thousand years bothered to mention it before Mohammed? And isn’t it kind of weird how there isn’t any record of even a single named person engaging in this practice outside of Islamic texts written in the 800s AD onwards, long after polytheism was no longer practiced? (And as I’ll show later, barely anyone is named even in those texts…)

At any rate, given that every single accusation about Arabs practicing widespread and specifically female infanticide comes from Islamic sources, I suppose we should look at what they actually say on this matter, even though Mohammed’s views of his contemporary polytheists were not exactly, shall we say, neutral and unbiased. I’ll explain why I find them unconvincing in terms of evidence that this was a common practice. This is going to be long! I’m putting this under a cut bc I think probably… five people in total on this entire site care??

Let’s deal with the Quran first. Infanticide is mentioned in four places: 81:8-9, 6:151, 17:31, and 16:58-59. 6:151 (it’s also mentioned a bit before that in surah 6 too but that one just says that it’s Allah’s will, so :|) and 17:31 do not mention daughters specifically and simply tell people not to kill their children because they are poor and starving and don’t have enough food to go around (which was the context of most cases of infanticide throughout world history).

So let’s take a look at the two that are actually about girls. The context of 16:58-59 is Mohammed complaining that the polytheists say that Allah has daughters (the trio of sister-goddesses popular in the Hijaz at the time). 16:58 has Mohammed saying that when one of the polytheists themselves finds out his newborn is a girl, he gets angry, and in 16:59 he has the imaginary polytheist wondering if he should bury the newborn “in the dust”. This is meant to convey that the polytheists disgrace Allah by giving him daughters when they don’t even want them themselves. It’s similar to 43:16-19, which does not mention infanticide but does complain that the polytheists claim that angels are female while being displeased with their own daughters.

(I feel like I’ve repeated this a thousand times, but Islamic sources themselves describe literate women, highly-revered female medics, successful female business owners, women in monogamous marriages, female clan leaders, women who inherited and distributed property, women who chose their own husbands, widows and single mothers working in respected professions, women who were on battlefields, and women leading thousands of troops in this era. The idea that non-Muslim Arabs in Mohammed’s time uniformly loathed women and routinely buried their own daughters is completely nonsensical even judging by solely Islamic sources and it’s absolutely bizarre that this perception still stands. Y’all they were a polygamous society and women seemed to outnumber men, not the other way around. I know some people think “if the Quran says it, it must be true!” but lookit, Alexander the Great did not have horns on his head and pre-Islamic Arabs were not all baby-killing savages, them’s the facts.)

In any case, the ayah actually just says the evildoing polytheists think of doing it because they want sons… not that they do it. Nor does it say that Mohammed has ever seen it happen. It seems highly unlikely that he ever personally witnessed such a thing in Mecca, as even the guys the Quran calls evil by name like Crazy Uncle Abu Lahab had daughters. I’ll also add that some noted Quranic commentators say the phrase “bury [her] in the dust” could be a metaphor meaning “to hide [her] out of sight”, because the first word can also mean “conceal”. But let me talk about the other verses now.

Hold on because the next one’s got a plot twist. Surah 81, At-Takwir, is one of those poetic ones about the end of the world, about the stars falling and seas being set on fire etc. 81:8-9 is part of this poem and says “And when the girl [who was] buried alive is asked/For what sin she was killed”.

The phrase translated as “the girl [who was] buried alive” is all one word, l-mawuda, stemming from a root used only in this ayah. It is evidently meant to refer to one killed via “wad”, meaning (in this case apparently) infanticide. So the word would mean, as literally as possible, “infant (girl) who was killed”. However!!

This verse is mentioned in one sahih hadith, which is… not actually about infanticide at all, but is instead about the practice of “azl”, which is the pull-out method, inexplicably called a form of infanticide (wad al-khafi–hidden infanticide, or “secret (way of) burying alive” as this translation puts it).

Then they asked him about ‘azl, whereupon he said “That is the secret (way of) burying alive”, and Ubaidullah has made this addition in the hadith transmitted by al-Muqri and that is: “When the one buried alive is asked[…] (81:8)”

Where might Mohammed have gotten such an idea? Why, I do believe this other sahih hadith has the answer. Someone informs Mohammed that Jews say that Every Sperm is Sacred (they call it mawudat al-sughra, minor infanticide. While the translation of mawuda as “girl buried alive” is standard now, it is clearly meant more in a general infanticide sense here… it’s not implying the dudes are literally burying their semen in the ground). Mohammed, who does not like Ze Jews, declares them liars. Despite the fact that they are saying literally exactly what he said in that other hadith.

The Jews say that withdrawing the penis (azl) is burying the living girls on a small scale. He (the Prophet) said: The Jews told a lie.

This blatant contradiction in two sahih ahadith has puzzled scholars throughout history and has largely been completely brushed over despite the former (from Sahih Muslim) coming from the most conservative of all the ahadith collections and being repeated by other collectors.Many scholars throughout history have just said “yeah, well, that can’t be right because that’d mean that the prophet contradicted himself!”. Which…  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Here’s what I think happened. As with many things in his Mecca days, Mohammed based his understanding on azl on what the Jews said (see: the qiblah switch). Then he got to Medina and realized, oh, the Jews are actually garbage and we should stop imitating them. So when Muslims ask him whether he agrees with the Jews on the subject of azl, he forcefully declares that he does not, despite the fact that… he did. This is, in fact, an accepted explanation for the contradiction: the one where he calls azl infanticide is early, based on what the Jews believed, and was abrogated later once Allah “revealed” that it wasn’t true. And surah 81 is a Meccan surah, meaning it was from the period before he started loathing Jews, and his own followers connected his view on azl with the verse in question!

Anyway… that’s it for the Quran on this subject. I think I’ve explained why I find it pretty much impossible to believe that Arabs commonly murdered their infant daughters based solely on those verses. But of course, we have other sources that mention infanticide. So let’s do some other ahadith learnin’. For the sake of brevity (lol…) I am going to mainly focus on the sahih collections and will not go into any ahadith with da’if/weak narrators or traditions that appear out of nowhere in like the 10th century+ bc what’s even the point.

I think many Muslims would be surprised by how rarely this subject is mentioned in the sahih collections. There is only one hadith within them alleging any infanticide in Mecca itself, and it is this one narrated by Abu Bakr’s daughter Asma (through her son Urwa and his son Hisham).

I saw Zaid bin Amr bin Nufail standing with his back against the Ka'ba and saying, “O people of Quraish! By Allah, none amongst you is on the religion of Abraham except me.” He used to preserve the lives of little girls: If somebody wanted to kill his daughter he would say to him, “Do not kill her for I will feed her on your behalf.” So he would take her, and when she grew up nicely, he would say to her father, “Now if you want her, I will give her to you, and if you wish, I will feed her on your behalf.”

I’ll be straight with you: I do not believe this. Not in the sense that I don’t believe Asma said it, but in the sense that I don’t believe her actual words.

Zayd ibn Amr, for those of you who don’t know, was a man of Mecca (he was Umar’s cousin on one side and Umar’s uncle on the other–don’t practice incest, kids!) who died a bit before Mohammed became a “prophet”. Because he eschewed polytheism, Christianity, and Judaism in favor of some vague Abrahamic tradition, he was sort of retroactively declared a Muslim and all sorts of legends about his life were made up to portray him as a pious and righteous proto-Muslim. Mohammed claimed that he met him by chance at some point and discovered that Zayd happened to follow the same dietary rules that “Allah” would later instruct Mohammed to follow. I guess he is vaguely comparable to John the Baptist in the Christian tradition? Like a predecessor pious guy (who is killed… not because of persecution, though, robbers just shanked him).

Anyway, Asma was like… 10 years old at most when Zayd died, and he had been away on trading business at the time of his death, so it’s a bit unclear what the timeline is here, if it did happen. She would have been 5-8, I guess. And so here is my question: where, exactly, are these girls that he “saved”? She says that he raised multiple young girls, keeping some with him and later returning others to their families. These girls would have been between Asma and Aisha in age and, presumably, some would have been older than Asma.

So what happened to them? Where are they? Why are they never mentioned again?

Not a single one of these girls he supposedly cared for is ever named or referenced. This happened in Mecca, in a well-known family. Zayd’s own children, Saeed and Atiqa, were Muslims quoted in various ahadith. (Saeed was married to Umar’s sister, incidentally, and was part of Umar’s whole anime-ass backstory. Atiqa was a wife of Umar himself and had a rather scandalous personal history, but that’s irrelevant. Point is, neither had anything to say about their father rescuing or raising any kids of either gender.)

Given how young Asma was and how no one, not even Zayd’s own kids, corroborates her account, I tend to look at her words here with some skepticism. If they existed, the women who were “saved” by Zayd as infants would have become Muslims by or before the conquest of Mecca, and at least one of them would have been quoted or just mentioned in some hadith, somewhere. But they weren’t, and imo it’s because this is not something that really happened and is instead just a demonstration of early Islamic myth-making. The same trope is repeated in later and weaker sources, like some poetry attributed to al-Farazdaq claims that his grandfather raised 66 (!!!) girls he “saved”, who would presumably have been the same age as his parents, but does he name a single damn one of them or name the individuals who he “saved” them from? Nope. Just like Zayd’s mysterious disappearing foster daughters, the girls disappear from the story right after they stop being needed to prove a point. Hm.

There are no other recorded instances of specific people in Mecca either practicing or stopping infanticide. In the interest of fairness, despite my loathing for the guy, I must note that a semi-popular story about Umar burying his daughters is fabricated. Umar obviously had many daughters, his eldest being one of Mohammed’s own wives, who was not only not killed but even received an education and was literate.

The only other sahih hadith on this subject is this one, which just lists various bad things and is similar to 6:151. Again, no specific incidents are mentioned. The term used here is “wad al-banat”, meaning presumably the infanticide (wad) of daughters (banat).

Verity Allah, the Glorious and Majestic, has forbidden for you: disobedience to mothers, and burying alive daughters … (etc)

Nothing further is said of this supposedly common practice in any other sahih hadith. Zero people are accused of partaking in this practice, zero people confess to having done it, no one mentions having a murdered sister or aunt or daughter. And judging by the marriage practices of early Islam, there sure doesn’t seem to have been a gender ratio issue.

With this total dearth of evidence in mind, some Islamic scholars over the centuries have relented on the polytheists somewhat, proposing that female infanticide was a rarer practice than some claim in settled areas, but was still practiced somewhere by some tribe. (This is not just a modern practice: they were in the minority, but there were some 9th century scholars like al-Mubarrad who were explicitly skeptical of the baby-killing days of Jahiliyya.) Usually the Bedouin living outside the Hijaz are blamed because, you know, lol silly desert nomads. Even this requires relying on weaker traditions, though. So hey since this is turning into a goddamn dissertation, let’s dive into them!!

First, let me get this one out of the way: Qays ibn Asim, evidently a leader of the Banu Tamim tribe. If you’ve heard any specific person identified with the practice of female infanticide, it’s probably him. There are all sorts of versions of his story, though most of them go like this.

That story says that his tribe was raided by a Lakhmid (Iraqi) king, who took the women as slaves. Eventually the women were returned once peace was negotiated between the parties, but one of them, the daughter of Qays, refused to come home because she wanted to stay with her Lakhmid husband. After that, Qays buried all girls born to his wife, to avoid such a dishonorable thing happening again in the future. Sometimes it’s said there were 8 girls, other times it’s said there were 12. After he converted to Islam, he confessed and repented by sacrificing some of his camels. (Often this is presented as the first case of female infanticide among Arabs, which does… not… make much sense, timeline-wise?)

I suppose it goes without saying that while the Banu Tamim are mentioned (sometimes in a derogatory way, other times in a nice or neutral way) in the six main ahadith collections, this story is not found in any of them… in fact, Qays himself narrates some sahih ahadith and never bothers to mention that he’s apparently killed a dozen babies. Hmmm. Where does the story come from, then?

As far as I can tell, the bare bones of it come from al-Tabarani (he was of the generation of ahadith collectors after Bukhari et al; this book in particular has tens of thousands of ahadith of varying levels of authenticity, many of which are clearly weak), apparently quoting from Nouman ibn Bashir, who says he heard it from Umar (thus the confusion over Umar supposedly killing one of his children).

All that hadith says is that he buried 8 daughters; the other details about his tribe being attacked etc come from weaker/fabricated sources. There’s a variant of the story in which Qays’ wife saves one girl and (somehow??) brings her up on her own and Qays is devastated and shamed of his deeds when he sees her, which appears to be pulled from a fabricated account about some other guy named Awf ibn Muhallam. Neither account is considered sahih or even credible. The same is true of a ridiculous story from Sunan al-Darimi (Google Translate is shit at Arabic but I can’t find an English version, you can at least get the general idea, the unnamed guy says he kicked his daughter down a well as she screamed out for him!) that some people may have heard which is, again, never stated to be authentic and not found in any other collections; the details in that last one are quite clearly meant to demonize polytheists as shockingly as possible.

I searched and searched for the most credible possible account mentioning a specific incident of infanticide, and I think this one here comes closest. It is a hasan hadith from one of Bukhari’s commentaries. This is not Sahih Bukhari–this commentary has ahadith ranging from daif to sahih (weak to strong, hasan is pretty much “okay”). The guy evidently says he killed a daughter (“wadt mawudatan”, translate that as you will) in pre-Islamic times and asks Abu Dhar if he can repent. Abu Dhar says it’s fine because Allah forgives what has been done before Islam… then starts arguing with his wife about food and this hadith is classified under the chapter about giving guests food… the apparent infanticide being totally forgotten for the remainder of the hadith. Weird.

There’s a variant of this story with different wording in one of Imam Ahmed’s collections (#20376), with a different narration chain. The word mawudatan is not present–“wadt” وأدت is in fact without an object there. It’s possible it’s not talking about infanticide at all but rather using the word with a different definition to indicate being a leading participant in polytheistic practices. But… uh. That’s the best I can do here. One guy, and not from a source that’s considered super authentic.

There are no other even sort-of-reputable sources mentioning female infanticide. That’s it. In the entire history of pre-Islamic Arabia, that is the extent of the evidence for “Arabs always used to bury their daughters alive!!”. As you can see, the evidence that this was a common practice is… not convincing in the least, and the conflation between infanticide and splooging outside a vagina is confusing and not helping matters. In summary, please leave our ancestors alone!! They went through enough shit without ppl painting them as baby-killing monsters based on zero non-Islamic sources and barely any Islamic sources either. I’m just asking y’all to evaluate claims of them being evil with the same skepticism you’d grant claims of pagan Europeans being called evil by Christian sources. The fact that we’ve all been taught this “fact” is unfortunate but I hope I’ve convinced you that the practice at least wasn’t as common as it’s presented in the modern era.

I guess we may follow the prophet’s example and blame the Jews for this confusion. And Allah knows best.

[blueraith]

(About your Wonder Woman post) But isn't there a lot of female superheroes already? I mean, Wonder Woman isnt the first or last girl hero idolized. I havent seen that video, but I think the guys were trying to say they don't get why WW should be a bigger role model than any other hero. Or why girls strictly need girl heroes to look up to? I always liked Black Widow... I'm trying to understand how you see hero movies as sexist, because I'm a fan of those movies and I dont see the connection.

The hero movies themselves aren’t sexist. It’s the response to female hero movies, what few there are as well as the ones that are upcoming, that are sexist.

That’s mostly what I’m talking about. There are a good amount of female superheroes, but so many of them are merely female versions of preexisting male superheroes. Batwoman, Supergirl, Spider-Woman. There are a paltry few original female superheroes in comparison. Black Widow, Jean Grey, Wonder Woman. Those three are really the few in the public’s mind when they think ‘original female superhero,’ because female superheroes don’t get a lot of attention. They don’t get their own movies, and they rarely get their own TV shows. Most of the time female superheroes, of any type whether original or rebranded, are secondary characters in a male superhero’s movie.

Wonder Woman is lauded as a bigger hero for a few reasons. First and foremost, she’s Wonder Woman. She’s iconic all on her own for being one of the Big Three in the Justice League, being the most famous female superhero, and her TV show from the 70s. That’s an achievement list that the vast majority of female superheroes just can’t live up to. Second, she’s the titular character of the first successful female superhero movie. In fact, there really isn’t a long list of female lead action movies in general. Third, the movies was just plain good. It characterized Diana as a strong female character without forcing too many masculine traits on her. That, I think, was important. It have her a chance to fight and be tough and warrior like, but at the same time didn’t shy away from the fact that she is a woman. She loves babies and is soft and caring to her friends and family, and can be quite feminine when she wants to be. It’s a bit of a trope for a ‘strong female character’ to basically be a man in women’s clothing.

But, that really isn’t what those guys were talking about. They were specifically targeting fictional heroes and I think, they missed the point. It wasn’t just Wonder Woman, it was the fact that she was a fiction, half-deity, Amazonian princess, and they wondered why anyone would look up to that as a role model when they should look up to the director or a real person.

And on the surface, that seems like a legitimate question. Why not look up to a real person as a role model? I mean, Diana isn’t a real person, she’s a half-Amazon deity who has superpowers, what could you really learn from her?

But what can you learn from Superman or Batman? What can you learn from Obi-Wan Kenobi? What can you learn from any fictional character who is less than realistic? Of course no one is saying that Wonder Woman is a role model that children can reasonably and literally strive to be. You can’t grow up and develop or attain god-like powers. That isn’t the point of having a fictional hero.

And these guys completely missed that point. It isn’t what Diana is that is important for girls to look up to. It is what she does. In terms of her motivations. Not her superpowered actions, but her human ones. How she feels, what she thinks, the choices she makes, her beliefs. Those are what is admirable by children or anyone looking for a fictional role model. There is nothing wrong with having one. It is, I think, why we connect to fictional characters in the first place. Because we admire what we see in them and wish that their actions could be emulated in the real world by others or ourselves.

I’m not saying that Wonder Woman needs to be everyone’s favorite female superhero. She honestly wasn’t mine until I saw this movie. She’s the most well known at what she does, but I’m fairly certain that there’s a good argument that she’s not the best at being the greatest female superhero. I’m very favorable to Batwoman myself. I just think that the reason Wonder Woman achieved such viral note over this past summer is because of her movie, and people kind of took to her. It’s a damn good movie.

I’m also not saying that superhero movies are sexist. The men reacting to them are. Ask a guy if he wants to see a Black Widow movie made. Most of the ones online will say something like, ‘she doesn’t have enough of a backstory to sustain one on her own.’ I see it all the time on Reddit. And it’s bullshit because Black Widow won’t have a backstory unless someone fucking writes her one. That’s literally all that needs to be done to get her story that can be told in a movie. Write her damn story. But, instead, she’s used as a secondary character in everyone else’s movie.

‘Why are there women main characters in everything now?’

That’s the question people had with Ep VII when Rey was revealed to be the Jedi. When Rogue One was coming out. When that new Star Wars cartoon staring mostly female characters aired.

Captain Marvel was pushed back in favor of Ant Man 2.

Some men thought that Wonder Woman was pushing the lesson that men are inferior to women. Like. ????? What movie did they go see?

There is a ton of talk about this from men, over why women should have felt this, or thought that, after this movie came out. Criticism that women shouldn’t be so gung-ho about this movie because it’s just Wonder Woman. She’s not even real. What’s the big deal?

Because they don’t get it. They don’t get what it means to be starved of representation, of seeing your fictional heroes on the big screen, or celebrating them the same way men and boys get to do every day since Hollywood first existed.

It isn’t that Wonder Woman is the best female superhero that needs to be idolized above all others. She merely brought this lingering and ugly sentiment that women shouldn’t have any female superheroes to look up to, to light. It’s been in the background for years. I’ve argued this sentiment for a long time on old message boards, back when vBulletin was the most popular forum format. I used to ask why women couldn’t star in more movies or video games. And I was told, time and again, that women couldn’t carry a story on their own. That Hollywood was marketing to their most common denominator. That men wouldn’t want to play or watch something with a woman in it. Because women weren’t funny enough, or badass enough, or great enough. That men were better at these things than women are.

Wonder Woman is important, and she’s currently talked up right now, because she earned fucking $800 million dollars. Everyone saw this movie. This movie proved every single solitary thing those assholes used to tell young BlueRaith on those message boards she used to argue on. And it’s great. I am simultaneously angry at these assholes who are so surprised and freaked out right now while overjoyed that they’re freaking out. Because they were wrong.

The movies aren’t sexist. But many of the reviewers, commentators, fans, and trolls surrounding them are.

[onlinemarketingcourses]

How Long Does it Take to Make Money From a New Website or Blog?

Let’s say you have an idea for a new website or blog and you start it today.  How long should you expect to wait before you start making money?

The answer to that question obviously depends on a ton of factors.  However, I’m going to walk you through exactly what I did when I recently launched a new site (for Niche Site Project 4) and tell you exactly how long it took to start making money.

I’ll also share, how long it took before it was indexed in Google, how long before I got my first visitor, and how long before it starting ranking in Google.

If you are just starting a brand new site, these are all questions that you likely want to know.  I have answers to these exact questions because I literally just went through them.

So, How Long?

As part of a new public case study I’m doing, called Niche Site Project 4, I recently started a niche site.  So, I’ll share my exact scenario, the amount of time it takes you to make many could be different.

So, I created a WordPress site with these factors:

I should clarify that I’m targeting very specific keywords in all my articles, and I’m implementing best practices to help my site get noticed by Google.  In other words, my site is very SEO friendly.

Also note, that I’m not doing a lot of “hustling”.  I’m trying to build a business that over time (maybe a year to 2 years) is earning a healthy income month after month without my direct involvement.

I want the site to just rank well in Google and the traffic to keep pouring in each and every day.

So, I’m not daily “hustling” to try and earn money.  I could be super active on Instagram, Twitter, Quora, forums, or other places where I know if I post enough daily, I’ll get a trickle of traffic each day.  By hustling, your site could start making some money on the first day!

But that is not sustainable.  Sure, you might make a $1 on your first day, but you might need to hustle just as hard tomorrow to make another $1.

The idea is to hustle smart so that in 1 or 2 years I’m not hustling at all and yet my site is making $1,000, $2,000, $5,000 or more each month with minimal involvement.  I know this is totally doable since I’ve done it a few times.

So, now that I’ve laid out the criteria for my site…how long does it take a new niche site to make money?

In my case, it took almost exactly 3 months.

Here’s the timeline:

August 24th, 2018 – I buy the domain name for my new niche.

Sometime before Sept 10th – The site is indexed in Google with just an About page live. 

September 10th, 2018 – I publish the first article on the site.  I count this as the real start date.

September 13th, 2018 – The site gets its first visitor from Google.  It’s unclear if it was from me or one of my authors.  However, within a few days, it’s definitely getting a random visitor from Google.

September 27th, 2018 – Site gets its first visitor from Pinterest.

End of September – 20 articles on the site. No earnings.

End of October – 32 articles on the site. No earnings.

End of November – 39 articles on the site. No earnings.

Dec. 9th, 2018 – I get my first sale on Amazon.  $3.97 in earnings!

Dec. 10th, 2018 – I get 2 more sales for total earnings of $14.09!

Earnings Screenshot

So, after 3 months of work, I finally got on the board with $14.09 in earnings.  I don’t know if that’s encouraging or discouraging for you, but I think about 3 months is a safe bet for when a brand new site should start making money (if you are focused exclusively on Google organic traffic).

I actually could have started making money a little bit quicker if I had just thrown up some Google Adsense ads.  I’m sure I could get a few clicks.  But again, this is not my long-term vision.

So, how long does it take to get traffic to your brand new website?

Well, just a couple of days.  Visitors from social media, Pinterest, or even search engines can start quite quickly.  However, ranking in search engines typically takes time for your site to age and these rankings to “stick”.  

How long does it take a new website or blog to get indexed by Google?

Typically just a few days.  Especially if you post your site on social media, Pinterest, or even blog comments will help Google find your site faster.

The Momentum Has Begun

Obviously, I’m not going to be able to retire early just yet on this income.  Although, I did quit my day job almost 8 years ago (and have never looked back) because of my niche site income. However, the momentum has now begun for big things to happen over a longer period of time.

I actually think it could take almost 12 months for any new site to even break $500 or $1,000 a month in earnings.  However, if you are someone that is able to stick with the process and actually put in consistent work for a period of 12 months, you should have a great site on your hands.  

Want to See My Advanced Keyword Research Strategies that Even a Beginner Can Learn?

Read my comprehensive guide on stealing keywords for competitors. I use this tool to cherry pick the keywords that I know I can rank for quickly…even if my site is newer.

Read the Strategies Here

The exciting things start to happen after the first year; earnings can go up significantly as the site truly ages, gains authority and rankings improve in Google.

So, is a niche affiliate website going to making a killing after 3 months?  No.  But will the process have started where the site is started to get a trickle of traffic daily and money can be made?  Yes.

I think it’s important to keep the life cycle of a site in perspective.  I think most people give up way too early.

For example, about 4 months ago I had over 800 people indicate interest in starting a new niche site and joining me for Niche Site Project 4.  By the time the first monthly report came due, only about 139 people submitted a report.

I don’t know if all those people had quit before the first report was due after 1 month, but I suspect many of them quit or just never got started.  Then many others probably just failed to report.

By the time the next report came due, only 77 reported. (Almost half dropped out from previous month).

And in the most recent monthly report, only 45 people reported.

Now it could just be that 750 people aren’t reporting.  However, I think it’s most likely that people are quitting after 1 or 2 months.

So, if you are going to start a brand new website from scratch, just realize that it’s going to take longer a than a few months to start seeing much momentum…but that’s really where the fun begins!

I wish you luck as you build your website and hope you have great success!

Date Published 2018-12-13 10:59

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[thegloober]

Why I Skipped My Own Wedding to Save Money

[Hey guys! Please welcome back to the site today, Lyn Alden, who shares her take on wedding costs and why she decided to only spent $800 getting married this year! The pressure is real out there, but there are other ways if you’re open to it!!]

*******

The average cost of a wedding in the United States was somewhere between $25,000 and $33,000 in 2017, depending on which source you believe.

If that’s not a personal finance minefield, I don’t know what is.

But even scarier, the reasons that many people spend that much are concerning, particularly in the way they finance it.

Despite earning a considerably higher income ourselves than the average household (and having hundreds of thousands of dollars stashed away before our 30’s) my husband and I married in early 2018 for about $800, with most of the cost being the wedding bands.

Now, admittedly, that’s a bit extreme too, but even looking back on it 7 months later, I couldn’t be happier with our choice!

This article takes a look at where all the money goes for weddings, why people spend so much, how to spend less, and why we decided to skip it all.

Wedding Cost Breakdown

According to a survey of about 13,000 participants by The Knot, the average wedding in 2017 cost $33,391. They do these surveys each year with similar results, making the sample size over time pretty huge.

This number includes the engagement ring, but excludes the honeymoon. Here’s the detailed breakdown:

The biggest expense by far is the venue, accounting for almost half the total price tag.

The second or third biggest is the engagement ring, at $5.7k on average.

Catering is another huge expense at $70/person, which depending on the size of the wedding is one of the biggest expenses.

Then there’s the music, the ceremony, the florist, the cake, the photography, the dress, the multitude of other things, and all of it adds up to over $33k. Even all those paper invitations people send out total $408 on average. But geography plays a huge role too – the average wedding price ranges from $18k in Utah to almost $77k in Manhattan.

As a caveat, I think the sampling bias of surveys like this is a bit skewed. The types of people that would fill out surveys like this, and that visit wedding websites the most, are likely people more interested than average in elaborate weddings.

Based on another survey of over 10,000 participants in 2017 by CostofWedding.com, the average wedding was $25,764, and the median was a slightly tamer $15,000 or so. A third survey by Student Loan Hero placed the median at about $20,000.

Regardless of which source is the most accurate, it’s all still rather high, considering that the median amount that families aged 35-54 have saved for retirement is only about $60,000.

Why Do People Spend So Much?

If people’s reasons for spending so much on weddings were purely for happiness, there’d be less to comment on. After all, who I am I to tell anyone else how to spend their money?

Just because I’d rather stash more cash into my thrift savings plan or Roth IRA than spend on big things doesn’t mean everyone else has to.

But it’s murkier than that.

According to Student Loan Hero’s survey, 47% of couples felt pressured to have a big costly wedding, either by family, friends, or society:

And 74% of respondents in that survey said they are going into debt to fund their upcoming wedding, with a whopping 61% of them saying they went into credit card debt for it.

If someone sees a friend have a large wedding, it can feel inadequate to have a small wedding. Like it’s a direct comparison about how successful you are, or how big your set of friends and family is. It’s a status symbol.

But the same thing goes for the cars we drive, the houses we buy, and the clothes we wear. It’s important to step back and make sure the things we buy are truly making us happy, and that we’re not just buying things to keep up appearances or stay competitive with peers.

Why We Spent Almost Nothing on Our Wedding

My husband and I spent a few hundred bucks on our wedding. We just hired a chaplain to marry us in an adorable little coffee shop, and then went out for a nice dinner together. We kept it a day just for us two to share.

The two of us are located very far from both of our families, and our families are located very far from each other, so the traveling logistics of setting up a wedding would have been a nightmare.

Moreover, our families are of two totally different religious and cultural backgrounds, with very different traditions, which would have made planning the ceremony and the reception complex. My husband comes from an Egyptian Muslim background, while my family is partially Catholic and partially New Age.

But despite its simplicity, it was just as memorable as any wedding I could have imagined having. Our favorite love song happened to play on the coffee shop radio as we got married, and I may or may not have cried happily about that coincidence. Little details like that are what make a day memorable.

We also skipped the engagement ring. My then-boyfriend and I were on a vacation in Hong Kong a few years ago, relaxing in our hotel bed looking over at the city’s beautiful skyline, and I casually asked if he wanted to marry me. No ring, no public display, and no concern about which gender is supposed to pop the question.

And lastly, one of the biggest reasons for us skipping everything was to save planning time! The idea of planning for months for a single-day’s event was exhausting to think about. We decided to spend that time getting extra exercise, traveling, building our business, and more realistically, watching reruns of Friends on Netflix together.

In the end, it does come down to personal taste. I don’t like wearing expensive jewelry, and neither of us were interested in being center-stage of a huge gathering. But in addition to fitting our tastes, we had to push back a bit at society’s expectations of how we should do it and how much we should spend.

In making this choice, we now have more than $30,000 extra money stashed away in cash and investments than we would have had with a normal wedding.

Here Are 2 Major Ways to Spend Less on Weddings

At $33,391, the average 6-hour wedding (ceremony + reception) comes out to $5,565 per hour.

Put another way, if you had $33,391 at age 30 and instead of spending it on a wedding you stashed it away in index funds or dividend stocks for 30 years earning just 7% per year in total returns, you’d have over $250,000 by the end of that period.

That one decision alone would give you more retirement savings than the average person without ever saving another dime! Even after adjusting for 2% annual inflation, you’d have over $140,000 in today’s dollars:

Alternatively, you could also use that $30,000 savings in other fun ways, say, by going on a $5,000 dream vacation every year for the next six years! Imagine all the stories and experiences you’d have at the end of those!

But if you don’t want to go all-out and skip the wedding costs like we did, here are two high-impact ways to at least significantly trim them.

#1. Relax on Engagement Ring Rules

There’s a lot of pressure on men to save up for months to buy their fiancée a diamond engagement ring.

According to the American Gem Society, this tradition started in the 1400’s when Archduke Maximillian of Austria gave a diamond engagement ring to his fiancée, which started a trend among European aristocracy.

It was only in the mid-1900s that the De Beers diamond mining company began advertising the concept heavily to middle-class Americans. They even specifically marketed the idea that a man should save up a month’s income for the diamond ring, and then later revised it to two months’ income – which they were happy to sell!

So, it’s a rather recent tradition for everyday folks, and essentially built on a marketing campaign.

But it’s also self-perpetuating, because now if a man doesn’t spend thousands of dollars on a ring, people think he’s some broke hipster. And if you’re a woman explaining to friends or family that you got engaged, but don’t have a ring (or at least one without a big diamond), you’ll get a field of skeptical looks.

It’s important to remember though that if you don’t have the title “Archduke” in front of your name, it might not be the smartest move blowing through a month or two’s income as you’re starting your lives together. Really ask yourselves if it’s something the two of you truly want, or is it something you’re doing just because it’s expected of you?

[EDITOR’S NOTE: I definitely fell into the latter trap and didn’t even second guess the cost of the ring when I picked it up a decade ago. $7,000 right out the door like that, and my wife doesn’t even wear it anymore! Haha… I wouldn’t have had the balls to go against the grain back then, but I would now.]

#2. Keep it Small (or Let’s Say, “Cozy”)

At about $15,000, the reception venue is usually the biggest wedding expense. And the cost of a wedding scales as you invite more people. More people means a bigger venue, more food, more flowers, more invitations, and more complex photography and videography.

Keeping the guest list intimate – close family and best friends only – helps control costs. If you’re the ones spending money on it, you can make your special day as big or small as you want it. It’s for you, not for everyone else!

A natural venue can help as well. Although there are downsides, having a beach wedding, a park wedding, or a backyard wedding can be beautiful ways to keep the cost down.

Brides.com has a useful article on park weddings, including the pitfalls to avoid and details to be aware of. If you pull something like that off successfully, you can save a ton of cash while still having a beautiful time. You’re already paying the taxes for the park, so you might as well benefit from it!

[EDITOR’S NOTE: This is another thing I would have probably changed too… We had a ton of fun dancing through the night with 180+ people, but looking back we would have been just as happy with maybe only 50-60 of them (and definitely without all the random cousins and people you never hang out with in life anyways). It was definitely a party for everyone else more so than us. Though I did almost tear up when 10 of them went out and got mohawks during the break from the wedding and the reception

Such a cool surprise!!]

Final Thoughts

A wedding is a deeply personal thing, and colored by tradition.

For some people, not having a large and expensive wedding would be unthinkable. And for them, the best thing they can do is budget for it ahead of time.

But for a lot of people, perhaps even half, they feel pressured to have a big wedding, and even go into debt to finance it. It’s not necessarily that they specifically want a big wedding, it’s that they feel they should.

The problem is that doing things the common way leads to the common outcome. Most people with middle-class incomes have low net worth, too much debt, and are not on track for retirement.

The whole personal finance blogosphere is meant to help us re-examine everything, to take a step back and figure out where we actually should spend money and where we can save a ton. That way, we can maximize our happiness but still have rock-solid finances.

I like spending money on travel, healthy food, decent clothes, and various hobbies, but not a ton else. Big events and jewelry, not so much.

The best thing we can do for our finances, I think, is separate what makes us happy from what is common or expected, and make sure we spend mostly on the first category.

*******

EDITOR’S NOTE: If you’re already married reading this, how much did you end up spending on your wedding? Were you happy you did, or would you have done things differently?

Thanks for the insightful article, Lyn! And for not bashing those who DO love a big fancy wedding!

——— Lyn works in engineering management, running the day-to-day operations and finances of an engineering facility. On the side she does website development and freelance writing, and creates in-depth guides on financial topics at LynAlden.com. You can also see Lyn’s first featured guest post – and quite the juicy one! – here: What Being Homeless Taught Me About Money and Happiness.

Thank you for reading Budgets Arrghh Sexy! We hope you liked today’s guest post

If you’d like to submit one of your own juicy ideas over, we’ll gladly review: contact us

Source: https://bloghyped.com/why-i-skipped-my-own-wedding-to-save-money/

[kurtwarren54]

Prepping for FET (Frozen Embryo Transfer)

So many of you have written me DM’s, emails, and left comments asking how we prepped for our Frozen Embryo Transfer (or FET) and I wanted to share with you what I did to prepare. By the time you get to the actual FET, it’s like you can almost see the light at the end of the tunnel. I remember going in for my first appointment for to start prep for my second FET and I was literally a ball of emotions and started to hysterically cry to my nurse about the pressure of it working. You have done so much to get to this place if you have been lucky enough to get embryos from your egg retrieval. I wrote about our first failed FET here and one thing I will say is that since this was my second time around, it was easier since I knew some of the “moves.” Easier in terms of, I knew the meds, I knew the process and I knew what I needed to do to get myself in the best possible shape to welcome our little embryo into our lives. So below, I will share what I did to prep for our FET. Please note that it’s so important to come up with a plan with your doctor and that what I share is only what I did and worked for my body based on what I needed. The photos included in this post are a photo of our ACTUAL transfer. This photo marks the beginning of our little miracle baby boy and I will treasure it always.

Supplements and meds I was taking DHEA microionized and CoQ10 were supplements I took (which I bought from wholefoods). These are both longevity supplements that can help to enhance fertility. I don’t know if they made a difference personally, but it’s something I was religious about taking. I also continued to take my prenatal vitamins. Since I don’t love big pills my doctor was able to prescribe me with Vitafol Gummies with Iron. I also took 2000 IU of D3 because of a deficiency. Another supplement that was pretty unique was Trental, which I was taking was for my uterine lining. In previous cycles, I had a hard time getting my lining thick for transfer. My dr wanted to me to be close to 8mm and many times I had a hard time reaching that number and sometimes we didn’t. Something that seemed to help me was also taking Trental to help with bloodflow and to help my uterine lining grow thicker. I did the normal estrogen pills alongside of estrogen patches to also thicken my lining. Unfortunately due to adhesive sensitivities, I had to discontinue use of the patch and stick with the pills orally or vaginally (i know gross! But they absorb better vaginally). I also took 800 iu vitamin E to ensure no fluid build up that would interfere with the transfer. Since sometimes, if you have fluid buildup, it could affect your FET.

Diet I ate a TON of eggs and avocado. I tried to eat as clean as possible but I didn’t force it. If I wanted cupcakes, I had cupcakes. I think it’s all about just making your body feel its best whatever that means for you. I never did the INSANE fertility diets bc they just didn’t work for me. Some of you wrote me about fertility shakes and other diets that really worked for you but again, it wasn’t what my body needed to prepare. We are all SO different and I think the bottom line is to feel like yourself, because sometimes taking such drastic changes from your norm end up stressing you out more than helping. As far as wine, I LOVE my wine, and I wanted to enjoy some before our big transfer. I stuck to no more than 2-3 glasses a week and not all in one sitting. That is what my dr said. Honestly, I think having a glass here and there relaxed me. With this successful FET, my doctor was SHOCKED at how great my lining was. She asked what I did differently this cycle. My answer: RED WINE and lot’s of it. So funny right?! I just stopped all alcohol when I started my progesterone injections. I also decided to cut coffee(even decaf) since I have sensitivities to caffeine. This was a totally personal choice but I wanted to be EXTRA cautious. This is prob the only weird thing I did. I didn’t have decaf coffee again until probably 9 weeks pregnant bc I was paranoid.

Acupuncture I mentioned in all my blogs posts that I did acupuncture for my first egg retrieval and FET but sadly, it didn’t help me get pregnant and stressed me out more. Some people RAVE it helped them get pregnant. So just a suggestion if you are looking for something else to try, a lot of friends loved it. But again, it was not for me and I did NOT do acupuncture for my second FET.

Tips for progesterone injections I always get a lot of questions about how I manage all the injections during IVF. Honestly, my mother to this day is still so shocked and impressed with how many injections I have done to date. It’s not an easy fear to overcome… but honestly these days, needles don’t scare me one bit. But it wasn’t always like that. The progesterone injections are by far the “scariest” of the injectables because the needle is longer (about 1-1.5” long!). Just seeing the needle will make you want to faint. Or at least I wanted to the first day I opened up my box of FET medications. You get bottles of PIO (or Progesterone in Oil) that a pharmacy compounds for you. Mine were compounded in Ethyl Oleate which is apparently the most fluid of the oil compounds. You might also get yours compounded in olive oil or sesame oil. I am allergic to sesame so I had ethyl oleate. The first day of these injections I was freaking out… the needle… how was I going to survive. I read HORROR stories online of how much people hated them which was my first mistake. But in reality, the injection wasn’t the painful part for me. Yes it can be uncomfortable but the injection itself isn’t bad. It is the aftermath of the progesterone getting lump in your butt post injection that was the most painful for me. But I practiced a simple routine to help with the discomfort. I would prop myself up, standing, against our kitchen island. Blake would then use a dart like motion to quickly jab the shot into my butt cheek. He would let me know when it was almost finished (it takes a minute to injection fully because the oil is thick) and then immediately after the injection, he would take a washcloth that had been pre-soaked in hot water and then use that to massage the area of the injection for at least 30 seconds. Massaging the area rigorously helps to distribute the oil and keep it from getting lumpy. After that, I would sit on a heat pad to help also with discomfort and to distribute the oil. I did end up having a sore butt but I think the massage really did help. After the transfer, I refrained from sitting on a heat pad because I was paranoid about the heat. But those are the things I did to help me get through. In the end, the progesterone injections were not as bad as the internet made them out to be but that was my own experience. Hope these tips will help!

Shopping before FET I went to the store and bought lemons/real lemon juice in a bottle for hot water with lemon. Since I wanted to avoid all herbal tea and coffee period, I substituted in hot water with lemon to get lots of warm fluids in my body (because apparently that is great after transfer). You also want to grab all your favorite snacks and stock up on other warm foods like soup to enjoy when you first get home. Stock up on your favorite magazines too since you will be in bed on bed rest. Some people eat a lot of superstitious things but honestly I just ate as well as I could and still indulged in some of my fav treats!

Outfit the day of FET I always lay out my outfit for day of transfer. Loose fitting sweatpants that don’t squeeze the tummy, a tshirt and cozy sweater since it is usually more chilly at the office. My sweater of choice was my vintage Mickey Mouse sweater because it honestly just makes me SO happy. The key is to be comfy and not wear anything too tight fitting.

Pajamas for bedrest I always make sure to do all my laundry and pick out all my favorite cozy pajamas for my bedrest and lay them out so I don’t have to go digging for them when I am supposed to be relaxing. If you really want to treat yourself, order yourself a new “lucky” pair. I love gap body pajamas because they are super soft and really nice loose fitting. I love these two pants in particular because they don’t put any pressure on my stomach and I have worn them through my pregnancy so far.

Movies for bedrest Stock up on some of your fav feel good movies. You want to be HAPPY, CALM (I hate to type that because i literally HATED people telling me to be calm), and just overjoyed excited for little embryo that is getting all cozy inside. So many great things on netflix but if you have that one all time fav rom com that literally makes you happier than anything, do yourself a favor and download it or buy it. You deserve to feel so happy during this bedrest and anything to help will make you feel so good. I tried to stay off my laptop because you don’t want to have that heat on your abdomen after your transfer.

That’s pretty much it! I didn’t do too many crazy things honestly, but there are small simple things you can do to put your mind at ease. The bottom line is you want to be prep for some lazy, guilt-free days of bedrest and keep those positve vibes flowing as the dreaded 2WW (two week wait) begins. That time is one of the longest 2 weeks of your life and starting it with ease and being kind to your body and mind is so important. If you are prepping for a FET, wishing you nothing but zen vibes and fingers, toes, and eyeballs crossed for a successful transfer. Stay strong friends!

If you want to read more about our IVF and infertility journey, below are some links to my other blogposts:

IVF Round #1 // IVF Round #2 // IVF Book Resources

Prep for IVF Egg Retrieval // IVF Round #3

The post Prepping for FET (Frozen Embryo Transfer) appeared first on eat.sleep.wear. - Fashion & Lifestyle Blog by Kimberly Pesch.

from Wellness http://www.eatsleepwear.com/2018/05/02/prepping-fet-frozen-embryo-transfer/ via http://www.rssmix.com/

[elizabethcariasa]

Prepping for FET (Frozen Embryo Transfer)

So many of you have written me DM’s, emails, and left comments asking how we prepped for our Frozen Embryo Transfer (or FET) and I wanted to share with you what I did to prepare. By the time you get to the actual FET, it’s like you can almost see the light at the end of the tunnel. I remember going in for my first appointment for to start prep for my second FET and I was literally a ball of emotions and started to hysterically cry to my nurse about the pressure of it working. You have done so much to get to this place if you have been lucky enough to get embryos from your egg retrieval. I wrote about our first failed FET here and one thing I will say is that since this was my second time around, it was easier since I knew some of the “moves.” Easier in terms of, I knew the meds, I knew the process and I knew what I needed to do to get myself in the best possible shape to welcome our little embryo into our lives. So below, I will share what I did to prep for our FET. Please note that it’s so important to come up with a plan with your doctor and that what I share is only what I did and worked for my body based on what I needed. The photos included in this post are a photo of our ACTUAL transfer. This photo marks the beginning of our little miracle baby boy and I will treasure it always.

Supplements and meds I was taking DHEA microionized and CoQ10 were supplements I took (which I bought from wholefoods). These are both longevity supplements that can help to enhance fertility. I don’t know if they made a difference personally, but it’s something I was religious about taking. I also continued to take my prenatal vitamins. Since I don’t love big pills my doctor was able to prescribe me with Vitafol Gummies with Iron. I also took 2000 IU of D3 because of a deficiency. Another supplement that was pretty unique was Trental, which I was taking was for my uterine lining. In previous cycles, I had a hard time getting my lining thick for transfer. My dr wanted to me to be close to 8mm and many times I had a hard time reaching that number and sometimes we didn’t. Something that seemed to help me was also taking Trental to help with bloodflow and to help my uterine lining grow thicker. I did the normal estrogen pills alongside of estrogen patches to also thicken my lining. Unfortunately due to adhesive sensitivities, I had to discontinue use of the patch and stick with the pills orally or vaginally (i know gross! But they absorb better vaginally). I also took 800 iu vitamin E to ensure no fluid build up that would interfere with the transfer. Since sometimes, if you have fluid buildup, it could affect your FET.

Diet I ate a TON of eggs and avocado. I tried to eat as clean as possible but I didn’t force it. If I wanted cupcakes, I had cupcakes. I think it’s all about just making your body feel its best whatever that means for you. I never did the INSANE fertility diets bc they just didn’t work for me. Some of you wrote me about fertility shakes and other diets that really worked for you but again, it wasn’t what my body needed to prepare. We are all SO different and I think the bottom line is to feel like yourself, because sometimes taking such drastic changes from your norm end up stressing you out more than helping. As far as wine, I LOVE my wine, and I wanted to enjoy some before our big transfer. I stuck to no more than 2-3 glasses a week and not all in one sitting. That is what my dr said. Honestly, I think having a glass here and there relaxed me. With this successful FET, my doctor was SHOCKED at how great my lining was. She asked what I did differently this cycle. My answer: RED WINE and lot’s of it. So funny right?! I just stopped all alcohol when I started my progesterone injections. I also decided to cut coffee(even decaf) since I have sensitivities to caffeine. This was a totally personal choice but I wanted to be EXTRA cautious. This is prob the only weird thing I did. I didn’t have decaf coffee again until probably 9 weeks pregnant bc I was paranoid.

Acupuncture I mentioned in all my blogs posts that I did acupuncture for my first egg retrieval and FET but sadly, it didn’t help me get pregnant and stressed me out more. Some people RAVE it helped them get pregnant. So just a suggestion if you are looking for something else to try, a lot of friends loved it. But again, it was not for me and I did NOT do acupuncture for my second FET.

Tips for progesterone injections I always get a lot of questions about how I manage all the injections during IVF. Honestly, my mother to this day is still so shocked and impressed with how many injections I have done to date. It’s not an easy fear to overcome… but honestly these days, needles don’t scare me one bit. But it wasn’t always like that. The progesterone injections are by far the “scariest” of the injectables because the needle is longer (about 1-1.5” long!). Just seeing the needle will make you want to faint. Or at least I wanted to the first day I opened up my box of FET medications. You get bottles of PIO (or Progesterone in Oil) that a pharmacy compounds for you. Mine were compounded in Ethyl Oleate which is apparently the most fluid of the oil compounds. You might also get yours compounded in olive oil or sesame oil. I am allergic to sesame so I had ethyl oleate. The first day of these injections I was freaking out… the needle… how was I going to survive. I read HORROR stories online of how much people hated them which was my first mistake. But in reality, the injection wasn’t the painful part for me. Yes it can be uncomfortable but the injection itself isn’t bad. It is the aftermath of the progesterone getting lump in your butt post injection that was the most painful for me. But I practiced a simple routine to help with the discomfort. I would prop myself up, standing, against our kitchen island. Blake would then use a dart like motion to quickly jab the shot into my butt cheek. He would let me know when it was almost finished (it takes a minute to injection fully because the oil is thick) and then immediately after the injection, he would take a washcloth that had been pre-soaked in hot water and then use that to massage the area of the injection for at least 30 seconds. Massaging the area rigorously helps to distribute the oil and keep it from getting lumpy. After that, I would sit on a heat pad to help also with discomfort and to distribute the oil. I did end up having a sore butt but I think the massage really did help. After the transfer, I refrained from sitting on a heat pad because I was paranoid about the heat. But those are the things I did to help me get through. In the end, the progesterone injections were not as bad as the internet made them out to be but that was my own experience. Hope these tips will help!

Shopping before FET I went to the store and bought lemons/real lemon juice in a bottle for hot water with lemon. Since I wanted to avoid all herbal tea and coffee period, I substituted in hot water with lemon to get lots of warm fluids in my body (because apparently that is great after transfer). You also want to grab all your favorite snacks and stock up on other warm foods like soup to enjoy when you first get home. Stock up on your favorite magazines too since you will be in bed on bed rest. Some people eat a lot of superstitious things but honestly I just ate as well as I could and still indulged in some of my fav treats!

Outfit the day of FET I always lay out my outfit for day of transfer. Loose fitting sweatpants that don’t squeeze the tummy, a tshirt and cozy sweater since it is usually more chilly at the office. My sweater of choice was my vintage Mickey Mouse sweater because it honestly just makes me SO happy. The key is to be comfy and not wear anything too tight fitting.

Pajamas for bedrest I always make sure to do all my laundry and pick out all my favorite cozy pajamas for my bedrest and lay them out so I don’t have to go digging for them when I am supposed to be relaxing. If you really want to treat yourself, order yourself a new “lucky” pair. I love gap body pajamas because they are super soft and really nice loose fitting. I love these two pants in particular because they don’t put any pressure on my stomach and I have worn them through my pregnancy so far.

Movies for bedrest Stock up on some of your fav feel good movies. You want to be HAPPY, CALM (I hate to type that because i literally HATED people telling me to be calm), and just overjoyed excited for little embryo that is getting all cozy inside. So many great things on netflix but if you have that one all time fav rom com that literally makes you happier than anything, do yourself a favor and download it or buy it. You deserve to feel so happy during this bedrest and anything to help will make you feel so good. I tried to stay off my laptop because you don’t want to have that heat on your abdomen after your transfer.

That’s pretty much it! I didn’t do too many crazy things honestly, but there are small simple things you can do to put your mind at ease. The bottom line is you want to be prep for some lazy, guilt-free days of bedrest and keep those positve vibes flowing as the dreaded 2WW (two week wait) begins. That time is one of the longest 2 weeks of your life and starting it with ease and being kind to your body and mind is so important. If you are prepping for a FET, wishing you nothing but zen vibes and fingers, toes, and eyeballs crossed for a successful transfer. Stay strong friends!

If you want to read more about our IVF and infertility journey, below are some links to my other blogposts:

IVF Round #1 // IVF Round #2 // IVF Book Resources

Prep for IVF Egg Retrieval // IVF Round #3

The post Prepping for FET (Frozen Embryo Transfer) appeared first on eat.sleep.wear. - Fashion & Lifestyle Blog by Kimberly Pesch.

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Have you read the sales bible Predictable Revenue by Aaron Ross?I just had a candid chat with Aaron about life, love, and how to organize your sales.Aaron is a sales guru, CEO and full-time dad. He works 15 hours per week, has 9 kids, 3 dogs, and 40 employees.Mad or genius? 🤔 I'm not sure, but he's freakin' inspiring.---Prefer listening? I put links to the recording/podcast in the original post (link at the bottom).---Jeroen: Hey Aaron, it’s great to have you on Founder Coffee!Aaron: Yeah, I just wish there was some actual coffee as well!Jeroen: Well, I do have have some coffee right next to me for our chat. What about you?Aaron: Going a little slow on that, but I’m going to get it right after! I do like it.Jeroen: So, Aaron, you’re the founder of Predictable Revenue. For those who have not been on this planet for the past few years, what is it all about?Aaron: Predictable Revenue started as a book actually, which came out in 2011. The book was about how when I worked at Salesforce, way back when it was small and had a couple hundred employees, I created an outbound sales system that helped them almost double their revenue growth.After few years of leaving Salesforce, I wrote the book and I guess they now call it the Sales Bible of the Silicon Valley now. The book is getting translated in different languages for different markets — Portuguese in Brazil, Mandarin in China and more. We have even had a sequel come out!Now, I have a company around what the book does. It is basically an outbound success company that helps other companies trade results effectively, for a faster revenue to outbound prospecting.Jeroen: Actually my wife is a Brazilian and I heard that in Brazil, it’s already huge. It’s a bestseller!Aaron: Yeah, it’s a big thing in Brazil. They are going crazy for it. So after the US, our second biggest business is in Brazil. There’s a separate unit there altogether and I absolutely love the place.Jeroen: That makes the two of us! I even spoke to one of the guys at Salesforce, about a month back. He really wants to set up a business around Predictable Revenue because it seems that the kind of selling presented in the book, is really not known in Brazil and you are the ones introducing it.Aaron: Yeah, most of the world wants to do that. So for example, one of the key ideas is… we’ll get to outbound prospecting, but let’s start something even more fundamental — sales specialization.In the book, it was the first time that someone came out and said, “you have to specialize your sales people if you want to be able to grow and be successful.”What this means is that you need to change the way you imagine a typical sales person. For hundreds of years, a salesperson has been doing the prospecting, closing the deals and even handling customer accounts. But with the rise of inside sales and big data, things have started to change in the last 10 years.In sales, you divide and conquer. You have many different jobs for the sales team, so you hire different skills and make them work together. You have prospectors who do the prospecting. And that’s all that they really do. They generate leads for closers or account executives and sales people who will get customers to sign up. Now that’s all that this section of the team does.There could also be leads coming in from your inbound marketing campaigns. You could have a separate role for inbound lead responders or junior sales reps. Their job would be to qualify or pre-qualify and pass the account executive the leads who are most likely to sign up.Then comes the last type of role in the sales team. This would be after the customer signs up and there’s actually different kind of roles that come into play here — account management, customer success or professional services.The idea is again to have a team approach to sales with different roles. Working together is the new idea of sales, really. Now most companies around the world, like in Brazil, don’t follow this. The model they still follow is of the sales people doing everything. Now that the market has read the book, they are looking at a sales team in a different way.I can’t tell you how many notes I have gotten from people who read the book and implemented this in their sales team. They’re like, “I did that. I specialised my sales people and it has doubled my results!”Jeroen: Doesn’t this then make the actual sales roles a little boring?Aaron: I would say that for most people, it might be a boring job. But for those in sales already, they are overwhelmed doing five different jobs together. They just end up doing each one of them poorly and it hampers their overall performance.No one likes to struggle. So when you refocus them and they can do fewer things better, it helps them stay on track and give it their best shot. It gets them closer to being an expert in that area. For instance, if I’m a closer, then I become an expert at closing leads and if I’m a prospector, then I become the expert at prospecting quality leads.There are several reasons why businesses should follow this new sales model. Now there could of course be exceptions too in this case, where you just have to take one or two calls. In that case, one sales rep can definitely do the task.But the book primarily talks about B2B sales. In all B2B sales, specialization is the way to go and there are a few reasons I can give for it. First, people just aren’t that good at juggling a bunch of different tasks. Most heads of sales complain about their people not being able to prospect well. Well, it is not because they don’t want to do it. It is simply because they are burdened with way too many jobs. Give them one or two tasks at a time, and then see them perform.For instance, when you ask your most senior team members to do sales for you. Them making phone calls is like the most expensive of resources you could be setting aside. Not being able to close as many leads, is only going to bring down your company revenue. That’s the first reason why you hire sales reps to take care of this end of the job!Another reason why this model works, is the sales measurability. When you specialise your team and break them into different jobs, it becomes a lot easier to understand what is working and what is not working. You can see the outbound prospecting, how it is working, how does the closing of leads happen, how are the accounts handled, how an inbound lead is responded to — all as separate events.When you have your sales people doing everything, all you can see is, “Okay, John is not doing too well.” But you really can’t see why he is struggling!One of the biggest reasons why the new model works is because it keeps the team happy. When you specialise people, they have a chance at becoming an expert at what they do and that feels good. This also simplifies the hiring, as you’re looking for a good rep to join the team to do a specific task — not a unicorn who can do all the magic all by himself!Jeroen: Yes, I think employee satisfaction plays a key role in sales success too. You were at Salesforce, in what position were you?Aaron: Well I started out as the most junior executive at the company — an entry level job of answering the 1–800 line. That was the only job they had in sales. The only person who would work under me, was an intern. Honestly, I wanted to do this job.I’ve been the CEO of an internet company. We had raised five million dollars in funding. The company ended up failing and one of the reasons was that I as CEO, didn’t understand how to build and manage a sales team — a professional sales team.I had hired a VP of sales, but I had abdicated my understanding. I didn’t delegate, so when sales weren’t working, I didn’t really know what to do. So I was like, “I have to work in sales to know sales, if I’m going to start another company.” We are better than Salesforce, and the only job they had was the website responder. We now call it market response rep or inbound SDR.Jeroen: Basically you had a startup and it didn’t work out. That’s when you decided to take the lowest job at Salesforce, where nobody was doing sales and you built it into a very successful sales system.Aaron: Close. Yes, I wanted to take a job there to learn sales. The only job they had was that a junior one. So I was like, “Whatever. I don’t have any ego about it, I just want to learn.”Salesforce was very successful already. But there was something that Salesforce wasn’t doing too well yet. They had tons of leads coming in, like thousands a month for small business customers. They’d just built an enterprise product, hired and spent a ton of money on experienced field enterprise sales. Despite all the inbound lead generation and Marc Benioff — who’s brilliant at public relations, we weren’t getting enough enterprise or mid-market leads. It just wasn’t penetrating.Instead of waiting for a solution, what I did was have a little chat with myself. “I see the problem. We’re getting leads but not enough sales. We have hired the most experienced sales people out there and they are helping bridge relationships with customers, but they’re not bringing anything in and they’re struggling.”So I decided to take a crack at creating an outbound prospecting process — a simple, yet effective way to prospect for appointments.I had never done prospecting before, but I could tell that we weren’t doing it very well. I was like, “I don’t know how this works but I know what we are doing, is just crap.” I read a bunch of books and then tried some things. I really didn’t like any of it. But ultimately, this is where I wrote in the Predictable Revenue book, that I started using email prospecting more than phone.Get them to respond back, get appointments and it created a whole system — accounting management system, email metrics, everything. The idea was to generate as many appointments as we needed at these medium and large scale companies to fill our sales pipeline with sales people. That was the outbound system we created from scratch at Salesforce and wrote a lot about in detail in the Predictable Revenue book. Now we help companies build their own teams to do this too.Jeroen: You created this whole system at Salesforce; at what point did you figure, “I’m going to make a book. I’m going to start a consultancy?”Aaron: Here, not to digress too much, but I have a big family now. I have nine kids, three dogs and then we got to foster some other kids as well. I actually had zero kids. I only got married seven years ago. What’s interesting is, I left Salesforce in 2006. I spent a few years thinking, “I don’t want to do sales consulting. I don’t want to do that.” I did it enough to sort of get by while I worked on some other projects.What ended up happening was I knew I wanted to do a book. I actually had a book offer before, but it didn’t feel right at that moment. In 2011, I got married and my wife had a couple of kids from her prior marriage, and she got pregnant right away. So that year, we went from zero to three kids or two kids plus one on the way, and I still remember this moment where before that, I didn’t really have to make a lot of money as a single guy. And I never really had expensive tastes.I didn’t have to make a lot but I remember this moment was like, “I have a family coming.” I’m like, “Oh shit, I need to make more money in a more regular way to support my family.”We also needed to move to a bigger apartment, get more health insurance. Okay, that really lit a fire in my eyes to publish the book and to start doing more focused consulting around it. That was 2011 and in four years, I grew my own income almost 10 times, actually 11 times. From 70 something thousand a year to more than 700 to 800 a year. All from the book, “Predictable Revenue” and its sequel, “From Impossible To Inevitable”.The point is, what I always look at is how do you make growth a system?At regular sales jobs, you’re always like, “I’m not sure if I’ll make out my number this month or this quarter.” I didn’t like that uncertainty. I tried to make it predictable.Ironically, my income today isn’t that predictable month to month. There’s other reasons for that but how do you make growth more of a system? How do you look at companies who have something and they want to grow, why do some grow and why do some struggle?That’s really what I am thinking in my books and what I’m interested in, is to find out how to do few things but do them well. There’s always a thousand things that you could do better or maybe a million. We all have that. But if you can do only one or two, or say three things this year, what would those be? This is what interests me the most.Jeroen: If you want to make your revenue predictable, have you ever thought about creating a subscription based model around your services?Aaron: Again, I sort of have a unique situation where I can only work 15 hours a week. It used to be 25 but it’s even less because again, the family’s gotten so big. I’m in Los Angeles, so I roughly need to make something like $60,000 a month.How do I explain? I would love to have a recurring model, but it just hasn’t been practical yet.To do a recurring model, it’s like you have to choose your business and up until this point, consulting and services, that’s what we could offer. That’s what gets outsourced the most. But now we have a team and a business. I think it’s ready to move towards what we are calling the Predictable University.Jeroen: How many are you now, in the Predictable Revenue team?Aaron: Well, in the Predictable Revenue company, there’s about 25 or 30 team members. Then there’s another half dozen. We have a small team in Brazil as well. It’s small but we’ve done a lot to lay the groundwork for the next few years.The way I think about it is and there’s a lot of people who are listening, who feel this way, which is sometimes you are in the fast growth stage but sometimes it plateaus — whether it’s a business or you as a person. You can be working on things to restart growth. It might be redoing a product or redoing your team. It might be redoing your personal life in some way. You often times are planting the seeds to grow, but you may not see the results for quite some time.For example, my income has been a straight graph in the last two or three years. I am investing in a future — it could be writing another book, creating a product or simply growing my team — but it’s something that I believe in. As long as you feel like you’re doing the right thing, it is going to work.Jeroen: If you are trying to limit the amount of time you spend on the business, how do you manage the fact that it’s so linked to your name as well?Aaron: I have a bunch of great partners and a great team. There’s no way I’ll have people sign up who wouldn’t work with me on something ‘together’.I’m more of an author at heart. We’re looking at updating the Predictable Revenue book in the next year or so. There’s a book I did with Jason Lemkin of SaaStr, called ‘From Impossible To Inevitable’. I’ve heard a lot of people say it’s the best book they’ve ever read.For me the way I do it is, I want to build a reputation and a brand, and a set of ideas that really connect with people. But then, I would also want a team around it. I’m okay working more slowly in some ways, than try to work really fast all the time. I’m okay investing in things that will take a year or three years to pay off because I know they will.I can say it’s taken us a few years to get to this point where I work like 15 hours a week. I really can’t work more between watching kids at home and my wife is gone a lot. She’s doing a lot of singing. I’m managing all the kids a lot of the time and supporting the family. I found a way to do it. It’s not always easy, just like parenting is not easy but it works.Jeroen: Got it. Have you always known that you wanted to do something in sales or is this something that only grew on you after your startup failed?Aaron: I never knew I wanted to do sales. I don’t think that I ever imagined to be a salesperson as a kid.Jeroen: What did you want to be?Aaron: A pilot or an astronaut. Then during college, I was looking at computer programming and then my interest shifted to civil engineering. I didn’t really know what I wanted to do. I did civil engineering at Stanford and then I did investment banking for a couple of years. Simply because I was like, “That’d be interesting,” and it was for a while, then it got really boring.Then I went into software. At some point there, I realized I wanted to be an entrepreneur. No one ever asked me what I wanted to do, until I had to complete an application for the Stanford Business School. Till 26, I never really thought about an answer in a very focused way.I remember specifically filling out that Stanford Business School application, “What do you want to do with your life?” I was like, “Oh well, I want to be an entrepreneur.” That led me to starting a company, which then led me to a company failing and then I was like “I really need to know sales”.Jeroen: Did you have one startup before Salesforce or multiple?Aaron: One internet startup. I’d done some other small businesses at college; like a painting company. In high school, I created and sold fake IDs, so I was a forger. In the United States, to buy alcohol you have to be 21. A couple of those things when I was younger. But the first startup would be the internet one, before starting work at Salesforce.Jeroen: You never got caught as a forger?Aaron: No. It was partly a way to make a little money, partly a way to be able to buy alcohol, and partly a way to make friends because I won’t say I was anti-social, I was just shy in high school. I had trouble making friends, but I was good with computers.Jeroen: Why do you think you were into startups? Why did you want to be an entrepreneur?Aaron: My father was an entrepreneur. So I guess that played a big part. If anyone listening to me right now, is in their 50s, or maybe 40s, they might have heard of Ross Systems. In the United States, it was a big financial budgeting software company. It’s actually still around.It was sold to a Chinese company. It has been bought and sold a few times, but he started that when I was born basically. That’s where I got my original inspiration and then after doing it for a while, I was like I enjoy it.I got a lot out of Salesforce, in terms of learning. It was a struggle though because of working for three months out of the year, I’d be inspired just to create something and then nine months I’d be plotting along in Salesforce. I learned a lot about politics and internal working. It was a great way to get paid to learn.I think any job if you look at it, can be a great way to get paid to learn. So don’t complain about your job, be like, “Wow, you have an opportunity here.” I was glad to go back out on my own after Salesforce and start doing my own thing.Jeroen: Do you still feel like you are getting paid to learn by your own company then?Aaron: I try to. There are periods where I can feel that way when there’s something new. But then there are definitely times when it’s more of a grind. That’s partly because of the limited time and energy.Even last night, I slept a few hours but the baby was sick and so even today, I just kind of feel like crap, like physically, I feel like crap. No matter how much you love your job — and I love my business — in terms of kids, love has a different definition now. I wouldn’t say I love my job. I love my kids, which is just beyond describing. My business is great but there’s always days where it’s better than others and I don’t think that ever changes. I think when I was young and I’d see the people like, “If I just had a job I loved, that I could love everyday.” You may even have something you love, but some days it sucks.You can’t avoid that in life unless you sit on the sidelines and do nothing. It’s better to be out there like an entrepreneur, whether it’s in business or in life. Take the risk of doing something new, fall flat on your face a few times and then learn to get up. Trust me, it is better to getting stagnated and sticking to one thing just because it’s comfortable.Jeroen: What is it that you mostly do nowadays?Aaron: I am mostly consulting. There are two main things in our business: one is outsourcing for companies who aren’t ready to do their own prospecting. Most in the US. The other is what me and my team do, consult with companies on how they can build their own outbound prospecting team for faster growth.Part of that is me working with some clients myself. And a part of it, is helping companies go through the learning system of how to hire the right sales teams, how to prospect, what metrics to measure, how to configure Salesforce and other things. That’s really what I spend my time on.Jeroen: Building Predictable Revenue, what is it that keeps you up at night lately?Aaron: Lately, there’s not much.Probably it’s just how to get things done. When you say I’ve got some number of hours and have some go to clients… It’s a little scary. I might have three or four hours a week of like real investment time, to improve work in the business, so I work on the business.It’s like how to get more time to improve our internal systems — how we manage and track how our clients are doing, primarily. Then comes being able to coach my team and spend more time with them.Jeroen: So currently it’s the process and coaching?Aaron: Process and coaching, yes.If our team is in place and we have our tools, things will go great. But if we miss someone, if there’s no communication, we will definitely struggle in some way. The team communication is so important.Also, I live in LA alone and almost everybody else is in Vancouver. There’s like 20 something people in Vancouver and I’m sort of on my own here in LA. That just creates a little extra challenges around team communication — especially on what’s happening. So team communication and our progress, is what keeps me up. Sometimes, I feel I am not at the top of things as much as I’d like to be.Jeroen: How does that work exactly? Are you like the face on the screen that is always there in the meetings or?Aaron: I try to attend as many meetings as I can. But there are so many that it becomes difficult. There are a lot of people in our company, that I haven’t even met.I try to attend our sales meetings, where the whole team groups. Also, when I go onsite with customers, I make it a point to bring along one or two new people from the team. In fact, I’m actually going to China next week. We have a fast growing SaaS company in China that has hired us to help them with outbound prospecting and improving inbound lead generation and churn reduction.I’m going to take two people from my team. It’s like their training period. They are not coming to help me out; they are coming so that they can see what it’s like to be onsite with the client and see me work with them.Jeroen: What do you think are the main skills that you as a founder bring to your business? Is it like the coaching aspect that you are referring to or something else?Aaron: One of them is like a deep expertise in this area of outbound prospecting and specifically building teams to do it.We’re into the outsourcing business, which I don’t have much experience in. So the co-CEO takes care of it. We work together in these areas because they are very complimentary.I think my role is more around defining what we’re going to do in the long term. What are we doing in the next few days, weeks, months or 5 to 10 years? My co-founder, co-CEO, is good at more of the 3–12 months planning on how to run the company.There’s lots of things I’m not good at, but I think it’s more important for the things I focus on. I try and be really good at those things only. With that whole book, it’s basically focusing on your strengths and not your weaknesses.Jeroen: What are these things that give you energy, these strengths?Aaron: Well let’s talk about energy for a minute because with the nine kids, eight live at home and there’s some young ones. There’s a baby who’s 1, there’s an almost baby who’s 2. Most of the other kids are relatively self sufficient, but … do you have kids?Jeroen: No, not yet.Aaron: Well, when they are under 1 or 2, it’s a lot of physical work holding them. I mean it’s intense. Driving the other kids around, it’s just a lot to do. So we do have a nanny that comes in, but the bottom line is, I’m pretty much always tired and have been for years.There’s never enough sleep, even if I have time at night. I mostly use that time to write a blog post or catch up with work. What I found is, before I had kids, I would get inspired and write. After babies and kids, especially the last few years, I rarely get inspired anymore, because I’m just always tired.What happens is, how does it work? I’m up from 06:00–06:30 in the morning to late at night. And then come the deadlines. That’s where I get my energy! I know I can’t escape deadlines. It’s just something that I absolutely have to do — including publishing a book publishing deadline, a conference deadline, a newsletter, …That’s where for a while, I’ve really relied on extrinsic motivation or that outside motivation, where I have to get things done, regardless of whether I’m tired or not inspired — because, I have to. Think of it as ‘forcing functions’. This is in the “From Impossible …” book!But think about it, if you want to get into shape, what works better? Do you sign up for a gym, or do you sign up to do a marathon and tell all your friends you are going to do it?Jeroen: The marathon. I have even done that a couple of times. The problem with marathons is I tend to overtrain and then that doesn’t work either.Aaron: Yeah, you got to know yourself at some point. I don’t want to say weaknesses, but things we know we have to do or we shouldn’t do but we do them anyway. That is where I get the energy from because I may not have the time to rest for another year or two, until we don’t have any babies who are under like 2.Jeroen: The way you deal with it, is chasing deadlines basically?Aaron: Yes, that’s how it works for me.Kids have to be at school at a certain time, my wife leaves at a certain time for her music classes, that’s a lot of time being very defined.But then there is one thing that I haven’t been able to do well — putting time aside for myself. Like I haven’t worked out regularly in a while, although I do move around all day. To do even the smallest of things, I have to put it on my calendar. If it’s not on the calendar, it just doesn’t happen. I have to like block it out ahead of time!Jeroen: You very consciously decide: “this is family time, this is me time, this is business time” and then there’s these deadlines that keep you awake?Aaron: Yeah. I have my routines, so the days and the weeks are usual. But it’s the calendar that drives a lot of this — even daily activities like the routines around school, business or personal deadlines for tasks.Jeroen: What is your long term goal with Predictable Revenue. What do you want to achieve?Aaron: We want to be the number one sales brand in the world. We want it to be a brand that helps inspire people to learn how to make more money in ways that feel good. Because sales, I think deservedly so, leaves a bad taste in many people’s mouths.Even as a life skill, if you don’t know how to sell yourself an idea or product, you are not going to accomplish anything in life really. Whether you are trying to start a non-profit, get a promotion, get a job or start a company. It’s a life skill!Our other goal is to create a culture in our own company that’s really very innovative and I would say, humanistic. People get paid to learn. We want to groom the future entrepreneurs and inspire people to do their best.Jeroen: When I asked the question you were able to answer pretty quickly. Is it a mission statement you have written down somewhere?Aaron: Yes, we’ve talked about it. We haven’t written it down some place but we’ve talked about it internally. Apart from the two mission statements, we also have one more goal that keeps it all going — pushing people to do more than they think they can.Jeroen: Cool. Slowly wrapping up… What’s the latest good book you’ve read and why did you choose to read it?Aaron: Well, what’s funny is that I haven’t read any business books lately.Jeroen: Any other books is fine as well.Aaron: My wife and I are really into reading Shakespeare and the theories that Shakespeare didn’t write.All the plays attributed to Shakespeare and a woman named Emilia Bassano, who we now believe just from reading books, is the most likely person who wrote, or who was the leading author because there’s a lot of collaborations on the plays.Whether she collaborated with Shakespeare or not, who knows.Jeroen: Why did you choose to read these books?Aaron: My wife got me into it. She’s really obsessed with it! If you haven’t even heard of this already, the fact that Shakespeare may not be the author of his plays. It’s called “Shakespeare’s Dark Lady”. There’s also a site called The Shakespeare Authorship Trust, that you need to check out.They list out why people think Shakespeare didn’t write the plays. I don’t know, it’s just interesting to see the theories. It’s just like a Sherlock Holmes puzzle to circle back and piece through like what really happened and what you believe. That’s been our obsession lately.Jeroen: That’s funny. Actually, the last book I’ve read was when we were in Brazil over New Years and bought this huge collection of all the Sherlock Holmes stories and I’m now in I think 60%.Aaron: Yeah, you picked some great ones.Jeroen: Pretty nice.Aaron: Yes, do you speak Portuguese or did you pick it up in English?Jeroen: No, I pick it up in English. I’m studying Portuguese and it’s going pretty well but I’m not good enough to read Sherlock Holmes in Portuguese. That would be crazy.Aaron: I love Sherlock Holmes. I have one of those compilations some place. You can never go wrong. I heard he was the character that most movies were made out of.Jeroen: I really love the one with Cumberbatch.Aaron: Yes, that’s a great one.Jeroen: Anyhow, last question. Is there anything you wish that you’d have known when you started out?Aaron: I mean… how much time do you have?If there’s one thing I’d like to point out, is what a positive effect your real friends and family can have on your growth.A lot of people think that having a family while starting out is a burden or a distraction. It doesn’t really need to be. It can actually be a huge help and support, and the motivation you need to keep going and be more successful than you could be on your own. I really want people to start appreciating those they have around them.Jeroen: I fully agree with you there. Well, thank you for the super open conversation and thank you for being on Founder Coffee.Aaron: Thank you for having me, Jeroen.---The original post is on the Salesflare blog.

[djsamaha-blog]

How to Write Shit People Actually Want to Read (+ Free Checklist)

Let me guess.

If you’re just starting out online, you wonder…

“How do I get clients?”

“How can I start monetizing my blog?”

“How do I get more traffic?”

The answer to every single one of these questions might surprise you. Ready?

The answer is this:

Write shit people want to read.

Every single day somewhere around two million blog posts are written. The sad truth, though?

The vast majority of those articles won't be read. The vast majority of them are – let's be real – crap.

A small portion are read by 100 people. A smaller portion are read by 1,000 people. And a few get noticed by “influencers”, syndicated on massive publications and are shared thousands of times.

Those few are the ones that bring in clients, sales, readers, and traffic.

So how do you make sure that your writing doesn't just end up in the pile of “content” that slowly drifts out to sea? How do you write the 1% of articles that will get you traffic and conversions?

Well, you write shit people actually want to read.

When somebody actually wants to read your writing, they usually want to share it. They usually get value from it, talk about it, and spread it around.

Creating shit that people actually want to read (or listen to or watch or gaze at) is one of the main ingredients in the “content” marketing cake, and without it you have no engagement, no fans, no clients and no sales.

My writing is a decade in the making and is still a huge work in progress, but I'm learning and I know some of these tips will turn your writing around.

If you're too lazy to read this post, you can get the checklist I use before I publish all of my articles.

Write like a pro: Click here to get my 44-point checklist for publishing amazing articles.

#1: Know Thy Audience

You could write Atlas Shrugged but if your audience doesn’t want to read it, it’s not good.

Yup, beauty is in the eye of the beholder in this case.

That’s why you need to know your audience.

Good content starts here. Good content to your target audience could be horrible content to me. Even if I hate your writing, if your audience loves it, then it’s good.

But be warned…

Do not take that as permission to rest on your laurels and stop improving. Instead, take that as a nudge to get to know your audience intimately.

Note two things:

What they want to read

How they want to read it.

What they Want to Read

One big difference between most good content vs great content is detail. Anyone can write an 800 word article on needing a budget. But not everyone will write a comprehensive, 3,000 word article on everything you need to know about budgeting that gets likes, shares, and traffic.

To be the one who is willing to do this and therefore brings in tons of traffic and shares, you need to be thorough.

Enter Answer the Public.

Answer the Public is a tool that allows you to plug in a keyword (in this case, a topic you want to write about) and spits out the auto-complete search terms behind that keyword.

Use these questions/search terms as prompts to include in your article. This is what people want to read.

Bonus: this is also a great way to rank for those long-tail search terms.

How They Want to Read It

The style of article you’re creating matters, too.

For example, I know that my audience loves in-depth, step-by-step beginner’s guides. Publishing an inspirational story isn’t nearly as effective for me.

That’s how they want to read it.

Find out what your audience wants to read by mimicking other popular posts (use BuzzSumo for this).

Look up your most popular competitor in your niche:

And start taking note of the *types* of articles your competitors are writing. These articles are the most popular on their sites for a reason – its’ because people like them!

One thing I’ve learned while I’m writing for my new blog is that marketing content styles do not work in the parenting niche.

If I hadn't done the research, I would have been cranking out articles that nobody (at least none of my target readers) wanted.

#2: You Have a Personality (So Use it)

Look, I know it's hard.

Shifting from writing business reports to the more casual, personal tone of blog posts can be like experiencing culture shock. It's difficult to adjust.

But do what you must to beat the boring out of your writing, because nothing will make a reader run for the hills more quickly than a lack of personality.

I should not read your articles and feel like I’m reading a text book.

People come for the information you're providing, but they stay for you. Inject personality wherever you can.

Here’s how you can find your unique voice:

Write like you talk

If you wouldn’t talk that way, you shouldn’t write that way. Writing how you talk is the best way to make sure you shine through.

If you're having a hard time going from stiff business report writing to blog writing, this tip is for you:

Read your writing out loud.

The way things sound in your head when you first write them sound a heck of a lot different when you say them out loud, so don’t limit yourself to proofreading in silence.

If you read your post aloud it will help you find your “voice” and a good flow for your article. It will also identify those sticky sentences that aren't quite right so you can rephrase them.

Modify anything that sounds out of place. If it sounds unnatural to you, your readers will feel the same way – and that means fewer shares, comments, and pageviews.

Chances are you don't say “however” and “thus” and “estimated time of arrival” (am I the only one who hates that last one?) while you're speaking. But you do say “but” and “so” and “when will you be here?”.

When you write like you talk, you’ll notice a few changes:

You use more contractions.

You’re self-aware. “Today I’m teaching you how to….”.

You write in singular and plural first person. “I” and “we” are thrown around a lot.

You ask rhetorical questions, right?

Slang slips out more often.

You use hashtags #truth

Here’s how Brian from Backlinko keeps a laid-back tone when writing serious SEO guides:

Talk about yourself

It’s ok to let your readers know there’s a living, breathing human being behind your website.

Your articles don’t write themselves, after all.

People read your blog because they also care about your opinion, your experience, and your perspective.

Don’t just write about yourself (no one wants to read that), but if it makes sense, add a personal touch here and there to resonate with your readers.

Look at how Bryan from Videofruit does it:

He uses a personal story that makes him relatable to his audience and highlights the point of his article (good design).

Don’t be afraid to use colorful language

If you curse and use slang, you might be scared that you’ll offend people by including that part of your personality in your writing. This may help:

The people who are offended by you using curse words or becomes annoyed if you use slang language are not “your people”. They’re not your target audience.

If they’re not your target audience, it’s okay to repel them.

Stay true to your writing style and you’ll find your people – the people who love your message and the way you deliver it.

If you’re still on the fence about cursing in your writing if you curse in conversation, recent studies suggest that swearing in public could actually make you more likable.

Jorden from Writing Revolt sprinkles slang and swear words in her articles, and her audience loves it:

You don’t have to curse in your writing to resonate with your audience if you don’t use curse words in conversation — the point here is to let your personality shine through by writing like you talk.

Make your audience laugh

Keep your readers glued to your words with a little humor.

Being funny and relatable will:

Make your readers more interested in what you have to say

Hold their attention for longer and make them more likely to finish your article

Help your audience remember the information better afterward

There’s a reason memes dominate the internet. We want to be entertained and amused.

If you can do that, your articles will be unforgettable.

Ramit Sethi, best-selling author and millionaire entrepreneur, is funny, irreverent, and loud, and it seems to be working pretty well for him.

Just take a look at his hilarious response to a millionaire who said people should stop buying avocado toast to afford a house (seriously):

Break some (grammar) rules

But not all of them.

Breaking just enough grammatical rules to sound conversational, but not so many that you sound like a 10-year old texting, is a delicate balance (although easier to achieve than you think).

Imagine texting your best friend.

You use all caps to show excitement or anger, periods between words for emphasis, exclamation points, or make words longer than they need to be.

As long as you stick to basic grammar rules, spicing up your paragraphs can make your personality shine through.

Lindsay from Pinch of Yum (one of the most successful food blogs on the planet) always writes epic descriptions of her recipes with relaxed grammar rules:

Ask questions

Questions pull your reader into the conversation.

It makes them think about an answer, nod in agreement (or disagreement), or leave you a comment.

You want your audience to feel you’re talking directly to them – and what better way than by asking them what they think?

Bryan from Videofruit knows what’s up. He often asks rhetorical questions at the beginning of his articles to engage his readers right away:

Example #1: Asking your readers to make a choice

Example #2: Asking a yes or no question

Example #3: Opening with a question

If you feel your writing is bland and boring, try injecting more personality into your articles with these techniques.

#3: Stop the Regurgitation Cycle

Think back to the last time you read an article, and boomeranged to the blog later.

Maybe you saw a headline on Twitter and couldn't help but click it, or had a date with the Google and stumbled across a post that impressed you. Why did you stick around?

Chances are, you stuck around the blog because it offered something unique. Instead of giving you five ways to save money this fall and telling you to cut out lattes, walk everywhere, and cut up your credit cards, the blog broke the same boring advice chain and offered you scripts to negotiate your bills.

You stuck around because the blog wasn't regurgitating the same crap that everybody else in the blogosphere is. In a crowded market, if you're trying to hawk the same wares as the next dude, you won't get very far.

There’s enough recycled advice out there. Don’t add to the noise.

Instead, focus on creating in-depth, impactful, and original articles that you can’t find anywhere else.

Here’s how:

Study your competition

Before you start cranking out epic articles, you gotta do your homework.

Read and re-read the most popular articles about your topic to find the angles and strategies that are covered already. Identify what advice is peddled non-stop and stay away from it.

Use Buzzsumo to find the top 10-20 most shared articles about your topic.

Figure out how you can do better

Now that you know exactly what’s out there, note two things:

What’s missing from the existing content. Maybe it needs: :

More images

Better copy

More examples

More in-depth advice

More case studies

Clearer steps

Better formatting

Fewer ads

How you can do better. What can you do to create better resources? Maybe….

Add more steps

Go deeper

Add little-known how-to’s and tools

Find real-life examples

Find more data

Then, create better content.

Share a new perspective

Coming up with a new angle is easier said than done. With the sheer amount of articles bombarding us each day, it feels like everything has already been said. What could you possibly have to add?

A whole lot, actually.

Millions of articles are published each day, but most? Most are mediocre at best.

That’s why editors are constantly scouring for original and noteworthy content. They want to receive great pitches, but they usually get the opposite.

The internet is starved for good content, and that’s exactly why you will stand out. Here are five ways to craft articles that cut through the noise:

Explore the topic from a different angle

The key to a fresh angle is taking an existing problem and solving it in a creative way.

For example:

Problem: How to get motivated

Conventional solution: 4 Ways To Get Motivated (Set a small goal, track your progress, reward yourself, ask for help and accountability from your friends.)

Fresh angle: The mental tools Victor Hugo used to make himself write the Hunchback of Notre Dame after a whole year of procrastination. (Interesting)

Which would you rather read?

Finding a new take like this one is easier than you think:

1. Answer a different question about the same topic (what, why, how, where, or who)

The first guest post I ever published was for Fast Company, with the headline 8 Tricks To Make Yourself Wake Up Earlier.

I didn’t pull this topic out of thin air. I did my homework and read the type of articles that were popular at the time. I noticed they published a lot of posts about why it’s important to wake up early, but not how to do it. I pitched this idea and the editor was on board.

My pitch stood out because there were a lot of whys on the site, and not enough hows.

You can do the same by answering different questions about one topic.

If there’s a popular post about the benefits of yoga (why), write a guide on how to start a practice at home (how and where).

If an article about the best plugins for WordPress is trending (what), create tutorials on how to set them up (how).

2. Share little-known tricks

Break conventional advice with little-known ways to solve a problem. Here’s how you can come up with new exciting ideas:

Reflect on what has worked for you in the past: Start with yourself. Do you have a hack for managing your inbox that you haven’t seen other people try?

Ask Facebook: Pick other people’s brains. Ask Facebook groups in your niche how they solve a particular problem, for example, “What’s the best strategy you’ve found for handling email?”. If you post an engaging question in the right group, you can receive hundreds of responses.

Research and ask forums: Chances are, someone already asked your burning question in Quora or Reddit. Search your question, go through the responses and write down solutions you hadn’t heard before. Discussion threads are a goldmine for new ideas. If you can’t find your specific question, create a new thread.

3. Get ultra-specific

When you write a how-to article, be as specific as possible.

Simplistic advice: write in your gratitude journal.

Ultra-specific advice: Write down 3 things that happened today you’re grateful for and why.

See the difference? Tell your readers exactly what they need to do, and how to do it.

4. Uncover new data

A simple way to stand out from the crowd is to talk about the latest research from your field.

Most people don’t bother to look at recent stats and findings, so they just go with what they already know.

But you’re not most people, right?

You write thought-provoking pieces with an impact. Using up-to-date research gives you an advantage and positions you as an expert.

If you’re in the marketing space, look for the most up-to-date stats on what type of content performs better on social media.

If you’re in the fitness niche, write about this year’s peer-reviewed studies on beneficial eating habits for athletes.

Better yet, create a spreadsheet with all the best data sources from your niche, and check if there are new relevant findings every time you brainstorm a new epic article.

Start with these:

Pew Research Center

Hubspot (marketing)

Curata (content marketing)

Social Media Examiner (social media)

Science Daily (awesome for discovering new peer-reviewed studies)

Science Mag

PLOS ONE (especially great for behavioral analysis and habits)

Pubmed

APA (psychology)

Protip: Create a Google Alert for new research, so you don’t have to constantly be checking the resources above.  Create an alert with “research ”, “study ”, and Google will email you every time there’s a new online mention of these keywords.

Publish extremely detailed, crazy-actionable, and extensive guides

You know what’s better than a 700-word listicle about 7 tips to start a garden?

A comprehensive 5000-word gardening 101 guide that teaches you everything you need to know about starting your own garden.

The only problem? The “7 tips to start a garden” type of articles severely outnumber comprehensive guides.

It’s hard to find high-quality, practical, in-depth, and free resources with all the nitty-gritty details you need to do something right — whether that’s starting a blog, training your dog, preserving flowers, preparing for a baby, or learning to cook.

So become a leader in your niche by going above and beyond in writing the absolute best guides in your industry.

That’s exactly what we do at Sumo – and now it’s by far one of the best places to learn about growing your site from scratch.

Notice the Sumo-Sized guides?

Authority Nutrition creates some of the most in-depth science-based nutrition resources. If you’re serious about dominating your space (and you should be), roll up your sleeves and start writing.

Publish case studies

Instead of just talking about a strategy, show it in action.

Case studies are a unique way to show how a method, strategy or program works in real life. They receive a ton of attention, shares, and views because they’re:

Original. No two case studies are the same.

Interesting. We’re drawn to see the results of other people.

Juicy. A case reveals the exact process that gave people specific results.

Elaborate. A case study is not easy to put together. It takes time and effort to get in touch with people who have applied, tested, tracked, and succeeded at a particular strategy, or do all that yourself.

Another huge benefit to case studies is that they provide some amazing social proof if you can show a case study of a student, reader, or customer of your own blog or product.

Brian from Backlinko constantly publishes case studies to show the results of his own SEO techniques, and (unsurprisingly) they bring in thousands of shares:

How can you showcase the results of people who have bought your ebook, course, or coaching services?

Solve an old problem in a new way

You don’t have to reinvent the wheel, but you can come close.

A little disclaimer: this strategy takes way more effort than the ones above, but it’s worth it.

Create a new solution for your industry. Spend enough time and effort coming up with innovative ideas, trying them, and tweaking them, until one sticks.

It’s not easy, but it will help you grow massively when you do. Nat’s Runway Calculator is the perfect example.

He took a common problem – not knowing how much money you need to quit your day job and travel the world – and came up with an original solution: A runway calculator that tells you exactly how much money you need per month to travel and live in different cities around the world.

If someone wants to know how much money they gotta make from freelancing gigs to travel the world, all they have to do is fill out a few numbers on a spreadsheet, instead of doing hours and hours of research.

You don’t have to be a mad genius to invent something new. All you need is the willingness to put in the work.

Do something challenging and share it with the world

If you want to write epic shit, do epic shit.

A little-known approach to going viral is completing a seemingly impossible challenge in real life and sharing your progress with the world.

In 2015, Assya Barrette went viral after sharing her self-imposed challenge of buying nothing new for 200 days – and challenging everyone to do the same. Her story landed her 130,800 shares on a single article and was picked up by media outlets including with Lifehack, Alternet, Salon, Yahoo!, Dawn and Alternet.

The Minimalists (Joshua and Ryan) were among the first to make minimalism cool.

Their lifestyle experiment of getting rid of all just-in-case items (based on the hypothesis that it won’t take you more than $20 or 20 minutes to replace it if you do end up needing it) went viral, and two years later they challenged their audience to play the 30-Day Minimalism Game, which consists of getting rid of one thing on day one, two things on day two, three things on day three, and so on, to see how far you can go in exercising object detachment.

To this day, it’s their most shared article, with a whopping 155k shares, and with over 43k Instagram posts about their game.

Doing a challenge is the perfect opportunity to go viral and reach thousands of people.

The best part about it? Anyone can do it. It doesn’t matter what niche you’re in, you can most likely pull off a viral challenge.

Make sure you write impactful content every time using this checklist:

#4: Back That Shit Up

It's not that we don't believe you. We do. Mostly.

But there's something sticky about backing your claims up that can't be done through hearsay.

You don't have to read like a textbook to back your article up. You can use:

1. Stories: Studies show (see what I did there?) that stories can be more persuasive than logic. Good storytelling is a powerful tool for keeping your audience hooked to your every word. It helps your reader visualize what you’re trying to tell them, and drives your point home more easily.

Have you noticed how hard it is to pull away from a good book? That’s how you want to make your audience feel.

James Clear opens most of his articles with a story. That’s not by chance.

Opening with a story immediately draws readers in and makes them more likely to stick around for the takeaway.

2. Studies: Because (gasp!) people tend to believe science more than they'll believe bloggers. The more up-to-date and relevant your sources are, the more trustworthy you’ll seem (because you are). Here’s how to cite like a pro:

Link to a reliable source when you make a big claim. It gives your statement more weight and credibility.

Explain the results of a study in simple terms. Translating a convoluted conclusion from a study in terms anyone can understand positions you as an expert.

Relate to your audience. If your target audience is women, highlight those studies done in healthy or overweight women. If your audience is male athletes, talk about findings from studies done in active men. Your audience will be more interested in the research if they can relate.

Be ahead of the pack. Include new findings whenever possible. Talking about new research makes your brand stand out from the rest.

Add images. What’s better than a link to a study? A graph from the study. A pretty chart that shows your reader the data adds extra credibility points.

Look at how Live and Dare does it:

An MRI image makes the findings clear and memorable.

3. Analogies: Analogies are like rocket fuel for your writing. Use them. Comparisons make your point crystal clear, grab your readers’ attention, and leave a mark in their minds. It makes your message memorable. Take a look at the analogies these bloggers used:

Melyssa Griffin

Militza Maury

Leo Babauta

4. Metaphors: Explain the gravity of a situation with metaphors. Metaphors help to simplify complex points, entertain your readers, and improve understanding. When you use a metaphor effectively, your reader should feel they “got it”.

Here’s how Tor used a hockey metaphor for building a business team:

And this is how Ramit used the “Truffle Principle” to give advice to interns:

5. “Expert” Quotes: Because people want to know that you're not the only one who thinks so. Adding “expert” opinions to your articles validates your own points and makes people trust you more.

You don’t need to reach out to an expert for an exclusive quote every time, though. You can simply take quotes from previews interviews and articles that back your point.

Here’s how Popsugar did it:

The best articles use a mixture of these to backup their claims.

I expect my hyper-backuptivity helped this article I wrote for Fast Company land me 600 email subscribers, be shared over 12,000 times and turned me into a case study for one of Jon Morrow's products. #legit

#5. Make Beautiful Word Babies

…with the thoughts in your audience's heads.

This is a…different way of putting it, but you want to pull the thoughts right out of your audience's brains like pulling at a thread on a sweater. Then, weave that thread into your own fabric.

See, studies show we love it when people mimic us. I'm not saying you subconsciously loved your little brother's copycatting, but when waitstaff in a restaurant repeated customer orders in your exact words, they get a bigger tip.

When you use the exact words your audience uses in your writing, you resonate with them; you make them feel as if you're reading their minds. Before I released the Etsy eCourse, I surveyed my Etsy-loving audience for two things:

To make sure I was helping them with what they actually needed help with, and

To find out what language they use to describe their pains.

Here are some of the answers I got:

And here's a screenshot of the email I sent out after analyzing these results:

See the part that is highlighted in yellow? “Allergic to social media”? I took that right out of my audience's mouth (the survey respondent even noticed and loved that I used it).

See the first question in the survey? I used the words “stand out” in my first bullet because that's the language my audience used.

One of piece of feedback I hear from Unsettlers is: “I feel like you read my mind”. That's because I did. You email me, I use your words in articles (anonymously) to write things you actually want to read.

If you’re starting from scratch and don’t have an email list to survey yet, here’s how you can steal your potential readers’ words from day one:

In Reddit and Quora, ask people to tell you their obstacles: Ask about the challenges and roadblocks they face in the area you want to solve.

For example, if you’re a health coach, ask people what’s the biggest obstacle that prevents them from eating healthy. Don’t be afraid of not getting responses, you most likely will:

Analyse the responses: Time to gather your data.

Add all the responses to a doc.

Find common themes and categorize the answers. Continuing with the health coach example, recurring problems can be “I don’t have enough time”, “I like junk food too much”, “I am too tired to cook when I come home from work”.

Identify commons words and add them to a list you can refer to later when writing articles, emails, or sales pages.

Use the same words and phrases in your articles, emails, and copy: If you noticed 10 people said “I don’t how to eat organic on a tight budget”, you must use this exact phrase and…

Create several articles addressing this topic. For example, “10 organic fruits you can buy for less than $3” or “How to find affordable organic produce”.

Add it as a pain point in your sales pages.

Relate to them on this issue when writing newsletters.

Instead of trying to read people’s minds, just ask them about their problems.

#6. Stop Being a Fatty

Nobody likes to look at ugly things.

This sounds really mean in the context of the subhead, but what I really mean is: Fat paragraphs are not okay. They're hard on the eyes, not scannable, and nobody actually reads them.

Research shows that people pay more attention to articles with short paragraphs, and completely skip articles with long paragraphs.

Break your paragraphs up into snackable chunks: a maximum of 2-3 sentences (or 4-5 if you use really short sentences).

Fat paragraphs:

Eyes bleeding, get me away from this article!

Fit paragraphs:

Ohhhh I want to read every word.

Whip those paragraphs into shape and trim the fat. Use these 3 tricks:

Remember the 1-2-3-4-5 rule. Created by Jon Ziomek, a professor at the Medill School of Journalism, the rule is to cover 1 main thought, expressed in 2 to 3 short sentences, taking up no more than 4 to 5 lines on the page.

Remember that anyone reading your articles on their phone get larger paragraphs due to the size of the screen, so keep it short.

Add bullet points. The bullets I’m using right now help me break down the ideas in a way that it’s easy to scan and digest.

Edit ruthlessly. Remove redundant phrases and condense your thoughts so you only need one sentence instead of three to explain your idea.

#7. You're not a Kardashian & Your Blog Is Not a Diary

Back in 2008, most bloggers just wrote about their lives. Since there were approximately 78,847% fewer blogs out there, this was fine. Some even did really well, a la Dooce.

Here's the thing though:

People don't care that much about your life.

If I had a dollar for every time somebody said “I should become a blogger. My life is like a reality show!” when they found out what I do, I'd have enough to ship at least one of those people off to a remote island for the real thing.

Your life is not as interesting to others as it is to you. Trust me. I know, because I think my life is pretty damn interesting, but to you? Hearing what I do on a day to day is like watching the yule log channel. It might give you the warm and fuzzies for five seconds until somebody posts about their baby's potty training progress on Facebook.

In a stuffed-to-the-brim internet, readers want to know about your life to the extent that they can apply it to their own. Weave small stories and facts about you into your blog post, but the whole “dear diary” thing should be reserved for your journal and the blogs of 2008.

This is how you can tell if a personal story will help your case:

It has a clear takeaway. Is your story helping other people overcome an obstacle or learn something new?

It’s relatable. Can people identify with your struggles? Relating to your readers creates trust and rapport.

It’s short and concise. A story shouldn’t be the sole focus of an article. It’s simply a vehicle to drive the point home. If your article is 800 words and your story used up 700 words, cut back.

Tiny Buddha’s articles are the perfect example of using personal stories to teach and inspire:

Each article begins with a relatable short story, and ends with a clear takeaway:

The story isn’t the article. It just supports the lesson.

#8. Don't Waste Your Reader's Time

Ever heard that we have eight second attention spans?

It's bleak, but true. Though this doesn't mean that you'll be forever doomed to writing articles that only take 8 seconds to read, it does mean that useless words are bad news. Stop using “that”, “in order to” and “there are” (in most cases).

Don't say: “Stop using these words in order to write better.” Say “Stop using these words to write better.”

Don't say: “I want to do work that I love.” Say: “I want to do work I love.”

Don't say: “There are many bloggers who use useless words.”Say: “Many bloggers use useless words.”

Eliminating these fillers also make your paragraphs shorter. Double win.

You catch my drift, so I won't waste your time concluding this point.

Want to have all these writing tips at your fingertips?

Grab the checklist: Click here and enter your name and email address to have the checklist emailed to you (like magic!).

#9. Become a Copycat

You don't need a formal education to write well.

The best writing education I've ever received has been 100% free and a go-at-your-own pace:

Becoming a copycat.

When I got serious about improving my writing, I zoned in on a couple of writers I admire. Then, I read everything they'd ever written (at least, that I could get my hands on).

I read blog posts, books, reports, eBooks, guest posts…

I stalked them on Twitter and analyzed their Facebook posts and immersed myself in their writing. Then, I'd copy them. Not completely, andI wasn’t plagiarizing them. But in an apprenticeship way.

I’d note how they transitioned to a new paragraph.

I'd pick apart their introductions and conclusions.

I'd study why they did what they did.

I'd analyze their headlines.

Their blogs became my writing college. I'd test out their methods in my own words.

They probably don't know who I am (certainly back then they had no clue I existed), but I admired their style, so I borrowed their structure. I suggest you do the same. Don't plagiarize anybody, but shop at the same stores as them.

Try their styles out for size. See what fits.

That’s exactly how Ben Franklin learned to write as well — copying the best.

He took notes of each sentence in a paragraph and tried to reconstruct it as closely to the original as possible.

Then he compared the original paragraph with this copy and studied the mistakes he made to improve and get closer to a perfect recreation next time.

Here’s how you can do what I (and apparently, Ben Franklin) did:

Read everything you can from your favorite writers. Get close and personal with their style as quickly as possible. Everything counts: articles, guest posts, Facebook posts, handwritten notes.

Pick apart each element of their articles. How do they open? What elements do they use? How do they transition? What’s their vocabulary? How do they close? Do they ask questions?

Incorporate those elements in your own writing. If they open with a story, open with a story too. If they love metaphors, by all means, use metaphors. If they give a lot of examples, find examples to share too.

Decide what feels right and what doesn’t. After extensively trying out new writing strategies, figure out what fits you the best. If you like humor but don’t love cursing, that’s completely fine.

After you get a hang of how the best do it, you can create a brand new writing formula for yourself.

You Don't Have to Be Perfect

To write shit people want to read, you don't have to be Jane Austen, and you don't have to be flawless.

You can make spelling mistakes, commit grammatical errors, and start sentences with prepositions. The point is not to write like you have a full team of editors proofreading your work. It's to write interesting things, like a human, and for humans.

If you can nail that down, you're golden.

Ready to start writing epic shit? Grab the free checklist:

Want to Leave a Comment?Join the conversation in the Free Facebook Group

Hey, don't kill your momentum.

http://www.successwize.com/how-to-write-shit-people-actually-want-to-read-free-checklist/

[listiqueblog]

Need Ecommerce Business Ideas? 27 Experts Give You Their Best Bet

Thinking about launching an ecommerce business, but don’t know where to start? Well, an ecommerce business idea would be helpful.

Of course, that’s just for starters.

While you can peruse books and guides on how exactly to start a successful, long-term online store –– every entrepreneur every where has to start at the exact same place.

And that place requires you to answer this 1 question:

What are you going to sell?

From there, you’ll then launch into competitive reviews and building your site –– just 2 more steps on the way to building a long-term, successful venture.

But it all starts with what your product is. And, some even argue, the ultimate success of your business is also all about your product.

Marketing, social media reviews, customer lifetime loyalty –– all of those are easier when your product speaks for itself.

So, while some of us are lucky enough to have ecommerce business ideas find us, others of us –– well, we have to search.

And if you’re going to search anyway, you might as well pick the brains of some of the industry’s most trusted and successful entrepreneurs, marketers and researchers.

Here’s an overview of what we’ll be covering.

Ecommerce Business Ideas & Opportunities Examples

Build up a niche fashion community.

Create a digital health ecommerce site.

Industrial-focused online stores.

Create a micro-niche site.

Target tech savvy retirees.

Appeal to specific ideologies.

Create an educational site.

Start a store with a high amount of customizability.

Focus on appealing to people’s passions.

Find confusing products.

Remove the middlemen.

Have deep knowledge on a store.

Focus on solving a problem.

Sell something cool.

Dive on in and learn more about unique ecommerce business ideas and opportunities.

Niche Fashion Communities Build Fast, Sell Well

Niche fashion sites are a huge ecommerce opportunity. Niche fashion communities serve those audiences with hard-to-find or hard-to-fit needs. Those communities can also serve up and coming mindsets and trends –– like minimalism or the Great Return of Bell Bottoms (emphasis my own).

Here are a couple of site examples for you before we dive in what the experts have to say:

ONYCHEK

ONYCHEK is a great example of a niche fashion brand serving hard-to-find communities. In this case, that community is Luxury Fashion from Africa.

Tucker Blair

Tucker Blair serves both customizability as well as a niche audience –– that of New England nostalgia.

Bygone Brand

With both brick-and-mortar and digital locations, the Bygone Brand has leveraged nostalgia and advertising lore for a niche fashion site geared toward those looking for prints no longer available.

Below are more ideas.

Daniel Wallock, Marketing Strategist, Wallock Media

While the fashion and garment industry is incredibly crowded, I’ve been having trouble finding minimalist clothing without branding and with quality fabric.

I shop at James Perse and Everlane, but I’d love to see a store that just focused on selling incredible quality mono-tone colored clothes that you could order in pairs of 5 or 10.

This would appeal to a very niche audience, but I think creating an incredible quality brand that only specialize in simple outfits could possibly do well with people millennials looking to dress more minimally and worry less about their making choices regarding their clothing.

Brett Owens, Marketing Director & Co-Founder, LeadDyno

Clothing, clothing, clothing. There is an endless demand for clothing products of all types!

Nearly 40% of the affiliates and influencers in our ecommerce affiliate network have this checked off as a category of interest for them.

Find a niche apparel product and sell it. There are plenty of influencers out there who would love to help you promote it, and plenty of folks who are waiting to buy it.

Digital Health Services are on the Rise

Digital health services here means a couple things:

The ecommerce capabilities for patients and others affected to buy items previously only sold in office

Products that help people prevent health issues, including more education around health in general

So, before we dive into the advice, let’s look at two that do these 2 things.

National Autism Resources

National Autism Resources creates a community-like online space for parents and practitioners, as well as offers helpful items and education to help people find what they need, and then get it delivered to them.

Jigsaw Health

Jigsaw Health is highly committed to education around magnesium for their customers and potential new customers. They write frequently on their blog, use videos to help spread the word on YouTube and Facebook and ultimately have turned the product they sell into an educated community.

Ryan Pfleger, Founder, PayWhirl

Digital services like online personal trainer sessions and digital classes are on the rise and are worth noting!

Sweta Patel, Director of Demand Generation, Cognoa

I would say the most underserved niche is the digital health market.

Digital health has been emerging for a long time and most products are not being sold online due to the regulations.

There are a lot of opportunities for health care companies to evolve in the online space and increase their revenues. An idea I would recommend an entrepreneur is around building a product that helps create digital health products become more readily available for those in need.

It may be a smaller niche than Amazon that just focuses on health care products but it would make it easier for providers and patients to get things at their convenience.

Go Industrial for High Margins with Little Competition

Launching in B2B or the industrial ecommerce industries is hard. It has a high barrier to entry –– but then again, the margins you make from it are also much higher. And, you typically spend less on marketing to boot!

Best yet –– few other B2B brands have figured out how to sell something online well and at scale. That means that if you have any ecommerce chops at all, this market is ripe for you.

Here are a few examples.

AP Electric Generators

Most people don’t dream of owning a business selling generators. That is, unless it’s highly profitable. With few others on the market to compete, thanks to a high barrier to entry as well as costly shipping and storage, AP Eletric nearly owns the market.

1-800-Stencil

What I love the most about 1-800-Stencil is that this B2B brand is *very* good at Facebook marketing. I see their ads often, and the comments on them are the only social proof any B2B buyer would need to pull the conversion trigger.

By focusing on a niche, B2B market and trying out various B2C growth tactics, 1-800-Stencil leads the industry in their vertical.

Eric Carlson, Co-Founder, 10X Factory

I think there is HUGE opportunity in construction supply related ecommerce.

There are several brands in construction that drop ship, and have website that simply take people to a request form.

In my opinion, the construction supply niche has big dollars, decent margins, and very few sophisticated players.

Ross Simmonds, Founder, Foundation Marketing

The most underserved niche for ecommerce is in B2B.

As B2B buyers become younger and younger, more opportunities are opening up for B2B brands to sell their products online and turn ecommerce into a viable online business for their brand.

In many cases, B2B brands think of themselves as regional businesses, but with technology today, there’s opportunities to reach new marketers with a simple website, shipping processes and understanding of how their customers are using Google to find solutions like theirs.

From telephone providers and bottling equipment to sensors and interior design services, B2B is one of the most underrated yet high potential opportunities for ecommerce entrepreneurs.

Daniel Wallock, Marketing Strategist, Wallock Media

An industry that is underserved by ecommerce is the industrial equipment and industrial pharmaceutical equipment industry.

A lot of companies that sell expensive equipment stay away from online stores, but I’ve worked with clients who were selling tons of equipment very expensive online without doing almost any marketing.

Think Micro-Niche: Gluten Free or Nurses Who CrossFit

Trying to come up with unique ecommerce business ideas for your store? The more niche you can get –– the better. Why? Because with Facebook’s targeting power, you can spend less to perfectly serve a unique audience no one else is touching.

Here are a couple good examples.

WholeMe

WholeMe sells healthy, gluten-free snacks –– which as our expert below and yours truly can attest to –– do not exist enough in the wild! They are serving a very badly needed market, and one ripe to buy!

Diamond Exchange

Part of serving a niche audience is often allowing for insane customization. This way, you only produce 1 item –– and you know for sure it will sell.

Diamond Exchange is the master of this strategy. Their site allows for above and beyond engagement ring customization from the comfort of your home. They get a sell. You get something no one else has.

Now that is niche.

Kaleigh Moore, Freelance writer

Gluten free products! As someone who’s always searching for them, I can vouch for the fact that the current online business market is lacking.

Ryan Bemiller, Founder, Shopping Signals

I think people can see big success by combining two or three niches into a highly specialized micro-niche. For example, male nurses who are into crossfit. Just an example!

Donald Pettit, Sales & Partners Manager, SalesWarp

I think the next wave of businesses who will emerge on the ecommerce scene are the service-oriented businesses that can personalize products at a high level.

Think about the companies that make a Lego replica of your home & family or the custom-printed M&M’s.

Customers are increasingly demanding high levels of customization and personalization: they want a unique experience and a unique product.

For any emerging brand, I would almost demand they have a micro-niche strategy to reach the small clusters of devoted customers with ultra-personalized products and services.

Planners Have a Massive Following

This advice comes from Suzy Moore, the founder and former owner of So Suzy Stamps –– an online stamping community she grew to valuation within 3 short years. If she says something has community power, you better believe it does.

Here’s an example of a site to help you visualize what Suzy says.

Beatific

Beatific’s site is fun, inspirational and they’ve grown their social media audience to more than 100,000 is just a little over a year.

Suzanne Moore, Narrator, All About Suzy

Planner supplies. They have an almost cult-like following that is INSANE!

Instagram followers are in the 100K range. There are planners, bullet journals, accessories, stickers, traveler’s notebooks, pens, stickers, washi tape, bookmarks and so much more.

Most of the suppliers reside on Etsy and it’s rare to find one single location that offers EVERYTHING.

This is such a creative endeavor that it would be fabulous to have a company or site that could utilize these budding entrepreneurs and carry their items. Think outside of the box and get creative!

Today’s Retirees are Tech Savvy (And Shop Online)

More people than ever reaching retiree age, and continuing to live long, healthy and happy lives past their retirement date. And with that trend comes a boom in older generation technology and products.

Here are a few.

Soundwall

Soundwall has seen incredible success in nursing homes and the homes of older people. Why? Because it looks like art (AKA it’s really nice) and it plays music as well as lights up when something in the room moves.

So, for instance, you may want to get up to go to the restroom in the middle of the night –– and want to make sure you don’t jam your leg on anything.

Soundwall will help you.

To be fair, this product isn’t only for retirees. It seems to work well for just about anyone.

Soundwall Increases Sales 483%

Find out exactly how this B2B technology brand found their niche and scaled the startup.

Expression Fiber Arts

Again, Expression Fiber Arts doesn’t sell only to retirees, but they don’t overlook them either. Their product suits users of all ages well, and the brand has a particular hand-me-down feel that goes from one generation to the other as the skill is passed down and picked back up.

Emil Kristensen, co-founder & CMO, Sleeknote

In my opinion there’s a massive underserved niche in the older generation. Many of the people who retire now have grown accustom to using computers at work.

This means we have an older generation who knows how to use computers and feel comfortable shopping online.

5-6 years ago this consumer group would not be targeted online, but rather through traditional marketing channels such as TV and radio.

Now and in the next 5-10 years this group will grow and increasingly shop online. For instance yarn, which often appeal to the older consumer segment, can now target potential customers online as well.

Appeal to People’s Ideologies

No, this doesn’t mean go crazy and appeal to people’s crazier sides. Instead, it means use the communities people are already forming around you to sell them things that help them identify.

Let’s look at an example.

Nine Line Apparel

Nine Line does this incredibly well. Founded by two veterans, this brand brings patriots together in clothing and household items –– speaking to them as part of the community and ideology.

Jordan Brannon, President and COO, Coalition Technologies

Offensive or contentious products. I’m shocked by how rigid people are becoming in their view of other political groups as we take our social media soap boxes to the real world.

There’s huge opportunity to develop products espousing a particular soap box stance in a very aggressive (and hopefully humorous) manner. Lots of ecommerce sites cater to offensive humor, but very few play to particular ideologies or soapbox topics exclusively.

The Education Industry is Getting Big Investor Bucks

It’s true –– online education is booming as brands old and new alike turn to ecommerce as the next channel of growth.

Check out a few below.

Bridgepoint Education

Bridgepoint Education runs Forbes’ online bootcamp –– and uses a site to gather interest through SEO as well as sell to the courses.

Rand McNally

Rand McNally has come a long way from just supplying the atlas in your classroom. Today, the brand pushes out new technology and GPS connection software –– all utilizing its atlases and mapping systems of course.

Nelson Education

Nelson Education has taken to ecommerce in 2017 to sell both B2C and B2B, allowing parents and educators to get exactly what they need from the brand when they need it.

David Feng, Co-Founder and Head of Product, Reamaze

The education niche seems fairly underserved by ecommerce. One great example is the company Wonderbly which recently secured a $8.5 million round from investors.

Ecommerce entrepreneurs with a background in education, publishing, and personalized content creation will have a significant advantage here.

Do What Amazon Can’t

We’ve talked about this a bit so far in this article, but needing customizations or specifications on products isn’t a bad thing. In fact, it is those things that a mass site like Amazon can’t do well. And where smaller, more knowledgeable brands like yours can really blossom.

Let’s look at a couple of examples.

Discount Electronics

Discount Electronics offers detailed laptop and computer customization unparalleled nearly anywhere on the web. It’s what keeps their customers coming back –– and forgoing Amazon in favor of their low prices for a custom-built item.

Dazadi

Dazadi, the founder of which is quoted below, ships ping pong tables and other large household items not just to someone’s house, but coordinates to have the truck drivers take it out and build it in the customer’s home.

Why do they win in this vertical? Because they take those extra steps few others are willing to do. (Hint: ShipperHQ is how they make it happen).

Sam’s Furniture

Same as Dazadi above, Sam’s Furniture ships furniture from their Dallas warehouse around the U.S., coordinating with LTL freight to get large items where they need to go.

The furniture vertical isn’t an easy one for ecommerce –– but Sam Furniture has been able to spread out their hometown love and loyalty to the nation as a whole, all by figuring out the shipping issues.

Vladimir Gendelman, Founder and CEO, Company Folders, Inc.

An underserved market is custom-built items, mostly because there is an expense involved in adding a product to the site and then taking it down.

With custom-built items, you can have a higher margin to allow for more work.

It could be a car, furniture, jewelry or something that gives people one-of-a-kind goods.

My advice is to start an ecommerce business with unique items and figure out a way to work with designers or other providers to create an online business outlet that is really known for high-quality one-of-a-kind pieces.

Plus, you have to have an easy process for people to submit their ideas for their items and get them made.

John McCann, CEO, Spectrum Audio, & Co-Founder, Quote Ninja, Inc.

The keyword here is niche. Pick a narrow lane, and own it. I’ve struggled with this myself, trying to sell more products than we can possibly keep track of.

Our goal this year has been to cut all of that excess fat, and narrow our lane substantially.

Sell items that require a little bit of expert knowledge, and be that expert.

If someone needs to call and ask a few questions before ordering, I don’t see that as a bad thing anymore. It gives you edge over Amazon, and the other big guys.

If it’s an item that anyone can order without calling, or needing some assistance with, rest assured you’re likely to lose the battle against Amazon and friends in the long run.

Jason Boyce, Co-founder & CEO, Dazadi

Anything heavy online that ships via LTL freight, is relatively underserved.

Shipping large freight in the US is very difficult.

We’ve spent a decade and a half mastering freight shipments and we still have much to learn, but we see our skills in this area as a competitive advantage.

Amazon and others are also trying to figure this out but it’s still very much a work in progress.

Find Confusing Products –– and Include Instructions

Whether it’s FAQs or additional spec information drawn out in an easy to digest way, do whatever you can to make sure your product is the most consumer friendly on the market.

Annesley Surfboard

Annesley does a lot on their product pages right, but one of the best parts is allowing you to spin the board around and showing you exact length and measurements based on your own surfing level.

James Thomson, President, PROSPER Show

It’s not what the specific product is, but how poorly competitive products are doing at bringing out the value of the product.

I would look for products where there is question about how to install or use the product.

The seller that comes along with a much richer experience that includes how-to videos, proper documentation, and carefully thought-through effort to address the top 10 problems/issues a customer is likely to have when buying or using the item.

That seller is going to do better than everyone else.

We see hundreds of brands that exist only on Amazon, where those brand owners know how to do a better job merchandising and clarifying the benefits of their products to Amazon customers. National brands need to start thinking more like those Amazon-only sellers.

Passion is the Most Important Part!

All in all, no matter the product you sell, the very first thing you have to be is passionate about it.

Why?

Because the days will get hard. They always do. And the only thing that’s going to keep you going is your passion for the product, the people and the community you are building.

Here are a few brands that take passion to the next level.

Highway-Robery

Founded by husband and wife duo Evan and Jackie, this robe company takes pride in its ethical roots as well as it’s very, very photogenic friends.

Andie Swim

It all started with a work trip to a local beach. That’s when Melanie realized she didn’t have a suit she’d feel comfortable wearing around co-workers.

So, she set out to find one, and per usual, the experience was terrible.

Awful lighting in dressing rooms. Gross tags in the crouch. Really awful suit fits that nearly changed her mind about going to begin with.

That’s when she had some conversations with friends –– and everyone she spoke with had the. Exact. Same. experience.

And that’s when she launched Andie Swim.

Christopher Cowden, Director of Operations, Grace and Lace

I agree with Seth Godin on this one. There is no end of people who will sell you a lackluster gadget or a ho-hum service.

What we need more of in this world is people who offer their unique “art” to the world.

To would-be entrepreneurs: whatever makes you come alive, whatever makes time disappear, if there is some activity you engage in that you wouldn’t trade for anything else in this world that brings value to others, do that.

Creating a business model around your passion is not the difficult part.

Jason Ehmke, Senior Client Data Analyst, AddShoppers.com

I wouldn’t recommend any one niche to anybody. I would recommend any entrepreneur to go with what they’re passionate about.

If you’re passionate about a specific niche, you’ll put in the extra effort needed to put yourself ahead of your competition. If you start an online store in a niche that is underserved, but you’re not passionate about, you’ll end up burning out before it becomes worth your while.

Greg Johnston, Managing Director, Be A Part Of

Do what you are passionate about. The niche is not really what I would focus on. Just focus on doing what you love better than someone else.

Being an entrepreneur is a lifestyle, you have to love it. If you want a hobby or quick cash, find untapped niches and sell fast and get out!

Remove the Middlemen to Win Big

Retail isn’t dying –– but a lot of distributors are. Why? Because they can’t offer the lowest price or the highest quality. Who can? The manufacturers. The owners. The real people behind the real business.

Sure, these folk shave had to learn a few marketing chops to take their product to the masses, but now without the middle men, they are seeing skyrocketing profits.

Here’s an example.

Oyin Handmade

Oyin Handmade used to only sell through distributor sites or drugstores. Today, the brand is still sold there, but there’s no reason not to have a homepage both B2B and B2C consumers can love (and shop!).

Sun Bum

A sunscreen that is a brand all it’s own? Yea, the world has changed! Sun Bun promotes healthy living and SPF protection, and sells both B2B and B2C so their loyal consumers can get the lowest possible price.

Max DB, Founder, HeyMaxDB – Content Strategy

Any company giving a limited offer at a reduced price in an industry dominated by middle men. Companies like Dollar Shave Club, Bombtech Golf, Everlane, those get me really excited.

If you can corner the same kind of situation, definitely go for it. And call me.

Deep Knowledge Has the Most Power

Want people to buy from you? Prove to them you know the most about it.

Trust breeds trust –– and conversions.

What topic do you know the most about? That’s the one you should get in to!

Here’s an example.

FlexFireLEDs

The FlexFire website has more information thank Wikipedia when it comes to strip LED lights. This is because the founder has invested time into building out the most helpful site he possibly could on the topic –– and today, it wins him the business of Google, Disney, Ford and more.

James Brown, Client Engagement Manager, RANDEM

Do/Sell what you know better than anyone else. Either your special knowledge from your previous working life, or your specialist hobby.

If you’re able to effectively communicate your deep knowledge and passion for a specific product/market; you will find others who are willing to engage with you, and hopefully buy.

Solve Your Own Problem

Necessity is the mother of invention. And that’s a good thing. Just like Andie Swim above, and the example below, think through your pain points and figure out how to solve them. Likely, others have had the same issue too (and are looking for your solution!).

reCAP Mason Jars

“Our story began with salad dressing,” writes the founder of reCAP Mason Jar lids. “After creating yet another oily mess with the lid and ring, I searched for a pour cap that would fit my Mason Jars and allow me to shake, pour, and store dressing.”

Today, the brand has tutorials on fermentation and take to work salads, among many other things!

Daniel Wallock, Marketing Strategist, Wallock Media

If I were a new entrepreneur, I wouldn’t think about what product I want to offer or sell. Instead, I would think about what is a problem I can solve and or what is a product I can make better.

At the end of the day, people want to buy a product that will make their life better.

I would think about creating something that adds real value to people in need or has better unfair advantages than other related products that already exist.

Bill Widmer, eCommerce SEO & Content Marketing Consultant

I’m good at growing eCommerce businesses, but I’m not so great at coming up with products to start them.

My advice to an entrepreneur? Solve your own problem. If you do that, you’ll have a better understanding of your target audience (people like you), which will make EVERYTHING much easier.

Use KickStarter for Research

Kickstarter is a wealth of information on what consumers want, right now. In fact, even established brands use it to launch new products.

Native Union

That’s exactly what Native Union did –– launched a Kickstarter project to get funding for a new gadget for their line. Check it out.

Bill Bailey CEO, Nodal Ninja

I suggest staying abreast of the newest gadgets and technology.

Follow Kickstarter and project funding sites and look for projects that “spark” your attention.

Talk to the developers and ask for first shot at reselling their products once they are ready to go to market.

Cool Matters –– Here’s Why

And in the end –– no matter what you sell –– selling it better than your competition is going to depend on how you build a community and relate to your audience.

You need them to think you are cool. That you know what you are talking about. That your products should be trusted over all others.

Here’s how a couple brands do that.

RAD Soap

Fun visuals and an organic online atmosphere blend aesthetics with sustainability, and the RAD audience loves it.

Obscura

Taking their brick-and-mortar brand online, Obscura recreates their in-store cool home vibe in a series of never-ending online windows with beautiful photography. It’s an online store presented as an online magazine.

David Tendrich, CEO & Co-Founder, Reliable PSD

I think the key nowadays is to stop focusing so much on demographics and niches and instead focus on psychographics within a niche.

For example, someone buying a high-end leather bag might fall into a couple categories:

I buy high-end leather bags to feel elite.

I buy high-end leather bags because I want quality that will last.

The more you hone in on just 1 or 2 of these, the more you’ll connect with that group of people, and you’ll become the “go to” for that psychographic.

With our coding agency, Reliable PSD, that’s essentially what we did. We came in to an insanely over-saturated market, but we were the only ones to speak to a specific psychographic within that market, making us the instant obvious choice to people within it.

It doesn’t matter how crowded anything is. If you come in and you’re cooler than the other kids on the playground, people will want to hang with you.

Final Thoughts

What you sell matters. How you land on what you sell does too. Whether you come by it through passion or by luck, be sure you focus on product quality and customer service above all else.

To get started on the next stage, dive on in to our How to Realistically Start a Profitable Online Business book.

Want more insights like this?

We’re on a mission to provide businesses like yours marketing and sales tips, tricks and industry leading knowledge to build the next house-hold name brand. Don’t miss a post. Sign up for our weekly newsletter.

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How to Write Shit People Actually Want to Read (+ Free Checklist)

Let me guess.

If you’re just starting out online, you wonder…

“How do I get clients?”

“How can I start monetizing my blog?”

“How do I get more traffic?”

The answer to every single one of these questions might surprise you. Ready?

The answer is this:

Write shit people want to read.

Every single day somewhere around two million blog posts are written. The sad truth, though?

The vast majority of those articles won't be read. The vast majority of them are – let's be real – crap.

A small portion are read by 100 people. A smaller portion are read by 1,000 people. And a few get noticed by “influencers”, syndicated on massive publications and are shared thousands of times.

Those few are the ones that bring in clients, sales, readers, and traffic.

So how do you make sure that your writing doesn't just end up in the pile of “content” that slowly drifts out to sea? How do you write the 1% of articles that will get you traffic and conversions?

Well, you write shit people actually want to read.

When somebody actually wants to read your writing, they usually want to share it. They usually get value from it, talk about it, and spread it around.

Creating shit that people actually want to read (or listen to or watch or gaze at) is one of the main ingredients in the “content” marketing cake, and without it you have no engagement, no fans, no clients and no sales.

My writing is a decade in the making and is still a huge work in progress, but I'm learning and I know some of these tips will turn your writing around.

If you're too lazy to read this post, you can get the checklist I use before I publish all of my articles.

Write like a pro: Click here to get my 44-point checklist for publishing amazing articles.

#1: Know Thy Audience

You could write Atlas Shrugged but if your audience doesn’t want to read it, it’s not good.

Yup, beauty is in the eye of the beholder in this case.

That’s why you need to know your audience.

Good content starts here. Good content to your target audience could be horrible content to me. Even if I hate your writing, if your audience loves it, then it’s good.

But be warned…

Do not take that as permission to rest on your laurels and stop improving. Instead, take that as a nudge to get to know your audience intimately.

Note two things:

What they want to read

How they want to read it.

What they Want to Read

One big difference between most good content vs great content is detail. Anyone can write an 800 word article on needing a budget. But not everyone will write a comprehensive, 3,000 word article on everything you need to know about budgeting that gets likes, shares, and traffic.

To be the one who is willing to do this and therefore brings in tons of traffic and shares, you need to be thorough.

Enter Answer the Public.

Answer the Public is a tool that allows you to plug in a keyword (in this case, a topic you want to write about) and spits out the auto-complete search terms behind that keyword.

Use these questions/search terms as prompts to include in your article. This is what people want to read.

Bonus: this is also a great way to rank for those long-tail search terms.

How They Want to Read It

The style of article you’re creating matters, too.

For example, I know that my audience loves in-depth, step-by-step beginner’s guides. Publishing an inspirational story isn’t nearly as effective for me.

That’s how they want to read it.

Find out what your audience wants to read by mimicking other popular posts (use BuzzSumo for this).

Look up your most popular competitor in your niche:

And start taking note of the *types* of articles your competitors are writing. These articles are the most popular on their sites for a reason – its’ because people like them!

One thing I’ve learned while I’m writing for my new blog is that marketing content styles do not work in the parenting niche.

If I hadn't done the research, I would have been cranking out articles that nobody (at least none of my target readers) wanted.

#2: You Have a Personality (So Use it)

Look, I know it's hard.

Shifting from writing business reports to the more casual, personal tone of blog posts can be like experiencing culture shock. It's difficult to adjust.

But do what you must to beat the boring out of your writing, because nothing will make a reader run for the hills more quickly than a lack of personality.

I should not read your articles and feel like I’m reading a text book.

People come for the information you're providing, but they stay for you. Inject personality wherever you can.

Here’s how you can find your unique voice:

Write like you talk

If you wouldn’t talk that way, you shouldn’t write that way. Writing how you talk is the best way to make sure you shine through.

If you're having a hard time going from stiff business report writing to blog writing, this tip is for you:

Read your writing out loud.

The way things sound in your head when you first write them sound a heck of a lot different when you say them out loud, so don’t limit yourself to proofreading in silence.

If you read your post aloud it will help you find your “voice” and a good flow for your article. It will also identify those sticky sentences that aren't quite right so you can rephrase them.

Modify anything that sounds out of place. If it sounds unnatural to you, your readers will feel the same way – and that means fewer shares, comments, and pageviews.

Chances are you don't say “however” and “thus” and “estimated time of arrival” (am I the only one who hates that last one?) while you're speaking. But you do say “but” and “so” and “when will you be here?”.

When you write like you talk, you’ll notice a few changes:

You use more contractions.

You’re self-aware. “Today I’m teaching you how to….”.

You write in singular and plural first person. “I” and “we” are thrown around a lot.

You ask rhetorical questions, right?

Slang slips out more often.

You use hashtags #truth

Here’s how Brian from Backlinko keeps a laid-back tone when writing serious SEO guides:

Talk about yourself

It’s ok to let your readers know there’s a living, breathing human being behind your website.

Your articles don’t write themselves, after all.

People read your blog because they also care about your opinion, your experience, and your perspective.

Don’t just write about yourself (no one wants to read that), but if it makes sense, add a personal touch here and there to resonate with your readers.

Look at how Bryan from Videofruit does it:

He uses a personal story that makes him relatable to his audience and highlights the point of his article (good design).

Don’t be afraid to use colorful language

If you curse and use slang, you might be scared that you’ll offend people by including that part of your personality in your writing. This may help:

The people who are offended by you using curse words or becomes annoyed if you use slang language are not “your people”. They’re not your target audience.

If they’re not your target audience, it’s okay to repel them.

Stay true to your writing style and you’ll find your people – the people who love your message and the way you deliver it.

If you’re still on the fence about cursing in your writing if you curse in conversation, recent studies suggest that swearing in public could actually make you more likable.

Jorden from Writing Revolt sprinkles slang and swear words in her articles, and her audience loves it:

You don’t have to curse in your writing to resonate with your audience if you don’t use curse words in conversation — the point here is to let your personality shine through by writing like you talk.

Make your audience laugh

Keep your readers glued to your words with a little humor.

Being funny and relatable will:

Make your readers more interested in what you have to say

Hold their attention for longer and make them more likely to finish your article

Help your audience remember the information better afterward

There’s a reason memes dominate the internet. We want to be entertained and amused.

If you can do that, your articles will be unforgettable.

Ramit Sethi, best-selling author and millionaire entrepreneur, is funny, irreverent, and loud, and it seems to be working pretty well for him.

Just take a look at his hilarious response to a millionaire who said people should stop buying avocado toast to afford a house (seriously):

Break some (grammar) rules

But not all of them.

Breaking just enough grammatical rules to sound conversational, but not so many that you sound like a 10-year old texting, is a delicate balance (although easier to achieve than you think).

Imagine texting your best friend.

You use all caps to show excitement or anger, periods between words for emphasis, exclamation points, or make words longer than they need to be.

As long as you stick to basic grammar rules, spicing up your paragraphs can make your personality shine through.

Lindsay from Pinch of Yum (one of the most successful food blogs on the planet) always writes epic descriptions of her recipes with relaxed grammar rules:

Ask questions

Questions pull your reader into the conversation.

It makes them think about an answer, nod in agreement (or disagreement), or leave you a comment.

You want your audience to feel you’re talking directly to them – and what better way than by asking them what they think?

Bryan from Videofruit knows what’s up. He often asks rhetorical questions at the beginning of his articles to engage his readers right away:

Example #1: Asking your readers to make a choice

Example #2: Asking a yes or no question

Example #3: Opening with a question

If you feel your writing is bland and boring, try injecting more personality into your articles with these techniques.

#3: Stop the Regurgitation Cycle

Think back to the last time you read an article, and boomeranged to the blog later.

Maybe you saw a headline on Twitter and couldn't help but click it, or had a date with the Google and stumbled across a post that impressed you. Why did you stick around?

Chances are, you stuck around the blog because it offered something unique. Instead of giving you five ways to save money this fall and telling you to cut out lattes, walk everywhere, and cut up your credit cards, the blog broke the same boring advice chain and offered you scripts to negotiate your bills.

You stuck around because the blog wasn't regurgitating the same crap that everybody else in the blogosphere is. In a crowded market, if you're trying to hawk the same wares as the next dude, you won't get very far.

There’s enough recycled advice out there. Don’t add to the noise.

Instead, focus on creating in-depth, impactful, and original articles that you can’t find anywhere else.

Here’s how:

Study your competition

Before you start cranking out epic articles, you gotta do your homework.

Read and re-read the most popular articles about your topic to find the angles and strategies that are covered already. Identify what advice is peddled non-stop and stay away from it.

Use Buzzsumo to find the top 10-20 most shared articles about your topic.

Figure out how you can do better

Now that you know exactly what’s out there, note two things:

What’s missing from the existing content. Maybe it needs: :

More images

Better copy

More examples

More in-depth advice

More case studies

Clearer steps

Better formatting

Fewer ads

How you can do better. What can you do to create better resources? Maybe….

Add more steps

Go deeper

Add little-known how-to’s and tools

Find real-life examples

Find more data

Then, create better content.

Share a new perspective

Coming up with a new angle is easier said than done. With the sheer amount of articles bombarding us each day, it feels like everything has already been said. What could you possibly have to add?

A whole lot, actually.

Millions of articles are published each day, but most? Most are mediocre at best.

That’s why editors are constantly scouring for original and noteworthy content. They want to receive great pitches, but they usually get the opposite.

The internet is starved for good content, and that’s exactly why you will stand out. Here are five ways to craft articles that cut through the noise:

Explore the topic from a different angle

The key to a fresh angle is taking an existing problem and solving it in a creative way.

For example:

Problem: How to get motivated

Conventional solution: 4 Ways To Get Motivated (Set a small goal, track your progress, reward yourself, ask for help and accountability from your friends.)

Fresh angle: The mental tools Victor Hugo used to make himself write the Hunchback of Notre Dame after a whole year of procrastination. (Interesting)

Which would you rather read?

Finding a new take like this one is easier than you think:

1. Answer a different question about the same topic (what, why, how, where, or who)

The first guest post I ever published was for Fast Company, with the headline 8 Tricks To Make Yourself Wake Up Earlier.

I didn’t pull this topic out of thin air. I did my homework and read the type of articles that were popular at the time. I noticed they published a lot of posts about why it’s important to wake up early, but not how to do it. I pitched this idea and the editor was on board.

My pitch stood out because there were a lot of whys on the site, and not enough hows.

You can do the same by answering different questions about one topic.

If there’s a popular post about the benefits of yoga (why), write a guide on how to start a practice at home (how and where).

If an article about the best plugins for WordPress is trending (what), create tutorials on how to set them up (how).

2. Share little-known tricks

Break conventional advice with little-known ways to solve a problem. Here’s how you can come up with new exciting ideas:

Reflect on what has worked for you in the past: Start with yourself. Do you have a hack for managing your inbox that you haven’t seen other people try?

Ask Facebook: Pick other people’s brains. Ask Facebook groups in your niche how they solve a particular problem, for example, “What’s the best strategy you’ve found for handling email?”. If you post an engaging question in the right group, you can receive hundreds of responses.

Research and ask forums: Chances are, someone already asked your burning question in Quora or Reddit. Search your question, go through the responses and write down solutions you hadn’t heard before. Discussion threads are a goldmine for new ideas. If you can’t find your specific question, create a new thread.

3. Get ultra-specific

When you write a how-to article, be as specific as possible.

Simplistic advice: write in your gratitude journal.

Ultra-specific advice: Write down 3 things that happened today you’re grateful for and why.

See the difference? Tell your readers exactly what they need to do, and how to do it.

4. Uncover new data

A simple way to stand out from the crowd is to talk about the latest research from your field.

Most people don’t bother to look at recent stats and findings, so they just go with what they already know.

But you’re not most people, right?

You write thought-provoking pieces with an impact. Using up-to-date research gives you an advantage and positions you as an expert.

If you’re in the marketing space, look for the most up-to-date stats on what type of content performs better on social media.

If you’re in the fitness niche, write about this year’s peer-reviewed studies on beneficial eating habits for athletes.

Better yet, create a spreadsheet with all the best data sources from your niche, and check if there are new relevant findings every time you brainstorm a new epic article.

Start with these:

Pew Research Center

Hubspot (marketing)

Curata (content marketing)

Social Media Examiner (social media)

Science Daily (awesome for discovering new peer-reviewed studies)

Science Mag

PLOS ONE (especially great for behavioral analysis and habits)

Pubmed

APA (psychology)

Protip: Create a Google Alert for new research, so you don’t have to constantly be checking the resources above.  Create an alert with “research ”, “study ”, and Google will email you every time there’s a new online mention of these keywords.

Publish extremely detailed, crazy-actionable, and extensive guides

You know what’s better than a 700-word listicle about 7 tips to start a garden?

A comprehensive 5000-word gardening 101 guide that teaches you everything you need to know about starting your own garden.

The only problem? The “7 tips to start a garden” type of articles severely outnumber comprehensive guides.

It’s hard to find high-quality, practical, in-depth, and free resources with all the nitty-gritty details you need to do something right — whether that’s starting a blog, training your dog, preserving flowers, preparing for a baby, or learning to cook.

So become a leader in your niche by going above and beyond in writing the absolute best guides in your industry.

That’s exactly what we do at Sumo – and now it’s by far one of the best places to learn about growing your site from scratch.

Notice the Sumo-Sized guides?

Authority Nutrition creates some of the most in-depth science-based nutrition resources. If you’re serious about dominating your space (and you should be), roll up your sleeves and start writing.

Publish case studies

Instead of just talking about a strategy, show it in action.

Case studies are a unique way to show how a method, strategy or program works in real life. They receive a ton of attention, shares, and views because they’re:

Original. No two case studies are the same.

Interesting. We’re drawn to see the results of other people.

Juicy. A case reveals the exact process that gave people specific results.

Elaborate. A case study is not easy to put together. It takes time and effort to get in touch with people who have applied, tested, tracked, and succeeded at a particular strategy, or do all that yourself.

Another huge benefit to case studies is that they provide some amazing social proof if you can show a case study of a student, reader, or customer of your own blog or product.

Brian from Backlinko constantly publishes case studies to show the results of his own SEO techniques, and (unsurprisingly) they bring in thousands of shares:

How can you showcase the results of people who have bought your ebook, course, or coaching services?

Solve an old problem in a new way

You don’t have to reinvent the wheel, but you can come close.

A little disclaimer: this strategy takes way more effort than the ones above, but it’s worth it.

Create a new solution for your industry. Spend enough time and effort coming up with innovative ideas, trying them, and tweaking them, until one sticks.

It’s not easy, but it will help you grow massively when you do. Nat’s Runway Calculator is the perfect example.

He took a common problem – not knowing how much money you need to quit your day job and travel the world – and came up with an original solution: A runway calculator that tells you exactly how much money you need per month to travel and live in different cities around the world.

If someone wants to know how much money they gotta make from freelancing gigs to travel the world, all they have to do is fill out a few numbers on a spreadsheet, instead of doing hours and hours of research.

You don’t have to be a mad genius to invent something new. All you need is the willingness to put in the work.

Do something challenging and share it with the world

If you want to write epic shit, do epic shit.

A little-known approach to going viral is completing a seemingly impossible challenge in real life and sharing your progress with the world.

In 2015, Assya Barrette went viral after sharing her self-imposed challenge of buying nothing new for 200 days – and challenging everyone to do the same. Her story landed her 130,800 shares on a single article and was picked up by media outlets including with Lifehack, Alternet, Salon, Yahoo!, Dawn and Alternet.

The Minimalists (Joshua and Ryan) were among the first to make minimalism cool.

Their lifestyle experiment of getting rid of all just-in-case items (based on the hypothesis that it won’t take you more than $20 or 20 minutes to replace it if you do end up needing it) went viral, and two years later they challenged their audience to play the 30-Day Minimalism Game, which consists of getting rid of one thing on day one, two things on day two, three things on day three, and so on, to see how far you can go in exercising object detachment.

To this day, it’s their most shared article, with a whopping 155k shares, and with over 43k Instagram posts about their game.

Doing a challenge is the perfect opportunity to go viral and reach thousands of people.

The best part about it? Anyone can do it. It doesn’t matter what niche you’re in, you can most likely pull off a viral challenge.

Make sure you write impactful content every time using this checklist:

#4: Back That Shit Up

It's not that we don't believe you. We do. Mostly.

But there's something sticky about backing your claims up that can't be done through hearsay.

You don't have to read like a textbook to back your article up. You can use:

1. Stories: Studies show (see what I did there?) that stories can be more persuasive than logic. Good storytelling is a powerful tool for keeping your audience hooked to your every word. It helps your reader visualize what you’re trying to tell them, and drives your point home more easily.

Have you noticed how hard it is to pull away from a good book? That’s how you want to make your audience feel.

James Clear opens most of his articles with a story. That’s not by chance.

Opening with a story immediately draws readers in and makes them more likely to stick around for the takeaway.

2. Studies: Because (gasp!) people tend to believe science more than they'll believe bloggers. The more up-to-date and relevant your sources are, the more trustworthy you’ll seem (because you are). Here’s how to cite like a pro:

Link to a reliable source when you make a big claim. It gives your statement more weight and credibility.

Explain the results of a study in simple terms. Translating a convoluted conclusion from a study in terms anyone can understand positions you as an expert.

Relate to your audience. If your target audience is women, highlight those studies done in healthy or overweight women. If your audience is male athletes, talk about findings from studies done in active men. Your audience will be more interested in the research if they can relate.

Be ahead of the pack. Include new findings whenever possible. Talking about new research makes your brand stand out from the rest.

Add images. What’s better than a link to a study? A graph from the study. A pretty chart that shows your reader the data adds extra credibility points.

Look at how Live and Dare does it:

An MRI image makes the findings clear and memorable.

3. Analogies: Analogies are like rocket fuel for your writing. Use them. Comparisons make your point crystal clear, grab your readers’ attention, and leave a mark in their minds. It makes your message memorable. Take a look at the analogies these bloggers used:

Melyssa Griffin

Militza Maury

Leo Babauta

4. Metaphors: Explain the gravity of a situation with metaphors. Metaphors help to simplify complex points, entertain your readers, and improve understanding. When you use a metaphor effectively, your reader should feel they “got it”.

Here’s how Tor used a hockey metaphor for building a business team:

And this is how Ramit used the “Truffle Principle” to give advice to interns:

5. “Expert” Quotes: Because people want to know that you're not the only one who thinks so. Adding “expert” opinions to your articles validates your own points and makes people trust you more.

You don’t need to reach out to an expert for an exclusive quote every time, though. You can simply take quotes from previews interviews and articles that back your point.

Here’s how Popsugar did it:

The best articles use a mixture of these to backup their claims.

I expect my hyper-backuptivity helped this article I wrote for Fast Company land me 600 email subscribers, be shared over 12,000 times and turned me into a case study for one of Jon Morrow's products. #legit

#5. Make Beautiful Word Babies

…with the thoughts in your audience's heads.

This is a…different way of putting it, but you want to pull the thoughts right out of your audience's brains like pulling at a thread on a sweater. Then, weave that thread into your own fabric.

See, studies show we love it when people mimic us. I'm not saying you subconsciously loved your little brother's copycatting, but when waitstaff in a restaurant repeated customer orders in your exact words, they get a bigger tip.

When you use the exact words your audience uses in your writing, you resonate with them; you make them feel as if you're reading their minds. Before I released the Etsy eCourse, I surveyed my Etsy-loving audience for two things:

To make sure I was helping them with what they actually needed help with, and

To find out what language they use to describe their pains.

Here are some of the answers I got:

And here's a screenshot of the email I sent out after analyzing these results:

See the part that is highlighted in yellow? “Allergic to social media”? I took that right out of my audience's mouth (the survey respondent even noticed and loved that I used it).

See the first question in the survey? I used the words “stand out” in my first bullet because that's the language my audience used.

One of piece of feedback I hear from Unsettlers is: “I feel like you read my mind”. That's because I did. You email me, I use your words in articles (anonymously) to write things you actually want to read.

If you’re starting from scratch and don’t have an email list to survey yet, here’s how you can steal your potential readers’ words from day one:

In Reddit and Quora, ask people to tell you their obstacles: Ask about the challenges and roadblocks they face in the area you want to solve.

For example, if you’re a health coach, ask people what’s the biggest obstacle that prevents them from eating healthy. Don’t be afraid of not getting responses, you most likely will:

Analyse the responses: Time to gather your data.

Add all the responses to a doc.

Find common themes and categorize the answers. Continuing with the health coach example, recurring problems can be “I don’t have enough time”, “I like junk food too much”, “I am too tired to cook when I come home from work”.

Identify commons words and add them to a list you can refer to later when writing articles, emails, or sales pages.

Use the same words and phrases in your articles, emails, and copy: If you noticed 10 people said “I don’t how to eat organic on a tight budget”, you must use this exact phrase and…

Create several articles addressing this topic. For example, “10 organic fruits you can buy for less than $3” or “How to find affordable organic produce”.

Add it as a pain point in your sales pages.

Relate to them on this issue when writing newsletters.

Instead of trying to read people’s minds, just ask them about their problems.

#6. Stop Being a Fatty

Nobody likes to look at ugly things.

This sounds really mean in the context of the subhead, but what I really mean is: Fat paragraphs are not okay. They're hard on the eyes, not scannable, and nobody actually reads them.

Research shows that people pay more attention to articles with short paragraphs, and completely skip articles with long paragraphs.

Break your paragraphs up into snackable chunks: a maximum of 2-3 sentences (or 4-5 if you use really short sentences).

Fat paragraphs:

Eyes bleeding, get me away from this article!

Fit paragraphs:

Ohhhh I want to read every word.

Whip those paragraphs into shape and trim the fat. Use these 3 tricks:

Remember the 1-2-3-4-5 rule. Created by Jon Ziomek, a professor at the Medill School of Journalism, the rule is to cover 1 main thought, expressed in 2 to 3 short sentences, taking up no more than 4 to 5 lines on the page.

Remember that anyone reading your articles on their phone get larger paragraphs due to the size of the screen, so keep it short.

Add bullet points. The bullets I’m using right now help me break down the ideas in a way that it’s easy to scan and digest.

Edit ruthlessly. Remove redundant phrases and condense your thoughts so you only need one sentence instead of three to explain your idea.

#7. You're not a Kardashian & Your Blog Is Not a Diary

Back in 2008, most bloggers just wrote about their lives. Since there were approximately 78,847% fewer blogs out there, this was fine. Some even did really well, a la Dooce.

Here's the thing though:

People don't care that much about your life.

If I had a dollar for every time somebody said “I should become a blogger. My life is like a reality show!” when they found out what I do, I'd have enough to ship at least one of those people off to a remote island for the real thing.

Your life is not as interesting to others as it is to you. Trust me. I know, because I think my life is pretty damn interesting, but to you? Hearing what I do on a day to day is like watching the yule log channel. It might give you the warm and fuzzies for five seconds until somebody posts about their baby's potty training progress on Facebook.

In a stuffed-to-the-brim internet, readers want to know about your life to the extent that they can apply it to their own. Weave small stories and facts about you into your blog post, but the whole “dear diary” thing should be reserved for your journal and the blogs of 2008.

This is how you can tell if a personal story will help your case:

It has a clear takeaway. Is your story helping other people overcome an obstacle or learn something new?

It’s relatable. Can people identify with your struggles? Relating to your readers creates trust and rapport.

It’s short and concise. A story shouldn’t be the sole focus of an article. It’s simply a vehicle to drive the point home. If your article is 800 words and your story used up 700 words, cut back.

Tiny Buddha’s articles are the perfect example of using personal stories to teach and inspire:

Each article begins with a relatable short story, and ends with a clear takeaway:

The story isn’t the article. It just supports the lesson.

#8. Don't Waste Your Reader's Time

Ever heard that we have eight second attention spans?

It's bleak, but true. Though this doesn't mean that you'll be forever doomed to writing articles that only take 8 seconds to read, it does mean that useless words are bad news. Stop using “that”, “in order to” and “there are” (in most cases).

Don't say: “Stop using these words in order to write better.” Say “Stop using these words to write better.”

Don't say: “I want to do work that I love.” Say: “I want to do work I love.”

Don't say: “There are many bloggers who use useless words.”Say: “Many bloggers use useless words.”

Eliminating these fillers also make your paragraphs shorter. Double win.

You catch my drift, so I won't waste your time concluding this point.

Want to have all these writing tips at your fingertips?

Grab the checklist: Click here and enter your name and email address to have the checklist emailed to you (like magic!).

#9. Become a Copycat

You don't need a formal education to write well.

The best writing education I've ever received has been 100% free and a go-at-your-own pace:

Becoming a copycat.

When I got serious about improving my writing, I zoned in on a couple of writers I admire. Then, I read everything they'd ever written (at least, that I could get my hands on).

I read blog posts, books, reports, eBooks, guest posts…

I stalked them on Twitter and analyzed their Facebook posts and immersed myself in their writing. Then, I'd copy them. Not completely, andI wasn’t plagiarizing them. But in an apprenticeship way.

I’d note how they transitioned to a new paragraph.

I'd pick apart their introductions and conclusions.

I'd study why they did what they did.

I'd analyze their headlines.

Their blogs became my writing college. I'd test out their methods in my own words.

They probably don't know who I am (certainly back then they had no clue I existed), but I admired their style, so I borrowed their structure. I suggest you do the same. Don't plagiarize anybody, but shop at the same stores as them.

Try their styles out for size. See what fits.

That’s exactly how Ben Franklin learned to write as well — copying the best.

He took notes of each sentence in a paragraph and tried to reconstruct it as closely to the original as possible.

Then he compared the original paragraph with this copy and studied the mistakes he made to improve and get closer to a perfect recreation next time.

Here’s how you can do what I (and apparently, Ben Franklin) did:

Read everything you can from your favorite writers. Get close and personal with their style as quickly as possible. Everything counts: articles, guest posts, Facebook posts, handwritten notes.

Pick apart each element of their articles. How do they open? What elements do they use? How do they transition? What’s their vocabulary? How do they close? Do they ask questions?

Incorporate those elements in your own writing. If they open with a story, open with a story too. If they love metaphors, by all means, use metaphors. If they give a lot of examples, find examples to share too.

Decide what feels right and what doesn’t. After extensively trying out new writing strategies, figure out what fits you the best. If you like humor but don’t love cursing, that’s completely fine.

After you get a hang of how the best do it, you can create a brand new writing formula for yourself.

You Don't Have to Be Perfect

To write shit people want to read, you don't have to be Jane Austen, and you don't have to be flawless.

You can make spelling mistakes, commit grammatical errors, and start sentences with prepositions. The point is not to write like you have a full team of editors proofreading your work. It's to write interesting things, like a human, and for humans.

If you can nail that down, you're golden.

Ready to start writing epic shit? Grab the free checklist:

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Hey, don't kill your momentum.

http://www.successwize.com/how-to-write-shit-people-actually-want-to-read-free-checklist/

[djsamaha-blog]

How to Write Shit People Actually Want to Read (+ Free Checklist)

Let me guess. If you’re just starting out online, you wonder… “How do I get clients?” “How can I start monetizing my blog?” “How do I get more traffic?” The answer to every single one of these questions might surprise you. Ready? The answer is this: Write shit people want to read. Every single day somewhere around two million blog posts are written. The sad truth, though? The vast majority of those articles won't be read. The vast majority of them are – let's be real – crap. A small portion are read by 100 people. A smaller portion are read by 1,000 people. And a few get noticed by “influencers”, syndicated on massive publications and are shared thousands of times. Those few are the ones that bring in clients, sales, readers, and traffic. So how do you make sure that your writing doesn't just end up in the pile of “content” that slowly drifts out to sea? How do you write the 1% of articles that will get you traffic and conversions? Well, you write shit people actually want to read. When somebody actually wants to read your writing, they usually want to share it. They usually get value from it, talk about it, and spread it around. Creating shit that people actually want to read (or listen to or watch or gaze at) is one of the main ingredients in the “content” marketing cake, and without it you have no engagement, no fans, no clients and no sales. My writing is a decade in the making and is still a huge work in progress, but I'm learning and I know some of these tips will turn your writing around. If you're too lazy to read this post, you can get the checklist I use before I publish all of my articles.

Write like a pro: Click here to get my 44-point checklist for publishing amazing articles.

#1: Know Thy Audience

You could write Atlas Shrugged but if your audience doesn’t want to read it, it’s not good. Yup, beauty is in the eye of the beholder in this case. That’s why you need to know your audience. Good content starts here. Good content to your target audience could be horrible content to me. Even if I hate your writing, if your audience loves it, then it’s good. But be warned… Do not take that as permission to rest on your laurels and stop improving. Instead, take that as a nudge to get to know your audience intimately. Note two things:

What they want to read

How they want to read it.

What they Want to Read

One big difference between most good content vs great content is detail. Anyone can write an 800 word article on needing a budget. But not everyone will write a comprehensive, 3,000 word article on everything you need to know about budgeting that gets likes, shares, and traffic. To be the one who is willing to do this and therefore brings in tons of traffic and shares, you need to be thorough. Enter Answer the Public. Answer the Public is a tool that allows you to plug in a keyword (in this case, a topic you want to write about) and spits out the auto-complete search terms behind that keyword. Use these questions/search terms as prompts to include in your article. This is what people want to read. Bonus: this is also a great way to rank for those long-tail search terms.

How They Want to Read It

The style of article you’re creating matters, too. For example, I know that my audience loves in-depth, step-by-step beginner’s guides. Publishing an inspirational story isn’t nearly as effective for me. That’s how they want to read it. Find out what your audience wants to read by mimicking other popular posts (use BuzzSumo for this). Look up your most popular competitor in your niche: And start taking note of the *types* of articles your competitors are writing. These articles are the most popular on their sites for a reason – its’ because people like them! One thing I’ve learned while I’m writing for my new blog is that marketing content styles do not work in the parenting niche. If I hadn't done the research, I would have been cranking out articles that nobody (at least none of my target readers) wanted.

#2: You Have a Personality (So Use it)

Look, I know it's hard. Shifting from writing business reports to the more casual, personal tone of blog posts can be like experiencing culture shock. It's difficult to adjust. But do what you must to beat the boring out of your writing, because nothing will make a reader run for the hills more quickly than a lack of personality. I should not read your articles and feel like I’m reading a text book. People come for the information you're providing, but they stay for you. Inject personality wherever you can. Here’s how you can find your unique voice:

Write like you talk

If you wouldn’t talk that way, you shouldn’t write that way. Writing how you talk is the best way to make sure you shine through. If you're having a hard time going from stiff business report writing to blog writing, this tip is for you: Read your writing out loud. The way things sound in your head when you first write them sound a heck of a lot different when you say them out loud, so don’t limit yourself to proofreading in silence. If you read your post aloud it will help you find your “voice” and a good flow for your article. It will also identify those sticky sentences that aren't quite right so you can rephrase them. Modify anything that sounds out of place. If it sounds unnatural to you, your readers will feel the same way – and that means fewer shares, comments, and pageviews. Chances are you don't say “however” and “thus” and “estimated time of arrival” (am I the only one who hates that last one?) while you're speaking. But you do say “but” and “so” and “when will you be here?”. When you write like you talk, you’ll notice a few changes:

You use more contractions.

You’re self-aware. “Today I’m teaching you how to….”.

You write in singular and plural first person. “I” and “we” are thrown around a lot.

You ask rhetorical questions, right?

Slang slips out more often.

You use hashtags #truth

Here’s how Brian from Backlinko keeps a laid-back tone when writing serious SEO guides:

Talk about yourself

It’s ok to let your readers know there’s a living, breathing human being behind your website. Your articles don’t write themselves, after all. People read your blog because they also care about your opinion, your experience, and your perspective. Don’t just write about yourself (no one wants to read that), but if it makes sense, add a personal touch here and there to resonate with your readers. Look at how Bryan from Videofruit does it: He uses a personal story that makes him relatable to his audience and highlights the point of his article (good design).

Don’t be afraid to use colorful language

If you curse and use slang, you might be scared that you’ll offend people by including that part of your personality in your writing. This may help: The people who are offended by you using curse words or becomes annoyed if you use slang language are not “your people”. They’re not your target audience. If they’re not your target audience, it’s okay to repel them. Stay true to your writing style and you’ll find your people – the people who love your message and the way you deliver it. If you’re still on the fence about cursing in your writing if you curse in conversation, recent studies suggest that swearing in public could actually make you more likable. Jorden from Writing Revolt sprinkles slang and swear words in her articles, and her audience loves it: You don’t have to curse in your writing to resonate with your audience if you don’t use curse words in conversation — the point here is to let your personality shine through by writing like you talk.

Make your audience laugh

Keep your readers glued to your words with a little humor. Being funny and relatable will:

Make your readers more interested in what you have to say

Hold their attention for longer and make them more likely to finish your article

Help your audience remember the information better afterward

There’s a reason memes dominate the internet. We want to be entertained and amused. If you can do that, your articles will be unforgettable. Ramit Sethi, best-selling author and millionaire entrepreneur, is funny, irreverent, and loud, and it seems to be working pretty well for him. Just take a look at his hilarious response to a millionaire who said people should stop buying avocado toast to afford a house (seriously):

Break some (grammar) rules

But not all of them. Breaking just enough grammatical rules to sound conversational, but not so many that you sound like a 10-year old texting, is a delicate balance (although easier to achieve than you think). Imagine texting your best friend. You use all caps to show excitement or anger, periods between words for emphasis, exclamation points, or make words longer than they need to be. As long as you stick to basic grammar rules, spicing up your paragraphs can make your personality shine through. Lindsay from Pinch of Yum (one of the most successful food blogs on the planet) always writes epic descriptions of her recipes with relaxed grammar rules:

Ask questions

Questions pull your reader into the conversation. It makes them think about an answer, nod in agreement (or disagreement), or leave you a comment. You want your audience to feel you’re talking directly to them – and what better way than by asking them what they think? Bryan from Videofruit knows what’s up. He often asks rhetorical questions at the beginning of his articles to engage his readers right away: Example #1: Asking your readers to make a choice Example #2: Asking a yes or no question Example #3: Opening with a question If you feel your writing is bland and boring, try injecting more personality into your articles with these techniques.

#3: Stop the Regurgitation Cycle

Think back to the last time you read an article, and boomeranged to the blog later. Maybe you saw a headline on Twitter and couldn't help but click it, or had a date with the Google and stumbled across a post that impressed you. Why did you stick around? Chances are, you stuck around the blog because it offered something unique. Instead of giving you five ways to save money this fall and telling you to cut out lattes, walk everywhere, and cut up your credit cards, the blog broke the same boring advice chain and offered you scripts to negotiate your bills. You stuck around because the blog wasn't regurgitating the same crap that everybody else in the blogosphere is. In a crowded market, if you're trying to hawk the same wares as the next dude, you won't get very far. There’s enough recycled advice out there. Don’t add to the noise. Instead, focus on creating in-depth, impactful, and original articles that you can’t find anywhere else. Here’s how:

Study your competition

Before you start cranking out epic articles, you gotta do your homework. Read and re-read the most popular articles about your topic to find the angles and strategies that are covered already. Identify what advice is peddled non-stop and stay away from it. Use Buzzsumo to find the top 10-20 most shared articles about your topic.

Figure out how you can do better

Now that you know exactly what’s out there, note two things:

What’s missing from the existing content. Maybe it needs: :

More images

Better copy

More examples

More in-depth advice

More case studies

Clearer steps

Better formatting

Fewer ads

How you can do better. What can you do to create better resources? Maybe….

Add more steps

Go deeper

Add little-known how-to’s and tools

Find real-life examples

Find more data

Then, create better content.

Share a new perspective

Coming up with a new angle is easier said than done. With the sheer amount of articles bombarding us each day, it feels like everything has already been said. What could you possibly have to add? A whole lot, actually. Millions of articles are published each day, but most? Most are mediocre at best. That’s why editors are constantly scouring for original and noteworthy content. They want to receive great pitches, but they usually get the opposite. The internet is starved for good content, and that’s exactly why you will stand out. Here are five ways to craft articles that cut through the noise:

Explore the topic from a different angle

The key to a fresh angle is taking an existing problem and solving it in a creative way. For example: Problem: How to get motivated Conventional solution: 4 Ways To Get Motivated (Set a small goal, track your progress, reward yourself, ask for help and accountability from your friends.) Fresh angle: The mental tools Victor Hugo used to make himself write the Hunchback of Notre Dame after a whole year of procrastination. (Interesting) Which would you rather read? Finding a new take like this one is easier than you think:

1. Answer a different question about the same topic (what, why, how, where, or who)

The first guest post I ever published was for Fast Company, with the headline 8 Tricks To Make Yourself Wake Up Earlier. I didn’t pull this topic out of thin air. I did my homework and read the type of articles that were popular at the time. I noticed they published a lot of posts about why it’s important to wake up early, but not how to do it. I pitched this idea and the editor was on board. My pitch stood out because there were a lot of whys on the site, and not enough hows. You can do the same by answering different questions about one topic. If there’s a popular post about the benefits of yoga (why), write a guide on how to start a practice at home (how and where). If an article about the best plugins for WordPress is trending (what), create tutorials on how to set them up (how).

2. Share little-known tricks

Break conventional advice with little-known ways to solve a problem. Here’s how you can come up with new exciting ideas:

Reflect on what has worked for you in the past: Start with yourself. Do you have a hack for managing your inbox that you haven’t seen other people try?

Ask Facebook: Pick other people’s brains. Ask Facebook groups in your niche how they solve a particular problem, for example, “What’s the best strategy you’ve found for handling email?”. If you post an engaging question in the right group, you can receive hundreds of responses.

Research and ask forums: Chances are, someone already asked your burning question in Quora or Reddit. Search your question, go through the responses and write down solutions you hadn’t heard before. Discussion threads are a goldmine for new ideas. If you can’t find your specific question, create a new thread.

3. Get ultra-specific

When you write a how-to article, be as specific as possible. Simplistic advice: write in your gratitude journal. Ultra-specific advice: Write down 3 things that happened today you’re grateful for and why. See the difference? Tell your readers exactly what they need to do, and how to do it.

4. Uncover new data

A simple way to stand out from the crowd is to talk about the latest research from your field. Most people don’t bother to look at recent stats and findings, so they just go with what they already know. But you’re not most people, right? You write thought-provoking pieces with an impact. Using up-to-date research gives you an advantage and positions you as an expert. If you’re in the marketing space, look for the most up-to-date stats on what type of content performs better on social media. If you’re in the fitness niche, write about this year’s peer-reviewed studies on beneficial eating habits for athletes. Better yet, create a spreadsheet with all the best data sources from your niche, and check if there are new relevant findings every time you brainstorm a new epic article. Start with these: Pew Research Center Hubspot (marketing) Curata (content marketing) Social Media Examiner (social media) Science Daily (awesome for discovering new peer-reviewed studies) Science Mag PLOS ONE (especially great for behavioral analysis and habits) Pubmed APA (psychology)

Protip: Create a Google Alert for new research, so you don’t have to constantly be checking the resources above.  Create an alert with “research ”, “study ”, and Google will email you every time there’s a new online mention of these keywords.

Publish extremely detailed, crazy-actionable, and extensive guides

You know what’s better than a 700-word listicle about 7 tips to start a garden? A comprehensive 5000-word gardening 101 guide that teaches you everything you need to know about starting your own garden. The only problem? The “7 tips to start a garden” type of articles severely outnumber comprehensive guides. It’s hard to find high-quality, practical, in-depth, and free resources with all the nitty-gritty details you need to do something right — whether that’s starting a blog, training your dog, preserving flowers, preparing for a baby, or learning to cook. So become a leader in your niche by going above and beyond in writing the absolute best guides in your industry. That’s exactly what we do at Sumo – and now it’s by far one of the best places to learn about growing your site from scratch.

Notice the Sumo-Sized guides?

Authority Nutrition creates some of the most in-depth science-based nutrition resources. If you’re serious about dominating your space (and you should be), roll up your sleeves and start writing.

Publish case studies

Instead of just talking about a strategy, show it in action. Case studies are a unique way to show how a method, strategy or program works in real life. They receive a ton of attention, shares, and views because they’re:

Original. No two case studies are the same.

Interesting. We’re drawn to see the results of other people.

Juicy. A case reveals the exact process that gave people specific results.

Elaborate. A case study is not easy to put together. It takes time and effort to get in touch with people who have applied, tested, tracked, and succeeded at a particular strategy, or do all that yourself.

Another huge benefit to case studies is that they provide some amazing social proof if you can show a case study of a student, reader, or customer of your own blog or product. Brian from Backlinko constantly publishes case studies to show the results of his own SEO techniques, and (unsurprisingly) they bring in thousands of shares: How can you showcase the results of people who have bought your ebook, course, or coaching services?

Solve an old problem in a new way

You don’t have to reinvent the wheel, but you can come close. A little disclaimer: this strategy takes way more effort than the ones above, but it’s worth it. Create a new solution for your industry. Spend enough time and effort coming up with innovative ideas, trying them, and tweaking them, until one sticks. It’s not easy, but it will help you grow massively when you do. Nat’s Runway Calculator is the perfect example. He took a common problem – not knowing how much money you need to quit your day job and travel the world – and came up with an original solution: A runway calculator that tells you exactly how much money you need per month to travel and live in different cities around the world. If someone wants to know how much money they gotta make from freelancing gigs to travel the world, all they have to do is fill out a few numbers on a spreadsheet, instead of doing hours and hours of research. You don’t have to be a mad genius to invent something new. All you need is the willingness to put in the work.

Do something challenging and share it with the world

If you want to write epic shit, do epic shit. A little-known approach to going viral is completing a seemingly impossible challenge in real life and sharing your progress with the world. In 2015, Assya Barrette went viral after sharing her self-imposed challenge of buying nothing new for 200 days – and challenging everyone to do the same. Her story landed her 130,800 shares on a single article and was picked up by media outlets including with Lifehack, Alternet, Salon, Yahoo!, Dawn and Alternet. The Minimalists (Joshua and Ryan) were among the first to make minimalism cool. Their lifestyle experiment of getting rid of all just-in-case items (based on the hypothesis that it won’t take you more than $20 or 20 minutes to replace it if you do end up needing it) went viral, and two years later they challenged their audience to play the 30-Day Minimalism Game, which consists of getting rid of one thing on day one, two things on day two, three things on day three, and so on, to see how far you can go in exercising object detachment. To this day, it’s their most shared article, with a whopping 155k shares, and with over 43k Instagram posts about their game. Doing a challenge is the perfect opportunity to go viral and reach thousands of people. The best part about it? Anyone can do it. It doesn’t matter what niche you’re in, you can most likely pull off a viral challenge. Make sure you write impactful content every time using this checklist:

#4: Back That Shit Up

It's not that we don't believe you. We do. Mostly. But there's something sticky about backing your claims up that can't be done through hearsay. You don't have to read like a textbook to back your article up. You can use: 1. Stories: Studies show (see what I did there?) that stories can be more persuasive than logic. Good storytelling is a powerful tool for keeping your audience hooked to your every word. It helps your reader visualize what you’re trying to tell them, and drives your point home more easily. Have you noticed how hard it is to pull away from a good book? That’s how you want to make your audience feel. James Clear opens most of his articles with a story. That’s not by chance. Opening with a story immediately draws readers in and makes them more likely to stick around for the takeaway. 2. Studies: Because (gasp!) people tend to believe science more than they'll believe bloggers. The more up-to-date and relevant your sources are, the more trustworthy you’ll seem (because you are). Here’s how to cite like a pro:

Link to a reliable source when you make a big claim. It gives your statement more weight and credibility.

Explain the results of a study in simple terms. Translating a convoluted conclusion from a study in terms anyone can understand positions you as an expert.

Relate to your audience. If your target audience is women, highlight those studies done in healthy or overweight women. If your audience is male athletes, talk about findings from studies done in active men. Your audience will be more interested in the research if they can relate.

Be ahead of the pack. Include new findings whenever possible. Talking about new research makes your brand stand out from the rest.

Add images. What’s better than a link to a study? A graph from the study. A pretty chart that shows your reader the data adds extra credibility points.

Look at how Live and Dare does it: An MRI image makes the findings clear and memorable. 3. Analogies: Analogies are like rocket fuel for your writing. Use them. Comparisons make your point crystal clear, grab your readers’ attention, and leave a mark in their minds. It makes your message memorable. Take a look at the analogies these bloggers used: Melyssa Griffin Militza Maury Leo Babauta 4. Metaphors: Explain the gravity of a situation with metaphors. Metaphors help to simplify complex points, entertain your readers, and improve understanding. When you use a metaphor effectively, your reader should feel they “got it”. Here’s how Tor used a hockey metaphor for building a business team: And this is how Ramit used the “Truffle Principle” to give advice to interns: 5. “Expert” Quotes: Because people want to know that you're not the only one who thinks so. Adding “expert” opinions to your articles validates your own points and makes people trust you more. You don’t need to reach out to an expert for an exclusive quote every time, though. You can simply take quotes from previews interviews and articles that back your point. Here’s how Popsugar did it: The best articles use a mixture of these to backup their claims. I expect my hyper-backuptivity helped this article I wrote for Fast Company land me 600 email subscribers, be shared over 12,000 times and turned me into a case study for one of Jon Morrow's products. #legit

#5. Make Beautiful Word Babies

…with the thoughts in your audience's heads. This is a…different way of putting it, but you want to pull the thoughts right out of your audience's brains like pulling at a thread on a sweater. Then, weave that thread into your own fabric. See, studies show we love it when people mimic us. I'm not saying you subconsciously loved your little brother's copycatting, but when waitstaff in a restaurant repeated customer orders in your exact words, they get a bigger tip. When you use the exact words your audience uses in your writing, you resonate with them; you make them feel as if you're reading their minds. Before I released the Etsy eCourse, I surveyed my Etsy-loving audience for two things:

To make sure I was helping them with what they actually needed help with, and

To find out what language they use to describe their pains.

Here are some of the answers I got: And here's a screenshot of the email I sent out after analyzing these results: See the part that is highlighted in yellow? “Allergic to social media”? I took that right out of my audience's mouth (the survey respondent even noticed and loved that I used it). See the first question in the survey? I used the words “stand out” in my first bullet because that's the language my audience used. One of piece of feedback I hear from Unsettlers is: “I feel like you read my mind”. That's because I did. You email me, I use your words in articles (anonymously) to write things you actually want to read. If you’re starting from scratch and don’t have an email list to survey yet, here’s how you can steal your potential readers’ words from day one:

In Reddit and Quora, ask people to tell you their obstacles: Ask about the challenges and roadblocks they face in the area you want to solve.

For example, if you’re a health coach, ask people what’s the biggest obstacle that prevents them from eating healthy. Don’t be afraid of not getting responses, you most likely will:

Analyse the responses: Time to gather your data.

Add all the responses to a doc.

Find common themes and categorize the answers. Continuing with the health coach example, recurring problems can be “I don’t have enough time”, “I like junk food too much”, “I am too tired to cook when I come home from work”.

Identify commons words and add them to a list you can refer to later when writing articles, emails, or sales pages.

Use the same words and phrases in your articles, emails, and copy: If you noticed 10 people said “I don’t how to eat organic on a tight budget”, you must use this exact phrase and…

Create several articles addressing this topic. For example, “10 organic fruits you can buy for less than $3” or “How to find affordable organic produce”.

Add it as a pain point in your sales pages.

Relate to them on this issue when writing newsletters.

Instead of trying to read people’s minds, just ask them about their problems.

#6. Stop Being a Fatty

Nobody likes to look at ugly things. This sounds really mean in the context of the subhead, but what I really mean is: Fat paragraphs are not okay. They're hard on the eyes, not scannable, and nobody actually reads them. Research shows that people pay more attention to articles with short paragraphs, and completely skip articles with long paragraphs. Break your paragraphs up into snackable chunks: a maximum of 2-3 sentences (or 4-5 if you use really short sentences). Fat paragraphs:

Eyes bleeding, get me away from this article!

Fit paragraphs:

Ohhhh I want to read every word.

Whip those paragraphs into shape and trim the fat. Use these 3 tricks:

Remember the 1-2-3-4-5 rule. Created by Jon Ziomek, a professor at the Medill School of Journalism, the rule is to cover 1 main thought, expressed in 2 to 3 short sentences, taking up no more than 4 to 5 lines on the page.

Remember that anyone reading your articles on their phone get larger paragraphs due to the size of the screen, so keep it short.

Add bullet points. The bullets I’m using right now help me break down the ideas in a way that it’s easy to scan and digest.

Edit ruthlessly. Remove redundant phrases and condense your thoughts so you only need one sentence instead of three to explain your idea.

#7. You're not a Kardashian & Your Blog Is Not a Diary

Back in 2008, most bloggers just wrote about their lives. Since there were approximately 78,847% fewer blogs out there, this was fine. Some even did really well, a la Dooce. Here's the thing though: People don't care that much about your life. If I had a dollar for every time somebody said “I should become a blogger. My life is like a reality show!” when they found out what I do, I'd have enough to ship at least one of those people off to a remote island for the real thing. Your life is not as interesting to others as it is to you. Trust me. I know, because I think my life is pretty damn interesting, but to you? Hearing what I do on a day to day is like watching the yule log channel. It might give you the warm and fuzzies for five seconds until somebody posts about their baby's potty training progress on Facebook. In a stuffed-to-the-brim internet, readers want to know about your life to the extent that they can apply it to their own. Weave small stories and facts about you into your blog post, but the whole “dear diary” thing should be reserved for your journal and the blogs of 2008. This is how you can tell if a personal story will help your case:

It has a clear takeaway. Is your story helping other people overcome an obstacle or learn something new?

It’s relatable. Can people identify with your struggles? Relating to your readers creates trust and rapport.

It’s short and concise. A story shouldn’t be the sole focus of an article. It’s simply a vehicle to drive the point home. If your article is 800 words and your story used up 700 words, cut back.

Tiny Buddha’s articles are the perfect example of using personal stories to teach and inspire: Each article begins with a relatable short story, and ends with a clear takeaway: The story isn’t the article. It just supports the lesson.

#8. Don't Waste Your Reader's Time

Ever heard that we have eight second attention spans? It's bleak, but true. Though this doesn't mean that you'll be forever doomed to writing articles that only take 8 seconds to read, it does mean that useless words are bad news. Stop using “that”, “in order to” and “there are” (in most cases).

Don't say: “Stop using these words in order to write better.” Say “Stop using these words to write better.”

Don't say: “I want to do work that I love.” Say: “I want to do work I love.”

Don't say: “There are many bloggers who use useless words.”Say: “Many bloggers use useless words.”

Eliminating these fillers also make your paragraphs shorter. Double win. You catch my drift, so I won't waste your time concluding this point. Want to have all these writing tips at your fingertips?

Grab the checklist: Click here and enter your name and email address to have the checklist emailed to you (like magic!).

#9. Become a Copycat

You don't need a formal education to write well. The best writing education I've ever received has been 100% free and a go-at-your-own pace: Becoming a copycat. When I got serious about improving my writing, I zoned in on a couple of writers I admire. Then, I read everything they'd ever written (at least, that I could get my hands on). I read blog posts, books, reports, eBooks, guest posts… I stalked them on Twitter and analyzed their Facebook posts and immersed myself in their writing. Then, I'd copy them. Not completely, andI wasn’t plagiarizing them. But in an apprenticeship way.

I’d note how they transitioned to a new paragraph.

I'd pick apart their introductions and conclusions.

I'd study why they did what they did.

I'd analyze their headlines.

Their blogs became my writing college. I'd test out their methods in my own words. They probably don't know who I am (certainly back then they had no clue I existed), but I admired their style, so I borrowed their structure. I suggest you do the same. Don't plagiarize anybody, but shop at the same stores as them. Try their styles out for size. See what fits. That’s exactly how Ben Franklin learned to write as well — copying the best. He took notes of each sentence in a paragraph and tried to reconstruct it as closely to the original as possible. Then he compared the original paragraph with this copy and studied the mistakes he made to improve and get closer to a perfect recreation next time. Here’s how you can do what I (and apparently, Ben Franklin) did:

Read everything you can from your favorite writers. Get close and personal with their style as quickly as possible. Everything counts: articles, guest posts, Facebook posts, handwritten notes.

Pick apart each element of their articles. How do they open? What elements do they use? How do they transition? What’s their vocabulary? How do they close? Do they ask questions?

Incorporate those elements in your own writing. If they open with a story, open with a story too. If they love metaphors, by all means, use metaphors. If they give a lot of examples, find examples to share too.

Decide what feels right and what doesn’t. After extensively trying out new writing strategies, figure out what fits you the best. If you like humor but don’t love cursing, that’s completely fine.

After you get a hang of how the best do it, you can create a brand new writing formula for yourself.

You Don't Have to Be Perfect

To write shit people want to read, you don't have to be Jane Austen, and you don't have to be flawless. You can make spelling mistakes, commit grammatical errors, and start sentences with prepositions. The point is not to write like you have a full team of editors proofreading your work. It's to write interesting things, like a human, and for humans. If you can nail that down, you're golden. Ready to start writing epic shit? Grab the free checklist: The post How to Write Shit People Actually Want to Read (+ Free Checklist) appeared first on Unsettle.

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